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Tag: 1950

  • DOUBLE-BLINDED MEDICINE: When Doctor and Patient Are Both in the Dark

    DOUBLE-BLINDED MEDICINE: When Doctor and Patient Are Both in the Dark

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    DOUBLE-BLINDED MEDICINE:

    When Doctor and Patient Are

    Both in the Dark

    I met a dermatologist the other day who made my skin crawl. He was in his thirties, tall, lean, and unsmiling, like many doctors these days. But what stood out most was a fresh-looking, full-color, eye-popping tattoo on his right arm that snaked its way up from his wrist, circumvented his forearm, and slipped beneath his short-sleeved shirt to unknown anatomical areas. I believe he also had a tattoo on his left arm, but I was too gobsmacked at the time to take note.

    Now, you might think, as I do, that a tattooed dermatologist is an oxymoron. It doesn’t take much imagination, or research on the Internet, to realize that tattoos are bad for the skin.

    The most obvious issue is that tattooing is done by puncturing the skin, causing skin trauma and risk of infection. Interestingly, there is research that connects the injury to the skin made by both tattooing and vaccinations as a cause of numerous skin reactions, including cancer.

    The 2014 article, “Tattoo and vaccination sites: Possible nest for opportunistic infections, tumors, and dysimmune reactions”, in the journal Clinical Dermatology, explains that, “Both dermal tattoos and vaccine injections may alter local immune responses, creating an immunocompromised district on or near the site of placement. This can lead to the development of opportunistic infections, benign and malignant tumors, and local dysimmune reactions… A variety of tumors including basal and squamous cell carcinomas, keratoacanthomas, and malignant melanoma also have been reported in association with tattoos… Vaccination sites similarly provide a setting for both benign and malignant tumors.”

    The inks used are also a problem, causing allergies and exposure to heavy metals. It is fairly common for individuals to have an allergic reaction to the dyes used in tattoos. Ink is actually filled with many chemicals and unnatural ingredients that can irritate a person’s skin.

    There is also a link to skin cancer. When it comes to cancer, black ink can be especially dangerous because it contains a very high level of benzo(a)pyrene. Benzo(a)pyrene is currently listed as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Black ink is the most commonly used color for tattooing.

    You might think that this doctor may have gotten his tattoos before becoming a doctor, so he didn’t know any better. But this was a new tattoo. And he was flaunting it, not hiding it.

    Tattoos are common these days, and fashionable in certain circles. Doctors want to look cool, like everyone else. They grew up like everyone else, exposed to, and brainwashed by, the same cultural messages. They just choose to go into medicine.

    I also met a cardiologist who smoked cigarettes. He was also grossly overweight, and ate a big, juicy hamburger with fries for lunch. Of course, being obese, smoking and eating fried foods can increase heart disease.

    An obese, smoking cardiologist eating fast food makes as much sense as a tattooed dermatologist.

    Maybe these doctors are attracted to their specialties because they know they will need treatment from that specialty due to their lifestyles? It’s like when mentally-disturbed, neurotic people become psychologists or psychiatrists.

    How about female doctors who constrict their breasts with tight bras for long hours daily? There are many female breast health experts, including breast surgeons, who wear breast-harming bras. Their medical training never mentioned tight clothing as a cause of circulatory impairment and lymph stasis. These doctors willingly immobilize and alter their breast shape, hide their nipples, and basically re-design their breast appearance for cultural reasons, and do this despite the documented harms caused by bras, including causing breast pain, cysts, and cancer. Wearing bras is just something every woman is culturally expected to do, even doctors.

    Is this hypocrisy? Should we expect doctors to be paragons of health and healthy lifestyles?

    More basically, when we seek help, does it matter whether the helper is in the same mess we are in? In other words, can you trust a lifeline from someone in the same boat as you?

    We seek help in many places.

    Would you go to a priest who was a known pedophile?

    Would you use a mechanic whose car is broken down?

    Would you go to a hairdresser who is having a “bad hair day”?

    Would you use a plastic surgeon who has a big nose, cock-eyed chin, and facial scars?

    How about eating in a restaurant where the cook is out because of food poisoning?

    You could also go into a health food store and buy chips, coffee, candy, wine, beer, and lots of other unhealthy stuff.

    Then there are the drug addiction recovery programs that offer coffee to everyone, one of the most addictive substances we consume.

    Clearly, there’s a problem here. We live in a culture where there are lots of products and activities that can harm us. In fact, the biggest cause of disease and death is the culture and all the bad things it teaches us to think, do and feel. We absorb these cultural messages from the uterus onward, as our nature becomes modified by our culture.

    This applies to everyone. It includes doctors, too. Just because someone studied medicine, it does not mean that they personally eliminated all harmful cultural practices in their lives. The same cultural causes of disease that fill their waiting rooms also fill their personal lives. In fact, the medical culture is even worse on doctors.

    For some reason that is not clear, the medical system exploits doctors with long work hours and sleepless day and night shifts. Doctors are rushed and pressured, grabbing unhealthy snacks on the go. They become tempted to abuse drugs to keep going, but may settle for drinking 10-20 cups of strong coffee, instead. They also become tempted to use drugs to relax, but may settle for a few alcoholic drinks. They have little recreation time, or time with their families. And depending on their specialty, they are exposed daily to infectious diseases, death, radiation, the soul-robbing sights and smells of hospitals, and the depression of treating endless lines of sick people, often using treatments that do no good, and for conditions that have no known cause.

