Consciousness

The actions and events in Shakespeare’s Hamlet revolve around Hamlet’s inactivity. Without Hamlet’s hesitation, constant thought, and internal deliberation, the plot would proceed directly from Hamlet’s meeting with the Ghost to his murder of Claudius. Hamlet’s philosophical strifeheightens the complexity of his life issues and intensifies the depth of his dilemma. Hamlet’s over-intellectualization coupled with his passive tendencies paralyzes his ability to act, locking him in an inescapable prison of his own inner consciousness. Hamlet’s over-intellectualization begins with his questioning of the ghost’s identity.

When first told by Horatio that the ghost of his father haunts the battlements, Hamlet interrogates him obsessively to obtain every relevant detail to satisfy his intellectual curiosity. He fires a volley of questions at Horatio, ranging from whether his countenance is “pale or red” to how long it “fixed eyes upon [Horatio]” (1. 2. 250). His desire to dispel uncertainty and further his knowledge escalates in the physical encounter with the ghost. Rather than accepting his vision for granted, Hamlet examines the validity of his perceptions by debating whether the ghost of “a questionable shape” is “wicked or charitable” (1. . 45-46). Hamlet initially pronounces to the ghost that he will “wipe away all trivial, fond records, all saw of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied there,” declaring his resolution to act (1. 4. 108). However, when he reconvenes with his friends, he entreats them “never make known what you have seen tonight” (1. 5. 160). Instead of seeking for an immediate collective action to avenge his father’s “unnatural murder,” he chooses to prolong the process to devise an elaborate scheme within his own mind.

He forestalls action—be it his friends’ or his own—to contemplate the implications of his experience. He concludes by cursing the fact that he “was born to set it right”  (1. 5. 211). The ghost’s revelation places him in a position where he must be the agent of action, whose filial responsibility is to affect justice and kill Claudius. Hamlet’s dilemma, then, stems from the need to become an avenging son while being a naturally passive intellectual. Hamlet addresses his dilemma in greater depth by engaging in a rigorous, intellectual process, which ironically perpetuates the vicious cycle of inactivity.

In his conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he confesses, “thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison” (2. 2. 270). Hamlet finds himself imprisoned by his intellect, as he “must like a whore unpack [his] heart with words” (2. 2. 614). He cannot act by heart because he is bound to “unpack” his actions with reason first. He berates himself as “a rogue and peasant slave” and “John-a-dream, unpregnant of my cause, and can say nothing” (2. 2. 576-595). Hamlet recognizes that he is not taking any decisive action to dutifully avenge his father’s death in staying within his comfort zone of intellectualism.

As he articulates and explores his conflict of conscience, he concludes, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pitch and moment…lose the name of action (3. 1. 91-96). Hamlet reaffirms that his constant moralizing and philosophizing stymie the very action he strives for. The inexorable clash between his predisposition for sedentary contemplations and the filial imperative to actively seek revenge results in such strong feelings of self-loathing that he considers “shuffl[ing] off the mortal coil” (3. . 75). Committing suicide would proactively end his suffering, but he problematizes even that possibility as an unacceptable transgression against “[God’s] canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! ” (1. 2. 136). Ironically, this very soliloquy devoted to meditating on his passivity epitomizes his inaction; rather than coming up with pragmatic solutions to end his dilemma, he explores and wallows in self-pity, which in turn exacerbates the intensity of his conundrum. Hamlet is so preoccupied with the enormous intellectual activity in his head that he closes himself off from all action in the external world.

[pic] EMMANUEL KWAME ANTWI ID: UD16761BBU24478 SEMINAR CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT I “D” THE HIDDEN CONNECTIONS (ESSAY) ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY HONOLULU, HAWAII DECEMBER 17, 2011 INTRODUCTION The Hidden Connections is a book authored by Fritjof Capra. In this book, Capra relates today’s dynamic and complex human life styles to the symbiotic lives of different interrelated and interdependent organisms.

Specifically, he is trying to apply the ideology of obscurity assumptions to the close scrutiny of the magnitude of the interactions and correlations of mankind. He states in the book that if we are to maintain a future life, we need to learn to respect the rules of nature, the rules and principles that nature has inevitably adapted to advance and sustain what he calls the web of life.

This book explains and clears just how much the hypothetical thoughts and scientific theories which are much ignored by most of the world that operates outside the margins of science can practically be applied to resolving most of the problems that threaten the existence of this planet. This book brings to light the interrelation and interconnections of science in relation to our societal and social organizations which most of us are not aware. This can be the reason why he titled the book ‘The Hidden Connections’, it is because most of the world’s population is either unaware f this understanding, or may be just negligent of its reality. According to a presentation by Darian Schiffman (academics, AIU) quoting from Capra (2002 p. vvi), the book basically has two goals, which are; to bring forth a new understanding of life through the presentation of a conceptual framework that integrates life’s biological, cognitive as well as social dimensions; and to offer a clear systematic approach to some pertaining questions we have that negatively and aversively affect our world.

This study purposes to critically analyze the message in this book, to look at every aspect of human life that it addresses, I believe Capra himself being a physicist of prominence and an award winner in the science department, importantly with enough time, examined and fully dissected the theoretical scientific principles in every possible way and in their applicable nature, that in the end saw the connectivity of these scientific articulations to our own social lives today.

At the same time, he saw in the most significant way the effect the things that we do as humans are going to later affect us if we do not change the organizational principles that govern and direct our lives today. The  book also  touches  almost  all  the  significant  aspects  of human  life  and  boldly substantiates just how each of these aspects affects the other if not well maintained. Generally, the book brings the world to understanding the extremes of destruction our current principles have on nature, making future life almost unimaginable.

In the same vein, the book proposes the possible amicable measures that we can take to preserve our world, especially world leaders and world environmental organizations. For long the world has being striving towards globalization, this book addresses both the challenges and dangers of such a motive, addressing the complications of biotechnology and its nature. The book simply brings together the scientific world and our own social world, and pragmatically defining these worlds’ relationship and probable dependence. THE HIDDEN CONNECTIONS (THE BODY) The Nature of Life: Mostly, this would direct a person to the question “what s life? ” a question which will clearly trigger an outburst of mental assumptions some driven by general thought, and some oriented by experience. An encyclopedic thesaurus Word Web, life is defined as being the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities, or the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living. This may sound quite simple and brief, but Capra looks at it in quite broader perspective, and defines it in even more detailed way, pin-pointing specific aspects that make up the definition of life.

Capra explains in some way that no man or organism is total island, in one way or another every organism depends on other organisms, no wonder I personally a ‘symbiotic’ kind of relation where one organism of a different specie cannot live without the other, the interdependence of organisms where each organism benefits from the other. The practical of such relationship is that of plants and animals, animals basically cannot make their own food so they depend on the photosynthetic process of plants, through which plants make food, at the same time releasing oxygen which animals do need forth the process of respiration.

Maturana and Varela (1980) quoted by Capra (2002), in their definition of life came up with the concept of ‘autopoiesis’ which factually mean “self-making”, this concept particularly amalgamates  two defining characteristics or aspects of cellular life which are the physical boundary and the metabolic network; and in contrast to the surfaces of crystals or large molecules, the boundary of an autopoietic system is chemically distinct from the rest of the system and it participates in metabolic processes by assembling itself and by selectively filtering incoming and outgoing molecules.

Therefore, the definition of a living system as an autopoietic network means that the phenomenon of life has to be understood as a property of the system as a whole, just as much as Pier Luigi (2008) mentions that life cannot be attributed to any single molecular component, not even to the DNA or RNA but only to the entire bounded metabolic network. ‘Autopoiesis provides a clear and powerful criterion for distinguishing between living and nonliving systems. For example, it tells us that viruses re not alive, because they lack their own metabolism. Outside living cells, viruses are inert molecular structures consisting of proteins and nucleic acids. A virus is essentially a chemical message that needs the metabolism of a living host cell to produce new virus particles, according to the instructions encoded in its DNA or RNA. The new particles are not built within the boundary of the virus itself, but outside in the host cell,’ Capra (2002). So, the autopoiesis theory strongly supports and founds the Santiago theory in some way.

It explains and provides answers to many other questions that surround the issue life and its natural defining features and traits, it can as well symbiotic relationships, organizations, and social networks of organisms. During the process of respiration, animals release carbon dioxide which plants need for the process of photosynthesis, so plants need animals for the carbon dioxide, and plants animals need plants for the oxygen. We (animals) primarily need each other to survive.

God created a world that nourishes, restores, and preserves itself it were not for human activities that have degraded to total ruin, for example, a livestock farmer lets his/her livestock feed on the pasture, as they graze, they drop dung on the pastures which will in the next rain season dissolve to nourish the soil as fertilizer, promoting an even better outgrowth of pasture, therefore the soil nourishment depends on the livestock, and the nourishment of the livestock depends on the soil.

