Dreamland

In the book Dreamland Sarah Dessen explores and illustrates physical abuse and loving someone so much that you can not leave. Catlin O’Koren shows many signs of getting abused such as bruises, feeling mentally drained and using drugs to escape the pain. By the middle of the book Catlin’s friend Rina suspects something is wrong with Catlin but says nothing because she feels it might ruin their friendship. Catlin then becomes emotionally and physically attached to Rogerson, and if she ever if late for something she fears that he might hurt her, but she for some reason also feels safe around him.In the book Dreamland the main character Catlin O’Koren deals with many challenges such as, her sister Cass running away, physical abuse, and later going to rehab for drugs. At the beginning of the book the main character Catlin woke up on her birthday to find a present from her sister Cass sitting outside of her door with a letter attached to it saying that she had run away . †My sister Cass ran away the morning of my sixteenth birthday, she left a present, wrapped sitting outside my door (Pg. 1, Par. 1)†.Cass was supposed to go to Yale in a few days but was feeling too much pressure from her parents to be perfect, so Cass ran away with her boyfriend Adam to be together. Catlin then becomes lost without Cass around and feels she has no one to tell her feelings to since Catlin has been with Cass her whole life. In the middle of the book Catlin was watching Television when she saw Cass on a television show called â€Å"The Larmont Whipper Show† Catlin and Her parents finally find out that Cass has run away to New York, and watch the show everyday to try and catch a glimpse of Cass.Cass finally decides to call home and tell them where she went and that she is okay, but Catlin will not talk to her because she is afraid to hear her sister’s voice again. Catlin then gets a letter at the end of the book from Cass saying that she was not happy and Yale was the last place she wanted to be. By the end of the book when Catlin comes home from Rehab Cass is there at her welcoming home party. Cass running away was a prime example of the challenges that Catlin faced throughout the book. â€Å"One thing I have learned over the past couple of months, it is that sometimes you have to close your eyes and just jump (pg. 38, par. 16)†. Catlin First meets Rogerson at the car wash and vacuum station when she was getting quarters for her friend to clean her car. Catlin’s friends had an opinion about Rogerson, and that opinion was right, that he looks like a drug dealer. Their relationship starts off with Catlin seeing Rogerson’s dad abusing him because he was late to one of their parties. Rogerson then feels the need to get his anger out by hitting Catlin. Rogerson first abuses Catlin after the athletic banquet at school, because he had to wait a long time for Catlin after she stopped to see if Rina was oka y â€Å"when he hit me, I didn’t see it coming.It was a quick blur, a flash out of the corner of my eye, and then the side of my face exploding, burning, as his hand slammed against me ( )†. This was Catlin’s thought as Rogerson hit her for the first time. Rogerson then began to hit Catlin all the time, even over the slightest thing, if she showed up late to anything, was seen with another guy, or even just for fun, he would hit her. Rogerson then began hitting Catlin places where it was not noticeable and she could cover it up easily. Catlin then became an avid drug user to drown her feelings since she was not able to tell anybody about Rogerson abusing her.The last time that Rogerson hit Catlin was because Rina took Catlin to her lake house and she was late to meet Rogerson at her house. She knew the hit was coming but never expected it to be as hard as it was. The hit was so hard that when he hit her and she got out of the car and fell on to her lawn and blac ked out. He began kicking her telling her to get up, when Catlin’s mother came out of the house to stop Rogerson and called the police on him. Rogerson then went to jail but even after him hitting her she still loved him. This is book is a love story about loving someone so much that you cannot leave.Rogerson hitting Catlin is an example of physical abuse loving someone a little too much. At the end of the book Catlin finally admits to her parents about doing drugs to escape the pain and ends up going to Evergreen, a rest care facility. When she first gets there she is very shy and does not want to talk to her therapist, but once she is there longer she begins to open up and tell him about what had happened to her. While she was in the rest care facility she thought about Rogerson constantly and how she still loves him and misses him â€Å"After all that happened, how could I miss him?But I did. I did (pg. 233 par. 27)†. This is Catlin explaining that after all that ha ppened with Rogerson she still missed him. After a month of being in Evergreen Catlin was making a lot of progress and was let out of the facility. When she arrived home she was surprised by a welcome home party with Rina, Boo, Stewart, and her mom and dad. Catlin starts telling everyone about her time at evergreen when her sister Cass shows up to the party. Catlin seeing Cass there was like a sense of relief and that she could finally take a deep breath and get out of dreamland.Catlin going to Evergreen, then coming home to see Cass was a brilliant way to end the book and Catlin going to Evergreen was something people should know a little more about. Catlin faces many challenges in the book such as her sister Cass running away, physical abuse, and going to rehab for drugs. Sarah Dessen does this in a very compelling and interesting way. This was a great topic to read about and everyone should be informed about how physical abuse can mentally and physically hurt you. Sarah Dessen do es a great job explaining a difficult topic for some people.

Florence Nightingale Essay

The Polar Area Diagrams of Florence Nightingale If you read the article on Florence Nightingale in â€Å"The Children’s Book of Famous Lives†1 you will not learn that she had to battle with her parents to be allowed to study Mathematics. If you read the Ladybird book â€Å"Florence Nightingale†2 you will not discover that she was the first woman to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. In looking around for an area of research I was intrigued to discover that Florence Nightingale, who I always thought of as the â€Å"lady with the lamp†, was a competent Mathematician who created her own type of statistical diagram which she used to save thousands of soldiers from needless death. Florence Nightingale headed a group of 38 nurses who went to clean up the hospitals for the British soldiers in the Crimea in 1854. She found that most of the deaths were due to diseases which could be prevented by basic hygiene, such as typhus and cholera. Her improvements were simple but they had an enormous effect: â€Å"She and her nurses washed and bathed the soldiers, laundered their linens, gave them clean beds to lie in, and fed them†3. When she returned to Britain she made a detailed report to the Government setting out what conditions were like and what needed to be done to reduce deaths in the hospitals. Nothing was done, so she tried again, making another statistical report and included in it three new statistical diagrams to make data collated by William Farr more accessible to people who could not get their minds around tables of figures. These were her polar area diagrams or rose diagrams, sometimes also known as ‘coxcombs’. The first showed how many men had died over the two years 1854-5, the second showed what proportions of men had died from wounds in battle, from disease and from other causes, the third showed how the number of deaths had decreased once â€Å"sanitary improvements†4 had been introduced. I decided I would try to recreate the second of these diagrams which is the most complicated and the most shocking. It is called â€Å"Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the east†. A copy of it is below: Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 1 Example 6: Student work Figure 1 The basic ideas are very simple. The blue area represents deaths due to disease, the red area represents death due to wounds in battle and the black area represents death due to other causes. I tried to find a copy of the data which this diagram represented, but I had no luck, so I decided to make sure I understood exactly how the diagram was made and to make my own version of some data which I did have to hand. Once I tried to understand the diagram in detail I found there were some problems. The First Problem I wasn’t sure whether the black area in a shape such as this: was supposed to be this area or this area Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 2 Example 6: Student work In other words, were the colours separate, or overlapping? The articles I read didn’t make it clear. O’Connor says that â€Å"The area of each coloured wedge, measured from the centre as a common point, is in proportion to the statistic it represents†5, which makes it seem that all colours are wedged shaped, or sectors, so the colours overlap. However, Lienhard commented that in the November 1854 section â€Å"battle deaths take up a very small portion of each slice†6, which makes it sound as though the slice has three separate portions, and Brasseur says that â€Å"she also divided the areas within each of the wedges to show which portion of the mortality data for that month could be allotted to each cause of death†4. I decided to construct polar area diagrams for a set of data with the colours separate and with the colours overlapping to see if putting theory into practice would make it clearer to me. The data I used was taken from the IB grade distribution statistics for the past 15 years at my own institution. I used the numbers taking Higher Mathematics, Standard Mathematics and Mathematical Studies to be represented by my three colours. I took the old Mathematical Methods course to be the same as Standard Mathematics. To fit 15 sectors into the circle I needed each arc to subtend an angle of 2Ï€ radians at 15 1 2Ï€ Ï€ the centre. The area of each sector would then be A = r 2 = 2 where r is the