...Imagine working your entire life towards something that will never be finished; fighting the losing battle—could you handle that? While many would not take on the role of endless defeat, Paul Farmer chooses to continue to help the Haitian people, whilst knowing that for every one life he saves, five others are lost. Are Farmer’s acts simply those of kindness or out of sympathy, or rather, are they Christ-like in the way he provides for and loves those he helps? Through the biography about Paul Farmer written by Tracy Kidder, Farmer’s work becomes more than just kind acts and doing his job, and seems to show Farmer’s passion for the people he helps and cares for in Haiti. In the United States, healthcare is generally a widespread thing—most can be treated fairly easily and medication is readily available and affordable. Many times, the employer provides health insurance to employees, and very few die deaths that may have been easily avoided. In Haiti, it seems to be the exact opposite; there is a small amount of available doctors, many medications are expensive or unattainable, and thousands of people falling to easily treatable or easily prevented diseases and illnesses. Farmer’s key goals in helping others was to save the lives of those that would ordinarily be saved, “If people could be kept from dying unnecessarily, then one had to act.” (Kidder 102). Willing to help everyone, no matter who they are or their condition, Farmer explains “I can't sleep. There's always somebody...
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...“Beyond Mountains; There Are Mountains”. Meaning of the Tittle: it refers to the main character’s determination to being health and happiness to the poor and it comes from the Haitian proverb. The book that I decided to read is called Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kiddler, Kiddler graduated from Harvard, he studied at the University of Iowa he also served as an army officer in Vietnam. I selected this book because I heard nice reviews from people who have read it. The main idea about the book is about Paul Farmer who found his life’s calling: to treat infectious diseases and also to bring the tools to save modern medicine to those people who need them the most. And he believes that everybody deserves health care and living in a decent condition. In the book Kidder’s spectacular account views how a person can make a huge difference in saving global health problems through distinctly understanding of the interaction of politics, social systems, wealth and diseases. This book takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia. And Farmer changes people’s perspectives through his dedication to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity.” The main characters are Paul Famer, Tracy Kidder, Ophelia Dahl, and Jim Yong Kim. I will discuss their roles later on. Additionally, social determinants of health, diseases, and health systems are the topics that we’ve covered in class that relates to this book. Paul Famer has important aspects to his character. First, He...
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...People are always looking forward to their vacation period. There are many options where to choose. I think that the two most common places people choose for taking a vacation are the beaches and the mountains. Both places offer a variety of fun activities. The beach offers activities that the mountain cannot offer and vice versa. The mountain and the beach are totally different. The purpose of this essay is to contrast the climate, types of activities and locations of beaches and mountains. I’m going to discuss mountains first. The three aspects I’m going to discuss are climate, types of activities and location. Climate is always important in order to enjoy vacations. If a person dislikes cold weather, he or she might have a hard time in the mountains. The cold climate in the mountains is the first barrier to enjoying them, but the climate and the temperature of these zones also determine the types of activities they offer. Snow boarding, mountain climbing, mountain biking, hiking, and skiing are some activities people can enjoy when going to the mountains. There are many regions that have mountains where people can go and have a great vacation. Canada is a country located in North America and contains many mountain vacation sites where people can go and have fun. I’m going to discuss the beach second. The three aspects I’m going to discuss are climate, types of activities and location. Warm climate is one of the most important features that the beach has. Sun and fun are...
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...The shining mountain The short story written by Alison is from year 1992. The story is about a young girl named Pangma-La, who with her father is about to climb the shining mountain, which also is called Pangma-la. Her father is a mountaineer, who wants his daughter to become the same, and therefore he is taking her to the shining mountain so she can be trained in climbing mountains. On their way to the top of the mountain, Pangma-la becomes more and more tired, but she keeps on going to not disappoint her father. She meets this Sherpa woman, who offers to help her. This happens some times in the story, although her father can’t see this Sherpa woman. After her Father has reached the top of the mountain, he sees this Sherpa woman with Pangma-La. Here he realizes that the Goddess the old Sherpa man talked about was true. When he met her he also realized that I demanded a lot from his daughter, and takes a try to jump off the mountain, however, the Goddess catches him, and lets go of Pangma-La. The main character is Pangma-La. She is a scared person. She is scared of her father’s disappointment of her, and therefore lets him take her decisions. This is can be seen in the text, where she takes all her exercises serious, she doesn’t fool around (p. 19, ll. 1-15). When they get to the mountain, she becomes a bout nervous and desperate at the same time. She doesn’t want to disappoint her father. Eventually she gets tired and give up, and takes the Goddess advice (p. 21, ll. 1-10)...
