Languages :: Personal Narrative Foreign Papers

Languages i'm torn/rejecting outfits offered me/regretting things i've worn -Ani Difranco, "Pale Purple" Bilingual people make me feel guilty. I read somewhere that in Sweden as well as many Asian countries schoolchildren are required to learn two languages at the very least, one of them English. I feel proud as a speaker of excellent English. This is in part because the United States is such a powerful entity (the "dominating world power"), but I don't want to think about that. However, when I spent time in Brazil with my Portuguese-speaking native mother, I was a gringa; my English forming gravel in the mouth, harsh and jarring against the smooth samba-based rhythms of Portuguese. I was the colonialist, the military colossus, the politicians and baby-kisser. I was the United States. This feels deja vu. I have written this essay before. It got me into New York University. Then it was about finding a cultural niche during a four-week tourist vacation in Rio, Sao Paulo, and Bahia one summer. I postulated, "Up until the summer of 1998, the culture limb of my body sculpture was not yet carved. Rio took up the chisel, and Bahia the hammer. . . I . . .danced the samba. . .and gained a cultural identity." The power of the mind is overwhelming: I cannot distinguish whether I truly believed that I became Brazilian on that trip to my motherland or if I just thought such a "poignant" essay-where I come to the realization that I do not need to speak the language to be Brazilian-would get me into college. My mother is trilingual; she speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and English fluently. She has this uncanny ability to recognize the rhythms of foreign languages (foreign. . . what an alienating word that is). "What language are they speaking, mommy?" became a common question whispered when walking down the street. At one point, she worked for the New York City court system as a translator. And I, I speak but English. Only English. Beautifully, but still. As I wrote in that fateful essay, "When I was two I knew more Portuguese than I know now." I picked up a few basic phrases when I visited-"where's the bathroom?" and "I like chicken"-but the only thing I've retained is how to introduce myself. Eu me chamo Lila. I blame most of this on my father. His line was "speak English to her.

Coca-Cola India Case Study Analysis

Coca – India Case study Lakeesha Customer Inserts His/her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name April 11, 2013. Introduction Coca-Cola is the leading brand of the world in soft drink category. It was founded by a pharmacist in Georgia known by the name of John Pemberton. He used to sell a potion for physical as well as mental disorders. However, the potion soon turned into world’s largest selling brand after carbonated water in addition to fountain water with other constituents were added to the brand.Furthermore, soon after the addition of carbonated water, Coca-Cola brand was given the honor of 1887 and in just year of two years, the brand began to spread its sales all over the world. However, the brand got under the wave of ten billion cases in the past decades, which made its growth come to sudden plunge and with lesser improvement in the sales. During the era of 2000, the brand had per annual sale growth of 0. 2 %, which is a deep loss for the company as back in 1980s, its sales growth, had been 5-7%.Furthermore, as it began its sales in India, the Coca-Cola began to see its rise again since the brand became a favorite of the one billion population of the country, which comprised of every rural or urban part of the community. Ethical Issues Many of the most important cases were filed against the Coca-Cola Company in the last few years. They have been the result of an allegation imposed on the company by its four employees in spring 1999. According to the lawsuit, the company has used discriminatory acts on its African-American employees just simply on the basis of their being black. Such diverse types of warning were being issued on the company for its discriminatory practices on the employees. Moreover, many of the employees there have been reported to experience an unethical discriminatory culture in accordance with their race and case. Additionally, another major case was filed against the company on 8 Jun e 1999 (Kochan, 1997). This case comprised of thirty-three children enrolled in Belgium school, which fell ill and were hospitalized.Then again, after few more Belgians went into the trap of this illness. The bottles had been tinned up in a Coco- Cola plant of Dunkirk, France. Moreover, the crisis intensified later after the quantity of people who were stricken with intestinal problems increased from eight to 250, all over the country. However, on June 29, a report was issued which claimed according to research by a toxicologist that the blame was on the carbon dioxide impurities found in Antwerp while on the other hand, there was fungicide in Dunkirk.In order to fix the crisis, many resolutions were passed by the company, which started free selling campaigns in the countries sending free vouchers. There beach parties, dancers were hired for concerts and advertisements were issued on televisions thanking the public for being loyal to the company. Hence, around 5. 5 million people we re influenced by the company to get its fame back. After this, a major crisis had to be dealt with by the company.On February 4, 2003, the Centre for Science and Environment filed a case against Coca- Cola (Analysis of Pesticide Residues in Soft Drinks, 2003). The CSE was led by a group of activists that claimed about the Kinley Bottled water to contain traces of pesticides. It comprised of ingredients like DDT and Malathion, which are highly toxic and can result in the destruction of human bodies. Let humans apart, these substances can even damage aquatic animal and plant life when disposed of in water bodies.These tests were taken from a sample of seventeen bottles that had been sold lately. So after the test was being conducted by Pollution Monitoring Laboratory, the results showed that these Coca-Cola products contained more than 30- 36 times of such toxic substance which was surpassing the global standards approved all over the world. These pesticides, according to research cou ld result in cancer, birth defects, and even damage to nervous as well as immune system of the body. Hence, it was proved that it was unethical to sell products, which could result in loss of human lives.The EEC standard was 0. 005 mg/l of pesticides while in case of Coca-Cola it was 0,018 mg/l, which was thirty six times more (Pendergrast, 1993). In order to resolve issue, the company could show results of its own samples so that employment of many of its workers could be saved. Most important ethical issue that could be assumed from the above mention is Gupta’s dilemma which showed with evidence that Coca- Cola had surpassed the limits of its pesticides concentration to more than forty five times. Alternative ResolutionsSome of the resolutions that the company could make was firstly to marketplace. This was meant that to use such type of substances in its products that were approved by the standards of market. This will build up a strong foothold of the company in the world of market. Moreover, the billions of stakeholders that work in the company could lose their employment if the company continued with unethical acts. This will eventually attract more investors to contribute to the business as a result of which more Coca- Cola brands could be opened.Moreover, an ethical and proper cultural environment should be given to the employees so that more talented people could come and give their services to the company. Hence, it can benefit themselves as well as the company. In addition, Coca-Cola Company can use its resources in the development of community by contributing in environmentally sustainable practices. Hence, this will result in a better profit making and market value of the company. Best Ethical ResolutionIn my opinion, by following the given standards approved by the market, Coca-Cola can get its market value back. This will eventually result in higher employment and lives of many people would be saved if the substances used were not injurio us to health. References: † Analysis of Pesticide Residues in Soft Drinks. † Centre for Science and Environment (CSE (2003). Kochan, Nicholas,. The World’s Greatest Brands: an International Review by Interbrand. New York University Press,, 1997. Pendergrast, Mark. For God, Country and Coca-Cola. Charles Scribners, 1993.