r Ãâ€" 2 15 15 radius of the sector. Since the area needs to be proportional to the statistic, I needed to 15A and just used a scale which would allow me to draw find the radius, so I used r = a reasonable sized diagram. To create a polar area diagram with overlapping sectors I just used this formula on each of the numbers of students taking the various options. Numbers taking Mathematics year on year Numbers (A) Higher Studies Standard 1995 1 24 0 1996 4 15 0 1997 8 10 0 1998 6 31 0 1999 9 17 0 2000 10 20 0 2001 4 31 1 2002 5 21 2 2003 4 15 4 2004 5 29 5 2005 1 28 0 2006 3 16 2 2007 8 13 0 2008 11 29 14 2009 10 23 15 Radius ( r ) Higher Studies Standard 2.2 10.7 0.0 4.4 8.5 0.0 6.2 6.9 0.0 5.4 12.2 0.0 6.6 9.0 0.0 6.9 9.8 0.0 4.4 12.2 2.2 4.9 10.0 3.1 4.4 8.5 4.4 4.9 11.8 4.9 2.2 11.6 0.0 3.8 8.7 3.1 6.2 7.9 0.0 7.2 11.8 8.2 6.9 10.5 8.5 Ï€ Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 3 Example 6: Student work I then used a geometric program (GeoGebra) to draw the sectors all with a common 2Ï€ centre, each with an angle of radians, and with the radii as given in the table. I drew 15 the Higher sectors first with the Studies on top of these, and the Standard on top of these. This was the result: Figure 2 Polar area diagram to show students taking Mathematics at one school (colours overlapping) Blue represents the number of students taking Higher Maths. Brown represents the number of students taking Mathematical Studies. Green represents the number of students taking Standard Maths. The colours are not solid, so where colours overlap there is a different colour. The blue overlapping the brown makes a pink here, and the green overlapping the blue makes a darker green. In 2003 and in 2004 there were an equal number of students taking Higher and Standard so three separate colours cannot be seen on the diagram. Next I worked out the radii needed if the colours were not to overlap. For this I used cumulative areas to work out the radii. R1 = R3 = 15 ( A1 + A2 + A3) 15 A1 15 ( A1 + A2 ) Ï€ , R2 = Ï€ and Ï€ . Radii R2 10.9 9.5 9.3 13.3 11.1 12.0 12.9 11.1 9.5 12.7 11.8 9.5 10.0 13.8 12.6 Numbers taking Mathematics year on year Numbers (A) Higher (A1) Studies (A2) Standard (A3) 1995 1 24 0 1996 4 15 0 1997 8 10 0 1998 6 31 0 1999 9 17 0 2000 10 20 0 2001 4 31 1 2002 5 21 2 2003 4 15 4 2004 5 29 5 2005 1 28 0 2006 3 16 2 2007 8 13 0 2008 11 29 14 2009 10 23 15 R1 2.2 4.4 6.2 5.4 6.6 6.9 4.4 4.9 4.4 4.9 2.2 3.8 6.2 7.2 6.9 R3 10.9 9.5 9.3 13.3 11.1 12.0 13.1 11.6 10.5 13.6 11.8 10.0 10.0 16.1 15.1 Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 4 Example 6: Student work This gave a diagram with Higher numbers at the centre and Standard numbers at the edge, like this: Figure 3 Polar area diagram to show students taking Mathematics at one school (colours separate) Blue represents the number of students taking Higher Maths. Brown represents the number of students taking Mathematical Studies. Green represents the number of students taking Standard Maths. This diagram is incomplete in that it has not got the dates on it, but I was interested in the basic shape it would make rather than seeing it as a finished article to represent the data. I decided to do the same thing but with Studies in the middle and Higher at the edge to see how different it would look. Figure 4 Polar area diagram to show students taking Mathematics at one school (colours separate) Blue represents the number of students taking Higher Maths. Brown represents the number of students taking Mathematical Studies. Green represents the number of students taking Standard Maths. This feels very different. The blue section actually looks less significant, to my eye, being put at the edges. This made me think of something else I had read in Brasseur’s article, â€Å"Nightingale arranged these colored areas so that the main cause of death (and the largest sections)—deaths by disease—would be at the end of the wedges and would be more easily noticed.†4 I am sure that Brasseur thought that the colours were separate, and not overlapped. However, comparing my diagrams to Nightingale’s original in Figure 1, I Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 5 Example 6: Student work became sure that she did mean them to be overlapped. I noticed that in the lefthand rose in figure 1 (representing the second year) there is a wedge with blue at the edge followed by a wedge with blue at the edge: Figure 5 A zoom in of part of figure 1 This can happen in a diagram like my figure 2 of overlapping colours, but would be impossible if the colours are separate as in figures 3 and 4. From this I deduced that the colours on the diagram must be overlapping. The Second Problem My diagrams were unlike Nightingale’s ones in that the total area of the sectors in figure 2 represented the total number of students taking the IB at this school over the 15 years. Nightingale’s statistics were rates of mortality. Basically they can be thought of as percentages of soldiers who died, but, as before, when I read through the articles again, I was unsure what they were percentages of. Gill and Gill have table (Table 2) in their article with headings â€Å"No. of soldiers admitted to the hospital† and â€Å"No. (%) of soldiers who died†3. This might suggest that Nightingale was working with percentages of soldiers who were admitted into hospital. Lewi is more definite and refers to the actual statistic of one wedge of the third of Nightingale’s polar area diagrams as follows: â€Å"The mortality during the first period was 192 per 1,000 hospitalized soldiers (on a yearly basis)†9. However, Brasseur refers to the statistic in a wedge of Nightingale’s first diagram as being â€Å"the ratio of mortality for every 1,000 soldiers per annum in the field†4, in other words a percentage of the army actually on duty. I decided to create a polar area diagram to act as an analogy to the possible situations as follows: Nightingale’s data My data Number of soldiers in the army in a month Number of students taking the IB in a year Number of soldiers taken to hospital Number of students taking Maths Studies Number of soldiers dying of wounds Number of students gaining grade 7 Number of soldiers dyin g of disease Number of students gaining grade 6 Number of soldiers dying for other reasons Number of students gaining grade 5 My analogy of drawing a diagram showing the numbers of soldiers dying as a percentage of those admitted to hospital would then be the number of students gaining a grade above 4 as a percentage of those taking Mathematical Studies. I decided to do this one by hand, partly to prove I could, and partly to see if it would throw any extra light on the construction of the diagrams. Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 6 Example 6: Student work I gathered the data, found the percentages and used the percentages as A in the usual 15A to find the radii needed to construct the diagram. The data is here: formula r = Ï€ Numbers gaining top three grades in Mathematical Studies As percentage of those taking Studies Radius required for each Taking Total Grade 7 Grade 6 Grade 5 Studies in year % grade 7 % grade 6 % grade 5 R7 R6 R5 1995 7 10 4 24 25 29.16667 41.66667 16.66667 11.80 14.10 8.92 1996 2 9 3 15 19 13.33333 60.00000 20.00000 7.98 16.93 9.77 1997 1 4 2 10 18 10.00000 40.00000 20.00000 6.91 13.82 9.77 1998 5 12 11 31 37 16.12903 38.70968 35.48387 8.78 13.60 13.02 1999 2 6 7 17 26 11.76471 35.29412 41.17647 7.49 12.98 14.02 2000 3 4 7 20 30 15.00000 20.00000 35.00000 8.46 9.77 12.93 2001 3 8 8 31 36 9.67742 25.80645 25.80645 6.80 11.10 11.10 2002 1 8 4 21 28 4.76190 38.09524 19.04762 4.77 13.49 9.54 2003 0 1 8 15 23 0.00000 6.66667 53.33333 0.00 5.64 15.96 2004 3 9 7 29 34 10.34483 31.03448 24.13793 7.03 12.17 10.74 2005 1 11 9 28 29 3.57143 39.28571 32.14286 4.13 13.70 12.39 2006 2 4 5 16 21 12.50000 25.00000 31.25000 7.73 10.93 12.22 2007 1 8 3 13 22 7.69231 61.53846 23.07692 6.06 17.14 10.50 2008 0 3 17 29 54 0.00000 10.34483 58.62069 0.00 7.03 16.73 2009 0 5 5 23 48 0.00000 21.73913 21.73913 0.00 10.19 10.19 And the diagram came out like this: Figure 6 Polar area diagram to show percentages of students taking Mathematical Studies who gained grades above 4 Red represents the number of students gaining grade 7. Blue represents the number of students gaining grade 6. Green represents the number of students gaining grade 5. The purple areas represent coinciding numbers of students gaining grade 5 and 6. Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 7 Example 6: Student work One thing which I learnt from this exercise is that you have to be very careful about your scale and think through every move before you start if you don’t want to fall off the edge of the paper! It is a far more tense experience drawing a diagram by hand because you know that one slip will make the whole diagram flawed. A computer slip can be corrected before you print out the result. My admiration for Florence Nightingale’s draftsmanship was heightened by doing this. The other thing which drawing by hand brought out was that, if you draw the arcs in in the appropriate colours, the colouring of the sectors sorts itself out. You colour from the arc inwards until you come to another arc or the centre. The only problem came when two arcs of different colours came in exactly the same place. I got around this problem by colouring these areas in a totally different colour and saying so at the side. At this point in my research someone suggested some more possible websites to me, and following these up I found a copy of Nightingale’s second diagram which was clear enough for me to read her notes, and a copy of the original data she used. The first of these was in a letter by Henry Woodbury suggesting that Nightingale got her calculations wrong and the radii represented the statistics rather than the area.7 The letter had a comment posted by Ian Short which led me to an article by him8 giving the data for the second diagram and explaining how it was created. The very clear reproduction of Nightingale’s second diagram in Woodbury’s letter7 shows that Miss Nightingale wrote beside it: â€Å"The areas of the blue, red and black wedges are each measured from the centre as the common vertex†. This makes it quite clear that the colours are overlapped and so solves my first problem. She also wrote â€Å"In October 1854 & April 1855 the black area coincides with the red†. She coloured the first of these in red and the second in black, but just commented on it beside the diagram to make it clear. The article by Short8 was a joy to read, although I could only work out the mathematical equations, which were written out in a way which is strange to me ( for example â€Å"$$ ext{Area of sector B} = frac{pi r_B^2}{3}=3$$†8 ) because I already knew what they were (The example had a sector B in a diagram which I could see had 1 2Ï€ 2 Ï€ 2 = = areaB rB rB ). The two things I found exciting from this article were the 2 3 3 table of data which Nightingale used to create the second diagram, and an explanation of what rates of mortality she used. She described these as follows; â€Å"The ratios of deaths and admissions to Force per 1000 per annum are calculated from the monthly ratios given in Dr. Smith’s Table B†4 and I had not been able to understand the meaning of this from the other articles. (Brasseur adds that â€Å"Dr. Smith was the late director-general of the army.