Rural Poverty in Indonesia

Rural Poverty in Indonesia Introduction In spite of the recent occurrence of global economic recession, the economy of Indonesia has been going on growing at a steady rate, making the country to be classified among the middle-class countries.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Rural Poverty in Indonesia specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Due to Indonesia realizing constant economic growth, there has been a steady decrease in the overall poverty level in the country: the level has dropped from 17%, witnessed in the year 2004, to about 12.5% in the year 2011 (IFAD 1). However, even if Indonesia has realized a reduction in the overall poverty level, the poor people, especially those living in the rural areas in this country, are currently worse off and the gap between the wealthy people and the poor is getting wider and wider (IFAD 1). In this paper, I am going to support my viewpoint that; despite Indonesia realizing substantial economic gro wth, rural poverty in the country remains to be a big problem that needs to be addressed with urgent need. The conclusion section of the paper will present a summary of discussion. Rural Poverty in Indonesia Suryahadi and Hadiwidjaja point out the idea that Indonesia’s power to bring down the level of poverty became stronger after the occurrence of the Asian financial crisis (Suryahadi and Hadiwidjaja 20). However, they also offer an explanation that there is a slower rate of poverty reduction among the rural poor (Suryahadi and Hadiwidjaja 20). They point out that the growth of Indonesia’s economy does not benefit individuals who need to be greatly attended to (Suryahadi and Hadiwidjaja 20). As on one hand a larger number of people living in poverty are found in the rural areas, on the other hand, there exists â€Å"a division in which the pace of poverty reduction slows down in rural areas and speeds up in urban areas after the crisis† (Suryahadi and Hadiwidja ja 20). Moreover, these researchers observe that, the contribution made by the â€Å"urban services sector growth†, which is found to be very much effectual in poverty reduction, reduced for the rural regions after the occurrence of the Asian financial crisis (Suryahadi and Hadiwidjaja 20).Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Following this, the impact of the â€Å"urban services sector† is not currently felt in the rural areas in the same way it used to be before the occurrence of the Asian financial crisis. As a result, it is not a big surprise that the overall rate of reduction of poverty level in Indonesia decreases (Suryahadi and Hadiwidjaja 20). Approximately fifty percent of the Indonesian population lives only slightly above the poverty line (IFAD 1). This population that is near to poverty is prone to such unfavorable conditions as incre ases in the food prices, poor health, natural calamities among other factors, which can easily take them back to poverty (Hasan, Rana and Quibria 261). In spite of the country taking appropriate measures, in the recent times, to bring improvements in the health as well as education sectors, the quality of health care and public services cannot measure up to the same standards as those of other middle-income nations but remains behind (Loayza and Raddatz 141). It is also reported that high levels of undernourishment among the young kids, higher levels of deaths among mothers, lack of clean drinking water and poor quality of education for children, are found to be the most common problems affecting the poor people living in rural areas in Indonesia (IFAD 1). An example of a fluctuation in food prices causing an increase in the poverty levels among the near-poor people can be given of a situation that occurred during the years 2005 and 2006. During that time, the Indonesian government banned imports and this led to an increase in domestic rice price (Suryahadi, Hadiwidjaja and Sumarto 7). This was considered by a number of researchers as being among the main causes of the increase in the poverty levels (McCulloch 45; Warr 14; World Bank 1). It is pointed out that, even if there was introducing of â€Å"the UCT and an expansion of Raskin benefits around the same time, near poor households were unable to cope with the rising price of their single most important consumption good† (Suryahadi, Hadiwidjaja and Sumarto 7). About 70% of the total number of the people in Indonesia lives in the rural areas and their major source of income is farming (IFAD 1). Research shows that poverty in these rural areas is on the increase and it has been reported that about 16.5% of the people in the rural areas live in poverty as compared to about 9.9% of those who live in urban areas (IFAD 1).