The Status Quo Essay Example for Free

The Status Quo Essay In Howard Zinn’s book, Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice, Chapter 1 entitled, â€Å"Introduction: American Ideology,† begins with a discussion of a few instances in history where groups of people believed that other races and social classes were inferior to others (Zinn 1). The end result of these instances was that many, if not all, of the inferior people were killed (Zinn 1). From these occurrences, Zinn concludes that our thinking does not merely spark debates, but ultimately is a variable of life and death (Zinn 1). He also believes that although we live in a democratic country, the ideas of ethical behavior that were formulated by our forefathers has condemned us to accept them as right, without questioning why they are right (Zinn 3). These ideas were not framed by a group of conspirators, nor were they accidental; these ideas were a result of natural selection in which ideas were encouraged, financed, and pushed forward by those who were in power or by those who had great influence on the general public (Zinn 3). Although these beliefs were written off as correct, Zinn believes that if we decide to reexamine these beliefs, and see that they are not â€Å"natural† ideas, we have come to a major turning point: we are examining and confronting American ideology (Zinn 5). These ideas that are expressed in â€Å"Introduction: American Ideology,† are very sound because they help me to see why it is important to challenge the status quo. If I sit back and just allow people to feed me information about one fact or another, and I just absorb it all in, then I may not really be formulating my own beliefs, but accepting someone else’s. There should be a deeper meaning to what I believe further than what someone has dictated to me to be correct. I should ask intuitive questions about why someone views something as correct, and by that process, I might begin to clearly see their idea as acceptable. Oftentimes, many people, including myself, suppress what they believe in because as Zinn mentioned, these dissenting ideas are most often drowned in criticism because they are outside of the â€Å"acceptable or popular choices† (Zinn 4). By doing this, those who believe that their idea is right, maintain power. In a real world example, you may be hanging out with a group of friends at a party when all of a sudden, your friends start smoking marijuana. Everyone but you is an avid believer that smoking it is cool, and is acceptable because everyone else is doing it. You have never smoked marijuana a day in your life, but under the circumstances, you fall into peer pressure when a joint is passed your way. In this instance, you know you believe that smoking marijuana is wrong, but you suppress your beliefs since every single one of your friends is doing it, and by speaking up, your belief will most definitely be covered in criticism. The end result is that your group of friends maintains power over you, and will find it that much easier to influence you to smoke marijuana again. Metaphorically speaking, a great representation of how Zinn portrays the ideas of those in command is through â€Å"weeds.† A weed is a plant that overtakes the area in which it is located. Once it begins to grow, unless someone is willing to take the time to go and remove it from the area, it remains there. Likewise, the ideas that are seen in â€Å"Introduction: American Ideology,† are like weeds because they are established and passed off as right to the general public. Once these ideas are in place, they are hard to get rid of, even if many people dissent them. It must then take a strong group of people to try to â€Å"uproot† the ideas, and replace them with what the public believes is right. Moving forward, I can use the information that I have written about and apply it to my own life. I should begin to feel comfortable in challenging what I do not believe in, rather than being neutral about the issue because as Zinn mentions, in this day and age that we live in, neutrality is seen as a sign of acceptance in the way things are now (Zinn 7). I now see that I should begin to be my own self, and not just another grain of sand on the beach, living by the status quo. Works Cited Zinn, Howard. Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.

Interventions for Drug Addiction: Case Study

Interventions for Drug Addiction: Case Study 18893 Many attempts have been made to arrive at a universally acceptable definition of addiction and what causes addictive behaviour but the matter still remains unresolved. People often define addiction as drug abuse and misuse. To Krivak (1982,p.83), ‘Addiction will be defined as a behaviour pattern characterised by an ongoing and overwhelming preoccupation with the used of a drug and the securing of its supply.’ This definition could also say the addict is, ‘Someone who is involved with an activity to such an extent that it the major focus of his or her life’, (McAllister et all., 1991,p.5). For my assignment, I have chosen a client within the criminal justice system that has an addiction problem with drug misuse. He has been involved with the criminal justice system because of his offending behaviour relating to illegal drugs. I am basing my assignment on this client. I am going to discuss in my assignment, drug users and the criminal justice system, the psychology of addictive behaviour, Care planning and different options of planning and assessment, the initial referral and the in-depth assessment, methods of intervention and models of care and drug problems in prisons within the criminal justice system. Where there is an addiction to drugs, most drug users at some time or another come into contact with the criminal justice system. This is how my client got involved with the system. Some drug users spend periods of time in prison as a result of drug-related offending behaviour. There is an alternative to custody and these include fines, community service, probation and bail, which is subject to certain conditions such as participation in drug treatment programmes. My client is subject to certain conditions that he participates in a drug treatment programme. Criminal justice orders can be subject to conditions of residence for the offender. For drug service workers, close liaison with practitioners in the criminal justice field of work is normal practice. Joint care plans are carefully and sensitively devised to help both services work with the drug user in collaborative and constructive ways. Criminal justice practitioners are expected to work with offenders to achieve specific objectives and these are not always compatible with drug service objectives, for example, reducing drug-related offending behaviour rather than getting rid of it altogether (Robertson, 1998, p.389). My client has an addiction to drugs. The psychology of the addict involves behaviour that takes a repetitive form and is associated with increases of anxiety. Some behaviours that take a repetitive form are associated with increases or decreases in anxiety and these are considered compulsive behaviours. These types of behaviours can include drug addiction, gambling and exhibitionism. However there are important distinctions between these types of behaviour and action and true compulsive behaviour. Firstly addictive behaviours involve a pleasure-seeking component, which is not in compulsive behaviours. Secondly, the anxiety involved with the performance of criminal activity is appropriate in light of social sanctions. Obsessive-compulsive patients experience anxiety that is inappropriate to the situation (Oltman, 1995,p11). There are different options of planning and assessing with substance misuse offenders in the criminal justice system. For social workers, assessment is a key task and it will determine whether or not a care plan is needed for the offender of if a management service