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Having a hobby is like determining what a person you are, it's like a label of what you like and what your passion is. Practicing your hobby can help you meet new friends and other people with common interests. Plus, having a hobby is the key to a happier life with the feel of being useful. In this article, we are going to help you to choose the best-suited hobby for you and your lifestyle. Also, we will show you why having a hobby is healthy for your mental and physical health.
Get original essayHigh-context cultures like China tend to be collectivistic with large interpersonal relationships that likely have a social hierarchy, and information is normally verbally unsaid, where messages instead have deep meanings. Low-context cultures like the USA tend to be individualistic with little interaction between people and thus communication is straight forward and explicit. Different cultures affect a multitude of issues; cultural differences, business attitudes and values, and even ethical issues. Self-reference criterion is the unconscious reference to one’s own cultural values, and thus international marketing staff need to understand different cultural viewpoints and values when strategizing for a foreign market, which affects decision making. For example, Americans adopt new technologies fast, but the Chinese suppliers may prefer preserving traditional values.
Get original essayDue to globalisation, international marketing staff must put aside their self-reference criterion and be aware of cultural differences to make strategic decisions. An American firm thus may compensate for their self-reference criterion when dealing with its suppliers in China by carrying out market research. Using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions will help look at the country’s cultural norms and differences between them.
China has a high-power distance, placing importance on hierarchy, with upper management making decisions, while in the United States, there is a lower power distance, allowing room for discussions and treat each other equally, typically with bottom-up decision making.
This also connects to their level of individualism, where China is more collectivistic, placing importance on relationships and thus are more cooperative to people they know, while being unwelcoming to outsiders. The United States is highly individualistic where there is the belief that everyone has equal rights and do not rely on other people but instead look out for their own self-interests.
Both countries are fairly masculine; they place importance on success and achievements, where China sacrifices their social life for work, and the people in the Unites States are competitive and have a ‘live to work’ mentality.
China has a surprisingly low uncertainty avoidance, allowing flexibility and adaption to the future, while the United States has a moderately low uncertainty avoidance, making them a bit more tolerant to new technologies or things.
China has a long term orientation, where they are patient and adapt to changes to accomplish goals, while the United States has a short term orientation, having the belief that time is not linear and thus prefers to analyse information and quick results.
China has a restrained culture where they do not indulge in themselves, largely due to social norms, while the United States have strong impulses to indulge in themselves.
These cultural differences, or similarities, would influence typical decision making, and thus the Americans would have to have an understanding of the Chinese culture. These cultural differences thus also affect behaviour and personality of the people. For example, China would possibly place more importance on moral and social obligations, regardless of their own need, especially when their judgement affects their interpersonal relationships. Americans would only take on social responsibility when needed, without considering other social relationships.
The word “culture” may seem similar but can be described in many different ways depending on which part of the world, this is due to how people behave in their community and organization. When using the findings from Hofstede’s study of the Cultural Differences it can be noted that this can assist a company like Huawei, China, apply dimensional changes to their management style in order to be able to effectively transition into a new cultural environment such as Australia, Mexico and Germany. In order for Huawei, China to be able to expand some of their overseas operations in needs to be able to recognize the similarities and differences in the five dimensions from one country to another.
Get original essayHofstede’s dimensions of Cultural Differences involve:
This dimension is described as being the“’extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept the power that is distributed unequally (Hofstede B, Independent Validation, P. 419).”
On one side the individualism is defined as the society which people are believed to be looking after themselves including any of their immediate families unlike the collectivism dimension whereas people belong to collectivities where they are in charge for looking after them in exchange for loyalty.
The third dimension is described as the extent in which a society may feel threatened or intimated when it comes to uncertain situations that result in needing to create such beliefs in order to help try to avoid such situations.
Masculinity is when status is easily achieved due to material objects, success and money. Where femininity is the complete opposite being described as more to do with feelings that can be seen as a dominant feature and status such as caring for others and quality of life.
China
Cultural Profile
China is the third largest country in the world with a population of 1.38 billion people (2016). The first Chinese migration started in 1827, when a number of Chinese Laborers were employed to work in the pastoral industry before a number more came to join the Gold rush later in the 1870’s. When
Australia
Cultural Profile:
In Australia this hierarchy is established for the society’s convenience, superiors are always accessible and managers tend to rely a lot on their individual employees and teams for their skills and expertise. All though there is a difference in roles and responsibility between a manager and their employees it goes without saying that both positions receive the same respect as another when it comes to consulting and frequently sharing information. Communication is seen to be informal, direct and participative. Unlike Australia, China believes that inequalities amongst people are acceptable and that one shall not have targets outside their rank.
Australia is a highly individualist culture. A majority of these individuals tend to look after themselves and their immediate families. When it comes to being in a workplace a number of employees are believed to have the skills to be able to demonstrate initiative and self-reliant. While Australia can be considered as a more individualism society, The Chinese society is more attentive as a group let alone themselves.
Australia can be considered as a “masculine” society as this is because their values are to win and be the best they can be. When it comes to accomplishments Australian’s can come across as proud individuals when such things are achieved which allows for promotions, and hiring opportunities when it comes to the workplace. When it comes to“masculinity” the Chinese also can be considered as they go beyond as their only difference between Australia is that they will sacrifice family and leisure priority’s to work.
Germany
Cultural Profile:
Germany is highly spread out and supported by majority of the middle class, when it comes to control and leadership as a society it is disliked and tend to be challenged.
In Germany the society is more of an individualist one compared to China being more of a collective society. Germans tend to focus more on their small families such as parent-children relationship rather than like Australia and China where they focus more on their families and extended family as a whole.
Germans can be considered as a more “masculine” society similar to China but when it comes to status Germany’s like making a statement with the purchases such as; cars, watches and technical devices. The Chinese society is the opposite as they would prefer to invest this sort of income into the family, business and so forth.
Germans are realistic when it comes to challenges such as the ability to familiarize themselves into a new tradition, and strong tendency to save and invest at times similar to the Chinese society.
Mexico
Cultural Profile:
Similar to China, Mexico is considered as a hierarchical society where the society accepts their rank in the hierarchy they fall into.
Mexico and China are both a collective society where every individual takes responsibility for fellow members of their group.
Like China, Mexico is considered as a masculinity society with values of fulfilling a successful life when it comes to the workplace.
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is set against the lavender scare and the sexual psychopath laws of the 1950’s. During this time, the United States at large was horrified by the apparent rise in sex crimes in the country. Holden Caulfield, Salinger's protagonist, was no doubt heavily influenced by these events; in fact, such events would have been almost unavoidable with the amount of media attention they received at the time. Homegrown anxiety about sexual psychopaths was a major factor that contributed to Holden’s mental breakdown, which ultimately led him to be placed in a rehabilitation center.
Get original essayBeginning in the 1930’s, there were growing concerns among United States citizens about sexual deviants and dangerous perverts infesting New York City. Several tragic murders of young girls were highly publicized in 1937, horrifying parents across the nation. Concerns about public safety continued to grow until over a decade later in 1949, when John Edgar Hoover published his article in The American Magazine titled “How Safe is your Daughter?” According to Hoover and the slew of articles about sex criminals that followed, American young women were not safe at all. In fact, between 1935 and 1965, the New York Times published hundreds of articles about rising homosexuality and sex crime across the United States. Until 1952, criminal offenses were significantly underreported in New York City.
