V.Frankl – Man’s Search for Meaning

With more than 4 million copies in print in the English language alone, Man's Search for Meaning, the chilling yet inspirational story of Viktor Frankl's struggle to hold on to hope during his three years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, is a true classic. Beacon Press is now pleased to present a special gift edition of a work that was hailed in 1959 by Carl Rogers as†one of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought in the last fifty years. † Frankl's training as a psychiatrist informed every waking moment of his ordeal and allowed him a remarkable perspective on the psychology of survival.His assertion that â€Å"the will to meaning† is the basic motivation for human life has forever changed the way we understand our humanity in the face of suffering. Man's Search for Meaning AN INTRODUCTION TO LOGOTHERAPY Fourth Edition Viktor E. Frankl PART ONE TRANSLATED BY ILSE LASCH PREFACE BY GORDON W. ALLPORT BEACON PRESS TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER, B eacon Press 25 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892 www. beacon. org Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.  © 1959, 1962, 1984, 1992 by Viktor E.Frankl All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First published in German in 1946 under the title Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. Original English title was From Death-Camp to Existentialism. 05 04 03 02 01 Contents Preface by Gordon W. Allport 7 Preface to the 1992 Edition II PART ONE 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Experiences in a Concentration Camp 15 PART TWO Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Frankl, Viktor Emil. [Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager. English] Man's search for meaning: an introduction to logotherapy / Viktor E.Frankl; part one translated by Use Lasch; preface by Gordon W. Allport. — 4th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 0-8070-1426-5 (cloth) 1. Frankl, Viktor Emil . 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939—1945)— Personal narratives. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)— Psychological aspects. 4. Psychologists—Austria—Biography. 5. Logotherapy. I. Title. D810J4F72713 1992 i5o. ig'5—dc2o 92-21055 Logotherapy in a Nutshell 101 POSTSCRIPT 1984 The Case for a Tragic Optimism 137 Selected English Language Bibliography of Logotherapy 155 About the AuthorPreface Dr. Frankl, author-psychiatrist, sometimes asks his pa ­ tients who suffer from a multitude of torments great and small, â€Å"Why do you not commit suicide? † From their an ­ swers he can often find the guide-line for his psychotherapy: in one life there is love for one's children to tie to; in another life, a talent to be used; in a third, perhaps only lingering memories worth preserving. To weave these slender threads of a broken life into a firm pattern of mean ­ ing and responsibility is the object and challenge of logotherapy, which is Dr.Frankl's o wn version of modern exis ­ tential analysis. In this book, Dr. Frankl explains the experience which led to his discovery of logotherapy. As a longtime prisoner in bestial concentration camps he found himself stripped to naked existence. His father, mother, brother, and his wife died in camps or were sent to the gas ovens, so that, except ­ ing for his sister, his entire family perished in these camps. How could he—every possession lost, every value destroyed, suffering from hunger, cold and brutality, hourly expecting extermination—how could he find life worth preserving?A psychiatrist who personally has faced such extremity is a psychiatrist worth listening to. He, if anyone, should be 8 Preface able to view our human condition wisely and with compassion. Dr. Frankl's words have a profoundly honest ring, for they rest on experiences too deep for deception. What he has to say gains in prestige because of his present position on the Medical Faculty of the Universit y of Vienna and because of the renown of the logotherapy clinics that today are springing up in many lands, patterned on his own famous Neurological Policlinic in Vienna.One cannot help but compare Viktor Frankl's approach to theory and therapy with the work of his predecessor, Sigmund Freud. Both physicians concern themselves primarily with the nature and cure of neuroses. Freud finds the root of these distressing disorders in the anxiety caused by conflicting and unconscious motives. Frankl distinguishes several forms of neurosis, and traces some of them (the noogenic neuroses) to the failure of the sufferer to find meaning and a sense of responsibility in his existence. Freud stresses frustration in the sexual life; Frankl, frustration in the â€Å"will-to-meaning. In Europe today there is a marked turning away from Freud and a widespread embracing of Preface 9 existential analysis, which takes several related forms—the school of logotherapy being one. It is characteristi c of Frankl's tolerant outlook that he does not repudiate Freud, but builds gladly on his contributions; nor does he quarrel with other forms of existential therapy, but welcomes kinship with them. The present narrative, brief though it is, is artfully constructed and gripping. On two occasions I have read it through at a single sitting, unable to break away from its spell.Somewhere beyond the midpoint of the story Dr. Frankl introduces his own philosophy of logotherapy. He introduces it so gently into the continuing narrative that only after finishing the book does the reader realize that here is an essay of profound depth, and not just one more brutal tale of concentration camps. From this autobiographical fragment the reader learns much. He learns what a human being does when he suddenly realizes he has â€Å"nothing to lose except his so ridiculously naked life. † Frankl's description of the mixed flow of emotion and apathy is arresting.First to the rescue comes a cold de tached curiosity concerning one's fate. Swiftly, too, come strategies to preserve the remnants of one's life, though the chances of surviving are slight. Hunger, humiliation, fear and deep anger at injustice are rendered tolerable by closely guarded images of beloved persons, by religion, by a grim sense of humor, and even by glimpses of the healing beauties of nature—a tree or a sunset. But these moments of comfort do not establish the will to live unless they help the prisoner make larger sense out of his apparently senseless suffering.It is here that we encounter the central theme of existentialism: to live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. If there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in suffer ­ ing and in dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself, and must accept t h e responsibility that his answer prescribes. If he succeeds he will continue to grow in spite of all indignities. Frankl is fond of quoting Nietzsche, â€Å"He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how. In the concentration camp every circumstance conspires to make the prisoner lose his hold. All the familiar goals in life are snatched away. What alone remains is â€Å"the last of human freedoms†Ã¢â‚¬â€the ability to â€Å"choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances. † This ultimate freedom, recognized by the ancient Stoics as well as by modern existentialists, takes on vivid significance in Frankl's story. The prisoners were only average men, but some, at least, by choosing to be â€Å"worthy of their suffering† proved man's capacity to rise above his outward fate. As a psychotherapist, the author, of course, wants to 0 Preface know how men can be helped to achieve this distinctively human capacity. How can one awaken in a patient the feeling that he is responsible to life for something, however grim his circumstances may be? Frankl gives us a moving a ccount of one collective therapeutic session he held with his fellow prisoners. At the publisher's request Dr. Frankl has added a state ­ ment of the basic tenets of logotherapy as well as a bibliog ­ raphy. Up to now most of the publications of this â€Å"Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy† (the predecessors being the Freudian and Adlerian Schools) have been chiefly in German.The reader will therefore welcome Dr. Frankl's supplement to his personal narrative. Unlike many European existentialists, Frankl is neither pessimistic nor antireligious. On the contrary, for a writer who faces fully the ubiquity of suffering and the forces of evil, he takes a surprisingly hopeful view of man's capacity to transcend his predicament and discover an adequate guiding truth. I recommend this little book heartily, for it is a gem of dramatic narrative, focused upon the deepest of human problems.It has literary and philosophical merit and pro ­ vides a compelling introduction to th e most significant psychological movement of our day. GORDON W. ALLPORT Preface to the 1992 Edition This book has now lived to see nearly one hundred print ­ ings in English—in addition to having been published in twenty-one other languages. And the English editions alone have sold more than three million copies. These are the dry facts, and they may well be the reason why reporters of American newspapers and particularly of American TV stations more often than not start their in ­ terviews, after listing these facts, by exclaiming: â€Å"Dr.Frankl, your book has become a true bestseller—how do you feel about such a success? † Whereupon I react by reporting that in the first place I do not at all see in the bestseller status of my book an achievement and accomplishment on my part but rather an expression of the misery of our time: if hun ­ dreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life, it must be a question that burns under their fingernails.To be sure, something else may have contributed to the impact of the book: its second, theoretical part (â€Å"Logother ­ apy in a Nutshell†) boils down, as it were, to the lesson one may distill from the first part, the autobiographical account (â€Å"Experiences in a Concentration Camp†), whereas Part One 11 Gordon W. Allport, formerly a professor of psychology at Harvard University, was one of the foremost writers and teachers in the field in this hemisphere. He was author of a large number of original works on psychology and was the editor of the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.It is chiefly through the pioneering work of Professor All ­ port that Dr. Frankl's momentous theory was introduced to this country; moreover, it is to his credit that the interest shown here in logotherapy is growing by leaps and bounds. 