Alcoholism Disease or Choice - 1778 Words

Alcoholism: Disease or Choice? Danielle M Ellis WVNCC Abstract Webster’s New World Dictionary defines alcoholism as a chronic condition which is mainly characterized by excessive and compulsive consumption of and dependence on alcohol as well as nutritional and mental disorders. This definition depicts alcoholism as a disease that is beyond one’s control. It has however been argued in some circles that alcoholism is a choice and the idea of alcoholism as a disease is a myth. Since it is an individual choice to take alcohol, alcoholism is a consequence of free will. Both sides of the debate are discussed in this paper and it is my conclusion that there is strong evidence that suggests that alcoholism is a disease that needs treatment.†¦show more content†¦This means that there is no way one could be arrested for an illness, thus disqualifying alcoholism as a disease. The law puts in place sanctions against alcoholism in order to control behavior that is caused by the wrong choice, not because of a disease. Schaler (1991) c ontends that one should argue that alcoholics need support and education about the effects of alcoholism and how to curb the habit. It is suggested that the notion of treatment for alcoholism is misinformed. Alcoholism is a Disease The concept of alcoholism as a disease originated in the 19th century with Dr. Benjamin Rush. This doctor advanced radical ideas claiming that those who overindulged in alcohol had a disease. However he was mostly discredited because of his assertions that being black and political dissentions were also to be regarded as diseases. Before 1891 the word alcoholic had not been used to refer to a person who took alcohol uncontrollably. Drunkenness was however not acceptable in this era. Since the 19th century it has been widely accepted that alcoholism is a disease and it requires compassion and treatment just like any other disease. Room (1983) stipulates that in 1951, the World Health Organization identified alcoholism as a disease and this was also done in 1956 by the American Medical Association. Sociologists have advanced various theories on why alcoholism should be treated as a sickness. Room (1983) suggested that thereShow MoreRelatedIs Alcoholism A Disease Or A Lifestyle Choice?1933 Words   |  8 Pageswhether alcoholism is a disease or a lifestyle choice. One blogger expressed her opinion about how alcoholism is genetic and that parents, about how it is genetic that anxiety and depression is inherited from parents leading, to becoming an addict. But the blogger by the name of andrew69055 stated, â€Å"People would do well to work more on resolving anxiety and depression rather than using alcohol disease as an excuse†¦People need hope and motivation and the handed out excuse that it’s a disease is destructive†¦Read MoreIs Alcoholism a Disease?691 Words   |  3 PagesAlcoholism as a disease? Alcoholism today is not considered as a moral failure, majority of the people view it as a disease. Alcoholism is a chronic primary and progressive disease and it can also be fatal in some instances. It is termed as a chemical disease as it breaks down in the stomach as well as bringing a different effect on the brain of the alcoholic as compared to a non-alcoholic. Alcoholism can be classified as a biological disease since the chemical predisposition of alcohol consumptionRead MoreAlcoholism : Is Alcoholism A Disease?929 Words   |  4 PagesAlcoholism has raised many debates over the truth of its nature. Many scholars argue that alcoholism can be treated as a disease. Such approach to defining alcoholism means denying that alcohol abusers own a choice. In consequence, the treatment related differs and may or may not actually help alcoholics recover. A wrong diagnostic of this addiction can lead to serious health issues; therefore, it is vital to answer the following question: Is a lcoholism a disease? Most experts in this field criticisesRead MoreAlcoholism : Is It A Disease?1564 Words   |  7 Pagesquestion what it is about alcohol that makes a person become dependent? Is it a choice or is it a side effect of the drug itself? In other words, is it a disease? In order to come to a conclusion on the topic, we must first define the nature of disease itself. According to Webster’s dictionary, it is â€Å"a condition that prevents the body or mind from working normally†. Based on this definition, alcoholism is a disease. This is to say, however, the general populace can agree upon the definition decidedRead MoreThe Effects Of Alcoholism On The Alcoholic874 Words   |  4 PagesThe best way to fix alcoholism is to treat it as a disease that needs to be cured. Alcoholism is definitely a problem and causes harm to both the alcoholic and the people around them, but it does so in a much different way than a disease such as cancer. Instead, alcoholism is a disease of both physical and mental dependence. Most diseases are treated by surgery or medication, but the only way to fix the problem of alcohol abuse is by changing the mindset of the alcoholic. This is why HazeldenRead MoreAlcoholism Addiction And An Addiction Essay1356 Words   |  6 PagesTraditionally speaking, alcoholism is an addiction to consuming alcohol. There are some organizations and people out there that would combat that widely accepted thought, and consider it a disease over an addiction. What is the difference between a disease and an addiction? To determine the appropriate label, both definitions and the actions that give them that specific definition must be examined. There is a line that separates what is a disease and what is an addiction and there are many differentRead MoreAn Alcoholic : Societal Views Vs. Reality1103 Words   |  5 Pageswhen it comes to