Living Conditions in Kenya Essay Example

Living Conditions in Kenya Essay Life CONDITIONS IN KENYA 1 This paper analyzes the life conditions in Kenya. Kenya is the biggest economic system in East Africa, and it has contributed greatly into the stabilisation of East African states. This includes Somalia, where the state has sent military personnels to assist in reconstructing order and security within the part. In explicating the life conditions in Kenya, this paper uses the societal justness theory, and the moralss of virtuousness theory. The moralss of virtuousness theory lays an accent on the function of an individual’s character, for intents of measuring and analysing the ethical behaviour of a individual ( Clayton and Williams, 2004 ) . Social justness theory on the other manus develops the rules that govern the societal order of a society. Social Justice refers to the ability that people have, for intents of recognizing their potencies, within the society in which they live ( Clayton and Williams, 2004 ) . On this footing, there is a demand of set uping establishments th at would assist the society to take a better and fulfilling life. The rules established by the theory of societal justness are, personal and political autonomies, equal chances, etc. This paper argues that the life conditions in Kenya are hapless, and bulk of people are unable to acquire better services because of inefficiency in the mode in which the national authorities distributes resources to the grassroots degree. We will write a custom essay sample on Living Conditions in Kenya specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Living Conditions in Kenya specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Living Conditions in Kenya specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Before December 2007, Kenya was categorized as one of the success narratives in Africa. This is because the state was sing a fledging democracy, and an unprecedented economic growing, which was characterized by a flourishing touristry industry ( Williams, 2012 ) . It is of import to understand that the population of the state is approximated at 35.5 million people, with about 10 million people populating in the urban countries ( Oppong and Oppong, 2012 ) . The capital metropolis is in Nairobi, with over three million people shacking in it. The 2007 elections in Kenya culminated into an electoral force that was so terrible and lifelessly. This force shocked the full universe, and this is because Kenya has been regarded as a symbol of peace and stableness within a part that was infested with civil wars and armed struggles. Kenya faces a series of jobs, such as corruptness, HIV/AIDS, higher criterions of life, poorness, malnutrition and hungriness, a hapless wellness sector, tribalism, and hapless leading and administration ( Oppong and Oppong, 2012 ) . These mentioned jobs are the chief causes that make the life conditions in Kenya to be hapless and substandard. For case, it is estimated that kids below 15 old ages of age signifier 50 % of the entire population of the state ( Campbell, Gray and Radak, 2011 ) . On this footing, the state faces a high dependence load, which is responsible for making a competition for the chief intent accessing quality instruction, wellness attention services, and other societal services. It is of import to understand that in every bit much as the economic system of the state usually see some growing, more than half of the population of the state live in poorness ( Williams, 2012 ) . That is they live in less than a dollar per twenty-four hours. The most vulnerable people are kids and adult females populating in rural countries, and in slums ( Oppong and Oppong, 2012 ) . Poverty in the state is attributed to inefficient administration construction that does non guarantee the just distribution of resources to the grassroots degree. Poverty is besides attributed to the widespread corruptness within the state ( Williams, 2012 ) . In fact, in an one-year study of the states that is the most corrupt in the universe. Kenya ranks amongst the most corrupt states in t he universe. Corruptness is widespread within the state, and it is really hard for an person to acquire services from the authorities without corrupting a authorities functionary ( Oppong and Oppong, 2012 ) . Amongst the establishments where corruptness thrives, are the constabulary forces, the military units, the bench, and sections responsible for supplying in-migration services. Harmonizing to the societal justness theory, it is the function of the authorities to supply a conducive ambiance that can assist people to do wealth, and live in prosperity. Eradication of poorness should be one of the major concerns of the authorities, and hence establishments must be put in topographic point, for intents of assisting the authorities to contend poorness, and its causes ( Williams, 2012 ) . It is of import to understand that there have been attempts and schemes developed for intents of contending corruptness within the state, which is one of the major, causes of poorness. Institutions such as the Kenya Anti Corruption Authority were established. However, these establishments have failed to undertake the jobs of corruptness, because of deficiency of authorities will. For case, there have been major dirts affecting the larceny of public money, and this includes the Goldenberg saga, whereby a concern adult male, with the aid of top authorities functionaries decided to steal revenue enhancement payer’s money by feigning that they could provide gold, to the state militias in the 1990s ( Oppong and Oppong, 2012 ) . Billions of shillings were lost in this procedure. Another state of affairs is the Anglo leasing dirt, which came to come up in 2005 whereby top authorities functionaries were able to steal one million millions of shillings from the authorities. It is of import to denote that failure by authorities anti-corruption establishments to forestall these dirts was an unfairness to the Kenyan society ( Williams, 2012 ) . This is every bit harmonizing to the societal justness theory, which lays accent on establishments to assist in advancing societal justness, and this includes equality of chance, and personal and political freedom. For illus tration, due to corruptness, the province is unable to raise financess that can assist it to develop roads, better on the instruction and wellness attention system, etc. On this footing, the authorities is forced to utilize the limited resources it has to develop certain countries, go forthing other parts in their development docket. This is clearly against the societal justness theory which advocates for just distribution of resources ( Hooft, 2006 ) . To cut down the jobs of corruptness in Kenya, there is a demand of utilizing the rules contained in the virtuousness theories of moralss for intents of commanding the behaviour of its senior authorities functionaries. This theory focuses on methods of bettering the morality of people, by set uping the regulations and processs that the people under consideration should follow. For illustration, corruptness is a negative phenomenon in the state, and there is a demand of set uping constabularies and mechanisms of contending corruptness. On this footing, the Kenyan authorities demands to ordain assorted Torahs and processs aimed at contending corruptness, and detering the frailty ( Williams, 2012 ) . These processs could include demonising this facet of corruptness, by taking civil retainers to developing seminars with the purpose of sensitising them on the dangers of corruptness. Through these actions, opportunities are high that the authorities might transfuse the moral virtuousnesss of honestness, and the demand to function amongst its senior civil retainers ( Hooft, 2006 ) . This will hold an consequence of minimising corruptness, taking to the decrease of poorness within the state ( Gifford, 2009 ) . Another factor that leads to hapless life criterions in the state is the country’s wellness sector, which is inefficient, and lacks adept medical practicians to work in these sectors. It is of import to understand that Kenya lacks adequate physicians and nurses to work in its wellness sector. The chief ground of this deficit is that the state does non hold equal preparation installations and resources that can ease the preparation of more medical practicians, and later en gaging these people ( Hornsby, 2012 ) . However, it is of import to understand that the country that is affected largely by this deficit of physicians is in rural countries. This is because most practicians do non like working in these countries because the wage is small, and they have small chances of progressing in their callings. Doctors in rural countries are ever employed by the authorities, and the wage offered by the authorities is non ever moneymaking ( Hooft, 2006 ) . On this footing, these physicians would instead remain in urban countries, where they can acquire better occupations, with honoring wage. On this footing, there is unjust distribution of service, with the rural countries being at a disadvantage. In the position of the societal justness theory, this is injustice, because people are unable to get services, which they have a right to ( Hooft, 2006 ) . This is because they are revenue enhancement remunerators, and therefore the authorities needs to supply the wellness attention services that they need. The instruction system in Kenya is besides hapless, and it favors kids from the rich background. In every bit much as the authorities introduced a cosmopolitan free primary instruction in the state, the educative services provided are non up to the criterion. This is because schoolrooms are congested, and there are cases whereby two kids are forced to portion a desk ( Haustein, 2011 ) . There is besides a deficit of instructors, and the authorities is loath to engage more instructors because it lacks the necessary financess to transport out the exercising. On this footing, the quality of instruction provided in authorities schools is low, and this is ever reflected in national test, where pupils from authorities schools do non execute better than pupils at private schools ( Haustein, 2011 ) . It is hence of import to understand that parents prefer taking their kids to private schools, for them to entree quality and good instruction. However, these schools are ever really expensive, a nd out of range of bulk of Kenyans. It is hence accurate to understand that the instruction system in Kenya is prefering the rich, and this goes against the rules established by the societal justness theory ( Clayton and Williams, 2004 ) . Harmonizing to this rule, there must be equity in the sharing of authorities resources, and on this footing, the Government failed in this sphere ( Hooft, 2006 ) . All that the authorities needs to make is to better the construction of free primary instruction, engage more instructors, construct more schools and schoolroom, and better on the accomplishments that its instructors have. By making this, opportunities are high that the authorities would better the quality of free primary instruction. From the position of the societal justness theory, it is the establishment of administration that plays a great function in guaranting whether there is just or unjust distribution of educational resources ( Williams, 2012 ) . This is because it is the authorities that has the duty of supplying instruction to the citizens of the state. Tribalism is besides a factor that leads to unjust distribution of resources. This is because senior authorities functionaries are acute at developing countries where their folks come from, at the disbursal of the full state. Loyalty is to the folk, as opposed to the whole state. In decision, the hapless life conditions in Kenya are chiefly caused by corruptness, and unjust distribution of resources. The societal justness theory and the virtuousness of moralss theory can be used to efficaciously explicate and supply a solution to these jobs. For case, the societal justness theory advocators for the publicity of just distribution of resources, and personal every bit good as political freedoms. In the position of this theory, establishments play a great function in guaranting that there is an just distribution of resources and the personal and political freedoms of people are guaranteed. On this footing, when these societal immoralities are depicted in a society, so the establishments of the society under consideration have failed. The same can be applied in the Kenyan state of affairs, whereby the establishments formed by the authorities to contend poorness, corruptness, tribalism and other ailments in the society have failed. The virtuousness moralss theory o n the other manus emphasizes on morality and the demand of holding a good character. Corruptness is an illustration a character that is non good, and this will take to the outgrowth of other societal ailments such as poorness, and in just distribution of wealth. On this footing, the authorities needs to engage people of unity and moral character for intents of keeping senior authorities offices. Bibliography: Campbell, B. C. , Gray, P. B. , A ; Radak, J. ( 2011 ) . In the Company of Work force: Quality of Life and Social Support Among the Ariaal of Northern Kenya.Journal of Cross-Cultural Geriatrics,26( 3 ) , 221-237. Clayton, M. , A ; Williams, A. ( 2004 ) .Social justness. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.. Gifford, P. ( 2009 ) .Christianity, political relations and public life in Kenya. New York: Columbia University Press. Haustein, J. ( 2011 ) .Christianity, Politics and Public Life in Kenya.Pneuma,33( 1 ) , 134-135. Hooft, S. v. ( 2006 ) .Understanding virtuousness moralss. Chesham [ U.K. : Acumens. Hornsby, C. ( 2012 ) .Kenya a history since independency. New York: I. B. Tauris. Oppong, J. R. , A ; Oppong, E. D. ( 2004 ) .Kenya. Philadelphia: Chelsea House. Williams, L. ( 2012 ) .Kenya enchiridion( 3rd ed. ) . Bath: Footprint.

