Google Financial Analysis

Google Competitive Strategy: Financial Analsis 5. Have Google’s business model and strategy proven to be successful? Should investors be impressed with the company’s financial performance? How does the company’s financial performance compare to that of Microsoft and Yahoo? Please conduct a financial analysis to support your position—you may wish to use the financial ratios presented in the Table 4. 1 of the text as a guide in doing your financial analysis of the company.Throughout the course of its life thus far as an entity, Google has enjoyed great success as one of the world’s leading search engine giants. Although the company’s operations are extremely diversified, Google has taken strides since its initial offering in 2004 to establish its dominance over competitors in Internet advertising. Google continues to add products, services, and features to its arsenal, which in turn increases traffic to their websites and gives them increased o pportunities to advertise.Google’s original stock price on the date of their IPO was $85, fast forward eight years and the stock currently trades at $761. 78. Steps such as the acquisition of YouTube in 2006, the introduction of the Android in 2008, their Google TV initiative, and the continuing development and sophistication of Google Apps, have all contributed to this almost 800% appreciation. While all of these strategic maneuvers have been more than satisfying for investors’ pockets, the bulk of Google’s earnings remain in advertising. In 2009, 96. 8% of Google’s total revenue came from advertising, over half of which were ads outside the United States. It is misleading to compare Google’s stock (GOOG) to that of Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) solely on the basis of price, since their prices are exponentially lower than Google’s because investors rely on dividend payouts rather than stock appreciation to provide returns. However, a mo re accurate depiction of performance can be observed when comparing the stock value of the three firms on a percentage change basis.From January 2006 through December 2010, Google’s stock appreciated 44. 35%. Compare this to Microsoft’s 6. 5%, Yahoo’s -57. 22%, and the S&P 500 index’s -0. 86%. This shows that not only did Google significantly outperform its two major competitors; it left the entire S&P index in the dust as well. Some other financial measures to consider are return on equity (ROE), earnings per share (EPS), and the current ratio. Return on equity is a measure of the return shareholders are earning on their investment in the company. In 2010 Google reported ROE of 20. 8%, meaning that for every dollar of equity capital, they are earning over 20%. Compare this to Yahoo’s 9. 83% and Microsoft’s 43. 76%. Generally the higher the ROE, the happier the investors are. EPS on the other hand measures the company’s earnings for e ach share of common stock outstanding. In 2010 Google boasted an EPS of $26. 69, whereas Yahoo and Microsoft reported per-share earnings of $0. 91 and $2. 13 respectively. This large gap can be attributed to the fact that Google has significantly less shares of common stock outstanding than the two competitors.Finally, the current ratio is a measure of the company’s ability to pay short-term obligations with readily available assets. In 2010 Google’s current ratio of 4. 16 nearly doubled that of Yahoo and Microsoft who reported 2. 67 and 2. 13 respectively. This ratio demonstrates Google’s superior liquidity in comparison with its competitors Not only has Google dominated market share in the industry, in 2010 Google was the world’s most-visited Internet site, with close to 147 million views each month.This goes hand in hand with the fact that people â€Å"Google† things when they need an answer, they don’t â€Å"Yahoo† a question or à ¢â‚¬Å"Bing† it. Works Cited All historical stock prices, percentages, and figures were provided by Yahoo! Finance. â€Å"AAPL: Summary for Apple Inc. – Yahoo! Finance. † Yahoo! Finance. N. p. , n. d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013. â€Å"GOOG: Summary for Google Inc. – Yahoo! Finance. † Yahoo! Finance. N. p. , n. d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013. â€Å"YHOO: Summary for Yahoo! Inc. – Yahoo! Finance. † Yahoo! Finance. N. p. , n. d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

Persuasive Essay: Legalizing Marijuana Essay

Marijuana use is on the rise, especially among teenagers and young adults. With the recent laws passed in eight states about legalizing medical marijuana , many stand divided when it comes to this never ending debate, but I firmly believe that this miracle working drug should be legalized throughout the United States. Marijuana is by far the most commonly used illegal drug. Statistics show that over 70 million Americans have tried Marijuana and over 20 million smoked it last year. So it is safe to assume that although marijuana use may decrease in the years to come, as did Heroin and LSD, it is here to stay. Colorado, Nevada, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon & Washington have already passed laws allowing the use of medical Marijuana. In the fall of 1996, California voters approved the medical marijuana initiative (proposition 215). The act is entitled The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 and its purpose is to give Californians the right to possess and grow marijuana for medical purposes, where the medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a doctor who has determined the person’s health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of Cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraines, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief. Nothing in the act permits persons using marijuana for medical purposes to engage in conduct that endangers others, allows distribution of marijuana for non medical purposes or permits the buying or selling of marijuana. Dennis Peron, the man who launched proposition 215 also started the cannabis buyers club in San Francisco. The purpose behind starting this club was to distribute weed to AIDS, cancer and other patients. With only a doctors note the club’s 12,000  members could buy pot and then relax while listening to music, nothing harmful at all! And of course the San Francisco police department eventually closed the club down. The main idea behind legalizing drugs is it’s medical advantages. Marijuana is said to have many uses as healing drug. Marijuana being used as medicine has been studied for many years. In many cultures it is used as medicine and stems back many generations. The first recorded use of marijuana as medicine was in China. It has been said that in Pen Tsao Ching during the first or second century, boiled hemp compound was used as an anesthetic for surgical patients. The compound is said to have many uses including, clearing the blood, cooling temperature, clearing fluxes, undoing rheumatism and discharging pus from patients. China isn’t the only country to use this drug in early times it was introduced in Southeast Asia in the sixteenth century. Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam are said to have current uses of marijuana for medicine. In Cambodia they have an enormous list of uses, including, treating malaria, reliving asthma, calming the nerves, regulating the heart and treati ng paralysis. In Thailand, it’s used in folk medicine as well as in the official medical reports. In folk medicine, people dry the leaves and then boil them to treat migraines and dizzy spells. Marijuana has survived the passing of time and still helps the sick today. The advanced stages of treatment for patients with Cancer, AIDS and other diseases often include, terrible nausea, vomiting, and different types of pain. Patients have reported much relief from these devastating symptoms by using marijuana. The alleviation of said symptoms can be so striking that some patients and their families having been willing to risk jail time to obtain or grow marijuana. Marijuana must be studied and tested more to prove effectiveness but because it is not legal, doctors don’t want to study a drug that they could never use. In 1988 administrative law judge Francis Young found that marijuana in it’s natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. At present it is estimated that marijuana’s lethal dose is around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. Or simply put, a smoker would theoretically have to  consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette or joint, nearly 1500 pounds of marijuana in about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response. Which basically means marijuana is non-lethal, as it is impossible to consume that much in such a short amount of time. Advocates of legalization raise several points. They claim the there would be fewer people selling drugs because it would be regulated and profits would be cut. They also claim that drug-dealing criminals would virtually vanish causing crime and violence rates to plummet. Legalizing marijuana raises a lot of questions for instance, who would sell the drugs? Private companies? The government? How would legalization affect health insurance and the overall cost of healthcare? And probably the most important question of all, would the use of legalized drugs by employees in certain occupations be prohibited? Since marijuana can remain in the body for weeks after use, would marijuana use by employees in jobs in which safety and security are issues be forbidden, even when off the clock? What about airline pilots, surgeons, police, firefighters, military personnel, bus drivers, railroad engineers, cross country truckers, nuclear reactor operators and even wall street brokers and teachers As far as America is concerned, we are the land of the free . Or are we? Do people have a right to â€Å"get high†? As times change and we progress into the future should our laws change as well? Only time will tell as the war against drugs wages on and the fight to le galized marijuana leaves a country divided. Work Cited LaFave, Kathi. Marijuana As Medicine?. www.personal.umd.umich.edu/marcyb/mj/lafave.html.online.1999 Miller, Lawrence Richard. The Case For Legalizing Drugs. New York: Praeger, 1991 Schaler, Jeffrey A. Drugs. New York: Prometheus Books, 1998 Zimmer, Lynn, Morgan ,John P. Marijuana Myths Marijuana Facts. New York: Lindesmith Center, 1997.

