Workforce Preparedness Is An Integral Venture in Public Health Assignment

Workforce Preparedness Is An Integral Venture in Public Health - Assignment Example Notably, the workforce is an instrumental and invaluable infrastructure within the healthcare sector. This, therefore, implies that preparation of the workforce towards discharging their duties is an important way of ensuring the infrastructural strength of the firm is accounted for. This strengthening program can be accomplished through strategic training. Through such training, the workforce acquires essential skills that enable them to discharge their assigned tasks with uttermost commitment and comfort. In addition, such training help in unveiling the innovative nature of employees, an aspect that is important in ensuring sustainability in service delivery (Scutchfield & Keck, 2003). In some instances, it has proved essential for any given public health institution to form linkages and alliances with like-minded institutions. Such partnerships promote professional interactions between employees. Through such ideological exchanges, the subject workforce is empowered to tackle arising situations with enhanced sobriety. Further, the institutions should establish or subscribe to a learning resource center. Such centers enable the workers to access current information and trends in the healthcare sector. Through such understanding of trends, the firm is able to plan effectively. In summary, workforce preparedness is an integral venture in public health. As such, the employees must be subjected to environments suitable for educational advancements. For instance, the firm can offer incentives to facilitate employees access to competency enhancing lessons. With enhanced employee competency, evidence-based practice will be observed in the firm. Such a practice is vital in promoting positive client experience hence continued partnership. It is equally important for the firm to create opportunities for the employees. Such opportunities can be important in boosting their morale leading to higher work turnover. Above all, the various strategies used by the firm in a bid to foster employee preparation must be workable and achievable.

Safety Of Road Workers On Maintenance Of Highways Construction Essay

Safety Of Road Workers On Maintenance Of Highways Construction Essay Highways maintenance and road workers ensure that roads and pavements are safe and well maintained in towns, cities and rural areas throughout the country of operation. They might also build new roads and look after the repair, building and resurfacing of the countrys motorway networks. Highway maintenance safety involves safety of workers working on highway or road network services including road markings, pothole patching, road signs, road and footpath resurfacing, gully or drain cleaning, flooding, safety barriers, school crossing patrols, winter maintenance (snow removal), vegetation control, emergency services installing cats eyes, digging access trenches for cable and pipe laying, applying specialist surface treatments (such as high friction surfacing) traffic lights, fencing and street lamps and many more. All these maintenance activities need proper road safety awareness and control when they are executed, so working safely is aimed at staff from any road sector with no super visory or managerial responsibility to be made aware of the risks involved. It is of utmost importance to provide the essentials of health and safety for everyone at work to have an understanding of why they must work safely and this can be achieved by training road workers through the use of seminars and workshops. In Britain, roads are some of the busiest and dangerous in the world, but in today`s traffic conditions, it shows that live in carriageway of any highway is a very-very dangerous place to work and injuries to road workers have been increasing against the national trend. Road workers or operators will often be responsible for setting up warning signs, cones and temporary traffic lights and redirecting pedestrians. They may also manage traffic flow while colleagues are working, communicating with another operator via radio or hand signals further down the road are commonly used devices. As a road supervisor before conducting roadwork jobs, review the required tasks, location, and time of day to determine the necessary equipment, personnel, and materials required.   Plan how you will control traffic along the road and within the construction zone.   Have enough trained flaggers to complete your work.   Gather the signs, cones, flags, drums, and/or message boards that you will need for the job.   Inspect your signage to make sure it is in good repair and highly visible.   Clean or discard dirty equipment with limited visibility. Get training on traffic control and safe work practices.   Set up and maintain your roadside work zone properly.   Get training on the equipment that you will use and drive, from the smallest tool to the largest moving vehicle.   The operation of tools and equipment must be according to the manufacturers recommendations.   Know the hazards of the chemicals and materials that you use and get training on the personal protective equipment that you are required to wear, including its uses and limitations.   Wear high visibility garments on your legs and chest.   Wear your assigned persona protective equipments, including a hardhat, safety shoes, and work gloves.   Consider earplugs or muffs, safety glasses, and fall protection depending on the job task. In the work zone, workers must watch for fast-moving motorists and large construction equipment.   Set up parking zones for your working vehicles such that they have safe entrances and exits from the highway that is maintained and group your vehicles on the same side of the road for visibility.   As a supervisor you can set-up the job site and tasks to minimize the need to cross the active road time and again and also  set up traffic lanes within the jobsite for clear access and visibility. When working on road, work facing traffic and stay alert, or station a lookout to watch oncoming traffic.  The workers should have an escape route or a plan of action in place for any emergencies.   Watch for backing vehicles because the driver often has a limited view.   Practice good communication and make sure all vehicles have backup alarms.   If you are flagging, acting as a lookout or traffic director you must remain alert,  do not drink, smoke, or have a conversation while performing these duties. Road work is a physical job requiring strength and endurance, worker must  stay fit so that their bodies can do the work.  Road work occurs in all types of weather and throughout the year.  They should wear appropriate clothing for the climate.   Light coloured layers and sunscreen protect them during the hot months while layers of moisture-wicking clothing protect you in the cold.   