Juan Rulfos Pedro Paramo and Religion :: Juan Rulfo Pedro Paramo Essays

Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo and Religion    In the novel Pedro Paramo, Juan Rulfo uses religiousness as a characteristic that contrasts with the characters lack of moral codes and lack of faith normally attributed to religion. The people in the town of Comala are obsessed with the afterlife and prayer, and they even attend church regularly, but these are just habits that have lost their original meaning. Rulfo uses these symbolic activities to make the charactersÕ dichotomous nature more apparent. Father Renter'aÕs occupation, the town priest, demands integrity, purity, and the power to believe his own teachings. Father Renter'a might, at one time, have had those attributes but something changed him. The realization and consequences of his own conflictive nature haunt Renter'a, and the town subconsciously senses his anguish, thus shedding light on ComalaÕs religious and psychological condition. A question arises about Renter'aÕs disillusionment with religion: Did the townspeople make Renter'a cynical or did his doubts lead them astray? I think it was more of the former, and the catalyst in Renter'aÕs religious failing was just one man: Miguel Paramo. Miguel Paramo killed Father Renter'aÕs brother and raped Renter'aÕs niece Ana. These events were merely taken in stride with Renter'aÕs philosophy of Ã’never hate anyoneÓ but it was the death of Miguel that dashed Renter'aÕs religious beliefs. Father Renter'a performed the funeral ceremony and did not offer a final benediction partly for selfish reasons of revenge, using his pastoral robe as a barrier. Disregarding Renter'aÕs condescending remarks of Miguel, Pedro Paramo offered gold to the priest as restitution, or a bribe, and said, Ã’Weigh him and forgive him, as perhaps God has forgiven him.Ó At ParamoÕs defiance, Renter'a realized that his religious power was no longer effective or revered in Comala, because ParamoÕs gold was now the controlling force in the land. Crushed and depressed, Renter'a no longer felt worthy of his office; Ã’What has their faith won them? Heaven? Or the purification of their souls? And why purify their souls anyway, at the last momentÉÓ Renter'a had lost all faith in his religion and himself. As if he had failed a test, he says, Ã’Alright Lord, you win.Ó Father Renter'a represents the constant struggle a person has to maintain personal integrity against outside corruption and personal vices.