A researcher strongly believes Essay

1.A researcher strongly believes that physicians tend to show female nurses less attention and respect than they show male nurses. she sets up an experimental study involving observations of health clinics in different conditions. In explaining the study to the physicians and nurses who will participate, what steps should the researcher take to eliminate experimental bias based on both experimenter expectations and participant expectations.? The first step should be to consider that using an experiment in clinical conditions is a bad idea. An ethnographic study might be a better approach. The next step should be to consider what is really being studied. Is the point of the study to determine how physicians treat female nurses when compared to male nurses, or is it to determine the degree of difference? Would the individual’s gender (both that of the doctor and that of the nurse) make a difference? The results of a study would not be valid without considering the possibility that it is gender, not sex, that makes the difference. If pressed to design this experiment, I would gain permission to do the observation (or experiment, if you prefer). Then I would ask the doctors and nurses involved to participate in training vignettes. I would film the vignettes so that my work could be triangulated by other researchers. I would have a research assistant play the role of a patient, but would not disclose to the doctor and nurse that this was not a real patient. I would ask the doctor(s) to film the training vignette, perhaps of the way to decide whether or not to order a particular type of test, twice. The first time they would be given a male or female nurse; the second time, the reverse. The videos would be observed by myself and a research diary kept, with my personal feelings about the vignettes and the participant’s actions recorded so that any bias could be accounted for later. I would write my conclusions about the individual’s behaviors. Then, I would have two other researchers do the same. The conclusions of the three researchers would be compared and if two of the researchers had the same opinion about the behaviors of the physician, that opinion would be recorded as the official observation. The outlier observation would be recorded and archived. If the time was available I would film each physician six times: with a masculine male nurse, with a feminine male nurse, with a masculine female nurse, with a feminine female nurse, and with an obviously transgender male and female. The repetitive nature of doing this could easily be explained by saying the â€Å"client† was not clear what they wanted yet. 2.In what ways is the â€Å"fight-or-flight response helpful to humans in emergency situations? The fight or flight response helps the individual who is in an emergency situation to get the â€Å"blood pumping† so that the body can effectively run, or fight. The heart rate goes up; the individual may sweat or develop goose bumps. The sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system governs flight or fight. Once the emergency is over – or perhaps, there never was an emergency, but the person believed there was – the parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system takes over and helps calm the body down. The parasympathetic system stores energy for the next time it is needed in an emergency. The simplistic answer to this question is that fight or flight helps the human body prepare to survive. 3 Much research is being conducted on repairing faulty sensory organs through devices such as personal guidance systems and eyeglasses, among others. Do you think that researcher should attempt to improve normal sensory capabilities beyond their â€Å"natural† range (for example make human visual or audio capabilities more sensitive than normal)? What problems might this cause? This is both a question of science, and of ethics. We may be able to do something (even without unwanted side effects) but this does not mean we should. Once the capacity exists to better ourselves through technology, individuals who are in competitive situations will want this technology to make themselves more competitive. Perhaps a cochlear implant, for example, can be used not only for the non-hearing to hear, but to make the hearing have something resembling super-hearing, without being detectable by others. It is easy to foresee a situation where CEOs would want this implant to make  it possible to hear what members of the board are muttering, or that football players would want it so they can hear what the opposing quarterback is saying in the huddle. From a technical perspective, however, the human body is not comprised of stand-alone parts any more than a car or truck is. The body is put together in a system. The body’s parts are designed to work together in a particular way, much the same way that the carburetor, air filter, engine, spark plugs, and cooling system are designed to work together in a vehicle. The vehicle cannot work correctly if the driver of a 68 Mustang takes out the fuel pump designed for that vehicle and inserts one designed for a 2002 Humvee. The frame is not the same; the engine is not the same. Parts are not plug-and-play; they are not interchangeable. They have to be matched. In a car, trying to string together parts designed for a variety of vehicles will result in one of three outcomes: either the parts won’t work together as a whole, they will work together but badly, or they will work together and then blow out prematurely. The human body would be exactly the same. One size does not fit all.

Abortion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Abortion - Research Paper Example In the case of abortion, abortion is an epidemic that is of highest concerns to the entire society. If abortion is made legal, the entire society will suffer more losses as compared to benefits. Losses that may result from legalizing abortion are that those who are fear unintentional pregnancies will no longer fear them. People fear unintentional penalties as abortion is not yet legal, they are well aware that if they get involved in sexual activities, they may experience pregnancy and there would be no way to avoid pregnancy as the law does not allow them. If abortion is made legal, sexual activity at different age levels will increase and this will further lead to an increase in the amount of people infected by sexually transmitted diseases. Another issue with legalizing pregnancy is that teenagers will stop fearing pregnancy and will continue to indulge in engaging in sexual activity at an age when they should be focusing on their education and personal wellbeing. According to fact sheet provided by Guttmacher University, 6% of all abortion taking place are conducted on teenage rs aging between 15 to 17 and 11% of these abortions are conducted on teenagers, aging 18 to 19 (Guttmacher Institute, 2012). These figures clearly show that teenagers are getting involved in unhealthy sexual activity at the time when they should be focusing on their education and these figures can further elevate if abortion is made legal. Abortion is illegal in several nations and different penalties are levied on stakeholders of abortion, these penalties are levied on those who conduct the operation of abortion as well as on those who are getting abortions conducted on them. One of the steps that the government can take to penalize those who want to get an abortion and even to deter individuals from being pregnant in an unwanted manner is to erase any sort of government subsidy or Medicaid for those who are getting these abortions done.

Report about the New York Aviation Managers Association Essay - 1

Report about the New York Aviation Managers Association - Essay Example By conglomerating, members benefit from each other, leading to industrial leaders and experts, through exchange of information and ideas. The association represents 1300 members and affiliated members who comprise of airport managers and representatives of more than 120 commercial and general airports. Membership is characterized by representatives from all corners of the aviation industry: Base operators, consultants, state government agencies and others. Holistically, economic benefits accrued from the association are impressive: generates $18 billion in salary and annual local tax revenue of $4.5 billion for the state (Crook. A, 2013). Nevertheless, NYAMA has sited that the efficiency of the micro-economy is at stake due to a vital inadequate infrastructural investment, stiff competition from other states and a drop in the general economy. Aviation industry has a critical importance in the general improvement of the state’s economy. Therefore, the importance of progressive constant improvement of the micro-economy cannot be gainsaid occasioning the critical role played by New York Aviation Management

Spotify E-Commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Spotify E-Commerce - Essay Example On a day-to-day basis, the company utilizes technology in conducting their operations. Additionally, the management uses generic marketing strategy in products and services to consumers. In addition to using Apple airplay, Denon and Marantz, Logitech squeezebox, Onkyo Network-Capable Receivers and Sonos Digital Music Systems, the company employs a combination of marketing strategies in promoting their products to clients. According to Gilmour (2012), Spotify uses cost leadership, product differentiation and generic strategies in the market. As discussed in the report, innovations are vital to success at spotify. The discussion is highlighting the implications of technologies at Spotify, the types of technologies used by the company, and the information systems used in conducting operations at the company. The report’s aim was to analyze the strategies that Sportify uses in conducting its operations in the global market, thereafter make recommendations that will suit the intere st of the company. According to Sehgal (2010, p. 12), the report used online content in analyzing the stratagem that Sportify use in the market. The information was sourced from journals, books and sportify’s website. E-commerce Introduction Spotify TM is a Swedish company that offers a variety of entertainment services to consumers in different parts of the globe. The company has its head office in London but it still conducts some of its operations in Sweden. Additionally, the company offers services that include streaming of music and sharing of data via the internet (Eldring, 2009). Sportify TM works in conjunction with companies like Sony, universal records and EMI in ensuring that the company meets the growing demand in entertainment industry. Currently, the company serves more than twenty million customers on an annual basis. In 2010, records indicated that the company surpassed its initial target by supplying close to 10 million customers entertainment services. Profe ssionals in Stockholm came up with the idea of starting the company in 2006. Daniel, E. K spearheaded the process with the assistance of Martin Lorentzon. Thereafter, the two came up with software that offers clients registration to the site. Generally, Spotify TM has revolutionized the entertainment industry despite facing challenges in their operations. In 2009, hackers invaded the sites of the company and got away with sensitive information that belonged to clients. This contributed to major losses recorded in that year. However, the company was able to regain back its position with support from Founders funds. Besides, Spotify recruited Sean parker who reintroduced the winning strategies at the company. According to Porter (2008), the manager used a combination of marketing strategies and technologies in putting back the company to its positions. At present, Spotify is leading distributor of music in the world’s entertainment industry. Spotify TM Spotify is a cloud-based music-streaming process delivered via desktop and mobile phone. It was launched in October 2008 and offers subscribers access to a vast database of songs via the internet. In order to achieve this, Spotify TM uses many information systems, some of which are so unique to its operations. An individual could play Spotify music through their network devices, smart phones and mobile devices. Spotify also continue to innovate new features that enhances music listening from inside the house. It allows people to simplify their work and vitality as they develop an admirable in music catalogue. Additionally, Spotify availability is also found in UNIX, Microsoft spotify code windows and Macintosh. These sites contain

Turkey Foreign Policy and AK party Research Paper

Turkey Foreign Policy and AK party - Research Paper Example Turkey has changed its political dimension now as it is no longer a country which depended on Western compliance. Turkey as an independent country, has all the power and potentiality to rise as a strong nation , which is assertive on its rights and position in the global platform. Here the focus is on the Turkey’s foreign policy and its vibrancy in achieving new global dimension as self confident nation. Nevertheless, the arguable point here is whether the turkey’s foreign policy, under the control of AK party will proceed to establish a secure place in the European Union. As a matter of fact, establishment of human right freedom and secularism is the only way through which the country can get the status of European country. Since turkey is sharing boundaries with Middle East and Europe, its political responsibility is different from other countries. Here, the foreign affairs Minister Mr. Davutoglu has vested with the immense duty for empowering the nation. According to (Robinson,2012)â€Å" Mr. Davutoglu believes Turkey can play an important role in constructing this new political, economic and cultural system†. Event though, Turkey is struggling to establish its own political identity, its eligibility to come forward as a global power seems to be an achievable ambition.†. ... For the very same reason, it has a population comprised of Muslims, Christians and Jews. Before coming under the control of AK party, Turkey considered itself as a European country and missed out to recognize itself as an individual strong nation. The foreign policy of the country was fragile and offered less importance to social elements like cultural ethnicity and gender identity. Turkey was considered by world as a nation with a weak political foundation and vulnerable foreign policy agenda. Turkey in ancient times was more deep rooted in unrealistic political ideas and more complex democracy oriented principles .The country was more secluded and less visionary and globalization was a dormant political aspiration. If a country hesitates to open its door to its neighboring countries, then the economic and social interest of the country would lie in darkness. Due to the unpolished foreign policy strategy of Turkey, during 1990s, the co –operation of the country with Iran and Syria was dull. Before the arrival of AK party, the foreign policy of Turkey aimed at non –interference with neighboring countries and this made the country secluded from Middle Eastern countries. The global aspiration of Turkey In recent times, Turkey has gained a reputation of being an ambitious, independent and self confident country, with a foreign policy agenda to achieve a global status of being a pivotal country geographically and politically. Nowadays, Turkey is not seeing itself as a fragile and weak nation but wants to establish itself as a country with immense political authority and cultural heritage. According to the new foreign policy, the key element is the security and freedom of the citizens of the country. In recent times, it has been acknowledged

