Engineers Without Borders: Water Supply Work in Thailand

Engineers Without Borders: Water Supply Work in Thailand Jeremy Frisone Background Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA) is a nonprofit humanitarian organization established to support community-driven development programs worldwide through partnerships that design and implement sustainable engineering projects. EWB-USA was founded in April 2000 when a representative of the Belize Ministry of Agriculture invited Dr. Bernard Amadei, Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, to visit a community in San Pablo, Belize, to assess the communitys water supply. When Dr. Amadei visited the community, he learned that they lacked clean water and sanitation infrastructure. Though the community had the resources to fix the problem, they lacked the engineering expertise to complete the work and Amadei decided to send his engineering students there to create a mutually beneficial partnership within the community (Engineers Without Borders USA, 2015). Today, there are over 12,000 members of EWB-USA, and the members are mainly composed of professional and student engineers. They work with local communities and NGOs in 47 countries and 5 continents around the world on water supply, sanitation, civil works, structures, energy, agriculture, and information system projects that comprehensively address the needs of a given community (Engineers Without Borders USA, 2015). Engineers Without Borders USA follows ten principles of development when completing international projects. These principles require that the projects be engineering-related, safety and quality-oriented, and performed within the scope of the engineers’ expertise. Also, the principles place a high focus on the importance of the community in which the project takes place. Since all EWB-USA projects are community-based, each project must be evaluated for appropriateness in the region and must develop a partnership with the impacted community that lasts at least five years. EWB also works closely with in-country partners (usually other in-country NGOs) to acquire the cultural experience that is required for the completion of the project. Finally, the EWB maintains that education of the partnering community and education of the active members is key to the success of the project infrastructure (Principles of Development, 2013). These principles of development show that EWB-USA main tains a high level of cultural awareness and works to develop projects which are specific to the needs, resources, and constraints of the region in which the projects are occurring. Mapping Engineers Without Borders USA has a highly specific method of mapping out regions to plan projects that places a substantial amount of focus on collaborating with the region’s community to improve quality of life. EWB begins the process of mapping out a region when they receive applications from villages for help on solving engineering problems. Once an application goes into the review process, the community receives a decision in four to six weeks. If the application is approved, the program will be posted on the EWB website, where it becomes available for acceptance by one of the student or professional chapters. According to the EWB website, â€Å"after a program is officially adopted, the community and chapter will coordinate the first assessment trip, which can occur anywhere between three months to one year after the date of adoption. The purpose of the first assessment trip is for the chapter to acquaint themselves with the community and to gather sufficient informatio n to assess the economic, social, environmental and technical viability and sustainability of the project. The assessment trip also allows the chapter to collect important data for both future project designs and the monitoring and evaluation phase. The highly participatory assessment trip typically lasts one to four weeks and allows the chapter and community to discuss whether or not the project should move forward† (Engineers Without Borders USA, 2015). Once the decision is made that the project should move forward, EWB enters a pre-specified partnership agreement with the community and a local partner organization such as a local NGO, municipality, or city government. Each of these entities has its own set of responsibilities that allows for the engineering experts to involve the community and organization leaders during each step of the project. For example, the community members and community based organizations are responsible for contributing to the project design, handling permits, permissions, and feedback, and helping to select and implement the final design (Project Partners Roles and Responsibilities, 2012). This involvement of the community members ensures that the project is completed in a way that suits the region’s specific needs and best improves the current situation. When the partnership is established with the impacted community, EWB-USA follows its specified framework that they refer to as â€Å"Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning† or PMEL. According to the official terms of reference, the PMEL framework â€Å"helps EWB -USA to better understand and account for the extent to which our efforts are going in the right direction, whether progress and success can be claimed, whether we are making the changes we hoped to make, and how future efforts might be improved† (Martindale, 2014). The first phase of the PMEL framework, â€Å"Planning,† is essentially EWB-USA’s method of mapping out the region of interest. It includes â€Å"conducting a situation analysis in the community, identifying program and project goals and strategies, collaborating with partner organizations and developing a plan for monitoring and evaluation† (Martindale, 2014). It is clear that in this phase EWB places a strong emphasis on working closely with the region’s community through situation analysis and cooperation with partner organizations. EWB relies on collaboration with the community members and partner organizations in every step of the â€Å"Planning† phase, including the project design, data collection, and preparing the site for work (Project Partners Roles and Responsibilities, 2012). By including the community members and local stakeholders in every step of the planning and implementation process, EWB-USA creates an exceptional level of communication that allows the project to adequately suit the needs of the specific region. The last three phases of the PMEL process are used in the actual application of the engineering project. In the â€Å"Monitoring† phase, EWB places focus on making sure that the project is going according to plan and noticing if adjustments need to be made. The â€Å"Monitoring† phase also works as a â€Å"communication system designed to improve management and policy decisions for different stakeholders† (Martindale, 2014). This emphasis on improving decisions for the â€Å"stakeholders,† or members of the impacted community, shows EWB’s commitment to involving the community members in every step of the