Maternal Mortality in India Essay

According to the World Health Organization, a â€Å"maternal death† is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration or site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or the management, but not from accidental or incidental cause. Maternal mortality is not only related to the health-care provided by a country, but also to the country’s socio-economic and cultural aspects, in which women are usually at a great disadvantage. Most maternal deaths are avoidable and should be avoided. This essay discusses the relation between high literacy rates and low mortality rates in different states in India. The Office of the Registrar General, India, under the Ministry of Home Affairs compiled a Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India for the years 2007-2009 using the Sample Registration System (SRS). This Special Bulletin was published in June, 2011 and shows that the number of states that have realized the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set by the United Nations have gone up three against one. One of the main goals was to reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate to 200 maternal deaths per lakh of live births by the year 2007 and to 109 maternal deaths per lakh of live births by the year 2015. In order to understand the changes more appropriately, the states in India have been categorized into three main groups. The first group was called the â€Å"Empowered Action Group† (EAG) states consisting of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Assam. The second group consisted of the â€Å"Southern† states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The third and final group consisted of â€Å"Other† states which included the remaining states and Union Territories. The Maternal Mortality Ratio is shown to have declined from 254 in 2004-2006 to 212 in 2007-2009. As per the data in the Special Bulletin, the Maternal Mortality Rate for each group of states is calculated by dividing the total Sample Female Population of each group by the total number of Maternal Deaths per group. The survey shows that Maternal Mortality Rate in the EAG states is much higher than in the other two groups, with Assam having the lowest Maternal Mortality Rate within the group. Although there have been advancements in the health-care provided to mothers and new-borns, illiteracy and inaccessible health-care in the rural areas of our country (India), illiteracy and inadequate health-care are the main factors resulting in maternal deaths. Other factors are usually medical-related problems, which are also avoidable most of the time. According to another survey conducted by Chryssa McAlister and Thomas F.  Baskett which was published in their article â€Å"Female Education and Maternal Mortality†, statistics show that the Maternal Mortality Rate is higher in those countries in which the male population has a higher percentage of literacy and education. In this case, women who are not educated or literate tend to have low self-esteem and feel unconfident. This is because education and literacy is directly related to the status of a woman, her decision-making powers, her age at the time of marriage and most importantly, her ability to demand and access adequate medical health services. In a Press Note released on 19 May 2010 by the Press Information Bureau on â€Å"Education in India 2007-2008: Participation and Expenditure† conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization, the states included in the â€Å"Empowered Action Group† (excluding Assam) are said to have a low literacy rate, whereas the states included in the â€Å"Southern† and â€Å"Other† groups are said to have a higher literacy and education percentage. This information collaborates with the theory of McAlister and Baskett in saying that the Maternal Mortality Rate is lower in areas having a lower rate of literacy and education of the female population, as compared to the educated male population percentage. In conclusion, women who are uneducated or illiterate have been proven to be more prone to maternal mortality at the time of pregnancy due to lack of confidence, status and decision-making abilities. Therefore, states in our country which have high rates of maternal mortality should concentrate on educating their female population in order to reduce deaths at the time of child-birth.