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Rural Poverty in Indonesia specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Wetterberg, Sumarto and Pritchett point out that in Indonesia, the difference in the rates of poverty in the urban and rural areas always stands at above 6%, apart from the case of the year 1998, in the course of the Asian financial crisis which adversely affected the people living in the urban centers more than those living in the rural areas (Wetterberg, Sumarto and Pritchett 145). A very large number of small-scale farmers are not able to capitalize on the available opportunities that economic growth offers (IFAD 1). The farmers are mostly not in a position to have access to the financial and agricultural extension services and they also do not have good and reliable markets for their farm products (IFAD 1). Moreover, production of food by the rural population greatly puts focus on satisfying the subsistence needs (de Janvry and Sadoulet 13). Even if this country engages in the production of the crops that have a high market value such coffee, cloves and cocoa among others, the government has not invested much in the processing, marketing and management systems which are required in the expansion of production and â€Å"take full advantage of this demand† (de Janvry and Sadoulet 13). Poverty in Indonesia is more prevalent in the isolated eastern islands than other areas and in this region, about 95% of the people in the rural areas live in poverty (IFAD 1). In most parts of this region, people engage in subsistence farming. The native people that have always been marginalized and have not been able to benefit from the development programs put in place by the government are in these areas. The areas in the coastal region have been environmentally degraded and the villages can only be accessed with much difficulty. People living in these areas find that the only way they can overcome the problem of poverty is to migrate to the urban areas (IFAD 1). Some research findin gs have shown that migration to urban areas from the rural areas plays a big role in poverty reduction.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More For instance, Abuzar Asra, following his research on poverty levels among the people who live in urban areas and rural areas, found out that in the period between 1987 and 1996, there was significant decline in poverty levels as a result of rural to urban migration in Indonesia (Asra 1). Moreover, the women, especially those living in rural areas in Indonesia, are very susceptible to poverty. They have limited access to quality education, receive less pay as compared to men and they are often discriminated against in their communities as well as their households and may be excluded in decision making (Miranti 80). Conclusion The argument in this paper has been that: despite Indonesia realizing substantial economic growth, rural poverty in the country remains to be a big problem that needs to be addressed with urgent need. It has been found out that the country became even stronger in working towards bringing down the level of poverty after the recent Asian financial crisis. However, poverty reduction has been found to be slower in the rural population than in the urban one. Over 70% of Indonesians live in rural areas and basically depend on agriculture for their livelihood. But there is no adequate government support for agricultural production and marketing and the people who live in the rural areas mainly focus on subsistence farming. In addition, women and people living in remote areas have been marginalized and discriminated against and they do not have sufficient access to the government services. Moreover, the people in rural areas in Indonesia are also vulnerable to some unfavorable conditions such as changing food prices and poor health conditions among others. Such conditions may not make it possible for these people to evade poverty completely. It is important that the Indonesian government take necessary measures to ensure all its people receive equal benefits from the economic growth that is being realized by the country. Asra, Abuzar. Urban-rural differences in costs of living and their impact on poverty measures. n.d. Web. de Janvry, Alain and Sadoulet Elisabeth. â€Å"Agricultural Growth and Poverty Reduction: Additional Evidence.† World Bank Research Observer 9.25 (2009): 1-20. Print. Hasan, Rana and Quibria George. â€Å"Industry Matters for Poverty: A Critique of Agricultural Fundamentalism.† Kyklos, 57.2 (2004): 253-64. Print. IFAD. Rural poverty in Indonesia, 2012. Web. Loayza, Norman and Raddatz Claudio. â€Å"The Composition of Growth Matters for Poverty Alleviation.† Journal of Development Economics 93.1 (2010): 137-151. Print. McCulloch, Neil. â€Å"Rice prices and poverty in Indonesia.† Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 44.1(2008): 45-63. Print. Miranti, Riyana. â€Å"Poverty in Indonesia 1984-2002: The Impact of Growth and Changes in Inequality.† Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 46.1 (2010): 79-97. Print. Suryahadi, Asep and Hadiwidjaja Gracia 2011, The role of ag riculture in poverty a Poverty, food prices and economic growth in Southeast Asian perspective. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011. Print. Wetterberg, Anna, Sumarto Sudarno and Pritchett Lant. â€Å"A national snapshot of the social impact of Indonesia’s.† Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies 35.3(1999): 145-152. Print. World Bank. Managing through a global downturn: East Asia Update. Washington DC: World Bank East Asia and Pacific Region, 2006. Print.