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...The Part Two section of Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder was interesting. The section described Farmer’s life when he was younger, how he sparked an interest in Haiti and his perseverance to help others. Paul was one of six children and the oldest of the three boys. It was very interesting when Farmer said “I never had a sense of hometown, this is my hometown.” (page 54) Paul was referencing his hometown to Cange in Haiti. During his childhood, Farmer moved around constantly from a farmhouse to a boat on a bayou. Cange is a place that he learned to adjust to the surroundings and the people, rather than his childhood cities. Paul excelled in school, which led him to get full scholarship to Duke. He saw how hard-working the Haitians are when he visiting a tobacco plantation, he looked more into the culture. Paul was interested in Haitian culture. He was dedicated to learn the language and culture....
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...------------------------------------------------- The Shining Mountain Summary: The story is about a young girl, called Pangma-La, and her father, who was a famous mountaineer and had climbed many mountains. When Pangma-La’s father got a baby-daughter, he named her after a great big shining mountain he ones had climbed, so that she could stand tall and proud. One day Pangma-La’s father decides that he and his daughter should climb a mountain together, so Pangma-La starts training and all is going well. Pangma-La finally has a chance to stand tall and make her father proud. On the way to the top of the mountain Pangma-La meets an old Sherpa woman, she offers Pangma-La to carry her sack, but Pangma-La says no, so the old Sherpa woman disappears. The next time the old Sherpa woman shows herself to Pangma-La, she again offers to help her. This time Pangma-La says yes. The Sherpa woman reveals herself to Pangma-La three times in the story, the third time and last time Pangma-La gives her heart to the old Sherpa woman, and Pangma-La disappears. The old Sherpa woman is actually a hag, and transforms Pangma-La into a swan as a lesson to her father, so he could see that he was pressuring his daughter to much. The hag shows Pangma-La’s father how Pangma-La really feels and that all his high expectations towards Pangma-La are killing her. Pangma-La’s father sees what he has done to his own daughter, and tries to kill himself by throwing himself over the mountain edge. But just before he tries to make...
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...In Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder describes a new sister organization that joined Partners in Health (PIH), Socios en Salud operating in Peru. PIH’s contrasting methods of maintaining Zanmi Lasante in Haiti and Socios made their expansion difficult, but greatly helped the new populations they served. Haiti and Peru have different political struggles which affect the potential of healthcare PIH can offer. Haiti’s government was overthrown by the Haitian army, resulting in a lot of violent political protest. Many were severely injured, which caused Zanmi Lasante’s focus to shift. Instead of working to cure those with tuberculosis, Zanmi Lasante had to nurse those victimized by the Haitian army. Not only did injuries delay Zanmi Lasante’s work , the Haitian army blacklisted PIH founder Paul Farmer for a few months. Likewise, a civil war in Peru caused the new government to place strict regulations regarding when Socios en Salud could care for people. Patients had to complete Peru’s custodial care before being surrendered to Socios. After the government let Socios care for their treatment failures, they laid heavy taxes on them. Each Socios patient costed PIH $15,000-$20,000 in contrast to Zanmi Lasante’s $150-$200. Socios could not help as many patients with tuberculosis because of the added cost, and focus shift to those injured. These problems demonstrate how crucial Paul Farmer’s leadership is to PIH. The most valuable qualities a leader can demonstrate is humility...
