The Significance of the Earth in The Good Earth :: The Good Earth

The Significance of the Earth in The Good Earth "And O-lan in the house was not idle. With her own hands she lashed the mats to the rafters and took earth from the fields and mixed it with water and mended the walls of the house, and she built again the oven and filled the holes in the floor that the rain had washed." There can be no doubt that the symbol of earth in Buck's novel, The Good Earth, is one so potent that it permeates and binds the entire tale. It is presented repeatedly throughout the novel, either through gentle allusion or outright statement. None can dispute that the earth itself is a vital component in the livelihood of any farmer, thus it is not surprising that the farmer Wang Lung places so much value into his lands; however, there is a separate element of the earth that Pearl S. Buck brings forth in her tale about a farmer's prosperous rise in feudal China, that element of regeneration and revitalization that is so apparent within this selected passage from the book. Many times throughout the book did the earth pull Wang Lung through hardship and difficulty, and it was the one constant factor in his life, even as things changed--people dies, great houses fell, war and famine raged, and inner turmoil plagued his very being. Throughout all of these obstacles the earth was always there, waiting for Wang Lung--whether as poor farmer or as wealthy man of the village--to return to it, and draw from it those ever-present qualities of life and healing. The very words of the selected passage are pregnant with these qualities, as Wang Lung and his family, returning from the south to his land after a great and terrible period of famine, close those horrible years through the almost magical substance of the earth. It is symbolic how O-lan the wife, tending to the structure of the farmland house (a symbol itself in the Wang family) uses the "earth from the fields" to mend the walls of the house--thus the ailments of the "house" are healed by the richness of t he land.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Essay

A bond between a father and a son is sacred, and is surely one of the most firm bonds that have ever existed. When such a bond is severed, a lot of anger can be provoked, most probably in the form of revenge. Throughout â€Å"Hamlet† by Shakespeare, one can observe the theme of revenge exemplified by the main hero, Hamlet, Laertes, and the young Fortinbras, plotting their revenge against the murderers of their fathers. Hamlet is the first of the three to plan his revenge. While in mourning of the recent, mysterious death of his father, the king, he is contacted by a spirit, which bears resemblance to his father. When the ghost tells Hamlet that the new king, Claudius, is responsible for his father’s murder, Hamlet proclaims that he will exist to avenge the death of his father. He will carry out the ghost’s request: â€Å"Thy commandment all alone shall live/ Within the book and volume of my brain† (I.V.102-103). Though Hamlet has promised revenge, his actions are delayed. Hamlet decides that his revenge must wait for a while. He has realized that the ghost he has contacted might simply have been an evil spirit leading him to damnation. Instead of completely believing the ghost, he decides to set up Claudius in order to catch his conscience: â€Å"The spirit I have seen/ Maybe a devil/†¦Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds/ More relative than this. The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king† (II.II.594-601). Hamlet’s plot for obtaining solid evidence for convicting the king is to have a play. The basis of the play will be a simple reenactment of the murder of Old Hamlet. Both Hamlet and his trusted advisor, Horatio, will watch Claudius for his reaction. This will give him sufficient reason to kill Claudius. Hamlet’s plan for the play shows his fear of being tempted by the devil into damnation. This shows his religious beliefs yet again. The first example of his faith are in Act I when he is reluctant to commit suicide for fear of the resulting after life: â€Å"O that this too too sullied flesh would melt/. . .Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d/ His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter† (I.II.129-132). These religious beliefs of Hamlet will prove to play a big part in his revenge scheme, and will stall it. The next part of Hamlet’s plot for revenge involves his general temperament. He decides to act as if mad in order to speak and act freely. Any abnormal behavior can be passed off as his temporary insanity. This way he can say and do things to get certain reactions or information from people in order to help him plot his revenge. He does ask however, that his acquaintances do not say anything about his crazy state being false: â€Å"How strange or odd some’er I bear myself/As I perchance hereafter shall think meet/To put an antic disposition/That you, at such time seeing me, never shall/Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase† (I.V.179-183). This allows him to further his revenge. Later in the play in Act 3, Hamlet has an unpleasant encounter with his former love, Ophelia. During this heated discussion Hamlet learns