Biography of Leonhard Euler, Influential Mathematician

Biography of Leonhard Euler, Influential Mathematician Leonhard Euler (April 15, 1707–September 18, 1783) was a Swiss-born mathematician whose discoveries greatly influenced the fields of mathematics and physics. Perhaps the best-known of Eulers findings is the Euler identity, which shows the relationship between fundamental mathematical constants and is often called the most beautiful equation in mathematics. He also introduced a notation for writing mathematical functions that is widely used today. Fast Facts: Leonhard Euler Occupation: MathematicianKnown For: The Euler identity, the function notation, and numerous other discoveries in mathematicsBorn: April 15, 1707 in Basel, SwitzerlandDied: September 18, 1783 in St. Petersburg, RussiaEducation: University of BaselParents’ Names: Paulus Euler and Margaretha BruckerSpouses Name: Katharina Gsell Early Life Leonhard Euler was born in Basel, Switzerland. He was the first child of Protestant minister Paulus Euler and Margaretha Brucker. In 1708, one year after Euler was born, the family moved to Riehen, a suburb a few miles from Basel. Euler grew up in the parsonage at Riehen with his two younger sisters. During Eulers early childhood, he learned mathematics from his father, who had an interest in mathematics and had taken courses with the notable mathematician Jakob Bernoulli while studying to become a theologian. Around 1713, Euler began attending a Latin grammar school in Basel, but the school did not teach mathematics, so Euler took private lessons. University In 1720, Euler entered the University of Basel at just 13 years old- an accomplishment that was not uncommon for the time. At university, he studied with Johann Bernoulli, Jakob Bernoulli’s younger brother, who gave Euler mathematical problems to solve each week and encouraged him to read advanced math textbooks. Bernoulli even offered to answer Euler’s math questions every Sunday afternoon, even though he was too busy to give him private lessons. In 1723, Euler completed a master’s degree in philosophy and began studying theology, as his parents had wanted. However, Euler was not nearly as excited about theology as he was about mathematics. He obtained his father’s permission to study mathematics instead, possibly with the help of Bernoulli. Euler finished his studies at the University of Basel in 1726. In 1727, he submitted an entry for the Grand Prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences concerning the optimal placement of masts on a ship. The first prize winner was an expert in the mathematics of ships, but Euler, who had not seen a ship before, won second place. Academic Career Euler was offered an academic appointment at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia. He moved there in 1727 and stayed until 1741. Although Euler’s post initially involved teaching the physics and math of physiology, he was soon appointed to the mathematics-physics division of the Academy. There, Euler advanced through different positions, becoming a professor of physics in 1730 and the senior chair in mathematics in 1733. The discoveries Euler made in St. Petersburg catapulted him to world fame. Euler married Katharina Gsell, a painter’s daughter, in 1733. Together, the couple had 13 children, five of whom survived to adulthood. In 1740, Euler was invited to Berlin by the Prussian king Frederick II to help establish an Academy of Sciences in the city. He moved to Berlin in 1741 and became the director of mathematics at the Academy in 1744. Euler remained prolific in Berlin, writing about 380 articles during his 25-year tenure. Contributions to Mathematics Some of Eulers most notable contributions include: The Euler identity: eiÏ€ 1 0. The Euler identity is often called the most beautiful equation in mathematics. This formula shows the relation between five mathematical constants: e, i, Ï€, 1, and 0. It has wide-ranging uses in mathematics and physics, including electronics.Mathematical function notation: f(x), where f stands for â€Å"function† and the variable of the function (here, x) is enclosed within the parentheses. This notation is widely used today. Later Life and Death By 1766, Eulers relations with Frederick II had soured, and he returned to the Academy of St. Petersburg upon invitation from Empress Catherine the Great. His eyesight was in decline, and by 1771, Euler was completely blind. Despite this obstacle, however, Euler continued his work. Ultimately, he produced half of his total research while completely blind with the help of scribes and his own impressive memory and mental calculation skills. On September 18, 1783, Euler died from a brain hemorrhage in St. Petersburg. After his death, the Academy at St. Petersburg continued publishing Euler’s prolific works for about 50 years. Legacy Euler made many important discoveries in the field of mathematics. While he is perhaps best known for the Euler identity, he was a prolific and accomplished mathematician whose contributions influenced graph theory, calculus, trigonometry, geometry, algebra, physics, music theory, and astronomy. Sources Cajori, Florian. A History of Mathematical Notations: Two Volumes Bound as One. Dover Publications, 1993.Gautschi, Walter. â€Å"Leonhard Euler: His Life, the Man, and His Works.† SIAM Review, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 3-33.O’Connor, J. J., and Robertson, E. F. â€Å"Leonhard Euler.† University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 1998.Thiele, Ruediger. â€Å"The Mathematics and Science of Leonhard Euler (1707-1783).†