The road workers must get plenty of rest, eat right, and drink no-alcoholic drink s enough to stay healthy and alert on the job. From the Road Workers Perspective, there are few jobs more important than highway maintenance. It may go largely unappreciated by the end customer the motorist, but road workers are looking after some of the busiest roads in the world in the face of continued growth in Britains vehicle fleet, and the inevitable consequences of that growth for wear-and-tear on the network. And by helping to tackle congestion, road workers are directly supporting the British economy. And they do this despite working in some of the most difficult conditions that anyone has to tolerate. The risk of death or injury at work, faced daily by the workers who maintain Englands motorways and trunk roads, is highlighted by the results of a recent industry survey. Almost one in five workers suffers some injury caused by passing vehicles in the course of their careers while working on our road network. More than three-quarters suffer verbal abuse from drivers, and many have reported having objects thrown at them by motorists. Road Workers even change the light bulbs in the central reservation. Surveys have been previously contacted and road workers were asked if they had experienced near miss, verbal abuse, slight personal injury, major personal injury caused by road users vehicle and the responses were: 13% of road workers surveyed had sustained slight injuries; 3% had sustained major injuries; 77% had suffered verbal abuse from passing drivers 54% had a near miss with a vehicle 40% had experienced missiles deliberately thrown at them From these studies road workers felt most at risk during the morning and evening peak travel periods and in the early hours of the morning. There are believes that there is a vital need to educate drivers to start taking the problem of speeding and the outcomes of speeding more seriously. The habitual speeders know that other people dont necessarily disapprove of their actions in the same way as they disapprove of drink-driving syndrome. It took a long time to change attitudes to drink-driving, but by communicating the message at every opportunity, with intelligent advertising and marketing, the Government can and has eventually succeeded in most countries, likewise today, drink-driving is socially unacceptable in the community. Therefore a similar change is required with speeding and peoples attitude to road works. In UK, Highway Traffic Management Agency was launched in 2005 and since it was launched issues that dominated are the road maintenance safeties. Its goal is to have zero road injuries and zero fatalities by getting a reasonable balance between the needs of the road user and the safety of road workers using a risk based approach as a short term. The long-term aim was to plan future improvements that make the working environment safer, including: design for maintenance/operation, which has the added benefits of whole-life cost savings, less interventions and less congestion; reduce road workers exposure to live traffic and lessen the risks to road workers when on the network; highlight the importance of road workers and their safety to the public by raising awareness and the industry consistently maintaining the highest standards. Finally it was to improve road user awareness and responses by improving driver education. At a general level, the government has taken the Road Safety Bill through Parliament, including new drink-driving legislation, driver training schemes, and a revised penalty system and is looking at improvements to the speed camera network and working with the police to fight back against anti-social use of roads. The Highways Agency Road Worker Safety Action Plan was unveiled at the conference held in 2006, with some of potential solutions listed in the including a review of procedures to reduce the exposure of road workers to live traffic and cut the risks of working on the highway. A review of maintenance priorities so workers dont have to be on the network so often more targeted speed limits at road works which can be altered to match safety requirements. Improving of the accuracy and content of variable message signs to give road users more warning of works and the presence of road workers also improving the training of workers on high-speed roads, the promotion of better driver awareness and improved driver education, also finally the development of an incident and near-miss reporting centre. The Importance of Traffic Management When considering the traffic management plan for any major scheme the safety and security of both the travelling public and the workforce is the primary aim. By the very nature of road works operations, the element of risk is introduced when managing traffic on high speed roads. The first essential element is to reduce the risk by reducing the speed. This can be achieved to a certain extent through the use of traffic management measures but experience has proven that the only reliable way of achieving consistently reduced speeds is through the use of safety cameras. The introduction of a temporary speed limit and safety cameras is done in conjunction with the respective Safety Camera Partnership, who follow a risk assessment process which considers the level of exposure to risk of the public and the workforce. This is the reason that a variety of different traffic management measures can often be found at road works sites. However, the biggest single risk to road workers occurs not i n major schemes but during routine maintenance operations and emergency lane closures. During these operations it is often only a line of cones that separates the workforce from high speed traffic. During these operations there is a clear need for motorists to act responsibly and respect the rights of road workers. Planning Road works Traditionally, if there is one thing that causes motorists more frustration than any other, it is the overnight appearance of a forest of cones with little or no warning or information as to the reason. Hopefully, this aspect is largely becoming a thing of the past as a significant amount of planning is now undertaken prior to any major road works scheme. Such projects are now often planned several years ahead taking cognisance of issues such as the optimum time and the likelihood of reliable weather where this is a requirement. The substantial rise in traffic volumes over the past decade has significantly impacted on road works planning, through not just the increased maintenance requirements brought about by the additional volume, but through the challenges to keep congestion at a minimum as any reduction in available road space can have significant consequences for journey times. While safety and security are the primary drivers when planning road works, contractors also incorpora te extensive consultation with affected local communities and a targeted media campaign designed to advise drivers who use the affected route of the proposed works and levels of disruption. This forward planning and awareness through the media allows for drivers to plan their journey accordingly. Engineering technology on road worker`s risk. This can be achieved both through measures at the construction stage and through the use of new and improved technology for maintenance operations. New construction processes and standards mean a much longer design life can be achieved at the outset, significantly reducing