buy custom Medical Care of Wounded Veterans essay

buy custom Medical Care of Wounded Veterans essay Introduction Veteran soldiers have been receiving medical care since the World War II. During the war, quite a large number of soldiers got injured. Some were even deceased as a result. For these reason medical care was availed to the soldiers to ensure that they were well cared for. This medical care was provided free of charge to the soldiers and in some cases the soldiers benefited from the medical care even after they were discharged from the service. However, there were some conditions which were considered before one could benefit from the medical services. These conditions were to be the key factors to be considered during the process of awarding medical benefits to the war veterans. Some of these conditions included the following. If a veteran soldier was wounded during the war and the wounds caused a permanent disability due to injuries acquired from the war, the veteran was entitled to a lifetime medical care (Priest and Hull, 14). The Situation during World War 2 During the war some of the veterans were exposed to mental shock that needed psychological attention. Due to this reason the soldiers were to be given quality mental health that would see them through these conditions. These benefits were received in terms of monthly pension for the permanently disabled veterans due to injuries or due to disease that was acquired during the wars. These benefits were supposed to be an incentive to the war veterans who took part in various wars from World War II, Vietnam war to Iraq and Afghanistan war. But the question is do this veterans receive these benefits in terms of medical services as stated? According to Wheeler and Thomas (308), during the Second World War the war veterans were entitled to medical care during and after the war. The injured or the diseased soldiers were given special medical attention in the process of war. During this second war, airplanes were the most preferred mode of transferring the wounded soldiers to the hospitals for treatment. It is imperative to note that there were varying situations in the various hospitals that offered medical care to the war veterans. Among the most notable deplorable conditions was in the Walter Reed hospital in the US where injured veterans were more often than not caught in a Catch 22 situation. There was a much messed up bureaucratic situation which would only be compared to the battlefield where the soldiers were fighting. Many of the soldiers brought in the hospitals were being taken care of by other wounded soldiers owing to the fact that here were minimal practitioners in the medical camps. The soldiers who faced p sychological disorders were the ones put in charge of more suicidal patients brought in the facilities. Improvement in Medical care now There has been a very considerable improvement in the quality of helth care that the war veterans have received In Iraq. It has been noted especially by the third eye or otherwise the media that wounded soldiers in Iraq who would probably not have survived under normal conditions are now surviving thanks to the high standards of medical care given to the wounded soldiers. According to a report by Shapiro (67), although close to 47% of the respondents feel that there is a high quality of medication offered for the wounded soldiers in the front line in Iraq than in the military hospitals immediately they get back to the US, there are also a number of people who feel that the wounded soldiers do not get quality treatment on the front lines, this was represented by 43%. It has been also reported that a majority of Americans whose family member has been serving in the military carry a negative opinion of the military facilities with 41% believing that the care given in the military facili ties is worse. Recent efforts to improve medical care for veterans During the 2008 presidential campaigns, there was a highly contested debate that was centered at bringing to the forefront the issue of compensating the veterans. According to the Harvard School of Public Health (23) the issue of dissatisfaction in the health care services offered in the medical facilities became a major issue in the presidential campaigns. This would particularly affect the majority of the voters who had family members working in the military. During the World War 2, there were many veterans who suffered in quest of securing their countries. As such, many of them suffered work related injuries and consequent disability; many were exposed to chemicals that affected them in more than one way. Recently, there have been considerable government efforts to compensate the veterans who grossly suffered, there were those who were exposed t atomic bomb blasts during training and therefore developed high cancer rates. In a camp in LeJeune, families of the military men and wome n have suffered from cancer owing to the high risk occasioned by the carcinogens buried on the ground by the government (Priest and Hull, 18). Financial Implications for poor medical care Economists in the US have attributed the ongoing cases of poor medication on the veterans to improper government incentives thanks to the myopic eye of the finance docket. According to a recent study by Harvard University, there is a very serious financial implication of the war in Iraq as well as Afghanistan that if care is not taken, there is going to be a meltdown in the Department of Veterans Affairs the arm charged with the duty of taking care of the war veterans in the United States of America. According to the study, the Veterans Association is underfunded as well as under-equipped to tackle issues to do with the current and future financial implications of the veteranss healthcare. This will no doubt mean that in there is a high likelihood that there will continue being a deteriorated service offered to the veterans since there are not enough infrastructures to deal with the