12 Preface to the 1992 Edition Preface to the 1992 Edition 13 serves as the ex istential validation of my theories. Thus, both parts mutually support their credibility. I had none of this in mind when I wrote the book in 1945. And I did so within nine successive days and with the firm determination that the book should be published anonymously.In fact, the first printing of the original German version does not show my name on the cover, though at the last moment, just before the book's initial publication, I did finally give in to my friends who had urged me to let it be published with my name at least on the title page. At first, however, it had been written with the absolute conviction that, as an anonymous opus, it could never earn its author literary fame. I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones.And I thought that if the point were demonstrated in a situation as extreme as that in a concentration camp, my book might gain a hearing. I ther efore felt responsible for writing down what I had gone through, for I thought it might be helpful to people who are prone to despair. And so it is both strange and remarkable to me that— among some dozens of books I have authored—precisely this one, which I had intended to be published anonymously so that it could never build up any reputation on the part of the author, did become a success.Again and again I therefore admonish my students both in Europe and in America: â€Å"Don't aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience comman ds you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of our knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run—in the long run, I say! —success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it. † The reader may ask me why I did not try to escape what was in store for me after Hitler had occupied Austria. Let me answer by recalling the following story. Shortly before the United States entered World War II, I received an invitation to come to the American Consulate in Vienna to pick up my immigration visa. My old parents were overjoyed because they expected that I would soon be allowed to leave Austria. I suddenly hesitated, however.The question beset me: could I really afford to leave my parents alone to face their fate, to be sent, sooner or later, to a concentration camp, or even to a so-called extermination camp? Where did my responsibility lie? Should I foster my brain child, logotherapy, by emigrating to fertile soil where I could write my books? Or should I concentrate on my duties as a real child, the child of my parents who had to do whatever he could to protect them? I pondered the problem this way and that but could not arrive at a solution; this was the type of dilemma that made one wish for â€Å"a hint from Heaven,† as the phrase goes.It was then that I noticed a piece of marble lying on a table at home. When I asked my father about it, he explained that he had found it on the site where the National Socialists had burned down the largest Viennese synagogue. He had taken the piece home because it was a part of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. One gilded Hebrew letter was engraved on the piece; my father explained that this letter stood for one of the Commandments. Eagerly I asked, â€Å"Which one is it? † He answered, â€Å"Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land. At that moment I decided to stay with my father and my mother upon the l and, and to let the American visa lapse VIKTOR E. FRANKL Vienna, 1992. PART ONE Experiences in a Concentration Camp THIS BOOK DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE an account of facts and events but of personal experiences, experiences which millions of prisoners have suffered time and again. It is the inside story of a concentration camp, told by one of its survivors. This tale is not concerned with the great horrors, which have already been described often enough (though less often believed), but with the multitude of small torments.In other words, it will try to answer this question: How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner? Most of the events described here did not take place in the large and famous camps, but in the small ones where most of the real extermination took place. This story is not about the suffering and death of great heroes and martyrs, nor is it about the prominent Capos—prisoners who acted as trustees, having special priv ileges—or well-known pris ­ oners.Thus it is not so much concerned with the sufferings of the mighty, but with the sacrifices, the crucifixion and the deaths of the great army of unknown and unrecorded victims. It was these common prisoners, who bore no dis ­ tinguishing marks on their sleeves, whom the Capos really despised. While these ordinary prisoners had little or noth- 18 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 19 ing to eat, the Capos were never hungry; in fact many of the Capos fared better in the camp than they had in their entire lives.Often they were harder on the prisoners than were the guards, and beat them more cruelly than the SS men did. These Capos, of course, were chosen only from those prisoners whose characters promised to make them suitable for such procedures, and if they did not comply with what was expected of them, they were immediately demoted. They soon became much like the SS men and the camp wardens and may be judged on a similar psychologi ­ cal basis. It is easy for the outsider to get the wrong conception of camp life, a conception mingled with sentiment and pity.Little does he know of the hard fight for existence which raged among the prisoners. This was an unrelenting strug ­ gle for daily bread and for life itself, for one's own sake or for that of a good friend. Let us take the case of a transport which was officially announced to transfer a certain number of prisoners to an ­ other camp; but it was a fairly safe guess that its final destination would be the gas chambers. A selection of sick or feeble prisoners incapable of work would be sent to one of the big central camps which were fitted with gas chambers and crematoriums.The selection process was the signal for a free fight among all the prisoners, or of group against group. All that mattered was that one's own name and that of one's friend were crossed off the list of victims, though everyone knew that for each man saved another v ictim had to be found. A definite number of prisoners had to go with each transport. It did not really matter which, since each of them was nothing but a number. On their admission to the camp (at least this was the method in Auschwitz) all their docu- ments had been taken from them, together with their other possessions.Each prisoner, therefore, had had an oppor ­ tunity to claim a fictitious name or profession; and for vari ­ ous reasons many did this. The authorities were interested only in the captives' numbers. These numbers were often tattooed on their skin, and also had to be sewn to a certain spot on the trousers, jacket, or coat. Any guard who wanted to make a charge against a prisoner just glanced at his number (and how we dreaded such glances! ); he never asked for his name. To return to the convoy about to depart. There was nei ­ ther time nor desire to consider moral or ethical issues.Every man was controlled by one thought only: to keep himself alive for the fami ly waiting for him at home, and to save his friends. With no hesitation, therefore, he would arrange for another prisoner, another â€Å"number,† to take his place in the transport. As I have already mentioned, the process of selecting Capos was a negative one; only the most brutal of the pris ­ oners were chosen for this job (although there were some happy exceptions). But apart from the selection of Capos which was undertaken by the SS, there was a sort of selfselecting process going on the whole time among all of the prisoners.On the average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for existence; they were pre ­ pared to use every means, honest and otherwise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of their friends, in order to save themselves. We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles—whatever one may choose to call them—we know: the best of us did not return. Many factual accounts about concentration camps are al ­ ready on record. Here, facts will be significant only as far as 20 Man's Search for MeaningExperiences in a Concentration Camp 21 they are part of a man's experiences. It is the exact nature of these experiences that the following essay will attempt to describe. For those who have been inmates in a camp, it will attempt to explain their experiences in the light of present-day knowledge. And for those who have never been inside, it may help them to comprehend, and above all to understand, the experiences of that only too small per ­ centage of prisoners who survived and who now find life very difficult. These former prisoners often say, â€Å"We dislike talking about our experiences.No explanations are needed for those who have been inside, and the others will under ­ stand neither how we felt then nor how we feel now. † To attempt a methodical presentation of the subject is very difficult, as psycholo gy requires a certain scientific de ­ tachment. But does a man who makes his observations while he himself is a prisoner possess the necessary detach ­ ment? Such detachment is granted to the outsider, but he is too far removed to make any statements of real value. Only the man inside knows. His judgments may not be objective; his evaluations may be out of proportion.This is inevita ­ ble. An attempt must be made to avoid any personal bias, and that is the real difficulty of a book of this kind. At times it will be necessary to have the courage to tell of very in ­ timate experiences. I had intended to write this book anonymously, using my prison number only. But when the manuscript was completed, I saw that as an anonymous publication it would lose half its value, and that I must have the courage to state my convictions openly. I therefore refrained from deleting any of the passages, in spite of an intense dislike of exhibitionism.I shall leave it to others to distill the c ontents of this book into dry theories. These might become a contribution to the psychology of prison life, which was investigated after the First World War, and which acquainted us with the syndrome of â€Å"barbed wire sickness. † We are indebted to the Second World War for enriching our knowledge of the â€Å"psychopathology of the masses,† (if I may quote a varia ­ tion of the well-known phrase and title of a book by LeBon), for the war gave us the war of nerves and it gave us the concentration camp.As this story is about my experiences as an ordinary pris ­ oner, it is important that I mention, not without pride, that I was not employed as a psychiatrist in camp, or even as a doctor, except for the last few weeks. A few of my colleagues were lucky enough to be employed in poorly heated first-aid posts applying bandages made of scraps of waste paper. But I was Number 119,104, and most of the time I was digging and laying tracks for railway lines. At one time, m y job was to dig a tunnel, without help, for a water main under a road.This feat did not go unrewarded; just before Christ ­ mas 1944, I was presented with a gift of so-called â€Å"premium coupons. † These were issued by the construction firm to which we were practically sold as slaves: the firm paid the camp authorities a fixed price per day, per prisoner. The coupons cost the firm fifty pfennigs each and could be ex ­ changed for six cigarettes, often weeks later, although they sometimes lost their validity. I became the proud owner of a token worth twelve cigarettes. But more important, the cig ­ arettes could be exchanged for twelve soups, and twelve soups were often a very real respite from starvation.The privilege of actually smoking cigarettes was reserved for the Capo, who had his assured quota of weekly coupons; or possibly for a prisoner who worked as a foreman in a warehouse or workshop and received a few cigarettes in exchange for doing dangerous jobs. The only exceptions to this were those who had lost the will to live and wanted to â€Å"enjoy† their last days. Thus, when we saw a comrade smoking his own cigarettes, we knew he had given up faith 22 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 23 n his strength to carry on, and, once lost, the will to live seldom returned. When one examines the vast amount of material which has been amassed as the result of many prisoners' observa ­ tions and experiences, three phases of the inmate's mental reactions to camp life become apparent: the period follow ­ ing his admission; the period when he is well entrenched in camp routine; and the period following his release and liberation. The symptom that characterizes the first phase is shock. Under certain conditions shock may even precede the pris ­ oner's formal admission to the camp.I shall give as an ex ­ ample the circumstances of my own admission. Fifteen hundred persons had been traveling by train for several days and nights: there were eighty people in each coach. All had to lie on top of their luggage, the few rem ­ nants of their personal possessions. The carriages were so full that only the top parts of the windows were free to let in the grey of dawn. Everyone expected the train to head for some munitions factory, in which we would be em ­ ployed as forced labor. We did not know whether we were still in Silesia or already in Poland.The engine's whistle had an uncanny