caring

2013-07-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

(Men's Health) - For the past few months our readers have been going crazy over two new free products that are helping men lose fat and get ripped in less than a month. Even celebrities like Daniel Craig and Gerard Butler have lost a ton of body fat and added an insane amount of muscle using these two products. These products are clinically proven to flush out the toxins in your body, melt away body fat and pack on tons of muscle. It's a deadly combo for getting insanely ripped. In this article, we'll tell you exactly why these products work and why they warrant a special report. We know that putting on muscle often feels like an impossible challenge. At Men's Health, we've evaluated numerous fad muscle programs and it seems like everything is expensive and nothing really works. The reason why most programs fail is because they impose unrealistic restrictions on your daily life. Some tell you to eat tons of protein while others emphasize the importance of carbohydrates. In either case, you have to make drastic changes to your regular diet. In this special report, we take an in-depth look at a new and promising trend that we think is easy to use and yields real results. The product we're talking about is Elevate GF. You may have seen this supplement in the news or on TV as the completely safe and powerful "secret" used by celebrities and body builders around the world. Today, we are leaking their secret and teaching you how to get muscular celebrity bodies for free. In this special report, you'll learn about these two promising new products, Elevate GF and NO2 Maximus. Gerard Butler uses muscle supplements like Elevate GF and NO2 Maximus to lose fat fast, while gaining extreme muscle. Elevate GF's high anti-oxidant content and powerful strength gaining properties make it a muscle- building machine. If you're feeling skeptical right now, you're not alone. When we first learned about this fat-burning/muscle-building combo our fad radar went off right away. Despite our doubts about Elevate GF, the countless success stories reported worldwide made us take a second look at this trend. What particularly interested us was the fact that these people saw results without having to significantly change their lifestyles or eating habits. Combine Elevate GF with NO2 Maximus and you've created an automatic muscle building machine. Jack Evans from London reported that he lost fat and gained 14 lbs of muscle in just 5 weeks using only the Elevate GF and combo muscle diet. On his blog he wrote, "I couldn't believe how easy it was. I didn't have to change my diet or my daily routine at all. I just took two pills a day and the fat melted off like butter and I literally got shredded. I now have muscles that I didn't even know existed. I even have a 6-pack now, which is the best part. The girls love it" At Men's Health, we decided to try the Elevate GF and NO2 Maximus diet for ourselves. For the test, I wanted to be the guinea pig because I was training to be in a fitness competition and needed to slim down and gain many pounds of muscle. To try out the diet, I decided to get a free trial of Elevate GF. Although there are many muscle supplement offers available, I chose this site because they are one of the most credible and trustworthy suppliers on the market. While most Elevate GF products use lower concentrations of the strength gaining extract, this supplier has one of the concentrated and purest products on the market. Everyone at Men's Health agreed that this product would give me the best results for my test. Elevate GF & NO2 Maximus have been featured in ESPN magazine highlighting olympic athletes performance and muscle gains. Elevate GF has been clinically proven to: (This is the first step in the process. This one is the hemo-dilator that builds lean muscle. It's completely legal, safe, and has none of the bad steroid-like side effects.) Enhance athletic performance and strength Pump more blood into muscles by expanding veins and capillaries Deliver nutrients to muscles at a faster rate, which quickly builds lean, solid mass Give muscles more definition and size Have positive sexual side effects (I'm not even kidding. my favorite muscle seems bigger too. Probably from the expanded blood vessels) Although we were pretty skeptical, we wanted to find out for ourselves if the supplements could do everything it claimed. Most of the success stories we heard about combined Elevate GF with an additional amino acid supplement to achieve maximum muscle goals. The idea is that the NO2 Maximus will help you lose most of the weight and gain energy while the amino acid supplement will take off the hard to lose fat and allow your body to burn calories more efficiently. After further research, we chose to test NO2 Maximus as our secondary supplement. (This is the fat burner and detoxifier. Now this is the key! Taking Elevate GF in the morning and NO2 Maximus later on really sped up my shred.) Increase the number of calories burned Fights free radical damage to muscles Have higher antioxidant levels than pomegranates and blueberries Increase energy and fight fatigue Burn calories even at rest Get rid of bloated "puffy" look Boost metabolism Clean out/detox colon which leads to serious weight loss and increase energy Help give muscles shape and definition Both Elevate GF and NO2 Maximus arrived within 4 days of having placed my order online for the free trials and were inexpensive to ship. To test out the product, I took one Elevate GF pill every morning and one NO2 Maximus pill every evening for 4 weeks. 1. Take one Elevate GF pill per day (in the morning) 2. Take one NO2 Maximus pill per day (in the evening) These Were My Results - 15 lbs of Muscle In Just 1 Month Week One: After 1 week on the new routine, I was surprised by how fast and dramatic the effects were. My energy level was up and I wasn't as hungry as I usually was. This is a welcomed side effect of Elevate GF and its power to curb appetite. I honestly felt fantastic and best of all, I didn't have to change anything about my daily routine. On Day 7, I got on the scale (this new digital scale that measures fat and muscle composition) and couldn't believe my eyes--I had gained 2.5 lbs in muscle mass. But still I wasn't completely convinced. They say that in the beginning of some muscle programs, you lose a lot of water weight and gain a lot of muscle. I wanted to see if I would still gain this much muscle in the upcoming weeks. But it sure was looking up! I now weighed under 155 pounds for the first time in years! Week Two: After 2 weeks of using both supplements I had more energy and was sleeping more soundly than ever. I wasn't waking up in the middle of the night or tossing and turning because my body was able to relax (a result of the supplements' detoxifying properties, I think). I also managed to lose another 7 pounds of fat, putting me at an unbelievable 150 lbs in just 2 weeks. I could also feel a 6-pack coming through, which my girlfriend loved. Hell yeah! At this point I started to put more faith in these muscle products as more than just a gimmick. Week Three: After 3 weeks, all my doubts and skepticisms had vanished! I had gained 12.5 lbs of pure muscle and had lost 8 pounds of fat. All the fat on the sides of my stomach were completely gone. My stomach was so defined I finally had a 6-pack! These products are just amazing. I lost a ton of fat and the muscle gains are UNREAL. I still had a lot of energy as well. Usually around the third week of other diets you tend to run out of steam. But with Elevate GF and NO2 Maximus my energy levels didn't dip. Instead, they remained steady throughout the day! I even noticed that my stomach was digesting food better, no bloating or embarrassing gas after I ate. Week Four: After the fourth week, I was completely shocked by my final results. I gained an unbelievable 16 lbs of muscle mass since starting the Elevate GF and NO2 Maximus routine! Everyone at Men's Health wants to try the diet now. In week 4 I lost 7 more lbs of fat on top of the 16 lbs of muscle I had gained. I was ready and confident for the fitness competition. I am definitely going to continue taking Elevate GF because it produces consistent, amazing results and has so many other muscle building compounds which help with muscle memory and maintaining mass. I couldn't be any happier with the results. I gained 16 lbs of muscle in 4 weeks . No Special Diet, No Intense Exercise. I gained 16 lbs of muscle in 4 weeks. No Special Diet, No Intense Exercise. In conclusion, if you want to lose fat and gain muscle mass but are doubtful about the effects of this routine, you need to try it for yourself. From my own experiment for Men's Health, we can tell you that the results are real. We at Men's Health had our own doubts initially, but we were quickly turned into believers. After conducting our own studies, we are also pleased to see that people are really finding success with this diet. You can reach your weight loss goals with the Elevate GF and NO2 Maximus combo diet,

Families Struggle to Delete Loved Ones' Online Presence After Death - ABC News

2011-12-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

Families Struggle to Delete Loved Ones' Online Presence After Death - ABC News

HOW TO BUILD YOURMENTAL MUSCLES

2011-10-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

While many people vow to get in shape
physically, not many commit to exercising their
mental muscles. What does exercising your
mental muscles even mean? It means expanding
your horizons, opening new doors, looking at
different possibilities, stretching your mind…It will
help you grow as a person. Give you a new
outlook on life. And set you on a path to feeling a
little more fulfilled. For isn’t that the ultimate goal
of any resolution? A sense of accomplishment.
Pride. Satisfaction.
Our conscious mind is made up of six mental
muscles. Some people call these your higher
faculties. It really doesn’t matter what you call
them. What’s good to remember is that they are
part of you, and you can develop each one to
create more awareness in your life and improve
your results.
YOU HAVE SIX MENTAL MUSCLES
Perception
You can develop your ability to view your world
differently. You can decide how circumstances
will affect your life. You can develop better ways
to perceive your reality. Don’t look at things from
one point of view; look at them from many
points of view. Look at some of the things you
want to do today and think of how many points
of views you can look at them. Doing this daily
exercise will help you improve this mental
muscle.
Imagination
There is a power flowing into you that can allow
you to create big ideas. The power of your
imagination is more powerful than all the nuclear
power present in the world today. The ability to
dream is probably one of the most under-used
tools we have at our disposal. If you are like most
people, this muscle was squashed when you
were a kid. However, this mental muscle can be
developed at any age. Understand that everything
we have today was a picture/thought in the mind
of one person at one time, even the company
you work for. Go wild with your imagination,
build a picture of how you want your life to be
and put it on a piece of paper. Do this everyday.
Willpower
This is the muscle that allows you to concentrate.
Most people are easily taken off course because
they have never developed this muscle. You have
the power to mentally focus on your goals and
never be taken off track because of your current
circumstances, environment, or situation. A daily
exercise to help you develop your concentration,
it’s the will you concentrate with. Put a black dot
opposite your favorite chair; concentrate on that
dot for 5 minutes. Bring your mind to
concentrate on that dot till you become one with
the dot. Don’t feel bad if your mind wanders, but
just bring it back to concentrate on that dot. You
learn to concentrate on one thing; you will be able
to concentrate on anything. All the pros in any
field have the ability to concentrate. Concentration
increases the amplitude of vibration and you will
be able to give real power to your thoughts.
Concentration is the
key to success and it is done with the will.
Intuition
This is often referred to as your sixth sense. You
have the ability to pick up information through
your intuition in a way that is unexplainable by
modern science. Oddly, women seem to have a
more highly developed sense of intuition than
men, but men do have it.
Memory
You have a perfect memory. You never forget
anything. You may need training as to how to
retrieve it through your conscious mind, but it is
perfect. You need to exercise this mental muscle.
Reason
You can think. You have the ability to accept or
reject an idea; reason is what you use to decide.
You can use your reason to accept or reject any
ideas.
We were all perfect when we were born. The
position we are in today is because of our past
programming/experiences. The good news is we
can change our life and the change comes
through awareness. When we become aware of
our current situation, we will change the way we
do things.
WAYS TO BUILD YOUR MENTAL MUSCLES
There are three simple things you can do to
ensure a robust, active, open mind:
Read something new – If you’ve always been a
fiction lover, pick up a non-fiction book today.
Give it a try. And don’t just read … digest it. Think
about it. Look up what you don’t understand. We
process different writing styles differently – the
premise of fiction is it’s not real; and when it isn’t
real it doesn’t really matter that much, does it? It’s
entertaining. Non-fiction tends to be more
thought-provoking. If, on the other hand, you
enjoy the grit and the drama of real life, lap up all
the news you can, and read every journal, take
the weekend off to indulge in some fantasies. Let
your mind embark on a new voyage. Get out of
your comfort zone – let those neurons snap new
connections.
Change sides – Believe in something staunchly?
Ready to debate it to death? Try reversing roles –
take the opposite side. I’ve found that the best
way to really understand an issue is to be
objective and put myself in the adversary’s
shoes. Research the subject, gather the
information, arm yourself with the various
viewpoints, and then figure it out. You might still
continue to believe what you originally did,
maybe even more strongly, but it’s after you’ve
analyzed all aspects of the issue. Go ahead try it –
it’ll feel like you’re feasting on an intellectual buffet.
Observe people – there are so many things you
can learn about your own behavior simply by
observing – not judging – other people. Eye
movements, body language, frowns, smiles,
laughter, posture. Notice how they converse, the
inflections in their voice, the tone, the pitch. See if
they’re really paying attention or feigning it. Put
yourself under the microscope. Hold a mirror.
See through the exterior. Maybe you’ll learn
something new about yourself. It’ll give you
some food for thought and perhaps even be a
good source of entertainment the next time
you’re sitting by yourself outside a coffee shop.
It doesn’t cost any (or much) money. It’s easy.
And it’s fun.
Just as it’s important to keep your body fit, it’s
equally important, if not more so, to keep your
mind limber.
Don’t resolve to do it.
Just do it.
Got other tips to broaden your mind and give
those muscles a workout?
Do share.

season greating

2011-01-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

Am taking this medium to wish you my follows a merry Christmas and Happy new year in Advance.

2011-01-14T02:55:00.001-08:00

2011-01-14T02:42:00.001-08:00

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A.C. Milan

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Leopold Sedar Senghor’s Concept of Negritude

2010-11-24T09:24:00.001-08:00

Leopold Sedar Senghor’s Concept of Negritude

Leopold Sedar Senghor believes that every African shares certain distinctive and innate characteristics, values and aesthetics. In the poem ‘New York’, Senghor argues that the black community of Harlem should ‘Listen to the far beating of your nocturnal heart, rhythm/ and blood of the drum’ and ‘let the black blood flow into/ your blood’.(1.) The word nocturnal is interesting because it refers to the image of night. By using the imagery of night, Senghor is asserting that one’s African heritage (one’s Blackness) is both inescapable and natural (like night-time). Negritude is the active rooting of an Black identity in this inescapable and natural African essence.(2.) The major premise of Negritude is therefore that one’s biological make-up (race) defines one’s outer (skin colour) as well as inner (spirit/essence) traits. Negritude is a concept which holds that there is a ‘shared culture and subjectivity and spiritual essence’ among members of the same racial group.(3.) As Irele explains, there is a ‘parallel between this conception and the racial doctrines propounded in Europe, presenting the Negro as an inherently inferior being to the white man, and which provided the ultimate ideological rationale for Western imperialism’.(4.) Instead of rejecting the (colonialist) theory that race defines one’s being; Negritude rejects the assumption that the African is inherently inferior to the “white man”. To Senghor, this makes Negritude a weapon against colonialism and an ‘instrument of liberation’.(5.)

To Senghor, the African essence is externalized in a distinctive culture and philosophy.(6.) This claim is supported by Senghor’s assertion that Negritude – the rooting of identity in one’s natural essence – is ‘diametrically opposed to the traditional philosophy of Europe’ (the colonizer).(7.) To Senghor, European philosophy is ‘essentially static, objective… It is founded on separation and opposition: on analysis and conflict’.(8.) In contrast, African philosophy is based on ‘unity’, ‘balance’ negotiation and an appreciation of ‘movement and rhythm’.(9.) As Loomia notes, Senghor describes African culture ‘in terms of precisely those supposed markers of African life that had been for so long reviled in colonialist thought – sensuality, rhythm, earthiness and a primeval past’.(10.) The traditional stereotypes of African culture are not directly challenged by Negritude – Africans are essentially spiritual according to Senghor – they are modified. Negritude is a process of negotiation which proposes a counter-myth or counter-reading of those traditional stereotypes with the aim of valorizing and celebrating the African personality.

Senghor’s conception of Negritude holds that one’s inner and outer essence is informed, defined by one’s race. This position – that race is biological and informs one’s character – has encountered criticism because it relies on an incorrect conception of race. Senghor’s conception of race asserts that a person from Ghana, Senegal and Liberia are all biologically African – and therefore share the same African essence. However, as Michael Jones notes ‘there is no biological or genetic foundation for the grouping of individual humans into a racial group’.(11.) There is no such thing as a race biologically speaking; race is a social construction. If there is no biological foundation for Senghor’s assertion that the African race shares certain essential features then the concept of Negritude appears to be invalidated. It therefore appears that rooting Black identity in an inescapable and natural African essence becomes problematic.

A possible response to this criticism is to adopt a more sophisticated understanding of race. Although Senghor’s Negritude relies on a biologically constructed concept of race, the sophisticated-Negritude critic could cite racial constructivism. Racial constructivism is the position that holds that as society labels individuals as belonging to certain racial groups (regardless if they are justified to) and that belonging to racial groups entails ‘differences in resources, opportunities, and well-being, the concept of race must be conserved, in order to facilitate race-based social movements or policies, such as affirmative action, that compensate for socially constructed but socially relevant race differences’.(12.) There is no biological foundation for race but the concept can be used to enable a common identity. A shared history (of slavery, colonialism) and shared experiences (of being African, the interaction between white Europe and black Africa, institutional racism) allow for the rooting of identity in Africa. The sophisticated-Negritude critic is able to cite racial constructivism as the foundation for a shared African identity and escape the criticism against Senghor’s biological conception of race.(13.)

Negritude is a process of negotiation which attempts to alter the value of those labels attached to Africa. This negotiation with the coloniser has been criticised. Frantz Fanon explains ‘the efforts of the native to rehabilitate himself and to escape from the claws of colonialism are logically inscribed from the same point of view as that of colonialism’.(14.) The attempt to produce an African personality ensures the “native” uses the same logic of the coloniser. As Ran Greenstein notes ‘no pre-colonial discourses of Africa are known and it is highly doubtful that indigenous conceptualizations of African… ever existed’.(15.) “Africa” is a colonial concept that reduces a multitude of cultures, tribes, sects, religions and peoples into a simply defined and generic “essence” which is easily controlled and understood by the coloniser.(16.) Negritude doesn’t appear to challenge colonisation.

