Vodoo as a Religion Essay - 619 Words

Voodoo as a religion There are two different types of voodoo; the religion and the evil version that Hollywood made up. Voodoo has many traditions, and is a lot like Christianity. Both believe in a higher being. The Loa is similar to Christian saints, in which they were once human beings who lived outstanding lives, and are often blessed with a responsibility or honored. Both have ceremony’s similar to communion, and believe in evil spirits or demons. â€Å"Followers of Voodoo believe that each person has a soul which is composed of two parts: a gros bon ange or big guardian angel, and a ti bon ange or little guardian angel. The latter leaves the body during sleep and when the person is possessed by a Loa during a†¦show more content†¦Voodoo is thought to be a powerful religion, because it survived religious persecution and slavery. Many voodoo priests’ and priestesses’ were killed because voodoo was thought to be evil to the Roman Catholics. Voodoo is very much alive today , in fact it is now Haiti’s national religion. Voodoo originated from parts of Africa, but was spread to Haiti and America during slave trade.(Voodoo) I believe that this religion survived because slaves tended to hang on to their religion and beliefs because what they believed was the only thing that they owned and could control. Voodoo has had a major impact in Haiti; so much so that they have declared voodoo as there national religion.(origins of Voodoo) It also has had a major impact on New Orleans, Louisiana. A lot of New Orleans’s art and culture is based on Voodoo and it’s traditions. A lot of bad stuff has been said about Voodoo; however, when the religion itself is researched and separated from the myths and superstitions its not much different from the religions that are considered normal. Voodoo is a religion and should be respected like any other religion. References Orgins of Voodoo.Retreived July 8, 2008, from http://www.swagga.com/voodoo.htm Robinson, B.A.(2006,February 6).Vodun.Religous Tolerance.Retreived July 8, 2008 from http://www.religioustolerance.org/voodoo.htm Voodoo.Retreived July 8, 2008 fromShow MoreRelatedTraditional Tales As A Reflection Of Culture1217 Words   |  5 Pagesdecline of humanity’s morality. Due to this, traditional tales are a reflection of culture in which they are retold as a result of lifestyle and one’s beliefs. Almost all relied on God and his actions to reflect their daily lives on behalf of their religion and knowledge from past stories. A myth is a traditional tale of discussing legends or traditions. They are usually found in all cultures and have symbolic meanings in which can be effective for the people who have heard the traditional taleRead MoreSpiritual Perspectives on Healing of Three Non-Mainstream Religions and Christianity897 Words   |  4 Pagesblending of many cultures, languages and religions to form a single national identity† (U.S. Department of State, 2010). In this paper, three non-mainstream religions, Vodun, Rastafari and Taosim, are going to be discussed and compared to Christinaity in regards to their spiritual perspectives of healing, their critical components to healing and what health care providers should know when caring for people of these cultures. Vodun Vodun, also known as Vodoo comes from the God Vudon of West AfricaRead MoreThe Zombie Apocalypse: Revealing the Monster Essay1779 Words   |  8 PagesDeath is the scariest part of living. Humanity has always been acutely aware of this horrible inevitability, and as a result of this almost near obsession with mortality certain practices, precautions, and even religions have been developed to ease the weary minds on death. Self- preservation, preparedness and survival motivate almost faction of human interest and behavior but becoming prepared for the conceivable anything and asking all the â€Å"what if† questions in the world still might not save humanityRead MoreCaribbean Literature1477 Words   |  6 PagesToday this legacy is resplendent in popular music such as the CALYPSO, the Cuban SON, and the Puerto Rican BOMBA; in the traditions of storytelling originating out of West Africa and India; and in supernatural tales from African religions, including SANTERIA, LUCUMI,VOD UN (vodoo), and SHANGO. Proverbs, riddles, and sayings that reinterpret African, European, and East Indian traditions are also most prominent in Caribbean literature. Among these are Anancy (a cunning spider) stories; animal dilema tales