is needed. The NHS and Community Care Act (1990) provides guidance on procedures for assessment for people who are entitled to community care services. The assessment process includes, the initial referral, the initial assessment and the in-depth assessment. The assessment process should be needs led and not service-led. Community care services are greatly in demand and the screening process is used to determine who needs the treatment the most. Drug agencies undertaking assessment may receive referrals from the criminal justice system or other agencies. Basic referral forms are filled in with the details of the service user, such as factors and the reason for referral. My client has been referred from the criminal justice system to a drug agency for assessment. The initial interview with the service user will determine whether or not they need a more in-depth assessment or a formal care plan. Most local authorities have certain criteria and priority levels to which they can base their response on. The service user is told what is involved in the assessment, is told about confidentiality policies and whether or not there will be any participation of others. The service users are told what to do if they want to use complaint procedures or appeal if they are against any decisions made at or after the assessment. The initial assessment will determine the seriousness of the problem and the level of need required. My client has more complex needs with his addiction problems so he would require a more in-depth formal assessment so that a care plan can be made for him. This assessment will include personal details, family and relationships, social details, significant life events, social supports and networks, comprehensive history of addictions and associated problems. The assessment will also include, treatment history, risk behaviour, criminal history and current offending behaviour, financial status, physical health, mental health problems, past and present, self concepts, perceived needs and the level of motivation to address these needs, personal resources and abilities, resources and abilities of partners and carers, other agency assessments and specialist assessments and the conclusions and suggested interventions of the assessment. Robertson (1998,p.376) suggests that care planning should involved developing a package of care, which will meet the client’s needs. Care plans are systematic approaches and include all the care and treatment that will be provided and the desired outcome. Care plans are monitored measured and reviewed and will involve the client, service provider, an assessor and a care manager. The care plan will involve information gathered at the assessment in an easy to monitor format and will illustrate the behaviours that need to be addressed and it will have separate sections for identifying the needs of the problem. Partnerships between the criminal justice system and the treatment agencies direct substance-misusing offenders to the appropriate services. There are many initiatives aimed at encouraging substance misusers to take part in appropriate treatment that will help them. In the UK there are twelve step agencies that are also know as the ‘Minnesota method of treatment’. These agencies are funded through statutory sources. The aim of these agencies is to treat the dependence on drugs to help reduce drug misuse and to help the client give up drugs completely when they feel ready to do so. Three intermediate aims are to help resolve the underlying problems that contribute to drug misuse, to help the client gain more control and minimize harm also known as harm minimization (Keene, 1997,p.223). The Government produced a drug strategy in 1998 in the UK called, ‘Tackling drugs to build a better Britain.’ This was updated again in 2002. The strategy sets out the range of interventions and policies to help reduce harm caused by using illegal drugs by the year 2008. The drug intervention programme used to be known as the criminal justice interventions programme. The government aims to cut crime related to drug use. This strategy uses the criminal justice system to help direct offenders who used drugs out of crime and into treatment. There are different kinds of interventions used by drug service workers. Psychological interventions are very useful when it comes to help treat someone with a drug addiction. Professional psychotherapy is very effective and good quality drug counselling can also be very effective. Psychological interventions are, cognitive behaviour therapy, motivational interviewing, and the twelve-step treatment program that I discussed earlier and relapse prevention. Some people think that complementary and alternative therapies are useful, but there is not enough evidence in the population to back up this claim. The model of care, introduced by the National Treatment agency (NTA), is a framework that is used by Drug Services to ensure that the services provided are consistent and meet the needs of the service user. The framework is categorised by easy to understand tier levels and treatment levels. Tier one, includes primary care by health care professionals and general practitioners that provide medical services along with probation and housing services. Tier two (Open Access Services) offers a range of drop in street agencies that offer advice and support for stimulant users and substance misusers are able to drop in when there is a crisis. Tier three (Community prescribing services) is mostly geared towards opium user. Tier three, (Structured day programmes) are geared into providing education about drug misuse, and provide training for work skills and give advice about practical issues. Tier four, (Residential Care) has different systems in place for entry in different areas for entry in to residential care. The social services community care assessment team usually deal with the funding. Another option for the substance misuse offender is motivation to change. Motivational interviewing is based on using the motivational change model. The model consists of five stages with stage one being the pre-contemplation stage, stage two the contemplation stage, three the action stage, four the maintenance of change and five the relapse stage. Prochaska and DiClemente are two best-known authors on the importance of individual motivation in dependency treatment. The authors developed the motivational change module from their work with smokers. They use a Cognitive behavioural approach method and their interventions are concerned with cognitive and behavioural change (Prochaska and DiClemente, 1983,p.390). The control of drug misuse is a big problem in prisons. People are much more likely to use drugs in prison because of stress, anxiety and boredom. These levels are higher for substance misusers in prison so they would be more likely to take health risks. Drug treatment in prison could be approached the same way, as it is in the community with regimes to reduce drug related harm, rather than prevention. Because of the extent of my client’s addictive behaviour he has had a formal in-depth assessment done so that we can meet his needs. This has resulted in a care plan being made up for so that we can provide services for him and carefully monitor his progress. We have liased with other professional health services and we have had a full mental health assessment done for him. We have considered his past history of using drugs and the amount of offending he has done in the past and the length of time he has been involved in the criminal justice system. We have noticed that he has also had mental health problems in the past and that he suffers from depression. The client did not go into custody this time because of his substance offending behaviour instead he was given a probation order subject to certain conditions that he participate in a drug treatment service. We contacted drug service