project. Similarly, the â€Å"Evaluation† phase â€Å"measures progress the program or project has made, not only in completing activities but also in achieving its objectives and overall goal† within the community (Martindale, 2014). Finally, the â€Å"Learning† or â€Å"Impact Reviews and Assessment† phase is â€Å"des igned to determine if the completed program work did or did not have any direct influence on the changes experienced by the community members† by analyzing the significant and lasting change that has occurred in the lives of the target group (Martindale, 2014). Like the first three phases, the â€Å"Learning† phase also clearly places its focus on improving the lives of community members through collaboration. Region The focus of this paper lies in the region of Thailand and will look specifically at a case study that shows how Engineers Without Borders USA implemented its mapping and action strategies to complete an extensive water supply project in the village of Nong Bua. Thailand is a country in Southeast Asia that was first established in the mid-fourteenth century and is the only Southeast Asian country to never have been colonized by a European power. A constitutional monarchy has been in place in Thailand since 1932, and in 1954 Thailand became a U.S. treaty ally after sending troops to Korea and fighting alongside the U.S.in the war against Vietnam. Since then, Thailand’s political history has suffered through turmoil, political uprisings, and coups. In May of 2014, the Royal Thai Army staged a coup against the government and placed the head of the Royal Thai Army in charge as the prime minister. The government has since created temporary drafts of constitutional reforms that will be voted on in 2016 elections (East and Southeast Asia: Thailand, 2014). Currently Thailand is divided into 76 provinces and one municipality. Each province varies slightly in religion, average income, industry, and cultural norms depending on the location within the country, but the majority of the population speaks Thai and practices the Buddhist religion (East and Southeast Asia: Thailand, 2014). The geography of the country plays a strong role in shaping the economy and the culture of Thailand. The climate is tropical, warm, and rainy, and the most prevalent natural resources are tin, rubber, natural gas, and tungsten. The recent increase in industrial practices and combined with the naturally tropical climate has caused an increase in both air and water pollution (East and Southeast Asia: Thailand, 2014). In fact, water pollution is one of the most serious concerns facing Thailand today. There is a high level of pollution due to substances that include household chemicals, such as surfactants, pharmaceuticals and insect repellents, agricultural chemi cals, such as pesticides as well as industrial chemicals, inorganics and heavy metals. Since these substances have a high level of tenacity, â€Å"these pollutants can cause contamination of surface water and groundwater which are the main water resources for drinking water production in Thailand† (Kruawal, et. al, 2004). This is a major issue for the health and safety of the residents of Thailand. This is particularly because â€Å"a considerable part of the Thai population lacks an access to health insurance, with the poor disproportionately unprotected† (Suraratdecha, et. al, 2004). Being that the water supply contamination is a major concern for the provinces of Thailand, Engineers Without Borders USA has been asked multiple times to assist in the development of clean water harvesting methods. Case Study The EWB-USA case study focuses on a water supply project that Engineers Without Borders USA Rutgers University Student Chapter completed in the Thai village of Nong Bua in 2009. The project formulated due to the lack of clean drinking water in the village of Nong Bua. Although the people in the community had made numerous attempts to drill wells to provide clean, inexpensive water, their efforts failed and the impoverished residents were forced to purchase bottled water. Luckily, Carole Ketnourath, D. Michael Shafer and Chatree Saokaew from the NGO Warm Heart heard about the situation and decided to act by contacting the Rutgers chapter of EWB-USA to help solve the problem. (Silagi, et. al, 2012). Since the Rutgers chapter of EWB was specifically asked to take on the project, the village was able to bypass the typical application process. Once the Rutgers chapter reviewed the information and decided to accept the project, they began the process of mapping out the region. EWB started the mapping process by conducting a situation analysis in the community and collecting general information on the specific region. They found that Nong Bua, a village in the sub-district of Phraro, is predominantly a farming village with 143 households. They found that the income per household is ~40,000 Baht (US$ 1,270) per year, with 68% of their income spent on purchasing sources of clean water. More importantly, it was discovered that the government constructed a water filtration and distribution system for an 88m well. However, the continuing poor water quality forced the community to purchase costly bottled water for drinking, or dig personal, shallow wells that do not provide clean water (Silagi, et. al, 2012). Once the EWB team had sufficient general knowledge on the situation, they conducted actual testing on the chemical composition of the water wells in the village and found that the water had a high level of contamination including unsafe levels of iron and ma nganese. They used this information to establish the general goal of improving the accessibility and affordability of clean drinking water in the village. The team then continued the mapping or â€Å"Planning† phase of the project by collaborating with Warm Heart, a local partner organization. Warm Heart is a grassroots organization that helps villagers in mountainous rural northern Thailand. They organize community projects that improve access to education and basic health services, create jobs and sustainable incomes for the poorest in the community, and restore the environment to sustain future generations (Warm Heart Worldwide, 2015). With the help of Warm Heart, the EWB Rutgers students were able to collaborate closely with the community members and local university students to assess the baseline health of the community and to brainstorm possible effective solutions to the water supply problem. After extensive planning that involved the engineers and the community members, the team began installation of a water system that had backwashing capabilities and a maintenance schedule that was designed to reduce the amount of iron and manganese to acceptable levels. Following the aforementioned PMEL framework, the team monitored and evaluated the project by continuously testing the system and relying on the community members for constructive feedback. Using this information, the EWB team â€Å"implemented various changes to combat the remaining fecal coliform contamination, the entire system was shock- chlorinated, and