Starting in 1949, New York began to improve its collection system so that, by 1950, more and more sex crimes were properly reported; however, to the residents of New York, it appeared that sex crimes in the state had skyrocketed, thereby fueling the country’s fear of the “sexual psychopath” (Lave 553). Newspapers and politicians used this new data to their advantage and the ensuing propaganda urged support for the policing of a wide range of sexual non-conformists. In 1950 the Disctrict of Columbia defined a sexual psychopath as an individual with a “lack of power to control his sexual impulses” (Sutherland 548), or “anyone who commits several serious sex crimes” (Sutherland 549). These sex crimes include but are not limited to: molestation, statutory rape, forcible rape, homosexuality, distribution or possession of pornography, and prostitution. Anyone thought to be a sexual psychopath would be subject to extensive psychiatric examination, rehabilitation, and imprisonment. The country’s anxiety about sexual psychopaths led the United States into the Lavender Scare in 1950. In April of 1950 Guy George Gabrielson made his famous accusation that homosexual people are “perhaps as dangerous as the actual communists”. Gabrielson, who was the Republican National Chairman from 1949 to 1952, spoke out against these “sexual perverts” who he claimed were “working against their country.”
The nationwide panic about sex crimes was quickly spiraling out of control, and in the middle of it was Holden Caulfield. Holden demonstrates a strange fascination with people he deems perverts and flits throughout The Catcher in the Rye. He enjoys watching various sexual encounters from the window of his hotel room and, despite his discomfort with “flits” and “perverts,” he repeatedly seeks out people whom he considers sexually ambivalent, first when he meets up with Carl Luce, then when he visits Mr. Antolini in his apartment. Holden spends his first night in New York at the Edmont Hotel, where he sits and looks out the window a while. First, he describes a cross-dressing man, seen through the window of his hotel room, then right above him he briefly describes a couple he sees squirting water at each other: "You’d be surprised what was going on on the other side of the hotel. They didn’t even bother to pull their shades down. I saw one guy, a gray-haired, very distinguished-looking guy with only his shorts on, do something you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. First he put his suitcase on the bed. Then he took out all these womens clothes, and put them on. Real women's clothes – silk stockings, high heeled shoes, brassiere, and one of those corsets with the straps hanging down and all. Then he put on this very tight black evening dress. I swear to god. Then he started walking up and down the room, taking these very small steps, the way a woman does, and smoking a cigarette and looking at himself in the mirror. He was all alone too" (62-63). Holden prefaces this set of observations by explaining that the room was “very crumby” and that he had nothing else to look at, but was too depressed to care or to do anything other than watch the “perverts” from the window.
Yet as depressed as he is, Holden is clearly captivated by the cross-dressing man in particular. It took time for the man to get all dressed up in women’s clothing, and seeing him strut around the room would have taken much more than a simple glance out the window. Holden is fascinated by the cross-dressing man, and he then admits that he feels that there is something wrong about his sexuality: “I mean that’s my big trouble. In my mind, im probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw. Sometimes I can think of very crumby stuff I wouldn’t mind doing if the opportunity came up” (63). He even expresses a sort of envy for the couple he can see squirting liquid on each other. He admits that it may be a fun thing to do, but then corrects himself and says it would be a crumby thing to do to a woman you cared about. Holden is actively repressing his sexual desires because he knows that it is unwise for him to admit to deviating from society’s sexual norms (Beslagic 19). Holden then declares that everyone in the hotel is a pervert and that he must be the most normal person in the building, thereby completely dismissing any connection he may have felt with these people.
Later on, Holden decides to call his student advisor from when he attended Whooton. Carl Luce agrees to meet with Holden at the Wicker Bar. Holden thought he might like to spend some time with luce because he used to enjoy his stories about homosexual people: “He knew quite a bit about sex, especially perverts and all” (145). Luce used to scare all of Holden's classmates with his stories about men who turned into flits over night. Holden, however, suspected that Luce himself may be homosexual. Its interesting that Holden would seek out Carl Luce’s company at all, considering that he suspected that Luce was homosexual, and considering that Luce made him uncomfortable by goosing him and using the toilet with the door open. When Holden meets up with Luce at the bar, Holden instantly tries to bring the conversation to gay men, but Luce is unamused. Their conversation doesn’t go well. Luce wasn’t interested in talking about perverts or flits, and Holden continues to force the conversation in that direction. Luce suggests that Holden receive psychoanalysis, which suggests that Luce believes Holden to be queer, as psychoanalysis was a common method of treatment for homosexuality in the 1950s. As Luce leaves the bar, Holden asks him if he was ever psychoanalyzed. Luce responds that he was merely “adjusted” and Luce recommends that, if Holden is so interested in it, he should consider going to a psychoanalyst himself. After Carl Luce leaves Holden at the bar, Holden continues drinking and pretends he has been shot. He keeps his hand under his jacket as though he is trying to stop the bleeding from a bullet wound: “I didn’t want anybody to know I was even wounded. I was concealing the fact that I was a wounded sonuvabitch” (153). This is an obvious symbol for Holden’s insecurities about his sexuality. Holden is trying to conceal his growing concerns that he may not be “normal” and he is worried that he may need to be psychoanalyzed or adjusted, just like Carl Luce had been.
Later that night, Holden phones an old family friend and teacher, Mr. Antolini, who tells him he is welcome to come over right away. Holden makes his opinion of Mr. Antolini clear in chapter twenty-four. He compares Mr. Antolini's intelligence and wit to the virtues of his older brother DB, and says that Mr. Antolini was the best teacher he had ever had. Yet when he arrives at the apartment there is an obvious level of discomfort, although Holden never explicitly mentions these feelings. Holden describes Mrs. Antolini’s unkempt appearance and the dirty drink glasses from a party the couple had had; he makes it clear that Mr. Antolini has been drinking heavily. Holden and Mr. Antolini have an uncomfortable conversation. Holden is frustrated with Mr. Antolini’s questions about school and Mr. Antolini predicts Holden’s coming breakdown: "This fall I think you’re riding for – it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangements designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn’t supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started" (190-191). Mr. Antolini’s prophecy is unsettling for Holden. Mr. Antolini can see that Holden is headed for a terrible breakdown and this statement hits a little too close to home for Holden. Holden is already feeling conflicted about his sexuality and Mr. Antolini’s vague predictions of Holden’s great fall only create more uncertainty. Holden tries to view himself as someone who needs to protect other people, yet Mr. Antolini can see that Holden is the one who needs protecting (Beslagic 22). At this point, Holden is exhausted, confused, and depressed. So Mr Antolini suggests that they make up a bed for Holden on the couch. As they’re making the bed, Mr Antolini asks Holden about the girls he’s been dating. Then, Mr. Antolini makes a comment about Holden’s long legs and calls him “handsome,” a description which Holden makes no comment on. Holden wakes up to Mr. Antolini drunkenly patting his head while he sleeps, something most people would interpret as a harmless, affectionate gesture. Holden hurries out of Mr. Antolini’s home, scared that Mr. Antolini has just made a pass at him.