Australian Taxation Law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Australian Taxation Law - Assignment Example b) Eddie buys a house in January 2003 and sells it in Jan 2007. Therefore, this is a capital asset, and capital gains tax are applicable in this case (Global Property Guide, 2015). Since the transaction occurs after 21 September 1999, the capital gains taxable amount will be discounted at 50% since Eddie has owned the asset for at least 12 months. Capital gains tax is calculated on the net gain on the capital sale. c) The capital gains tax I this case will be net of $800,000 less the amount that John had paid to purchase the farm. Since John is an individual, the calculations will be done on individual graduated scales of taxation. If it was a company, the tax rate is 30% flat (Global Property Guide, 2015). d) The total capital gains in Quantas shares is (1.56- 0.45) $1.11 per share and that in Westco is (2.10-5.20) a loss of $3.1 per share. The net gain in Quantas in added to the loss in westco and added to other revenues for calculation of tax for the individual. According to income tax assessment act 1997, the tax exempt entities include Community Service organizations, educational services, and charitable organizations (Australian Government, 2012). These entities must be registered under the Australian Charities and not for profit commission act 2012. The capital gains discount where 50% discounting rate is used for assets held for at least 12 months and 33.33% for complying super funds, indexation for assets acquired before 21september 1999 and the third where cost base is deducted from capital proceeds (Austrilian Government, 2012). Jerry is conducting the business of fishing as much as it seems he is doing it as a hobby. Jerry compensates his sons for their efforts thereby creating a monetary value for their work and thus there is income earned by the sons. Jerry also sells extra fish to the available market at prices he wishes and,

Analyze woman's social status in pre-modern societies Essay

Analyze woman's social status in pre-modern societies - Essay Example First, it is important to note that the procedure of foot binding is lasting and rather painful. Small girls’ feet were bound or rather broken to prevent the feet from growing in a natural way and to make them look like â€Å"three-inch lilies† (qtd. in Whitefield 204). The feet never healed and women with the ‘three-inch lilies’ were never seen with bare feet, as limited circulation resulted in rotting flesh. Women often felt sick when washing their feet because of the unpleasant smell (Whitefield 204). It is needless to say that men never saw their wives’ feet and did not want to think about the real appearance of the ‘three-inched lilies’. All these biological peculiarities seemed to have little or no impact on the way the tradition evolved prior to the middle of the nineteenth century. It is necessary to note that the history of this tradition dates back to the period of the Song dynasty. There are different theories concerning origins of the tradition. According to the â€Å"likeliest theory†, it first appeared in the imperial court and then spread among â€Å"upper-class elites† (Whitefield 205). The fashion had a significant impact on the society in general and marital traditions, in particular. To marry successfully, young women (as well as their parents) had to follow the new rules and mothers started binding their daughters’ feet. Hence, it all started as an idea of beauty. Blake notes that there is an erotic aspect as foot binding was regarded as a â€Å"feminine mystique designed to please men† (676). Hence, men thought it was beautiful for a girl to have tiny feet and a new standard was established. Women had another view on the practice. As has been mentioned above, mothers and grandmothers wanted their daughters to have more chances to marry successfully and they bound their daughters’ feet to make them fit into the world of specific standards. Thus, the tradition was seen as something natural and something that provided

What I Would Change About the World Essay Example for Free

What I Would Change About the World Essay If I had the power to change three things in this world they would have to be: I would change who ran our country, I would stop sending our factory jobs to China and Mexico, and I would also put a stop to the unnecessary violence going on around us. To me these are three very important issues that need to be changed; by this I think the world would be a better place. I think we need a different president; this isn’t a racist statement or anything of that sort. I believe we just need a different president because he has already had four years to make a change, yet he hasn’t made that big of a difference. We need a farmer as president. Farmers know how to plan out and deal with sudden problems. Take for example, President Carter, a peanut farmer, people loved him and most things he accomplished during his term. Secondly, we need to stop sending all of our jobs to other foreign countries. Think about it, in America we are suffering from job loss and in a great deal of debt. We send most of our factory and industry jobs over to China or Mexico, when we really could use them here. If we took back factory jobs in America it would cut back on unemployment rates, and we would create a more stable economy for us Americans. Also, we would have the reassurance and pride of creating our own products in The United States. One of the most important changes we need to make is stopping the violence in America. Through-out America’s history we have had numerous bombings, shootings and other horrific, violent events. This is all unnecessary, we are the United States of America ( emphasis on â€Å"United†. ) And there should be no reason for all of this unnecessary violence toward our fellow Americans. And another way we could end unnecessary violence is to track down all the guns that are â€Å"registered† to the owners and make sure that the owners of the guns actually have them. Also to put metal detectors like at airports in every building to make sure no weapons that are not legally concealed or registered to be allowed inside. So if I had the power to change three things about the world I would end all of the violence towards fellow human beings because it’s pointless to harm one another for â€Å"religious† beliefs. And to take away all of the illegally owned weapons away from all of the criminals and that would take away the majority of the violence toward each other. I would put a President in office that would actually live up to his promises to change the country and bring us out of debt and not to have the other countries look at us as a weaker country as to what we once was. Also i would also bring all of the jobs that we are sending to foreign countries and providing them jobs when we are suffering from the lowest employment levels that I can remember.