Capra looks at life as not being solely determined by the inherent design but views it as an evolving process that engages a complete epigenetic network or external factors, making it continuously responding to both physical and chemical constrictions we exert on our environment. There is one common character that all living organisms share and this is unquestionable.

They all have cells, be it animals, people, plants, or microorganisms such as bacteria, virus or fungi, all of them have cells that build up to give a structure. Despite transitions and extreme conditions, the genetic blueprint of organisms has so far stayed intact in most cases, some have succumbed to the inevitability of evolution, but some have been the same for thousands of years and the dependence upon another species of organisms have been carried on and on.

In his definition of life, Capra (2002:6) uses the bacterial cell to clearly delineate what life is all about, he states that when a cell is viewed under a microscope one can easily notice that inside it a metabolic processes that uses special macromolecules consisting of elongated chains of atoms, and two of such macromolecules are common in all living cells, and these are proteins and the nucleic acid (the Deoxyribonucleic Acid-DNA and the Ribonucleic Acid-RNA). Basically, there are two kinds of proteins as well; the enzymes act catalysts for most metabolic processes, where as the structural proteins form part of the cell structure.

The DNA and the RNA within the cell work hand-in-hand determining that crucial bond defining the cell’s genetic and metabolic features. The Santiago Theory: Maturana and Varela (1980:13) in theoretical definition of the Santiago theory say all living systems are cognitive systems, and that living as a process is itself a process of cognition, and the two further cement that ‘this statement is valid for all organisms in spite of whether such organism got a nervous system or not.

Initially in the world of philosophy Rene Descartes (1596-1650) emphasized the Cartesian View which promotes dualism as follows which suggests that the body operates like some kind of machine, having material properties of extension and motion, that it operates within the doctrines of physics; and further articulates that the mind and soul on the other is kind of none-material, making it a unit without extension and motion, and follows not the rules of physics.

Descartes stressed that it is only the human beings that have minds, and that the mind acts together with the body at the pineal gland, a tiny pine-like endocrine gland located close to the central part of the brain which produces melatonin, a hormone responsible for regulating the patterns of sleeping or waking up as well as other seasonal functions. This understanding generally relates that it is the mind that basically and pragmatically controls the entire, and that at the same time the body can as well manipulate the reasoning of the mind, especially in cases where a person acts out of an emotional intuition.

This theory looks at cognition as a component quite indispensable in the issues of systems, it practically implies that almost every activity that takes place or transpires in the system processes require cognition, which Capra stipulates as taking place in phases as follows, ‘Cognition, is not a representation of an independently existing world, but rather a continual bringing forth of a world through the process of living. The interactions of a living system with its environment are cognitive interactions, and the process of living itself is a process of cognition.

In the words of Maturana and Varela, “to live is to know”. As a living organism goes through its individual pathway of structural changes, each of these changes corresponds to a cognitive act, which means that learning and development are merely two sides of the same coin. The first type, known as “primary consciousness,” arises when cognitive processes are accompanied by basic perceptual, sensory and emotional experience. Primary consciousness is probably experienced by most mammals and perhaps by some birds and other vertebrates.

The second type of consciousness, sometimes called “higher-order consciousness,” involves self-awareness—a concept of self, held by a thinking and reflecting subject. This experience of self-awareness emerged during the evolution of the great apes, or “hominids,” together with language, conceptual thought and all the other characteristics that fully unfolded in human consciousness. Because of the critical role of reflection in this higher-order conscious experience, I shall call it “reflective consciousness. Reflective consciousness involves a level of cognitive abstraction that includes the ability to hold mental images, which allows us to formulate values, beliefs, goals and strategies. This evolutionary stage is of central relevance to the main theme of this book—the extension of the new understanding of life to the social domain— because with the evolution of language arose not only the inner world of concepts and ideas, but also the social world of organized relationships’ Capra (2002:38-39).

According to Capra (2002:34) ‘the central insight of the Santiago Theory is the identification of cognition, the process of knowing, with the process of life. Cognition, according to Maturana and Varela (1980), is the activity involved in the self-generation and self-perpetuation of living networks. In other words, cognition is the very process of life. The organizing activity of living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity. The interactions of  a  living  organism—plant,  animal  or  human—with  its  environment  are  cognitive interactions.

Thus, life and cognition are inseparably connected. Mind—or, more accurately, mental activity—is immanent in matter at all levels of life. ’ This to me sounds more prudent and quite rational in comparison to the other perceptions, in opposition to Rene’s theories the Santiago Theory is more clearer and comprehensible even for low class students, it brings to life the real life situation that we all experience everyday, it makes one see the connection and dependability of organisms upon other organisms, taking into perspective, the biotic and abiotic factors on nature.

According to the online encyclopedia (Wikipedia, 2010) Descartes believed that this special gland was the ‘seat of the soul’ an understanding he purported with many reasons stated respectively as follows; firstly, he understood that the soul is unitary or one and this to him meant the pineal gland was an entity despite it being proven hemispherical; second to this he discovered that this gland was positioned near the ventricles making him believe the cerebrospinal fluid worked through the nerves to control the body, as well as regulating the processes manipulated by the pineal gland. and finally Descartes despite figuring-out that both human beings and animals had the pineal gland he still resolved that only humans had minds advancing in his mind the idea that animals cannot feel pain or are insensitive to pain. Unfortunately the Cartesian view gets questioned and in the process challenged by the Santiago Theory which takes a totally different stand from the philosophy of Descartes.

The Santiago Theory vehemently recognizes the reality of cognition, normally defined as the ability or the process of knowing, or the activity involved in self-generation and self-perpetuation of living systems, entailing that cognition is actually the life itself, Maturana &Varela (1980). The Santiago theory moves away from Descartes’ view of life and instead studies the mind from a systematic understanding and has so far given to the interdisciplinary field of Cognitive Science; and according to Capra (2002:34), this theory holds the ‘Organizing activity of all living systems at all levels of life, is actually mental activity’.

Therefore, the old perception of the mind as a ‘thinking thing’ has progressed into a view of the mind as being a process where the ‘entire structure of the organism participates’ Capra (2002:37). Many other views have so far been brought forth to oppose Descartes view, but the Santiago Theory has so far been the first scientific hypothesis that has really questioned and practically overcame the Cartesian dissection of mind and matter, and from the optimistic point of view, this theory is believed to have far-reaching implications.

Generally, this theory has brought the mind and body/matter together viewed as two harmonizing and complementary aspects defining the phenomenon of life. So far, the theory has already brought substantial knowledge and understanding concerning the beginning with a simple micro cell, the mind, the matter, the process and the structure at all levels which have so far proven to be inseparable and interdependent in one way or another, this unites the mind, matter and life.

In the Santiago theory (Capra, 2002:34-36) it is clearly stated that as ‘a living organism responds to environmental influences with structural changes, these changes will in turn alter its future behavior. In other words, a structurally coupled system is a learning system. Continual structural changes in response to the environment—and consequently continuing adaptation, learning and development—are key characteristics of the behavior of all living beings.

Because of its structural coupling, we can call the behavior of an animal intelligent, but would not apply that term to the behavior of a rock. As it keeps interacting with its environment, a living organism will undergo a sequence of structural changes, and over time it will form its own individual pathway of structural coupling. At any point on this pathway, the structure of the organism is a record of previous structural changes.

The Santiago theory advances the issue of higher order consciousness or ‘reflective consciousness which involves a level of cognitive abstraction that includes the ability to hold mental images’ Capra (2002:39). This inevitable capability gives human beings the repertoire to create a value system and act cordially. In the simplest of perception, this theory drives us take a person’s subjective and prejudiced experience into some version which has been conventionally ignored by science.

The Santiago specifically states that mind is no thing rather a process operating through the brain relating that brain and mind is actually one between process and structure. It is also of some degree of importance to note that this eradicates the idea that the brain is the only compartment involved in the process of cognition, clearly illustrating the fact that in all vertebrate organisms the immune system is actually a complicated network of unrelenting interconnectedness, just as much as the nervous system serving similarly the vital co-ordination purpose.

According  to  the  Wikipedia  (2010)  on  the  Santiago  theory,  cognition  appears  as  a consequence of continual interaction between the system and its environment, delineating that the  continuous  interactions  between  system  and  the  environment  triggers  two-sided disturbances viewed as problems forcing the system to use its functional specialization routine to find solutions to the perturbations.

It is of importance to note in this theory that the system slowly adapts to its environment positioning itself to face-up to the disturbances or intrusion in order to sustain survival. This therefore means the resulting complexity complicatedness of living systems is cognition emanating from the bilateral perturbations in the system/environment outline. The theory is really making the scientific world dig deep into these discoveries, eradicating misunderstandings and doubts, setting up the facts straight from experimental experience and observations.

