A Safe Injection Site Is Essential For Esquimalt And Victoria

In 2015, Victoria, BC saw an increase in drug overdoses throughout the city including one death occurring in Esquimalt (Times Colonist, 2015). Drug-related overdose fatalities are preventable if the population has access to services that would minimize the risk of an overdose. Through the assessment of the community of Esquimalt, I am proposing that there is a need to establish a safe injection site to prevent accidental overdoses, as well as provide social services for detoxification and rehabilitation programs. It is necessary to note that Victoria and Esquimalt are not differentiated when studies are done. Therefore, the extrapolation of accurate drug use statistics for Esquimalt is not available. For the purpose of this paper, Victoria†¦show more content†¦In addition, drug-related deaths have occurred in this community. Therefore, a safe injection site is a priority for Esquimalt. Moreover, safe injection sites have been proven to save taxpayer’s dollars. Accordi ng to Kerr and Woods (2009), an individual who uses intravenous drugs has an increased risk of contracting HIV. The lifetime cost of HIV per person is approximately $150,000. However, with proper intervention to decrease HIV rates, the healthcare system saves $130,000. This injection site I am proposing would be modeled after the InSite program in Vancouver. Pinkerton (2011) reports that this program has saved taxpayers $1.9 million a year in HIV and overdose-related health costs. Therefore, a program like this in the community would be beneficial because it will ensure the marginalized members of the community are receiving care, but also decrease spending on future health care costs related to disease and overdose. Drug Addiction in Esquimalt While doing research on this community, it became apparent that the public has access to many different social services that have helped the residents achieve wellness (Abra et al., 2016), including Edgewood Health Network, a rehabilitation centre for addictions and mental health. However, there is no support for people who are currently active drug users or have relapsed (Edgewood Health Network, n.d). Studies have shown that relapsed users have an increased risk of

