ETHICAL LEADERSHIP Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ETHICAL LEADERSHIP - Assignment Example However major problem with ethical leadership is that it is difficult to define that what is right. Ethical leadership is based on two components, first is that ethical leaders must act and make decisions that are considered to be ethical and second is that they should lead the people based on the ethical standards (Anon., 2014). Leaders know that what exactly they value. They are aware of the importance of ethical behavior. The successful leaders are known for exhibiting both their ethics as well as their values in their leadership actions and style. The leadership ethics and values should be visible in the leader’s actions every single day (Anon., 2014). Lack of trust is considered to be a major problem in many work places. If the leaders are unable to identify the value and ethics required at workplace the mistrust can be understandable. People are not exactly aware of what they can exactly expect. Workplace ethics may take the same route if the leaders of the organization have ethical expectations and code of conduct, however it may become a joke for the organization if the leaders may fail to live up to the codes published by the organization (Heathfield, 2014). One of the effective examples of ethical leadership that can be extracted from the fashion industry is of H&M, which is the global fashion leaders and is enforcing its effort to fulfill its corporate social responsibility in recent years. The mission of H&M is to offer fashion as well as quality at its best price. Quality as defined by H&M is to manufacture its product in a way that is environmentally and socially sustainable. This is why the company works in close collaboration with its stakeholders and suppliers to effectively fulfill its long term goals achieve sustainable environmental and social standards in the factories that are manufacturing their products and also in the operation of their other business partners. The code of conduct of H&M specifies

Communication essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Communication - Essay Example Consequently, one becomes alert to the fact that television viewing is a real addiction with dire consequences. Winn’s title, ‘Cookies or Heroin’ was definitely an effective strategy in grabbing the audience’s attention and propelling them to the end of the article. This strategy was perhaps the main strategy used in the text - comparison of television addiction to the worst type of drug addiction in history. Thus, Winn constantly reminded her audience of the adverse effects of television viewing. Conversely, the author of the video initially presented images to demonstrate that television viewing was an important part of family gathering. It was only half way through the slides that one realized that the author was being deliberately deceptive. The video began with a bombardment of images of families of all creed and races in front of a television watching mindlessly as individuals spoke nonsense over the tube. All the images merged to one main television where the main actor presented himself as a ‘preacher’ and pronounces that television viewing had taken over reading and every other godly activity known to man. The video ends with the ‘preacher’ giving life to his message by suggesting that we turn the television off in the midst of his sentence.

Miscarriages of Justice are Inevitable if we are to Ensure that Essay

Miscarriages of Justice are Inevitable if we are to Ensure that Criminals are Convicted - Essay Example The criminal justice system in England and Wales is a complex social institution that is heavily regulated under the law. In a society that is fair and just, the innocent people should be protected from being charged for a crime that was committed by other people By all means, the criminals should convicted and be punish for their criminal acts. To come up with a fair and just criminal system, the prosecutors should be neutral and impartial when it comes to making decisions whether or not to convict the defendant from the crime he or she is being accused of1. Miscarriages of justice are one of the most serious problems we have in our society. Despite the lawyers’ effort in giving justice to the innocent people, there are quite a lot of legal cases wherein the poorest sector in our society failed to receive fair treatment and justice. As a system, the law unites the society as a whole. Therefore, each individual should wholeheartedly respect and abide with the law. Since a seri es of wrong conviction on innocent defendants could weaken the effectiveness of our criminal justice system, miscarriages of justice is often kept a secret from people outside the group of lawyers and juries. Miscarriage of justice is referring to the inability of the court to reach the desired end result for justice. To promote a fair and just legal system within the society, it is necessary to prevent miscarriages of justice... Miscarriages of Justice Miscarriage of justice is pertaining to many criminal cases wherein the defendant suffers from a wrongful imprisonment. In line with this, Layne explained that one should be clear that there are two different types of wrong conviction. First, there is a possibility wherein a guilty or not guilty defendant is unfairly convicted by not giving them a fair trial or has been legally discharged by the judge, detained on remand, or acquitted during the court trial. The second type of wrong conviction is when an innocent defendant was convicted for a crime done by other people. On top of these two types of wrong conviction, there are also cases wherein innocent victims can be detained in a prison cell without being charged guilty of a crime3. In line with this, the term miscarriage of justice is often referring to the second type of wrong conviction wherein an innocent defendant has been wrongly convicted but can also increase public concern each time a defendant who is guilty of a crime has been acquitted by the Court4. Given that issues related to miscarriage of justice are mostly kept unpublished, the continuously increasing number of cases associated with miscarriage of justice remains a social problem. In fact, wrongful conviction can eventually become a norm within the legal system in UK5. Because of the past and current cases of miscarriages of justice throughout the United Kingdom, the need for â€Å"corrective justice† arises6. According to Sir William Blackstone, â€Å"It is better to let ten guilty men go free than to wrongly incarcerate one innocent man†7. Despite the fact that it is wrong to convict an innocent person of crime he did not commit, there are quite a