Is our Generation More Stressed than the Previous Ones?

Nowadays, stress is becoming a common problem. Our younger generation thinks that modern life is generally much more stressful than in the past. However, others say that the amount of stress people have today is overstated as older generations coped with more pressure, but they never thought about such a phenomenon as â€Å"stress†. This contradiction makes many people compare the negative aspects of stress to society today and in the past.On the one hand, the previous generations experienced great stress because of poor living conditions, food shortage and numerous wars, which were taking away millions of people’s lives. Moreover, they did not have such helpful technologies, which make the life of a modern person easier. Besides, without an advanced medical system many people died of simple illnesses and diseases because there were no necessary medicines and vaccines. That is why life expectancy in the past was much lower than it is now.On the other hand, because of th e increasing pace of life nowadays people are always in a chronic rush, which causes various mental and physical health problems, such as backache, depression, fatigue, headaches, high blood pressure, and insomnia. What is more, almost everybody in our modern society is trying to achieve high standard of living, therefore, people have to spend long hour at work. As a result, they feel overworked and burn out, and hardly have time to relax and escape from everyday routine, which leads them to losing their balance between work and personal life.Furthermore, there is no doubt that several decades ago, the environment was much better than today with fresh water, air and food, whereas today we face air, water and noise pollution, which of course contribute to the symptoms of stress. In addition, nowadays, the majority of people lives in big and overcrowded cities and suffer from such common city problems as standstill traffic congestions, unemployment, high crime rate and high cost of li ving.The unemployment rate is constantly increasing; hence, the number of job-seeker is growing, which leads to the increasing competitiveness in job opportunities. In my opinion, each generation suffers from stress; the difference is in the attitude to it. To my mind, today time is more compressed than ever and because of the speedy pace of life and everyday overload, people feel exhausted as human beings are not designed for a prolonged, high-speed activity.However, we have to admit that in a certain sense our ancestors had their own reasons of stress, which should not be underestimated. To sum up, stress has been felt by all generations in their lives. It is really hard to compare either modern generation, or the previous one is under more stress that the other one, because each generation has its own problems. People would better concentrate on reducing the number of stress and try to make future living conditions more favorable.