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...Running head: Mountain Belt Formation Differences between the Himalayas and Appalachian Mountain Ranges Roberto Fernandez Axia College I chose to write my narrative about the two most different and popular mountain ranges in the world. The Himalayas are located in Asia and are know for some of the highest peaks in the world, some of which are K2 and Mt. Everest. I chose the Himalayas for the popularity and of course, it has the highest peak in the world. The Appalachians are located in North America. I chose the Appalachians because I have lived in New York and New Jersey my whole life and I felt I had to pay homage to them. The Himalayas span over six countries in the Asian continent. India, Tibet, Afghanistan, Nepal, China and Pakistan all have the Himalayas as a permanent resident. These mountains are responsible for three of the planets foremost rivers which are the Ganga-Brahmaputra, Yangtze and Indus. Over a billion inhabitants depend on the flowing waters from these rivers. One of the newest mountain belts on the planet are the Himalayas. Based on the premise of plate tectonics the Himalayas were formed over 70 million years ago during the Upper Cretaceous period. They are the effect of orogeny (continental collision) down the convergent boundary amid the Eurasion and Indo-Australian plates. Currently the Indo-Australian plate is at constant motion traveling over 65 mm/year, about the subsequent...
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...In Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, Paul Farmer’s idealism is developed by his actions and words about overcoming “the long defeat”. Despite his awareness that his goal is impossible, Farmer’s determination is unfaltered throughout the text; however, certain occasions will test Farmer’s ability to make his idealism a reality. Ultimately, Paul Farmer, to overcome his “long defeat”, remains only just as much realistic so that he can continue his idealism. Essentially, Farmer continues to work toward his idealistic goal of ridding the poor of their impoverished conditions, which is fundamentally impossible, because he believes it is righteous. This righteousness is proved when he was accused of self-righteousness by Ophelia in which...
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...Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World the author talks about the doctor’s dedication to his patients. This interested me the most because the whole book is about his work ethic to change the world’s health. He exceeded standards for doctors. Paul Farmer believes that the only nation is humanity and healthcare should be a human right. He fights for his beliefs and all of his patients. The book uses prime examples of how Farmer works. Chapter three explains how he spends his day with his patients. Every person is looked on no matter what. Kidder later explains that Farmer has a rule that every patient must pay the eighty cents, except for women and children, the destitute, and anyone who us seriously ill (page 21). So nobody paid to be seen by Dr. Farmer. He does everything for free and doesn’t get a penny for any of the work he does in Haiti. Farmer honestly believes his patients are worth saving. His patients believe him to be a god....
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...Brokeback Mountain Annie Proulx Ennis is a man of few words, whose actions often speak for him. When Ennis meets Jack, he is saddled with responsibility, engaged to Alma, and at the mercy of a conservative Wyoming culture that has no place for a gay ranch hand. Yet Ennis has nowhere else to go and no other profession at which to try his hand. An orphaned high school dropout dependent on hardship funds and raised to be pragmatic, he is trapped in a life over which he has little control. Rather than run off with Jack and try to build a happy life, as Jack repeatedly suggests, Ennis considers the reality of it all: the violent opposition that would greet two gay ranchers living together, his marriage to Alma, his love for his daughters. The life he builds, which involves financial hardship and eventually child support, effectively prohibits him from escaping. Ennis is a prisoner of the life he has been born into. Without the financial wherewithal to escape, without any sort of community support for his sexual proclivities, and imbued with the belief that one must bear whatever one can’t fix, Ennis is fated to live out the rest of his life as a man who tasted happiness once but has never again reached that peak. Though it is Jack Twist who, we infer, is murdered by those who oppose his sexual orientation, it is Ennis Del Mar—living in his trailer, confined to a sad life on the broad, flat plains of Wyoming—who is the story’s tragic soul. Jack Twist Jack Twist is the more...
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...In Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, Dr. Paul Farmer appears as a selfless, heroic doctor. He is incredibly successful, both monetarily and medically, but his sole concern is helping patients. The way he interacts with patients, and this system of communication that he teaches to his colleagues, is a unique aspect of his practice. The narrator picks up on this when Dr. Farmer almost seems to “fold” around patients (Kidder, 2009, p. 12). He does not treat them like they need to be quarantine, but instead as people requiring care and attention. Dr. Farmer gains respect by being so sure of a diagnosis when he treats a patient. There is an instance where an intern? Is attempting to diagnose a thirteen-year-old girl, and Farmer stresses the importance of being correct, “Doctors, doctors, what’s going on with you? You do not administer an antibiotic to a person with meningitis until you have done a spinal tap and know the variety of meningitis and thus which drug will work.”(Kidder, 2009, p. 32). He would rather be positive about what is going on and do a little extra work, then give the patient incorrect information. This creates a sense of security for the patients. They are able to trust Dr. Farmer because he is not doubting himself....