a hypo-chlorinator was installed to deliver a constant chlorine injection to the water system† in order to ensure that the water remained clean and safe for drinking (Silagi, et. al, 2012). After the project was completed, the EWB team began the â€Å"Learning† or â€Å"Impact Reviews and Assessment† phase of the project. They created a communication plan with the lead partner organization, Warm Heart, and agreed to stay in close contact to address problems in the future. They also made sure that the community was equipped with the proper coliform testing kits and operations and maintenance manuals so that they could ensure the future upkeep of the system. According to the official document, â€Å"the EWB-USA Rutgers team is confident about the future of Nong Bua after the final implementation trip during which educational programs were conducted and multiple meetings were held with the communities and local government to ensure that the project will be sustainable† (Silagi, et. al, 2012). Since the EWB Rutgers team made such a strong effort to educate and work with the local community members, government, and partner organization, it is clear that they highly valued collaboration with the affected region of interest. Throughout the mapping and completion phases of the project, the EWB team continually placed emphasis on the needs and feedback of the community in order to best achieve their goal of improving the water quality and access in the region. Conclusion Engineers Without Borders USA is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that uses a highly specific planning process to â€Å"map out† and complete engineering projects in over 47 countries around the world. One region in which EWB-USA has completed quality of life improvement projects is Thailand. Due to recent growth of industry, one of the biggest issues that is facing Thailand today is the abundance of pollution specifically water pollution that causes negative health effects for the general population. As a result of this issue, Engineers Without Borders USA has been asked to help mitigate the water supply issues in multiple villages across Thailand. One of the most prominent examples of EWB’s work in Thailand was the water supply project that the Rutgers chapter of EWB completed in the village of Nong Bua in 2009. To complete the project, the EWB team began their process of â€Å"mapping† the region by conducting site visits, gathering village-specific infor mation, and communicating with the members of the community and a local partner organization. They maintained this high level of communication with the community members throughout the project implementation by including the residents in the planning, designing, and upkeep of the new water supply system. As shown in the Nong Bua case study, it is clear that EWB-USA places a very high amount of focus on collaboration with the community during the mapping of a region and completion of a project within that region in order to ensure that the solution best fits the needs of the community. References East and Southeast Asia: Thailand. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html Engineers Without Borders USA. (2012). Project Partner Roles and Responsibilities [Brochure]. Author. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/ewbgeneral/511 Project Partner Roles and Responsibilities.pdf Engineers Without Borders USA. (2013). Principles of Development [Brochure]. Author. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/ewbgeneral/EWB-USA_Principles-of-Development.pdf Engineers WIthout Borders USA. (2015, April 30). Retrieved May 01, 2015, from http://ewb-usa.org/ Kruawal, K., Sacher, F., Werner, A. (2004). Chemical water quality in Thailand and its impacts on the drinking water production in Thailand. Retrieved from http%3A%2F%2Fac.els-cdn.com%2FS004896970400614X%2F1-s2.0-S004896970400614X-main.pdf%3F_tid%3D8162c9a2-f367-11e4-a079-00000aacb362%26acdnat%3D1430858840_a616e75e376e38244de835b5426bfe6e Martindale, T., P.E. (2014). Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Program Program Description. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/ewbgeneral/COMPILED PMEL Program Description.pdf Silagi, E., Kretch, J. (2012). Thailand Project (Issue brief). Retrieved http://ewb.rutgers.edu/projects/thailand.html Suraratdecha, C., Saithanu, S., Tangcharoensathien, V. (2004). Is universal coverage a solution for disparities in health care? Findings from three low-income provinces of Thailand. Retrieved from http%3A%2F%2Fac.els-cdn.com%2FS0168851004002672%2F1-s2.0-S0168851004002672-main.pdf%3F_tid%3D716c58c4-f4f2-11e4-b27d-00000aab0f6c%26acdnat%3D1431028465_6547fe9d9e83439cb473ec48c34fc224 Warm Heart Worldwide. (2015). Retrieved from http://warmheartworldwide.org/ Chartism: A Failed Success Chartism: A Failed Success British children born into farming families in the early nineteenth century stood little chance of remaining in agriculture their entire life. The society in which they lived was changing in large ways. Industrialization was slowly creeping into the countryside as men implemented new technology alongside the old. The domestic market grew markedly as income per head of population expanded and a consumer revolution percolated down from the richer classes to the middle ranks and artisans. People began moving to the city. It remains debatable as to whether individuals and families were compelled to move searching for work or if they were compelled to move due to enclosure. Villages such as Styal and Cromford were constructed to house some of the workers moving to factory towns. A quick journey down these village streets today provides some glimpse of the crowded conditions people endured. The rear alleyway below bedroom windows reserved for swine and human refuse reminds visitors of the intimacy working class people had with their animals and waste. Today birds singing from the chimneys are a far cry from the high volume of soot once produced by the coal burning within. No matter the motivation for moving, migrants found life in the industrial English city or town in the 1800s quite grim. Westminster played little role in the regulation of cities. England was still a country with very little government from the center, and almost all the local responsibilities, health, housing, education, police, that are now subject to strict inspection and control, were left to the unchecked discretion and pleasure of magistrates and borough rulers. Unfortunately for members of the working class many of the magistrates and rulers were sympathetic to factory owners or were owners themselves. It was an incredibly unjust system of governance presided over by men such as Cromford industrialist Joseph Arkwright. Therefore the Chartist movement was likely to fail. This is a vital reminder that those with power rarely surrender it to those without unless they feel compelled by the threat of physical harm or superior moral authority. Chartists arose from Britains working class determined to gain a voice in their destiny through democratic participation. Their