The Blue Sword CHAPTER THIRTEEN Free Essays

string(84) " months that it seemed likely the entire complement of the fort could have changed\." It was two days later when, as the morning sun shone down on them, Harry first saw Istan again; and she altered their course a little to the north, for it was not the town she was aiming for, but Jack Dedham’s garrison. She prayed to anything that might be listening that he would be there, not off on some diplomatic sortie or border-beating. She could not imagine trying to explain her errand to anyone else; she did not think Jack would conclude that she was mad. We will write a custom essay sample on The Blue Sword CHAPTER THIRTEEN or any similar topic only for you Order Now She did think that anyone else – even Dickie; especially Dickie – would. But even if Jack were at the fort, and believed her story, would he help her? She didn’t know, and didn’t dare make guesses. But she and Terim and Senay, even with Senay’s father’s reinforcements, would not be very effective by themselves. Rather more effective than I would have been by myself, though, she thought. The first evening, after Senay and Terim had joined her, and after the animals were settled and the other two human beings were asleep, Harry had cut herself a long straight slender branch from a tree, and stripped it with the short knife she kept in one boot. When they set out that evening she tied it lengthwise to Sungold’s saddle, so it rubbed against her right leg as she rode, but at least it did not threaten either of her companions, who rode close at her sides. They eyed it, but said nothing. When she first recognized Istan looming out of the dawn light at them, she paused, took out her knife again, and deliberately ripped several inches of hem from her white tunic, unlashed her branch, and tied the raveling bit of cloth to one end of it. She tucked the other end just under one leg, and held it upright with one hand. â€Å"It is a sign that we come in peace,† she explained, a little sheepishly, to her friends; their faces cleared, and they nodded. It was still very early. The town was silent as they skirted it; nothing, not even a dog, challenged them as they rode toward the fort. Harry found herself watching out of the corners of her eyes, looking for any odd little wisps of fog that might be following them. The dogs ought to bark. She didn’t see any fog. She didn’t know if either of her companions was a fog-rouser; and she knew only too well that she did not know what she herself was capable of. They rode up to the closed gate of the fort, the horses’ hooves making small thunks in the sandy ground, kicking up small puffs of grit; she thought of the fourposter pony, who was no doubt drowsing in his stall now, dreaming of hay. Harry looked at the fort gate in surprise; as she remembered, and she was reasonably sure that she remembered correctly, the gate was opened at dawn, with reveille, and stayed open till taps at sunset. The gate, wooden and iron-barred, in a wall of dull yellow brick, was higher than her head as she sat on Sungold, looking up; and its frame was higher yet. They rode right up to it, and no one hailed them; and they stood in front of it, at a loss, their shadows nodding bemusedly at them from the grey wood before them and Harry’s little flag limp at the end of its pole. Narknon went up to the gate and sniffed it. Harry had never thought of the possibility of not being able to get inside the fort in the first place. She rode up next to the gate and hammered on it with her fist. As her flesh struck the solid barrier it sent a tingle up her arm, and a murmur of kelar at the base of her skull told her that she could walk through this wall if she had to, to pursue her purpose. In that instant she realized exactly how Corlath had stolen her from the bedroom that at present was not so far from where Sungold stood; and she understood as well that the kelar must see some use in her errand at the Outlander fort to back her so strongly; and for that she did not know whether to be glad or sorry or fearful. And if fearful, for the sake of whom? Her new people – or her old friends? And she had a quiver of wry sympathy for how the Hill-king must have felt, walking up the Residency stairs in the middle of the night; and then she tipped her head back to stare at the Outlander wall, and touched her calf to her Hill horse’s side, to move him away from that wall. â€Å"Since when is this gate closed during daylight?† she shouted; and Homelander speech tasted strange in her mouth, and she wondered if she spoke the words as a Hillwoman might. With her words, the spell, whatever spell it might be, was broken; and the three Hill riders suddenly blinked, as if the sun had grown brighter; and a small panel shot back, beside the gate and above their heads; and a man’s face glared down. â€Å"Where did you come from, Hillman, and what do you want of us?† He looked without pleasure at the white rag. â€Å"We came from the Hills,† Harry said, grinning, â€Å"but I am no Hillman; and we would like speech with Colonel Dedham.† The man scowled at her. She suspected that he did not like her knowing Jack’s name. â€Å"He does not speak to Hillfolk – or those who ride like Hillfolk,† he added disagreeably. By now there were several faces peering over the wall at them; Harry did not recognize any of them, and found this strange, for she had known at least by sight nearly all of Dedham’s men. She had not been gone for so many months that it seemed likely the entire complement of the fort could have changed. You read "The Blue Sword CHAPTER THIRTEEN" in category "Essay examples" She squinted up at them, wondering if her eyes or her memory was playing her tricks. She frowned at her interlocutor’s tone. â€Å"You could bear a message to him, then,† she said, trying to decide if it was worth the possibility of some kind of uproar if she said her name. â€Å"Hillfolk – † began the man at the window, and his tone was not encouraging. â€Å"Oh, Bill, for the love of God, the new orders say nothing about rudeness,† said one of the faces at the fence. â€Å"If you won’t carry a message as requested, I will – and I’ll be sure to mention why an off-duty man had to do it.† â€Å"Tom?† said Harry hesitantly. â€Å"Is that Tom Lloyd?† There was a tense and breathless silence, and the man at the open panel hissed something that sounded like â€Å"witchcraft.† The voice from the fence came again, slowly but clearly: â€Å"This is Tom Lloyd, but you have the advantage of me.† â€Å"True enough,† said Harry dryly, and shook back her hood and looked up at him. â€Å"We danced together, some months ago: my brother, Di – Richard, collected favors from all his tall friends to dance with his large sister.† â€Å"Harry – † said Tom, and leaned over the fence, his shoulders outlined against the light, his face and hands as pale as the desert sand. â€Å"Harry?† â€Å"Yes,† said Harry, shaken at how strange he looked to her, that she had not recognized him before he spoke. â€Å"I need to talk to Colonel Dedham. Is he here?† Harry’s heart was in her mouth. â€Å"Yes, he is: reading a six-months-old newspaper from Home over a cup of coffee right now, I’d say.† Tom sounded dazed. â€Å"Bill, you wretch, open the gate. It’s Harry Crewe.† Harry’s legs were tight on Sungold’s sides, and the big horse threw his head up and shivered. â€Å"He don’t look like Harry Crewe,† Bill said suddenly. â€Å"And what about the two with him – her? And that funny-colored leopard?† â€Å"They’re my friends,† said Harry angrily. â€Å"Either open the gate or at least take my message.† â€Å"I can’t leave my post – another man’ll have to take the word. I won’t open the gate to Hillfolk. It’s Hillfolk it’s closed for. Tom’s too easy. How do I know you’re Harry Crewe? You look like a bloody Darian, and you ride like one, and you can’t even talk right.† Harry’s pulse began to bang in her ears. â€Å"For pity’s sake – â€Å" â€Å"Not you, Tom,† said Bill; â€Å"we already know as how you’re off duty. Get another man what’s on.† â€Å"Don’t bother,† said Harry, between her teeth; â€Å"I’ll take the message myself. I know where Jack’s quarters are.† She dropped her pole in the dust, and, conscious she was doing a supremely stupid thing, she brought Sungold a few more dancing steps away from the gate, turned him, and set him at it. He went up and over with a terrific heave of his hindquarters, and Harry had reason to be grateful for the perfect fit of her saddle; but once in the air he seemed to float, and look around, and he came down as lightly as a blown leaf. He trotted two steps and halted, while Harry tried to look calm and lofty and as though she had known what she was doing all the time. The leap was over in a few seconds, and no one had expected anything so incredible, even from a Hillman; now men were shouting, and there was a crowd all around her. She thought no one would shoot her out of hand, but she wasn’t quite sure, so she waited, instead of going in search of Jack Dedham as she had threatened. Sungold stretched his neck out and shook himself. Narknon flowed over the gate behind them – there was a howl of fear and wrath from Bill – and the cat trotted to Sungold and crouched under his belly. But she did not have to look for Jack after all, because the row at the gate brought him at a run scant seconds after Sungold’s leap. He rounded the narrow corner of some dark building opposite the place where Sungold stood. The horse lifted first one foot and then another, unaccustomed to such noisy reckless human beings, but still obedient to his rider’s wishes. He replaced each foot in just the print it had left. Jack came to a halt, barely avoiding running into them. Sungold pitched his ears toward the balding grey-haired Outlander who stood now, stock still, staring: his eyes traveled from the big chestnut horse down to the laconic cat, up to the horse’s rider, and his jaw visibly dropped. Harry’s hood was still back on her shoulders, and her bright hair flamed in the young sunlight; he recognized her immediately, although he had never seen such an expression on her face before. A moment passed while he could think of nothing; then he strode forward with a cry of â€Å"Harry!† and raised his arms, and she, a young girl again with a young girl’s face, ungracefully tumbled off her horse and into them. He thumped her on the back, as he might have one of his own men back from an impossible mission and long since given up for lost; and then he kissed her heartily on the mouth, which he would not have done to any of his own men; and Harry hugged him around the neck, an d then, embarrassed, tried to back away. He held her shoulders a minute longer and stared at her; they were much of a height, and Tom Lloyd, looking wistfully on, found himself thinking that they looked very much alike, for all of the girl’s yellow hair and Hill clothing; and he realized, without putting any of it into words, that the girl he had danced with months ago, and thought about as he blacked his boots, and lost sleep over when she disappeared, was gone forever. Harry drew a hasty sleeve across her eyes; and then Tom, emboldened by his commander’s behavior, hugged her too, but backed away without meeting her eyes; and Harry, even preoccupied as she was, was briefly puzzled by Tom’s air of farewell, and she guessed something of what her brother had never told her. The whole fort was aroused; there were dozens of men standing around staring, and asking questions of one another; some were in uniform, and some looked like they had fallen out of bed a minute before; a few carried rifles and were looking around wildly. A few of those rifles were pointed at Narknon, but the cat had sense enough not to move, or even yawn and display her dangerous-looking fangs. The Outlanders asked each other questions, and there was a lot of shrugging; but while their colonel’s evident delight in their sudden Hill visitor allayed any immediate fears they might have, Harry thought they looked tense and wary, as men may who live long under some strain. â€Å"What should I ask first?† said Jack. â€Å"Why are you here? Your horse tells me where you’ve been these months past – God, what an animal – but I am totally awestruck by the intelligence †¦ although, come to think of it, I don’t seem to be surprised. Do you know that the entire station turned out to look for you when you vanished? Although I doubt in fact that you know anything of the sort; I flatter myself I searched as painstakingly as anyone, but what the Hills take, if they mean to keep it, they keep it, and I rather thought they meant to keep you. Everyone was sure the Hillfolk did have something to do with your evaporating like that – although it was more a superstition than a rational conclusion, as nary a trace of anything did we find; no rumors in the marketplace either. Amelia, poor lady, had well-bred hysterics, and Charles chewed his mustaches ragged, and Mrs. Peterson took her girls south to Ootang. And your brother stopped talking to everybody, and rode three horses to death – and he takes good care of his horses, usually, or I wouldn’t have him here. I don’t think he even noticed when Cassie Peterson left.† Harry blushed, and looked at her feet. â€Å"So you see, he does care – you’ve wondered, haven’t you? He wasn’t too fond of his commanding officer there for the weeks that it lasted, for I couldn’t somehow work up the proper horror – oh, I was worried about you, but I was also †¦ envious.† He looked at her, smiling, wondering what her reaction would be to his words, wondering if he had said the right thing, knowing that the truth was not always its own excuse; knowing that his relief at seeing her made him talk too much and too freely – a reaction that had, often enough in the past, gotten him into trouble with his superior officers. And Harry looked back at him, and she smiled too, but she remembered the vertigo of the Outlander girl alone in a camp of the Hillfolk, surrounded by a people speaking a language she could not speak, whose hopes she did not understand, whose dreams she could not share. The people of the Hills had been her own people’s foes for eighty years and more, for she was born and bred a Homelander; how could Jack – even Jack – speak of envy? Her smile froze, and her tunic napped against her back and hips, for she had, somehow, lost her sash, and she had hung Gonturan from Sungold’s saddle, so as to look, she hoped, a little less like immediate war. Lost her sash. A Hillman would never lose his sash. What was she? Damalur-sol. Ha. She laid a hand on Sun-gold’s shoulder, but when he turned his head to touch her with his nose she was not comforted, for he had lived all his life in the Hills. She wished bitterly that her brother had told her of Tom Lloyd, months ago. That was something she might have understood, and Tom was kind and honest. She swallowed and looked at Jack again, and he saw memory shining in her eyes, and he smiled sadly at her, and was sorry for any further pain his thoughtless words had given her. â€Å"Child,† he said quietly, â€Å"choices are always hard. But do you not think yours is already made?† Harry’s fingers combed through her Hill horse’s mane, and she said, â€Å"There never was a choice. I ride the only way open to me, and yet often and again it seems to me I am dangerously unfit for it.† She laughed a little and shakily. â€Å"It seems to me further that it is very odd that fate should lay so careful a trail and spend so little time preparing the one that must follow it.† Jack nodded. â€Å"It is not the sort of thing that is recorded in official histories, but I believe that such thoughts have come not infrequently to others – † he smiled faintly – â€Å"ensnared as you are.† Harry’s hand dropped back to her side and she smiled again. â€Å"Colonel, I shall try not to take myself too seriously.† â€Å"And I shall try not to talk too much.† They grinned at each other, and knew that they were friends, and the knowledge was a relief and a pleasure and a hope to each of them, but for different reasons. Then Jack looked her over again, as if noticing the travel stains for the first time and said in a deliberately bright tone: â€Å"You look like you could use a bath †¦ My God, that sword: you’re carrying a king’s ransom casually across your pommel.† â€Å"Not casually,† said Harry somberly. â€Å"Questions later,† Jack said, â€Å"but I will hope that you will answer them. First food and rest, and then you will tell me a very long story, and it has to be the true one, although I don’t promise to believe it.† â€Å"I am not quite alone, † said Harry, smiling again. â€Å"Will you let two friends of mine past your formidable gate as well?† â€Å"Not so formidable,† said Colonel Dedham. â€Å"I wish I’d arrived a minute earlier and seen that jump. I don’t believe it.† â€Å"It’s true, sir,† said Tom. â€Å"I believe it’s true, I just don’t believe it,† said Jack. â€Å"No doubt all of your story will be just as impossible. And just to start with, what is that?† he said, pointing at Narknon, who still had not moved. â€Å"She’s a hunting-cat, a folstza. She adopted me soon after †¦ I left here.† Narknon, deeming the moment right, stood up slowly, and opened her big green eyes to their fullest extent, batted the long golden lashes once or twice at Jack, and began to pace toward him, while he gamely held his ground. Narknon paused a step away and started to purr, and Jack laughed uncertainly; whereupon the cat took the last step and rubbed her cheek against the back of his hand. Jack, with the look of a man who throws dice with the devil, petted her and Narknon redoubled the purr. â€Å"I think I’m being courted,† said Jack. â€Å"Narknon has an excellent sense of whose side it is most expedient to be on,† said Harry. â€Å"But – â€Å" â€Å"Yes, we will let your companions come in in the traditional fashion. Unbar the gate, there, Shipson, and be quick about it, before anything else comes over it. I don’t like the new standing orders, and they obviously aren’t much good besides.† Jack looked up from Narknon, who was now leaning her full weight against his legs and tapping her tail against the backs of his thighs, to gaze again at Sungold. â€Å"A real Hill horse. Can they all leap over Outlander forts before breakfast?† â€Å"No. Or they may, but most of their riders have more sense than to try it. Particularly after a journey such as we’ve had.† The excitement of seeing Jack again, and the reassurance of the warmth of his welcome, drained away from her, and she remembered that she was exhausted, and the sense of coming home to a place that was no longer home oppressed her further. â€Å"I’d like the bath and the food, and we all have to have sleep. But most of the story will have to wait; I’ll tell you what I must, but †¦ we don’t have much time.† â€Å"You are here for a purpose, and I can guess some of it. I’ll try not to be stupid.† The gate opened, and Terim and Senay rode quietly through and stopped by Sungold’s flank and dismounted. Harry introduced them, and they bowed, touching their fingers respectfully to their foreheads, but without the last flick outward of the fingers that indicates that the one addressed is of superior rank. When she said in Hill-speech, â€Å"And this is Colonel Dedham, whose aid we are here to seek,† she was pleased with the way her Outlander friend in his turn bowed and touched his fingers to his forehead, only glancing at her with mild inquiry. â€Å"I am sorry,† said Jack as he led the way to his quarters, â€Å"but I speak only a little of your Hill tongue. I must ask you to tell me what I need to hear in my own language, and apologize to your friends for the necessary rudeness of excluding them.