the amount of routine maintenance operations required. In addition, where a maintenance requirement is identified during construction, the facility to achieve this without significantly impacting on traffic flow is considered carefully and where appropriate, additional engineering measures are introduced. In respect to maintenance operations on existing structures and highways the Highway Traffic Management Agency has been actively involved in developing technology in association with the Highways Agency, and over the past few years a number of innovative solutions which have had a positive impact on safety have been introduced. New techniques to improve safety and reduce congestion at road works on high-speed road s, for example, are now undergoing trials. Automated cone laying machines, fixed to the rear of a traffic management vehicles, can place and collect standard road cones without the need for road workers to stand in a live carriageway next to fast moving traffic. The machines accurately positions cones on the road surface at 15mph laying up to 40 cones per minute and reducing the time taken to establish and remove temporary traffic management. Road users will benefit from the shorter period of time taken to change from normal carriageway to a coned-off area. Using the new machines, traffic cones will be laid and taken up more quickly, removing manual handling and enabling more routine maintenance work to be undertaken during each closure so reducing the frequency of road works and congestion. A new barrier transfer machine, which can lift 12 tons of concrete safety barriers for motorway road works into place at a speed of 7 mph, is also now in operation, offering a higher level of b arrier protection to motorway road workers. The mechanical broom which are now mostly used have improved the road worker`s safety and compared to manual sweeping. In June 2006, a new revised Chapter 8 of the Traffic Signs Manual was launched that gives guidance on best practice for temporary signing and management of traffic on the highway. Also it was designed to make traffic management for road works safer and less stressful for both workers and drivers. It talks about new measures like flashing cones on the approach to works; mobile carriageway closures; and improved incident management. It also encourages more effective use of speed limits at road works. Drivers should expect consistent limits to be set depending on the work being carried out, without confusing variations. That should be combined with speed detection equipment and other methods of persuading people to reduce speed. RECOMMENDATIONS Changing the behaviour of risk-taking drivers tends to require hard interventions, which require the involvement of police or other law enforcement organisations. For complying drivers, soft interventions such as the Respect campaign can be used; other interventions that could be applied to the issue of road worker safety and driver behaviour can include: Training road workers By training road workers through the use of seminars and workshops can make them aware of their risks and conscientious those involved on how best they can be aware of the job related risks. Improving driver skills There is a need for further training of professional drivers and specific training of all drivers to raise their awareness of the issues of driving through road works. Better self knowledge The public are an important partner in improving safety through road works. There is a need for greater awareness of personal skill levels and abilities to encourage better self pacing and improved behaviour when driving. This can be achieved through a high profile advertising campaign to raise the public profile of road worker safety. Such an approach aims to demonstrate the risk to drivers and road workers from speeding through road works. Improving the task It is important to ensure that the driving task when approaching and driving through road works is made as simple as possible to prevent overloading drivers with information. All those involved in applying the principles contained in the Traffic Signs Manual: Chapter 8 need to review their road works layouts in order to make the driving task as easy possible for an uninformed driver CONCLUSION It can be concluded that the behaviour of drivers towards road workers indicates that there is little respect for road works and road workers. At best the works and workers are tolerated, at worst the works are ignored and workers are abused either verbally or physically. Changing the attitude of drivers to road works is essential to improve the safety of both road workers and the drivers passing through road work sites. The behaviour of road drivers is directly or indirectly the cause of most road accidents, including those at road works. Influencing driver`s behaviour to prevent accidents at road works will improve road worker safety as well as that of the road user.

Butler, Tennessee :: Observation Essays, Descriptive Essays

The town of Butler is not a very well known place, but I would not trade anything in the world for it. In this quaint little town one will find a wide variety of year round activities and traditional festivals. I have traveled to many places in our nation and to other nations, but I have yet to find a place that is as dear to me as my hometown. Most of the inhabitants of Butler will tell you the same thing, whether they have traveled or not. Butler has such a picturesque landscape that it is often the subject of many photographers. The history of this town is also one of the qualities that make it such a wonderful and unique place. The friendly people, various activities, such as water sports hiking, and the wonderful landscape in the town of Butler, TN, make it one of the premier vacation spots and home sites in the nation. Butler is located on the very northeastern tip of Tennessee. Approximately 40 miles from the ETSU campus on Highway 67, one will first cross the Butler Bridge overlooking Watauga Lake. Then about a mile later the road begins to descend into the little town of Butler. Most of my family has lived in Butler all of their lives, so they know first hand the history of Butler. This town’s history is very unususal; Watauga Lake now covers the previous location of Butler. The TVA project moved this town from what used to be a flood-prone area to a higher elevation. Butler has its own museum devoted to this move. It contains old artifacts, pictures old Butler before and after the lake was drained, and many handmade quilts dating back to the 19th Century. The Butler Museum is located at Babe Curtis Park at the end of McQueen Street in Butler. Entire books have been written on the subject of old Butler such as Lost Heritage by Russ Calhoun Sr. Beautiful mountains with small creeks, a pristine lake, and rolling grassy valleys make the landscape of this beautiful place. Regardless of the time of year one will always find breathtaking landscape in the town of Butler, except for the mid winter when all of the leaves are off the trees and they look like skeletons, which can be very depressing. The natives of Butler are people who love their land and tend to stick with traditions.

