Microsoft programmes Essay Example for Free

Microsoft programmes Essay During year ten I had two weeks of work experience from the 12th to 23rd of March 2007. Work experience wasnt just compulsory for pupils within my school, but a nationwide curricular activity. My head of year Miss Joseph organised the work experience with a company called Trident, who helped organise the placements and checked the placement for health and safety. For those not organising their own work experience, you had apply for jobs through tridents website. You had to select six difference jobs, and order them in preference and then Trident would try to organise the placement you placed first. However Trident were unable to succeed in getting everyone their first choice in placement, as many other schools within Waltham forest were doing work experience during the same period. I however arranged my own placement, at my mothers primary school. My mother, several members of staff and I and to fill out a couple of forms which were then sent to Trident, who would check the placement to see if it was safe for me to work there. I chose to work in a school as I enjoy working with others and helping children to learn. I have often considered becoming a teacher, so I felt that working in a school would help me decide whether that was the career path I should be going down. A couple of weeks before my work experience was due to start, I had an interview with the head teacher of the school. I had to ring up the school and organise this interview. The head teacher asked me a couple of questions about why I had chosen to work there, and what skills I was hoping to gain from the experience. She then showed me around the premises, and introduced me to the members of staff that I would be working with. During my work experience, my working hours were from 8.00 till 5. 00. I took the car to work and the journey would usually take half and hour. I would work until 3. 15, when the children went home, however I did not leave until 5. 00 as I had to help clear up and help with after school activities. On my first day I was informed of the tasks I would be doing that day and introduced to all the children. Most mornings I would clean the childrens cup and then fill them with water. I would then have to set up the first activity, which was always spelling. Other jobs I had to do included; photo copying, paired reading, taking groups of children for group learning and cleaning. I worked with one teacher and one teaching assistant, both of which would assist me with tasks I found difficult and were both very helpful. I felt I did have a positive effect on my colleagues as I would often be able to carry out tasks without too much assistance and therefore my less work for others. However in some activities I had to be assisted due to health and safety reasons, which could have made more work for the staff, than if I was not there. I offered to help out after school and would always be willing to try any task the teacher set me, even if I didnt know what to do. I therefore feel that I made a positive contribution and reduced the work load for my colleagues. During my work experience I had to carry out many different tasks, many of which I had never done before. I was able to cope with most of these new activities, however I did encounter some problems during my first week. For example whilst I was doing paired reading with an individual child, another child, with behaviour difficulties, kept disturbing me and trying to get my attention. I was unsure on what strategy I should use to prevent the children from preventing me from doing the paired reading so I went and spoke to the class teacher. She then told me that the best thing to do, would be to ignore the disruptive child, and they would soon return to their work. I used this strategy several times during my work experience and I then was able to continue with the work, undisturbed. Another problem I encountered was when one child told me that another child had hit them, when in the playground. I then went and spoke to the other child, however they said that it was actually the other child who had hit them. Both children denied hitting one another, so I asked both children if they were hurt in any way, but they both said no. I then spoke to both children, telling them that hitting was wrong, and if there were any more problems then I would have to take them to their class teacher. I then got the two children to make up and play a game together nicely. Afterwards I spoke to the class teacher about the incident and she said the way that I handled the situation was perfect, but next time I should take them both to her as some children do have behaviour issues. I felt that I learned from both incidents and am now able to cope with many more problematic situations that before my work experience. I often helped the teacher to carry out activities outside the classroom, which without my help, would have been a lot harder. I felt that my contribution in many of the activities made it easier for my colleagues and subsequently affected the outcome of the activity, as they all went very well. Over the time of my work experience I learned many new skills that I may not have learned, if I hadnt done the work experience. I really enjoyed my two weeks of work experience. It was a very hard, but rewarding job. Some tasks I did find a little bit boring, however overall the experience was fun and I learnt lots of new skills. For example I am now able to use many of the new Microsoft programmes for modern computers, which are used in many offices and other computer based jobs across the UK. I am also able to teach small groups of children, keeping the attention of every child and enabling them to learn. As I enjoyed my work experience so much I have decided that I would like to become a teacher when I am older, therefore all the skills that I have gained during my work experience will be used again in the future and could make a significant impact on the way I work etc.

The Shehri Language In Southern Oman English Language Essay

The Shehri Language In Southern Oman English Language Essay The UNESCO atlas of endangered languages has listed that Shehri Language is at risk of disappearing, based on Johnston (1982). The aim of this paper is to investigate at which level of endangerment the language is. This study has been conducted based on interviews with representatives from each part of the country, and distribution of a questionnaire to females and males Shehri speakers. Basically, the research has discovered that the Shehri language is a very rich language [linguistically] and need to be studied to discover all those issues as a part of the Omani culture diversity. Moreover, the results had shown that the Shehri language face a remarkable threatened starting from the next door culture, and ends with the educational philosophy. Support and encouragement need to be done by the government to support such studies to revive the language. The Shehri speakers are and still proud of their language and next generation should continue with those manners. Key words Language death, language revive, language revilaitaztion, language change, language and culture. Chapter One Introduction This dissertation is about the Shehri language in Dhofar. It aims to investigate the language form a sociolinguistics prospectives. As it is considered as severely endangers by the UNESCO we are going to investigate it by looking the language relationship with culture and surrounding variability. Although, the UNESCO records are clear and fact such a topic is changeable and it could be varied if the language is being recorded over a time and updated. In addition, since this language is not being studied before as endangered, we shall present the history of language and country to make the image clear, because it seems that the name of the language means a lot to the Shehri speakers, and there is a remarkable debate about it. Thus, it might draw the light on what are the reasons for the language death in Southern Oman. Moreover, a short survey on what have been discussed about the language in previous studies before the research body is introduced to address the following questions: Is the shehri language is going to extinct? If so, What are the reasons for this reduction in the number of speakers? What is the best solution to revive the language? After that, the analysis of data and findings will reveal what the study accomplished. Finally, this paper will discuss what might be done and how the revive the Shehri language. The language A Sheharat is a language that is spoken is south of Oman. It is known is the mother-tongue of the people who live in the mountain of Dhofar southern Oman. Moreover, since this language was and still the language of the people in the mountains of Dhofar , people from Salalah the capital of Dhofar call it Jabbali or Jabblat which comes from Jabbal in Arabic which means mountain. Moreover, Higgins (2010: 3) stated that the communist-backed tribal guerrillas controlled the whole of the Jebel Dhofar region (jebel [English spellings vary] is the Arabic word for mountain, hill, or slope). None-Shehri speakers describe the language of its speaker as Jabbalies or Gabbalies. When they say that this language is Jabbali it is due to translating the word Shehar (the origin name of the language which is mountain) into Arabic Jabbal, therefore, they call it Jabbali. According to Hetzron (1997:2) The Jabbali language received many names in the scientific literature, the most common of which being Ã…Â  xauri, Ehkili, Qarawi, Ã…Â  heri. In context, if any person is going to the mountain and he would name it he would say Im going to the mountain Im going to Shehar and in the city language Arabic it is going to be something like Im going to Jabbal. A Shehri (2000) has described his tribe to be the ancient tribe in the South the South Arabian Peninsula claiming that the language is named according to his tribal name, but this study revealed