Concepts of Caring Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Concepts of Caring - Essay Example The staff must look at the use of their body language as well. According to (Justice, 2006) the staff must watch how they use body language and more importantly the way the voice is used. â€Å"These are known as linguistic, non-linguistic and paralinguistic communication skills. The staff must watch their tone, pitch, and loudness. The staff must also watch their body posture, proximity and facial expressions. All of these features are very necessary to make sure that the staff comprehends what is going on in the case.† The staff must show that you know what you are doing right from the start or you will not make any progress with the patient. In your immediate observation of the patient the staff will notice that she is highly anxious. The other subjective signs could be that she could be holding the abdominal area. Emma could also be crying or yelling out. The staff has to build a rapport and gain trust with the patient in order to gain the basic information you need to gai n a diagnosis. The staff will need to feel confident in their decisions, for example if you would decide to call her parents about her location and her problem. The staff will have to decide about the issue of confidentiality and informed consent. Remember In the medical profession or any profession ‘Do No Harm’. Emma will need to be handled with care body, mind and soul. She needs to be told what to do to bring understanding of her physical and emotional health even if she doesn’t want to hear it. 5. Self-Actualization- The nurses can try to teach and tell her that it is not her fault that her parents separated, if that has happened. The nurse can also try to teach her that running away is not the answer to any problem. The nurse must try to talk to her about the abdominal pain she is feeling could mean. When she starts to calm down

Advertisement and marketing communication Essay

Advertisement and marketing communication - Essay Example The new economy has brought success to e-bay and other organizations that use technology to apply marketing concepts like customer focus, good value, quality service and efficient exchange mechanisms for satisfying customer needs and wants. Basically marketing deals with identifying and meeting human and social needs. One of the shortest definitions of marketing is "meeting needs profitably (Kotler, 2003). Whether the marketer is Procter & Gamble, which created crest white strips in response to people's desire for whiter teeth; or Monster.com, which developed an online resume databank so job-hunters and employers can find each other more efficiently; or CarMax which invented a new way to sell used cars because people want more certainly when buying such vehicles, all illustrate a drive to turn a private or social need into a profitable business opportunity. Companies must carefully monitor their customers and competitors, continuously improve their value offerings, carefully define t he target market and value proposition, and take a long term view to satisfy customers, stockholders, employees, suppliers and channel partners. Modern marketing calls for more than developing a good product, pricing it attractively, and making it accessible. Companies must also communicate with present and potential stakeholders as well as general public. For companies it is not important to communicate but rather what to say, to whom and how often. The marketing communication mix consists of advertising, sales promotion, public relations and publicity, personal selling and direct marketing (Kolter, 1997). Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, good or service by an identified sponsor. Ads are a cost effective way to disseminate message, whether to build brand preference. In developing an advertisement programme, marketing mangers start by identifying the target market and buyer motives. Then they make 5 critical decisions known as five M's i.e. Mission (objectives) Money, Message, Media & Measurement. An advertising objective is a specifics communication task and achievement level to the accomplished with a specific audience in a specific period. Advertising objectives can be classified according to whether their aim is to inform, persuade, remind or reinforce. The international charity recruiting business school playing the major role through providing students who are voluntarily help small business to grow in the developing market. We are required to show in the advertisement that it conveys goodwill and image of the organization. So this advertisement could be categorized as institutional advertisements, which advocates its act and show its pioneer work. To develop an effective advertisement one has to identify the target audience. Here we have an organization, which has some genuine motives. Our target audience is the people, who are young, willing to be the part of society and work for the betterment of the society, people and organizations. So seeing the target audience of the advertisement we selected red color, which, depicts vibrant, energetic and highly self-motivated nature of youth and this color attracts people immediately. Here picture is showing the two basic domain of people or society that is haves and have-nots. There is a path, which is very difficult, but it can take the people from the category of have-nots towards who have. In between the path there are lots of roadblocks and potholes, which makes journey very difficult but our business school graduates have the capacity to make the transition mu ch easier and he/she is right there to help voluntarily. Specifying the objective of the message plays a crucial role in deciding the nature. Simple and humorous massages which could be able to convey the message effectively will play the trick. It's an advertisement about voluntary service so it must contain some motivating message, which could easily attract