Ethnic Diversity in the Uk Essay Example for Free

Ethnic Diversity in the Uk Essay Immigration, annexation, and colonialism are processes that may create subordinate groups. Other processes such as extermination and expulsion may remove the presence of a subordinate group. Significant for racial and ethnic oppression in the United States today is the distinction between assimilation and pluralism. Assimilation demands subordinate-group conformity to the dominant group, and pluralism implies mutual respect among diverse groups. The definition of ethnicity people value differently for each of the primary and secondary factors Primary whether it be Race, Nationality, Language, Religion, Perceived Ethnic Identity. Secondary whether it be Social status, residential concentrations, age, gender and caste. The processes which create and maintain ethnic diversity are such as Colonisation, annexation and international migration showing the role of those processes that create ethnic diversity in one country. The problems that come with the processes is ethnic diversity whether it be Segregation, pluralism, multiculturalism and discrimination that also shows the economic, social and spatial outcomes of ethnic diversity’ showing the role of these processes and their outcomes for one ethnically diverse city. The problem with Britain is that has been colonised over the centuries by various groups from Romans (introducing the catholic religion as a new ethnicity) the introduction of one of the first colonial powers to rule the British empire. The British isles came together as a political unit through annexation over a number of centuries culminating in Ireland. First wave of Immigrants was in the mid nineteenth century when thousands of Irish fled the potato famine and came to cities with major ports e. g. Liverpool in aid of work and living this is classified as international migration. Most significant increase in ethnic diversity in Britain started in the 1950s. During two world wars hundreds of thousands of men from across the empire had fought for Britain. India alone provided 1. 3 million soldiers. During these years many remained in Britain, forming small ethnic communities in ports this was due to India being a colonial country under British rule. A Number of Jewish immigrants also fled to Britain from the nazi oppression in Europe. At the end of the WWII there work shortages throughout Europe and Britain. 157,000 polish immigrants arrived in Britain in search of work. Shortly after where joined by the Italians but there was still a labour shortage and eventually workers were recruited from the colonies this is all international migration due to it being an economical climate issue. 22nd June 1948, the empire wind rush brought the first of many West Indians to live and work in Britain during the 1950s. In 1956, London transport was struggling to find workers so advertised in Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica for bus drivers and conductors. More and more immigrants flocked to Britain throughout the years from Barbadians, West Indians in 1958 and in the 1960s they were joined by immigrants from Indian sub continent which had become India, west and east Pakistan, following independence from Britain. The new immigrants were different to the rest as instead of flocking to the port areas they moved to the London area filling low paid, unskilled jobs in factories and the service sector. Car engineering in car manufacturers in the West Midlands were another focus. They frequently established clusters or neighbourhoods in the poorest areas in the inner cities Toxteth in Liverpool, Brixton and Bethnal Green in London. In most cases the new immigrants eventually established their own places of worship and other ethnic services. These new immigrants were not welcomed easily into British society and there were protests at their arrival. The government reacted by amending the British nationality Act to make it more difficult for non white immigrants to bring their family members with them. In spit of this, the numbers of non-white residents continued to grow and by 1970 they numbered 1. 5 million, one third of these were children born in Britain. Racial prejudice was quite widespread and there were racially motivated riots in the 1980s. Riots were started by claims that ethnic minorities, especially black male youths, were being targeted by the police. These minorities are being represented by racial unequal treatment. The amount of ethnics taking and filling British jobs is causing ethnic conflict between white Caucasian. conflict sociologists see the social world as being in continual struggle. The conflict perspective assumes that the social structure is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between the competing groups within Britain. The result of this conflict is significant economic disparity and structural inequality in education, the labor market, housing, and healthcare delivery. Specifically, society is a struggle between the privileged (the dominant group) and the exploited (the subordinate groups). Such conflicts need not be physically violent and may take the form of immigration restrictions, real estate practices, or disputes over cuts in the federal budget.