that the name Shehri coming from the name of the mountain in the language itself. In addition, Johnstone (1982) in his introduction was clarifying all those issues as a message from him for the important impact on the language. He stated that Tribal origins mean much less in modern Oman, and the large scale re-settlement has tended to blur these ancient distinctions. The name Jibbali, however, has the advantage that it avoids the mention of the term Shehri, with its tendency to stress old social differences between Dhofar tribes. In this view, This tells us that the different names that we have for the same language are common, because each person is describing it from his culture and language. But there is no doubt that the ancients speakers call it Shehrat or Shehri language. There are some people in Dhofar who do not believe that this is a language. According to them it is an accent or a dialect and the term language is something cannot be describing it. Their assumption comes from the idea that if the language is not written it is an accent, while if we look at the Shehri it is a language that contains it is own phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. At the same time it is not a part from any other language until now so they can call it an accent for X language. In fact, the Shehri have three different accents in Dhofar. This is due to the geographical variation in South of Oman. The most known part is the central part since it is closer to the city Salalah Johnstone (1981). Moreover Peterson (2004:256) and also Johnstone (1981) divided the mountains of Dhofar into three main areas; Jabal al-Qara overlooks Salalah at the centre, while the remote and largely inaccessible Jabal Samhan dominates the east, and the equally forbidding and barren Jabal Qamar commands the west. This might lead us the Shehri variant is based on those main inhabited places in Dhofar came from. The number of Shehri speakers is 5,000 according to Johnstone (1975, 94). This is taken during a war in Dhofar which force many people from the mountains to deported to Yemen as the closest country to Dhofar as looking for refuge from the war and a better place to lead their war since the government controlled the whole area in Dhofar. After that, in 1993 according to Omani national census the number of people who are living in the mountain is 25,000. At that time, the Shehri language was the first language in the mountains of Dhofar. On the other hand, Al Aghbari (2011) reported that the number of Shehri speakers are more than 147,000 people. Since the Omani Census are not counting the number of speakers of each language in the country; the number of Shehri speakers are not being officially known yet. AL-Shehri (2008) claim that the Shehri language consists of 33 letters with 6 extra phonemic sounds which leave the language with 39 phonemes. On the other hand, if we look at the letter and how they sound we might feel that they are similar to Arabic. Because it is not a written language [yet] people from other tribes and places in Dhofar tries to speak Shehri and at the same time they are using the same Arabic letters that they are used to. At this stage, the Shehri language starts to change and nowadays people hardly use the 6 extra sounds and replacing them with the normal Arabic phonemes. This doesnt mean that the Shehri language is a partial form Arabic. The vocabulary and language structures in Shehri are totally different, but the sounds might be the same since they are sharing the same area. The history of the country Dhofar was a very rich country in the trading market with other ancient nations. According to Zarins (1997:51) Dhofar province is the Atlantis of the Sand and speculated that it might have a trading center in southern of Oman. Moreover, he continues saying that Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, Strabo, and other ancient authors, though not specifically mentioning Ubar, gave brief accounts of cities in southern Arabia that market resins of frankincense and myrrh trees. While it is certain that the people of the Dhofar area grew rich trading these commodities, it would appear that the city of Ubar was an Arabian Nights fantasy. Furthermore, Dharmananda, (2003) confirms that the Myrrh and frankincense trading market reached china before 973 A.D as a medicine and also, in Egypt for embalming the bodies of the Pharaohs. Besides, Dharmananda (2003) believed that Myrrh and frankincense, traded throughout the Middle East at least since 1500 B.C. Therefore, it might be seen now clearly that the his tory of the area south of Oman was famous and strong enough to contend the Egyptian and the Chains empires. Such a nation must have a language, power, economic and financial system to compete such nations,otherwise the south Arabian Peninsula is going to be a an Egyptian or Chinese colony. After those glory days in southern the Arabian Peninsula lots of changes happen to ancient people. In terms of the economy and their statues worldwide as well. Recently, before the 1970, Oman was ruled by Sultan Said Bin Taimor (1932-1970) in which many people do not have the right to be educated, receiving medical care or even travel from Oman without his direct permission. This was the Sultans policy that results in Rebellion in Dhofar from 1968-1975. Dhofar was the capital of the south and the modern part of it. The Sultan of Oman, Said bin Tamur, ruled like a feudal lord: No Omani was allowed to leave the country, or even his home village, without the Sultans explicit permission. He banned all symbols of the decadent twentieth century From medical drugs and spectacles to book and radios and he flogged his subjects for adopting Western dress Ladwig (2008:66). Moreover, Higgins (2010:3) stated there were no roads, no schools, no hospitals, and no development of water resources for home or agricultural use. This was the situation all over Oman but with some emphasizes on Dhofar as the special place for the Sultan Said bin Taimor. According to Ladwig (2008:66) Dhofar was the Sultans personal domain, where he resided in seclusion year round, despite the fact that the nations capital was 500 miles north of Muscat. Although he took a Dhofari wife, who was the mother of his son, the Sultan disliked and distrusted his Dhofari subjects, the Jebelis most of all. It is clearly seen that all those issues happened since Sultan Said Bin Taimor taken the rule of the country made the situation in Oman and especially in Dhofar difficult to be controlled. Therefore, the Rebellion movement started from Dhofar (1968) with the help of the Soviets and China. Until, 1970 when the Sultan Qaboos the Only son of Sultan Said bin Taimor take the rule of the country and start to fight the counterinsurgency in southern of Oman, and make the promises to rebuild the country again. My people, my brothers, yesterday it was complete darkness and with the help of God, tomorrow will be a new dawn in Muscat, Oman and its people (Sultan Qaboos first speech 1970). According to Gulvady (2009) The Sultan Qaboos government has focused on economic development. He first addressed infrastructure needs, such as building roads and highways, as well as education. He is now focusing on sustainable development, diversification, industrialization, and privatization. The schools were built with a great care; hospitals, Universities and colleges to ensure that each person in Oman get the chance to be learnt and to be educated. Certainly, according the Ministry of Education (2012) the number of schools rose from 3 schools in 1970 teaching the Holy Quran and Arabic language only, to 1053 schools by 2010 teaching modern subjects as Mathematics, Sciences, Arabic, English, History, and Religion. In addition, Universities and colleges were established all over Oman. The main University is the Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat. Also, the biggest cities in Oman were provided with an applied sciences college and a technical college as well. Therefore, the use of Arabic language gets greater; while the Shehri language got a few chances to be practiced without being taught. To conclude, the past of Oman was dark and full of blood from the Rebellion movement against Sultan Qabooss father Said bin Taimor. All those promises by the Sultan Qaboos has been achieved in 40 years is something difficult and almost impossible. Thank to God and the hands of the Omani generations who learnt and trained under the government of Oman this path was easier.Now Omani students can be found in the world famous Universities studying and learning to continuing what the Sultan Qaboos has begun. The new regime, though undoubtedly good for the people, did lead to the decline of the Shehri language. Therefore, it might be worth to reorganize the Educational Philosophy in Oman. Chapter Two Literature review: During the last decades lots of changes happened to Oman, precisely Dhofari people and their language. The changes appear in the vocabulary choice, pronunciation, structure, words are disappearing and not being used. Marshall (2004:1) claims that investigators have shown renewed interest in the loss of non-standard varieties and the process of standardization. This has given important insights into the types of geographical area, social network, and social group in which language changes originate and mechanism involves in the process of diffusion. In addition, McMahon (1994:8) assured that we should never lose sight of the fact that language are spoken by people for purposes of communication; consequently, speakers change languages, although that is not to say that they are necessarily conscious of doing so, or that they intend to make changes. Perhaps speakers of any language hold the responsibility toward the changes happened at their time, but also the political decisions made by the country could play a positive or negative role. Moreover, considering the fact that the Shehri language is not a written language this risk gets greater. McCabe (2011:262) explains