    Clearly, being a doctor can make you sick, mentally and physically. No wonder why there are so many doctor suicides. Just practicing medicine is slow suicide.

    This also means that doctors are not the ones to tell patients to clean up their lifestyles. The doctor’s lifestyle is at least as bad, and actually worse. They participate in the same unhealthy culture as everyone else, addicted to many of the same things, and suffering from the same psychological and physical issues. But they are the ones who are meant to treat those problems.

    This is a basic reason why medicine does not emphasize lifestyle or other cultural causes of disease. How can doctors tell patients to not do things that they themselves do?

    This is also why many discoveries of the cultural causes of disease are left unnoticed by medicine. For example, when smoking was culturally accepted as safe and good for you, everyone smoked, including doctors. In the 1950’s, there were ads by tobacco companies using doctors to promote smoking. New research that showed smoking caused lung cancer was ignored, ridiculed, and opposed vehemently by many in the medical profession.

    Nobody likes to be told that what they are doing is wrong and can harm them, especially doctors who are regarded as the experts on health. Telling smoking doctors that their habit is actually bad is a challenge to their authority. And how can they tell smoking patients to stop?

    Another example can be found in today’s debate over the health hazards of bras and their link to breast cancer. I know about this issue personally, as the co-researcher, with my wife Soma Grismaijer, of the world’s first study focused on the bra-cancer link. We announced our results in the 1995 book, Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras, now updated for 2018.

    There are now many studies internationally which link breast cancer with the wearing of tight bras.

    Essentially, bra-free women have about the same risk of breast cancer as men, while the tighter and longer the bra is worn the higher the risk rises, to over 100 times higher for a 24/7 bra user compared to a bra-free woman.

    But this information is still being resisted by a culture which has become as addicted to bras as it had been to cigarettes. Women have become conditioned into believing that they need artificially-shaped breasts to be acceptable in public. Even doctors have bought into that message. Under the spell of the lingerie industry, the thought of being bra-free in public sends a chill down the backs of women who would feel naked and ashamed without their breasts being bound by a bra.

    As a result, the bra issue is still relegated to alternative health and fringe groups, although women are now asking why they need to wear bras in the post-#MeToo world. Must women’s breasts be constantly sexualized by pushing, squeezing, prodding, pinching, compressing, constricting, cleavaging, and lifting their breasts with bras? Many women are now saying no.

    Ironically, many female doctors who use bras are insisting that under no circumstances can bras cause disease, especially cancer. The reason is that they cannot imagine themselves being bra-free at work, which is a logical conclusion of this information. If they realized that bras were causing disease, then they would have to defend their bra habit.

    This means that there is an additional problem caused by doctors being as ignorant as everyone else with regards to unhealthy lifestyles. Not only does the bad-lifestyle doctor model bad lifestyles, but that doctor may also be personally and psychologically invested in defending those bad lifestyles. They don’t want to stop doing what everyone else is also doing. They want to belong, just like everyone else, even if that requires smoking, drinking, or doing other harmful behaviors.

    But their denial carries weight with patients. Doctors model and teach implicitly by their own behaviors.

    Should doctors be required to practice the latest lifestyle trend alleged to improve health and prevent disease? Before anything like this can even be considered, the bigger obstacle for doctors is their own medical culture that abuses them and drives them to depression and suicide. So long as the institutional and corporate powers that control medicine continue to abuse doctors with a harmful medical culture, don’t expect medicine to focus on culture.

    Medical culture is a glass house that will not throw stones at pop culture.

    And since the medical industry profits from the detection and treatment of the resulting diseases, there is actually financial incentive to maintain the cultural status quo, even if that culture is also killing doctors. There are many more pre-med students waiting to take their place.

    This is double-blind medicine. Both the patient and doctor are in the dark. It’s the blind leading the blind, except that the blind leaders deny their blindness and scoff at those who see the light.

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    Source by Sydney Ross Singer

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  • History of Educational Technology

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    There is no written evidence which can tell us exactly who has coined the phrase educational technology. Different educationists, scientists and philosophers at different time intervals have put forwarded different definitions of Educational Technology. Educational technology is a multifaceted and integrated process involving people, procedure, ideas, devices, and organization, where technology from different fields of science is borrowed as per the need and requirement of education for implementing, evaluating, and managing solutions to those problems involved in all aspects of human learning.

    Educational technology, broadly speaking, has passed through five stages.

    The first stage of educational technology is coupled with the use of aids like charts, maps, symbols, models, specimens and concrete materials. The term educational technology was used as synonyms to audio-visual aids.

    The second stage of educational technology is associated with the ‘electronic revolution’ with the introduction and establishment of sophisticated hardware and software. Use of various audio-visual aids like projector, magic lanterns, tape-recorder, radio and television brought a revolutionary change in the educational scenario. Accordingly, educational technology concept was taken in terms of these sophisticated instruments and equipments for effective presentation of instructional materials.

    The third stage of educational technology is linked with the development of mass media which in turn led to ‘communication revolution’ for instructional purposes. Computer-assisted Instruction (CAI) used for education since 1950s also became popular during this era.

    The fourth stage of educational technology is discernible by the individualized process of instruction. The invention of programmed learning and programmed instruction provided a new dimension to educational technology. A system of self-learning based on self-instructional materials and teaching machines emerged.