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Get custom essayHolden is just as concerned that Mr. Antolini has made a pass at him as he is that Mr. Antolini may have perceived him as homosexual, thereby realizing any homosexual desires Holden may be harboring (Beslagic 24). As he walks around and calms down a little, Holden considers that he may have overreacted and thinks about returning to Mr. Antolini’s home. Yet Holden doesn’t return to Mr. Antolini’s home and several days later he “gets sick” and is sent to some kind of institution to be psychoanalyzed (216). Holden’s growing concerns about his sexuality, here and elsewhere, were no doubt a contributing factor to his illness. He demonstrated severe anxiety regarding his sexual desires, perhaps most dramatically in his final encounter with Mr. Antolini. Some of those desires manifested themselves that night, leading Holden to finally fully realize his ongoing conflict with his sexuality.
The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, is seen throughout the narrative repeatedly asking the simple question, Where do ducks go in the winter? The simplicity of this question reflects upon a predicament for Holden that remains of the utmost importance and significance throughout the novel. Although a complex character, Holden many times acts analogous to a childish figure that indulges in simplicity, questioning and answering his own quandaries in a simplified, juvenile manner. His fascination with this question can only be looked upon as the unadulterated, more youthful side to his character. Furthermore, finding the answer to the outlandish question remains a persistent top priority for a character that otherwise gives up on various unambiguous opportunities, events, and positive prospects of his life.
Get original essayThe first time Holden asks about the ducks is on his way to the Edmont hotel. He curiously asks the cab driver that is driving him to the hotel his opinion on where the ducks go during the winter. The query is uncharacteristically off-topic, yet Holden insists with much verve that his question is a genuine one, and hassles the cab driver for a bona fide response. The question can be described as random and unsystematic, analogous to his existence. Because the ducks and their whereabouts represent the unknown, Holden can greatly relate to them. At a time in his life where he is moving onward into an unfamiliar existence, the main character connects with the ducks because he has finished an important period in his life and is moving on into another phase. However, unlike the ducks, Holden does not know where in his life he is going. He feels that his pond, which represents his life up until his leave from school, is freezing over as well, and he must therefore find a comfortable, secure safe-haven with his newly found independence. Like many other parts of the narrative, Holden can only connect his independence and curiosity in a bizarre manner, and likens them with ducks in a pond. Before visiting the pond himself, Holden once again asks a taxi driver advice on the situation at hand. Taxi driver's vehicle consequently comes to symbolize a comfortable place for Holden, a safe haven where he can inquire about the ducks. Because the cab drivers are much older then most of the characters that Holden interacts with throughout the book, they are most likely viewed as wiser. Moreover, they possess a keen sense of direction because of what they do for a living, and Holden may possibly consider that they, of all people, might know which way the ducks head during the winter months.
Later in the book, the conversation turns to ducks and fish. Holden insists, however, that although the fish mean nothing to him, he emphatically desires to comprehend the ducks situation. The fish could very well be, in a figurative sense, children, still under the protective barrier of the frozen shell of the pond, seemingly very limited to move about freely. The ducks, in turn, seem to be the independent, free adults of the world, at first relying on the pond for support, but then flying away to where the sky¹s the limit with potential and possibilities. In turn, Holden constantly finds himself in situations where he does not know whether to he is more akin to a child or an adult. It is apparent that Holden desires childhood because of his fond, warm memories of youth, but senses that he is being forcefully pushed into adulthood and independence because of his newly established freedom away from a structured, methodical world.
Observably, Holden is exceptionally alarmed by the idea of change and disappearance. Because of his abrupt independence, Holden explains in only a way that he can, his life¹s experiences he has accumulated thus far into the novel. Drawing from past encounters and occurrences, Holden can usually muster up an explanation for just about everything. However, when it comes to the ducks in the pond, Holden finds himself in total uncertainty, and at first seems more detached then related to the creatures in the pond. When Holden finally visits the pond for himself, he finds no ducks, and the water is more slushy than frozen over. Immediately Holden thinks about his own death, and what it may be like. This accounts for his feelings of eptiness when, instead of finding the ducks, as he had hoped, the character finds nothing. A feeling of isolation and remoteness fills Holden, and the reflection of death naturally occurs. The slushy water in the lagoon implies that although Holden is an individual now, the transition into complete adulthood is still not finished, and supplementary development will need to continue until the pond completely freezes over, so to speak.
At the end of the novel, Holden is indeed able to answer his own question. Visiting the pond himself shows Holden that he has conclusively found what he was in search of. It also suggests that he can understand his life situation sufficiently more then he had at the beginning of the novel. Now he is able to understand that there is indeed a transition period in life, and knows everybody must make the crucial change from childhood into maturity. Since change is inevitable, Holden eventually learns to deal with the radical alterations in his life, and his responsibilities for them. The conclusion that Holden holds is one of much sorrow, yet wonderment. Though Holden still holds a defensively cynical, skeptic tone at the end of the book, the ending is hardly tragic. Although Holden still has much growing up to do, he has learned the indispensable and perpetual lesson of where ducks go in the winter.
Nowadays, most of the people love holidays because it is an opportunity to have a break from routine life as well as helps to refresh oneself. After a holiday, we can go back to work or school with full energy. I love holidays too and I usually make the most of it.
Get original essayDuring my holidays, I am free to do what makes me happy. I love my holidays because they detach me from my studies temporarily. I enjoy myself during the holiday since I usually spend my holidays watching my favorite movies or soap operas’ episodes which I missed during the semester. I also play games on my computer and compete with my friends online. I also have the time to help my mother for the housework.
Holidays also enable me to spend time with my family and cousins. I usually spend a weekend at his place and he comes for a weekend at my place. During those times, we go to the cinemas and I love those moments since I am a movie lover. When he comes to my place, we also play football in the playground behind my house. If we are too tired to play, we usually take the dog out for a walk but we make it a must not to spend a whole day at home. When I go to his place, his father usually takes us out for dinner in a restaurant.
Holidays are not always meant to have fun. It is also an opportunity to enhance our personality and to learn new things. My grand-parents are walking libraries. They have experienced life from the time where technology was a luxury. So, I make it a must to spend a week at least at their place. Grand-mother teaches me to cook delicious food while my grand-father usually play Scrabble or other mind games with me to help me improve my vocabulary.
Also, I am a nature-lover. I usually plan family outings or outings with friends to visit nature parks or spend a day at the seaside. We have our own camping tents and we are always ready for adventures. My friends and I usually go fishing and we bring along wood to make fire to cook the fish.
Indeed, holidays are the most awaited moment in everybody’s life. We can relax and spend the time enjoying. After all, life is not meant to work under stress and pressure all the time. We all deserve a break since we all work hard.