workers who were happy to help my client as long as he was willing to accept help. My client says that he does want to change his behaviour and put an end to his substance misuse. He has tried in the past to give up but this has always lead to a relapse. After careful consideration and after weighing up all the options of treatment for my client I decided that psychological intervention along with drug therapy was the best way forward to help reduce his drug dependency. I have decided that professional psychotherapy and relapse intervention would be the best option for him because other options have not helped him in the past. We are also going to offer him good quality counselling. My client has told me that spending time in custody has not done him any good. He told me that he gets very depressed when he is inside and this leads to more dependency on drugs. Our goal is to help him stay out of custody and reduce his dependency on drugs. We will continue to monitor, measure and review the clients care plan and see whether or not his dependency and addiction are getting bet ter. As substance service workers our goal is to meets the needs of the service user and in this instance it is to reduce substance addiction and the long term goal is to eradicate substance misuse altogether. In order to intervene effectively where there is addictive behaviour, social workers need to be able to assess and plan appropriate treatment. For my assignment I have chosen a client within the criminal justice system that has an addictive behaviour. He is a drug misuse offender and he has been involved with the criminal justice system for a few years now. I have discussed a bit about the psychology of addictive behaviour and how my client was referred to me through the criminal justice system. I have discussed the methods of assessment and the different options available. I have discussed the most suitable option for my client who I feel has deeper problems to address than some other substance misusers I have encountered. In this instance I felt that my client would benefit from a psychological form of intervention that would include psychotherapy. There are different types of psychotherapy; these are behaviour therapy that helps the client put an end to undesirable habits or certa in fears that they have. Cognitive therapy is a method that tries to show the client that certain thoughts that they are having are not good for them and that they are negative. The therapist will then try to get the client into thinking more positive thoughts in order that the persistence of negative thoughts will eventually fade away. Drug therapy is also called by the name of pharmacotherapy and it is a part of psychotherapy. The approach here with this method of intervention is to calm the person down using certain anti-anxiety drugs so that they permit the other therapies to have effect. The negative side is that sometimes these drugs encourage psychological dependence and the anxiety that was there before might return again. Some addictions such as obsessive – compulsive disorder have been successfully treated using certain antidepressant drugs. The types of interventions I have discussed do not always work for everyone. Social workers need to analyse the situation very carefully and sensitively when working with addictive behaviours. This is because it is a very sensitive area and if treatment goes wrong the client could go back to their old habits of substance misuse and become a part of the drug culture again. The aim is to reduce offending and minimise the number of substance misusers by putting carefully controlled care plans into place to address their needs. The intervention method that was used on my client was very successful and I am happy to say that my client has cured his addictive behaviour. It is important that assessments are done very carefully and to take into consideration all the important facts of the client. It is also important for social workers and other drug service workers to gain the trust of the client because without this there is less change of the client willing to accept treatment. References Barber, J. (2002) Social Work with addictions, 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Keene, J. (1997) Drug Misuse; Prevention, Harm, minimisation and treatment. London: Chapman Hall. Krivanek, J. A. (1982) Drug Problems, People Problems: Causes, Treatment and Prevention, Sydney, Allen Unwin. McAllister, I., Moore, R. and Makkai, T. (1991) Drug users in Australian Society: Patterns, Attitudes and Policies, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire. Oltman, T. F. (1999) Case Studies in Abnormal psychology, New York: Chichester. John Wiley Sons. Prochaska, J. O. and Diclemente, C. C. (1983) Stages and Processes of self-change of smoking: Towards a more integrative model of change. Journal of consulting and Clinical Psychology. Robertson, R. (1998) Management of Drug users in the community, a practical handbook. Arnold publishers.

Public Relations Campaign Planning

Public Relations Campaign Planning Research and Situational Analysis The term ‘brain drain’ refers to the outflow of entrepreneurial skills and talent hindering productivity and, possibly, prospects for economic growth (Tyson, 2011). The Malaysian brain drain dilemma is attributed to political, economic, social and cultural causes (Tyson, 2011). The current world average of brain drain stands at about 5 per cent, whereas Malaysia’s was at 10 per cent in the year 2000. (Foo, 2011). Out of a population of 27 million, there are an estimated 1.5 million Malaysians living abroad. The last decade brought much scrutiny and substantial media analysis on the topic of brain drain in Malaysia. Emphasis was put on numbers of skilled Malaysian-born people emigrating and its lasting effects on the Malaysian economy (Foo, 2011). In a study conducted by Foo, by examining destination country characteristics, it has been found that some of the key determinants of the brain drain dilemma include religious diversity, high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, proximity to home country, and English language usage. The main causes of brain drain, however, are deeply rooted and entrenched in the Malaysian society. In recent years a large of Malaysian emigrants proved to young non-Bumiputeras, In a survey conducted by the World Bank, the chief reason Malaysians aboard cite as their reason for leaving the country is social injustice. The respondents cited unequal opportunities in attaining scholarships and places in higher learning institutions (Azlan, Jeram, Sivapragasam, Tyson, 2011). Another large number cited the lack of career prospects and unattractive salaries in Malaysia as a deterrent in the decision of coming back to Malaysia. All these matters, of course attribute to the various government policies that encourage race-based incentives rather than merit-based ones. The policies in question are the economic models that uphold the ‘special’ Bumiputera rights and the revisionist Ketuanan Melayu policies (Azlan, Jeram, Sivapragasam, Tyson, 2011). The barriers are the main causes identified in instigating the talent exodus or brain drain in Malaysia. The government needs to acknowledge that the brain drain is at the cost most of national development, future competitiveness and productivity (Azlan, Jeram, Sivapragasam, Tyson). To help counter the brain drain dilemma, under the Prime Minister’s Department and the 10TH Malaysian Plan, Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad (TalentCorp), was established in the year 2011 in hopes of activating and facilitating initiatives that will help to put an end to the outflow of the country’s talent. The corporation will be working closely and establishing affiliations with many Malaysian Government agencies and leading companies. TalentCorp boasts a plethora of affirmative programmes to engage and attract