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...divisions, each with category-leading brands. Pepsi and Mountain Dew were the number two and three soft drinks. Frito-Lay dominated the salty-snack category with Ruffles, Lay's, Doritos, and Cheetos. And the company had recently acquired Tropicana, the leading juice brand. In 2000, PepsiCo had acquired the SoBe line of teas and "functional" drinks from South Beach Beverages, which it operated as a stand-alone subsidiary Mountain Dew had carried PepsiCo's soft drink revenues during the 1990s as cola brands struggled. But now the Do the Dew campaign( the famous "Do the Dew" campaign that had catapulted Mountain Dew to the number three position in its category) was entering its eighth year, a long stretch by any consumer goods baseline. Many other brands were now sponsoring the same alternative sports that Mountain Dew had relied upon to boost its image. Teens were also gravitating to new activities and new music that Dew's competitors had successfully exploited in their branding activities. Figuring out how to keep the campaign working hard to maintain the brand's relevance with its target consumers had become a chief preoccupation of senior management at both PepsiCo and BBDO. At the same time, key competitors were raising their ad budgets as competition in both the Carbonated Soft Drink (CSD) and non-carbonated drinks categories was heating up, sending Dew sales below targets. Choosing the right ads to maximize the impact of Mountain Dew's relatively small media budget was a make-or-break...
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...Cold Mountain Cold Mountain, a novel wrote by Charles Frazier, is a Civil War story, a magnificent love story between a wounded Confederate soldier – Inman who deserts and begins a lonely, dangerous journey to find the way back home, and his lover – Ada who tries to survive after her father’s death. The Cold Mountain is the destination Inman wants to arrive at, and a place where Ada transform from a city girl into a mountain woman. The story is woven around the experiences of Inman and Ada trying to rebuild their lives from the desperation and disaster of the war, all the while trying to find a way to see each other again--whilst they are so far apart. Cold Mountain opens with Inman staying in a Virginia hospital trying to recover his wound from the war. One day he speaks to a blind man he usually saw through the window of the hospital’s room. When the blind man asks Inman to “cite me one instance where you wished you were blind,” Inman doesn’t know where to begin. There are many like: Malvern Hill, Sharpsburg, Petersburg, but “Fredericksburg was a day particularly lodged in his mind.” At that time, he wishes that he himself had been blind at Fredericksburg when his regiment shot down thousands of Federal troops. He wishes that there is no war that takes many lives of soldiers, partitions families and makes him shatter by the violence he has witnessed while fighting in the Confederate army. Inman returns to the ward and opens his copy of Bartram’s Travels at random. He finds...
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...Charlotte O’Halloran October 12, 2014 Rhetoric- Great Divide RD Killer Optimism The Great Depression greatly affected most Americans leaving many jobless and desperate. Wyoming suffered less than other states. However, crop prices still dropped, banks failed, and mines were shut down; all of which the main character, Hi Alcorn experiences first hand as he struggles to raise a family in Wyoming during the Great Depression in “The Great Divide” by Annie Proulx. This short story follows the lives of Hi and his wife, Helen who are a young couple that have decided to buy land and build a house in Wyoming during The Great Depression with hopes to raise a large family and live the American dream. The “$600 and a cow” passage in this story describes Hi and Helen Alcorn buying their new land where Hi builds a spring house. The description of the weather in this passage has dramatic significance to the rest of the story as the imagery foreshadows important events that occur later. Thematically, Annie Proulx uses the conflicting tones between the author and Hi to expose Hi’s immense optimism and naïve mindset. His optimism is shown immediately when Hi buys land in an area in which he does not qualify due to his little money and livestock. Optimism is a powerful state of existence that can lead an individual to success when others may doubt them. Hi Alcorn is the epitome of an optimist, but it is his immature positive mindset that derails him from success and toward failure...
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