Extending the System Approach: Capra, resorts that the systematic understanding of life practically allows the world to see and comprehend the fundamental unity to life, that different living systems exhibit similar patterns of organization, Capra (2002:81),. This understanding can practically be applied to our communities, and the impact will definitely be significant. The defining blueprint of the systems is quite complicated, but can be understood, Capra (2002:81), when we extend this understanding and nowledge, applying it to the social domain we actually apply our ‘knowledge of life’s basic patterns and delineating principles of organization, and specifically apply our understanding of living networks to social/societal reality’. The living networks in our social communities work just like the brain in its environment; the two diverse situations easily match and model each other. Capra views his extension of the systems approach to the social domain as explicitly including the material world, which is quite unusual since traditionally social scientists were not interested in the world of matter.

He basically mentions that ‘our academic disciplines have been organized in such a way that the natural sciences deal with social structures, which are perceived to be especially the rules of behavior; stating that in the near future this strict division will no longer be possible since the key challenge of this new century for social scientists, natural scientists and everyone else will be to build ecologically sustainable communities, designed in such a way that their technologies and social institutions, their material and social structure do not interfere with nature’s hereditary ability to sustain life;…the design principles of our future social institutions must be consistent with the principles of organization that nature has evolved to sustain the web of life. A unified conceptual framework for the understanding of material and social structures will be essential this task’ Capra (2002:19).

The Social Network: In every society or community there must be a distinctive social kind of network and on the issue of this kind of network Capra states that social networks use communication, which normally takes place in multiple feedback loops, as some measure to reproduce itself and its culture, and thus its value and belief. This actually addresses social reality. Capra mentions that wherever there is social organization there is power courtesy of the inevitable conflicts of interest, and it is in these situations where ‘power plays a central role in the emergence of social structure’ which happens to provide people with rules or principles of behavior, Capra (2002:90). Normally the ‘social networks generate material structures buildings, roads, technologies, etc, which become structural components of the network; and they also produce material goods and artifacts that are exchanged between the network’s nodes.

However, the production of material structures in social networks is quite different from that in biological and ecological networks. ‘The structures are created for a purpose, according to some design, and they embody some meaning; and to understand the activities of social systems, it is crucial to study them from that perspective…perspective of meaning includes a multitude of interrelated characteristics that are essential to understanding social reality. Meaning itself is a systemic phenomenon: it always has to do with context. Webster’s Dictionary defines meaning as “an idea conveyed to the mind that requires or allows of interpretation,” and interpretation as “conceiving in the light of individual belief, judgment, or circumstance. In other words, we interpret something by putting it into a particular context of concepts, values, beliefs, or circumstances. To understand the meaning of anything we need to relate it to other things in its environment, in its past, or in its future. Nothing is meaningful in itself’ Capra (2002:83-84). According to Wenger (2006), organisms in an environment develop a common practice which characterizes the shared manner of how things are executed and relate to each other, a reality that allows such organisms to attain their unifying course, and in most cases after a while such practice turns to be a significant bond within the participants.

This book clearly depicts from its author that when we try to extend this new understanding of life to the social domain, we immediately come up against a bewildering multitude of phenomena, rules of behavior, values, intentions, goals, strategies, designs, power relations that play no role in most of then on-human world but are essential to human social life, however though, these different characteristics of social reality all share a basic common feature that provides a natural link to the systems view of life developed in the other chapters of the book, Capra (2002:73). Normally this is how social networks come into being, and such communities have special aspects in common such as; that impeccable looking common understanding, the general involvement of the community members, the regular round of activities that the members become  accustomed  encompassing  the  accepted  rules  of  behavior,  attitude  and comprehension which are normally sustained in due course, Wenger (2008).

It such attributes that end up becoming differentiating principles of a community, despite emanating from the ordinary; they primarily become the identifying traits for a specific community. From the most general of perspectives, the social networks of mankind are defined by minor and major aspects that maintain and sustain the network, and the connectivity in the entire metaphor, the same critically resembles the systems in the human beings and most other organisms. In any typical social network there are strict outlines that define and regulate behavior and attitudes a practice that results in the creation of ethics and norms that different societies resort to consider for societal order.

Capra states that ‘at all scales of nature, we find living systems nesting within other living systems, networks within  networks. Their boundaries are not boundaries of separation but boundaries of identity. All living systems communicate with one another and share resources across their boundaries’. This clearly shows the possibility of social networks in another living web of networks interacting just as normal. Organization and Change: In most cases where an effort to bring change has been made and proven to be futile due to feeling and assumption that people resisted the intended change, the general conclusion made is the people resisted is refused to buy into the introduced change, be it for their good and benefit.

Capra defiles and contradicts this idea and calls it false, stating that people only resist having change if such change is not negotiable meaning if such change is simply imposed on them, normally societies or communities would appreciate and support change if their input on the idea is sort. It makes them feel part of that change, and part of a social community that operates systematically. When we transfer on the metaphor of an organization from machine to the living systems we actually begin to view organizations as communities with collective identities that share common values. During an interview by Barbara Vogl (2010) with Capra mentioned in answer to he question concerning self-organization in our individual lives and organizations could be useful in helping us see how to get through the anxiety in our period of transition and passing into the new paradigm thinking, he replied and said ‘Well I think self-organization and the newer understanding of life and complexity, when it is applied to the social realm and human organizations, can help people to find their authenticity as human beings The old paradigm model is a mechanistic model where people are seen as parts of a big machine and the machine is designed by experts who either sit at the top of the organization or are brought in from outside as consultants. Then this design of new structures is imposed upon the people who work in the organization and they are pigeon-holed in certain departments with well-defined boundaries. So the underlying model is that of a machine working very smoothly. What self-organization tells you, among many other things, is that creativity is an inherent property of all living systems. All living systems are creative because they have the ability to reach out and create something new.

In the last 20-25 years we have begun to understand the dynamics of this creativity, in terms of emergence of new structures and in terms of instability, bifurcation points, and the spontaneous emergence of order. This is the underlying dynamics of creativity at all levels of life. When people understand this they will realize that human individuals as well as groups of individuals are inherently creative. So when you have an organization and you want to design a new structure and you bring in outside experts and then impose this structure on the organization you have to spend a lot of energy and money to sell the idea to the employees and the manager.

Since human beings are inherently creative they will not accept the idea as it is. Since this will deny their humanity. Therefore, you can give them orders and they will nominally adhere to the orders but they will circumvent the orders; they will re-invent the orders and will modify it, either boycott it or embellish it, adding their own interpretation’. This to me implies the fact that for anything to be of some level of importance and value to the people, the people need to understand it first, have some insight on its implications, put on balance the advantages and the disadvantages, enabling them to be able to define the situation in its true context.

Organizations or companies with collective identities do exist in sharp contrast to the ‘economical company, whose priorities are determined by the purely economic criteria Capra (2002:105). In further expatiation of this situation Capra states that ‘organizations cannot be controlled through direct interventions, but can be influenced by giving impulses rather than instructions, Capra (2002:112). In most cases interventions end up causing tension and stampedes in communities, but impulses which are normally conditioning can gradually bring about the desired change. Capra continues to point out that it is the meaningful disturbances that normally trigger structural changes within an organization, instead of force Capra(2002:112).

The general deduction is that if you intend to bring about change, it is best that you involve the people as the subject of that change, for such change will directly affect them so they should be consulted about the change before it is applied, so if you involve people in the creation of change, then definitely change will be come. Organization in an economy: Organization plays a major role in shaping the economy of our social communities and the world at large. The Hidden connections discuses the most probing issues in the world today, starting with politics, sociology, education, ethics, philosophy and design, and the book’s main theme is change in these important aspects of our lives.

In an interview with Ecotecture (2002) addressing the issue of economy, Capra states that he calls for change of values, a change of politics, a change of attitudes, with the general goal of building a sustainable society and the future that is sustainable, and believable for our children, and further explained as an example that ‘in order to change the economy in such away that it becomes sustainable, one needs to understand the world economy, which today is a network of computers, a network of flows of money and information and power that extends globally. So we need to understand how we can introduce a different set of values into the global economy. ’ He extends that ‘in order to do that, we need to understand the relationship between living networks and values and human choices and politics. So it needs certain kind of philosophy and…spiritual stance/background, but it also needs the scientific understanding. ‘He clearly stipulates that in addition to being living communities, organizations are as ‘social institutions  designed  for  specific  purposes  and  functioning  in  a  specific  economic environment’ Capra (2002:125).

Economic Globalization: Global economics has been under promotion for two decades now, all in effort to encourage standardization in the rules that regulate and control international trading. Globalization literary refers to the process of making something gain global and internal recognition and acceptance, a transformational process of turn simple local or national rule or principle into an international law, or understanding. It is a process by which people of the world are fused together into a distinct society that share a common understanding and work as an entity; it enjoins the economical, technological, and socio-cultural together with the political authorities of this world, Croucher (2004:10).

Upon this Jagdish (2004) substantiates further that globalization is quite often used to imply economic globalization which means the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spreading of technology internationally. In chapter seven of the Hidden Connections Capra (2003) further explained and brought more light on the definition of economic globalization in the following statement during the conference; “During the past three decades, the information technology revolution has given rise to a new type of capitalism that is profoundly different from the one formed during the Industrial Revolution, or the one that emerged after the Second World War. It is characterized by three fundamental features.

