Intertextuality and Interpretation of Meaning Essay

Intertextuality and Interpretation of Meaning - Essay Example Linguistic and Literary Issue 2: Cultural intertextuality specifies that "a literary discourse is only approachable as a segment or concatenation of discursive segments within a network of inter-articulated discourses, and one finds Anthony's "They better don't stop the Carnival" as an apparent illustration of cultural intertextuality in literary discourse. (Lucy and Niall, 337) Linguistic and Literary Issue 3: Literary intertextuality, which is analysable within cultural intertextuality, stipulates that "a literary discourse establishes horizontal (syntagmatic) relationships with the global discourse of literature in its own language and with literary discourse in other languages; and vertical (paradigmatic) relationships with the ensemble of discoursecomposing a culture spatially and temporally determined." (Lucy and Niall, 337) Linguistic and Literary Issue 4: Michael Anthony's "They better don't stop the Carnival," one of the best Caribbean and post-colonial short stories, illustrates the link between intertextuality - both cultural and literary - and literary discourse, and an intertextual reading of the story offers the most essential meaning of the literary text. From a semio

Statement of Purpose Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Statement of Purpose - Essay Example This dream has therefore fostered me to apply for the graduate school (school of engineering) engineering management, project and system engineering management. Engineering Management is a specialized form of management and engineering. It is mostly concerned with the application of engineering principles to business practice. Engineering managers ensure that engineers use their engineering skills to design and provide high quality products and services. My obsession with management started just after I had cleared high school. In the summer of 2008, I had a chance of working as a marketing strategist at Gardeniya Ladies Center in Alkhobar Saudi Arabia. Specifically, I dealt with customer relations and I was a receptionist. While working here, I managed social media presence, developed promotions and packages for customers and handled customers complaints and disputes. In the year 2009, I partially worked as a market strategist at Cupcake Girls in Alkhobar Saudi Arabia. I was the marketing assistant and assisted in preparations of orders and clientele, handled financial and advertising organizations and prepared for upcoming events and festivities. I have been active in many other activities such as Student volunteer- Children with Down Syndrome Center (Alkhobar Saudia Arabia, 2009) and Managed social media presence for campaigns and managed gathering donations. This has made me feel that my passion lies in the leadership and management and I believe that if one does what they love, chances are that they will become very successful. In the selecting of the Catholic University at Washington DC, I have been influenced by the way your engineering management program addresses issues such as planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources, procedures and protocols. I am fluent in Arabic and English and I have been talking to a friend who has studied in this University and it has come to my understanding that the