Conformity vs. Rebellion (Bartleby the Scrivener) Essay

Conformity and rebellion are evil twins that humanity has been nourishing since the beginning of civilization. As we conform to the social norms that surround us everyday, we are trapped inside of this overwhelming system where we easily lose ourselves as individuals. On the other hand, the urges of rebellion that live in our ego compel us to break from the state of our bondages. Yet, our superegos are trying to keep us in a reasonable threshold, and enable us to stay in the system. As a result, people are fighting a constant internal battle of conformity versus rebellion. As Herman Melville describes in his story â€Å"Bartleby the Scrivener,† humanity is hopelessly struggling between conformity and rebellion. He presents us with images of entrapment and death to address his concerns for the issues of conformity and rebellion. The images of entrapment are evident throughout the story. From the â€Å"lofty brick wall† outside of the office window to the sound-dividing prison walls which Bartleby died within, the narrator traps the readers in his dark replica of reality. Looking out the office windows, â€Å"the light came down from far above, between two lofty buildings, as from a very small opening in a dome.† The physical confinement of their dark and depressed office space is apparent through the images of the dim lighting and restricted view. For Bartleby, the confinement is no longer physical but psychological. â€Å"From his long-continued motionlessness, that behind his screen he must be standing in one of those dead-wall reveries of his.† This unusual behavior is a common act of such character. It is not the act of boredom but desperation and hopelessness that disintegrates from within and disables him from engaging in any productive activates. As the narrator takes the readers to the final resting place of Bartleby, he portrays the ultimate human confinement, the prison. The extreme thickness of the prison walls â€Å"kept off all sound behind them.† The images of entrapment are clear, that the inescapable prison walls trap any living souls inside of their boundaries. However, to Bartleby it is just another empty place, for his soul has already died long ago. The walls only keep off the outside world from him rather than restricting the already seized motions of Bartleby’s. It is the place where Bartleby chooses to escape from all, and rest for an eternity â€Å"with kings and counselors.† Images of death come as a natural companion of entrapment. The character of Bartleby appears ghostly and lifeless. He is â€Å"a motionless young man,† who works quietly like a machine in his dark and confined space. Unlike the way the narrator describes the other three employees of his, Bartleby has no anger, no ambition, and almost nothing human about him at all. The â€Å"idly cadaverous† response, â€Å"I would prefer not to† from Bartleby, implies that this man’s spirit has died long before his physical death. There is nothing in this world excites him or motivates him, leaving him only dreaded depression. This emotional emptiness must drive Bartleby to insanity, to the extent that he gives up all life burdens including basic biological functions such as eating and sleeping. Later in the story, Bartleby is sent to the â€Å"Tombs,† because of the uncooperative nature of this man. The name of the jail â€Å"Tombs† carries a symbolic meaning of death. In the narrator’s description of the interior of the jail: â€Å"the Egyptian character of the masonry weighed upon me with its gloom,† he reinforces the indestructible and inevitable power of death with these chilling images. The images of entrapment and death are excellent representations of to the concept of conformity and rebellion, whereas Bartleby lives with the entrapment of his unfulfilling life, and finally chooses death as his ultimate rebellion. The narrator, Herman Melville, constructs the abstract character, Bartleby, to extract and speak for his desperation and hopelessness feeling towards the fate of humanity as a whole. Quite like the dilemma Melville brought to our attention a half century ago, societies today are still struggling with issues of conformity and rebellion. We are so driven by the â€Å"errands of life,† and rarely stop and think about the reasons of our very existence. As the train of life speeds us to the final destination, we realize that we have traveled the exact same track as everyone else did.

Mexican American and Poem Legal Alien Essay

Ora is in the open poem form, it has no stanzas. It does have a few words that rhyme which are â€Å"English† (5) and â€Å"Spanish† (6) and also with â€Å"Mexicans† (14) and then with â€Å"Americans† (15). The poem also has rhythm, it is a low steady beat. It is a straightforward poem about how life is for a person with the same race/ethnicity as others and at the same time, different from others. The poem â€Å"Legal Alien† is about a woman of Mexican parents, who is born and raised in America. An American citizen established by law, but at the same time this person feels like an illegal alien because of how some people treat her. She is fluent in both, English and in Spanish. Feels American because she is, but at the same time she doesn’t. She is looked at by Americans (Anglos) as inferior, and looked at by Mexicans like she doesn’t belong. They make her feel like she is not one of them, like she doesn’t fit anywhere. â€Å"An American to Mexicans a Mexican to Americans a handy token sliding back and forth between the fringes of both worlds† (14-18).Wha Rosa PantojaPeriod 110/9/12Ms. HamptonAmerican literatureLegal Alien EssayThe beliefs of the contemporary time period is that the voices of all cultures, ethnicgroups, gender, and nationalities should be heard and poetry is universal and speaks to allpeople regardless of their background. In the poem Legal Alien by Pat Mora, the literary devicesthat Pat Mora uses are metaphor and personification. These literary devices help reveal the author’s message to the audience which are the Mexican-Americans. The metaphor show thatbeing Mexican-American has its advantages and the personification shows the disadvantages of how people view Mexican-American.Pat Mora uses metaphor to reveal the message that being Mexican-Americans has anadvantage to the audience. In line 16 â€Å"a handy token sliding back and forth betwee. n the fringes of both worlds†¦Ã¢â‚¬  this is a metaphor because she is comparing herself to a token. She comparesherself to a token because tokens usually have two sides to it, and she is implying that she alsohas two sides because she is Mexican and American. P at Mora uses â€Å"handy token† because she says that it is an advantage because she can go between the borders of being Mexican andbeing American. Pat uses the word â€Å"fringes† instead of using the word border because the fringe is bringing both sides of the world together and a border separates the two worlds of Americans and Mexicans, and by her being Mexican- American she is bringing both of thoseworlds togethe.