    The latest concept of educational technology is influenced by the concept of system engineering or system approach which focuses on language laboratories, teaching machines, programmed instruction, multimedia technologies and the use of the computer in instruction. According to it, educational technology is a systematic way of designing, carrying out and evaluating the total process of teaching and learning in terms of specific objectives based on research.

    Educational technology during the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age

    Educational technology, despite the uncertainty of the origin of the term, can be traced back to the time of the three-age system periodization of human prehistory; namely the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.

    Duringthe Stone Age, ignition of fire by rubbing stones, manufacture of various handmade weapon and utensils from stones and clothing practice were some of the simple technological developments of utmost importance. A fraction of Stone Age people developed ocean-worthy outrigger canoe ship technology to migrate from one place to another across the Ocean, by which they developed their first informal education of knowledge of the ocean currents, weather conditions, sailing practice, astronavigation, and star maps. During the later Stone Age period (Neolithic period),for agricultural practice, polished stone tools were made from a variety of hard rocks largely by digging underground tunnels, which can be considered as the first steps in mining technology. The polished axes were so effective that even after appearance of bronze and iron; people used it for clearing forest and the establishment of crop farming.

    Although Stone Age cultures left no written records, but archaeological evidences proved their shift from nomadic life to agricultural settlement. Ancient tools conserved in different museums, cave paintings like Altamira Cave in Spain, and other prehistoric art, such as the Venus of Willendorf, Mother Goddess from Laussel, France etc. are some of the evidences in favour of their cultures.

    Neolithic Revolution of Stone Age resulted into the appearance of Bronze Age with development of agriculture, animal domestication, and the adoption of permanent settlements. For these practices Bronze Age people further developed metal smelting, with copper and later bronze, an alloy of tin and copper, being the materials of their choice.

    The Iron Age people replaced bronze and developed the knowledge of iron smelting technology to lower the cost of living since iron utensils were stronger and cheaper than bronze equivalents. In many Eurasian cultures, the Iron Age was the last period before the development of written scripts.

    Educational technology during the period of Ancient civilizations

    According to Paul Saettler, 2004, Educational technology can be traced back to the time when tribal priests systematized bodies of knowledge and ancient cultures invented pictographs or sign writing to record and transmit information. In every stage of human civilization, one can find an instructional technique or set of procedures intended to implement a particular culture which were also supported by number of investigations and evidences. The more advanced the culture, the more complex became the technology of instruction designed to reflect particular ways of individual and social behaviour intended to run an educated society. Over centuries, each significant shift in educational values, goals or objectives led to diverse technologies of instruction.

    The greatest advances in technology and engineering came with the rise of the ancient civilizations. These advances stimulated and educated other societies in the world to adopt new ways of living and governance.

    The Indus Valley Civilization was an early Bronze Age civilization which was located in the northwestern region of the Indian Subcontinent. The civilization was primarily flourished around the Indus River basin of the Indus and the Punjab region, extending upto the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley and the Ganges-Yamuna Doab, (most of the part is under today’s Pakistan and the western states of modern-day India as well as some part of the civilization extending upto southeastern Afghanistan, and the easternmost part of Balochistan, Iran).

    There is a long term controversy to be sure about the language that the Harappan people spoke. It is assumed that their writing was at least seems to be or a pictographic script. The script appears to have had about 400 basic signs, with lots of variations. People write their script with the direction generally from right to left. Most of the writing was found on seals and sealings which were probably used in trade and official & administrative work.

    Harappan people had the knowledge of the measuring tools of length, mass, and time. They were the first in the world to develop a system of uniform weights and measures.

    In a study carried out by P. N. Rao et al. in 2009, published in Science, computer scientists found that the Indus script’s pattern is closer to that of spoken words, which supported the proposed hypothesis that it codes for an as-yet-unknown language.

    According to the Chinese Civilization, some of the major techno-offerings from China include paper, early seismological detectors, toilet paper, matches, iron plough, the multi-tube seed drill, the suspension bridge, the wheelbarrow, the parachute, natural gas as fuel, the magnetic compass, the raised-relief map, the blast furnace, the propeller, the crossbow, the South Pointing Chariot, and gun powder. With the invent of paper they have given their first step towards developments of educational technology by further culturing different handmade products of paper as means of visual aids.

    Ancient Egyptian language was at one point one of the longest surviving and used languages in the world. Their script was made up of pictures of the real things like birds, animals, different tools, etc. These pictures are popularly called hieroglyph. Their language was made up of above 500 hieroglyphs which are known as hieroglyphics. On the stone monuments or tombs which were discovered and rescued latter on provides the evidence of existence of many forms of artistic hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt.

    Educational technology during Medieval and Modern Period

    Paper and the pulp papermaking process which was developed in China during the early 2nd century AD, was carried to the Middle East and was spread to Mediterranean by the Muslim conquests. Evidences support that a paper mill was also established in Sicily in the 12th century. The discovery of spinning wheel increased the productivity of thread making process to a great extent and when Lynn White added the spinning wheel with increasing supply of rags, this led to the production of cheap paper, which was a prime factor in the development of printing technology.

    The invention of the printing press was taken place in approximately 1450 AD, by Johannes Gutenburg, a German inventor. The invention of printing press was a prime developmental factor in the history of educational technology to convey the instruction as per the need of the complex and advanced-technology cultured society.