How to Become a Fire Fighter Professor Ramos Blog

How to Become a Fire Fighter Fire-Fighter- Slide ShowDownload

Information on the Test for US Citizenship

Information on the Test for US Citizenship Before immigrants to the United States seeking citizenship can take the Oath of U.S. Citizenship and begin enjoying the benefits of citizenship, they must pass a naturalization test administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The test consists of two parts: the civics test and the English language test. In these tests, applicants for citizenship are, with certain exemptions for age and physical impairment, expected to demonstrate that they can read, write, and speak words in ordinary daily usage in the English language, and that they have a basic knowledge and understanding of American history, government, and tradition. The Civics Test For most applicants, the most difficult part of the naturalization test is the civics test, which assesses the applicants knowledge of basic U.S. government and history. In the civics portion of the test, applicants are asked up to 10 questions on American government, history and integrated civics, like geography, symbolism and holidays. The 10 questions are randomly selected from a list of 100 questions prepared by the USCIS. While there may be more than one acceptable answer to many of the 100 questions, the civics test is not a multiple choice test. The civics test is an oral test, administered during the naturalization application interview.In order to pass the civics portion of the test, applicants must correctly answer at least six (6) of the 10 randomly selected questions.In October 2008, the USCIS replaced the old set of 100 civics test questions used since its old INS days, with a new set of questions in an attempt to improve the percentage of applicants passing the test. The English Language Test The English language test has three parts: speaking, reading, and writing. The applicants ability to speak English is evaluated by a USCIS official in a one-on-one interview during which the applicant completes the Application for Naturalization, Form N-400. During the test, the applicant will be required to understand and respond to directions and questions spoken by the USCIS official.In the reading portion of the test, the applicant must read one out of three sentences correctly in order to pass. In the writing test, the applicant must write one out of three sentences correctly. Passing or Failing and Trying Again Applicants are given two chances to take the English and civics tests. Applicants who fail any part of the test during their first interview will be retested on only the part of the test they failed within from 60 to 90 days. While applicants who fail the retest are denied naturalization, they retain their status as Lawful Permanent Residents. Should they still wish to pursue U.S. citizenship, they must reapply for naturalization and repay all associated fees. How Much Does the Naturalization Process Cost? The current (2016) application fee for U.S. naturalization is $680, including an $85 biometric fee for fingerprinting and identification services. However, applicants 75 years of age or older are not charged the biometric fee, bringing their total fee down to $595.   How Long Does it Take? USCIS reports that as of June 2012, the average total processing time for an application for U.S. naturalization was 4.8 months. If that seems like a long time, consider that in 2008, processing times averaged 10-12 months and have been as long as 16-18 months in the past. Test Exemptions and Accommodations Because of their age and time as legal permanent U.S. residents, some applicants are exempt from the English requirement of the test for naturalization and may be allowed to take the civics test in the language of their choice. In addition, seniors who have certain medical conditions can apply for waivers to the naturalization test. Applicants age 50 or older when they filed for naturalization and have lived as a lawful permanent resident (green card holder) in the United States for 20 years are exempt from the English language requirement.Applicants age 55 or older when they filed for naturalization and have lived as a lawful permanent resident (green card holder) in the United States for 15 years are exempt from the English language requirement.While they may be exempt from the English language requirement, all senior applicants are required to take the civics test ​but may be allowed to take it in their native language. Complete information on exemptions to the naturalization tests can be found on the USCIS Exceptions Accommodations website. How Many Pass? According to the USCIS, more than 1,980,000 naturalization tests were administered nationwide from October 1, 2009, through June 30, 2012. USCIS reported that as of June 2012, the overall nationwide pass rate for all applicants taking both the English and civics tests was 92%. In 2008, the USCIS redesigned the naturalization test. The goal of the redesign was to improve overall pass rates by providing a more uniform and consistent testing experience while effectively assessing the applicants knowledge of U.S. history and government.Data from the USCIS report Study on Pass/Fail Rates for Naturalization Applicants  indicate that the pass rate for applicants taking the new test is significantly higher than the pass rate for applicants taking the old test.According to the report, the average annual pass rate for the overall naturalization test has improved from 87.1% in 2004 to 95.8% in 2010. The average annual pass rate for the English language test improved from 90.0% in 2004 to 97.0% in 2010, while the pass rate for the civics test improved from 94.2% to 97.5%.