Malaysian talents that have settled overseas while also focusing on nurturing and developing those already within Malaysia. Network-building between these talents are also prioritized. Although still new, TalentCorp claims to have a clear vision in running their organisation, which is to build effective partnerships, and make a difference in addressing Malaysia’s talent needs to enable the country to reach its aspiration of a high-income nation (About Us: TalentCorp, 2011). TalentCorp also possesses a one-stop centre to deal with related matters pertaining to immigration and government documentation. To analyse TalentCorp deeper, SWOT analysis can be utilized to identify the corporation’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. One main strength that TalentCorp has is it is run by a group of relatively young professionals, all around 25 to 40 years of age, all led by Johan Mahmood Merican. This means that the management itself could relate and acknowledge the stakeholders because of the similar age and similar experiences they may have gone through, and vice-versa. The new brains will bring a much needed vigour and vitality to the scene, especially when the old existing policies were set up by policy makers and politicians who are of an older generation. The corporation’s new and affirmative action team hopes to create a distinctive competence in managing the talent in Malaysia, unlike their predecessors. The main weakness of TalentCorp would be the age of the organisation itself. Since it is a newly set up organization, it may not have prominence and influence in the society yet. As a corporation, it has limited visibility and only gained nationwide exposure for a limited amount of time during the conception of the corporation. Ever since that, there has been virtually no mention of the corporations in major media platforms, even though articles and commentaries criticizing the nature of the corporation pops up from time to time in mainly opposition online media. This results in many young Malaysians in and outside of the country to fail to acknowledge TalentCorp and become aware of what it functions as. One opportunity that TalentCorp has is that it is in collaboration with many other Government agencies. Currently, it is working together with the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), Ministry of Finance (MoF), the Public Service Department (JPA) among others. With all these partnerships at its disposal, TalentCorp can benefit greatly from the resources, manpower, and intellectual property to come up with even better policies in the benefit of its stakeholders. The main threat that the corporation faces is the target audience themselves. The professionals who are living aboard already made that difficult decision to migrate in hopes of greener pastures elsewhere. It is important to know that most of the emigrants are of non-Bumiputera stock, mainly comprising of Malaysian Chinese. Looking back at the main causes of brain drain, while abroad, these people have become accustomed to being rewarded based on their personal performance and merit, unlike the Bumiputera-rights based policies they have been subjected to in Malaysia. While TalentCorp, with its various incentives and affirmative action plans might be able to convince them that there are opportunities abound in the homeland, the professionals will be doubtful of the existence of a meritocracy-based, level-playing field, back home. This raging doubt coupled with the many unpleasant happenings in the country they have come to know from a globally wired world may be the biggest deterrent of them returning home. TalentCorp needs to realize all these and investigate further into the issue. Action Planning Objectives In relation to public relations management campaign strategies, the main objectives of TalentCorp are to be evaluated. The objectives of this corporation are: To optimise Malaysian talent; To attract and facilitate global talent; and To build networks of top talent To analyse the objectives, the SMART objective approach should be used. The objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. In the case of TalentCorp’s objectives, they merely state the obvious, without specifically stating the details of what has to be done. There is little information on how the objective is supposed to be measured and attained, with the absence of actual quantifiable figures. The lack of a specific time-frame suggests that there is no specific time-period for corporation’s activities to be carried out. The objectives instead should be presented as: to optimize Malaysian talent by 50% among Malaysians by the end of 2014, Key Messages The key messages that should be prominent during the entire course of the campaign are: Suicide can be prevented through early detection and professional intervention. Suicide is not the solution, seek professional help. Suicide is a growing problem in Malaysia. Target Public TalentCorp’s the primary target audience or the group and the current focus of their campaign are Malaysian citizens currently staying and working overseas. Although this target public is the essence of establishing the whole programme, emphasis should also be given to Malaysian students currently pursuing tertiary education, who are contemplating on staying in their host country when studying overseas in the future, as they are the future of the country. The secondary target public are the journalists and a variety of media houses to promote the agenda of TalentCorp to future primary target audience and the Malaysian public. Strategies Based on the objective of optimizing Malaysian talent, these three strategies have been put forward: Raise career awareness by of ETP career opportunities for tertiary students through physical and virtual channels and involving selected company partners and key sectors Build platforms to optimise talent-Manage assignment of scholars- Establish early involvement of industry in university life- Encourage collaboration of companies, industry bodies and learning institutions to develop structured internships Enhance school-to-work transition- Upskill to address critical skills gaps in key sectors- Advocate policy change Build HR community and advocate best practices Based on the objective of attracting and facilitating global talent, these strategies have been put forward: Outreach to Malaysians abroad- Assist key industries and companies to meet talent requirements through facilitation and outreach programmes Facilitate returning talent- Facilitate ease of entry for global talent Address policy impediments on entry of global talent Enhance expatriate facilitation- Facilitate ease of entry for global talent Pilot catalytic initiatives for policy refinement Based on the objective of building networks of top talent, these are the strategies that have been put forward: Build networks of future leaders -Develop networks for leadership pipelining Private-Public Sector and Intra-Private Sector Talent Cross Assignments Develop diaspora networking platforms- Develop networks of professional diaspora and eminent Malaysians to assess opportunities in Malaysia or contribute from abroad Engage expatriate community- Engage expatriate community to develop networks Communication Tactics The tactics can basically be separated into two categories; public campaign tactics and media campaign tactics. This is because the different target publics need different strategies to be communicated to. But there should always be a realisation that both types of tactics are very-much dependent on each other and are interlinked. For Malaysian talents already living overseas, professional outreach programmes like sector-focused networking programmes for the Malaysian diaspora are organised in major cities around the world. In these programmes, the participants can be connected to potential employers and explore available opportunities