Teaching Essays| Teacher Stress

Teaching Essays| Teacher Stress The problem of teacher stress was a great concern in Hong Kong. As in many media also mention that nowadays teachers are suffers from great pressure. Professional teacher’s union (2005) has conducted a survey and the results showed that 28% of teachers always have more than five burnout symptoms. The situation is serious as such a high percentage of teachers complained about burnout. It would affect the quality of teaching and the quality of life among teachers. The situations have been for a long time. The professional teachers’ union of Hong Kong (1995) also conducted a survey on teacher stress. 1000 questionnaires were distributed to its members by random sampling method in January 1995, with a return rate of 45 per cent. The results showed that 61 per cent of the respondent found teaching stressful. The main sources of stress are: students’ unruly behavior, large class size, too much marking, too much clerical work and so on. Recent research finding has suggested that when worker suffer from prolonged stress of the organizational factor, they are potentially to have burnout. There are few study conducted in Hong Kong to investigate the correlation between work stress and burnout. In this study, I would like to find which stress factor contribute to teacher three dimension of burnout in Hong Kong. Definition of Burnout Burnout is a term used to describe people who are physically and psychologically burnout. Burnout is defined originally by Freudenberger to describe health-care workers who were physically and psychologically burnt out (Byrne, 1994). It means people would deplete themselves and when they experience burnout, they would feel their physical and mental resources have been exhaust. The reason to get burnout because people wear out themselves by excessively to strive or reach some unrealistic expectation, so burnout is developed gradually over time as a result of excessive demands derived from task structure. The concept distinguishes between work stress and burnout is when people have stress. Stress can have negative or positive effects. Positive side is mean that people have average and suitable stress can motivate people work hard and to attain the goal. But burnout is a long term negative result of work stress. Burnout has been viewed as one type of chronic response because of cumulative, long-term work stress experience.(Ling, 1995).If an employee is under stress for a prolonged period of time, he or she may finally come to a situation that he or she no longer cope with it. When individual feel that they are unable to maintain the caring, this finally leads to the feelings of burnout. â€Å"Machach (1996) defines burnout syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment.† (TonyLillian,2007, p.469). So emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment is not exist separately, three of them are correlate each other. Emotional exhaustion refers to the characteristic that individual experience that they seem lack of energy and feeling that their emotional energy is used up. This feeling can be come from that they feel frustration and tension in their workplace, so they appear compassion fatigue that they feel that their emotional and psychologically cannot continue to continue their work. Depersonalization is characterized that display a detached and an emotional callousness and cynical attitude toward their co-worker, clients or people surrounding in their workplace. When people under the state of depersonalization, they may use some derogatory word when communication with other people. They may withdrawal to communicate with other co-worker. When people appear reduce personal accomplishment, the characteristic is they would have a tendency to evaluate oneself negatively, they would not appreciate themselves even though they have contribution at work and even have a decline on feeling job compete nce and successful achievement in their work and interaction with people at work. (Coedes Dougherty, 1993) Burnout is a syndrome that affects employees in all occupations, but is especially prevalent among human services workers. Hasida and Keren (2007) indicated that burnout associate with people which the job is giving care to others . Burnout is occurs most in helping professional such as teachers, lawyers, physicians, nurses, social workers and psychotherapist. According to Maslach and Jackson (1981), professional staff in human service, they have many opportunities in intense involvement with other people, and this interaction would have chance for staff is charge with feeling of anger, embarrassment, fear or despair. When people who work continuously with people under such circumstances, the chronic stress would leas emotional draining and have risk for burnout. There are more emotional strain is greatest for the individual who work in helping professions because they are constantly dealing with other people and their problems, their work need they have involve their emotion to client’s problem and face-to-face interaction with other people is emotional charged situations. Cordes and Dougherty (1993) indicated that burnout is a process, the process of burnout is the sequencing of the three components of burnout, Maslach suggested that emotional exhaustion is first developed by the excessive chronic work demands, and this demand would drain individual’s emotional resources, thus individual would feel they lack of emotional energy and feeling of being worn out. Emotional exhaustion would lead ones distant oneself from self from work, so depersonalization may be viewed as a type of avoidance coping mechanism used to cope with emotional exhaustion. Depersonalization seem provide an emotional buffer between individual and the stress induced by emotional demand of the job. Depersonalization is a unique response to burnout.Then when people recognized that their current attitude and their original expectation of performance in the work is discrepancy. Diminish the feeling of personal accomplishment were developed. Individual would feel that their abilit y is not enough to care other people and perform their job. Janssen, Schauffi and Houkes (1999) have mentioned that emotional exhaustion is significantly positively related with depersonlization. (r=0.33) And there are significant negatively related between depersonalization and personal accomplishment (r=0.38) Based on the previous findings, the research question in this study is how three dimensions of burnout are related to each other. The two related hypotheses are formulated. The first hypothesis is there are positive association between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The second hypothesis is there are negative association between depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Consequence of burnout Burnout has negative consequence on organization, as burnout would affect employee performances. In organization, burnout would affect people’s psychological factor. It would result in low morale, absenteeism, more frequency of tardiness, work alienation, physical and emotional ill-health, teachers leaving the professional, early job retirement. This factor would make organization loss many experienced and experienced people. (Baker, O’Brien Salahuddin, 2007; Pines Aronson, 1988). The burnout have been linked with a variety of mental and physical health problems. The effect of mental health is decrease in self-esteem, depression, irritability, helplessness and anxiety. Physical health problems include fatigue, insomnia, headache. (Cordes Dougherty, 1993)In the field of influence the quality of education, burnout would decrease the quality of teaching because teacher’s performance’s decline. Ioannou and Kyriakides (2007) indicated that when people experience burnout, they would accompany several symptoms, such as physical depletion, feeling disillus ionment, they would develop negative attitude toward the work. Teachers experiencing burnout tend to be dogmatic about their practices and to rely rigidly on structure and routine. If people suffer form burnout, it would affect their attitude toward others and it would affect the quality of social relationship. Ioannou and Kyriakides(2007) indicated that if teacher suffer form burnout, they would have poor interpersonal relationships with colleague and students. Tatar and Yahav (1999) also indicated that generally burned-out teacher provide significantly less information, less praise, and less acceptable of their student’s ideas, and they interact them less frequently. The burnout syndrome would affect the teacher perception of their student as when people have suffer from burnout, as teacher would lower student’s ability and usually they would provide little positive feedback for students’ answer. Abel and Sewell (1999) also indicated that the consequence of burnout would reduced teacher-pupil rapport and pupil motivation. Teachers are the key persons in the frontline to ensure the quality of teaching to provide to the next generation. So it is important to investigate the situation of burnout phenomenon of teachers in Hong Kong nowadays. Work stress Tam and Mong (2005) indicated job stress means people experience psychological state which is incongruence and misfit between worker’s perceptions of the demands on them and their ability to cope with those demand Abel and Sewell (1999) used transactional model to defined stress, this model emphasized that stress depends on individual’s cognitive appraisal of events and circumstance at work and the perception of owns ability to cope with. The experience of stress is due to perception of demand and inability to meet this demand, and finally threat teacher’s mental or physical well-being. Teacher stress Many studies have been done to identify the causes of stress in teaching. Previous factor analytic studies have identified identify guidance work, school management, student behavior management, workload and time pressure and work relationship is source of stress in Hong Kong. Workload and time pressure are the commonly reported stress in Hong Kong. As in several reports also reported that teachers have to work overload and it is one of the major sources of stress. (Professional teachers’ union of Hong Kong ,2005) Work stress and burnout There are many research have done before had indicated that work stress is related to burnout. Capel.(1991) indicated that individual differences and personality alone can not predict burnout. Because burnout is affected by the long-term impact of stressor come from environmental stressor. In Kokkinos(2007) measured the relationship between job stressor and burnout in primary school teachers. It used 63 job stressor which have 11 subscales of work stress, it is student’s behavior, managing student’s misbehavior, decision making, relationships with colleagues, role ambiguity, poor working conditions, appraisal of teachers by students, work overload, appraisal of teachers, time constraints, specific teaching demands. This study run correlation analyses, it showed that emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were significantly positively correlated with all job stressor. And work stress was negative correlated with personal accomplishment. I would use teacher stress scale designed by Hui and Chan (1996) to measure teacher stress in Hong Kong, as this scale is 20 relevant items were selected form the 55 items in factor analysis. This scale have been conducted in Hong Kong secondary school, it is more representative in present study as my target participant is secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. Based on these finding, I formulate the these hypothesis. The third hypothesis is there are positive association between work stress and emotional exhaustion. The forth is there are positive association between work stress and depersonalization. The fifth hypothesis is there are negative association between work stress and personal accomplishment. Guidance work Apart from teaching student academic knowledge in school. Teacher in Hong Kong also have responsibility to guide students in their individual development. Kyriacou (2001) indicated that many teachers in Hong Kong have been given additional duties in school guidance work in order to improve the quality of guidance. As a result, guidance work has become a part of every teacher’s workload in Hong Kong teachers. It is one of the responsibilities that Hong Kong teachers need to do in their routine of job. â€Å"In 1990, the Hong Kong Education commissions, a body which defines educational objectives and formulates education policy, formally endorsed guidance work as a responsibility of all teachers, thereby advocate a whole school approach to guidance† (Hui. Chan,1996,p.201). Guidance work is a process of helping students in their self-understanding and self-development, and facilitate students in their educational, vocational, personal-social development. Hui and Chan (1996) indicated that guidance aspect of works as a potential dimension of stress, until now it has not yet received much research attention. But it may lead teacher increase their workload as they have additional responsibilities in planning and monitoring whole school guidance programmes. Therefore it would become a part of every teacher’s workload. In Hui and Chan (1996) study, it indicated that guidance-related aspect of work is one of major dimension of stress in Hong Kong secondary teachers, they have most stress on individual guidance work, it includes guiding students with behavior, emotional and learning difficulties, the lack of improvement in students. Moreover, Lam, Yuon and Mak (1998) stated that teachers feel difficulty in guidance work is one of the factor which teacher feel difficulty they encounter in their work. There is no research conducted on the relationship between stress on guidance work and burnout. But there are two factors are potential emerged from guidance work. The first one is guidance work increase workload to teacher and the other is guidance work may induce role conflict and role ambiguity for teacher. In the workload of guidance work, it may increase their workload as they are given additional responsibilities to plan, formulate and carry out the guidance work may be related to burnout. The workload and time pressure may be out of expectation. Teacher will devote more time and energy to perform their guidance work, it may make them work over time in this aspect. Futhermore, Hui and Chan (1996) stated that teachers would have role conflict between guiding and teaching because there are different responsibility