goals were admirable but their strategy weak. The working class lived in squalid conditions and was used repeatedly as political leverage by the merchant class. The Reform Bill of 1832 was one such example. Harold Faulkner wrote of the event: When the smoke of the struggle cleared away, the great class disfranchised discovered that not only had they reaped no benefit from the reform they had so largely helped to win, but that their lot under a reformed Parliament dominated by the doctrines of the Manchester School seemed to be worse than ever. Economic thought of Manchester School politicians was that of laissez faire capitalism. Clearly their policies were not designed to aid the abused workers of Britain. However, determined Chartists planned to overcome the lockout workingmen had long endured in the political arena. Unfortunately, time would prove they were not the well-organized army the working class so desperately needed. The movement functioned far better as a social, emotional, and even religious agent than one of political change. Chartists failed to achieve their stated goals due to their nature as an emotionally fuelled reactionary coalition bound only by their six simple objectives articulated in the Peoples Charter of 1838. Life was absolutely miserable for the working class. The idea of the town as a focus for civilization, a center where the emancipating and enlightening influence of the time can act rapidly and with effect, the school of social arts, the nursery of social enterprise, the witness to the beauty and order and freedom that men can bring into their lives, had vanished from all minds. Industrial change allowed powerful capitalists to dominate life in small towns across England. Discontent was not unique to Chartism. Social angst in the period existed in several forms. Eric Hobsbawm identifies unhappy segments of the population including: Luddite and Radical, trade unionist and utopian-socialist, Democratic and Chartist. The largest class of people was unhappy with life and increasingly conscious of their group identity. It could have been caused by the changes slowly eliminating traditional trades, shift in power from landed nobility to the capitalist class, or movement of people from the soil to the city. Nevertheless the sheer number of protest movements demonstrates a clear unhappiness in nineteenth century Britain. All that was needed to turn consciousness into conflict was an economic or political crisis. For the working class that outrage first occurred on the moors at St. Peters Fields and combined with the knowledge of revolutionary France. The so-called 1819 massacre at Peterloo in which eleven were killed struck an emotional chord among the working class. They had rehearsed the event repeatedly. Men, women, and children donned their Sunday best and marched in columns to show their non-violent nature. The working class intended to prove it too could be an orderly component of society. However the government feared anarchic results akin to those in France at the Bastille. The local military contingent was intimidated by the workers discipline and a magistrate became alarmed and ordered the march on the field outside Manchester be stopped. The event turned bloody! The cartoon in Appendix A reveals the attitude often attributed to the middle class of the day. Hefty cavalry members sit atop sturdy steeds with swords raised to mutilate men, women, and even children. The caption reads, in part: remember the more you kill the less poor rates youll have to payà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The viewer cannot help but sympathize with the skinny-likely hungry-mother whose baby clings to her breast as she stares at a sword raised to strike them by a man who has had far too much for dinner. The cartoonist does an excellent job portraying wealth and power through weight and garb. State-condoned murder on St. Peters Fields near Manchester by those in positions of authority contributed to the sense of class-consciousness Kenneth Morgan identifies in The Birth of Industrial Britain. The Peterloo tragedy further energized by the pang of unhappiness deep within the workingmans gut finally pushed a number of radical groups to join forces as the Chartists. They offered a simple-albeit difficult to enact-political solution to mend Englands social and political ills. They rallied around a platform of six reforms, which they published as the Peoples Charter on 8 May 1838. The resolution called for: universal suffrage, no property qualifications for the electorate, annual parliaments, equal representation, salary for MPs, and implementation of the secret ballot. A number of historians argue that this was a major peak of the movement. D.G. Wright argued that the movement was not unilinear but had three peaks, one being 1839-40, the others included 1842 and 1848. Coincidentally, each of the identified peaks in the movement closely mirrors low points economically for Britain when poverty was greatest. The unmistakable correlation reminds us that Chartism was fuelled by passions of the impoverished. Most participants of Chartist events were neither intellectual nor bourgeois. Politically the movement never firmly gelled; it remained a movement of regional organizations guided by a single unifying document and no clear agreement among leaders. The Chartist paper called The Northern Star published accounts from numerous leaders. The best known was Feargus OConnor. The Chartist movement required leadership. Vocal leaders traveling throughout England took turns masking and exacerbating the divisions within Chartism. The leading men did not always concur on political issues, social goals, or Chartist strategy. Leader George Julian Harney exemplified this in a mid-1840s letter to his friend Friedrich Engels. Harney a national leader of Chartism thrice imprisoned for disobeying the stamp laws wrote: As to what OC [onnor] has been saying lately about physical force, I think nothing of it. The English people will not adopt [Thomas] Coopers slavish notions about peace and non-resistance but neither would they act upon the opposite doctrine. They applaud it at public meetings, but that is all. The absence of unified strategy allowed politicians to employ a divide and conquer strategy. This proved fatal to the underdog movement. Feargus OConnor was the most virulent of Chartist leaders. He was quite self-absorbed, a pompous self-promoter. His charisma captivated the working classes in a way few other movement leaders could. What OConnor did do was to link the various aspects of Chartism, and while dividing the leadership he united the movement. The unstable nature of the working class coalition united behind the Peoples Charter needed strong leadership in order to be successful. OConnor derived authority from his physical appearance and charismatic character. Historian R.G. Gammage described OConnor in his 1854 account of Chartism. There he wrote: Upwards of six feet in height, stout and athletic, and in spite of his opinions invested with a sort of aristocratic bearing, the sight