The recent demographic, epidemiological and social trends in UK

The recent demographic, epidemiological and social trends in UK This essay is divided into two parts. First part deals generally with the recent demographic, epidemiological and social trends in UK. In demographic trends main concern is population change. The demographic transition model depends on countries mortality and the fertility rates. As these are one of the important deciding factors for population change, though migration is important trend in UK. Next are the epidemiological trends deals with life style diseases, non communicable diseases, mental health, disability etc. Finally, the combination of demographic and epidemiological trends gives the social trends. Second part deals with critically assessing the priorities for public health and health promotion. Because establishing priorities are more essential. Not surprisingly it will deal with obesity, lifestyle diseases, smoking etc., as twenty first century progress, public health and health promotions are the major concerns. The important demographic trends in UK is increasing aging population. According to ONS (2009), the population in united kingdom is ageing with the decrease in the younger population. This trend is seen constantly over past 35 years. Because of growing ageing population. It posed a great political and economic challenge to the country(Squire 2002).Because the life expectancy between 2001 and 2006 was 75.6 for male and 79 for female..There is steady increase in life expectancy of people(Bowling 2005).On the other side there is increase in non communicable diseases which are mainly due to behavioural and sedentary life style changes. These include diabetes, CVD, etc., which are mostly of preventable causes(Shah 2008).When it comes to social trends, it has an impact of both the demographic and epidemiological trends. Like the decreasing trend of labour work, this may be due to many reasons. Although there is a increase in the people who are economically active from 5 million in 1971 to 30.6 million in 2006( ONS 2007). Since this increase in economically active people does not increase the employment rate. There is decrease in the employment rate from 95% in 1971 to 79% in the recent period (ONS 2009) The proportion of percentage of crime is increasing like property crime, card crime or juvenile convictions etc., though the overall crime is decreased from 40% in 1995 to 23% in 2005.With increase in the crime rate, the spending on the other services like social protection is increasing. In 2003 it was  £4,710 per person, which is higher than any other countries. Other spending like those for sick and disabled is increased by means of disability living allowance and attendance allowance (ONS 2007). All the above, trends in the environmental change is present scenario which is concern of most. In the previous years climate change was given low level priority( Doulton and Brown, 2009). Both locally and globally the physical environment and their naturally occurring resources are affected by human activities, which may be due to both industrialization and urbanisation from the act of globalisation(DEBRA, 2009).All these process are due to global warming and climate change, which alm ost increased the temperature of UK. The highest temperature was seen recently in 2005 and the projection also shows that if the emission level is same as now it will have increase in overall temperature of 2- 3.5 degree Celsius by 2080(ONS 2007).In the Kyoto protocol, UK has a target to reduce the emission of green house gases to a level of 12.5% between the year 2008 and 2010(UNFCCC).Even though united kingdom emission reduced to a level, the emission from the aviation industry doubled between the year 1990 and 2004. Generally increased emission of carbon dioxide will have impact at many level, like the recent flood in the November with the collapse of bridges and infrastructure(DEFRA, 2009) and it will have impact economically( Taylor and Ortiz, 2008)According to Greenpeace UK, many people are dying every year because of climate change and in 50 years many species are going for extinction and the government policy needs an action not in words. When it comes trends for health prom otion and public health, following are the problems that getting priority in the recent trend. According to office National Statistics (2007), there are two interrelated factors which affects the demographic change. They are natural change and