that There is no clear reason why languages change as extensively as they do; there are several explanations which cover various aspects of change, in the case of sound change we have seen that ease of articulation has historically been a motivator. With respect to sound change, it is important to mention the impact that the written language has had on language change. Moreover, a tremendous change took place during the last 40 years in Oman , generally, and Dhofar region result in having a new generation which differs from the elderly people in the way of thinking, learning, speaking and everything. McCabe (2011:263) assured that often young people use language differently than their parents, in the same way that they dress differently and listen to different music, in order to create an identity which sets them apart from their parents generation. Taking into account that any changes might be referred back to it after a time if it is written, but if it was only a spoken language in the community this means that there is no source for the language except those young generations. Besides, Beard (2004) believes that studying a language change consists of two parts, internal and external approach. According to him an internal approach to studying language change looks at such areas as vocabulary, spelling, meaning of words, grammar and compares usag e in old text with stage found todayBut if we look at the external aspects of this text, viewing it more as a social document, it seems to belong to different age Bread (2004:4). The Shehri language has been discussed in some books, Journals, TV interviews, and dissertations. According many people in this study lots of this information was presented wrongly. Many of them might be a personal believe or just a way to relate this language to their own purposes. For example, Ali AL Shehri books where he claims that this language is related to them as a tribe was totally unacceptable for people from other tribes in Dhofar. According to Al Shehri (2000:42) the Shahara tribes have preserved the most ancient Arab language (the Shehri), the traditions, folklore, proverbs, names of ancient tribes, ancient God names and much other ancient Arab culture. This assumption made by Ali made other people argue with him as relating the language to his tribe. At the same time, as other tribes and the government did not agree with what Ali mention in his books; none of his books were published in Oman to ovoid sedition between the people in Dhofar. Then, in (2005) Mohammed Al Mashani studied the language comparing it to languages such as the Arabic, the Old Yemeni language (Saba), and the modern dialects in Yemen, claiming that the Shehri language is the language of Hamyer the old kingdom southern the Arab Peninsula. Mohammed also brings a new name for the language and named with The Modern Hamyer Dhofari Tongue. It is clearly seen that the name of the language became the main issue for scholars and the people in Dhofar. Other studies such as Hayward et. Al. (1988), Johnstone (1972) (1980a) (1980a) (1981), Al Hakli (2008), Al-Shahri (1994), Hayward, Al-TabÃ…Â «ki (1988), Hofstede (1998) Makhashen (2009) focused their studies on the origin of the language and its people, and the grammatical aspects of the language only. This will provide a foundation for any research in the future to be built and based on them, if they were true and still have the same findings which is a topic need to be investigated again. However, moving from the battle of the name of the Shehri language and taking the UNESCOs records about languages that are in danger of disappearing; the Shehri language might not transform fully from the elderly generation to the younger ones. According to the UNESCO atlas of the most endangered languages (table 1) this stage is severely endangered. In other words, it means that language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves UNESCO (2010). This leaves the language with only two stages from being extinct. Degree of endangerment Intergenerational Language Transmission Safe The language is spoken by all generations; intergenerational transmission is uninterrupted >> not included in the Atlas Vulnerable Vulnerable Most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., Home) Definitely endangered Definitely endangered Children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in the home Severely endangered Severely endangered The language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves Critically endangered Critically endangered The youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently Extinct Extinct There are no speakers left >> included in the Atlas if presumably extinct since the 1950s Table Degree of endangerment Adapted from Atlas of the Worlds Languages in Danger. Moreover, Al Hakli (2008) made a mini-dictionary for Shehri language joining the Shehri words to their meaning in Arabic. But until now the number of speakers is still declining. Which means writing a dictionary was not the solution to revive the language at this stage. Therefore, the questions pointed out to look for the solution and to investigate why the number of the speakers is declined. According to Romine and Nettle (2000:7) language shift and death occur as a response to pressures of various types-social, cultural, economic, and even military-on a community. Furthermore, Harrison (2007: 8) stresses that language death typically begins with political or social discrimination against a language or its speakers. This may take the form of official state politics to suppress speech, or it may be benign neglect. Therefore, it might be the reason that there are other variables controlling the number of speakers of this language. Mufwene (2006:2) stated that language death starts when speakers consulted with each other and decided collectively to shift suddenly to another language. This leads us to the beginning and taking in our consideration that Dhofar region has been benediction with the revolutionary movement by the Sultan Qaboos and many schools, Hospitals, Airports were built in a short time. Therefore, the Arabic language takes place in their houses and daily life. The new generation was introduced to schools that delivers everything to them in Arabic. However, many families had migrated from the mountain to the city to look for a better way of living and a job that helps them to overcome the hardship of life in their villages. Peoples language might be affected by the surrounding environment. Also, the language that is nearby lots of variables that might influence it such as economy, geography, the power of the next door language are at more risk of being disappeared. Moreover, language shift and dea th can begin by start learning the next door language. For example: The Kwegu language in southwest Ethiopia is spoken by 500 people only Lydall (1982:22). In addition, according to the UNSECO world atlas the number of Kwegu speakers declines in 1998 to reach 103 speaker only. Furthermore, Dimmendaal (1989:17) mention some of the daily activities practiced by the Kwegu ancient as they exchange honey with the overlord groups in the same area so they will be able to liveKwegu speak both their own language and the language of the Musri and Bodi while the latter tend not to speak Kwegu. So, learning other groups language was the effect of such discrimination in the society, therefore, their first language [Kwegu] will have less chances to be used. On this view, the Shehri speakers are shifting from their language to Arabic and this is due to many facts already mentioned above. When the next generation does not believe in their language and start to shift toward a new language which is stronger than their language, obviously, no one will speak with it and it is only a matter of years until the Shehri speakers reduction end with it is extinct. Dimmendaal (1989:18) points out that it is only when they start interacting with neighbouring groups whose cultures are viewed as more prestigious that their own language became particularly threatened The Weyto probably gave up their earlier language this way. Darmon (2010:2) argued that the Weyto Because the Weyto people do not own lands, they are living in extremely precarious conditions. They build their huts wherever the government allows them to, knowing that they can be asked to move at any time Without professing to be Muslim, they are usually not recognized as true Muslims by oth ers, maybe because some of them keep on believing in spirits associated with paganism. Therefore, Darmon thinks that such feelings towards your own language might lead you to give up using it and shift it to a stronger language in the society. Eventually, this language shift will result in language death within years. The language death is when a language disappears and becomes extinct. In other words, when people stop using their language or forced to do so. There are types for language death cited by Tsitsipis (1989:182) first, sudden death: the language disappears because almost all of its speakers die or killed (example: Tasmanian). Secondly, Radical Death when language loses is rapid and usually due to severe political repression, often with genocide, to the extent that speakers stop speaking the language out of self defense, a survival strategy for example: Languages of El Salvador. Then, Gradual Death which is due to a gradual shift to the dominant language in language-contact situations. Finally, the Bottom-to-top Death, where that language is lost in small steps first like homes and families and then moved when the government stop using it, it is the opposite on the Top-Bottom language death. Regardless to the reason for the language shift it is clearly seen that it is only a matter of ti me until language shift become language extinction. To conclude, it might be more beneficial for reviving endangered languages that writers and scholars studying the Shehri language should keep their focus first at the language itself rather than fighting