that she now has sour feelings toward him and gives him back his gifts. He snaps and unleashes all the built up anger and emotion and bitterness that he has been recently feeling. But he also says something that is intended for Claudius to hear. It is a threat that will play into his ply for revenge. Hamlet proclaims that of â€Å"those that are married already-all but one-shall live† (III.I.150). This overt threat directed toward Claudius is indeed overheard and begins to worry Claudius as planned. Claudius decides to take action to protect himself. He no longer believes that Hamlet is mad with love: â€Å"Love? His affections do not that way tend/Nor what he spake, though it lack’d form a little/†¦There’s something in his soul/O’er which his melancholy sits on brood/And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose/Will be some danger; which for ! to prevent/†¦he shall with speed to England† (III.I.164-171). Claudius now suspects that Hamlet is suspicious of him, which Hamlet believes will cause him to do something to prove his guilt, thus allowing Hamlet to carry out his revenge. Hamlet then takes his next step in revenge by having the play acted out. Hamlet and Horatio will both watch Claudius throughout the play. Hamlet realizes that there is no hell for him to go to, but to just turn into dust upon his death. This is another step in the progression of Hamlet’s revenge. The final step of motivation in Hamlet’s revenge comes during the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes. The queen drinks from the king’s cup that has been poisoned to kill Hamlet. She falls and proclaims she has been poisoned: â€Å"O my dear Hamlet/The drink, the drink! I am poison’d† (V.II.315-316). Laertes then tells Hamlet everything including how he has poisoned Hamlet: â€Å"Hamlet, thou art slain/No medicine in the world can do thee good; In thee there is not half an hour’s life/The treacherous instrument is in thy hand/Unbated and envenom’d/. . .Thy mother poison’d/I can no more. The King-the King’s to blame† (V.II.319-226). Hamlet has finally been motivated enough to act. The king has poisoned his mother and father, and tried to kill Hamlet also. Hamlet then avenges his father’s death by wounding the king with the poisoned sword: â€Å"The point envenom’d too! Then, venom, to thy work/ Wounds the King† (V.II.127). Hamlet has achieved the revenge that he has planned for the entire play. But he must now avenge his mother’s death so he forces the king to drink from the poisoned cup: â€Å"Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane/Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?/Follow my mother† (V.II.330-333). By poisoning the king twice, Hamlet has punished Claudius for both the murders of his mother and his father. Hamlet finally got his revenge but died in the process. The center ideas of the play are the revenges of Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras. All had obtained the revenge that they had wanted. All had avenged their father’s deaths. But all did it in entirely different ways. Hamlet took a while to complete the revenge, he is a man of contemplated inaction. Laertes took a different approach to revenge and accomplished it in a rather short amount of time. Laertes is a man of uncontemplated action. Fortinbras, different from the others, waited for the right moment to act. He carefully planned what he would do over a long period of time and then waited to act. Fortinbras is a man of contemplated action. All three accomplished their revenges-Hamlet killed Claudius, his fathers murderer; Laertes killed Hamlet, his fathers murderer; and Fortinbras did not have to kill Hamlet the son of his father’s murderer, but he did take over the th! rone. All people bent on revenge in Hamlet, accomplished it, making the play a revenge play.

Environmental Policy Essay

Last month in the New York Times, Kate Galbraith noted that the campaigns of both Barack Obama and John McCain presented widely differing views on climate change and energy policy, particularly with regards to cap and trade schemes, market-based policy instruments intended to maneuver industrial sectors into reducing their greenhouse emissions. Cap and trade schemes have recently been gaining much currency within the discussions of environmental policy as a means to address the negative impacts which industry has upon the greenhouse problem. Such systems work by creating a financial incentive for emission reduction through the imposition of costs on emissions. By establishing a ‘cap’ which limits the total amount of emissions that can be made by a designated group of polluters and leaving them free to trade permits to pollute with one another, it encourages these polluters to meet or fall below the cap in a flexible market-based fashion, rather than forcing them to comply with stringent regulations that could needlessly compromise their business operations. Companies able to cut their emissions can further profit from selling their permits to those companies facing difficulty in reducing their own emissions. The incentive is that all the companies would choose to bring their emissions to cap levels and try to do so in the most cost-effective fashion. It encourages them to innovate the means to reduce