sound, like a cry for help sent out in com ­ miseration for the unhappy load which it was destined to lead into perdition. Then the train shunted, obviously nearing a main station. Suddenly a cry broke from the ranks of the anxious passengers, â€Å"There is a sign, Auschwitz! † Everyone's heart missed a beat at that moment. Auschwitz—the very name stood for all that was horrible: gas chambers, crematoriums, massacres. Slowly, almost hesi ­ tatingly, the train moved on as if it wanted to spare its passengers the dreadful realization as long as possible: Auschwitz!With the progressive dawn, the outlines of an immense camp became visible: long stretches of several rows of barbed wire fences; watch towers; search lights; and long columns of ragged human figures, grey in the greyness of dawn, trekking along the straight desolate roads, to what destination we did not know. There were isolated shouts and whistles of command. We did not know their meaning. My imagination led me to see gallows with people dangling on them. I was horrified, but this was just as well, because step by step we had to become accustomed to a terrible and immense horror.Eventually we moved into the station. The initial silence was interrupted by shouted commands. We were to hear those rough, shrill tones from then on, over and over again in all the camps. Their sound was almost like the last cry of a victim, and yet there was a difference. It had a rasping hoarseness, as if it came from the throat of a man who had to keep shouting like that, a man who was being murdered again and again. The carriage doors were flung open and a small detachment of prisoners stormed inside. They wore striped uniforms, their heads were shaved, but they looked well fed.They spoke in every possible European tongue, and all with a certain amount of humor, which sounded grotesque under the circumstances. Like a drowning man clutching a straw, my inborn optimism (which has often controlled my feelings even in the most desperate situa ­ tions) clung to this thought: These prisoners look quite well, they seem to be in good spirits and even laugh. Who knows? I might manage to share their favorable position. In psychiatry there is a certain condition known as â€Å"delu ­ sion of reprieve. † The condemned man, immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very last minute.We, too, clung to shreds of hope and believed to the last moment that it would not be so ba d. Just the sight of the red cheeks and round faces of 24 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 25 those prisoners was a great encouragement. Little did we know then that they formed a specially chosen elite, who for years had been the receiving squad for new transports as they rolled into the station day after day. They took charge of the new arrivals and their luggage, including scarce items and smuggled jewelry. Auschwitz must have been a strange spot in this Europe of the last years of the war.There must have been unique treasures of gold and silver, platinum and diamonds, not only in the huge storehouses but also in the hands of the SS. Fifteen hundred captives were cooped up in a shed built to accommodate probably two hundred at the most. We were cold and hungry and there was not enough room for everyone to squat on the bare ground, let alone to lie down. One five-ounce piece of bread was our only food in four days. Yet I heard the senior prisoners in ch arge of the shed bargain with one member of the receiving party about a tie-pin made of platinum and diamonds. Most of the profits would eventually be traded for liquor—schnapps.I do not remember any more just how many thousands of marks were needed to purchase the quantity of schnapps required for a â€Å"gay evening,† but I do know that those long-term prisoners needed schnapps. Under such conditions, who could blame them for trying to dope themselves? There was another group of prisoners who got liquor supplied in al ­ most unlimited quantities by the SS: these were the men who were employed in the gas chambers and crematoriums, and who knew very well that one day they would be re ­ lieved by a new shift of men, and that they would have to leave their enforced role of executioner and become victims themselves.Nearly everyone in our transport lived under the illusion that he would be reprieved, that everything would yet be well. We did not realize the meaning beh ind the scene that was to follow presently. We were told to leave our luggage in the train and to fall into two lines—women on one side, men on the other—in order to file past a senior SS officer. Surprisingly enough, I had the courage to hide my haver ­ sack under my coat. My line filed past the officer, man by man. I realized that it would be dangerous if the officer spotted my bag.He would at least knock me down; I knew that from previous experience. Instinctively, I straightened on approaching the officer, so that he would not notice my heavy load. Then I was face to face with him. He was a tall man who looked slim and fit in his spotless uniform. What a contrast to us, who were untidy and grimy after our long journey! He had assumed an attitude of careless ease, supporting his right elbow with his left hand. His right hand was lifted, and with the forefinger of that hand he pointed very leisurely to the right or to the left.None of us had the slightest idea of t he sinister meaning behind that little movement of a man's finger, pointing now to the right and now to the left, but far more frequently to the left. It was my turn. Somebody whispered to me that to be sent to the right side would mean work, the way to the left being for the sick and those incapable of work, who would be sent to a special camp. I just waited for things to take their course, the first of many such times to come. My haver ­ sack weighed me down a bit to the left, but I made an effort to walk upright.The SS man looked me over, appeared to hesitate, then put both his hands on my shoulders. I tried very hard to look smart, and he turned my shoulders very slowly until I faced right, and I moved over to that side. The significance of the finger game was explained to us in the evening. It was the first selection, the first verdict made on our existence or non-existence. For the great ma ­ jority of our transport, about 90 per cent, it meant death. Their sentence was ca rried out within the next few hours. Those who were sent to the left were marched from the station straight to the crematorium.This building, as I was 26 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 27 told by someone who worked there, had the word â€Å"bath† written over its doors in several European languages. On entering, each prisoner was handed a piece of soap, and then but mercifully I do not need to describe the events which followed. Many accounts have been written about this horror. We who were saved, the minority of our transport, found out the truth in the evening. I inquired from prisoners who had been there for some time where my colleague and friend P had been sent. â€Å"Was he sent to the left side? â€Å"Yes,† I replied. â€Å"Then you can see him there,† I was told. â€Å"Where? † A hand pointed to the chimney a few hundred yards off, which was sending a column of flame up into the grey sky of Poland. It dissolved into a sinister cloud of smoke. â€Å"That's where your friend is, floating up to Heaven,† was the answer. But I still did not understand until the truth was explained to me in plain words. But I am telling things out of their turn. From a psycho ­ logical point of view, we had a long, long way in front of us from the break of that dawn at the station until our first night's rest at the camp.Escorted by SS guards with loaded guns, we were made to run from the station, past electrically charged barbed wire, through the camp, to the cleansing station; for those of us who had passed the first selection, this was a real bath. Again our illusion of reprieve found confirmation. The SS men seemed almost charming. Soon we found out their rea ­ son. They were nice to us as long as they saw watches on our wrists and could persuade us in well-meaning tones to hand them over. Would we not have to hand over all our possessions anyway, and hy should not that relatively nice person have the watch? Maybe one day he would do one a good turn. We waited in a shed which seemed to be the anteroom to the disinfecting chamber. SS men appeared and spread out blankets into which we had to throw all our possessions, all our watches and jewelry. There were still naive prisoners among us who asked, to the amusement of the more sea ­ soned ones who were there as helpers, if they could not keep a wedding ring, a medal or a good-luck piece. No one could yet grasp the fact that everything would be taken away.I tried to take one of the old prisoners into my confi ­ dence. Approaching him furtively, I pointed to the roll of paper in the inner pocket of my coat and said, â€Å"Look, this is the manuscript of a scientific book. I know what you will say; that I should be grateful to escape with my life, that that should be all I can expect of fate. But I cannot help myself. I must keep this manuscript at all costs; it contains my life's work. Do you understand that? † Yes, he was beginning to understand.A grin spread slowly over his face, first piteous, then more amused, mock ­ ing, insulting, until he bellowed one word at me in answer to my question, a word that was ever present in the vocabu ­ lary of the camp inmates: â€Å"Shit! † At that moment I saw the plain truth and did what marked the culminating point of the first phase of my psychological reaction: I struck out my whole former life. Suddenly there was a stir among my fellow travelers, who had been standing about with pale, frightened faces, help ­ lessly debating. Again we heard the hoarsely shouted com ­ mands. We were driven with blows into the immediate anteroom of the bath.There we assembled around an SS man who waited until we had all arrived. Then he said, â€Å"I will give you two minutes, and I shall time you by my watch. In these two minutes you will get fully undressed 28 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 29 and drop everything on the floor wh ere you are standing. You will take nothing with you except your shoes, your belt or suspenders, and possibly a truss. I am starting to count— now! † With unthinkable haste, people tore off their clothes. As the time grew shorter, they became increasingly nervous and pulled clumsily at their underwear, belts and shoe ­ laces.Then we heard the first sounds of whipping; leather straps beating down on naked bodies. Next we were herded into another room to be shaved: not only our heads were shorn, but not a hair was left on our entire bodies. Then on to the showers, where we lined up again. We hardly recognized each other; but with great relief some people noted that real water dripped from the sprays. While we were waiting for the shower, our nakedness was brought home to us: we really had nothing now except our bare bodies—even minus hair; all we possessed, literally, was our naked existence.What else remained for us as a material link with our former lives? For me there were my glasses and my belt; the latter I had to exchange later on for a piece of bread. There was an extra bit of excitement in store for the owners of trusses. In the evening the senior prisoner in charge of our hut welcomed us with a speech in which he gave us his word of honor that he would hang, personally, â€Å"from that beam†Ã¢â‚¬â€he pointed to it—any per ­ son who had sewn money or precious stones into his truss. Proudly he explained that as a senior inhabitant the camp laws entitled him to do so. Where our shoes were concerned, matters were not so simple.Although we were supposed to keep them, those who had fairly decent pairs had to give them up after all and were given in exchange shoes that did not fit. In for real trouble were those prisoners who had followed the ap- parently well-meant advice (given in the anteroom) of the senior prisoners and had shortened their jackboots by cut ­ ting the tops off, then smearing soap on