    In the pre-industrial phases, while industry was simply the handwork at artisan level, the instructional processes were relied heavily upon simple things like the slate, the horn book, the blackboard, and chalk. It was limited to a single text book with a few illustrations. Educational technology was considered synonymous to simple aids like charts and pictures.

    The year 1873 may be considered a landmark in the early history of technology of education or audio-visual education. An exhibition was held in Vienna at international level in which an American school won the admiration of the educators for the exhibition of maps, charts, textbooks and other equipments.

    Maria Montessori (1870-1952), internationally renowned child educator and the originator of Montessori Method exerted a dynamic impact on educational technology through her development of graded materials designed to provide for the proper sequencing of subject matter for each individual learner. Modern educational technology suggests many extension of Montessori’s idea of prepared child centered environment.

    In1833, Charles Babbage’s design of a general purpose computing device laid the foundation of the modern computer and in 1943, the first computing machine as per hi design was constructed by International Business Machines Corporation in USA. The Computer Assisted instruction (CAI) in which the computer functions essentially as a tutor as well as the Talking Type writer was developed by O.K. Moore in 1966. Since 1974, computers are interestingly used in education in schools, colleges and universities.

    In the beginning of the 19th century, there were noteworthy changes in the field of education. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), right from its start of school broadcasts in 1920 had maintained rapid pace in making sound contribution to formal education. In the USA, by 1952, 20 states had the provision for educational broadcasting. Parallel to this time about 98% of the schools in United Kingdom were equipped with radios and there were regular daily programmes.

    Sidney L. Pressey, a psychologist of Ohio state university developed a self-teaching machine called ‘Drum Tutor’ in 1920. Professor Skinner, however, in his famous article ‘Science of Learning and art of Teaching’ published in 1945 pleaded for the application of the knowledge derived from behavioral psychology to classroom procedures and suggested automated teaching devices as means of doing so.

    Although the first practical use of Regular television broadcasts was in Germany in 1929 and in 1936 the Olympic Games in Berlin were broadcasted through television stations in Berlin, Open circuit television began to be used primarily for broadcasting programmes for entertainment in 1950. Since 1960, television is used for educational purposes.

    In 1950, Brynmor, in England, used educational technological steps for the first time. It is to be cared that in 1960, as a result of industrial revolution in America and Russia, other countries also started progressing in the filed of educational technology. In this way, the beginning of educational technology took place in 1960 from America and Russia and now it has reached England, Europe and India.

    During the time of around 1950s, new technocracy was turning it attraction to educations when there was a steep shortage of teachers in America and therefore an urgent need of educational technology was felt. Dr. Alvin C. Eurich and a little later his associate, Dr. Alexander J. Stoddard introduced mass production technology in America.

    Team teaching had its origin in America in the mid of 1950’s and was first started in the year 1955 at Harvard University as a part of internship plan.

    In the year 1956, Benjamin Bloom from USA introduced the taxonomy of educational objectives through his publication, “The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, The Classification of Educational Goals, Handbook I: Cognitive Domain”.

    In 1961, Micro teaching technique was first adopted by Dwight W. Allen and his co-workers at Stanford University in USA.

    Electronics is the main technology being developed in the beginning of 21st century. Broadband Internet access became popular and occupied almost all the important offices and educational places and even in common places in developed countries with the advantage of connecting home computers with music libraries and mobile phones.

    Today’s classroom is more likely to be a technology lab, a room with rows of students using internet connected or Wi-Fi enabled laptops, palmtops, notepad, or perhaps students are attending a video conferencing or virtual classroom or may have been listening to a podcast or taking in a video lecture. Rapid technological changes in the field of educational have created new ways to teach and to learn. Technological changes also motivated the teachers to access a variety of information on a global scale via the Internet, to enhance their lessons as well as to make them competent professional in their area of concern. At the same time, students can utilize vast resources of the Internet to enrich their learning experience to cope up with changing trend of the society. Now a days students as well teachers are attending seminars, conferences, workshops at national and international level by using the multimedia techno-resources like PowerPoint and even they pursue a variety of important courses of their choice in distance mode via online learning ways. Online learning facility has opened infinite number of doors of opportunities for today’s learner to make their life happier than ever before.

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    Source by Sanjoy Deka

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  • China Bets on the Growth of Africa’s Global Influence

    China Bets on the Growth of Africa’s Global Influence

    Relations between China and Africa are as strong as ever, since China started supporting the continent in the early 1950s. China is

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  • These Are South Africans (1950s)

    A film about South Africa in the 1950s. 

    I would like to briefly point to historical reasons which some Chinese leaders used as a primary argument for their interest in Africa. 

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  • Why Did China Seek Friends in Africa in the 1950s

    In the 1950s, fascination, confusion, and even alarm are adjec-tives that best described the reaction of many political observers to the Chinese seeking friends and allies in Africa. An executive editor of the New York Times, Mr. Seymour Freidin, wrote:

    Red Chinese drive into Africa involves a long range effort to dominate the continent totally and populate it with Chinese.

    Mr. Seymour’s sentiments were not uncommon at the time. There was a great deal of confusion as to what the Chinese were actually up to. This was due in large part to the inconsistent nature of policies pursued by the Chinese in those early years. This was exemplified in the so-called split-level or dual diplomacy. Simply put, this was the pursuit of the “United Front From Above” (government-to-government relations), and the “United Front From Below” (support for wars of national liberation). In practice, this meant the Chinese would support “revolutionary” opposition groups while at the same time supporting the legitimate government of an African country. I take this up in Chapter 3.