Jhumpa Lahiri

The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN-0976-8165 The Treatment of Immigrant Experience in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Name Sake D. Ebina Cordelia Assistant Professor in English Holy Cross College,Tiruchirappalli Tamilnadu. Indian writing in English is one of the voices in which India speaks. It spreads the traditional and cultural heritage of India within India and also introduces it to the whole world.It is Indian in sensibility, thought, feeling and emotion and experience but submits itself to the discipline of English for expression. The contemporary novelists tread new paths and this shows the vitality of Indian fiction. Arun Joshi, Khushwant Singh, Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth depict the Indian social scene, the partition scene, the theme of alienation and the social, economic and psychological problems of modern man.Writers who are cultural hybrids like Maxine Hongkinstun, Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, Bharati Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri and many others take up is sues like identity crisis, nationalism, alienation, marginalization, insider – outsider and the hegemonic power discourses in the fiction that they are writing today. Jhumpa Lahiri as an immigrant novelist clearly fits into the school of writers better known as the writers of the ‘Indian Diaspora’. The word ‘diaspora’ has been taken from Greek, meaning â€Å"to disperse†. ‘Diaspora’, is the voluntary or forcible movement of peoples from their homelands into new regions†¦. Ashcroft, Griffiths, Tiffin] Normally, disapora fiction lingers over alienation, loneliness, homelessness, existential rootlessness, nostalgia, questioning, protest and assertions and the quest for identity; it also addresses issues related to amalgamation or disintegration of cultures, discriminating margins of two different social milieus, internalizing nostalgia and suffering a forced amnesia. We may call it a literary / cultural phenomenon with a distinc t melting pot syndrome or that of a salad bowl where the identity of each ingredient is under question. Diaspora is the communities of people living ogether in one country who â€Å"acknowledge that the old country as a nation often buried deep in language, religion, custom or folklore, always has some claim on their loyalty and emotions†. (qtd. in. Kaur, 192) Diasporic experience is a spring of agonized inspiration, multiple identities, new subjectivities, creative memories and fresh perspectives of language and life. The earlier immigrant works of the neo-colonial and post-colonial works were often a product of forced immigration of people running away from religious and other political or social persecution.But several Indians who migrated to America in the mid 1970s and afterwards were in search of a better life, and material success and prosperity. Vol. II. Issue. IV Th e C rit 1 er io n December 2011 www. the-criterion. com The Criterion: An International Journal in Eng lish ISSN-0976-8165 Jhumpa Lahiri was born in 1967 and raised in Rhode Island. She was the daughter of Bengali parents. She was influenced by both Indian and American culture and heritage. This multi-cultural life style plays a central role in many of her stories, which depict the alienation and loneliness of immigrants caught between two drastically different worlds.Her novel, The Namesake focuses on the lives of Indians and Asians who have migrated abroad. Her writings tell us about the adjustment problems of Indians (both first and second generations) who have now settled in America. The tension between adhering to Indian culture and imbibing American culture, between upholding family tradition and subscribing to the individual freedom and realization that one is an outsider even though one is born there is beautifully highlighted in her works. Jhumpa Lahiri portrays immigrant experience and the clash of cultures.The conflicts portrayed in the novel bring great empathy to Gogol a s he stumbles along the first – generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalities, comic detours and wrenching love-affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves. The Namesake, is the story of the Ganguli family. Following an arranged marriage in Calcutta, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli move to the U. S. and settle in Cambridge and Massachusetts.An engineer working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ashoke adapts more quickly to life in America in contrast to his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family, in Kolkatta. When a son is born to Gangulis, they are faced with the realization that they cannot wait for a suitable name for the child. Ashoke names the boy Gogol after a Russian writer, whose book he credits with saving his life. But Gogol who does not know the reason for gi ving him this name, is unable to identify either with the Americans or with the Indians.Intimately interacting with the American environment, the Indian diaspora continues to feel that they are the outsiders even though they have an insider’s insight. The question of cultural identity occurs in Lahiri’s writings. In India no single culture exists. Too many cultures have crossed and blended here, and produced a hybridity in us that cannot now unmix. The Indian cultural identity has acquired a heterogeneous composition with today’s youth who are on the move in search of better jobs.Hence the bonding between the people and the settlement is fast disappearing. The familiarity and uniformity of basic cultures across communities in the states of India makes for easier assimilation and preservation of one’s own culture. But when one leaves India and goes abroad, one realizes that even though one may try and assimilate with that culture, yet it is a baffling new world. The west which appeared alluring when one viewed it from one’s locale, appears complex and complicated when one settles there and realizes that one is exiled by choice from one’s home.Immigration is the movement of people from one country or area of the world to another to establish a new permanent residence. People become immigrants primarily for economic, political or religious motives. The U. S. has often been called the â€Å"melting pot†. The name is delivered from the United States’ rich tradition of Vol. II. Issue. IV Th e C rit 2 er io n December 2011 www. the-criterion. com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN-0976-8165 immigrants coming to the U. S. looking for lucrative jobs and having their cultures melted and incorporated into the fabric of the country.Most of them (immigrants) were not highly educated and did not possess wealth or power in their home countries other than these few commonalities of what they didnâ₠¬â„¢t possess, their backgrounds were vastly different. The thread, however, that bound these immigrants together was their vision of improving their current situation. Emma Lazarus, in a poem entitled â€Å"The New Colossus†, which is inscribed on the pedestal of the statue of liberty tells of the invitation extended to those wanting to make the U. S. their home. â€Å"†¦. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free†. Encyclopedia Americana, 1998, Vol. 637) To a question in an internet interview, regarding Lahiri as a child of immigrants in America and the conflicts she felt while growing up, she says, It was always a question of allegiance of choice. I wanted to please my parents and meet their expectations. I also wanted to meet the expectations of my American peers, and the expectations I placed on myself to fit into American society. She adds that it’s a classic case of divided identity, but depending on the degree to whi ch the immigrants in question are willing to assimilate, the conflict is more or less pronounced.Her parents were fearful and suspicious of America and American culture when she was growing up. Maintaining ties with India, and preserving the Indian tradition in America, meant a lot to them. The first generation immigrants try to stick to the mannerisms, values and beliefs of their own culture and any clash between their concept of â€Å"home† and their beliefs baffle them. In most of the second generation people these emotional links and ties with the past in most of the matters are loosened. They mainly go by American styles in food and habits, and their marital relations too are crumbling.The term first generation immigrant may be used to describe either of two classes of people. One may be, an immigrant to a country, possible with the caveat that they must be naturalized to receive this title. The second class may be the children of immigrant parents, first in a family lin e to be born in the new country. The ambiguity of this term extends to the term â€Å"second generation immigrant†, which may refer to the first generation born in the new country, or the first generation born to parents who were themselves born in the new country.The living ‘in-between’ condition is very painful and marginalizing for them. There is the yearning for â€Å"home†, to go back to â€Å"the lost origin†, and â€Å"imaginary homelands† are created from the fragmentary and partial memories of their homelands. The novel opens with Ashima recalling her homeland fondly. She is in an advanced state of pregnancy, admitted in a hospital for her delivery. To quote, †¦. nothing feels normal to Ashima. For the past eighteen months, ever since she’s arrived in Cambridge, nothing has felt normal at all.Its not so much the pain, which she knows, somehow, she will survive. It’s the consequence: Motherhood in a foreign land. â € ¦. It was happening so far from home, unmonitored and unobserved by those she loved. (The Namesake 6) Vol. II. Issue. IV Th e C rit 3 er io n December 2011 www. the-criterion. com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN-0976-8165 They also face cultural dilemma when their cultural practices are mocked at and there is a threat to their cultural identity. They stand bewildered and confused, and show resistance also to the discourse of power in various forms.In the following generations these confusions, problems and yearnings become less intense as they get influenced by the culture of that country and also adapt themselves to it. To a question in an internet interview, regarding her immigrant experience, Jhumpa Lahiri says, †¦The way my parents explain it to me is that they have spent their immigrant lives feeling as if they are on a river with a foot in two different boats. Each boat wants to pull them in a separate direction, and my parents are always torn between the two. They are always hovering, literally straddling two worlds†¦.She feels an immigrant must teach us so much about the world and about human beings, things we can’t understand if we are born and raised and live our whole life in one place. â€Å"The generational differences† of the migrants and their children occupy different spaces in the ‘representative’ culture but their experiences of feeling rootless and displaced can be similar on nature. Though the children born to migrant peoples enjoy better settlement and place in that country â€Å"their sense of identity borne from living in a diaspora community is influenced by the past migrant history of their parents or grand parents†.Ashima tries to settle in and adjust herself to her surroundings, but she feels strange and lost in this country and spends hours remembering her parents and family, and reading the same five Bengali novels time and again. While waiting for the child to be born, she relives the past until the point of her depature for Boston. The thought of bringing up a baby in an alien land terrifies her. †¦to raise a child in a country where she is related to no one, where she knows so little, where life seems so tentative and spare. (The Namesake 6) Ashima gives birth to a boy and he is named Gogol after the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol.She feels, without a single grandparent or uncle or aunt, at her side, the baby’s birth, like most everything else in America, feels somehow haphazard, only half true †¦. She never known of a person entering the world so alone, so deprived. (The Namesake 25) Gogol who does not know the reason for giving him this name, is unable to identify either with the Americans or with the Indians. Gradually Ashoke and Ashima’s circle of Bengali acquaintances grow and the cultural spirit of Bengal is recreated whenever the friends meet. Robert Cohen comments that distinct diaspora communities are con structed out of the, †¦. onference of narratives of the old country to the new which create the sense of shared history. As Ashoke and Ashima continue to maintain a solidarity with