Its core economic activities are global; the main sources of productivity and competitiveness are innovation, knowledge generation, and information processing; and it is structured largely around networks of financial flows. This new global capitalism is also referred to as “the new economy,” or simply as “globalization. ”  In the new economy, capital works in real time, moving rapidly through global financial networks. From these networks it is invested in all kinds of economic activity, and most of what is extracted as profit is channeled back into the meta-network of financial flows. Sophisticated information and communication technologies enable financial capital to move rapidly from one option to another in a relentless global search for investment opportunities.

The movements of this electronically operated global casino do not follow any market logic. The markets are continually manipulated and transformed by computer-enacted investment strategies, subjective perceptions of influential analysts, political events in any part of the world, and most significantly by unsuspected turbulences caused by the complex interactions of capital flows in this highly nonlinear system”. However, Capra (2002) further extends that in order for the global economic automatization process called ‘automaton’ to properly work it has to be programmed by human actors and institutions giving rise to the new economy comprising of two crucial components, which are values and operational rules.

Capra does not hide the fact that these automated global financial network processions do ‘…assign specific financial value to every asset in every economy’, he clears that this is no perfect measure though, because ‘it involves economic calculations based on advanced mathematical models, information and opinions provided by market valuation firms, financial gurus, leading central bankers, and other influential analysts, as well as unregulated information turbulences’; which mean that ‘the tradable financial of any asset subject to continual adjustments is an emergent property of the automaton’s highly nonlinear dynamics. However, underlying all evaluations is the basic principle of unfettered capitalism: that money-making should always be valued higher than democracy, human rights, environmental protection or any other value… in the process entirely changing the principle’.

Basically, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was initiated the mid-1990s to watch over and determine economic globalization; so far politicians and business leaders promised that economic globalization would benefit all the people in all countries worldwide through the process of free trade, but instead of really sticking by this promise the organization has been responsible for a ‘multitude of interconnected fatal consequences’ Capra (2002:129), that are affecting especially developing countries, that are still in their developing stage in most aspects; which brings me to the next question that Capra addresses in this book, and that is the consequences of economic globalization.

Every decision one takes despite the level at which the decision is taken there will always be advantages and disadvantages, benefits and consequences and the process of economic globalization has not been an exclusion from this natural phenomenon, in this case most of the powerful and controlling nations are benefiting the most, and the some nations are really suffering from the entire operation. According to Capra (2003), ‘The impact of the new economy on human well-being has been mostly negative. It has enriched global elite of financial speculators, entrepreneurs, and high-tech professionals. At the very top, there has been an unprecedented accumulation of wealth, and global capitalism has also benefited some national economies, especially in Asian countries. But overall its social and environmental consequences have been disastrous.

The rise of global capitalism has been accompanied by rising social inequality and polarization, both internationally and within countries. In particular, poverty and social inequality have increased through the process of social exclusion, which is a direct consequence of the new economy’s network structure. As the flows of capital and information interlink worldwide networks, they exclude from these networks all populations and territories that are of no value or interest to their search for financial gain. As a result, certain segments of societies, areas of cities, regions, and even entire countries become economically irrelevant. Thus, a new impoverished segment of humanity has emerged around the world as a direct consequence of globalization.

It comprises large areas of the globe, including much of Sub-Saharan Africa and rural areas of Asia and Latin America. But the new geography of social exclusion also includes portions of every country and every city in the world’. Capra (2003) further explains that ‘According to the doctrine of economic globalization known  as  “neo-liberalism,”  the  free-trade  agreements  imposed  by  the  World  Trade Organization (WTO) on its member countries will increase global trade; this will create a global economic expansion; and global economic growth will decrease poverty, because its benefits will eventually “trickle down” to all. This reasoning is fundamentally flawed.

Global capitalism does not alleviate poverty and social exclusion; on the contrary, it exacerbates them. Neo-liberalism has been blind to this effect because corporate economists’ have traditionally excluded the social costs of economic activity from their models. Similarly, most conventional economists have ignored the new economy’s environmental cost — the increase and acceleration of global environmental destruction, which is as severe, if not more so, than its social impact. One of the tenets of neo-liberalism is that poor countries should concentrate on producing a few special goods for export in order to obtain foreign exchange, and should import most other commodities.

This emphasis on export has led to the rapid depletion of the natural resources required to produce export crops in country after country — diversion of freshwater from vital rice paddies to prawn farms; a focus on water-intensive crops, such as sugar cane, that result in dried-up river beds; conversion of good agricultural land into cash-crop plantations; and forced migration of large numbers of farmers from their lands. All over the world  there  are  countless  examples  of  how  economic  globalization  is  worsening environmental  destruction;  and since money-making  is the dominant  value of global capitalism, its representatives seek to eliminate environmental regulations under the guise of “free trade” wherever they can, lest these regulations interfere with profits.

Thus, the new economy causes environmental destruction not only by increasing the impact of its operations on the world’s ecosystems, but also by eliminating national environmental laws in country after country. In other words, environmental destruction is not only a side effect, but is also an integral part of the design of global capitalism’ Capra (2003). One can clearly see that in scientific perspective the world is not really benefiting from the issue of economic globalization considering the number of consequences the whole program brings and foretells for the future in relation to the benefits, personally I see more disadvantages and more consequences accumulated in the entire operation coming in the name of money making and development.

The worst part of this whole motion is that its future impact on the natural vegetation of the world is really unpleasant, trees are being cut out in the name of development, and minerals are being extremely extracted at rate that the replenishment process is by many times left behind, fumes and harmful gases from factories and industries are being emitted in the atmosphere, marine resources have been exploited without the really consideration of the impact such activities may have o the world environment in the near future, or the impact on the biodiversity of lives in different habitats on the planet. So far the principles of ecology are not so difficult to comprehend and follow, Capra (2002) simplifies them as follows; Networks: As we have already seen in this essay the unrelenting networking of organisms, networks within networks. We also saw just how living systems communicate with one another and share resources even beyond the margins of their reach. Cycles: This must be general knowledge at this time in life, we generally should accept the reality that all living organisms feed on continual flows of matter and energy within their environment to sustain life, and acknowledge the reality that all organisms produce waste.

It is also of greater to note that the ecosystem itself does not produce any waste because one organism’s waste happens to be the next specie’s food, so in the end nothing really goes to waste, almost everything is useful in one way or another making matter cycle continually through the web of life. Solar energy: We all need sunlight, both plants and people. Sunlight is the common source of vitamin D for animals, and green plants transform sunlight to chemical energy by the process of photosynthesis, making plants the ultimate source of food for both animals and human beings on the entire planet, running the ecological cycle accordingly. Partnership: It is of greater importance to note that the exchanges of energy nd resources in an ecosystem get sustained through pervasive co-operation, stating the verity that life came by co-operation, partnership and networking. Diversity: Under this aspect Capra mentions that ecosystems achieve stability and resilience through the richness and complexity their ecological webs, and the greater the biodiversity, the more the resilience and buoyancy. These clearly show just how nature adapts and adjusts to its natural environment or any other factors that triggers reactions of the organisms. Dynamic Balance: Ecosystem is no stationery realms; they are actually flexible and ever fluctuating, and its flexibility come as consequence of multiple feedback loops that keep the system in the state of dynamic balance.

Therefore all ecosystem variables fluctuate around their optimal values. If only we stick by these principles, and do everything in careful consideration of the involved dangers we would really be on the right path by now. So far our ignorance and negligence is slowly making us pay through what we choose to call ‘natural catastrophes’ when in reality these are no more natural calamities but rather man-made, our activities are making our world prone to harm. I really wouldn’t say we do this unknowingly considering the level of both the general, social and scientific knowledge of the world at this moment. Everybody is educated today making it quite easier for any transmission of information.

The people in the science departments of the world fully understand the consequences of the activities they invent and institute in the name of science and invention. This is what makes Eco-literacy and eco-design subjects of concern to the future-concerned citizens of this planet, for if we get the people to understand this reality the situation may improve towards a positive and conducive future. The Role of NGOs: Everybody that is an inhabitant of this planet is practically and directly involved in either destroying it or restoring it. In one way or another we all contribute to this paradoxical situation, each one of us fall into one of these categories, and this include the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The encyclopedic online dictionary Wikipedia, 2010) defines NGOs as follows, ‘A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal lessons that operates independently from any government and a term usually used by governments to refer to entities that have no government  status. In  the  cases  in  which  NGOs  are  funded  totally  or  partially  by governments, the NGO maintains its non-governmental status by excluding government representatives from membership in the organization. The term is usually applied only to organizations that pursue some wider social aim that has political aspects, but that are not overtly political organizations such as political parties. Unlike the term “inter-governmental organization”, the term “non-governmental organization” has no generally agreed legal definition.