† This was spoken in heavily accented but perfectly adequate Hill-speech, and Terim and Senay both smiled. â€Å"We understand the need for speed and clarity, and it would not have occurred to us to take offense,† said Terim, who had a king’s son’s swiftness for turning a diplomatic phrase; and Senay simply nodded. So Jack Dedham cleared off the table in the second of the two small rooms that were his, the table in question accustomed to duty as a dining-table and writing-desk, as well as a convenient surface to set any indeterminate object down on; and his batman brought breakfast for three. The three ate their way through it with enthusiasm, and the man, grinning, brought second breakfasts for three. â€Å"Make it four, Ted,† said Dedham. â€Å"I’m getting hungry again.† When they were finished, and Harry was staring into her teacup and realizing with uneasy chagrin that she’d rather be drinking malak, Jack filled his pipe and began to produce thick heavy clouds of smoke that crawled around the room and nosed into the corners. â€Å"Well?† he said. â€Å"Tell me in what fashion you have come to seek my aid.† Harry said, staring at the worn tips of her Hill boots, â€Å"The Northern army will be coming through the mountains †¦ soon. Very soon. Corlath’s army is camped on the plain before the wide gap – the Bledfi Gap, we call it – the Gate of the North, you know, in the Horfel Mountains – â€Å" Jack said from a cloud of smoke: â€Å"The Gambor Pass, in the Ossander range. Yes.† â€Å"We want to plug the northwest leak, the little way through the mountains above Ihistan – where an undesirable trickle of Northern soldiers could come through and – â€Å" â€Å"And raze Istan, and go on to harass Corlath.† Harry nodded. â€Å"Not just harass; there are not many Hillfolk to fight.† â€Å"That explains, no doubt,† said Jack, â€Å"why there are only three of you – and a cat with long teeth – for the northwest leak, as you call it.† Harry smiled faintly. â€Å"It was almost one of me, alone.† â€Å"I would hazard, then, that you are not precisely here under Corlath’s orders.† â€Å"Not exactly.† â€Å"Does he know where you are?† Harry thought about it, and said carefully, â€Å"I did not tell him where I was going before I left.† Her ribs missed the pressure of a sash. Dedham blinked a few times, slowly, and said, â€Å"I assume I am to conclude that he will be able to guess where you’ve gone. And these two poor fools decided to throw their lots in with an outlaw? I am impressed.† Harry was silent for a minute. For all her brave words to Jack at the fort gate, she felt that the path she had thought she was following had blurred and then lurched underfoot as soon as Sungold had jumped the wall. It was difficult for her now to remember who she was – damalur-sol and sashless – and why she was here, and where she was going; her thoughts ambled around in her head, tired and patternless. She remembered Luthe saying to her: â€Å"It is not an enviable position, being a bridge, especially a bridge with visions†; and she thought that in fact a nice clear vivid vision would be a great boon. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. â€Å"Corlath did not take at all kindly to Sir Charles that day, did he?† Jack smiled without humor. â€Å"Not at all kindly, no.† Harry scowled. â€Å"He’s still cutting off his nose to spite his face, ignoring the northwest pass.† â€Å"Ritger’s Gap,† said Jack. â€Å"He probably doesn’t look at it that way, though. He came to us offering an alliance of mutual support, true, but he was doing us a favor by giving us the benefit of his spies’ work in the north – which Sir Charles, in his less than infinite wisdom, chose to disbelieve. I would assume that your Corlath will now simply wipe out as many Northerners as he can, and what’s left of his Hillfolk in the end will retreat to those eastern mountains of his. Whether or not the western plains are overrun with unchecked Northerners is not, finally, of great interest to him one way or another. Our decision not to help only means a few more divisions of the Northern army to harry them in their Hills: unfortunate but not of the first importance.† â€Å"If the Homeland got behind the attempt to throw back the Northerners – â€Å" â€Å"There was never any chance of that, my dear, believe me,† replied Jack. â€Å"You are attempting to be logical, I suspect, and logic has little to do with government, and nothing at all to do with military administration. â€Å"You are also still thinking like a Homelander – an Outlander, if you wish – for all you’ve learned to ride like a Hillman,† and his eyes settled on Gonturan, hanging by her belt over the back of Harry’s chair. â€Å"You know Istan is here, and it seems like a waste to you that we should be obliterated without a chance; and you were also fortunately absent that day, and did not hear Sir Charles being insufferable. Sir Charles is a good man in many ways, but new things disconcert him. The idea of an alliance between Hill and Outlander is blasphemously new.† You are also still thinking like a Homelander – an Outlander, if you wish – for all you’ve learned to ride like a Hillman. The words hung before Harry’s eyes as if sewn on a banner and then thrust into the ground at her feet as her standard. She looked at nothing as she said, â€Å"You are working up to telling me that there is nothing that can be done.† â€Å"No; but I am working up to telling you that there is no possibility of there being done what ought to be done – I agree with you, our, or at any rate my, country should get serious about the threat from the North. It is a real threat.† He rubbed his face with his hand, and looked momentarily weary. â€Å"I am glad you have put this chance, little as it is, in my hand. My orders, of course, forbid me to go skylarking off to engage the Northerners at Ritger’s Gap or anywhere else – the official, illogical attitude is that this is a tribal matter, and if we stay quietly at home with our gates closed the wave will break and flow around us. I know this is nonsense, and so do a few of the men who’ve been here more than a few years. I’ve been brooding for months – off and on since Corlath’s unexpected visit; I believed what he told us that his spies had brought back from the North – whether or not it’s worth my pen sion to go try and do anything about it. I rather think it is, as we’re sure to be killed if we stay at home and I’d rather be killed out doing something than have my throat slit in bed. You’re just the excuse I’ve been looking for; it’s been a bit hard to determine which dragon a solitary St. George should take on, when there seem to be dragons everywhere.† Harry looked at Jack, conscious of Terim and Senay at her elbow, and a furry shoulder pressed against her feet under the table. The sense of dislocation was almost a physical thing, like a stomachache or a sore throat; but Jack’s words now eased the sore place a little. The bridge could stretch to cross this chasm, perhaps, after all. She was still alone and still scared, but for the first time since she had ridden away from Corlath’s camp she felt that her errand was not necessarily a mad one; and so her conviction that she was doomed to it was therefore a little less terrifying. And perhaps it did not matter in what world she belonged if both worlds were marching in step. And now that Jack believed her, she could depend on him; for Harimad-sol was still laprun, and while she was glad of Terim and Senay, they looked up to her, and she didn’t entirely like the sensation. The old friendship with Jack had taught her what kind of man he was, and he would not be embarrassingly awed by Harimad-sol and her legendary sword. The literal-minded pragmatism of the Outlander psyche had its uses. But as the weight of solitude eased, his words laid a new weight on her: Were her perceptions so wrong then? Was she in fact thinking like a Homelander – and had she, then, betrayed her new allegiance? She opened the palm of her right hand, and looked at the small white scar that lay across it. What did Corlath think of her desertion? Had Luthe’s fears for her been correct, and had she not been able to see the right way when the ways divided before her? â€Å"Harry.† Jack reached across the table and pulled her right hand toward him. â€Å"What is that?† She closed her fingers till what she suddenly felt was her brand of Cain disappeared. â€Å"It’s a †¦ ritual I went through. I’m a king’s Rider.† â€Å"Good Lord. How the – excuse me – how did you manage that? Not that I ever doubted your sterling qualities, but I know something of that tradition – king’s Riders are the, um, the elite †¦ â€Å" â€Å"Yes,† said Harry. Jack only looked at her, but her mouth went dry. She swallowed and said, â€Å"They thought it would be †¦ useful †¦ to have a damalur-sol again.† â€Å"Lady Hero,† said Jack. â€Å"Yes.† She swallowed again. â€Å"Cor – Corlath said that this war had no hope, and something like – something like a damalur-sol was a little like hope. I – I have seen Lady Aerin – do you know about the Water of Sight? – and so they think I must be someone important too.† Jack studied her as a botanist might study a new plant. â€Å"Blood calls to blood, evidently. Although Richard is the straightest arrow I’ve ever seen: maybe it only runs from mother to daughter.† Harry brought her head up sharply and stared at her old friend. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Surely you know,† Jack said, frowning. â€Å"Your great-grandmother – mother’s mother’s mother – was a Hillwoman; one of rank, I believe. That was before we’d gained a proper foothold here, or we were at least still struggling to keep what we’d got. It was a terrible scandal. I don’t know much about it; it makes Richard quite green even to think about it. Young Dick turns green rather easily about some things: but some curious sense of honor compelled him to tell me, as his commanding officer, so that I could make allowances if he went off screaming into the Hills of his ancestors, I suppose. The blood taint that Fate has seen fit to hand him seems to prey on his mind.† Jack had been watching her closely as he rattled on, and broke off abruptly. â€Å"My dear, you must have known of this?† Harry sat still in her chair, where she was sure she would sit forever, gazing in amazement at the story Jack had just told her. She must have looked very queer, for Terim said to her anxiously, â€Å"Harimad-sol, what is wrong? You look as if you have seen your father’s ghost. Has this man said aught of ill to you?† Harry roused and shook her head, which felt thick and heavy. â€Å"No; he has just told me something that bewilders me even as it makes all plain.† Senay said softly: â€Å"Sol, might we know what it is?† Harry tried to smile. â€Å"He has said that my mother’s grandmother was a Hillwoman, and thus the blood of your Hills runs in my veins.† The two looked back at her with the sort of surprise and consternation she was sure was still plain on her own face. Terim said: â€Å"But we know you must be one of us, or the king’s madness would not come to you, and everyone knows that it does: already there are tales told of Harimad-sol at the laprun trials. The Water of Sight shows you things, and Lady Aerin speaks to you, and your eyes turn yellow when you are held by some strong emotion. In fact, they are yellow now.† Harry laughed: a little laugh and a weak one, but still a laugh, and she said to Jack, â€Å"My friends are not the least surprised by this intelligence, for all that it shakes me to my soul and makes my heart beat too fast – with fear or joy I am not quite sure. They say they have known me for a Hillwoman all along.† â€Å"I’ve no doubt that’s true,† Jack said dryly. â€Å"You may be sure Corlath would have made no Outlander his Rider, even if the Lady Aerin ordered him to.† â€Å"But why was I never told?† Harry mused, still trying to collect her thoughts together in one place so that she could look at them. Perhaps she was a better-constructed bridge than she had realized; and she thought of beams and girders, and almost laughed; how Outlanderish an image that was, to be sure. And as she labeled that bit of herself Outlander she then was free to label some other bit Damarian; and she felt a little more like herself all over, as though she were fitting into her skin a little more securely. She still was not sure what she was, but at least she need not be unhappy for not knowing: and now, perhaps, she had the missing pieces she needed to begin to learn. â€Å"I think,† Jack said slowly, â€Å"that I have an idea about that. I had assumed that you did know, but I remember now how Richard and I talked about you when you were to come out here – he seemed to think it would be bad for you in a particular way – † He frowned, trying to remember clearly. â€Å"You were evidently a little too, um, bohemian for him, and he obviously thought living in the land of your grandmother’s mother was going to aggravate the tendency. But I never thought he would, er †¦ â€Å" â€Å"Protect me from myself by keeping me in ignorance?† Harry smiled ruefully. â€Å"Well, I didn’t know, but I’m not surprised. Angry maybe – how dare he? – but not surprised. He takes the man’s responsibility toward his frail female relations very seriously, does Dickie. Drat him. Where is my inestimable brother? Here?† Jack was smiling at her, as she sat with her sword hilt touching her shoulder when she gestured. â€Å"No,† he said, â€Å"he’s off being diplomatic, which is something he shows some brilliance at, for me and Sir Charles. We’d like some extra men here, just in case this silly tribal matter gets out of hand, and I would only get red and froth at the mouth, while Richard can look earnest and beseeching, and may even have some effect.† He looked gloomily at the table. â€Å"I torment myself, now and again, wondering whether, if Corlath had given us a bit more warning about what he had in mind, if Peterson and I could have brought Charles around – even a little – this mess we’re in might have been, even a little, less of a mess. But it is not, as we say when we are being diplomatic, a fruitful source of inquiry.† Harry was thinking, For that matter, why didn’t Mummy or Father tell me about my mysterious inheritance? They must have known, to tell my wretched brother – indeed, it must have been generally known to some extent; that explains why we were never quite the thing – I always thought it was just because we didn’t give the right sort of dinner parties and spent too much time in the saddle. She went hot and cold, and her last shred of doubt about whether she had chosen wisely when she chose the Hills over the country that had raised her dissolved; but she had loved her family and her home, and she was without bitterness. She yanked her attention back as Jack began to speak again: â€Å"It’s been a little anxious here lately. There is something, or there are somethings, hanging around the town and the fort; and twice my men have gone out scouting and found signs of battle; and once there was a corpse.† His face was drawn and old. â€Å"It wasn’t quite human; although from a distance it would probably look human enough.† Harry said softly: â€Å"I have been told that much of the Northern army is not quite human.† Jack was silent for a little, then said: â€Å"In simple numbers I can’t promise much. I don’t want to risk forcibly anyone’s neck but my own, as we will be going against orders, but there are a few men here I know who have the same attitude toward the Northerners that I do. I will put it to them.† Harry said, â€Å"So, how many and how quickly?† â€Å"Not very and very. Those of us who will go have been quivering like so many arrows on so many bowstrings for weeks; we’ll be grateful for the chance to snap forward. Look: you and your friends can have a bath and a nap; and we should be able to march at sunset.† There had been something obscurely troubling Harry since she entered the fort so precipitously; and at first she had put it down to the confusion, to her first sight of Outlanders since she had ceased to be one herself; and the troubled reflections that this recognition had brought her. But the sense of not-quite-right, of a whiff of something unpleasant, or a vibration in the air, increased as the rest of her relaxed. She looked around her now, able to think about this specific disturbance, to focus on its cause if her kelar would point the way. She turned her head one way and another; it was much worse in the small closed space that was Jack’s rooms. It was as she put her hand over the blue stone on Gonturan’s hilt that she finally understood what it was. â€Å"One last thing,† she said. â€Å"Yes?† said Jack, but it took Harry a little time to put it in words. â€Å"No †¦ guns. Rifles or revolvers, or whatever it is you use. They’ll only, um, go wrong.† And she shivered in the proximity of Jack’s hunting-rifles hung on the wall, and two revolvers on belts hooked over the back of an unoccupied chair. Jack tapped his fingers on the table. â€Å"Not just rumors, then?† he said. Harry shook her head. â€Å"Not just rumors. It’s not something I’ve seen, about guns – but I know. I know something of what the Hillfolk do, or are – and even if we could stop whatever it is we do, and I can’t, because I usually don’t know what I’m doing in the first place – I know too that, whatever it is, it will ride with those that we will be facing. And – and the presence of yours in this room,† and she waved her hand, while the other one still rested on the blue gem, â€Å"is making me feel †¦ edgy. It’s the sort of thing I’m learning to pay attention to.† The room was suddenly smaller and darker than it had been before Harry spoke; Jack stared at her, seeing his young friend and seeing almost clearly the outline of the thing she had taken on in the Hills; and then an unexpected ray of sunlight fell through the window and the blue gem of her sword hilt blazed up as her hand slipped away from it, and her cheek and hair were lit blue. But the outline of her burden was gone. Jack thought, I am going to follow this child, to my death perhaps, but I am going to follow her, and be proud of the opportunity. â€Å"Very well. I believe you. It’s rather pleasant to have one’s favorite old-wives’-tales borne out as truth. You’ll not want infantry anyway; and our cavalry is accustomed to its sabers.† â€Å"Now, about that bath?† Harry said. Ted was told to provide the baths and beds required; she and Senay were led to Jack’s bathroom first, and Harry sank gratefully into the water in the tall tin tub, sliding down till the water closed over her face and she looked up at a wavering circular world. She had to come up at last to breathe, and the world opened out again. Senay unbraided and combed her long dark hair, which fell past her knees in well-ordered waves; Harry watched with envy. Her own hair was nearly so long, but it liked escaping whatever it was put into, and bits were always getting caught in things and snapped off; so while Senay’s hair smoothly framed her face and smoothly twisted into a knot at the nape of her neck, Harry always had unrepentant tendrils launching themselves in all directions. Senay bound her sleek mane up again as Harry climbed, dripping, out of the tub. Senay slipped into the water with her own grateful sigh, and Harry put on th e oversized nightshirt Ted had laid out for her and stumbled into Jack’s bedroom, where two cots had been set up by the bed. Narknon finished investigating all the corners of Jack’s rooms, while Jack and Ted eyed her warily, soon after Harry finished her bath; but when the cat tried to squeeze herself next to her sol on the bed, Harry was so deeply asleep already that she refused to make room and Narknon, with a discontented yowl, had to sleep humped over her feet. How to cite The Blue Sword CHAPTER THIRTEEN, Essay examples