Business plan for Education and Cookery School Essay

Business plan for Education and Cookery School - Essay Example The project offers children with hands-on-firm experience as they learn. It will allow children to learn about food sources, the process of making food, and farming conservation concepts. The education center will also be equipped with a kitchen where students will learn how to cook as part of field-to-fork cycle. The education center will offer evening cookery classes that emphasize on field-to-fork cycle. These classes will run between 6:30 PM and 9:00 PM three days in the week. Weekend classes will also be offered at special times of the where when certain harvests are made. The strategy of the project is to work with local schools, Countryside Learning, FACE and growing schools in order to provide a fully integrated learning environment. The target is to reach 200 schools within Gloucestershire County and later expand to other schools in North Wiltshire and beyond. Farm diversification has become an important element in the farming industry in the UK. Great Britain suggests that half of the farms in the UK utilize some form of diversification. These diversification businesses bring about  £10,400 extra income for the farm. Diversification also increases the utilization of physical resources within the farm. Furthermore, it enhances better utilization of farming skills. Diversification also integrates the farm into the rural economy. Farm diversification alternatives may be agricultural or non-agricultural. This business plan suggests a planned non-agricultural approach to business diversification. The name of the business is Education and Cookery School (ECS). The business is located on the lower Harnhill farm which is owned by the Royal Agricultural University. It will be an educational center that will offer education to local schools within Gloucestershire County towns including Harnhill, Cirencester, Cheltenham, Marlborough, Royal Wotton Bassett and Swindon. The educational center will offer evening classes and special classes during the weekend on sp ecial harvest periods. Located on the outskirts of Cirencester in Gloucestershire, Harnhill is a prominently mixed farm with of about 600 acres.

Media coverage of the african continent

Media coverage of the african continent Introduction This thesis contemplates long standing issues surrounding media coverage of the African continent. Previous studies have shown a systematic trend amongst Western journalists to depict current events in developing nations, particularly African nations, from a negative and oversimplified perspective. It examines why important events in less-developed parts of the world often have their reality distorted in the Western media. Unfortunate precedence has shown that this is particularly relevant to the Western media in the context of its questionable conduct in covering the African continent. The media portrayal of the unrest in Sudans troubled Darfur region appears to reflect the errors that often lurk amidst the work of journalists covering humanitarian catastrophes in distant lands. In spite of Gà ©rard Pruniers assessment of the violence as the â€Å"quintessential ‘African crisis: esoteric, extremely violent, rooted in complex ethnic and historical factors which few understood, and devoid of any identifiable practical interest for rich countries,† Darfur generated an unanticipated amount of interest in the West. It quickly became the cause cà ©là ¨bre amongst people on both sides of the political divide. Darfurs power to transcend politics was most apparent in April 2006 as thousands of Americans converged into the nations capital to appeal for greater action to end the alleged genocide in Sudan. Republican senators joined Democrats such as Barack Obama to urge the Bush administration to take a more decisive approach to tackle the crisis and help refu ges escaping the violence. Although the event attracted prominent speakers including celebrities, politicians, athletes and Noble Peace Prize winners such as Elie Wiesel, the bulk of the crowd was comprised of ordinary Americans who donned blindfolds to urge political decision makers not to look away from the atrocities taking place in Darfur. The medias part in this event cannot be overstated. As conflicts in remote areas of the globe have little impact on the lives of ordinary Western citizens, regardless of the magnitude of the violence, the extent to which an ordinary person knows and cares is entirely contingent on the level of media coverage a conflict is granted. As such, the mass media has massive power in shaping both a governments foreign policy and the publics imagination of situations around the globe. The medias influence in determining the perception of the Darfur conflict was particularly immeasurable because in most instances it was the only image outside observers in the West received of the crisis itself. As a consequence of the medias attentiveness to the unfolding catastrophe in Sudan, they were able to spark a sophisticated and popular human rights campaign. Coupled with advocacy organizations such as the Save Darfur Coalition, an unlikely alliance of liberal and conservative groups, the mainstream med ia in the United States exposed their audiences to the atrocities that were unfolding in the Sub-Saharan nation. Yet, as Darfur burst onto the worlds consciousness in mid-2004 and became the Western medias darling as far as coverage was concerned, depressingly similar outbreaks of violence in Africa at the time, including in Uganda and the Congo, were all but overlooked. As