of his person was calculated to inspire the masses with a solemn awe. So true is it that despite the march of civilization, and the increase of respect for mental superiority, men are generally impressed with a veneration for superior physical power. The Irishmans physical presence alone demanded some confidence from the crowd. Unfortunately for Chartism physical dominance of one charismatic man could not carry the agenda of an entire class of people. The average working class individual did not spend every waking hour attempting to make Chartism successful. Nor did the workingman await every word or message spewed from the fractured leadership. Chartist rallies were spectacles during which the working class nodded and applauded. That was the strongest action most Chartist men and women took! One imagines tired men and women attending a great open-air speech by OConnor much like those of Methodisms John Wesley. It was an uplifting experience, but there was limited ongoing dedication to the crusade. It was a periodic commitment with robust bursts of energy during times of severe hunger and unemployment. Many of the regional units-such as London Working Mens Association and the Birmingham Political Union-associated with Chartism sought to satisfy peoples needs for community, especially through entertainment. There was a need to engage the imagination in order to raise important questions of the day. Men and women were engaged socially through events sponsored by working class groups. The camaraderie built by the work environment and common belief that they were fundamentally mistreated went a long way in maintaining the loose confederation of regional movements that had differing interests outside the Chartist platform. Religion also found its place as an energy source for the Chartist movement. The established Church of England was of little use to the working class. High church was not the place for the working class. After all, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the typical Chartist was a horny-handed son of toil. Anglicanism made no attempt to appeal to men with fustian jackets, unshorn chins, and blistered hands. The Wesleyan Methodists were more accommodating than the established church. However, during the nineteenth century Methodism was dominated by a forbidding clerical autocracy-Chartists wanted democracy! Therefore many Chartists made their Christianity personal. The favorite scriptural teaching of Chartist Christians is found in the Gospel of Matthew. The verses are quite elementary and committed to memory by Christians worldwide: Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hand on these two commandments. Jesus conveys basic teachings in only a few lines, which the workers could easily interpret. By this Biblical standard they knew they were being wrongly treated. On this issue Chartists could claim the moral high ground. The religious experience was part of a much larger Chartist movement. Chartist branches at the local level, like those of the Owenites, provided a substantial menu of recreational, educational, and religious activities which amounted to an alternative culture, within which members could move freely during their leisure hours. This further reinforced the ideas promoted by the Peoples Charter. And, it gave the middling class supporters a place of refuge. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Being a Chartist was a risky business that invited abuse and threatened career, reputation, and liberty. However the support offered by the working class to members of the intelligentsia or bourgeoisie supporting Chartism on moral grounds was minimal given the non-existent social influence of the laborin g class. The six-point Peoples Charter faced an intense battle from its inception. The platform would have been difficult to enact even if all conditions were stellar. Had Chartists been the ideal protest movement of outraged, politically astute, impoverished masses, guided by unified leadership and common interests across regions, motivated by a deep sense of moral justice, supported by the middle class, and determined at all costs their demands-or should we say requests-would have had a better chance of parliamentary ratification. In addition, the failure of the 1832 Reform Act to address working class needs was a demoralizing shock to its labor advocates. The Whigs used labor to gain a greater say in British government my using, then marginalizing, the working class. Hindsight reveals the situation was far from ideal for Chartists. The 1849 Punch cartoon by John Leech found in Appendix B is far more indicative of reality. The cartoonist is likely poking fun at the Chartist failures of 1848 which included London riots, a Day of Protest, a failed Irish rising, and a planned British uprising all in the month of June. Not to mention the failed petition submitted to Westminster in April 1848, which a parliamentary committee found rife with fraudulent signatures. Leech drew an unidentified Chartist leader with before and after frames juxtaposed. When confronted by a constable, the ragged leader who had called for a march on the palace suddenly cowers changing his tune to God Save the Queen. This is an accurate depiction of Chartist fervor. It was lukewarm at best! Chartists failed to achieve their six goals due to their nature as an emotionally fuelled reactionary coalition of regional labor groups dedicated to different social agendas. Divided and sometimes self-absorbed leaders who failed to meld the various labor organizations of the north and south into a truly unified movement compounded the difficulty of their task. The issues for laborers in the various regions of England remained quite diverse due to varying stages of industrialization. It is unlikely they could have ever formed a strong unified bloc. Chartism was forced to remain an uneasy coalition of regional interests with a leadership of diverse opinion advocating peaceful and militant tactics simultaneously. The movement further lacked the motivation to sustain itself consistently. There was little talk of reform when the economy was doing well. The masses were mollified when there was plenty of bread in their bellies and a stable government at Britannias helm. Chartism began in the 1830s, an era that experienced no fewer than five national elections. And Wright reminds readers that the movement peaked with public disorder and petitioning on three occasions when the economy ebbed. Workers were motivated by the desperate situation in which they and their families were stuck. Contemporary scholars should resist temptation and refrain from being overly critical of Chartists. There is a need to overlook the megalomania of OConnor and the mediocre dedication to the charter by the exhausted working class. The Peoples Charter articulated six issues on which its adherents could agree. As it turned out those were the only six items about which they could agree. James Epstein and Dorothy Thompson expressed this perfectly in The Chartist Experience. According to these authors: For all its