†4). Using Short’s article I was able to work out what it meant. I will use an example of data taken from the table in Short’s article, which is in turn taken from â€Å"A contribution to the sanitary history of the British army during the late war with Russia† by Florence Nightingale of 18598. In February 1855 the average size of the army was 30919. Of these 2120 died of ‘zymotic diseases’, 42 died of ‘wounds & injuries’ and 361 died of ‘all other causes’. This gives a total of 2120 + 42 + 361 = deaths. 2523 2523 Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 8 Example 6: Student work 2523 81.6003 men died per 1000 men in the army in Ãâ€"1000 = 30919 that month. If the size of the army had stayed at 30919, with no more men being shipped in or out, and the death rate had continued at 81.6 deaths per 1000 men per month over 12 months, the number of deaths per annum would have been 81.6003 Ãâ€"12 = 979.2 per 1000 men in the army. In other words 979.2 deaths per 1000 per annum. out of 30919 means that This understanding of the units used allowed me to finally understand why O’Connor says of the death rate in January 1855, â€Å"if this rate had continued, and troops had not been replaced frequently, then disease alone would have killed the entire British army in the Crimea.†5 The number of deaths due to disease in January 1855 was 2761 and the 2761 average size of the army was 32393. This gives a rate of 1022.8 Ãâ€"1000 Ãâ€"12 = 32393 deaths from disease per 1000 per annum. Another way of looking at it is that if 2761 had dies each month from disease, 2761Ãâ€"12 = 33132 would have died in 12 months, but there were only 32393 in the army! As an aside, I noticed that O’Connor quoted the mortality rate for January 1855 as â€Å"1,023 per 10,000 being from zymotic diseases†5. Another example that we should not trust everything we see in print. Having sorted this out I was ready to attempt my recreation of figure 1. I decided to do the right hand rose only, covering April 1854 to March 1855. The following table shows the data taken from Short’s article in blue and my calculations in black: Average Wounds size of Zymotic & Z/S*1000*12 Radius W/S*1000*12 Radius O/S*1000*12 Radius (Az) (Aw) (Ao) for army diseases injuries Other for for Month (S) (Z) (W) (O) (1 d.p.) Zymtotic (1 d.p.) Wounds (1 d.p.) Other Apr-54 8571 1 0 5 1.4 2.3 0.0 0.0 7.0 5.2 May-54 23333 12 0 9 6.2 4.9 0.0 0.0 4.6 4.2 Jun-54 28333 11 0 6 4.7 4.2 0.0 0.0 2.5 3.1 Jul-54 28722 359 0 23 150.0 23.9 0.0 0.0 9.6 6.1 Aug-54 30246 828 1 30 328.5 35.4 0.4 1.2 11.9 6.7 Sep-54 30290 788 81 70 312.2 34.5 32.1 11.1 27.7 10.3 Oct-54 30643 503 132 128 197.0 27.4 51.7 14.1 50.1 13.8 Nov-54 29736 844 287 106 340.6 36.1 115.8 21.0 42.8 12.8 Dec-54 32779 1725 114 131 631.5 49.1 41.7 12.6 48.0 13.5 Jan-55 32393 2761 83 324 1022.8 62.5 30.7 10.8 120.0 21.4 Feb-55 30919 2120 42 361 822.8 56.1 16.3 7.9 140.1 23.1 Mar-55 30107 1205 32 172 480.3 42.8 12.8 7.0 68.6 16.2 Az is the death rate per 1000 per annum from disease, Aw is the death rate per 1000 per annum from wounds and Ao is the death rate per 1000 per annum from other causes. For 2Ï€ Ï€ this diagram there are 12 divisions so each sector has an angle of = and an area of 12 6 12A 1Ï€ 2 Ï€ 2 . r = r . So for each radius r = Ï€ 26 12 Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 9 Example 6: Student work I will show my final polar area diagram side by side with Nightingale’s original version: Figure 7. Nightingale’s original â€Å"Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the east† and my recreation. I have to admit that I felt rather proud once I had done this! However, looking at the September 1854 wedge I realised that the two diagrams didn’t correspond. In Nightingale’s original diagram I can see that there are more deaths from other causes than from wounds. In my version there are fewer deaths from other causes than from wounds. All other versions of the original in other articles I looked at ( Gill and Gill3, Brasseur4, O’Connor5, Woodbury7, Riddle10, Small11, Lienhard6) are as the original, but the table in Short definitely shows fewer deaths from other causes than from wounds8. Conclusion I started out to try to lean how to recreate the polar area diagram which Florence Nightingale made to communicate to other people just how bad the situation was in army hospitals. This diagram shouts a need for reform. Look at it. The blue represents deaths which could be avoided with a bit of organisation and care. The red represents deaths due to the actual battles. Florence Nightingale had copies of her report containing her diagrams published at her own expense and sent them to doctors, army officers, members of parliament and the Queen. Following her persistent lobbying a commission was set up to improve military barracks and hospitals, sanitary codes were established and procedures were put in place for more organised collection of medical statistics4. It is a very shocking picture with a huge snowball of social change behind it. It has been an exciting adventure to drill down to a real understanding of its construction. Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 10 Example 6: Student work However, the biggest lesson I have learnt from this research is that you can’t trust what you read. As I have argued in the main text, I am moderately sure that Brasseur thought the colours of the second diagram did not overlap4, I think O’Connor got his death rates wrong for January 18555, and I think Short may have transcribed the data incorrectly for September 18548. According to Brasseur, Florence Nightingale cross checked her data and was systematic about addressing objections to her analysis4. Everyone can make mistakes, and errors can propagate if we just quote what someone else says without looking for corroboration. I have been left with a desire to find out more about this tenacious woman who wouldn’t let society mould her into a genteel wife. Also, if I ever get the chance, I would like to get a look at one of the 2000 copies of â€Å"Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Effiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Founded Chiefly on th e Experience of the Late War† which Florence Nightingale had published in 1858, to see the actual table of data and check the numbers for September 1854. Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material 11 Example 6: Student work References/Bibliography 1.Duthie, Eric ed. The Children’s Book of Famous Lives.Odhams Press Ltd, London 1957 2. Du Garde Peach, L. Florence Nightingale. Wills & Hepworth Ltd, Loughborough, 1959 3. Gill, Christopher J. and Gill, Gillian C. Nightingale in Scutari: Her Legacy Reexamined Center for Internatinal Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, viewed 26th July 2009 4. Brasseur, Lee, Florence Nightingale’s Visual Rhetoric in the Rose Diagrams. Technical Communication Quarterly, 14(2), 161-182, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, 2005, viewed 26th July 2009 5. O’Connor, J.J. and Robertson, E.F., Florence Nightingale. viewed 26 July 2009 6. Lienhard, John H., Nightingale’s Graph, The Engines of Our Ingenuity. 2002 viewed 26th July 2009 7. Woodbury, Henry, Nightingale’s Rose. American Physical SocietyLaunches Dynamic Diagrams Redesign of Physical Review Letters, January 9, 2008, 4:05 pm, filed under Information Design, Visual Explanation View ed 30 July 2009 8. Short, Ian, Mathematics of the Coxcombs. November 5th, 2008 viewed 30th July 2009 9. Lewi, Paul J. Florence Nightingale and Polar Area Diagrams, Speaking of Graphics. 2006 < www.datascope.be/sog/SOG-Chapter5.pdf> viewed 26th July 2009 10. Riddle, Larry, Polar-Area Diagram. 2006 , viewed 26th July 2009 11. Small, Hugh, Florence Nightingale’s statistical diagrams. Presentation to Research Conference organized by the Florence Nightingale Museum St. Thomas’s Hospital, 18th March 1998 viewed 26th July 2009 Mathematics SL and HL teacher support material

The theme of hope in the writings of Hemingway, Conrad