such, this thesis aims to understand how a ‘quintessential African crisis became an international issue that garnered Western empathy and generated an unexpected level of press interest. Essentially, how did an internal crisis in a remote area of Sudan, where the concerns were primarily local, manage to capture the attention of campaigners and writers in the West? If we are to accept Susan Moellers claims that audience sympathies towards foreign deaths have hardened, and that the American public is largely interested in news events related to their own country, how did the narrative of Darfur, a story that does not contain an obvious American connection, overcome public apathy when other tragediesinAfricaare often unab le to? To better understand why Darfur was prioritized in the Western media and to better ascertain why certain foreign events became news the way they do, this thesis will examine the media press coverage of Darfur in the Washington Post and the New York Times during the first three years of the conflict. These two American newspapers were initially chosen for this study because of their high circulation numbers (601,669 and 1.65 million respectively) and the value that both these media organizations place on covering international affairs despite their opposing political leanings. Moreover, during the preliminary selection process to decide which newspapers to analyze in this thesis, it quickly became evident that compared to their rivals, the Washington Post and the New York Times had not employed news wire services such as Reuters and the Associated Press for their articles. These two American newspapers mostly relied upon their own correspondents and journalists to deliver stories from the ground, either from Sudan itself or from neighboring Chad. In addition to the published articles from the Washington Post and the New York Times, Britains Guardian newspaper has been included in this study for critical examination as it offers a unique opportunity to investigate whether a newspapers national affiliation and political culture has any impact on the presentation of the Darfur issue. Methodological Approach And Organization Of This Thesis This thesis is divided into five sections. The second chapter will address the fundamental question: how did the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Guardian report on the Darfur conflict and what were the prominent themes and media framing devices evident in their articles? This chapter will examine the content (what the journalists covered) and the form (how the journalists covered the conflict). Due to the scope of examining three newspapers over a three year period, this thesis will concentrate on critical moments in media reportage of the Darfur disaster. As such, this chapter and the thesis at large is not a quantitative study of the media treatment of Darfur. Rather, it merely attempts to highlight the peaks and lows of media coverage in order to ascertain the reasons behind the fluctuating press interest. Five decisive moments will be studied: 2003 in its entirety, April 2004, June 2004, September 2004 and January 2005 The third chapter will provide an extensive critique of the media representation of the violence in Darfur and scrutinize the themes that emerged from the three newspapers in question. The purpose of this particular section is to address whether the Western newspapers in question appropriately covered or mishandled the Darfur crisis. By exploring the construction of Arab and African identity in the Sudanese context, this thesis will analyze and explain how through the use of emotive language and framing, the American press were able to create and solidify a misleading image of the crisis as a genocidal campaign instigated by Arabs against an indigenous African population. It will address the controversy surrounding Darfurs genocide status under international law. With this objective in mind, this thesis will refer to ‘genocide only as it was defined by the United Nations in 1948. This chapter also seeks to expose important dimensions to the conflict that many journalists overlo oked as they peddled one convenient version of the violence at the expense of critical evidence. The latter part of the thesis will draw upon seminal postcolonial theory to explain why Darfur captured the public imagination and the attention of Western journalists. It will examine whether the medias interest and frequent misrepresentation of Darfur can be read in the larger context of a new Orientalist discourse. This chapter will also endeavor to explore the possible reasons and motives behind the Western media interest in Darfur. Literature Review Foreign news stories related to the African continent are often characterized by images of tribal warfare, rampant disease, political instability, famine and despotic regimes. These unpleasant misrepresentations of African issues have been closely studied since the ‘New World Information and Communication Order debates of the 1970s. The historical media debates were instigated by developing non-aligned states as a response to the lopsided transfer of mass communication content from Western nations to poorer nations that often reflected the preferences of Western news agencies. Scholars such as Hassan M. El Zein, Anne Cooper and Melissa Wall have all acknowledged its relevance to contemporary media discussions. These scholars insist that the tendency amongst Western media organizations to disproportionately focus on the negative, the violent and the exotic when it comes to covering developing regions and particularly African issues did not end with the great media debates of the 1970s. Their findings are not dissimilar to Abiodun Goke-Pariolas