Race and Capital Punishment in the US an Example of the Topic Government and Law Essays by

Race and Capital Punishment in the US Capital punishment is the ultimate and harshest penalty courts implement for mans heinous crimes that has continued to raise differing views in the civilized American society. Bedau upholds in the American Civil Liberties Union that death penalty inherently violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and the guarantee of due and the equal protection of the laws. This idea is based on the premise that the state should not usurp the power of taking human life especially in a premeditated fashion and ceremony. Need essay sample on "Race and Capital Punishment in the US" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed Students Usually Tell EssayLab writers: How much do I have to pay someone to make my paper now? Essay writers advise: Essaylab.Com Offers A Top-Quality Academic Essay Essay Writing Help Company Professional Writer For Hire Write a Paper Online Best Essay Writing Service Despite prevailing issues against death penalty, the courts have maintained its constitutionality as a deterrent factor to the commission of a crime premised on mans common fear of death. Pro-life advocates also insist that death penalty has been applied randomly at best and discriminatorily at worst upon criminals whose victims were white and on colored offenders (van den Haag). With 38 states and the federal government authorizing the capital punishment, capital punishment challenges most basic notion of fairness and equity in criminal sentencing according to Free(2003:177). In the imposition of the capital punishment, the public is left with the question whether the observance is applied in a manner without significant racial disparities in between. The American Justice System therefore faces the moral question on the implementation of death penalty and the continuous history of racial discrimination. Americans cannot deny the fact that as of 12 April 2007; only 364 blacks have been put to death compared to 609 white defendants amid speculations that a bias exists (NAACP, 2007). African Americans are not really disproportionately represented among people condemned to death in the USA as a whole. As of January 2007, the death row inmate population consists of 41.7% blacks and 45.4% whites while 13% is owed to Hispanic and other minority races (NAACP records). A disparity may exist among death sentences by state with Philadelphia having 137 blacks compared to only 68 whites on death row. Likewise in Texas of the 393 inmates on death row, 161 blacks are awaiting execution while only 121 are whites. The race of the defendant is not supposed to influence the sentencing but apparently in Philadelphia, it does. In the essence of justice, this paper aims to provide an insight for criminal justice professionals a better understanding on the people they work with. The theory of African Americans getting a harsher sentence when the victim is white can be tested rather easily using the national statistics. A comparative result can be gleaned on the ratio of imposed capital punishments on African American homicide defendants whose victims were white person against the ratio of African American homicide defendants whose victims were black. Further, this paper will examine the factors that possibly promote the continuance of racial discrimination in capital sentencing. The race of the victim is also an important factor in determining whether in the implementation of the death penalty, racial discrimination exists. Although this is entirely a secondary predictor for cases that result in a death sentence, the dynamics of the disproportionate minority shall be examined to provide an alternative perspective in examining the significance of the race of the victim in American society and criminal justice responses to crime. NAACP records reveal that among the number of victims where an execution has occurred since the restoration of the death penalty, 1269 victims were white while 225 victims are black. Based on criminal histories committed under similar circumstances, a defendant is more likely to receive the penalty of death if his victims is white than if his victim belongs to a minority race. In most validly conducted studies, the defendant was four or five times as likely to get the death penalty if the victim was white than if the victim was African American (Henderson, 2000:19) This critical examination discusses the marginalization of African Americans in the criminal justice system that requires an examination at racial profiling and representation of African Americans in hate crime victimization. This research therefore aims to discuss the discriminatory treatment of the black Americans and analyze the possible ameliorative solutions to treat the current racial imbalance on the criminal justice as a whole. In the imposition of death penalty as the capital punishment, Henderson provided that the evidence normally reveals the application that are legally endorsed by the state prosecutors (2000, 17). Individuals charged with killing white victims are likely to receive the death penalty that at least 82% of the impositions are committed on a white victim (GAO, 1990:5). Henderson also added that the race of the defendant when combined with the race of the victim yields a significant disparity in the application of the death penalty (2000:17). This is supported by a study conducted by Baldus, Woodworth, Zuckerman, Weiner and Broffitt (1998) which also revealed that there is a pernicious pattern of racial discrimination in Philadelphia capital punishment cases based on the race of the defendant and on the race of the victim. Blacks who kill whites are sentenced to death several times more than blacks who kills blacks and black defendants will likely receive the capital punishments when their victims are white as most studies reveal (Henderson, 2000:18). Despite data supporting that the death sentences has been imposed and carried disproportionately among the black defendants and the poor unpopular groups, government lawyers continue to insist that racial discrimination in capital punishment does not exist. Race has a great impact on a prosecutors decision to ask the death penalty that GAO also revealed in 1990 when the district attorneys office in PA used a training video to teach prosecutors how to keep Black jurors off jury service. In 1994, Congress also rejected the Racial Injustice Act that would have afforded the condemned prisoner the right to challenge their death sentence as racially motivated upon the prodding of state and federal prosecutors (Free, 2003: 178). It is an undeniable fact that the application of capital punishment is racially motivated that starts at the discretion of the prosecutors and reflects the stance of the American government against race-neutrality. The reasons why racial discrimination persist in capital sentencing There are 38 states and the federal