alcoholism, in order to understand Alcoholism properly we must consider both the disease and the treatment. In 1956 the AMA (American Medical Association) classified Alcoholism as a disease. The association’s definition of alcoholism is a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. In this case the term â€Å"primary† is used to indicate that it is a disease that can lead to other diseases such as CirrhosisRead MoreAlcoholism : The Misuse And Addiction1361 Words   |  6 PagesAlcoholism: The Misuse and Addiction â€Å"I know my limit†, â€Å"Just one more drink†, and â€Å"I’m not drunk† are common phrases people often associate with being an alcoholic. While is true that some alcoholics can use such phrases, that is not what makes them an alcoholic. Alcoholics or rather anyone who happens to drink a little too much, are marked as being alcoholics. But what does it really mean to be an alcoholic? Or better yet, what does it mean to suffer from Alcoholism? Over the years, a controversialRead MoreFactors, Symptoms and Treatment of Alcoholism Essay1199 Words   |  5 PagesAlcoholism is a chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors. The disease is often progressive and fatal if left untreated. It is characterized by impaired control over alcohol use despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking. There are critics who disagree with calling Alcoholism a disease despite the definition on the word disease which means an involuntary disability but the fact that alcoholism is a disease is widely accepted within the medical and scientificRead MoreIs Alcoholism Really a Disease?1042 Words   |  4 PagesStudies of Aging Neurodegenerative Disease and Alcoholism†, Eberling and Jagust suggest that for the past 200 years, people have classified alcoholism as a disease, but recently a large portion of the medical community has started to disagree with this diagnosis. Despite common misconception, Alcohol Anonymous was not the originator of the classification of Alcoholism as a disease. Dr. Benjamin Rush created the concept in 1784, and alcoholism has been considered as a disease since then (Eberling and Jagust

Critical Essay on Cadbury Free Essays

Cadbury’s Coporate Social Responsibility Businesses these days are much different from how it was in previous generations. Nowadays, society impacts that corporation has is not only about economic power, instead it has also gone into corporate social responsibilities. Cadbury is an international company that is the second largest confectionary company in the world. We will write a custom essay sample on Critical Essay on Cadbury or any similar topic only for you Order Now (Factbox: British confectioner Cadbury 2010). Therefore, they have a bigger impact to affect both positively and negatively on the society as they have a bigger influence and power on the society due to their dominance in market share. In this essay, it will go in depth about the performance of Cadbury in relation to its corporate social responsibility. This essay will explain and argue a balanced argument about the negative and positive impact Cadbury has today on its society by analyzing their â€Å"Cadbury Community† programme and their association with child labour. Negative Social Responsibility of Cadbury According to a documentary called â€Å"Slavery† on the BBC, it documented cocoa beans production and how it is related to child labour, in the documentary, it focused on Cadbury, aiming at them about that negative social responsibility that they have. The reason for child labour in the cocoa production is because of the prices that are set on the cocoa beans is very low when it is sold. For example, farmers are only selling their cocoa beans for only a mere sum of money, therefore they would want to gain more profit. The only way to do that is to get cheaper labour so that their expenses are not so high which would result in higher revenue earned at the end of the day. Since child labour is one of the cheapest labour in the world, it is the top choice for labour to keep cost down would be child labour. In a brighter light, not everyone was affected by the low priced cocoa beans. For example, Cadbury was still able to employ many people around the world and still kept their product prices down to continue attracting their customers. However, Cadbury was later seen as a supporter of child labour. Reason being, Cadbury were purchasing the cocoa beans from the farmers that were using child labour for their cocoa beans production. This in turn makes Cadbury a supporter of child labour as well as they are purchasing the beans from the farmers which encourages them to continue that they are doing. The consumers later came into conclusion that the low prices of Cadbury’s chocolate were not worth the children’s hard cheap labour in the developing countries. Read Critical Essay about Skurzynski’s Nethergrave The world’s largest cocoa producer, Cote d’Ivoire has given the possibility of Cadbury to demand the cocoa beans at a very low price. (World Cocoa Production. n. d. ) As they are the largest producers, they have more control of the cocoa prices around the world. To further exxagerate how much farmers of the cocoa production are getting paid, an example would be, for every kilogram of cocoa beans that a farmer harvest, they are getting paid almost the same amount of how much a bar of chocolate consumers pay for consumption. Which in most cases, would be a range of a dollar to two dollars. (Olivier. 2012. . This is not following their policies that Cadbury should be following under their code of conduct (Our Business Principles. 