Bhopal Gas Tragedy Free Essays

Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. INVESTIGATION OF LARGE-MAGNITUDE INCIDENTS: BHOPAL AS A CASE STUDY Ashok S. Kalelkar Arthur D. We will write a custom essay sample on Bhopal Gas Tragedy or any similar topic only for you Order Now Little, Inc. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Presented At The Institution of Chemical Engineers Conference On Preventing Major Chemical Accidents London, England May 1988 ABSTRACT The investigation of large-magnitude incidents is fraught with difficulties and the process of establishing the primary cause of an incident often requires an understanding of human nature in addition to the necessary technical and engineering skills. The salient non-technical features that are common to the investigation of large-magnitude events are discussed in general. The investigation of the Bhopal disaster is discussed as a specific case study in light of these salient features. The results of the overall investigation are discussed and it is demonstrated that the commonly-held view that water-washing of a certain header caused the disaster is physically impossible. Evidence is presented which indicates that direct water entry into the methyl isocyanate storage tank was the likely initiating cause of the Bhopal disaster. I. INTRODUCTION In the aftermath of a major accident or incident in the chemical industry, it is common practice to ascertain the cause of the event through an investigation. If the magnitude of the incident is very large in terms of its impact on people, property, or the environment, it is not uncommon to assemble several teams of investigators to seek the cause of the incident independently. In the United States, a large-magnitude event may be investigated by the company that owns the facility, the insurance group that rovides the liability coverage, federal investigators (e. g. , OSHA, EPA), and state and local regulatory agencies. When several investigations are being conducted concurrently, in spite of the differing interests that are represented by each investigating team, cooperation and fact-sharing generally occurs among the investigating teams. This cooperative spirit was evident to some extent, for example, in the investigation of the LPG disaster in 1984 in Mexico City l. Page 1 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. Given the significant amount of damage that is typically associated with a large-magnitude event, coverage by the news media is both extensive and exhaustive, especially if a number of fatalities have occurred. The news media represent yet another group of separate investigators and tend to focus on the human interest aspects of the tragedy. In addition, often with little hard information available, they actively speculate on the cause of the event in an attempt to â€Å"scoop† the story; that is, to be the first to report the cause to the world at large. In recent years, the news media with their surfeit of investigative reporters have become a predictable presence at the site of an incident. Although no two major disasters are the same, our involvement in the investigation of more than a dozen events of significant magnitude has led us to believe that there are certain salient features that are common to most investigations. They include: 1. Media Pressure – In the immediate aftermath of a large-magnitude incident, both nontechnical and technically trained reporters converge on the site, looking for quick â€Å"answers† to the question of what caused the event. Most reporters are responsible, restrained, and unbiased in their reporting. However, a fringe group usually appears on-site that is more interested in developing causation theories, which seem to have great public appeal, regardless of their veracity. In the case of the disaster at Bhopal in 1984, the cause celebre was the â€Å"missing slip-blind† during a water-washing operation. An assertion was made that failure to insert a slip-blind prior to water-washing of some filters ultimately led to water entering the MIC tank and starting a reaction. This assertion proved to be false, as will be demonstrated later in this paper. The difficulty with these incorrect causation theories is that, because the public and the media have a short attention span, the theories can become the conventionally accepted versions of what occurred. When a technical investigation discloses the actual cause much later, there may be less coverage, because the event is â€Å"old news† by then. 2. Psychological Issues – It has also been our experience that those people associated with a large-magnitude incident seem to evince an internal need to put some psychological distance between themselves and the incident. For example, there are those who feel — in hindsight — that even though they were not responsible for the event, they could have done more to reduce the magnitude of the event. And there are those who just wish it had not occurred on â€Å"their watch†. There are also occasions when persons on duty distort and omit major facts to establish a reduced responsibility for the event. There is substantial evidence that such distortions and omissions occurred in Bhopal. 3. Eyewitness Accounts – When eyewitnesses are questioned about a major accident or incident, they tend to reveal only those facts that they personally consider important and pertinent. Thus, a good investigator must draw people out, using a line of questioning which elicits all pertinent facts. We have found that an eyewitness is most likely to be forthcoming and helpful if he or she is questioned immediately after the event. Once a story is told, whether accurate or inaccurate, it tends to harden. Further, where a deliberate distortion occurs, with the passage of time, the persons involved tend to coordinate their stories better. This puts a substantial premium on talking to persons involved quickly. In the Bhopal situation, the Union Carbide investigation team was blocked from doing this by the Indian Government for over a year. As a result, Union Carbide was unable to uncover the ultimate cause of the event until 1986. 4. Contradictory Accounts – When faced with contradictory statements from various Page 2 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. witnesses, an investigator has to weigh various accounts and then judge which account is likely to be correct, discarding the false account. This may require gaining an understanding of the probable motives of those persons who, knowingly or unknowingly, provided the incorrect accounts. It is also often possible to assess the accounts against known or technically established facts, to determine their accuracy. We encountered numerous cases of directly contradictory accounts of various situations that transpired during the Bhopal incident from those who were present during the event. 5. Time Perception – Although witnesses in a traumatic incident often recall the sequence of events with remarkable clarity, their perceptions of time during the actual incident sometimes differ. Therefore, when establishing the true chronology, witnesses’ time perception must be evaluated against objective evidence. In the case of the Bhopal investigation, piecing together the correct chronology required that perceptions of time among different witnesses be accounted for in a consistent manner. The above list of features is by no means complete. However, it does identify some significant issues that are manifest in incident investigations, and which should be considered by investigators of large-magnitude incidents. The very presence of these issues makes an incident investigation more than a purely technical exercise. In many ways, one can liken the investigation to attempting to correctly piece together a complex jigsaw puzzle, with the added challenge of having several pieces that are hidden, others yet to be discovered, and several extraneous pieces that do not belong in the completed puzzle at all and have to be discarded. To add to the investigator’s difficulties, the â€Å"puzzle† has to result in a clear picture, even though assembled in a background of human tragedy and suffering, media attention, and a general aura of suspicion and hostility towards the plant and company investigation teams. The above factors are those which we have identified in our investigation of large-magnitude incidents, and many of these factors played a role in the investigation of the Bhopal incident. The following sections will give a brief background of the investigation, elaborate upon some of the factors which were encountered and resolved during the investigation, and present some of the evidence and the conclusions of the investigation. II. BHOPAL INVESTIGATION BACKGROUND To the best of our knowledge, two separate major detailed technical investigations of the Bhopal event were authorized. One investigation 2, sponsored by the Government of India (GOI), was conducted by a staff of scientists and engineers from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and it included other experts as well. A second investigation3, sponsored by the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)*, was conducted by scientists and engineers from UCC, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), outside experts, and attorneys. The two investigations went forward entirely independent of one another. (The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also conducted its own investigation. ) In addition to these major investigations, dozens of opinions, purportedly based on investigations of the incident, were offered by various newspapers, magazines, television and radio commentators, authors, organizations, consultants, and politicians. Such accounts generally proved Page 3 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. to be quite flawed and incomplete. Union Carbide investigators were at the site of the incident at Bhopal within days of the event to provide assistance and to conduct an investigation, but found that the plant had been sealed and placed under the control of the CBI. The cause of the incident was not then apparent. The methyl isocyanate (MIC) production unit had been shut down six weeks prior to the incident and the storage tank (Tank 610) had been isolated at that time; all that was known was that the pressure had risen in Tank 610 during the third shift on a Sunday night, December 2-3, 1984, and that MIC had been released into the atmosphere. It was unknown whether the release had been triggered by the entry of a contaminant, water, or some other agent. The search for the cause of the incident at that point was, however, a secondary consideration; a second tank (Tank 611) containing some 20 tons of MIC remained, and the first order of business was to assist in its safe disposal. It was determined that the safest route would be to process the MIC and SEVIN carbaryl pesticide, which was then done promptly. The processing of this tank of MIC was conducted jointly by UCIL and the CSIR, with the assistance of UCC’s technical team, in an activity labeled Operation Faith by the Indian Government. Following the safe disposal of the remaining MIC in December of 1984, the UCC investigation team attempted to begin its investigation. However, the legal skirmishes had commenced in both the United States and India and the CBI essentially maintained complete control over the records of the MIC unit. Although the investigation team was permitted to see copies of records in the period immediately following the event, it was allowed to do so only by specifically requesting a copy of a particular record or document. *The author of this paper and the organization he represents were a part of this investigation team. Thus, if the team was unaware that a particular document existed, the document would never come to its attention, even though it might have a significant bearing on the outcome of the investigation. Moreover, the CBI prohibited interviews with the plant’s employees. The team submitted to the CBI a list of 193 plant employees whom it wanted to interview, but permission was refused. The CBI would only authorize discussions with the Plant Manager and the MIC Production Superintendent, neither of whom was on duty the night of the incident. In fact, the CBI was conducting a criminal investigation into the incident, and it contended that attempts by Union Carbide’s investigating team to formally interview the workers would constitute â€Å"tampering with evidence† in the criminal investigation. The problem of access to information was further magnified by this threat of criminal prosecution by the Indian government, Union Carbide’s Chairman, Warren Anderson, who went to Bhopal to offer assistance and relief immediately after the incident, was placed under arrest upon his arrival in the city, and seven UCIL officers and employees were also arrested. This posture, in addition to physically preventing an investigation by Union Carbide, created an atmosphere of fear of criminal sanctions among the plant workers. Such an atmosphere, together with the sheer magnitude of the disaster, made witnesses even more defensive and uncommunicative than is usually the case in such investigations. Further, the CBI conducted its criminal investigation into the incident using aggressive tactics. We believe this treatment played a major role in the development of a â€Å"cover-up† by plant employees. As noted earlier, there is a reflexive tendency among plant workers everywhere to Page 4 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. attempt to divorce themselves from the events surrounding any incident and to distort or omit facts to serve their own purposes. This is especially so where the investigation is criminal in nature. In addition, once an eye-witness has taken a defensive position under aggressive questioning by police making a criminal investigation, it becomes, as a practical matter, nearly impossible for the witness to later change that position to state the actual facts. The team was permitted access to samples of the tank residue, and, after several months of extensive analysis of the residue of Tank 610, including more than 500 experiments, the UCC investigation team issued its report in March 1985 3. The team concluded that the incident was caused when 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of water entered the tank. After subsequent experimentation and more extensive sampling much later, the amount of water was determined to be even greater. This large quantity of water reacted with the MIC in the tank, causing its temperature to rise to over 100 °C, leading to a vigorous exothermic trimerization of MIC, resulting in rapid rises in temperature and pressure, and ultimately causing the major release. The incident occurred, despite the fact that the system had been designed and operated to keep out even small amounts of water, and the fact that no water had ever entered the tanks during the five years the plant had been in operation. Moreover, it was clear upon subsequent sampling and analysis that no water had entered either of the other two MIC storage tanks. Because the MIC production facility had been shut down for over a month prior to the incident, and for a variety of other reasons that will be discussed, the investigation team concluded that direct entry of the water — that is, by a direct connection to the tank rather than through the plant’s piping system — was likely. However, because the team had not been permitted to interview the plant employees and did not have full access to the records, it was unable to develop this theory further at that time. The CSIR publicly issued its report 2 in December of 1985, approximately one year after the incident. The CSIR report also concluded that the event was caused by the entry of a large quantity of water into Tank 610. The CBI has not, to date, issued a public report of the findings of its own investigation. LITIGATION For more than a year, the CBI continued to prohibit interviews with the plant’s employees. In the interim, a new aspect to the investigation developed. The Indian Government filed a civil suit against Union Carbide Corporation in the United States, asserting that the Government was the sole representative of the Bhopal victims. Thus, the Government acted as the plaintiff in a civil case with an interest in proving Union Carbide Corporation to be liable, yet, in its institutional role, it continued to exercise complete control of access to the sources of proof, restricting Union Carbide’s ability to learn the truth, and fostering a version of the facts which supported its own litigation interest. The Government’s position as a party to the civil suit ultimately provided certain benefits to Union Carbide’s investigation. In December 1985, a U. S. agistrate 4 ordered the Indian Government to turn over copies of certain of the plant’s records that had been seized, and these then became available for analysis by Union Carbide for the first time. Moreover, while it was before the U. S. court seeking information from Union Carbide, the Indian Government could not, as a practical matter, continue to restrict access to plant employees, which enabled Union Carbide to finally begin intervie ws. Despite having been denied access to the evidence for more than a year and despite being viewed with a great deal of hostility and suspicion, Union Carbide investigators Page 5 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. conducted a thorough review of the incident which included detailed interviews with virtually all of the relevant plant employees. INTERVIEWS Union Carbide employees and representatives began to interview the plant’s employees in January 1986. Many people spoke openly and willingly. However, the team anticipated that there would be problems in interviewing the plant’s employees, and the team therefore was assisted by a person familiar with most of the employees. This proved advantageous because the team found that many would speak to him, even if they were unwilling to speak to the entire team. It also proved beneficial in