government endorsing capital punishment and grants prosecutorial discretion for any intentional murder committed. The decisions are guided by legal factors according to Henderson (2000:17) depending on the severity of the crime and prosecutors deciding when to seek death. In California for example, prosecutors have 600-800 cases to choose from annually to endorse death sentences. Along with the jury, they have a great discretion in coming up with their current 660 death row inmate persecution (NAACP, January 2007). Baldus, et al contradicted that Californias records include the mid-range crimes, not necessarily the most heinous but not the least heinous as well where racial disparities exists. Counsels likewise play a determining role in capital sentencing. Their ineffectual defense and representation for their client in the case of capital defendants boast of their negligence to claim merits and likewise deny capital punishment. The legal system may not be able to pinpoint the ineffective assistance of the counsel for the defendant because the Supreme Court has not laid down a standard measure for proof thus making it extremely difficult to show that defense is ineffectual. In Gates v. Zant, death row inmate Johnny Lee gates provided how an ineffectual counsel illustrates the problem. With an all-white jury, Gates, a black American was accused of killing and raping a white woman. His defense lawyer failed to object to an all-white jury during the selection process; failed to present mitigating evidence like the defendants impoverished childhood which could have been noted as a psychological incapacity to function and behave in a manner typical of a normal child. Although the lawyer was not found to be ineffective, the federal court was barred from challenging the Eleventh Circuits decision that his case reeked of unconstitutional racial discrimination. Juries and venue can also lead to racial disparities in capital sentencing. Often prosecutors choose venues primarily in a central city that result in an all-white jury. Problems also arise when jurors upon questioning would give out politically correct responses in group settings that they would never be willing to impose the death penalty yet after sequestration would often reveal racism and opt for the death penalty after a capital conviction. A certain line of questioning before the guilt or innocence phase of the trial also leads to the exclusion of African Americans because a higher percentage of African Americans oppose the death penalty compared to the general public. Few jurors are excluded for being automatically pro-death penalty thus presenting a lower proportion of African Americans in jury service participation in many capital cases. The capital defendants fate is also at the hands of a sometimes racially discriminating jury even with at least one African American among them. One single contradiction during a death-a-vote can reduce the sentence to a life-verdict in some states, particularly in Georgia; a unanimous vote for death though would help execute the defendant. To safeguard against racial discrimination in capital punishment, the legal system has provided a review and clemency proceedings where an appellate court can compare otherwise similar cases to evaluate whether a death sentence is disproportionate in similar cases (Baldus et al, 1998). This could necessarily lead to relief being granted where similar circumstances exist and a defendant would have been unlikely to have gotten the death penalty if he had been white or if his victim had been African American. However in some cases, Baldus et al countered that in some cases, the Court held that such review is not constitutionally required and states like Arizona, Maryland, Idaho, Connecticut, and Wyoming abandoned any pretense of allowing a proportionality review. Executive clemency proceedings may also be granted but these days clemency is granted far less frequently due to elected officials fear of being attacked as soft on crime. More often when it is granted, it is usually due to unu sual compelling evidence of innocence and not to any concern about racial discrimination. African Americans account for 41.7% of the United States 3,350 death row inmates. The United States population is approximately 70 per cent white and 14 per cent black and yet blacks have been six to seven times more likely to be murdered than whites, with the result that blacks and whites are the victims of murder in about equal numbers. Yet, 79.3 per cent of the more than 1,600 people put to death in the USA since 1976 were convicted of crimes involving white victims, compared to the 14 per cent who were convicted of killing blacks. Less than five per cent of the executions carried out since 1977 in the USA were for crimes involving Hispanic victims despite Hispanics representing about 12 per cent of the US population. Such statistics alone do not prove a bias in the justice system but could reflect on the patterns of offending relative to wider social inequalities. Studies will however indicate that race, particularly the race of the murder victim influences the rate of capital se ntencing in the USA. US General Accounting Office (GAO) reviews in 28 studies conducted around the country concluded that in 82% of the studies, race of victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving a death sentence than those who murdered blacks. Race, ethnic origin and economic status usually appear to a determinant factor in the imposition of a death sentence. Efforts to Rectify the Problem If the United States is sincere in its effort to rectify the problem of the prevalent racial discrimination in capital sentencing, it should address the problem in its core. Policies including those designed to minimize racial discrimination in capital sentencing should completely be implemented. The Racial Justice Act, which has been stymied because of elected officials fears of being branded and attacked as being soft on criminals, should be passed to Congress. The public perception that advocates death for criminals led Congress to completely restrict funding on capital punishment resource centers which had endeavored to provide or find representation for indigent death row inmates. Cases in which Black Americans are demanding for clemency and crying out for relief under certain circumstances should be reevaluated in conjunction with the pardon and parole board recommendations. Death sentences could also be reviewed to consider if there has been a pattern of racial discrimination based on the race of the victim or the race of the defendant without being limited to capital offenses alone. Likewise, an increase in the presence of African American jurors can help assess the ameliorative impact to restore the current imbalance in the criminal justice system. Recommendation Since death penalty is so severe, there must be a system of check and balance set up to enforce the sentence fairly free from racial, gender, religious, or