A possible reply may be that it is permissible for the colonised to utilize the tools of the coloniser if used to the fight against marginalization and cultural domination. A strategic move can be made to accept the “essentialism” of the coloniser (as Negritude does in asserting that race defines one’s being) with the aim of liberation. However, the strategic-essentialist Negritude remains unsatisfactory because it mirrors identically the way colonialism works and therefore offers no meaningful opposition to the coloniser. The main problem arises because strategic essentialism is itself the logic of colonialism. Strategic essentialism holds that for political and practical purposes it is advantageous to adopt the position that all people of a certain grouping share the same “essence”. In the colonisation of Africa, this is exactly the process the coloniser took in regards to the inherent value of those peoples it encountered. Colonisation holds that all Africans are the same because it is advantageous politically as well as financially. Therefore strategic essentialism, being itself the logic of colonisation, will ultimately commit the same crimes of marginalization (between classes, sexes and religions) and cultural domination (from more powerful tribes over lesser ones).(17.) Naturalized and apparently organic in nature – because it proclaims being African as a positive thing – Negritude becomes a tool in furthering the process of colonisation in the minds of the colonised. Although Senghor saw Negritude as a way of combating colonialism, Negritude is implicit with the process of colonial domination. The counter-reading of racial stereotypes which Negritude proposes fails to challenge the cultural domination of colonialism at its root.

1Leopold Sedar Senghor, ‘New York (Jazz orchestra: solo trumpet)’, in J. Reed and C. Wake (trans), L.S. Senghor: Prose and Poetry, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (1965), pp. 155-157, p. 157.

2Leopold Sedar Senghor, ‘Negritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth Century’ in, P. Williams and L Chrisman (eds), Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory, London: Longman, (1993), pp. 27-35, p. 27.

3Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Oxon: Routledge, (2005).p. 176.

4Abiola Irele, The African Experience in Literature and Ideology, p. 71.

5Leopold Sedar Senghor, ‘Negritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth Century’, p. 27.

6Ibid, p. 27.

7Ibid, p. 30.

8Ibid, p. 30.

9Ibid, p. 32 & 34.

10Abiola Irele, The African Experience in Literature and Ideology, p. 177.

11Michael James, ‘Race’, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .

12Ibid.

13This move doesn’t entirely absolve the Negritude-critic from every criticism concerning the conception of race. An alternative philosophical approach is racial scepticism. Racial scepticism contends, as there is no biological foundation for race, that race as a concept should be eliminated (a normative position called eliminativism). The Negritude-critic therefore, in accepting racial constructivism, has to indicate why racial scepticism is a flawed doctrine.

14Frantz Fanon, ‘On National Culture’ in P. Williams and L Chrisman (eds), Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory, London: Longman, (1993), pp. 36-52, p. 38.

15Ran Greenstein quoted from Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism, p. 178.

16Amilcar Cabral, ‘National Liberation and Culture’ in P. Williams and L Chrisman (eds), Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory, London: Longman, (1993), pp. 53-65, p. 61.

17As bell hooks notes in regards to why postmodern critiques are useful to issues of race ‘Employing a critique of essentialism allows African-Americans to acknowledge the way in which class mobility has altered collective black experience so that racism does not necessarily have the same impact on our lives. Such a critique allows us to affirm multiple black identities, varied black experience. It also challenges colonial imperialist paradigms of black identity which represent blackness one-dimensionally in ways that reinforce and sustain white supremacy’. bell hooks, ‘Postmodern Blackness’, in P. Williams and L Chrisman (eds), Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory, London: Longman, (1993), pp. 421-427, p. 425.

communication.

