Animal Testing Essays (2182 words) - Animal Testing, Animal Rights

Animal Testing Medicines, household products, food, and basically everything involved in the life of an average person has to under go a form of testing before it is legal to be placed on a shelf and if available to the public. The same tests are performed on every medical procedure that is introduced to surgeons. Since the only way to directly mimic the human body is to use it itself, scientists were forced to find the closest and best alternative. That is where animals were introduced to the medical profession. Experimentation on animals date back to as early as 500 BC, making this form of medical validation one of the oldest known to humans. It is not only one of the oldest but one of the most informative. Scientists use animals in medical research to study how the body works and how to diagnose, cure, and prevent disease. Researchers also use animals for tests to try to protect the public from dangerous chemicals, (Day, 13) such as those included in detergents, bleach, and other household products. When live animals are used in experimentation, this practice is called vivisection. Animals are used in many instances because their bodies often react in a similar way to that of a humans. Although animals have been used in medical research for numerous years it was not until the early 1920's that it became more prominent. It was at this point that the introduction of using live, un-anesthetized, animals to study toxic effects on an increasing array of drugs, pesticides and food additives was introduced. After this great advance in medical research the results of using animals grew with leaps and bounds. In 1970 this process peaked with the use of millions of animals. Since then, according to the USDA's Animals Welfare Enforcement, 1,267,828 animals were used for medical purposes in 1998, which is more than a 50 percent decrease since 1970. Although this is a drastic drop in animals used there have been many medical advances; virtually every medical break through this century has come about as the result of research with animals. (Office of Technology) Of the many animals used for experiments, about 90 percent of the animals used are rats, mice and other rodents. Animals such as these are used for two reasons, one because they are readily available upon request, and two because they are cheap which helps aid the large cost of animals experimentation. Although it has been proven, that in many cases, rats and mice are not an accurate subject to test medicines on; their popularity has only grown larger. Mechanize (a travel sickness drug) caused severe deformities in rats, but not in humans, whereas Thalidomide (a sedative drug) caused no reaction in rats but cause deformities in humans. This is only one of the many cases where mice and rats have been found as faulty test subjects. With the wide range of animals that are available, the tests the are used on them are even vaster. The tests are broken down into many different categories, which allows scientists to zero in on certain areas of testing and to specify results. The largest and most useful area of testing is called Toxicity Testing. In toxicity tests, animals are generally exposed to chemicals in ways that are meant to mimic human exposure, by ingestion, inhalation, skin contact and contact with the eyes. The type of animals used in this field include rodents, dogs, cats, fish, birds (chickens, hens, pigeons) rabbits, frogs, pigs, sheep, and primates. Toxicity testing is aimed at providing information, which can be used to attempt to protect society and the environment against the harmful effects of chemicals. (Boyd, 184) Eye irritancy tests, the largest and most controversial area in toxcity testing, began in 1920. It was introduced because soldiers were exposed to mustard gas in World War I, their eyes began to burn and some lost sight. To understand what the effects of the mustard gas more clearly scientist used rabbits as their test subjects. They would force they eyes of the rabbit open and let mustard gas fester for days, they would then compare their findings to the effects on humans. After this first introduction to the benefits of eye irritancy tests its use began more useful. This method of toxicity tests is now used to test everything from shampoo to pesticides. Anti-vivisection activists consider this type of testing the most cruel because it directly damages a vital part of an animals body. Also, it is very hard to repair the eye due to its

The Influence of Puritanism

The Influence of Puritanism Free Online Research Papers Taking into account the definition of Puritanism given by the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, it is â€Å"the beliefs and practices of the Puritans†. Therefore, a definition of Puritan is needed, and given by the same source it is â€Å"a person who has very strict moral attitudes and who thinks that pleasure is bad†. Puritans was the name given in the 16th century to a part of Protestants with the Church of England, who wanted to purify their national church. However, in the 17th century some Puritans separated from the Church of England. Many of these Puritans were Calvinists, who had intense theological convictions. Among other things, Puritans believed in the absolute sovereignty of God; in the total immorality of men (which was due to the concept of Original Sin); in the divine revelation; and in predestination, which means that personal salvation was dependent upon God, since He saves those He wishes. Furthermore, as they held that they had a direct relationship with God, no mediators were needed; this is the reason why they wanted the abolition of bishops. Finally, the beyond or the after life was something they strongly believed