ever increasing number of cases. Literature on the situation Just like during the World War 2 however, there has been no major change in the kind of care give to the war veterans. For instance, during the world war 2, military officers in Vietnam received medical care fee of close to USD 5,000, this at that point in time was quite a lot of money that would sustain them, unfortunately, even as the economic times get harder, this amount has not been reviewed and as such, the officers are subjected to a very pathetic condition. The study further estimates there are almost 16 soldiers who get wounded in every fatal situation ever since the beginning of Global War on Terror. This is a casualty rate which exceeds the statistics of previous wars (Priest and Hull, 23). The findings of this report were that at least 200,000 soldiers who had been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan got treatment at the Veterans Associations medical facility. In this regard, this study further predicts a sky rocketing in the cost of medical care as well as compensation targeting the returning veterans to up to seven hundred billion dollars. Perhaps it would give a more insightful look if we considered veteran fighters all over the world as the single most people who gave birth to many independent nations today. It is also a more insightful approach if we considered the fact there are indeed many more veteran fighters who until today have strongly upheld the mantle in ensuring that the light of stability in many wore torn countries is upheld (Harvard School of Public Health, 23). Conclusion In conclusion therefore, the question that therefore arises is to what extent the independent governments have and other agencies done to ensure that these fighters have been well taken care of. There is an African proverb that states that it is only a fool who sits on a plate that has fed him. It is in this regard that I would love to mention categorically that the government should be keen in ensuring that war veterans have been accorded the best medications since they protect a country more than any other citizen. The fact that there are more veterans who suffered than those who survived means that there should be a system of rewarding them not only financially through compensation for the injuries they suffered but a good medical system that would assure them of their health tomorrow. Today, many governments and especially the United States have considered improving the Veteran Association facilities to cater for the health needs of the soldiers in the event of injuries in their course of duty. Buy custom Medical Care of Wounded Veterans essay

Origins of the Arab Spring The WritePass Journal

Origins of the Arab Spring Abstract Origins of the Arab Spring ), the Middle East was run by tyrants who had taken up ownership of their countries. Many Arabs had a feeling that they had been cursed and that the running of affairs in their countries was a source of moral embarrassment. All the events in the Arab Spring originated from an act of protest by Bouazizi, a 26-year-old man from Tunisia on 17th December, 2010. He set himself on fire after a brush with police forces.   As reported by The Telegraph (2011), â€Å"his cart was confiscated by a policewoman who slapped him and spat in his face†. This adds police brutality to the perils that Arabs were going through in regimes prior to the spring. This report aims to present an in-depth look into events before, during and after the recent Arab spring. 2.Events During the Arab Spring Bouazizi succumbed to injuries sustained after torching himself in protest. However, the events that followed transformed Tunisia’s political landscape. Mass protests were organized over oppression, unemployment and the wide gap in income between the rich and the poor. The ultimate goal of the protests was to ensure that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the then president of the country, is removed from office. Slightly less than a month after the protests started, Ben Ali fled Tunisia on 14th January, 2011 after ruling for twenty four years (Willis, 2012). This victory of Tunisian reformists inspired protestors in neighbouring Egypt, who believed that they had to end Hosni Mubarak’s thirty-year reign of the country. Egypt protests were brutally resisted by security forces. In February 2011, the persistent protestors succeeded in making Mubarak to leave office (Abou-El-Fadl, 2012). The third casualty was Libya, whose protests were triggered by the arrests of human rights lawyer s in February, 2011. These protests took a violent turn, with the opposition being assisted by NATO in destabilizing the Libyan army. In October 2011, after eight months of fierce exchanges between the army and protestors, Gaddafi’s rule was brutally ended when he was captured executed (Prashad, 2012). In the Middle East, countries that experienced Arab spring protests were Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. Just like it was experienced in North Africa, protests in these countries were violent and received brutal resistance from police and other security forces. After surviving an execution attempt, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had been Yemen’s president for over 30 years, resigned in 2012. However, Bashar Al-Assad, Syria’s president managed to cling to his presidency amidst criticism from the international community (Weyland, 2012). 