migration. In 1950s population change is due to natural change. But from 1970s natural population change decreased with decrease in birth rate. From 1980s population increased due to increase in migration level and decreases in death rates. Present trend that is from 2007, the change is equal on both sides. The projections for 2011-2021 show that the population change is due to natural, with increase of 57 % (NSO 2009). In 2005, there was 723,000 live birth when compared with 7000 increase from 2004. It was 34% and 20% fewer births in 1901 and 1971.The reason behind this was due to two world wars ( NSO 2007). The best indicator for peoples health status is life expectancy. It is calculated by the mortality rate of the country(Keith Green 2004).According to guardian.co.uk, the trend in life expectancy are dependent on two classes namely middle and poor class. In which middle class adopt healthy life style and poor will follow unhealthy one like drinking and smoking. The life expectancy for a baby born has reached highest level. This would be like 77.6 years for male and 81.6 years for female. Though females live longer than males, the gap between these two are narrowing. The narrowing is from 6.0 years to 4.2 years in last 25 years. A man at 65 years will live 17.4 years and women will live 20.0 years extra if the mortality rate is same as 2006-2008(ONS 2009).Moreover, the projections for the 2021 is like 80 and over for males and 84 years for females(Scambler 2008).In that, last eleven years of life for females and eight years life for males will lead a poor health(Keith and Green 2004) .Moreover there is increase in the unhealthy life expectancy where the old people are alienated from the modern society(Brown 2008). Ageing is the part of life which leads to debility and dependency but not always with disability(Watson,2008).Many consider chronological age for ageing, but chronological age is rough guide to biological age. Because age is measured by abilities and performance of the individual. Many health and welfare organisation consider age of 70 and 75 years as starting age for elderly than 65 years. (Donaldson Scally, 2009) According to office of National Statistics(2009),the advances in the treatment level and modernization leads to increase in the life expectancy from 85 to 90 years. But according to Donaldson and Scally(2009), increase in older population is not solely due to advances in medical field or technology or new drugs. The reason is decreased mortality of children when compared to early twentieth century where there is more deaths of infant and children. With decline in mortality and birth rate ,which projects older population to be increased(Robson 2006). The population pyramid in the beginning of twentieth century, it resembled like a pyramid with more young at the base and elderly at peak. In contrast twentieth century shows like a chimney than pyramid (Donaldson and Scally, 2009). For more than thirty years, ageing population is increasing with 1.2 million people,16% of them are over 65 years and most of them are in 85 years and more(Robert and Linda 2008).When compared between two years like 1971 and 2007,the population of aged is 0.3 and 1.0 for female ,0.1 and 0.4 for male(ONS, 2009).Although policy matters regarding the ageing like pension, health and social welfare provision which comes under expenditure along with keeping good life(Bowling 2005).However, old age people who need supportive care due to physical and mental debility may have one or more chronic diseases. According to social life cycle and ageing fourth age which has dependency and disability, but many remains in good health(Donaldson and Scally,2009). The policy maker have more concern in enabling the older people to be active, mobile and independence, which will make them to contribute to the society as a whole(Bowling 2005). Donaldson and Scally 2009, underpinned that while setting priorities for health care of old people, it should be categorised in three ways .One is those with good health and require no service, second is one with disabling condition such as stroke or dementia and final one is those experiencing age related problems from frequent falls, sensory deficits and memory loss Next to demographic trends is epidemiological trend which shows the countries health status. United Kingdom health trends basically related to behavioural which are mostly related to diet, smoking, drinking and physical activity. Most of the diseases are interrelated