in guidance role and teacher role, and role ambiguity were other aspects of guidance work which constitute sources of stress for teachers. Role theory stated that every role would have a set of expected behavior, such as teacher would have expected behavior such as teaching .Role conflicts would induce in the situations which two incompatible behavior are expected to one individual .Work role ambiguity occurs when the persons lack of clear, consistent information which have rights, duties, responsibility of the job (Manlove, 1994). Lack of clarify to perform job tasks or criteria for performance evaluations would lead role ambiguity. Manlove (1994) study proved that there are positively association between work ambiguity and emotional exhaustion there are positive association between work ambiguity and depersonalization and there are negative association between work ambiguity and personal accomplishment. Based on these findings, I formulate three hypotheses on guidance work and three dimension of burnout. The sixth hypothesis is there are positive association between stress on guidance work and emotional exhaustion. The seventh hypothesis is there are positive association between stress on guidance work and depersonalization. The eighth hypothesis is there are negative association between stress on guidance work and personal accomplishment. School management and burnout Cheng and Ng (1994) indicated that the policy of school-based management is started in 1991. It is a new policy â€Å"school management initiative† issued by the education and Manpower Branch and Education Department; it is a reform of management in school in Hong Kong. This policy and reform focus on changing schools management style from external control management to school-based management. The purpose of reform is increase the quality of education and increase the effectiveness of management at school. In this new policy, every school’s administrative and management is decided by each school oneself. Every school would responsible for planning and structuring the school’s teaching system. School-based management can be viewed stressful if teacher cannot participate in school-base management. Byrne (1994) indicated that one of the sources of stressor is lack of decision making in school. Lack of decision making means they lack of involvements in their quality of work life. If teacher perceived that they have not enough in participate in decision making, it would increase their opportunities to suffer from role conflict and role ambiguity. Teacher autonomy is important for teachers as teacher working in work condition. When teacher contains higher autonomy, teacher would have higher satisfaction of their job. Autonomy in teaching professional means teacher can control themselves and their work in working environment. It include teacher have freedom to make prescriptive professional choice to decide appropriate service and activity to their students. Teacher would experience autonomy when they have freedom and opportunities to interfere or supervision on their teaching process, such as have autonomy to decide own teaching style. Moreover, autonomy also include it can give teacher freedom to participate in some collaborate decision-making which are relevant to the service of student and school policy. And autonomy can give teacher have right to formulate their own rule according to their own choosing. (Pearson Moomaw, 2005). Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter (2001) indicated that a lack of autonomy is correlated with burnou t. Schwab, Jackson and Schuler (1986) indicated that there are correlation between autonomy and personal accomplishment. It using multiple regression, it find that autonomy of teacher have 12% variance to predict personal accomplishment. In contrast , lack of autonomy would lead to lower the personal accomplishment. Lack of participations gives employees a feeling of lack of control over critical aspects or demands of their work. Jackson, Schuler and Schuler (1986) found that lack of participation in decision making was linked to depersonalization. the reason behind is when individual perceived that they lack of participate in decision making, they would feel that they are in condition which is uncontrollable, so they feel helplessness and feel uncertainly of the operation in workplace. In order to cope with the situation, individuals will depersonalize their relationships with co-worker, clients or the organization. Miller, Ellis, Zook and Lyles (1990) mentioned that participation in decision can decrease the role stress. As there are negative association between participation in decision making and role stress. And there are positive association between role stress and emotional exhaustion. It can explained that people participate in decision making can reduce role stress, and when role stress reduce, it can reduce emotional exhaustion. So it can explained that participation in decision making may reduce emotional exhaustion. I would make hypothesis that there are negative correlation between participation in decision making and emotional exhaustion. Pearson and Moomaw (2005) indicated that several researcher have noted that lack of control or autonomy in one’s job contribute to burnout. Feeling of control and autonomy include employee can perceive they have opportunity on decision making on work schedule and develop the policies that directly affect their environment at work. Moreover, participation in decision making is significant correlate to burnout. There are mentioned that there are there are negatively association between participant decision making and emotional exhaustion with r=-0.33. this means that when people have high participation in decision making, they would have lower emotional exhaustion. Based in previous research, hence, we formulate three hypotheses which stress on school management and three dimension of burnout. The ninth hypothesis is there is positive association between stress on school management and emotional exhaustion. The tenth hypothesis is there is positive correlation between stress on school management and depersonalization. The eleventh hypothesis is there is negative correlation between stress on school management and personal accomplishment. Student’s behavior management and burnout Managing students’ behavior in classroom is one of the important responsibilities in teacher’s role, because teacher would perceive that they need to manage student’s behavior in classroom as they must be ensure that every students in classroom have equal opportunities to gain knowledge in classroom. But in some situation, there are some student do some misbehavior to distract the pace of teaching and affect the quality of teaching, such as many student talking at the same time, it would induce much noise which would affect other student acquire knowledge in classroom, so teacher have duty to prevent the situation which have influence normal teaching. Hastings and Bham (2003) indicated that several researchers found that teachers identify student misbehavior as a source of stress. It would make teachers feel stress as there are no clear patterns or consistent action to handle different type of student misbehavior. Many studies paid attention on the association between teacher burnout and student misbehavior. Bilbou-Nakou, Stogiannidou and Kiosseoglou (1999) also indicated that difficulty in managing disruptive children have been presented as one of the major cause of burnout. Friredman (2001) indicated that teachers perceive their students as the main source of burnout in their work because of different problems among different problems such as discipline problems in classroom, unsatisfactory achievement, and absenteeism. Teacher feel irksome to handle the student behavior which interfere with the teaching process. Student misbehavior includes disrespect behavior of student. It include students in class interrupt, derisive, quarrel each other, student’s in class all speak at the same time, which makes a lot of noises. In Kokkinos (2007) study, there are positive relationship between managing student behavior and emotional exhaustion, with r is 0.53. There are positive relationship between managing student behavior and depersonalization, the r is 0.33. There are negative correlation between manage student behavior and personal accomplishment, the r is –0.20. According to the results of previous studies, we formulate the three hypothesis between stress on student behavior management and three dimension of burnout. The twelve hypothesis is there are positive association between stress on student behavior management and emotional exhaustion. The thirteenth hypothesis is there are positive association between stress on student behavior management and depersonalization. The fourteenth hypothesis is there are negative association between stress on student behavior management and personal accomplishment. Workload and burnout Teacher experience high workload is a serious problem in Hong Kong. Professional teacher’s union of Hong Kong (2005) survey show that 35.6% teachers report that they have to work overtime for more than 21 hours per week and 14% of them have to work overtime even over 31 hours each week. It also mentioned that education reform is one of the sources to increase teachers’ workload as teachers have to do many things to keep pace on education reform. Education reform need teacher to do much extra time and effort to match with the pace of education reform. Chan and Hui (1995) have explored teacher burnout in a study of 415 secondary school in Hong Kong have indicated that one of the major sources of stress was having too heavy workload. There are many duties for teachers in Hong Kong, it includes teaching, administration and clerical work, extracurricular activities and discipline and guidance work. Lam., Yuon and Mak (1998) found that the two major difficulties of secondary school teachers feel the most difficulties in work were heavy workload and insufficient time. Santavirta ,Solovieva. And Theorell (2007) indicated that workload means people suffer from excessive demands under time pressure, and also mismatch between the demands of teacher and the teacher’s ability to cope with this demands. Greenglass, Burke and Fiksenbaum (2001) demonstrated that workload was positively associated with emotional exhaustion in hospital nurses. It indicate that when nurse workload has increased and too heavy, they were more likely to experience emotional exhaustion. Dr. Moises Salinas(2004) indicated that work overload in teacher include teachers experience excessive paper work, oversized classes filled with student of different academic abilities and the need for teachers to complete tasks beyond their knowledge base. In Janssen, Schaufel and Houkes (1999) use conservation of resources theory, emotional exhaustion was primary associated with job demand such as work overload. It indicated that emotional exhaustion is positively related to work overload, whereas depersonalization and reduce personal accomplishment are not. Hence, i hypothesized that the fifteenth hypothesis is there are positive association between stress on workload/time pressure and emotional exhaustion Work relationship and burnout Social support has been seen as useful resources to let individual cope with stress efficiency. In moderating hypothesis, when individual who have supportive social relationship; they are able to rely on others to help them to deal with some problems in stressful situations, so they would perceive less stress and less affected by stress. In contrast, people who lack of supportive social relationships are vulnerable to the effect of stress. (Russell., Altmaier Velzen, 1987) The quality of work relationship with others could be one of stress at work. The nature of the relationship with one’s boss, subordinates, and colleagues can be a major source of stress at work. A trusting and caring environment in the organizations and an effective support system is essential in combating burnout. Burnout can be reduced if individual have good work relationship with others and better support systems at work. When individual have good work relation and support from others, people advice and support can act as tension reduction, help people achieving distance from the situation and a sense of shared responsibility. The stress can release in this situation and hence those people have social support and work relationship would have less prone to burnout. (Pines Aronson, 1988) Codes and Dougherty (1993) indicated that the effect of social support on stress and burnout have received extensive attention in literature. Social support has been identified have a role to buffer job-related stress. Social support can make individual has perception that they can cope with the situations by increasing their perception that others will provide the necessary resources. Greater perceived social support from co-workers or supervisor is associated with lower reported levels of burnout Baker and O’Brien (2007) indicated that supervisor and coworker support are important sources of social support, relating to lower level of burnout in the workplace. Rebecca and Wendy (2007) indicated that supervisors and work colleagues are able to provide support in the form of relevant information and feedback, practical assistance and emotional support relevant to the stressful work situation, it can help individual can have more confidence in solving stress. Teachers with receive social support from supervisors reported less emotional exhaustion, more positive attitudes and greater personal accomplishment. Cordes and Dougherty (1993) indicated that social support may cause the individual to redefine the bad situation at work and enhance the individual’s perceived ability to cope with the demand induced by the stressful workplace. Maslach, Schaufeli and Leite (2001) indicated that social support is one source of job resources; they indicate that job resources can acts as buffer effect from the process of job demand and burnout. In this result, it indicated that lack of social support is linked to burnout. Hasida and Keren(2007) mentioned that social support at work were negatively related to exhaustion, depersonalization and positively related to personal accomplishment. Base on these findings, I formulated three hypotheses on stress on work relationship and burnout. The sixteenth hypothesis is there are positive association between stress on work relationship and emotional exhaustion. The seventeenth hypothesis is there are positive association between stress on work relationship and depersonalization. The eighteenth hypothesis is there are negative association between stress on work relationship and personal accomplishment. Method Participants The sample consists of 44 participants. In the aspect of gender, 20 were male and 24 were female. They were all full-time teaches in secondary school in Hong Kong. In the aspect of teaching experience, 14 participants have 5 years or less teaching experience, 5 participants have 6-10 years teaching experience, 25 participants have 11 years or more teaching experience. 