Epidemiology in the Elderly with Heart Disease free essay sample

Epidemiology in the Elderly with Heart Disease Epidemiology in the Elderly with Heart Disease Public health promotes healthy living for each community through epidemiology. Disease prevention and control is the common goal of epidemiology, nursing practice, and public health. â€Å"Epidemiology is the study of the population in order to monitor the health of the population, understand the determinants of health and disease in the community, and investigate and evaluate interventions to prevent disease and maintain health† (Stanhope Lancaster. 2008). Epidemiologists have developed many parameters to slow the spread of disease. For example, cardiovascular disease including hypertension, coronary heart disease, and rhythmic disorders have become increasingly common with advancing age across the country. Epidemiology is the study of health related events, characteristics, and determinant patterns in a population. Public health researchers use epidemiology to help make policies and identifying risk factors for disease and preventable medicine through evidence based studies. Epidemiology looks at diseases such as cardiovascular disease along with infectious diseases such as influenza. Epidemiologists take into account health behaviors such as diet and activity, social conditions such as poverty and housing, health services and research. Epidemiology can be either descriptive or analytical. Descriptive epidemiology is the study of the distribution of health-related states or events. It refers to the occurrence of disease, in term of person, place, and time (Stanhope Lancaster 2008). It rules out chance, bias, confounding as explanations of observed differences, and draws conclusions as causal hypotheses. It also includes public health surveillance. Analytic epidemiology studies the determinants of health related states or events. It measures and tests the causes and associations (the how and why), from descriptive studies hypotheses, controls for chance, bias, confounding in the study design, analyzing data and drawing conclusions. Heart disease in the elderly population is an example of how the principles of epidemiology are applied in vulnerable populations. The methods used to quantify the existence or occurrences of the disease are frequency, distribution, and causes. Frequency has two components. The incidence is a measure of new cases of disease that develop in a population during a specific time. It also measures the probability that unaffected persons will develop the disease. Prevalence is the proportion of individuals in a population with disease or condition at a specific point of time. It provides an idea of how severe a problem may be. Distribution shows the risk factors that might be the cause of the disease. The epidemiologic triangle is used to help scientists with studying health problems. It helps understand diseases and how they spread. The triangle has three corners, the agent or cause of the disease (the what), the host or organism harboring the disease (the who), and the environment or external factors (the where). In the center of the triangle is time. Time refers to the incubation period or the time that the symptoms occur. Chronic heart diseases found in the elderly such as Congestive Heart Failure or CHF follow the epidemiologic triangle. There may be many causes of CHF including obesity and hypertension. External factors such as stress contribute to the risk of heart disease. Although many people live a healthy life style, they are not immune to heart disease. The steps of the epidemiologic methods are surveillance versus research, and common epidemiologic measures that are quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative measures are continuous numbers, and discrete numbers. Qualitative measures are nominal categorical, ethnicity, and ordinal. Epidemiology step methods are design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and reporting. Public health is ongoing with systematic collection, interpretation, analysis, and dissemination of the data. This is used in public health to reduce the mortality rate and improve the health of the population. The risk for high blood pressure increases with age, therefore complications associated to high blood pressure increase. These risks are stroke, kidney disease, heart attack, and heart failure. By the age of 70 almost half of all Americans have high blood pressure due to unknown causes. Half of all heart attacks happen to those over the age of 65. Coronary heart disease is the leading killer in the elderly. Men are higher at risk for heart disease than women during middle age, women’s risk increases after menopause leading to equality in risk. Aortic valve disease is the most common heart valve disease in the elderly. The aortic valve allows blood to pump form the left ventricle to the rest of the body. Aortic sclerosis is the process of thickening and stiffening in this valve. This disease affects about one third of all elderly people. Heart rhythm and electrical system problems are more common with age. Arrhythmia’s can have no symptoms or be very slight causing palpations, dizziness, fainting, or light headedness. If the hearts rhythm is too slow, this is called bradycardia. If it is too fast, this is called tachycardia. Dysrhythmias are also common among the elderly. Heart failure is a major public health concern among the elderly. As the population ages, the prevalence of heart failure continues to increase. Assessing a patient through interview and obtaining an accurate medical history, doing a physical exam and electrocardiogram provides a great deal of information about the heart and risk factors. Further testing such as echocardiograms and nuclear scan will help to reveal more information about the structure of the heart and its function. Cardiac catheterization, a more invasive study, may be necessary to help determine treatment or provide a map for surgery. The elderly need to be considered frail and may be too weak to undergo such invasive testing. Although treatment for young and elderly is about the same, the age of the person needs to be taken into account when doing invasive testing. By the age of 65, the heart beats more than 100,000 times a day. It has pumped about 2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels each day. The heart is the largest muscle in the body. Even at the age of 65, it has many more years of service. As people age the natural physiologic changes decrease the efficiency of the heart. The older the heart becomes the less elastic the muscle becomes, so it is not able to relax completely between each beat. The wall of the heart thickens, especially the chambers that are responsible for pumping the blood. The thickening of the walls causes the heart to enlarge. As the heart ages it becomes less receptive to adrenaline. This decreases the hearts ability to prepare for exercise. Adrenaline helps the heart increase strength and rate of contractions per minute. By the year 2013, it is estimated that one in every five Americans will be over the age of 65. Cognitive impairment can become a problem with ethical and legal issues such as informed consent for a test and getting accurate information when conducting an interview. Giving the elderly autonomy and respecting their decisions when it comes to heart disease is sometimes hard to do as a health care provider. Many times the older population only gets their income from Social Security and therefore do not have enough money for prescription medications and other treatment for their heart disease. It is the responsibility of the public health nurse to help the elderly get the help they need to get adequate treatment. Contacting the local Department of Health and Human Services may give the elder assistance with healthcare. These departments have special units just for elder assistance. Many drug companies will also give discounts for prescription medications. Giving the contact information to the older population is necessary. Many elderly will not tell the public health professional about their needs out of pride. Heart disease may be the leading cause of death, but prevention can be done. Stop smoking or don’t start smoking. Chemicals in tobacco damage the heart and blood vessels, leading to narrowing of the arteries. Regular exercise reduces the risk of heart disease by controlling weight and reduces the chances of getting other diseases that strain the heart muscle. Eating a healthy diet which is low in salt, cholesterol and saturated fats can help protect the aging heart as well. Maintaining a healthy weight and getting regular medical checkups can help prevent heart disease. Regular medical exams can detect disease early and given the chance, reverse the disease all together. Early detection and prevention saves lives, especially in the elderly population. The type of epidemiology used in this paper is descriptive because it describes how heart disease affects the aging population. It quantifies the existence or the occurrence of heart disease in the aging population. Descriptive epidemiologists consider the frequency and pattern of the heart disease. The frequency evaluates the rate of the disease and the pattern helps suggest the risk factors of heart diseases. They evaluate frequency and pattern by examining the person, place, and time in relation to heart disease. Epidemiology to the public health professional provides a systematic approach to caring for the public at large and treating by performing several tasks including surveillance, investigation, analysis, and evaluation. Different disease rates are used to target disease intervention and to generate a hypothesis about risk factors and the cause of diseases. Epidemiology is the core to public health and defines health in all dimensions. This paper analyzed the components of epidemiology as a science and its application to heart disease in the elderly. It also considers other sciences to help understand and prevent diseases and infection. Epidemiology opens the doors to the vast field of the public health goal to preserve life and human well-being. By preventing a disease, public health officials can help the public live healthier happier lives.