It all started when school started I was in 7th grade,12 years old. Loving dance and so energetic about the cool and fun dances i learned this summer. I also went to three different dance studios Xcape Dance Studio, Lehigh Valley Salsa Kids, & Asylum Dance Project. Xcape was starting to kinda fade, I was also starting to question dancing. But my young mom kept reminding me, if I wanted to open a dance studio for kids whose parents couldn’t afford it. That needed to keep pursuing my dance career and keep dancing and not give up on dancing.
I decided that I need to keep doing what I love doing so that I don’t make the same mistake again. Leaving my first dance studio i grew up with me leaving because I realized that it wasn’t meant for me to be there any longer.So I started pursuing my dream at Xcape Dance Studio. I love the dances I learned this summer. I want to show my dances to all of my friends, but after summer I felt empty because my hip hop teacher Ms. Portia left.
I was actually really excited to try out for junior company this year. Then there was the bad news that she was leaving. As I was going to register For Xcape. I was thinking about changing my mind, but then they told us that there was going to be company tryout. I was so relieved that they were going to be company tryouts. Then I realised that I would have to work even harder to get in this year. Actually show them that i want to be in company and do my very hardest.
But here’s my conflict, I also want to play basketball. But the thing was that I didn’t know what days the practices were. I really wanted to do basketball. I had gym teacher asking me if I was trying out for basketball or not. I would always say yes,but would always forget to ask when practices were. I would go home and tell my mom about gym and how we practiced basketball.she would always ask me did you ask them when practices were. I would say no but i will ask them next class. I would still forget to ask my gym teacher when practices were.
In my head I would always think that if I don’t ask my gym teacher i would never play basketball this year. So the next day I went to school ready to ask my gym teacher when the practices were to see if I had a conflict between dance and basketball. I get to school eager to ask my gym teacher. I ask my homeroom teacher if i could go ask my gym teacher a question. He said yes let me just write you a pass. So next thing you know I get my pass and start heading out the room.
I finally get to her room and ask her when tryouts and when practices were. She told me that the tryouts were going to be at the end of the month and practices were going to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I realized that I had a pretty busy schedule so it got me thinking. As I headed out the door I started thinking about what I was going to do. Something came into my head and I said i said to myself, what would i do i want to keep dancing i also want to play basketball basketball. The were to things that I really really wanted to do.
But then I realized that I had to do what I wanted to do. I realized that I had to follow my heart. I think that following my heart is doing what makes me happy. What makes me happy is dancing more than anything. But also doing whatIi think is following my heart is playing basketball. So what I tell all my friends now is to just follow your heart and do what you love to do. To never just give up on something that they really love to do. So always follow your heart.
The use of holistic approaches to mind and body wellness can be significantly helpful to mentally ill clients and their diseases. The United States military have for years have tried to implement different holistic methods in an attempt curve the high rates of PTSD and suicides associated with being in the military. In general, mainstream medicine tends to focus of treating or getting rid of the physical symptoms. While this is great and helpful for soldiers, it offers little to quill the mental scars that most soldiers suffer. The Holistic approach attempts to empower the patient to not only heal from these wounds, but also try to develop a system by which the patients can maintain a level of normality. The combination of these two methods known as integrative care involves using both holistic health treatments and conventional medicine as an approach to improve the physical and mental health of soldiers.
Get original essayThe idea of holistic health stems from trying to truly live in harmony with nature. Holistic healing practitioners propagated the idea of healthy way of living as far back as 5000 years ago. Even with this large history of holistic medicinal practice, it is hard to pinpoint one specific area that most practitioners agree upon. The focal point however of all these different holistic methods has revolved around the individual. Holistic care is individual care.
The rise of the holistic movement in this modern generation has been due to many different factors. One main factor has been a gradually increasing dissatisfaction with current medical care. “The development of the holistic health movement and the new health consciousness had been accompanied by an increasing dissatisfaction with certain aspects of medical care delivery. Individuals complain about impersonal professional care and high fees.” (Guttmacher, 1979). Many people expect more from our medical system due to its high technological and academic advances over the years. These advances however generally have not produced a healthier population, leading people to seek out alternative methods of improving their health.
A very important area of our population that have started to seek out the benefits of holistic care is the United States Military. The ineffectiveness of its old medical system has led many soldiers to seek out alternative methods of care. One of the programs that was developed to help veterans who were not being fully treated by traditional medicine is the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine called “CAM”. According to (Elwy, 2014) CAM is defined as “simply as a group of diverse medical and health care interventions, practices, products, or disciplines that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine. CAM may include acupuncture, massage, biofeedback, meditation, guided imagery, qi gong, herbs and nutritional supplements, aromatherapy, and energy healing.” Over the past decade, the use of CAM in combination with (integrative) or as a replacement to conventional medicine has increased steady. “Studies report that per-year CAM usage among veterans or active military personnel ranges from 27% to 82%, which is similar to or slightly higher than that of the general population” (Elwy, 2014).
Meditation can be very effective treatment for some victims of PTSD. The treatments might contain yoga or other form of focused exercise, which can be valuable for those suffering from depression or another mood disorder. Meditation is as a form of holistic care can be calming, relaxing, and allows the person to focus on being in the moment instead of living in their past trauma. Not all people who have PTSD present with the same needs or the same symptoms, and no one prescriptive approach works for everyone. Treating the symptoms of PTSD that are experienced by veterans, active military personnel and others varies by individual. Natural methods like yoga and meditation, massage and acupuncture have proven helpful. According to (Ewly, 2014) “89 studies of CAM mind and body-practice interventions conducted in 8 countries with veterans and military personnel. Meditation practices, relaxation techniques, spinal manipulation, and acupuncture were the most frequently studied practices, whereas yoga, one of the most offered practices at the VA, is relatively understudied”.
Integrative medicine is a type of care that uses both conventional and nonconventional therapies. Integrative medicine tries to focus on the “whole person” approach to achieve optimum mental, physical, and emotional health and is steadily getting more popular amongst patients and providers seeking to relieve chronic or multifactorial conditions. The United states military has been showing specific interest in integrative medicine for managing chronic conditions. Some of these chronic conditions include chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, and posttraumatic stress disorder. With the recent opiate epidemic, the use of unconventional methods is becoming more attractive. The goal then, is to treat symptoms without relying on any opiates. Opiates impair performance and being abused, they also fail to provide full relief. This shift in culture has a direct effect on the rise of alternative medicines. Recent statistics have been showing this new trend, for example; “In 2010, 39 percent of individuals with PTSD reported using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) interventions, including mind-body practices that incorporate various types of stretching movements and postures combined with deep breathing” (Kim, 2013). The new rise in the use of alternative and integrative medicine is a promising one. Another factor that is affecting the rise in the methods, both for military service members and the general public is the cost of traditional medicine. The rising cost of health care is outdoing inflation and incomes, people who can’t afford to pay for expensive narcotics are turning to cheaper methods of achieving mind and body health.