against each other in bringing a new name each time. Since the Shehri language is not documented yet, it only exists in the peoples mind, therefore, we are losing a huge amount of the language and country heritage and culture each time a person dies. As what Harrison describes when we lose a language, we lose a culture, intellectual wealth, a work of art Harrison (2007:7). Chapter Three Methodology This part of the paper presents the methodology and how it had been designed to accomplish the aims and goals. First, this section will clarify the problem clearly. Then, the types of data, participants, questionnaires and interviews are going to be discussed separately. The problem Since the Shehri language is being listed officially by the UNESCO as [severely endangered] this research will be conducted to investigate if the Shehri language speakers are really under the risk of abandoning speaking their own language are not. Firstly, by looking at the number of speakers of the language and to see how it varies from the past. Then, through looking at the changes that happened to the language. According to Professor Miyaoka the director of The Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim Project Particularly in case of moribund and isolated languages with speakers rapidly diminishing in number, of which there are quite a few in the Pacific Rim, we are obliged to emphasize documentation with good and minute analyses which could be achieved only with the help of speakers having deep linguistic insights. The Shehri is a language that is not written yet or documented officially. Therefore, when each person of the Shehri speakers dies an amount of the language goes with him. Similarly, the Arabic language was not written until people start to write it after the death of Prophet Mohammed in order to preserve the holy Quran from being changed and distorts. Before this stage the Arabic language was only exist in their minds and transformed from a generation to another by communication with each other. In the Shehri context, the Shehri language is not written, not fully transformed from a generation to another, people start to avoid using it and preferred to use English or Arabic to show how they are educated. Nettle and Romaine (2000:5) insist that language might be regarded as an activity, system of communication between human beings. A language is not a self-sustaining entity. It can only exist where there is a community to speak and transmit it. In addition, immigration from the mountain to the city provides a space for the two cultures to merge. Thus, some of the young speakers of the language are not able to speak or even understand it. This will result in having a new generation of Shehri speakers that are not able to speak their language. Nettle and Romaine (2000:4) assured that languages not passed on to the younger generation will eventually die out. Since the Shehri newer generation are not able to speak the language, therefore, the language is not going to transmit and will extinct. Types of data The Data collection part was separated into two main parts; the first part was to update the information about the language. Moreover, to explore and discover why this language is not being studied yet. Also, the main part of this section was to see if such a kind of researches is going to be accepted by the Shehri speakers and tribe leader or not. Since, there has been an assumption that the reduction of speakers outstanding for not having a written form of the language; this assumption is being abandoned with the Halkis basic dictionary were a space is being provided for the Arabic speakers in Dhofar and Oman to learn some vocabulary and sentence in Shehri. Therefore, this result leads us to wonder about this continues reduction in the Sheahri speakers. Through meetings with scholars such as Dr. Ali AL Shehri and Khalid AL Maashani, both are Sahehari native speakers, they ensure that the abstention of the new generation is clearly seen these days in their daily life conversation and usage. This leads us to the second assumption of this study. Second part, was the main data collection in which the aim was: First, to see the what extend the Shehri speakers use their language?. Then, do they find any difficulty in understanding old peoples language? Finally, are they aware that their language is at risk of extinction? At the same time to see what they might recommend for their language. To make the aim of this paper more achievable the questions were made easier to the Shehries to answer by shortening the questions and translate them into Arabic. As what Harrison discovers in dealing with endangered languages in Australia Charlie was not a talkative man, and most of our questions got monosyllabic answers: yeah or no. But once he got to talking, Charlie also shared stories of this place -learned from his father- of the Turkey Dreaming and of the Rainbow Serpent (Harrison: 2010:98). Therefore, involving their language could provide a better communication environment in this research. Since they are not used to such studies which was one of the obstacles of gathering the information from them. Moreover, such a research must consider respecting the traditional rules in the Dhofar were females are not allowed to have a face to face conversation with strangers. Therefore, some volunteers from various tribes in Dhofar helped by giving the permission to distribute the questionnaire among their families as a part of their wish to revive the language. This issue but this research at risk of having unreliable data. So, the research methodology needs to look for a strategy to make the data more valid and reliable. This research conducted using both methods of data quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative data are represented in the questionnaire answers and responds, while the qualitative data is taken from interviewing the participant and the answers from the open-ended questionnaire answers in this study. Such kind of data collection has been described by (Jick 1979) in which he looks at using two or more methods of data collection can be called triangulation. According to Jick (1979:1) It is largely a vehicle for cross validation when two or more distinct methods are found to be congruent and yield comparable data. In other words, using such methods might be the reason to accomplish the validity of the research. In addition, the research will get the chance to look at each part of his study from more than one point. In addition, Olsen (2004) assured that triangulation is defined as the mixing of data or methods so that diverse viewpoints or standpoints cast light upon a topic. Considering the advantages and it is drawbacks combining the two methods might help the researcher as to make his own conclusions about a topic especially if we are talking about sociological issues. In addition, Spicer (2012:484) stated that it is an approach to combining two or more quantitative and/or qualitative methods in addressing a research question in order to cross-check results for consistency and to offset any bias of single research method. In this context, this research tries to use the triangulation method so it could reach the best, real, and representative data by using both quantitative qualitative data and making use of previous studies about the Shehri l

Analysis of My Last Duchess by Robert Browning Essay -- Last Duchess R

Analysis of My Last Duchess by Robert Browning Murder mystery intrigue. All describe Robert Browning's poem, 'My Last Duchess'. From the speaker's indirect allusions to the death of his wife the reader might easily think that the speaker committed a vengeful crime out of jealousy. His flowery speech confuses and disguises any possible motives, however, and the mystery is left unsolved. The poem is a great example of dramatic dialogue, a poetic form used to narrate and dramatize. It consists entirely of the words of a single speaker who reveals in his speech his own nature and the dramatic situation in which he finds himself. This format suits this poem particularly well because the speaker, taken to be the Duke of Ferrara, comes across as being very controlling, especially in conversation. For example, he seems jealous that he was not able to monopolize his former duchess' smile for himself. He also seems to direct the actions of the person he is addressing with comments such as "Will't please you rise?" The title of the poem evidently refers to a wall painting that Ferrarareveals to someone yet unidentified in the first fourteen words of the poem. "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall." He says. The line suggests self-satisfaction. The emphasis in the title is on last, as the ending of the poem makes clear; the Duke is now negotiating for his next Duchess. Fra Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck are artists of Browning's own invention. Emphasizing the word Last as the ending of the poem implies; the Duke, identified as "Ferrara" in the poem's speech prefix, is negotiating for his next Duchess. Finding ourselves being given a tour of a grand home for the first time, by the owner himself, and be... ...ssiveness of the prospective son-in-law. I think that another positive aspect of the poem was the fact that Browning allows the reader to asses the Duke for themselves. I as the reader could see that such powerful Renaissance rulers were ruthless and greedy. I also saw how jealousy and possessiveness can destroy things that we love the most. I think that framing his former wife is a way for the Duke to prevent the count's daughter from misinterpreting him. His absolute rule will allow him to prescribe her behavior, but he depends on the count's representative to convey his indelicate hints about propriety better than he could verbally respond to the last duchess's miscues. I feel that in the poem there is pain, jealousy, rejection and happiness. The majority of the spectrum of emotions associated with love and marriage is contained by this piece.