Use of Symbols in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Use of Symbols in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight† is an ancient poem that tells the story of the exchanges between Sir Gawain and a mysterious Green Knight. Sir Gawain is a blood relative of King Arthur and a brave knight while the Green Knight is a disguised character who sets out to test his opponent. â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight† was authored in an unknown date in the late 1300s by an anonymous author.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Use of Symbols in â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight† specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The unknown author who wrote â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight† is also associated with three other poems that were found in the manuscript that contained this poem. The setting of the poem has always been believed to be Northern England. The author of this poem (referred to as the Gawain-poet in this paper) uses several stylistic devices that make this poem an outstanding work of literature. The poet uses several symbols in the poem to the benefit of the readers. The symbols that are used in â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight† help the Gawain-poet to instill deeper meanings to this literary piece. This essay explores the symbols that are used in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and how they contribute towards the revelation of the poem’s meaning. The poem begins by narrating the events that are going on in King Arthur’s court during the new-year festivities. A mysterious character, the Green Knight, arrives at the King’s court albeit uninvited. The Green Knight proceeds to offer a challenge to all the feast attendees; any brave knight who is present at the court will have the opportunity to strike the Green Knight with an axe but in one year and a day’s time the volunteering knight would have to withstand a similar challenge. King Arthur steps forward and accepts the challenge but Gawain intercepts the King and takes up the challenge himself. Gawain carries on the challenge by striking the Green Knight’s head with an axe and manages to severe it. However, in a strange turn of events the Green Knight bends down and picks up his severed head. The Knight then reminds Gawain to honor his end of the deal by showing up to the Green Chapel to receive a similar challenge. Approximately a year after this encounter, Sir Gawain leaves for the Green Chapel to honor his end of the deal. The Gawain-poet details the adventures of Gawain throughout his journey in the rest of the poem.Advertising Looking for research paper on british literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More One of the most prominent symbols that are used in this poem is Gawain’s shield and pentangle. The shield is a tool of protection especially for people who engage in armed combat. The pentangle that is contained in the shield is specific to the wearer (Sir Gawain). Therefore, the pentangle is a symbol of the virtues and values that are held by Gawain in the course of his Knighthood. According to the poem, the pentangle is a five-pointed-star that traces its origins to King Solomon. In most ancient texts, the pentangle is often a symbol of truth or a magical seal (Green 123). The interlocking nature of the pentangle symbolizes the complexity of human virtues. In the context of the â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight†, the pentangle brings together the influence of â€Å"the five virtues, the five wounds of Christ, the five senses, the five joys of Mary the mother of Jesus, and the five fingers (Besserman 220). Consequently, it is apparent that as a knight, Gawain also seeks his moral, physical, and spiritual strengths from other places. Gawain’s strengths and virtues are interwoven like the triangles in the pentangle. The endless pattern that is found in the pentangle echoes the perfection of Gawain ch aracter. For instance, when all the other knights are afraid of the Green Knight’s challenge he voluntary rescues the King from possible failure or humiliation. Solomon is said to have used the pentangle as a personal magic seal. However, later on Solomon became a symbol of wisdom, kingship, and might. The similarities between Solomon and Gawain’s use of the pentangle are that both personalities had flaws. At the end, Solomon turned away from God and eventually lost his kingdom while Gawain refused to honor a promise he made to his host. The Gawain-poet emphasizes the significance of the connection between Gawain and the pentangle. According to Professor Burrow, several lines in the poem are dedicated to establishing this connection. For example, the poet mentions that the pentangle is a symbol of fidelity or ‘trawpe’ that associates Gawain with the traits of faithfulness and fidelity. The poet then concludes that the object is befitting for the main chara cter (Morgan 779). The symbol of the pentangle helps in developing the themes of bravery and selflessness. These two concepts are presented from a Christian point of view and hence the pentangle is a symbol of fidelity and faithfulness.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Use of Symbols in â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight† specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Color green is a symbol with several possible interpretations. The main antagonist in â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight† is the Green Knight. The Green Knight is presented by the poet as a mystical character with striking features. This character is noted to be green in color. In addition, the Green Knight has a green horse, green skin, a green beard, green clothes, a green-gold axe, and green hair. The portrayal of a completely green knight highlights the peculiar nature of Green Knight’s presence. In addition, the Green Knightâ €™s color uniformity suggests that he is a uniform character. Several analysts have debated about the symbolism of color green as used by the Gawain-poet. Some scholars have proposed that the Green Knight is a symbol of the god of vegetation and nature. According to Basserman, the green color of the Green Knight symbolizes the â€Å"dying and rising vegetation god† (220). Other medieval texts have also made references to green men. In some instances, a green man symbolizes a ‘wild man’ while at other times he symbolizes the ‘evil man’. The Gawain-poet combines both symbols because at the beginning of the poem the Green Knight is portrayed as a character with evil motives. However, by the end of the poem the Green Knight is portrayed as a straightforward character. Most scholars are in agreement over the fact that in traditional-English folklore the color green mostly symbolizes fertility and rebirth. In the poem, green is presented as a pure colo r except for the green-gold girdle. The mixture of green and gold is a symbol of change in the form of passing youth. The green color used in the girdle first serves a symbol of immortality. When Gawain is humiliated by his behaviors, he adorns the green girdle as a symbol of cowardice and shame. However, the Camelot knights finally adorn the green girdle as a symbol of honor. All these changes elaborate the ambiguity of color green as a literary symbol. The poem also employs the symbol of an axe that is held by the Green Knight during his entry to the king’s court. During the medieval times, the axe was a symbol of execution. Consequently, when the Green Knight is holding an axe he symbolizes the executioner. When the Green Knight enters the palace, he is holding an axe but he offers to be executed first.Advertising Looking for research paper on british literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This makes the Green Knight a strange and an unusual executioner. When the Green Knight picks up his severed head and rides away, it becomes clear that he is an extraordinary executioner, one who cannot die. In medieval texts, death is known as the only executioner who cannot die (Besserman 220). Apart from the axe, the Green Knight is also holding a holly bob. In medieval England hollies were constantly associated with death and ghosts who would often come back to haunt their former residences. Some medieval sources claim that it was â€Å"a well known fact within the English tradition that a holly bob carried into a house before Christmas foretells death in the coming year† (Krappe 214). Therefore, when the Green Knight enters holding an axe and a holly bob, his symbol as the executioner who foretells death is complete. The green girdle is another symbol that has ambiguous characteristics. The symbol of the girdle is like the one of color green and it keeps changing through out the poem. At first, the Gawain is given the girdle by his host’s wife with the promise that it has magical elements and it will make him immortal. However, when the identity of the Green Knight is revealed to be that of Gawain’s former host, the girdle instantly symbolizes cowardice and shame. Gawain resolves to wear the girdle for the rest of his life as a symbol of his shameful and cowardly act. However, when Gawain arrives at Camelot he finds all the other knights wearing the girdle as a symbol of triumph and honor (Tolkien 121). Given the poem’s religious undertones, the Gawain-poet might have used the symbol of the girdle as a parallel to the crown of thorns that was worn by Jesus during crucifixion. Jesus’ crown of thorns was a symbol of both humiliation and triumph. Furthermore, the crown of thorns signified the victory of Jesus after he had gone through turbulent times. Gawain goes through tough experiences that are similar to the ones that Je sus went through and in the end he receives a symbolic girdle. A thorough analysis of the symbols that are used in â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight† reveals that this poem contains several hidden meanings. These symbols also reveal that the Gawain-poet employs a strong religious theme. The poem also lacks a sole and definite meaning. Instead, the Gawain-poet chooses to indulge the readers in dual-meaning symbols. Symbols are also used to portray the weaknesses of mankind in the face of tribulations. Most of the symbols in this story dwell on the subjects of death, human triumph, defeat, temptation, and honor. The dual meanings in some of the symbols that are used in this poem suggest that the poet is not ready to pass judgments. A thorough analysis of â€Å"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight† indicates that symbols are prevalent in the poem and the Gawain-poet intended to use these symbols as tools of hidden meanings. Besserman, Lawrence. The idea of the Green Knigh t. ELH 53.2 (1986): 219-239. Print. Green, Hamilton. Gawains Shield and the Quest for Perfection. ELH 29.2 (2002): 121- 139. Print. Krappe, Alexander Haggerty. Who Was the Green Knight?. Speculum 13.2 (1938): 206-215. Print. Morgan, Gerald. The significance of the pentangle symbolism in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Modern (The) Language Review London 74.4 (1979): 770-790. Print. Tolkien, John and Norman Davis. Sir Gawain and the green knight, London, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1967. Print.