Quality Insurance

Quality Improvement Plan: Part III – Managing and Improving Quality In today’s health care environment, competition remains high and many organizations are seeking new ways to improve their quality of care, as well as remain competitive with other health care organizations in the process. Various methods exist today for organizations to integrate quality improvement strategies to help in the measurement of performance improvements.This paper will discuss:1) several methodologies, the pros and cons that exist with these methods, 2) describe information technology applications, how they may be used to improve patient falls, 3)discuss how benchmarking and milestones are involved in managing the use of quality indicators, and finally,4) describe how performance and quality measures are aligned to an organization’s mission, vision, and strategic plan, and how these measurements align with Self-Regional Hospital’s mission, vision, and strategic plan for improvem ent. Methods for Quality Improvement StrategiesAccidental Falls have become the most commonly reported incident in hospitals today, and Self-Regional Hospital is no exception. Recently, Self-Regional researched and gathered specific fall data that included â€Å"mobility/gait, lower-extremity strength, history in fractures, visual, or auditory impairments, dizziness, dehydration, depression, stroke, ischemic attacks, and cardiac arrhythmias† and the role they play with patient falls in the organization (The Joint Commission, 2007, p. 26). They are now in the process of researching various methodologies to help manage and improve this area of concern.Several concepts that concern total quality management (TQM), and quality improvement (QI) are offering health care organizations and their administrators the opportunity to decide which methodology would be most successful in improving quality care for their patients. There are three methodologies Self-Regional is considering: 1) Six Sigma, 2) Lean, and 3) Customer Inspired Quality (CIQ). â€Å"One of the key components of quality improvement is the technology that gathers and compares the data that the quality improvement measure produces† (Dlugacz, 2006).Once this information has been gathered, the organization can benchmark with other comparable organizations. The Six Sigma model, pioneered by Motorola, is used to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying, and removing defects through a problem-solving approach that works to improve quality outputs. The Six Sigma methodology achieves this by using a process known as the DMAIC process (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control), for existing quality processes that are below specifications, and are in need of improvement in increments.There are features with Six Sigma that separates it from other initiatives of quality improvement: * Clear focus on achieving measurable and quantifiable financial returns * Increased emphasis on stron g leadership and support * Special Infrastructure of â€Å"Champions,† to lead and implement the Six Sigma approach * Clear commitment to making decisions based on verifiable data, rather than assuming or guess work (Harry, 2000). The second model is Lean, which played a key role for Toyota’s success.This method is used to help reduce or alleviate waste, while working to improve an organization’s performance through their workflow processes. Organization’s that use Lean have a clear understanding of consumer value, and continuously will focus on the key processes to improve it. Their goal is to provide excellent value to the consumer, by developing an excellent value process that has zero waste. Lean offers the organization the opportunity to identify steps in a quality improvement process, and then identify the steps that are valuable and non-valuable.Once the non-valued steps have been identified they will be removed to prevent waste in the process (Lea n Enterprise Institute, 2009). The Customer Inspired Quality method is the last method for quality improvement that Self-Regional is considering. In 1992, Shaw Resources patented this methodology to focus on work processes that have direct impact on the care and services that hospitals provide. The Customer Inspired Quality methodology identifies, defines, analyzes, and improves the quality and effectiveness of processes in the health care environment with an emphasis on the following work process evaluating components: Integrates department services that are related to defined systems concerning care * Improves productivity and efficiency, while reducing unneeded work processes and costs * Can be implemented as short-term or long-term quality improvement processes * Patient loyalty and satisfaction is enhanced (Shaw Resources, n. d. ). Pros and Cons of Quality Improvement Methodologies There are always pros and cons to any quality improvement methodology. For instance, the pros of Six Sigma tend to place extreme importance on leadership and its support for the success of the project.Another pro is the integration of different human elements, which include cultural change, and focus on the customer and their needs. â€Å"By using the concept of statistical thinking, Six Sigma encourages applications of statistical tools and techniques that reduce variability† (Harry, 2000). The cons of Six Sigma include, not having the quality data available, especially when a new process has been implemented without having the data available. Often the solutions that Six Sigma proposes can be costly and only a small portion of the solution can be implemented.When using Six Sigma the choosing of the right project is critical to its success. The pros for Lean include: * Minimizing overhead cost to thirty percent * Eliminates most waste, if not all * Can improve productivity by eighty percent * Eliminates negative behaviors and employees have a clear objective of the orga nization’s expectations The Lean methodology’s cons include: * Can be difficult to attain support from all employees, due to resistance of change * Personality clashes can occur if some individuals do not take orders well from their co-workers Lean training is ongoing and in the beginning is time-consuming (Businessknowledgesource. com, 2010). The pros of the Customer Inspired Quality methodology include: * Quality improvement efforts are prioritized based on the customer’s needs * Friendly and encourages input from employees The main con with the Customer Inspired Quality method is that is structured primarily for health care organizations. Information Technologies for Quality Improvements Information technology plays a major role when it comes to quality improvement methods used by health care organizations.Self-Regional Hospital has implemented software known as Business Objects. The components of Business Objects â€Å"provide performance management, planni ng, reporting, query and analysis, and enterprise information management† (Sap. com, 2008). The Business Objects Enterprise offers the organization the ability to track report instances by triggering alerts. The reports have parameters that can be modified to perform analysis on the data and the organization also has the ability set alerts that trigger when certain conditions are met or not met.The data can be customized to show in charts and can be customized to allow the organization the opportunity to drill down into the data. Information technology allows data to also be displayed in a dashboard or a scorecard. A dashboard is a tool that monitors the ongoing performance of a process and its data in real time. Whereas, scorecards report on past performances and generally focuses on outcomes rather than processes. All of these applications can be used by administrators to track quality improvement processes of the organization.Administrators also have the ability to design t he scorecards or dashboards to display only information that is pertinent to the process. These processes would also give Self-Regional the ability to examine data that pertains to patient falls within their organization. Benchmarks and Milestones Benchmarking is a process that gives an organization the ability to compare their performance metrics and processes to other organization’s best practices. In other words, benchmarking is the process of an organization comparing itself to their competitors and defines how the competition performs better.In health care, when an organization has a clear understanding of how their competitor/s meets their standards, they can set goals for quality improvements within their own organization. Benchmarking is beneficial for improving customer satisfaction, as well as improve core measurements set by the Joint Commission. Self-Regional Hospital can use benchmarking as a means to compare how hospitals rate on patient falls and what processes they have set in place to improve in this area. The hospital would benefit by using the website â€Å"hospitalcompare. hs. gov to research on patient satisfaction, quality improvement outcomes, and where they rate in these areas as well. Potential benchmarks Self-regional will strive for improved core measures at 90% for patient falls. Another area the organization will strive for is to improve patient safety. In order for the hospital to do this they will need to continue to implement the processes that support the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals, and implement quality improvement processes that will involve the organization as a whole.Self-Regional will also implement computerized provider order entry (CPOE), and will also begin the process of extending the goals to the emergency department and critical care areas. The third bench mark will be to enhance the patient’s experience by using the DMAIC model to understand and support the emotional, spir itual, and clinical needs of the patients. Self-Regional Hospital will use the Customer Inspired Quality Methodology for implementing their performance improvement processes with patient falls. Data will be comprised from Crystal reports to display balanced scorecards and dashboards.The organization will divide the dashboards into the Extending Elements, team, clinical, service, market, and finance. This information will be used in conjunction with information from benchmarking data to monitor the quality improvement plan. Health care organization’s use performance and quality measures to align their products and service activities with their mission, vision, and strategic planning to help improve their internal and external communications, as well as monitor the organization performance against their strategic goals.Self-Regional Hospital’s mission, vision, and strategic planning is aligned with their performance and quality measures to provide continuous advanced qua lity care that will improve their patient outcomes, while focusing on patient satisfaction in the process. APA References Dlugacz, Y. D. (2006). Measuring Health Care Using Data for Operational, Financial, and Clinical Improvement, San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass Publications Harry, Mikel J. (2000). The Nature of Six Sigma Quality.Rolling Meadows, Illinois: Motorola University Press. p. 25 Lean Enterprise Institute, (2009). What is Lean? Retrieved on September 26, 2011 from http://www. lean. org/WhatsLean/ Shaw Resources, (n. d. ). Customer Inspired Quality: Health Care Operational Improvements, Retrieved on September 26, 2011 from http://shawresources. com/ customer-inspired-quality-and-processes-improvement. htm Sap. com (2008). Retrieved on September 26, 2011, from http://www. sap. com/ solutions/sapbusinessobjects/index. epx