This essay will compare the theme of hope in the writings of Hemingway, Conrad, and Kafka in the novels, The Sun Also Rises, Heart of Darkness and The Trial.   The characters in the novels will be presented as hoping against the odds of love and either fulfilling their desire or running away from them, thus either gaining hope or the lack of hope.   The different avenues of hope will also be examined in that hope may turn into acts of desperation from a different point of view, and the narrator of some of the novels will be given consideration in presenting facts to the reader in their own point of view.Finally, this essay will discuss the nature of hope, and how the characters throughout the novels may either accept a hopeless state and be transformed from it, or accept hope as a gift despite the fact that reality and circumstances may deny them their desires.   The theme of each novel will ultimately coincide with transformations or realizations through hope.In Hemingway†™s The Sun Also Rises the narrator Jake travels through a myriad of landscapes from Paris, to Madrid and even San Sebastian.   It is through these landscapes that the reader may witness the rising hope that Jake has, or the desperation, and even at times, of the peace he has or longs for in such scenery.   The cast of characters suggests a spectrum of different avenues of hope: with Jake, his hope is to be with Brett, despite the consequences and the treatment he receives from her, uttering in the novel’s last line, â€Å"Yes, isn’t it pretty to think so† after Brett states that she and Jake would have had a wonderful time together.In this statement Jake reveals to Brett, and to the audience that although he and Brett do not manage to come together as a couple, that in Jake’s view of events they are joined together through consequences and circumstances.   This is not a fulfillment by the measure of typical novels involving relationships but for H emingway, the stunted acceptance of fate in the character Jake allows for imagination and realism to coexist.   This means that hope cannot come to fruition but that to still think, and in Jake’s mind to know, that to have been with Brett would have been his greatest adventure expresses not his lament that it never happened but that it could have happened and it would have been wonderful.   This un-fulfillment is Jake’s hope realized.With the character Cohn however, hope is a desperate emotion.   His hope is overpowering; it lies with being madly in love, or infatuation with Brett and the unrequited love of Brett drives Cohn into a furious temper for any man who is with her, or desires her.   Cohn repeated follows Brett around, which conjures up images of puppy love, and blind obedience, and when Brett’s fiancà © Mike tells Cohn again and again to lay off, Cohn refuses and tensions rise during the fiesta in Madrid.Cohn ignores rationality and knocks out Jake, Mike, and Brett’s new lover, the bullfighter Romero.   Recognizing his actions, Cohn insists on having Jake forgive him, which Jake does with reluctance and even wants Romero to shake his hand, which Romero refuses.   Here, then is Cohn’s ultimate slight; that hope, at least the kind that is desperate is unforgiving.Brett rebukes her fiancà © Mike for her new lover Romero.   An interesting scene in the book is when Brett receives Romero’s gift of a bull’s ear he had slain, a bull which had earlier slaughtered another man.   This ear signifies that Brett had to cut off a piece of herself in order to live the life she does, traveling and falling in love over and over and changing her mind and following a different lover around until regret or a new love shows up.   This ear resembles Brett’s hope – her hope of love in constant fury.She must not leave too much of herself with one man leastwise she become completely attached an d dependent, thus, the vivisected ear is Brett’s heart, torn off from its owner, and kept in a distant spot.   Brett does not hope with commitment, but with transitory lust for new things, places, and men.   Although Jake tells these words to Cohn about traveling to South America this following quote may be applicable to each character in the novel and the theme of hope, â€Å"You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.† (Hemingway 11).Hemingway’s characters in the novel suggest constant movement in order to escape something; to escape constancy in setting and environment, it is as though the characters feel that if they move enough their desires and regrets won’t be able to catch up. This is true especially for Brett and is true for Jake as well.   For Cohn, it is his outdated lifestyle which is anachronistic in the lifestyle of the age in which he is living that he is trying to escape but for Brett and perhaps Jake as well, it is regret that they do want to overcome them, â€Å"I thought I had paid for everything. Not like the woman pays and pays and pays.No idea of retribution or punishment. Just exchange of values. You gave something up and got something else. Or you worked for something. You paid some way for everything that was any good.† (Hemingway 148).   In final scene in the car when the two are alone together and Jake says it’s pretty to think so, this is the only acknowledgement of truth the reader receives from Jake concerning his desire for Brett.   Beyond the tomfoolery, bullfighting and fishing, when he is quite within himself, the mantra which pulses through him is regret.   He may hope beyond it, but it is all-consuming as it would have been for Brett if she had not hidden her heart away from such devices as feeling too much as Jake does, as it best exemplified with Jake stating, â€Å"Couldn’t we live together, Brett? Couldn’t we just live t ogether?† [Brett:] â€Å"I don’t think so. I’d just tromper you with everybody.†In Jake’s final line to Brett, hope is dashed and cynicism is revealed.   Jake has no illusions as to how his and Brett’s relationship would have been since Brett has no heart to give, or it is kept at such a distance, even Jake’s love could not call it into being.   This is the lack of hope of them, realism, cynicism, and love dashed.In Kafka’s novel The Trial, the main character Joseph K, or simply K lives through a series of unfortunate events of which the first he is accused of some ambiguous crime on his 30th birthday.   One year later he is killed in the name of the law and K, for his part does not object to the killing.   The absurd as a theme in this event is very overtly portrayed.   The ambiguous nature of the actions of the other characters in the novel prove to be ridiculous and a definite parody of real life trial situations.Th e trial itself is a charade because everyone in the courtroom including K already know the outcome; they are merely going through the actions because it is something of a tradition to do so.   Thus, the characters are focused, not on the truth of the matter, did K commit a crime, but merely on the trial itself and their part in the faà §ade.K’s looming fate is indistinguishable during the trial but when he is killed in the name of the law at the end of the novel he gives no protest.   The absurd as a theme is best translated in this action by Kafka’s character K.   K does not protect his own interest but does blindly what he is told to do because it is the law.   K does not question the intent of the actions, him being killed or at times even during the trial.   During the novel, K is increasingly not in control of his own fate.   This is shown when he kisses his neighbor after his landlady told him indirectly that he was perhaps having an affair with her.    It seems that the absurd grows into its own identity in Kafka’s The Trial through the way in which K is a definite pawn, adhering to other people’s wishes instead of examining his own wants.The absurd takes further shape in Kafka’s novel through the inability of the other defendant’s awaiting news of their fate when K is given a tour of the offices by Law-Court Attendant.   Almost everyone in the book is ignorant about their surroundings, their own actions, their fate.   Kafka deals well with disguising characters or scenes (when K goes into the Law-Court Attendant’s office he glances at law books that are in fact pornography) and leading the reader to believe one thing before he switches and tells the reader the truth behind the scene.Kafka was a master at leading the audience down one path only to change course right when the reader has a glimmer of understanding about the plot or the character’s intentions.   To emphasize this point K’s last words before he dies are â€Å"Like a dog† which describe how he dies.   In essence these words state that K was expecting to die, perhaps wanted it after the previous misleading year of his life during the trial and the ridiculous events in his life while the trial was persisting.   His words describe his death, but also his life.   He lived obediently, and as the clichà © goes, he licked the master’s hand that beat him.In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the audience is presented with the character Marlow whose hope overwhelms his morality in the search for Mr. Kurtz.   Marlow appears to be a Buddha type image (at least the early Buddha, Siddhartha) in that he is searching for hope through Mr. Kurtz.   Thus, Marlow is a character whose hope is tied up with a sense of adventure and courage mixed with either ignorance or just unawareness.   Marlow seems to have created an acceptance of people and in return expects them to sho w the same regard of acceptance in silence.The company seems to think Marlow’s stories are elusive to a point because, â€Å"†¦to hear about one of Marlow’s inconclusive experiences.†Ã‚   (pg 10).   The company appears to discourage his story telling because of his disregard to the audiences wants.   At the beginning of his journey into Africa, Marlow appears to be the whimsical sailor.   An insightful sailor with thought patterns which reveal his character, â€Å"Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma† (pg 19).   Marlow presents himself to be a truth teller.   Being always ‘appalled’ by a lie.   Marlow becomes obsessed with the idea of Mr. Kurtz.   Only the want of a conversation with him led Marlow on hi journey.Marlow associated himself with Kurtz by becoming an outcaste in the eyes of the managers and the dark of his mindset comes out, â€Å"†¦but it was something to have at leas t a choice of nightmares.† (pg 105).   Then coming to base with reality when   meeting Kurtz’s Intended, Marlow says that, â€Å"His end †¦ was in every way worthy of his life† (pg 130).Following into Mr. Kurtz’s character, it is discovered that he is not fully developed, especially in regards to hope.   He is described as a misfit showing everybody up.   The ivory king so to speak.   An elusive devil with a charmed life.   Referred to as ‘that man’.   A genius of a man not forgotten only because of outrageous speeches and stunts, not for any significant contribution to humanity, nor for his character development or change towards hope.   Kurtz is a hard man to please and only a friend when he was in the whim of being a friends.Perhaps the darkness drove Kurtz crazy and thus the audience is forces to recognize how his lack of hope twisted his character development, â€Å"†¦it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with his great solitude-†¦(whisper) echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core†Ã‚   (pg 98).   