In many jurisdictions, these types of organization are called “civil society organizations” or referred to by other names’. These  organizations  are  operated  separately  from  governments;  they  are  stand-alone organizations that globally strive for the betterment of the ordinary or common people world-wide. There are so far both local/national and international Non-Governmental Organization in the entire world established for a diversity of activities, as they see fit, sometimes according to local, national, international or even global needs; they can either be charitable orientation; service orientation; participatory orientation; or empowering orientation type, and are always non-profit making organizations.

These organizations’ primary aim is to help promote and encourage collaborations, relationships or partnerships between NGOs in all countries throughout the world, so that together and as an entity we can more effectively cohort with the United Nations (UN) and each other so that we are able to create a more peaceful, serene, just, equitable and sustainable world for our generation as well as for the upcoming future generations. According to Capra (2002) ‘At the turn of this century, an impressive global coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), many of them led by men and women with deep personal roots in the sixties, formed around the core values of human dignity and ecological sustainability. In 1999, hundreds of these grassroots organizations interlinked electronically for several months to prepare for joint protest actions at the meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle. The “Seattle Coalition,” as it is now called, was extremely successful in derailing the WTO meeting and in making its views known to the world.

Its concerted actions have permanently changed the political climate around the issue of economic globalization’… and furthers that ‘At the second of these meetings, the NGOs proposed a whole set of alternative trade policies, including concrete and radical proposals for restructuring global financial institutions, which would profoundly change the nature of globalization’. So far ‘the global justice movement exemplifies a new kind of political movement that is typical of our Information Age. Because of their skillful use of the Internet, the NGOs in the coalition are able to network with each other, share information, and mobilize their members with unprecedented speed. As a result, the new global NGOs have emerged as effective political actors who are independent of traditional national or international institutions. They constitute a new kind of global civil society.

This new form of alternative global community, sharing core values and making extensive use of electronic networks in addition to frequent human contacts, is one of the most important legacies of the sixties; and if it succeeds in reshaping economic globalization so as to make it compatible with the values of human dignity and ecological sustainability,’…during the sixties the most important and enduring legacy of that the world community developed has been the creation and subsequent flourishing of a global alternative culture that shares a set of core values. Although many of these values e. g. environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, global justice — were shaped by cultural movements in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, their essential core was first expressed by the sixties’ counterculture.

Therefore, many of today’s senior progressive political activists, writers, and community leaders trace the roots of their original inspiration back to the sixties’ Capra (2002). This is basically the much the NGOs strives to do, to restore the world to its naturally vegetative state, to help the poor and the needy, and hope to help those ravaged by natural catastrophes such as flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, famines and many other calamitous situations. Many countries that struggle economically or affected by any kind of difficulties have benefited from these non-governmental organizations in many ways such as in food relief programs, volunteer teachers from a diversity of developed countries, financially sponsorships, and further educational sponsorships, and many other ways.

Bunge (2002:233) mentions that the rational first step at the moment is to wade towards sustainability, and the second step being the one that involves Eco-design where ‘we need to apply our ecological knowledge to the fundamental redesign of our technologies and social institutions’ and as stated in process bridging the separating opening between the two,(technology and social institution). When we all work towards this idea, the idea of improve and caring for our world we would change a great deal of the happenings around the world; which could practically lead to the quick restoration of our planet before we bring it its total destruction. The reality that we are destroying our vegetation which is our natural source of food and oxygen, we are actually putting ourselves at risk. Plants need us (animals) just as much as we need them, they depend on us the same way we depend on them. Upon this is part played by non-living objects such as water, air, the soil and all other abiotic matters that are vital to our sustenance of life.

They form part of ecosystem even if they are non-living, they contribute greatly to self-sustaining abilities of our planet and form part of the web of life in one way or another, without water plants would wilt, and animals would die of thirst, and without air both plants and animals would suffocate, and with no soil there wouldn’t be plants for us to feed on. So this is life in its real form, all contributing factors are vital to the sustainability of life in the future. Conclusion This essay is quite practically applicable in our real life situation; it fully conveys the primary hypothesis of the Capra’s book “The Hidden Connections”. It simplifies the complicate and great amount of information he whole book contains, and most of all it is highly educative and reasonable, compromising of almost every component that matters in life on this planet. In this assignment, I learned the importance of understanding the trend of life as well as the flows of energy within the unrelenting interconnecting chains of life. It is simple; I learned that plants need dead organic materials for food, herbivorous animals feed on those plants, and the carnivorous animals feed on those herbivorous animals and later they all die providing manure back into the soil which plants will suck-up once again to grow, simply explaining the theory of producers and consumers.

I also learned in this study that despite the efforts made by Rene Descartes to define life and help the world understand there are some facts which would have helped him define it even better if only he paid more attention to important factors that save as the basis of life. The Hidden Connection is a book if taken seriously and put to action can bring back our world to its initial natural state. The book clearly defines just how we have destroyed our natural world. In the development of weaponry, back in 1945 atomic bombs were created with devastating long lasting effects on the environment, and the vegetation alike including all the living organisms within its reach. Wasn’t this supposed to be a scientific breakthrough in the science of war? But in the end this defined the ultimate weapon with which man will completely destroy the whole world.

Technology so far came up with many efficient measures of doing things increasing productivity in the process, many cars and machineries that emit harmful gases into the atmosphere have been heavily produced, huge upon tremendous amounts of fossil fuel gases have been gushed out into the atmosphere sucking out the gases important to the maintenance of the ultra-violet ray protective ozone layer and this has resulted in extreme temperature in our world today. Technology once again increased productivity in the agricultural sector so as to sustain the world’s ever growing population, and so they introduced genetically modified products that also have effects on the animals that feed on them including human beings, thus breaking the natural rules of replenishment. This was meant to be a scientific break-through as well but later backfired.

Fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and many other chemicals meant to advance humanity and help prevent the world from starvation have turned out to fatal substances, whereby when washed down the streams during rain and flood seasons they affect the water upon which most wild organisms and animals depend for water, the animals drink such water and get affected, some die from the effects, while some develop resistance to the effects but continue to carry the resulting illness of which people will kill for meat, and eat the infected meat which will clearly cause negative consequences. If we want to save the world for our children, we really have to act now before it gets too late. Preventing our world from getting destroyed by our activities is a better alternative than trying to salvage the remaining patches after destroying. This is why Capra suggested the ecological alternative, repairing the world by us can be difficult, but the good thing is that our world has natural abilities to restore itself if given a chance of restoration. At this moment in time, there are millions of totally extinct species that once existed and defined the beauty of our world.

We can still save and manage to replenish the remaining species if taken into serious consideration the suggestions made by Capra in his book “The Hidden Connections”. Bibliography 1. Barbara Vogl, (2010). PATTERNS- Interview with Fritjof Capra. http://www. haven. net/patterns/capra. html (Accessed on 11/14/2011) 2. Bhagwati, Jagdish (2004). In defense of Globalization. Oxford, New York: Oxford University PressCC 3. Capra, Fritjof (2002b). Where Have All the Followers Gone? Reflections on the Spirit and Legacy of the Sixties, December 1, 2002. Mindwalk, http://www. terehesshu/english/capra2. html (Accessed on 11/13/2011) 4. Capra, Fritjof, (2002). The Hidden Connections. New York, USA: Doubleday a division of Random House Inc 5. Descartes, Rene (1644).

The Principles of Philosophy (IX) 6. Europe Commission, (2011). Organic Farming: Good for nature, good for you. http://www. ec. europa. eu/agriculture/organic/organic-farming/what-organic_en (Accessed on 11/13/2011) 7. Food and agricultural Organization of United Nations, (2010). What FAQ Does: Food Forever (The Green Revolution). FAQ: United Nations, http://www. fan. org/kids/en/revolution. html (Accessed on 11/13/2011) 8. Goodstein, David (2004) Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil, W. W. New York: Norton and Company, p. 128 9. Laura De Francesco (2004). Profile: Capra Fritjof: Nature Biotechnology. San Francisco: Nature Publishing 10. Maturana, Humberto R. Varela, Francisco J, (1980). Autopoiesis and Cognition. The Realization of the Living. Dordrecht: Reidel, p. 13 11. Philip S, Wenz (December, 2002). Connecting With Fritjof Capra. Ecotecture. http://www. ecotecture. com/library_eco/interviews/capra1a. html Accessed on 11/14/2011 12. Pier Luigi, L (2008). The Emergence of Life-From Chemical Origin to Synthetic Biology. Cambridge University Press 13. Shiela L, Croucher (2004). Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity a Changing World. Rowman & Littlefield, p. 10 14. The Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, (1990). The Talloires Declaration. Washington, DC. www. ulsf. rg/programs_talloires_td. html Accessed on 11/14/2011 15. Wackermagel, M. , N. B. Schulz, D. Deumling, A. Callejas Linares, M. Jenkins, V. Kapos, C. Monfreda, J. Loh, N. Myers, R. Nargaard, and J. Randers (2002) “Tracking the Ecology Overshoot of the Human Economy, “ Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences 99:9266-9271. 16. Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice. Healthcare Forum Journal/August: (1996). 17. Wenger, Etienne. Communities of Practice. Cambridge University Press 18. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2010). Non-Governmental Organizations. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/non-governmental_organizations. html. Accessed on 11/14/2011idd

The main character in City of the Glass has a split subjectivity and is presented to the readers at the first beginning as having multiple identities. “In the triad of selves that Quinn had become, Wilson served as a kind of ventriloquist. Quinn himself was the dummy, and Work was the animated voice that gave purpose to the enterprise” (Austere, 6). Quinn publishes under the pseudonym William Wilson and lives through Max Work, the novel hero he creates. William Wilson is only “an invention” that serves as the “bridge” for him to walk into Works detective voice (Austere, 4).