the community, they identify Gogol continues to search for his own identity, for a set code that will not make him feel an â€Å"insider – outsider†. Vol. II. Issue. IV Th e C rit 4 er io n December 2011 www. the-criterion. com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN-0976-8165 The first time his parents leave him alone overnight he goes with his friends Colin, Jason and Marc to a party in the university where his father teaches.This is his first visit to a dorm. There he meets a girl and he introduces himself as Nikhil and â€Å"he feels at once guilty and exhilarated†. (The Namesake 96)â€Å"Stunned at how easy it is† to say Nikhil, he who never dated a girl before and feels brave. He manages to kiss her before he goes. But it hadn’t been Gogol but Nikhil, â€Å"That Gogol had nothing to do with it†(The Name Sake 96) One must note the dual identity or identity crisis in Gogol. Prior to his depature for college, Gogol officially changes his name to Nikhil. But even though he had longed to change his name, he finds that he has to get used to being called Nikhil.And when his parents also refer to him as Nikhil he feels, â€Å"†¦ in that instant that he is not related to them, not their child†. (The Namesake 106) Ashoke and Ashima make adjustments which are absolutely necessary. They try to bring up their children the way it is done in India. Sonia and Gogol try to assert their individuality, and Gogol goes to the extent of reminding his parents that he is eighteen. Ashoke and Ashima cannot think of Pemberton Road as their home, but Nikhil refers to his New Haven hostel as his home. Ashima is outraged by his remark. â€Å"†¦. Sorry, I left it at home† (The Name Sake 108). Ashima says †¦. hat aft er twenty years in America, She still cannot bring Herself to refer to Pemberton Road as home. (The Namesake 108) Though Ashoke and Ashima have a large circle of Bengali migrants as their friends; the sense of alienation can be felt in them. Gogol and Sonia, American born and educated, want to be accepted as Americans. However, they feel alienated both from their parents and from their American friends who consider them as outsiders. The insider outsider feeling is prevalent in all migrants. It is through the eyes of the first generation settlers that the second generation learns about their homeland.The idea of ‘home’ is central to all human beings in every culture. Having sampled the pleasures and pains of the world, one longs to return to one’s home. Ashoke and Ashima’s body language and demeanour change, the minute they are in India. They are more confident and assertive. It is true that every time one returns one comes back to a different home, becaus e times change and so do people, but nevertheless it is a home where one’s roots are anchored. The first generation wants to preserve their culture and customs in the foreign land.It is significant that every other Saturday Ashoke and Ashima send Gogol for Bengali language and culture classes at the home of one of their Bengali friends. But, The children in the class study without interest, wishing they could be at a ballet or softball practice instead. (The Namesake 66) Lahiri also shows that most of the first generation people adjust well and make a space for themselves in the new country. Ashima is a good example of Lahiri’s first generation people. She tries to adapt herself with the society, she tries to work in a library and manages to drive a car by herself.They concede to Sonia and Gogol’s demand of celebrating Christmas, and having an American dinner once a week. However, when Gogol gets involved with Ruth, they disapprove openly saying ‘Youâ€⠄¢re too young to get involved this way. (The Namesake 117) Vol. II. Issue. IV Th e C rit 5 er io n December 2011 www. the-criterion. com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN-0976-8165 When Ruth goes off to oxford to do a course he misses her and he, †¦longs for her as his parents have longed, all these years, for the people they love in India†¦ for the first time in his life, he knows this feeling. The Namesake 117) He attends a panel discussion about Indian novels written in English. There the question about marginality is discussed. Teleologically speaking, ABCDs are unable to answer the question ‘where are you from? ’ the sociologist on the panel declares. (The Namesake 118) Gogol realizes that ABCD [ABCD stands for American born confused â€Å"desi†] refers to him also. He ponders over the question of identity. After graduating Gogol gets a job in a firm and is posted in New York. He meets Maxine and is invited by her for dinner. While eating dinner with Maxine’s parents, he recalls his mother’s hospitable nature and how, â€Å"She would never have served so few dishes to a quest. † (The Namesake 133) Lahiri shows that comparisons and contrast between Indian culture and Western culture are bound to occur. Cultural displacement involves the loss of language, family ties and a support system. Salman Rushdie says, A full migrant suffers, traditionally, a triple disruption. He loses his place, he enters into alien language, he finds himself surrounded by beings whose social behavior and codes are unlike and sometimes even offensive to his own.And this is what makes a migrant such a pathetic figure, because roots, language and social norms have been three of the most important parts of the definition of what it is to be human being. For the second generation the question of identity is a complicated issue. At home Indian culture and value system are adhered to, while in public the American co de of conduct is followed. This becomes doubly problematic. Added to this is the fact that Ashoke, Ashima and all first generation settlers want their children to do well and get good jobs.The American dream looms in their eyes and they want their children to exploit the situation and derive the maximum benefit for themselves, but they must follow the Indian moral and cultural code at home. However, Gogol, Sonia, as well Moushumi want to chart out their own lives. Gogol’s shifting in with Maxine is an assertion of his independence, and his desire to completely merge with the American culture. Gogol eventually marries Moushumi, but they are not happy and so they part. Ashoke dies, and Ashima decides to sell the house on Pemberton Road. Hence forth she would spend six months in India and six months in the states.True