Understanding Various Dimensions of War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Understanding Various Dimensions of War - Essay Example Leaders who create tough realistic training conditions and ensure psychological protection, continue to fulfill the challenges of a key leader. Moreover, the responsibility also encircles maintaining unit cohesion and demonstrating the quality of humanness (Moseley, 2007). Furthermore, it is important for leaders to ensure appropriate grief counseling and grief work during tough times, as well as to ensure that leaders observe and identify critical warning signs of Soldiers who are in distress. Not to forget how important is communication, since it makes meaning of the risks and sacrifices which are made by the Soldiers while achieving the unit’s missions and objectives. It is important for leaders to realize and embrace the understanding of the moral, ethical and psychological dimensions of war. The training of applied ethics fosters the development of a unique combination of values, principles, knowledge, skills and abilities critical for decision making and effective leadership combat (Moseley, 2007). This training is mostly done through self-study. The critical factors that include everything that is done in war involve the moral, ethical and psychological dimensions of war. An even broader dimension of the psychological aspects of war lies beyond psychological health and psychological fitness, which transcends every performance of the leaders. Within the psychological characteristics of motivation are woven character, presence and intellect along with leads, develops and archives, in a leader. It is because of these psychological factors that become the X-factor under pressure and stress, and therefore this may become the determinant for either success or failure either individually or as a unit (Moseley, 2007). A key ingredient of bravery, valor and warrior ethos can be categorized as psychological fitness.

Plot and Character Analysis of The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin Essay

Plot and Character Analysis of The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin - Essay Example special attention given to just how the story is to be told, authors can open the story to a variety of interpretations illustrating the complexities of life during a particular period in history. A close examination of Kate Chopin’s short story â€Å"The Story of an Hour† illustrates how the written word can be a powerful representation of the weight of social constraints on women during this period in time. In this very short story, Chopin shows how her main character, Louise Mallard, was effectively dehumanized by the expectations of role fulfillment imposed upon her by her husband and her society. The story begins by illustrating the perceived condition of Louise’s health as she reportedly has a weak heart. â€Å"It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing† (Chopin). What her sister Josephine told her was that Louise’s husband was killed in a recent railroad accident, information that had been confirmed by a close family friend. Louise’s reaction to the news is remarked as somewhat surprising, but takes on greater significance later in the story. â€Å"She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms† (Chopin). From this point, there isn’t a great deal of physical action to the story. Louise retires to her room alone and sits in a chair looking out the window. As she reflects upon the news she has just received, Louise begins to see the remainder of her life in ways that might have been highly unexpected at the time. Instead of feeling that he r life was over because her husband is dead, Louise begins to see her life as just beginning. She will finally have a chance to make some of her own decisions. Although her life has been turned upside down, Chopin demonstrates through Louise’s thoughts that her world had already been upside down under the external conditions she’d been forced to accept and only now, with the death of her husband, was it righting

Real Estate Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Real Estate - Statistics Project Example The sum appears quite intimidating for a middle class citizen. However, the deal was easy for Sam as all he had to do was sell his own smaller 2-BDRM 600 square feet flat for US$135,000 and make up for the difference with the help of mortgage loan. When he had purchased it, the price amounted to US$70,000 which he had raised with the help of mortgage loan and paid up a couple of years ago. Fortunately for Sam, the person who purchased his old flat was foreigner who paid up the amount Sam was looking at without a murmur. Coincidentally, the one from whom Sam had purchased the flat he is now living in was also a foreigner who was in a hurry to sell as he was moving out of the United States. Thus, the principles in buying and selling of properties are intact although they may have slowed down a bit due to the current recession. In Sam's case, he saved a significant amount having purchased a second-hand flat in a premium location. A brand new flat in the same location would have cost him at least 25% more. One may have to pay the agent some commission. However, despite the commission, the overall saving is quite high when compared to purchasing a brand new flat. Normally, when someone purchases realty, he or she has long time plans in