Kurtz then was the abyss through which hope was lost.   He sucked away ideas, morality, self-preservation of an idea and the act of being a taking of hope filled Kurtz because he had no other thoughts of his own.   Solitude does strange things to a man as is witnessed by Kurtz’s character.Kurtz left behind him a ‘last disciple.’   A short but well formed character in the way of his obsession with Mr. Kurtz.   In the concept of hope, and the loss or lack of hope, Kurtz epitomizes this concept through is treatment of his lady.   She was in constant mourning and tears.   However, despite his treatment of her, she adored him.   Her life was with him.Conrad’s treatment of the novel, in his setting of the scene also suggests the lack of hope whic h prevails as a theme in Heart of Darkness.   Conrad creates the setting of the sea in the beginning of the book as a painting with souls included; lost souls.   He sets the mood by the setting by calming words and eloquent simplicity.   After this imagery the reader is taken into the journey of Marlow.The city is the first step in the path of discovering lack of hope in Conrad’s work.   The city is the first step in this and right away the reader is filled with the complexity and confusion of Marlow’s story as the setting of the company’s offices harbors a feeling of conspiracy.   A setting of foreboding, or darkness with two black barbed guardians is presented in the text, which further allude to the lack of hope in the novel.In the first introduction of the idea of Mr. Kurtz, the person taking praises him but eh scene leads the reader to conclude that the man brings a feeling of wickedness, and a lack of morality.   Perhaps Mr. Kurtz is the sea pe rsonified.   In fact the feeling of hope, or lack of hope can very simply be seen in the treatment of the females in the novel.   Just as in the character of Jake in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises Mr. Kurtz’s character finds a reflection of himself in his female counterpart and how he treats that counterpart.There are only three somewhat minor female characters in Heart of Darkness: Marlow’s aunt, Kurtz’s mistress, and Kurtz’s â€Å"Intended.† Marlow mentions these female characters in order to give the literal aspect of his  tale more substance.  Towards the beginning of Marlow’s story he tells how he, â€Å"Charlie Marlow, set the women to work–to get a job.†He tells this in the context that he desperately wanted to travel in  the trade industry that he did what the unthinkable (in those times).   He asked a woman for financial assistance! The woman, his aunt, also surpassed the traditional role of women in those times by telling Marlow that she would be delighted to help him and to ask her for help whenever he needed it. This incident did not have much to do with the symbolic theme of the story; it simply served to tell the reader how Marlow managed to be able to travel to the Congo (with a little help). On another note, Conrad intended to illustrate Marlow’s opinion of women’s inferior role in society, which embodied traditional 19th century society.The two remaining female characters were acknowledged later in the story.   When Marlow reaches the Inner Station, he jumps ahead and tells a little about The Intended, Kurtz’s fiancà ©e (to say â€Å"I do† when he returned). The Intended woman does not appear until the very end of the story, in which Marlow visits her and lies to her about Kurtz’s dying words.   The last female character, Kurtz’s African mistress, was presented near the end of the novel. Her first appearance took place in t he scene with Marlow talking to the Russian.She appears later when Marlow and Kurtz depart on the steamboat.   After Marlow blows the whistle, she stretches her arms out towards the steamer, and that was the last time she appears. The limited depiction of female characters in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and the way in which the three female characters are referred to by Marlow reflect Marlow’s view of women as inferior. Marlow’s opinion of women manifests the typical 19th century views of women.Perhaps his choice to lie to the Intended was because of a similar female  influence on his life†¦his Aunt.   In a way Marlow compares the Intended to his Aunt in  which both women are weaker than him.   For a man in the early 19th century, he believes  that they are delicate  and â€Å"something† that needs to be tenderly cared for.   He says, â€Å"It is  queer how out of touch with the truth women are.They live in a world of their o wn, and  there had never been anything like it, and can never be.   It is too beautiful altogether, and  if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset.†Ã‚   This he says before  ever meeting Kurtz or hearing of the Intended.   Upon lying to her (the Intended) he says,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"But I couldn't.   I could not tell her.   It would have been too dark  too dark altogether†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã‚  Marlow protected her,  he allowed her to remain innocent of Kurtz and his actions and in  so doing enabled her sun to remain high rather than setting and forever engulfing her in  darkness.Through the characters of each of these three novels different aspects of hope and different ways in which hope is revealed, lost, gained, or ignored the truth is that each character in one way had the chance to hope.   Marlow’s hope and Kurtz’s hope was desperation out of the thing they could not own, a woman’s love.   K’s hope and Jake’s hope both began with cynicism, and K’s hope does not change at the end of Kafka’s novel, with the phrase pertaining to ‘like a dog’ while Jake also remains in the state of cynicism knowing that Brett could never love anyone because she was prepared to hope so high.Each novel had a point of revelation for the characters in which they must make a choice to continue to hope, to change, or to ignore hope and falter in the evolution of their own character.   Thus, when a character lost hope, they were doomed just as Marlow and Kurtz lost hope, or lost the illusion of their life and realized they never had hope for themselves, and just as Jake realizes that perhaps he never had hope for himself and Brett after all.WORK CITEDConrad, J.   Heart of Darkness.   Bentley Pub, New York.   2002.Hemingway, E.   The Sun Also Rises.   Scribner, New York, 1996.Kafka, Franz.   The Trial.   Trans.   Willa & Edwin Muir.   Shocken.   New York .   1995.

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Denali National Park - Essay Example It was renamed as Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980, when under National Interest Land Conservation Act, another 4 million acres were added to it. It exemplifies interior Alaska’s character as one of the world’s last great frontiers, its wilderness is largely unspoiled. (nps). It is an internationally acclaimed biosphere reserve under United Nations Man and the Biosphere Program. Wilderness value is an intrinsic part of this park The region is conspicuous by long cold weather followed by short growing seasons. The unpredictability of the weather condition, with unexpected snowfall, is another feature that makes it highly interesting biosphere. The climatic conditions of the park are mostly controlled by the Alaskan range. While the Gulf of Alaska brings in moisture and cold winds from the south, the mountain blocks it, resulting in drier and erratic climatic conditions to the northern parts of the park. It is for these reasons, the south of the park has cool and pleasant summer and relatively warm winters as against the widely fluctuating temperature with long cold winters and short summers of the north. ‘Moist foothill tundra comprises cottongrass (Eriophorum sp.) with dwarf shrubs, green alder (Alnus crispa) and dwarf birch (Betula nana). Drier tundra has mats of mountain avens (Dryas spp.), grasses and sedges. Above the alpine tundra, rock, snow and ice dominate’ (UNESCO). The geological aspect of the park is highly significant to study evolution of the species and understanding the complex ecological principles that are responsible for the extreme weather conditions and huge climate change of the modern times. The park abounds with huge paleontologic resources like fossils of extinct species. The park is part of Morrison Formation Ecosystem which undertakes ecosystem studies. The evidenced of the presence of dinosaurs and other extinct species have made the park extremely popular amongst the students’ community and public.

Career Planning for the Graduates in UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Career Planning for the Graduates in UK - Essay Example However, they maintain a consistency in their recruitment process hence they can be considered as a dependable industry so that the newly graduates looking for jobs can apply for employment in this sector. The investment banking industry is found to be stagnant for the last few years. The growth in the legal sector has diminished in 2013 compared to 2012 (Schierup, Munck, Likic-Brboric & Neergaard, 2015). However, the field recruits the fresh graduates. Hence, though it does not generate any productive growth in the overall job market of the country, still the nation witnessed employment opportunity generated for the fresh graduates in these sectors (Johnston, Khattab & Manley, 2015).  The growth in the fast moving consumer sector has fallen in 2013 compared to 2012 (Schierup, Munck, Likic-Brboric & Neergaard, 2015). However, in providing employment to the graduates this sector has significant contribution in this country. Nevertheless, the accountancy and the other professional se rvice sector are not so promising for employing graduates. In case of banking sector, the growth has been observed to be negative in 2013 as compared to 2012 (Iammarino & Marinelli, 2015). However it has been noticed that in the graduate job market of UK, the sector has significant contribution compared to other sectors. The people of the country are mainly interested to avail the opportunities in the sectors discussed above (Tran, 2015). Now we look at how these choices change over the year 2014 (Figueiredo, Rocha, Biscaia & Teixeira, 2015).