2008. ). In the document, it states that it is their responsibility, both corporate and social to make sure that there are proper and ethical practices to manage the business. Ethical issues such as human rights, ethical trading and employment pra ctices are considered when business is done in Cadbury. However, that is not much of the case when Cadbury is purchasing low and unfairly priced cocoa beans from the farmers. This is against their ethical values of ethical trading. Reason being, as mentioned above in this essay, by purchasing the beans at such a low cost, it is encouraging the farmers to hire more child labourers in order to keep their cost of production down and to gain more revenue earned. The stakeholders that are mostly affected would be the children that are forced to work at the farms to harvest the cocoa beans. Working at the farms does not only mean long working hours with very little pay, it also means that they might get beaten often due to carelessness at work or not meeting the expected weight of cocoa beans. It also means that they might not even get paid after working long hours with no food (Cocoa Campaign. n. d. ). By the year 2003, Cote d’Ivoire, which is the world’s largest cocoa producing nation, had about 109,000 child labourers (Country Reports on Human Rights and Practices. 2003). Out of the 109,000 children, more than half of them were said to be working on their own farms owned by their parents. The rest of the children, which consists of about 10,000 of them, are working as slaves or are being trafficked. By working on the farms, it means that the children are not given a chance to go to school to increase their knowledge or to further their education. This would therefore result in a vicious cycle of people depending solely on cocoa farming in order to earn enough money to meet their basic needs. For example, when a child is forced to work on the farms, he will not be able to attend school to gain knowledge to have a chance to get out of the country to work. Since he is stuck on the farm, he will grow up only with the knowledge on how to harvest cocoa beans. His main concern would be to maintain the farm and to earn more money for his family. In order to earn more money, it means that he has to harvest more cocoa beans. Therefore, he will need more help at the farm. Therefore, he will want to get as much help from his children to increase the cocoa beans production. This would continue in a cycle. Cadbury did try to solve the problem that they have made by sourcing their cocoa beans from Ghana, the second largest cocoa producer instead of from Cote d’lvoire. However, many people still are uncertain about their true motives to really solve the problem created. Reason being, back in 2001, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA) which consisted of large chocolate confectionary companies such as M, Cadbury and Mars Inc. decided to make a promise that their cocoa beans production would be free of child labourers by 2005, July. The commitment was made to the Cocoa Industry Protocol (CIP) (Protocol for Growing and Processing of Cocoa Beans and Their Derivative Products. 2001. ). Although some large chocolate confectionary companies signed the CIP, none of them were able to meet the criteria of the commitment. Therefore, the dateline was extended and the percentage of their cocoa beans to come from childfree labourers was also reduced. Cadbury has recently self publicized that their products are now labeled as ‘Fair Trade Certified’ (About Fairtrade n. d. ) which means that in general perception, a minimum price is to be directly paid to the cocoa producers which would hopefully reduce child labour. However, this is not the case reason being, when farmers are paid the minimum sum of money for their cocoa beans through the Fair Trade premiums, they will still have to minus off the a huge sum of their profit. So what exactly are reducing the farmer’s profit? They are the administrative expenses, operating costs, business reinvestments and other social costs (Fairtrade Certified: Frequently Asked Questions – Advanced n. d. ). Therefore, at the end of the day, cocoa farmers are still earning very little. This was just a spin doctoring made by Cadbury to change the public’s perception of Cadbury’s wrong doings. Positive Social Responsibility of Cadbury Cadbury does not only have negative corporate social responsibilities, instead, they are doing well in their work for the local communities around the world. Cadbury has donated some of their profits back to the community. Although this is just a mere 1% of their profit before tax, it is still something as some other companies are not even contributing back to the society at all (Working Together to Make a Difference in the Community n. d. ). Cadbury also has a community that helps in the society’s health, welfare, enterprise, education and environmental sustainability. For example, Cadbury’s â€Å"Miles for Smiles† event involves employees to walk between their two factories and raise funds for to raise funds for the less fortunate. Adding on, Cadbury has also donated to charities, sponsored to countries to help with their developments, developed programmes to help the less fortunate around the world. All these work was done voluntarily by Cadbury. Therefore, it displays the positive side of their company’s social responsibility to give back to the society. Conclusion Although Cadbury has done many negative impacts on the society, they had their fair share of making the world a better place by contributing back to the society as much as they can. Some of the public might still find that Cadbury has a lack of empathy towards ethical issues such as child labour. This might affect Cadbury’s reputation as this would be a hard point to erase form the consumer’s mind. Which means that no matter how much positive things that Cadbury does, at the back of the consumer’s mind, they will always remember the negative impact that Cadbury had caused that is now hard to resolve. And although Cadbury is trying hard to contribute back positively to the society, the public might see is as a way for Cadbury to advertise themselves more. Therefore, in order to keep up the good reputation and try to convert more of the public to view them positively, Cadbury has to keep up with their moral integrity and ethical guidelines, which is seen as a positive action by the public. Work Cited About Fairtrade. n. d. http://www. fairtrade. com. au/about (accessed August 31, 2010) Cocoa Campaign. n. d. http://www. laborrights. org/stop-child-labor/cocoa-campaign (accessed August 30, 2010) Country Reports on Human Rights and Practices. 