Quinn is solely the puppeteer “dummy’ – an empty husk. His thinking and Interior voice Is substituted by Max Work, who gives life to Quinn In his solitude. As Is written In the novel, “the writer and the detective are interchangeable” (Austere, 8). The “private eye” looks into objects and events in search of ideas, in order to make sense of them, leading to an ultimate truth. For Quinn, the “private eye” holds “a triple meaning” (Austere, 8). Throughout the story, we as readers are engaged in the split of ‘l’ when we look into the case with the three eyes.

One is of an “Investigator”, probably Max Work who discerns details and traces of facts; two is room the lifeless “self” wealth Quinn, who keeps a distance from the outer world; and the last eye from the writer or narrator of the story that appears In the end when the case dissolves. The destabilize of subject challenges the readers, as the detective drifts from one identity to another, we also lost a stable detective eye to scrutinize the case. The imaginary figure Max Work is present in the world of others – the fictive outside world.

For this reason he is more real and powerful than Quinn. “The more Quinn seemed to vanish, the more persistent Work’s presence In that world became” (Austere, 9). HIS vanishing Inclination Is perhaps due to his alienation In actual world. After the death of his loved ones, he is no longer the ambitious part of him that published a number of works. He hides behind his pseudonym to be in touch with his agent, publisher and readers on the surface. Having no friends and family, he “no longer exists for anyone but himself” (Austere, 4).

This isolation of himself from others accounts for his desire to replace a unified Quinn with multiple Identities, since there Is no connection with others that anchors his subjectivity. And afflicted with all the devastating experience and traumatic memory. Max Work, on the other hand, is an “aggressive” and “quick-tongued” (Austere, 9) detective figure whose consciousness Quinn relies on throughout the investigation. Though he has no knowledge of any crime, he attempts to draw relations between events Just like Max would do.

Max embodies a modern detective notion of attaining truth through one’s rationality and consistency, yet Quinn represents a deciphering subject without a coherent self. A classic detective novel hails the power of reason, and a traditional detective’s observation to uncover mysteries is associated with seeking transcendent truth in a modernist perspective. Quinn’s desire to lose himself, or to assume alternative identities are incongruous with a traditional detective, who generally has a coherent and consistent self (Sourpuss, 76). The quest for Peter Stallion Sir. s identity is also an attempt to find Quinn himself, which is revealed in his putting down his initial, Q in his red notebook that records the case. However, indulged in the case, Quinn easily shifts himself into the role of detective “Paul Austere”, an author in the novel mistaken for a detective. “To be Austere meant being a man with no interior, a man with no thoughts”, “If his own inner life had been made inaccessible, hen there was no place for him to retreat to” (Austere, 61). By being Paul Austere, Quinn empties his inner life and takes up the consciousness of another imaginative figure, a role shaped after detective models.

Quinn becomes a mere husk and has nowhere to go back, which shadows his final destiny of disappearing from the scene. Towards the end, the death of Peter Stallion and Quinn’s encounter with the real Paul Austere makes him realize his inability to uncover the truth. He is “nowhere” and “he knew nothing” (Austere, 104), which is the beginning state of being nowhere he desired. This detective story seems a circle returning to the original point, compared to a linear structure of a conventional one with a definite solution.

Without solving the puzzle, Quinn loses himself eventually. Sourpuss wrote that the detective must be a consistent person that enables him to concentrate on the mystery outside of him. Therefore, a degree of ambiguity involved in the detective’s very identity will interfere with his ability to tackle the mystery at hand (76). As this applies to Quinn, a writer-detective who gets lost in the labyrinth in search of his own identity, it explains he failure of the investigation with no solution in the end.

Scientists, for long years, have known that the human brain has two distinct hemispheres, each controlling the movements of the opposite side of the body. In the more recent years they have discovered that the two hemispheres of the human brain are specialized in a more fundamental way: the left hemisphere in logical thinking and the right hemisphere in simultaneous processing. The author summarizes the differences as shown in table1. Robert Ornstein, a research psychologist, refers to the linear left hemisphere using synonyms with lightness and thought processes we know in explicit sense.

He associates the right hemisphere with darkness and mysterious thought processes. However he makes a distinction between the people of the West and East pointing out that the – Esoteric psychologies of the East has focused on right-hemispheric consciousness (for example altering pulse rate through meditation) in sharp contrast to Western psychology that has been concerned almost exclusively with left hemispheric consciousness, with logical thought. He also believes that an important key to human consciousness is found in the right hemisphere of the human brain.

He also points out that although we are aware of the thought processes of the left brain we know very little about what our right brain knows. Thus the author believes this to be the reason why people feel delighted when they (their left brains) get to know what their right brains knew throughout impliedly. (c) Differences between formal planning and informal managing – compared to that between the two hemispheres of the human brain, Both planning and management science are sequential, systematic and articulated.

They do their work through a series of logical, ordered steps, each involving analysis. However the successful application of these techniques requires intuition which means that the manager is deviating from the logical, left brain, analysis. At top management level, where policies are made in an organization, the holistic picture needs to be considered. Thus to effectively manage an organization (after planning using logical analysis) managers rely on judgments given by the right hemisphere of the brain.

The author uses examples of how MIS’s and models developed for companies have been accepted with much enthusiasm but used so poorly, by the managers, proving that management is not an analytical, left brain process but an intuitive, right brain process. (d) Management – a right hemisphere activity, The author states that the single fact that recurred in his research is that key managerial tasks, being complex and mysterious, use vague information and least articulated mental processes.

He also says that these processes have characteristics of right brain processes – relational and holistic than ordered and sequential and intuitive than intelligent. He presents the following general findings to support his argument:

1. Managers at all levels and functions prefer verbal communication over written communication. Ability to read body language and ability to engage in real time exchange of information results in this preference. Both these activities involve relational, simultaneous methods of acquiring information.
2. The content of manager’s information is mostly soft, speculative, impressions/ feelings about people, hearsay and gossip. Analytical inputs such as reports, document and hard data are considered to be of little importance. The managers synthesize instead of analyzing and the results help him understand implicitly the organization and its environment. Managers build mental models and use these models to simulate future outcomes. Managers also use judgments in most instances for important decision making.
3. A manager, although the best informed member of the organization, has difficulty disseminating information to other employees. Although earlier attributed to information being verbal and dissemination being a time consuming process the new thinking is that the manager may actually be having problems disseminating some relevant information as it is removed form his verbal consciousness.
4. A manager works in a complex system with little order. He engages in a variety of actions, short in duration and lacks routine in their work, Thus operating in a relational, simultaneous and experiential manner.
5. Activities of three important roles of a manager – leader, liaison and disturbance handler -remain outside known facts of management, although significant research has been done, proving that they are dependent on intuition and experience.
6. Two critical steps in strategic decision making – diagnosis and design of custom made solutions- are not mentioned much in literature of planning or management, although all managers engage in these not fully aware as to where and when they happen.
7. Dynamic factors such as interruptions and time pressures affect the decision making process but go without mention in literature on management. These important factors, involving simultaneous relational modes of thinking, are left for the managers to deal on their own.
8. Managers, when having to make choices among available options, use analysis, judgment, or bargaining to arrive at the best option. However, judgment is the most popular of the three methods with systematic analysis accounting for only as little as 20% of all decisions made.
9. Strategy, a mediating force between the dynamic environment and stable operating systems, formulation is an irregular, discontinuous process with fits and starts. Strategic planning does not cope well with these fits and starts and the burden to cope with situations, using intuition and experience, remains with the manager.
10. Companies that opt for creative, integrated strategies (gestalt strategies) usually rely on one individual to conceptualize them. This is the most demanding holistic, relational, gestalt process which is necessary to deal with a complex environment. Mintzberg thus concludes that: “The important policy level processes required to manage an organization rely to a considerable extent on faculties identified with the brain’s right hemisphere.

” He also recognizes that functions of the left brain such as explicit calculations are important for effective management and that all intuitive thinking must be translated to linear order of the left brain if they are to be articulated and put to effective use. He goes on to say that in an organisation right brain activity is more important at higher levels whilst left brain activity is more dominant at lower levels, where policies made at the top are implemented.