contention that the Africa continent as a whole suffers from a long practice of media neglect and when African issues are eventually acknowledged in the Western press, the stories and images are permeated with stereotypes and tropes that have persisted since the time of slavery and imperialism. The fifty-three distinct nations that make the African continent are often treated as a homogenous entity comprised of uncivilized heathens who are unable to govern themselves. If and when Africans are shown in the western media, Goke-Pariola argues that they are regularly portrayed to be poor, helpless and malnourished. Michael Maren points out that such graphic descriptions and imagery work to advance the notion that the inhabitants of African are reliant on the compassionate West for their survival. Whilst reports in the Western press about conflicts on the African continent are frequently crisis-driven in such a way as to insinuate that the inhabitants are naturally more prone to violence, journalists rarely make mention of the Wests connection to the violence. In his article titled American Media and African Culture, Bosah Ebo emphasizes the lack of historical context in media stories about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Ebo notes that Western journalists covering Rwanda repeatedly failed to make the association between the ongoing civil war and the impact of the Belgian colonial legacy of politicizing Rwandan ethnicity by pitting Hutus against Tutsis in their ‘divide and rule strategy. Instead, the genocide was portrayed as another African crisis fuelled by irrational tribal hatred. Wall echoes similar sentiments in a comparative study of the Rwandan and Bosnian crises. In her analysis of American newspaper coverage of the two conflicts, Wall found that whilst the ethnically motivated violence in Bosnia was framed as an aberration for Europeans, despite the largest genocide occurring in Germany, the conflict in Rwanda was portrayed as standard behavior for Africans. David Gordon and Howard Wolpe have claimed that this level of misinterpretation and formulaic media treatment of the African ‘continent as little more than a gigantic basket case leaves Western audiences with an unconscious sense of cultural, intellectual and political superiority. As most Americans have never visited Africa and probably never will, the images of the African continent that most Americans hold to be real and authentic come courtesy of the media. This view of Africa as the ‘dark continent is primarily based on press coverage and is also ‘an outgrowth of a deeply burie d, fundamental set of cultural assumptions about race and civilization that have been building in Western culture for at least four hundred years. Despite this extensive scholarship on the mass medias portrayal of Africa, modest research exits in the field of Darfur and the media. Much like David Campbells Geopolitics and Visuality: Sighting the Darfur conflict, this thesis is limited to the study of contemporary events in Western Sudan. In his study of the photo-journalism of the Darfur conflict, Campbell found that most photos were graphic images of starving and dying women and babies in refugee camps. Unlike Campbells study however, this thesis attempts to go beyond content analysis that largely corroborates prior studies on media casing of African issues. It endeavors to comprehend the outpouring of humanitarian good will that the atrocities in Darfur produced in the West and the possibility that strategic geopolitical interests played a role in the medias intense interest in the conflict. Pippa Norris, Politics and the Press: The News Media and Their Influences (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997), 23; Eronini R. Megwa and Ike S. Ndolo, â€Å"Media image and development: political and economic implications of U. S. media coverage of Africa,† in Development and democratization in the Third World: myths, hopes, and realties, ed. Kenneth E. Bauzon (Washington: Crane Russak, 1992), 267-272. Gà ©rard Prunier, Darfur: the ambiguous genocide (New York: Cornell University Press, 2005), 124. For a detailed analysis of media power and the CNN effect, the theory that postulates that the modern mass media have a significant bearing on the conduct of foreign policy, see Piers Robinson, â€Å"Operation Restore Hope and the Illusion of a News Driven Media Intervention.† Political Studies 49 (2001): 942. Prunier, Darfur: the ambiguous genocide, 124. Susan D. Moeller, Compassion fatigue: how the media sell disease, famine, war, and death (London: Routledge, 1999), 11. William Preston, Jr., Edward S. Herman, and Herbert I. Schiller, Hope folly: the United States and Unesco, 1945-1985 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), 296. A.Goke-Pariola, Africa in the â€Å"New World Order†: Old Assumptions, Myths, and Reality, available from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED347842; [24 June 2009] Michael Maren, The road to hell: the ravaging effects of foreign aid and international charity (New York: Free Press, 1997), 13. Bosah Ebo, â€Å"American Media and African Culture† in Africas media image, ed.Beverly G. Hawk (New York: Praeger, 1992), 18. Ibid. Melissa Wall, â€Å"A pernicious new strain of the Old Nazi virus and an orgy of tribal slaughter: A comparison of US news magazine coverage of the crises in Bosnia and Rwanda.† 59 (1997): 411-428 David F.Gordon, Howard Wolpe, â€Å"The Other Africa: An End to Afro-Pessimism.† World Policy Journal 15 (1998): 9 E. J. Murphy, The African Mythology: Old and New. (Storrs, CT: World Education Project, 1973), 1. David Campbell, â€Å"Geopolitics and visuality: Sighting the Darfur conflict,† Political Geography 26, (2007): 357-382.