21 participants are single and 20 are married. In the religion aspect, 14 participants have religion and 28particpants have no religion. Measures Teacher stress were assessed using the Teacher stress scale designed by Hui and Chan (1996) for Hong Kong teachers. There are 20 items which have five dimension of stress. It is stress on guidance work, school-based management, student behavior management, workload and work relationship. Teacher were requested to rate each item on 5-point scale ranging from 1to 5. 1 means â€Å"no stress†, 2 means â€Å" mild stress†, 3 means â€Å"moderate stress†, 4 means â€Å"much stress†, 5 means â€Å"extreme stress† Teacher burnout were assessed using Maslach burnout inventory. The three subscales of the MBI are emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion includes 9 items. Depersonalization contains 5 items, and personal accomplishment include 8 items. The 22 items are rated on a 7 –point-likert-type scale on which the respondent indicates how often a feeling has been experienced ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (everyday). 0 means â€Å"never†, 1 means â€Å"a few times a day, 2 means â€Å"monthly†, 3 means â€Å"a few times a month†,4 means â€Å"every week† , 5 means â€Å"a few times a week† and 6 means†everyday† (Abel Sewell, 1999; Maslach Jackson, 1981) The scoring of MBI using .Lau, Yuen and Chan (2005) indicated that scores of the MBI subscales is using the normative distribution, high if they fall into the upper third portion of the normative distribution average if they fall into the middle third and low if they fall into the lower third. As this study sample size is quite small, it would not representative to analysize using normative distribution. So I would use scoring based on the study in Lau, Yuen and Chan (2005) study. As their study was conducted in Water: An Important Source Of Life Water: An Important Source Of Life Water is an important source of life on earth and about 71 percent of the surface of the earth is water. Almost 40 percent of the world population is directly at the mercy of fresh rivers water and about 2/3rd of these people live in developing countries. Water for all as a basic need can be defined as a public good and human right. This target dominates the entire world as a global water challenge. Water politics refers to the political strategy or diplomacy majorly affected by water availability and growing demand of water. When water is involved in the formulation of political policies for a particular country, and is used as a political weapon, it is known as water politics or hydro-politics (Nazakat, 2011). Hydro politics is the systematic study of conflict and cooperation between states over water resources that transcend international borders(Elhance, 1999). Water shortage has badly affected the agricultural sector of Pakistan which heavily depends on agro based economy. The agricultural lands of the Punjab and Sindh, mostly depend on canal water irrigation because in some areas underground water is salty. Present water crisis, if allowed to continue, would reduce the production of wheat, rice and sugarcane etc. Briefly water crisis in the country has spread deep concern. The shortage is threatening to create famine like condition across Pakistan (Ahmed, 2012). 1.2-Historical Background On partition of India, Ravi, Sutlej, and Bias were allocated to India under the Indus Waters Treaty (1960) and the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab to Pakistan. Unfortunately, the hydrological Region from where these six rivers originate lie in occupied Kashmir under the forcible occupation of India. As such, the control of these rivers is in the hands of India because of the unjust partition of India. India has started politics in water and uses water as a weapon to further terrorist objectives. India has therefore acquired the capability to control water of Pakistans rivers namely, Chenab River, Jhelum River and the Indus River that originate in the Indian occupied Kashmir-a disputed territory. Pakistan faces great danger at the hands of India as it has built 32 large dams on these rivers creating dead storage of more than 10 MAF and live storage of about 38 MAF in violation of the IWT that only allows 4.19 MAF of water to India. Besides this, India is building another 9 major dams on thes e rivers (Kabbes, 2007). India uses water as a weapon of mass destruction. In fact, it is terrorism using water as a weapon so that Pakistan is unable to produce food for its rapidly growing population. As a result, Pakistan will face famine, hunger, death and economic destruction. India has acquired the capability to use water as a weapon of mass destruction by causing famine and hunger. India has turned water terrorist an international crime. Water failures are prominent, both materially and politically, by international and subnational hydro politics. Within Pakistan there are many water issues like shortage of waterless crops cultivated which results in food crises and huge reserve be spent to overcome the problem and externally many issues rising like India stopped the supply of water to Pakistan from every canal flowing from India to Pakistan. The internal issues of Pakistan include the wrong planning of Kalabagh which created controversy on two counts, and there was status quo for 37 years as no dam w as allowed to be built. This resulted in flood and the crippling load shedding destroying economy (Kabbes, 2007). India cheated Pakistan on Indus Waters Treaty by depriving it of its perennial waters irrigating East Punjab of Pakistan. In replacement to the permanent water diverted by India, Pakistan, in return got storage water in Tarbela Dam Reservoir on the Indus, and Mangla Dam Reservoir on Jhelum River, both are Pakistans own rivers, allotted under the Treaty. Storage created on our rivers cannot be part of the deal. This means, Pakistan got nothing in return of the perennial water diverted by India irrigating East Punjab of Pakistan (Kabbes, 2007). 2.1-Hypothesis Government lacks the resources and political will for the construction of small and big dams. Indus Water Treaty discrepancies in the implementation of IWT are the main cause of water conflict in South Asia. 3.1-Research Questions What is hydro politics? What are the internal and external issues in water sector of Pakistan? What are the factors behind the delay of construction of dams and reservoirs of Pakistan? What is the Indus Water Treaty and its implications on hydro politics? RESEARCH OBJECTIVES à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ To gain an intellectual understanding of what hydro politics is about. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ To identify internal and external issues related to hydro politics in Pakistan. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ To identify the reasons behind the delay of construction of dams 4.1-Rationale To analyze the factors behind the delay of construction of dams and the distribution of water within Pakistan 4.2-Statement Of The Problem Hydro politics is an important factor and life without water is impossible. Population rate is rising day by day and we dont have enough water nor do we have dams and reservoirs to store water so researcher has selected this issue to aware government who shall make such water policies which proved to be helpful in agricultural sector. 5.1-Research Methodology The method during the research will be descriptive and analytical. Researcher will conduct both qualitative and quantitative method for research study. Both primary and secondary source of information will be used for the collection of data which would comprise of books, journals, articles and newspapers. Interviews will also be conducted and statistical method will be applied for testing of hypothesis. 6.1-Literature Review Idris (2011) analyzes how the conflict of water distribution arose. Initially water distribution was through a system of canals without any control structures and withdrawal was governed by the level of water in the inundation canals which remained unpredictable. As demand of water usage of one actor grew, it consequently lead to conflict with the other actors. Steps in this regard were taken in the 19th century to control the unpredictable water supply and provide assured water supply in the inundation canals by constructing head works across rivers. The first head works was commissioned in 1859 by which supply on the Upper Bari Doab became assured followed by several other head works across tributary rivers in Punjab during 1882 to 1901 and two major irrigation projects by 1935 viz Sukkur Barrage on the Indus and the Sutlej Valley project. This article would help researcher to analyze how erratic water supply lead to inter-provincial as well as external water issues in Pakistan. Mustafa (2010) explains that the official argument depicts the picture of a scarce water resource, which is being wasted by being allowed to flow out to sea , and outlines a doomsday scenario should additional storage not be built on the Indus River.However, water scarcity especially in the aftermath of the drought in southern Pakistan in the latter half of the 1990s, coupled with the single-minded focus of the Pakistani water bureaucracy on water development, has made the issue of the construction of Dams and reservoirs a substitute for a repeated series of inter-provincial grievances. The controversy is beginning to split public opinion in Pakistan, particularly in Sindh province, where more than 80 percent of the groundwater is saline, making the provinces farmers exceptionally dependent on surface-water supplies, which itself may be compromised by the construction of upstream dams and reservoirs. The dam project at the moment is in cold storage, particularly on account of the com bined opposition of not just Sindh but also of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is concerned about the potential flooding of rich farmland and Pashtun cultural heartland by the lake that will be created behind the dam. The province is also unwilling to lend its support to the project because of doubts based on the poor record of the Pakistani government in providing for the recovery of those affected by earlier large-dam projects. This article would help the researcher in evaluating that the methodology behind the construction of dams and reservoirs was consequent to bring about delays because it did not include all stakeholders and unsettled negotiating process. Akhtar (n.d.) explains that that the Indus Water Treaty was devised to find a solution that was not driven by legal principles, but instead by principles of water engineering and economics. IWT was signed as a permanent solution to the water sharing problem between the two countries when water was in abundance in the Indus system. This Treaty governs trans boundary water rights and obligations of India and Pakistan in relation to each other by assigning full use of waters of the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab rivers to Pakistan, with minor exceptions, for existing uses in Kashmir giving Pakistan 75 per cent of the waters of the Indus Basin system and allowed India, under carefully specified conditions, to tap the considerable hydropower potential of the three Western rivers, before they entered Pakistan. The heightened climate changes underway, growing water scarcity and insecurity in the basin has resulted in politicization of the water issue between the two countries coinciding with Indi as ambition to construct a large number of hydropower plants, especially on the Chenab and Jhelum rivers. This article will help the researcher to access the Indus Water Treaty and the implications of hydro politics on it. Pakistans Waters at Risk (2007) in this report it has been discussed rapid population growth, urbanization and unmanageable water consumption practices to have placed an huge stress on the quality as well as the quantity of water resources in the country which have led to hydro politics in the region. With regard to growing tensions, there is an urgent need to develop policies and approaches for bringing water withdrawals into balance with recharge. Though relevant policies like National Environment Policy, National Water Policy (Draft), National Drinking Water Policy (Draft), National Environment Policy; regulatory framework like the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997 and laws like the Canal and Drainage Act (1873) and the Punjab Minor Canals Act (1905), which prohibit the corrupting or fouling of canal water; Sindh Fisheries Ordinance (1980), which prohibits the discharge of untreated sewage and industrial waste into water, and The Greater Lahore Water Supply Sewerage and D rainage Ordinance (1967) etc. are in place, there is no clear strategy devised so far to implement them. This report helped in guiding the researcher to know how hydro politics plays a crucial role in shaping national/international water policies. Turton and Henwood (2002) explain the concept and limitation of hydro politics in developing countries. They assert in the book that hydro politics is emerging as a specific discipline, largely as a result of the increased awareness of water scarcity and erratic supply due to rapid population growth, urbanization and unsustainable water consumption practices. For these reasons, a greater focus on the development of conceptual clarity has become essential. The realization of the fact that life is impossible without water is the fundamental driving force behind hydro politics. As more and more people compete for and rely on the declining water resources, it has become a challenge for the environment and therefore a political issue. This book would help researcher to analyze the concept of hydro politics and the factors inflicting its importance. TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Chapter-1 : Introduction Historical Background Chapter-2: Hypothesis Chapter-3: Research Questions Chapter-4 Rationale Statement of the problem Chapter-5: Research methodology Chapter-7: -Literature review Chapter-8: -Conclusion.