The hypothesis of this survey is stressing the jobs of the IE policy preparation and execution. It can be seen as a major root cause of hapless educational accomplishment among the PWDs is reasonably supported harmonizing to the research findings. However, the research worker discovered that there are more critical issues than the IE policy that affect the educational success of the handicapped kids in Myanmar. This chapter summarizes the research findings from the field work by measuring the hypothesis and aims of the research which determine whether the IE policy has been good implemented. It besides includes a decision of of several issues that hinder the educational chances for the PWDs and their degree of engagement in the policy preparation.

In order to sit the interviewee with some respondents from DPOs, the challenges of accessing IE services the deficiency of sufficient instructors, the deficiency of committedness, and the deficiency of hope by agencies of instruction, poorness. Besides, human rights misdemeanors, the deficiency of public services, hapless execution of instruction policy, and the deficiency of relevant course of studies, and the deficiency of school liberty are major factors that influence the instruction development of CWDs. The first portion of this chapter summarizes the cardinal findings of the fieldwork on how the IE policy meets the challenges of better educational chances for the PWDs in Myanmar and what factors undermine the instruction development chance for the PWDs in primary and lower secondary degrees. The 2nd portion of the chapter covers a decision and recommendations related to the IE policy.

Decision

Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that a demand for better educational substructure in Myanmar should be addressed every bit desperately as possible in order to make development chance for the PWDs. The construct of IE means welcoming all CWDs without favoritism in formal schools. Indeed, the focal point are on capacities, developmental demands, and potencies of all kids including the CWDs. IE ‘s efforts to suit the CWDs into the normal scenes can besides be a really ascendant factor over the public presentation ability and the rational accomplishments of the pupils with disablements. This research proved that the auxiliary supports for their disablements are needed for advancing the CWDs ‘ overall development in an optimum scene. These supports include a consideration of overall organisation, course of study and schoolroom pattern, support for larning and staff development. The survey calls for regard of difference and diverseness of single features and demands.

Sing school related environmental issue, socio-cultural and poverty issue and other policy related factors, self-respect, equality and disablement rights are really of import because they provide a opportunity for the PWDs to relocate their involvement in larning. Sum uping the findings of this survey, current IE policy execution procedures might non be the most serious issue that direly undermines the learning ability of CWDs, but it does impact the attitudinal alterations and the guaranting educational chances for CWDs to acquire the societal interaction in the society.

However, it would be well hard to make a genuinely inclusive educational environment for some handicapped kids depending on their disablements. This does non intend that the CWDs should be segregated in particular schools and isolated from all life in that environment. Even though Myanmar authorities signed Education for All, the practical execution is far from desired. Therefore, the research worker strongly argues that there should be an appropriate environment for PWDs that it would non be good to anyone if including it in the same puting every bit as other non-disabled people in both instruction and societal sectors. In fact, this is besides the rights of PWDs clearly determined by the international norms such as Declaration of Human Rights in which Myanmar already ratified and Bali Declaration on Inclusive Development for People with Disabilities and United Nation Convention on Right for People with Disabilities which were signed in 2011.

In add-on, this survey has highlighted the challenges of the PWDs to make the end of EFA through IE policy in Myanmar. The existent challenge of the inclusive instruction is to run into the particular demands of all CWDs but now the authorities ‘s execution program has been hindered by both the nature of the policy itself and the insufficient support support. To work out these challenges, the authorities needs to get the better of all types of barriers mainly instruction policy reforming procedure, the altering procedure of social-cultural beliefs, poorness issues, and school related patterns and manners of acquisition of the CWDs.

Furthermore, budget restriction is another of import factor impacting the execution of the IE policy. This survey found that the authorities ‘s budget allotment for instruction for the PWDs is less than wellness and rehabilitation services. Therefore, educational substructure is extremely required to be provided for the CWDs in order to accomplish their societal and educational development. In add-on, schools and sufficient instructors in all countries should be provided by the authorities and acquisition should be free for all non merely in theory but a stronger execution must be in topographic point to assure an equal acquisition chance. Limited apprehensions of the construct of disablement, negative attitudes toward the CWDs and a hard-boiled opposition to alter are the major barriers hindering inclusive instruction. Of peculiar concern is the fact that the attitudes of parents and instructors are seen as the decisive factors for successful inclusion.

Since the research findings showed that IE instruction without proper version to the local context is still weak for the CWDs in prosecuting quality instruction, schools should hold specially trained instructors in disablement intervention, enabling them to give supports in learning in order to advance the pupil ‘s competence and larning ability in instruction. With regard to this, bing theories of inclusive instruction have been proven to be successful in other states. However, Myanmar IE policy alteration is non the lone issue to be addressed in advancing the educational criterion of the PWDs, but the perceptual experience of the parents in the public toward their kids sustainable development should besides be taken into consideration. In fact, based on the findings, the research worker strongly argues that there is besides a demand for legal protection of human rights misdemeanors against the CWDs since the research clearly identified that the equality and the just undermine acquisition chances for the CWDs which subsequently greatly affect on their single development.

In add-on, the research worker strongly believes that there should be a better execution in instruction and larning procedure in which the CWDs are extremely motivated to larn through particular instruction. The current instruction and larning procedure does non turn to the single acquisition demands and the course of study lack the needed flexibleness to provide to the demands of the CWDs. There is small range for kids ‘s engagement in originative activities or critical thought and instructors lack preparation and experience in instruction and managing the CWDs. Furthermore, the high cost of disablement related stuffs was another discouraging factor of the CWDs to entree inclusive instruction services.

With the strong committedness to the long term basic instruction development program and EFA-NAP, MOE tries at its best to raise the quality of basic instruction for all school-aged kids in both formal and non-formal instruction. The state ‘s educational resources for the PWDs should be strengthened and brought in line with the CRPD. In add-on, a house foundation for future growing of IE for all CWDs across the state should be put in topographic point now. In-depth research on IE for CWDs is a cardinal constituent to develop internal expertness and supply quality recommendations to the authorities and will press the authorities to go through the revised Universal Primary Education which provides the legal foundation for IE for CWDs.

To sum up, the of import consequences of these findings are that inclusive instruction plan recognizes the demand for seting the larning plan to alter conditions in the society. The instruction system caters for all kids non merely in formal schools who because of the necessity of schooling in-migration for the particular schools and community acquisition centres. Thereby wholly neglected those in the rural countries where a great step of resources for development resides. Most underdeveloped states are in make bolding demand to develop national consciousness among the citizens. This has been one of the major obstructions to national development and integrating. Therefore, the research worker strongly argues that the major impact on educational accomplishment of the CWDs is the happier larning environment for them but it would besides make with a sense of regard, and self-respect among the community.

Recommendation

From the policy analyzing, single interviews, and concentrate group treatment, the following are recommendations that are proposed by the research worker in order to inform all stakeholders who work in the inclusive instruction, irrespective of formal and particular instruction. At the same clip, this research is hoped that the information on disablement related issues will be of involvement and utile to me/LNGOs, DPOs, and other establishments to develop the disablement and instruction plans and community development plans.

Datas on disablement

Accurate informations is of import demands for advancing the handiness of the wider understanding about the current state of affairs and for making an analysis on the impacts of the current instruction policy toward the development of the PWDs. The current informations on disablement merely is based upon the First Myanmar National Disability Survey, so the research worker would extremely urge that farther study or research be done in order to propose a possible reform in instruction in the hereafter.

School related factors

The major recommendation is an constitution of a particular instruction plan in all authorities schools that would offer particular instruction categories in each mainstream school. All categories incorporating CWDs should hold a sensible ratio of instructors and pupils, and the instructors should be particularly trained to hold a disablement consciousness, particularly those instructors who taught kids with ocular damages, hearing damages and rational disablements. There needs to be a useable infinite for the varied demands of direction in the schools. The age of entry into and go forthing from the particular categories should be flexible. Besides, the schools should be equipped with appropriate instruction stuffs.

Originating extra-curricular activities in and out of school

Particular attempts should be made to affect the CWDs in particular athleticss and games. These activities help them bask school more and review their head, and construct their organic structures. In add-on, these extra-curricular activities for all CWDs are really indispensable. From the survey of best patterns, it is clear that the induction of inclusive patterns has been a consequence of concerted community consciousness. This is an of import parametric quantity non merely for advancing inclusion outside the schoolroom among kids, but besides for blossoming diverse potencies and endowments of both kids with and without disablements.

Socio -cultural factors

The engagement of parents, instructors and health professionals is really indispensable. Earlier surveies showed that for desirable partnership to predominate among instructors, parents and health professionals, a common sharing of cognition, accomplishments, experiences and decision-making is required ( Semakula, 1999 ) . Long-run and short-run developments of the educational plans are based non merely on the CWDs involvements and abilities, but besides their households ‘ supports and precedences. Obviously, the positive parental attitude toward schooling will supply a sound foundation for bettering the kids ‘s acquisition. Therefore, uninterrupted awareness-raising activities should non merely be for parents or health professionals, but besides for other community members.