in. Puritans were here to work hard and not to have fun. So much so that they would not enjoy life on earth as much as they would enjoy life in the beyond. Having been born in a Calvinist family, this term of beyond appears in most of all Emily Dickinson’s poems. This approach to religion held that men were inherently sinful and most human were predestined to hell; nevertheless a small number would be saved only if they proclaimed their faith in Jesus Christ as the true savior. However, the works and influences of Emerson and other poets opened up in her spiritual ideas further than the strict Calvinism. Apart from Puritanism, she was also influenced by Transcendentalism; she opposed the idea of God as influencing her every move and thus governing her thoughts and beliefs towards her life. In addition, Transcendentalists believed in the union with the over-soul. Consequently, the influence of Puritanism -taking into account her father being a Calvinist, and thus his persuasion upon her- will be analyzed here. To accomplish this aim, â€Å"There’s a certain slant of light†, â€Å"I felt a funeral in my brain† and â€Å"The soul selects her own society† will be taken into consideration. To start with, in the first poem, â€Å"There’s a certain slant of light†, two features of Puritanism appear explicitly: the divine revelation and the existence of a beyond. The slant of light which she mentions is sent from above and has a purpose (â€Å"An imperial affliction/Sent us of the air†); it symbolizes the little knowledge she possesses in life. As a result, the beyond exists and it is something which contains the whole knowledge she will acquire when she dies. This slant of light brings meanings about Life and Death (which belong to the beyond), but it is just a representation of them, of the whole knowledge she will gain in the beyond. She will only have a full light when she dies. What is more, what is very oppressing for her is the fact that the disappearance of the slant of light makes her realize that she is not death yet (â€Å"When it goes,  ´t is like the distance/On the book of Death†). She will have to wait to get all the knowledge, which is only provided in the beyond. The second poem taken into consideration, â€Å"I felt a funeral in my brain†, relates to her funeral and how she approaches the beyond. To my way of thinking, it could be seen as the second part of the first poem, because she describes that she is dead and that she will gain the whole knowledge because she is entering the beyond. Once more, the beyond appears here as something beloved, as death is liberation of the limitations of life; instead of just seeing the slant of light, she will see the whole light. Now she will understand life –which is a mystery-, since in life she was ignorant. This idea can be seen in the last stanza: â€Å"And then a plank in reason broke,/And I dropped down and down-/And hit a world, at every plunge,/And finished knowing-then†. Finally, in the last poem chosen for this analysis, â€Å"The soul selects her own society†, not only does the beyond become evident again, but also the idea that the soul has previous knowledge, which in fact can be related to the belief of predestination. Consistent with the Puritan thinking, predestination is one of their core beliefs. This goes hand with hand with the absence of free will. In this poem, the soul possesses some previous knowledge which facilitates her to choose her own society (which can be an ideal, a religion, a lover, among other things), and after doing this the soul closes her doors to the rest options. Moreover, the beyond emerges one more time. This concept does not only mean the idea of an after life, but also of a â€Å"before life†. Before she is born, her soul already possesses knowledge, which is decreased when she is in fact living, although she is always receiving â€Å"slants of light†. Afterwards, the beyond appears another tim e in the after life, when she dies. Though, the idea of predestination is stronger here than the idea of the beyond. As mentioned before, the soul has got some previous knowledge that will not change; God had already decided that He will save that person. The first stanza â€Å"The soul selects her own society,/Then shuts the door;/On her divine majority/Obtrude no more† is a clear example of how this previous knowledge is a tool to choose the best option and hence, not to change her mind. For the above mentioned reasons, the beyond is an important characteristic of the Puritan thought. Most of Dickinson’s poems are related to the beyond, and how desirable and pleasing will be to be able to have complete knowledge of Life and Death. The oppressing fraction is the between, the part in which she is alive and she simply has little knowledge. Death is not seen as something unwilling to reach; on the contrary, is something that brings satisfaction and fulfillment since she is no longer ignorant; it is merely in the beyond where she owns comprehension and understanding of everything. Research Papers on The Influence of PuritanismComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesMind TravelThree Concepts of Psychodynamic19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsEffects of Television Violence on Children

Write an annotation entry consisting of a Citation, a brief Summary, Annotated Bibliography