the cut edges to hide the sabotage. The SS men seemed to have waited for just that. All suspected of this crime had to go into a small adjoining room. After a time we again heard the lashings of the strap, and the screams of tortured men.This time it lasted for quite a while. Thus the illusions some of us still held were destroyed one by one, and then, quite unexpectedly, most of us were overcome by a grim sense of humor. We knew that we had nothing to lose except our so ridiculously naked lives. When the showers started to run, we all tried very hard to make fun, both about ourselves and about each other. After all, real water did flow from the spraysl Apart from that strange kind of humor, another sensa ­ tion seized us: curiosity. I have experienced this kind of curiosity before, as a fundamental reaction toward certain strange circumstances.When my life was once endangered by a climbing accident, I felt only one sensation at the critical moment: curiosity, curiosity as to whether I should come out of it alive or with a fractured skull or some other injuries. Cold curiosity predominated even in Auschwitz, some ­ how detaching the mind from its surroundings, which came to be regarded with a kind of objectivity. At that time one cultivated this state of mind as a means of protection. We were anxious to know what would happen next; and what would be the consequence, for example, of our standing in the open air, in the chill of late autumn, stark naked, and still wet from the showers.In the next few days our curi ­ osity evolved into surprise; surprise that we did not catch cold. There were many similar surprises in store for new ar- 30 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 31 rivals. The medical men among us learned first of all: â€Å"Textbooks tell lies! † Somewhere it is said that man cannot exist without sleep for more than a stated number of hours. Quite wrongl I had been convinced that there were certain things I just could not do: I c ould not sleep without this or I could not live with that or the other.The first night in Auschwitz we slept in beds which were constructed in tiers. On each tier (measuring about six-and-a-half to eight feet) slept nine men, directly on the boards. Two blankets were shared by each nine men. We could, of course, lie only on our sides, crowded and huddled against each other, which had some advantages because of the bitter cold. Though it was forbidden to take shoes up to the bunks, some people did use them secretly as pillows in spite of the fact that they were caked with mud. Otherwise one's head had to rest on the crook of an almost dislocated arm.And yet sleep came and brought oblivion and relief from pain for a few hours. I would like to mention a few similar surprises on how much we could endure: we were unable to clean our teeth, and yet, in spite of that and a severe vitamin deficiency, we had healthier gums than ever before. We had to wear the same shirts for half a year, unt il they had lost all ap ­ pearance of being shirts. For days we were unable to wash, even partially, because of frozen water-pipes, and yet the sores and abrasions on hands which were dirty from work in the soil did not suppurate (that is, unless there was frost ­ bite).Or for instance, a light sleeper, who used to be dis ­ turbed by the slightest noise in the next room, now found himself lying pressed against a comrade who snored loudly a few inches from his ear and yet slept quite soundly through the noise. If someone now asked of us the truth of Dostoevski's statement that flatly defines man as a being who can get used to anything, we would reply, â€Å"Yes, a man can get used to anything, but do not ask us how. † But our psychological investigations have not taken us that far yet; neither had we prisoners reached that point. We were still in the first phase of our psychological reactions.The thought of suicide was entertained by nearly every ­ one, if only for a b rief time. It was born of the hopelessness of the situation, the constant danger of death looming over us daily and hourly, and the closeness of the deaths suffered by many of the others. From personal convictions which will be mentioned later, I made myself a firm promise, on my first evening in camp, that I would not â€Å"run into the wire. † This was a phrase used in camp to describe the most popular method of suicide—touching the electrically charged barbed-wire fence. It was not entirely difficult for me to make this decision.There was little point in commit ­ ting suicide, since, for the average inmate, life expectation, calculating objectively and counting all likely chances, was very poor. He could not with any assurance expect to be among the small percentage of men who survived all the selections. The prisoner of Auschwitz, in the first phase of shock, did not fear death. Even the gas chambers lost their horrors for him after the first few days—afte r all, they spared him the act of committing suicide. Friends whom I have met later have told me that I was not one of those whom the shock of admission greatly de ­ pressed.I only smiled, and quite sincerely, when the follow ­ ing episode occurred the morning after our first night in Auschwitz. In spite of strict orders not to leave our â€Å"blocks,† a colleague of mine, who had arrived in Auschwitz several weeks previously, smuggled himself into our hut. He wanted to calm and comfort us and tell us a few things. He had become so thin that at first we did not recognize him. With a show of good humor and a Devil-may-care attitude he gave us a few hurried tips: â€Å"Don't be afraid! Don't fear the selections! Dr.M (the SS medical chief) has a soft spot for doctors. † (This was wrong; my friend's kindly 32 Man's Search for Meaning words were misleading. One prisoner, the doctor of a block, of huts and a man of some sixty years, told me how he had entreated Dr. M to let off his son, who was destined for gas. Dr. M coldly refused. ) â€Å"But one thing I beg of you†; he continued, â€Å"shave daily, if at all possible, even if you have to use a piece of glass to do it . . . even if you have to give your last piece of bread for it. You will look younger and the scraping will make your cheeks look ruddier.If you want to stay alive, there is only one way: look fit for work. If you even limp, because, let us say, you have a small blister on your heel, and an SS man spots this, he will wave you aside and the next day you are sure to be gassed. Do you know what we mean by a ‘Moslem'? A man who looks miserable, down and out, sick and emaciated, and who cannot manage hard physical labor any longer . . . that is a ‘Moslem. ‘ Sooner or later, usually sooner, every ‘Moslem' goes to the gas chambers. Therefore, remember: shave, stand and walk smartly; then you need not be afraid of gas.All of you standing here, even if you h ave only been here twenty-four hours, you need not fear gas, except perhaps you. † And then he pointed to me and said, â€Å"I hope you don't mind my telling you frankly. † To the others he repeated, â€Å"Of all of you he is the only one who must fear the next selection. So, don't worry! † And I smiled. I am now convinced that anyone in my place on that day would have done the same. Experiences in a Concentration Camp I think it was Lessing who once said, â€Å"There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose. An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior. Even we psychiatrists expect the reactions of a man to an abnormal situation, such as being com ­ mitted to an asylum, to be abnormal in proportion to the degree of his normality. The reaction of a man to his admission to a concentration camp also represents an abnormal state of mind, but judged objectively it is a normal and, as will be shown later, typi cal reaction to the given circumstances. These reactions, as I have described them, began to change in a few days.The prisoner passed from the first to the second phase; the phase of relative apathy, in which he achieved a kind of emotional death. Apart from the already described reactions, the newly arrived prisoner experienced the tortures of other most painful emotions, all of which he tried to deaden. First of all, there was his boundless longing for his home and his family. This often could become so acute that he felt himself consumed by longing. Then there was disgust; disgust with all the ugliness which surrounded him, even in its mere external forms.Most of the prisoners were given a uniform of rags which would have made a scarecrow elegant by comparison. Between the huts in the camp lay pure filth, and the more one worked to clear it away, the more one had to come in contact with it. It was a favorite practice to detail a new arrival to a work group whose job was to clean the latrines and remove the sewage. If, as usually happened, some of the excrement splashed into his face during its transport over bumpy fields, any sign of disgust by the prisoner or any attempt to wipe off the filth would only be punished with a blow from a Capo.And thus the mortification of normal reactions was hastened. At first the prisoner looked away if he saw the punishment parades of another group; he could not bear to see fellow prisoners march up and down for hours in the mire, their movements directed by blows. Days or weeks later things changed. Early in the morning, when it was still dark, the prisoner stood in front of the gate with his detachment, ready to march. He heard a scream and saw how 34 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 35 comrade was knocked down, pulled to his feet again, and knocked down once more—and why? He was feverish but had reported to sick-bay at an improper time. He was being punished for this irregular attempt t o be relieved of his duties. But the prisoner who had passed into the second stage of his psychological reactions did not avert his eyes any more. By then his feelings were blunted, and he watched un ­ moved. Another example: he found himself waiting at sick ­ bay, hoping to be granted two days of light work inside the camp because of injuries or perhaps edema or fever.He stood unmoved while a twelve-year-old boy was carried in who had been forced to stand at attention for hours in the snow or to work outside with bare feet because there were no shoes for him in the camp. His toes had become frost ­ bitten, and the doctor on duty picked off the black gan ­ grenous stumps with tweezers, one by one. Disgust, horror and pity are emotions that our spectator could not really feel any more. The sufferers, the dying and the dead, be ­ came such commonplace sights to him after a few weeks of camp life that they could not move him any more.I spent some time in a hut for typhus pati ents who ran very high temperatures and were often delirious, many of them moribund. After one of them had just died, I watched without any emotional upset the scene that followed, which was repeated over and over again with each death. One by one the prisoners approached the still warm body. One grabbed the remains of a messy meal of potatoes; another decided that the corpse's wooden shoes were an improve ­ ment on his own, and exchanged them. A third man did the same with the dead man's coat, and another was glad to be able to secure some—just imagine! —genuine string.All this I watched with unconcern. Eventually I asked the â€Å"nurse† to remove the body. When he decided to do so, he took the corpse by its legs, allowing it to drop into the small corridor between the two rows of boards which were the beds for the fifty typhus patients, and dragged it across the bumpy earthen floor toward the door. The two steps which led up into the open air always constit uted a prob ­ lem for us, since we were exhausted from a chronic lack of food. After a few months' stay in the camp we could not walk up those steps, which were each about six inches high, without putting our hands on the door jambs to pull our ­ selves up.The man with the corpse approached the steps. Wearily he dragged himself up. Then the body: first the feet, then the trunk, and finally—with an uncanny rattling noise— the head of the corpse bumped up the two steps. My place was on the opposite side of the hut, next to the small, sole window, which was built near the floor. While my cold hands clasped a bowl of hot soup from which I sipped greedily, I happened to look out the window. The corpse which had just been removed stared in at me with glazed eyes. Two hours before I had spoken to that man.Now I continued sipping my soup. If my lack of emotion had not surprised me from the standpoint of professional interest, I would not remember this incident now, because there was so little feeling in ­ volved in it. Apathy, the blunting of the emotions and the feeling that one could not care any more, were the symptoms arising during the second stage of the prisoner's psychological re ­ actions, and which eventually made him insensitive to daily and hourly beatings. By means of this insensibility the pris ­ oner soon surrounded himself with a very necessary protec ­ tive shell. 