Policy factors

The authorities should set in topographic point statute law that makes all CWDs as the donee of mandatory instruction so that there should besides be statute law to guarantee uninterrupted proviso of disablement friendly learning stuffs and the physical school substructures. Furthermore, the authorities should develop more adept instructors of particular demands instruction, and give them some particular motive about community mobilisation. The ultimate educational end for CWDs should be focused on either mainstreaming or particular schools and community based resource centres for a go oning long term shooting. Last, the authorities should supply more fiscal support and political protection to guarantee that the particular tools and equipment necessary for the acquisition of CWDs become cheaper and more accessible.

At the execution degree, it can be seen that the kid centre attack can make full the spread to the failure of the formal instruction system in linkage between instructors and the CWDs. The attack can be applied in many extents such as course of study reforms, active instruction manners, and significantly a infinite to use what they want to larn from their existent life patterns. At the national degree, along with the arguments, treatment, and the authorities ‘s strong will to take reform, reforming the whole dismantled instruction system will take the certain figure of old ages, using the lessons learned from current inclusive instruction plans. Apart from this, it should be really of import to make a policy and infinite where the cooperation among IE pilot undertakings, I/LNGOs, DPOs and the authorities.

What are the strengths and challenges of teams at work? Team work has been the biggest development In management of human resources for organizations In the past few decades (Norman, Cohen and Norman, 1995). It has been implemented in a wide variety of spheres and the growth of the popularity is still ongoing. It is obvious that these changes have not happened without a reason, there is something to team work that is attracting every manager like kids to an ice- cream car. Before I continue, I want to state some things so there would not be any misunderstanding further on the essay.

First, I do not want any confusion when it comes to defining a team and a group, because I understand that there is not much of a difference (Ouzo, 1996) between these terms. The only thing that I want to state is that team always has an interdependent nature; they perceive themselves as a whole unit. Second, as the topic is about teams In general, the evaluation Is quite superficial and It will not be valid for every team. The way team performs depends on the size of the team, the management of It and of course the working environment It Is In.

So every team has to be evaluated Independently to give an objective report. I will describe aspects that stand out amongst the others and are present for most of the teams. My goal in this essay is to evaluate teams at work environment drawing on theory and research. I am going to point out the strengths of a team-based work from member’s point of view and challenges that team members have to face. Eventually, what I am trying to state is that people (managers, leaders etc. Who are leaning towards team work as the best way of getting things done have made this assumption based on feelings they have towards team-work rather than researching hurry and experiments made on the approach to get the bagger picture of what team-work consists from and what are the actual drawbacks. I am basing my work on the paper about ‘romance of teams’ (Allen and Yecch, AAA) taking some Ideas from the paper, but putting them Into my own perspective. I am going to start with the most obvious strengths that teams has, because those are the ones that people are most aware of.

Followed by additional strengths, that according to researches lies in our sub consciousness. After that I will describe the biggest challenges teams have to face. Strengths A team consists of several people and each one of them has their own skills, characteristics, gender, age and perception of things in general (Britton et al. , 2010). There are several definitions of a team, but this one serves the best for my purposes – ‘A group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, Job, or project’ (Chicken, 2009).

Indeed each one of us Is unique and by coming together and supplementing each other we form a living organism called ‘team’. Knowledge, opinion, experience and personal views can be shared in this living mind’, in this way implying additional strengths. Maybe these are not the strengths that people will mention the most when speaking about pros of teams, but they exist and they do form our feelings towards teams. I would like to continue by focusing on strengths of teams that people are unaware of or they are aware of them subconsciously.

Every team is a social formation; accordingly it includes interaction with others, whether it is Just a chat that started with “how are you doing? ” or a discussion about the subjective they are trying to achieve or a social evening to bring he team closer together, it does not matter. The thing that matters is that team gives you a wide range of opportunities to satisfy your social needs; it gives you a feeling of belonging (Godard, 2001 a).

Alongside, comes the feeling that overtakes you, that gives you the idea that you want to be a part of a team, which is natural, because people are creatures that has been living in groups since the beginning of time and social desires has developed naturally and is a part of our lives. The thing is that, not everyone is aware of this phenomenon, so this is where unconscious strengths appear. To continue, I would like to introduce a research made by Diddle and Strobe, 1991.

This research states that individuals perceive working in group activities to be more fun and enjoyable than working alone and that time is perceived as passing more quickly when working in a group (Allen and Yecch, Bibb). Moreover, some researches shows that working in a team can increase your mental well-being and state of mind in general (Carter, 2000). Teams provide a benefit like reduction of stress (Godard, 2001 b) which mostly comes from the fact that teams reduces uncertainty about particular situations and verifies member’s beliefs and ideas (Hog and Mulling, 1999).

As all the facts that are mentioned before comes together, it is only obvious that teams do paint a really nice picture about themselves in our minds. Additionally, the way how people actually perceive themselves in a group is different from the way they do outside of one. Researches have shown that people tend to take less responsibility for failures of the team and in the same time more responsibility for success of the team (Schlesinger, 1975), which is kind of illogical, but in the nature f any human being.

It is much easier to assign blame to others in that way preserving your own feeling of competence, rather than admitting that you are the one to blame, and when being in a team you have the opportunity to do that, because who will possibly forbid you, except yourself. The perception of team as a unit working together plays a big role here, because in your mind you do understand that you are not the only one who is in the team, so if the team fails or succeeds then the whole team does that.

To add to this idea, people tend to evaluate their own reference higher when working in a team rather than working alone, both, their actual expectations and conclusions, of their performance in the team has been recorded to be of a higher value (Phallus et al. , 1993). This all can be very misleading, but as long as we – human beings – will not change our nature and start seeing things as they actually are, these will be some of the most mind impacting benefits towards teamwork.

Challenges The point about the diversity of a team and different people coming together that When people with different ideas and different views on life come together and has o work as one and unbreakable unit, arguments between them are inevitable. That is why certain roles have to be assigned and a specific structure formed, so the team would manage to work productively. Size and composition of a team has an influence on individual behavior, on decision making (Kooks-De Bode et al. 2008), if these aspects are not sorted out in a timely manner then one of the biggest strengths of a team can turn into a drawback and then it is Just matter of time when the team will collapse. Another challenge for a team is goal setting, which is a really important aspect when it comes to whether the work is going to be smooth and whether it is going to be without misunderstandings. Goals has to be set at the very beginning and they have to be defined very clearly to everyone in the team, so everyone would really understand what the team is trying to achieve.

If this is not done, then there is a possibility that team members start to head in different directions. An equally significant set of challenges comes from too much of dependence on your teams decisions. Researches made by Stanley Amalgam, 1973 shows that when decision has o be made, team members tend to follow the point of view that is presented by others or by most members of the team, that way actually not expressing their own thoughts. Besides that, these researches shows that people tend to follow the leader of a team even if the things that are being done are against their principles and are morally wrong.

Justification to these kinds of decisions comes from the fact that any decision made in a group actually is a group decision and therefore made by several people, accordingly the responsibility is being shared amongst all of the group embers. This results in poor decision-making process, which can further result in serious damage made to the work-group itself or to the possibility of achieving the goal that has been set out. Hence, the challenge for a team is to set certain norms.

Norms about how the work has to be led, to what extent members should follow their leader and what are the social, moral, ethical and physical norms that should not be crossed. To sum up the challenges, team work has to be well balanced and well organized; it has to be like a machine that does not work if one of the parts is broken. To do that you have to take in consideration a lot of aspects, starting with leaders role and importance, ending with team members moral and physical needs. Everything has to be balanced and managed smartly and efficiently (Allen, 1996).

That is the hardest challenge to deal with in team-work and it becomes even harder if the person who is in charge of the team does not know about these elements. Before I draw the conclusion I would like to remind the fact that the Judgments being made in this essay is superficial and regards the general population of people included in teams. Therefore, I am not stating that it is true for every person. To summarize, I have stated the strengths that in my mind form the feeling towards team-work inside a person’s mind. I hope that others reading these points will be able to relate to them as well.

In my own words I think that abortion Is a broad topic. Some people are against It, most religious people too, but If you come to know the person who Is In this situation they might have their own reasons to go this way. Part of it might be that they have other plans and having a baby is not in them. For example high school graduates that are planning on going to college. Now let’s say this person in high school was not in the position to have a family, but decided to have this baby because abortion Is “bad”.

It is more likely that this person Is going to fall as a parent because they don’t have the knowledge or the life experience to raise a child. When the government realizes that you are not prepared to have this child it’s possible that they will remove the child from your house. This might be just as bad or even worst, and I’m not saying that this happens all the time but in some situations it does. Now let’s see it from another perspective, this embryo or fetus as far as I’m unconcerned Is like any other animal.

I base this on the idea that what makes us human Is our consciousness, which we develop between the ages of 4-5. Scientists call It stream of consciousness, that we all develop by this age. Humans kill all kinds of animals to perpetuate human survival. Why is abortion bad to prevent overpopulation, to prevent having kids with more problems than the parents can handle? Of course this is Just my voice and my thoughts.