There is disagreement on how helpful these types of treatments are for achieving clear results. Some experts believe that the evidence that holistic treatments provide effective treatment or increase the chances towards longer-term recovery are little to none. There also seems to be little to no body of research that has verified the effectiveness of these treatments; on the other hand, there is research some research that shows that the connection between mind and body health is essential and effective. Some of these researches demonstrate that a person’s satisfaction with treatment is a reason to remain in treatment. Hopefully this satisfaction motivates them to finish the programs. Finishing these programs are very important when attaining and preserving recovery in the long-term. Holistic treatments however, attracts people who might otherwise not be interested in conventional treatments. It makes them more comfortable with entering treatment, and may make them more willing to try other research-based treatments that provide a greater chance of long-term recovery. In addition, the use of these therapies can help people feel more at ease, more productive in their treatment response, and generally better able to cope with the challenges of their many different ailments such as PTSD. For these reasons, holistic practices can complement a more research-based traditional method that experts support.
Some prior research into the effectiveness of holistic methods yielded some positive results. According to (Kim, 2013) “A randomized non-controlled study conducted in 1981 on Vietnam veterans found a significant positive treatment effect for transcendental meditation in comparison with traditional psychotherapy on the symptoms of post-Vietnam stress disorder. This study also revealed a significant decrease in anxiety, depression, alcohol consumption, insomnia, and family problems in the meditation group”. The results here show that the growing trends in the use of holistic medicine can yield a positive result when it comes to treating people suffering from PTSD.
The growth of holistic medicine and integrative care couldn’t have come at a better time. In recent years the side effects of a nation who depends on “chemical intervention” has been devastating on the country. According to the CDC there has been a rapid growth in opioid use that ends up turning into heroin use and overdosages. The CDC website states that “the use of heroin has been increasing in recent years among men and women, most age groups, and all income levels. Some of the greatest increases have occurred in demographic groups with historically low rates of heroin use: women, the privately insured, and people with higher incomes. In 2017, nearly 494,000 people in the United States (12-years old or older) reported using heroin in the past year, which is an estimated rate of 0.2 per 100 persons and in 2015, 81,326 emergency department visits occurred for unintentional, heroin-related poisonings in America, which is an estimated rate of almost 26 per 100,000 people”. The CDC’s website also talks about the leading reason people turn to heroin. 'Past misuse of prescription opioids is the strongest risk factor for starting heroin use, especially among people who became dependent upon or abused prescription opioids in the past year. This indicates that widespread opioid exposure and increasing rates of opioid addiction have played a major role in the growth of heroin use. Among new heroin users during 2000 to 2013, approximately three out of four report having misused prescription opioids prior to using heroin” (Opioid overdose, CDC). Traditional medicine’s push to find quick solutions and fast relief to serious issues has let them to over prescribe, which then leads to issues with dependency and misuse. We have been trained as a nation to expect quick and effect results from our medical system, and this train of thought is what pushed doctors to try and find instant solutions to broad problems. We have seen this issue in many different parts of our medical system. When we look at how traditional medicine tackles the problem of depression and PTSD, we can see the model of “quick fixes” that intern create lifelong dependency and dangerous side effects. (Guttmacher, 1979 pg. 18) “To take the clearest and most worrisome instance: chemical intervention, medicine's most advanced technology, is fast becoming the accepted mode for dealing with the daily problems of life, and in turn, dealing with a problem by pharmaceutical means gives strong impetus to thinking of it as a disease-like disorder. Instead of being provided with employment, a good education, or social supports, adolescents are prescribed drugs to help them cope with 'Emancipation Disorder.' In lieu of dealing with the causes of depression, psychoactive drugs are increasingly prescribed for women who may in fact be reacting to 'natural' events such as menopause or for those who feel unrewarded in their role of housewife or chief domestic consumer.” What Guttmacher is saying is that we are treating “natural” issues that most people suffer from with hard medicine. This is a side effect of the “quick fix” notion that has turned our medical system into more of a business than a place of healing. Holistic medicine is trying to retrain how we look at medicine and medical care. If we change our outlook and focus on the lifelong benefits of holistic and integrative care, then we can potentially limit the misuse of prescription drugs and opioids.
A very important aspect of making holistic care sustainable is called “self-care”. Self-care is what people do for themselves to establish and maintain health and prevent and deal with illness while trying to find balance in your life. Self-care, while broad, covers some very important facets of healthy living. Some of these methods include hygiene, nutrition, lifestyle environmental factors, socioeconomic factors, different means of Self-medication. If we explore further into some of these aspects, we can see how important they are to achieving effective holistic care. The socioeconomic factors of holistic care are very important when accessing the levels of care someone is able to afford. Guttmacher talks about the “paradox” of self-help and about the different socioeconomic factors that affects who gets help. She states that “Elements of the holistic critique of biomedicine, particularly its emphasis upon individual self-awareness and its stress on the failure of medical services, have been used by those who appear to advocate self-help as an alternative to ineffective, poorly financed public services. Few would argue with the notion that people should take an active role in looking after their own health, but in addition, the concept of self-help is regularly invoked to justify policy proposals that would curtail publicly financed health services in the interest of controlling cost” (Guttmacher, 1979 pg. 19). The factor of cost is a recurring topic when talking about the introduction of holistic and integrative medicine on a broader scale. Cost does not only pertain to financial cost however; cost can include the effects on a person’s quality of life based on the choices they make throughout their lives. The live of people in the military is a great example of a cost and effect system. The military can provide great benefits to people who are unsure of what they want to do in life. It can also help those who know what they want to do and want financial help with college and other programs that the military readily provides. The allure and financial stability that the military provide does however come at a cost to many. War has left many people physically and mentally damaged for life which can cost you a lifetime of recovery. “By ignoring the impact of social and economic factors on an individual's physical and psychological status, we fail to recognize that what may be viewed by some as self- destructive behavior actually may be adaptive to highly stressful conditions. For example, some people take drugs while working on an assembly line to provide relief from deadening routine. Others regularly use alcohol to 'un- wind' from a day at the office or because they have given up hope of finding a decent job. People smoke cigarettes even though aware of the risks to their health in part because they learn from advertising and social practice that smoking is an acceptable way to deal with stress and boredom” (Guttmacher, 1979 pg. 19).
The physical aspects of holistic care are also very important. It is an accepted fact that physical health has an effect on a person’s mental health. We are told from a very young age to eat healthy and stay active. The studies into the relationships of mind-body health show how closely they coincide. According to (Latorre, 2000) “research has shown the connection between the mind-and the body. She states that “feelings and emotions are felt in many places of the body, not just the mind. When a client is depressed, chemicals released in many organs of the body mirror the same chemicals that are released in the brain. Mind and body are intimately connected chemically and share a vital energetic force that cannot be separated into parts. It is this energy, this circulation of emotional information throughout the body and mind, that supports health and well-being. Therefore, we are dealing with a system, not just a collection of parts, a system that continually strives to balance itself using symptoms as a way to self-heal”.
The push for an alternative method treatment for military soldiers who are currently living with work related PTSD has been fueled partly by the long-term side effects of traditional medicine. long-term effects may take months or years after starting or stopping the medicine. The medicine might have been taken for a short period of time yet several years later an unanticipated outcome might emerge. A medicine might be taken for a long time and the cumulative effect of long-term exposure might have consequences. Holistic approaches have little to no side effects, and the side effects they do have are usually positive ones. Both long-term effects and side effects can be beneficial or harmful. “Medicine, such as drugs, is often perceived to be of benefit to humans as it is used to cure various diseases. On the other hand, medicine can also be highly damaging. Using medicine incorrectly; consuming it in small dosages, in excess, or using it abusively; can be injurious to peoples’ health. Modern medical technology can also be damaging for human well-being but this effect is not restricted to health” (7).