socio-economic bias. An automatic appeal to the Court of Appeals to review the district courts guilty verdict would likely help in order to filter out cases which the defendant may be falsely convicted. Apparently the system does not try hard enough with American society banking on retributive justice as the main reason other than the societys moral action on the crime. Thus, it is always better to understand and eliminate institutional racism if the legal system wishes to refine. Stricter guidelines will have to be drafted in order to protect all persons accused of capital offenses if its elimination would continuously be overruled. Conclusion Although the NAACP 2007 over-all report revealed a steady decline in black people executed for heinous crimes, the imposition of capital punishment on black defendants do not paint the same picture in some states. More particularly where a victims race is concerned, there exists a clear disparity when crimes committed against a white victim is often declared as heinous. Often, during a criminal procedure for a colored defendant, colored jurors are under-represented in capital trials as if the state appears to have unfairly removed them during jury selection. This is outlined to reflect on the attitudes of capital jurors suggesting that conscious or unconscious racism can infect juror decision-making. Likewise, prosecutorial decision-making in tandem with justice tactics has criminalized race and crime which in turn provides a devastating effect on minority communities in the US. The apparent failure of the federal authorities to also offer remedial leadership on the issue of racial b ias in the capital justice system has also produce links between race and the error-prone nature of the US capital justice system. Majority of countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, leaving the USA as the egalitarian society to treat this fundamental human rights issue free from social and racial injustice. Such racial unfairness should have no grounds for existence in the US fight for equality. Works Cited Bedau, Hugo Adam. The Case Against Death Penalty. 2000.08 Mar, 2006.http://users.rcn.com/mwood/deathpen.html Free, Marvin. Racial Issues in Criminal Justice: The Case of African American. Greenwood, 2003. United States. General Accounting Office. Death Penalty Sentencing: Research Indicates Patterns of Racial disparities, 1990. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. Death Row USA. 2007. Baldus, David C., Woodworth, G., Zuckerman, D., Weiner, N.A., and Broffitt, B. Racial Discrimination and the Death Penalty in the Post-Furman Era: An Empirical and Legal Overview, with Recent Findings from Philadelphia. Cornell Law Review 1638, 1998. United States. Gates v. Zant, [863 F.2d 1492]. 1498 (11th Circuit) 493 U.S. 945, 1989. United States. Department of Justice. Capital Punishment Statistics. 2006. Henderson, Wade. Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Justice System. Diane Publishing, 2000.

Free Essays on Jamaican Music Roots

Jamaica According to the history of Jamaica, the slaves from Africa brought over drums called â€Å"BURRU† which were used in an arrangement called talking drums. These were used during Jonkanoo celebrations, which were a Christmas time activity; the planters encouraged these until they found out that the slaves were using their drums and conch shells to communicate with each other. By the turn of the century, Calypso from Trinidad and Tobago and Samba from Central America were introduced to the Jamaicans to form a new mix of music called Mento. MENTO Mento was the popular music in Jamaica before ska, rocksteady and reggae. It was an established style in both rural and urban areas as early as the turn of the 20th century. Mento bands usually include one or more of the following: banjo, guitar, a bass lamellophone called a rumba box, and maracas. They sometimes include the fife, clarinet, violin or saxophone. The songs played were usually work songs with humorous lyrics passed down through generations. SKA and ROCK STEADY In the mid 1950’s the youth of Jamaica were more interested in listening to American music than anything from Jamaica, so musicians were called on to emulate the sound of imported American music, within a few years this music turned into Ska. Ska was a big band type of sound with horn arraignments, piano and a quick beat. Ska was easy to move to and created a form of dance called skanking. The beat of Ska slowed down a bit in the early 60’s and Rock Steady emerged. With Rock steady the drums became less prominent and there was a heavier bass tune, and the music was a bit slower and more laid back. REGGAE By 1969 the new, enduring sound of reggae had established itself. Reggae is a combination of traditional African Rhythm and blues and indigenous Jamaican folk. The synthetic style is strictly Jamaican and includes off beat syncopations, up stroke guitar strums, chanted vocal patterns and the lyrics... Free Essays on Jamaican Music Roots Free Essays on Jamaican Music Roots Jamaica According to the history of Jamaica, the slaves from Africa brought over drums called â€Å"BURRU† which were used in an arrangement called talking drums. These were used during Jonkanoo celebrations, which were a Christmas time activity; the planters encouraged these until they found out that the slaves were using their drums and conch shells to communicate with each other. By the turn of the century, Calypso from Trinidad and Tobago and Samba from Central America were introduced to the Jamaicans to form a new mix of music called Mento. MENTO Mento was the popular music in Jamaica before ska, rocksteady and reggae. It was an established style in both rural and urban areas as early as the turn of the 20th century. Mento bands usually include one or more of the following: banjo, guitar, a bass lamellophone called a rumba box, and maracas. They sometimes include the fife, clarinet, violin or saxophone. The songs played were usually work songs with humorous lyrics passed down through generations. SKA and ROCK STEADY In the mid 1950’s the youth of Jamaica were more interested in listening to American music than anything from Jamaica, so musicians were called on to emulate the sound of imported American music, within a few years this music turned into Ska. Ska was a big band type of sound with horn arraignments, piano and a quick beat. Ska was easy to move to and created a form of dance called skanking. The beat of Ska slowed down a bit in the early 60’s and Rock Steady emerged. With Rock steady the drums became less prominent and there was a heavier bass tune, and the music was a bit slower and more laid back. REGGAE By 1969 the new, enduring sound of reggae had established itself. Reggae is a combination of traditional African Rhythm and blues and indigenous Jamaican folk. The synthetic style is strictly Jamaican and includes off beat syncopations, up stroke guitar strums, chanted vocal patterns and the lyrics...