Is India Safe for India Women? Essay

Woman is the builder and moulder of a nation’s destiny. Though delicate and soft as a lily, she has a heart, far stronger and bolder than of man.She is the supreme inspiration for man’s onward march, an embodiment of love, pity and compassion, she is no doubt, her commanding personality; nevertheless, is given by solemn.Our women have a very great part to play in the progress of our country, as the mental and physical contact of women with life is much more lasting and comprehensive than that of men. Not for nothing was it said that ‘the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’. In the apron strings of woman is hidden the revolutionary energy which can establish paradise on this earth.Women have generally been looked down upon with disdainful contempt. All sorts of strictures have been inflicted upon them, reducing their status to a mere play thing or a slave of man’s whims, a mere chattel to be dumb driven. They have been confined to the hearth a nd home. The orthodox male-oriented society in India has still not been able to adjust itself to the fresh wave of women’s liberation .But ours is still a male-dominated society. Women still continue to be exploited. There are still places where women are beaten, raped, and murdered without so much as a second thought practices.India is one of these places. A place that is both progressive on paper and in some urban areas but are also far behind in practice and in rural communities. What progress has already been made to protect women in India and what still needs to be done to ensure the equal treatment of women in all areas of India? Violence against women and girls represents a global health, economic development, and human rights problem. At least one out of every three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime, with rates of domestic violence reaching 70% in some countries. This abuse of women and their rights is something more developed countries are taking very seriously. Over 7,000 women in India will be murdered by their family or their husband’s family because of arguments about dowries. Violence against women is rooted in a global culture of discrimination which denies women equal rights with men and which legitimizes the appropriation of women’s bodies for individual gratification or political ends. Every year, violence in the home and the community devastates the lives of millions of women. The study of why and how women are treated they way they have been is a fairly recent study.In practice they are being denied their rights and privileges. In practical life they are neither given equal rights, or status nor opportunities.5ons are given preference and better treatment while daughters are considered as curse and liabilities. Their marriage is still a big problem and parents have to arrange for large dowries to get their daughters married. In some parts of the country the girl-infants are still killed. Women are still raped, molested, ill-treated humiliated, forced to adopt prostitution and burnt alive by their greedy in-laws. Even the educated and employed women have to depend on their husbands or in-laws for money etc. Employed women are the worst sufferers as they have to work hard both at home and in the office. Moreover, they don’t have control on their purses and earnings. a woman as a daughter, wife, mother, widow etc., has to live in eternal economic slavery. She is still actually not free to choose and make her destiny. They should rise in a body and wage a relentless struggle against injustice in its various forms. They should never think in terms of weaker and fair sex. The weak and helpless are destined to be ever exploited and discriminated against, they will have to raise, struggle and sweat for their rights, freedom, empowerment and economic independence. There is no room either for complexes or complacency. They should refuse to be treated as sex objects, a thing of domestic utility, as anatomically inferior or a movable biological asset of man in marriage. They should refuse to be used as sex- symbols and models to attract business. Let there be no beauty contests where they are used as instruments to attract attention sensually.