Health insurance should be free Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Health insurance should be free - Essay Example This essay aims at showing the various reasons, both social and economic, as to why health insurance should be made free. Although the move to provide free health insurance has some disadvantages the purpose of this essay is to show how the positive side of free health insurance compares with the negative side. One among the major problems facing health-care access around the world and especially North America (U.S. and Canada) is poor access to health services. Due to poor income distribution, the affordability of health care has deteriorated from 2001 to 2005 and further from 2008 towards the end of 2014 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, para. 2-4). Among the reasons limiting access to health care is poor income distribution. For the middle and high-class social classes, health care costs are manageable and provoke few to no major affordability issues. Health care affordability means the ability of an individual to meet his/her medical care costs through self-sponsorship or employer-paid insurance cover. In order to ensure that health care affordability is accessible to members of the public, it is in the best interest of the public to either access income generating opportunities to unify accessibility or to have health care made free to everyone. The latter case is much practical and medical cover is a basic need to every individual. Unlike with the case of luxury and overall cost of living, health care should be made free and accessible to all citizens such that low income-earners can have the same accessibility as high-income earners. Due to the problem of income distribution and unemployment, it is documented that some countries such as the U.S. have a high number of uninsured people. As of 2012, 46% of adults aged between 19 and 64 years did not have insurance cover for the whole year. Based on the population in 2012, 46% of the adult population

Biggest Obstacle to Business Sustainability Essay

Biggest Obstacle to Business Sustainability - Essay Example In other words, it ensures the efficiency and effectiveness of the supply chain. According to Werther and Chandler (2011), there are several CSR-related concepts that used to overcome communication barriers in a business. The Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders, Globalization, and Sustainable Value Creation contain ideas that improve communication. Specifically, these include accountability (p. 305), business ethics (p. 336), stakeholder relations (p. 374), and environmental sustainability (p. 326). Others include compliance (p. 313), the use of the media (p. 344), religion (p. 365), and sustainable development (Werther and Chandler (2011, p. 326). Accountability requires honesty and transparency in the auditing process within an organization. The economists and accountants preparing the audit reports should embrace answerability as a crucial tool for linking up with the stakeholders. According to Werther and Chandler (2011), accountability enables external auditors to assess the organization and the managers. Consequently, this enhances the reliability of the reports conveyed to the stakeholders. Specifically, it minimizes the instances of doubts within the organization. Accountability ensures a proper flow of information between the managers and the employees. For this reason, it is the most critical virtue that promotes responsibility of the managers. In response, the supervisors pass all the relevant, reliable information to the employees and the customers. Business ethics refers to the mode of conduct within an organization. Professional ethos and values dictate the behavior of the workers and managers. The principles encompass the behavior and responsibilities of the organizational fraternity. Corporate integrities assist in reducing instances of communication breakdown in an organization (p. 335). According to the ethics, it is the role of

Assignment 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Assignment 2 - Essay Example Such infections lead a patient to spend more time in ICU and hospital; the infection is responsible for a mortality rate of about 9%. The infection is estimated to occur 48 hours, or more after the patient receives tracheal intubation. Such pneumonia infection may be early onset or when it occurs at the initial stages or late onset at the late stages of mechanical ventilation. Below is the appraisal of several studies on VAP, with their findings and study designs illustrated, and a critical review of their strengths and weaknesses where relevant. Tolentino-DelosReyes, F. A., Ruppert, D. S., & Pamela, K. S. (2007). Evidence-based practice: Use of the ventilator bundle to prevent ventilator associated pneumonia. American Journal of Critical Care, 3 (4), 12-13. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17192523 The study examined the knowledge of critical care nurses related to the use of ventilator bundles in preventing VAP. It was found nurses who complied with study findings improved n thei r knowledge and practical performance in preventing VAP cases. The study showed that short education session can indeed improve the performance of nurses and their knowledge. The study investigated factors that contribute to VAP. It was found that VAP rate increased in in CCU patients by 4%, from 24% to 28% in the fourth day caused by high secretions. Therefore, the education program on nurses to improve their knowledge regarding the use of VAP bundles was successful and resulted to the required change in nurses’ practices (Hawe et al., 2009). Zaydfudim, V. et al. (2009). Implementation of a real-time compliance dashboard to help reduce SICU ventilator-associated pneumonia with the ventilator bundle. Archives of Surgery, 144(7), 656-62 doi: 10.1001/archsurg.2009.117. This study investigated the effects of an electronic dashboard in improving compliance in reduction of VAP rates, and bundle parameters in surgical intensive care units (SICU). It was found that dashboard interve ntion increased the ventilator bundle compliance in SICU from 39% to 89% after the study. Therefore, the article demonstrates that adherence to using such ventilator bundles was effective in reducing VAP cases considerably. The study investigated the relationship between use of ventilator bundles and VAP infections. It was found that compliance with ventilator bundle improved from 39% to 89% by the end of July 2008 decreasing VAP rates by about 6.0 per 1000 ventilator days, from an initial mean of 15.2 t0 9.3 per 1000 ventilator days following the dashboard intervention. Therefore use of the dashboard resulted to the required change (Zambuto et al., 2010). Hawe, S. C., Ellis, S. K., Cairns, S. C., & Longmate, A. (2009). Reduction of ventilator associated pneumonia: Active versus passive guideline implementation. Intensive Care Med. 35(7), 1180-6 doi: 10.1007/s00134-009-1461-0. Epub The article involved the use of an active multifaceted bundle aimed at improving staff compliance with evidence based practices in reducing VAP cases. A VIP prevention bundle implemented actively and integrated in staff evaluation process resulted in compliance with VAP bundle use. The article analyzed VAP incidences and both mortality and morbidity rates in ICUs. In the findings, compliance with a VAP bundle increased with implementation of active multifacet