failings, the mass platform [Peoples Charter] had given shape and protection to working-class radicalism rendering it impervious to any diluting. Following the abandonment of the mass platform, Chartism was permeated by a miscellany of reform groups all of whom repudiated confrontation, intimidation, and exclusive nature of working-class protest. The charter established a common cause for the working class. However the movement stood little chance no matter how unified it became. Chartists faced a powerful national government of aristocrats and capitalists with a well-equipped military at its command. The Chartist movement had ceased to exist by 1858. But its ideas live on in various splinter reform groups. Universal suffrage, no property qualifications for the electorate, annual parliaments, equal representation, pay for MPs, and the secret ballot all exist in todays Britain and most of its former possessions. The historian of Chartism might dwell on the dark side, and select those aspects of working-class life which prompted political concern and social protest, but these need to be set against the broader canvas of what urban life could be. Chartists successfully shaped the political conversation of their day. Try as they might, leading politicians in the government could not eradicate the ideas of Chartism. The legacy of beliefs enshrined in the Peoples Charter lived long after Chartism ceased to exist. Appendix A Cartoon. Text in upper right: Down with em! Chop em down my brave boys: give them no quarter they want to take our Beef Pudding from us! - remember the more you kill the less poor rates youll have to pay so go at it Lads show your courage your Loyalty Available at: 31 Jul 2006. Appendix B John Leech. Great Chartist Demonstration 9 from Punch, 1849. Available at: 31 Jul 2006.

Gene Therapy Essay -- Biology Medical Biomedical Genetics

Gene Therapy: The New Vaccine ABSTRACT This research paper details what gene therapy is and what it is (and potentially will be) used for. It also describes the gene therapy techniques and delivery methods that have been clinically tested and/or verified by scientists and the ideas that stimulate activity in the field in the race to perfect gene therapy methods and their application, as well as telling about the beginnings of its clinical testing and where this budding technology is headed. Finally, it discusses one last question: Is gene therapy the vaccination of the future? RESEARCH Gene therapy is a biotechnological technique that has recently made significant leaps of progress in the world of scientific research. The theories behind its use have created many new goals and ideas in scientists’ minds, and there is much opportunity for discovery in the field. There are two types of genetic technology that are currently being researched for application in clinical testing and for the cure of certain genetic diseases in humans: somatic cell gene therapy, and germ-line therapy. Somatic cell gene therapy is a development that could potentially eliminate a hereditary disease’s effects in a patient through the injection of genetic material that would fill in for a nonfunctional gene, alter an abnormal one in the patient’s chromosomes, or exchange the defective gene for a new, fully-functioning one (www.ornl.org). Germ-line therapy would be used similarly in embryos’ germ cells, but would have the additional effect of the faulty gene’s permanent eradication so that it could not be passed on to future descendants. There are also multiple types of somatic cell gene therapy. In vivo gene therapy, the most common in clinical testin... ...entists will make many revolutionary discoveries. With this new technology being researched, there’s no telling when the technology will be perfected. Who knows? Someday soon, gene therapy could even be something as commonplace as vaccination. Bibliography: 6 Friedmann, The Development of Human Gene Therapy http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/genetherapy.shtml http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BA/Gene_Therapy_Overview.html http://asgt.org/news_releases/basics.html http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2000/500_gene.html http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/gene (G.T. for Cancer) http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/346/16/1185 (Ex Vivo for X-SCID) http://asgt.org/news_releases/06022005a.html http://genome.gov/13014325 Reilly, Abraham Lincoln’s DNA and Other Adventures in Genetics Turksen, Adult Stem Cells 7

Is Business Ethics Important

Before we discuss the importance of ethics in business, it is very essential to examine a prominent theory when conducting business ethics and that is utilitarianism. This theory accounts for the concepts of duty or obligation, rights, and justice. It is routine that the utilitarianism theory is divided up into two groups. These two groups are that of teleological and deontological theory. The teleological approach deals with consequences. â€Å"It states that whether an action is right or wrong depends on the consequences of that action† (DeGeorge, 2010, P. 2) The deontological theory, in contrast to teleological theories such as utilitarianism, deny that consequences are relevant to determining what we should do. â€Å"Deontologists typically propose that we have a duty to perform certain acts not because of some benefit to ourselves or others, but because of the nature of these actions or the rules from which they follow† (Boatright, 2009, P. 31). According to the te xtbook, individuals who mix the teleological and deontological approaches might be called ethical pluralist.The aforementioned information is very necessary to understand how to answer the question of the importance of ethics in business. The ethical theory provides a baseline for what we expect the standards of ethics to be. It is very apparent that we has human beings would come to a cohesive agreement that business ethics is important. This is because we assume that it is better to be right than wrong, moral than immoral, good than bad or just than unjust. In reality this is not a very acceptable answer because it fails to go into detail why we think it is better.The only evidence proves being good is better than being bad is religion, the government, and our elders. It may seem that this response is an iota short of being loquacious; however, ethics in business can be so ambiguous you have to consider all the variables to understand how ethics are viewed in our culture. The comp lexities of ethics in business are something that even ancient scholars possessed a challenging time understanding how to couple ethics with society. Nevertheless, ethics in business is very important because the rimary goal should be to protect people and society. In my opinion ethics is very important in business especially when it relates to being ethically correct with customers and employees. Customers and employees position themselves as the foundation and framework of any company. Therefore, practicing ethical behavior with those two parties