Write an annotation entry consisting of a Citation, a brief Summary, and a short paragraph Evaluation of the text below - Annotated Bibliography Example Research by Kolbert in four continents shows that human activities threaten all species that inhabit the planet. According to Kolbert, large numbers of plants and animals are dying. Kolbert says in that â€Å"Up to 50 percent of all living species are in danger of disappearing by the end of the century.† The information in the video is vital because the balance of the ecosystem is declining rapidly. The different species that inhabit the earth are the reason for the existence of sustainable environment for all of us. Activities such as â€Å"†¦fossil fuel consumption, ocean acidification, pollution, deforestation, forced migration†¦Ã¢â‚¬  among others, kill plant and animals (Kolbert n.p.). As a result, a harsh environment that cannot support life develops. The information in the video is sensitive to a balanced environmental existence that every individual desire. To sum up, the creation of sustainable communities through green action plans is an imperative key for human survival. The sustainability is achievable through reducing overreliance on fossil fuel, minimizing the levels of carbonates and sulphates in oceans, and encouraging afforestation. Land reclamation in areas where pollution due to human activities is also an important gesture of commitment to restore a safer environment for all species. As such, all green movement societies should raise their eyebrows and condemn human activities that disrupt the balance of the

European Union Law Bachelor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

European Union Law Bachelor - Essay Example Everyday, we checked on our television to know the latest news about our community, about stocks and investments, about movies and of what's happening all over the world. Since the first television broadcast in England in 1936, using a modern level of definition of more than 240 lines, new developments had been made including CableCARD , Digital television (DTV), Digital Video Recorders, Direct Broadcast Satellite TV (DBS), DVD, High Definition TV (HDTV) and many others. Through television, a lot of telecommunication companies has been put up which provides work for millions of people. It is where product commercials are aired. It is also where public concerns and responsibilities were discussed. While each and every national government has set up its own rules with regards to telecommunication, the European Union has also set its guidelines and policies to maintain and level the playing fields of the telecommunication competition. In this era where digital technologies were making its way to communication highways and prospectively play a much bigger role in the future, the European Union has identified the needs of introducing digital technologies harmoniously into the market. ... on Law in the light of the European courts of Luxenbourg considering the aims of competition law in the EU, and the history of European competition law. In this paper, the main elements of the European Union with regards to digital Television (DTV) and High Definition Television (HDTV) will be critically assessed. There are 6 different areas of audiovisual activities which are covered by the commission. According to the Principles and guidelines for the Community's audiovisual policy in the digital age (2005), On the basis of these principles, the Commission intends to take action in the following fields: cultural and linguistic diversity; the new "Media plus" programme, considered to be of crucial importance for the future of the European audiovisual industry. In all areas of action (training, development, distribution, promotion) this new programme will take account of the new digital environment. Research and development. The Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Development provides for a number of action lines of interest to the audiovisual sector. The external dimension of Community audiovisual policy will necessarily hinge around two central elements: the enlargement of the European Union and the new round of multilateral trade negotiations in the framework of the World Trade Organisation. The "Television without Frontiers "Directive This Directive which was adopted in 1989 and revised in 1997, based from Television broadcasting activities: "Television without Frontiers" (TVWF) Directive (2006) is the cornerstone of the European Union's audiovisual policy. Its two basic principles were: the free movement of European television programmes within the internal market; and the requirement that television channels, where practicable, reserve over half

The Efficacy of Counseling with Native Americans Essay

The Efficacy of Counseling with Native Americans - Essay Example In this paper, an assessment of possibilities that contribute to certain observable counseling efficacy values among Native Americans is made. The challenges faced by this ethnic group will be used to create the link that counseling process seeks to establish in the discourse. Four questions attempting to answer issues touching on unique historical perspectives, counseling process complexities, cultural interaction issues and spirituality are used in the design. The research reveals that it’s necessary for therapists to consider Native American cultural history when establishing the counseling process. The research also details a number of specific actions that should be considered, including linguistic and body language elements that aid the counseling process. The counselors must also be aware of their own biases in relation to the client. Finally, it’s indicated that the incorporation of Native American spirituality could greatly aid the therapist in the counseling p rocess. The Efficacy of Counseling with Native Americans Introduction The context of Native Americans is created with an understanding of the ethnic group’s history and cultural setting. ... However, very little information is available regarding the Native American suffering at the hands of slave masters, when compared with the famous African slave trade. The sensitive developments that the political arena in the United States