The African Child by Camara Laye Essay Example

The African Child by Camara Laye Paper The novel was originally written in French and later translated to numerous other languages including English. Mostly autobiographical, the novel paints a colourful picture of life in Africa. There are the typical ingredients of African wildlife, traditional tribal culture, belief in hoodoo or black magic, etc. But each of these facets to the novel presented through the personal experience of one individual, abstractly referred in the title as the ‘African Child’. Since the story starts from Laye’s childhood and continues into his maturation and adulthood, the work can be classified as a bildungsroman – the story of growing up. But the focus is not solely on one individual, as Laye fleshes out in detail the dynamics of several key relationships through his life. One of the recurrent themes is Laye’s search for intimacy, which starts in his teenage years and continues to adulthood. Though these relationships are not always successful, they do help mould Laye’s mental makeup as he enters adulthood. One of the features of native African culture is belief in hoodoo or black magic. Laye gives numerous accounts of exhibition of magical powers by his father and mother. His father, for example, by virtue of belonging to the Malinke tribe, has the power to create gold out of iron. His father possesses the power of the black snake, which enables him to perform these supernatural feats. Though features such as these make the story interesting and add colour, we have to concede in the end that they are mythical. The proper way to understand these events in the book is to consider them as ‘impressions’ in the naive and imaginative mind of young Laye. Likewise, the descriptions of ‘powers’ wielded by his mother are equally mythical. For example, having been born in a tribe whose totem is the crocodile his mother will never be attacked by crocodiles in the dangerous river. Likewise, she has special powers to heal wounded animals. By treating these magical el ements as myth, the reader can then sift out factual information from the book. We will write a custom essay sample on The African Child by Camara Laye specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The African Child by Camara Laye specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The African Child by Camara Laye specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Just as the magical elements throw light on African culture and belief, the factual elements help us understand the political and historical realities of Laye’s Guinea. The book is set in colonial Africa when Western thought and technology was just beginning to be introduced. Yet, most of the continent, including Guinea, remained firmly in the grip of ancient tradition. Superstition and ritual was rife at the time and it had a profound effect on all aspects of culture. For example, Laye himself had to go through a rite of passage as he entered manhood. The rite is to stay away in the open wilderness for a whole night, with a real risk of being attacked by lions. Having successfully fulfilled this challenge, he is accepted as a man in his community and is given the privilege of living in his own hut. These rites and rituals were integral to Guinean culture, even as Western methods of agricultural production and social organization were being implemented. These opposing te ndencies were depicted well in the book. I think there are a lot of positive features in the book. Firstly, translators James Kirkup and Ernest Jones have done a stellar job of rendering the original French version into English. The translator’s major accomplishment is in being able to retain the ‘authorial voice’ of Laye across languages. The style of presentation and the manner of sentence construction highly resemble the original. This way we are made aware that the narrator is someone who is not a native speaker of English. This lends a quality of authenticity to the text. Second, the choice of topics and themes dealt by the book is very discreet. Camara Laye strikes a good balance between socio-historical commentary and autobiography. This juxtaposition works well for the book, as the author succeeds in bringing impersonal tone to his analysis and judgment. Coming to one of the few drawbacks, it would be imprudent for students to think of ‘The African Child’ as factually accurate at all places. For reasons of literary and artistic licence there are instances where fact merges into the realm of the fiction. So, the scholarly merit of the work will have to be weighed in this light. Barring such small drawbacks, I would recommend this book for students of African history, politics and culture. A kaleidoscopic view of all these subjects is presented through the prism of one individual’s life, namely, the author himself. The time from Laye’s infancy to his adulthood offers a representative snapshot of early twentieth century Africa. The book is rich in detail, colourful in its perspectives and insightful in its socio-cultural analysis. Works Cited: Laye, Camara, The Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Boy, Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1954, pp.192, ISBN: 080901548X

buy custom Sicko essay

buy custom Sicko essay Sicko is a film created, produced, directed and starred by Michael Moore. It investigates the medical care in U.S, and discusses a health scheme that is fraudulent and care less for its patients. Moore uses transitions to create continuity and fluency in the film. He uses transitions to develop the plot of his film. An instance where Moore has used transition is where he addresses a group of people stressing that they take care of one another, irrespective of their individual differences. He demonstrates this matter by deciding to assist one of his chief critics, the webmaster of MooreWatch.com. He sends Mr. Kenefick the money required to cover the medical expense of his sick wife. Kenefick earlier feared he might be forced to close the website in order to get the U.S $ 12000 he needed. He uses humor to challenge the government to provide better medical care to its citizens. An instance of humor is seen when the movie ends, he walks towards the capital with a basket filled with his clothes. He sarcastically says he will make the government do his laundry until one day, the sick and the disillusioned receive better health care. Evaluative evidence is proof obtained by examining an idea and later judging it. Moore has used this evidence in the film to validate his argument. In the film, he does this when h interviews ex-employees of insurance firms. The former employee describes cost-saving ideas employed by insurance companies to give bonuses to the firms management. By doing so, they evades compensating policy holders hence maximizing company profitability. Causal evidence is proof obtained by assessing the cause of something hence relating it to the happenings. In the film, he uses the recorded conversations between President Richard Nixon and John Ehrlichman to show what led to the expansion of Health Maintenance Organization-based medical care program. In the tape, Ehrlichman tells President Nixon that the less medical care they give to the citizens, the more money they will earn. Nixon supports the plan. It led to the expansion of the health care program. Ethos is an argument that depends on the trustworthiness of credentials of the speaker. Moore is known to advocate for better and affordable medical care for all people of different social and economic status. In the film, he accompanies the rescue workers who helped after the September 11 attacks to GuantanamoBay camp. At the entrance camp, he uses a megaphone to ask for access; pleading for the victims to get the same treatment the prisoners are offered. His credentials help as the rescue workers are hospitalized and given treatment. Before they leave, the volunteers are honored by a local fire station.> Pathos is an argument that arouses pity or sadness in the viewer or reader. Pathos is used in this film. An instance of pathos in the film is when Moore decides to offer an olive branch to his fiercest critic by sending him money for his wifes treatment. This shows the viewers how committed Moore is towards seeing better medical care provided to the sick. Logos is an argument relying on the intellectual capacity of the viewer. Moore uses pathos in the film to allow the viewers judge. An instance where pathos is applied is where he interviews the head of gynecology and obstetrics when he visits a hospital in France. It is up to the viewers to judge if the response of the hospital staff is valid. Moore uses a number of evidence to support his work. He mostly interviews stakeholders to prove his viewpoints. For instance, he interviews former staff of insurance firms who reveal how firms employ cost-saving initiatives, which give bonuses to the owners. They also reveal how these firms employ these tricks to evade compensating their policy holders hence maximizing profits for the company. Moore travels to different places to get first hand information from the oppressed. He goes to the United Kingdom and cross-examines patients and questions them on in-hospital charges incurred by patients and finds out that they make no payments. Buy custom "Sicko" essay

