Urban transport conditions Essay Example for Free

Urban transport conditions Essay Urban transport conditions in bangkok, thailand For the past 30 years, the urban population of the world has been rapidly growing. In 1975, the urban population in developing regions has exponentially grown from 861 Million to 2135 Million in year 2000, and still is expected to grow by 45% in 2015 (Metge Jehanno, 2006). Such increase in population would entail a subsequent demand in adequate transportation systems. Being a developing country would involve that new developments will take place, which will result in the traffic congestion of the area. Such congestions will be due to the lack of mitigation policies, particularly pertaining to land use and transportation (Hokao Mohamed,1999). Thailand’s urban centre, Bangkok, is one good focus in analyzing the conditions of urban transportation in Developing countries. Bangkok â€Å"began in 1782 as a settlement on the bank of the Chao Phraya, and this area soon became the center of the city’s government and religious institutions† (Wyatt, 1995: n. p. ). Bangkok Metropolis has an area of 1,569 sq km (606 sq mi), which restricts it to utilize much of the land for the construction of roads. Bangkok is barely above sea-level, making it subject to frequent flooding, in addition to the 60 inches of precipitation it receives every year. Chao Phraya River is just one of the major waterways in Thailand, which is still currently used as a route for transport within the city. However, some of the canals have been filled in order to accommodate the construction of roads (Wyatt, 2005). The Bangkok Metropolis’ modes of transportation barely meet the demands of its 9 million daytime populations. Sixty-five percent of the city population relies on public transportation, more specifically the city buses, metered taxis, the Skytrain, the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) subway, and the tuk-tuks. The Skytrain has a capacity of 700,000 passengers per day, and is situated along the Silom and Sukhumvit, two of the most frequently congested roads in Bangkok. The MRT is a Thai-foreign venture whose construction commenced in 1997, and approximates a capacity of 80,000 passengers per hour. The Tuk-tuks are the Thai version of the canopied tricycle, and are public utility vehicles that can accommodate up to three persons per trip (â€Å"Tuktuks, Bangkok†, n. d. ). The mass transit system includes both buses and trains (â€Å"Infrastructure: Highways†, 2004). Although there are existing public transportation systems, the increase of the number of private car ownership doesn’t seem to wane. According to a study conducted by Du Pont and Egan (1997), such increase in ownership can be attributed to the inadequacy of Bangkok’s mass transit system. The rate of the development of infrastructures simply cannot keep up with such a rapid pace of motorization, therefore, this results in intolerable traffic jams in the city (Gakenheimer, 1997). One problem causing the endless traffic congestion in Bangkok is the proportion of road area to the number of vehicles traversing the roads everyday. Only 8% of Bangkok’s land area (roughly 625 sq km) has been used for roads, which is obviously insufficient to accommodate its 2 million vehicles (Du Pont Egan, 1997). Poboon et al. (1994) conclude that: â€Å"Traffic jams in Bangkok are therefore inevitable because they are attempting to carry too little passenger travel on public transport relative to their provision of roads† (as cited in Du Pont Egan, 1997). The inefficient city planning that failed to provide secondary routes from the major arteries within the city cause traffic to be as slow as an average of 6-10 kph in the central business district. Such inefficiency results in an annual loss of $9.6 billion, simply because an estimated 44 days in productivity is lost in exchange for travel time (as cited in Du Pont Egan, 1997). Not only does congestion account for the financial losses of the city, it also aggravates air pollution. In 1990, it has been estimated that â€Å"8-hour exposure at street level is equivalent to smoking 9 cigarettes per day†, and that such levels of pollutants have exceeded the safety guidelines set by the World Health Organization (as cited in Du Pont Egan, 1997). GOVERNMENT PROJECTS AND IMPLEMENTATION The government has prioritized the Bangkok traffic issues, and several commissions have been institutionalized to deal with these issues, most of which had been unsuccessful (â€Å"ASEM Bangkok†, 1996). More than 30 government agencies are responsible for transport and urban development of Bangkok, but the implementation of transport and land-use plans are carried out by 11 agencies which fall under two ministries — Interior and Transport Communications (Du Pont Egan, 1997).