exposed this group to are still fresh in the memories of a majority of the Americans, which brings nasty reactions among them. Cases of rejection, neglect and discrimination from certain sections of their aggressors appear in the broader image of a Native American. For counseling clients with such a historical background, it becomes difficult to appreciate the impact of counseling in confronting such challenges, unless a bold journey is taken to discover such a past acting as an impediment to the counseling process. How do historical injustice and modern racial discrimination issues affect counseling processes among Native Americans? To shed more light on the tumultuous historical background that the Native Americans have had to experience would p erhaps facilitate an understanding that would assist therapists to carry out a comprehensive counseling process. As briefly observed above, scars of mistreatment in the hands of foreign aggression by the European-backed slave trade would perhaps act as one of the biggest hindrances to successful therapy. Due to a rich cultural heritage and traditional cohesion practices that bound this â€Å"minority† group, roots of bitter past must haunt them in the hands of public mistreatment and racial discrimination. According to Trabich (1997), there must be some form of remnant heritage that has facilitated passing on of old wounds to the current Native American community to bear witness of untold atrocities that were committed against them.

New Public Management (NPM) in Secure Training Centres

New Public Management (NPM) in Secure Training Centres 1. Introduction The management and organization of the public services in the UK became an issue of intense debate and discussion in the early eighties, coming under intense pressure for large-scale change. This demand to bring about wide ranging transformation in the working of the public administration arose mainly because of the negative perceptions of the conservative government about public sector working, especially concerning issues like bureaucratic inefficiency, lack of commitment, misallocation of funds, and overstaffing. The surfacing of new organisational configurations, roles, and cultures led to extensive questioning of well recognized and firmly established public sector patterns and to the challenging of standardised and professionalized welfare state agencies. Subsequent privatization and restructuring in numerous different public organisations led to the development of New Public Management, a broad based concept that spread to other states like the USA, Australia, and especially N ew Zealand, where its implementation became extensive. Over the years, the implementation of New Public Management (NPM) has come under increasing criticism. Public and media disillusionment at its failure to solve many problematic issues related to older methods of public governance, have tended to go hand in hand with the realisation that old fashioned public organisations also had several positive factors, which were necessary to the approach and working of public services.. These included a measure of stability, lack of personnel turnover, an insistence on required process, fairness in treatment, integrity, and answerability. Qualities like these, which constituted the other side of public sector working and had come to be largely accepted, and possibly ignored, during the debate on the need for change , came to the fore, especially in the case of public institutions or departments that dealt in areas of social responsibility, like, for example, the health, justice, and child welfare systems. One such area of increasing public anxiety and media debate concerns the working of Secure Training Centres (STCs) for young offenders under NPM methodology and practice. These institutes, which come under the purview and control of the Youth Justice Board, (YJB) are responsible for the secure custody, training, and rehabilitation of young offenders sentenced to custodial terms. STCs aim to ensure the smooth reintegration of their wards into society at the end of their custody periods, through required counselling, education and training. Their success is critical to (a) ensuring reduction of reoffending incidents, (b) rerouting the lives of disturbed young people, (c) motivating them to forsake criminal options, (d) building up their employment and earning skills, and (d) facilitating their reintegration with society. The area has come into sharp focus in recent months because of the introduction of rules empowering officials to use force under specific circumstances, and the suicid e of a young inmate following an episode of forceful restraint. This essay aims to study and analyse the use of NPM practices in the working of Secure Training Centres in the UK. The study of New Public Management, until now, has remained restricted to the domain of researchers and scholars of public administration, with business school professors preferring to focus on the working of private companies. While this is surprising considering the contribution of not-for-profit institutions and voluntary associations in the development of organization theory, a number of scholarly studies and research assignments on public sector organisations do exist. Some of these, along with information available on the internet and from media reports have served as information sources for this assignment. 