Impact of Media Technologies on the Structure of Environment Essay

Impact of Media Technologies on the Structure of Environment - Essay Example The environment which is deemed to be a messaging system in itself, is supposed to have a bearing on what people see and say and therefore how they act, how roles are assigned to people and the boundaries in which these roles are discharged in a society (Postman, 1980). It is observed that with rapid growth in media technology, physical spaces have shrunk and there is an integration between the physical and the social sciences. As pointed by Monberg (2005) "changes in media technology change patterns of social interaction, and changing patterns of social interaction have political consequences". The author likens the advancement of media technology to the "steel era" because steel changed the way people lived, worked, travelled, and fought wars. It is believed that new media technology will do just that in the 21st century. The impact of new media is also worth evaluating because of the notice convergent media nexus has received by the international community. It is acknowledged that media technology has an impact in facilitating or impeding man's chances of survival (Postman, 1980). As pointed by Bhuiyan (2006): "with the rapid growth of new media technology including the internet, interactive television net... It is also predicted that media technology will help preserve free speech and privacy and strengthen communication opportunities, largely owing to the use of digital media technologies such as PCs, the internet, computer games, cell phones in the ever shrinking global community. Such advancement has resulted in the advent of telecommunications, print, broadcast and computing into new domains to create a product that coalesces the elements of all these technologies, to create a brand new channel of communication and information storage. So consumers use iPods to make their own music playlists, personal video recorders to customize television schedules, digital audio broadcasting or DAB Digital Radio pumps static-free music to their homes and cars. With the heavy reliance on new media technologies, wired and wireless, into our daily life, the impact is such that it not only influences those who are using it but also those who are not because they have no access to them, lack the necessary skills, or simply do not want to. The world around is changing quickly. How it is changing is discussed in the following pages. The digital culture New media technologies have a telling effect on the culture we live in. Culture, as pointed by Stalder (2005) is "systems of meaning articulated through material and immaterial symbols". The culture is now becoming digital. The impact is felt even in the world of tangibles like chairs, automobiles, and buildings, which are designed digitally and produced through a process of information flow. Given that digital information is easy to copy, distribute and transform, it has become easier to incorporate the work of others not by

Management Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Management - Coursework Example The definition of management is viewed in varied perspectives. Initially, it was viewed as an art of getting the work done. But this view has evolved in course of time as management is seen as something more than just getting things done. It was strongly believed that a good management should pave the way for the growth and development of the organization rather than merely focusing on job done by the employers. Harold Koontz sees "management as the art of getting things done through and with people in formally organized groups." (Akrani 2011). It is an art of creating an environment where employees perform their allocated tasks optimally as separate individuals yet cooperate among themselves with a view of attaining the organizational objectives. Later, management was seen as a process by which managers create, direct, maintain and operate purposive organizational goals through systematic coordination and cooperation. It is the distinct process by which managers plan and carry out a ll the activities of the organization in order to accomplish the goals by the efficient use of the manpower and other resources in hand. When we refer to the management, we not only refer the group of managers who organize and plan, but also the continuous set of processes that aids the managers to develop different strategies for the organization. Although, Steve Jobs was not alive when iPhone 5 was released this year, the pre-set processes developed by him and his management only facilitated its launch. Better handling of the process with cooperation will ensure better management. At the same time, strategy formulation is not the end of the task of the management, they have to aptly implement or operationalize it. This indeed improves the organizational as well as the managerial abilities of the concern. â€Å"The failure to balance the tensions between strategy and operations is pervasive: Various studies done in the past 25 years indicate that 60% to 80% of companies fall short of the success predicted from their new strategies.† (Kaplan and Norton 2008). A complete analysis of the strategies as well as its implementation process by the management will bring out better operational goals by the organization. Overall, management brings together all the resources of any business concern such as the manpower, money, machines, methods and market as a whole, and uses it optimally for success. Thus optimum utilization of the resources by the management will ensure better results in achieving the organizational objectives. In short, the term management is concerned with the goal determination, policy formulation, strategic planning and overall control of the organizational activities. Characteristics of Management â€Å"Management is the art of getting things done through and with people in formally organized groups, the art of creating an environment in such an organized group where people can perform as individuals and yet cooperate toward attainment of group goals† (Koontz 1961). Thus, management consist of a group of individuals or an individual who keenly analyze all the resources, formulate ideas, utilize the existing abilities and take the strategic decision that would serve for the betterment of the organization. Thus managerial ability is not a technical skill to be attained but involves a

Effective pain relief in postoperative patients Essay Example for Free