In 2013, the question of how effective the military’s current system of treatment was brought up to the senate. The findings of this report show the effects of traditional medicine and the need and implementation of holistic care. It also shows the cooperation need for effective integrative care. This report was in response to Senate Report 112-196, page 231, supplementary to H.R. 5856, the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, 2013, page 231, which requested that the Secretary of Defense submit a detailed report explaining the criteria used to evaluate the effectiveness of integrative medicine programs, the result of those evaluations, and the number of Service members receiving integrative medical treatment by Service and location of medical care within the Military Health System (MHS). The report also includes plans for future expansion of these programs (Wright, 2013). This report found that 120 Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs), 99 in the continental United States (CONUS) and 21outside the continental United States (OCONUS), offer a total of 275 complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) programs. Active duty (AD) military members used 213,515 CAM patient visits in calendar year (CY) 2012 with the most visits for chiropractic care (73%) and acupuncture therapy (11%). In addition, the United States Army (USA) Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC) funds CAM related research to identify safe and effective therapies to treat MHS patients (Wright, 2013).
An important way of tracking the results obtained in this report is self-reporting. Customer feedback is vital in a field that unfortunately is not 100% evidence based. People’s interest in these new methods of care is what has been pushing the DOD to take a closer look at integrative care. According to the report, numerous assessment tools are being utilized by many of the sites that offer integrative and alternative therapies. “Patient assessment/feedback, qualitative assessment by the provider, pre- and post-appointment questionnaires, patient satisfaction questionnaires, and measurement of physical improvement are being used to evaluate the CAM therapies offered to AD military members. Patients reported improvement in symptoms, reduction in anxiety, improved sleep and decline in psychological symptoms across the CAM modalities in use” (Wright, 2013).
Conventional medicine has been the way of the western world for decades, mainly due to the fact that they are evidence based. This means that before a method of treatment is recommended for public use, rigorous tests and trials are ran to make sure that these medications are safe to use. Evidence based medicine is logical, but the effectiveness and side effects are leading soldiers and people in general to seek out alternative care. “Integrative medicine is a response to these patient demands” (Wright, 2013). In the year 2000, the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy report documented the growing use of CAM, revealing that most people used CAM in conjunction with, rather than as a replacement for, conventional medical therapy. The report also noted that patients sought conventional medical treatment first before turning to CAM practitioners, and that many patients combined care from a variety of approaches (White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy, 2001). This growth of CAM has been documented in many different departments within the DOD. Data gathered by military departments showed the types of therapies that were provided in different branches; The most commonly offered CAM programs are acupuncture and clinical nutrition therapy followed by chiropractic care. Sixty-nine US Air Force (USAF) MTFs offered acupuncture, chiropractic, and/or clinical nutrition programs. Twenty-five US Navy (USN) MTFs offered acupuncture and/or chiropractic programs. Fourteen (58%) offered both therapies. The US Army (USA) MTFs offered the greatest variety of CAM programs with chiropractic programs having the highest utilization. The MTFs in the Joint Task Force National Capital Region Medical Command (JTF-CapMed) offered 3 CAM programs: two acupuncture and one chiropractic (Wright, 2013). The most commonly utilized CAM programs are chiropractic care and acupuncture followed by clinical nutrition therapy. Seventy-three percent of the 213,515 patient visits made by AD patients were for chiropractic care. The remaining 27% of visits were distributed among ten types of CAM programs (Wright, 2013).
Another form of integrative care is psychological care. A report showed the link between psychological care and its connection to how the body recovers. Several psychological interventions have shown to be useful by athletics trainers when an athlete is returning to play. Psychological interventions enhance the rate or quality of sport injury rehabilitation, these interventions include goal setting, imagery and relaxation, and overall stress management (Kim, 2013). When looking at how PTSD affects people in the military, it is important to look at ways to treat the psychological trauma that they are afflicted with. Most veterans suffer from what is known as “chronic trauma”. According to (lifelenscounseling.com), “chronic trauma occurs when a person is subject to multiple trauma situations, often as found in combat service, in on-going abusive relationships, or sometimes in situations where a person simply suffers one unrelated trauma after another”. To treat people suffering from these forms of ailments, you have start by trying to understand why and how the trauma gets triggered. Conventional medicine, while effective in some aspects, falls short when it comes to long-term treatment plans for people suffering from these conditions.
Luckily, the military has been very open to the prospects and potential benefits of holistic care. The VA (Veterans Affairs) has launched a new program called the “Whole health initiative”. This program aims to create a personalized health plan that considers the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and environmental needs of veterans. The VA says the Whole Health System 'acknowledges that health care involves more than the physical human body.' This program offers many new ways to treat wounded soldiers. They offer peer to peer treatment programs utilizing other veterans who can connect to patients on a deeper level. They also offer well-being programs like yoga, tai chi, and mindfulness. This new approach focuses on whole health clinical care utilizing a holistic approach rather than just handing out pills.
The VA is “shifting from a health care system focused primarily on treating disease to one rooted in forming continuous healing relationships and partnerships that 'support you in achieving your greatest overall well-being.' The result is a whole health approach, which is a radical redesign of health care focused on empowering you”. This new push from the VA brings hope to those who support and enjoy the benefits of holistic treatment methods.
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Get custom essayTo conclude, we have seen a massive push in recent years to a more holistic centered health care system. The benefits of holistic and integrative care are steadily beginning to be mentions alongside many older conventional methods of care. With these new initiatives, the future of holistic care seems to be very bright. Focusing on the whole body instead of just treating the root disease will change the way people suffering from many different illnesses start and maintain the healing process. Hopefully more research will be focused into the methods of care already established, and into the discovery of new alternative methods of care.
Question: Using Brian Holmes problem solving approach, identify an educational problem in your school or area and demonstrate how you can use the approach to investigate and attempt solutions to the problem.
Get original essayEducation is a vital thing in the life of every individual in the society. It is a key in life and gives one the insight and brilliance to tackle world challenges in a braver manner. However, education is faced with a number of challenges, which try hard to bring it down and undo its impacts on one’s life (Lynn et. al., 2010). One of the main challenges today is truancy. Truancy, which is described as any form of unauthorized and intentional absence from school, is a growing challenge and is continuing to broaden its effects on students after the introduction of free primary education. According to statistics and research, truancy starts to manifest itself among primary school children as early as in class one or even kindergarten. It is a growing problem in Kenya and needs attention in order to correct. According to Brian Holmes, such challenges in the educational sector can easily be solved using comparative education. Brian Holmes suggests that using the problem solving approach, tricky challenges to education can easily be reduced or solved using comparative education. From his perspective, comparative education, which is the comparison and analysis of educational facts in one country as compared to another, can be combined with the problem solving approach to solve educational challenges. In his problem solving approach, Holmes uses a set of steps, which he believes can lead us out of educational problems such as truancy (Lynn et. al., 2010). These steps include, problem identification, problem analysis, proposed problem solution, specification of context, comparison, and conclusion. In this essay, we shall use these steps to set out solutions to truancy in Kenyan schools (Zajda and Rust, 2009).