2010-11-13T03:05:00.001-08:00

Towards a definition of "communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
H
1. The need for a communication policy, language policy, or language planning
Ever since God saw fit to inflict punishment on those who built the tower of Babel, there has been a need for an interlingual language policy entailing language selection in order to achieve successful communication. However, even prior to the building of the tower, first God and later Adam – under God's tutelage – made use of an intralingual language policy when naming objects and concepts. In the beginning, God took responsibility for the naming:
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1.5)
After creating Adam, God made use of his emissary to name earthly phenomena:
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. (Genesis 2:19–20)
2 Henning Bergenholtz
According to Genesis, the same universal language was used and understood by both mankind and animals for communicating between themselves and each other. In the first speech act that occurred after the naming of all known entities, the snake is recorded as persuading the only woman present to eat the forbidden fruit:
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (Genesis 3:1–3)
Genesis 3:1-3 indicates that language can be used for purposes of temptation. To prevent such misuse of the gift of communication, God might have decided to forbid all further communication, but he did not do so:
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. (Genesis 11:1)
Neither did he choose to do so later, during the building of the tower of Babel, instead choosing to make communication between people much more difficult and sometimes impossible:
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. (Genesis 11:5–7)
During the so-called "Pentecostal Wonder", mankind returned to the communication paradise requiring no interlingual language policy. People used different languages; nevertheless, everyone at the time was able to understand everyone else:
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
3
Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. (Acts of the Apostles 2:6)
However, the communication paradise did not last long: Non-believers grudgingly suspected that those capable of mutual understanding were drunk:
Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. (Acts of the Apostles 2:11–13)
Despite the fact that most linguists support people's intrinsic right to the integrity of their own language, all communities throughout the world urgently need to regulate their use of language in order to ensure that communication is possible and, at its best, also successful. Such language regulation, as expounded by linguists and communication scientists, is referred to variably as "language planning", "language policy", or both, and even at times as "communication policy".
In terms of lexicography, the fields of language planning, language policy, and communication policy lack clear and unambiguous terminology, in both their theory and practice. Not even the only dictionary containing the terms of one of the fields mentioned – which is described by the author as "the dictionary of language planning terms" (Cluver 1993) – provides such guidance. Ironically enough, Cluver's dictionary actually serves as support for the "leave-your-language-alone" argument, as this dictionary contains purely descriptive reproduction: It provides definitions formulated by some of the best-known language planning scholars, relating how they have used the terms with their linguistic histories of antonymous use, but without related language usage norms.
This paper will recommend certain definitions and uses of the terms "language planning", "language policy", and "communication policy", rather than provide an overview of the fields. Little is known about the history of the term "communication policy", which appears only to have come into use in the early 1970s. The terms "language planning" and, to a
4 Henning Bergenholtz
certain extent, "language policy" have been discussed by Karam (1974), Cooper (1989:29–45), Cluver (1993), Ager (1996:1–28), and Bergenholtz and Tarp (2005). Historically, "language policy" is the older term, as it came into use at about the beginning of the 20th century. In Denmark, for example, the term "language policy" was used as early as 1921 to refer to (i) government regulation of language choice (the interlingual dimension) and (ii) regulation or judgement of language use (the intralingual dimension), as noted by Jarvad (2001:18). A more recent term for the same concept is "language engineering", which was first introduced by Miller (1950). Related terms, such as "glottopolitics", "language development", "language regulation", and "language management"1 tend to be used less frequently. One of the three main terms, "language planning", was introduced by Haugen (1959). According to Cooper (1989:29), Haugen noted that he became familiar with the term in a seminar presented by Uriel Weinrich two years earlier. It is surely no coincidence that it was a Scandinavian linguist who introduced this term – in that part of the world, there is a longstanding, strong tradition of government regulation of language. Best known is Ivar Aasen's development of a "new" Norwegian language in the second part of the 19th century, created in a personal struggle for a new language on the basis of a dialect in Western Norway (now called nynorsk). Haugen's papers about language planning inevitably received a significant degree of attention when published in the country where Hall's propounding of the principle of leaving language alone was the indisputably overpowering linguistic method of the day. Only such a historical context can explain a title such as "Can language be planned?" (Rubin and Jernudd 1971a). Language can indeed be planned, and has been since Old Testament days, as can be seen in the presence of myths in that part of the Bible. In the field of linguistics, the idea of language planning was first mooted in German literature in 16402 (cf. Bergenholtz 1991). Under the overwhelming influence of structural and descriptive linguistics in the USA during the 1950s and 60s, non-descriptive linguistics was put on the back burner (cf. Fishman 1974a:25).
2. A paradox and the usual lack of clarity
It is difficult to explain the absence of interdisciplinarity between linguistics and communication science in terms of the scientific discussion about language policy and communication policy. Similarly, the absence of intradisciplinarity between many of the linguists dealing with language planning and language policy is also problematic. Paradoxically, no explicit relationship exists between contributions to the field of
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
5
communication policy, on the one hand, and those made to the field of language policy or language planning, on the other.
According to tradition, first God and later Adam gave names to entities. Such naming seems to have indicated a clear 1:1 relationship between expression and content, which later no longer was the case, neither for groups of languages nor for specific languages. Terminologists and specialised lexicographers generally complain about the lack of clarity in most scientific language, which they attempt to solve by developing specialised dictionaries and terminological databases, which, however, themselves may be inadequate (cf. Cluver's 1993 attempt). Terms in the fields of language planning, language policy, and communication policy should, however, prove the exception, due to their having been coined and used by experts in the field of language regulation. So far, however, proposals of terminology – of which the most important one has been that of Karam (1974) – have failed to distinguish clearly between interlingual and intralingual regulations, and Cooper's (1989:31) four questions regarding who, what, for whom, and how are not reflected. Lack of clarity, therefore, characterises most existing definitions, as exemplified by the following one of "language policy", in which government decisions prescribe one kind of language policy and non-governmental regulations another:
In this report, the term is used to describe the collection of laws, rules and stipulations that determine the status of a language, including rights compared to other languages, and that determine the right or the correct language. The term is also used to describe the variety of initiatives that play an active part in promoting, strengthening and protecting a language. (Jarvad 2001:18) [my translation - HB]
Similarities do exist between definitions of "language planning" – amongst others, a failure to refer to "language policy". The reason for language policy being (too) closely connected to government decisions3 is perhaps easier to explain than this apparently inexplicable paradox.
The second half of the 20th century saw the formation of a number of new composite expressions derived from the term "policy", such as "educational policy", "children's policy", "women's policy", "environmental policy", and "immigration policy". The new derivations were related to key areas in the political decision making processes of international, national,
6 Henning Bergenholtz
or local authorities and also encompassed the terms "language policy" and "communication policy". Since the late 1980s, the scope of such derivations has broadened to include aspects such as planning and decision making that occur in companies, organisations, schools, and other non-political groups, as can be seen in, for example, "senior policy", "smoking policy", "alcohol policy", and "stress policy". Along with this development, the scope of older, purely political terms has also been broadened to include planning and decision making in such bodies. Such a development, which is social as well as linguistic, has not only occurred in the Danish language or in Denmark itself.
Speakers of certain languages seem to prefer certain terms. For example, Danish speakers seldom use the Danish equivalent of "language planning", preferring the Danish equivalent of "communication policy" and, to a lesser extent, "language policy", according to an Internet search using the Google search engine (13 January 2006):
• sprogplanlægning (=language planning) 164
• sprogpolitik (=language policy) 32,500
• kommunikationspolitik (=communication policy) 38,200
The same trend exists in the use of German, though German speakers rarely use the German equivalent of "language planning" for the discussion of language and communication problems; they prefer the German equivalent of "communication policy":
• Sprachplanung (=language planning) 12.400
• Sprachpolitik+Sprachenpolitik (=intralingual+interlingual language policy) 134.100
• Kommunikationspolitik (=communication policy) 278.800
As a number of Google searches for the English terms reveal, "language planning" and "communication policy" occur with approximately the same frequency, whereas "language policy" is definitely the most used term:
• language planning 206.000
• language policy 683.000
• communication policy 295.000
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
7
As witnessed, the Danish terms "sprogpolitik" and "kommunikationspolitik" occur with almost the same frequency in Danish Internet texts, whereas the term "language policy" is used almost twice as frequently as is "communication policy" in English texts. The terms used can therefore be seen to occur with approximately the same frequency as those for other forms of policy, such as "alcohol policy", which has a frequency of occurrence of 603,000. A closer look at the individual texts, however, reveals with remarkable clarity that the occurrence of both terms in the same text is extremely rare. Simultaneous occurrence could only be located in 370 texts on the entire Internet. Relatively few of these texts attempted to define or relate the two terms to each other. In texts on language policy, relatively unmotivated references may occur to a "corporate communication policy", such as in a review of the FAO language policy (Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations 1999). Similarly, texts on communication policy tend to allude to "language policy", without discussing the term as such. This trend corresponds with the division into two distinct groups of those with an active interest in the subject. While one group – consisting of politicians, the public media, linguists, and certain divisions of companies – discusses language policy without referring to communication policy, the other group – comprising business economists, communication scientists, and other divisions of companies – discusses communication policy without referring to language policy.4
Exactly the same trend manifests itself in Danish and Swedish government proposals on language policy. Such proposals are devoid of the term "language planning" and rarely contain the term "communication", tending to use "language" instead. Similarly, no reference is made to communication policy, but only to language policy. Nevertheless, ministries, departments, and local authorities have implemented a multiplicity of communication policies (cf. Møller Nielsen 2003). The term "communication policy" does not occur in the actual legislation, whether in the form of acts or executive orders. Although a demand for legislation on communication policy has been expressed (Rosholm 2002), such a demand appears to have been made for purposes of publicity rather than for a more serious, or even realistic, reason. Legislation on language policy does indeed already exist or is currently being prepared in several countries, including Denmark (Kulturministeriet 2003) and Sweden (Utbildnings- och kulturdepartementet 2005).5 Similarly, the term "communication", but not "communication policy", occurs in a South African proposal: A fine distinction exists
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between oral and written text and between internal and external national and international communication, but the appropriate term for referring to a communication policy is "language policy", as can be seen in the following excerpt:
1. Language policy on internal oral communication for all government structures
By consensus, all government structures must agree on their working languages for internal oral communication, intra and interdepartmentally, unless other rules apply, and subject to the proviso that no person shall be prevented from using the language of his or her preference, at any given time.
2. Language policy on internal written communication for all government structures
[...]
3. Language policy on external oral communication for all government structures
[...]
4. Language policy on external written communication for all government structures
[...]
5. International communication
International communication on the part of government will normally be in English or in the preferred language of the relevant country.
(Language Policy and Plan for South Africa 2000)
Common to the proposals from Denmark, Sweden, and South Africa is the lack of definitions for the basic terms, as the proposals merely describe a number of problems and possible solutions to the problems. The Swedish proposal of 29 September 2005 primarily focuses on interlingual measures, only mentioning towards its close intralingual issues relating to the Swedish language. The South African proposal discusses only interlingual issues, entirely omitting any reference to intralingual ones. Governments' concern with language policy is reflected worldwide in the media, not just in South Africa and Sweden. Forming a general view of all journalistic contributions made in the newspapers of so many different countries seems practically impossible. The attendant public debate not only involves government proposals and issues relating to language policy on a national level, but also issues relating to language policies of particular companies and international organisations, such as the EU. However, language policy and language planning are not referred to in the same breath in documents about communication policy, such as in the proposals of the South African Task
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
9
Group on Government Communications (Comtask) accepted by the Cabinet on 8 October 1997 (Comtask Report 1996).
The English language tends to dominate all discussions of language policy. In English, the distinction is made between "policy" and "politics", whereas languages such as Danish, German, French, Spanish, and Dutch tend to use only the term "language policy" when referring to language theory, as well as to language planning and implementation – cf. the Spanish "política lingüística", the French "politique linguistique", and the Danish "sprogpolitik". In this paper, the term "language policy" will be used as a blanket term for the German concepts of 'Sprachpolitik' and 'Sprachenpolitik' (cf. Bergenholtz 2004). This decision is based on a language policy related problem. When you use a language, you do not only use the single expressions of that language but also their culture-bound meanings. For speakers of languages other than English, having to write in English does not necessarily entail importing English constructs into their own first languages (such as Danish, Spanish, or French), or losing unique language differentiation (such as in the case of German). The use of English by speakers of languages other than English may be unconventional, while not, as such, being incorrect. However, such use of English terms would change the meaning attached to certain concepts, as well as being inappropriate for purposes of scientific argumentation, which relies on exactness of expression to ensure clarity of meaning. In other words, the problem as to which language concept system will dominate belongs to the field of scientific language policy (cf. Phillipson 2003:139–174). I choose to use the term in the way I find more appropriate, namely the way it is used in non-English languages such as Spanish, French, and Danish.
3. Who plans what for whom and how?
The list of questions taken from Cooper (1989:31–42), ironically enough, misses the most important question: Why? Though being of relatively minor importance to language planners and language politicians, the solution to such a question may be difficult to uncover for most linguists. The major linguistic textbooks have – since the predominance of romantic linguistics in the 1820s, followed by structural linguists in Europe, still later by the behaviourists, and most recently by the hyper-descriptive American linguists – been descriptive: The main responsibility of a linguist is to describe language use, not to prescribe what is appropriate. No language phenomenon that is accepted and used by a native speaker
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can justifiably be regarded as incorrect, as can be seen in the entry sprogrigtighed "language correctness" in the Danish Dictionary of Linguistics (1996). In the American tradition, non-descriptive linguists are sometimes labelled as reactionary or even dangerous. Natural language change is regarded as positive, whereas non-natural change is regarded as negative:
For change that comes spontaneously from below, or within, our policy should be, Let your language alone, and leave its speakers alone! But other forms of language manipulation have other origins, other motives, other effects, and are far more dangerous. (Lakoff 1990:298)
Such a judgement appears to have overtones of a religious credo: The only value in linguistics appears to lie in its recognition of spontaneity in language. Cameron (1995:20) enquires as to whether no other important values exist in linguistics, such as truth, beauty, logic, or utility. Both Lakoff and Cameron open up for debate the attempt to forbid or recommend certain aspects of style, certain grammatical constructions, words, spellings, or pronunciations. The value of such intralingual regulations for language usage can lie in the possession of a certain brand or a friendly image, as is so often the case with companies or organisations (cf. Bergenholtz, Bisgaard, Brunsborg, and Kwichmann 2003). Danish courts also recognise the importance of applying a set language policy throughout the organisation:
The Danish Courts have a vision of being a respected and trustworthy organisation operating at the highest quality, service and efficiency level. However, the professional quality must also be mediated by means of use of clear, understandable and modern language. (Language Policy for Danish Courts 2003:1) [my translation – HB]
Depending on the other factors (viz. who, what, with whom, and how) involved in the communication process, values differ greatly. In order to avoid ideological conflict, special language policies may be developed for schools, universities, and organisations. Use of certain words or expressions, which are perceived as being derogatory, may be forbidden or strongly discouraged. Examples of such words or expressions are kaffirs (an offensive term sometimes used to refer to black people in South Africa) and fuck you din luder (a Danish expression, literally meaning "fuck you, you whore", sometimes used by an Arab male immigrant to order a Danish woman to leave him alone). Such policies are usually justified in
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
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terms of value requests, such as "Be politically correct" or "Avoid use of verbal insults that may lead to violence". Such instructions typify the language policies of Danish primary schools.
No strong counter-arguments to the interlingual dimension of language regulations exist that can in any way be equated with those opposing intralingual language issues. Webb (2002:3) argues that "there are a number of serious educational, economic and political problems in the country [South Africa – HB]; that language plays some role in these problems; and that the problems will not be resolved in a 'natural' way, 'sorting themselves out'". The reasons for such linguistic interventions are based on values such as democracy, human rights, and the protection of linguistic diversity, as can be seen in the following excerpt from the draft South African language policy:
This language policy is intended as an enabling framework for promoting South Africa's linguistic diversity and encouraging respect for language rights within the policy framework of building and consolidating a united democratic South African nation. (Language Policy and Plan for South Africa 2000:1.1)
Although the issue of values does not form the main topic of the ongoing language policy and planning debate, it is central to discussions revolving around communication policies. In the following quotation, the mentioned values appear to be of negligible importance to the central theme. Furthermore, no explanation is provided of what is meant by "sound principles", nor are guidelines provided on how to communicate effectively or appropriately within the said environment:
The Museum recognises the link between internal and external communication and strives to ensure communication throughout the Museum is based on sound principles. [...] Effective communication plays a significant role in building the success of the Museum. Communicating appropriately converts potential visitors, users and supporters to actual visitors, users and supporters. (National Museum of Australia 2005)
12 Henning Bergenholtz
In contrast to the above, an example of a very clear and comprehensible communication policy outlining the participants, purposes, and communication channels involved is the communication policy of the European Court of Auditors. The overall description of the ambit of the Court's communication policy is stated as follows:
Communication policy covers the process of communicating the European Court of Auditors' role, work and the results it obtains to the outside world. (European Court of Auditors 2002)
After this brief introduction, the communication policy elaborates on the overall description first provided by naming the three main groups of those impacted by the policy: other institutions and member states, the public, and the media. The next section of the communication policy describes the purpose of the policy as
following the principles of openness and transparency as well as to ensure that the results of the Court's work are known and understood and to account to the citizens of the Union for the Court's work. (European Court of Auditors 2002)
Furthermore, the communication policy is stated as being intended to raise awareness of the Court and to ensure that audit reports are presented clearly and comprehensibly. The Court's website is cited as serving as the most important source of information on the Court. In the light of ever-expanding access to the Internet, such an approach helps to raise awareness of the Court, as well as facilitating the dissemination of information on the Court and its proceedings.
Another example of a well-formulated communication policy is that of the Danish Medicines Agency (2005), in which communication is described as "a strategic activity included in all significant decisions at the Danish Medicines Agency". The communication policy is presented as a set of guidelines aimed at supporting the Agency's objectives in both internal and external communication. In this way, communication is awarded a high priority, with use of the wording "strategic activity" indicating that communication is, at least in part, seen from a business economics perspective by the Agency. The keywords of the policy, which
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
13
apply to both internal and external communication, are active, open, trustworthy, responsible, and service oriented.
3.1 Who?
Many contributions to language policy and planning, including those of Hartmann and James (1998:81), Coronel-Molina (1999), and Webb (2002:31), in principle agree with the assertion "that language policy decisions are actually political decisions that can only be taken by national governments" (Language Policy in Africa 1997:157). However, it should be added that such decisions may also be subject to intervention from corporations, international organisations, families, and even individuals. More in line with the reality of language planning/policy are examples such as Shell's language policy in Malaysia or the choice made by a Finnish–British couple living in England regarding the language they should use for communicating with their child (Jernudd 1973:18ff.). Whereas the former is an example of corporate language policy/planning, the latter reflects family intervention in this regard. Both language planning and language policy can therefore be determined by governments, government-authorised agencies or bodies, local authorities, international and national organisations, a group of people, a family, or even a single person. In each case, a decision is made regarding the language used (Jernudd 1973:19). Such decisions are usually imposed top-down (by bodies such as the government or management), though pressure may in certain instances be exerted from the bottom up. An example of the latter is where a Danish immigration organisation publicly demanded information brochures from a private insurance company (Politiken 2006-02-04).
3.2 What?
In answer to this question, Cooper (1989:31–5) provides a peremptory though unfulfilling discussion of status, corpus, and acquisition planning, the most common components of language planning. A more realistic view of the object of language planning/language policy/communication policy should be far broader and more detailed. Diverse aspects of communication can be chosen or supported from among the following examples, which are taken from different communication policies and language policies (for details and references, see Bergenholtz and Johnsen 2006):
(i) communication types (verbal or non-verbal, e.g., sign language)
14 Henning Bergenholtz
(ii) communication channels (TV, radio, trade fairs, newspapers, e-mails, letters, websites, blogs, text messages, etc.)
(iii) communication venues (meetings, assemblies, trade fairs, etc.)
(iv) the level to which the communication policy should apply (international, national, regional, etc.)
(v) the communication rules for the various participants (board of directors, customers, managers, etc.)
Language policy and language planning usually presuppose, or should presuppose, some or all of the above-mentioned elements. An interlingual language policy should involve some of the following interlingual relations as a choice of, or as support for, the policy concerned:
(i) one or more languages for communication channels (TV, radio, trade fairs, newspapers, e-mails, letters, websites, blogs, text messages, etc.)
(ii) one or more languages for communication venues (meetings, assemblies, trade fairs, etc.)
(iii) the level to which the interlingual language policy should apply (international, national, etc.)
(iv) one or more languages for communication products (text types, actual texts, text parts)
An intralingual language policy or language planning presupposes the above-mentioned decisions and involves (i) the choice of level to which the intralingual language policy should apply (international, national, etc.), and (ii) the recommendations or rules concerning the linguistic presentation of communication products (text types, actual texts, text parts).
3.3 For whom?
Whether a national language policy should be applied to all citizens of a country is debatable, just as it is debatable whether a corporate language policy should, in fact, apply to all participants in all internal and external, as well as to all outgoing and incoming, communication of a company. Many different aspects have to be taken into account when providing the answer to questions such as these which have so many varying ramifications. The question of punishment or the possibility of a negative reaction if someone in the intended group does not follow the prescribed policy guidelines, also has to be taken into
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
15
account. In most cases, a corporate language or communication policy should be applied to all internal and outgoing communication, but not to all incoming communication, meaning to the communication of all those employed by, or belonging to, the relevant organisation, nation, or group. For example, the communication policy of the European Court of Auditors (2002) should be adhered to by all employees of the Court. Similarly, Danish language law enacted in September 1997 requires that the prescribed language policy must be adhered to by all government employees, as well as by all other employees, students, and pupils working for, or studying at, institutions that receive financial support amounting to 50% or more of all their institutional costs. In practice, no employee may be punished if (s)he fails to follow the very strict and exact orthographical and inflectional rules (see examples of such in Bergenholtz 2003). However, pupils and students may be penalised by giving them low marks.
Unlike language policy, which, as has been seen, solely concerns outgoing communication, communication policy may also address the issue of incoming communication. For example, the Director Communication Policy of the American bio-research company, Applera (2005), expressly states that "stockholders and other interested parties may communicate directly with the Board or the non-management directors" and that all such communication should be in writing and directed to the corporation's secretary. Such a policy overtly indicates openness and a willingness to communicate with the stockholders concerned.
3.4 How?
This question is usually discussed in terms of description and prescription – a necessary but not sufficient methodical view, because the difference between description and prescription cannot be explained as a distinction between "is not to be followed; it is only a description of real communication" and "is to be followed, and the rules differ from those used in normal communication". This discussion of an exact definition of "description", "prescription", and "proscription" shall not be repeated here, but I will pay attention to the following arguments: The distinction has to be drawn between different types of description and different types of prescription (Bergenholtz 2003). And, first of all, we need a concept for that kind of selective description often used in dictionaries and grammar books where you are told about different uses but only one of them is recommended. Such an approach relates closely to the proposals of Tauli (1974), as well as to Unesco's recommendations regarding standardisation of written
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language (Unesco 1953). Any uniformity in writing and the use of words or grammar construction is advantageous, though attempts to standardise according to existing language use are advisable. The same method is followed regarding proposals for use of the terms "language planning", "language policy", and "communication policy" made in this paper.
4. Types of definitions and terminological use
A great number of theoretical contributions and concrete language and communication policies were consulted in an attempt to systematise the use of terminology in these documents. The different contributions studied have been categorised based on their use and/or definitions of the expressions "language policy", "language planning", and "communication policy", focusing on who and what is involved. The different categories have been assigned specific labels which indicate the expressions used in the contributions concerned. These labels are presented as the headings of sections 4.1 to 4.10.
4.1 Use of only "language policy"
The term "language policy" is the only one used in the contributions in this category – no relationship is established to the terms "language planning" and "communication policy" or to their use. In certain cases, the term may be used only for intralingual regulations (such as in the case of the Language Policy for Danish Courts 2003), while in other cases, the term may be used only for interlingual regulations (e.g., de Cillia 2003); usually though the term is used for both (e.g., Committee on the Swedish Language 2002). Geographically speaking, most such contributions originate in European countries where English does not form the first language of choice (cf. the above-mentioned data relating to use of the Danish and German languages).
4.2 Use of only "language planning"
The term "language planning" is the only one used in the contributions in this category. Whereas expressions such as "policy decision" or "political participation" may be mentioned, the terms "language policy" and "communication policy" are not used. Some scholars mention only intralingual aspects (Haugen 1959:8, 1969:701), whereas others mention only interlingual aspects (Fishmann 1974b), though usually they consider both inter- and intralingual dimensions (Tauli 1968:27, 1974:56; Hartmann and Stork 1972:126; Cooper 1989:45; Johnson and Johnson 1998:184). Some of the terminological proposals are quite
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
17
problematic, such as Hartmann and Stork's (1972:126) conceptualisation of "language planning" as being synonymous with "prescriptive linguistics". Tauli's (1974:56) distinction between the theory and practice of language planning seems to be relatively relevant, as it is reasonably similar to the distinction made between "language planning" and "language policy", as proposed by Richards, Platt, and Platt (1992:203). A similar distinction is found in some of the South African proposals that "language planning" be used for the theory and "language plan" for a concrete language policy (e.g., the Language Policy and Plan for South Africa 2000).
4.3 Use of only "communication policy"
Only the term "communication policy" is used in the contributions that fall into this category, excluding the terms "language policy" and "language planning" (Communication Policy for Danish Courts 2003;6 Applera 2005; Centre for Deaf Studies 2005; National Museum of Australia 2005; Kotler and Keller 2006:534–562). In this group of contributions, Rosenmeier (2005) is the exception, using both the terms "communication policy" and "language policy" without clearly distinguishing between them or defining either term. In the above-mentioned contributions, as well as in most of the other contributions to concrete communication policies, the objective is neither the choice of one or several languages (intralingual selection), nor the proposal of rules for intralingual language usage, but rather more general, sometimes very abstract, proposals or regulations regarding (i) more effective communication; (ii) the choice of communication channels; (iii) security proposals using special channels (e.g., e-mail communication); or (iv) a choice between linguistic and non-linguistic communication.
4.4 Use of only a combination of "language planning" and "language policy"
A statistical overview of the contributions that fall into this category reveals that both "language planning" and "language policy" occur most frequently, so that the different terminological approaches are unclear. The need for terminological planning or policy is pressing in these contributions. None of these contributions mentions communication policy.
4.5 The complementary use of "language planning" and "language policy" (A)
Whereas "language planning" is used for intralingual regulations, "language policy" is used for interlingual regulations (Hartmann and James 1998:81). This distinction is also seen in
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some Dutch and Afrikaans dictionaries, but not in contributions from language policy/planning specialists; it may, nevertheless, influence the terminological use in lexicographical contributions. For example, see "the use of a language" (singular) in the first and "use of languages" (plural) in the second definition:
language planning The totality of activities aimed at regulating the use of a language, often linked to national policies. Such control is usually imposed centrally by governmental or quasi-governmental agencies, such as ACADEMIES or language policy bureaus. Measures may include banning FOREIGNISMS, coining NEOLOGISMS and TERMINOLOGY, controlling the media and redirecting education policies.
language policy A set of governmental decisions on the relative priorities of the use of languages in a state, for the purpose of employment, education, etc., which can influence the number and types of REFERENCE WORKS produced and used.
(Hartmann and James 1998:81)
4.6 The complementary use of "language planning" and "language policy" (B)
Whereas "language planning" is used to describe the theoretical approach, "language policy" is used to describe the practice. The contributions in this category use the two terms in a way similar to Tauli's (1974:56) distinction between the theory of language planning – which in this category appears merely as "language planning" – and the practice of language planning – which appears as "language policy", such as in the case of Sandøy and Vikør (1977:12), Richards, Platt, and Platt (1992:203), Fettes (1997:14), and Webb (2002: 39–41). "Language planning" covers theoretical and methodical considerations, whereas "language policy" covers both control and further development of language planning models. This distinction corresponds to the differentiation between terminology and terminography or between metalexicography and practical lexicography, the borderline between the subfields often being relatively indistinct. In the case of the use of "language planning" for theory and method, as well as the use of "language policy" for practice, the same form of lack of clarity exists due to the absence of a distinct borderline, cf.:
Therefore language planning in this wider sense must be linked to the critical evaluation of language policy: the former providing standards of rationality and effectiveness, the latter testing these ideas against actual practice in order to promote
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
19
the development of better (more sophisticated, more useful) language planning models. (Fettes 1997:14)
4.7 The language policy as part of language planning
Such terminological use is in some cases related to the complementary usage of "language planning" and "language policy" referred to above, except that the contributions in this category use "language planning" as a general term for all kinds of language regulations, and "language policy" when governments and other official authorities are involved (e.g., Rubin and Jernudd 1971b:xvi–xiii; Eastman 1983:7–16; Crystal 1992:220; Cluver 1993:31–36; Kaplan and Baldauf 1997:3; Kamwangamalu 2004:243; Wikipedia 2006), as in:
Language planning refers to deliberate efforts to influence the behaviour of others with respect to the acquisition, structure, or functional allocation of language. Typically it will involve the development of goals, objectives and strategies to change the way language is used in a community. At a governmental level, language planning takes the form of language policy. (Wikipedia 2006)
4.8 Language planning as part of a language policy
This group of contributions uses the terms in diametrically opposing fashion to that mentioned in section 4.7: they use "language policy" as the main term, whereas "language planning" is regarded as part of "language policy" (e.g., Sibayan 1974:222–228; Ager 1996:28; Trask 1997:127). The researchers responsible for such contributions distinguish between the terms in different ways. For Trask (1997:127), language planning is an intralingual field, whereas language policy is both intra- and interlingual, as in "the form of a language" (singular) in the definition of "language planning" below and "one or more languages" (singular and plural) in the definition of "language policy":
language planning Making deliberate decisions about the form of a language, such as choosing among competing forms and inventing new vocabulary. This is most often carried out on some kind of official basis.
language policy An official government policy regulating the form, teaching or use of one or more languages within the area controlled by that government.
(Trask 1997:127)
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For other researchers, "language policy" is the collective term for different subfields, including language planning, e.g.:
Language policy: the contributions of sociolinguistics, policy studies and language planning. (Ager 1996:28)
4.9 The synonymous use of "language planning" and "language policy"
In practice, the impression is created that most scholars use the two terms alternately without making a clear-cut distinction, if any at all, between them. At least one example explicitly states that the two terms are regarded as synonymous:
No distinction is made in this paper between language "policy" and language "planning". (Grin 1996:37, footnote 10)
Such terminological use fairly closely equates with that in the following proposals, albeit vice versa regarding the use of "language policy".
4.10 Use of "communication policy" together with the synonymous use of "language policy" and "language planning"
The internationally well-established use of "communication policy" occurs alongside "language policy" in the contributions in this category. Although the term "communication policy" is sometimes seen as having a similar meaning to "language planning" and "language policy", I propose a distinction in its use in order to avoid terminological confusion in relation to future contributions to the field of communication policy. The issuing of communication policies by various institutions, organisations, and companies makes it unsurprising that such policies are adapted to the needs of the particular institutions, organisations, and companies concerned. However, an emphasis on values, openness, transparency, and comprehensibility appears to recur, with the only exception being the electronic communication policy, which emphasises cautions and restrictions. Furthermore, the examples studied show that communication policies may apply to written as well as to non-written, and even to non-verbal, communication, and also to traditional written and
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
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electronic communications. Unlike language policies, communication policies may apply to both incoming and outgoing communication.
The following are examples of terms that are used as synonyms or near-synonyms for "communication policy": "communication guidelines and standards", "information policy", "communication strategy", "action plan for communication", "openness policy", and "media policy". To make an exact distinction between these terms would exceed the scope of this paper; therefore, "communication policy" is taken as a generic term for the listed synonyms and near-synonyms. Beside "communication policy", we need one, and only one, term for inter- and intralingual language regulations. I prefer "language policy". In case of use of "language planning", the term has to be regarded as replacing "language policy", in order to avoid confusion. Only one of the two terms should be used together with "communication policy".
5. Proposed definitions
The preceding discussion and following definitions are aimed at the meta-level of scientific discussion of the fields of communication policy, language planning, and language policy. Under some of the recommended terms,7 I have listed expressions that appear to be used as synonyms for my term. The distinction between the theory and the real and concrete communication policies in some of the above-mentioned proposals is expressed in terms of "theory of language planning" in contrast to "language planning" (Tauli 1974:56) or in terms of "language planning" in contrast to "language policy" (such as in Fettes 1997:14). The most convincing terminological use seems to exist in the distinction between "language policy" and "language plan" (Language Policy and Plan for South Africa 2000). In international terminology, however, such a clear distinction is not found, as "language policy" is used for the theory and methodology, and the results are also called "language policy". I would propose the adoption of the term "language plan" for the results and "language policy" or "language planning" for the theory. The sum of all kinds of communication and language policies should be called a "communication and language plan".
General communication policy
= general language policy
= general language planning
22 Henning Bergenholtz
A general communication policy involves the deliberate control of an organisation's internal and external communication in order to optimise the functionality of the organisation, including its product development and sales. Usually, a communication policy takes into account the values and vision of the organisation concerned. A general communication policy is language-independent and is usually issued by, and applies to, companies, organisations, or sub-national authorities.
Language-independent general communication policies may also be issued by large international organisations, such as the UN, the EU, and NATO. In some cases, however, such a policy may also apply to an entire state, as can be seen in the case of certain African countries, such as Senegal and Tanzania (Tanzania 1997; Bathily 2005). International organisations and large companies often include a general description of their basic values in their language policies. Normally, however, the term "communication policy" does not include consideration of the value system entrenched in the company's or organisation's language policy.
The result of a general communication policy should be called "general communication plan".
Specific communication policy
= specific language policy
= specific language planning
A specific communication policy involves general or thematic requirements or prohibitions concerning particular forms or channels of communication or a prohibition against acquiring particular information or documents. Such prohibitions include requirements concerning general or limited access to, or use of, specific types of information.
Parts of a specific communication policy may apply not only to employees of the organisation or authority involved, but also, or solely, to enquiries made by customers or citizens. Thus, communication policy differs from language policy, which is always directed at the internal or external communication of employees, members, or students. Whereas a general communication policy rarely applies to states, several examples of specific communication policies on a state level can be found, particularly in dictatorships. Such
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
23
communication policies may include the prohibition of flyers, phone calls to foreign countries, or use of the Internet. Examples of such communication policies can also be found in some existing language policies.
The result of a specific communication policy should be called "specific communication plan".
Interlingual communication policy should be referred to as "interlingual language policy", and intralingual communication policy should be referred to as "intralingual language policy".
Following from this definition of "communication policy", we arrive at a definition of the term "language policy" (and "language planning") that should be free of the flaws and inadequacies inherent to the aforementioned definition. In this regard, a number of synonyms will be listed in accordance with the terminology used in various theories and practices. It should be noted, however, that many language policies contain elements which we have classified as being a part of communication policy. In such language policies, the elements form an intrinsic part of the language policy, taking one of the following two forms:
(i) The basic values of a language policy and language planning, which should be referred to as "general communication policy", or
(ii) The selection of communication types, communication channels, and the use of non-verbal communication, which should be referred to as "specific communication policy".
Despite this being the case, whereas the terms "language policy/language planning" and "communication policy" may concern the promotion of different verbal and non-verbal languages, they differ in the sense that "communication policy" may also include guidelines on the selection and use of non-verbal languages. However, the term "language policy/language planning" refers solely to the selection and use of verbal communication forms in different contexts and may therefore be defined as follows:
24 Henning Bergenholtz
Language policy
= language planning
"Language policy" – which refers to the deliberate control of issues pertaining to language – concerns (i) relationships between languages, consisting of interlingual relations, on the one hand, and (ii) issues specific to one language, consisting of intralingual concerns, on the other. Though a language policy may form part of a communication policy, the existence of a communication policy is not a prerequisite for the existence of a language policy. The result of a language policy should be called a "language plan".
Interlingual language policy
= status planning
= interlingual communication policy
An interlingual language policy is the clear and deliberate choice, recommendation, or promotion of one or more languages. The result of an interlingual language policy should be called an "interlingual language plan".
General interlingual language policy
= general interlingual language planning
= status planning
= general language policy
= language selection
A general interlingual language policy involves language selection, entailing the selection of certain languages at the expense of others. The result of a general interlingual language policy should be called a "general interlingual language plan". A language plan such as this could result in the production of bilingual or polylingual dictionaries in the selected or supported languages.
Specific interlingual language policy
= specific interlingual language planning
= status planning
= language promotion
A specific interlingual language policy serves as a protectionist language policy that prescribes the promotion of one or more languages, either by means of language-directed
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
25
legislation or by means of financial and political support for certain organisations that promote a particular language or culture. Language-directed legislation concerning both verbal and non-verbal languages primarily applies within the country that promulgates the legislation in question. Organisations promoting a particular language or culture are supported in order to promote or increase the knowledge and use of the language in question, primarily in foreign countries.
The result of a specific interlingual language policy should be called a "specific interlingual language plan". The result of such a language plan can be the production of bilingual or polylingual dictionaries in the selected or supported languages.
Special form of specific interlingual language policy
= special form of interlingual language planning
= linguistic hegemony
A special form of specific interlingual language policy is a hegemonic language policy, involving an opposition to one or more languages in favour of one or more other languages. The result of a specific form of interlingual language policy should be called a "special form of interlingual language plan".
Intralingual language policy
= intralingual language planning
An intralingual language policy is the choice or recommendation of, the warning against, or the banning of certain linguistic constructions, collocations, phrases, or words in a particular language. The result of an intralingual language policy should be called an "intralingual language plan".
General intralingual language policy
= general intralingual language planning
= communication-optimising language policy
= style selecting language policy
= language guide
= manual of style
= style book
26 Henning Bergenholtz
= language hygiene
A general intralingual language policy involves stylistic selection, meaning a clear and deliberate choice or recommendation of specific stylistic aspects or rules pertaining to a particular language. The result of a general intralingual language policy should be called a "general intralingual language plan". A general intralingual language plan may result in the production of style guides or handbooks for language use.
Specific intralingual language policy
= specific intralingual language planning
= linguistic units selecting language policy
= prescriptive linguistics
= language hygiene
= corpus planning
A specific intralingual language policy involves the selection of linguistic units, meaning a clear and deliberate choice or recommendation regarding specific grammatical constructions, words, or word forms in a particular language. The result of a specific intralingual language policy should be called a "specific intralingual language plan". Such a language policy may result in the production of dictionaries or grammars.
Special form of specific intralingual language policy
= special form of intralingual language planning
= purism
= puristic language policy
= ideological language policy
= language hygiene
A special form of specific intralingual language policy is a puristic language policy based on a particular historical, moral, or political perception of "proper language", which results in the prohibition of, or opposition to, certain grammatical constructions, words, or word forms in a particular language. The result of a special form of specific intralingual language policy should be called a "special form of intralingual language plan". Such a language policy may result in the production of handbooks or specialised dictionaries.
"Communication policy", "language policy", and "language planning"
27
The above description of the relationship between "communication policy" and "language policy" serves to emphasise the fact that the formulation of a language policy should presuppose the existence of a communication policy. The statement, however, needs further elaboration on two accounts. Firstly, the statement primarily applies to intralingual language policies. Secondly, the reverse is also true, namely that a communication policy should always be supplemented by a language policy, albeit, in some cases, only an intralingual one. Such a deduction not only holds true for actual communication policies, but also for theoretical considerations. Furthermore, such a deduction means that contributions on communication policy based on business economics or communication sciences should take into account not only intralingual theoretical advances but also, to a certain extent, interlingual theories in the field of language policy.
6. Back to Paradise or Pentecostal Wonder?
Returning to Paradise and acting as God and Adam did during the first nomination of terms for inclusion in a universal language is impossible. One can only guess as to whether the Pentecostal Wonder might have provided a fitting solution in terms of providing the right and intended meaning for all participants in the communication process, despite their using the same term in very different ways. The proposal of definitions in this paper may be compared with the selection of animals and birds for Noah's ark: Only a few were recommended from the many available possibilities. In addition, some additional nurturing, similar to that which Noah and later farmers had to provide for their animals, has been recommended.
Notes
1. Some of the terms are used by certain scholars for a special kind of language planning or language policy (cf. Cluver 1993).
2. Two of the best contributions both pro and contra descriptive linguistics date from 1723, consisting of two works titled "usus imperium" (Fabricius 1723) and "usus tyrannus" (Richey 1723). In short, the question is whether the use is an emperor or a tyrant.
3. The present discussion on policy is partly based on the discussion in Bergenholtz and Johnsen (2006).
28 Henning Bergenholtz
4. The rare examples of the simultaneous occurrence of both terms do not contradict the trend described, particularly as such texts provide neither clear definitions nor distinctions, either because the authors find such provision unnecessary, or because the terms might be perceived as being synonymous (cf. Rosenmeier 2005:115–140).
5. Comments on the Danish and Swedish government language policies appear in Bergenholtz and Johnsen (2006).
6. Similarly, in the case of the communication policy and language policy formulated by and for the same institution (as with the Danish Courts), no mention is made of language policy in the communication policy, although very similar sentences exist in different parts of the language policy issued by the same institution. An example of such similarity can be seen in Undgå lange og falige forklaringer og tal dansk ("Avoid long and specialised explanations containing many specialised terms and speak Danish").
7. All recommended terms appear in bold-face type.
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EDUCATION IS THE BEST LEGACY