to the meaning of her name, she will be without borders, without a home of her own, a resident everywhere and nowhere (The Namesake 276) Initially when she had com e in 1967, she had been petrified of living in America. But now as she makes the journey back home alone, she is no longer terrified. Vol. II. Issue. IV Th e C rit 6 er io n December 2011 www. the-criterion. com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN-0976-8165 It is the last Christmas party at Pemberton Road after the death of Ashoke. Gogol, Sonia and her fiance Ben, and other guests gather around Ashima to enjoy this moment.Gogol goes to get his father’s camera and finds the book, which his father had given him on his birthday and which he had never bothered to open and read. As the party goes on downstairs, he sits on his bed and begins to read the book. The first generation migrants face cultural dilemma but do their best to retain their cultural identity and cultural practices in their beliefs, values, cloths and eating habits. These ‘beliefs, traditions, customs, behaviours and values along with their ‘possessions and belongings’ are c arried by migrants with them when they arrive in â€Å"new places†.The children of the migrants do not face the same problems because of their parents living â€Å"here now†. Thus Lahiri has shown dynamically the shifting concepts of ‘home’ and ‘displacement’ in the successive generations of migrants. Lahiri uses her own craft, technique, style, format and structure. Her narrative voice is elegant, bitter sweet and gentle. Her novel talks of Indian culture, traditions, including food and festival, clothes and customs. Her novel, The Namesake, exhibits her signature style and in it she revisits issues that she knows well, those of cultural displacement, sense of identity, and belonging with one foot in two words.Lahiri gracefully shifts the narrative focus from the Ganguli parents to Gogol as he reaches school age. Gogol struggles with his name, which he regards as absurd and inappropriate. The issue of culture permeates the novel, from the ear ly dislocation of immigration in the first half of the novel to Gogol’s departure from home to Yale University. This transition is marked by Gogol’s decision to change his name to Nikhil. Gogol’s college experience in one way resembles what might be called typical; he falls in love; he discovers architecture; he begins to assert, against his parent’s desires, his independence and individuality.And yet his experiences are always complicated by the particular, as in any life. Gogol can never, even when he moves to New York to work in a large architecture firm, shake his past, his culture or his name as he wishes to do. The novel exposes the fallacy of the American myth of selfcreation. Gogol grows up, moves out and goes through life suffering personal tragedies that also shape his identity. The novel ends with Gogol in his early thirties. Although the novel never feels busy or hectic, the characters are always in transit. America and the west have always be en idealized by the Indians.But when qualified Indian migrate to America then the adjustment problems begin between the traditions, one has inherited and the day to day life one encounters there. There is a gradual adjustment, and assimilation and then a hybrid culture comes to the fore. Gradually one develops a respect for other cultures even though one’s own culture remains ingrained within oneself. Culture is not defined now-a-days by a place, it is defined by time ‘the now’. As identity becomes the core issue, names become quite significant. The expressive function of a name varies from culture to culture.In Lahiri’s novel, Indian names, the Indian identity of her characters become potent symbols and tools to highlight the immigrant identity. Lahiri’s works are scattered with details of Vol. II. Issue. IV Th e C rit 7 er io n December 2011 www. the-criterion. com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN-0976-8165 Works Cited Bhadu r, Gaiutra. â€Å"An interview with Jhumpa Lahiri† www. citypaper. net Bhagava, Rajul, ed. , â€Å"Indian writing in English The Last Decade. Rawat Publications: New Delhi. , 2002 Dodiya, Jaydipsinh, K, ed. â€Å"Critical Essays on Indian writing in English†. – New Delhi : Sarup & Sons. 2006 Edwards, Paul. â€Å"The Encyclopedia of Philosophy 8 Vols. New York. Macmillan Publishing co. , Jha, Gaurishankar, ed. , â€Å"Current Perspectives in Indian English Literature. New Delhi : Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. , 2006 Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake. New Delhi : Harper Collins Publishers Ltd. , 2007. Vol. II. Issue. IV Th traditional Indian names, food items, cooking details and wardrobe lists providing the Indian an ethnic touch. In Lahiri’s novel The Namesake the role of memory in a process of change is often used by the writer in an effective way. Memory plays tricks on all of us.Memory often idealises its perception of a place to convince oneself t hat there is one entity which remained constant in world of flux. Food in the novel is a talisman, a reassuring bit of the homeland to cling to. Spices and flavor waft through like themes in a piece of music as evidenced by the following passage. †¦with the samosas, there are breaded chicken, cutlets, chickpeas with tamarind sauce, lamb biriyani, chutney made with tomatoes from the garden. (The Namesake 148) Lahiri uses food as a tool to explain Bengali culture: and also tries to distinguish it from other cultures.For example : †¦. Gogol’s annaprasan, his rice ceremony thre is no baptism for Bengali babies, No ritualistic naming in the eyes of God. Instead, the first formal ceremony of their lives centers around the consumption of Solid food. (The Namesake 38) Ashima is shocked to see whiskey and wine bottles instead of cereals and tea on top of the refrigerator in Judy’s house. Here Lahiri emphasizes cultural difference through food. Lahiri is keenly sensiti ve to the fine ruptures and sudden disjunctures which make the familiar alien, which delink one from the ies of humanity, family kin leaving one with the acute sense of being alone. She maps the emotional lines of her characters. Lahiri’s elegant prose guides us through their lives. Toward the end of the novel Gogol’s mother, Ashima, thinks, â€Å"They are not willing to accept, to adjust, to settle for something less than their ideal of happiness† That pressure has given way, in the case of the subsequent generation, to American common sense†. The perpetual tensions between cultures, between individual minds, between the mind and the world beyond it, runs through this empathetic, beautiful novel. eC rit 8 er io n December 2011 www. the-criterion. com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN-0976-8165 Naikar, Basavaraj, ed. â€Å"Indian English Literature. Vol. 2† New Delhi : Atlantic Publisher & Distributors. , 2002. Patel, Vibhuti. â€Å"Interview : The Maladies of Belonging†. Newsweek International, 20 Sep 1999. Prasad, Amarnath, and John Peter Joseph. â€Å"Indian Writing in English : Critical Ruminations. New Delhi : Sarup & Sons. , 2006 Shankar, Radhika. â€Å"A writer Free to write All Day† . http. //www. rediff. com/news/1999/aug23 Vol. II. Issue. IV Th 9 e C rit December 2011 er io n