emissions. Other governments have already taken action to introduce cap-and-trade schemes of their own: Australia has the New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme; the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill was recently enacted in New Zealand; and the European Parliament has its own system known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. At present, no system similar to these exists in federal law, and representatives for both candidates – Dan Esty for Barack Obama, Douglas Holtz-Eakin for John McCain – maintained that this should be remedied as soon as possible. Where they disagree is how such a system should be structured. According to Esty, Obama favors distribution of emissions permits through auction, as this would force polluting businesses to pay competitively during initial distribution. Speaking for McCain, Holtz-Eakin advocates pre-determined distribution, limiting transactions to the permit trading market itself. The design of a cap and trade system is not a trivial matter. A poor design can wreck the efficacy of a cap and trade system as a policy instrument. If permits are distributed too generously, as Holtz-Eakin proposes, what could result is a situation in which industries have little incentive to expunge their business operations of greenhouse emissions, as they would effectively be operating in a trading market where permits are near worthless. Also, cap and trade systems cannot stand alone as an emission-reducing policy instrument, as there is a potential for traders to ‘game’ the market by deliberately holding out on purchasing permits until the last minute so as to reduce their value, making unreduced emissions affordable to even the worst emitter. Furthermore, cap and trade systems lack transparency and present opportunities for fraud. Worse still is that a poorly designed cap and trade system will not account for the geography of polluters, resulting in a NIMBY effect where pollution becomes localized to create ‘emissions ghettos. ’ As such, it should be recommended that any cap and trade system be designed to account for environmental justice, be subject to transparency, and should distribute permits at a market price, perhaps even stabilize such a price at a level high enough to incentivize the development of techniques and technologies to reduce emissions. Furthermore, a cap and trade system must be complemented by other policy instruments such as pollution zoning and carbon taxes. Works Cited Galbraith, Kate. â€Å"Candidates’ Advisers Spar Over Cap-and-Trade. † New York Times. 23 September 2008. Retrieved online November 9, 2008 from: http://greeninc. blogs. nytimes. com/2008/09/23/candidates-advisers-spar-over-cap-and-trade/? scp=3&sq=cap%20trade&st=cse Parker, David. â€Å"Historic climate change legislation passes. † New Zealand Government. 10 September 2008. Retrieved online November 9, 2008 from: http://www. beehive. govt. nz/release/historic+climate+change+legislation+passes Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme 2008, Introduction to the greenhouse gas reduction scheme, Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme. Retrieved online November 9, 2008 from: http://greenhousegas. nsw. gov. au/documents/Intro-GGAS. pdf Pearce, Fred. â€Å"European trading in carbon-emission permits begins. ’† New Scientist. 6 January 2005. Retrieved online November 9, 2008 from: http://environment. newscientist. com/channel/earth/dn6846-european-trading-in-carbonemission-permits-begins. html

Cosmetic Surgery Is Moving Toward Multiethnic Beauty Ideals Essay

â€Å"The increasing number of nonwhites getting cosmetic surgery is helping society accelerate from a crawl to a full-bore sprint toward one truly melted, fusion community.† In the following viewpoint, Anupreeta Das questions whether minorities go under the knife to look more Caucasian. She suggests that as ethnically ambiguous beauties emerge in entertainment and the media, many African American, Asian, and Latino cosmetic-surgery patients want changes that harmonize with their ethnic features. In fact, Das states more surgeons today are specializing in race-specific procedures. This blending and reducing of racial characteristics through cosmetic surgery allow minorities to fit in with beauty standards that are moving away from a Caucasian ideal, she claims. Das is a journalist based in Boston. As you read, consider the following questions: 1.As stated by Das, how do rhinoplasty procedures differ among Caucasians, African Americans, and Asian Americans? 2.Why did Jewish people embrace cosmetic surgery, according to the viewpoint? 