to the one of the sedentary life styles. In the past twenty five years, the prevalence of obesity has doubled (National Obesity Observatory).The prevalence of obesity is increasing 0.8 a year, which is three fold more tan 1980s (WHO Europe,2007).The first and the most important cause of diseases in UK is obesity. It showed a rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity in industrialised world and it is first and foremost cause of diseases (Donaldson and Scally,2009) which leads to reduced level of physical activity which is the part of sedentary life style(Barnett 2005). About 37% of the deaths in a year is due to overweight and obesity, which is the cause for the DALYs in aged people ( Allender Rayner 2007). In 2007,ov er one million where on treatment for obesity with 127,000 and 871,000 in 1999 and 2005(Miller et al,2008). By 2010 it will rise in the prevalence rate to three million, at the time of diagnosis these people will be having 50% long term vascular complications and one third of men and 28% of women will be classed as obese (Barnett 2005). This is growing concern in UK, because the relationship between the obesity with immediate clinical outcome like coronary heart diseases are common(Miller et al,2008).Obesity can be related to many other conditions like mental health, learning disabilities and physical disabilities( Ells et al, 2006).There is strong connection between obesity and other diseases like diabetes, disabilities, mental health etc., Apart from prevalence of obesity in whole population, childhood obesity is alarming in UK due to excessive intake of food and lack of physical activity. This trend is more pronounced in lower socio-economic areas(Pearce et al 2008).In 1955 WHO formed global school health initiative to reduce health problem among young people. As a part of the initiative in UK, National healthy school programme-HSP was formed to tackle childhood obesity. It has given priority to physical activity and healthy eating but not on social exclusion and fails to address experiences of marginalised and vulnerable groups in schools(Curtis 2008). The government policy on white paper like ` choosing the health: making the healthy choices easier the policy was implemented through public services agreement-PSA to halt obesity by 2010.It is delivered through local agency and by UNNAO (Mohetbati et al 2007) There are national targets to reduce children with overweight and obesity by 2000 level. The scheme where imp lemented locally to tackle it. But they are not designed , timetabled, resourced or evaluated(Pearce et al 2008) and there is no adequate attention was given to psychological implication of the intervention. The urgency of childhood obesity was reflected in department of health, the policy in this area of childhood obesity lacked co-ordination, surveillance and screening. It is not precisely articulated and explored (Lake 2009). Another important effect of obesity is diabetes. In UK every one person in three is diagnosed with diabetes(practice Nurse 2009).The prevalence rate increases in faster rate than US and Canada, with increase of 74% in past 6 years(occupational health 2009).It is showed that in 2008 it was 2.5million diagnosed with diabetes against 2.3million in 2007,that is 3.86% and 3.66% (Diabetes UK 2007 and 2008) According to Diabetes UK (2009) ,the projections shows that during 2010 there will be anticipated ageing and with growth of overweight and obesity. And by 2015 obesity will be the extra burden of  £6.3 billion to UK NHS. The country could face a diabetes explosion by 2025 with 4 million people will be affected and 500,000 will live with it unknown. It is blamed to be due to overweight and obesity (Occupation health, 2008). It is getting a major public health problem and it is also root cause of many life style diseases like cardiovascular diseases, stroke , blindness etc., Another beh avioural problem which is also the main cause for the above all diseases are smoking and alcoholism, which are the demographic risk to the population. Smoking is one problem which involves many disciplines of action. 