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Humbaba
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Throughout the hard-fought campaign, opponents of the single currency were leading and looked almost sure to win. But after the death of Lindh, who was stabbed at a Stockholm department store on Wednesday, opinion polls have shown gains for the "yes" side. Observers say Anna Lindh's violent death will lead to a high turnout, in a display of commitment to the democratic process. Opinion polls published in Sweden on Saturday offered conflicting outlooks on voter intentions. That poll also suggested 14% of respondents had still had not made up their minds, against 10% in the previous study. A poll by Gallup for Expressen and TV4 television credited the "yes" side with 43% against 42% for euro opposition, with some 15% of voters undecided. Karin Persson, a psychiatrist from the island of Gotland off Sweden's east coast, was one of the many thousands who found their way to the square this evening. They will also have to face the political reality, and show whether they will answer the call of their prime minister to defend democracy by casting their vote on Sunday, to determine the future of the country's currency. Well, at least in the United States of America. Mind you, Americans are not cheering for the historic crusades of Christendom in the Holy Land. Instead, a significant number of Americans are now cheering for Bush the Crusader in his war against al Qaeda. It is mystifying that there are those who will cheer for the American crusade against al Qaeda while condemning the crusades of Christendom. First, which of the historical situations is more serious? By far, we live in safer times today. Even after September 11, when a bunch of terrorists finally did what any terrorist could have done for a very long time, we live in safer times than did many continental Europeans from 1096 to 1697. Consider the situation in the West only 319 years ago. In 1683, the armies of the Ottoman Turks were laying siege to Vienna. Vienna, in the center of Europe, nearly fell to the Turks. It was Jan Sobieski and his Polish cavalry who helped to break the siege of Vienna and preserve the West. The Ottoman wars, by the way, continued until the Turks were defeated in northern Serbia in 1697. In short, Americans should not wonder why the former Yugoslavia was and is such a mess. Of course, one suspects that many Americans have already forgotten about the Balkans. Americans likely also have forgotten that Spain only evicted Arab invaders around the time of Christopher Columbus, i.e., 200 years before the siege of Vienna. Perhaps the Arab peoples were serious about conquering Western Europe? In which case, maybe the historical crusades of Christendom should be celebrated in the West, rather than the subject of apologies. Second, where Christians, and religious believers generally, are concerned, the American crusade of Bush the Second is wholly secular. The federal government of the United States is nothing if not hostile to religion in general and Christianity in particular. There is a certain irony in a secular American regime seeking to topple a secular Iraqi regime while claiming to defend "the West."Thank God, the atheist Left-wing elites must be thinking, that we no longer fight wars of religion! Now we fight for money, oil, and geopolitical power! This is "historical progress." If nothing else, the American power elites and their lackeys in Washington are dedicated to turning Boy Scouts into Sodomy Scouts, a free nation into a militaristic empire (query whether this hasn’t already been done), and free men into serfs (same query).In order to fully evaluate the crusades of Bush II, assume, for the sake of argument, that the United States defeats Iraq in a military fashion, and eliminates not only al Qaeda, but every other terrorist organization in existence. What will the United States have gained? At most, it will have expended millions upon millions of dollars to: (a) alienate the Islamic world, and foreign nations generally; and (b) eliminate a nebulous risk of vague future harm. An American war on Iraq is as sensible as a Chinese war on Belgium.The military threat which Iraq and al Qaeda pose to American national interests, properly understood, is minimal. The risk is especially minimal in comparison to the risks posed by the Communists during the Cold War. And yet, in the name of eliminating this minimal threat, the Bush Administration is seeking to effectively shred the Bill of Rights and to tax America into an impoverished future. In short, American liberty is being restricted to an even greater degree than it was restricted to fight the Communists. This is foolish. Forget the Bush crusades against al Qaeda and Iraq. At best, they will be Pyrrhic victories. Introduction The purpose of this report is to examine some of the available basic indicators of the health care system of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to place these indicators in perspective as to the likely future developments in this sector and to suggest some effective interventions to support the further development of the health services. Growth inevitably merges into development, a phase that consolidates the earlier achievements and lays the foundations for the future. It appears to many concerned with the health care system of the UAE that the country is currently at this critical juncture. This paper is an attempt to examine some of the issues that are likely to be confronted in the next phase. Demographic indicators The 1995 population of the UAE has been estimated officially at 2.378 million residents. It has also been indicated that the national population represents some 25%-30% of this number; thus 70%-75% are expatriates living in the UAE for variable lengths of stay. The distribution of the population is given in Table 1. The population of the United Arab Emirates was reported to have been only 180 000 people in 1968. By 1975, the population numbered 557 000; it doubled by 1980 to about 1 million and reached 1.4 million by 1986. The overall increase has been 13-fold in 27 years. This increase is predominantly due to the continuing inflow of expatriates, a tide that does not seem to have changed appreciably since 1968. The overall rate of annual natural population increase has been noted as 1.86% for the period 1990 to 1995 (Table 2). However, it is known that many of the expatriate population is single in the UAE. If we consider only the total born to nationals, namely 20 733 live births, over their relative representation in the population, we obtain an annual natural increase for the national population of 3.5%, a number far more likely to represent the true state and which is similar to the population increase in neighbouring states. Conversely, if we assume that most segments of the expatriate population (generally coming from neighbouring countries) have the same annual rate of natural increase, we would expect 63 000 births for the expatriate population rather than the reported 28 331; this may also indicate that overall 55% of the expatriate population is single as far as its civil status in the UAE. This is an important determinant for the planning of maternity and paediatric services in the UAE. The crude birth rate has fallen from 31.7 to 20.6 per 1000 population in the 10-year interval from 1986 to 1995; the infant mortality rate has also fallen from 11.2 to 10.0 per 1000 live births in the same period, while the crude death rate has been stable at around 2 per 1000 (Table 2). These indicators point to improvements in the health services, particularly in causes of death that can be prevented by immunization or treatment. The neonatal mortality rate has not varied much (7.0-7.9 per 1000 live births) indicating the difficult medical conditions faced in the neonatal period (namely congenital anomalies and deformities). Also indicating the improved maternal services is the major drop in maternal mortality from 1 to 0.03 per 1000 live births, a 33-fold decrease; this may be attributed to the very high percentage of deliveries now occurring in hospital (some 98.9% of deliveries) under medical supervision.
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Paper Information
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Title: Humbaba
Words: 6646
Rating: None
Pages: 26.6
submitted by: whateverrr
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