assessing the credibility of each individual. Language also loomed as a potential problem, although ultimately it did not prove to be troublesome. Although all operators spoke English, many were more comfortable speaking Hindi. Several members of the team were fluent in Hindi and, by translating each question and answer, the interviews progressed smoothly. However, the team did encounter some problems in locating the involved employees and persuading them to talk about a traumatic incident that had occurred a year and a half earlier. The Bhopal plant had been shut down since the incident, and the employees, by and large, had sought other employment. Many of the former operators and other employees had departed Bhopal without leaving any forwarding addresses, and it took weeks of questioning former landlords and neighbors to determine their whereabouts. Several had relocated as far away as Nepal and remote areas of India. This required lengthy journeys — in one case, only to find the wrong individual with the same name. Careful advance preparation was therefore necessary. Many of the former MIC operators were later employed by the State Government as plant safety inspectors. Some of those who had been most directly involved refused to talk to the team and eluded many attempts. Because politeness is an Indian trait, in fact, some would make appointments for interviews, but then disappear just prior to the appointment. Once found, however, the customary politeness proved to be an advantage, and the investigators learned it was wise to nurse the obligatory cup of tea for hours to prolong the interview in order to obtain bits and pieces of new information. Although the Indian Government has continued to refuse access to the original plant records, copies of some of them were produced in the civil suit, and the investigators were able to analyze them and use their content in the interviews. The investigators conducted well over 70 interviews over the course of a year and a half. The significant aspects and findings of this investigation are presented in what follows. To better understand the findings, however, a basic understanding of the plant’s layout and operation is necessary. III. BHOPAL PLANT LAYOUT AND OPERATION The plant layout is shown in Figure 1. Methyl isocyanate (MIC) was produced at the Bhopal Page 6 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. plant by reacting monomethylamine and phosgene in the plant’s MIC production unit. The refined MIC was then transferred to a separate MIC storage area (see Figure 2) where it was stored in two horizontal, mounded, 15,000-gallon, stainless-steel tanks. A third storage tank was kept empty for emergencies and for off-specification material awaiting reprocessing. The MIC was used to make SEVIN carbaryl and several other carbamate pesticides. The MIC was processed into SEVIN carbaryl pesticide in the SEVIN unit. The MIC was transferred in one-ton batches to a charge pot in the SEVIN unit using nitrogen pressure. A nitrogen pressure of at least 14 psig in the MIC storage tank was necessary to move the material from the storage area to the SEVIN unit charge pot at a reasonable rate. From there, each batch would be reacted with alpha-naphthol to make SEVIN carbaryl. On the night of December 2-3, 1984, the 41 metric tons of MIC in one of the storage tanks (Tank 610) underwent a chemical reaction which was initiated by the introduction of water to the tank. The reaction caused the release of MIC through the relief-valve system. This, in turn, resulted in the Bhopal tragedy. The exact means by which water entered Tank 610 that night was the subject of the investigation described in this paper. The team first considered and analyzed the purported cause of the incident which had been publicly reported by the media. This was the socalled â€Å"water-washing theory. † This story is discussed next. IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE WATER-WASHING THEORY As discussed in Section I, the media generally play a significant role in establishing public perception of the cause of large-magnitude incidents, often drawing conclusions before the facts can be established. In the days immediately after the incident, the story that emerged from the plant workers, as reported by the press (much of which ultimately provided to be fallacious), was as follows: Shortly before the end of the second shift, at 10:20 p. . , the pressure in Tank 610 was reported to be at 2 psig. The shift change occurred at 10:45 p. m. , and everything was normal until 11:30 p. m. , at which time a small leak was reported downwind and in the area of the MIC production unit. The MIC supervisor said that he would deal with the leak after tea, which began at 12:15 a. m. The tea lasted until 12:40 a. m. at which time all was normal. At that point, the control room operator observed the pressure rise suddenly in Tank 610, and within minutes the indicator was off the gauge’s scale. At 12:45 a. . , the safety valve on the tank opened, and gas came out of the stack of the vent gas scrubber. The operators ran to the tank and found it rumbling, and the concrete over the tank was cracking. The fire squad sprayed the stack to knock down the gas, and the reaction subsided an hour or so later. The workers claimed to have no idea as to why the pressure rose in the first instance. According to this account, the incident occurred suddenly and inexplicably. There was, however, intense media pressure to quickly identify the cause of the incident. As noted above, some journalists tend to try to uncover a cause that is easy to understand and easy to explain; they also show a tendency to find and publicize an explanation that will have popular appeal. In the case of Bhopal, this caused the media to seize upon reports of an improper waterwashing of a pipeline in the MIC production structure — a report that first began to circulate only days after the incident. According to this story, an MIC operator was told to wash a section of a subheader of the relief valve vent header (â€Å"RVVH†) in the MIC manufacturing unit. Because he Page 7 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. failed to insert a slip-blind, as called for by plant standard operating procedures, the water supposedly backed up into the header and eventually found its way into the process vent header (â€Å"PVH†) through a tubing connection near the tanks. It then was supposed to have flowed into the MIC storage tank, located more than 400 feet by pipeline from the initial point of entry. This was, to a layman, an apparently plausible, easily understood explanation of the water source, which did not require any detailed knowledge of the plant process or layout. It also was a theory that had popular appeal because it focused on a simple, minor human inadvertence which caused a great tragedy — a â€Å"for-want-of-a-horseshoe-nail-the-kingdom-was-lost† explanation. It was readily accepted by those eager to believe the incident had been caused by improper operating practices at a purportedly shoddy chemical plant in a Third World country. The waterwashing theory was also publicly embraced by the Indian Government. Although the water-washing theory has superficial appeal, those engineers most familiar with the plant — its valving, piping, and layout — found the theory highly implausible. When Union Carbide finally gained access to the plant, talked to witnesses, and considered all the evidence, it concluded that the theory could not withstand even minimal scientific scrutiny. And, although the Indian Government holds in its possession records and test results that completely discredit this theory, it continues to embrace it nonetheless. Several independent pieces of evidence demonstrate that water-washing of lines in the filter area could not possibly have been the cause of water entry into Tank 610. This evidence is discussed next. V. EVIDENCE REFUTING THE WATER-WASHING THEORY The details of the pertinent parts of the plant vent systems, shown in Figure 3, will be helpful in understanding the material presented in this section. The water-washing theory assumes that water from an operation designed to wash a sub-header near four process filters (Point â€Å"A† of Figure 3) went through the relief valve vent header (RVVH), then through a connection to the process vent header (PVH) and then into Tank 610 (Point â€Å"B†). At least three independent, objective pieces of evidence establish that this could not have happened. . BLEEDER VALVE HYDRAULICS The water was introduced using a hose with a 1/2-inch inlet. Even assuming all intermediate header-system valves to have been wide open, for water to have reached the top of the PVH riser near Tank 610 (Point â€Å"B† of Figure 3), it would have had to be under sufficient pressure near the point of introduction (Point â€Å"A† of Figure 3) to en able it to climb 10. 4 feet. Associated with the filters near the washing operation, however, there are four 1/ 2-inch bleeder valves in parallel (see Items 18 of Figure 4). Of these, one was reportedly mechanically plugged, but the other three were reported by five eye-witnesses to be wide open and draining freely. With the 1/2-inch hose connection to the washing operation limiting the flow to about 10-15 gallons/minute, the three open bleeder valves would limit the water back-pressure above them to no more than about 0. 7 foot of hydraulic head, clearly not enough to raise the water by 10. 4 feet. Page 8 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. 2. CLOSED INTERMEDIATE VALVE In the above paragraph, we assumed for the sake of argument that all intermediate valves in the header systems between the water connection and Tank 610 were open. It should be noted that if any one of these valves was closed (and leak-tight), the waterwashing theory must fail. One such valve is the valve close to the water-washing operation, connecting it to the RVVH (see Item 19 on Figure 4). A plant mastercard (a detailed record of steps taken during maintenance) shows it to have been shut since November 29, 1984. The mastercard also reflects that the valve was physically tagged closed; after the incident, the tag was found to be still present on the valve. Furthermore, with the authorization of the Indian Government, the integrity of this valve was tested in a July 1985 simulation of the waterwashing operation; in this one-hour test, no water leaked past this valve into the RVVH. There is no way that water from the water-washing operation could have reached Tank 610 without first passing through this valve, which is documented to have been closed and leak-tight. 3. DRY HEADER PIPING For water to have penetrated to Tank 610 from the water-washing area, it would have had to fill the 6-inch diameter connecting pipe, then a 65-foot length of 8-inch RVVH (with more than a dozen branches running off this line), and then some 340 feet of 4-inch RVVH. It would then have had to fill a 120-foot length of 2-inch PVH and a last 220-foot section of 2-inch PVH with the vertical legs at each end of this section. Calculations show that some 4,500 pounds of water would have been needed to fill all this piping, before any could get to Tank 610. Thus, if the water-washing operation were the source of the water, large quantities of water would have filled the associated piping. As the incident later progressed and gases were ejected from Tank 610, the gases would have cleared the water from the main RVVH flow path out of the vent gas scrubber. On the other hand, all of the branch downlegs, as well as the 220-foot section of the PVH with the downlegs on either end of it, would have remained full of water, as the connection between the PVH and the vent gas scrubber had been previously blinded off to allow replacement of some sections of PVH. And, even though the vented gases were hot, the water in these sections could not have boiled or evaporated away, because these sections were dozens of feet away from the piping in which hot gases were flowing. When the branch vent lines on the ground floor of the production unit and the branch vent lines connected to Tank 611 and to the spare tank were drained, only normal, small amounts of water (or no water al all) were found. On February 8, 1985, the Superintendent of Police, CBI, ordered (see Figure 5A) that a hole be drilled in the lowest point of this 220-foot length of the PVH, to determine how much water was contained therein. The authorization acknowledges that this section of pipe had no bleeders or flanged joints. For the water-washing theory to have been true, there should have been hundreds of pounds of water still in this section of pipe, and so some empty 55-gallon drums were made available to collect whatever amounts of liquid would issue from the drilled hole. When the hole was drilled, however, the pipe was found to be bone-dry. The line was Page 9 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. immediately purged with nitrogen to force any liquid out, but not a drop was obtained (see Figure 5B). Thus, the water-washing theory is clearly untenable. The bleeder valves in the waterwashing area would have had to be closed (but three were witnessed to have been open), the intermediate header valves would have had to be open (but at least one is documented to have been closed and leak-tight), and there would have had to be hundreds of pounds of water in the 220-foot section of the PVH drilled after the incident was over (but not even a single drop was found). VI. SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS OF THE UCC INVESTIGATION As indicated in Section V, it was clear to those investigating the event that it had not been caused in the manner that had gained popular acceptance — inadvertent failure to place a slipblind during water-washing of lines near the process filters. The UCC team also thoroughly considered other possible routes of water entry and became convinced that this incident had been initiated by the entry of water to the tank by means of a direct connection. Evidence of a direct-connection entry was gathered only gradually, however, in large measure because of some of the psychological factors and motivations discussed earlier. PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS Perhaps because of the enormity of the event, many people, even those only peripherally involved, tended to remember in detail and with great clarity the sequence of events of that night. Nevertheless, people experienced the event in different ways, thus yielding, for example, varying estimates of the duration of the actual release. The tendency of plant workers to omit facts or distort evidence was also clearly evident after the Bhopal incident, making the collection of evidence a time-consuming process. In investigating any incident in which facts seem to have been omitted or distorted, it is necessary to examine the motives of those involved. The story that had been initially told by the workers was a preferable one from their perspective, because it exonerated everyone, except perhaps the supervisor. According to this version, the reaction happened instantaneously; there was no time to take preventive or remedial measures, and there was no known cause. Without a cause, no blame could be established. Because critical facts were being deliberately omitted and distorted, the investigation team had to continually review and reanalyze each new piece of evidence and to assess its consistency and veracity with hard evidence and known facts. Ultimately, several firm pieces of evidence came to light — evidence that simply did not fit the story told initially by the workers, and that eventually led to the conclusion that a direct water connection had been found by the workers, but had been covered up. Page 10 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. LAST TRANSFER OF MIC TO THE SEVIN UNIT The plant records show the following sequence of events. Although in the weeks prior to the incident the MIC manufacturing unit had been shut down, the SEVIN unit was operating, using the MIC that had been stored in the tanks. The operators were transferring MIC from Tank 611 to a one-ton charge pot for subsequent conversion to SEVIN. Plant procedure was to exhaust the contents of one MIC storage tank before using the MIC in the second tank, and 21 tons remained in Tank 611. Thus, although they experienced some difficulty in pressurizing Tank 610, which had been at atmospheric pressure for the previous six weeks, there was more than enough MIC in Tank 611 to meet the SEVIN production requirement and there was no need to use the MIC in Tank 610. During the early period after the incident, when the Union Carbide investigation team was about to assist in safely disposing of the MIC remaining in Tank 611, the MIC in the SEVIN charge pot and the transfer line between the tank and the charge pot was sampled. The MIC was found to be greenish, with a higher-than-normal chloroform content (consistent with that of the MIC stored in Tank 610 prior to the incident), and with evidence of the presence of non-volatile reaction products of a water-MIC reaction. These samples caused a substantial amount of concern because it was then feared that there might also be a major problem with the MIC in Tank 611 as well. Precautions were taken to sample the MIC in Tank 611 and extensive analyses of the contents of Tank 611 were conducted. The MIC in Tank 611, however, proved to be onspecification and clear, with normal levels of chloroform, and no non-volatile reaction products. The investigation team, therefore, concluded that the last transfer to the SEVIN charge pot must have come from Tank 610, before its contents had severely reacted, rather than from Tank 611. This piece of evidence was surprising because everyone had assumed that all transfers had come from Tank 611 during the period prior to the event. This assumption had been made because the last transfer, as logged by the SEVIN unit operators, occurred from Tank 611 at 23:30, or 11:30 p. . , just prior to the incident. In addition, prior to the time the pressure had begun to rise in Tank 610, there had been insufficient pressure to make a transfer from Tank 610. No operators had reported a transfer that night from Tank 610, although several stated a transfer from Tank 611 had occurred. The team was well aware of the tendency of operators, after an incident of such magnitude, to distance themselves and minimize their involvement, and therefore it continued to explore the possibility that a transfer had been made from Tank 610. Some of the copies of records released to Union Carbide in December 1985 were copies of the MIC inventory records, including those for the night of the incident. One log, which had been previously unavailable to Union Carbide’s investigation team in December 1984, showed a final transfer of MIC from Tank 611 between 10:15 and 10:30 p. m. , the evening of the incident. Although, initially, the log did not appear out of the ordinary, several unusual factors were noticed upon closer examination (see next-to-last entry in Figure 6): 1) The transfer was logged as having started at 10:15 p. . on the second shift but between two operators who did not arrive until the third shift began at 10:45 p. m. later that night. It was logged in the handwriting of one of those third shift operations. 