mind. Except for housing agents, few may opt for purchasing properties for business purposes. The normal consideration for purchase of property is residential or business. Then the property may remain in the hands of the owner for decades unless he or she plans to sell it earlier for some reason. Again, normally nobody thinks much about the market value of the flat because, as residents, they do not want to dispose the flat. They need the flat for their residential or business purpose. They cannot do without the flat as it fits their lifestyle. Thus, the market value only serves as a prestige issue rather than any profit or loss in business terms. Likewise, properties purchased for business too are not overtly influenced by market trends since the purchase is based on long term requirements. If a firm desires to purchase property for commercial use, it will by all means go by the trends of its balance sheet rather than bemoan the market trends. Chain retailers and eateries such as MacDonald have powered their presence through prudent use of real estate. Real estate is a magnificent method for conserving wealth for those who have the means to purchase property and develop and d'cor it. So if you are very rich, investments in properties will most probably make you richer. This is because when you are rich, you will invest in doing up the property and the environments and this will naturally add to the property's worth. Secondly, as people realize that you have purchased certain property in a certain location, they will readily buy adjacent properties pushing property prices in the process. For instance, if

LIving in a House versus living in an apt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

LIving in a House versus living in an apt - Essay Example There are many similarities between living in an apartment and living in a house. Both are places for living where one can live with family. Both can be similar in structure and space at least for one floor. Both apartment and house have electrical, mechanical, and sanitary supplies and services that make them livable for the occupants. Living in any of them requires an individual to either pay rent or pay the cost of the whole structure whether in installments or as a one-time payment. There are neighbors for the occupants of apartments as well as houses. There are quite a lot of differences between living in an apartment and living in a house. People living in an apartment generally have access to just one floor because other floors are occupied by other families whereas people living in a house dwell on all of its floors and levels. Many families live in a condominium whereas generally only one family resides in a house. People in a house have more autonomy of extending the house horizontally or vertically and of making any sort of changes to the structure whereas occupants of an apartment generally cannot make any structural changes in the apartment. People living in a house also own the land on which the house is constructed and can thus demolish, reconstruct, and change their structure in any way they want. On the other hand, occupants of an apartment generally own just their apartment and not the ground on which the condominium is constructed. People living in a house find it easier to move in and out whereas occupants of an ap artment find it difficult and inconvenient to frequently move in and out of the apartment particularly if the apartment is located at an elevation from the ground; they have to use lift or stairs which limits horizontal movement. However, houses generally take longer to be constructed than an apartment because most condominiums are constructed with precast structural members these days whereas most houses

History of Circle Essay Example for Free

History of Circle Essay The word circle derives from the Greek, kirkos a circle, from the base ker- which means to turn or bend. The origins of the words circus and circuit are closely related. The circle has been known since before the beginning of recorded history. Natural circles would have been observed, such as the Moon, Sun, and a short plant stalk blowing in the wind on sand, which forms a circle shape in the sand. The circle is the basis for the wheel, which, with related inventions such as gears, makes much of modern civilization possible. In mathematics, the study of the circle has helped inspire the development of geometry, astronomy, and calculus. Early science, particularly geometry and astrology and astronomy, was connected to the divine for most medieval scholars, and many believed that there was something intrinsically divine or perfect that could be found in circles. The compass in this 13th century manuscript is a symbol of Gods act ofCreation. Notice also the circular shape of the halo| Circles on an old astronomy drawing| Some highlights in the history of the circle are: * 1700 BC – The Rhind papyrus gives a method to find the area of a circular field. The result corresponds to 256/81 (3.16049) as an approximate value of π. * 300 BC – Book 3 of Euclids Elements deals with the properties of circles. * In Platos Seventh Letter there is a detailed definition and explanation of the circle. Plato explains the perfect circle, and how it is different from any drawing, words, definition or explanation. * 1880 – Lindemann proves that π is transcendental, effectively settling the millennia-old problem of squaring the circle.