    To the question of this chapter, why Africa? The simple answer is ideology, manifested in both domestic Chinese politics and in her international relations. In particular, China’s emerging conflict with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America (USA) were to play a role in the Chinese drive into Africa. I will deal with the ideological factors in the next section.

    First, I would like to briefly point to historical reasons which some Chinese leaders used as a primary argument for their interest in Africa. For example, they pointed to the fact that in October 1415, Chinese explorer and Admiral Zheng He reached the eastern coast of Africa and sent the first of two giraffes as gifts to the Chinese Yongle Emperor. Zheng brought gifts and granted titles from the Ming emperor to the local rulers, with the aim of establishing a large number of tributary states. Indeed, it is worth noting that China and Africa have a history of trade relations, sometimes through third parties, dating back as far as 202 BC and AD 220.

    I will now deal with the domestic factors and the ideological disputes with the United States and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

    DOMESTIC INFLUENCES ON CHINA’S DRIVE INTO AFRICA

    At the Eighth Congress of the Chinese Communist party in 1956, it was clear the new China had been making a determined effort to expand her influence in the outside world, particularly in the “vast intermediate areas” of Africa, Asia and Latin America. In Chinese eyes, the countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America remain the potential field for revolutions of the Chinese type. This was one area in which they felt a special ideological leadership to offer. Ten years later, in 1965, this belief was exemplified by Lin Biao’s celebrated thesis entitled “Long Live the victory of the People’s war”. His core argument was that;

    Comrade Mao’s theory of the estab-lishment of rural revolutionary base areas and the encirclement of the cities from the countryside is of outstanding and universal importance for the present revolutionary struggles of all the oppressed nations and peoples, particularly, those in Africa.

    Furthermore, The CCP claimed that it was waging a class struggle in defense of Maoism, the true revolutionary, against allies of Nikita Khrushchev in the CCP-the so-called allied forces of “reaction”- and imperialism and revisionism in the world at large. The party described its actions as a ‘sharp class struggle’ and the ‘socialist education’ against “renascent bourgeois ideology, bureaucratic degeneration, and anti-party elements” in the Chinese Communist party (CCP).

    If Mao was to gain complete control over his enemies and prove his ideological position correct, China had to find allies abroad to form the broadest possible United Front for a “struggle” against the “corrupting revisionist influence” of Russia and the imperialist drive of the United States of America. As Mao, not Khrushchev was the true revolutionary; the drive into Africa was an attempt to assert China’s ideological supremacy over USSR.

    It is fascinating and quite remarkable in my view to see that China’s leaders in the late 1950s and 1960s did seriously consider Africa would be of key importance in realpolitik. They were consumed by the belief that Africa was both the center of the anti-colonial struggle and the center for the East and West to fight for control of the “intermediate zone”.

    The theory of the “intermediate Zone” is an interesting one as it formed the foundation for this belief. Introduced by Mao in the late 1940s, the theory claimed that between the United States and the Soviet Union exist a vast “intermediate zone” mainly composed of “oppressed” non-Western countries, including China.

    Before the “imperialist” United States of America could attack the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, they first had to control the intermediate zone, according to Mao. This then made Asia and Africa the central arena of the Cold War. When Mao and the Chinese Communist Party seized political power in China, they immediately proclaimed revolutionary China as a natural ally of the “oppressed peoples” in the “intermediate zone”. They saw themselves as champions that held the banner of anti-imperialism and anti colonialism, challenging the United States of America and other Western imperialist/colonial powers.

    The belief, that they [The Chinese] were the flag bearers of the oppressed, was fostered by the fact that they made comparisons to key stages in Chinese revolutionary history to the situation in most of Africa during the years of decolonization. The implication was that the ‘unfolding African revolution’ would pass through similar stages. It was noted by Chinese leaders that some parts of Africa were going through similar experiences that China went through sixty years earlier during the Boxer uprising.

    Some events for the independence struggle in Africa were likened to those which occurred in the Hsin-Hai Revolution of 1911, while others resemble what happened around the May 4th incident of 1919.

    All this led some Chinese leaders to have a vision of a “third force”-drawn of nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America against the “double hegemony” of the nuclear giants-The United States of America and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As we would later see, it was no surprise that the Chinese felt compelled to support various rebel and “freedom fighters” across Africa.

    This support was based on a genuine desire to “free” the Afri-cans from what the Chinese saw as imperialism and hegemony. To this day, the Chinese still hold this desire, hence their lack of interference in African affairs.

    INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCES ON CHINA’S DRIVE INTO AFRICA

    It was a fact that Communist China, after its birth in 1949, faced a hostile external environment. Between the years 1952 and 1961, it was notably her unresolved territorial conflict with the United States of America over Taiwan (Republic of China-ROC), denial of the Chinese seat at the United Nations, and China’s concern with American alliances and bases in Asia.

    The United States Government had embarked on a policy of isolating the Communist throughout the world at that time. The Truman administration in July 1950 had extended full diplomatic recognition and protection to Taiwan and proceeded to organize military alliances with other Asian powers surrounding China. Economic and commercial embargo had already been placed on activities with China.