back home. Student outreach programmes can help TalentCorp engage with top Malaysian students aboard. Possible collaborators to look into are the Education Ministry, Jabatan Perkhidmtan Awam or JPA and various student associations. To facilitate returning talent, a programme called the Returning Expert Programme (REP) was introduced, with tax cut incentives, Permanent Resident (PR) status for foreign spouses, and potential positions in Malaysia’s leading companies. There is also a REP Club, which functions to provide a sense of inclusiveness within the community and network building. One public campaign tactic that will directly resonate with the suggested primary target public, Malaysian tertiary students who are contemplating to contribute to the brain drain is to have career fairs and road shows by collaboration with universities and local leading companies. The face-to-face interaction between the students and employer creates channels of raising awareness in job environments and requirements. Besides that, a regularly updated organisational website will be set up for easy information access that will also serve as an online portal for career awareness and career guidance in attaining jobs in local companies. Building a presence in social media platforms, such as creating a Facebook page or creating a Twitter account will resonate with the young, tech-savvy individuals of the target public. Another public campaign tactic is to have upskilling programmes and internship opportunities with leading companies for tertiary education students that will function as a fast track to their career in Malaysia. Competitions could be held to increase the visibility of TalentCorp in the minds of the students. Working together with JPA, TalentCorp established the Scholarship Talent Attraction Retention (STAR) programme, whereby a scholarship bond requires the scholars to work with leading companies in Malaysia. Publishing and printing collaterals such as posters and pamphlets that are distributed to institutions of higher learning will drive the message of these youth-targeted programmes and of the organisation itself to town. For the media tactics to be carried out, we have to realize that the media plays a crucial role in disseminating any information gained from the client, whereby in this case, is a corporation which is under the purview of the government, to the target audience. Ultimately, in essence, no campaign is successful without a media relations campaign. Hence, as PR practitioners it should be wise to plan out the tactics through a wide range of media. By building the campaign around a newsworthy event like the talent and student outreach programmes, the likelihood of the media houses, especially print media, carrying the stories and key messages will be very high. The measures taken to ‘place’ news stories will be very important. The media tactics that will be used in the campaign are: Press Releases The press release announcing the proposition of the event and the campaign in general, would be sent to the database of journalists, newsdesks of major media and even online news organisations. The media targeted in this tactic are print media and online media. Media Briefing Before an actual press conference is called upon the issue, there could be a small-scale media briefing to let individual or a small, select group of journalists know about the event and the intended key messages to be delivered. A smaller, more intimate session will allow issues to be clarified better and helps develop relationships with journalists as well. The media targeted in this tactic are print media and online media. Press Conference A national-level outreach programme or event ultimately calls for a press conference to be conducted. Through the press conference, larger groups of journalists and media houses could be targeted. The press conference provides the organisers a controlled environment to unveil statements and deliver their intended key messages accurately. Nevertheless, a press conference can also be an uncontrolled environment as the organisers are subjected to media enquiries and questions. A separate evaluative press conference could be held after the event as well. A media kit containing press statements, profile of the organisation, pamphlets and souvenirs will be provided to all the journalists present. The media targeted in this tactic are print media, broadcast media, and online media Television and Radio Utilising broadcast media such as television and radio, can be used to address and portray issues clearly. Interviews and talks featuring credible opinion leaders, government officials, and the organisers and management team of TalentCorp themselves will help set the campaigns agenda clearly. Radio could also add an interactive element to the programs aired by encouraging the participation of interactive callers, otherwise known as ‘Talkback-Radio’. Also, the broadcast media have a great audience penetration. Evaluation Since this is public relations campaign, the evaluative measures should focus and assess the impact of the public relations efforts. But before the summative evaluation, implementation checking and formative monitoring should be conducted to correct any discrepancies and assess the progress of the campaign (Lattimore, Baskin, Heiman, Toth, 2013). To measure the worth of public relations efforts, an impact analysis could be conducted. The audience coverage addresses whether the intended audiences were reached. One could track the media coverage of all the events and activities that have been promoted. For print publication, special electronic databases can be used to track specific key words and terms related to the event. Google News offers a similar service too. The cumulative index of readers of the posts about the campaign and the TalentCorp programmes could also be assessed. In terms of broadcast media, its audience interactivity allows one’s to gauge the number of inquiries, opinions and requests for advice. We could also take the program tune-in rate to account. At the end of each outreach programme and personal engagements with the publics, a survey could be handed out to a select few of the attendees to measure and evaluate the audience response. This could also be done electronically by including a feedback section in the corporation’s website. Besides that, we could also assess the number of hits on the organisation’s website, especially when journalists or other interested parties follow up mentions of the event in other media. For newspapers, we can monitor the number of press-releases that have been issued and comparing it with the newspaper take-up rates. Campaign exposure can also be measured by press cuttings. With or without consensus, the position  of the Malaysian government is quite clear: the brain drain is detrimental to national  development, productivity and future competitiveness. Therefore the government continues  to experiment with policy initiatives in order to reduce, or even reverse, the brain drain,  pinning a significant amount of hope on the newly created Talent Corporation led by Johan  Mahmood Merican. Most of the initiatives to date have been about economic reform and  have been driven by technocrats, leaving a void that needs to be filled with pragmatic and  robust political analysis. For instance, in a somewhat controversial editorial, Mokhtar (2010)  opined that the talent exodus can be explained by disillusionment linked to rising crime, a  tainted judiciary, human rights abuses, and an outmoded education system. While the  general assumption is that Chinese and Indian Malaysians have a greater tendency to leave  because of their pendatang (so journer, alien) status – being guests in a bumiputera (Malay)  land – increasing numbers of Malays have emigrated as well, disillusioned by corrupt  practices as well as the rigid confines of state Islam (Mokhtar 2010).