2006 there were 12 million smoker in UK, of which the prevalence is higher among men than women for age groups except between 16-19 years. The gender difference is higher among 25-34 years with 33% for men and 26% for female and lower in those aged 60 years and above(Heartstats.org). There is decline in the prevalence to 21% in the age group of 16 and over by 2007(ONS 2007), but there is no considerable decline in the smoking rate among young women between the ages of 11-18 years(Bowles et al 2009). However in general prevalence is more among unskilled manual jobs than professional jobs (Hillier 2006).In 1974 51% of men and 41% women wants to give up smoking , but in 2005 25 % of men and 23 % of women want to give up cigarette smoking. The gender gap is getting decreased between these two years. But in general 66% of them want to give up smoking(ONS, 2009).The death due to lung cancer range from 90%, 80% to emphysema and bronchitis and 17% to heart diseases(ASH 2007). Moreover, one in three smokers will develop cancer in some stage of life and one in four will die of diseases. Smoking contributes to overall 22% of deaths in UK(ASH 2008).NHS spends around  £ 2.7 billion year for treating diseases caused by smoking(ASH 2009) Cardio vascular diseases is a condition which involves a group of condition which is caused mainly by obesity, diabetes, smoking, alcohol, sedentary life styles, which are interlinked. It includes heart diseases and stroke. It kills one in three people, which can be altered by life style changes(BBC 2008).CVD is biggest killer in the country which contribute to 200,000 deaths a year with highest rate than Europe. The projections for 2050 is every nine out of ten will be overweight and obese, which in turn is a contributing factor for CVD. It poses  £ 30 billion to NHS and to UK economy (Care Quality commission 2009).In 2006, CVD cost 14.4 million for health care system, out of which 72% for hospital care and 20% for drugs. Another important non health care cost is production loss. The financial burden from informal care is due to death and illness during working age. In 2006, informal care caused  £ 8.2 billion to UK government .In an overall it will cost  £ 30.7 billion a yea r (Heartstats.org).The main public health concern regarding CVD is alarming increase in death rate which is due to modifiable risk factors like obesity and smoking. Next common cause of death among the UK people is cancer. The trend of death due to cancer peaked for males during 1984 and fallen during 2007. For females it peaked during 1989 and fallen in 2007.In UK about 50,000 cancer deaths every year (BBC 2007).Cancer is followed by mental health. In the recent past there is strong relationship between mental health and economic downtown. There is a challenge that exist to tackle the mental health without compromising in quality of treatment. All around mental health cost about  £110 billion per year. This is increasing due to recession, unemployment, home repossession etc., The expenditure on mental health will double if the same situation exist( Royal college of psychiatrist 2009).Women are 19.1% higher than men in using mental health services. And old age people using double the size(mental health bulletin 2009).For this government has sorted out some priorities like support to employer from government , Right kind of support to people w ith problem and concentration on research to improve the present situation in co ordination from public health professional. This can done by public mental health approach (Royal college of psychiatrics). Inequalities due to migration are the constant problem in UK. It may be due to the difference in the level of deprivation (Connolly O Reilly 2007). According to ONS (2009), migration in is seen in two levels like immigration and emigration. International migrations contribute to population growth of UK in the recent years. The people emigrated from UK is 427,000 in 2008 which is high when compared to 341,000 in 2007. The number of people emigrated has doubled in A8 accession countries from 25,000 in 2007 to 69,000 in 2008. In contrast, people came to UK in 2008 is 590,000 when compared with 574,100 in 2007. However, there is decrease in NI number allocation between 2007 and 2008 shows that decrease in the number of people came to UK from other countries. There is steady decrease in people immigrating to UK between 2007, it includes both EU and Non EU. But there is sharp increase in people coming for formal study from 27% in 2007 to 32% in 2008(ONS).Immigration causes two problems to NHS, first is the abuse of overseas visitors and second is unchecked permanent migration with major illness and diseases like HIV, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis B. These diseases are communicable, intractable leads to spread which will cause serious public health problems (Moxon 2004).