My research paper needs to be on how the government addressed past

My needs to be on how the government addressed past economic downturns and recoveries, what caused them and wha - Research Paper Example The government has been responsible to respond to the poor health of the economy, struggling to find a way in which to regain ground so that the millions of those suffering economically could recover. The many avenues towards economic health that the government has taken have been wide and varied, depending on the policies and the platform of those who were in office. The first true crises of the 20th century occurred in 1929 as the collapse of an ill-conceived stock market plan led to the collapse of industry within the United States. The 1930’s was a time filled with the doom of her citizens, the hard economic times creating a void that left many without jobs, without hope, and without enough to sustain their families. The 1940’s saw an economic challenge of a different kind as World War II took a great deal of resources that meant that citizens had to make significant sacrifices. However, the war led into the 1950’s, a time in which the innovations from the te chnologies that were created from the wartime efforts provided for a surge in commerce, the beginning of a global economy providing for high levels of income for Americans. The 1970’s saw the United States in a state of a recession with many losing their jobs and a notable shift in the way in which employment was viewed became a part of the sociological landscape. Black Thursday On the day that would come to be called Black Thursday, October 24, 1929, the stock market fell 34 points, which represented a 9% drop for the day. The extremity of the day was caused by a selling panic, driving the prices down and losing billions for investors. The simple answer about how it was caused was because of the speculator boom, but the causes were far more complex than the traditional answer to this question. The market was in a highly sensitive state by that fateful day, some of which was due to the real estate decline starting in 1925, some due to simply because the fear of a crash caused a run that caused a crash. The market had come to a high plateau and the fear of the end had caused the inevitable end. The rising stock prices were less due to value than to speculation manipulations. As an example, RCA was worth $1.32 in 1925, $6.15 in 1927, and $15.98 in 1928 before the stock split (Bierman, 1998, p. 9). The 1920’s represented a rise in technological advancements that affected the nature of American life. The automobile industry evolved during this period and the innovations of the Ford company in assembly line management and the level of wage paid to the workers created a working atmosphere in which the middle class was being born. Money was flowing and people were experiencing a new level of comfort that had never before been experienced. However, when the crash took all of that away, the resulting depression plummeted that emerging middle class into a poverty that was unprecedented on American soil. Farmers experienced losses that could never have been predicted, food prices at all time lows. Market Prices as they Plummet (Crewe & Ingram, 2005, p. 20) Homelessness was rife and ’Hooverville’s popped up all over consisting of huts in urban landscapes without electricity, water, or sanitation, named after President Hoover as ultimately,