Abortion and Writing Professor Hyde

Technical and Business WritingProfessor Hyde The Advantages of Abortion? For many years, abortions have been performed and so has the controversy over abortion. Today, I have decided to write about the advantages of having an abortion. Some may argue that there are no advantages to having an abortion, but that’s what makes this topic such a debatable one. Abortions have been performed since the 1800’s. Not until the infamous decision of Roe v. Wade that abortions became legal medical procedures. It was also the year the United States Supreme Court recognized abortions as part of women’s civil rights. To the average person whether male or female, abortion should be against the law, but I beg to differ. Abortion gives couples the option to choose not to bring babies with severe and life-threatening medical conditions to full term. Aborted fetuses contribute to medical science through stem cell research that cure diseases and re-grow lost or damaged limbs. It’s almost like donating organs of the decease to someone alive in dire need. In cases of rape or incest, forcing a woman who was made pregnant by the violent act would cause further psychological harm to the victim. No child should be born into this world unwanted. Statistics show that unwanted children are raised in a home with no love or supervision. They become adults who commit crime and are sentenced to prison. Another reason women have abortions is they don’t have the financial resources needed to support a child. The majority of the population has Medicaid as health insurance coverage so termination of pregnancy can be free or low cost. If they decide to keep the baby and raise it, the cost to taxpayers could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I chose to title my paper â€Å"The Advantages of Abortions† because your life doesn’t have to stop because you chose to end your pregnancy. Women shouldn’t feel ashamed or embarrassed because they chose a different decision than most. An unplanned pregnancy may be a burden now, but years from now it may become a miracle or joy because you had a chance to grow and mature as a person. Before you can raise a child you need to finish raising yourself first.

An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of realist, neoliberal and Essay