2) The logged time of the transfer was out of sequence with the remaining entries. 3) The operator who logged it normally used the 24-hour clock convention in recording transfers. The investigators studied these records, and finally determined that the transfer had been originally logged at â€Å"0:15† to â€Å":30†, or 12:15 to 12:30 a. m. and had been altered later that morning Page 11 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. in an attempt to cover up the events and to move the time of the transfer back to a period of time in which the MIC operators could not be blamed. The team thus concluded that the logs showed there had been a transfer from Tank 610 at 12:15 a. m. to 12:30 a. m. — 15 minutes before the major release occurred. In addition to its proximity to the release, the transfer also occurred during the time of the tea break, which was highly irregular. Water is known to be heavier than MIC, and the transfer line comes up from the bottom of the tank. With the discovery of this log, together with the results of the charge pot analysis, the UCC team concluded that there had been an attempt by the MIC operators to remove water from the tank just prior to the time the safety valve lifted, after the pressure had increased sufficiently in the tank to move the material out. This completely refuted the story that the workers had originally told regarding the instantaneous reaction. Moreover, it showed that the operators knew water had entered Tank 610. The transfer of one ton of material would have been wholly and obviously ineffective to relieve pressure in the 45-ton tank; the only reason for a transfer at that time was to get water known to be in the tank out of the tank. This conclusion was further supported by the logs recorded that night in the SEVIN unit. These were made in duplicate, and one copy showed the time of an MIC transfer as 23:30, whereas on the other copy, found in the accounting records, the time of the transfer was missing. We believe that the SEVIN supervisor may have filled in the time of the transfer after the incident to make it appear that the transfer had not occurred close to the time of the major release, but was unable to do so on all copies because the second copy had already been sent (as required by plant procedure) to the plant’s accounting office. When the investigating team interviewed the SEVIN supervisor, he at first would not admit that he had gone into the SEVIN unit that morning at all, but he later admitted that he had entered there briefly to complete his logs. The morning after the incident he reportedly discussed the possibility of reacting the MIC in the charge pot into SEVIN, perhaps in an attempt to destroy any evidence of a charge from Tank 610. CONTRADICTIONS Meanwhile, as the interviews with the operators and supervisors directly involved progressed, it became apparent that there were massive contradictions in their stories. For example, operators and employees from other units and another plant downwind of the MIC unit, together with some MIC operators, reported sensing small MIC leaks well before the major release occurred, and they notified their shift supervisors. However, those Bhopal plant supervisors denied hearing any reports about earlier leaks. In addition, the supervisors were unable to plausibly account for their activities during the 45-minute period prior to the release. They placed themselves with people and in locations for reasons that were entirely different from those that had been given by those individuals they were supposedly with. Ultimately, the reasons for this became clear: witnesses from other units reported that these supervisors and the plant superintendent were taking a break in the plant’s main canteen when they received word of the incident. Because previously they had been instructed not to take their breaks together, they masked their actions by claiming to know nothing until just prior to the major release. Page 12 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. The operators in the MIC unit also gave widely contradictory accounts. For example, some stated that the alarm signaling the major release went off only several minutes after tea began at 12:15 a. m. , whereas others stated that the tea period in the control room was entirely normal, and they had not noticed anything to be amiss until just a few minutes prior to the major release. The control room operator initially told the media that he noticed the pressure in Tank 610 was 10 psig when the shift began; however, he later stated that the pressure remained at 2 psig until after tea. Because some of the witnesses directly involved in the incident were initially unavailable for interviews, and because others were rendering obviously contradictory accounts, reports given by the more peripheral figures during the incident became highly important. For these individuals, primarily operators from other units or those who were not present at the time of the incident, there was no motive to distort or omit facts, and their accounts were thus deemed more reliable. Ultimately, it became clear that the MIC operators knew at least 30 to 45 minutes before the release that something was seriously wrong, and that several had acted in an attempt to forestall the problem. One of the more reliable accounts came from a witness who had no motive or reason to distort or omit the facts. He was the â€Å"tea boy†, who served tea in the MIC control room just prior to the major release. With some difficulty, he was located in Nepal, in the Himalayas, and brought to Delhi. Despite the MIC operators’ claim of a normal tea period, the tea boy reported that when he entered the unit at about 12:15 a. m. , the atmosphere was tense and quiet. Although he attempted to serve tea, the operators refused it. After detailed questioning of scores of operators, it became apparent that those directly involved were unable to give consistent accounts because they were attempting to give very specific details of events that never occurred. Therefore, the investigation team made an intensive effort to find logs that might have been initially overlooked and that might shed some light on the cause or course of the incident. Two of the significant findings were: 1) While reviewing the daily notes of the MIC unit for the period prior to the incidents, a sketch was found on the reverse side of one page, the first page available for writing. This sketch showed a hose connection to an instrument on a tank, and it appears to have been made to explain how the water entered the tank. ) This effort to search the records brought to light even further evidence of attempts to cover up the story. For example, the time of the occurrence had been altered in log after log to reflect the incident occurring at a different time than had been initially recorded. This was true of the foam-tender log, the assistant security officer’s log, the utilities log, and the stores register. Further, in some logs, the pages relevant to the period in question had been either completely, or partially, ripped out. It appeared clear: there had been a systematic effort to alter and destroy logs. In many cases, the team found that the witnesses, especially the peripheral ones, were not aware of which facts were pertinent, and they revealed only those they considered important. Thus, it was necessary to talk at length to witnesses about all the facts and circumstances involved to draw out relevant facts. For example, during a series of routine interviews with a variety of former plant employees held in the winter of 1986, an instrument supervisor, who was not on duty that night, offered a telling observation. Casually, he mentioned that when he arrived at the scene early on the morning following the incident, upon checking the instruments on the tank, as he had been instructed to do, he noticed that the local pressure indicator on Tank 610 was missing. This fact was of crucial importance because the instrument is on the tank manhead, and was one of the few places to Page 13 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. which a water hose could be connected (see Item 10 of Figure 7). The witness was wholly unaware of the significance of his statement. Upon further questioning, the team learned that the indicator was not only missing, but a plug had not been inserted in its place, as would have been the case if it had been removed in the course of plant maintenance. Plant logs showed that the local pressure indicator had been present as of Friday, November 30, 1984, two days prior to the incident. The same instrument supervisor stated that he also found a hose lying beside the tank manhead that morning, and that water was running out of it. Other witnesses questioned later also recalled that the local pressure indicator on Tank 610 was found to be missing after the incident. After his statements subsequently became public in the litigation between the Indian Government and Union Carbide, the CBI subjected the instrument supervisor to six days of interrogation and intimidation during which they attempted, without success, to force him to change his testimony 5. Additional significant evidence of direct entry of water came from other peripheral witnesses. Within hours of the incident, reports of a direct water connection to the tank began to circulate among the plant employees. These were reported to the Indian Government by plant management but they could not be pursued at that time because the CBI had prohibited interviews of plant employees. As it became evident that a massive cover-up had occurred among the more directly involved witnesses, these reports became more credible. The investigators, therefore, traced the origins of this report and spoke to an off-duty employee of another unit, who had reached the plant at approximately 2:00 a. . the morning of the incident. He stated that he had been told by a close friend of one of the MIC operators that water had entered through a tube that had been connected to the tank. This was discovered by the other MIC operators, who then tried to open and close valves to prevent the release. Although the MIC operators used technical terms to describe the connection that the interviewee did not understand, he was able to draw the exact location of the connection, which proved to be the location of the local pressure indicator on Tank 610. Another peripheral witness whose testimony proved to be of significance was an operator from a different unit who was on duty that night. He stated that, shortly after the release had subsided early that morning, at approximately 3:00 a. m. , the workers from other units were discussing the incident in the plant. Two MIC operators told them that water had entered the tank through a pressure gauge. VII. THE DIRECT-ENTRY CHRONOLOGY The results of this investigation show, with virtual certainty, that the Bhopal incident was caused by the entry of water to the tank through a hose that had been connected directly to the tank. It is equally clear that those most directly involved attempted to obfuscate these events. Nevertheless, the pieces of the puzzle are now firmly in place, and based upon technical and objective evidence, the following sequence of events occurred. At 10:20 p. m. on the night of the incident, the pressure in Tank 610 was at 2 psig. This is significant because no water could have entered prior to that point; otherwise a reaction would have begun, and the resulting pressure rise would have been noticed. At 10:45 p. m. , the shift change occurred. The unit was shut down and it takes at least a half hour for the shift change to be Page 14 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. accomplished. During this period, on a cold winter night, the MIC storage area would be completely deserted. We believe that it was at this point — during the shift change — that a disgruntled operator entered the storage area and hooked up one of the readily available rubber water hoses to Tank 610, with the intention of contaminating and spoiling the tank’s contents. It was well known among the plant’s operators that water and MIC should not be mixed. He unscrewed the local pressure indicator, which can be easily accomplished by hand, and connected the hose to the tank. The entire operation could be completed within five minutes. Minor incidents of process sabotage by employees had occurred previously at the Bhopal plant, and, indeed, occur from time to time in industrial plants all over the world. The water and MIC reaction initiated the formation of carbon dioxide which, together with MIC vapors, was carried through the header system and out of the stack of the vent gas scrubber by about 11:30 to 11:45 p. m. Because the â€Å"common valve† (Item 16 of Figure 7) was in a closed position before the incident and the tank held a strong vacuum when it cooled down after the incident, it is clear that the valve was temporarily opened to permit the entry of water. This also permitted the vapors initially generated to flow (via the PVH) out through the RVVH. It was these vapors that were sensed by workers in the area downwind as the earlier minor MIC leaks. The leak was also sensed by several MIC operators who were sitting downwind of the leak at the time. They reported the leak to the MIC supervisor and began to search for it in the MIC structure. At about midnight, they found what they believed to be the source, viz. , a section of open piping located on the second level of the structure near the vent gas scrubber. They fixed a fire hose so that it would spray in that direction and returned to the MIC control room believing that they had successfully contained the MIC leak. Meanwhile, the supervisors went to the plant’s main canteen on break. Shortly after midnight, several MIC operators saw the pressure rise on the gauges in the control room and realized that there was a problem with Tank 610. They ran to the tank and discovered the water hose connection to the tank. They discussed the alternatives and called the supervisors back from the canteen. They decided upon transferring about one ton of the tank’s contents to the SEVIN unit as the best method of getting the water out. The major release then occurred. The MIC supervisor called the MIC production manager at home within fifteen minutes of the major release and told him that water had gotten into an MIC tank. (It later took UCC’s and GOI’s investigating teams, working separately, months to determine scientifically that water entry had been responsible. Not knowing if the attempted transfer had exacerbated the incident, or whether they could have otherwise prevented it, or whether they would be blamed for not having notified plant management earlier, those involved decided upon a cover-up. They altered logs that morning and thereafter to disguise their involvement. As is not uncommon in many such in cidents, the reflexive tendency to cover up simply took over. VIII. CONCLUSION By their nature, large-magnitude incidents present unique problems for investigators. In the case of the Bhopal incident, these problems were compounded by the constraints placed on the Union Carbide investigation team by the Indian Government and, most significantly, by the Page 15 of 16 Bhopal as a Case Study – Union Carbide Corp. prohibition of interviews of plant employees for over a year. Had those constraints not been imposed, the actual cause of the incident would have been determined within several months. Because the investigation was blocked, a popular explanation arose in the media as to the cause of the tragedy. A thorough investigation, which included scores of in-depth witness interviews, a review of thousands of plant logs, tests of valving and piping, hundreds of scientific experiments, and examinations of the plant and its equipment, was ultimately conducted over a year later. That investigation has established that the incident was not caused in the manner popularly reported, but rather was the result of a direct water connection to the tank. IX. REFERENCES 1. Pietersen, J. M. , â€Å"Analysis of the LPG Incident in San Juan Ixtahuapec, Mexico City, 19 November 1984†³, TNO Report 85-0222, 1985. 2. Report on Scientific Studies on the Release Factors Related to Bhopal Toxic Gas Leakage†, Indian Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, December 1985. 3. â€Å"Bhopal Methyl Isocyanate Investigation Team Report†, Union Carbide Corporation, Danbury, Connecticut, U. S. A. , March 1985. 4. In re: Union Carbide Corporation Gas Plant Disaster at Bhopal, India in December 1984. MDL Docket No. 626, U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York, Ordered November 8, 1985. 5. Interlocutory Application No. 19, Filed in Court of District Judge, Bhopal, in Regular Suit No. 1113 of 1986, Date, February 4, 1986. Page 16 of 16 How to cite Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Papers