Love in The Importance of Being Earnest Essay -- Oscar Wilde Papers

Love in The Importance of Being Earnest Love is perhaps the most actively sought moral objective of one's life. And though marriage is often thought to be the logical consequence of love, it is Oscar Wilde's contention in his satire, The Importance of Being Earnest, that love begets bliss and marriage thwarts this course of bliss. Algernon Moncrieff spends very little time falling in love and the rest of the time striving toward engagement. Wilde demonstrates through him that once one becomes intent upon achieving a goal, the individual's motivation becomes a matter of action rather than truth. Algernon is no longer driven by a moral objective; instead, he becomes intent upon achieving a societal standard. "The truth is rarely pure, and never simple" (35). Love is truth. Marriage results in the systematic complication of love. Algernon becomes disillusioned in the process of seeking truth. In defining Algernon's preconceived notion of marriage and then describing the subsequent earnest pursuit of engagement, Wilde achieve s a consequential climax that satirizes marriage. Algernon is a pompous man of seemingly strong, albeit unconventional, convictions. Wilde uses him for the sole purpose of mocking the sanctimonious institution of marriage. In the beginning of the play, Algernon considers Jack's intent to propose to Gwendolen to be "business," not "pleasure" (30). Yet eventually Algernon also resolves to propose to Cicely, discrediting his own established belief: "I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is un... ...man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth" (108). Though Algernon, by the play's close, does not realize this, it is the inevitable that he will eventually realize that the truth is no longer with him. For, Algernon initially speaks nothing but the truth. Yet on his path toward achieving his moral objective, he becomes so intent upon the actions that he loses the truth; Algernon is so set on becoming engaged that he forgets that divorces, not marriages, "are made in heaven" (30). Wilde's initial intention is for Algernon to appear to be the antithesis to society's spokesperson. As Algernon, contrary to expectation, abandons his own truth, and the play ends happily ever after, Wilde reveals to the reader his view that marriage is ridiculous. Bibliography: the importance of being earnest -- oscar wilde