3.According to Das, what do critics say about the increase of ethnic models in the fashion industry? For almost a century, the women who have turned to cosmetic surgery to achieve beauty—or some Hollywood-meets-Madison Avenue version of it—were of all ages, shapes, and sizes but almost always of one hue: white. But now, when there seems to be nothing that a few thousand dollars can’t fix, women of color are clamoring in skyrocketing numbers to have their faces and bodies nipped, snipped, lifted, pulled, and tucked. This is a step forward, right? In the land of opportunity, we applaud when barriers break down and more people get to partake in the good life, as it were. There are many explanations for the new willingness of minorities to go under the knife: their swelling numbers and disposable income, the popularization of cosmetic surgery and its growing acceptance as a normal beauty routine,  and its relative affordability. What’s significant are the procedures minorities are choosing. More often than not, they’re electing to surgically narrow the span of their nostrils and perk up their noses or suture their eyelids to create an extra fold. Or they’re sucking out the fat from buttocks and hips that, for their race or ethnicity, are typically plump. It all could lead to one presumption: These women are making themselves look more white—or at least less ethnic. But perhaps not to the extent some suppose. â€Å"People want to keep their ethnic identity,† says Dr. Arthur Shektman, a Wellesley-based plastic surgeon. â€Å"They want some change, but they don’t really want a white nose on a black face.† Shektman says not one of his minority patients—they make up about 30 percent of his practice, up from about 5 percent 10 years ago—has said, â€Å"I want to look white.† He believes this is evidence that the dominant Caucasian-centered idea of blond, blue-eyed beauty is giving way to multiple â€Å"ethnic standards of beauty,† with the likes of Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, and Lucy Liu as poster girls. â€Å"No way† is the answer Tamar Williams of Dorchester gives when asked if her desire to surgically reduce the width of her nose and get a perkier tip was influenced by a Caucasian standard. â€Å"Why would I want to look white?† Growing up, the 24-year-old African-American bank teller says, she longed for a nose that wasn’t quite so wide or flat or big for her face. â€Å"It wasn’t that I didn’t like it,† Williams says. â€Å"I just wanted to change it.† Hoping to become a model, she thinks the nose job she got in November [2007] will bring her a lifetime of happiness and opportunity. â€Å"I was always confident. But now I can show off my nose.† Yet others are less convinced that the centuries-old fixation on Caucasian beauty—from the Mona Lisa to Pamela Anderson—has slackened. â€Å"I’m not ready to put to rest the idea that the white ideal has not permeated our psyches,† says Janie Ward, a professor of Africana Studies at Simmons College. â€Å"It is still shaping our expectations of what is beautiful.† A Peculiar Fusion Whether or not the surging number of minority patients is influenced by a white standard, one point comes with little doubt: The $12.4 billion-a-year plastic surgery industry is adapting its techniques to meet this demand. The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), for example, has in recent months held meetings on subjects ranging from Asian upper-eyelid surgery to so-called ethnic rhinoplasty. The discussion will come to Boston this summer [2007] when the academy will host a five-day event that will include sessions on nose reshaping techniques tailored to racial groups. And increasingly, plastic surgeons are wooing minorities—who make up one-third of the US population—by advertising specializations in race-specific surgeries and using a greater number of nonwhite faces on their Web sites. It could be that these new patients are not trying to erase the more obvious markers of their ethnic heritage or race, but simply to reduce them. In the process, they’re pursuing ethnic and racial ambiguity. Take Williams. With her new smaller nose and long, straight hair, the African-American woman seems to be toying with the idea of ambiguity. And maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. The intermingling of ethnicities and races—via marriages, friendships, and other interactions—has created a peculiar fusion in this country. It’s the great mishmash where Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are celebrated in one long festive spirit, where weddings mix Hindi vows with a chuppah, where California-Vietnamese is a cuisine, where Eminem can be â€Å"black† and Beyonce can go blond. And the increasing number of nonwhites getting cosmetic surgery is helping society accelerate from a crawl to a full-bore sprint toward one truly melted, fusion community. There were 11.5 million cosmetic procedures done in 2005, including surgical ones such as face lifts and rhinoplasties and nonsurgical ones such as Botox shots and collagen injections. One out of every five patients was of African, Asian, or Hispanic descent (separate statistics aren’t available for white versus nonwhite Hispanics). According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of minority patients undergoing cosmetic procedures increased from 300,000 in 1997 to 2 million in 2005.  