List of Obama Gun Control Measures and Executive Orders

List of Obama Gun Control Measures and Executive Orders President Barack Obamas record on gun control is a fairly weak one, even though he was often portrayed  as the most anti-gun president in American history and called for more regulations in the wake of the numerous mass shootings that occurred during his two terms in office. We do not have to accept this carnage as the price of freedom, Obama said in 2016. The National Rifle Association once claimed Obamas obsession with gun control knows no boundaries. Did You Know? Only two gun laws made it through Congress during Obamas two terms in office, and neither placed additional restrictions on gun owners.   In fact, the two gun laws signed by Obama actually expanded the rights of gun owners in the United States. Attempts to limit the size of gun magazines, expand background checks of gun buyers and ban gun sales to buyers on terrorism watch lists all failed to pass under Obama. Perhaps the most significant Obama gun control measure was not a law but a rule that required the Social Security Administration to report disability-benefit recipients with mental health conditions to the FBI’s background check system, which is used to screen firearm buyers. Obamas successor, Republican President Donald Trump, rescinded the rule in 2017. Obama Gun ControlProposals Had No Teeth That is not to say Obama was not critical of the use of guns to commit the numerous mass shootings and acts of terrorism during his tenure in the White House. Quite the opposite. Obama sharply criticized the gun lobby and the easy access to firearms. President Barack Obama pauses during a meeting to observe a moment of silence for Sandy Hook Victims. Pete Souza/Wikimedia Commons Obama also made curtailing gun violence a central theme of his  second-term agenda  after the  mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School  in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012. The president signed  executive orders  calling for mandatory  criminal background checks on gun-buyers  and several other measures that were unpopular in Congress including  a ban on assault weapons  and high-capacity magazines. But he was unable to win passage of  new laws and insisted authorities do more to enforce measures already on the books. Executive Actions Not Executive Orders Critics, however, point to Obamas issuance of 23 executive actions on gun violence in January 2016 as proof that the Democratic president was anti-gun. What most fail to point out is that those executive actions contained no new laws or regulations; and they were not executive orders, which are different than executive actions.   For all the pomp and ceremony, nothing in the president’s proposals is going to put a dent in U.S. gun crime or even substantially change the federal legal landscape.  In that sense, apoplectic opponents and overjoyed supporters are both probably overreacting, wrote  Adam Bates, a  policy analyst with the libertarian Cato Institutes Project on Criminal Justice. Gun Laws Signed by Obama Expanded Rights During his first term, Obama didnt call for any major new restriction on guns or gun owners. Instead, he urged authorities to enforce the state and federal laws already on the books.  In fact, Obama signed only two major laws that address how guns are carried in America, and both actually expand the rights of gun owners. One of the laws allows gun owners to carry weapons in national parks; that law took effect in February 2012 and replaced President Ronald Reagans policy of required guns be locked in glove compartments of trunks of cars that enter national parks. Another gun law signed by Obama allows Amtrak passengers to carry guns in checked baggage, a move that reversed a measure put in place after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A Strong Tradition of Gun Ownership Obama often mentions the expansion of gun rights under those two laws. He wrote in 2011: In this country, we have a strong tradition of gun ownership thats handed from generation to generation. Hunting and shooting are part of our national heritage. And, in fact, my administration has not curtailed the rights of gun owners- it has expanded them, including allowing people to carry their guns in national parks and Obama repeatedly expressed support for the Second Amendment, explaining that If you’ve got a rifle, you’ve got a shotgun, you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it away. National Rifle Association HammersObama During the 2008 presidential campaign, the NRA Political Victory Fund mailed out tens of thousands of brochures to gun owners and like-minded voters that accused Obama of lying about his position on gun control. The brochure read: Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history. Senator Obama says words matter. But when it comes to your Even though the president didnt sign a single bill into law limiting the use or purchase of guns the NRA Political Victory Fund continued to warn its members and like-minded voters during the 2012 election that Obama would make weapons a target in a second term. If Barack Obama wins a The NRA Political Victory Fund also falsely claimed that Obama had agreed to give the United Nations authority over the guns owned by Americans, saying: Obama has already endorsed moving ahead toward a U.N. gun ban treaty and will likely sign it after it’s negotiated.

Management Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 6

Management Accounting - Essay Example This platform helps the organizations to take their long term business decisions. It has been observed that there is a long term debate between the global fraternities related with the functionality of accounting. Many experts have described accounting as the communicating tool for the organizations to showcase their business reality. On the other hand many people have stated that accounting itself constructs reality. This debate is a burning issue for the organizations across the world. Accounting is nothing but an information science used for the purpose of classifying financial data. Here in this essay the title statement will be critically analyzed on the basis of various favorable and unfavorable arguments. The essay will also include the framework of Burchell et al into this essay. The essay will follow a step by step approach which will analyze the topic in detailed fashion. The essay will follow a suitable structure. With the help of this essay an attempt will be made to end the debate related with the title topic. Accounting is a process through which organizational reality can be communicated. Organization does accounting for the purpose of communicating realities towards the all stakeholders related with the organizations. Every organization has internal and external stakeholders. It is important for internal and external stakeholders to know the organization reality in detailed fashion. To get the detailed information there is no substitute of accounting. It indicates that accounting does communicate reality to the stakeholders. Financial communication is the most important factor on the basis of which investment related decisions are being made. Investors invest their moneys on the basis of proper information. That information is being communicated with the help of accounting. According to the framework of Burchell, if uncertainties of

The Years of My Birth By Louise Erdrich Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Years of My Birth By Louise Erdrich - Essay Example At that time she was too young to be even admitted to a state run institution. Tuffy and her brother referred to as the doppelganger shared a very ethereal and unique relationship. Tuffy’s birth circumstances, her deformities and the fact the she was left stranded in the nursing home was an effect of her brother’s presence. After Mrs. Lasher’s, the mother’s delivery of the twins, Tuffy never saw any of them ever again. It was only during her mid-adulthood that she chanced upon when a phone call came to her residence. Tuffy never saw her brother, her doppelganger, and was not aware of his looks, his name, his whereabouts, or any information related to his brother whatsoever. Quite frequently she used to feel the presence of a comforting soul, a sympathetic hand, and a warm presence of an invisible person around her, beside her. She used to have the same feeling when taking ling walks, as if someone was accompanying her just beyond the corner of her eye. She felt this for years, right from the time she was abandoned till her years of womanhood. While Tuffy was still a child growing up at the Wishkob household, amidst the love, care and affection of the Wishkob couple: Betty and Albert, she began to have a growing attachment towards them and their children, Sheryl and Cedric. She didn’t hold her birth mother or her bother in high regard, rather she was indifferent to their whereabouts, and didn’t want to go to them. Her relationship with her doppelganger in the beginning was quite different. She bore agony and resentment in her heart for the inhuman treatment that was metted out to her during her birth. The incident has such a deep engraving in her mind that she bore a feeling of indifference toward the Lasher family. She remembered her birth mother Nancy Lasher with a lot of pain and discontent in her heart. All her life she tried avoiding pain and the prime cause of a raw and aching nerve inside her was her own birth fam ily. Such being the case, she didn’t care and even though she worked in the reservation post office, she didn’t bother, for years, to get the address of her birth mother and contact her. It was only on the night when Tuffy (Linda Wishkob) was contacted by her birth mother, under extraordinary circumstances and quite unannounced that the trail of her life and her feelings took a turn. After Tuffy was abandoned by her parents in the local nursery and she started growing up with the Wishkobs there were times when she was taken away from Betty and Albert by welfare officers with the duty to find a better home for her. During on such incident when she was driven off to an unknown place by the visiting welfare officer, and found herself waking up in a white room, she felt the presence of someone. She felt as if someone was with her, comforting her, holding her hand, crying and grieving with her. She never had this experience before, but thereafter continued to experience it on several occasions throughout her life under varying circumstances. She had a strange and peculiar feeling in her heart as if someone was around her and was in dire need of help. It was as if a person was holding on to life and depending on Tuffy’

Early Years Foundation Stage for Childminding Essay Example for Free

Early Years Foundation Stage for Childminding Essay The EYFS is set to ensure all children in early year’s settings including children with disabilities and special needs have the best possible start in life which they deserve. A child needs to not only have a safe, secure and happy childhood but also one which is rich in positive parenting and high quality learning. These will provide the foundations and tools a child needs to reach their full potential. The EYFS must be followed by all early years’ providers to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. The EYFS is set to help prepare children for school, physically and emotionally and set a foundation for a positive progress through school and life. Children develop at a raid rate between birth-5 years and experiences between this time have a dramatic impact on their future. Key Points of the Early Years Foundation stage †¢ Good quality and consistent care within all early years’ settings to ensure every single child makes good progress. †¢ A secure foundation through learning and development opportunities which are planned around the needs and interests of each individual child and are assessed and reviewed regularly †¢ Partnership working between practitioners and with parents and/or carers †¢ Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice, ensuring that every child is included and supported. EYFS requirements for learning and development †¢ All Early year providers must help children work towards the early learning goals, the knowledge, skills and understanding a child should have by the end of the academic year in which they turn five. †¢ Shape activities and experiences within the setting to enable every child to have the best chance of reaching these learning goals. †¢ Set in place assessment arrangements and requirements for measuring progress and for reporting to parents and/or carers. EYFS requirements for safeguarding and welfare Early years providers must set in place requirements to ensure a child’s safety and promote their welfare taking into account the following points. †¢ Every child is different and unique and children who are constantly learning will become more confident, independent, and grow in self-esteem. †¢ Positive relationships enable children to be strong and independent †¢ A nourishing environment which responds to a child’s individual needs will enable them to learn and develop well. This will also be the case through a good strong partnership between parent/care and care giver. †¢ Children learn and develop in different ways and at different speeds.