How Diversity Affects Roles Of Nurses Nursing Essay

How Diversity Affects Roles Of Nurses Nursing Essay Nursing is an art:   and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painters or sculptors work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of Gods spirit?   It is one of the Fine Arts:   I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts.   Florence Nightingale Outline Introduction Today, nurses operate in the cultural diverse environment. The contemporary health care setting incorporates both professionals and patients with a diverse cultural background as well as social level. In such a situation, health care professionals have to pay a lot of attention to cultural needs of their patients, while nurses are particularly concerned with issues related to diversity because they spend more time with patients than any other health care professionals. Therefore, professional nurses have to understand the diverse needs of their patients and take into consideration cultural as well as individual peculiarities of each patient to provide them with health care services of the high quality. In such a way, nurses are able to facilitate the recovery of patients and help them to pass through their health problems successfully returning to the normal life. In stark contrast, the ignorance of diversity related issues may lead to the failure of nurses to succeed in their work a nd, what is even more important, the ignorance of diversity put under a threat positive outcomes of the treatment conducted by physicians with the assistance of nurses because patients cannot recover if nursing is inefficient which is the case of nurses unawareness of diverse patients needs and expectations. In such a way, the diversity is an integral concept of the modern nursing and nurses should understand the essence of diversity and be able to find individual approach to each patient respectively to their diverse cultural and individual needs to provide effective health care services to all patients. Diversity in the contemporary health care setting This chapter focuses on the major issues related to diversity in the contemporary health care setting. To put it more precisely, it is necessary to focus on cultural diversity of patients, their diverse cultural background and individual needs and expectations; the diversity within the personnel of health care organizations for nurses have to cooperate effectively with other health care professionals as well as with each other; finally, today, many nurses from different countries get training and nurses with different cultural background have to learn to interact with each other effectively both in the course of the training and in their regular work. Cultural diversity of patients The cultural diversity of patients is a very important issue affecting the work of nurses consistently. In actuality, patients have a diverse cultural background and nurses have to learn to work with patients with diverse cultural background. Patients are not as homogeneous as they used to be in the past. The diverse cultural background leads to the development of diverse sets of values, ethical norms and principles, diverse models of behavior, and so on. Such diversity may raise very serious problems in the course of work of nurses because they have to provide patients with health care services, which may affect patients values or ethical norms and principles. At the same time, the growing immigration and multicultural environment contributes to the long-lasting diversity that makes the adaptation of nurses to cultural diversity in health care setting one of the priorities in their education and professional development. Close interaction between nurses and health care professionals at the international level At the same time, the cultural diversity affects not only relationships of nurses and patients but also the relationship of nurses and other health care professionals working within one and the same health care organization. The personnel of hospitals and medical centers is culturally diverse. Therefore, nurses should be able to interact effectively with their colleagues regardless of cultural differences, which effect is similar to that of the difference in cultural background of nurses and patients. In such a situation, nurses should understand the needs and basic values, ethical norms and principles of their colleagues to develop effective strategies which they can use in their regular work. On the other hand, it is important to take into consideration the growing cooperation between health care organizations at the international level. For instance, Red Cross, Medicins Sans Frontieres, and other international organizations contribute to the closer cooperation between nurses with diverse cultural background. They have to work together and interact effectively to provide patients with essential health care services. In such a situation, diversity can become an unsurpassable barrier preventing nurses from effective professional performance, whereas understanding and development of effective strategies of work in the culturally diverse environment helps nurses to maximize their performance and deliver health care services of the high quality. Training of foreign nurses The emerging cooperation between health care organizations and professionals at the international level stimulates the training of nurses from foreign countries in the national health care organizations. In this respect, the training of foreign nurses raises the problem of diversity of cultural background, traditions, and standards of nurses. The existing national standards and approaches to nursing may come into conflict with standards and approaches to nursing foreign nurses are accustomed to. Therefore, nurses need to adapt their work to some universal standards to avoid conflicts between nurses, as well as between nurses and patients, between nurses and other health care professionals with different cultural background, standards and traditions. Importance of diversity and tolerance among nurses Obviously, the contemporary diverse health care setting stimulates the development of tolerance among nurses to maximize the effectiveness of their work in the diverse environment. Understanding needs and cultural peculiarities of patients with diverse cultural background The education and professional development of nurses operating in the culturally diverse health care setting should focus on the development of tolerance, which is grounded on the understanding of needs and cultural peculiarities of patients with different cultural background. In such a way, nurses learn needs and cultural peculiarities of patients, that means understanding of their cultural norms, traditions and values. As a result, nurses can take into consideration patients needs and to meet their expectations avoiding offensive action or inaction that may occur in case of ignorance of cultural peculiarities of patients. Study and assessment of diversity within the community Nurses cannot work in isolation from the community because the local community affects not only nurses but also patients. Moreover, the community involvement in the treatment of patients, especially with mental health problems or psychological problems, grows more and more popular. Therefore, nurses need to be able to interact with the local community to work effectively and to provide patients with effective health care services. In addition, they may help patients to get integrated into the local community that may facilitate their treatment and recovery. At the same time, the interaction between the local community and health care organizations can not only help to treat patients effectively but also to prevent the development of diseases within the community. However, without understanding of cultural background, needs, norms and traditions of the community nurses, as well as health care organizations, cannot succeed in the development of positive relationships with local communi ty members. Development of tolerance in nurses operating in culturally diverse environment One of the major strategic goals of nursing education and professional development should be the promotion of tolerance in nurses, especially those, who operate in culturally diverse environment. In fact, nurses have to be able to develop effective strategies and approaches to patients with diverse cultural background. The latter is impossible if they do not know cultural norms, standards, ethical principles and values of their patients. This is why, when nurses get started to work with patients, they should learn their cultural background and understand clearly their needs and cultural peculiarities. On the ground of this knowledge, nurses can develop an individual approach to each patient respectively to their needs and expectations. In such a way, nurses can maximize the effectiveness of their work and help patients to recover faster. Conclusion In conclusion, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that nurses work in culturally diverse environment. They are vulnerable to the impact of diversity in their relationships with patients and their colleagues. In such a situation, nurses need to pay a particular attention to diversity and development of tolerance in the course of their education and professional development. In such a way, understanding of diversity and tolerance can help nurses to provide health care services of the high quality.

Essay --

â€Å"The years that are gone seem like dreams—if one might go on sleeping and dreaming—but to wake up and find—oh! well! Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life† says Edna at her appointment with Doctor Mandelet (151). In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna is constantly at odds with her own fears – her independence; however, over the course of the novel, Chopin reveals a deeper side to Edna. She does not fear being alone, she is afraid of being without herself. It is also revealed that her society is often against her self-discovering favoring a more traditional female role. In its final scene, The Awakening offers readers a more complex method to obtain freedom, death. Edna’s suicide reveals her final awakening, breaking free from all the pressures that bind her. Edna’s awakenings in Grand Isle and in New Orleans set her up for failure by forcing her to understand her lack of options. Edna’s first awakening is when she realizes that she is not happy with her life as a housewife. This awakening is realized while Edna is at a dinner party with Md. Ratignolle and her husband. When she arrived home, she â€Å"felt depressed rather than soothed† (75). She then goes on and â€Å"st[omps] upon her wedding ring† (76). This symbolizes Edna’s desire to escape from marriage altogether, but her inability to crush the ring shows her powerlessness to break free from her imprisonment. Edna breaks through the role given to her by society; she learns her own identity independent of her husband and children. Edna later realizes that she cannot be the same as Mademoiselle Reisz. Edna does not possess the carefree attitude of Reisz and stills struggles with social appro... ... and escape. With her death she is surrendering herself to freedom. Her death by sea is a symbol of her allowing herself to overcome her ambiguity about her personhood. In conclusion, The Awakening ended in the only way it could have, with Edna’s death. Edna’s lack of options and her fear of solitude lead to her death. However, Chopin turned her death into something much more meaningful than just a way to end the novel. Edna’s final awakening is realizing that she cannot do the things that wanted to do. With this she chooses death before overcoming her problems. Kate Chopin juxtaposes this fear of living alone with her fear of dying in a way that makes Edna seem triumphant. She revealed her suicide not as a defeat but as a triumph over social pressure and fears. Chopin used Edna’s death symbolizes her final awakening and her ability to overcome her obstacles.