Middle Ages vs Renaissance Essay -- European Renaissance Essays

Life during the middle ages (1066-1485) was dictated by how much money you had. Were you a noble? Or were you a peasant. Your quality of life was in direct proportion to your status. Lords of the Noble class ruled territories, also known as villages. These villages mainly consisted of one room houses, with maybe a church and a blacksmith shop. Peasants or serfs lived in these villages and worked under said Lord. Daily life was all about survival. The days were spent planting and growing food, harvesting the crop, sewing clothes, and making any supplies that were needed to survive. Trading between different villages was something that was only done as a last resort. People in each village worked together to make their own village successful. Life also depended on what kind of Lord you had. If he was a fair Lord, they were treated reasonably well, and didn’t suffer. As long as the crop was good, they would have plenty to eat, and work was shared equally. If he was an unjust Lord the villagers were subject to his whims. If he demanded money or product from them they must give it, whether it would hurt their own survival or not. Likewise, if he was a Lord that liked to pick fights with neighboring Lords, the villagers would be subject to pillage and plunder by the other Lords that were trying to get back at their particular Lord. Any revenge sought out against a Lord by another Lord would mean that the people of said Lord’s village paid the price. Crops would be destroyed, houses burned and sometimes the villagers were killed. This was known as the Feudal System. The Feudal System was based on the rights of the Nobles, not the serfs. Nobles had preferred seating in the churches, and special hunting privileges. They h... ...done. Giotto used tempera to paint this one. There are senses of desperation of the apostles, but it is not as compelling or moving as Leonardo’s. Giotto has bright colors, especially considering the era it was painted in. However, he doesn’t use landscape, there is no symmetry. When you look at it, you can tell who Christ is due to the golden halo around his head. However to decipher which one of the apostles is Judas, would be in vain. He used no symbolism, there is no depth. The background is done in a golden hue, not a natural life like version. The faces of the apostles do show a questioning gaze, but the diverse emotions are not there. Everyone is also sitting straight up around a table, there is no movement. I would have to say that while for its era this was a great painting, it is not a memorable one for me. Leonardo’s version is so much more.

Loss of Faith in Elie Wiesels Night Essay -- Elie Wiesel Night Essays

Loss of Faith in Elie Wiesel's "Night" Night is a dramatic book that tells the horror and evil of the concentration camps that many were imprisoned in during World War II. Throughout the book the author Elie Wiesel, as well as many prisoners, lost their faith in God. There are many examples in the beginning of Night where people are trying to keep and strengthen their faith but there are many more examples of people rebelling against God and forgetting their religion. The first example of Elie loosing his faith is when he arrived at Auschwitz. Elie and his father are directed to go to the left. A prisoner then informs them that they are on their way to the crematory. Elie's father recites the Kaddish or prayer for the dead. Revolt rises up inside of Elie and he questions God. Why should I bless His name? The Eternal, lord of the Universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for? (Wiesel 31) Another example of prisoners in the concentration camp loosing their faith in Night is when the pipel, a young child, was hung in front of the whole camp. The pipel was the Oberkapo?s servant. The Oberkapo was the leader of the fifty-second unit. He never struck or insulted the prisoners who worked under him ,that is why the prisoners loved him . Even though most pipels were cruel and hated, this one had the face of a sad angel and was loved by all. The Oberkapo was suspected in the intentional explosion of Buna?s electric power station. He...