Although the total demand for cosmetic procedures also increased—from 2 million in 1997 to 11.5 million in 2005—the rate of increase for minorities is higher than the overall rate. (Women account for more than nine-tenths of all cosmetic procedures.) Different ethnic and racial groups favor different procedures. Statistics compiled by the AAFPRS show that in 2005, more than six out of every 10 African-Americans getting cosmetic surgery had nose jobs. Unlike rhinoplasties performed on Caucasians, which may fix a crooked bridge or shave off a hump, doctors say African-American and Asian-American nose reshaping usually leads to narrower nostrils, a higher bridge, and a pointier tip. For Asian-Americans, eyelid surgery—either the procedure to create an eyelid fold, often giving the eye a more wide-open appearance, or a regular eye lift to reduce signs of aging—is popular. According to the AAFPRS, 50 percent of Asian patients get eyelid surgery. Dr. Min Ahn, a Westborough-based plastic surgeon who performs Asian eyelid surgery, says only about half of the Asian population is born with some semblance of an eyelid crease. â€Å"Even if Asians have a preexisting eyelid crease, it is lower and the eyelid is fuller.† For those born without the crease, he says, creating the double eyelid is â€Å"so much a part of the Asian culture right now.† It’s probable that this procedure is driving the Asian demand for eyelid surgeries. Breast augmentation and rhinoplasty top the list of preferred procedures for patients of Hispanic origin, followed by liposuction. Asian-Americans also choose breast implants, while breast reduction—the one procedure eligible for insurance coverage—is the third most preferred choice for African-American women after nose reshaping and liposuction. Doctors say African-American women typically use liposuction to remove excess fat from their buttocks and hips—two areas in which a disproportionate number of women of this race store fat. The Culture of Self-Improvement Of course, the assimilative nature of society in general has always demanded a certain degree of conformity and adaptation of every group that landed on American shores. People have adjusted in ways small and large—such as by changing their names and learning new social mores. Elizabeth Haiken, a San Francisco Bay area historian and the author of the 1997 book Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery, says ethnic minorities may use plastic surgery as a way to fit in to the mainstream, just as another group used it in the early 20th century. â€Å"The first group to really embrace cosmetic surgery was the Jews,† says Haiken. Her research indicates that during the 1920s, when cosmetic surgery first became popular in the United States, being Jewish was equated with â€Å"being ugly and un-American,† and the Jewish nose was the first line of attack. Most rhinoplasties therefore sought to reduce its distinct characteristics and bring it more in line with the preferre d straighter shape of the Anglo-Saxon nose. That people would go to such extremes to change their appearance should come as no surprise. â€Å"Going back to early 20th-century culture, there is a deep-seated conviction that you are what you look like,† Haiken says. â€Å"It’s not your family, your birth, or your heritage, it’s all about you. And your looks and appearance and the way you present yourself will determine who you are.† In the initial sizing-up, the face is the fortune. Physical beauty becomes enmeshed with success and happiness. Plastic surgeons commonly say that minorities today choose surgery for the same reasons as whites—to empower, better, and preserve themselves. â€Å"It’s the universal desire to maintain youthfulness, and it doesn’t change from group to group,† says Dr. Frank Fechner, a Worcester-based plastic surgeon. The culture of self-improvement that surrounds Americans has also made plastic surgery more permissible in recent years. â€Å"Making oneself over—one’s home, one’s car, one’s breasts—is now a part of the American life cycle,† writes New York Times columnist Alex Kuczynski in her 2006 book, Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession With Cosmetic Surgery. â€Å"Doctors have sold us on the notion that surgery †¦ is merely part of the journey  toward enhancement, the beauty outside ultimately reflecting the beauty within.† Nothing captures this journey better than the swarm of plastic surgery TV shows such as ABC’s Extreme Makeover, Fox’s The Swan, and FX’s Nip/Tuck. These prime-time televised narratives of desperation and triumph, with the scalpel in the starring role of savior, have also helped make plastic surgery more widely accepted. Through sanitized, pain-free, 60-minute capsules showcasing the tr ansformation of ordinary folks, reality TV has sold people on the notion that the Cinderella story is a purchasable, everyday experience that everyone deserves. Mei-Ling Hester, a 43-year-old Taiwanese-American hairdresser on Newbury Street, believes in plastic surgery as a routine part of personal upkeep. So when her eyelids started to droop and lose their crease, she rushed to Ahn, the plastic surgeon. He sucked the excess fat out while maintaining, he says, â€Å"the Asian characteristic† of her eyelids. Hester also regularly gets Botox injected into her forehead and is considering liposuction. â€Å"I feel great inside,† she says. With hair tinted a rich brown and eyes without lines or puffiness, her beauty is groomed and serene. â€Å"I work out, I eat right, I use good products on my face. It was worth it,† she says of her surgery. Although Hester says she pursues plastic surgery for betterment and self-fulfillment, she recognizes her privileged status as someone born with the double eyelids and sharper nose so prized in much of the Asian community. â€Å"I just got lucky, because if you look at my sister, sheâ₠¬â„¢s got a flat nose.