2. Commentary a. Origins of New Public Management The public and private sectors constitute the two broad divisions of society, with their institutional separation evident on a global basis. The public sector comprises of organisations that belong to the entity known as the ‘state’ or the ‘government’. However, its scope is much wider than that associated with either of these two well-known concepts and contains, in its ambit, numerous kinds of governmental actions at diverse levels, varieties of public finance, as well as general public governance and regulation. Historically the role of the public sector in national life has moved through various stages, from being minimal in the nineteenth century, through a period characterised by social reformism and greater involvement of the government in public affairs, in the first half of the twentieth century, to that of the welfare state of the post war years. The welfare state functioned in the UK from the end of the Second World War, until well into the 1980s. It came into being on the assumption that private organisations, meaning charitable bodies, did not have either the resources or the competence to look after weaker sections and that the state needed to take care of its citizens from birth to death. These welfare services thereafter became the functions of professional public sector employees, specifically chosen and trained to handle their responsibilities. The concept of the welfare state came under severe criticism and pressure for change from the conservatives because of its many perceived deficiencies, chief among which were the rationing attitude of public servants, who (because of their war years mentality), were unable to respond to the needs of a changed citizenry, the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of public sector officials, and the greed of public sector trade unions, who put their own needs before those of their communities. Widespread changes in the role of public administration led to privatisation of numerous public sector organisations and their eclipse from the economic sector. In social and community sectors the conservatives pushed the concept of the enabling state, where planning and funding would remain within the responsibility of the state, while service provision would devolve upon private players. Privatisatisation, experts felt, would help not only in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of provisioning of services, but also in its responsiveness to individual requirement. (Ferlie, Mclaughlin and Osborne, 2002) This approach in public sector approach, which came to be known as NPM, owes its origins first, to a distrust of bureaucracy and public administration to provide public services with economy, efficiency, and effectiveness, and second, to an apprehension concerning the incorrect use of professional powers by bureaucrats, leading to the possible disempowerment of general community members. Although considerable debate and contention still exists over the exact implications of NPM, there is broad consensus over its seven important components. (a) a focus on hands-on and entrepreneurial management, as opposed to the traditional bureaucratic focus of the public administrator (b) explicit standards and measures of performance,(c) an emphasis on output controls, (d) the importance of the disaggregation and decentralization of public services, (e) a stress on private sector styles of management and their superiority, (f) a shift to the promotion of competition in the provision of public services, and (g) the promotion of discipline and parsimony in resource allocation (Ferlie, Mclaughlin and Osborne, 2002) One important spin off that arose from these tenets was the development of an enlarged emphasis upon outsourcing services by public sector organisations from private service providers in many sectors, including in those responsible for health, childcare, and prison management. b. Young Offenders and Secure Training Centres Statistics and information available from official websites and other information sources on crime and offending by young people in the UK reveal the issue to be one of great worry and concern. Young offenders come under the purview of the Youth Justice Board, (YJB) an established non-governmental public body, charged with preventing offending by young people and children through the formulation and use of measures for prevention of crime, identification and dealing with young offenders, and reduction of reoffending. YJB figures indicate that approximately 150,000 people enter the justice system each year, nearly half of whom are of school age. The percentages of young people coming into the purview of the YJB from black or mixed race backgrounds are significantly higher than their actual demographic distribution, especially in the under 16 groups. While nearly 75 % of the young offenders are let off with reprimands, curfews and fines, 17 percent are sentenced to community work while 4 %, i.e., around 600 young people receive custodial sentences. Custodial sentences vary from 4 months to two years and normally need serving in conjunction with a certain amount of community work. Custodial arrangements are of three types, Secure Children’s Homes, (SCHs) Secure Training Centres (SCTs) and Young Offender Institutions (YOIs). SCHs and SCTs house children aged between 12 and 17, whereas YOIs house young offenders aged 15 to 21, with people aged 15 to 17 and 18 to 21 held in separate enclosures. YJB officials decide upon the place of custody after considering relevant factors that include assessments of vulnerability, needs of other young people in custody, and availability of custodial accommodation. An overwhelming proportion of the young people who enter the youth justice system come from deprived and disadvantaged backgrounds and many have histories of substance misuse, mental health problems and economically weak, disturbed or disrupted family backgrounds. Their educational backgrounds, in comparison with the general population, are also extremely deficient. Surveys reveal that 81 % of the sentenced boys were not going to school, at the time of