Family relationships Essay -- English Literature

Family relationships It is debatable whether family relationships are central to the novel ‘Emma’ and are indeed the foundations on which Highbury is built. Families may be viewed as objects of satire, as those featured are a source of financial rather than emotional support. Throughout the novel, status is built upon class position, material possession and finance, its characters eager to display such ‘qualities’. This essay shall demonstrate the emphasis placed upon wealth and social status, identify and interpret corresponding family units, as well as explore the use of match-making and marital agreements. The large proportion of families, contradict the perception that family relationships are the core of the novel and the foundations of Highbury life. For, families featured are predominantly broken or incomplete. The Woodhouses’ are one of the more prominent examples of rich yet emotionally lacking families in Highbury. For, the relationship between Emma and her father involves constant humouring on Emma’s part. Mr Woodhouse is an example of Austen’s use of exaggerated and satirical humour in order to emphasise the inadequacies of many families and individual members. With the death of Emma’s mother, a governess Ms Taylor acts as a replacement and the only source of emotional dependence for Emma. However, in light of Ms Taylor’s marriage to Mr Weston, it can be said that the clear source of family support and intimacy is removed, deepening the instability of the Woodhouse family at Hartfield. The absence of strong family relationships with regards to the Woodhouse’s, reinforce ideas that relationships are not at the core of society. The relationship between Mr Weston and his son Frank Churchill... ...or financial motives. Austen therefore suggests that many choices were made even though husband and wife did not even respect each other and indicate the impact of money in society. Although socially appropriate marriages, according to status are still apparent by the end of the novel, some superficiality associated with characters ceases to continue. In particular, Emma with regards to initial match-making schemes and the initial narrow minded views that she possesses. Emma and Mr Knightly, Harriet with Mr Martin and Jane with Frank Churchill contradict the frequent number of marriages based upon the wrong reasons in the 18th century. There is hope therefore; that the new families created would have valued the importance of family relationships to therefore change the foundations of Highbury, so that they would have indeed become central to the society.

The Art Of Beautiful Women

Proposal:I will attempt to display the comparison of the cultures that produce the Barbie doll and the cultures that produce the Venus de Willendorf. While talking about the two cultures, I will describe some interesting but common themes the Paleolithic cultures and the modern culture encounter: what our modern culture has embraced and those things that it has deserted of which the Paleolithic culture in high regards. Meanwhile through my discussions I will show how much of our world views have changed from an era of the Venus de Willendorf to the modern world view of what the ideal woman should look like and how the view of beauty should not be as two-dimensional as the modern culture makes it out to be.Outline:Introductiona.) â€Å"Only the eye beholder can see the art of beautiful women†, this observation can be proven by looking at different cultures throughout the history of our times. The art of beautiful women is much more that what she looks like, it is also what a wo man’s body can withstand as well as what her body can produce. Women’s bodies are only the expression of the women we allow to live inside them. Let that woman be free. Let her shine. And know that the house in which she lives will always be as beautiful as she believes it to be. Previous cultures show’s us what our modern culture tends to ignore. Body:b.) Common ideas between the Paleothic cultures’s view on beauty verses our modern society’s view.I.) A common idea on the views of beauty between the Paleothic culture and our modern society’s view is that both cultures tend to admire a woman’s beauty: each in their own way. c.) A bit of differences between the views of beauty of the Paleothic culture and the modern world.II.) The main difference between the culture of our past and today’s  society is that of size and shape of a woman. In the Paleothic culture, the ideal shape of a women is believed to have been rather a large size woman, she would be considered volumpsous. Although today‘s society dictates that women of this era should be thin, big breasted and well preserved. Conclusion:The main objective that was intended for discussion of this paper was to discuss the different women idols that are famous in today’s era as compared to the Paleothic era. The significance of women has changed with the passage of time along with the roles and responsibilities that were fulfilled by them previously. There is a major difference between the idealizations of art of beautiful of women in the Paleothic culture and the art of beautiful women that is referred to in today’s society.Some of the roles that women share from both era’s were that women were depicted as some sort of sex symbol, and important enough for being child bearing. The role that the Barbie play in today’s society will be researched in order to explore the societal, political implication of idols to identify th e similarities and differences between the earliest known civilization and the culture of today ‘s era.

Pttls Roles and Responsibilites of an Fe Teacher

| 2012 | | Blackpool and the Fylde College Leigharna McKenzie | [an examination of the roles and responsibilities and boundaries of a contemporary subject specialist teacher. ] | Within this essay the author discusses the roles and responsibilities of a teacher within the context of the teaching cycle and makes reference to legislation and codes of conduct, internal and external points of referral and record keeping. |As a contemporary teacher in Academic Studies there are many roles and responsibilities to be considered, most can also be found across a range of teaching sectors. Gravells suggests teachers practice differing roles within a model referred to as the Teaching Cycle, which encompasses five stages; Identify Needs, Plan and Design, Deliver, Assess and Evaluate. Gravells also states one is not only a teacher but a coach, counsellor, trainer, and assessor amongst others encouraging and supporting learners where necessary. Associated article: Roles, Responsibilities and Boundaries of a TeacherSuch roles and responsibilities are shaped by legislation, organisational policies, and situation requirements, (Gravells, 2010). At the initial stage of Identifying Needs, the teacher acts as an assessor of their learners, either using information from assessments on learning styles such as the Honey and Mumford test, (1986), which can aid in choosing assessments and learning activities, or information gathered from initial interviews/applications to the course, i. e. what learners wish to achieve at the end of the course.The teacher is responsible for selecting and applying different initial assessment methods and using information from these to create an inclusive framework. As a boundary, learners may not want to disclose needs and the teacher must respect their right to refuse to divulge sensitive information. The Data Protection Act (1998) provides key principles such as only be using data for the specific p urposes for which it was collected and not be disclosing to other parties without the consent of the individual whom it is about to guide teachers in this area.Inclusivity may be addressed by adapting lessons to fitting activities to the learning styles of the learners i. e. in respect to the Honey and Mumford test, having group discussions and role-play included for active learners but also having time to think about how to apply learning in reality for pragmatic learners in the class. Other needs may be physical e. g. with a leaner that is differently abled. Guidance in this area is covered by much legislation, such as the Disability Discrimination Act (2005).Norse and Wilkinson state that this act means legally an organisation should not treat disabled students less favourably than their peers however the Disability Rights Commission (2006) suggest 52% of those covered by the act do not consider themselves disabled and do not want to receive unfavourable/special treatment. With r espect to disability a teacher should find out what can be done to make things easier for the person concerned but also be aware that everyone’s abilities are different and different people have developed differing strategies to help them cope with challenging situations.It may be wise to discuss with the learner themselves how they wish to be treated within the learning environment at this stage, (Norse and Wilkinson, 2008). Gravells reminds us that there are also internal points of referral for instance such as Senior Tutor Support and Guidance who can give advice from their experience and the organisation’s policies or a teacher may wish to ask the college’s Learning Support department to become involved should the learner wish for additional aid. In the event that a learner discloses sensitive information that cannot be referred to internally, (e. g. here is an incident of violence in the learners home life) external points of referral such as the National D omestic Violence Helpline are available, (Gravells, 2010). An inclusive framework is of upmost importance in ensuring that no learner is excluded from the learning process and forms a major part of the second stage of the second stage of the cycle, Planning and Design. Ashmore et al. propose that valuing diversity creates a learning environment which includes and respects difference. Inclusivity can be as simple as using gender neutral language in presentations and hand-outs or being lexible with work arrangements to allow for cultural and religious practices. Legislation such as the Equality Act (2006), which has 9 areas protected by law, (age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation), requires one to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment as well as promote opportunity between men and women amongst promoting other areas of inclusivity, and can be used by all teachers a s a guide to promote equality, (Ashmore et al. 2010). With an inclusive plan one can move into the third stage of the cycle, Delivery. Here a teacher acts as a guide to learning, it is key not to spoon-feed learners information but use a variety of approaches to engage and enthuse learners to take responsibility for their progress. To give teachers guidance on conduct during delivery the Institute for Learning provide a Code of Professional Practice which was enforced April 2008; it outlines the behaviours expected in terms of Integrity, Respect, Care, Practice, Disclosure and Responsibility.This code protects not only the interest of the learners but defines professional behaviours expected of a teacher. In Delivery teachers have a boundary to overcome in that they are also responsible, along with the learners, for being safe within the classroom; this is a requirement legally due to the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) which covers a wide range of subjects, from control of sub stances to working at height. Being safe in the classroom can be as simple as ensuring bags are kept under tables or arranging the classroom so that routes to fire exits remain unblocked.During the Delivery there should be also be differing forms of Assessment which itself forms the fourth stage of the learning cycle. Gould and Francis suggest at this stage it is key to ensure that progression is checked and that methods are fair linking to planned tasks. Assessment on the course forms an on-going record, which is important to look at how learners are grasping objectives and provides valuable feedback for both the learners and teacher.Monitoring student achievements, skills, abilities and progress through on-going assessment tracks their progress and giving feedback using these records can confirm that learning objectives have been met. Records can also assist in evaluating the teaching programme, and show if improvements or redesigning is necessary, (Gould and Francis, 2009). Redes ign can form a part of the final stage of the teaching cycle, Evaluation. Morrison states evaluation  is an essential part of the educational process, and suggests that it ensures teaching is meeting students' learning needs.Through this stage teachers are constantly learning their best practice and improving standards so that correct deficiencies can be acted on, that methods continue to improve, and that content is updated. Once Evaluation is complete then the teacher can start the cycle all over again, (Morrison, 2003). From this review it may be suggested a teachers role is never stagnant and always adapting. REFERENCES: Ashmore. L. , Dalton. J. , Noel. P. , Rennie. S. , Salter. E. , Swindells. D. , Thomas. P. , Equality and Diversity (2010) in Avis.J. , Fisher. R. , Thompson. R. (Eds. ) Teaching in Lifelong Learning, Berkshire: McGraw Hill Norse. D. , Wilkinson. J. , Supporting Learning (2008) in Fawbert. F. (Ed. ) Teaching in Post-Compulosry Education, 2nd Edition, London: C ontinuum. Gould J. , Francis M. , Achieving your PTTLS award (2009): London: SAGE Publications Gravells, A. (2010) Passing PTLLS Assessments, Exeter: Learning Matters. Morrsion J. (2003) â€Å"ABC of learning and teaching in medicine: Evaluation†, British Journal of Medicine, vol. 26, February, p. p. 385-387 BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ashmore. L. , Dalton. J. , Noel. P. , Rennie. S. , Salter. E. , Swindells. D. , Thomas. P. , Equality and Diversity (2010) in Avis. J. , Fisher. R. , Thompson. R. (Eds. ) Teaching in Lifelong Learning, Berkshire: McGraw Hill Norse. D. , Wilkinson. J. , Supporting Learning (2008) in Fawbert. F. (Ed. ) Teaching in Post-Compulosry Education, 2nd Edition, London: Continuum. Gould J. , Francis M. , Achieving your PTTLS award (2009): London: SAGE Publications Gravells, A.Passing PTLLS Assessments, (2010) 2nd Edition, London: Learning Matters. Gravells A. Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, (2010) 5th Edition: London, Learning Matters Morrsion J. (2 003) â€Å"ABC of learning and teaching in medicine: Evaluation†, British Journal of Medicine, vol. 326, February, p. p. 385-387 Tummons, J. , Powell S. , Inclusive Practice in the Lifelong Learning Sector (2011): London: Learning Matters Wilson L. , Inclusive Practice in the Lifelong Learning Sector (2007): London: Thomson Learning EMEA