Review The Tennessee Valley Authority And Its Consequences History Essay

Review The Tennessee Valley Authority And Its Consequences History Essay When it was established in 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority was an extremely controversial organization. As part of Roosevelts New Deal and his first hundred days, in which he initiated many new programs to jump start the nations economy and put people back to work, the TVA was charged with the responsibility of providing electricity, improving infrastructure, and enhancing the quality of life of the deeply depressed people living in the Tennessee Valley. During the Great Depression, those populating this area resided in log cabins, with only the bare essentials needed to survive, and sometimes less. Their objectives of electrifying rural America came into direct conflict with the capitalistic ambitions of private utility companies. Also, in order to accomplish their goals of improving the Tennessee Valleys waterways for transportation meant building dams and man-made lakes, displacing thousands of locals who had inhabited the area for hundreds of years. This operation not only i nvolved relocating families to their new homes, which was met with an exceptional amount of resistance, but exhuming the thousands of graves and reburying them at new sites. However, although the work done by the TVA in this area was sometimes flawed, and hated by many people in which the program aimed to help, the organization helped to bring modern commodities to a region that had been devastated by the economic crisis of the Great Depression. The Tennessee Valley During the Depression The area surrounding the prospective site for Norris Dam had been settled for the past two hundred years and, like much of Americas farmland further west, the land showed signs of exhaustion by farmers who did not consider the long term effects of over farming. Prior to the Depression, many young men and women from the Tennessee Valley would move away from the area to their own farms or to new cities of an increasingly industrialized Midwest. However, when tough economic times hit the American people during the Great Depression, many of those who had left to begin their own lives returned home to the safety and the familiar surroundings of their Tennessee homes. In the years between 1930 and 1935, the Tennessee Valley saw an increase in the areas population, which made living off what little the land provided even more difficult than before.  [1]   Farmers in the Tennessee Valley primarily raised corn for their animals and livestock while raising other crops for personal consumption. Tobacco was also raised to bring in a source of revenue, providing farmers with something they could sell in order to buy things they could not make or grow at home. Farming primarily for ones own personal use, called subsistence farming, was a way of life in the Tennessee Valley which allowed for very few luxuries to the people which lived there. The 3500 farming families in the area which would be flooded by the Norris Dam included both property owners and tenant farmers, or farmers who grew cash crops like tobacco on another persons land in exchange for a place to live. Living conditions in the Tennessee Valley were extremely difficult for both of these groups. Even during the most prosperous of times, there was not nearly enough money gained by way of local taxes to provide for adequate public schools, health services, or road construction.   [2]   Founding of the Tennessee Valley Authority One of the TVAs primary objectives was to improve infrastructure and the ability to transport goods through the Tennessee Valley through the use of its rivers and other waterways. This was particularly the case with an area of the Tennessee valley known as Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where the Tennessee River falls 140 feet in elevation over about thirty miles. This dramatic drop in altitude produced the rapids or shoals that the area received its named for, and made it extremely difficult for ships to go through and travel up further the Tennessee River. In 1916 the federal government gained ownership of the region and began drawing up plans to build a dam there. The proposed dam was intended to produce electricity which was needed to manufacture explosives for the war effort. However, the First World War ended before the sites could be completed and utilized. During the next few years, the government debated over what should be done with the area. Some members of Congress argued that t he dam should be sold to private organizations. Senator  George W. Norris  from Nebraska, on the other hand, argued that the public should retain control over the area. Norris had attempted several times to initiate bills for the federal development of the region. However, they were all defeated by Republican administrations who saw no advantages to retaining the area. With the onset of the Great Depression, Americans viewed government economic intervention in the public interest much more favorably. The newly elected President Roosevelt, who had a previous interest in regional planning, conservation, and planning, supported Norris proposal to develop the Tennessee River Valley.  [3]   On the 18th of May, 1933 Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act as part of his first 100 days. The objectives of the TVA was to improve transportation along the Tennessee River, provide methods for flood control, plan reforestation, improve the quality of the poor farm lands, aid in industrial and agricultural development, and assist in the national defense effort with the development of government owned phosphorus and nitrate manufacturing sites at Muscle Shoals. Although almost ninety percent of those living in urban areas had electricity by the 1930s, this was only true for ten percent of people living in rural areas. Private electricity companies, who were the primary suppliers of electric power to the nations consumers, insisted that it would be too expensive to build electric lines to small, isolated rural farmsteads. They also argued that most farmers would not even be able to afford electricity in the event that they were provided the opportunity. Roosevelt and his administration held the belief that if private electricity companies could not or would not supply electric power to the American people, then it was the responsibility of the federal government to do it. In 1935, the Rural Electric Administration was established to electrify to rural areas such as the Tennessee Valley. In his 1935 article Electrifying the Countryside, the head of the REA, Morris Cooke, stated that: Though rural power uses of electricity began thirty-five years ago on an irrigated farm in California, the 1930 Census showed that only one tenth of American farms had central station service. One of the barriers to the development of farm electrification has been the rural line extension policy of many of the utilities. The power company has persisted in regarding the farmer not as a potential power customer, but as a small domestic consumer.  [4]   By the start of 1939 the REA had assisted in establishing several hundred rural electric cooperatives, which provided services to about 300,000 homes. Rural households with electricity had risen to twenty-five percent. Furthermore, the acts of the REA motivated private power companies to provide electricity to the countryside as well. When farmers did finally receive electric power, they helped to support local merchants by purchasing electric appliances. As in turned out, farmers generally required more energy than those living in the city, which helped to balance the extra expenses on the part of the electric companies in bringing power lines to the rural areas. The Tennessee Valley Authority established the Electric Home and Farm Authority to assist farmers in purchasing major electric appliances. The EHFA made special arrangements with appliance manufacturers to provide electric ranges, water heaters, and refrigerators at prices most farmers could afford. The new appliances were sold at local electric cooperatives and utility companies. It was here that a farmer could purchase appliances with loans offered by the EHFA, who provided these loans with low-cost financing.  [5]   Electrification of rural land was based on the idea that affordable electricity would help to improve the standard of living and the economic independence of the traditional family farm. But electricity alone was not nearly enough to put a stop the hardships being faced by Americas farm communities. Furthermore, it did not stop the migration of rural farmers from the country to the city, or did the shrinking of the total number of family owned farms. Opposition to the TVA There were many people who opposed the TVA and the federal governments participation in developing electric power in rural areas, in particular utility companies who thought that the government had an unfair advantage when competing with private companies. Also, some members of the Congress who didnt believe the government should have the right to influence the economy, thought that the TVA was a potentially dangerous program which would bring the United States just that much closer to socialism.  [6]  Others believed that rural farmers did not have the knowledge or skills needed to maintain and support local electric companies.  [7]   The most powerful opposition to the Tennessee Valley Authority came from power companies, who found it hard to compete with the cheaper energy provided through the TVA, and they saw it as a danger to private development. They argued that the federal governments participation in the electricity industry was unconstitutional. The attack on the TVA was led by future presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, then president of the large power utility company Commonwealth Southern Company. During the 1930s, many court cases were brought against the TVA. The Alabama Power Company presented a lawsuit against the TVA that made it all the way to the Supreme Court. They argued that by entering into the electricity industry, the federal government had surpassed its Constitutional powers. However, there attempts proved unsuccessful. In February of 1936, the Supreme Court came to the decision that the TVA had the right and authority to produce power at Wilson Dam as well as to sell and distribute that electricity. In 1939 the Court again maintained the constitutionality of the Tennessee Valley Authority.  [8]   Consequences of the TVA The TVA was established in part to improve the standard of living in an region which was home to three-and-a-half million people. When Norris Dam was constructed, it submerged an space of 239 square acres where about 3,500 families resided. The Act establishing the TVA gave it the authority to exercise the right of  eminent domain, and in the purchase of any real estate or the condemnation of real estate by condemnation proceedings, the title to such real estate.  [9]   Even though the TVA had been established for the purpose of improving the living conditions of the people living in the Tennessee Valley, the federal government neglected to offer much of any assistance in resettling the displaced families of the Norris Basin. In this area, farm owners were supplied with cash settlements for their property and were given help in the search for a new home. Tenants, who merely worked on the land but did not own it, received no payment at all. The Norris Basin had been home for thousands of families for centuries. Generations of people had been buried there. In addition to relocating all of the areas living population, all of the regions dead had to be exhumed from their graves and reburied in places outside the reach of the lakes created by the Norris dam. For both the farm families and the TVA workers alike, this process was extremely difficult.  [10]   Some of the families displaced by the Norris Dam benefited from the work of the TVA. Many people saw that their new homes were nicer and more comfortable than their old log cabin ones. Additionally, approximately one out of five had a member of their family who was employed by the TVA. However, sixty percent of the relocated families were relocated to new homes within the Norris Basin, which, even after the efforts of the TVA, continued to be a region prone to the same kind of problems of bad farming conditions and overpopulation and which had been a source of trouble from them prior. Similarly to other planned communities developed during FDRs New Deal, the small town of Norris was initially supposed to be a great display for the electrification of rural America and city planning. Many people believed that Norris would be the perfect home for those displaced people from the Norris Basin. However, the construction workers who came to the area in order to build the Norris Dam also needed a place to stay. Because of this, Norris originally functioned as temporary housing for the TVA workers and their families, while the residents of the Norris Basin were forced to find other accommodations, often times in areas just as poverty-stricken as where they had come from.  [11]   The idea that Norris would become a model American town was a mistaken one from the start. TVA authorities made regulations excluding African-American families from living in the town. They argued that these measures were taken in order to conform to the traditions and customs of the region. However, black leaders were quick to point out that impoverished white and black families had lived and worked together in the mountains and valleys of the basin for many years prior to the arrival of the TVA. During the 1930s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People coordinated three separate investigations of Tennessee Valley Authority for racial discrimination in the housing and hiring of African-Americans. A man named Arthur Morgan, who was very interested in community planning, imagined Norris as a self-sustaining community of people who involved themselves in small, local cooperative industries. Early in the development of Norris, some cooperative businesses were established. These included canneries, creameries, and poultry farms. The communitys public school became a focal point of of community activity. Educational classes were given to children as well as adults, and for the town people themselves and for the farming families from the surrounding communities. However, despite Morgans ambition and noble goals for the town, living in Norris was operated much like any other company town. The TVA managed almost every aspect of activity in Norris. Everything from the towns gas station to its cafeteria was operated by the TVA.  [12]   When the dam was finished, the construction workers left Norris. Working professionals who were employed by TVA or in nearby Knoxville saw Norris as a practical alternative to life in the city, and the town slowly transformed into a white collar suburb of Knoxville. As the towns inhabitants became more affluent, and were required to travel to jobs which were outside of Norris, the cooperative organizations and many of the community driven activities diminished. In 1948, the government sold the town to a private corporation, who in turn resold the individual lots to the residents. The TVA made many advancements to the Tennessee Valley in terms of infrastructure, and the quality of life for the majority of the areas residents. This region was one of the hardest hit by the Great Depression. The majority of Americans living in rural areas were living without electricity at the start of the 1930s. Private utility companies were unwilling to spend the money needed to reach these rural communities with their power lines. As part of his attempt to bring the United States out of the Depression and into the modern era, Franklin Roosevelt initiated many new work programs, including the TVA. Unfortunately, these advancements sometimes came with sacrifice for those residents, in particular the displaced families of the Norris Basin. However, without these sacrifices, it may not have been possible for the people living in Tennessee Valley to improve their living conditions.

Discuss The Concepts Of Health

Discuss The Concepts Of Health This assignment is a reflection of team work in the first enquiry. This assignment is going to discuss the concepts of health, my beliefs about health and illness, and how the unit may have altered my views on health. Health as a concepts means different to different people. Some believe health as a state of being free from disease but some believe that this definition is limited. It is so hard to define health. There is no any universal definition of health (Taylor, 2008- p5frog). So health is a dynamic concepts and complex whose definition varies with the context in which the term is used. There are various prospective to understand health. Health can be understood on biological approach, biomedical approach, behavioural approach, spiritual approach, health education approach, public health approach and many more. Biological approach explores the role of genes. Biomedical approach looks health and illness in terms of pathology of individual. Behavioural approach promotion of health that focus on risk factors and lifestyle behaviour. Public health approach stress on reducing disease prevalence rate and prevention of non-communicable disease (Keleher and MacDougall, 2008- p5 cactus). However, heal th can be culturally understood differently to Indigenous Australian and differently to western countries and non- western countries. For instance, Indigenous believe that notion of health and well-being related to family, community and connectedness to traditional land. They rather ignore individual as a separate entity (Taylor, 2008- p6frog). According to Keleher and MacDougall (2008), understanding health is built upon broad notions of health that recognise the range of social, economical, and environmental factors that contribute to health (p. 6-7 cactus). It seems that people are the focal point to derive the proper concepts of health. Keleher and MacDougall (2008-p6 cactus) argue that peoples prospective is the major steps to understand the health. Many studies