Doctor patient relationship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Doctor patient relationship - Essay Example Carver takes this idea further by looking at the way in which a career limits the communication skills of a person. The minimal style enhances the starkness of loss especially when it is accompanied by a distant doctor. The paper concludes that the intention of both texts is to illuminate the inequality of the doctor/patient relationship although, unlike Carver, Williams resolves this. Carver provides a hint at the answer by the family finding resolution with the baker. 'A Small, Good Thing' and 'The Girl with the Pimply Face' are initially comparable because they share the subject matter of the medical profession and the narrative techniques are superficially quite similar. The primary theme is the sensitivity of patient/doctor relationships. Williams' story focuses on the doctor's humanity; his susceptibility to desire, boredom and irresponsibility, but also his caring response to a family facing several problems. Changeability is a central quality of being human. Everyone is subject to the same whims and desires whether they are a doctor or not. He has the desire to help, gives his work freely, possesses a genuine interest in the family and does not criticise his patients when they cannot pay. On the other hand there are hints that he is nave because he does not realise the family are taking advantage of him. Furthermore his reasons for being interested in the family are ambiguous. His concern possibly stems from his attraction to the girl with acne rather than genuine professional interest. Although his interest in her is professional; he wants to help her acne and her legs, his thoughts reveal there is something about the girl that would be of interest to him whether or not she needed his attention as a doctor,. Conversely Carver treats the medical profession with suspicion, focusing on the gap between doctors and the ordinary family. Where Williams uses similar language for both the doctor and the girl, Carver uses different language. Williams emphasises the willingness of his doctor to step over professional boundaries and help the girl with advice and money whereas Carver's doctors shift the blame of Scotty's death away from themselves, emphasising that there was nothing they could do. Dr. Francis was disinclined to linger with the parents at the end and Ann feels as if he wants her to leave before she is ready. He never crosses over the professional line. Each story uses distinctive narrative methods to expound this theme. Firstly, neither story has an objective narrator. The Williams' story is told by the doctor and the language is colloquial. There is an outstanding lack of conventional grammar. Spoken words mingle with description. For example, 'What's the matter with her I asked.' (79) The effect is two-fold. Firstly it envelops the reader in the doctor's world, inviting sympathy. However it also makes him susceptible to criticism. His language is not medical and his attention darts quickly away from his patient. He is different from the traditional image of a doctor. 'For the moment at least I had lost all interest in the baby.'(80) By having access to the doctor's inner thoughts the reader is privileged to his true opinion of his patients, feelings not expected of a doctor, 'this young kid in charge of the house did something to me that I liked.'(80) On the other hand Carver's technique incorporates the inner

The Millennium Development Goals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

The Millennium Development Goals - Essay Example And so, the UN was quick to distinguish the Goals from its predecessors (Millennium Campaign). For one, says the UN, the MDGs are a "compact", with the distribution of responsibilities across the North-South divide made clear. Poor countries - the so-called "South" - must be more accountable, utilize its national resources more efficiently, and practice good governance all around. In return, the wealthier countries of "the North" will grant debt relief, pave the way for fair trade, and provide funding for national MDG campaigns, together with international finance institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as their regional counterparts, such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The UN also notes that the world enjoys an unparalleled level of prosperity - hundreds of billions are being spent on the campaign against terrorism and on agricultural subsidy. Meanwhile, it has been estimated that, every year, the MDGs will require an additional US$50 billion in aid. The UN believes that sufficient resources are available to put an end to poverty. The MDG signatories also designed the Goals to be time-bound. To monitor progress, each goal is broken down into 18 targets and 48 corresponding quantitative indicators. These serve as guideposts, especially at the national level, for preparation of country reports. Finally, the UN firmly believes that the MDGs are "achievable" and deems that "to set the bar any lower than this would be morally unacceptable". 2007 MDG Report Reveals "Uneven" Results In 2007, the UN released the much anticipated mid-point report. While it boasts of "visible and widespread gains", it also discloses that the overall results are "predictably, uneven" (UN, 2007, p.4). Progress for some of the goals is discussed below. One of the targets of Goal 1 is to "halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than US$1 a day". From 1.25 billion in 1990, the number of people living in "extreme poverty" dropped to 980 million in 2004, benefiting mostly the poor people in Asia (UN, 2007, p.6). At this rate, the UN is hopeful that this target will be achieved on the whole, despite a less rosy picture in Western Asia and in so-called "transition countries" in Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It also notes that any benefits from the improved economic situation are not shared equitably; in fact, the "share of national consumption" by the poorest 20 percent in developing countries even decreased. In other words, the poverty