Plan Columbia Essay Example for Free

Plan Columbia Essay The term Plan Colombia is most often used to refer to U.S. legislation aimed at curbing drug smuggling and combating aleft-wing insurgency by supporting different activities in Colombia.[1] Plan Colombia can also refer to a wider aid initiative originally proposed by Colombian President Andrà ©s Pastrana Arango, which included U.S. military/counter-narcotics aid, but was not limited to it. The plan was conceived between 1998 and 1999 by the administration of Pastrana with the goals of ending the Colombian armed conflict and creating an anti-cocainestrategy. Critics of the initiative also claimed that elements within the Colombian security forces, which received aid and training from the U.S., were involved in supporting or tolerating abuses by right-wing paramilitary forces against left-wing guerrilla organizations and their sympathizers. Another controversial element of the anti-narcotic strategy is aerial fumigation toeradicate coca. This activity has come under fire because it damages legal crops and has adverse health effects upon those exposed to the herbicides. Original Plan Colombia The original version of Plan Colombia was officially unveiled by President Andres Pastrana in 1999. Pastrana had first proposed the idea of a possible Marshall Plan for Colombia during a speech at Bogotà ¡s Tequendama Hotel on June 8, 1998, nearly a week after the first round of that years presidential elections. Pastrana argued that: [Drug crops are] a social problem whose solution must pass through the solution to the armed conflictDeveloped countries should help us to implement some sort of Marshall Plan for Colombia, which will allow us to develop great investments in the social field, in order to offer our peasants different alternatives to the illicit crops.[2] After Pastrana was inaugurated, one of the names given to the initiative at this early stage was Plan for Colombias Peace, which President Pastrana defined as a set of alternative development projects which will channel the shared efforts of multilateral organizations and [foreign] governments towards Colombian society.[2] Pastranas Plan Colombia, as originally presented, did not focus on drug trafficking, military aid, or fumigation,[3] but instead emphasized the manual eradication of drug crops as a better alternative.[4] According to author Doug Stokes, one of the earlier versions of the plan called for an estimated 55 per cent military aid and 45 percent developmental aid.[5] During an August 3, 1998 meeting, President Pastrana and U.S. President Bill Clinton discussed the possibility of securing an increase in U.S. aid for counternarcotics projects, sustainable economic development, the protection of human rights, humanitarian aid, stimulating private investment, and joining other donors and international financial institutions to promote Colombias economic growth. Diplomatic contacts regarding this subject continued during the rest of the year and into 1999.[6] For President Pastrana, it became necessary to create an official document that specifically served to convene important U.S. aid, as well as that of other countries and international organizations by adequately addressing US concerns. The Colombian government also considered that it had to patch up a bilateral relationship that had heavily deteriorated during the previous administration of President Ernesto Samper (1994–1998). According to Pastrana, Under Secretary of State Thomas R. Pickering eventually suggested that, initially, the U.S. could be able to commit to providing aid over a three year period, as opposed to continuing with separate yearly packages.[7] As a result of these contacts, US input was extensive, and meant that Plan Colombias first formal draft was originally written in English, not Spanish, and a Spanish version was not available until months after a revised English version was already in place.[8] Critics and observers have referred to the differences between the earliest versions of Plan Colombia and later drafts. Originally, the focus was on achieving peace and ending violence, within the context of the ongoing peace talks that Pastranas government was then holding with the FARC guerrillas, following the principle that the countrys violence had deep roots in the economic exclusion andinequality and poverty. The final version of Plan Colombia was seen as considerably different, since its main focuses would deal with drug trafficking and strengthening the military.[8] When this final version was debated on the U.S. Senate floor, Joseph Biden spoke as a leading advocate of the more hardline strategy.[9] Ambassador Robert White stated: If you read the original Plan Colombia, not the one that was written in Washington but the original Plan Colombia, theres no mention of military drives against the FARC rebels. Quite the contrary. (President Pastrana) says the FARC is part of the history of Colombia and a historical phenomenon, he says, and they must be treated as Colombians[Colombians] come and ask for bread and you (America) give them stones.[10] In the final U.S. aid package, 78.12 percent of the funds for 2000 went to the Colombian military and police for counternarcotics and military operations. (See graph, below) President Pastrana admitted that most of the resulting US aid to Colombia was overwhelmingly focused on the military and on counternarcotics (68%), but argued that this was only some 17% of the total amount of estimated Plan Colombia aid. The rest, focusing mostly on social development, would be provided by international organizations, Europe, Japan, Canada, Latin America, and Colombia itself. In light of this, Pastrana considered that the Plan had been unfairly labeled as militarist by national and international critics that focused only on the US contribution.

National Kidney Foundation Leadership

National Kidney Foundation Leadership In 2005, National Kidney Foundation faced a leadership crisis that raised many public issues that became the subject of much scrutiny. A public issue is any issue that is of mutual concern to an organization and one or more of its stakeholders. With regards to National Kidney Foundation (NKF), both the organization and its stakeholders were concerned over the issue of funds being misused, a lack of transparency and the lack of enforcement of laws internally. The emergence of these issues has not only raised media attention but also became the subject of much controversy. It has resulted in public backlash and has definitely shaken public confidence in charitable organizations. The main ethical issue which surfaced was NKFs misuse and mismanagement of the funds primarily donated by the public. As a non-profit organization, NKFs public mission was to help needy patients. Though they were effective in using both the media and campaigns to garner donations to support their cause, these funds were misused. As stated in the case study, trials revealed that the claims made by an article published in the Straits Times in 2004, about NKFs Chief Executive Officer, T T Durai alluding to wastefulness and extravagance were in fact true. There was excessive spending made by T T Durai such as a gold tap that had been installed in the executive bathroom and personal luxuries including a fleet of eight cars that came together with company drivers. In addition, given that TT Durai was entitled business class flight by SIA, as a trustee over donors money, Durai should get best value on a business class seat instead of using it for first class on another plane (NKF v SPH: Cou rt Transcript for July 11th 2005 Morning Session). Instead of using the funds for the right purposes such as to help NKFs patients, T T Durai had misappropriately used the funds for his personal wants. Another major issue to be discussed is the lack of transparency with regards to being accountable on how NKFs funds collected from donors were utilised. There was a lack of a transparent system in documenting managment minutes at NKF. The meeting minutes was an important documentation reflecting the discussions and decisions of how NKFs funds should be utilised. The fact that it went missing may have given the public the impression that NKF was negligent in its duties. When the funds of the NKF were not properly accounted for, the public become skeptical and doubtful of NKF. People start to lose trust in the NKF as they become suspicious that NKF is just another bourgeois conspiracy. Corporate governance refers to the process by which a company is controlled, or governed. In having systems of internal governance that determine the overall strategic direction and balance conflicting interests that may arise, such is crucial to the organizations performance. In helping to establish an effective internal governance structure, the board members play a central role. They are responsible for setting missions and aims that take into account stakeholder interests, develop comprehensive policies and appointing a committee of top-level personnel to execute these policies. However, in NKFs case, the lack of a enforcement of policies within the internal governance structure among the Board members has led to repercussions. The actions of the Board members have contributed to these problems. Under the Executive Committee, approval of proposals were made by default without seeking the overall consensus of the board. Furthermore, the audit committee failed to receive necessary the necessary support from the EC and fellow members in implementing necessary internal control measures. As such, negligence from each department snowballed into an undesirable consequence that the NKF had to bear. Due to the fact that there was insufficient discipline in part by each committee, these were the main contributing factors to the problems. In addition, NKF provided no avenues for the public to give constructive feedback to improve its performance. Essentially, the failure of the Board members to employ good corporate governance had brought to light serious concerns over Durais fund raising strategies. Despite NKFs mischief, its fund raising strategies were very efficient . As a non-profit organization, NKFs main aim was to look after its patients and encompassed drawing resources from society to contribute back to society as a whole. To do this, NKF has successfully employed an interactive stance in engagement with the public to raise funds for charity. The introduction of the NKF live charity show since 1994 incorporated stunts performed by foreign and local celebrities in exchange for donations. Such a method was effective as they appealed to the public, raising $4.5 million in 1994 which slowly grew to $16.8 million in the 2004 show. This suggests that NKFs fund raising strategies were effective as they involved enthusiasm in adopting creative and innovative methods to genuinely raise funds for the greater good of patients. It was through these funds raised that patients benefited tremendously. Optimists have also supported Durais fund raising strategies as NKF has successfully reached out to different segments of the community, both the young and old. Besides having a charity show where the public can pledge their support, these additional strategies include using telemarketing techniques to recruit and retain donors, coupled with the recruitment of students and National Servicemen to raise funds via pledge cards. These initiatives illustrate Durais inherent motivation in garnering increased donations for its patients. By promoting its fund raising strategies through different avenues, this helped NKF to reach out to a wider spectrum of people, targeting the public from different age and backgrounds. Applying a two pronged approach, Durais fund raising strategies can also be applauded for having long term vision. He realized that besides the direct implementation of policies to raise funds, what was needed for NKF to garner substantial funds was to build its brand image. Under his helm, NKF increased its brand image locally by implementing a complimentary Cabby Health Screening Program and engaging local media channels through programs such as Health Maters. Through these, there was an emphasis that NKF strictly enforces a non-discriminatory approach when it comes to raising awareness about the disease in that every individual, regardless of background could be susceptible to the disease. Its network of dialysis centres was also expanded, providing accessible and affordable healthcare to the public. In the international arena, Durai strived to increase brand recognition by getting endorsement from public and international leaders and having their success story written by credible sources. NKFs