The effect of watching too much tv for kids free essay sample

Children from birth to age five are actively growing, learning and developing habits that will shape their physical and emotional health. Because this time period is so crucial to the development of a child’s body and brain, any negative influences can have lifelong health effects (1). Excessive television viewing among young children has been linked to negative impacts on early brain development, and lifelong physical health (1, 2). Television and early brain development Repeated exposure to television or related activity can affect a child’s mental and emotional development (1). TV often takes the place of interactive experiences (e. g play) that promote healthy brain development (1, 2, 3, 4). Too much TV during the early years has been linked to: o Poor performance in school, especially in the areas of language and reading. If TV is substituted for reading and talking with others at a young age, children may have delayed language development (1, 2, 3, 5, 26). o Being less able to use imagination. We will write a custom essay sample on The effect of watching too much tv for kids or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Too much TV can lead to an overload on the visual part of the brain, while depriving other parts of the brain. Areas of the brain responsible for creative thought and imagination are under used because watching television doesn’t require these skills (2). o Not being able to tell apart television from the real world. (3). o Problems focusing. Too many fast paced images from TV watching keeps the brain from learning how to pay attention and also the instant stimulus of TV can cause a children to become impatient in complex situations (1). o Poor skills in planning and judging. The areas of the brain responsible for these skills are under used and not fully developed if a young child watches too much television and plays too many video games (1).b  o More likely to be violent when problems occur. Television and video game violence is thought to be responsible for 10% to 20% of all real-life violence (3, 23). The negative impacts of television on child and lifelong physical health include: o Replacing physical activity with inactivity (sedentary behavior). A decrease in physical activit y is linked to an increased risk for obesity and some chronic diseases (6, 7, 8,15). o Promotion of poor dietary habits. Increased exposure to advertisements for high fat and sugar containing foods leading to poor food choices (9, 21, 22). †¢ The average child views about 20,000 commercials each year (12). †¢ Sugary cereals are strongly marketed to children; making up 34% of all commercials during children’s programming (22). †¢ Children often ask for these foods by name and parents buy them (21). †¢ A recent study found that increased television viewing during meals is associated with an increased consumption of foods high in fat and sugar and a decreased consumption of fruits, vegetables and milk (9). o More snacking while watching TV. Television viewing is associated with increased consumption of snacks (6, 9). †¢ Children with a television in their bedroom snack more than children without (6). o More likely to become overweight. The more time a child, adolescent or adult spends watching television, the greater chance he or she has of becoming overweight (6, 13). Overweight children have a higher risk of developing diabetes. †¢ Childhood obesity in the US has tripled over the last 25 years (24, 25). †¢ Children who are overweight by the age of two have a 10% chance of overweight in adulthood. Those who are still overweight by age ten have a 79% chance of overweight in adulthood (14, 20). †¢ A recent study found that 10 % of preschool children ages 2-4 are overweight, and 16 % of low income preschool children are overweight (6). Strategies for reducing the impact of television on child development include: o LIMIT VIEWING TIME: At home, school, and childcare o KEEP TV OUT OF CHILD’S ROOM: Children with a television in their room spend more time watching TV than those without a television in their room (6, 27). o ADULTS CAN HELP CHILDREN UNDERSTAND TV CONTENT by choosing appropriate programs, watching with their children, and discussing what they see together. o PROVIDE ROLE MODELS: The amount of time a child spends  watching TV is closely related to the amount of time that his or her parents spend watching TV (16). How much television do children watch? The average American child watches 20 to 30 hours of television per week, not including time spent watching movies, playing video games, or using the computer (3, 4). †¢ A national survey of televisi on use found that preschoolers watch about 2. 6 hours per day, and 31% of preschoolers have a television in their bedroom (17). †¢ A child who watches more than two hours of television per day by the age of two, is more likely to increase television viewing hours by the age of six (18). How much TV is too much? Children who watch television for 10 hours or more per week are less skilled at reading and are less successful in school than children who watch less than 10 hours per week (5, 26). The American Academy of Pediatrics makes the following recommendations regarding television: (See additional materials for the full AAP Policy Statement on Children, Adolescents, and Television) (3) †¢ Television viewing should not exceed one to two hours of quality programming daily. †¢ Children younger than two years old should not watch television. Why do children watch so much TV? The television viewing habits of parents and siblings influences a child’s TV viewing habits more than any other factor (16). Children may also watch more TV due to a: †¢ Lack of other activities offered in the community (8) †¢ Lack of safety outside the home (8) †¢ Lack of interaction with their parents (8) †¢ More programs geared towards children (21, 22) †¢ A television in their bedroom (6, 27) How can we reduce television viewing? Fortunately, classroom programs aimed at reducing television viewing have been successful (11, 19). Also, parents are motivated to protect the health of their children, and are motivated by a child’s enthusiasm. Early childhood educators can: †¢ Get children interested in activities other than television. †¢ Educate children and their families on why reducing television time may be healthier. †¢ Provide ideas for replacing television with more active and interactive alternatives. †¢ Provide information about healthy eating habits. †¢ Provide support and resources to families as they make decisions about the use of television in their homes. How will the ClicKit!  help to reduce television use in families? The ClicKit! materials are a resource for your program to introduce television reduction to children and their families. The materials in this teaching kit provide: †¢ Lesson plans and program action goals. †¢ Materials on reducing television and increasing physical activity for posting at program sites, sending home with families, and i ncorporating into educational activities with children and parents. †¢ Ideas for alternative activities to replace TV. †¢ A website with additional resources for staff and parents.