sentencing, and 41 % had not gone to school at all after 14. In fact, a startling 75 % of the offenders appearing before the youth justice courts have histories of temporary or permanent school exclusion. Many of them have special counselling and mental health needs that require urgent attention. (Background paper, 2000) While the young people who come into the custodial system share backgrounds of severe disadvantage, deprivation and exclusion from school, the people who exit from YOIs, SCHs and SCTs have a marked predilection to return to offending actions. The number of reoffenders is extremely high with approximately four out of five (78 %) young persons sentenced to custody reoffending within one year. Statistics reveal that the proclivity to offend in these people continues in later years and 40 % of ex prisoners have a history of being young offenders. (Background paper, 2000) Prima facie, it does appear that the custodial system currently in practice, (the result of policy changes, public private participation, NPM, and outsourcing of governmental activities to private players) has not only been unable to meet its objectives but is possibly worsening with time. Considering that it costs twice as much to educate a young person in custody than outside, the whole situation is nothing les than a scathing indictment of the NPM system in childcare, children’s education, and youth justice in the UK. Exclusion from school becomes a major causal factor in offending and the occurrence of crime, which in turn leads the state to arrange for dispensation of justice, housing of children in custody, and providing for their training and education. While considerable public effort and expense goes into this process, the continuance of reoffending indicates the occurrence and continuance of large-scale systemic failure, notwithstanding the laudatory comments of the YJB on the effectiveness of the youth justice system. The present custodial system, of which STCs are an integral part, is representative of NPM and public private participation, in which governmental departments, local authorities and private players play similar and overlapping roles. Vulnerable young people, aged between 12 and 17 stay in these institutions while serving custodial sentences. Apart from housing them in restricted secure surroundings these institutions are under governmental mandate to provide counselling, education and training in order to (a) facilitate their reintegration into the broader community, (a) increase their earning ability, (c) help them to disengage from criminal actions and (d) eliminate their proclivity to reoffend. While Secure Training Centres, Secure Children’s Homes and Young Offenders Institutions all come under the purview of the YJB and form part of the custodial system, their control falls under different institutions. While all of the seventeen YOIs are run by the prison service, all bu t one of the fifteen SCHs are run by local authorities, and the four SCHs are run by private service providers. c. Management and Administration of SCTs Secure Training Centres are establishments specially built for housing young offenders up to the age of 17 and are representative of NPM concepts, which while keeping planning and funding of public service with the state, call for service provisioning by the private sector. Private agencies, appointed after appraisal and selection, run these institutions under contracts that contain detailed terms and operational requirements. At present, there are four STCs in England, at Oakhill in Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire, at Hassockfield in Consett, County Durham, at Rainsbrook in Rugby, Northamptonshire, and at Medway in Rochester, Kent. These establishments have accommodation for 58 to 87 persons with not more than eight places in each house. The total population of STCs is currently about 270. The formation of STCs represents a major governmental initiative in bringing about much needed reform in the youth justice system. Conceived in the initial years of the 2000s, STCs aim to play a major role in rehabilitating young offenders and ensuring their integration in normal community life. While the original plan envisaged the progressive establishment of 31 STCs, only four are in operation, with the functioning of some of them coming in for trenchant criticism. STCs are responsible for housing vulnerable young people sentenced to custody or remanded to secure accommodation and have a wide ranging and demanding set of responsibilities, which include (a) provisioning of secure housing, (b) taking care of the individual and collective needs of the trainees, including nutrition, hygiene, cleanliness, physical activity, medical aid, and absence of substance misuse, (c) providing focussed and tailored programmes for education and vocational development (d) ensuring appropriate couns elling and treatment for disturbed children and (e) fostering links with their home communities. Their responsibilities are not just onerous but critical because of their enormous potential to influence the lives of young people, who, because of socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, commit offences that involve custodial sentencing. Many of the trainees are vulnerable, have lived traumatised lives in environments of economic deprivation, substance misuse, and domestic violence, and need help from expert and trained professionals. â€Å"The report accepts that many of the 10 to 17-year-olds held in young offender institutions, secure training centres and local authority secure childrens homes have had chaotic and abusive childhoods and lack clear boundaries to their behaviour.