Analysis Of The Article Navigability And Improvement Of...

In the article, â€Å"Navigability and Improvement of the River Thames, 1605-1805, published in the Geographical Journal in June 2010, Stuart Oliver analyzed the bureaucratic system established to make improvement to re-engineer and enhance the flow of navigation on the Thames. The Thames has been an integral part of England and has been one of the most important trade and transport routes since ancient times. It is the longest river in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom, running approximately 215 miles long. Throughout history the river has been used to carry all kinds of goods for sale to the city. Riverboats, barges, and small boats ferried people from one location to another. These activities created massive congestion on†¦show more content†¦The river was engineered for the economic benefits of London’s bureaucrats and â€Å"the engineering structures that it entailed subjected the river to disciplinary control, and allowed the more efficient flow of the river, (and the goods it carried) reworking it in accordance with the priorities of a hidden geography of value.† The economic value of the Thames was enormous and the commercial activities it generated were threatened by the ongoing problem of congestion. The geographic location of the Thames was significant during this period when London was growing fast. The river was a source of wealth for the bureaucrats who controlled its administration, the industrialists ¸ and capitalists who relieved on the river to bring their goods to consumers. Maintaining order on the Thames had been a priority for the English dating as far back as the Magna Carta. In the twelfth century, the English authorities established the Corporation of London to administer the use of the Thames waterways and navigation. The London authorities codified a series of legislation acts to regulate the use of the water and improve the river. Oliver argued that the improvements on the Thames made it more navigable and provided economic opportunities for the City of London and the people living along the river route. Oliver’s strongest argument was that the

Healthcare and Poverty in America Free Essays

The Dire Need for Universal Health Care The United States is considered by many to be the greatest country in the world. However, when it comes to health care the US is ranked behind 36 other countries, according to the World Health Organization. If one was to do any research at all, they would find that an overwhelming 34 of these 36 countries all have one thing in common. We will write a custom essay sample on Healthcare and Poverty in America or any similar topic only for you Order Now They all use a universal health care system. This is not just a mere coincidence. The problems and outrageous cost within the US healthcare system causes over 700,000 Americans to go bankrupt every year. This staggering problem simply does not occur in any other industrialized countries. Accounting for these facts the United States needs to move quickly to embrace the ideas and adopt the policies of a universal healthcare system. Not only will this help improve the quality of care but will also improve the life of its estimated 16. 3% or 50 million citizens without any healthcare insurance at all. An almost overwhelming problem caused by the United States’ current health care system is that those with low incomes can’t afford the necessary health care and thus already rely on occupations or government programs to receive coverage. This is evident if not by merely recognizing that 50 million citizens don’t have any health insurance, but also because the statistics clearly show that it is very uncommon for health insurance to be purchased directly by the individual. Using statistics taken by the US Census Bureau in 2010, we can conclude that of the 83. % of people with health insurance, the majority 55. 3% had it through employment –based benefits and 31. 0% were able to receive it through government funding. This compares to the measly 9. 8% of people that purchased their insurance directly from a provider. After examining this, it is evident that the vast majority of people rely on their employers or the government funding to keep health insurance. This fact clearly causes some problems when someone might be laid off or just simply makes a career change. Entire families can lose their health coverage due to the breadwinner being released from their job. The National Center for Health Statistics claims that over 50% of individuals lacking health insurance directly blame cost. Roughly 24% of uninsured people claim reasons related to a lost job or a change in employment. It is interesting to note that around 8% of people claim ineligibility for family insurance coverage