s Foriegn Policy

Nixon’s Foreign Policy Richard Milhous Nixon was elected President of the United States in 1968. In a low-key campaign, Nixon promised to bring peace with honor in Vietnam and to unite a nation deeply divided by the Vietnam War. Nixon defeated his two opponents, Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace. Nixon entered office in the midst of one of the gravest foreign policy crisis in American history. The Cold War was at its height, hundreds of thousands of American troops were in Vietnam, and the views of society were split down the middle. Nixon with the help of his National Security Advisor (and later became in 1973 Nixon’s Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger felt that it was crucial to change American foreign policy. Nixon and Kissinger felt it was vital to support our interest in the long run, Nixon and Kissinger considered it essential to have a balance of power throughout the world in order to ensure peace as well prosperity. One has to take into consideration geopolitics when discussing balance of power. The main purpose is stability by using different political philosophies based on geography, and self interest. If the main powers pursued their self interest rationally and predictably, and equilibrium would emerge from the conflicting interest (Cowan, par.1). Nixon knew that a strong America was essential to a global balance, and counted on stability to create it. Nixon believed there were three key factors essential to keeping peace: partnership, strength and a willingness to negotiate. Nixon imagined a future in which more pleasant relations among the major powers- the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Western Europe, and Japan- would allow for ventures profitable to all. Through international cooperation these nations might reduce revenue-draining Defense expenditures and prevent the occurrence of costly Third World conflicts such as the Vietnam War (â€Å"Nixon†). Nix... 's Foriegn Policy Free Essays on Nixon\'s Foriegn Policy Nixon’s Foreign Policy Richard Milhous Nixon was elected President of the United States in 1968. In a low-key campaign, Nixon promised to bring peace with honor in Vietnam and to unite a nation deeply divided by the Vietnam War. Nixon defeated his two opponents, Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace. Nixon entered office in the midst of one of the gravest foreign policy crisis in American history. The Cold War was at its height, hundreds of thousands of American troops were in Vietnam, and the views of society were split down the middle. Nixon with the help of his National Security Advisor (and later became in 1973 Nixon’s Secretary of State) Henry Kissinger felt that it was crucial to change American foreign policy. Nixon and Kissinger felt it was vital to support our interest in the long run, Nixon and Kissinger considered it essential to have a balance of power throughout the world in order to ensure peace as well prosperity. One has to take into consideration geopolitics when discussing balance of power. The main purpose is stability by using different political philosophies based on geography, and self interest. If the main powers pursued their self interest rationally and predictably, and equilibrium would emerge from the conflicting interest (Cowan, par.1). Nixon knew that a strong America was essential to a global balance, and counted on stability to create it. Nixon believed there were three key factors essential to keeping peace: partnership, strength and a willingness to negotiate. Nixon imagined a future in which more pleasant relations among the major powers- the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Western Europe, and Japan- would allow for ventures profitable to all. Through international cooperation these nations might reduce revenue-draining Defense expenditures and prevent the occurrence of costly Third World conflicts such as the Vietnam War (â€Å"Nixon†). Nix...

Jonathan Letterman

Jonathan Letterman Jonathan Letterman was a surgeon in the U.S. Army who pioneered a system of caring for the wounded during battles of the Civil War. Prior to his innovations, the care of wounded soldiers was fairly haphazard, but by organizing an Ambulance Corps Letterman saved many lives and changed forever how the military operated. Lettermans accomplishments did not have much to do with scientific or medical advances, but with ensuring that a solid organization for caring for the wounded was in place.   After joining the Army of the Potomac of General George McClellan in the summer of 1862, Letterman began preparing the Medical Corps. Months later he faced a colossal challenge at the Battle of Antietam, and his organization for moving the wounded proved its worth. The following year, his ideas were utilized during and after the Battle of Gettysburg. Some of Lettermans reforms had been inspired by changes instituted in medical care by the British during the Crimean War. But he also had invaluable medical experience learned in the field, during a decade spent in the Army, mostly at outposts in the West, before the Civil War. After the war, he wrote a memoir that detailed his operations in the Army of the Potomac. And with his own health suffering, he died at the age of 48. His ideas, however, lived on long after his life and benefited the armies of many nations. Early Life Jonathan Letterman was born December 11, 1824, in Canonsburg, in western Pennsylvania. His father was a doctor, and Jonathan received an education from a private tutor. He later attended Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1845. He then attended medical school in Philadelphia. He received his M.D. degree in 1849 and took the examination to join the U.S. Army. Throughout the 1850s Letterman was assigned to various military expeditions which often involved armed skirmishes with Indian tribes. In the early 1850s he served in Florida campaigns against the Seminoles. He was transferred to a fort in Minnesota, and in 1854 joined an Army expedition that traveled from Kansas to New Mexico. In 1860 he served a stint in California.   On the frontier, Letterman learned to tend to the wounded while having to improvise in very rough conditions, often with inadequate supplies of medicine and equipment. Civil War and Battlefield Medicine After the outbreak of the Civil War, Letterman returned from California and was briefly posted in New York City. By the spring of 1862 he was assigned to an Army unit in Virginia, and in July 1862 he was appointed medical director of the Army of the Potomac. At the time, Union troops were engaged in McClellans Peninsula Campaign, and military doctors were grappling with the problems of disease as well as battle wounds. As McClellans campaign turned into a fiasco, and the Union troops retreated and began to return to the area around Washington, D.C., they tended to leave behind medical supplies. So Letterman, taking over that summer, faced a challenge of resupplying the Medical Corps.  He advocated for the creation of an ambulance corps. McClellan agreed to the plan and a regular system of inserting ambulances into army units began. By September 1862, when the Confederate Army crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, Letterman commanded a Medical Corps that promised to be more efficient than anything the U.S. Army had seen before. At Antietam, it was put to the test. In the days following the great battle in western Maryland, the Ambulance Corps, troops specially trained to retrieve wounded soldiers and bring them to improvised hospitals, functioned fairly well. That winter the Ambulance Corp again proved its worth at the Battle of Fredericksburg. But the colossal test came at Gettysburg, when the fighting raged for three days and casualties were enormous. Lettermans system of ambulances and wagon trains dedicated to medical supplies worked fairly smoothly, despite countless obstacles. Legacy and Death Jonathan Letterman resigned his commission in 1864, after his system had been adopted throughout the U.S. Army. After leaving the Army he settled in San Francisco with his wife, whom he had married in 1863. In 1866, he wrote a memoir of his time as medical director of the Army of the Potomac. His health began to fail, and he died on March 15, 1872. His contributions to how armies prepare to attend to the wounded in battle, and in how the wounded are moved and cared for, had great influence over the years.

Identifying the Most Common Hardwood Trees

Identifying the Most Common Hardwood Trees Hardwoods or broadleafs  are trees  classed as angiosperms or plants with ovules enclosed for protection in an ovary. When appropriately watered on good fertile sites or fed  in the landscape with a special tree fertilizer mix, these ovules will rapidly develop into seeds. The  seeds then drop from trees as acorns, nuts, samaras, drupes and pods. Hardwoods have either simple or compound leaves. Simple leaves can be further divided into lobed and unlobed. Unlobed leaves may have a smooth edge (such as a magnolia) or a serrated edge (such as an elm). The most common North American tree is the red alder. It has oval-shaped leaves and a reddish-brown bark. They can grow as tall as 100 feet and are found mostly in the western United States and Canada. Difference Between Hardwood and Broadleaf Broadleaf  trees can be evergreen or they can persist in dropping their leaves over the entire  winter. Most are  deciduous and lose all their leaves over a short annual fall drop. These leaves can be either simple (single blades) or they can be​ compound with leaflets attached to a leaf stem. Although variable in shape, all hardwood leaves have a distinct network of fine veins. Here is a quick leaf identification key of the common hardwoods in North America. Hardwood: Trees with broad, flat leaves as opposed to coniferous or needled trees. Wood hardness varies among the hardwood species, and some are actually softer than some softwoods.Deciduous Perennial plants which are normally leafless for some time during the year.Broadleaf: A tree with leaves that are broad, flat and thin and generally shed annually. Difference Between Hardwood and Softwood The texture and density of the wood a tree produces puts it in either the hardwood or softwood category. Most hardwood trees are deciduous trees, which lose their leaves annually, like elm or maple. Softwood comes from a conifer (cone-bearing) or evergreen trees, such as pine or spruce. Ron Biedenbach / EyeEm / Getty Images The wood from hardwood trees tends to be harder because the trees grow at a slower rate, giving the wood its greater density. Most Common Hardwoods Unlike the conifers or softwood firs, spruce and pines, hardwood trees have evolved into a broad array of common species. The most common species in North America are oaks, maple, hickory, birch, beech and cherry. Forests, where a majority of their trees drop leaves at the end of the typical growing season, are called deciduous forests. These forests are found worldwide and are located in either temperate or tropical ecosystems. Deciduous trees, like oaks, maples, and elms, shed their leaves in the fall and sprout new ones every spring Common North American Hardwood List Here are some of the most common hardwood trees found in North America, along with their scientific names. ash  - Genus  Fraxinus  beech  - Genus  Fagus  basswood  - Genus Tilia  birch  - Genus  Betula  black cherry  Ã‚  - Genus  Prunus  black walnut/butternut  - Genus  Juglans  cottonwood  Ã‚  - Genus  Populus  elm  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Ulmus  hackberry  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Celtis  hickory  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Carya  holly  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  IIex  locust  - Genus  Robinia  and  Gleditsia  magnolia  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Magnolia  maple  - Genus  Acer  oak  - Genus  Quercus  poplar  Ã‚  - Genus  Populus  red alder  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Alnus  royal paulownia  Ã‚  - Genus  Paulownia  sassafras  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Sassafras  sweetgum  - Genus  Liquidambar  sycamore  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Platanus  tupelo  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Nyssa  willow  Ã‚  - Genus  Ã‚  Salix  yellow-poplar  - Genus  Liriodendron japatino / Getty Images

Importance of Providing Additional Support to the Prisoners, Prison Research Paper

Importance of Providing Additional Support to the Prisoners, Prison Management - Research Paper Example The rate of crime has increased drastically over the years and in the absence of a comprehensive professional and continuous learning and development program, that seeks to enhance the lives of the citizens as a whole, curbing crime and ensuring a safe neighborhood is inconceivable. Statistics reveal that approximately two-thirds of the prisons in England and Wales are stuffed with inmates well beyond their actual capacity. According to the Howard League for Penal Reform, approximately 52, 500 prisoners are stuffed in jails which are overcrowded, similarly, in HMP Preston, 661 prisoners are forced to live in a jail which has a capacity of holding 356 inmates, the worst case by far. (BBC News, 2009). Such staggering statistics call for immediate reformative measures which involve proactive policies to keep people out of jails. This, however, can be achieved only through the adoption and implementation of a wide-ranging program that focuses on providing adequate training to those in ch arge, i.e., the prison officers who are entrusted with the responsibility of providing security, supervising, offering training as well as rehabilitating the offenders through motivation and encouragement. Preventing prisoners from reoffending is one of the key objectives of any criminal justice system. Although punishing the offenders for their crimes, is the most widely accepted tools of justice, punishment alone cannot and does not guarantee a safe and healthy society. In order to create a harmonious environment and safeguard the interests of the general public, it must be ensured that the offenders abstain from indulging in any criminal activities.