programs were also promoted via renowned Brazillian soccer legend, Pele. Forward planning in directly raising funds and increasing brand image has thus helped NKF encourage a larger recognition of its practices and consequently, a substantial pool of donations. However, critics have argued that such fund raising techniques are too aggressive and have deviated from the motto of its organisation. Although NKF recruited the younger generation to raise funds through pledge cards, this was not done purely out of goodwill but in exchange for monetary incentives. Similarly, by consciously seeking and obtaining endorsements from public and international leaders as well as the employment of credible sources to write their success stories, their reputation and credibility is in question. Although these acts ultimately increase the brand recognition of the foundation, which is crucial to the attraction of donors, they display NKFs aggressiveness and possible misdirection in their techniques. Although important, a charitable non-profit organisations branding is fundamentally secondary to its mission and purpose. The deontology approach is defined as the approach to ethics that focuses on the good and evil of the act alone, not necessarily the outcome. Using the deontology approach, T T Durai may be deem as unethical as the intent to fundraise may be a misrepresentation of the NKF and therefore deceiving the public to donate more. In this aspect, his fund raising strategies are unethical as the means differ from what is advocated by the company. Setting executive compensation is one important function of the Board members. In NKFs case, the lack of corporate governance has also caused Durais compensation package to be the subject of much controversy. With the ongoing issues associated with NKF, cynics have felt that the compensation package remunerated to Durai was excessive. Durai was paid bonuses ranging between 4 months and 12 months which was not what one would expect to receive considering that he is working in a charitable organisation. Prima Facie, although his bonuses may seem to be over evaluated, Durai is not overpaid as he deserves to be rewarded for the outstanding results he achieved for NKF. In building NKFs brand image and employing successful fund raising techniques, Durai managed to increase the amount of donations that were raised through the NKF charity show from $4.5 million in 1994 to $16.8 million in 2004. Under his leadership, he was also awarded the Public Service Bar by the Singaporean government in 1992 for his contribution to NKF and expanded NKFs network of dialysis centres for its patients. Thus, from the perspective of distributive justice, the benefit of Durai being highly paid is ethical as much of the success of NKF was due to Durais tremendous efforts. In relation to the average salary other top executives are paid, Durai is not overpaid as his salary of $25,000 a month coincides with what individuals holding top management positions are paid. Furthermore, Tan Choo Leng, wife of former Prime Minister Goh Chong Tong commented that Durais salary was peanuts compared with the donations the high-flyer raised for the organization. [1] This suggests that based on his contributions towards NKF, Durai, such a high salary is justified and will provide an incentive for motivation to increase NKFs performance. In relation to Durais compensation package, there will always be differing views and there is no right or wrong to it. The reason why individuals feel that Durai may be overpaid may be due to the fact that NKF is a non-profit organization that should not be so concerned with profits. Perhaps, NKF should consider the views of the public, compare the salary of top managers with those of average employees and quantify the efforts of the management relative to their remunerations. In light of the 2005 NKF saga and its various spin-offs that have dominated the domestic news, there are several changes that can be adopted so that the same problems would not happen again. Essentially, there is a need for proper governance to ensure that corporate objectives are established, stakeholder interests are protected and the managements performance in check. In proposing the possible changes that could be adopted, analysis of the Stakeholder Map is imperative to determine the various positions of the stakeholders in terms of salience and position on the issues put forth earlier. Through stakeholders reactions to these issues, it is useful in determining possible changes that are crucial to ensure that NKFs decisions and actions are in line with stakeholders interests, to prevent such problems in the future. With collaborative involvement with these key stakeholders, the possibility of problems arising would be reduced as well. * * For Position on the issue Salience refers to how important an issue is, or how much attention it brings to NKF. When stakeholders have salience, they usually have power to assert a large impact on NKF, urgency in demanding NKF to do something about the issues or legitimacy which refers to the level of appropriateness of the stakeholders actions towards the issues. In the above stakeholder map, the public have the highest salience on the issue as they have high urgency and legitimacy. Since the funds of NKF are primarily contributed by the public, strong violations from these donors over the issue of misuse of funds would warrant much media attention. In proposing the possible changes that could be made, NKF needs to recognize that they are not able to operate independently. The survivability and performance of NKF then hinges on its effectiveness in engaging with varied stakeholders and recognizing their interests, especially the public. By aligning the publics interests with NKFs objectives, this would prevent the widening of the performance expectations gap, reducing the likelihood of these problems re-occurring. Hence, one area that could be improved on is information transparency and disclosure to the public. Steps should be taken to ensure transparency where there is communication to ensure involvement of the public. The public should be informed on new developments either through press conferences or releases. The companys financial activity should also be made known to the public with clear intentions, and certified by known accounting firms. This can be done through regular emails or letters that are sent out to donors or invitations to annual general meetings so that the public can contribute their views. By being accountable for the funds, the public would be more informed on how the funds received by NKF are spent, increasing the reliability of NKF. This would increase their confidence in donating towards NKF. Fostering a stronger relationship with the public will also help to reap benefits for NKF. NKF should reach out in engaging the general public through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to provide the public with the opportunity to voice out their opinions on company decisions. Such an interaction will allow NKF to draw upon the publics reactions and societal expectations to further boost NKFs reputation. By constantly updating these platforms with information or messages NKF wishes to convey to the public, this helps in the publics understanding of what NKF is doing. Beyond that, the public will also feel reassured that their interests are considered, building support for NKFs practices. Besides the public, the employees of NKF have low salience as they have been obscured on these issues. Due to the nature of their job, individual influence on any decision-making by the board is minimal. However, they must realise that they play a part on the issues revolving NKFs misconducts. By turning a blind eye to the misdeeds mentioned above or worse, taking part in it, these employees accommodate the problem and only allows it to escalate further. They must realise, that themselves being part of the organisation, they have a responsibility to act against any deviation from the mission of the foundation and a collective effort can prevent the history from repeating itself. Therefore, employees can have high salience if they collaborated and worked together, ensuring that the organization does not stray away from its core values. Upon futher analysis of the stakeholder map in relation to the employees of NKF, policies should also be employed to better ensure the organizations governing structure. For example, a system based on adequate internal controls should be introduced. In the instance of NKF, it is evident that there was a failure to adhere to internal audit controls as it was stated that the audit committee was to meet every 3 months to review audit plans and evaluate the adequacy of the internal control systems but they had never met. Furthermore, the committee failed to implement recommendations spelt out by internal auditors due to lack of support. Thus, NKF should outsource its internal audits to external auditors from independent accounting firms. Having such an unbiased third party ensures that corporate governance is enhanced as there is impartiality with regards to NKFs auditing processes. Although adoption of stringent practices may incur high costs, it is worth the investment to prevent the future misuse of funds. Such a practice would ensure that there is a system of checks to ensure funds are managed in line with the organizations mission, preventing financial lapses in the future. The members of the board should also only contain a few members that are current managers of NKF. The remaining members should be independent in the sense that they have no connection whatsoever to the corporation other than being a Board member. These members should either be appointed or elected by shareholders. In addition, the performance of each member should be reviewed regularly to assess if they were competent enough in assuming their responsibilities. Although NKFs Board members were volunteers who served in the belief that every member was acting in the best interests of the foundation, they normally approved proposals by default instead of through collective decision making. This meant that decisions were not made on a consensus basis but based on a hierarchal structure with the CEO having the dominant say, which resulted in the problems aforementioned. With a board comprising various key stakeholders, both internally and externally, greater transparency will be present an d the individual interests of major stakeholders will not be compromised. With greater transparency, the public would be assured that NKF has no intentions of hiding certain facts but are assuming their responsibilities. In moving forward to ensure that the NKF operates in an accountable and transparent manner, the initiative to align every committee members and employees responsibilities to NKFs mission is crucial. The Board members, together with the Chief Executive Officer have a responsibility to set future directions for the organization. The issues that surfaced at NKF were evidently due to the lack of governance in ensuring that stringent measures were implemented to ensure committees were compliant. Hence, the top management should incorporate regular discussions to remind employees of NKFs prime objectives, review performance and set new directions and foster team spirit in meeting these goals. NKF can also seek to provide employees with more say in broad decision making. Employees must also be made aware the channels for whistling and encouraged to flag when they feel that things are not right. By doing so, this will enforce that employees have a common and clear knowledge of the companys p ractices. It is evident from the stakeholder map that the government has high salience pertaining to these issues due to power in asserting a large impact. The opinions of the government on NKF will greatly impact the reactions and actions of the public and thus, should not be neglected. In hindsight, having a sound internal governing structure is the first step in preventing the future problems from occurring. The NKF saga was a result of a lack of accountability and mismanagement of funds which was further intensified as NKF was not transparent about meeting the publics interest and allocating the funds in the best possible manner. While the interest and needs of stakeholders are ever changing, NKFs attempts in balancing the varying interests and aligning them in the organizations direction is of utmost importance. This can only be achieved with good corporate governance.In doing so, the successful operation of NKF will establish trust within the government and translate to a win-win situation for both NKF and its stakeholders.