Chariots of Fire :: essays research papers

Chariots of Fire Assignment 1. In the movie, Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell most strongly observed the 3rd commandment of not playing sport on the Sabbath, as the Sabbath is seen as a day of rest. This was seen on the Sunday of the Olympics when he refused to race. The second commandment Eric Liddell most strongly observed was the †¦ 2. The Sabbath is designed as a day of rest after working for six days, no work including sport is to be performed on this day. When God created the earth, he set aside the seventh day as a day of rest after all the hard work he had done. 3. Eric Liddell did not compete in his heat at the Olympics on the Sunday which led up to the major running event because he placed God before his sport and God’s rule was that the Sabbath was to be a day of rest. 4. Harold Abraham is a Jewish man who valued his athletics a lot more than his Jewish religion. On the other hand, Eric Liddell was the complete opposite and was a strong Christian and valued this more than his athletics. The sacrifice Eric made for Christianity was very big for him as he had to miss a vital heat. Harold on the other hand was much more focused on running than anything else in his life. He put the activity of running first even before those that he loved including his wife and his Jewish religion. Harold became depressed whenever he lost a race and took running to a serious level where he almost did not even consider religion part of his life. Even though Harold seemed to work harder throughout the film to become a better runner Eric seemed to be the victor in every encounter the two had, this could have been because of God’s blessing to Eric for following in Christianity more than Harold. 4. This movie reflects on the pictures in the ‘Two Ways We Choose To Live’ because Eric Liddell chose to put Christianity before anything else including running which was one of his passions, this is an example of what God wants us to do.

Lawful Civilization Essay examples -- essays research papers

All law stems from one source of order. In a time of anarchy and chaos a man brought for from a mountain top two stone tablets from which all law branches. Those two tablets, the Ten Commandments, were to be the seeds of lawful civilization. Those seeds have since become the roots of modern humanity. A prime example of this is the United States government. The phrase 'In God we trust'; is imprinted on every piece of legal tender and on most documentation. The purpose of law and government is to 'protect'; the people, but the fact that punishment need be imposed only illustrates the fact that it does not protect. Punishment is imposed only after harmful actions against society have been carried out. In order for punishment and legal intervention to be applied there first must be a crime or an action that is the government's responsibility to prevent from taking place. When law is applied the government has already failed to protect the individual; punishment will do nothing to help the victim after they have been victimized. Law does not, in truth, prevent such behavior; it only deals with it once it has occurred. Law does nothing to prevent socially harmful behavior, it therefore does not protect in accordance with the tenets set forth in the theory of the Social Contract. Why then, in such a modern civilization, do we have vigilantes? The answer is simple. The fact is that although humanity has advanced, law has failed to keep up.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The prime ...

Book Report on Nickled and Dimed

Victoria Conrardy Mrs. Lord A. P. English 11 February 21, 2013 AP Book Project Part One Introduction 1. Title-Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is significant because Ehrenreich does explain how many do â€Å"survive† off of minimum wage which really is not much. 2. Author-Barbara Ehrenreich is seventy-one years of age and is a widely-read and award-winning  columnist  and  essayist, and author of 21 books which include: Blood Rites; The Worst Years of Our Lives; and Fear of Falling. 3.Persona- Ehrenreich persona is described as credible because she displays her story through real events because she admits to have mildly conquered her challenge of testing to see how complex it is for the working class. She proves her theory by stating â€Å"[Someone ought to do the old-fashioned kind of journalism-you know, go out there and try it for themselves. ]† in the Introduction section. 4. Passage- Ehrenreich, Barbara. †Serving in Florida. â€Å"Nicke l and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2001. 11-49. Print 5.Prompt Selection- Prompt One-Read the chapter you selected and then write an essay analyzing the rhetorical techniques the author uses to convey his or her attitude toward the subject. Part Two: Passage Analysis How you ever wondered why your parent’s always made you clean the house â€Å"the right way† or why they keep nagging you to clean up the simplest messes? They just wanted you to appreciate what they have provided for you and the family because their jobs take a huge toll on their life, usually doesn’t pay well and could be gone within seconds.Barbara Ehrenreich of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America takes on the challenge to prove how tough adults actually work to keep all the nice things through imagery, diction, and tone. Barbara Ehrenreich a common wealthy lad starts off the challenge in Key West, Florida where she actually lives and uses imagery to describe her expressions. She feels anxious about the idea and fears that someone will recognize her in â€Å"disguise† but she attempts to find a place to live.She estimates that if she makes $7 an hour she could afford a $500 rent and ends up living in a â€Å"cabin† in the â€Å"swampy backyard† where her landlord lives with his girlfriend. Her next step is to look for applications fit for her ideal job which involves â€Å"†¦certain supermarket jobs, such as deli clerk, or housekeeping in the hotels and guest houses†¦Ã¢â‚¬  which uses a strong detailed diction. She then gets dolled up and within 3-4 days of no calls, decides to try out to be a waitress and immediately interviews her, ending with â€Å"When can you work? and informing her about the uniform for Hearthside which was just a matter of â€Å"being in the right time at the right time†. While entering Hearthside, she hears â€Å"Fuck this Shit! † and Gail, a co-work who trains Barbara, comes to her rescue and explains, â€Å"That’s just Billy†, â€Å"[He’s on the rag again]-a condition occasioned, in this instance, by the fact that the cook on the morning shift had forgotten to thaw out the steaks. †, and gets back to â€Å"running-around† and taking orders. Hearthside only pays $2. 