2010-10-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.

Etymologically, the word education is derived from educare (Latin) "bring up", which is related to educere "bring out", "bring forth what is within", "bring out potential" and ducere, "to lead".

Teachers in educational institutions direct the education of students and might draw on many subjects, including reading, writing, mathematics, science and history. This process is sometimes called schooling when referring to the education of teaching only a certain subject, usually as professors at institutions of higher learning. There is also education in fields for those who want specific vocational skills, such as those required to be a pilot. In addition there is an array of education possible at the informal level, such as in museums and libraries, with the Internet and in life experience. Many non-traditional education options are now available and continue to evolve.

A right to education has been created and recognized by some jurisdictions: since 1952, Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights obliges all signatory parties to guarantee the right to education. At world level, the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 guarantees this right under its Article 13.

Primary Education
Primary school in open air. Teacher (priest) with class from the outskirts of Bucharest, around 1842.

Primary (or elementary) education consists of the first 5–7 years of formal, structured education. In general, primary education consists of six or eight years of schooling starting at the age of five or six, although this varies between, and sometimes within, countries. Globally, around 89% of primary-age children are enrolled in primary education, and this proportion is rising.Under the Education for All programs driven by UNESCO, most countries have committed to achieving universal enrollment in primary education by 2015, and in many countries, it is compulsory for children to receive primary education. The division between primary and secondary education is somewhat arbitrary, but it generally occurs at about eleven or twelve years of age. Some education systems have separate middle schools, with the transition to the final stage of secondary education taking place at around the age of fourteen. Schools that provide primary education, are mostly referred to as primary schools. Primary schools in these countries are often subdivided into infant schools and junior school.
Secondary education

In most contemporary educational systems of the world, secondary education comprises the formal education that occurs during adolescence. It is characterized by transition from the typically compulsory, comprehensive primary education for minors, to the optional, selective tertiary, "post-secondary", or "higher" education (e.g., university, vocational school for adults. Depending on the system, schools for this period, or a part of it, may be called secondary or high schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, middle schools, colleges, or vocational schools. The exact meaning of any of these terms varies from one system to another. The exact boundary between primary and secondary education also varies from country to country and even within them, but is generally around the seventh to the tenth year of schooling. Secondary education occurs mainly during the teenage years. In the United States, Canada and Australia primary and secondary education together are sometimes referred to as K-12 education, and in New Zealand Year 1-13 is used. The purpose of secondary education can be to give common knowledge, to prepare for higher education or to train directly in a profession.

The emergence of secondary education in the United States did not happen until 1910, caused by the rise in big businesses and technological advances in factories (for instance, the emergence of electrification), that required skilled workers. In order to meet this new job demand, high schools were created and the curriculum focused on practical job skills that would better prepare students for white collar or skilled blue collar work. This proved to be beneficial for both the employer and the employee, because this improvement in human capital caused employees to become more efficient, which lowered costs for the employer, and skilled employees received a higher wage than employees with just primary educational attainment.

In Europe, the grammar school or academy existed from as early as the 16th century; public schools or fee paying schools, or charitable educational foundations have an even longer history.

History

A depiction of the University of Bologna, Italy

The history of education according to Dieter Lenzen, president of the Freie Universität Berlin 1994, "began either millions of years ago or at the end of 1770". Education as a science cannot be separated from the educational traditions that existed before. Adults trained the young of their society in the knowledge and skills they would need to master and eventually pass on. The evolution of culture, and human beings as a species depended on this practice of transmitting knowledge. In pre-literate societies this was achieved orally and through imitation. Story-telling continued from one generation to the next. Oral language developed into written symbols and letters. The depth and breadth of knowledge that could be preserved and passed soon increased exponentially. When cultures began to extend their knowledge beyond the basic skills of communicating, trading, gathering food, religious practices, etc., formal education, and schooling, eventually followed. Schooling in this sense was already in place in Egypt between 3000 and 500BC.

Nowadays some kind of education is compulsory to all people in most countries. Due to population growth and the proliferation of compulsory education, UNESCO has calculated that in the next 30 years more people will receive formal education than in all of human history thus far.
Psychology
A class size experiment in the United States found that attending small classes for 3 or more years in the early grades increased high school graduation rates of students from low income families.

Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Although the terms "educational psychology" and "school psychology" are often used interchangeably, researchers and theorists are likely to be identified as educational psychologists, whereas practitioners in schools or school-related settings are identified as school psychologists. Educational psychology is concerned with the processes of educational attainment in the general population and in sub-populations such as gifted children and those with specific disabilities.

Educational psychology can in part be understood through its relationship with other disciplines. It is informed primarily by psychology, bearing a relationship to that discipline analogous to the relationship between medicine and biology. Educational psychology in turn informs a wide range of specialities within educational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum development, organizational learning, special education and classroom management. Educational psychology both draws from and contributes to cognitive science and the learning sciences. In universities, departments of educational psychology are usually housed within faculties of education, possibly accounting for the lack of representation of educational psychology content in introductory psychology textbooks (Lucas, Blazek, & Raley, 2006).

Sociology

The sociology of education is the study of how social institutions and forces affect educational processes and outcomes, and vice versa. By many, education is understood to be a means of overcoming handicaps, achieving greater equality and acquiring wealth and status for all (Sargent 1994). Learners may be motivated by aspirations for progress and betterment. Education is perceived as a place where children can develop according to their unique needs and potentialities. The purpose of education can be to develop every individual to their full potential. The understanding of the goals and means of educational socialization processes differs according to the sociological paradigm used.

Education in the Developing World

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World map indicating Education Index (according to 2007/2008 Human Development Report)

In developing countries, the number and seriousness of the problems faced are naturally greater. People in more remote or agrarian areas are sometimes unaware of the importance of education. However, many countries have an active Ministry of Education, and in many subjects, such as foreign language learning, the degree of education is actually much higher than in industrialized countries; for example, it is not at all uncommon for students in many developing countries to be reasonably fluent in multiple foreign languages, whereas this is much more of a rarity in the supposedly "more educated" countries where much of the population is in fact monolingual.

Universal primary education is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals and great improvements have been achieved in the past decade, yet a great deal remains to be done. Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute indicate the main obstacles to greater funding from donors include: donor priorities, aid architecture, and the lack of evidence and advocacy. Additionally, Transparency International has identified corruption in the education sector as a major stumbling block to achieving Universal primary education in Africa. Furthermore, demand in the developing world for improved educational access is not as high as one would expect as governments avoid the recurrent costs involved and there is economic pressure on those parents who prefer their children making money in the short term over any long-term benefits of education. Recent studies on child labor and poverty have suggested that when poor families reach a certain economic threshold where families are able to provide for their basic needs, parents return their children to school. This has been found to be true, once the threshold has been breached, even if the potential economic value of the children's work has increased since their return to school.

But without capacity, there is no development. A study conducted by the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning indicates that stronger capacities in educational planning and management may have an important spill-over effect on the system as a whole. Sustainable capacity development requires complex interventions at the institutional, organizational and individual levels that could be based on some foundational principles:

* national leadership and ownership should be the touchstone of any intervention;
* strategies must be context relevant and context specific;
* they should embrace an integrated set of complementary interventions, though implementation may need to proceed in steps;
* partners should commit to a long-term investment in capacity development, while working towards some short-term achievements;
* outside intervention should be conditional on an impact assessment of national capacities at various levels.

Russia has more academic graduates than any other country in Europe.

A lack of good universities, and a low acceptance rate for good universities, is evident in countries with a high population density. In some countries, there are uniform, over structured, inflexible centralized programs from a central agency that regulates all aspects of education.