US foreign policy towards Saddam Husseins Essay

US foreign policy towards Saddam Husseins - Essay Example One of the most controversial subjects in the world politics is the invasion of Iraq by United States. The invasion has resulted in considerable losses to both the countries and in fact has resulted in almost complete destruction of Iraq. This is necessary to understand the genuineness of the policies of United States. The present essay is intended to analyze the policies of US for Iraq, which finally resulted in the Invasion. The consequences of the war also would be analyzed based on these policies for interpreting the invasion based on these policies.Under these circumstances it would be ideal to analyze the relations United States had with Iraq before the invasion throughout the history of Iraq.The policy of United States over Persian Gulf is centered on the oil reserves. They also wanted to protect Israel and never had any close relations with Iraq (History of Iraq: Part III US-Iraq Relations, 2003). They always viewed Iraq with a hostile eye. During the Iran-Iraq war US sided I raq not because they had any interest in Iraq, but they were afraid of the Iranian revolution. Thus it could be seen that relation of US with Iraq was never a smooth one.As the economy of US progressed in great pace after the World War II, oil became their priority and wanted to strengthen relations with Middle East so as to protect the oil reserves. For this purpose they maintained a good relation with Iraq and even declared that the interest of Iraq is the same as that of US (Battle, 2003). But during 1950's as Iraq became friendly with Soviets, US turned against Iraq. US had good relations with other countries in Middle East like Saudi Arabia and Iran until the Iranian revolution also called Islamic revolution. This revolution by Muslims frightened US and therefore in the war that followed between Iran and Iraq, US stood with Iraq purely because they felt that Islamic revolution could pose a big danger for them. Although there were against the brutal tactics of Saddam Hussein, they did not have a choice (Background and history on Iraq, 2009). From the above facts it could be assumed that the relation that US has with Iraq was just an opportunistic one intended to get the provision of oil and they never had any common interest. Iraq started production and use of chemical weapons from early 1980's. United States was quite aware of this situation and they had even supplied raw materials for the production of the same secretly. Although almost all of the equipments, which Iraq used against Iran, were US made and were secretly shipped to Iraq by US, this fact is still regarded as a secret. Thus US played a game with Iraq by supporting it to make chemical weapons and then suddenly changed strategies against Iraq blaming them in front of the world, for production of the same weapons (Battle, 2003). This might be the reason why they were quite sure that there were chemical weapons in Iraq even when the inspectors from UN denied this fact (Background and history on Iraq, 2009). September 11 attack fuelled rivalry of US to Iraq. With this event US wanted to destruct all the forces that might poise danger for them, especially the strongest among the Muslim countries, Iraq. Several reasons had been proposed by US for its Iraq Invasion. The most important one is that US believed that Saddam, the arrogant President of Iraq, had great storage of Weapons for Mass Destruction (WMD). On their request United Nations appointed chemical weapon inspectors and Iraq co-operated with them resulting in destruction of all the weapons they had. The continued inspection by UN was denied by Iraq. But UN inspectors had already destroyed those weapons to almost nil (Background and history on Iraq, 2009). US could have believed the results of the inspection by US. But they denied believing because they wanted to destroy that country. Another reason proposed by US was that Iraq was hosting suicide bombers of Al Queida and was encouraging terrorism. But they did not have

Lateral Violence in the Emergency Department Dissertation

Lateral Violence in the Emergency Department - Dissertation Example The paper "Lateral Violence in the Emergency Department" talks about the lateral violence as an act of violence against ones’ peers and focuses on lateral violence in the Emergency Departments in the US healthcare system. The lateral violence has increased the prevalence of mental health conditions such as depression and schizophrenia among clinical nurses (Kathryn, 2011). When nurses are not happy their motivation and job satisfaction decrease. Eventually, these lead to higher employee turnover rates which increase the healthcare institution’s expenses and a shortage of staff. Most importantly, lateral violence among nurses has compromised the quality of healthcare service by reducing the levels of optimal patient care. Lateral violence has especially been identified as more prevalent among nurses working in Emergency Departments. There are cases where a nurse has noted an error in medication administered by a fellow nurse but because of lateral violence within that se tting that nurse fails to report this error, may be due to fear or revenge, this later leads to aggravated conditions for the patients. Many patients have experienced a relapse in their conditions because one nurse refused to help another nurse claiming to be too busy when their help was needed or sought. Most of the decisions and medications nurses in ED make determine whether a patient lives or dies. It is, therefore, crucial that the incidences of lateral violence between nurses working in the ED be kept at their minimum.