An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of realist, neoliberal and social constructivist approach on European integration and European security - Essay Example Firstly, the end of the Cold War would increase relative gains concerns among the European states, creating barriers to cooperation. Secondly, institutions could not overcome this barrier to cooperation. (Smith, 2000, p.40). In Mearsheimer's view international institutions were 'merely an intervening variable in the process' by which the balance of power mechanism leads to war (Mearsheimer, 1995a, p.13). Neorealist Joseph Grieco (1995) argued that the successful negotiation of the Treaty on European Union (TEU, 1992) and Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) rebuked the neorealist theory that states hold international institutions in low esteem (Rosamond, 2000, p.133). Further, a more likely explanation of the EU's longevity was the post-Second World War balances of power politics (Rosamond, 2000, p.134). Grieco stated that throughout the last 20 years: Grieco's alternative hypothesis offered a potent explanation for the intensification of European integration in the 1980s/1990s. For Grieco EMU negotiations were an interstate bargain without initial supranational sponsorship. This questions how and why states came to choose the mode of EMU development in the TEU (Rosamond, 2000, p.134). "if states share a common interest and undertake negotiations on rules constituting a collaborative arrangement, then the weaker but still influential partners will seek to ensure that the rules so constructed will provide sufficient opportunities for them to voice their concerns and interests and thereby prevent or at least ameliorate their domination by stronger parties". (Grieco, 1995, p.35) The key question for Grieco was "why did the EC countries undertake such an ambitious risky, programme of institutional innovation as is envisioned by the Maastricht Treaty, and especially its elements on EMU" (Grieco, 1995, p.23) More specifically, Grieco argued that neorealism faced "an acute need" to explain why "key middle-rank" EU members, particularly France and Italy, decided to "join with a potentially hegemonic partner in an economic balancing coalition" (Grieco, 1996, p.304). Grieco proffered a revised neorealist argument about secondary states and the interests that might lead them to cooperate with stronger partners through international institutions (1995, p.24). There were economic and policy influence benefits for doing so (Grieco, 1996, p.287). The 'voice opportunities' associated with participation in institutions offered states a means both to encourage the 'compliance of stronger partners' and to address any unequal distributions of gains which may arise in the course of cooperation (Grieco, 1996, p.288). Grieco believed that 'neorealism should be amended to ascribe significance to institutions' because the 'voice opportun

Recent Global Economic crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Recent Global Economic crisis - Essay Example have stories to share with my off springs, whereby, I can tell them that I have seen the world economy booming as it has been over the past few years, and then see it moving down into deep recession somewhere from the mid of 2007. I seek tremendous interest in economy and economics, and this kind of a mega event is truly something that will not be forgotten in the books for a long time. My aspiration for this ‘mess’ comes from the times when I read about the Great Depression in various text books, saw pictures of those times, read analytics and various texts related to the strategies that led to it, how the affected and concerned people and groups tried formulating strategies to move out of the ‘mess’, the failing strategies, the successful strategies and so on. Other than that, what also aspired me was how nations fell into the ‘mess’ and how the magnitude of hit varied from nation to nation. Over all, that whole era was an aspiration to me, making me think how would I react under these circumstances as a common man, as a student, as a strategy formulator or even as a nation’s head. Though not a pleasant moment, but I have been given this chance to re-live the Great Depression and get a feel of things and how the difference can be made. Globalization: Globalization is the single variable that has turned the world into a global village, and merged the economies into a global economy. Thus, globalization is a critical concept while discussing the ‘messes. Conflict: Conflicts of interest and of thoughts and ideas is what actually leads to a ‘mess’ and this one is no exception. There is a big conflict of interest in the growing wealth of an individual vs. the growing wealth of a nation, as certain portion of the former has to be sacrificed as taxes for a nation, and as interest for banks to keep moving, as an example. National taxes are proportional to the wealth, but bank interest is similar to a clock that keeps ticking, irrespective of the

Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 10

Discussion - Essay Example Particularly in special education, the importance of curriculum increases manifolds. I remain very prudent in designing the curriculum and consult other teachers to make it the best. A teacher has to simultaneously address the needs of students coming from different backgrounds, cultures, religions, regions, and ethnicities. Taking this into consideration, a special educator needs to be very flexible in his/her approach as his/her intended way may not suit all of the students at the same time. I know quite a lot of languages and tend to teach a student in his/her mother tongue (if I know that) when he/she is finding difficulty grabbing the concept otherwise. In order to be popular among the students, a teacher should promote diversity in every possible way. Interpersonal and communication skills which happen to be the fourth attribute as identified by (Hughes and George-Walter) are indeed, the most important competencies in context of special education. When I appreciate the good work of students, they feel honored which raises their morale and self esteem so that they remain consistent in their hard work. Likewise, I remain very prudent while being strict with a student because if the strictness goes beyond the limit, it can have adverse impact on the child. Creativity and innovation in pedagogy is essential for making the lectures interesting and improving the ambiance of the educational environment. I keep looking into journals, newspapers, magazines and other sources of information to learn new ideas and techniques to make the lecture interesting. For example, when I feel the students are fed up of the blackboard teaching, I tend to shift towards moving image for teaching them. Innovation in pedagogical can be achieved with adequate use of technology (Sharples). †¦[IT] (ie technology) basically opens up a whole world of learning for everybody, you know. You can find, up, read up, on anything you want, like in a university