6 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 37 Beatings occurred on the slightest provocation, sometimes for no reason at all. For example, bread was rationed out at our work site and we had to line up for it. Once, the man behind me stood off a little to one side and that lack of symmetry displeased the SS guard. I did not know what was going on in the line behind me, nor in the mind of the SS guard, but suddenly I received two sharp blows on my head. Only then did I spot the guard at my side who was using his stick.At such a moment it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all. Strangely enough, a blow which does not even find its mark can, under certain circumstances, hurt more than one that finds its mark. Once I was standing on a railway track in a snowstorm. In spite of the weather our party had to keep on working. I worked quite hard at mending the track with gravel, since that was the only way to keep warm. For only one moment I paused to get my breath and to lean on my shovel.Unfortunately the guard turned around just then and thought I was loafing. The pain he caused me was not from any insults or any blows. That guard did not think it worth his while to say anything, not even a swear word, to the ragged, emaciated figure standing before him, which probably reminded him only vaguely of a human form. Instead, he playfully picked up a stone and threw it at me. That, to me, se emed the way to attract the attention of a beast, to call a domestic animal back to its job, a creature with which you have so little in common that you do not even punish it.The most painful part of beatings is the insult which they imply. At one time we had to carry some long, heavy girders over icy tracks. If one man slipped, he endangered not only himself but all the others who carried the same girder. An old friend of mine had a congenitally dislocated hip. He was glad to be capable of working in spite of it, since the physically disabled were almost certainly sent to death when a selection took place. He limped over the track with an especially heavy girder, and seemed about to fall and drag the others with him. As yet, I was not carrying a girder so I jumped to his assistance without stopping to think.I was immediately hit on the back, rudely repri ­ manded and ordered to return to my place. A few minutes previously the same guard who struck me had told us deprecatingly tha t we â€Å"pigs† lacked the spirit of comrade ­ ship. Another time, in a forest, with the temperature at 2 °F, we began to dig up the topsoil, which was frozen hard, in order to lay water pipes. By then I had grown rather weak physi ­ cally. Along came a foreman with chubby rosy cheeks. His face definitely reminded me of a pig's head. I noticed that he wore lovely warm gloves in that bitter cold. For a time he watched me silently.I felt that trouble was brewing, for in front of me lay the mound of earth which showed exactly how much I had dug. Then he began: â€Å"You pig, I have been watching you the whole time! I'll teach you to work, yet! Wait till you dig dirt with your teeth—you'll die like an animal! In two days I'll finish you off! You've never done a stroke of work in your life. What were you, swine? A businessman? † I was past caring. But I had to take his threat of killing me seriously, so I straightened up and looked him directly in the eye. â⠂¬Å"I was a doctor—a specialist. † â€Å"What? A doctor?I bet you got a lot of money out of people. † â€Å"As it happens, I did most of my work for no money at all, in clinics for the poor. † But, now, I had said too much. He threw himself on me and knocked me down, shouting like a madman. I can no longer remember what he shouted. I want to show with this apparently trivial story that 38 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 39 there are moments when indignation can rouse even a seemingly hardened prisoner—indignation not about cruelty or pain, but about the insult connected with it. That time blood rushed to my head because I had to listen o a man judge my life who had so little idea of it, a man (I must confess: the following remark, which I made to my fellow-prisoners after the scene, afforded me childish relief) â€Å"who looked so vulgar and brutal that the nurse in the outpatient ward in my hospital would not even have admitted him to the waiting room. † Fortunately the Capo in my working party was obligated to me; he had taken a liking to me because I listened to his love stories and matrimonial troubles, which he poured out during the long marches to our work site. I had made an impression on him with my diagnosis of his character and with my psychotherapeutic advice.After that he was grate ­ ful, and this had already been of value to me. On several previous occasions he had reserved a place for me next to him in one of the first five rows of our detachment, which usually consisted of two hundred and eighty men. That favor was important. We had to line up early in the morn ­ ing while it was still dark. Everybody was afraid of being late and of having to stand in the back rows. If men were required for an unpleasant and disliked job, the senior Capo appeared and usually collected the men he needed from the back rows.These men had to march away to an ­ other, especially dreaded kind of work under the command of strange guards. Occasionally the senior Capo chose men from the first five rows, just to catch those who tried to be clever. All protests and entreaties were silenced by a few well-aimed kicks, and the chosen victims were chased to the meeting place with shouts and blows. However, as long as my Capo felt the need of pouring out his heart, this could not happen to me. I had a guaranteed place of honor next to him. But there was another advan- tage, too. Like nearly all the camp inmates I was suffering from edema.My legs were so swollen and the skin on them so tightly stretched that I could scarcely bend my knees. I had to leave my shoes unlaced in order to make them fit my swollen feet. There would not have been space for socks even if I had had any. So my partly bare feet were always wet and my shoes always full of snow. This, of course, caused frostbite and chilblains. Every single step became real torture. Clumps of ice formed on our shoes during our m arches over snow-covered fields. Over and again men slipped and those following behind stumbled on top of them. Then the column would stop for a moment, but not for long.One of the guards soon took action and worked over the men with the butt of his rifle to make them get up quickly. The more to the front of the column you were, the less often you were disturbed by having to stop and then to make up for lost time by running on your painful feet. I was very happy to be the personally appointed physician to His Honor the Capo, and to march in the first row at an even pace. As an additional payment for my services, I could be sure that as long as soup was being dealt out at lunchtime at our work site, he would, when my turn came, dip the ladle right to the bottom of the vat and fish out a few peas.This Capo, a former army officer, even had the courage to whisper to the foreman, whom I had quarreled with, that he knew me to be an unusually good worker. That didn't help matters, but he n evertheless managed to save my life (one of the many times it was to be saved). The day after the epi ­ sode with the foreman he smuggled me into another work party. There were foremen who felt sorry for us and who did their best to ease our situation, at least at the building site. 40 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 41But even they kept on reminding us that an ordinary laborer did several times as much work as we did, and in a shorter time. But they did see reason if they were told that a normal workman did not live on 10-1/2 ounces of bread (theoretically—actually we often had less) and 1-3/4 pints of thin soup per day; that a normal laborer did not live under the mental stress we had to submit to, not having news of our families, who had either been sent to another camp or gassed right away; that a normal workman was not threat ­ ened by death continuously, daily and hourly.I even al ­ lowed myself to say once to a kindly foreman, â€Å" If you could learn from me how to do a brain operation in as short a time as I am learning this road work from you, I would have great respect for you. † And he grinned. Apathy, the main symptom of the second phase, was a necessary mechanism of self-defense. Reality dimmed, and all efforts and all emotions were centered on one task: pre ­ serving one's own life and that of the other fellow. It was typical to hear the prisoners, while they were being herded back to camp from their work sites in the evening, sigh with relief and say, â€Å"Well, another day is over. It can be readily understood that such a state of strain, coupled with the constant necessity of concentrating on the task of staying alive, forced the prisoner's inner life down to a primitive level. Several of my colleagues in camp who were trained in psychoanalysis often spoke of a â€Å"regression† in the camp inmate—a retreat to a more primitive form of mental life. His wishes and desires became obvious in his dreams. What did the prisoner dream about most frequently? Of bread, cake, cigarettes, and nice warm baths.The lack of having these simple desires satisfied led him to seek wishfulfillment in dreams. Whether these dreams did any good is another matter; the dreamer had to wake from them to the reality of camp life, and to the terrible contrast between that and his dream illusions. I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare. Since I had always been especially sorry for people who suffered from fearful dreams or deliria, I wanted to wake the poor man.Suddenly I drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, frightened at the thing I was about to do. At that moment I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us, and to which I was about to recall him. Because of the high degree of undernourishment which the prisoners suffered, it was natural that the desire for food was the major primitive instinct around which mental life centered. Let us observe the majority of prisoners when they happened to work near each other and were, for once, not closely watched.They would immediately start discuss ­ ing food. One fellow would ask another working next to him in the ditch what his favorite dishes were. Then they would exchange recipes and plan the menu for the day when they would have a reunion—the day in a distant future when they would be liberated and returned home. They would go on and on, picturing it all in detail, until suddenly a warning was passed down the trench, usually in the form of a special password or number: â€Å"The guard is coming. † I always regarded the discussions about food as danger ­ ous.Is it not wrong to provoke the organism with such detailed and affective pictures of delicacies when it has somehow m anaged to adapt itself to extremely small rations 42 Man's Search for Meaning Experiences in a Concentration Camp 43 and low calories? Though it may afford momentary psycho ­ logical relief, it is an illusion which phy