Effective pain relief in postoperative patients Essay Pain is physiological mechanism and a means of the body alert the person about either currently present or impending damage to it. It can be defined as the â€Å"unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential damage† (Gelinas, 2004). Consequently, the words discomfort has also been used interchangeably with pain in the past and can be defined as a â€Å"negative affective and/or physical state subject to variation in magnitude in response to internal or environmental conditions† (Gelinas, 2004). Pain is a very important component in care of the surgical patients, both preoperative and post operative. Surgery itself afflicts large amounts of trauma on the patient. The pain that the patient has to incur afterwards adds his anxiety levels and stresses the body. Lack of or inadequate amounts of pain management by the staff, impacts the patients healing process. Their mobility and in the long terms their duration of hospital stay is also affected. It is important that, for optimal patients health management and care, a means tool must be available to measure the patients pain assessment and relief requirement through pharmacological and non pharmacological means. Little research has been done to properly assess and document the prevalence of pain and its management protocols in post operative patients. The pain scoring systems are available to attempt to quantify pain and manage it accordingly. These subjective ones include the categorical rating scales (CRS) in which patient rates pain from â€Å"No† to mild moderate or severe. Another one is the â€Å"Visual Analog score (VAS) where the individual scores are placed on a 10-cm line where the left anchor point is labeled â€Å"no Pain† and the right anchor point is labeled â€Å"worst possible pain†. Since every patient has a varying threshold for pain, and requires varying levels of drugs, to over come the pain, it is better for there to be both a subjective indicator for pain as well as an objective one, that is to say, that the nurses an also assess how much pain the patient is in, by using a tool she is provided with. Cardiac surgery is a major thoracic surgery and patients post operatively require lot analgesics to manage pain so that their morbidities associated with pain (like pain in breathing, walking etc) can be eliminated. Usually morphine is used for the purpose of pain relief but there are indications that Fentanyl can perform a similar relief without much of the side effects associated. There needs to be some focus into this theory. This can be achieved by placing 2 similar populations of adult cardiac patients who have just undergone cardiothoracic surgery on morphine or Fentanyl. As is the standard procedure nowadays, quality indicators, both subjective and objective can be used. The VAS pain scoring card can be provided to the patients for them to record the different levels of pain that they feel. The nurses would be provided with indictors to record objective findings which can indicate pain. â€Å"These can be physiological and behavioral indicators. The physiological indicators can be clustered into cardiovascular, respiratory and cerebral responses† (Gelinas, 2004). Pain associated responses would include tachypnea in respiratory, tachycardia and increased blood pressure in cardiac and raised ICP in cerebral responses. After assessment of the pain levels with the quality indicators, the pain management drugs will be administered and later the subjective and objective pain assessment will be repeated to see which drugs effects were greater and lasted longer. A study conducted by Celine Gelinas on critically ill incubated patients, to find out what are the protocols and tools used to assess pain management are and if the patients were being given effective relief. He used subjective as well as objective tools. The results revealed that physicians placed no role in documenting pain in patients. Most of the reporting was done by nurses and the patients. It was also noticed that nurse’s assessment of pain was much less than that reported by the patients themselves. The research concluded that the documentation overall about the pain and its management was incomplete in general with little attention being given. The research also noted that even after being notified about the pain, its effective management only took place 60 percent of the time. (Gelinas, 2004). In and interventional study conducted by Francoise Bardiau in 2003, the quality indicators e. g. VAS were introduced in the surgical and anesthesia department. After a survey of assessment of knowledge of nurses, VAS to assess pain was the nurses worked to improve pain management. After further surveys, it was noted that initiation of programs to setting of quality indicators improves the overall pain management system. (Bardiau, F. , M, 2003) Idvall E tested a 5 point scale to measure the effects of quality indicator maintain pain relief measurements. â€Å"The results suggest initial support for the new instrument as a measure of strategic and clinical quality indicators in postoperative pain management, but it must be further refined, tested and evaluated†. Idvall E 2002) a multidisciplinary program development was introduced based on evidence based medicine to focus on construction of proper management protocols to implement clinician as well as patient based pain relief programs â€Å"The results suggest that addressing pain management through a variety of strategies targeted at the level of the institution, the clinician, and the patient may lead to desired changes in practice and better outcomes for patients. .† Bedard, D (2006). A survey conducted on post operative cardiac ICU patients, about their pain experiences revealed that despite the pain management regimes in place nowadays, the pain frequencies, and intensities were the same as they were more than a decade ago. Pain management is a vital component of patient care. Quality of pain management can only be assessed through proper indicators. These can be multimodal. The patient populations on which these indicators can be applied are preoperative and postoperative patients. Post operative cardiac patients under nursing care can benefit well from implementation of quality indicators such as VAS. In the nursing profession subjective scoring by the patients themselves enables the nurses to manage the pain properly. This will lead to quicker recovery by the patients and earlier discharge. In the long term this means leads financial implications on the patients due to reduced hospital stay. Also nursing work load gets reduced as the patient tern over is increased. The healthcare cost gets reduced. A Post operative pain management (POP) project was conducted in 2003. A nationwide survey was done to see the implementation of quality improvement projects in the field of pain management, it was noted that more than 70% of the hospitals were reportedly satisfied with the implementations and the outcomes of the quality improvement programs. Based on the analysis, it is noted that on the positive side, proper implementations of the quality indicators and improvement programs in the healthcare system and especially in the ICU and surgical wards, the patients stay can become quite comfortable. The stay can be reduced and the cost of healthcare to the system, the insurance companies, and the patient themselves can be reduced. In the other hand we can clearly see that by using the indicators we in effect are placing more workload on the nurses. If the subjective VAS and the objective physiological changes in the patient has to be monitored regularly just to assess the pain levels, a lot of quality time will be wasted. This time could have been used to tend to more critical patients. Now the question arises if it is worth the effect to implement the QI programs. The answer would lie in Force field analysis and the Lewin’s theory. If the benefits out way the set backs, we can implement the system. The idealistic thing would be that we assess the pain management needs of each department of the health care system and implement the QIs in the ones in which the implementation benefits out way the costs.