* Due to globalization, increased pressure on students in curricular activities
* Removal of a certain percentage of students for improvisation of academics (usually practised in schools, after 10th grade)

India is now developing technologies that will skip land based phone and internet lines. Instead, India launched EDUSAT, an education satellite that can reach more of the country at a greatly reduced cost. There is also an initiative started by the OLPC foundation, a group out of MIT Media Lab and supported by several major corporations to develop a $100 laptop to deliver educational software. The laptops are widely available as of 2008. The laptops are sold at cost or given away based on donations. These will enable developing countries to give their children a digital education, and help close the digital divide across the world.

In Africa, NEPAD has launched an "e-school programme" to provide all 600,000 primary and high schools with computer equipment, learning materials and internet access within 10 years. Private groups, like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are working to give more individuals opportunities to receive education in developing countries through such programs as the Perpetual Education Fund. An International Development Agency project called nabuur.com, started with the support of former American President Bill Clinton, uses the Internet to allow co-operation by individuals on issues of social development.
[edit] Internationalization

Education is becoming increasingly international. Not only are the materials becoming more influenced by the rich international environment, but exchanges among students at all levels are also playing an increasingly important role. In Europe, for example, the Socrates-Erasmus Programme stimulates exchanges across European universities. Also, the Soros Foundation provides many opportunities for students from central Asia and eastern Europe. Programmes such as the International Baccalaureate have contributed to the internationalisation of education. Some scholars argue that, regardless of whether one system is considered better or worse than another, experiencing a different way of education can often be considered to be the most important, enriching element of an international learning experience.
EDUCATION IS THE BEST LEGACY.

VEGETATION.

2010-10-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Ice desert Tundra Taiga Temperate broadleaf Temperate steppe Subtropical rainforest Mediterranean Monsoon forest Desert Xeric shrubland Dry steppe Semidesert Grass savanna Tree savanna Subtropical dry forest Tropical rainforest Alpine tundra Montane forests

Much of the work on vegetation classification comes from European and North American ecologists, and they have fundamentally different approaches. In North America, vegetation types are based on a combination of the following criteria: climate pattern, plant habit, phenology and/or growth form, and dominant species. In the current US standard (adopted by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), and originally developed by UNESCO and The Nature Conservancy), the classification is hierarchical and incorporates the non-floristic criteria into the upper (most general) five levels and limited floristic criteria only into the lower (most specific) two levels. In Europe, classification often relies much more heavily, sometimes entirely, on floristic (species) composition alone, without explicit reference to climate, phenology or growth forms. It often emphasizes indicator or diagnostic species which separate one type from another.

In the FGDC standard, the hierarchy levels, from most general to most specific, are: system, class, subclass, group, formation, alliance, and association. The lowest level, or association, is thus the most precisely defined, and incorporates the names of the dominant one to three (usually two) species of the type. An example of a vegetation type defined at the level of class might be "Forest, canopy cover > 60%"; at the level of a formation as "Winter-rain, broad-leaved, evergreen, sclerophyllous, closed-canopy forest"; at the level of alliance as "Arbutus menziesii forest"; and at the level of association as "Arbutus menziesii-Lithocarpus densiflora forest", referring to Pacific madrone-tanoak forests which occur in California and Oregon, USA. In practice, the levels of the alliance and/or association are the most often used, particularly in vegetation mapping, just as the Latin binomial is most often used in discussing particular species in taxonomy and in general communication.

Victoria in Australia classifies its vegetation by Ecological Vegetation Class.
[edit] Structure
A freshwater wetland

A primary characteristic of vegetation is its three-dimensional structure, sometimes referred to as its physiognomy, or architecture. Most people have an understanding of this idea through their familiarity with terms like "jungle", "woods", "prairie" or "meadow"; these terms conjure up a mental image of what such vegetation looks like. So, meadows are grassy and open, tropical rainforests are dense, tall and dark, savannas have trees dotting a grass-covered landscape, etc.

Obviously, a forest has a very different structure than a desert or a backyard lawn. Vegetation ecologists discriminate structure at much more detailed levels than this, but the principle is the same. Thus, different types of forests can have very different structures; tropical rainforests are very different from boreal conifer forests, both of which differ from temperate deciduous forests. Native grasslands in South Dakota, Arizona, and Indiana are visibly different from each other, low elevation chaparral differs from that at high elevations, etc.

Structure is determined by an interacting combination of environmental and historical factors, and species composition. It is characterized primarily by the horizontal and vertical distributions of plant biomass, particularly foliage biomass. Horizontal distributions refer to the pattern of spacing of plant stems on the ground. Plants can be very uniformly spaced, as in a tree plantation, or very non-uniformly spaced, as in many forests in rocky, mountainous terrain, where areas of high and low tree density alternate depending on the spatial pattern of soil and climatic variables. Three broad categories of spacing are recognized: uniform, random and clumped. These correspond directly to the expected variation in the distance between randomly chosen locations and the closest plant to such locations. Vertical distributions of biomass are determined by the inherent productivity of an area, the height potential of the dominant species, and the presence/absence of shade tolerant species in the flora. Communities with high productivities and in which at least one shade tolerant tree species is present, have high levels of biomass because of their high foliage densities throughout a large vertical distance.

Although this discussion centers on biomass, it is difficult to measure in practice. Ecologists thus often measure a surrogate, plant cover, which is defined as the percentage of the ground surface area that has plant biomass (especially foliage) vertically above it. If the vertical distribution of the foliage is broken into defined height layers, cover can be estimated for each layer, and the total cover value can therefore be over 100; otherwise the values range from zero to 100. The measure is designed to be a rough, but useful, approximation of biomass.

In some vegetation types, the underground distribution of biomass can also discriminate different types. Thus a sod-forming grassland has a more continuous and connected root system, while a bunchgrass community's is much less so, with more open spaces between plants (though often not as drastic as the openings or spacings in the above-ground part of the community, since root systems are generally less constrained in their horizontal growth patterns than are shoots). However, below-ground architecture is so much more time-consuming to measure, that vegetation structure is almost always described in relationship to the above-ground parts of the community.
[edit] Dynamics

Like all biological systems, plant communities are temporally and spatially dynamic; they change at all possible scales. Dynamism in vegetation is defined primarily as changes in species composition and/or vegetation structure.
[edit] Temporal dynamics

Temporally, a large number of processes or events can cause change, but for sake of simplicity they can be categorized roughly as eitherand processes (for further discussion of this topic see fire ecology). state]]. Moreover, accurately predicting the characteristics of such a state, even if it does arise, is not always possible. In short, vegetative communities are subject to many variables that together set limits on the predictability of future conditions.
[edit] Spatial dynamics
A coastal dune grassland on the Pacific Coast, USA

As a general rule, the larger an area under consideration, the more likely the vegetation will be heterogeneous across it. Two main factors are at work. First, the temporal dynamics of disturbance and succession are increasingly unlikely to be in synchrony across any area as the size of that area increases. That is, different areas will be at different developmental stages due to different local histories, particularly their times since last major disturbance. This fact interacts with inherent environmental variability (e.g. in soils, climate, topography, etc.), which is also a function of area. Environmental variability constrains the suite of species that can occupy a given area, and the two factors together interact to create a mosaic of vegetation conditions across the landscape. Only in agricultural or horticultural systems does vegetation ever approach perfect uniformity. In natural systems, there is always heterogeneity, although its scale and intensity will vary widely. A natural grassland may be homogeneous when compared to the same area of partially burned forest, but highly diverse and heterogeneous when compared to the wheat field next to it.
[edit] Global vegetation patterns and determinants

At regional and global scales there is predictability of certain vegetation characteristics, especially physiognomic ones, which are related to the predictability in certain environmental characteristics. Much of the variation in these global patterns is directly explainable by corresponding patterns of temperature and precipitation (sometimes referred to as the energy and moisture balances). These two factors are highly interactive in their effect on plant growth, and their relationship to each other throughout the year is critical.
[edit] Scientific study

Vegetation scientists study the causes of the patterns and processes observed in vegetation at various scales of space and time. Of particular interest and importance are questions of the relative roles of climate, soil, topography, and history on vegetation characteristics, including both species composition and structure. Such questions are often large scale, and so cannot easily be addressed by manipulative experimentation in a meaningful way. Observational studies supplemented by knowledge of botany, paleobotany, ecology, soil science etc, are thus very common in vegetation science.
[edit] History
[edit] Pre-1900

Vegetation science has its origins in the work of botanists and/or naturalists of the 18th century, or earlier in some cases. Many of these were world travelers on exploratory voyages in the Age of Exploration, and their work was a synthetic combination of botany and geography that today we would call plant biogeography (or phytogeography). Little was known about worldwide floristic or vegetation patterns at the time, and almost nothing about what determined them, so much of the work involved collecting, categorizing, and naming plant specimens. Little or no theoretical work occurred until the 19th century. The most productive of the early naturalists was Alexander von Humboldt, who collected 60,000 plant specimens on a five year voyage to South and Central America from 1799 to 1804. Humboldt was one of the first to document the correspondence between climate and vegetation patterns, in his massive, life-long work "Voyage to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent", which he wrote with Aimé Bonpland, the botanist who accompanied him. Humboldt also described vegetation in physiogonmic terms rather than just taxonomically. His work presaged intensive work on environment-vegetation relationships that continues to this day (Barbour et al., 1987).

The beginnings of vegetation study as we know it today began in Europe and Russia in the late 19th century, particularly under Jozef Paczoski, a Pole, and Leonty Ramensky, a Russian. Together they were much ahead of their time, introducing or elaborating on almost all topics germane to the field today, well before they were so in the west. These topics included plant community analysis, or phytosociology, gradient analysis, succession, and topics in plant ecophysiology and functional ecology. Due to language and/or political reasons, much of their work was unknown to much of the world, especially the English-speaking world, until well into the 20th century.
[edit] Post-1900

In the United States, Henry Cowles and Frederic Clements developed ideas of plant succession in the early 1900s. Clements is famous for his now discredited view of the plant community as a "superorganism". He argued that, just as all organ systems in an individual must work together for the body to function well, and which develop in concert with each other as the individual matures, so the individual species in a plant community also develop and cooperate in a very tightly coordinated and synergistic way, pushing the plant community towards a defined and predictable end state. Although Clements did a great deal of work on North American vegetation, his devotion to the superorganism theory has hurt his reputation, as much work since then by numerous researchers has shown the idea to lack empirical support.

In contrast to Clements, several ecologists have since demonstrated the validity of the individualistic hypothesis, which asserts that plant communities are simply the sum of a suite of species reacting individually to the environment, and co-occurring in time and space. Ramensky initiated this idea in Russia, and in 1926, Henry Gleason (Gleason, 1926) developed it in a paper in the United States. Gleason's ideas were categorically rejected for many years, so powerful was the influence of Clementsian ideas. However, in the 1950s and 60s, a series of well-designed studies by Robert Whittaker provided strong evidence for Gleason's arguments, and against those of Clements. Whittaker, one of the most productive of American plant ecologists, was a developer and proponent of gradient analysis, in which the abundances of individual species are measured against quantifiable environmental variables (or their well-correlated surrogates). In studies in three very different montane ecosystems, Whittaker demonstrated strongly that species respond primarily to the environment, and not necessarily in any coordination with other, co-occurring species. Other work, particularly in paleobotany, has lent support to this view at larger temporal and spatial scales.

FAMILY CARING

2010-10-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

Family Caring Trust
Homepage
Books and Courses etc.
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Training
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Summary 0-6

Welcome to our Web site...

Welcome to Family Caring Trust's website. For over a decade, the Trust's resources have been the most popular parenting materials in Britain and Ireland - over half a million parents have experienced at least one of the courses. They have also been translated into Afrikaans, Arabic, Bengali, Czech, Danish, Icelandic, Japanese, Latvian, Punjabi, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, Urdu, Welsh and Xhosa. They are widely used by social services, and by well over a thousand schools and adult education bodies, and they have been adopted or endorsed by the following organisations:

The Health Visitors' Association (CPHVA)

Sure Start
Barnardos
Action for Children
The Children's Society
Homestart
All the mainstream Christian Churches
NSPCC
The Marriage Enrichment Association
Mothers Union
The Psychological Services in Scotland

about us
Family Caring Trust is a Charity founded in 1986 to support and empower parents by providing practical, skill-based resources to improve family relationships. The materials are constantly being revised and added to, and the Trust is grateful to Barnardos and the Department of Health for their contribution to the development and production of some of these materials. The Trust’s resources are considered be the most cost-effective in the UK and Ireland - they are much less expensive than most other parenting materials because the Trust operates on a client-oriented, non-profit basis and is committed to never owning property.
Michael Quinn, founder and executive director of Family Caring Trust, completed a Master's Degree in Community Development and Family Studies in 1984 and is currently doing an Action Research Ph. D. on the development of a community-based adult education programme. Mr Quinn has developed eight community programmes of which the most popular is the "Noughts to Sixes" Parenting Programme. His books, co-authored with his wife, Terri, have sold over two million copies. In an article on Parenting in the Guardian, Sharon Maxwell Magnus asked the professional officer for the Health Visitors’ Association for England Wales and Northern Ireland what book she would recommend – by Penelope Leach, Sheila Kitzinger, Dr Spock, Chris Green…? “None,” she replied, “they all make parents feel guilty. But if you were to ask me who was doing the most effective work in helping parents, it would have to be Michael Quinn, The Director of Family Caring Trust."

About These Courses and How They Work

How do the Family Caring Trust courses work?
All are easy-to-run, flexible, courses for groups of 8-12 participants. For each course there is a Leader's Guide with simple, clear instructions for each session (including a script which facilitators may use if they wish). Secondly, there is a Participant's Handbook (with case studies, skill-practice ideas, simple exercises and short chapters written in simple, jargon-free language). Each participant needs a copy of the Handbook – this needs to be borne in mind when ordering, as only one copy is included in the kit. In most of the courses there is also audio-visual input (DVD and video format) presenting typical family situations.

Where do the programmes come from?
The programmes, designed to provide support at all stages of the family life-cycle, have been developed and tested in co-operation with statutory and voluntary agencies throughout Britain and Ireland (see Value Base and Evaluation). Participants in the groups are enabled to improve their skills and develop more honest, respectful relationships in their families. The situations presented in the books and CDs/videos come out of a variety of age ranges and different social and ethnic backgrounds. Elizabeth Burgess of the Parkside Community Project in Wandsworth writes,

“We've facilitated sixteen of your courses since 2000 with encouraging feedback. In the last two years we're having more racially and culturally mixed groups, including people from four different continents, and they work well together. Your inclusion of people of different ethnic origin in the DVD is important for all groups but even more so for such mixed groups.”

Optional Religious Dimensions
The Trust has no links with any religious organisation but there is an optional Christian dimension and an optional Islamic dimension for each of the courses, written by committed people from within those faiths.

How Family Caring Trust is Different

Not doing for others what they can do for themselves
Family Caring Trust is quite different in some respects to other parenting organisations in the UK. Back in the 1980s, when the Trust was being set up, inspectors from the Dept. of Health visited, sat in on trainings, studied our materials and talked frankly with us. They told us that they had had the experience of new organisations which had mushroomed and become overnight successes, then the charismatic individuals who had built them up moved aside and everything had collapsed. So they pointed to an important plank of government policy in relation to community development (which has also steadily increased in emphasis in official documents since then). The policy (and advice flowing out of it) is as follows:
“Work through the existing voluntary and statutory structures in society. There is no need to re-invent the wheel or duplicate what is already in existence, so please value the experience, wisdom and expertise of organisations that have already borne the heat of the day; your goal is to affirm them and work through them, not to replace them.”
This advice ties in with the Principle of Subsidiarity (“Do not do at National level what can be done at local level.”) It also ties in with one of the key principles of our courses, namely, Rudolf Dreikurs’ maxim, “People become responsible when they are given responsibility, so do not do for others (children or adults) what they can do for themselves.”

Making ourselves invisible
Family Caring Trust took this advice to heart, and set up a Charity which is quite different to most other bodies in the country:

* We do not organise or set up any of the courses that use our programmes – we only work through other organisations..
* So we work through NHS Trusts, Borough Councils (Early Years and Child Care Departments), Community Education, schools and Adult Education services, Psychological services, Churches (usually Marriage and Family Life Commissions of Church dioceses), and a variety of voluntary organisations like Barnardos, the Children's Society, NCH, Spurgeons, Parenting Matters, Mothers Union, Billericay Parents Forum, etc.
* All of them are encouraged to develop their own induction policies, facilitator-training programmes (normally accredited by OCN), and to do their own evaluations.
* Family Caring Trust supports their initiatives and provides resources for them but does not directly organise them.

This, then, was what the Department of Health encouraged us to do – almost to make ourselves invisible. Although we have reached over half a million parents throughout Britain, Family Caring Trust is not a household name like other national charities; most people haven’t heard of us. We were encouraged instead to avoid the media and let the organisations we supplied do their own media work and take the responsibility (and obviously the credit) for what was their own parenting initiative. We were to stay in the background.

The Advantages of not having a ‘top-down’ model
Initially, this may seem like a weakness, in that we do not keep tight control over things, but it has also been a great strength. History teaches us that too much structure can lessen creativity and dis-empower – Michael Parkinson said recently that the BBC had gradually introduced more professional structures and that everyone joining now had a degree in media studies – but that much of the creative, innovative pioneering spirit had been lost! Whereas our experience has been that organisations appreciated not having to fit into a Family Caring Trust ‘structure.’ As a result, they took on parenting support as their own initiative, not ours. They weren’t “working for us” or doing our programme, we were merely offering them a tool that helped to affirm and empower them. Our programmes have allowed them to become more effective and creative – this has been acknowledged by many organisations, including Barnardos and the Health Visitors Association (CPHVA).
There were other strengths that arose from the creativity and freedom felt by bodies throughout the country when they felt ‘ownership’ of our materials. They saw parent support as their initiative, they did their own evaluations, sometimes with a variety of university departments (see ‘Evaluation’ on this website). They also gave us a wealth of feedback (negative as well as positive – reflected in our newsletters) and made suggestions for changes which we invariably adopted. And they availed of their own in-house training – or bought into the Open College Network training which was developed by Hallam Caring Services and was then made available to all.
We are appreciative now of the advice we got from the Department of Health, for the direction in which that took us and for the distinctive ethos which Family Caring Trust developed as a result. The guidelines the Department offered us took us away from the ‘top-down’ model, and many innovative developments have consequently flowed from that. In the process we have learned some very practical lessons in fostering community development.