due to age or leaving school. The primary reason for lacking insurance is money, and it could also be argued that money is directly or indirectly involved in almost every circumstance causing a family to lack the necessary health insurance to provide care. Several years ago in 2005 the NCHS began a study that found well over 40 million adults claiming that they were in need of but did not receive one or more of the health services that follow: medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses. The best reason these 40 million citizens didn’t receive such basic forms of healthcare was simply that they could not afford it. The United States is the only industrialized country that does not provide some type of universal health care to its citizens. Furthermore, they have one of the highest rates for health care expenditures in the world. As a matter of fact, health care expenditures in the United States are by far the highest of any developed country. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development the United States health care expenditures is at 15. 3% of GDP. Next highest in spending is Switzerland, at only 11. 6% of their national GDP. This leads one to believe that the United States does not spend health care money very efficiently. Even according to the Congressional Budget Office in 2006 there were an estimated one-third of health care expenditures that did not help improve health outcomes. That’s roughly 700 billion dollars, and represents nearly 5% of the United States entire GDP. The best solution that is currently being made to the United States healthcare system is what people informally call â€Å"Obamacare. † The actual name for the bill is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (abbreviated to PPACA or ACA). The PPACA has implemented a large amount of new rules and regulations regarding health care, with the purpose of making health care more affordable for everyone. There are some that stand in opposition of the PPACA. They argue that they believe these new rules and regulations take away too many freedoms and force people (both individuals and businesses) to do things they shouldn’t have to. However, politicians have concluded that the positive effects of the PPACA far outweigh any negatives. The positive effects that will come about from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are so numerable it would take hundreds of pages to discuss. One important change will come about by lifting the patent protections on prescription drugs. The bill allows the Food and Drug Administration to approve more generic drugs, thus causing competition in the market to drive the prices downward. This in itself would lower the United States drug prices from being an astounding 35% to 55% higher than other countries to actually being competitive at a fair market value. The PPACA has also made new regulations that place a limit on just how much of a percentage of the money an insurer makes can be profit, to make sure they’re not price-gouging customers. Obamacare† uses the philosophy that strictly regulating insurance companies profit margins will help prevent the health insurance price-gouging that has been running awry all over the United States. Helpless customers that desperately need to be insured have formerly had little to no control over the greedy insurance providers. The PPACA stepping in and regulating should be viewed more as a protection for the consumer that a hindrance to the insurance suppliers. The PPA CA also places new regulations on what new health plans have to offer. For example, insurance providers are now required to provide preventive care without requiring any sort of charge at all. Before this new regulation was put in place many health providers did not cover cost or still charged fees for things such as mammograms, colonoscopies, and many other forms of screening that would be unaffordable to many in the lower class. Requiring preventive care coverage should better the quality of health care provided in the US, especially to those at or below the poverty line. In conclusion, upon seeing the problems the current United States healthcare system creates for citizens struggling in or right above the poverty line, upon taking a glance at other countries healthcare systems that seem to be more efficient and less expensive, and upon already experiencing the positive changes that have come from implementing rules and regulations that create a universal healthcare system, Americans should begin to finally agree that healthcare reform should be at the forefront of our minds. Not only to help all those stricken with poverty to receive care, but to improve the quality of healthcare for all Americans. Word Count: 1197 words How to cite Healthcare and Poverty in America, Essay examples