Famous Botanist Francisco Hernandez Essay

During the time of 1700 hundreds many artist made their way to spain to seek out what they believed to be an art form but done in garden designs. So many people thought that this was a great cause and belived that this was they were meant to do for life. Francisco like other believed that this was the way to go so he to set to become a famous garden designer and soon he got his wish and was sent for by the duke of Earl. It took many years to establish a good working condition with his boss so he just continued to give his best at what he did which was deisgn the most beautiful garden that you would have ever seen. For many years it wqould be difficult for him to do anything else vbut design because that is all he thought about all day. In the winter it wouod prove to be cruel to him but he weathered the storm and kept right ahead with what he was doing and that was to creat the perfect garden fro duke. Many times the duke became frustrated with his work that he should have never sent for and this made Frncisco so very unhappy to where he put his all into what he was doing even more so but this was not enough until one day he finally decided to tell his boss that he was to ask him to send him back home.

Clean India For A Green India Essay

‘When the last tree is cut and the last fish killed, the last river poisoned, then you will see that you can’t eat money.’ -John May The CLEAN-India Programme India has a population of over one billion, of which almost 300 million live in around 600 towns and cities. Unfortunately, as a result of stressed environmental conditions, most of these towns and cities are unable to cope with the rapid pace of urbanisation. Water pollution, unavailability of drinking water, inadequate sanitation, open dumping of waste, and loss of forest cover are some of the related problems. These have serious consequences on the health of the people and are also an economic burden to the country. Similarly, water-borne disease like diarrhoea, jaundice and cholera are taking a heavy toll on both human health and economic productivity. This situation demands immediate intervention in the management of rapidly growing urban environmental problems. The quality of the environment needs to be monitored regularly and, more importantly, scientific work needs to extend beyond the laboratory and become more community centered. While the regulatory agencies continue to play their role. Programmes that are community based are required. These will help the community understand local issues and take necessary initiatives to improve their local environmental conditions and come up with new locale-specific initatives to improve their sorrounding environmental conditions. CLEAN-India (Community Led Environment Action Network) programme was launched by Development Alternatives (DA) with the vision of developing a cleaner environment for our urban centres. This nation-wide programme focuses on environmental assessment, awareness, advocacy and action on school children who are the future citizens. The underlined realisation is that ‘each one of us is responsible for the current state of are environment and we cannot wait for someone else to solve it’. CLEAN-India Mission The CLEAN-India programme aims to mobilise community responsibility for environmental assessment and improvement in all major towns and cities of India through schools and NGOs linked with governments, business, academic and other institutions. CLEAN-India Network CLEAN-India programme partners with more than 30 like-minded NGOs, 400 schools and over one million students who coordinate the activities across 78 urban centres of India. They participate in various environmental activities and programmes for a cleaner greener India. CLEAN-India Thematic Areas †¢ Water quality and conservation †¢ Sanitation †¢ Land use and biodiversity conservation †¢ Water conservation †¢ Air quality †¢ Energy efficiency †¢ Carbon footprint †¢ Climate change CLEAN-India has evolved with the experiences and learnings from the various initiatives it has taken in the past fifteen years. It is now a front runner in the field of conservation and sustainable living. CLEAN-India programme evolved from DA’s experience with the Delhi Environment Action Network (DEAN) programme, which began in September1996 with five schools. Over 4000 children have now been trained directly on environmental assessment and improvement activities. Action programmes to improve local environmental conditions have been initatiated. Solid waste management, plantation drives, energy conservation, paper recycling, etc., are some activities done by the schools, Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), business and industrial associations and individual households. This experience indicates that when environment assessment is youth and community based, it mobilises the community to review their local environment conditions and take the requisite measures without waitin g for external support. CLEAN-India has around 30 partner NGOs who drive the CLEAN-India initiative in their urban centres. The endeavour has been well received in these areas. Many more NGOs from across the country have expressed interest to initiate the CLEAN-India programme in their own cities and towns. Over the past decade, the programme has mobilised an extensive network of environmentally conscious citizens. They have assumed responsibility and evolved solutions to their existing environmental problems. Besides the core network of 30 NGOs, thousands of  school teachers and several other citizens’ groups like RWAs, parents fora, local business associations and youth clubs participate actively in the activities. The programme covers various aspects pertaining to our environment like water, air, trees and medicinal plants, waste management (composting, waste paper recycling), checking for food adulteration, bird watching, energy conservation, eco-consumerism. The CLEAN-India Programme is: Unique – because it involves children and yougth, the future citizens as engines of change Scientific – as it is equipped with scientific tools, methods and techniques Innovative – as it has a structured framework with flexibility to address the local needs Inclusive – as it joins hands with all stakeholders Holistic – as it addresses the entire value chain from assessment to solutions Regular – in creating an environmental movement combining hands-on scientific learning with civic action Effective – because it creates Eco-Citizens for tomorrow†¦ Recognising the potential of the CLEAN-India Programme, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Development Alternatives to mutually assist and strengthen existing initiatives of community based environmental action in India. This collaboration was aimed at mobilising the school network for continuous monitoring of environmental quality and motivating communities to initiate activities for clean neighbourhoods. Similarly, CLEAN-India is partnering relationships with business and industry associations and entities like the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), FORD Motors and also with academic institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and Indian Institute of Science (IISc). CLEAN-India Tools †¢ Jal-TARA Water Testing Kit helps monitor the quality of drinking water. †¢ Pawan-TARA Air Testing Kit helps assess the quality of the air we breathe. †¢ Jal-TARA Water Filter provides safe drinking water by treating pathogenic bacteria and turbidity. †¢ TARA Mini Paper Recycling Plant recycles waste paper generated in schools and communities which enable us to make our own  stationary. Achievements/ Milestones †¢ CLEAN Dindigul recieved the JCB Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)-Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) second runner up award for excellence in solid waste management in 2011. †¢ CLEAN-India website won the Manthan-AIF Award for best e-content on environment in 2006. †¢ A CLEAN-Shillong (ex-CLEAN-India Centre) student was selected by Reuters for the Johannesburg Meet in 2000. †¢ The first DEAN – CLEAN Mela was held in 1998 and included an exhibition, competitions, quiz and a public forum †¢ CLEAN-India students participated in international conferences in Edinburgh, UK and Nairobi, Kenya in 1997 and 1998. †¢ Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Britain interacted with a CLEAN-India student in Edinburgh, UK in 1997. †¢ DA was nominated as the focal agency for ‘Earth Charter for Children’, South Asia. Few of our Resource Centres have helped us translate it into 6 regional languages also. We have released posters, brochures and one book on all the languages in ninth CLEAN-India Meet in 1995. †¢ Tree helpline started by Delhi Government. PIL in Supreme Court for protection of greens / trees. †¢ A number of projects have been catalysed with agencies such as UNICEF, Water Aid, Department of Science and Technology, MoEF and Delhi Government. †¢ CLEAN-India is a part of an International Youth Alliance ‘Be the Solution’. Support for CLEAN-India †¢ European Commission †¢ Delhi Government †¢ Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India †¢ Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India †¢ State Governments †¢ Central Pollution Control Board †¢ Respective State Pollution Control Boards †¢ Royal Netherlands Embassy †¢ Foundation Ensemble †¢ Ford Motors †¢ Jocknick Foundation Success Stories †¢ A Solid Waste Management Plan for Jhansi is being developed in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Jhansi and Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board. †¢ Ten deflouridation filters were provided by the manufacturer and 70 filters have been set up with the initiative of CLEAN members by Rural Water Supply Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh. †¢ CLEAN-India Delhi Chapter initiated and facilitated in setting up of a tree helpline. †¢ CLEAN-India Mysore Chapter has networked with Mysore City Corporation for solid waste management. They have also networked with a womens’ Self Help Group (SHG), to convert all election campaign material into mats and other decorative items. †¢ CLEAN-India Pune Chapter was successful in the Eco-visarjan campaign. The authorities banned the use of idols made of plaster of paris painted with toxic colours. Unbaked clay idols were made available and proper arrangements were made for immersions. †¢ CLEAN-India Dindigul Chapter has set up a residual recycling plant in tanneries as an outcome result of a campaign by school students. Harnessing Youth Power – Way Ahead Young people constitute a large part of the world’s population. India has the largest youth population in the world. Nearly 40 per cent of the Indian population is aged between 13 to 35 years, and are defined as youth in the National Youth Policy. A large population, especially young people and children, are particularly vulnerable to environmental risks, for example, access to clean and safe drinking water. In addition, young people will have to live with the consequences of current environmental actions and decisions taken by their elders. Future generations will also be affected by these decisions and the extent to which they have been addressed. Their concerns would be on depletion of resources, the loss of biodiversity, and radioactive wastes. Youth have both special concerns and special responsibilities in relation to the environment. Young people will engage in new forms of action and activism that will generate effective responses to environmental challenges. CLEAN-India will now focus on youth and provide them with an opportunity to associate with it. It will direct their efforts towards eliciting a positive change in urban society. In the past 16 years of its existence, CLEAN-India has traversed a long way in pursuit of its mission to mobilise community responsibility for environmental assessment and improvement, which has also earned it numerous laurels from both within as well as beyond its shores. But a greater opportunity of work and engagement still awaits our footsteps and we are committed to take it further in the days to come!