3 an hour plus tips and the employee service isn’t the best but she still manages to hang in there for quite a while. Within a couple of weeks, Barbara realizes that she doesn’t have enough money to pay for the next rent and decides looking for a second job. She gets hired at â€Å"Jerry’s† which she describes by using a sarcastic tone, â€Å"Picture a fat person’s Hell, and I don’t mean a place with no food. †, but what she really means is a gross, sticky place forcing the employers to walk â€Å"like Susan McDougal in leg irons. , with absolutely no time to be sitting un less in the bathroom, with a rude management â€Å"†¦whose contribution is to stand by the kitchen counter and yell†¦ †. Barbara quits Hearthside and becomes a part-time employee at Jerry’s due to the better pay. Finally she quit Jerry’s because she couldn’t handle all the raucous being held and moved on to land her â€Å"dream job† as a housekeeper. Barbara implies that getting your â€Å"dream-life† that you’ve planned out since you were in high school doesn’t always work out.You might have to quit a job to focus more on school or an activity or might have to find a second job to keep up with the rent. So now that you some-what understand how tough the â€Å"real-world† is hopefully you’ll become more appreciative towards things. Part Three: Book Review I really enjoyed reading this book because I felt it really applied to me and my future. It helped me unlock new thoughts about jobs I might want to co nsider due to whom will pay better, working environments, and physical effects.She does mention different jobs she did take and the struggles she heard/learned about from her fellow co-workers Annette and Tina, as mentioned on page 26, â€Å"Annette, a twenty-year-old server who is six months pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend, lives with her mother, a postal clerk. † and â€Å"Tina, another server, and her husband are paying $60 a night for a room in the Days Inn. This is because they have no car†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . I also really enjoyed the fact that Ehrenreich went out and tried to live a â€Å"normal† working class life because it will soon apply to me and gives me a better deal of how to balance and handle jobs.

Endangered Languages Essay

Languages that are threatened with the loss of natural generational transmission are referred to as endangered languages. Language endangerment generally occurs in the later stages of language shift, that is, when a speech community moves away from their earlier variety, dialect, or language to a new one or new set thereof (Fishman, 1991). While the processes of endangerment and extinction have likely been constant throughout the history of human language, the scale and the pace of this loss—whose cumulative effect is the reduction of linguistic diversity—in the modern era appears to be uniquely intense, with up to half or more of the currently estimated 5,000–6,000 languages spoken today expected to be lost within a century or so (Hale et al. , 1992). Both the nature of this loss and its consequences are complex and involve deep psychosocial factors as much as purely linguistic ones. Two common reactions to language endangerment include language revitalization and linguistic documentation, both of which present extensive challenges and opportunities for applied linguistics. The sources of language endangerment are not uniform, but do generally present recurrent themes on both the broader external social/political/economic and the narrower community-internal and individual scales, corresponding in broad strokes to what Grenoble and Whaley (1998) refer to as macro- and micro-factors. From the macro-factor perspective, language shift can occur from sheer population loss of a speech community, due to war, disease, famine, or rather commonly, economically motivated outmigration, that is, dispersal into a diaspora that makes daily use of a given language no longer practical or meaningful/effective. Demographically stable communities, however, experience language endangerment just as readily when they are induced to shift for other reasons. Loss of prestige is a very common factor: It can be introduced through schooling, often reinforced by physical or social/emotional punishment of young speakers, or simply as a social contempt expressed in adult society by speakers of the dominant to the minority. As dominant languages are typically those spoken by the socioeconomically dominant, language shift is very often rationalized—both on the part of the speech community itself, or by outsiders—via ideological narratives of economic practicality, or homogeneous national identity. Hence, while there are exceptions, language endangerment is most typically experienced by minority and socioeconomically marginalized populations. In addition to psychological internalization of the above factors, the internal or microfactor side of language loss has as a primary component the local disruption of the social spaces in which the language has normally been used, and the shrinking of the range of such spaces. As most endangered languages have a primarily oral tradition (or no written tradition at all), full acquisition and rich ? uency depends entirely on personal experience with other speakers. Reduction of the range of domains in which an individual can be exposed to the language commonly results in a feedback effect: otherwise ? uent speakers who have knowledge or performance gaps are judged as imperfect speakers by more broadly experienced speakers (typically though not exclusively elders), leading the former to avoid situations of language use even more, and so intensify the process of contraction. As the factors affecting transmission are very ? uid, languages can shift from stable to endangered extremely quickly, often within the space of one generation. For the same reason, endangerment is often not salient even as it happens, as since three coexisting generations of grandparent, parent, and child can represent complete ? uency, intermediate competence, and complete non-speaker status. One still-living full generation of ? uent speakers can and often does give the illusion that the language is not seriously threatened; even more so if the majority of the community are ambivalent or antipathetic with regard to maintaining the language. Language loss is not uniform, either. During the process of language shift, competence in the language can range from various degrees of ? ency, to â€Å"remembered† speaker (full ? uency from childhood but fallen into disuse), to rusty speaker (substantial but limited competence due to an early shift from the threatened language to another), to semi-speaker (characterized by imperfect acquisition of the complete earlier form of the language, due to limited exposure) (Sasse, 1992). From this can also emerge â€Å"young people’s languages†: complete but markedly distinct variants of the source language used by younger generations that have been substantially altered by these sorts of incomplete transmission processes (Schmidt, 1985). Even after a speech community is reduced beyond even one notional native speaker, a language or features thereof can persist: in more or less