Manage the Cultural Differences while Working with People from other Cu

Nowadays, as we all notice that the world is getting flatter. More and more people are getting the chance to work with people from other culture. It is not only limited to the people from the developed countries like Americans and Europeans. People in the developing countries are also open to the opportunity to work with people from other culture. Understanding that culture difference is heavily rooted in people’s everyday behavior is only the first step to get to work with people. Coping the way foreigners do with the local culture is the key point to be successful in working with people from other culture. Misunderstanding the culture and behavioral difference can lead to problems and alienation, even confrontation, between colleagues and ultimately the collapse of partnership. Being self-centered and refusing to social with the local culture would also lead to the failure eventually. When people from the different culture meet or a person goes to a different country, they are expecting to have a culture clash, which includes the communication, leadership and organization and etc. The communication problem would the language barrier, but most time it is more than just the language difficulties. How to get the message across can vary and greatly impact the communication. In the video, Building the Transnational Team, it clearly shows that everybody can speak the same international English, but everyone understanding one another is the challenge. First, when the native English speaker talking with another non-native speaker, if he or she speaks too fast and uses slang terms, the non-native speaker would totally get lost and feel frustrated. Like in the video, Luis from Spain who speaks English but has limited understanding of ... ... will help people from different culture work efficiently together. The change would be in communication, leadership and organization. In the video, five people finally realize that they have to manage the culture difference before they can talk about business. They figure out the way to have a better communication by using simple English and also they could like to phone call and fax both to satisfy people from different culture. Furthermore, strategic change will be implemented which means to adapt or create organization policies which take into account cultural differences. Particular attention should be paid to policies or programs that have been developed to meet the requirements of one culture and are then imposed internationally. The key thing to work with people from different culture is to manage the cultural difference and cope to different cultures.

Hays Views on Gatsby Essay

Hays, Peter L. â€Å"Oxymoron in The Great Gatsby.† Papers on Language & Literature 47.3 (2011): 318+. General OneFile. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. There are significant paradoxes throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s (life and) work frequently represented by oxymorons, of which Wolfsheim’s eating with â€Å"ferocious delicacy† (75) is only one of the most apparent and, as such, very possibly a clue to the paradoxes in the novel. Kirk Curnutt in a review of Fitzgerald’s short stories remarks that the titles Flappers and Philosophers and Taps at Reveille â€Å"are clever conceits whose effectiveness depends upon one’s fondness for oxymoron† (157). Keith Gandal, in a recent book, writes of â€Å"Gatsby’s famous doubleness †¦ as chivalrous lover and cold-blooded killer.† Gandal continues, though I am using his words for a different purpose than his: â€Å"His doubleness may have a mainstream enough historical correlative† (119 ).(1) One prominent instance of doubleness is evident in his approach to Daisy in the novel. Could a man who â€Å"knew women early†Ã¢â‚¬â€œI presume knew them in the Biblical sense–â€Å"and since they spoiled him he became contemptuous of them† (104), be so intimidated by Daisy, especially since he’s already slept with her (156)? Could someone so ruthless in both the army and business be so timid in dating? Gatsby is plainly not a sexual innocent afraid of sex, another nearly 40-year-old virgin. Far from it. He has had five years of tutelage under Dan Cody, sailing three times around the continent, having women rub champagne in his hair, and visiting the Barbary Coast (106-07), which Matthew J. Bruccoli glosses in his notes to the novel as San Francisco’s â€Å"honky tonk district† (213), plainly a euphemism. We don’t know what Gatsby did for the next five years (from Cody’s death in 1912 until America’s entrance into the war in 1917 [106]), but thereafter he rose through officer ranks to become a major in the army during World War I and then briefly attended Oxford. Are we to expect that he led a celibate life all those years except for his one brief affair with Daisy? There is, of course, a social gap between him and Daisy, and this causes him insecurity in approaching her and proposing that they start their life over. But he did date her before and successfully seduced her. And at Oxford he must have met women of a social status comparable to Daisy’s. In addition, he now foolishly believes that the money he has earned erases much of that social gap so that no one will think, as he tells Nick, that â€Å"I was just some nobody† (71), â€Å"some kind of cheap sharper† (145). He also believes, erroneously, that in social situations, as opposed to business ones, he must not do â€Å"anything out of the way† (84). That being the case, one has to wonder what he and Daisy do on their afternoons together at his house. Nevertheless, Fitzgerald has established him both as â€Å"a regular tough† (84), someone who looked like he had killed