Public Education Essay -- A Level Essays

Public Education Education is an issue that touches everyone’s lives in one way or another. Whether you are a parent, student, teacher, taxpayer, or employee, the effects of education on society can be seen everyday. For this reason, public schools are a top concern among political leaders. Over the past twenty-five years, confidence in the nation’s public school system has dramatically declined. While the public for the most part seems to support their school district, criticism is not lacking. Recent years especially have shown dissipating support. It appears that the prevailing view is that public education, as a whole, is in bad condition and is in need of a renewed effort to fix it. Private schools seem to fare better opinions than public schools in important areas such as safety, order, academic standards, and class size. Today’s Congress is looking for the correct answer to a very diverse and complex problem. In 2001, Congress approved President Bush’s education reform bill, otherwise known as the No Child Left Behind Act. This bill acts to provide local districts with increased flexibility in spending federal aid. It also requires annual standardized math and reading tests. Many of the issues addressed within the bill follow conservative ideology. However, the bill was a collaborative effort, between both democrats and republicans, to try to deal with America’s education problems in the most effective way possible. We will continue to discuss the major significant points of this legislation later on. Currently, Congress has turned its attention to special education. While the program is good because it helps the children in need, critics argue that it provides... ...a moderate may believe that the answer to America’s educational system lies within the need to raise educational standards and increase school funding. Because the No Child Left Behind Act was a compromise between Liberals and Conservatives, it is likely that most Moderates would agree with most of the ideas set out in the bill. However, being that there is no set model for the moderate perspective on education, a moderate can disagree on any number of resolutions within the act. Sources Cited: www.publicagenda.com http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/rel5200.html http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein/releases01/education_reform.html http://www.cato.org/dailys/01-11-02.html http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/02/03/bush.budget/index.html http://www.house.gov/budget_democrats/news/bush_ed_june1003.htm Public Education Essay -- A Level Essays Public Education Education is an issue that touches everyone’s lives in one way or another. Whether you are a parent, student, teacher, taxpayer, or employee, the effects of education on society can be seen everyday. For this reason, public schools are a top concern among political leaders. Over the past twenty-five years, confidence in the nation’s public school system has dramatically declined. While the public for the most part seems to support their school district, criticism is not lacking. Recent years especially have shown dissipating support. It appears that the prevailing view is that public education, as a whole, is in bad condition and is in need of a renewed effort to fix it. Private schools seem to fare better opinions than public schools in important areas such as safety, order, academic standards, and class size. Today’s Congress is looking for the correct answer to a very diverse and complex problem. In 2001, Congress approved President Bush’s education reform bill, otherwise known as the No Child Left Behind Act. This bill acts to provide local districts with increased flexibility in spending federal aid. It also requires annual standardized math and reading tests. Many of the issues addressed within the bill follow conservative ideology. However, the bill was a collaborative effort, between both democrats and republicans, to try to deal with America’s education problems in the most effective way possible. We will continue to discuss the major significant points of this legislation later on. Currently, Congress has turned its attention to special education. While the program is good because it helps the children in need, critics argue that it provides... ...a moderate may believe that the answer to America’s educational system lies within the need to raise educational standards and increase school funding. Because the No Child Left Behind Act was a compromise between Liberals and Conservatives, it is likely that most Moderates would agree with most of the ideas set out in the bill. However, being that there is no set model for the moderate perspective on education, a moderate can disagree on any number of resolutions within the act. Sources Cited: www.publicagenda.com http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/rel5200.html http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein/releases01/education_reform.html http://www.cato.org/dailys/01-11-02.html http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/02/03/bush.budget/index.html http://www.house.gov/budget_democrats/news/bush_ed_june1003.htm

Comparing Judaism and Islam Essay

Judaism and Islam are two of the world’s oldest, and largest monotheistic religions. These religions share a variety of customs, beliefs, and even practices. But at the same time, there are enough differences to make the two religions and cultures oppose each other greatly. Even some similarities between the two have been the source of conflict for thousands of years. Both the Jewish and Muslim faith believe in one God. Being monotheistic means just that, the belief in one God. This is the most obvious similarity between the two religions. In fact a Muslim is defined as anyone who says â€Å"There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the messenger of God.† and the basic creed of Judaism says â€Å"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.† Judaism and Islam both have Holy Books from which religious teachings are taken. The Muslim Holy Book is called the Quran, it is spelled in English in many different ways Koran, Kuran, this is because Arabic is hard to translate. The Quran is the word of God as reveled by the prophet Mohammed. The Jewish Holy Book is referred to as the Hebrew Bible. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible is called the Torah. This is the part of the bible lays out a system of moral and religious conduct. The Hebrew Bible was put together in the 1st century A.D. by rabbis and teachers of the Jewish text. The Hebrew Bible and the Quran both set up a system of law for the followers of the Jewish and Muslim faiths. The Hebrew Bible, the book of the Jewish faith sets up more of a code of conduct, a system of moral and religious conduct that is called the halavhah. This addresses how families should be run, personal ethics and manners, social responsibilities, and what people of the Jewish faith should and should not eat. Dietary guidelines are very important in the Jewish religion, everything that is eaten must be Kosher, meaning it is prepared a certain way. The Quran goes one step farther in setting boundaries for it’s believers. This book of the Muslim faith sets the rules for an Islamic state. Also there are strict rules on women, families, and daily life that are addressed in deep detail in the Quran. Polygamy is accepted in the Quran, a man may have no more that four wives. And women are actually supposed to be mostly equal to men, yet modest.  Equality of women is not always practiced in some Middle Eastern and Islamic countries. As with most religions Islam and Judaism have a variety of holidays. Some are to commemorate an event of the the past, some to celebrate a new year, or maybe the passing of a certain number of years. Ramadan, a holiday celebrated mostly by Sunni Muslims, happens during the ninth month of the Muslim year. This was the month when the Quran was reveled for the guidance of mankind. During this holy month Muslims fast and abstain from sex during the daylight hours. It is a very holy time and is taken very seriously. In the Jewish faith there is a similar holiday called Passover. This holiday lasts for seven days and commerates the deliverance of Israel from slavery. Passover more specifically refers to the evening when the angel of death passed over the houses of all in Egypt killing the first born of each home that did not have lambs’s blood around the door. During this holiday Jews are permitted only to ear unleavened bread called matzo during the daylight hours, much like the Ramadan fasting. Jews also hold feasts during the first two nights of this holiday. A house of worship is an important component of most religions in our world today. Islam has the Mosque, a place of prayer and teaching. Judaism has the Synagogue, also a place of prayer and teaching. In both these places people gather to perform the customs that are laid out in their religious scriptures. Unlike some religions in the world today both Judaism and Islam require their believers to pray multiple times a day. Jews pray three times a day, once in the morning, once in the noontime and once in the evening. Though this practice is more of a personal choice than the strict guidelines of prayer set in the Muslim religion. In the Quran there are five pillars of the Muslim faith: The first is profession of faith which basically means a Muslims must constantly and openly profess their faith. The second is prayer, which happens five times a day. The third is giving alms to the needy. The fourth is fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. And the fifth is the pilgrimage to Mecca. The second pillar of faith is the  practice similar to the Jewish practice. Five times a day Muslims must pray facing the holy city of Mecca. This however is a very strict prayer, maybe a bit different from the Jewish tradition, but still the same basic concept. Judaism is the oldest of the three major monotheistic religions. The religion began in the time of Abraham which would have been about 1900 B.C, over 3,000 years ago. In many ways this has made the Jewish religion and it’s followers very strong in their beliefs. Islam, on the other hand, was not founded until 570 A.D., some 2,000 years after the beginning of Judaism. Many Jewish believers will use this difference as an argument. They are the older of the two religions, and so they were the first people in the Holy Land (Israel/Palestine) and so they should be entitled to it and no one else. However, Abraham had two sons, Issac the leader of the Hebrew people and Ishmael, the leader of the Arab people. Though not all Muslims are Arab, the majority of the Muslims in Israel are Arab. So Muslims will use this argument by saying that Ishmael was the first son of Abraham and God told Abraham that He would take care of his first born, so the Muslims have just as much right to the area as the Jews, no matter who was there first. Though there are many similarities between Islam and Judaism, the few differences however large or small seem to greatly outweigh the amazing likenesses for the thousands of followers of both beliefs. These differences as well as the continuing argument over the promised land of Israel/Palestine continue today to escalate the war in the sacred area and drive a wedge even further between the two groups. The truly frightening part of all this is that Holy Wars are extremely hard to resolve. When two groups are fighting over land that was promised to them by a divine entity that’s existence can’t even be proven, there aren’t a whole lot of options for peace. All the world can do is educate themselves and try to accept the different religions and continue to look for some sort of compromise.