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The important of World Health Organisation.

2010-09-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

The role of WHO in public health

WHO fulfils its objectives through its core functions:

* providing leadership on matters critical to health and engaging in partnerships where joint action is needed;
* shaping the research agenda and stimulating the generation, translation and dissemination of valuable knowledge;
* setting norms and standards and promoting and monitoring their implementation;
* articulating ethical and evidence-based policy options;
* providing technical support, catalysing change, and building sustainable institutional capacity; and
* monitoring the health situation and assessing health trends.

These core functions are set out in the 11th General Programme of Work, which provides the framework for organization-wide programme of work, budget, resources and results. Entitled "Engaging for health", it covers the 10-year period from 2006 to 2015.

The age distribution of the world’s population is changing. With advances in medicine and prolonged life expectancy, the proportion of older people will continue to rise worldwide. For example, there were 390 million people aged over 65 years recorded in the 1998 World Health Report, and this figure is estimated to double in 2025. The post-war baby boom generation will reach 65 years of age in 2011, significantly augmenting the number of older people.

In many developing countries, particularly in Latin America and Asia, increases of up to 300% of the elderly population are expected by 2025. By 2050, there will be 2 billion people over the age of 60, 80% living in developing countries. The growth in this population is staggering, posing tremendous challenges in caring for this ageing population.

As people age, their susceptibility to chronic and life-threatening diseases as well as acute infections increases, exacerbated by compromised immune systems. Cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, infections and poor oral health, most notably tooth loss and severe periodontal conditions, are more prevalent in this age group. The consequences of these diseases and conditions are significant, leading to disabilities and reduced quality of life.

Oral diseases are usually progressive and cumulative. The process of ageing may directly or indirectly increase the risk of oral diseases and tooth loss, compounded by poor general health, illnesses or chronic diseases. Among the elderly, high prevalence of co-morbidities and barriers to care are observed, together with oral health care challenges in relation to:

* Changing dentition status
* Caries prevalence with unmet need for care
* Periodontal pocketing/loss of attachment and poor oral hygiene
* Edentulousness and limited oral functioning
* Denture related conditions, ill fitting removable dentures
* Oral cancer
* Xerostomia
* Craniofacial pain and discomfort

The interrelationship between oral health and general health is particularly pronounced among older people. Poor oral health can increase the risks to general health and, with compromised chewing and eating abilities, affect nutritional intake. Similarly, systemic diseases and/or the adverse side effects of their treatments can lead to an increased risk of oral diseases, reduced salivary flow, altered senses of taste and smell, oro-facial pain, gingival overgrowth, alveolar bone resorption and mobility of teeth. The high prevalence of multi-medication therapies in this age group may further complicate the impact on oral health. Other relevant issues include high sugar content diets, inadequate oral hygiene due to poor dexterity, and alcohol and tobacco use, risk factors that are detrimental to oral health.

Barriers to oral health care among the elderly are considerable. Impaired mobility impedes access to oral health care, particularly for those who reside in rural areas with poor public transport. The situation is worsened in developing countries when oral health services and domiciliary care are not available. Given that some older people may experience financial hardship following retirement, the cost or perceived cost of dental treatment, together with poor attitudes to oral health, may deter them from visiting a dentist. The fear of violence may make them apprehensive of strangers, hindering good communications with oral health services providers.

In some countries, older people tend to live alone, away from friends and family. The lack of social support and feelings of loneliness and isolation may affect their mental health and well being. Clearly, there is unmet need among this group. It is important that health care service providers recognise these important psychosocial factors that underpin the health and well being of older people. There is a need to provide sensitive oral health services that are accessible, appropriate and acceptable to them. Their general health must be taken into account when planning complex treatment that may involve surgical procedures. Special needs diagnosis and advanced treatment planning are crucial. Finally, the implications for research and training are considerable.

The WHO Oral Health Programme intends to develop strategies for improved oral health of older people. Based on experiences from demonstration programmes in countries, national oral health planners are encouraged to integrate systematic oral health activities towards improved quality of life. The programme will effectuate these strategies in collaboration with the WHO Kobe Centre in Japan, the Regional Offices, WHO Collaborating Centres on Oral Health and NGOs.

Average age of cases increasing

In most countries the majority of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 cases are still occurring in younger people, with the median age reported to be 12 to 17 years (based on data from Canada, Chile, Japan, UK and the United States of America). Some reports suggest that persons requiring hospitalization and patients with fatal illness may be slightly older.

As the disease expands broadly into communities, the average age of the cases is appearing to increase slightly. This may reflect the situation in many countries where the earliest cases often occurred as school outbreaks but later cases were occurring in the community. Some of the pandemic disease patterns differ from seasonal influenza, where fatal disease occurs most often in the elderly (>65 years old). However, the full picture of the pandemic's epidemiology is not yet fully clear because in many countries, seasonal influenza viruses and pandemic (H1N1) 2009 viruses are both circulating and the pandemic remains relatively early in its development.

Although the risk factors for serious pandemic disease are not know definitively, risk factors such as existing cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, diabetes and cancer currently are considered risk factors for serious pandemic (H1N1) 2009 disease. Asthma and other forms of respiratory disease have been consistently reported as underlying conditions associated with an augmented risk of severe pandemic disease in several countries.

A recent report suggests obesity may be another risk factor for severe disease. Similarly, there is accumulating evidence suggesting pregnant women are at higher risk for more severe disease. A few preliminary reports also suggest increased risk of severe disease may be elevated in some minority populations, but the potential contributions of cultural, economic and social risk factors are not clear.
Vaccine situation

The development of new candidate vaccine viruses by the WHO network is continuing to improve yields (currently 25% to 50 % of the normal yields for seasonal influenza for some manufacturers). WHO will be able to revise its estimate of pandemic vaccine supply once it has the new yield information. Other important information will also be provided by results of ongoing and soon-to be-initiated vaccine clinical trials. These trials will give a better idea of the number of doses required for a person to be immunized, as well as of the quantity on active principle (antigen) needed in each vaccine dose.

Manufacturers are expected to have vaccines for use around September. A number of companies are working on the pandemic vaccine production and have different timelines.

World Health Organisation.

2010-09-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

ABOUT WHO

Director-General: Dr Margaret Chan
Director-General: Dr Margaret Chan
(WHO/Jean-Marc Ferre)
The World Health Organization is the United Nations specialized agency for health. It was established on 7 April 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health is defined in WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

World Health Organization (WHO) Indonesia is a United Nations agency with a goal of achieving a healthier population in the country. Indonesia joined the organization in 23 May 1950 and since then, WHO works closely with the government as well as playing an important role in national health development.

WHO Indonesia support to the Ministry of Health includes technical assistance, training, fellowships, guidelines and support for international standards. With staff both international and national, WHO Indonesia also gives strong support during emergency situation in the country, such as the tsunami disaster and disease outbreak.

WHO Indonesia office is in the South-East Asia Regional, which regional office in New Delhi, India. The region groupes following countries Bangladesh, Burma, DPR Korea, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor Leste.
The Constitution of the World Health Organization came into force on 7 April 1948. This date is now celebrated each year as World Health Day throughout the world. The First World Health Assembly was held from 24 June to 24 July 1948 in the Palais de Nations, Geneva.

WHO Headquarters Office is in Geneva, Switzerland. 193 countries are members of the World Health Organization.

Geographically, the membership of the World Health Organization is divided into six regions. Africa, the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Europe, South East Asia and the Western Pacific Region. Mongolia belongs to the Western Pacific Regional Office of WHO with its office in Manila, Philippines.

The history of the World Health Organization in Mongolia includes 42 years of collaboration since 18 April 1962. Mongolia was initially a member of the South East Asia Regional Office from 1963 till 1995. In July 1995 the Government of Mongolia joined the Western Pacific Region. Although Mongolia does not belong geographically to South East Asia, it requested to join this Region for geographical reasons.

The Basic Agreement on cooperation between the Government of Mongolia and World Health Organization (WHO) was singed on 21 June 1963 by Dr C. Mani, Director for South East Asia and Mr M. Dugersuren, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, after which a Medical Officer was engaged to coordinate WHO projects. Initially there were only 3 fields of cooperation: control of communicable diseases, laboratory services and maternal and child health. Since that time, WHO has collaborated with the Mongolian Government in over 30 projects. WHO Representative Office was established in Ulaanbaatar in 1971.

During the last four decades, WHO has made significant contributions to the implementation of national policies and efforts to improve the health and social well-being of the people of Mongolia. It has additionally played a major role with the Ministry of health in health system development and the reform process through various technical inputs. WHO has contributed to the development of national health policy including a focus on reducing maternal and child deaths and diseases, restructuring and financing of health care services, health insurance, human resources development, strengthening health information system and establishment of multi-sectoral integrated approaches for health promotion.

Mongolia’s active participation and significant role in WHO is widely recognized by other fellow-member states. Mongolian representatives have been elected as President, Vice-President of the World Health Assembly, Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Regional Committee Meetings 3 times. Furthermore, Mongolian representatives have served as a member of the Scientific Consultative Committee of WHO/SEARO as well as an international civil servant in both Regional and field offices, thus making contribution to the promotion of WHO goals. Mongolia has hosted meeting of the Regional Committee in 1967, 1977 and 1994 and has hosted a Regional Seminar on PHC in Huvsgul aimag in 1984. Additonally, Mongolia hosted the 12th Meeting of the Ministers of Health or regional countries in 1994.

The World Health Organization will continue to work with and support Mongolia through the Ministry of Health. Highlighting global and regional health goals to prevent and protect humankind from devastating ill health in an era of globalization with increasing interdependencies between countries WHO’s future support will be focused on Government, regional and world wide priorities. For Mongolia these priorities include supporting the country wide provision of basic health services particularly for rural populations, reduction of maternal and infant mortality, communicable diseases and improvement of essential drug supply, technology development, management and repair of equipment, a revision of the financing mechanisms for health services particularly those servicing vulnerable population, establishing an immunization fund, developing human resources and managerial capacity and improving licensing and accreditation of health personnel and facilities.

Mikel Favourite Game.

2010-06-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

MY FAVOURITE
GAMES: JOHN
MIKEL OBI
Posted on: Wed 23 Jun 2010
Not a man renowned around
the club for his nostalgia, John
Mikel Obi selects two games
from the past three months that
stand out in his memory...
Favourite game played:
After already beating
Manchester United 1-0 at
Stamford Bridge, thanks to a
John Terry header, the away
game that followed was a slightly
more productive affair as the
Blues romped home to a 2-1
victory.
A cleverly taken opener from Joe
Cole, as he back-heeled over
the line, was added to by Didier
Drogba's strike deep in the
second half as we completed the
season's six-point total over the
Reds.
The reason Mikel depicts this
game as his favourite played is
all down to the African's ideals
of, if you're going to do
something, you should do it
right.
When we travelled to Old
Trafford, the side knew exactly
what they needed to achieve and
how to achieve it, as the Mikel
explains.
'The favourite game I have
played in was Manchester United
away this season when we won
because of the scenario,' he says.
'We knew what we had to do,
our plan was to go there and
win and when you have a goal,
you want to do something and
you do it, that's always amazing.
'We knew we had to go there
and win and we went there and
did it, at their home ground,
which just makes it more special.'
Favourite game watched:
Mikel's favourite game watched
came on the European stage this
year, when a tough encounter
between Arsenal and Barcelona
pitted what some would argue as
the two best football-playing
sides in the world against one
another.
That depiction of the two sides
may hold true for the Catalan
club, but most would assume a
football-playing side would win
trophies, unlike Arsenal in recent
years, but regardless of
individual opinions, this was
always going to be a great tie.
The first leg took place at the
Emirates, when the north
London outfit were forced into a
two-goal comeback following
strikes in either half from Zlatan
Ibrahimovic.
Theo Walcott pulled one back
for the hosts before a Cesc
Fabregas penalty evened the
scores.
So Arsenal travelled to the Nou
Camp, where a 4-1 thumping
ensued as Lionel Messi proved
his capabilities and forced Arsene
Wenger into hailing him as the
world's best player.
Arsenal may have taken the lead
through Nicolas Bendtner in the
18th minute, but Barcelona, and
more to the point Messi, were
too much for the travelling side
to handle.
The 22-year-old Argentine
levelled the scores after 21
minutes, before helping his side
take the lead in the 37th. He
would also add one more before
half-time arrived.
Spent and without their
influential captain Fabregas,
Arsenal would concede one
more three minutes from time. It
was the final nail in the coffin as
Messi single-handedly
annihilated the opposition.
'The goals in that game were
phenomenal,' says Mikel. 'Messi
showed just how outstanding he
is. It was a brilliant game for
him

2010-06-26T10:17:00.001-07:00

The most succesful club in europe

2010-06-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

The History of AC Milan
One of Italy’s and Europe’s most Successful Football Clubs

Apr 29, 2009 kelvin david
AC Milan is regarded as one of the giants of European and World football winning numerous trophies both in Italy and in international competition.

Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as AC Milan, was founded as a cricket club by two British expatriates, Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin, in 1899.
AC Milan Win Their First Italian Championship

The club won their first Italian Championship in 1901 and followed this success up with wins in 1906 and 1907 as well.

However, in 1908, an internal disagreement over signing foreign players led to a split within the club, culminating in the formation of another team based in Milan called Internazionale, now known as Inter Milan.

This divide had a devastating effect on AC Milan who didn’t manage to win another domestic title until 1951, but by this time the club were becoming a dominant force in Italian football. Milan went on to win the Italian Championship, Serie A, in 1955, 1957 and 1959 before the end of the decade, finishing as runners-up in 1950, 1952 and 1956.

Milan also known as the Rossoneri, which translates from Italian as the red and blacks to reflect their club colours, had an even more successful trophy haul in the 1960’s.

AC Milan Win the European Cup for the First Time

Having won the Championship in 1962 and 1968, finishing as runners-up in 1961, 1965 and 1969, the club won their first Coppa Italia in 1967. But AC Milan’s greatest achievement of the decade was winning their first European title by claiming the 1963 European Cup, beating Benfica in the final. This success was repeated again in 1969 with the club also securing the World Intercontinental Cup the same year. The Rossoneri also claimed the European Cup Winners Cup in 1968 in what proved to be a dominant era in the clubs history.

Milan struggled to win another domestic title during the 1970’s and despite finishing as runners-up three years running in 1971, 1972 and 1973, they had to wait until 1979 to be crowned as champions of Italy once again.

The club fared better in cup competitions though, reaching the Coppa Italia on five occasions, winning it three times in 1972, 1973 and 1977. Milan also reached two UEFA Cup Winners Cup finals, winning the competition in 1973, but failing to retain the trophy when they were beaten in the 1974 final.
AC Milan are Relegated to Serie B Following Match Fixing Allegations

The beginning of the 1980’s saw the culmination of AC Milan’s recent decline when they were relegated to the Italian Second Division, Serie B, for the first time in their history. This was as punishment for match fixing and was known as the Totonero scandal.

Milan bounced back straight away by winning Serie B in 1981, but finished in the relegation zone of Serie A the following season and were again relegated. However, the Rossoneri claimed the Serie B championship again at the first time of asking in 1983 and returned to Serie A where they have stayed ever since.

The remainder of the 1980’s was a period of rebuilding for the club and the team after entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi bought the club in 1986. Berlusconi, who went on to become Prime Minister of Italy, hired Arrigo Sacchi as manager. Sacchi signed the influential Dutch trio of Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard and they were eventually able to celebrate being champions of Italy again in 1988 before winning a third European Cup title in 1989.
AC Milan Enjoy Domestic and European Success

Milan were now ready to become a force in world football again in the 1990’s and started off the decade by defending their European Cup crown and winning the competition for the fourth time in 1990.

Domestically the club finished as runners-up in Serie A in 1990 and 1991 but then claimed the Italian Championship three years running in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Milan also reached three European Cup finals but lost in 1993 and 1995, but in between these disappointments they were able to win their fifth European Cup title in 1994, ensuring they were to be considered one of the games superpowers.

Milan won the Italian Championship twice more before the end of the decade, claiming the title in 1996 and 1999.

The trophy success continued for the Rossoneri who were crowned Italian Champions for the 17th time in 2004, but more impressively they won the European Cup on two more occasions in 2003 and 2007 to make it seven trophy successes in Europe’s most prestigious tournament.

However, in 2006 Milan were once again embroiled in allegations of match fixing along with Juventus. After being found guilty of the involvement of selecting favourable referees for their games, Milan were deducted 15 points, which was reduced to 8 points on appeal. Juventus faced sterner punishment, similar to that that Milan faced in 1980 and were relegated to Serie B.
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R kelly as he begin his life.

2010-06-23T11:10:00.001-07:00

R kelly as he begin his life.