Brain Abnormalities and Schizophrenia

The real etiology of schizophrenia is still a dream despite massive studies on the involvement of the brain. Studies of the brain through neuroimaging have revealed that frontal cortex, temporal lobe, and sub cortical structures are involved. Some of abnormalities in the brain of schizophrenic patients include enlarged ventricles, reduced volume of frontal cortex, temporal lobe cortex, and sub cortical structures like com/psychology-exam-3/">hippocampus and amygdala. These abnormalities have been persistently reported in schizophrenic patients and this shows that they are not functioning inadequately.Some of these abnormalities are present at the start and some even before the onset of psychosis and this is in support of neurodevelopment of theory of schizophrenia. The key neurotransmitter in schizophrenia is dopamine; however, there are others such as serotonin and glutamate which are also thought to play a role. Schizophrenia is an inherited condition, although genetic research has not come up with a clear conclusion on this matter may be because of the complexity of genetic involvement.Despite the fact that brain abnormalities are still not very clear in schizophrenia, the evidence is continuously pilling and this is driving towards a complicated disease of the brain network that is affected by genetically mediated developmental abnormality. Introduction Neuropathologists have been involved in research on schizophrenia for about hundred years. Despite the length of the research, the neuropathogy of the disorder is still not clear.Although they have made some steps in their quest since the beginning when they believed that it was a functional psychosis without structural basis, the main cause of the chronic disorder is still illusive. With the technological advancement in science, researchers have come to a common finding in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and the common finding is brain abnormalities. These discoveries have made the researchers to wond er if the cause of schizophrenia is brain abnormalities and how the abnormalities arise.Despite recovery of some brain abnormalities in patients suffering from schizophrenia, most scientists maintained that some of the abnormalities realized are quite slight and some of them are not common in all schizophrenic patients and to occur exclusively in people with schizophrenia. Although these patients have structural pathologies in their brains, the developed abnormalities do not coincide with the disease duration. Some of the abnormalities realized remain the same throughout the development of the disease (Bhogal, 2002).Understanding of the abnormalities of the brain in schizophrenia is among the challenges currently facing the medical community. The numerous symptoms associated with schizophrenia points at the involvement of various regions of the brain or even a widespread of network or system. Conventional approaches of neurological disorders such as lesion studies or post mortem exa minations have defied efforts to understand the brain pathology in schizophrenia. Just like other fields of medicine, luck and destiny have help make major steps in discoveries like dopamine theory and anti psychotics which are used in the management of the disorder.Modern research in neuroscience such as neuroimaging has aided in improving the foundation knowledge of the disorder and has sustained the hope that complete understanding of the disorder will be realized in the future. In this paper, I am going to summarize the major brain abnormalities found in schizophrenia through neuroimaging (Haren, 2004). Just like other complicated diseases, there are numerous theories on schizophrenia as compared to facts. The initially neurodevelopment theory points at abnormalities in fetal brain development as the cause of the failure of brain functions in early adulthood.A series of information such as increased rate of obstetric complications, minor physical abnormalities, neurologic mild s igns, and slight behavioral abnormalities in children who later suffer from schizophrenia. This model is quite relevant to the development of schizophrenia in particular but also for other neuropsychiatric disorders (Bhogal, 2002). The major drawback of this model is that the prevalence of these signs in the non affected population is quite substantial therefore the positive predictive value in the development of schizophrenia is not convincing.The disease usually begins at adolescent or early childhood and early adulthood and this indicates brain maturational problem during that time or before the appearance of psychosis. Excessive synaptic or dendritic pruning during the time of onset of the disorder has been suggested as one of the potential mechanism explaining the onset of psychosis in adolescent or in early childhood, although the biology underlying this stage is still not very clear (Lawrie & Abukmeil, 1998).Neurodegenerative model is based on active biologic processes th at may be going on during the prodromal period or the usually prolonged period of untreated psychosis. Development of the disorder is also linked to environmental factors such as illicit drug use and psychosocial stress which are considered as potential secondary triggers which may be accompanying the beginning and the start of schizophrenia. The initial researchers believed that schizophrenia is associated with brain pathology.Emergence of imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography scanning (CTS) have seriously contributed to the detailed study of the brain. Through computed tomography brain abnormalities such as enlarged ventricles and reduced total brain volume have been reported in schizophrenic individuals and these findings were later confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (Bhogal, 2002). Studies of the brain structures have also been made easy through improvement in segmentation techniques coupled with the use of MRI.These techniques can be used to identify grey from white matter and measuring of their volume. These also contributed to a more focused investigations of specific regions of the brain such as temporal, frontal lobes, and subcortical structures. Some of the consistent findings in these regions include alteration in structures such as hippocampus, amygdala, superior temporal gyrus, and platinum temporale (Lawrie & Abukmeil, 1998).Lateral temporal neocortical areas where primary auditory and auditory associations are located are the places of interest in schizophrenia since they are involved in thought processes. Most of the studies in the superior temporal gyrus in schizophrenic patients have always discovered reduced volumes of grey matter in the initial stages of the disorder together with those individuals who are genetically at risk of developing schizophrenia such as offspring of schizophrenic patients.Other structures of the brain which have also been reported to be abnormally small in schiz ophrenic patients include medial temporal structures such as hippocampus, amygdala, and parahippocampus gyri. These structures are also reported to be altered in other psychiatric disorders like mood disorders and post traumatic stress disorder (Lawrie & Abukmeil, 1998). Injuries sustained at the time of birth such as anoxia may be associated to hippocampus reduction and this is possibly due to neurodevelopmental abnormality.The finding is also common among concordant twins who had birth injuries. Medial temporal volume reductions have been discovered in people who are genetically at risk of developing schizophrenia. Reductions in the grey matter in the temporal regions of the brain have also been observed in people who are classified as having prodromal features of schizophrenia who have later on developed psychotic symptoms during the follow up (Haren, 2004). The highly developed region of the brain in man is the frontal lobe.It is involved in the modulations of higher brain f unctions such as planning, attention, and working memory. Behavioral and cognitive deficits like lack of motivation, defects in executive functions, Wisconsin card score sorting test and spatial working memory points at frontal lobe functional abnormalities in schizophrenic patients (Lawrie, 1999). Decreased blood flow to the frontal lobe is a common finding in schizophrenia. Despite the fact that this finding is not consisted, it can also be attributed to the complex nature of the region, it has been observed though quite slight.Basal ganglia which contain caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus are involved in information processing in the cortical and subcortical networks involved in integration of cognition, emotion, and motor function. These structures have been reported to be enlarged in patients using the conventional antipsychotics and this can lead to a conclusion that dopamine blockades causes an increase in volume of the above structures. Psychosis patients who have not use d any antipsychotics are reported to have a smaller caudate volume which implies that caudate may be involved in the development of psychoses.Thalamus acts as the regulatory board for sensory signals and has reciprocal connections to the frontal lobe. It has been suggested that the connections between these two structures are associated with schizophrenia. Thalamus is a bit difficult to measure using MRI, although the findings are inconsistent, smaller thalamus have always been reported in schizophrenic patients. Other anatomic abnormalities in schizophrenia include corpus callosum which is altered both in shape and structure therefore disruption in the integration between the hemispheres.In most humans, brain functions are lateralized with the left cerebrum being dominantly involved in language. There are proposals that developmental abnormalities of language, peculiar functions of the human beings, and its lateralization which is genetically mediated may be one of the causes of sc hizophrenia (Bhogal, 2002). Temporal lobe findings of smaller superior temporal gyrus and hippocampus have been reported to be in the left cerebrum and loss of normal asymmetry of the left superior temporal gyrus being a bit larger that the right has been reported in patients suffering from schizophrenia (Staal et.al, 2000). In the meta analysis study of laterality in schizophrenia, the researchers who were involved in this study concluded that there is a strong proof for decreased cerebral lateralization in schizophrenia more so in the language cortex. We can therefore summarize that structural imaging studies have discovered evidence of extensive anatomic alterations in the brain regions of schizophrenic patients.The regions highly altered in these patients include those mediating higher mental functions like thought, cognition, effect, and language both early in the illness and those at risks of developing the disorder like children born to schizophrenic patients (Haren, 2004). S ynapses and susceptibility genes Neuroimaging studies are in support of the possibility of neurodevelopmental abnormality in schizophrenia, neuronal, molecular, and neurochemical mechanisms underlying these brain abnormalities are not conclusive.High profile neuropathologic studies have revealed losses in synapse density and relatively normal or elevated neuronal numbers in schizophrenia, which indicates that the main defect may be synapse integrity. This discovery has elicited search for genes that may be associated with synapse integrity by the use of DNA microarray techniques. Post mortem findings on the patients with schizophrenia revealed under expression of a family of synapse related genes (Bhogal, 2002). Genetic factors are the main factors listed as being associated with schizophrenia, however the exact genes involved in susceptibility is still a puzzle.Although the initial studies on finding these genes was not successful, current studies have implicated several genes in t he development of schizophrenia and some of the genes include dysbindin-1, neuregulin-1, d-amino acid oxidase, its activator DAOA, and the regulator of G protein signaling 4. Recent proposals indicated that synapses, especially glutamatergic ones might be the site of initial abnormalities in schizophrenia with downstream disruption of neural circuitry and subsequent effect on other neurotransmitters (Lawrie, 1999). ConclusionsIt has become clear that the early scientists were right in their suspicion that the brain is involved in schizophrenia. This evidence cannot be disputed despite the fact that there is no comprehensive information on the etiology and pathophysiology of the disorder. The brain abnormalities in schizophrenia appear to be distributed in extensive areas supporting the fact that schizophrenia is a disorder associated with brain connections. We are still very far from understanding some of the major neuropsychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.The mo lecular, physiologic, and neurochemical mechanisms underlying schizophrenia continues to evade our findings. Recent research on the disorder acts as the foundations for future fundamental discoveries on the nature of schizophrenia. References: Bhogal, B. (2002). Physical Brain Abnormality a Possible Cause of Schizophrenia. Retrieved on May 6, 2010 from http://serendip. brynmawr. edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web1/bbhogal. html Haren, N. E. M. (2004). Brain abnormalities in schizophrenia: longitudinal and genetic aspects.Quebec: s. n. Lawrie, S. (Jan. 4, 1999). â€Å"Risk Of Schizophrenia Onset Linked To Brain Abnormalities. † The Lancet. Lawrie, S. M. & Abukmeil, S. S. (1998). â€Å"Brain abnormality in schizophrenia. A systematic and quantitative review of volumetric magnetic resonance imaging studies. † The British Journal of Psychiatry 172. Staal, G. S. et. al. (2000). â€Å"Structural Brain Abnormalities in Patients With Schizophrenia and Their Healthy Siblings. † American Journal of Psychiatry, 157.