Truancy is a common problem in schools worldwide and continues to challenge the education sector. If not dealt with at an early age, truancy is a deadly disease and can easily make one drop out of school. Truancy is believed to be caused by different factors across different countries. In Kenya, this problem is mostly associated with poor treatment at schools, which causes one to hate school and start truancy. In other countries like the United States, this problem is believed to be caused by early access to alcohol and too much freedom from parents at home. Unlike the United States, Kenya has higher rates of truancy and school dropouts and these figures continue to rise year after year (Zajda and Rust, 2009). From this observation, there is need for the government to step in and set up measures that will help children stick to school routines and finish their education as required. In Kenya, truancy manifests in children in different ways including not doing homework, avoiding stories involving school, talking ill of teachers and other students, changing routines for schools preparation, and irregular routines when coming back from school (Manzon, 2011). Parents and teachers need to be alert on the onset of such signs and talk to the student to ensure that they are having an easy time when at school. Continued truancy of students causes them to fail in exams. This causes despair and makes them hate school, which can easily lead to drop out in schools. Increased cases of school dropouts has adverse effects to the society and leads to increased crime cases, increased insecurity, and poor standards of living. This is basically because students who have dropped out of school seek new ways of surviving and find themselves stealing to earn a living. This is a loss of useful people in the society and a waste of resources at school (Zajda and Rust, 2009).
In order to curb truancy and its related effects on students, there is need for the government to come in handy and implement policies that will ensure that students adhere to school routines and attend school on a daily basis. According to a report presented by Bray, Adamson and Mason (2007), truancy can start as a result of either home setup and organization or school setup and organization. In this regard, there is need for the Kenyan government to research and find out the most prevalent causes of truancy in schools before coming up with solutions to the problem. The most prevalent causes of truancy resulting from home setup is lack of family support, family work and commitments, illness that is not treated in advance, and family poverty that leads to lack of uniform and school requirements. In another context, school related reasons for truancy include, peer influence, negative school experience like bullying, poor treatment by teachers and lack of proper care while at school. In comparison to the United States, which has fewer cases of truancy, the Kenyan government also needs to implement some of the strategies put in place to curb truancy (Manzon, 2011). The first measure that needs to be undertaken is to ensure that schools and districts have departments for careers awareness, counseling programs, non-academic courses, and apprenticeship programs. These will motivate students to pursue their career choices more seriously and develop a liking to school programs and routine, which reduces and stops truancy (Zajda and Rust, 2009).
In addition to that, the government is supposed to introduce strict school attendance policies, which will ensure that all students are accessing and continuing with their education (Kubow and Fossum, 2007). As an example, the government can state that students with more than ten unexcused absences will not be allowed to go to the next class. Such policies are supposed to ensure that students remain on track with their academic activities and finish school with better grades. In addition to that, the government is also supposed to pass strict laws on parents who give a lot of domestic work to students preventing them from doing homework or going to school (Kubow and Fossum, 2007). This will help parents to stay alert and observe their children’s progress at school and even encourage them to finish their homework and wake them early for school.
Research shows that when students feel isolated and out of place while at school, they can easily start to avoid school and thus become truant (Zajda and Rust, 2009). From this context, it is important that the government introduces programs that will help to bring students together as much as possible to help them feel better when at school. Such programs include games, group studies, communal activities, interschool and interclass competitions. In addition to that, the government is supposed to introduce advanced programs that will engage poorly performing students in coaching or tutorials. This will help such students to stay tuned on academic work even when at home and thus develop a liking to school and schoolwork. Such programs include such things like online tutorials, periodic online courses, and holiday tuition. Such programs enhance class work understanding and promote study while at home and during holidays, which reduces chances of being truant (Pang and Hui, 2008).
The government is also supposed to introduce rules and regulations that will ensure that parents are responsible for the schooling of their child. Such rules should ensure that a parent suffers fines when they cannot prevent their child from being truant. In addition to fines, such parents are supposed to be jailed and give guidance on how to punish their children and ensure that they are attending school as required. Such rules will help parents to be on track in regard to their child’s school attendance and performance (Zajda and Rust, 2009). From another perspective, such rules will instill discipline in children when they realize that their mistakes will be payable by their parents. This will help them to stay focused and disciplined while at school and when at home.
Although the above solutions are the only possible way to solve truancy, there are many challenges that might come up during their implementation. The first challenge is the flexibility of the government to accept and plan on how to implement them (Pang and Hui, 2008). There is a lot of complacency and comfort in the education sector, which makes it difficult for the government to implement strict rules and regulations in one parliamentary sitting. Suggestion of such solutions might bring discussions and oppositions that will eventually result into dismissal of the solutions. As an example, passing laws that will cause parental punishment due to their child’s truancy habits might not be easily welcome by both parents and students and might even cause demonstrations and industrial actions. This can be disastrous to the government and might cause delay of important government projects and work (Kubow and Fossum, 2007).
In addition to that, it is difficult for the government to implement continuous online tutorials and examination due to lack of resources. Since the government has tight budgets and economic plans, it might not be easy to introduce additional expenditure without extensive consultations and planning (Pang and Hui, 2008). This will prevent implementation of such solutions thus allowing continuation of the problem. In addition to that, most teachers are very relaxed and might not be flexible to implement strict rules and regulations that will track every student’s attendance. There is a lot of laziness and complacency exhibited in schools among teachers is one of the main challenges facing the education sector and might not allow for implementation of new learning strategies and rules.
From another perspective, parents will also pose challenges when implementing new educational strategies and rules. Some parents give their children a lot of freedom and a lot of pocket money from an early age, which makes it difficult for them to support implementation of strict rules and regulations concerning schooling and truancy (Pang and Hui, 2008). To some parents, absence of their child from school creates more labor and company at home, which makes life better for them. Such parents will be a big problem to the implementation of rules that will require them to be jailed in case their children absented from school. In addition to that, government rules regarding to morals and conscience do not allow parents to receive punishment for mistakes done by their children (Manzon, 2011). This will also prevent any implementation of such rules and regulations thus allowing truancy to continue.
In the United States, truancy is said to start at around age 15 and escalates with age to 21 (Cowen, Kazamias and Unterhalter, 2009). This trend is attributed to excessive freedom from parents and introduction to the use of alcohol. In Kenya, the trend is different and truancy begins at an early age. As early as 8 to 10 years, some students begin to show signs truancy and even refuse to attend schools completely. In most cases, this is usually the end of schooling to such children. They usually start providing labor in farms, begin to use drugs and eventually end on the streets as street beggars. Such children find it rough to settle in life and start a family.
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Get custom essayIn conclusion, it is evident that truancy is a universal problem and is affecting the education sector in both developed and developing countries. A problem needs keen government intervention and support in order to reduce or stop. Truancy requires proper planning, budgeting, and implementation of all the suggested strategies in order to reduce or stop it. It is a universal problem and thus requires combined efforts of parents, teachers, students and the government (Cowen, Kazamias and Unterhalter, 2009).