show that health is related to state of wellbeing and illness. Western cultural countries like Australia also believe that health is the absence of diseases or pathogens in an individual (Taylor, 2008 p 10frog). Different people think health in different ways. Sandra Taylor (200 8 p6 frog) argues that meaning of health is influenced by socio-cultural factors like gender, age, ethnicity and also culture. Number of studies show that men and women have different ratio to seek health information. Sandra Taylor claims that female are proactive than man to seek health information (p.6). Beside this demography is a consistent factor influencing health of individual. Sandra Taylor argues that people living in rural area associate health and wellbeing as more productive, experienced better health care and able to get health services in time (P-7). I am from very remote and isolated town. I have experienced the important of health. I believe that health is a wealth that an individual earn in life. Without the sound health it is hard to perform life sustaining activities like job, physical activities and much more other things. Socio-Culture affects the beliefs of people. There are strong religious thoughts and practice to cure illness and analyse heath issues. I born in Hindu family and being a Hindu family, one has different ways to treat the disease or illness. People believed that illness use to be due to wrong work done upon spirit. There are number of places in Asia where still people believe on god of spirit for the family and community welfare. God or goddess was worship when a person gets sick. Only few people living in and around the town areas could get heath measures. But many people passed away without seeing a single hospital bed. Though, people used to take patients to hospital, at the last hours only after a person with supernormal skills give-up, and the patients die before reaching to the hospital. So, in this contexts, health meant different to those lived with me and to the others lived in and around the town. This was the understanding of health when I was in Bhutan and also in Refugee camp in Nepal. It has been claimed that; All of these variables have an impact on patients health care usage. General practitioners need to be aware of the individualism of their patients, and recognise that predisposing culture and beliefs may influence the management of patients in general practice (Ten Wett, 1998. p 773). I believe health is also influences by behaviour also. Cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of physical exercise and many other day to day activities could accelerate the health problems. Health studies show that lung cancer is the effect of smoking (Taylor, 2010), asthma cause by smoking and environmental pollutant (Dawbin and Roger, 2008), diabetes type-2, obesity, are cause by the lack of physical activities, food habit, and junk food consumption. All the above mentioned causes are practiced first and felt in the trouble with diseases and illness. People could change this behaviour and standardised their lifestyle if they really think about it. For instance, smoking behaviour could be reduced and physical activities could be increased to avoid asthma or lung cancer. Financial condition influences the heath. For instance, to receive appropriate health services or medications, a person had to have a good amount in hand. It still exists in many parts of the world. I have had an experience of visiting traditional herbalist when I was sick in Bhutan instead of treatment in hospital. It was free in my country because of big forest where we get herbs. It was hard to get General Practitioner (GP) and consult about the issues surgical operation and organ transplantation in those places. One had to keep whole land in mortgage to visit doctor in India or Bangladesh. Illness is the condition of health. Richard; Cumming, Robert; Woodward, Alistair and Black, Megan [2010]. Passive smoking and lung cancer: a cumulative meta-analysis. [Online]. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, v.25, no.3, June 2001: 203-211. Retrieved on 24 Apr10 from http://0-search.informit.com.au.alpha2.latrobe.edu.au/fullText;dn=200111944;res=APAFT> ISSN: 1326-0200. Dawbin, D., Rogers, A.(2008). Age Care in Australia; Common Health Conditions, pp 147. Press: Ligare Pty., Riverwood NSW2210 Ten, V., Wett, L. (2010). Caring for the Chinese patient in general practice. Australian Family Physician. Australian Family Physician v.27 no.9 Sept 1998: 773-775. Retrieved on April 24, 2010 from http://0-search.informit.com.au.alpha2.latrobe.edu.au/search;rs=4;rec=1;action=showCompleteRec MY Thoughts This is my reflective thoughts on health issues. This reflection is based on the learning outcome that I have achieved and done oral and written presentation in the first enquiry. This reflection will help me to understand the concepts of health and strategies used in treating different diseases and viewed through different perspectives by individuals and social responses. Concepts of human health have broad meanings and concepts. People have different thoughts and different connotation for health. Some believe health as a state of being free from any disease. For some health means having balance and stability in their lifestyle, for others it could be their capability in carrying out their responsibilities and also to remain fit and healthy (Taylor, 2008, p5). According to World Health Organisation (WHO, 1974) health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. However, this definition is criticised by many people due to its subjective nature and the problems in the definition of health. According to Sian Keane, health professionals must understand the concept of health from the perspective view of people with disabilities. She argues that health professionals must not focus on the narrow clinical aspects of illness and disability; rather it is best to accept these indivi duals as fully fit and capable of health within the context of their disability. She further says that health professionals often overlook the proper management