Why Kedarnath Happened

A scientific analysis of the reasons for the disaster that struck Uttarakhand, particularly the temple town. THE primary trigger for the Uttarakhand disaster following the very heavy rain during June 16-18 was the extremely unusual behaviour of the monsoon this year over north India. The incessant, heavy rainfall over three days, perhaps accompanied by a few cloudburst-type events (which cannot be confirmed), resulted in flash floods and associated landslides. The devastation all round in their wake has been huge but the largest impact has been at the temple town of Kedarnath, which was in the midst of the annual pilgrimage season, with tens of thousands of people thronging the town and the downstream region along the Mandakini river . 1). Rainfall measurements for June 16 and 17 at the Dehradun station, of 220 millimetres and 370 mm respectively, indicate the severity of the rain during these days in the region. Haridwar received 107 mm and 218 mm of rainfall on the two days. Uttarkashi received 122 mm and 207 mm. While Mukteshwar (altitude over 2,000 metres) received 237 mm and 183 mm respectively on June 17 and 18, Nainital on the same days received 176 mm and 170 mm. Though rainfall over a 24-hour period in different parts of Uttarakhand has greatly exceeded these figures in the past (on many occasions above 450-500 mm and once even 900 mm at Rajpur near Dehradun), prolonged heavy rainfall for nearly three days over a large area is perhaps unprecedented, and the cumulative effect, compounded by geophysical, meteorological and environmental factors, may be the reason for the enormity of the disaster. More pertinently, these numbers do not give the actual quantitative picture of the very heavy rainfall in the higher reaches of the Himalayas (above 3,000 m) in Uttarakhand, where Kedarnath, Gangotri and Badrinath are located and where the impact has been most severe. This is because the rain gauge stations of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) are all located largely in the lower Himalayan reaches (below 2,000 m) and there are no stations in the higher reaches (above 3000 m). This is probably because snowfall data is regarded as more important than detailed rainfall data in these regions. As a result, there is no proper estimate of the rainfall in the affected regions. Unexpected advance What was peculiar about the monsoon this year? On June 14, the monsoon front was located over eastern India. In fact it was a trifle sluggish compared with the normal progress of the front (Map 1a). But within a day (Map 1b), the front advanced right across Uttar Pradesh and the western regions to cover the entire country by June 15, exactly a month ahead of its normal date of July 15. While the IMD had forecast a rapid advance with the announcement that the monsoon would strike Delhi before the normal scheduled date of June 30, its advance right across to the west just within a day was entirely unexpected. This has never happened in the past, according to M. Rajeevan, Adviser in the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). A system of westerly winds from the Arabian Sea had also been active during the same period and had covered Pakistan. It was a strong westerly system, and Rajeevan noted that it was similar to the system that stayed anchored over Pakistan in July 2010 and caused widespread flooding in Sindh, Punjab and Baluchistan. Of course, by July 2010 the south-west monsoon had covered entire India, but this time around the system had formed in June itself. It was the interaction between the well-formed low-pressure system of the south-west monsoon from east to west and the upper air westerly trough running from north-west Rajasthan to the east that resulted in the heavy rainfall over Uttarakhand. In fact, the westerly system dragged the monsoon trough, which was anchored over Rajasthan and central India until then, towards the north across Haryana. A monsoon trough facilitates the movement of rainfall-causing low-pressure systems along its path. Its rapid movement northwards enabled the low-pressure system that was in the eastern part of the country to quickly traverse and locate itself over north-west India. According to Rajeevan, while the phenomenon of the monsoon trough being dragged northwards by the advancing strong westerly trough is known to occur, the exact dynamics of interaction between the two systems is not well studied. Thus, as the press release of June 20 of the IMD noted, â€Å"North-west India became the zone of an unusual confluence of the two branches of the monsoon—the Arabian Sea branch and the Bay of Bengal branch. The geology and orography of [the Himalayan regions] of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh resulted in the unprecedented impact in these two States. † While the IMD had issued warnings of widespread severe rainfall in the region soon after the observation of the advancing monsoon systems, the scale of impact could not be anticipated. Geophysical dynamics The peculiarity of the monsoon apart, the other interesting question is what geophysical dynamics channelled the major part of devastation along the Kedarnath valley and downstream of Kedarnath on the Mandakini. The region around Kedarnath is known to geologists to be prone to landslides. This is also clear from an early 1882 Geological Survey of India photograph of Kedarnath (Picture 2), which shows that the temple site is located not far away from the snouts of two mountain glaciers. David Petley, an expert on landslides at the Department of Geography at Durham University, United Kingdom, has analysed the calamitous event at Kedarnath on the basis of images from the remote-sensing satellites of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the U. S. Landsat. He points out that the amount of debris and rubble below the glacier on the left side of the 1882 picture suggests that transportation of sediment and debris from the upper reaches was active even then, and adds that the steep slope that is visible would have aided rapid transportation. It should be borne in mind that the geology is still roughly the same (Picture 3). It is evident from the post-event images of Kedarnath town around the temple that the massive destruction was the result of largescale debris carried by the huge volume of water from the upper reaches above the town. One of the compounding factors was that the glacial regions above Kedarnath had received fresh and excess snowfall when heavy rainfall hit the region (Pictures 4a & b), according to scientists of the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of ISRO. Rainwater, with higher temperature, falling on the snow must have led to heavy snow melt and this runoff would have added to the rainwater runoff, resulting in a huge water flow that carried with it a huge debris flow, which struck the town with enormous ferocity. The snow cover has, in fact, increased in general subsequent to the extreme rainfall and flooding events (the satellite image on May 28/June 1 shows less snow cover). According to the NRSC scientists, the detailed dynamics of water flow due to snow melt caused by rain, particularly when snowfall is in excess, and the hydrology of it are not well understood. The NRSC recently released excellent high-resolution pre-flood and post-flood images of the Kedarnath region (Pictures 5a & 5b) taken by ISRO’s remote-sensing satellites Cartosat-2A and Resourcesat-2. The NRSC, on the basis of remote-sensing images from Resourcesat-2, has carried out an inventory of the landslides that occurred between Kedarnath and Sonprayag, a distance of approximately 20 km on the Mandakini. According to the preliminary report, the study identified a total of 192 landslides in