† (Child jail restraint criticised, 2006) The effectiveness of these institutions is causal in the trainees choosing to enter normal society or returning to their familiar environs of socia l exclusion, repeated offending, and criminality. STCs are contractually bound to provide these services effectively and all employees require undergoing specific training programmes. Counselling, social and medical services are available from the local social and medical infrastructure. All secure training centres are also required to undergo periodic checks from external governmental agencies as well as watchdogs like Ofsted for assessment of actual service levels. While STCs are undoubtedly fulfilling a vital need in custodial requirements, their major failure relates to their inability to reduce reoffending, which at 79 %, points to a gross failure in their major objective of rehabilitation. Inspection reports also point to disparities in the efficiency and effectiveness of different STCs, the absence of improvement between periodic inspections and non-implementation of recommendations. This is also supported by intermittent incidents involving the use of forceful restraint, which in the recent past was possibly causal in the su icide of an inmate, (with a history of mental disturbance), and attracted significant media attention and debate. The running of STCs is especially difficult because it involves functions that on occasion contradict each other and exert immense pressure on the people running these institutions. Secure custody, on one hand, involves dealing with young people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, have committed serious offences, and possess attitudes that are possibly brutalised and dangerous, necessitating the use of restrictive custodial measures and force, if the situation so demands. On the other hand, trainees need to care, empathy, and deep understanding of the reasons that have led them to their current states. These functions, of prison keepers and social workers, are mutually contradictory and create significant tensions when required of the same group of people. Private organizations, when faced with these demands, respond with systems designed to meet these differing requirements but remain inherently flawed because of their inherent contradictions. These organisations are also not f unded by open-ended or liberal funding schemes and have both cost constraints and profit motives that are bound to influence their working. Employees who work in such organisations generally to the profiles of members of marketised institutions, give their careers and individual progress preference, and lack both the commitment or ideology of charitable workers, and the job security of public sector employees. Expecting these private sector managers and employees to adapt to such challenging needs creates enormous tensions. A number of inspection reports have pointed to the high incidence of turnover, a phenomenon that automatically leads to breaks and discontinuities in relationships between the workers and trainees and results in the emergence of destabilizing conditions, especially where mentally disturbed children are involved. Services at Oakhill Secure Training Centre are inconsistent, with evidence that poor practice is being institutionalised, inspectors concluded yesterday. A Commission for Social Care Inspection probeof the centre for 80 young offenders in Milton Keynes last June found its progress had slowed since a previous inspection in May 2005. While safeguarding had improved since the previous inspection, where this area was criticised, progress was reliant on one particular manager. The inspection also found services at the facility, run by Group 4 Securicor, were ran in isolation with considerable scope for integrating health, education, substance misuse and other services (Samuel, 2007) Investigations into the suicide of thirteen-year-old Alisha Ishmail, the child prostitute who died of a drug overdose in a Camden Town after escaping from a secure home, link her mental state to the number of homes she had to move to during her period in care, and to the consequent breakdown of helpful relationships. Philip Haynes, in his treatise on â€Å"Managing Complexity in the Public Services† refers to the contradictions and tensions that arise when general management ideas used in profit oriented private businesses are imported and applied to the running of public service organisations. While their use is possibly effective in the running of utilities, enormous contradictions and tensions arise on the application of these tenets in public service institutions like the one under study. Policy makers need to realize that the business policies used by Unilever executives are not usable in looking after their disturbed teenagers, and that furthermore these very executives, however effective they may be in their functions, will never apply the strategies used with business suppliers to solve issues in home environments. Public officials who insist upon the need for using force for dealing with these children need to realise that these children do not fill the profiles of errant suppliers who need taming and that the suicides of 15 year old Gareth Myatt and 14 year old Adam Rickwood could have been avoided if STC officials gave adequate attention to their mental health needs, instead of using heavily built workers to restrain them and twist their noses in order to cause painful and temporary incapacitation. 