Risk Analysis - Information Security and Infrastructure protection Assignment

Risk Analysis - Information Security and Infrastructure protection - Assignment Example To protect the organization’s information assets and mission from threats related to organizations mission, the organization has to perform without partiality the risk management role. Bearing in mind the weight the risk assessment bears in the development of the organization, the organization should keep a lot more attention to it than leave it as just the function of the information technology department. The essence of close monitoring and attention is by the fact that the main goal for risk management process in an organization is to protect the ability of an organization to achieve their mission and protect the organization as a whole. Therefore, in a bid to achieve the organizations missions by the risk assessment, there are several goals in the risk management process. An improved secure information technology system used in the storage transmission and processing of the organizations information, and the risk management makes it possible for an organization to have a well-informed decision with risk management and to give the reason for budgeting for the same as part of the budget allocated for the information technology department. The target audience includes both the experienced and the non-experienced, non-technical and technical people, who get involved in the utility of the risk assessment process with the information technology systems. The people involved here include the owners of the mission who takes part in making the decisions on the information technology budget, and they comprise the senior management. Chief Officer in charge of information ensures that the risk assessment process is implemented and does spearhead maintenance of the systems security. In order to allow information technology system to operate, the designated approving authority personnel must approve and allow the system; hence, the fact makes him/her an integral part. The quality assurance personnel are among the audience; this is for the fact that these personnel

Transport and Inventory Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Transport and Inventory Management - Essay Example The fundamental concept of supply chain management (SCM) is one of the oldest concepts in the world of management. Almost 50 years ago, it was first introduced by Forrester (Mentzer, 2001). It has become one of the most popular and most widely researched concepts for the last ten years. According to Monezka and his colleagues the primary objective of supply chain management concept is â€Å"to integrate and manage the sourcing, flow and control of materials using a total systems perspective across multiple functions and multiple tiers of suppliers† (Mentzer, 2001). It is one of most important aspects in today’s business environment as it is a crucial component of overall value chain. This actually means supply chain is directly related to the aspects like customer satisfaction and value. In fact the main ‘purpose of supply chain management is improving customer satisfaction and value’ which is the main aim of a business organisation (Mentzer, 2001). Any sup ply chain is consisted of five main areas which are production, inventory, transportation, information and location. The effectiveness and efficiency of a company’s supply chain is dependent on the effectiveness and efficiency of these five areas. This paper focuses on two of these five factors, production and inventory. These two areas are analyzed in the context of Toyota which is one of those rare companies that are global renowned for their supply chain management. The paper provides a clear idea about the Toyota’s production system as well as its inventory management system. Moreover it also shows the way in which Toyota has identified and dealt with the capacities and limitations of its production system and inventory system. Production and inventory are two of the most fundamental concepts in the field of business operations. At the present business environment which is intensely competitive, efficient and effective production system as well as inventory system is the key

STRATEGIC ACCOUNTING & FINANCE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

STRATEGIC ACCOUNTING & FINANCE - Essay Example In the late 1980s and early 1990s there were a series of scandalous collapse of several prominent UK companies. The reasons being weak control and governance over the working of the management board and the main reason was the power and authority vested in the hands of a single person. In December 1992, the Cadbury Committee published the Code of Best Practice(hereafter, the Code) which recommended that Boards of publicly-traded UK corporations include at least three outside directors and that the positions of the Chairman and Chief executive Officer not to be held by a single individual. The purpose of this kind of separation is to enhance corporate performance and to avoid misuse of power and authority. In this essay the author discusses the effects of the Cadbury Committee on Corporate Governance and whether the split in the roles of CEO and Chairman according the Committee recommendations has increased or decreased the efficiency of companies. 1. It is mentioned in various research reports that the Code has definitely increased the general awareness of good corporate governance and it has caused several changes in the governance of companies. Mainly, the presence of independent directors on the Board has definitely increased the performance of a company. 3. ... 3. Another effect is that it has induced the turnover of top level managers in companies after the recommendations were implemented. In a study by Jay Dahya and John J. McConnell, it is evident that the implementation of the recommendations of the committee has increased the turnover of top level executives in companies in UK. This turnover of top-level executives can be voluntary and forced. But the turnover of the executives and the performance of the company shows a direct correlation. This study is very significant to show how the composition of the Board of Directors can cause a change in the performance of a company. 4. Mostly the Code mentions only recommendations voluntary measures. It is upto the necessity and discretion of the companies to implement the recommendations. But the London Stock Exchange has made it mandatory for all the Companies to comply with the Code. This step by the London stock exchange is an evidence about the credibility of the recommendations in itself. These recommendations when implemented by all the listed companies will definitely have a change in corporate governance across UK. 5. Generally, the quality of corporate governance can be measured by the flow of information inside the company. When outsiders are more in the Board of management and the CEO and the Chairmen posts are held by two different people, then there are more chances that information will be available to the shareholders. This availability of information is a cyclic process in improving the efficiency of an organization. If information is available freely the shareholders will have better idea about what is happening inside the Board. This information can play

Substance use Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Substance use - Essay Example A few of these are serious gastro-intestinal problems, severe headaches, menstrual irregularities, hypertension, premature baldness, shrinking of breast (females) and enlargement of the breast (males) while shrinking the testicles (testicular atrophy). Drug Education Programs – the goal of drug educational programs such as D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is to educate youngsters about the dangers of illegal drug use before they will even start and be swayed by its temptations (Brogan & Koellhoffer 9). A logic behind the program is to involve police officers in giving their time and expertise to help schools conduct drug-education programs. The approach is to use police officers who are into the fight against drug-related crimes that gives them much-needed street credibility in the eyes of the kids, as opposed to â€Å"tough guy† persona exemplified by thugs, pimps and drug pushers. A drug prevention program, meanwhile, focuses more on counteracting the social influences that can lead to drug use; such as peer pressure, ostracism and school bullying (Segal 125).

Extent to Which Social Network Network Affect Academic Perfomance Research Paper

Extent to Which Social Network Network Affect Academic Perfomance - Research Paper Example The majority of the sites assists strangers bond with others on the circumstances of common individual interests, political and economic opinions, or merely recreational activities. Many of the social sites hold distinct viewers, whereas others draw individuals on the basis of similarities, such as same languages or mutual racial, sexual, spiritual or the same nationality. Despite the advantages of social networks, they have contributed unconstructively to academic performance of students. Social network websites have the following effects to individuals: they create a public outline within a bordered system and provide a list of other people that they are able and willing to communicate with. They are able to see and go over their list of associations and those contributed by others inside the system. The nature and classification of these associations may differ from the social websites (Boyd). Social networking has turn out to be an accepted tool for communication globally and it is considered the best form of communication. People who join social networks may consider them as their first time of school where they do not know anybody. After spending some time in the social network individuals are able to engage with new friends, thus it becomes more interesting. The social websites are utilized by a vast populace and those from dissimilar races. Whereas the name social sites are taken to depict this incident, the word social networking site as well appears in public communication, and the two names are regularly used interchangeably. Networking insists relationship introduction, frequently linking strangers. Whereas networking is likely on these sites, it is not the major practice on many of them, nor is it what varies them from other types of computer mediated communication (CMC). Most of the big participants are not automatically networking or looking to get together with new populace; instead, they are mainly communicating with individuals who are a part of their extensive social network (Cross, Pg15). To stress this communicated social websites as a serious organizing characteristic of these websites, they are labeled as social network sites. Teenagers in the current generation have a face book account which they spend most times signing and chatting with friends (Cross Pg 55). Many students spend precious times in these social networks until they forget doing their assignments. Extensive research showed that many students prefer spending most of their time in social network sites than studying. Even with the advantages of social networks, they have affected the studies of students negatively. Most of the students have poor grades because of spending much time in social websites, thus they procrastinate their work (Cross Pg 67). On the issue of educational performance and merit, researchers suggested that, performance is used to note the apparent demonstration of knowledge, concepts, and understanding. Thus, performance is the use of learning results that at the end of the course ensures mastery. It is the attainment of specific grades on tests shows candidates’ capability, understanding of the content, and skills in using gained knowledge to specific situations (Turkle, Pg 40). A student’s achievement is mostly judged on tests performance. Success on tests and assessments is a major show that a learner has gained from a course of study. Many students tend to spend a lot of time in social ne

Economics College Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Economics College - Research Paper Example Example of cigarette consumption by a die-hard smoker who hardly changes his smoking habit and consume as many number of cigarettes as he smoked earlier in spite of the bigger rise in its price. Unitary Elastic demand curve that may be sloping down uniformly in such a way to register equal proportionate increase or decrease in demand for a good in response to given proportionate fall or rise in its price 1.1 Demand for necessities and luxury in daily life. The rise and fall of prices of essentials makes no differences in demand pattern at least for short period. Similarly the rise in the prices of luxurious goods does not affect their demand because of the income status of the consumers in that segment is high enough to reduce the demand. 1.3 : In case the commodity has a substitute the increase in the prise of the primary one will lead consumers to shift to the substitute. In this case the demand will remain relatively elastic and the demand curve will slope down. The tea price being raised consumers would readily shift to coffee provided it satisfies the taste. 1.4 Technological changes in the product make the consumers unable to or difficult to shift its demand for cheaper or better good. Here the demand remains relatively inelastic to the change in price. ... Consumers are already using some other non electrical goods or geared to other system. Increase of electricity consumption depends upon buying and using more sophisticated electrical gadgets. Buying is not a function of electricity price but the income and need. 1.5 Imperfect knowledge about market is a factor that accounts for price inelasticity of demand in which condition the fall in price of a commodity would not lead rise in demand for that good in the short run because consumers are not aware about the change. This would not enable the demand curve to fall in short time at least. B. The effect of unitary elastic demand defined above for good in response to change in price term on total revenue is neutral because there would be equal and proportionate change in demand for goods in response to the given proportionate change in price. The amount spent on that particular good would be same as before the price change as shown in the following chart1 and diagram1: When the elasticity is unitary the demand for good changes from PQ to P1Q1 at the fall of price in such a way to spend the same amount of money to buy higher quantity P1Q1 to satisfy. Here the out lay of PROQ is equal to P1R1OQ1 Chart 1 Total Outlay method Elasticity=1 Price $ Demand/no. Outlay/$ 10 70 700 5 140 700 2 350 700 Chart 2 Total Outlay method Elasticity.>1 Price $ Demand/ no. Outlay/$ 10 70 700 5 170 850 2 500 1000 Chart3 Total Outlay Method Elasticity