this Himalayan stretch (Picture 6). Many landslides were triggered in the glacial regions in the mountains above Kedarnath. The large-scale debris flows from above were the result of these massive landslides. Double whammy Actually, for Kedarnath it was a double whammy. The massive damage caused to Kedarnath town can be seen clearly in the post-flood image. Just as there was an unusual confluence of two monsoon streams up in the atmosphere, in the mountainous terrain around Kedarnath, too, there was a coincidental reinforcing of two massive debris flows from above, one from the north-western side of the Kedarnath temple and the other from the north-eastern side. Petley has analysed these images to arrive at a plausible scenario as to what caused the massive onslaught on the town, virtually flattening it. This flow cascaded further and caused heavy damage downstream as well. The NRSC scientists, too, in their analysis, have come roughly to the same general conclusion. According to Petley, the two different but reinforcing events that caused the disaster were landslide-induced debris that came from the glaciated area in the north-east and a glacial-related flow that originated from the north-west glacier. From the images, one can distinctly identify the two flows. Petley, from his analysis of the images, the-cause -of-the-debris-flow-disaster-is-now -clear/), has inferred the following: 1. The flow from the north-east came down the margin of the glacier and spread out to strike the town. 2. The north-west flow descended from the other glacier to hit the town. 3. While a large part of the flow from the north-west passed the town on its west side, a part also struck it directly. On the basis of the pattern of overlay of sediments and their nature, Petley concludes that the flow from the north-west occurred after the one from the north-east. According to him, the debris flow from the north-east was triggered by a large, 75 m wide, landslide caused by heavy rainfall high on the mountains, which then came down the steep slope about 500 m, gathering the debris in its path. The flow was initially channelled into a narrow gully formed by the glacier and on exiting it the flow spread out in the floodplains before striking the town over a large area. The steepness of the slope would have given the debris enormous velocity when it struck the town. The total length traversed by this debris flow is estimated to be about 1,200 m. The event from the north-west was, however, quite different, points out Petley. The spot marked 1 in Picture 7 is a moraine, which had created a block for a basin to form, allowing the water to build up in it as a pool or a lake. This is what the local people call the Chorabari Tal, to which, in fact, pilgrims trek a few kilometres along the west side of the valley to have a dip. The Chorabari glacier has been retreating constantly in modern times, and according to D. P. Dobhal of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, it has retreated about 300 m since 1960. The effect of the retreat is to leave a moraine that can allow lakes to form, which can then collapse,† pointed out Petley in an e-mail message to Frontline. â€Å"In Kedarnath, this is exactly what happened. I am not sure when the lake basin formed—it may not have been in modern times—but this is a dangerous situation. Of equal concern is the trend towards more intense rainfall, especially if this occurs early in the year (that is, during snowmelt),† Petley added. Wall of water Eyewitness accounts say a huge wall of water swept the Kedarnath town in a flash. The spot marked 2 shows that the moraine had been breached by the rapidly building up water because of heavy rainfall and the water overtopping the moraine wall. The breach led to the sudden release of the impounded water and resulted in a massive wall of water sweeping across the Kedarnath valley and the town and causing a huge flash flood. According to the NRSC scientists, this lake would have had a depth of about 15 m, and the event was not exactly a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF), which occurs when a dam or moraine wall is breached because of the sheer pressure exerted by the stagnant glacial water and ice that it encloses. This was a case of lake flooding because of excessive rainfall and consequent overtopping of the moraine wall, which eventually breached. The flow was so huge and forceful that it overtopped the moraine on the other side of the glacier as well, at the spot marked 3, resulting in three flows: one moving south-east to join the earlier debris flow from the north-east and enhancing it before turning southwards and striking the town. The third flow is a new channel that opened up, perhaps exploiting an existing old channel, because of the breach at spot 3. Heading down the slope towards the town at great velocity, it gathered sediment and debris en route and resulted in a muchwidened flow closer to Kedarnath. However, the bulk of the debris flow, as Picture 7 shows, moved southwards towards the town down the main channel on the south western side, which is the normal channel for glacial water flow. The spot marked 4 shows heavy erosion due to the flow in the area, suggesting that the flow must have carried a huge volume of water. According to Petley, this flow must have carried the many huge boulders and rocks seen in the post-flood image of the temple town. Closer to the town, the flow spread before striking. As a result, the debris and water flow moved to the east side of the town as well, engulfing the town from both sides. According to this picture supplied by Petley, which others too are in general agreement with, Kedarnath was first pounded by an earlier debris flow from the north-east, then a later pounding by the flow from the north-west. Petley suggests that the latter flow must have been more efficient because of the preceding events and also because it struck the town from both the west and the east simultaneously. The image also shows a dark patch just above Kedarnath on the north-eastern side (to the right of the spot marked 5) suggesting the formation of a new depression, which could have turned into a small-sized lake because of the heavy rainfall. It is also possible that water built up in this new depression, which would have been substantial, overtopped it and hit the town from the eastern side, enhancing the effect of the runoff and debris flow from the north-eastern side, an aspect that Petley has not considered. Downstream of Kedarnath, the flow remained contained within the channel. As a result, there was massive erosion of the banks of the Mandakini Further, smaller villages downstream were also severely damaged, and some of them, such as Rambara, were totally destroyed ). The damage caused to the Kedarnath region and downstream villages by the natural destruction resulting from unusual meteorological and geophysical processes was undoubtedly greatly enhanced because of the general environmental degradation caused by the massive and unregulated influx of pilgrims year after year, the haphazard development fuelled by tourist traffic, and the unplanned and poor construction of buildings and roads. Given the vulnerability of the region, the town itself has come up in a very dangerous location, points out Petley. Therefore, how much of the destruction in this event was actually man-made is a moot question. Besides the challenges of disaster management on such a massive scale, the Uttarakhand floods have also thrown up a lot of scientific challenges in the detailed understanding of monsoon dynamics as well as in the geophysical processes of landslides and large-scale debris flow and the heavy damage they can inflict on life, property and the ecology of a region.