Is hypnosis and effective method to Improve Health? Essay -- essays re

Is Hypnosis an Effective Method to Improve Health? Many high schools have hypnotists come to their school to entertain the students. Once a hypnotist came to the Fletcher High School gymnasium and hypnotized about a half dozen people. He convinced these six people into believing they were five years old watching their favorite cartoon. Their mannerisms were shocking. They truly believed they were five-years-old, throwing a fit when the hypnotist told them their mother just turned off the cartoons. Knowing that it is very hard to remember back to when a person is five-years-old, it was amazing that the power of hypnosis made them remember so easily. It seemed as if the hypnotist could make them remember anything. Just before the students woke from their hypnosis, the hypnotists told them they would be fully rested and feel extremely good about his or herself. Afterwards, they remarked on how rested they felt. A hypnotist can make people feel completely rested while being under hypnosis, and make people believe things that are not true. Why stop there though? If something hurts, then tell the hypnotherapist to suggest under hypnosis that the pain is gone and does not bother them anymore and the person will feel better. If someone has a stuttering problem, then they can visit a hypnotherapist and he should be able to straighten up their speech so they can speak more clearly. Likewise, a person’s self-confidence could be uplifted and they Stayton 2 could begin to believe in his or herself. Some people could even be anesthetized for surgery using hypnosis. Many people are hypnotized for entertainment purposes, so maybe it should also be used to help people with problems that are hard to resolve. Hypnosis can be used to relieve pain, conquer almost any fear, eliminate the use unnecessary prescription medicines, and help a person to overcome alcoholism and to overcome drug addictions. Also, upon finding support from a hypnotherapist, many have been able to quit addictive habits such as smoking. Conquering phobias is a specialty of hypnotherapists. A phobia is a compulsive fear of a specified situation or object (Knight 2). A few types of phobias are fear of open spaces, fear of snow, fear of the cold, fear of marriage, fear of insanity, fear of being alone, fear of darkness, fear of disease, fear of beards, fear of birds, fear of being stared at, fear of bein... ...nly one aspect of hypnosis. If a hypnotist can make someone remember something so far back and make that person reenact those memories, hypnosis could be a powerful tool regarding many health problems caused by brain activities. There is so much more that has yet to be discovered. Estabrooks, George H., Hypnotism. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 1957. â€Å"Hypnosis and Smoking: The Mighty Power of Suggestion.† Smoking Cessation. N. pag. Online. Internet. 13 Apr. 2000. Available WWW: http://www.hypnosis.about.com/smoking.hypnos.htm Kirsch, Irving, Antonio Capafons, Etzel Cardeà ±a-Buelna, Salvador Amigà ³. Clinical Hypnosis and Self-Regulation. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1999. Knight, Bryan. â€Å"You Can Conquer Your Phobia.† Hypnogenesis. N. pag. Online. Internet. 13 Apr. 2000. Available WWW: http://www.hypnos.co.uk/hypnomag/drknigh3.htm Nicoli, Thomas. â€Å"Pain and Physical Disorder – Relief Through Hypnosis.† Hypnogenesis. N. pag. Online. Internet. 13 Apr. 2000. Available WWW: http://www.hypnos.co.uk/hypnomag/nicoli1.htm Schneck, Jerome M. Hypnosis in Modern Medicine. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, 1953. Wolff, Michael. Personal Interview. 28 Apr. 2000.