The strategy that was used by MTN Group to expand to different parts Essay

The strategy that was used by MTN Group to expand to different parts of the African and Middle Eastern markets - Essay Example In 1994, the government authority granted a license to Vodacom and Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) to operate mobile phone networks in South Africa (Oxford Business Group, 2008). The MTN Group had the vision â€Å"to be the leading provider of telecommunications in emerging markets† (Erasmus and Shenk, 2008 p61). This has been the watchword of MTN and the group is now operational in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East (Banhegyi, 2007). In all these countries, MTN has access to over 488 million people and has over 28 million subscribers (Banhegyi, 2007). It is now listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. In Africa, MTN has operations in Botswana, Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire, Nigeria, Congo, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia amongst other nations. MTN Group has its headquarters in South Africa where it all started. This paper examines the strategy that was used by MTN Group to expand to different parts of the African and Middle Eastern markets. It will examine the strategies from the context of dominant theories and ideas relating to international business. The second part of the research will examine the strategies for further expansion of MTN into other markets around the world. MTN Group Expansion Strategy In order to examine the expansion of MTN to different countries around the world, important elements and aspects of International Business will be examined. This include: Entry Mode Entry Timing Firm Size Institutional Matters Entry Mode Entry mode describes the methods and systems used by a business to expand into a foreign country (Andexer, 2008). It describes the various approaches that a business uses to create a presence in a foreign land. Popular methods include franchising, licensing and joint ventures (Ireland et al, 2011). According to Singh (2008), MTN expanded to other countries through a mixture of Greenfield Investments and Mergers/Acquisition. A Greenfield Investment is the â€Å"establishment of completely new operations in a foreign land† (Paul, 2009 p357). In some countries, MTN created new telecommunication companies that were meant to provide services. This was particularly popular in smaller and war thorne African countries that had limited infrastructure. This involved investing and creating new infrastructure from the scratch. Through this, MTN exported their resources to these new venues. They applied principles from South Africa and learnt about the local environments. Through this, they built brands and new systems in the foreign nations that they operated within. In other countries, MTN expanded through mergers and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions involve forming strong partnerships or acquiring other businesses in order to being operations in a new country (Johnson and Turner, 2009: MacDonald et al, 2011). MTN Group purchased other companies like Areeba and Spacefon technologies in several parts of the continent (Bridge, 2009). These two companies were sprawling brands in th e Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa (Pan, 2011). MTN just purchased these companies and took over their assets and began to operate in their capacity as an independent company in these foreign countries (Venter et al, 2009). Through this mixture of mergers and acquisitions and greenfield investments, MTN was able to set up different operations around the world. The shareholders of the South African company expanded their scope of control and took over these foreign and new markets. The mergers were mainly

Observing .... ( write observing whom it depends who you are Essay

Observing .... ( write observing whom it depends who you are interviewing ) - Essay Example Introduction Over the weekend, I decided to attend a musical event hosted the Samba Reggae School of Michigan. The event was held on November 17, 2013 along the famous Grand Haven beach of Lake Michigan. It was organized by the Samba Reggae School in collaboration with local fans. It was a daytime event taking place between 12pm to 7pm in the evening. Since I had no opportunity of purchasing advanced tickets, I decided to get rush tickets at the beach, which were retailing at a price of $11.50. This event was a Samba Reggae concert meant for ceremonial and entertainment purposes. The guest artist was Luis Vieira, one of the most popular Samba Reggae artists in South America. The ceremonial event started with a rehearsal by a local percussion team followed by dances and major performance by the guest artist. The entire program for the concert was available at the gate free of charge. Samba Reggae Music At this juncture, we will evaluate integral aspects of Samba Reggae music as used w ithin the context of Brazilian traditional practices. First, it is worth acknowledging the fact that Samba Reggae derives its roots from a combination of Brazilian Samba genre and the Jamaican Reggae music (Pessanha and McGowan 23). A proportional blend between these two distinct genres gave birth to Samba Reggae, a music characterized by moderate tempo instrumentals with frequency ranging from 90-120 beats per minute. Samba Reggae is known for its close association with Carnival ceremony in Brazil, which involves dancers parading through residential villages while dressed in artifacts representing society’s values. It was originally an African ceremony brought into South America by slaves from West Africa. Currently, Samba Reggae is one of the most popular musical genres in Brazil and other Southern nations like Colombia. Personal Experience on the Event Prior to attending the music concert, I was not thoroughly conversant with events taking place in a Samba Reggae concert. I was used to seeing street dancers in television dressed in colorful attire and making magnificent patterns in their dancing formations. Therefore, this concert was my perfect opportunity to experience a Brazilian ceremonial event marked by musical performances. Chronological happenings in the beach were initiated by entrance by the two hosts carrying Samba Reggae flags followed by a short rehearsal performance by two local Samba bands. After the rehearsal, the drum session started preparing for the eagerly awaited Samba parade. The colorful parade which featured approximately 100 dancers of both genders lasted for about 2 hours. Finally, the guest artist, Luis Vieira, was invited to give his 1-hour energetic performance featuring top ten of his best tunes. After experiencing a Samba Reggae concert in person, I developed a high-spirited attitude towards involvement in such colorful events. In the past, I was used to experience Samba Reggae music in recorded videos or audio versions . However, attending an actual concert inspired me to start learning detailed concepts about Brazilian traditional ceremonies, especially the role of music in those ceremonies. In conventional context, I used to lose interest after listening to tunes from this genre for a consecutive 20 minutes. However, the concert was not only fun but also thrilling. Watching real people performing dancing moves