Throughout the spring and summer of 1940, the German army expanded Hitler’s empire in Europe, conquering Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Beginning in 1941, Jews from all over the continent, as well as hundreds of thousands of European gypsies, were transported to the Polish ghettos. The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 marked a new level of brutality in warfare. Mobile killing units called Einsatzgruppen would murder more than 500,000 Soviet Jews and others (usually by shooting) over the course of the German occupation.
Get original essayA memorandum dated July 31, 1941, from Hitler’s top commander Hermann Goering to Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the SD (the security service of the SS), referred to the need for an Endlösung (final solution) to “the Jewish question.” Beginning in September 1941, every person designated as a Jew in German-held territory was marked with a yellow star, making them open targets. Tens of thousands were soon being deported to the Polish ghettos and German-occupied cities in the USSR. Since June 1941, experiments with mass killing methods had been ongoing at the concentration camp of Auschwitz, near Krakow. That August, 500 officials gassed 500 Soviet POWs to death with the pesticide Zyklon-B. The SS soon placed a huge order for the gas with a German pest control firm, an ominous indicator of the coming Holocaust.
Beginning in late 1941, the Germans began mass transports from the ghettos in Poland to the concentration camps, starting with those people viewed as the least useful: the sick, old, weak and the very young. The first mass gassings began at the camp of Belzec, near Lublin, on March 17, 1942.
Five more mass killing centers were built at camps in occupied Poland, including Chelmno, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and the largest of all, Auschwitz-Birkenau. From 1942 to 1945, Jews were deported to the camps from all over Europe, including German-controlled territory as well as those countries allied with Germany. The heaviest deportations took place during the summer and fall of 1942, when more than 300,000 people were deported from the Warsaw ghetto alone.
Though the Nazis tried to keep operation of camps secret, the scale of the killing made this virtually impossible. Eyewitnesses brought reports of Nazi atrocities in Poland to the Allied governments, who were harshly criticized after the war for their failure to respond, or to publicize news of the mass slaughter. This lack of action was likely mostly due to the Allied focus on winning the war at hand, but was also a result of the general incomprehension with which news of the Holocaust was met and the denial and disbelief that such atrocities could be occurring on such a scale. At Auschwitz alone, more than 2 million people were murdered in a process resembling a large-scale industrial operation.
A large population of Jewish and non-Jewish inmates worked in the labor camp there; though only Jews were gassed, thousands of others died of starvation or disease. During the summer of 1944, even as the events of D-Day (June 6, 1944) and a Soviet offensive the same month spelled the beginning of the end for Germany in the war, a large proportion of Hungary’s Jewish population was deported to Auschwitz, and as many as 12,000 Jews were killed every day.
Nazi rule comes to an endBy the spring of 1945, German leadership was dissolving amid internal dissent, with Goering and Himmler both seeking to distance themselves from Hitler and take power. In his last will and political testament, dictated in a German bunker that April 29, Hitler blamed the war on “international Jewry and its helpers” and urged the German leaders and people to follow “the strict observance of the racial laws and with merciless resistance against the universal poisoners of all peoples” – the Jews.
The following day, he committed suicide. Germany’s formal surrender in World War II came barely a week later, on May 8, 1945.German forces had begun evacuating many of the death camps in the fall of 1944, sending inmates under guard to march further from the advancing enemy’s front line. These so-called “death marches” continued all the way up to the German surrender, resulting in the deaths of some 250,000 to 375,000 people.
In his classic book “Survival in Auschwitz,” the Italian Jewish author Primo Levi described his own state of mind, as well as that of his fellow inmates in Auschwitz, on the day before Soviet troops arrived at the camp in January 1945: “We lay in a world of death and phantoms. The last trace of civilization had vanished around and inside us. The work of bestial degradation, begun by the victorious Germans, had been carried to a conclusion by the Germans in defeat.”
The wounds of the Holocaust–known in Hebrew as Shoah, or catastrophe–were slow to heal. Survivors of the camps found it nearly impossible to return home, as in many cases they had lost their families and been denounced by their non-Jewish neighbors. As a result, the late 1940s saw an unprecedented number of refugees, POWs and other displaced populations moving across Europe.
In an effort to punish the villains of the Holocaust, the Allies held the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46, which brought Nazi atrocities to horrifying light. Increasing pressure on the Allied powers to create a homeland for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust would lead to a mandate for the creation of Israel in 1948.
Over the decades that followed, ordinary Germans struggled with the Holocaust’s bitter legacy, as survivors and the families of victims sought restitution of wealth and property confiscated during the Nazi years. Beginning in 1953, the German government made payments to individual Jews and to the Jewish people as a way of acknowledging the German people’s responsibility for the crimes committed in their name.
The theme of holy war is present in the book "What They Fought For 1861-1865" by James McPherson. The book examines the reasons why soldiers fought in the American Civil War, and it highlights how religion played a role in motivating soldiers on both sides of the conflict.
Get original essayMany soldiers in the Union army believed that they were fighting for a noble cause: the preservation of the United States as a single, united country. They saw their fight as a defense of the Constitution and the principles of liberty and equality upon which the nation was founded. For these soldiers, the war was a sacred duty, and they believed that God was on their side. On the other hand, many soldiers in the Confederate army believed that they were fighting to defend their rights as citizens of their individual states. They saw the war as a struggle for self-government and states' rights, and they believed that God had ordained their cause. For these soldiers, the war was a sacred duty, and they believed that God was on their side.
In addition to these overarching beliefs, soldiers on both sides also cited specific religious reasons for fighting. Union soldiers often cited the abolition of slavery as a moral imperative, and many believed that God had called them to fight to end this evil institution. Confederate soldiers, on the other hand, often cited their belief in the Bible's teachings on the sanctity of property and the right of a state to secede from the Union. Despite these differences, both Union and Confederate soldiers were united in their belief that the war was a holy and just cause. They believed that God was guiding their actions and that they were fighting to uphold principles of righteousness and justice.
Furthermore, God played a significant role in the Civil War, not just as an inspiration for soldiers' actions, but also as a source of comfort, guidance, and understanding of the purpose and meaning of their sacrifices. Soldiers invoked God's name in their letters, diaries and speeches. They wrote about the sense of divine protection they felt on the battlefield, and they often asked God for guidance and strength. They also wrote about the guilt they felt for taking part in the war and the pain of losing friends and family members. Religion played a role in shaping soldiers' understanding of death and the afterlife. Many soldiers believed that dying for a just cause was a noble and heroic act, and that God would reward them in the afterlife.
In conclusion, the theme of holy war was prevalent in the American Civil War, with soldiers on both sides invoking God and religion to justify their actions and to find meaning in the sacrifices they made. The book "What They Fought For 1861-1865" by James McPherson illustrates how religion played a significant role in motivating soldiers and shaping their understanding of the war. It shows how the belief in a just cause and the guidance of God helped soldiers endure the hardships of war and find purpose in their sacrifices.