Analysis of the Capital Assets Pricing Model

Analysis of the Capital Assets Pricing Model Chapter I The QUARREL ON THE CAPM: A LITERATURE SURVEY Abstract The current chapter has attempted to do three things. First it presents an overview on the capital asset pricing model and the results from its application throughout a narrative literature review. Second the chapter has argued that to claim whether the CAPM is dead or alive, some improvements on the model must be considered. Rather than take the view that one theory is right and the other is wrong, it is probably more accurate to say that each applies in somewhat different circumstances (assumptions). Finally the chapter has argued that even the examination of the CAPMs variants is unable to solve the debate into the model. Rather than asserting the death or the survival of the CAPM, we conclude that there is no consensus in the literature as to what suitable measure of risk is, and consequently as to what extent the model is valid or not since the evidence is very mixed. So the debate on the validity of the CAPM remains a questionable issue. 1. INTRODUCTION The traditional capital assets pricing model (CAPM), always the most widespread model of the financial theory, was prone to harsh criticisms not only by the academicians but also by the experts in finance. Indeed, in the last few decades an enormous body of empirical researches has gathered evidences against the model. These evidences tackle directly the models assumptions and suggest the dead of the beta (Fama and French, 1992); the systematic risk of the CAPM. If the world does not obey to the models predictions, it is maybe because the model needs some improvements. It is maybe because also the world is wrong, or that some shares are not correctly priced. Perhaps and most notably the parameters that determine the prices are not observed such as information or even the returns distribution. Of course the theory, the evidence and even the unexplained movements have all been subject to much debate. But the cumulative effect has been to put a new look on asset pricing. Financial Researchers have provided both theory and evidence which suggest from where the deviations of securities prices from fundamentals are likely to come, and why could not be explained by the traditional CAPM. Understanding security valuation is a parsimonious as well as a lucrative end in its self. Nevertheless, research on valuation has many additional benefits. Among them the crucial and relatively neglected issues have to do with the real consequences of the models failure. How are securities priced? What are the pricing factors and when? Once it is recognized that the models failure has real consequences, important issues arise. For instance the conception of an adequate pricing model that accounts for all the missing aspects. The objective of this chapter is to look at different approaches to the CAPM, how these have arisen, and the importance of recognizing that theres no single ‘right model which is adequate for all shares and for all circumstances, i.e. assumptions. We will, so move on to explore the research task, discuss the goodness and the weakness of the CAPM, and look at how different versions are introduced and developed in the literature. We will, finally, go on to explore whether these recent developments on the CAPM could solve the quarrel behind its failure. For this end, the recent chapter is organized as follows: the second section presents the theoretical bases of the model. The third one discusses the problematic issues on the model. The fourth section presents a literature survey on the classic version of the model. The five section sheds light on the recent developments of the CAPM together with a literature review on these versions. The next one raises the quarrel on the model and its modified versions. Section seven concludes the paper. 2. THEORETICAL BASES OF THE CAPITAL ASSET PRICING MODEL In the field of finance, the CAPM is used to determine, theoretically, the required return of an asset; if this asset is associated to a well diversified market portfolio while taking into account the non diversified risk of the asset its self. This model, introduced by Jack Treynor, William Sharpe and Jan Mossin (1964, 1965) took its roots of the Harry Markowitzs work (1952) which is interested in diversification and the modern theory of the portfolio. The modern theory of portfolio was introduced by Harry Markowitz in his article entitled â€Å"Portfolio Selection, appeared in 1952 in the Journal of Finance. Well before the work of Markowitz, the investors, for the construction of their portfolios, are interested in the risk and the return. Thus, the standard advice of the investment decision was to choose the stocks that offer the best return with the minimum of risk, and by there, they build their portfolios. On the basis of this point, Markowitz formulated this intuition by resorting to the diversifications mathematics. Indeed, he claims that the investors must in general choose the portfolios while getting based on the risk criterion rather than to choose those made up only of stocks which offer each one the best risk-reward criterion. In other words, the investors must choose portfolios rather than individual stocks. Thus, the modern theory of portfolio explains how rational investors use diversification to optimize their portfolio and what should be the price of an asset while knowing its systematic risk. Such investors are so-called to meet only one source of risk inherent to the total performance of the market; more clearly, they support only the market risk. Thus, the return on a risky asset is determined by its systematic risk. Consequently, an investor who chooses a less diversified portfolio, generally, supports the market risk together with the uncertaintys risk which is not related to the market and which would remain even if the market return is known. Sharpe (1964) and Linter (1965), while basing on the work of Harry Markowitz (1952), suggest, in their model, that the value of an asset depends on the investors anticipations. They claim, in their model that if the investors have homogeneous anticipations (their optimal behavior is summarized in the fact of having an efficient portfolio based on the mean-variance criterion), the market portfolio will have to be the efficient one while referring to the mean-variance criterion (Hawawini 1984, Campbell, Lo and MacKinlay 1997). The CAPM offer an estimate of a financial asset on the market. Indeed, it tries to explain this value while taking into account the risk aversion, more particularly; this model supposes that the investors seek, either to maximize their profit for a given level of risk, or to minimize the risk taking into account a given level of profit. The simplest mean-variance model (CAPM) concludes that in equilibrium, the investors choose a combination of the market portfolio and to lend or to borrow with proportions determined by their capacity to support the risk with an aim of obtaining a higher return. 2.1. Tested Hypothesis The CAPM is based on a certain number of simplifying assumptions making it applicable. These assumptions are presented as follows: The markets are perfect and there are neither taxes nor expenses or commissions of any kind; All the investors are risk averse and maximize the mean-variance criterion; The investors have homogeneous anticipations concerning the distributions of the returns probabilities (Gaussian distribution); and The investors can lend and borrow unlimited sums with the same interest rate (the risk free rate). The aphorism behind this model is as follows: the return of an asset is equal to the risk free rate raised with a risk premium which is the risk premium average multiplied by the systematic risk coefficient of the considered asset. Thus the expression is a function of: The systematic risk coefficient which is noted as; The market return noted; The risk free rate (Treasury bills), noted This model is the following: Where: ; represents the risk premium, in other words it represents the return required by the investors when they rather place their money on the market than in a risk free asset, and; ; corresponds to the systematic risk coefficient of the asset considered. From a mathematical point of view, this one corresponds to the ratio of the covariance of the assets return and that of the market return and the variance of the market return. Where: ; represents the standard deviation of the market return (market risk), and ; is the standard deviation of the assets return. Subsequently, if an asset has the same characteristics as those of the market (representative asset), then, its equivalent will be equal to 1. Conversely, for a risk free asset, this coefficient will be equal to 0. The beta coefficient is the back bone of the CAPM. Indeed, the beta is an indicator of profitability since it is the relationship between the assets volatility and that of the market, and volatility is related to the returns variations which are an essential element of profitability. Moreover, it is an indicator of risk, since if this asset has a beta coefficient which is higher than 1, this means that if the market is in recession, the return on the asset drops more than that of the market and less than it if this coefficient is lower than 1. The portfolio risk includes the systematic risk or also the non diversified risk as well as the non systematic risk which is known also under the name of diversified risk. The systematic risk is a risk which is common for all stocks, in other words it is the market risk. However the non systematic risk is the risk related to each asset. This risk can be reduced by integrating a significant number of stocks in the market portfolio, i.e. by diversifying well in advantage (Markowitz, 1985). Thus, a rational investor should not take a diversified risk since it is only the non diversified risk (risk of the market) which is rewarded in this model. This is equivalent to say that the market beta is the factor which rewards the investors exposure to the risk. In fact, the CAPM supposes that the market risk can be optimized i.e. can be minimized the maximum. Thus, an optimal portfolio implies the weakest risk for a given level of return. Moreover, since the inclusion of stocks diversifies in advantage the portfolio, the optimal one must contain the whole stocks on the market, with the equivalent proportions so as to achieve this goal of optimization. All these optimal portfolios, each one for a given level of return, build the efficient frontier. Here is the graph of the efficient frontier: The (Markowitz) efficient frontier The efficient frontier Lastly, since the non systematic risk is diversifiable, the total risk of the portfolio can be regarded as being the beta (the market risk). 3. Problematic issues on the CAPM Since its conception as a model to value assets by Sharpe (1964), the CAPM has been prone to several discussions by both academicians and experts. Among them the most known issues concerning the mean variance market portfolio, the efficient frontier, and the risk premium puzzle. 3.1 The mean-variance market portfolio The modern portfolio theory was introduced for the first time by Harry Markowitz (1952). The contribution of Markowitz constitutes an epistemological shatter with the traditional finance. Indeed, it constitutes a passageway from an intuitive finance which is limited to advices related to financial balance or to tax and legal nature advices, to a positive science which is based on coherent and fundamental theories. One allots to Markowitz the first rigorous treatment of the investor dilemma, namely how obtaining larger profits while minimizing the risks. 3.2 The efficient frontier 3.3 The equity premium puzzle 4. Background on the CAPM â€Å"The attraction of the CAPM is that it offers powerful and intuitively pleasing predictions about how to measure risk and the relation between expected return and risk. Unfortunately, the empirical record of the model is poor poor enough to invalidate the way it is used in applications. The CAPMs empirical problems may reflect theoretical failings, the result of many simplifying assumptions.† Fama and French, 2003, â€Å"The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Theory and Evidence†, Tuck Business School, Working Paper No. 03-26 Being a theory, the CAPM found the welcome thanks to its circumspect elegance and its concept of good sense which supposes that a risk averse investor would require a higher return to compensate for supported the back-up risk. It seems that a more pragmatic approach carries out to conclude that there are enough limits resulting from the empirical tests of the CAPM. Tests of the CAPM were based, mainly, on three various implications of the relation between the expected return and the market beta. Firstly, the expected return on any asset is linearly associated to its beta, and no other variable will be able to contribute to the increase of the explanatory power. Secondly, the beta premium is positive which means that the market expected return exceeds that of individual stocks, whose return is not correlated with that of the market. Lastly, according to the Sharpe and Lintner model (1964, 1965), stocks whose return is not correlated with that of the market, have an expected return equal to the risk free rate and a risk premium equal to the difference between the market return and the risk free rate return. In what follows, we are going to examine whether the CAPMs assumptions are respected or not through the empirical literature. Starting with Jensen (1968), this author wants to test for the relationship between the securities expected return and the market beta. For this reason, he uses the time series regression to estimate for the CAPM ´ s coefficients. The results reject the CAPM as for the moment when the relationship between the expected return on assets is positive but that this relation is too flat. In fact, Jensen (1968) finds that the intercept in the time series regression is higher than the risk free rate. Furthermore, the results indicate that the beta coefficient is lower than the average excess return on the market portfolio. In order to test for the CAPM, Black et al. (1972) work on a sample made of all securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange for the period of 1926-1966. The authors classify the securities into ten portfolios on the basis of their betas.They claim that grouping the securities with reference to their betas may offer biased estimates of the portfolio beta which may lead to a selection bias into the tests. Hence, so as to get rid of this bias, they use an instrumental variable which consists of taking the previous periods estimated beta to select a securitys portfolio grouping for the next year. For the estimate of the equation, the authors use the time series regression. The results indicate, firstly, that the securities associated to high beta had significantly negative intercepts, whereas those with low beta had significantly positive intercepts. It was proved, also, that this effect persists overtime. Hence, these evidences reject the traditional CAPM. Secondly, it is found that the relation between the mean excess return and beta is linear which is consistent with the CAPM. Nevertheless, the results point out that the slopes and intercepts in the regression are not reliable. In fact, during the prewar period, the slope was sharper than that predicted by the CAPM for the first sub period, and it was flatter during the second sub period. However, after that, the slope was flatter. Basing on these results, Black, Fischer, Michael C. Jensen and Myron Scholes (1972) conclude that the traditional CAPM is inconsistent with the data. Fama and MacBeth (1973) propose another regression method so as to overcome the problem related to the residues