Frankenstein: The Relationship between God and Man

Frankenstein: The Relationship between God and Man In Mary Shelleys novel, Frankenstein, the book examines a variety of aspects of ambition. For instance, with Victor, ambition proves to be his undoing, and, in turn, Victors example becomes a forewarning for Robert Walton; meanwhile, the Creature is, in a sense, Victors child and thus inherits facets of Victors ambitionbut because the Creature is also a conglomerate of all the humans who embody him, he is thereby also symbolic of Mankinds ambitions that do not fully come to realization nor fulfillment, which is why readers can identify with the Creatures tragic elements. Frankenstein explores the repercussion of man and monster chasing ambition blindly. Victor Frankenstein discovered the obscure secret that allowed him to create life. And after Frankenstein discovered the source of human life, he became utterly absorbed in his experimental creation of a human being and it consumed his life completely. Victors boundless ambition and his yearning to succeed in his efforts to create lif e, and to have his creation praise him as his creator for the life he gave it led him to find ruin and anguish at the end of his ambition. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. (P. 42) Walton wanted to sail to the arctic because no other sailor had ever reached it or discovered its secrets. The monster was created against his will; his ambition was to requite his creation as an appalling outcast and to attain some satisfaction for crumbling the world around Victor. These three characters all acted upon the same blind ambition. The novel asks enduring questions about human nature and the relationship between God and man. The monster displays a similar kind of duality, inciting sympathy as well as dread in all who hear his tale. He requisitions our compassion to the extent that we recognize ourselves in his exceeding loneliness and compare our own life with the Creature. Despised by his creator and wholly alone and hated, he learns what he can of human nature as he eavesdroppes on a family of cottage dwellers, and he educates himself by reading three books that had fortunately fallen across his path, among them Paradise Lost. Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? (P. 93), the Creature asks himself after reading them. Even though the Creature commits criminal acts, the fact that he has a self-consciousness and his ability to educate himself as a person raises the question of what it really means to be human, what thoughts and emotions it takes to be considered a human-being. It is difficult to think of th e monster as anything less than just that in his entreaty for understanding from Frankenstein when the creature wishes to speak to him: Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow-creatures, who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me. (p. 71). When the Creatures unknown, but helpful acts of kindness toward the De Laceys are returned with baseless animosity, we come to wonder whether it is the world that the creature inhabits, as opposed to something intrinsic that caused him to commit enormity. Nonetheless, he clings on to a conscience and a zealous longing for another kind of existence as well as acceptance and love from another, which Victor cruelly denies him. Modern man is an example of the monster, estranged from his creator-who believes his own origins to be meaningless and accidental,non important and full of rage at the conditions of his existence as well as at his creator. Since the monster has no name of his own, hes not quite an autonomous fellow. Instead, he is bound to his creator. He is naught without Victor. He is as much a part of Frankenstein as he is his own self. The monster comes into the world by a pretty horrendous set of circumstances. He has the physique of a giant, yet a puerile mind. He has an amiable nature, yet his physical deformity hides his benevolence and makes everyone fear and abuse him. His own creator even rejected him because of his hideous looks. His feelings are the most deep and poignant of any characters in this novel, as well as the most conflicted. When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, the, a monster, a blot upon the earth from which all men fled and whom all men disowned? (P. 105) To make matters more complicated, the monster is correlated to both Adam and Satan in Paradise Lost. This may seem slightly nebulous. The thing to keep in mind is that the idea at the heart of the monster is his duality. He has a very abstruse duality. He is at once man in his immaculate state before the Fall (the Fall = evil), and yet the manifestation of evil itself. This is starting to sound like Victor Frankenstein. Abstruse dualityconflicting characterizationcould it be that the monster mirrors his maker in his duality? Of course, the other reason the monster turns on humans is because Victor was his last tie to humanity. The monster is one of many people in this text that is affected by loneliness, isolation, and an all around desire for companionship. Victor may have scorned him, resented him, and tried repeatedly to eradicate him, but at least he talked to the monster. At least he recognized the monsters existence. And for a creature that spent most of his wretched life in hiding and exile, alone without anyone there for him, this can be pretty good reason to pursue Victor. Good or bad, Victor is the only relation hes ever had and he tries desperately to cling to this relationship. Do we accuse him? Do we spite him? Do we adore him? Hes tenderhearted. He articulates well with others and he even rescues a little girl from a river. He just gets the cruelty and hatred because hes ugly. Can we blame him if he lashes out in abrupt and absurdly violent ways? From that moment he declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against Frankenstein who had formed him and sent him forth to this insupportable misery. (P. 99) This sounds like more clashing emotions. Could it be that we, the reader, feel the equivalent duality of emotions that the monster and Victor feel for each other? One more thing, what does it mean that the fmonster is made out of dead-person pieces? If hes made up out of people, then hes essentially a person himself. But if theyre inert, then hes never really extant in the first place. You could also say that, since hes an aggregate of human parts, hes also a conglomerate of human traits. This might show us the nature of his complex duality. Modern man is also Frankenstein, breaking ties and becoming further away from his creatorusurping the powers of God and irresponsibly tinkering with nature, even if they are full of benign purpose, it ends with malignant results. Although Frankenstein as well as the monster begin with good intentions and become murderers in the end, the monster seem way more softhearted than Victor because he is by nature the outsider of society, whereas Frankenstein purposely removes himself from human society. When Frankenstein first becomes enthralled in his endeavours to create life, as he collects materials from a slaughterhouse and disecting room. Frankenstein also breaks his ties with friends and family during his hindering work, and he becomes increasingly confined. His father reproaches him for this; eliciting Frankenstein to think to himself what his single-minded quest for knowledge has cost him, and whether or not it is morally acceptable. After he looks back on his mistakes, he concludes that, contrary to his credence at the time it was not worth it, If no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquility of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved; Caesar would have spared his country; America would have been discovered more gradually; and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed. (p. 35). Natural world is like Eden and will be corrupted through too much knowledge (science). [ProofBiblical Conception of Knowledge; man evicted from paradise for knowing too much; Prometheus reined in by Gods; novel written in Romantic era which upholds the values that Progress is Dangerous and that there must be a return to Idealized Past]. Through Victor and Walton, Frankenstein represents human beings as deeply ambitious, and yet also deeply erroneous. The labors of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind. (P. 29) Both Victor and Walton fantasize of transforming society and bringing prestige to themselves through their scientific conquests. Yet their ambitions also make them ignorant. Blinded by dreams of glory, they fail to consider the repercussions of their actions. So while Victor turns himself into a god, a creator, by bringing his monster to life, this only highlights his fallibility when he is ultima tely inept of fulfilling the obligation that a creator has to its creation. Victor thinks he will be like a god, but ends up the progenitor of a devil. Walton, at least, turns back from his quest to the North Pole before getting himself and his crew annihilated, after hearing Victors tale about the devastating aftermath of pushing the boundaries of exploration. I will not lead you on, unguarded and ardent as I then was, to your destruction and infallible misery. Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow. (P. 33) He learns from Victors tragedy. After Victor dies, he turns the ship back to England, trying not to make the same mistakes that Victor made in the obsessive compulsion that destroyed his life, but he does so with the resentful conclusion that he has been deprived of t he glory he originally sought. Frankenstein is an expostulation of humanity, specifically of the human concept of science, enlightenment, technical progress, and a deeply humanistic effort full of empathy for the human state of our own condition. Victor is a brilliant, sentimental, visionary, and accomplished young man whose studies in natural philosophy (p. 31) and chemistry evolve from A fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. (p. 22). As the novel develops and the plot thickens, Frankenstein and his monster oppose each other and fight one another for the portrayal of the main protagonist of the story. We are inclined to identify with Frankenstein, who is admired by his immaculate friends and family alike and even by the ship captain Robert, who saves him, berserk by his pursuit for vengeance, from the piece of ice he had been stranded on. He still is a human being, nevertheless. Notwithstanding, regardless of his humanitarian aspiration to Banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnera ble to any but a violent death! (p. 43), Frankenstein becomes tangled in a hostile pursuit that is the single and main cause that lead him to destroy his own well-being and to remove himself from his fellow-creatures as ifguilty of a crime (p. 35). His irresponsibility is the stimulant, the foundation of what causes the death of those around him, his family, his friends and his love and he falls under the ascendancy of his own creation and fails to break free from the chains that bind him. Neither Victor nor Walton could liberate themselves from their blinding ambitions, they made it seem that all men, and notably those who pursue to raise themselves up in renown above the rest of society and even god, are in fact impetuous and imperfect creatures with feeble and defective natures. We can all learn from Victors last words to Walton, Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. (P. 162)