a man, and a very proper and timid individual on social and sexual matters, or as Fitzgerald himself phrases it, â€Å"an elegant †¦ roughneck† (53), another oxymoron. What constrains Gatsby is his extreme romanticism, his beli ef in the American myth that one, through hard work, can achieve anything, whether reliving the past or marrying Daisy in proper social splendor in Louisville so as to confirm his rise in American society (see the paraphrase of Poor Richard’s Almanac and Horatio Alger at the end of the novel). He wants nothing to tarnish his ideal of marrying Daisy in society, the perfect couple on top of the wedding cake, and he wants the social acceptance and respect denied him at St. Olaf College (105) and by the Sloanes and Buchanans of the world. What has happened, of course, is that following his seduction of Daisy and one special kiss, he â€Å"wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath †¦ and the incarnation was complete (117). The religious language, particularly for one raised as a Catholic, as Fitzgerald was, is telling. Daisy embodies the idea of perfection for Gatsby, an almost unapproachable ideal of social success and self-realization. Thus his Grail is â€Å"the unreality of reality† (105), another paradox, and as Tom attacks him in the suite of the Plaza Hotel, â€Å"only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away† (142). But there are other contradictions as well, such as the characterization of Wolfsheim as a sentimental crook (7 7), and Gatsby’s facial expression, â€Å"definitely unfamiliar and vaguely recognizable† (127). Throughout there is Gatsby’s real criminal corruption fronting his romantic â€Å"incorruptible dream† (162). Nick, too, has his doublenesses. Initially Nick’s father tells him that â€Å"all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you’ve had† (5), presumably material advantages. But Nick interprets the statement to mean â€Å"a sense of fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth†(6), something very different, and a belief that qualifies Nick very much as a snob. Nick praises himself for honesty after writing the woman others believe him engaged to, because of his affair with Jordan Baker (63), but he doesn’t bother writing her two pages earlier while he’s conducting a relationship with a girl from the accounting division of his bank, incongruously named Probity Trust; the reason is obvious: the girl from accounting is clearly not from his social station and thus not marriageable, as Jordan is, and thus the putative fiancee need not be bothered by a mere summer romance while Nick takes his pleasure with the girl from New Jersey. Nick also assures Daisy and Jordan that the telephone call Tom receives from Wilson, after Wilson has discovered Myrtle’s infidelity, is â€Å"a bona fide deal† (122); the deal Tom has offered Wilson, however, is anything but in good faith: he has used the potential sale of the car as a way to approach Wilson’s garage to talk with Myrtle. His actions, car for woman, are repeated when he takes Gatsby’s car to drive to New York City in exchange for Daisy. And Nick describes Tom oxymoronically as a priggish libertine (137). We also have Fitzgerald’s assault through Tom Buchanan and Jordan Baker on the remnants of muscular Christianity and the Frank Merriwell novels he grew up with. The 20s were the era of Babe Ruth’s carousings and infidelities, missing games due to what sports writers reported euphemistically as stomach aches, due to the Babe’s prodigious eating, which they may have been, in conjunction with massive hangovers, or possibl y alcohol poisoning or even venereal disease.(2) His two daughters were born out of wedlock, not reported by the papers. Nor was Ty Cobb’s racism, not that most Americans at the time would have cared. Sports writers protected athletes to preserve the image of them as role models. The book jacket from a Frank Merriwell reprint says Frank’s â€Å"deeds will appeal to every boy and girl who strives for fair play and seeks to improve or to excel.† The inside copy calls the series of novels â€Å"Fascinating stories of athletics. †¦ They are extremely high in moral tone and cannot fail to be of immense benefit to every boy who reads them† (251).(3) Merriwell was an All-American football player at Yale, linking him to Tom Buchanan, who was a â€Å"national figure† at Yale (10), and who is not of high moral tone, cheating on his wife during their stay at Santa Barbara (82), in Chicago (139), and again on Long Island. But unlike the Merriwell book copy that calls the book beneficial only to boys, Fitzgerald is an equal-opportunity employer, allowing Jordan Baker to be bo th a sportswoman and an incorrigible liar and cheat at golf (62). Why write about national figures in sport only to tear them down? Why pepper the novel with paradoxes and oxymorons? Fitzgerald saw contradictions in the national psyche. Malcolm Cowley’s image of Fitzgerald as the man at a dance and also the poor boy outside with his nose pressed to the glass admiring and wondering how much everything cost is apropos (xv): Fitzgerald saw both sides and recorded both. His statement in The Crack Up that â€Å"the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at once, and still retain the ability to function† (69) speaks to his awareness of doublenesses and contradictions in America, and he strove to record them, even as one reality denied another dream. His awareness of his own self-contradictions–realistic romantic, spoiled priest–created a style incorporating contradictions. The country was changing in many ways. It was still ostensibly a Puritan nation, yet sex was everywhere. A production-mode economy was shifting to a consumer economy. The automobile had changed