and promotion of health for people with disability. They have wrong perceptions about their specific needs and their treatments. In fact, health promotion for people with disability is the same as appropriate with non-disable people (Keane, Disability; A guide for Health Professionals, (1996, p320). As such the concept of health is dynamic and complex whose definition varies with the context in which the term is used. In fact, the concept of health is rooted in the unique individual, family, social, cultural and geographical contexts in which the term is used; as such, it is said to be socially and culturally constructed (Taylor, p5). Culture and ethnic background plays an important role in influencing concepts in understanding health, health related issues, illness, their beliefs and expectations of health services from health care providers. Understanding peoples belief and their needs are very important for the care givers or health professionals. The concept of health is well understood by the main-stream Australian society on the basis of illness and disease in individuals and the belief in biomedical approach and the absence of pathology in human body (Taylor, p5). Indigenous people and people from other cultures have different approaches or typical way of understanding of health and health related issues in relation to physical, mental, emotional and their possible causes and treatments. For example in our culture, we believe in our traditional medicine (Herbal or Ayurvedic medicine) extracted from medicinal plants to prevent or cure certain diseases. We also believe in homeopathy, an alternative form of me dicine. Besides western biomedical treatments, traditional medicines are normally prescribed representing the co-existence of different cultural beliefs. Health is understood by people in different perspectives through experience and influenced by different factors such as biological, psychological and social through complex interactions between different cultures. According to Taylor men and women in Australia have different approaches to health related issues, behaviours and exposure to risk factors. Women are more vulnerable to psychological stress than men but more positive in seeking first hand information regarding their health and actively take preventive measures. There are some other factors that impact on health of people according to their family history, their disposable income and experience. It also depends on their living standards and geographical locations. As I come from different culture and place where we didnt have access to basic health facilities so I always wondered what it would be to understand the whole setting. I lived in a refugee camp where I had spent more than eighteen years and I had seen people affected with different diseases both communicable and non-communicable. Most of them could not get medical help as there were no doctors or nurses available and lack of financial support on time so they were just left with no options but to seek help from local shaman to ward off evil spirits from their bodies. As most of the people were illiterate who didnt understand and trust modern medicine and doctors, most of us did not know how it worked as there were no health promotion campaign and awareness of different diseases and their possible treatments. I have seen people afflicted with some of the worst kind of diseases and spent their whole miserable life without any help until they died. Most of the family members in the commu nity just waited helplessly to end his or her life. I have seen some of my own friends, relatives and neighbours dying of diseases which were treatable only if they had access to medical facilities and medicines in time. For example I nearly died of typhoid, jaundice and cholera when I was in the refugee camp and on top of that I was malnourished and didnt know that it is all due to unhygienic food, lack of clean drinking water and polluted environment. I relied on herbal medicines and animism form of worship, as there were no possible help to get treated with western medicines. As such the whole scenario has changed my understanding of health and treatment of different diseases through different means of settings. It is all possible to understand the concept of health by following the correct form of practising health and hygiene. Now we have been resettled here in Australia so we have access to medical facilities but still some of the elderly people in our community do not trust m edicines prescribed by the practitioners. Better health is central to human happiness and well-being. It also makes an important contribution to economic progress, as healthy populations live longer, are more productive, and save more. Many factors influence health status and a countrys ability to provide quality health services for its people. Ministries of health are important actors, but so are other government departments, donor organizations, civil society groups and communities themselves. For example: investments in roads can improve access to health services; inflation targets can constrain health spending; and civil service reform can create opportunities or limits to hiring more health workers. WHOs work on Health and development tries to make sense of these complex links. It is concerned with the impact of better health on development and poverty reduction, and conversely, with the impact of development policies on the achievement of health goals. In particular, it aims to build support across government for higher levels of investment in health, and to ensure that health is prioritized within overall economic and development plans. In this context, health and development work supports health policies that respond to the needs of the poorest groups. WHO also works with donors to ensure that aid for health is adequate, effective and targeted at priority health problems. This website provides an update on WHO activities in the area of health and development, including recent publications, reports of country work and information on training courses and capacity-building activities