2003. http://www. state. gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27723. htm (accessed August 30, 2010) Factbox: British confectioner Cadbury. 2010. http://uk. reuters. com/article/idINTRE60D1XX20100114? pageNumber=2=0=true (accessed August 30, 2010) Fairtrade Certified: Frequently Asked Questions – Advanced. n. d. http://www. transfairusa. org/content/resources/faq-advanced. php#individuals (accessed August 31, 2010) Our Business Principles. 2008. http://collaboration. cadbury. com/SiteCollectionDocuments/English%20Booklet. pdf (accessed August 30, 2010) Olivier, M. 2012. Ivory Coast Cocoa Farmers to Put Pay Raise in Crop Output. http://www. bloomberg. om/news/2012-10-05/ivory-coast-cocoa-farmers-to-put-pay-raise-in-crop-production. html (accessed April 2, 2013). Protocol for Growing and Processing of Cocoa Beans and Their Derivative Products. 2001. http://www. cocoainitiative. org/images/stories/pdf/harkin%20engel%20protocol. pdf (accessed August 31, 2010) Working Together to Make a Difference in the Community. n. d. http://www. cadbury. com. au/Cadbury-Community. aspx (access ed August 31, 2010) World Cocoa Production. n. d. http://www. zchocolat. com/chocolate/chocolate/cocoa-production. asp (accessed April 2, 2013). How to cite Critical Essay on Cadbury, Essays

Criticism of to a waterfowl Essay Example For Students

Criticism of to a waterfowl Essay The poems of Bryant may be classed, with regard to their subjects:those expressing a universal interest, relative to the great conditions of humanity, types of nature symbolical of these, as the Winds; poems of a national and patriotic sentiment, or expressive of the heroic in character, as the Song of Marions Men. Of these, probably the most enduring will be those which draw their vitality more immediately from the American soil. In these there is a purity of nature, and a certain rustic grace, which speak at once the nature of the poet and his subject. Symbolic images of nature abound in his verses. Here Id like to share some of my observation of some of the poem to a waterfowl. Whither, midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Whitherto what place. We have to read the whole stanza to complete the question. The author delays the meaning so long by putting in the description of time and place to create a feeling of distance to the destination. And thee, thou, thythese are all poetic ways of saying you in the singular form. In a sense, focusing on a single distinctive you with no possibility of it being the plural you. So, maybe it is more than just poetic diction, but the emphasis of solitude. Seekst thou the plashy brinkOf weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side? Rubbed away by friction, constant irritation. Here are three different possible destinations for the waterfowl. they have something in common. There is a Power whose careTeaches thy way along that pathless coast, The desert and illimitable air, Lone wandering, but not lostIf he is speaking of God (what kind of god?), why does he call him a Power? Birds migrate because of natural instinctswhat is the connection to a Power here? He might imply that Nature and God are identified Again, notice the emphasis on Lone. In the fifth stanza, cold thin atmosphere, stoop, weary, and welcome land contrast sharply. which adds to the picture of the bird both concretely and symbolically. this birds flight is beginning to represent the lonely and lifelong struggle of the writer himself in hope of finding his welcome land. Thourt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shall not soon depart. This stanza sounds a little didactic to me. The poet clearly warns the reader that a lesson is coming. Romantic poetry is usually more subtle than that, although it does often find human, even spiritual truths in natural events. The abyss of heaven is NOT a word we often see associated with heaven! What does that suggest about his view of heaven? Does he mean that the immeasurably profoundity of heaven will always be an unfathomable chasm to him, totally beyond his kent. In the last stanza, the word alone is found again. waterfowl ordinarily travel in groups, or at least in pairs. But it is important (and meaningful) that this bird is alone. It reveals the poets feeling about his own life. Although the last verse suggest that he has found comfort in this poem, but the word must tread alone also add some hints of shadows and conflict here. Bryant fastened upon the genial influences of nature about him. As the present world was becoming more threatening and alienating to writers ,Individual solitude became a strand among them. So much of the greatest writing of these two hundred years is in the form of individuals alone, standing off by themselves, meditating on their own fate, William Cullen Bryants To a Waterfowl. Here perhaps better than in any other unit can we see writers living in an age of progress and democracy turning inward-and often to nature-in search of consolation.