correlation in a simple linear regression. Indeed, instead of estimating only one regression for the monthly average returns on the betas, they propose to estimate regressions of these returns month by month on the betas. They include all common stocks traded in NYSE from 1926 to 1968 in their analysis. The monthly averages of the slopes and intercepts, with the standard errors of the averages, thus, are used to check, initially, if the beta premium is positive, then to test if the averages return of assets which are not correlated with the market return is from now on equal to the average of the risk free rate. In this way, the errors observed on the slopes and intercepts are directly given by the variation for each month of the regression coefficients, which detect the effects of the residues correlation over the variation of the regression. Their study led to three main results. At first, the relationship between assets return and their betas in an efficient portfolio is linear. At second, the beta coefficient is an appropriate measure of the securitys risk and no other measure of risk can be a better estimator. Finally, the higher the risk is, the higher the return should be. Blume and Friend (1973) in their paper try to examine theoretically and empirically the reasons beyond the failure of the market line to explain excess return on financial assets. The authors estimate the beta coefficients for each common stock listed in the New York Stock Exchange over the period of January 1950 to December 1954. Then, they form 12 portfolios on the basis of their estimated beta. They afterwards, calculate the monthly return for each portfolio. Third, they calculate the monthly average return for portfolios from 1955 to 1959. These averaged returns were regressed to obtain the value of the beta portfolios. Finally, these arithmetic average returns were regressed on the beta coefficient and the square of beta as well. Through, this study, the authors point out that the failure of the capital assets pricing model in explaining returns maybe due to the simplifying assumption according to which the functioning of the short-selling mechanism is perfect. They defend their point of view while resorting to the fact that, generally, in short sales the seller cannot use the profits for purchasing other securities. Moreover, they state that the seller should make a margin of roughly 65% of the sales market value unless the securities he owns had a value three times higher than the cash margin. This makes a severe constraint on his short sales. In addition to that, the authors reveal that it is more appropriate and theoretically more possible to remove the restriction on the short sales than that of the risk free rate assumption (i.e., to borrow and to lend on a unique risk free rate). The results show that the relationship between the average realized returns of the NYSE listed common stocks and their correspondent betas is almost linear which is consistent with the CAPM assumptions. Nevertheless, they advance that the capital assets pricing model is more adequate for the estimates of the NYSE stocks rather than other financial assets. They mention that this latter conclusion is may be owed to the fact that the market of common stocks is well segmented from markets of other assets such as bonds. Finally, the authors come out with the two following conclusions: Firstly, the tests of the CAPM suggest the segmentation of the markets between stocks and bonds. Secondly, in absence of this segmentation, the best way to estimate the risk return tradeoff is to do it over the class of assets and the period of interest. The study of Stambaugh (1982) is interested in testing the CAPM while taking into account, in addition to the US common stocks, other assets such as, corporate and government bonds, preferred stocks, real estate, and other consumer durables. The results indicate that testing the CAPM is independent on whether we expand or not the market portfolio to these additional assets. Kothari Shanken and Sloan (1995), show that the annual betas are statistically significant for a variety of portfolios. These results were astonishing since not very early, Fama and French (1992), found that the monthly and the annual betas are nearly the same and are not statistically significant. The authors work on a sample which covers all AMEX firms for the period 1927-1990. Portfolios are formed in five different ways. Firstly, they from 20 portfolios while basing only on beta. Secondly, 20 portfolios by grouping on size alone. Thirdly, they take the intersection of 10 independent beta or size to obtain 100 portfolios. Then, they classify stocks into 10 portfolios on beta, and after that into 10 portfolios on size within each beta group. They, finally, classify stocks into 10 portfolios on size and then into 10 portfolios on beta within each size group. They use the GRSP equal weighted portfolio as a proxy for the whole market return market. The cross-sectional regression of monthly return on beta and size has led to the following conclusions: On the one hand, when taking into account only the beta, it is found that the parameter coefficient is positive and statistically significant for both the sub periods studied. On the other hand, it is demonstrated that the ability of beta and size to explain cross sectional variation of the returns on the 100 portfolios ranked on beta given the size, is statistically significant. However, the incremental economic benefit of size given beta is relatively small. Fama and French published in 1992 a famous study putting into question the CAPM, called since then the Beta is dead paper (the article announcing the death of Beta). The authors use a sample which covers all the stocks of the non-financial firms of the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ for the period of the end of December 1962 until June 1990. For the estimate of the betas; they use the same test as that of Fama and Macbeth (1973) and the cross-sectional regression. The results indicate that when paying attention only to the betas variations which are not related to the size, it is found that the relation between the betas and the expected return is too flat, and this even if the beta is the only explanatory variable. Moreover, they show that this relationship tend to disappear overtime. In order to verify the validity of the CAPM in the Hungarian stock market, Andor et al. (1999) work on daily and monthly data on 17 Hungarian stocks between the end of July 1991 and the beginning of June 1999. To proxy for the market portfolio the authors use three different indexes which are the BUX index, the NYSE index, and the MSCI world index. The regression of the stocks return against the different indexes return indicates that the CAPM holds. Indeed, in all cases it is found that the return is positively associated to the betas and that the R-squared value is not bad at all. They conclude, hence, that the CAPM is appropriate for the description of the Hungarian stock market. For the aim of testing the validity of the CAPM, Kothari and Jay Shanken (1999), study the one factor model with reference to the size anomaly and the book to market anomaly. The sample used in their study contains annual return on portfolios from the GRSP universe of stocks. The portfolios are formed every July from 1927 to 1992. The formation procedure is the following; every year stocks are sorted on the basis of their market capitalization and then on their betas while regressing the past returns on the GRSP equal weighted index return. They obtain, hence, ten portfolios on the basis of the size. Then, the stocks in each size portfolio are grouped into ten portfolios based on their betas. They repeat the same procedure to obtain the book-to-market portfolios. Using the Fama and MacBeth cross-sectional regression, the authors find those annual betas perform well since they are significantly associated to the average stock returns especially for the period 1941-1990 and 1927-1990. Moreover, the ability of the beta to predict return with reference to the size and the book to market is higher. In a conclusion, this study is a support for the traditional CAPM. Khoon et al. (1999), while comparing two assets pricing models in the Malaysian stock exchange, examine the validity of the CAPM. The data contains monthly returns of 231 stocks listed in the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange over the period of September 1988 to June 1997. Using the cross section regression (two pass regression) and the market index as the market portfolio, the authors find that the beta coefficient is sometimes positive and some others negative, but they do not provide any further tests. In order to extract the factors that may affect the returns of stocks listed in the Istanbul stock exchange, Akdeniz et al. (2000)make use of monthly return of all non financial firms listed in the up mentioned stock market for the period that spans from January 1992 to December 1998. They estimate the beta coefficient in two stages using the ISE composite index as the market portfolio. First, they employ the OLS regression and estimate for the betas each month for each stock. Then, once the betas are estimated for the previous 24 months (time series regression), they rank the stocks into five equal groups on the basis of the pre-ranking betas and the average portfolio beta is attributed to each stock in the portfolio. They, afterwards, divide the whole sample into two equal sub-periods and the estimation procedure is done for each sub-period and the whole period as well. The results from the cross sectional regression, indicate that the return has no significant relationship with the market beta. This variable does not appear to influence cross section variation in all the periods studied (1992-1998, 1992-1995, and 1995-1998). In a relatively larger study, Estrada (2002) investigates the CAPM with reference to the downside CAPM. The author works on a monthly sample covering the period that spans from 1988 to 2001 (varied periods are considered) on stocks of 27 emerging markets. Using simple regression, the authors find that the downside beta outperforms the traditional CAPM beta. Nevertheless, the results do not support the rejection of the CAPM from two aspects. Firstly, it was found that the intercept from the regression is not statistically different from zero. Secondly, the beta coefficient is positive and statistically significant and the explanatory power of the model is about 40%. This result stems for the conclusion according to which the CAPM is still alive within the set of countries studied. In order to check the validity of the CAPM, and the absence of anomalies that must be incorporated to the model, Andrew and Joseph (2003) try to investigate the ability of the model to predict book-to market portfolios. If it is the case, then the CAPM captures the Book-to-market anomaly and theres no need to further incorporate it in the model. For this intention, the authors work on a sample that covers the period of 1927-2001 and contains monthly data on stocks listed in the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ. So as to form the book-to-market portfolios, they use, alike Fama and French (1992), the size and the book-to-market ratio criterion. To estimate for the market return, they use the return on the value weighted portfolios on stocks listed in the pre-cited stock exchanges and to proxy for the risk free rate; they employ the one-month Treasury bill rate from Ibbotson Associates. They, afterwards, divide the whole period into two laps of time; the first one goes from July 1927 to June 1963, and the other one span from July 1963 to the end of 2001. Using asymptotic distribution the results indicate that the CAPM do a great job over the whole period, since the intercept is found to be closed to zero, but there is no evidence for a value premium. Hence, they conclude that the CAPM cannot be rejected. However, for the pre-1963 period the book to market premium is not significant at all, whereas for the post-1963 period this premium is relatively high and statistically significant. Nevertheless, when accounting for the sample size effect, the authors find that there is an overall risk premium for the post-1963 period. The authors conclude then that, taken as a whole, the study fails to reject the null that the CAPM holds. This study points to the necessity to take into account the small sample bias. Fama and French (2004), estimate the betas of stocks provided by the CRSP (Center for Research in Security Prices of the University of Chicago) of the NYSE (1928-2003), the AMEX (1963-2003) and the NASDAQ (1972-2003). They form, thereafter, 10 portfolios on the basis of the estimated betas and calculate their return for the eleven months which follow. They repeat this process for each year of 1928 up to 2003. They claim that, the Sharpe and Lintner model, suppose that the portfolios move according to a linear line with an intercept equal to risk free rate and a slope which is equal to the difference between the expected return on the market portfolio and that of the risk free rate. However, their study, and in agreement with the previous ones, confirms that the relation between the expected return on assets and their betas is much flatter than the prediction of the CAPM. Indeed, the results indicate that the expected return of portfolios having relatively lower beta are too high whereas expected return of those with higher beta is too low. Moreover, these authors indicate that even if the risk premium is lower than what the CAPM predicts, the relation between the expected return and beta is almost linear. This latter result, confirms the CAPM of Black which assumes that only the beta premium is positive. This means, analogically, that only the market risk is rewarded by a higher return. In order to test for the consistency of the CAPM with the economic reality, Thierry and Pim (2004) use monthly return of stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX for the period that spans from 1926-2002. The one -month US Treasury bill is used as a proxy for the risk free rate, The CRPS total return index which is a value-weighted average of all US stocks included in this study is used as a proxy for the market portfolio. They sort stocks into ten deciles portfolios on the basis of historical 60 months. They afterwards, calculate for the following 12 months their value weighted returns. They obtain, subsequently, 100 beta-size portfolios. The results from the time series regression indicate, firstly, that the intercepts are statistically indifferent from zero. Secondly, it is found that the betas coefficients are all positive. Furthermore, in order to check the robustness of the model, the authors split the whole sample into sub-samples of equal length (432 months). The results indicate, also, that for all the periods studied the intercepts are statistically not different from zero except for the last period. In his empirical study, Blake T (2005) works on monthly stocks return on 20 stocks within the SP 500 index during January 1995-December 2004. The SP 500 index is used as the market portfolio and the 3-month Treasury bill in the Secondary Market as the risk free rate. His methodology can be summarized as follows; the excess return on each stock is regressed against the market excess return. The excess return is taken as the sample average of each stock and the market as well. After estimating of the betas, these values are used to verify the validity of the CAPM. The coefficient of beta is estimated by regressing estimated expected excess stock returns on the estimates of beta and the regression include intercept and the residual squared so as to measure the non systematic risk. The results confirm the validity of the CAPM through its three major assumptions. In fact, the null hy