Tourism Policy and Planning (answer 10 questions about York and Essay

Tourism Policy and Planning (answer 10 questions about York and sevilla) - Essay Example This is one the challenges that also faces the two cities in terms of tourist destination. Seville city has to make sure that tourism is managed and developed in such a manner that it is able to benefit the resident population, but is should not be involved in the urban environment deterioration but rather to its promotion. It should as well not supposed to become a financial burden to the local authority. York faces several challenges. The city is seen to be having a high poverty rate and this might have a great impact on tourism sector. 2) The tourist activity in both cities with no doubt is seen to be one of the fundamental pillars of cultural, social and economic progress of the city. There is forceful reality that has a broad effect on any of the civil life fields. For Seville, its advantage stems right from not only the artistic heritage and plentiful monumental of the city, but it is also seen in the other aspects which make up the tourist product (catering, recreation areas, housing, infrastructures and trade). While on the other hand, the competitiveness of York is in the international and domestic market that is based on the name which is known universally. Both cities have been recognized for several centuries by their singular character of heritage and celebrations that is seen to mark an authentic reference to several other cities that they tend to accede to privilege positions as the one that both cities enjoy. Over the past decade, on such a solid base, a tourist product structure that is of high quality and very effective in the housings, in the services, and in the tourist offer variety has been put up. But besides all these, tourism is seen to be a transcendental incident factor that is intangible and as crucial as the exterior projection, the city image, and, as a result, the world system position of the big cities. 3) For any city that has a mission of being at a better position in tourism sector, it is required to adopt a few accessibility levels basing on the demand needs. In this context, the cities, being among the big European cities, whereby their urban dimension do coexists with rural comforts, are currently among the best connected cities in Europe. For instance, Seville city which is characterized by efficient and very varied accessibility, it has not only turned into a touristic destination point but also into the Andalusia best port, because it is among the few Spanish cities that is efficiently communicated by air , sea, railroad and land. The roads of York city, is characterized by a network of regional scope highways and a renewed system of accesses to the city, that consists of rapid bypasses, that accurately connects all the neuralgic points of the surroundings and the city. But besides accessibility, the two cities have continued with investing in transport to incorporate a real tourism sustainable mobility policy in the cities based on the promotion of public transport and non-motorized transport (bic ycle and pedestrian). With the aim of reducing the private vehicles use, the surrounding traffic reduction and the network development of