2010-06-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

R. Kelly performing during his
"Light It Up Tour".
Background information
Birth name Robert Sylvester Kelly
Born January 8, 1967
(age 43)
Origin Chicago, Illinois,
United States
Genres R&B, soul, Hip-hop,
Gospel
Occupations Singer-songwriter,
musician, record
producer, executive
producer, record
executive, multi-
instrumentalist, music
video director
Instruments Vocals, piano,
keyboards, guitar
Years active 1989–present
Labels Jive, RCA/Jive,
Blackground
Associated
acts Public
Announcement, Jay-Z,
Aaliyah, Michael
Jackson, Celine Dion,
The Notorious B.I.G.
Website www.r-kelly.com
Robert Sylvester Kelly (born
January 8, 1967[1]), best known
by the stage name R. Kelly, is
an American R&B singer-
songwriter and record producer.
Debuting in 1992 with the group
Public Announcement, Kelly
went solo in 1993 for a
successful solo career starting
with the album, 12 Play. Kelly is
known for a collection of hit
singles including " Bump n'
Grind", "I Believe I Can Fly",
"Gotham City", "Ignition
(Remix)", "If I Could Turn Back
the Hands of Time", "The
World's Greatest", and the hip-
hopera "Trapped in the Closet".
Kelly has also produced and
performed in many tracks by
other R&B and hip-hop artists. In
1993, Kelly produced and wrote
the debut album of late R&B
singer Aaliyah and in November
1994, Kelly co-produced and
wrote a song You Are Not Alone
for Michael Jackson which was
later included in Jackson's then-
latest album, HIStory. Kelly has
sung the hooks for many
notable hip-hop songs, such as
"Fuckin' You Tonight" by The
Notorious B.I.G., "We Thuggin'"
by Fat Joe, "Gigolo" by Nick
Cannon, "Hotel" by Cassidy and
"Go Getta" by Young Jeezy, and
has collaborated for two albums
with Jay-Z.
In his personal life, Kelly has had
several sex scandals. Reports
surfaced that he married the
then-teenaged Aaliyah, for
whom he was a songwriter. Kelly
and Aaliyah annulled their
marriage. After a video of a man
purported to be him having sex
with what was alleged to be an
underage girl was released, Kelly
was indicted on several counts of
child pornography in 2002. After
several delays, his case went to
trial in 2008, with the jury ruling
Kelly not guilty on all 14 counts.
Recording career
1993–96: Born into the 90's, 12
Play" and "R. Kelly
Soon after, R. Kelly & MGM
released their first single, "Why
You Wanna Play Me," on
Tavdash Records.[2] Kelly signed
to Jive Records in 1991, and Kelly
formed another R&B group with
friends called Public
Announcement. Kelly and Public
Announcement released their
debut album, Born into the 90's,
in early 1992. Released during
the new jack swing period of the
early nineties, the album yielded
the hits "She's Got That Vibe,"
" Honey Love," "Dedicated," and
"Slow Dance (Hey Mr. DJ)," all of
which were led by Kelly.[3]
During late 1992, Kelly and
Public Announcement embarked
on a tour called "60653", whose
title was the zip code of Kelly's
neighborhood.[4] Kelly left
Public Announcement in January
1993.[1]
Kelly's debut solo album, 12
Play, which was released in the
fall of 1993 and yielded the
singer's first number-one hit,
" Bump n' Grind," which spent a
record-breaking 12 weeks at
number one on the Hot R&B
Singles chart. "Bump n' Grind"
topped the Billboard R&B singles
chart for twelve consecutive
weeks. Subsequent hit singles
were "Your Body's Callin'" and
"Sex Me."[3] 12 Play was certified
Gold by the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) in
1994, eventually going six times
multi-platinum.[5] Kelly also
produced Age Ain't Nothing But
a Number, the 1994 debut
album by the then-15-year-old
female R&B singer Aaliyah.[3] He
also produced a remix for Janet
Jackson's 1994 hit "Any Time,
Any Place" and worked on "You
Are Not Alone" for Michael
Jackson for Jackson's 1995
album, HIStory. Belgian rights
society SABAM found that Kelly
had plagiarized the melody for
"You Are Not Alone" from the
song's original 1993 composition
by veteran songwriters-
producers and publishers Eddy
and Danny Van Passel, and in
2007 a Belgian court upheld
SABAM's claim.[6] Kelly's success
continued with the release of his
third album, R. Kelly, popular for
the singles "You Remind Me of
Something", "I Can't Sleep (Baby
If I)", and "Down Low", a duet
with Ronald Isley. Kelly's self-
titled album sold four million
copies, thus receiving 4× multi-
platinum certification from the
RIAA.[5] Kelly promoted the
album with a 50-city "Down Low
Top Secret Tour" with LL Cool J,
Xscape, and Solo. In May 1996
Kelly was featured on the cover
of Ebony Man (EM) magazine
with the headline proclaiming "R.
Kelly The new King of R&B"
where he discussed touring,
working with Quincy Jones, Toni
Braxton, and Janet Jackson
("When I first met them, I could
tell they liked my albums. There
was always a certain song they
named off my album. They said
they wanted something like
that." Braxton liked "My Body's
Calling."), as well as his
influences Marvin Gaye, Donny
Hathaway ("The way he
approached the woman he loved
in his songs. He didn't hold
back" he says of Hathaway. "He
was raw with what he had to say.
And Marvin Gaye was the
same.") and Michael Jackson
praising Kelly's dedication to
music. "He's another person that
I feel is married to his music.
That's why we related so well."
In 1996, Kelly released one of his
most successful singles with " I
Believe I Can Fly", an
inspirational song originally
released on the soundtrack for
the film Space Jam. "I Believe I
Can Fly" reached No. 2 on the
Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on
the UK Charts for three weeks
and won three Grammy Awards
in 1997.[3] Rolling Stone
magazine named it as the 406th
of its top 500 songs of all time.
[7] For the film Batman & Robin,
Kelly recorded the top ten single
"Gotham City".[3]
1998–2002: R. and TP2.com
Kelly released double album R.
in 1998. It yielded the popular
singles " I'm Your
Angel" (featuring Celine Dion),
"Half on a Baby" and "When a
Woman's Fed Up." In 2003, the
RIAA certified R. eight times
multi-platinum.[5] In 1998, Kelly
wrote and produced the debut
album of his new female artist
Sparkle, which was released on
his Rockland label, distributed
through Interscope. The album
went platinum due to the
success of the first single, "Be
Careful," a duet featuring Kelly
and Sparkle. Kelly also found
success with soundtracks such as
"Gotham City" from " Batman &
Robin", and "The World's
Greatest" from Ali. In 1999, Kelly
wrote and produced, along with
Wyclef Jean, the majority of the
soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy
and Martin Lawrence movie Life.
Kelly composed ten songs on the
soundtrack, while Jean
composed five. Kelly also
contributed two songs, "Bad
Man" and "Up and Outta Here,"
to the updated Samuel L.
Jackson movie Shaft. In 2000,
Kelly released TP-2.com, which
yielded the hits "I Wish" and the
remix to "Fiesta," which featured
Jay-Z. Because of the success of
that song and another Kelly/Jay-
Z collaboration, "Guilty 'Til
Proven Innocent," from Jay-Z's
Dynasty album, it was
announced in early 2002 that the
duo would collaborate on a joint
album and tour entitled The Best
of Both Worlds. Due to
controversy surrounding Kelly at
the time, however, there was
little promotion for the album
when it was finally released and
Kelly instead refocused his
attention on his solo work as
both a recording artist and
producer.
During late 2001 and early 2002,
Kelly began working on the
follow up to his album TP-2.com,
titled Loveland which was named
after a dream he had where he
felt love in a world that was so
full of hate. The album was
scheduled to be released in
November 2002, but as with Best
of Both Worlds before it, heavy
bootlegging led to its being
delayed. The singer then
retooled the entire album; titled
Chocolate Factory, it featured
several of the bootlegged tracks,
and many have cropped up
elsewhere.
2003–06: Chocolate
Factory,Happy People/U Saved
Me, and Unfinished Business
In early 2003, Chocolate Factory
became a runaway success for
Kelly, selling over three million
copies due to the success of
singles such as " Ignition,"
"Snake" and "Step in the Name
of Love." "Snake," incidentally,
became the basis of the
dancehall reggae riddim known
as Baghdad. Later that year Kelly
followed that success by
releasing his first, and long
overdue, greatest hits collection
The R in R&B Collection Volume
1, the album as well as a dvd
collection. In 2004, Kelly released
the ambitious two-disc set Happy
People/U Saved Me, with the
first disc including feel-good,
stepping-inspired tracks, while
focusing on gospel and
inspirational material on the
second disc. That same year,
Kelly performed The Star-
Spangled Banner during the
introduction of the world
championship boxing fight
between Bernard Hopkins and
Jermain Taylor. His performance,
which included a line of dancers
doing the "stepping" routine and
a prerecorded instrumental track
set to the sound of "Happy
People," was met with a mixed
reaction. In October 2004, Kelly
reunited with Jay-Z to do a
follow-up to their Best of Both
Worlds album shortly after
announcing a tour to coincide
with the project after the duo
performed together during Jay-
Z's "farewell" concert at Madison
Square Garden a year before.
The duo's Unfinished Business
album was released and peaked
at number one on the Billboard
chart.
The Unfinished Business tour was
plagued by a rivalry between the
two stars and Kelly reportedly
showing up late or not at all to
gigs. The singer, according to Jay-
Z, often complained that the
touring lights weren't directed
towards him and often left
during the middle of sets.
Another night during the
concert, Kelly stayed on his tour
bus for two hours before finally
coming out to perform an
uninspired set. Jay-Z eventually
removed R. Kelly halfway
through the tour, after a
member of Jay-Z's entourage
attacked R. Kelly with Mace or
pepper spray. On April 25, 2006,
it was confirmed that Jay-Z's
younger cousin, Tyran (Ty-Ty)
Smith confessed in a Manhattan
Criminal Court to pepper-
spraying R. Kelly and four of his
bodyguards at Madison Square
Garden in October 2004. Smith
had been charged with assault,
but was allowed to plead guilty
to disorderly conduct for four
days of community service. After
the original incident, Jay-Z made
Smith an executive of Def Jam
Records.[8] Kelly also launched a
$75 million lawsuit against Jay-Z
for removing him from the tour,
which received a countersuit by
Jay-Z which was thrown out by
the judge.[9]
2007–08: Double Up
On May 29, 2007, R Kelly
released his eighth studio album
Double Up included the hit
single " I'm a Flirt (Remix)",
featuring T.I. and T-Pain. The
original track entitled "I'm a
Flirt", also produced and co-
written by R. Kelly, appeared as
a hidden track on Bow Wow's
The Price of Fame (2006).
However, Kelly never gave the
rights for the song to be
released as a formal single,
although it was played by many
radio stations before the remix
version. Kelly's first single from
'Double Up' was "I'm a Flirt
(Remix)." Bow Wow was not
featured on this version of the
song. In Kelly's video for "I'm a
Flirt (Remix)", he encourages
fans to call a number which
flashes up quickly on the screen.
Fans who called the number
were greeted by a recording of
Kelly talking about his upcoming
album and playing snippets of
new songs in the studio. "I'm a
Flirt (Remix)" was successful for
Kelly. The song peaked at
number 12 on the Billboard Hot
100. It also reached number one
on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks.
Another hit on the album,
"Same Girl", was a collaboration
between Kelly and Usher. The
single peaked at number 20 on
the Hot 100 and peaked at
number four on the R&B chart.
Other singles such as "Rock Star"
featuring Ludacris and Kid Rock,
"Sex Planet" and "Freaky in the
Club" were R&B charters,
although the latter two were not
officially released as singles, nor
was the title track featuring
Snoop Dogg.
Kelly's other single from Double
Up titled "Rise Up" was a tribute
to the victims of the Virginia Tech
massacre. The song was officially
released as a digital download
May 15, 2007. Proceeds were
donated to the Hokie Spirit
Memorial Fund, a fund that
helped family members of the
victims of the shootings.[10]
Kelly began his Double Up tour
with Ne-Yo, Keyshia Cole and J.
Holiday opening for him. After
two shows, promoter Leonard
Rowe had Ne-Yo removed from
the tour because of a contract
dispute. However, Ne-Yo alleges
that the reason for the dropout
was because Ne-Yo believes he
received a better response from
critics and fans, even though he
only performed at two shows.
Ne-Yo filed a lawsuit against
Rowe Entertainment. It was
shown that Kelly was not
mentioned in the lawsuit. In
December 2007, Kelly was
admonisheen.wikipedia.org
showing up to another
preliminary court hearing on his
case due to his tour bus being
held up in Utah.[11] The judge
threatened to revoke Kelly's
bond, but the judge eventually
decided not to. In 2008, Kelly
released a rap track titled "I'm a
Beast" in which he coarsely
attacked his detractors, though
Kelly himself never mentioned by
name who the song was directed
to.[12]
In 2008, Billboard reported that
Kelly had plans to release his
newest album titled 12 Play:
Fourth Quarter in the summer of
that year but the album was
postponed. Billboard also named
Kelly among the most successful
artists ever for its 50th
Anniversary List.[13] In the
spring, the first promotional
single " Hair Braider", peaked at
No. 56 on Billboard's R&B chart.
On July 28, the entire album
leaked online.[14] The album
was then pushed back to be
released in the fall. On
September 18, Kelly released the
video to the second promotional
single "Skin". However, the
album still has no official release
date. Though Kelly has not
released an album, he has kept
busy in the studio doing featured
guest spots on numerous
remixes including Lookin Boy
remix by Hotstylz, Mariah Carey's
Touch My Body remix, a verse
for a remix to Kanye West's
single Love Lockdown, Raheem
DeVaughn's "Customer" remix,
Beyoncé Knowles' If I Were a
Boy remix, T-Pain's Chopped and
Screwed remix, among others. A
recent track was leaked on the
internet titled "I Believe". Kelly
states on his official myspace
page that Obama's election
inspired him to write the song,
which contains an excerpt from
Barack Obama's presidential
acceptance speech. This song
was available on iTunes as a free
download the first week it was
released.[15]
Since 2009: Untitled
On June 3, 2009, Kelly released
his first ever mixtape "The Demo
Tape (Gangsta Grillz) presented
by DJ Skee and DJ Drama" as a
way to reintroduce himself to
fans, start fresh and give his fans
something different.[16]
While at the Velvet Room in
Atlanta in February 2009, Kelly
announced that he was out
there working on the album and
that it would be called
"Untitled".[17][18] The album
was given a September 29, 2009
release date[19], but was
delayed until October 13, 2009.
The album release was again
delayed and was released under
Jive Records on December 1,
2009. It got mixed to positive
reviews from critics. The single
Number One which features Keri
Hilson peaked at #8 on the US
R&B Chart.
Kelly performed for the first time
in Africa headlining the Arise
African Fashion Awards in
Johannesburg, South Africa on
Saturday, June 20, 2009.[20]
Kelly scheduled to perform in
Cape Town before heading to
Nigeria as part of the annual
ThisDay music and fashion
festival in July. He also scheduled
to perform in London as part of
his first international tour in 8
years, but he did not make his
London concert. "I'm very
excited about my first visit to
Africa, I've dreamed about this
for a long time and it ’s finally
here,” Kelly said in a statement.
“It will be one of the highlights
of not only my career but my
life. I can ’t wait to perform in
front of my fans in Africa – who
have been some of the best in
the world."[21]. R.Kelly wrote an
inspirational song "Sign Of A
Victory" and it was chosen as the
Official World Cup 2010 Anthem.
Kelly performed at the South
Africa 2010 World Cup Opening
ceremony on June 11, 2010.
Personal life
Marriages and children
In 1994, 25-year-old Kelly
married his protégée, 15-year-
old R&B singer Aaliyah. He had
known Aaliyah since she was 12
and had spent the last three
years working on her debut
album, Age Ain't Nothing But A
Number. The Chicago Sun-Times
printed a marriage document
showcasing the marriage
certificate, and noted that
Aaliyah had lied about being
eighteen when in truth she was
only fifteen. The marriage was
annulled in February 1995 and
neither singer confirmed the
marriage rumors, dismissing
them as lies.[22]
In 1996, Kelly married Andrea
Lee, a dancer from his tour.
Together the couple have two
daughters and a son. According
to Andrea, later in the marriage
Kelly became abusive toward
her; at one time she filed an
emergency protective order
against Kelly but later dropped
it. The couple filed for divorce in
2006 [23]. The divorce was
finalized on January 8, 2009.[24]
[25]
Child pornography trial
Robert Kelly
Mug shot of R. Kelly taken in
2003.
Born January 8, 1969
(age 41)
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Charge(s) Child Pornography
Status Acquitted of all
Charges
Occupation Singer-songwriter,
musician, record
producer, executive
producer, record
executive, multi-
instrumentalist, music
video director
Children JoAnn, Jaya, Robert Jr.
R. Kelly has been accused of
having relationships with
underage girls in the past, but
none of the prior reports
reached the level of publicity
that followed the release of a
video tape in February 2002. It
allegedly showed Kelly and
Sparkle's (a former Kelly
protégée) 14-year-old niece
engaging in sex. The tape,
released by an unknown source,
was sent to the Chicago Sun-
Times, the newspaper that broke
the story. Kelly denied that he
was the man in the video.[26]
Bootleg copies of that tape
became widely available on the
black market and over file
sharing networks. In June 2002,
Kelly was indicted in Chicago for
21 counts of having sex with a
minor, which were later reduced
to soliciting a minor for child
pornography, seven counts of
videotaping the acts, and seven
counts of producing child
pornography.[27]
After a number of delays, on
October 27, 2006, a Cook
County, Illinois court hearing for
pre-trial motions set the date of
the actual trial to February 7,
2007.[28] On the date of the trial
Kelly's lawyer informed the court
that his client was unable to
attend because he was
"undergoing surgery for a burst
appendix". He also announced
that Kelly was "in good condition
and was expected to be released
from the hospital later in the
day." His attorney stated that
Kelly (who pled not guilty) would
be in attendance on the next
trial date of February 21, 2007.
[29] It had previously been
announced by the court that the
videotape that allegedly showed
Kelly performing sex acts with an
underage girl would be publicly
shown as evidence in the trial.
The trial, however, was delayed
due to disputes over when the
tape was made and to give
medical recuperation time to the
sitting judge following a fall
resulting in broken bones. Later
the case was set for a September
17 date.[30]
It took more than six years for
the case to go to trial. Jury
selection began on May 9, 2008,
and the trial officially started on
May 20 with opening statements
from the prosecution and
defense. After two weeks, the
prosecution's case wrapped on
June 3 while the defense's
wrapped six days later, on June
9. After less than a day of
deliberations, on June 13, 2008 a
Chicago jury found R. Kelly not
guilty of all 14 counts of
videotaping himself having sex
with an underage girl.[31]
Additional child porn charges
In January 2003, Kelly was
arrested in Florida on child
pornography charges.[32] In
June 2002, authorities searched
his house in Davenport, Florida.
Officers allegedly found pictures
of underage girls as well as a
video of Kelly having sex with an
underage girl on a digital camera
– wrapped in a towel in a duffel
bag.[33] In March 2004 these
charges were dropped due to a
lack of probable cause for the
search warrants.[34]
Other legal troubles
After a July 1996 brawl at a
Lafayette, Louisiana health club
involving bodyguard William
Robert Hinton, Kelly was placed
on a year's unsupervised
probation starting August 13,
1997. One of the victims,
Christopher Mahoney, needed
110 facial stitches.[35] Kelly was
arrested on April 8, 1998 on
three misdemeanor charges of
disorderly conduct, including one
charge on violating noise
ordinance for playing loud music
from his car.[36] Prosecutors
from the district attorney's office
dropped the first two charges on
May 7 and the noise charge on
July 22 that year.[37][38]
On October 4, 2006, former
employee Henry "Love" Vaughn
(who claims to have been a
“ mentor and guide” to Kelly
since he was a teenager) filed a
lawsuit against Kelly accusing him
of assault, false imprisonment,
and a breach of contract that
defrauded him of songwriting
royalties. Vaughn claims Kelly
and his associates dragged him
to the basement of Kelly ’s
Olympia Fields home on
February 19, 2006, and Kelly
“ repeatedly struck him about the
face and body with his fists."
Vaughn also claims he gave Kelly
the “concept” for the song
“Steppin”. Kelly’s spokesman
declared that Vaughn is merely
trying to extort money and told
reporters that a police
investigation found no evidence
to Vaughn ’s assault allegations.
Olympia Fields police confirmed
that they had investigated the
matter but would not comment
beyond saying “we didn’t file any
charges in the case.”[39]
Discography
Main articles: R. Kelly
discography and R. Kelly
production discography
Solo Albums
12 Play (1993)
R. Kelly (1995)
R. (1998)
TP-2.com (2000)
Chocolate Factory (2003)
Happy People/U Saved Me
(2004)
TP.3 Reloaded (2005)
Double Up (2007)
Untitled (2009)
Collaboration Albums
Born Into the '90s (w/ Public
Announcement) (1992)
The Best of Both Worlds (w/ Jay-
Z) (2002)
Unfinished Business (w/ Jay-Z)
(2004)
Filmography
2005: Trapped in the Closet (1–
12)
2007: Trapped in the Closet (13–
22)
2007: R. Kelly Live The Light It Up
Tour
2010: Trapped in the Closet
(23-37)
Awards
American Music Award
1993: Favourite Soul/R&B Single
" Honey Love"
1995: Favourite Sould/R&B "12
Play"
1997: Favourite Sou/R&B Artists
**2000: Favorite Male Soul/
R&B Artist
2005: Favorite Male Soul/R&B
Artist
2007: Favourite Sould/R&B
Album " Double Up"
BET Awards
**2003: Best Male R&B Artist
Billboard Awards
**2001: Top R&B/Hip Hop
Artist
2001: Top R&B/Hip Hop Album
(TP2.com)
2001: Top R&B/Hip Hop Singles
& Tracks (“Fiesta”)
2001: Top R&B/Hip Hop Artist
2001: Top R&B/Hip Hop Album
Artist
2001: Top R&B/Hip Hop Album
Artist –ale
BMI Awards
**1998: Pop Songwriter of the
Year (for “I Believe I can Fly”,
“I Can’t Sleep Baby (If I)”, and
“I Don’t Want To” (recorded
by Toni Braxton)
Grammy Awards
**1998: Best R&B Song ("I
Believe I Can Fly")
1998: Best R&B Male Vocal
Performance ("I Believe I Can
Fly")
1998: Best Original Song from
A Soundtrack ("I Believe I Can
Fly")
NAACP Image Awards
**2001: Outstanding Male
Artist
2001: Outstanding Music Video
(“ I Wish”)
Soul Train Awards
**1999: Best R&B/Soul Album,
Male (R.)
1999: Sammy Davis Jr.
Entertainer of the Year Award
2000: Best R&B/Soul or Rap
Album (R.)
2001: Best R&B/Soul Single,
Male (“I Wish”)
2001: Best R&B/Soul Album,
Male (TP2.com)
2004: R&B/Soul Album, Male
(“ Chocolate Factory”)
2004: Quincy Jones Award for
Outstanding Career
Achievements
2006: Stevie Wonder Award for
Outstanding Achievements in
Song Writing
Source Hip Hop Awards
**1999: R&B Artist of the Year
2001: R&B Artist of the Year
Vibe Awards
** 2003: R&B Vanguard Award
a