Distribution and Retailing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Distribution and Retailing - Essay Example Brief Overview of the Scenario The paper describes about the managerial issues faced by Katie Collins, the managing director of Fashion Wholesalers in relation to its distribution and retailing functions. Fashion Wholesalers is a clothing manufacturing company which principally targets women operating as the agents of UK with the networking comprising around 30 manufacturing Scandinavian and German clothing producers. It also supplies for approximately 120 small sized retailers. The products that are distributed through Fashion Wholesalers target primarily the housewives within the UK. The distribution activity of the company, i.e. Fashion Wholesalers, can be described on the following grounds. It has been observed that the buyers of Fashion Wholesalers, belonging to the age group of 30 to 60 years usually perform 4 trips for collecting the produced materials from the suppliers in the market. The process of ordering for the company is carried out in every season based on the scheduli ng of delivery of products by the buyers on a monthly basis. The produced products are then distributed to the warehouse located at Peterborough. The process of delivery in Fashion Wholesalers includes showrooms from where the buyers can directly make their purchases in person. Notably, the clothing products are manufactured all-round the year and the samples are distributed in all the seasons, along with the continuation of warehousing and dispatching activities. Contextually, it can be observed that the demands for the products are quite high attracting most of the targeted customers in the niche markets of retailing. It is worth mentioning in this context that most of the targeted customers depend on Fashion Wholesalers for supplying quality products at cheaper rates which has further accelerated the growth rate in the organisation. 1.2. Rise of Conflict in Fashion Wholesalers Channel conflict usually occurs if there are clashes of methods and goals between the members belonging to a channel of distribution. Notably, because the distribution channel of Fashion Wholesale is performed on the basis of multiple dimensions involving multiple layers such as the suppliers, the producers and the end users, which further continues throughout the year, there are high chances for Fashion Wholesalers to witness similar disruptions in their distribution process. Theoretically, distribution channel conflicts can be categorized into horizontal and vertical categories. Where horizontal channel conflicts signify gaps and limited cooperation among members belonging to similar level, the vertical channel conflict indicates dismissal among members belonging to different levels in the channel distribution (Jicheng, n.d). In the currently practiced distribution channel of Fashion Wholesalers, probability of both these conflicts to arise can be observed apparently. Additionally, resource scarcity can be determined as another significant aspect to cause conflicts in the channel of distribution. In the context of Fashion Wholesalers, it can be stated that owing to the complexity of the distribution channel framework, conflicts might occur among the members due to insufficiency of resources for manufacturing clothing products and/or due to their inefficiency to allocate the available resources efficiently so as to serve the retailers all around its target market in a time-efficient and cost-effective way. Moreover, if Fashion Wholesalers attempt to sell a proportion of the produced products by themselves directly