Quality Management Worldwide Total Quality Management Essay Example for Free

Quality Management Worldwide Total Quality Management Essay For more than four decades after independence the companies in India enjoyed a protected market with virtually no competition, and some of them even monopolised the market, with customers having little or no choice. As a result complacency set in, and no pressure existed for improvement or change. However, the policy of globalization and liberalization adopted by the Indian Government five years ago, has hrown open new avenues and challenges to companies in India. The new policy has resulted in open doors through which global corporate players have entered the Indian markets, and are threatening the domestic manufacturers and suppliers, using quality as a weapon. This has compelled the managers of local companies to look for those tools and techniques, proven and tested, which would help them to maintain and improve their strategies and positions in the market. One such policy or philosophy that has captured the attention of industry and the business community is TQM. Particularly, in the recent years TQM is even regarded as bsolutely essential for growth, stability, and prosperity. This paper has the main intention of presenting an overview of TQMs progress in the country, starting from its initiation to its current status. Besides, the paper also describes how the organizational attempts by various agencies enabled the establishment of a TQM culture. Further, these attempts are presented in a chronological order, to appreciate the role played by various agencies, which resulted in growth and propagation of TQM in India. Towards the end, the gaps that still exist and hence the efforts that eed to be channeled are pointed out, so as to result in appropriate guidelines about the work to be done. The author R. Jagadeesh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, S. J. College of Engineering, Mysore, India. Keywords TQM, India, Quality Abstract Total quality management (TQM) has spread its wings in every sphere of the global corporate world and Indian companies are no exception. In this paper, first the growth and spread ofTQM in India is traced from its initiation to current status. Further, the paper has tried to identify the causes for poor quality of products and ervice, and the gaps that exist between the expectations and the outcome after adopting the TQM practices. Later a critical view of the quality scene in India is presented, and finally, based on these observations suitable guidelines and recommendations are made to bridge this gap. It is concluded that there is still a long way to go for Indian companies to receive the stamp of acceptance for their products at international level. Electronic access The current issue and full text archive of this Journal is available at http://www. emerald-library. com are synonymous with high quality products and trust worthiness. However, the post- independent era did not witness any spectacular improvement regarding the quality of goods and services produced in the country. According to Agrawal (1993) due to protected business environment many positive attributes of the Indian industry have been lost and weaknesses have surfaced. These weaknesses based on the study are: lack of trust and credibility in the working system, lack of clarity/seriousness for achieving target, lack of precise observance of rules and norms, low quality of supplies and components, lack of consciousness of time as money, viewing only short term benefits ahead of long term oals, politicalization of labor unions, lack of accountability for actions, lack of management commitment, lack of national quality policy, inadequate economic resources, lack of indigenous technology, inadequate infrastructure, preferring quantity to quality, lack of team spirit, cartel formation, and sellers market. Besides, lack of consumerism, Government control on everything, bureaucratic delays, quick profit making attitudes by the companies, all resulted in quality getting a low priority and consequently Indian products were constrained to serve only the domestic market being not able to compete in the international markets. Further, the factors mentioned before, clearly proved to be obstacles in the path to progress, and India in spite of possessing good resources and rich scientific and technical manpower, could not produce world-class products acceptable in the international markets. The TQM movement in India The TQM initiatives were first set by the Confederation of Indian Industries (Cll) in the early 1980s, in its pioneering effort in promoting awareness about quality among Indian industries. The work done by Cll in this direction is well documented in Deccan Herald Advertising Feature (1993) and also in The Standards Engineer (1996). In 1982, quality circles took birth in India, and some of the companies to launch quality circles first were Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore, and Bharat Heavvy Electricals Limited, Trichy. In 1986 the Cll then known as CEI (Confederation of Engineering Industries), invited Professor Ishikawa to India, to address industry people about quality. Later in 1987, a TQM division was set up by the Cll. This division owes its foundation to 21 companies who agreed to support the cause by pooling resources and pledging to start the Journey to TQM. Chief executives of these companies formed the National Committee on Quality, 22 Total quality management in India ? ± perspective and analysis R. Jagadeesh The TQM Magazine Volume 1 1 . Number 5. 1999 . 321? ±327 newsletter on quality. In 1987 and 1988, the Cll invited the Juran Institute to India to conduct three training workshops, and then in 1989 a team from India attended the Deming Seminar in London. Study teams organized by the Cll were taken to Japan and the USA to study quality practices. During 1990, the Cll consolidated and focused on training, and in February 1991, an Indian company with the assistance of the Cll, obtained the first ISO 9000 certification in India. The Cll organized the launch of the National Quality Campaign led by the Prime Minister of India in May 1992. It is around this time, the process of globalization and liberalization was started in the country, bringing a new dimension to the business and industrial sectors. From then on, a new line of thinking in terms of quality, productivity, and competitiveness has begun. Since 1993, the Cll has been organizing The Quality Summit every year. This provides an opportunity for all business leaders, and higher level managers of member and non-member organizations of the Cll to network, learn, and contribute hrough experience sharing, and listening to the experts who gather there. The National Productivity Council (NPC) has set up a TQM and Benchmarking Division in New Delhi, and offers TQM implementation services, which include modular training programs and consultancy services. In 1996, the Government of India announced the setting up of the Quality Council of India, (QCI) with the Industry Ministry bringing in half the seed capital of Rs. 1. 5 crores. The rest of the seed capital will be contributed by the corporate sector. The setting up of a national agency for quality certification is art of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, under which member countries will not trade in non-certified products two years down the line. The corporate sector too was demanding the setting up of an internationally recognized quality council as it found the certification process from foreign agencies too expensive. Besides, it would save vital foreign exchange for the country. The QCI will be entrusted with monitoring and administering of the National Quality Campaign and will also oversee the effective functioning of the National Information and Enquiry Services. Post-liberalization scene ? ± improvement in quality The economic reforms that started in 1992 have ushered in a new era of progress and prosperity in the country. According to a report published in YoJana (1997), the real gross domestic product (GDP) recorded a growth rate of 6. 8 per cent in agriculture and allied sectors, 7. 0 per cent in industry, and 7. 4 per cent in services. The Eighth Five Year Plan (EFYP) (1992-97) which ended with an average growth rate of 6. 5 per cent per annum, compares well with the target rate of 5. 6 per cent for the EFYP, and actual achievement of 6. 0 per cent in the Seventh Five Year Plan. In fact his is the highest average growth rate achieved in the planning period since 1951. The sectoral average growth rates for the period 1992-97 are: Agriculture and allied sectors ? ± 4. 0 per cent, Industry ? ± 7. 8 per cent and, Services ? ± 9. 2 per cent. Further, exports during 1996-97 registered a growth rate of 4. 1 per cent. Foreign direct inve stment amounted to US $2,696 million during 1996-97. These facts clearly indicate that the economic reforms brought through globalization and liberalization have yielded rich dividends, and hold a lot of promise for the coming years. While all ndividually to improve their product quality, besides overall performance through TQM practices. For example, Gupta and Sagar (1993) describe a case of total quality control in an engineering company through the extensive use of personal computers, and state that the Indian company was able to overcome many quality related problems which included: high rejection levels, slow inspection rates, frequent errors in measurement, inconsistency in interpreting inspection data, time consuming data storage and retrieval, rigid inspection schedules, not responding to changing environment, and quality plans not adjusted to varying batch sizes. The company improved the problem solving capacity through quality circles, and quality database at each stage. Comprehensive information systems enabled the personnel to obtain better guidance leading to improved decision making. Thus the success is attributed to systematic application of TQM. 323 The TQM Magazine volume 11 . Number 5 . 1999 . 321? ±327 Business Today (1995) in an exclusive coverage on status of quality of India, presents a detailed report on companies which are market leaders and corporate giants. The cases covered include reports on leading Indian companies like Mukand, BPL, Arvind, IFB, ABB, HDFC, Amex, Hidustan Lever, Ranbaxy, Indal, Gujarat AmbuJa, Wsya Bank, Oberoi Hotels, and Thermax. It is emphasized that these companies carved a niche for themselves by focusing on quality in their planning, operations, and marketing strategies. Awareness of quality ? ± a positive change Pati and Reis (1996) state that India is emerging as a leading economy in the new world economic order. The phenomenal increase in Indias export earnings, which rose to IJS$ 26. 2 billion in the 1994-95 fiscal year showed an increase of 18. 27 per cent over its 1993-94 export earnings of IJS$22. 7 billion. This is said to be an indicator of how its products and services are perceived by its global customers. It is further stated that the thrust has been shifted from import substitution to development of an export-oriented economy. Other pertinent observations made are: . Indian businesses are pursuing paths of superior quality and high productivity; . quality conscious consumerism; . inc reasing competition; . industries expanding their domestic share and venturing into global markets; . significant rise in the ISO 9000 certified companies. The survey conducted by Pati and Reis (1996) has further revealed many interesting aspects bout quality practices in India. The survey questionnaire has used a five-point Likert interval to capture the strength of perception, where points 1 (very high), 2 (high), 3 (medium), 4 (low), and 5 (very low) indicate the degree of current practice related to quality. The critical success factors contributing to quality and overall average scores (3. 43); . role of quality department/personnel (3. 14); . training (3. 69); . product/service design (2. 91); . supplier quality management (2. 6); process management and operating procedures (2. 74); quality data reporting (2. 72); employee relations (2. 2). It is concluded from the survey that the manufacturing sector in India is well aware of importance of quality, and efforts have been channeled to improve product quality. However, the service sector mostly Government owned and operated, lags behind the manufacturing sector in all aspects that i mply quality. TQM ? ± success stories of Indian companies Many Indian companies are beginning to realize that customer focus is an absolute requirement of TQM. Jain (1996), while writing on TQM in India, states that companies are paying closer attention to consumer feedback in order to tailor roducts to meet customer needs and are using a wide variety of methods that include benchmarking with rival products, regular customer meetings, and even engaging market research companies to collect consumer feedback on their product range and after sales service. Two specific cases are worth mentioning. Escorts Limited, an automobile manufacturing company, based on the feedback from customers and dealers, changed the delivery route to ensure safe and quick delivery. Similarly, J. K. Synthetics, based on feed back from customer meetings, focused on standardization of quality parameters, and started after-sales service. This resulted in the sales rise from 220 tonnes in first quarter of 1995 to 632 tonnes in the last quarter of the same year, an impressive growth in the sales by three times the previous value. According to a report published in Business Today (1998), some Indian companies are being guided by Yoshikazu Tsuda, a counselor at JUSE (Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers) in their quest for total quality. Some of these companies are Sona Steering, Jai Bharat Maruti, GKN Invel, Asahi Float Glass, Brakes India, Lucas TVS, India Pistons, and India Piston Rings. Further, as stated in The Economic Times (1998), sixsigma technique, which is considered to be a classic TQM technique, is being practiced by several Indian companies notable among 324 significant achievement by an Indian company due to its practicing TQM principles is reported by Sridharan (1998a). The Indian company Sundaram Fasteners located near Chennai, India, has received the Best of Best Vendors Award consecutively for two years during 1996 and 1997, for its supply of metal radiator caps to General Motors, USA. The award was given to the company for its consistent zero defects rate, 100 percent reliability in delivery schedules, and lowest price. The company is the only supplier to General Motors, USA from India out of its 3,000 supplier companies scattered all over the globe. In an exclusive interview covered by Premchander (1996), the managing director of Asea Brown Boveri Ltd (a partly owned subsidiary of Asea Brown Boveri Limited, Zurich) one of the very successfully operating multi-national companies in India, has stated that the managers have to spend time and resources on TQM. A historical achievement by an Indian company winning the coveted Deming Prize for Overseas Companies, for successful implementation of TQM, is reported by Sridharan (1998b). The Indian company Sundaram Clayton, has successfully turned its people into quality practitioners by the actual deployment of TQM tools, techniques, and systems. 38 ? ± time to market; 22 ? ± corporate credibility. Indian quality scene ? ± a critical view The developments related to Indian companies, concerning quality of products and services, need to be examined on a comparative global scale. This would enable judgement of the progress made in improving quality. A survey made in 1994 in which products and services from 41 countries were ranked by World Competitiveness Report indicates that the quality of Indian products and services is isappointing. According to the summary of results given in Skaria (1995), Indias rank based on different quality parameters is as follows (the rank out of 41 is given followed by the parameter): . 39? ± price to quality; . 38 ? ± practice ofTQM; . 40? ± customer orientation; . 28 ? ± product liability; . 39 ? ± time to innovate; The report clearly suggested that on a global scale, Indian products and services are far from satisfactory, and have a poor image. This is a major cause of worry for the corporate managers particularly for those looking for new markets, and ventures with oreign collaborators. One commonly quoted reason for getting away with low quality in India, is lack of pressure from consumers. Many managers are of the opinion that unless the customers are aware of their right to demand high quality, and insist on companies to invest in quality, they continue to receive poor quality products. While the growth and spread of quality practices are slow in India, TQM has firmly seated itself in other Asiatic countries. In a cover feature on Quality in Asia reported in World Executive Digest (1996), it is stated that as Asia grapples with the challenge of lobalization, more and more companies seek ISO 9000 certification and adopt TQM. Companies in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and China are overtly involved in embracing practices of total quality to march ahead in global markets. According to The Economic Intelligence Unit (1996), which surveyed companies in Hong Kong on issues in the region. The growth of TQM across Asia however means that new approaches are being developed in the region. These observations clearly suggest that India has to carefully watch the developments in the Asiatic region, as TQM principles have been successfully applied by several countries improving their utput quality, attracting more foreign investment, and hence capable of restricting Indias share in the global market. What the quality experts say In spite of the hype created by the ISO 9000 bandwagon, which today has more than 1,500 companies certified as such, quality is yet to emerge as a major strength of Indian products. Managers of Indian companies have still a lot to learn and implement in the image building process based on quality. This is perhaps aptly summarized by a statement made by Philip Crosby as reported in The Times of India (1997). While addressing a 325 ews conference at the end of his weeklong visit to India, Crosby has said that complacency is a major problem with the Indian management system. The managers of Indian industries should take this seriously. In an interview published in Business India (1997-98) James Harrington, a leading authority in the field of quality, has stated that India still has four types of companies: those with poor performance, with good performance, with better performance, and with outstanding performance. Harrington remarks that companies with poor performance went bankrupt in other parts of the world, while those with good performance would follow them. But those with better performance will survive and those with outstanding performance would explode into the twentyflrst century. This indicates that India still has scope for bad products, and bad performance, which need to be immediately curbed. It is pointed out by Sukumar (1998) that TQM continues to baffle corporate India, as evident by the different interpretations made by each person in the industry about what is TQM. It was observed during the Sixth Quality Summit organized by the Cll in New Delhi, that TQM means anything and everything depending on the individuals perspective, politics, and paradigms. During the summit as many as nine different definitions were presented by the speakers about what constitutes TQM. This means people in the corporate sector have no consensus about the concept of TQM and it could be a deterrent in its implementation. In another survey conducted by Arun et al. (1998) with regard to ISO certified companies interesting observations were made about implementing TQM in a company. Out of 17 companies that were surveyed, managers in seven companies said that though they believe in TQM they do not know how to implement it. The survey further revealed that the long term supplier elationship, an essential ingredient for successful implementation of TQM, has not the implementation of TQM were found to be: continued dependence on traditional incentive schemes, numerical targets, performance rating, slogans for improving productivity, and not identifying and providing the right type of training for each and everyone as demanded for every Job. The survey concludes that if all these factors are not mitigated a company may continue as ISO certified but not be recognized as a TQM company. Comments and conclusion The various surveys independently conducted by researchers and business ublications have revealed that awareness on quality of products and services has picked up in India. With quality based competition intensifying, Indian industries and business people are showing keen interest in improving the quality of products through TQM. A number of organizations, private and Government are actively propagating TQM through a variety of training and educational programs. TQM has proved to be a vital ingredient for success, and now has its permanent roots in the mission and vision of the Indian corporate sector. However, based on common observations the requirements for quality to succeed in India can be summarized as ollows: . a strong consumer movement; . a sincere and committed drive by the corporate sector to keep quality as the main focus; . trict enforcement of standards by the regulatory bodies and authorities; . avoidance of multiple grading of quality in products, like export quality, first grade, seconds, import rejects, etc. ; . setting an example in adhering to high quality performance and output, before pointing to others. While TQM no doubt has enabled the Indian companies to improve the quality of products and services, the international market demands still higher uality levels to give due recognition a nd acceptance.