† Another sister was born without the eyelid crease and had it surgically created, says Hester. The concept of the double eyelid as beautiful comes from the West. â€Å"For many, many years, the standards for beauty have been Western standards that say you have to have a certain shape to the eye, and the eyelid has to have a fold,† says Dr. Ioannis Glavas, a facial plastic surgeon specializing in eyelid surgery, with practices in Cambridge, New York City, and Athens. Sometimes, the demand for bigger eyes can be extreme. Glavas recalls one young Asian-American woman he saw who, in addition to wanting a double eyelid procedure, asked him to snip off some of the bottom lid to expose more of the white. â€Å"I had to say no to her,† he says. Glavas says both Asian women and men demand the double eyelid surgery because it is a way of looking less different by reducing an obvious ethnic feature. Presumably, Asian patients aren’t aiming to look white by getting double eyelids (after all, African-Americans and other minorities have double eyelids), but the goal is social and cultural assimilation, or identification with some dominant aesthetic standard. Across-the-Board Appeal In recent years, the dominant aesthetic standard in American society has moved away from the blond, blue-eyed Caucasian woman to a more ethnically ambiguous type. Glossy magazines are devoting more pages to this melting-pot aesthetic, designed (like the new Barbies) for across-the-board appeal. Today’s beautiful woman comes in many colors, from ivory to cappuccino to ebony. Her hair can be dark and kinky, and she might even show off a decidedly curvy derriere—a feature that has actually started to prompt some white women to get gluteal augmentation, or butt implants. However, critics say these are superficial changes to what is essentially a Caucasian-inspired ideal—the big-eyed, narrow-nosed, pillow-lipped, large-breasted, boyishly thin apparition. â€Å"There has been a subtle change in the kind of models you see in Victoria’s Secret catalogs or Vogue,† says Dr. Fred Stucker, the head of facial plastic surgery at Louisiana State University, Shreveport. But â€Å"they take the black girl who has the high cheekbones, narrow nose, and pouty lips.† It’s not uncommon, he says, to find â€Å"a white face with dark skin.† Going by the recent surge of minorities demanding plastic surgery, it is plausible that this attempt by canny marketers and media types to promote a darker-skinned but still relatively uniform ideal is working. After all, they are simply following the money. According to the University of Georgia’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, which compiles an annual report on the â€Å"multicultural economy† in the United States, minorities had a combined buying power of several trillion dollars in 2006. In 2007, the  disposable income of Hispanics is expected to rise to $863 billion, while African-Americans will collectively have $847 billion to spend. By 2010, Asians are expected to have buying power totaling $579 billion. And all of these groups are showing a greater willingness to spend it on themselves and the things they covet, including cosmetic surgery. Katie Marcial represents exactly this kind of person. The 50-year-old African-American is newly single, holds a well-paying job in Boston, and has no qualms about spending between $10,000 and $20,000 on a tummy tuck and breast surgery. â€Å"I’m doing this mainly because I’m economically able to do so,† says Marcial, a Dorchester resident whose clear skin and youthful attire belie her age. With her three children all grown, her money is hers to spend. â€Å"I can indulge in a little vanity,† she says. Marcial says she chose a young, Asian-American doctor to perform her surgery because â€Å"I thought she would know the latest techniques and be sensitive to ethnic skin.† Historically, plastic surgery has been tailored to Caucasian women. Glavas says that in medical texts, the measurements of symmetry and balance—two widely recognized preconditions of beauty—were made with Caucasian faces in mind. Such practices led to a general sense among minorities that plastic surgery was for whites and kept them away from tinkering with their faces and bodies. But even as the industry now adapts to its new customers, plastic surgeons are divided over whether surgical specialization in various ethnicities and races necessarily caters better to the needs of minority patients. Dr. Julius Few, a plastic surgeon at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, hails the fact that plastic surgeons are customizing their procedures to focus on minorities, â€Å"so it’s not just the one-size-fits-all mentality of saying, well, if somebody’s coming in, regardless, they’re going to look Northern European coming out.† He even sees â€Å"a sort of subspecialty† emerging in various ethnic procedures. Meanwhile, Dr. Jeffrey Spiegel, who is chief of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Boston University Medical Center and has a large number of nonwhite patients, is skeptical of the notion of specialization in ethnic and racial cosmetic surgery. â€Å"It strikes me more as a marketing tool  than a real specialization,† he says. In 1991, Michael Jackson crooned â€Å"It don’t matter if you’re black or white.