Music and Death Essay Example For Students

Music and Death Essay Aspcets of Death and Dying1/18/02Music and Death: The Songs and Deaths of Rockstars That Have Shocked the WorldMusic as we know it today is the voice of a generation. It gives us entertainment, and speaks out for a community of people in many ways. Most people listen to at least some sort of music, and serves a purpose in almost every facet of society. Just about any expression can be shared through music, inlcuding ideas and feelings about death. Music is used in various way when pertaining to death, including songs about how a death occurred, or songs at a service mourning a death. Whichever way you look at it, music serves an important purpose, and the songs about death and the death of certain performing artists has a great impact on society, especially the youth of society. It will be interesting to think about some of these songs and musicians, and the effect their short lives and music can have in our society. No matter which way you turn your head, your going to hear many different kinds of music. Many artists look to cover as many topics in their music, and death and dying is a topic that everyone in this world will sooner or later deal with, so it is a topic that it is covered. It is interesting when looking at Rap industry, and two artists come to mind right away when speaking about death. The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur are two rap artists who both have died within the last five years, and were both extremely popular. What one may look at is the fact that both seemed to have an idea that they were going to die right before they did, and it was not because of a terminal illness, it was in fact by being murdered. Tupac Shakur was a very popular artist, whose talents were respected by people who werent or arent even rap music fans. He was very young when he passed, at age 25, and there are still people who listen to his music toiday, and there are even some people who question his death even occurred. Many of his albums have thoughts of death and his lyrics represent these thoughts, as he questions how much faith he has left, and how he seems to know his time is coming to an end. One of his songs, titled only God can Judge me, talks about how there is death all around him, and how it is hard to keep positive in the light of friends passing. Now, when dealing with a popular rap artist who makes alot of money it is hard to judge his albums and lyrics at face value. But indeed he even insists that it is difficult to escape your hard past, no matter how much success comes forward. Some of his albums suggest his nature of knowing death as near, such as his album Me against the World, and 2pacalypse now. Not being a Rap fan it is hard for to judge what is going through his mind, but by reading some lyrics it is obvious that he believes that he has a hard life, and that death may be the only answer. The Notorious B.I.G. was a very famous rap star on the East Coast, and grew to nationwide fame. His lyrics exemplify death even further, as he seemed to never give up his gangster lifestyle. Before becoming famous he was a drug dealer, dealing Crack-Cocaine, so he was well aware of death as a fact of life. His lyrics were different from Tupacs in that most of his Death lyrics were about murder instead of his own death, that is until he started to believe that his death was imminent. Like Tupacs lyrics, his songs are way to graphic to quote here, but many of his songs had lyrics of him killing and in some rare cases even some sort of threats of torturing as well. It would be reasonable to believe that it was because of his lifestyle on the streets that made him think this way, as he did seem to be obsessed with murder and death. One of his albums was entitled Ready to Die, and it has songs on both side of the spectrum. The self titled song was about how is preparing to murder someone, and there was also a song called suicidal thoughts, which was about how bad his self image was, and about how he believed that he deserved to go to hell instead of Heaven because of all of his bad deeds. This song is particularly disturbing, since it gives graphic depictions of what his life would be like in heaven and then in hell, and it seems like he has a true belief in how bad he really is. Narrative Perception EssayEach one of these artists has a different story, but they all ended the same, with a tragic and early death. Each artist was still in his 20s, and each artist has touched many fans around them. The importance of their deaths is clear, that it gives the general popular culture a sense of what death is and that it truly exists out there. All four of these deaths have touched the senses in different ways, one being a suicide, one being an accidental overdose, and two being murders. In essence it is obviously not good that these artists deaths came so early, but at least it is a warning sign for the rest of the world, in that it proves that everyone dies sometime, and that no one is invincible. These people all lived extravagent lifestyles, and they all learned the lessons of life the hard way. Each death has been like an overdose of reality to the popular culture, and has grounded everyone whose lives they have touched. Anything that popular recording artists do is going to be documented and looked at by the general public. When one of them actually dies, especially at a young age and in a tragic way, it is going to have some sort of impact on societys popular culture, if not the entire public. Sales suggest that death is even good thing for an artists career, believe it or not. Jimi Hendrix, a legendary guitarist and performing artist summed it nicely saying, Once youre dead, your made for life. In death, many of these artists sales soar to the top of the charts, as shown by music from the recenlty deceased Aaliyah and Beetles legend, George Harrison. Bob Marley, who died in 1981, is still the best selling Reggae artist in the world. Artists like the Doors and Elvis Presly have also thrived post mortem. All of this proves that even in death, the music goes on, and people are still touched by the work of the dead. There are many ways to grasp and view death as a fact of life, and death in the music industry. Some artists portray death in their actual music, and others just give us a look at death by their lifestyle and how they eventual die. One thing has become clear: That the lives and deaths of famous peerforming artists will touch the general public in more than one way. When a performance artist has died, the public rallies around them, and buys and listens to their music to supoort the deceased and their families. When a performance artist sings about death and their views or brushes with death, it gives society a chance to see what people think about death, and how they may handle an apparent death or the thought that their own life is about to come to an end. Death is something that every person is going to have to deal with at some point or another in their lives. To the people who have never had someone close to them die, the death of a celebrity can be the next closest way for that person to experience and learn to deal with death. The deaths of the four artists mentioned touched the public in different ways. Brad Nowell was an aspiring artist who was just making it to the top when it all came crashing down. Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. were both already on top and their lifestyles of violence led to their demise. And the Kurt Cobain was a small town guy who didnt want all of the fame and his psyche crumbled as he comitted suicide. Each one of these deaths and the music brought from these artists gives us a sense of what it is like to die the way each of these people did. To alot of fans, when their favorite artist dies, a very small part of them dies, and it brings a rebirth to reality, on how life should be lived and that the industry is only entertainment, and not the way to a fulfulling life. In the end music cannot be a way of life, but it can lead to inspiration towards leading a good life, and gives comfort and hope towards that goal. Words/ Pages : 2,208 / 24