should be considered fundamental. The society in which we live money is the leading force for survival, security, and classism. In most cases this is the motive that drives unethical behavior.Personally, I believe that ethics is very important in business because it holds executives accountable for unethical behavior. Even if you are in business and you have no compassion for the employees employed by the company or the customers, the mer e fact that being unethical in business can sometimes jeopardize the welfare of the company. For example the beech-nut company who were accused of producing bogus apple juice, that in turn was nothing more that sugar water, suffered enormous scrutiny because of their deception to customers and they could not defend whether the apple juice was healthy for babies or not.The lack of ethics that were displayed in this case and the uncertainties regarding the health hazard prevented Beech-Nut from being a company with longevity. In conclusion, having strong ethics in business would be more conducive than detrimental to the company. Therefore, being ethical in business shows society that your company can be trusted and people would be more inclined to do business with your company. Discuss the problem of assigning monetary value to things. How could it be argued that it is? Appropriate to assign monetary value to things like friendship, love, and life?The problem of assigning monetary val ue to things derives from the cost-benefit analysis. The primary use for this method is to use monetary units to articulate the benefits as well as disadvantages of a project. The cost benefit analysis is typically used by economist to determine allocation of resources. The cost benefit analysis has been frowned upon on many different levels. This is because not all costs and benefits have an easily determined monetary value. This is the problem with assigning monetary value to things.This is because placing a dollar value on some goods reduces the perceived value. For example, there are plenty of diamonds that have a price value that exceeds that cost of a college education. Could it be a possibility that consumer’s value diamonds more than a college education? If so that would be preposterous. According to John R. Boatright, some goods that have been place with monetary value have been distorted by various factors, therefore, the price of these goods do not mirror their tru e value. Furthermore, assigning monetary value to things people deem impossible are not impossible.This is because we speak with our dollars. The experts in cost benefit analysis began to dodge the problems with assigning value to noneconomic goods by fostering a technique called shadow pricing. This technique showed experts that even though individuals felt it was inappropriate to come up with an arbitrary number to place value on noneconomic goods, they knew that people would pay for what they value. For example people pay for peace and quiet by means of vacations and suburban living, and people also require higher pay for more risky occupations.In reality, the problem with assigning monetary value to noneconomic goods has many complexities due individuality. Every individual believes and value things differently. It just so happen that some things we come together as a people and cohesively value things on the same level, and because of individuality some values standalone. In op position, it could be argued that it is appropriate to assign monetary value to things like friendship, love and life because some applications of cost benefit analysis require that a value be placed on things like a human life.This is so all of the variables can be in place when determining how much to spend on prenatal care to improve the rate of infant mortality, or reducing the amount of cancer causing emissions from factories to name a few. We even justify the appropriateness of assigning monetary value to love by adding prenuptials to our marital agreements. This exposes the expression that money is valued at a higher level than love. Moreover, friendship is also a noneconomic good that could have monetary value. If you had a friend that asked you for a dollar, more than likely you would allow your friend to have a dollar.However, if you friend asked for five hundred dollars, contingent upon your relationship with that friend five hundred dollars may supersede the way you valu e that friend. What is whistle-blowing? Why might it be considered ethically problematic? Why might it be considered morally justified? According to John Boatright the author of Ethics and the conduct of business six edition, whistle-blowing can be defined as the release of information by a member or former member of an organization that is evidence of illegal and /or immoral conduct in the organization or conduct in the organization that is not in the public interest.This is a very succinct point of view because there are multiple components of whistle-blowing. First, to understand clearly whistle-blowing can only be done by a member of the organization. That member is fully recognized as a whistle-blower once they have observed a crime, notifies the police, and then witnesses in court. In addition, whistle-blowing usually contains information that is nonpublic and the whistle-blower presumes that the nonpublic information that they have will captivate spectators. Furthermore, the evidence usually contains some form of misconduct and inappropriate behavior.Once the whistle-blower has the information, it must be released outside the proper channels of communication. For instance, most companies have a policy to inform upper management if u see suspicious activity to report to them and it will be confidential. Some companies have ombudsman for handling employee complaints. Recognize that whistle-blowing does not have to go public because there are internal whistle-blowers as well as external whistle-blowers. However, whether internal or external whistle-blowing it must be voluntary and it must be quality information that would evoke change.The purpose of whistle-blowing must be undertaken as a moral protest with a motive to correct something that is wrong and not to seek revenge or personal advancement. Whistle blowing could be considered ethically problematic because when you first approach the whistle-blowing concept it lucidly displays disloyalty. It illustr ates an employee employer relationship gone wrong. This would be comparable to a mother broadcasting negative information about a child of theirs. Employees are under obligation to not share information with individuals outside the company, unless protecting oneself or a third party person is involved.Also, whistle-blowing might be considered ethically problematic because as an employer when you extend someone the offer of working for and with your company, you expect them to always be in favor of the best of the company. Sometimes companies mess up and do not want every growing pain to be played out in the public. Whistle-blowing might be considered morally justified because people feel that the