living, travel, dating, and business in the United States (subject of other books, not this paper), and Fitzgerald emphasizes this change with his frequent mention of cars–Nick’s, Tom’s, Gatsby’s several, Wilson’s–and â€Å"wayside garages [with] new red gas-pumps† (25). The middle classes were rising on the post-war prosperity that, until 1929, seemed as if it could not end. Nick is a bond salesman, and â€Å"Young Englishmen †¦ were all selling something: bonds or insurance or automobiles. They were †¦ agonizingly aware of the easy money in the vicinity and convinced it was theirs for a few words in the right key† (46). Myrtle dreams of marrying Tom and improving her station, and Mr. McKee needs only an introduction to Tom’s East Egg friends to move up the social and financial ladder, figured by that Jacob’s ladder, the blocks of the sidewalk that â€Å"mounted to a secret place above the trees† (117). Fitzgerald’s allusion to Lothrop Stoddard by way of Tom points to the fervent eugenics movement of the day (208), and Tom fear’s that his aristocratic position is challenged by non-Nordic races and by nobodies from nowhere (137) is seconded by Mr. Sloane from East Egg who is â€Å"haughtily† determined that Gatsby should not attend his dinner party (109). And their fears have some justification, as the guest list from Gatsby’s party reveals, with its intermingling of old money and nouveaux riches, of elegant and coarse: Homeric Ulysses linked to common Swett, Southern nobility Stonewall Jackson married to Jewish Abrams, a menagerie of Civets, Hornbeams, Blackbucks, and Leeches together with such obvious immigrants as Mulready, Cohen, Da Fontano, and Rot-Gut Ferret, along with Belchers, Smirkes, and a Hip (66-67). The old established order, figured by Daisy’s and Jordan’s privileged white girlhood in segregated Louisville, is under assault, as indicated by the incursion into society of recent immigrants and by the Negroes driven by a white chauffeur (73). Gandal states that Gatsby’s officership was another such sign of change, promotion by meritocracy rather than by family or education alone. But these changes in reality were not accompanied by corresponding changes in the national myths. Athletes were heroes, reality be damned. African-Americans could hire white chauffeurs, but their opportunities, even in the non-segregated North, were limited, and they were still subject to prejudice, as Nick’s reaction to them makes clear. Despite our myth of a classless society, classes were still very distinct in 1925, as Fitzgerald knew all too well from his experience as a poor boy at Princeton and in his courtship of Ginevra King, (4) and as Nick points out in his distinction between West Egg and East Egg (9). Mr. Sloan and Tom Buchanan insist on their own social superiority to Gatsby, just as Nick does to Wolfsheim and to the girl from the accounting department of his bank. Even Daisy finally realizes the safety of staying â€Å"with her own kind,† those of her social class, however repellent her husband is. Despite our national myth of equal opportunity, it does not exist, as we know but Gatsby doesn’t. He thinks that he can do anything, even repeat the past (116). Not being a sports hero, like the aforementioned Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb (who retired wealthy with Coca Cola and GE stock), Gatsby’s opportunities for the quick cash to win Daisy are limited, so he turns to crime, as did many during Prohibition. Corruption was pandemic, from Al Capone to Teapot Dome, the sale of national oil reserves by the Secretary of the Interior. Fitzgerald mentions two so-called robber barons, men who built huge industries through monopolization, John D. Rockefeller (31) and James J. Hill (176) (whose mansion was up the street from the Fitzgeralds’ St. Paul home), men who â€Å"saw the opportunity† (78), just as Wolfsheim did in fixing th e World Series. The line between sharp business practice and criminal activity was thin and almost invisible then (and recently as well), as Fitzgerald has Gatsby imply when talking to Tom about Walter Chase (141), a friend of Tom’s who came to Gatsby looking for money. One day selling alcohol was legal; the next it wasn’t. One day monopolies were good business; then they were declared illegal. Getting a card from the pplice commissioner to fix traffic violations is simply a courtesy; fixing the World Series is criminal. Tom, Myrtle, Jay, and Daisy all commit adultery. Some students may think Tom and Myrtle’s affair is cheap and disgusting, Jay’s and Daisy’s romantic, but both are the same morally and legally, yet we still have the myth of family values preached to us, despite the behavior of our legislators. Nick feels himself morally superior to Tom’s infidelities, Jordan’s lies, to Wolfsheim’s and Gatsby’s criminal acts, yet he’s an accessory after the fact of murder, concealing vital evidence from the police. Myrtle’s sister Katherine lies at her sister’s inquest, a loyal act of perjury that Nick praises as showing a â€Å"surprising amount of character† (171). Lovely Daisy is a hit-and-run killer. Appearances are deceiving. The America that Fitzgerald portrays is riddled with corruption, yet we still maintain the myth of the city on the hill, â€Å"the green breast of the new world† (189), the beacon to the world for democracy and opportunity. I have difficulty crediting Gatsby as a coherent human being, but as a symbol of the elusive American dream, I find him perfect. He consummately embodies the contradictory qualities of this country, our saying one thing while doing another, our clinging to myths that have little basis in reality. As a well-behaved, socially conscious crook, he is a paradox, an oxymoron, and an exemplary American.