Childhood Obesity Solutions Essay

Prevalence of childhood obesity has increased greatly in the recent years, so much so that the number of children considered overweight by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has nearly quadrupled among children aged 6-11 years old (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p.506). Many members of the public, media, and congress have declared childhood obesity as a major public health concern, considering it to be an â€Å"important cause and consequence of wider disparities in health† (Freudenberg, Libman, and O’Keefe, 2010). Director of the division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity at the CDC, Dr. William H. Dietz, went as far as to say â€Å"This may be the first generation of children that has a lower life span than their parents† (Roberts & Wilson, 2012). Though it is evident steps are needed to be taken to help protect the health and futures of our youth, those with the most power to actually make a visible, long lasting environmental change are the most reluctant to do so. Policymakers have alternate interests in finances that water down their attempts to take charge. Sadly, often times playing the social problems game takes precedence over the more genuine social problems work. As a Washington Post article so boldly states â€Å"In the political arena, one side is winning the war on child obesity. The side with the fattest wallets.† (Roberts & Wilson, 2012) Proposals that frame childhood obesity as being an inevitable result of increasing environmental surroundings by unhealthful foods are too often neglected by government officials more willing to frame childhood obesity as an individual problem. Indeed it is more convenient to claim providing freedom of choice to individuals who are capable of making their own decisions, emphasizing self regulation, and freeing themselves of responsibility to their nation to lead in financially beefy actions. This essay seeks to demonstrate that childhood obesity should no longer be considered an individual cause stemming from lifestyle choices which can be changed through minor solutions such as education in physical activity and nutrition. Unfortunately, this social problems ownership has become the taken-for-granted frame for this problem (Loseke, 2003, p.69). Childhood obesity really is a social problem which is a direct result from our environment, social structures emphasizing fast, unhealthy, frankly JUNK food which is readily available in any given neighbourhood and continuously marketed through all mediums to increase profits to some select wealthy individuals. I will stress that the only solutions met by this pressing issue have been solely symbolic solutions which have been prematurely praised as they are false attempts to appear loyal to the public, communities, and school systems, while truly remaining loyal to the corporations, who some may very well be held entirely accountable. Within this paper the exploration of three chosen symbolic solutions to date will include: American Government’s distribution of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans Midcourse Report: Strategies for Increasing Physical Activity Among Youth, the national law passing of requiring restaurants with 20 or more chains to provide calorie information on menus and menu boards, and lastly, the enhancement of PE requirements for school aged children. The distribution of said guidelines is reported to be important by reviewing â€Å"the evidence on strategies to increase youth physical activity and make recommendations†¦ and to communicate findings to the public.† (Rodgers, 2012, p.10) This report focuses on five settings, but in reality only offers strategies for 3 of them. Two settings (Home and Family, and Primary Care settings) received no proposed strategies to increase physical activity among youth, and focused only on areas requiring further research (p.7). Those settings which did receive proposed strategies were quite obvious suggestions which doubtfully would have any significant impact on physical activity among youth. One such suggestion is to â€Å"provide teachers with appropriate training† (p.5). Although it must be noted that this is not a report distributed solely to decrease obesity among youth, it is distributed to increase physical activity among youth, which is not the same, though admittedly similar. On the webpage this guide is provided, a number of other arbitrary tools can also be found. Webinars on online nutrition information, fact sheets, blogs, access to printable posters, and more. Educating the public, educating the parents of youth, and the youth themselves of course is important. At what point however will it be supplemented by restrictions on marketing of food and beverages to youth, which this guideline reports is estimated at a whopping $10 billion per year, but shows no indication of wanting to reduce or restrict this, and can only suggest counterbalancing with media campaigns directed to offset these unhealthy images (Rodgers, 2012, p. 3). One article is more forward in summarizing â€Å"Despite this widespread recognition of negative impact of marketing unhealthy foods, the practice continues unabated.† (Harvard School of Public Health, 2012) Mandated menu labelling of calories in some American jurisdictions was passed in 2008, requiring restaurant chains with 20 or more facilities to post calorie information next to each item on their menus and menu board (Kuo, Jarosz, Simon and Fielding, 2009, p.1680). This new law was backed by evidence that â€Å"eating fast food has been shown to increase caloric intake and the risk of becoming obese† (Harvard School of Public Health, 2012). As an alternative to restricting what is sold in these fast food chains, restricting advertising of these products, or perhaps even zoning restrictions on how many fast food restaurants were permitted to be within a certain range of schools, this new law appears to be the most liberal of solutions, and the most beneficial for the companies selling these high calorie foods. Findings from a health impact assessment are as follows: â€Å"mandated menu labelling at fast food and other large chain restaurants could reduce population weight gain, even with only modest changes in consumer behaviour.† (Kuo, Jarosz, Simon and Fielding, 2009, p.1683) As promising as this is, it is followed by a stronger and more realistic assessment stating â€Å" if nonobese restaurant patrons were more likely to order reduced calorie meals than were obese patrons, the impact on the obesity rate could be less than what we reported†. Because there was no study conducted on the weight of those opting for calorie reduced items, it is difficult to say if this solution is beneficial to the target audience, obese people in these jurisdictions. If changes are being made that is great, but there is no evidence to date to support this influencing the rising issue of obesity. It is just another means of essentially saying that the government is willing to educate on the food being provided and it is the choice of the individual, to consume or not consume. One solution offered by government recognizes that with the majority of youth enrolled in schools, school is an ideal place to provide much needed physical activity to students (Rodgers, 2012). In implementation, many state policies require schools to â€Å"have a PE unit requirement that constrains students to spend a minimum amount of time in PE class† (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p. 508). A study evaluating the effectiveness of such policies revealed that, naturally, a required PE unit is correlated with a higher probability that the student participates in PE (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p. 511). Although this is clearly a positive outcome of enforcing requirements among youth to enroll in PE classes, this same study goes on to say that â€Å"a requirement is correlated with students reporting fewer minutes spent active in PE†(p.511). Yes, you read that correctly, specifically 15.1 fewer minutes active in PE for boys, and 3.1 fewer in PE for girls (p.511-512). In conclusion, this report sums up the opposing information by stating that â€Å"curriculum development is not significantly associated with the amount of time spent active in PE†. As such, the implementation of these programs sounds a lot more effective in theory then it is in practice. All three of these solutions offered by government are certainly steps in recognizing that childhood obesity is in fact prevalent in our society. These solutions also claim that something can be done to reduce the level of harm to children’s health, and that actions should be implemented in correcting this epidemic. Essentially childhood obesity is a recognized social problem in our society. Unfortunately because the victims, (obese children), are politically powerless individuals, proposals to decrease the harm attributed to them have been, and will continue to be symbolic. Sadly, effort from interest groups with good intentions can be overshadowed by the social problems game of politics. This concept is not lost in an article posted in The New York Academy of Medicine which reads as follows: â€Å"†¦private interests generally have more resources and skills than public health reformers to achieve their policy goals, and are more successful in resisting changes than advocates are in implementing them. These structural barriers are a powerful deterrent to reducing childhood obesity. Creating cities where health rather than business concerns take precedence will require new approaches to governance and democracy.† (Freudenberg, Libman, and O’Keefe, 2010, p.761) It appears as though, for now, the social problems game of proposing symbolic solutions for childhood obesity is being accepted by audiences. Since Loseke claims that â€Å"the goal of social problems game is persuading audience members† (p.51), government officials, the players, are succeeding. References Cawley, J., Meyerhoefer, C. and Newhouse, D. (2007), The correlation of youth physical activity with state policies. Contemporary Economic Policy, 25: 506–517. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.2007.00070.x Fredenberg, N., Libman, K., O’Keefe, E. (2010), A tale of two obescities: The role of municipal governance in reducing childhood obesity in New York city and London. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 87:5 doi:10.1007/s11524-101-943-x Harvard School of Public Health, (2012), The obesity prevention source toxic food environment. Retrieved from: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ Kuo, T., Jarosz, C., Simon,P., Fielding, J. (2009), Menu labelling as a potential strategy for combating obesity epidemic: A health impact assessment. American Journal of Public Health, 99:9 doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.153023 Loseke, D. (2003), Thinking about social problems. New York: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. Robert, J., Wilson, D., (2012, April 27), Special report: How Washington went soft on childhood obesity. Reuters. Retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/ Rodgers, A., (2012), Physical activity guidelines for Americans mid-course report: strategies to increase physical activities among youth. US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: http://health.gov/paguidelines/default.aspx