whistle-blower is holding the company to the standard that they bought into once they became a member of the organization. Whistle-blowers are also morally justified because they are ultimately protecting the public.They are shedding light on information that we as consumers would have neve r known that that behavior was be exhibited in that specific company. Whistle-blowing is also justifiable when the whistle-blower causing a disturbance that would save lives and protects humanity. Holistically, society will consider a whistle blower reasonable if the consumer felt they have been or would have been affected by the company’s unethical behavior. Is ethics relevant to the role as a manager? Discuss ethical management and the management of ethics. It is of high significance that people comprehend the importance of being ethical.Some argue that being ethical in business is no different than being ethical in private life. There has even be some rationality that all managers need just need to be ethical people and not have any specialized training skills or knowledge in the area of ethics. In my opinion, it is quite radical for people to assume that if you are typically an ethical person you would perform ethically in the role of management. Although we can be in agr eement that there is no separation between business ethics and personal ethics, we must realize that some business situations arise that are not easily addressed by ordinary ethical rules.Ethics is relevant to the role as a manager because sometimes management obligations conflict with personal morals or ethics. Case in point, a manager may be forced into the position of terminating an employee for the good of the company with no regard on the impact that will have on the employee lifestyle. A manager may also conclude that it morally wrong for terminating an employee for inadequate reasoning. However, if that termination is in the best interest of the company, then that termination needs to take place.This could go against personal ethical principles a person might obtain, but for the betterment of the company this is considered ethical behavior Furthermore, when a manager is committed to ethical behavior, they have a responsibility to different parties and must consider a wide ran ge of interest. For example, when a manager rejects the promotion of a friend who happens to be an employee or terminating n employee may be the proper channels to follow, however, all variables are to be considered. Moreover, it is reasonably difficult to understand a manager’s role and their relevance to ethics because we need specific management type.There are several different levels of management, top, middle and lower level management. However, top management are the managers that ethical behavior is expected from the most. This is because high level managers are expected to make ethical decisions about strategy and policies. Ethical management and the management of ethics have very distinctive differences. Ethical management is acting ethical as a manager by doing the right thing. Maintaining proper ethical behavior is conducive for individual success as well as corporate success.Because of ethical misconduct, it has ended promising careers and firms have been extremel y harmed furthermore destroyed by the behavior exhibited by a few individuals. There is an old saying that says â€Å"a few bad apples can spoil the bunch†, which can be translated into ethical management as a few bad mangers can destroy a company. These predicaments result from misconduct or even committing illegal activity. The management of ethics is acting effectively in situations that have an ethical aspect. These situations occur in both the internal and external environment of a business firm.Internally, organizations unite employees together through myriad rules, procedures, policies, and values that must be carefully managed. However, effective organizational functioning also depends on gaining the acceptance of the rules, policies, and other guides, and this acceptance requires a perception of fairness and commitment. In order to practice both ethical management and the management of ethics it is necessary for all managers to possess some specialized knowledge in r egards to ethics. Many ethical issues have a factual background that must be understood.In short, to make sound ethical decisions and to implement them in a corporate environment are skills that come with experience and training. Some managers make mistakes because they fail to see the ethical dimensions of a situation. Other managers are unable to give proper weight to competing ethical factors or to see other people’s perspectives. Thus a manager may settle a controversial question to his or her satisfaction, only to discover that others still disagree. Even the most ethical managers must rethink their own personal beliefs about how business should be conducted.

The Israeli Palestinian Conflict A Long And Storied History

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long and storied history. Israel was created in response to European anti-Semitism, with the ethno-nationalist vision of a Jewish territory of their own. By 1948, approximately 522,000 Jews had migrated to Palestine, most arriving during Hitler’s reign of terror that against Jews. Largely, Palestinians resented being expelled from their lands and bearing the burden of the persecution of European Jews. Consequently, the 1947 UN partition sparked aggression between Jewish and Palestinian militias, which escalated following Israel’s independence in 1948. This marks the beginning of conflict between two distinct populations seeking self-determination. Since then, numerous wars, uprisings and terrorist†¦show more content†¦Consequently, it is also these conflicting narratives that frame the security dilemma and climate of fear within which neither party feels secure without obvious dominance over the other. Culture, narrative and politics While theory may prescribe guidelines within which we may analyse and interact in the international system, in reality we cannot avoid the intersection between politics and cultural history. Even in non-democratic societies, public opinion plays a significant role in the maintenance of peace. Compelling narratives of nationalism and revolution, transmitted through media and the arts, rally people in support of rebel or terrorist groups, inciting uprisings and violent attacks that only escalate insecurities on both sides. Moreover, popular culture facilitates the entrance of these narratives into the international community, shaping public perceptions of the conflict and allowing Palestine and Israel to justify their actions or reaffirm their sovereignty. The Palestinian narrative is one of a stable society uprooted by European Jewish settlers and subsequently subject to unjustified Israeli violence, emphasising â€Å"the history of Palestine, the poignant testimonials of Palestinians living under grievous conditions of occupation or exile or imprisonment, [and] the betrayals by international and national leaders.† Take