    The United States had further masterminded Operation Van-guard designed to make Taiwan attractive to African countries some of whom were gaining their independence. Operation Vanguard, launched in 1960, saw Taiwan begin to dispatch agricultural missions to assist emerging independent states in Africa with modernizing their agricultural production and to garner support for the Taiwan’s (ROC) representation in the United Nations. At one time, the number of Taiwan’s agricultural specialists in Africa exceeded 1,200. The ROC-Africa Technical Cooperation Committee was established in 1962 to further expand the program.

    Taiwan, with the support of the United States had the Chinese seat in the United Nations and enjoyed support among the allies of the United States, including many African countries. China was quick to see that with the support of these African countries in the United Nations, the balance could possibly sway in her favor.

    China’s ideological battle with the USSR was also to lead her to seek friends in Africa. I already discussed the CCP’s drive to establish their communist credentials in the “intermediate areas”. As the Sino-Soviet split became more pronounced, so did their divergent views on Africa.

    The Chinese saw Africa as an opportunity to get on the International stage and break out of the United States of America isolation. The Soviets on the other hand, saw Africa as a means to expand their industrial strength and spread Soviet propaganda. These two distinct views were to manifest themselves after the Bandung Conference in 1955.

    Thus, tensions with the United States and ideological conflict with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were key factors in China’s drive into Africa. China’s policies and actions were to be heavily influenced by these factors as we will later see in this work.

    The next chapter looks at where and how Sino-African relations started.

    The following is the First Chapter of my book: China and Africa Love Affair

    Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Francis_Stevens_George/1723405

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  • Fun Facts About South Africa

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    Perhaps the most famous South African movie is “Tsotsi” by Gavin Hood.”Tsotsi” is a story about a gang leader.On March 5, 2006, “Tsotsi” won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film in Los Angeles.
    In his speech, Gavin Hood said, “God bless Africa. Wow. I have a speech, it´s in my pocket, but that thing says 38 seconds. But mine´s way too long. Go to tsotsi.com and there is a huge long list of people. Because I´m accepting this not for myself. This is for best foreign language film. It is sitting right there to start with.Please stand up Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto. My two fantastic young leads. Put the cameras on them, please. Viva Africa. Viva. I´ve got ten seconds.Ten seconds I just want to thank my fellow nominees who I´ve become deep friends with. We may have foreign language films, but our stories are the same as your stories. They´re about the human heart and emotion. It says please wrap.Thank you so much. Thank you to the Academy. Thank you”.
    Winner: “Tsotsi” (South Africa)
    Finalists:
    -“Sophie Scholl” (Germany)
    -“Joyeux Noel” (France)
    -“The Beast of the Heart” (Italy)
    -“Paradise Now” (Palestine)

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    For the first time since 1960, South Africa sent a delegation to compete in the Olympic Games. Certainly, South Africa sent 94 athletes to the 1992 Olympic Games, which were held in Barcelona, Spain.The African delegation had athletes competing in seventeen areas: archery, badminton, boxing, kayak, cycling, equestrian, fencing, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, track and field, weighlifting and wrestling. They returned to South Africa with two silver medals.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    Nelson Mandela was one of the most important leaders in the 20th century.He played a fundamental role in the recuperation of the nation´s democracy. Under his leadership, South Africa adopted one of the best constitutions in the world.Mandela once said, “And so it has come to pass that South Africa today undergoes her rebirth, cleansed of a horrible past, matured from a tentative beginning, and reaching out to the future with confidence. Our pledge is : never and never again shall the laws of our land rend our people apart or legalize their oppression and repression”.
    Since 1993, in South Africa you can feel the freedom. Different from Cuba, Iran, and Zimbabwe, South Africa is a democracy where the civil society has immense influence and power.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    South Africa has loads of national parks and reserves that are the home of some amazing wildlife. The Kruger National Park is one of the most popular tourist spots in the African continent. It is one of the world´s most beautiful national parks. The Kruger National Park provides an ideal habitat for animals such as elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, monkeys, zebras, cheetahs, hyenas, hippopotamus, gazelles, elands, lions, and African wild dogs.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    South Africa has three capitals: Cape Town (legislative), Pretoria (administrative), and Bloemfontein (judicial).However, Johannesburg is the most important economic, industrial and cultural center in South Africa.It is one of the most industrialized cities in the Third World along with Taipei (Taiwan), Mexico City (Mexico), and Seoul (South Korea).In 2006 Johannesburg had a population of 2.6 million

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    For the first time, Africa will host 2010 FIFA World Cup.The Football World Championship to be held in South Africa.In 2000,Joseph Blatter, FIFA president, wanted the FIFA to vote for South Africa.However, New Zealand´s Charlie Dempsey ducked out of the final vote and Germany nicked it.For this reason, Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006.
    In 2007,Thabo Mbeki, South African president, said: “I have no doubt that our local organising committee, government at all levels, and everybody concerned will do the necessary work to guarantee that we host a better tournament in 2010 than the excellent 2006 German World Cup”.
    It also noted that millions of dollars have been spent in the past years on reforming South Africa´s sporting system.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    About half of the world´s gold is produced in South Africa.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    South Africa has many famous people: Christian Barnard (surgeon), Miriam Makeba (singer and anti-AIDS activist), Caron Bernstein (model,actress and singer), Nelson Mandela (former president and anti-AIDS activist), Nadine Gordimer (writer), Athol Fugard (writer),Mathosa (singer), Zola Budd (sportswoman), Charlize Theron (actress), Ilene Hamann (actress and model), Harry Oppenheimer (anti-apartheid industrialist), Richard Goldstone (international judge), Musetta Vander (actress and model), Danny Koppel (singer), Zakes Mokae (actor), Juliet prowse (dancer and actress), and Joe Mafela (actor).