Same sex couple SHOULD BE allowed to marry Essay

Same sex couple SHOULD BE allowed to marry - Essay Example Countries like Belgium, Netherlands and Canada give legal assistance to homosexual marriage. Above all as the same sex couples love each other and ready to live together it is their right to pursue their option (Filer, 2010). Denial of same sex marriage is offensive in anyway and many supportive aspects could be found in this regard. First of all being a homosexual or lesbian does not deny a person his or her citizenship. So, all the citizens of a nation should have equal rights. There should not be a division on the basis of their gender. As the heterosexual has the freedom to marry the person whom he or she loves the person who prefers same sex should also be allowed to marry the one whom he or she likes. The constitution of a country is written for all the citizens of that country and the denial of their rights is unjust on the part of the constitution. Government should not interfere in peoples’ private affairs and the denial of marriage to a certain segment of population is clear discrimination. Marriage should take place on the basis of the love between two persons and gender is not a determining factor of one’s love. It is the fundamental right of every citizen. As love is the main f actor of married life denial of union between two loving hearts just because of same sex is cruel and barbaric. People who stand against same sex marriage say that marriage is for procreation. But that is a wrong idea as marriage primarily aims at loving and caring of two persons. More over there are a number of heterosexual couples who do not procreate. There have been attempts to portrait gay as deviants and overturn their right to marry as per their will. Most probably religious are there behind it, especially the catholic. But one should bear in mind the fact that the constitution is written not exclusively for any particular religious group and it is not a religious document (Homosexuality and

The comperison of BNY Mellon and Barclay's bank Research Paper

The comperison of BNY Mellon and Barclay's bank - Research Paper Example 3 Introduction 4 Strengths and Weaknesses of the banks 4 Profitability of the bank over a span of 5 years 5 Mission and vision of the banks 6 Bank’s Financial Position 8 Projected Profitability of the banks 9 Conclusion 11 The above paper held a comparison between the financial states of BNY Mellon and Barclay’s bank with an aim of examining the extent to which each of them could withstand the brunt of the financial crisis and the way that they are prepared in meeting any such crises in future. The paper tried to assess their profitability and financial positions and found the degree of resilience of Barclay’s to be far higher than that of BNY Mellon. However, as far as their investment in assets are concerned, that of BNY Mellon is found to be in a better position than that of its peer. 11 References 11 Abstract The present paper aims at examining the financial positions of two leading banks namely, BNY Mellon and Barclay’s Plc through a close investigati on of their respective financial ratios. Moreover, the paper targets at evaluating the strengths and weaknesses as well as the mission and vision of both banks. ... Both banks faced the brunt of the crisis which was reflected in their respective key financial ratios. The crisis had mainly been the outcome of poorly framed monetary policies which implemented a fall in the rate of interest initially and followed it by a sudden hike in the same. This fickle mindedness took a toll over the financial state of the economy and exposed the frail fundamentals of many of its financial houses. However, the intrinsic strength of many of them were also displayed which prevented these institutions from being fully victimized by the crisis. The present paper tries to draw a comparison between the features which characterize Bank of New York Mellon (BK) and Barclays Bank (BCLYF) on the basis of their respective financial figures over the last 5 years (2006-2010). A close examination into the historical key ratio values can possibly deduce the errors committed and precision adhered to by these banks, which determined the degree of their sustenance. Moreover, it also attempts to figure out the profitability of these banks provided fluctuations in the Fed rate. As the view portrayed by any organization is highly important while assessing its strengths and weaknesses, they too would be inspected though the format of the entire paper will be of a comparative nature. Strengths and Weaknesses of the banks Bank of New York Mellon Total assets of the bank used to consist mostly of fixed assets rather than current assets initially although this factor had been improving over time, implying that the bank’s liquidity position is improving over time. Moreover, the bank’s assets in comparison to its total liabilities are also improving over time. Its increasing reliability on equity financing is also remarkable which promises of the

Data on Fixed Line vs. Cellular Debate Essay Example for Free

Data on Fixed Line vs. Cellular Debate Essay Most wireline phone companies charge more than what youd pay for most alternatives, and some are taxed more as well. There are some locations where getting new wired phone service is prohibitively expensive or even impossible. Long Distance and extra features like Call Waiting are normally included with alternative phones. More Features: Cellular and broadband phones normally include Long Distance, Voice Mail, Caller ID, Call Forwarding and more, usually at no additional charge. They also have Text Messaging and various forms of data service which are unavailable with a landline. Portability: If you move your home more than average (or if its on wheels), your phone and your number can stay with you. There are no installation charges. Temporary Usage: You can have phone service for the season in a vacation home or cabin, or on an extended stay at a hotel or home of a friend or relative without installing a separate line. Internet Access: Your wireless phone can also be your connection to the Internet, either with an internal browser or tethered to your computer, and available wherever there is cellular coverage. Wireless broadband is also available separate from your cellular account. Wi-Fi for Multiple Devices: You can get a cellular modem that provides a wi-fi signal that can connect to up to 5 separate wi-fi devices. Cons: Reliability: Wired telephone services have come as close to 100% reliable as is practical. Their network has substantial power backup, redundant circuits and years to get it right. Alternatives are improving but their networks can vary significantly. Cell sites and other communications nodes have a limited amount of backup power. In an extended power outage, such as after a hurricane or snowstorm, the service may not work, leaving you with no service. Corded phones work in power failures. Cable phones also have a lower level of reliability. Sound Quality: Some alternative phones dont sound the same or as good as a landline. While your alternative phone may sound fine to you, it may be difficult for others. Also, some broadband phone services just dump their audio into the Internet resulting in widely varying data travel times giving you significant sound delays. Lack of Service: You may be in a location where there are no wireless broadband alternatives or may have poor cellular coverage. This might be rectified by adding a cell site to your home. Broadband Speeds: While there are some fairly fast wireless broadband connections, it may be some time before they will compare to wired or cable connections. Malfunctions: Cell sites can stop working for various reasons. Repairs often need to be made on site and may take time. Broadband services require one or more pieces of equipment at your house which you will need to fix if it fails. Wireline equipment can normally be repaired at the central office. Murphys Law says breakdowns will happen at the worst possible time. You Have No Backup: Unless you have an extra cellular phone, if something happens to your main phone or its associated equipment, or your account, you cant just plug another phone into the wall. Inconvenience: Some alternative services only offer a single jack for one phone. If you want service throughout the house you either must go wi-fi or cellular. Otherwise, plan on using the phone near your computer or router. With a cell phone you need to keep it close to you if your home is large or on multiple floors. (The Unwired Home) There are companies that offer the best of both worlds of fixed line and cellular communications. These are just some of the included services offered by the number 1 provider; 1. Price If you plan to use Skype just for calling other Skype users, then it’s free you can even have a small online meeting. Skype also lets you video conference with another person using the free plan. The only drawback is that you cant have a larger video conference on the free plan, as you can only hold a video call with one user at a time. There are no monthly fees to pay, unless you’ve chosen a monthly plan. You can also save on your phone bill by inviting other people who you need to call often to join Skype too. If you prefer to call on a landline or cell phone, you have the option to choose a pay-as-you-go plan, which charges a small amount for these kinds of calls if you call international numbers often, using Skype could work out cheaper than using your office phone. 2. Ease of Use Skype is very easy to install, set-up and begin using. It has a really user-friendly interface that anyone, regardless of their level of tech knowledge, can learn to use. Adding new contacts, sending instant messages and placing calls are all done with the click of a button. It’s also very easy to know if Skype was set up correctly, as the tool has a test call number where users can check if their audio and microphone are working properly. This is great, as there is no guessing whether Skype was installed correctly or not. 3. It is where you are With a number of Skype versions available, you can use it anywhere, from virtually any device. Whether you’re on your office computer, laptop, tablet computer, or smartphone, you can have Skype with you and make free or cheap phone calls from anywhere in the world. This is especially handy if you need to be out and about often for your job, as you can still hold your regular calls from wherever you are via Skype, as long as you’re connected to the Internet. There’s no need to postpone calls just because you’re away from your desk. This is a huge benefit for small businesses as there usually isnt a large number of staff available to take or make important calls at all times. 4. Reliability In the early VoIP days, call quality was bad and calls got dropped often. This kind of technology wasn’t an option for businesses as not only it was very annoying to have calls drop all the time, but it was unprofessional to choose such bad quality services. However, VoIP has improved greatly since then and Skype is very reliable. As long as your Internet connection is stable, you can expect your call won’t get dropped. Furthermore, if the Internet connection is bad for any of the parties, Skype will inform users of that, so they know that the call might get dropped. Skype also encourages users to rate their calls when they’re done, and Skype is continuously improving the reliability of the service. 5. Call quality As a small business, it’s important to choose inexpensive services that are of high quality this is where Skype really delivers. Calls both to other Skype users and landlines are crystal clear, so long as the caller has a good headset with a high quality microphone. Calls to landlines and cell phones get connected quickly, and don’t usually suffer from problems such as echoing or words getting cut off. For the most part, it’s as if users are talking to someone just next to them. And whats better than that for establishing strong and long-lasting business relationships? (Warren)