† Jackson’s message about transcending race may have won singalong supporters, but his plastic surgeries did not. His repeated nose jobs and lightened skin color (he has maintained he is not bleaching but is using makeup to cover up the signs of vitiligo, a skin condition) were perceived by minorities—especially African-Americans—as an attempt to look white. Doctors say that â€Å"Don’t make me look like Michael Jackson† is a popular refrain among patients. â€Å"People were put off by dramatic surgeries and preferred subtle changes,† says Shektman, the Wellesley-based plastic surgeon. The New Melting-Pot Aesthetic Choices have expanded since then. Minorities can now hold themselves up against more ethnically and racially ambiguous role models that may still trace their roots to the once-dominant Caucasian standard but are becoming more composite and blended. â€Å"The concept of ideal beauty is moving toward a mix of ethnic features,† says plastic surgeon Ahn, a Korean-American who is married to a Caucasian. â€Å"And I think it’s better.† The push toward ethnic and racial ambiguity should perhaps be expected, because the cultural churn in American society is producing it anyway. Sure, promoting ambiguous beauty is a strategic move on the part of marketing gurus to cover their bases and appeal to all groups. But it’s also a reflection of reality. Not only are minorities expected to make up about half the American population by 2050, but the number of racially mixed people is increasing tremendously. The number of mixed-race children has been growing enough since the 1970s that in 2000 the Census Bureau created a new section in which respondents could self-identify their race; nearly 7 million people (2.4 percent of the population) identified themselves as belonging to more than one race. For minorities, this new melting-pot beauty aesthetic—perhaps the only kind of aesthetic standard that befits a multiethnic and multicultural society—is  an achievable and justifiable goal. Increasingly, advertisements use models whose blue eyes and dreadlocked hair or almond-shaped eyes and strong cheekbones leave you wondering about their ethnic origins. The ambiguous model might have been dreamed up on a computer or picked from the street. But advertisers value her because she is a blended product—someone everyone can identify with because she cannot be immediately defined by race or ethnicity. By surgically blending or erasing the most telling ethnic or racial characteristics, cosmetic surgery makes ambiguity possible and allows people of various ethnicities and races to fit in. For the Jewish community in the 1920s, fitting in may have had to do with imitating a Caucasian beauty ideal. For minorities today, it’s a melting-pot beauty ideal that is un iquely American. How appropriate this ambiguity is, in a culture that expects conformity even as it celebrates diversity. Das, Anupreeta. â€Å"Cosmetic Surgery Is Moving Toward Multiethnic Beauty Ideals.† The Culture of Beauty. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from â€Å"The Search for Beautiful.† Boston Globe 21 Jan. 2007. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. Document URL http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&dviSelectedPage=&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=&displayGroups=&sortBy=&zid=&search_within_results=&p=OVIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010659218&source=Bookmark&u=lawr16325&jsid=8af464626ea9692fea0cb02ef9c121a3 Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ3010659218

Volunteer Wok Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Volunteer Wok Experience - Essay Example As the paper highlights the achievement of any plan depends on valuable team cohesion by members of the group. In our group, the objectives of the project are outlined for members to discuss them. This enables members to demonstrate harmony in principle. Besides, the group consistently demonstrates self-consciousness as it performs its research project. The achievement of this is pegged on the adoption of an explicit, clearly agreed upon, and binding approaches. Additionally, group engages in many discussions where every member is inspired to participate in. During such discussions, everyone’s idea is listened to carefully and subsequent reactions given. Whenever a member takes the discussions off the track, he or she will be politely reminded about the subject matter. This study outlines that this group discussion portrayed some of the basic theories that characterize groups. The shares a common purpose based on the requirements illustrated on the objectives of the project. Each time a disagreement arises within the group, it is good and benefits the group. The reasons for the disagreements are keenly examined before the group members commit to resolving them. The rest of the group does not reprimand the disagreeing member. Instead, the dissidents provide the rational behind his or her disparity in opinion. The group looks for a way to move forward when members cannot resolve the disagreements themselves. They make sure that such disagreements are not given a chance to block the progress of the group.