full lexicogrammatical form as a liturgical or literary language, or both (as in the case of Hebrew, Latin, and Classical Greek, among others), or as a set of rote-memorized ceremonial phraseology, or as features in? uencing the variety of the replacing language(s) now spoken by descendants of the former speech community. The lexical, phonological, and syntactic in? ence of Irish Gaelic on varieties of English now spoken monolingually in Ireland is a frequently cited example. Semantic and pragmatic features of the earlier language too may cross over. Mixed languages may also persist after a community has shifted away from an original contributory language. Michif and Media Lengua—results of contact between French and Cree, and Spanish and Quechua, respectively—for example, have replaced the indigenous source language in some commu nities; such mixed languages can and do also exist alongside populations continuing to speak their source languages. Complete language loss itself can be problematicized. The notion of dormant or â€Å"sleeping† language has been developed for languages that have experienced complete disruption of natural generation-to-generation transmission, but that persist in substantial enough recorded form to permit the possibility of revival as a useable linguistic instrument (Leonard, 2007). Wampanoag and Miami represent two (Algonquian) languages currently being actively revived by descendants of the original speech communities, to the extent that children are being raised with the revived language as one of their ? st languages. Israeli Hebrew is perhaps the most famous case of a sleeping language subsequently revived as a full-? edged daily use language. Zuckerman (2009) and Leonard (2007) offer thorough discussions of the relationship between such revived languages and their source(s), particularly the ? rst languages of their revivers. Finally, the application of the terms endangered and extinct have both been called into question as inherently stigmatizing and, particularly when the latter is applied to dormant languages, inaccurate, and disenfranchising (Rinehart, 2006). The current intensity of language loss can be attributed both to essentially technological factors such as increased mobility (physical, social, and economic), telecommunications, popular media, education, and also to ideological and political factors such as the spread of the notionally homogeneous nation-state and cultural imperialisms of various kinds. Language endangerment is thus strongly connected to other types of sociocultural dislocation. With the loss of a given language also ripple out a host of ancillary losses. While loss of traditional language need not entail complete loss of traditional culture, language loss is more often than not accompanied by loss of bodies of knowledge traditionally passed on via the language, ranging from the ceremonial/religious, historical, literary/rhetorical, technological, medical, and so on (Harrison, 2007; Evans, 2010); it is often observed that the loss of a language results in the loss of a whole unique worldview implicitly and explicitly encoded in language-speci? c form and usage. For discussion of how language loss affects and re? cts the broader questions of biocultural/intellectual diversity, see Fishman (1982), Maf? (2001), and Dalby (2003), as well as Harrison (2007) and Evans (2010). Often generational transmission of social norms and values is affected when languages are lost; as is coherent community identity. A traditional language frequently functions as a pervasive and potent marker of membership therein: both emotional and intellectual connections to previous/ancestral generations can be rendered much more tenuous with its loss. Sheer grief (and at times even shame) at the loss of a cherished part of personal, familial, and community heritage is a situation-speci? c but very common experience, salient and wrenching to its affectees, even as it can be missed or underplayed by strictly materialistic/utilitarian approaches to the role of language in human life. For linguistics and related cognitive sciences, what is lost is the opportunity to investigate the full diversity of human linguistic potential. This is particularly crucial in the testing of universal claims about possible versus impossible human linguistic systems. Currently endangered and recently extinct languages have all offered unique contributions to the understanding of human language and by extension, human cognition. Damin, an auxiliary language traditionally used among the Lardil of Wellesley Island, North Queensland, Australia, for example, uses several phonetic mechanisms not found in any other known languages (and the only known click systems outside of southern Africa). It also exhibits an unparalleled intellectual creation: a carefully semantically abstracted lexicon of approximately 200 elements that can express the full range of the everyday Lardil language’s much richer system (Hale, 1998). Many other features of human language which are evidently quite common as possible grammatical options remain under-researched and poorly understood because they are, by historical accident, chie? y only found in languages that are currently endangered/threatened: among others, these include polysynthesis, switch reference, and complex evidential contrasts. At present there are two frequent active responses to language endangerment (i. e. , beyond simple acceptance): language revitalization and language documentation. Both pose interesting challenges for applied linguistics. At the time of this writing, there is an emergent consensus (though see Newman, 1998, for an alternative view) that it is incumbent upon linguists (and policymakers) to support language revitalization, namely, active efforts to recover and restore an endangered language to active daily use in a speech community (Hinton & Hale, 2001; for introductory handbooks, see Hinton, 2002, and Grenoble & Whaley, 2006). Simultaneously, an effort has emerged to document as many features of endangered languages as possible before their potential or even likely disappearance. Currently several institutions have been established that speci? cally support language documentation (see Online Resources). While language documentation of course can contribute substantially to language revitalization, the priorities of each do not necessarily overlap completely. Since unambiguous examples of thoroughly successful language revitalization efforts are still quite rare, focusing on documentation rather than revitalization can, particularly in academic circles, be seen as a more realistic use of limited resources to address language loss (see Bowern & James, 2010, for a challenge to this view). That said, documentation and revitalization efforts more often than not go hand in hand, particularly because endangered language speech communities typically expect documentation (still most often done by outsiders) to contribute substantially to revitalization efforts.