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    The South African Penny Heyns, won the 100-and 200-meter breaststroke events at the 1996 Summer Olympics.She is considered among South Africa´s national heroines. Like Anthony Nesty (Suriname), Felipe Muñoz (Mexico), Claudia Poll (Costa Rica), and Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe), Penny Heyns is a Third World swimming icon.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    South Africa has many World Heritage Sites by UNESCO: Greater Saint Lucia Wetland Park (1999), Robben Island (1999), Drakensberg Park (2000), Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape (2003), Vredefort Dome (2005), and Cape Floral Region Protected Areas (2004).

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    On March 26, 1998, American U.S. president Bill Clinton visited South Africa.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    South Africa has more Nobel Prizes than Mexico(3) India (2) Brazil (0)Argentina (3) Cuba (0), and the People´s Republic of China (1).

    South Africa has six Nobel Prize winners:

    1960: Albert J. Luthuli (Nobel Prize for Peace)

    1982: Aaron Klug (Nobel Prize for Chemistry)

    1984:Bishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Prize for Peace)

    1991: Nadine Gordimer (Nobel Prize for Literature)

    1993: Nelson Mandela and Frederik W. de Klerk (Nobel Prize for Peace)

    2003: John Maxwell Coetzee (Nobel Prize for Literature)

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    The people of South Africa are proud that their country is a society of people with many different backgrounds. Many people are mixture of several nationalities and races. About 2 million Asians live in South Africa. The ancestors of the most of them came from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    South Africa superstar Charlize Theron is an icon in Africa. She is a woman one can not fail to admire.

    Academy Award winning actress, Halle Berry worked as a fashion model in the 1980s.Berry is not the only Hollywood star who made a living from special jobs before becoming famous. For many actresses, this early experience came in useful in their acting career. The South African actress Charlize Theron -who has appeared in over twenty films in a movie career lasting over ten years- was a supermodel in the 1990s.

    Hollywood actress Charlize Theron was born on August7, 1975, in Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa.She has German and French ancestry. Charlize grew up to be a beautiful young woman and attracted the attentions of many people.She speaks English, Afrikaans and Xhosa.

    Charlize had been an international model since the age of 16. She began her career in Milan, Italy. In late 1996 she became an actress.On February 29, 2004, Charlize won an Academy Award for Best actress for her role as Aileen Wuournos in the film “Monster”. She became the first African actress to win an Oscar for Best Actress in the history.

    Charlize Theron is one of the most beautiful women in the world.The elegant clothes she wears complement her perfect body.
    Filmography:”Celebrity” (1998), “Reindeer Games” (2000), “The Yards” ( 2000), “Men of Honor” (2000), “The Italian Job” (2003),
    “Monster” (2003), “The Life and Death of Peters Sellers” (2004),”North Country” (2005), and “The Brazilian Job (2006).

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    The Nobel Prize Nadine Gordimer is a human rights activist. Her proudest moment was when she testified at a 1986 treason trial on behalf of 22 South African anti-apartheid activists.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    South Africa has had famous athletes in the past century: Reggie Walker (olympic 100m gold medallist in 1908), Esther Brand (olympic high jump gold medallist in 1952), Joan Harrison (swimmer,won 1 olympic gold medal in 1952), and Sam Atkinson (olympic 110m hurdles gold medallist in 1928).

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    Mathosa was one of the best singers in South Africa. She was called “South Africa´s Madonna of the townships”. In the 1990s, Mathosa was considered among the most talented artists in Africa.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    The 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to South African author John Maxwell Coetzee. He was the fourth African Nobel laurate for literature after Wolle Soyinka of Nigeria (1986), Naguib Mahfouz of Egypt (1988), and Coetzee´s countrywoman Nadine Gordimer (1991). J.M Coetzee was born on February 9, 1940, in Cape Town, South Africa. He was cited by the Swedish Academy as an author “who in innumerables guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider”.Certainly, Coetzee is one of the most famous South African authors in the 21st century.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    South Africa hosted the 1999 Pan African Games.

    DID YOU KNOW THAT…

    The golf is a popular sport in South Africa. South Africa has had famous golfers throughout its sports history.In the 1960s and 1970s, Gary Player was one of the best golfers in the world. He won many tournaments such as the Masters Golf Tournament ( 1961,1974, and 1978), the United States Open (1965), the PGA Championship (1962 and 1972), and the British Open ( 1959, 1968, and 1974).His countryman Bobby Locke won the British Open (1949, 1950, 1952, and 1957). Furthermore, South Africa won two times the World Cup Golf: 1965 (Gary Player and Harold Henning) and 1974 (Bobby Cole and Dale Hayes).

    Alejandro Guevara Onofre: He is a freelance writer.Alejandro is of Italian, African and Peruvian ancestry.He´ve studied political science and journalism.He has published more than seventy-five research paper in English, and more than twenty in Spanish, concerning the world issues, olympic sports, countries, and tourism. His next essay is called “The Dictator and Alicia Alonso”.He is an expert on foreign affairs. Futhermore, Alejandro is the first author who has published a world-book encyclopedia in Latina America.