Leonardo da Vinci Quotes From the Inventor and Artist

Leonardo da Vinci Quotes From the Inventor and Artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a respected and honored genius of the Renaissance era, and an Italian painter and inventor. His observations of the world around him were well-documented in his numerous sketchbooks, which  still impress us to this day for both their artistic and scientific brilliance. As a painter, Leonardo is best known for The Last Supper (1495) and Mona Lisa (1503). As an inventor, Leonardo was fascinated by the promise of mechanical flight and designed flying machines that were centuries ahead of their time. On Flight For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return. Motivation It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.Learning never exhausts the mind.I have wasted my hours.All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of experience, the mother of all knowledge.The acquisition of knowledge is always of use to the intellect, because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good. For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. So we must stretch ourselves to the very limits of human p ossibility. Anything less is a sin against both God and man. Engineering Invention Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience, it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen. Philosophy The truth of things is the chief nutriment of superior intellects.Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.Nature never breaks her own laws.I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind. Misattributions The following are common quotes attributed to  Leonardo da Vinci; however, he just did not say them. I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. Unfortunately these are not the words of Leonardo. They were written by Russian author Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky (Russian, 1865-1941) in his historical fiction titled  The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci. Source:  Was Leonardo a Vegetarian? Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else. And that gem of a quote was made by  Tom Peters in his article  The Best Corporate Strategy?

Cause and Consequences of urbanization in Scotland Essay Example for Free

Cause and Consequences of urbanization in Scotland Essay This essay will explore relevant cause and consequences of urbanisation in Scotland from 1700-1860. A dictionary-defined term would be â€Å"the social process whereby cities grow and societies become more urban.†(1. 30/08/2005). Scotland went through huge political and economical changes from the 1700’s onwards. The country went from being a rural, agricultural society with an estimated population of 1.2 million in 1755, to being urbanised, with the population rising to over 2.6 million in 1841(Lenman, p281, 2001). This figure is what makes the urbanisation of Scotland so interesting. What were the main factors that caused the population to grow so rapidly? The expansion of population over such a short period and the social changes that occurred with this. The great Agrarian and Industrial revolutions had a major part’s to play in the urbanisation of Scotland and this essay will show some enlightenment on why it was so profoundly noticeable in Scotland. Another point that will be investigated is the consequences of urbanisation, how the country ultimately became a modern capitalised country from its rural beginnings. Before and up until 1750, Scotland was very much a feudalistic country. Lords rented tenants enough land for them to produce food to survive. In return, the tenant would have to labour the Lord’s land as well as his own. The Landlord would reap the benefits, the tenant would survive, and as the majority of the people depended on the land as their lively-hood, it was a means to survival. As Devine states,_† In 1750 only one Scot in eight lived in a town (population of 4000 or over) and there was only four towns with more than 10000 inhabitants†_ (Devine, 1999, p125). This shows the enormity of Scots who were living in rural communities, with the main labour being in agriculture, weaving and fishing. The changes to agriculture began with those known as the improvers, whose main outlook was to modernise the way the land was cultivated. As the population of the country began to accelerate quickly, the improvers were looking to produce mass food instead of the old way of cultivation. During the period between 1790-1840 new farming equipment was introduced and the land that was formally cultivated  using the â€Å"infield-outfield and rug and furrow method† was improved by enclosing the land into fields making it more productive for crops and for livestock Crop rotations were also introduced which was making use of the land at all times. The introduction of single tenant farming as opposed to ferm-touns meant the beginning of the clearances, as well as agricultural tools becoming more efficient. The introduction of threshing machines reduced manual labour and â€Å"the Small’s plough – a two horse plough replaced the Scot’s plough which required a team of oxen and horses† (Devine, 1998, p138). These new ideas did create more food but they also left people homeless and jobless, as there was less labour needed, which left people no choice but to move on into the towns and cities where industry had began creating jobs. The growth of the towns and cities were intricately linked with the agrarian revolution as the mass population relied on the land for the food it produced. The other main point that Devine makes is that as the agricultural market started to accelerate, the need for exchange centres that provided legal, commerce and financial facilities for the rural communities became more prominent, so several towns including Perth, Ayr and Dumfries became the provider of these services. This again contributed to expansion of towns, as people were required to work and live in the towns to facilitate these positions (Devine 1998, p32) Therefore, we can gather that three major changes occurred at the same time and they contributed towards urbanisation in Scotland: The agrarian revolution along with the population growth, and the expansion of the manufacturing industry. _Urbanisation could not have taken place without a substantial increase in food production to sustain the needs of those who did not cultivate their own food supplies. At the same time, agrarian productivity had to improve in order to release a growing proportion of the population for non-agricultural tasks in towns and cities._ (Devine, 1998, p32) Along with theses changes the manufacturing industry began to grow rapidly. Scotland was a major player in the transatlantic trading industry and due to its geographical position, it was booming in the tobacco trade and it would go on to prosper in cotton and linen too. Scotland’s Geographical position at this time was very important as it is situated between the Atlantic and Europe, which meant trading from one to the other, was very successful. The two major factor’s of the Industrial Revolution were, the textile industry and the productivity of the steam engine, which was revolutionised by James Watt in 1769 (Watt James online, 2005). Textiles factories and coalmines could produce more goods and they did not need to be near a water source in order to run. Due to this, the larger towns and cities began to grow rapidly. _Greenock in 1700 had a population of 2000 and by 1831 it had rose to 27500._ _Glasgow went from 31700 to 147000._ _Kilmarnock went from 4400 to 12700_ _Falkirk went from 3900 to 11500. All within the time period from 1740-1850 (Devine 1998, p35)_ The population growth over the short period is the most significant point here as this is what made urbanisation in Scotland different. There are many different factors that affected the population growth but some are more significant than others are. Irish Immigration was very prominent and the migration of people from the rural areas had a major impact. For example:_† The majority of the migrants were young adults more concentrated in the marriageable and childbearing age groups than were the native inhabitants. High Migration because of its age composition was therefore likely to fuel natural increase in the urban areas_†.(Devine 1998,p41) At the same time the  highlanders were leaving the land either through force as the lord’s applied the new cultivation techniques to the land or through choice. The majority chose to immigrate to America; this did not affect the population growth as many Irish migrants were coming to Scotland looking for employment in the bo oming industries. â€Å"_Urbanisation meant more jobs, a wider diversity of social contacts and infinitely greater colour and excitement in the lives of the masses_† (Devine 1998 p43) Mortality rates demonstrate their huge impact on population growth too. It has been suggested that lower death rates, through natural immunity to disease highly contributed to urbanisation, as in the early 1800’s the death rate had fallen to 25 per 1000. This suggests that natural immunity and high levels of unemployment accelerated the population growth (Devine, 1998, p48). The effect of industrialisation was economically good for the country, but with it came poverty. The majority of the working class lived in overcrowded housing areas known as slums with no sanitation, and were rife with disease. As Devine argues, during periods of industrial recession when employment had slumped, there were also periods of disease epidemic. These began in 1817-1820(Typhoid), 1826-27(Typhoid) and in 1830-1832, a cholera epidemic that wiped out 10000 people. Periods of recession run parallel, the first being 1816-1818, 1825 and then 1836 (Devine, 1999, p168). In 1839, Death rates rose to 29 per 1000. People were forced to live in abominable living conditions with huge sanitations problems, the towns and cities could not cope with the urban growth and disease was the outcome. Overcrowded, sub-divided housing was a problematic issue in all the major Towns and Cities, especially in Glasgow. _†I did not believe until I visited Glasgow, that so large an amount of filt h, crime, misery and disease existed in one spot in any one civilised country† (_Butt J, 1987 p41-42). People were customised to living in filthy dark, damp squalid conditions amongst disease. As the periods of recession were leaving thousands out of work in a state of poverty, the poor law amendment act was passed in 1845, which replaced the old poor relief laws of the parishes taking responsibly for the  poor. The new law allowed a claim to be made under supervision of a board of examiners, it came in the form of indoor relief, which would be admission to a poorhouse if subject had lost the ability to work, and outdoor relief, which was for short-term illness, and this may have been in the form of payment or medicine. It could be argued that the industrial revolution was the birth of the working class and capitalism in this country. Those who owned the factories and docks made a great profit and a middle class lifestyle was adopted. This could be said to be the division of the classes, with the help of the industrial revolution, people developed a â€Å"working† class or â €Å"middle† class attitude, In conclusion, the evidence points out that several major factors occurred that accelerated the urban growth of the nation. The Agrarian revolution started the mass migrating and the industrial revolution provided the work force in order for capitalism to evolve. The consequences of urbanisation were overwhelming, yes the economy did thrive, but at what cost to the working class people, death, disease and misery. Cause and Consequences of urbanization in Scotland. (2016, Jul 18). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you