Comparing Islam and Christianity Essay -- Religion Compare Contrast Ch

Comparing Islam and Christianity Although they share several basic theological ideas, Christianity and Islam differ on countless key characteristics. The most prominent differences include atonement, the identity of God, heaven, view of Jesus, and the perception of the Christian Bible. It is these not-so-subtle contrasts of thoughts that separate the two most prevalent religions in the world. One of the most important differences in Christianity and Islam is the concept of atonement. In Christianity, Jesus’ death on the cross allows Christians to repent from their sins and gain forgiveness from God. Conversely, in Islam there is no atonement from sins with Allah, though they still repent and confess their sins. While Christians believe that their sincere repentance provides them with a new, clean slate with God, Muslims believe that, despite their repentance, their sins will always be held against them when judged on the final day. These differing views on forgiveness set the tone for each respective religion, with Christianity seen as a forgiving, loving religion, and Islam being viewed as a hard-nosed, action-based religion. Another important difference between Christians and Muslims is their views of God. Despite the fact that Muslims claim Allah is the same as God the Father, Christians deny such claims, citing the fact that they worship the Holy Trinity. Christians follow a triune God, equal parts God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Though each has specific roles and responsibilities, Christians view them as one God. This differs from the Islamic point of view of a singular God, called Allah, holding a similar role as creator and maintainer as God the Father. Interestingly, Muslims apply a similar role ... ...s the Hebrew Messiah, thus finally saving the Jews from their sins. His death on the cross and resurrection provided Christians with the opportunity to be forgiven from their sins and have a chance to live with God for eternity in heaven. While Muslims respect the teachings of Jesus, they view Him only as a great prophet, but not as great as Muhammad. They believe that God replaced Him with Judas on the cross, thus dispelling the Christian belief that His death saved them from their sins. While they are conceptually similar, the major differences between Islamic and Christian theology become obvious upon further inspection. The aforementioned differences, most importantly each religion’s view of Jesus, prevent Muslims and Christians from agreeing on anything theological, and have created a chasm between the two cousin religions currently dominating world theology.

Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The tell-tale heart’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘The fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ Essay

Compare and contrast the main themes from Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘the tell-tale heart’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘the fruit at the bottom of the bowl’. The two stories both contain crime, punishment and murder. The two stories both contain two men who become obsessed with either his own or someone else’s body part. They seem very similar but they are actually quite the opposite†¦ The writers both build up tension in there stories they make this clear by adding something about the item in nearly every line, which makes the reader clear of what is going on. Ray Bradbury tries to give us a clue in his title what the story is about, before you have read the story the title is not clear but after you have read the story it becomes clearer, the man in the story murders someone and gets obsessed with cleaning, as he wants to get rid of the evidence. The author uses the metaphor ‘the fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ to emphasise that the man is so obsessed with the evidence and what can be seen he has forgotten about the things that are deeper than the surface what the eye can’t see, like the fruit that is at the bottom of the bowl. In this story we are not given a name, sex or given any kind of information about the character, which is rather strange. Edgar Allan Poe does the same kind of thing with his title ‘the tell-tale heart’ this as well is not clear to us until we have read the story his title explains what happens when the character is caught he/she breaks down in front of two policemen because of his/her heart, his conscious is telling him what to do and finally the character breaks down. The story is about a mad person ‘†¦that I am mad’ who is disturbed by one mans eye and can’t take it no longer and eventually murders the man and gets caught when he/she breaks down in front of two officers, but he/she only thinks they have killed the eye but they don’t realise they have killed the man but deep in there heart they know they have done wrong and their conscious gets the better of them. The fruit at the bottom of the bowl is set at midnight ‘the clock ticked midnight’ and the character who is William Acton becomes obsessed with cleaning as he has killed a man (Huxley) and wants to get purge of the evidence in nearly every line it mentions something about his hands or fingers he is trying to remember what his hands or fingers have touched ‘the fingerprints were every, everywhere!’ at the end of the story it doesn’t tell us if Acton was caught it leaves us to guess what is going to happen to him. As in the tell-tale the character (who we are not told a name or sex) is mad and becomes obsessed with an eye of a man ‘I think it was his eye, yes his eye’ and that’s what causes the murder and we do know that he is caught. They both committed the crime by murder. We do assume that both the main characters are taken away and given prison sentences but it doesn’t actually tell us this is happening because of the way the stories are set out with the flash backs, the past and present tenses we do not know if the story is being told to us even from a prison cell or if they have already received there punishment it leaves us in suspense to what is going to happen to them or what has happened to them. It does give us an idea that they are already sentenced because they are telling the story in the past presents. In the tell-tale heart the narrator is telling the story he or she starts to go mad when he mentions the eye and he starts to build up tension when it comes to the end where the character breaks down in front of the two officers the character breaks down because of the heart beaten in his head but I don’t think he does hear this in his head I think it is his conscious telling him to confess to what he has done in the written story they show this by adding a lot of explanation marks because he is breaking down and it is all happening so fast ‘I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt I must scream or die!’ In the two stories the characters choose to kill their victim. In the tell-tale heart the character planned to kill the man he couldn’t take the sight of the eye anymore ‘I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever’ as in the ‘fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ it was done more spontaneously he just ended up having an argument with a man called Huxley and Acton (the main character) ended up strangling Huxley and killing him. Even though the two stories seem very alike they have their differences. In the ‘fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ the writer uses a range of sentences when he is talking about the past he uses long sentences and in present he uses shorter sentences also the author writes the story after the murder is committed and tells us how the murder is accomplished by using flash backs and includes us into the story when he is talking in the present, which makes the story seem more eerie, as the ‘the tell-tale heart’ is told in a slightly different way it doesn’t use the same style of writing he writes in one format instead of two. He writes in the first person ‘hearken I and observe how healthily- how calmly I can tell you the whole story’. He starts the beginning of the story talking to the reader which drifts you in to the story because the character is not talking sense ‘I heard all thing in heaven and in earth. I heard many things in hell so how then am I mad?’ and you become confused to what is going on and makes you want to read on to find out what the character is saying and what he is on about? In the tell-tale heart the character mentions that he has gone mad ‘why will you say then that I am mad?’ he has lost his mind and I think that is punishment enough for him because he has took away someone’s life now he has had his mind taken from him. In the fruit at the bottom of the bowl I don’t think Acton has gone insane he just becomes obsessed with trying to get disposal of the evidence and this is what makes him become obsessive. I don’t think before the murder either of the characters were mad, maybe the character in the tell-tale heart may have been a bit mentally unstable as it is a bit confusing how he becomes so obsessive over one mans eye but I think that he/she tends to lose their mind after the murder as it has got to him/her a lot. As William Acton also tends to loose his mind towards the end of the story as his hands start to take control ‘but unknown to his eyes, his gloved fingers moved in a little rubbing rhythm on the wall’ and also he starts to talk to himself ‘would u, I would, are you certain, yes’. I think both stories had a well thought out setting and both themes were superior but even though the stories both contain the same contents (murder, crime and punishment) they seem very similar but they are really quite diverse I didn’t realise that until after I had compared the two stories. The two authors use different styles of writing in their stories. I really enjoyed reading the stories but not as much as comparing them and spotting how much they are unlike.   

Rituals of the Umuofian Culture essays

Rituals of the Umuofian Culture essays In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, many cultural values are demonstrated through special ceremonies. The Ibo inhabitants of the land Umuofia perform ceremonies of many different sorts. Today, in modern America, we brush our teeth, take showers and go to school, but in this text, the Umuofian villagers break kola nuts, have bride-prices, and sacrifice living organisms. These rituals are not just done for any reason, but they have special importance towards each clan. We may think the rituals to be odd, but in a peculiar way, it relates to many customs we do today. He who brings kola nut brings life. But I think you ought to break it, replied Okoye, passing back the disc. No, its for you... (pg. 6) One must be wondering what a kola nut is and why it is so important. The breaking of the kola nut (somewhat like a coconut) shows status, respect and honor. As we have the custom of unscrewing the cork in a wine bottle, they break a kola nut. Normally, the oldest in the family would unscrew the cork, like how the eldest or higher status one in the feast would break the nut. He then broke the kola nut and threw one of the lobes on the ground for the ancestors. (pg. 165) The villagers of Umuofia always seem to sacrifice to their ancestors. Ancestors are well respected, but in some cases they go a little overboard with what they are willing to give up. Not so far away, lay the Evil Forest, which entrusted in it are all of the bodies of the ill-fated men and women who died from evil causes. Twins were also thrown into the Evil Forest because of the clans superstition. The story did not mention a particular reason, but one would think it to be another interesting custom they used. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man falls alone. (pg. 25) Unoka, Okonkwos father was also laid in the Evil Forest to rest because he had...