Comparison Of Christianity And Judaism - 743 Words

Across the world, there are varied belief systems that have been formed. As many people may know these belief systems are unique in, multiple ways, one being what they believe in and how they worship, or even where their religion was originated and how far it has spread. These systems may be diverse in how they lecture and which God they have trusted, but believe it or not they acquire multiple similarities. An example that all these belief systems share is that they all have had an impact on the lives and ways of the people also known as the followers. Two belief systems that I believe are most dominant is Christianity and Judaism. Christianity is by far one of the very most beloved belief systems in the world. Christianity was†¦show more content†¦Also, polygamy which was the practice of marrying multiple spouses. Additionally, human rights meant that all men were created equal in the image of God. (regentsprep.com) Judaism is another important belief systems. Judaism w as founded by Abraham son of Terah, which Jews believe that he was in a high position of respect Judaism emerged in the middle east around Israel, around 3500 years ago. Judaism consists of many different beliefs and teachings. Two of these principles are the belief in one god and they believed that their life would never end. In other words, They believed in one god by the name of Tetrammation or Hashem. Jews also believed that he was the highest god and that he was considered very serious and powerful. Additionally, When Jews believed that their life would never end they meant that when they would die they would not go to heaven or hell because they did not believe in that. As a matter of fact they believed that they would all go to where mosses and Rabbi Akiva gave constant and everlasting classes of the Bible, and they would get eternal bliss. All of these belief systems have lasting impact, Judaism’s impact is just as interesting. The influential impacts included Monothe ism, the weekend, Census, and many more. Moreover, the way monotheism was an impact because of jews by introduces the powerful nation of one god. Also, the Torah provided the teaching that the world was created for a purpose. Additionally, as mentioned, Judaism gave theShow MoreRelatedComparison between Judaism and Christianity700 Words   |  3 Pages Comparison between Judaism and Christianity Name Institution â€Æ' Christianity and Judaism are two religions which share an origin. Abraham is the father of faith of both Christians and Judaists. The two religions are based on the Old Testament; however, Judaism has refused to acknowledge the New Testament. It is said that is a Judaist accepts Christianity, and then become complete. 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Some beliefs teach that there is only one G-d this is defined as a monotheistic religion. Some examples of monotheistic religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Although each sect has a different perspective on teachingsRead MoreCreation Myths in the Abrahamic Religions1850 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"The whole difference between construction and creation is this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists† (qtd. in â€Å"Charles Dickens†). Although the creation stories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have some differences, the fact that the three Abrahamic religions all arose in the same Middle Eastern area in succession may have had an effect on not only each religion’ s beliefs that can be found in their creation myth, but also