    He admires Frida Kahlo (Mexican painter), Hillary Clinton (ex-First Lady of the USA), and Jimmy Carter (former President of the USA). His favorite film is “Gorillas in the Mist”.Some of his favorite books are “The Return of Eva Peron and the Killings in Trinidad” (by V.S.Naipaul), “Las Mujeres de los Dictadores” (by Juan Gasparini) and “Murder of a Gentle Land” (by John Barron and Anthony Paul).His personal motto is “The future is for those people who believe in the beauty o f their dreams” by Eleanor Roosevelt.

    Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Alejandro_Guevara_Onofre/79627

    Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/619695

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  • Lifestyle

    Lifestyle is the typical way of life of an individual, group, or culture. The term was originally used by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler (1870-1937). The term was introduced in the 1950s as a derivative of that of style in modernist art. The term refers to a combination of determining intangible or tangible factors. Tangible factors relate specifically to demographic variables, i.e. an individuals demographic profile, whereas intangible factors concern the psychological aspects of an individual such as personal values, preferences, and outlooks.

    A rural environment has different lifestyles compared to an urban metropolis. Location is important even within an urban scope. A particular neighborhood affects lifestyle due to varying degrees of affluence and proximity to open spaces. For example, in areas within a close proximity to the sea, a surf culture or lifestyle is often present. The concept of Lifestyle Management has developed as a result of the growing focus on lifestyle.

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  • A Beautiful Mind – Nobel Prize Winning Doctor John Nash

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    “Nothing’s ever for sure, John. That’s the only sure thing I do know,” says the schitzotypical auditory plus visual delusion and hallucination known to John Nash as Charles. This is very true even coming from one of these three imaginary people that John Nash believes to be a part of his daily life. Although non-existent these characters including not only Charles, but his adolescent niece Marcie, and his military contact William Parcher or just Parcher, play a pivotal role in the life of professor and doctor, John Nash.

    True, much of what the public knows of the mental disorders, and specifically Schizophrenia is based on what they observe from films and television. This Oscar/Academy four time wining film, A Beautiful Mind, is a very compelling story about a genius mathematician/ cryptologist, who’s life in Cold War era America, aroused his super paranoid and delusional thought process to overwhelm his mind.

    ONSET:

    John Nash exhibited mild symptoms or schitzotypal behavior probably through his childhood. This is evident because of his avoidant personality shown by his impeded interpersonal communication and relationships, and by his moderate “word salad” that he has. His hallucinations and delusions manifested initially by his graduate school Princeton roommate Charles.

    His peers played a crucial role in his life and in his recovery. Once stabilized to a level of acceptance and coping with his symptoms he is given visitations and job opportunities to help him in reintegration. Through the entire relations ship from student to wife, Alicia Nash was interceptive and supportive of his treatment and life after treatment, including a dangerous relapse of behaviors.

    Also, his peers did not initially know how to respond to the disorder because of John Nash’s involvement with the US government. It may have opaque at times but eventually they could make light of the situation once Nash was coping and stable.

    THE PLOT THICKENS?:

    John Nash almost killed his baby son by drowning him in the tub during his major relapse. He had been pocketing the medication and eventually he regained his code breaking and psychotic behaviors. He was in the back shed while drawing the bath and got caught up in what was allegedly provided by Parcher and the US governments’ highest echelons.

    + Symptoms= Racing thoughts, Hallucinations, Delusions

    – Symptoms= Cognitive impairment, grossly distorted reality

    (Axis I and Axis II)

    RETURN TREATMENT:

    Nash was able to eventually be stabilized on his psychotropic medications and with time and strong encouragements able to cope. This was abruptly made evident by his realization that the manifestation of Marcie never aged and paired his wife’s’ strong endearment and optimism towards him.

    Self Reliance was key to his rehabilitation and integration back into society. Aside from a strong support network he found that working in his field of abstract mathematics was his tool for learning interpersonal relationships and separating reality from his reality.

    The Nobel Prize was a major pat on the back for John Nash. Although he did not know the extent of his economic theories had spilled over into, Nash was still acknowledged for his intelligence. It is his life time achievement and it is he can observe that his life was great, not grandiose.

    PAST & PRESENT THEORIES:

    Although many scientific advancement have been made in psychology and imaging techniques treatment has not evolved juristically. Although doctors can now see the brain functioning and areas of brain used in a schizophrenic person the treatment is somewhat similar to that of the 1950’s. ECT, medication, hospitalization, and reintegration are the keystones of treatment for the stabilizing of this mental disorder. Then a medical round of SSRI’s and atypical anti-psychotics are used to maintain an even keel. Hospitalization is a safe way to intervene on an individual although laws have changed regarding commitment of those deemed unsafe for society. ECT has been modernized and more finite now and can be used to treat a plethora of moderate to severe mental disorders. Also, SSRI’s are more affective and paired with support many will stay stable.

    Once John Nash was known to be schizophrenic his friends help with the families clarification of his advanced symptoms. Then they slowly allow him back into his life with some initial hesitance that eventually will turn into a subject of laughter between old friends. Although some were intolerant and mocking of his disorder and effort he was able to maintain a level of functioning on the normal plane of societal existence and even win the highest scientific achievement award.

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    Source by J Greenes

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