Oedipus Rex †a Christ Figure Essay -- Oedipus the King Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex – a Christ Figure  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   Sophocles’ famous tragedy, Oedipus Rex, perhaps â€Å"the most important and influential drama ever written† (â€Å"Sophocles† 717), presents in the person of   Oedipus the model of a good ruler, a humanely intelligent and vigorously active leader, a man who earlier saved his adopted city Thebes from disaster. Is Oedipus an alter Christus besides?    The numerous parallels between the figure of the king Oedipus and the figure of Christ in the Scriptures prompts the reader to ask the above question.    For example, in the opening lines of the drama, Oedipus greets the crowd of suppliants (including old men, boys and children) waiting at his palace doors with the words: â€Å"My children, latest born to Cadmus old, /Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your hands /Branches of olive filleted with wool†? Later, the king’s second address to the crowd begins: â€Å"Ah! my poor children, known, ah, known too well,/The quest that brings you hither and your need.† Other addresses to the people on the part of the king refer to them as â€Å"children.† There are many parallels to this in the Bible when Jesus addressed the people. In the gospel of Matthew alone, the word children is used 20 times, for example 3:9: â€Å". . .and do not presume to say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our father'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.† Jesus also said in Matthew 18:3: "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.† In the same book (23:37) Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her b... ...says â€Å"I thank my God through Jesus Christ,† thus associating the two very closely.    Thus it is seen that there are many parallels between Sophocles’ drama, Oedipus Rex, in its treatment of the king, and the Bible with its treatment of Jesus, even though the latter was written some 400 years later than the former.    WORKS CITED       Oedipus the King. Tranlsted by Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay. In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984.    â€Å"Sophocles† In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984.    Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. Transl. by F. Storr. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed new?tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&part=0&id=SopOedi   

How Games Makes a Better World

How games can make a better world A few months ago I saw a talk by Jane McGonigal on TED. com. She has been a game designer for about 10 years now and she had some really interesting ideas about how we spend way to little time playing videogames. We are currently spending 3 billion hours a week playing online games. That might sound like an awful lot of playing games and not so much solving problems like hunger, poverty and climate change. But according to her research, we have to increase that playtime to 21 billion hours a week to survive the next century. Have you ever heard about an â€Å"epic win†?That’s when you succeed with something and the outcome is so extremely positive that you didn’t even know that it was possible. What we need is to transfer epic wins into the real world. But that’s not an easy task. In game we become the best version of our self. When we are playing games we get much better confidence and we are much more likely to stand up and try again after failure, as opposed to when we try to tackle real life problems. In game the missions and problems that you have to solve are always match to the level you’re currently at. That means that before you even start, you know it’s possible.You have to work hard to succeed, but you know it’s possible. When we face a problem in real life we often don’t feel the same way. We often feel overvalued by the problem, depressed or frustrated. In game you rarely feel that way. So what is it in games that make us feel like we can achieve everything? What is it that games have that the real world doesn’t? When you’re first showing up in a cooperative online game, like Guild Wars, World of Worldcraft or Little Big Planet, there are people that are willing to support you with a world saving mission right away.All these collaborators that are willing to help you achieve your epic mission is nothing that exist in real world situations. Thereà ¢â‚¬â„¢s also a lot more positive feedback in games than it is in the real world. Games like Guitar Hero always boost your confidence by giving bonus point when you for instance managing to play all the notes right at a really difficult part of a song. Or when you make an awesome slide in the middle of the solo. You don’t get that kind of positive feedback in real life. When I’m done cleaning my room, I wont get â€Å"+1 cleaning†. Or when I’ve finished this homework I wont get â€Å"+25 school†.The problem is that it’s so rewarding to play computer games that many people decide to spend almost all of their time in this virtual world. Just because they think the virtual world is better than the real one. So far, gamers have spent 5,93 million years solving the problems in World of Worldcraft. Imagine if we somehow could transfer all that problem solving in to the real world! How we could do this has been a mystery for me ever since I heard h er speech. Until now that is. Just a few days ago I read a really interesting article in the news magazine â€Å"Ny Teknik†.The article was written by Helen Ahlbom and she gave some very good examples on how we are already making the world better with games. Nissan and Fiat has developed new cars models that save your fuel efficiency in an onboard computer. You later upload your statistics to their website and compete with each other on who can drive most eco friendly. I got so interested by these new ideas that I just had to visit Fiats website to see it for myself. It appeared that the transferring of all the good stuff from games to the reality had already begun.The game gives you a lot of positive feedback on your driving, much like the feedback I earlier said you didn’t get for real world accomplishments. I’ve already started making my own computer games. I always thought that computer games was just something silly you played when you where bored. But now I see how games can make the real world a better place. These new ideas has really got me thinking and I think that this is something that I actually would like to have as a job in the future. ———————– A portrait taken by the photographer Phil Toledano of a gamer on the verge of an epic win This is a screenshot from Fiats website