3.Characteristics of Arab Countries that triggered the Arab Spring Springborg (2011) argues that the economic conditions in Arab countries are not conducive for democratic leadership. There is a high dominance of governments in the private sector, a fact that limits the sources from which autonomous organizations can draw capital. As a result, these countries score negatively in terms of employment and other aspects that contribute to economical stability. Dominance of businesses by the government gives it an economic advantage over its opposition. Unless reforms are made to reduce the economic power of governments, attainment of democracy is difficult (Campante Chor, 2012; Stepan Linz, 2013). With no financial power to match that of the government and minimal avenues through which grievances can be made, mass protests were the only viable options for the oppressed. Thus, the majority of the population collaborated against the few who were in power. However, there is no assurance that ousting one person from power and transferring it to another ca n bring instant economic transformations to a country. According to Springborg (2011), the attainment of democracy in the Middle East is challenged by the fact the economies are too young, poor and rural. For a democratic transition to effectively take place in a country, Cincotta and Doces (2011) established that the median age of the country’s population has to be approximately thirty. However, Arab countries have the second lowest median ages in the world. Tunisia is the oldest, with a median age of 29. Such youthful ages, according to Springborg (2011), are associated with volatility, a characteristic that was displayed in the Arab spring. For democracy to be effectively sustained, the per capita annual income for citizens was approximated in 1997 to be $6,000 (Przeworski Limongi, 1997). Given that this was 15 years ago, the current figure is $12, 000. Apart from Tunisia, the per capita GDPs of Arab countries are currently less than $6,000. The attainment of democracy is also closely related to how urbanized regions are (Davis Henderson, 2003). Even though there are varying degrees of urbanization in the Arab world, the overall level of urbanization is lower than expected. This is even worsened by the fact that Egypt has been in the process of de-urbanizing since 1986 (Springborg, 2011). Other factors that pose a challenge to democracy in the Arab world include shrunken middle classes, high illiteracy levels among populations, insecurity and overdependence on governments. Arabians from the poor, rich and middle class heavily rely on their governments for their wellbeing. This has increased the governments’ budgets on subsidies of energy and food (Springborg, 2011). For these reasons, governments are largely authoritarian. This leaves those in power at liberty to do whatever they please with the resources of their countries, regardless of what effects it shall have on other citizens. This also contributed to the rage among protestors who complained about the ineffective distribution of resources. 4.Impacts of the Arab Spring There are several impacts that resulted from the Arab Spring on both local and international levels. For countries that actively took part and ousted their leaders, the vacancies had to be filled. This led to the competition of leadership among several groups, each considering itself the right heir of leadership (Brom, 2012). These included groups fighting for democracy, Islamic organizations, military groups and groups allied to previous regimes. However, the current reality in these countries is that the potential of Islamic organizations getting power is higher than that of the other groups. In the entire Middle East, the Arab Spring brought about a shift in the interests of each country. Prior to the spring, countries in the Middle East had segmented themselves into groups, each contesting to attain regional leadership. The two main groups into which these countries were divided were the anti-western camp and pro western camp. The anti-western camp was against the ideologies of countries from the west and posed certain challenges for the international community. On the other hand, the pro-western camp was moderate and supported some ideals of the west. After the spring, countries quit contesting for supremacy and concentrated on their own domestic issues. Relationships between these countries have considerably reduced to a minimum (Yadlin, 2012). Vacuums that were left after the revolution are being filled and measures are being taken to prevent such uprisings from taking place in countries that did not experience them. On a global scale, countries are competing for a chance to participate in reshaping the Middle Eastern countries in the aftermath of the revolution. The Russians and Chinese are competing with western countries to support these countries, each pursuing its own interests in these countries. Several countries from the European region have also shown interest in assisting these nations to undergo a successful democratic transformation (Perthers, 2011). Businesses have also seen an opportunity in investing in these countries. Just like the Spring of Nations, the Eastern European Spring and the Prague Spring in 1848, 1980s and 1968, respectively (Susser, 2012), attaining an equilibrium state after the Arab spring is expected to take quite some time. Whether the regimes that shall take over leadership shall overcome all challenges and embrace democracy is a fact that is unknown at present. 5.Conclusion The Arab Spring was triggered by political and social problems that are synonymous with most of the Arab countries. As it has been indicated in this report, most of these problems have occurred because of the lack of democracy. The key cause of this revolution was the utter dissatisfaction of the people with their rulers, whose leadership had been characterized by huge gaps between the rich and the poor, violations of the rights of their citizens, dictatorial rules, high levels of unemployment and poverty. It is also argued by some researchers that the spring might have been inspired by the Kyrgyz revolution that took place in 2010. Impacts of the Arab Spring have been felt across the globe, with countries competing to participate in the transition of these countries while at the same time pursuing their personal interests. However, addressing the challenges that face Arab countries needs a lot of resources and time. 6.Bibliography Abou-El-Fadl, R., 2012. The Road to Jerusalem through Tahrir Square: Anti-Zionism and Palestine in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Journal of Palestine Studies, 41(2), pp.6-26. Ajami, F., 2012. The Arab Spring at One. Foreign Affairs, 91(2). Brom, S., 2012. Regional Implications of the Arab Spring. In Guzansky, Y., Heller, M.A. (ed) One Year of the Arab Spring: Global and Regional Implications. Tel Aviv: Institute for National Security Studies. pp.39-43. Campante, F.R. Chor, D., 2012. Why was the Arab World Poised for Revolution? Schooling, Economic Opportunities, and the Arab Spring. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(2), pp.167-87. Cincotta, R. Doces, J., 2011. The Age-structural Maturity Thesis: the Youth Bulges Influence on the Advent and Stability of Liberal Democracy. In Goldstone, J.A., Kaufmann, E. Toft, M.D. Political Demography: identity, conflict and institutions. New-York, Palgrave-MacMillan. Davis, J.C. Henderson, J.V., 2003. Evidence on the political economy of the urbanization process. Journal of Urban Economics, 53(1), pp.98-125. Perthers, V., 2011. Europe and the Arab Spring. Survival, 53(6), pp.73-84. Prashad, V., 2012. Arab spring, Libyan winter. New York: AK Press Pub. Przeworski, A. Limongi, F., 1997. Modernization: Theories and Facts. World Politics, 49(2), pp.155-83. Springborg, R., 2011. The Precarious Economics of Arab Springs. Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, 53(6), pp.85-104. Stepan, A. Linz, J.J., 2013. Democratization Theory and the â€Å"Arab Spring†. Journal of Democracy , 24(2), pp.15-30. Susser, A., 2012. The Arab Spring: The Origins of a Misnomer. Tel Aviv Notes, 6(6). The Telegraph, 2011. Arab Spring: timeline for the African and Middle East rebellion. The Telegraph, 25 October. Weyland, K., 2012. The Arab Spring: Why the Surprising Similarities with the Revolutionary Wave of 1848? Perspectives on Politics, 10(4), pp.917-34. Willis, M.J., 2012. Politics and Power in the Maghreb: Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from Independence to the Arab Spring. London: C. Hurst Co. Yadlin, A., 2012. The Arab Uprising One Year On. In Guzansky, Y., Heller, M.A. (ed) One Year of the Arab Spring: Global and Regional Implications. Tel Aviv: Institute for National Security Studies. pp.11-20.

The contribution of customer satisfaction of after sale service Dissertation

The contribution of customer satisfaction of after sale service - Dissertation Example Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturing company and is one of the largest car manufacturing companies in the world. The stated vision of Audi is â€Å"Audi – the number one premium brand†. As per a strategy document released by Audi named Strategy 2020, Audi aims to achieve the leadership position in premium segment, and wants to consolidate its leadership position in that segment (Audi USA, 2009, p.27). After sales service is one of the most important factors influencing brand loyalty. According to a survey conducted by Bain and Co, â€Å"one of the most powerful techniques for converting buyers into die-hard fans is providing exceptional after-sales service† (Flees & Senturia, 2008). This report will aim to evaluate the existing customer satisfaction level of Audi customers, identify how critical is after sale service towards overall satisfaction, and identify possible areas in after sale service where there is a scope of improvement. These will be eval uated by analysing data collected by administering a questionnaire to the customers who come to the Audi dealer for after sale service. This questionnaire will capture both qualitative and quantitative data. The data collection process will also include interviewing customer facing staff in the dealership and the service manager of the dealer shop. I will be able to have access to Audi Company through my friend who holds a position as a service manager. I will be able to provide a confirmation letter from the company with their approval, in order to carry out the project research proposal. 2. Research questions Explanatory Objectives RQ1: Investigate levels of customer satisfaction with Audi? (This objective will assess and quantify the level of satisfaction that an Audi customer has.) RQ2: Which specific factors in the provision of after sales service affect customer satisfaction? Explanatory Objectives RQ3: identify main reasons for low customer satisfaction of after sales service RQ4: identify the factors that influence customer service from after sales service Developmental Objectives RQ5: evaluate methods that can potentially improve customer satisfaction 3. Research Ethics â€Å"Ethical issues are present in any kind of research. The research process creates tension between the aims of research to make generalizations for the good of others, and the rights of participants to maintain privacy† (Orb, Eisenhauer & Wynaden, 2001, p.1). The entire data collection process will be voluntary in nature where all respondents, including customers, dealer staff and the service manager, will share their responses after explicitly agreeing to participate in the survey. Before the survey is conducted, each respondent will be informed about the nature and goal of the survey. Each respondent will be informed about their nature of involvement in the survey process. Additionally, each respondent will have the right not to participate further at any point of time. In dividual responses as well as the final results of the survey will kept strictly confidential, and all response forms as well as stored data will be destroyed once the analysis is completed to ensure complete privacy of participants. 4. Literature Review RQ1: Investigate levels of customer satisfaction with Audi? There are a multitude of factors that influence the levels of customer satisfaction for a premium, life style brand like Audi. Audi, as discussed above, is a premium car brand that sells high value cars. Till the late 1990s after sale service had been viewed by manufacturing