who is going to win the world cup.

2010-06-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Everything stops for the World Cup. Work, life and even, at times, hearts.

Here is the most important thing to know about the World Cup: only seven countries have ever won it.

Of those seven, two are heavily favored this time around: Brazil and Argentina. The difference between these two might best be delineated by the difference between their two coaches.

Special Section: 2010 World Cup How the U.S. Can Beat England World Cup: 5 Players to Watch World Cup: 5 Players to Ignore World Cup Guide for Americans

BRAZIL

Brazil's coach, Dunga is like an entr?e that consists of only mashed potato. It's not exciting, but it's reliable.

He knows what it is to lose the World Cup and to win it. In 1994, he captained the winning Brazil team in the U.S.

He spent most of that tournament screaming at the more skillful Brazilians such as Bebeto and Romario. They spent most of the tournament ignoring him.

Brazil's soccer players Robinho, left, and Maicon practice during a training session, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday, June 6, 2010.

Any Brazil team that wins the World Cup on penalties after a goalless draw, as that one did, is a conflicted one. However, that team's left back, Branco, has helpfully revealed that it was sex and alcohol that finally helped them pull through.

No Brazil team is devoid of skill. That is a cultural impossibility.

However, it would not be surprising to see Dunga rein in the team, in order to play more of a counter-attacking game.

He can rely on some of the world's best defenders, such as Lucio and Maicon of Inter-Milan and Thiago Silva of AC Milan, who will have holding players in front of them such as Gilberto Silva ready to soak up pressure.

One thing that, perhaps, has never been said of a Brazil team is that it is weak in attack. Yet it is a brave man who relies on Robinho, whose last stay in Europe with Manchester City was about as memorable as an elementary school sandwich.

ARGENTINA

If Dunga is excessively professional, Argentina coach Diego Maradona is simply excessive.

He recently ran over a reporter's foot and used choice and heartfelt expletives in an attempt to soothe the reporter's pain.

He has promised to run naked through the streets of Buenos Aires, a sight one would not encourage children to enjoy, if the team wins the World Cup.

Lionel Messi

Worse, there are those who believe he may even harbor a peculiar envy of the world's best player, Lionel Messi.

However, Maradona does have one thing is his favor. He has the players.

Not merely does he have Messi, but there's also Carlos Tevez of Manchester City, who has few teeth, but many fine skills. He has Inter-Milan Diego Milito, who scored both goals in his team's Champions League final win.

He even has his son-in-law. Sergio Aguero, who plays for Atletico Madrid, and is a blisteringly exciting player.

However, defensively, where Argentina has a fine history of colorful brutality, Maradona has made curious selections. He will certainly have a problem at full-back. Simply because he hasn't picked any.

Instead, he has a vast array of large central defenders who might or might not be quick enough to survive. His midfield, too, offers an array of subjectivity. Will he really play ageing former Manchester United and Chelsea midfielder Juan Veron?

Still, Argentina cannot be discounted.

SPAIN

If your heart worked in concert with your head, you might choose a new country to join the World Cup winners' table: Spain.

Full of verve, style and passion, the Spaniards finally got over the pesky notion that they couldn't win anything when they won the European Championship two years ago.

Andres Iniesta, Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas and Xavi are some of the most exciting players you could ever wish to spend a couple of hours with.

The problem is that no Spanish team is ever really comfortable defending for long periods. Spaniards find it slightly offensive.

What glory can there possibly be gained from defending? Which means that keeping the ball for long periods and decisive striking will be the only way forward. As well as ensuring that so many of their best players, many of whom are coming back from injury, can stay healthy.

THE REST OF EUROPE

Sometimes, teams come along to the World Cup as if under cover of darkness, and surprise beyond one's wildest imaginings.

Turkey performed this role perfectly in 2002, taking third place, feat managed by Croatia in 1998.

But are there teams that can rise beyond their less-favored status?

Never discard the French. Their coach, Raymond Domenech seems to wear spectacles better than criticism, yet with players such as Franck Ribery, Florent Malouda, Patrice Evra and Nicolas Anelka, you know that the French have experience and talent.

Now if the Dutch could only stop arguing with each other. Holland has contributed so much good to world football. Artistry and tactical innovation for example. And it's often been said that the players know best.

Wesley Sneijder of The Netherlands

The trouble is that each player thinks he knows better than every other player. Which has often caused internal strife, just when there ought to be harmony.

Though defensively suspect, Holland still has Wesley Sneijder and Robin Van Persie, who can have great impact.

However, the dark horse might be the team from the country with a truly dark sense of humor- Serbia. The Serbs defend with intent, Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic being especially unfriendly. There are only two questions. Can they score? And can they get past Germany and Ghana to progress?

As for Germany itself. Oh, it'll be good. But somehow, the Germans, traditionally the most venal and clinical of teams, have become nice in recent years.

At the last World Cup in Berlin, a taxi driver told a reporter she was glad the team had lost. She felt it would have been impolite to have hosted the tournament and won.

England is also playing. England will always make for mesmerizing theater. England will not go beyond its traditional place in the quarter-finals.

THE REST BESIDES EUROPE

When Cameroon embarrassed Argentina at the World Cup in 1990, platitudes were offered about how an African country would soon win the World Cup.

South Africa captain Aaron Mokoena

It hasn't happened. It is unlikely to happen in South Africa, though the hosts, coached by Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira will try to do for South Africa just what famed Dutch coach Guus Hiddink did for South Korea in 2002. (They reached the semi-finals)

Home team advantage can do curious things for a team. Expect South Africa to reach round 2.

Cameroon, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast have all been hit by injuries or internal strife. None seems to offer sufficient cohesion to progress too far.

Perhaps Ghana might surprise, but the loss of Chelsea's Michael Essien is enormous.

At least, that's what logic tells you. Let's decide that Africa will finally make a larger statement during this World Cup. I hope it does.

From the Americas, Chile, the US, Mexico and Paraguay seem to have the best chance of advancement. But Mexico has a difficult group. Can one truly see any of these in the semi-finals? Oh, anything's possible. Even unlikely things.

THE CONCLUSION

We'll fall in love with some teams that we didn't expect. Honduras, perhaps. Or North Korea. Wouldn't it be a delightful day if North Korea somehow qualified onward and met South Korea? That would be television at its finest.

Emerging from the group stages, I might imagine seeing-- oh, who am I kidding?-- I would like to see:

GROUP A: SOUTH AFRICA AND FRANCE

GROUP B: ARGENTINA AND SOUTH KOREA

GROUP C: ENGLAND AND THE USA

GROUP D: GHANA AND SERBIA

GROUP E: NETHERLANDS AND CAMEROON

GROUP F: PARAGUAY AND SLOVAKIA

GROUP G; BRAZIL AND IVORY COAST

GROUP H: SPAIN AND CHILE

It is hard to see beyond Brazil, Argentina and Spain.

However, let's be strange and go for these semi-finalists: Brazil, Spain, France and South Africa.

With Spain winning it all.

A good followship

2010-06-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

caring of mother

2010-06-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

Caring For Mother

by Annette Leal Mattern

(photo: Tia Lila & Mother)

When my mother reached age 82, it was time for us to make different living arrangements for her. The family had moved out of state and she lived alone since her husband’s death several years earlier. Her health and security began to worry us all, requiring closer and closer attention than was possible with occasional visits and phone calls.

My two sisters and I always assumed that when the time came she would live with one of us three daughters. We even imagined shipping her around so as to always have her in perfect weather, a snow bird splitting her time with the different families. However, when faced with the actual move, she insisted on living on her own with elder care support. Because she had the means and was still fiercely independent, she opted to make her new home in an assisted living facility.

A recent study of core Latino culture, styles and values found that most Latino families bring their aged family members home, whether or not they're able to care for themselves. According to the researchers, traditional Latino families find it natural to integrate multiple generations into the household. The study made me wonder if we were doing the right thing.

This question will face more and more Latino homes in the years ahead. Statistically, the older Latino population is among the fastest growing groups in the nation. The Census Bureau estimates that, by 2020, Latinos age 65 and older will represent nearly 15% of the Latino population. Most will revert to living with family for cultural, socio-economic and practical reasons. And, given the current economy, this trend may increase as more elders find themselves without resources outside of the family.

The importance of family in the Latino culture is paramount. Like many European family values, Latinos hold family at the core of existence. One of the main characteristics of Latino families is collectivism, a psychosocial tendency to view the needs of the family above the individual needs of any of its members. Often leading to sacrifices of the individual, this can be an opportunity as well as a challenge, particularly where the aged are concerned.

Living with family can boost an elder’s sense of purpose, particularly if they are contributing to the wellbeing of the household, caring for children, assisting with household activities, being consulted on matters of the family. This healthy interdependence among the different generations is a powerful testament to the senior person’s value.

On the other hand, many elders need special care, which can strain the household physically, emotionally and economically. Preparation and open discussion of these issues can make the decision less traumatic and the transition more successful for all.

The deciding factor for my mother was the fact that she had heart problems and having medical support available any time of day or night was comforting to her. Fortunately, her resources and independent personality made this a reasonable option.

However, about one in 12 elderly Latinos has no health insurance, so they lack access to quality health care and may be unfamiliar with services available to them. Navigating social services and community resources can be daunting, particularly to an elderly and possibly ill person. Some are uncomfortable in medical environments and intimidated by the system, leaving them with inadequate service or support.

Language can be another barrier as many elderly Latinos are not fully fluent in English and may not be able to advocate for themselves with health care providers. In addition, medical terms are technical and confusing, further challenging the patient who is embarrassed to admit that they don’t understand.

Another significant concern is that over 21% of Latinos aged 65 or older are diabetic. Besides issues of proper medical treatment and management of food-nutrition-exercise programs, future lifestyle issues are a grave matter. Sustaining a quality of life may depend on the family’s commitment to creating and implementing a regular program of strength training and flexibility management, balance and healthy activities.

Some family situations are better suited to caring for an elder than others. Other caregiving concerns center on the individual medical needs of the elder family member. Is there a process to manage medications? Are the caregivers healthy? Will there be need for additional support if care is given in the home?

Caregiving requires additional focus on organization, particularly where elders are concerned. Multiple medications, doctors, insurance and Medicare administration require attention and often involve appeals and reviews. Having a system of management is essential.

Besides the additional work, there is great advantage to bringing elders into the nuclear family. Traditional Latino families strongly identify with the extended family and feel loyal to the members as a group. This is an important value to pass on to younger generations.

Elders also bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, culture and heritage, stories and soul. Listening and supporting them is a gift to everyone involved.

And, each person in the family becomes better when all are treated with dignity, a value often forgotten in our fast-paced lives.

Did we make the right decision to support our mother and her independent life? We think so. But we never take for granted that it is our honor to share the most vulnerable time of her life with her.

What ever your choice, when you look back on the decision from a later point in time, know that you chose thoughtfully the best option for your elder and the best decision for your family. And ultimately, know in you heart that you did the best that you could.
__________________________

Annette Leal Mattern held numerous corporate leadership positions where she championed development of minorities for upper management. She received the National Women of Color Technology Award for Enlightenment for her diversity achievements and was recognized by Latina Style and Vice President Gore as one of the most influential Latinas in American business. In 2000, she left her corporate work to devote herself to women's cancer causes. Her book, Outside The Lines of love, life, and cancer, helps people cope with the disease. Annette serves on the board of directors of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance and founded the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Arizona, for which she serves as president. Annette also writes for http://www.empowher.com.

Labels: assisted living, caregiving, elder care, latino family

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...: So right you are. My brothers, sister and I are now facing decisions concerning our 85 year old mother, who's not in good physical condition, and unfortunately, whose mental health is fast declining. It breaks our hearts but we're now looking into assisted living for her. Gracias.; March 7, 2009 4:14:00 PM MST
Anonymous said...: Although I do agree that some latino families would move their parent in to take care of them, I believe that many latinos out there just are not aware of the other options (that's probably better for Mom/Dad) that are out there. Right now I am searching for an AL for Dad and am having difficulty finding one near me (Long Island, NY) with at least some spanish-speaking residents. My heart breaks to the poor elderly who have absolutely no one to help them. We need to do more. Paz