Cash and Working Capital Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cash and Working Capital - Essay Example These four phases consist of the following management requirements; cash management which is identifying the cash balance available to run the day to day expenses of the business or firm so as to reduce the cash holding costs (Padachi, 2012). Inventory management is identifying the inventory levels that will enable the business to run smoothly without investment in raw materials. This requires the lead times being lowered to reduce Work in Process (WIP) and the finished goods should also be kept as low as possible. This will lead to the reduction of the reordering costs and hence increase cash flow. Debtor’s management this requires identifying the best credit mechanism for the business or the firm. The credit mechanism chosen should be able to attract customers to the firm and also make sure the firm is getting the payments on time from the credit customers. This will be optimized by increasing the revenue thus increasing the Return on Capital. Another aspect of working capit al management is the Short term financing, it is achieved by identifying the most appropriate source of short term funds to run the business this can be achieved through credit granted by the supplier. It may also be necessary to use a bank loan or an overdraft (Banos-Caballera, 2010). The working capital cycle phases require short-term decisions. ... This normally refers to the time which the firm’s money is tied up in operations and therefore working capital phase normally aims at making sure the time is as short as possible (Block-Hirt, 2008). The primary sources of short term funds Short term funds refer to money needed to run the company in a period of less than a year. They are normally used for the day to day running of the business or firm. There are a number of short term funds available to a company which require different levels of interest rate expenses, collateral and personal guarantees. This is required to provide working capital. The short term funds are used for purchasing of raw materials or finished inventories, payment of wages, salaries and other short term expenses (Brealey, 2002). The three primary sources of short term finance include trade credit, which is normally gotten from the suppliers. It is a loan in the form of goods and inventory. The credit time period is normally 15 days to 3 months and t his is normally granted on the basis of good will of the purchaser. This credit facility is given buy a supplier to the buyer of goods and by a whole seller to a retailer. When the time limit is reached the credit should be paid lack of payment can lead to seizing of the goods in the inventory (Block-Hirt, 2008). Another major source of short term loans and advances is from the commercial banks. This are mainly in the form of bank overdraft from the bank which the business has an account in. the overdraft allows the business to withdraw from its current account exceeding the available cash balance. The business is charged an interest rate that is based on the amount overdrawn and the length of time overdrawn (Cleverley, 2011). The advantage of

Depression and Anxiety in PEG Feeding Dissertation - 1

Depression and Anxiety in PEG Feeding - Dissertation Example Expand a few lines†¦ TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 LIST OF FIGURES Abstract This dissertation is about the social and psychological impact, including anxiety and depressed moods, on people who are artificially fed via a tube based on percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG). The analysis is based on a framework that highlights two sides of sickness, â€Å"disease† underlying the placement of a feeding tube (biological malfunctions recorded as particular disease categories, e.g., cancer, neurological disorders, cardiac diseases, palsy) and the response to this by patients and their carers. This distinction between â€Å"disease† and â€Å"illness† provides a view of the social and psychological complexities involved. These are often overlooked when artificial feeding is adopted. The dissertation proceeds via a description of the literature search on PEG. The primary tools used in this search is the topical search (e.g., â€Å"socio-psychological imp acts of PEG feeding†) on the internet and the exploration of various databases, such as Cinahl, PubMed, Medline, Cochrane and Google Scholar. The literature used refers to reports of â€Å"new† (i.e. past decade) findings. In a very few cases only, when outlining â€Å"illness responses† to â€Å"disease† and the ensuing person-oriented framework, a few basic sources pre-dating 2000, are drawn upon. The accompanying review of relevant sources attempts to bring out the emphasis of â€Å"disease† and the omission of efforts to develop a framework or model and conceptual tools to grasp the social and psychological implications of artificial feeding due to disability. Such a model can, however, be of great value to nursing care and operating practice. Such a framework is available to us via a number of qualitative studies and a â€Å"narrative understanding of the illness experience†. The usefulness of this body of literature will be examined in the ensuing discussion. In the conclusion I will stress the value of a qualitative, person-oriented perspective (the â€Å"illness experience†) for a humanistic medical and nursing practice. Introduction This dissertation is based on a lengthy review of available literature on the social and psychological impact, including anxiety and depressed moods, on people who are artificially fed via a tube based on percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) This review allows me to examine the emotional costs involved in PEG tube feeding, especially with regard to experiences and the coping with the emotional (anxiety, depressed mood) and social costs of tube feeding before, during and after the placement of a PEG tube. This dissertation takes the patient’s point of view and reviews two groups of literature in depth: one of the two is person-and qualitatively-oriented and proposes a meaning-centred, qualitative and humanistic method/perspective. At the same time, one realizes tha t patients are found in a larger health care context where medical and health care professionals operate. Their and the perspective of medicine must be understood as well. Byron Good’s (2008) book on Medicine, Rationality and Experience provides a good introduction to their and the patient’s perspective. It is therefore meaningful to compare and contrast the views and perspectives of these professionals and the views that patients express, their way of coping with PEG tube feeding, their modes of reasoning, their various feeling-states (anxiety, depression) and the lives they live. I have chosen