Free Essays on Ordinary People

The book I did my report on is called Ordinary People, by Judith Guest. It is a very well written novel about a boy’s battle with depression, suicide, the loss of his brother, and communication gaps with his parents. The story starts by not telling you much about the situation, and the more the book ropes you in. The boy in the story starts out being 17, his name in Conrad Jarrett. Conrad had an older brother who died in a boating accident, he drowned. Conrad idolized his older brother, and never really came to terms with the loss, and about 1 year later, Conrad tried to take his own life. After that, his parents sent him to a hospital for the depressed, he spent 8 months there, and fell a year behind in school, and grew apart from his friends. This story starts when he is back in school and repeating his Jr. year. Throughout the story you see his ups and downs and recovery. Also, one of his main problems is communicating with his parents. His father feels tremendous guilt and just constantly tries to make him happy, but his mother on the other hand, resents him for trying t take his own life. In the end Conrad finally comes to terms with his loses, and faces his problems head on. He regains the friendships that, in his mind are worth it, and lets go of the ones that really weren’t. Conrad is the main character in this story. Throughout the story he undergoes many changes, good and bad. At first he goes through many low points, where he feels he has nothing, no friends no family, and no one to rely on. Until he finds a psychiatrist named Dr. Tyrone C. Berger. Mr. Berger helps Conrad to come to terms with his problems and face them. Conrad doesn’t develop any close relationships with anyone throughout the story until Berger comes along. Then he becomes involved with a girl named Jeannie. He develops a good relationship with her, and they are still going out at the end of the story. I think Conrad is a good kid that just tries t... Free Essays on Ordinary People Free Essays on Ordinary People What exactly makes a world and it’s people ordinary? In the spellbinding novel Ordinary People, Judith Guest gives readers a taste of life after having to deal with a terrible crisis, and introduces us to an ordinary family living in an ordinary world. The novel’s descriptive nature highlights the main character, Conrad’s, struggle in maintaining sanity in an ordinary world. Conrad Jarrett is a precise description of a teenager, having to deal with things every teenager his age has to go through daily. The internal conflicts he struggles with, especially his need for affection, and his sense of wanting to belong is what deepens the plot and intrigues readers even more. We see conrad’s point of view on life, of the world in which he lives, and where he sees himself fitting into. "†¦.Your sense of identity is what seems to have been misplaced. No. Wrong. You don’t lose what you never had." (pg.24) Readers can take his point of view and compare it with their own observations. The next issue is that the affection he is searching for, he gets from the wrong person, his father, while he really needs it from his mother. "†¦.She loves my father, I know that. She loved my brother, too. It’s just me."(pg.188). Trying to get his mother’s affection and approval is what in some ways intensifies his struggle, as well as affects h is parent’s marriage. The descriptions Judith Guest gives throughout the story, regarding all the different issues, that come up, make the book even more realistic, and in some instances even humorous. The descriptions given, depend of Conrad’s mood at that time. Although it may seem like it is a bad thing it’s not! The variety in the descriptions (which resemble his moods), add excitement to the novel, and make the story flow a lot better. The reader will know what to expect from a chapter, just from the descriptions given at that moment. For example, will it be humorous? Depressing? Touching? ... Free Essays on Ordinary People The book I did my report on is called Ordinary People, by Judith Guest. It is a very well written novel about a boy’s battle with depression, suicide, the loss of his brother, and communication gaps with his parents. The story starts by not telling you much about the situation, and the more the book ropes you in. The boy in the story starts out being 17, his name in Conrad Jarrett. Conrad had an older brother who died in a boating accident, he drowned. Conrad idolized his older brother, and never really came to terms with the loss, and about 1 year later, Conrad tried to take his own life. After that, his parents sent him to a hospital for the depressed, he spent 8 months there, and fell a year behind in school, and grew apart from his friends. This story starts when he is back in school and repeating his Jr. year. Throughout the story you see his ups and downs and recovery. Also, one of his main problems is communicating with his parents. His father feels tremendous guilt and just constantly tries to make him happy, but his mother on the other hand, resents him for trying t take his own life. In the end Conrad finally comes to terms with his loses, and faces his problems head on. He regains the friendships that, in his mind are worth it, and lets go of the ones that really weren’t. Conrad is the main character in this story. Throughout the story he undergoes many changes, good and bad. At first he goes through many low points, where he feels he has nothing, no friends no family, and no one to rely on. Until he finds a psychiatrist named Dr. Tyrone C. Berger. Mr. Berger helps Conrad to come to terms with his problems and face them. Conrad doesn’t develop any close relationships with anyone throughout the story until Berger comes along. Then he becomes involved with a girl named Jeannie. He develops a good relationship with her, and they are still going out at the end of the story. I think Conrad is a good kid that just tries t...

Improving Family Planning Services in a Developing Country The Case Essay

Improving Family Planning Services in a Developing Country The Case Analysis of Nigeria - Essay Example The clinic has no counselling services, poor diagnostic services, no pharmacy and laboratory. Figure 1 below shows the major problems with the operation of the clinic. Figure 1: UNTH Family Planning Clinic and its Problems Clearly, there is a problem with the collection of data from patients for the hospital (See Appendix 1). The lack of a laboratory and pharmaceutical facilities makes it difficult to take care of patients (See Appendices 2 and 3). Most of the people in charge of sensitive positions are not appropriately skilled. This is demonstrated in Figure 2 below. Figure 2: Healthcare Failure Mode and Effects There are different pointers that provide important linkages for the reason why this system has failed and needs to be improved. These are discussed into detail in Appendices 1, 2 and 3. Action Justification University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital remains a leading institution in Nigeria. Aside training the next generation of Nigeria's medical professionals, the institution is a centre for intense research and studies. Since the Nigerian government has shown interest in cutting down on the population, there is the need for the family planning clinic to be upgraded to a level whereby it can be used as a point for mobilising and treating patients accurately. There is therefore the need to change the current position and improve systems to be devoid of the various issues and limitations in communication, facilities and services. Objectives The main end is to provide the following objectives which would mark the success of the project: 1. An improved system of communication that enables patient diagnosis to be of a high standard and also link up to the healthcare... This essay stresses that University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital remains a leading institution in Nigeria. Aside training the next generation of Nigeria's medical professionals, the institution is a centre for intense research and studies. Since the Nigerian government has shown interest in cutting down on the population, there is the need for the family planning clinic to be upgraded to a level whereby it can be used as a point for mobilising and treating patients accurately. This paper makes a conclusion that Option 2 scores the maximum points in all categories. It shows that the refurbishment of a new unit of UNTH as part of the wider organization is the best option for the creation of a family planning clinic with a structured counselling services, pharmacy and laboratory services. There are major cost savings as well as efficient systems of operations to meet targets. This makes it preferred ahead of the two other services. In spite of this choice, it is more important to promote and enhance the offering by conducting consultation sessions with the other stakeholders like the board of the UNTH to ascertain the final and most significant ways of attaining the objectives of this project. The following model identified in Appendices 3 and 4 can be used as the proposed service model and internal systems respectively. This would give an idea of how work could be done and completed and provide the blueprints as specified by Part A of this paper.

Sailor Jerry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sailor Jerry - Essay Example Other than modernizing the tattooing industry, Sailor Jerry had a colorful and diverse life and career, which he balanced along with his love for tattooing (Levy 46,47,48). Sailor Jerry had developed an interest in tattooing and started practicing it ever since he was a teenager. The technique of tattooing used by him at that time was the hand-pricking method. Later on, he was taught how to use a tattoo machine by a Chicago tattooist named Tatts Thomas. Under Thomas’s training, Sailor Jerry would usually rehearse tattooing with a machine on drunken people who were brought to him. He kicked off his official career years later in Hawaii, where he opened his first tattoo parlor. Other than tattooing, Sailor Jerry also pursued the occupation of a dockworker in Hawaii, therefore adding some diversity to his life (Demelo 74). Having enlisted in the navy during World War II, Sailor Jerry also served as a merchant marine and so traveled to many places. He often tattooed people, especi ally sailors, at his ports of call. Having been to the Far East, and being exposed to tattoos on other sailors, he developed an interest in Asian imagery. This interest made him incorporate many Asian designs, such as dragons, into his art of tattooing. Besides this, Sailor Jerry was very protective of tattooing, and had a strong concern in developing it as an art form. Moreover, he believed that majority of the American tattooists were ‘greedy, talentless copycats’. As a result, he looked up and kept in touch with tattooists like Paul Rogers and Brooklyn Joe Lieber, who shared his opinion in improving the art of tattooing. Simultaneously, he spoke out against those who he saw as tainting the field through their sly business practices and lack of talent (Demelo 74). Sailor Jerry, on the other hand, seemed to have an excess of talent. A typical Sailor Jerry tattoo was distinguished from other tattoos by its bold and steadfast lines, along with an amazing attention to det ail. For instance, the riggings contained by his clipper ship tattoos were nautically accurate. However, it was only after he opened his last tattoo shop Chinatown, Honolulu that his fascination with the â€Å"Oriental style† of tattooing really flourished. During this time, he started a trade relationship with two tattooists (one was from Japan, while the other from Hong Kong), wherein he would trade American tattoo machines and needles for their advice and designs. From them, he learnt a lot about the ways Japanese used colors, shaded, and made use of the entire body as a canvas (Demelo 74; Sailorjerry.com). However, even though he incorporated some of the Japanese style of tattooing, the style Sailor Jerry used was completely unique. His art of tattooing consisted of the Japanese finger waves, wind bars, and full body tattoos which reflected the history and pop culture of America; the Spirit of ’76, the Alamo, General Custer at Little Big Horn, Rock of Ages, big bus ted mermaids, and many similar designs motivated by North American thinking. These designs were also different from the traditional American style (of unrelated and separate tattoos spread out on the body) because they were larger, fused, and custom made. The incorporation of Japanese styles in Sailor Jerry’s tattoos was sometimes criticized by patriotic Americans. However, Sailor Jerry’s success at improving the tattooing industry made up for