3. Conclusion New Public Management, in its essence, involves the import of private sector management methods, perceived to be competitive, efficient, economic, objective and effective into public sector organisations. While these methods do have relevance in certain public undertakings, especially where they concern issues like utilities and transport, they prove to be of limited relevance in institutions that deal with servicing the community, childcare, health services, and the care and rehabilitation of young offenders, as well as mentally disturbed adult prisoners being prime examples of such areas. As Haynes points out the introduction of methods based upon economic and practical considerations in such people oriented sectors leads to the development of numerous contradictions and the generation of enormously complex situations that debilitate the working and structure of involved organizations. (Haynes, 2003) Policy makers need to consider these issues seriously and realise the inadequacy of catchall solutions and detached systematic working in areas that need individual attention for effective results. In the case of STCs appropriate solutions would include the introduction of far more detailed mental health examinations of new entrants, especially in consultation with relatives, greater emphasis upon communication with trainees, increased interaction of trainees with social workers, separation of custodial and rehabilitation functions, measures to reduce staff turnover and increase monitoring of staff behaviour, and strict vigilance on use of forceful restraining measures. The private sector argument of most of these suggestions leading to cost ineffectiveness and inefficient working needs outright rejection considering the enormous financial and social costs of the current, ostensibly â€Å"efficient† system. References Background Paper, (2000) Education of young people supervised by the youth justice system, Retrieved August 3, 2007 from www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/BACKGROUND PAPER -finaldraft (1).doc – Box, R. C., Marshall, G. S., Reed, B., Reed, C. M. (2001) New Public Management and Substantive Democracy. Public Administration Review, 61(5), 608. Child jail restraint criticised, (2006), BBC News, Retrieved August 3, 2007 from news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/4722652.stm Doherty, T. L., Horne, T. (2002). Managing Public ServicesImplementing Changes: A Thoughtful Approach to the Practice of Management. London: Routledge. Ferlie, E., Ashburner, L., Fitzgerald, L., Pettigrew, A. (1996). The New Public Management in Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press Hood, C., Peters, G. (2004). The Middle Aging of New Public Management: Into the Age of Paradox?. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 14(3), 267+. Lane, J. (2000). New Public Management. London: Routledge. Mclaughlin, K., Osborne, S. P., Ferlie, E. (Eds.). (2002). New Public Management: Current Trends and Future Prospects. London: Routledge. Haynes, P. (2003) Chapter 1, Management, professions and the public service context in Managing Complexity in the Public Services Maidenhead: Open University Press, Samuel, M, 2007, Services at Oakhill Secure Training Centre inconsistent, warn inspectors, Community Care, Retrieved August 3, 2007 from www.communitycare.co.uk Thomas, C. J. (1999). Managers, Part of the Problem? Changing How the Public Sector Works. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Van Slyke, D. M. (2002). The Public Management Challenges of Contracting with Nonprofits for Social Services. International Journal of Public Administration, 25(4), 489+.

Good Readers and B

Good Readers are Re-Readers 1. The introduction ends after the first paragraph. The method of introduction that Vladimir Nabokov uses is using interesting quotes to reel the reader in. 2. The thesis is that to be a good writer, you must be a good reader. This has no real location in the writing, because it is not directly said. This makes the thesis implicit. 3. The author’s tone in this piece sounds very critical of writers at the beginning, but near the end his tone becomes just instructive instead. 4. The rhetorical devices Nabokov uses are plentiful in the section.He uses point of view, compare and contrast, rhetorical questions, metania, and amplification of the word reader and writer. 5. Passages that capture my attention and arouse reaction would be the third paragraph (because of its skepticism and amount of rhetorical questions), the fourth paragraph (because of its contrast of minor and real authors), the seventh (because it says what characteristics a good reader mu st have), and the third from last one (because of the other things a write should be, and the contrast between minor and major writers). . According to Nabokov, a good writer is one that is a good reader. He must also create a whole new world in his work, ponder how the mind works, and be an inventor, a storyteller, a teacher, and an enchanter. 7. The author’s organization is when describing one aspect of being a good reader or writer, it somehow ties into the topic of the next paragraph. This is how he connects the different parts. 8.Even though there is no real conclusion to the essay, the author wraps it up by explaining the four keys to being a good author. 9. Nabokov uses humor in the essay to keep the readers attention. Examples would be when he explains the good-reader list and explaining that experiment and the examples of the boy who cried wolf. 10. Vladimir Nabokov mentions that he was on a lecture tour, which means he is an admired professor. This gives you some cr edibility in your mind.But, he also uses point of view, which means that the things he is saying is not the end all and be all characteristics of good readers and writers. 11. From reading this essay my reaction is more from an educational standpoint than one of emotion. I learn that that to be a good writer, I must be a good reader. I like how Vladimir is skeptical and a little cynical like myself. I also liked how he used some fluff, but it wasn’t enough where I was bored. I was entertained throughout the essay.