Regression of the Human Race

As the human race ‘evolves' and progresses it has created an environment unsuitable for the generations to come. This Darwinist environment promotes the ideals of a ‘dog-eat-dog' world, in which one person's ambitions are more important than another human beings. People strive for the ideal life in which money is not an issue, so the matter of living comfortably is not a problem. To live comfortably is an idea of life without worry of matters such as starving, fiscal responsibility, and lord shelter.In order to achieve this life without worry, many people have progressed in heir businesses and technologies further improving the civilization, but at the cost of the environment around them. At the rate in which the human race is depleting its natural resources, future generations are going to struggle living at the same standards of the current human race. For example, since natural fuel sources are depleting which most transport vehicles depend upon, the price of gas will most likely escalate even more and less people will be able to afford the costs of owning a gas powered vehicle.However, the depletion of resources is the least to worry about; the use of all gasoline yields arbor dioxide. This carbon dioxide rises into the atmosphere and slowly tears away at the ozone layer by reacting with the chemical: ozone. As the ozone layer depletes, more of the sun's harmful and heating rays penetrate the Earth warming it. If too much of the ozone is depleted, the globe's average temperature will rise and throw nature off balance. Areas around the Earth's equator are already feeling its effects.Drought plagues the agricultural industry of the United States, especially Texas, because lack of water does not allow for the prosperity of crops and livestock. The human race is also digressing socially. Disease, illness, and starvation plagues third-world countries around the world while people in first-world nations worry about their ‘Faceable statuses' and ‘Twitter feeds. ‘ Economic classing also burdens the modern human race. For instance, one percent of America's population controls more than one-third of the United States' wealth.About fifty million people live below the poverty line which is a fiscal value of one person living with about twelve thousand dollars a year. ‘The rich get richer, while the poor get poorer. ‘ More and more people Join the impoverished population every year, but very little people Join he wealthy populations. Corruption also burdens several national governments. Foreign relations tend to be negative and war is constantly underway. Russia recently invaded Crimea and claimed the territory to attain peace, but a nation's rights were still violated.Another world war can erupt Just as easily as the first and second wars took place. Both of the world wars greatly impacted the environments the human race occupies, for example Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Earth has been infested by a parasi te that is sucking the life out of it and depleting all its natural resources. This parasite is the human race. Humans constantly tear down forests, mine its natural resources leaving huge gaping holes in the planet, and send tons of debris into the Earth's atmosphere further damaging the planet.Several species of animals have gone extinct due to the massive eradication of ecosystems throughout the world to harvest natural resources. Animals are becoming endangered because their natural habitats can no longer sustain life when their sources of shelter, food, and water are gone. The theory of Darwinism comes into play; if an animal cannot survive in an environment it must adapt to the new hangs, for if it does not the animal will and should die. Unfortunately, the human race most likely will not be able to adapt to a world consumed by water.As the global temperature rises, polar ice caps melt at increasing rates and increase the sea level, the â€Å"looming catastrophe. â€Å"(Rich ard 1) Beaches are growing smaller and smaller each year, and eventually the water will engulf major cities, such as New York. In fact, Hurricane Sandy would not have been as disastrous at it was if the sea level was lower. As human civilization ‘progresses' it is slowly destroying the only planet suitable or sustaining human life. Why grow a tree? It only makes the oxygen humans need to breathe in order to survive and function at fullest capacity.Greed for power and money has plagued human civilization and will ultimately lead to the extinction or near extinction of humanity. The lack of care for fellow humans, animals, and the Earth is destroying the planet. The human race will have to start all over again as it depletes all of the Earth's natural resources and destroys the only planet humans exists on, as far as evidence shows. However, ignorance also plays a big part in the extraction of human civilization; people deny the existence of global warming and justify their dest ruction of the globe.Work Cited Agency, Environmental Protection. Sustainability. N. D. Weapon. 5 May 2014.. This weapon explains the difficulties concerning sustainability of the current human population at the rate at which it is depleting the earth's resources. Anderson, Richard. Resource depletion: Opportunity or looming catastrophe? 1 1 June 2012. Document. 5 May 2014. This weapon provides several articles and studies concerning sustainability of the current human population as well as the effects of human resource depletion.