Literature Review on Recruitment and Selection Process

Literature Review on Recruitment and Selection Process Employee selection is the process of collecting and evaluating information about an individual in order to extend an offer of employment (R.D. Gate wood and H.S. Field) Employee selection is part of the overall staffing process of the organization, which also includes human resource (HR) planning, recruitment, and retention activities. By doing human resource planning, the organization projects its likely demand for personnel with particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), and compares that to the anticipated availability of such personnel in the internal or external labour markets. During the recruitment phase of staffing, the organization attempts to establish contact with potential job applicants by job postings within the organization, advertising to attract external applicants, employee referrals, and many other methods, depending on the type of organization and the nature of the job in question. Employee selection begins when a pool of applicants is generated by the or ganizations recruitment efforts. During the employee selection process, a firm decides which of the recruited candidates will be offered a position. Effective employee selection is a critical component of a successful organization. How employees perform their jobs is a major factor in determining how successful an organization will be. Job performance is essentially determined by the ability of an individual to do a particular job and the effort the individual is willing to put forth in performing the job. Through effective selection, the organization can maximize the probability that its new employees will have the necessary KSAs to do the jobs they were hired to do. Thus, employee selection is one of the two major ways (along with orientation and training) to make sure that new employees have the abilities required to do their jobs. It also provides the base for other HR practices-such as effective job design, goal setting, and compensation-that motivate workers to exert the effort needed to do their jobs effectively, according to Gatewood and Field. Job applicants differ along many dimensions, such as educational and work experience, personality characteristics, and innate ability and motivation levels. The logic of employee selection begins with the assumption that at least some of these individual differences are relevant to a persons suitability for a particular job. Thus, in employee selection the organization must: Determine the relevant individual differences (KSAs) needed to do the job and Identify and utilize selection methods that will reliably and validly assess the extent to which job applicants possess the needed KSAs. The organization must achieve these tasks in a way that does not illegally discriminate against any job applicants on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or veterans status. An Overview of the Selection process: Employee selection is itself a process consisting of several important stages, as shown in Exhibit 1. Since the organization must determine the individual KSAs needed to perform a job, the selection process begins with job analysis, which is the systematic study of the content of jobs in an organization. Effective job analysis tells the organization what people occupying particular jobs do in the course of performing their jobs. It also helps the organization determine the major duties and responsibilities of the job, as well as aspects of the job that are of minor or tangential importance to job performance. The job analysis often results in a document called the job description, which is a comprehensive document that details the duties, responsibilities, and tasks that make up a job. Because job analysis can be complex, time-consuming, and expensive, standardized job descriptions have been developed that can be adapted to thousands of jobs in organizations across the world. Two exa mples of such databases are the U.S. governments Standard Occupational Classification (SOC), which has information on at least 821 occupations, and the Occupational Information Network, which is also known as O*NET. O*NET provides job descriptions for thousands of jobs. An understanding of the content of a job assists an organization in specifying the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to do the job. These KSAs can be expressed in terms of a job specification, which is an 2.2 Main Responsibilities of HRM 2.2.1 Getting the Best Employees Workforce planning Specifying Jobs and Roles Recruiting Outsourcing Screening Applicants Staffing Selecting (Hiring) New Employees. 2.2.1.1 Workforce planning a) Objective of Workforce Planning Workforce planning is one of the most important activities in any organisation. It starts with analysis of the strategic position of the business. The results of this analysis then feed into a forecast of the required demand for labour by the organisation and how this is likely to be supplied. The final stage involves the creation and implementation of a human resources plan which aims to deliver the right number of the right people for the Organisation. b) Strategy for workforce plan The strategic position and requirement of the organisation have the most important influence on workforce planning: Organisation objectives and scope of activities: what are the objectives of the organisation? What products are to be sold, in which markets; using what kind of distribution? Organisation location where is the organisation located? How are the various business units, divisions, functions distributed across the various locations? What specialist skills are essential in each location? What are the workforce implications of decisions on organisation location? Labour environment: what is happening to the size of the labour force? What key population and employment trends (e.g. the increasing numbers of people working on temporary or short-term contracts) affect the ability of the business to recruit staff? What provision needs to be made for employee pension; what employment legislation Timetables to what extent does the strategic needs of the business require short-term changes in the workforce or can change be achieved over a longer period. For example, are new retailing or distribution locations to be opened in the next 12 months that require staff? c) Forecasting Workforce Demand Putting a good Human Resources plan together requires an organisation to make a reasonably accurate forecast of workforce size. Key factors to consider in this forecast are: Demand for existing and new products/projects Organisation disposals and product closures Introduction of new technology (e.g. new production equipment) Cost reduction programmes (most usually involve a reduction in staff numbers somewhere within the business) Changes to the business organisational structure Business acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic partnerships Forecasting Workforce Supply The starting point for estimating supply is the existing workforce: an Organisation should take account of: Scheduled changes to the composition of the existing workforce (e.g. promotions; job rotation) Normal loss of workforce e.g. through retirement, normal labour turnover Potential exceptional factors e.g. actions of competitors that create problems of staff retention By comparing the forecast workforce demand and supply it is possible to compile a forecast of net workforce size. This then needs to be compared with the strategic requirements for the organisation. The result is the workforce gap (which is a forecast of too few or too many workers). The role of HRM is to close the gap! HRM Policies to Close the Workforce Gap The key HRM activities to manage the workforce gap comprise: Recruitment plans (how many people, where, what type, how) Training plans Redundancy plans Staff Retention Plans (how the business intends to keep the staff it wants to retain) 2.2.1.2 Specifying jobs and roles This phenomenon includes two processes; Job specification Job description Job Specification Derived from job analysis, it is a statement of employee characteristics and qualifications required for satisfactory performance of defined duties and tasks comprising a specific job or function. A job specification describes the knowledge, skills, education, experience, and abilities organisation believes are essential to performing a particular job. The job specification is developed from the job analysis. A job specification cuts to the quick with organisation requirements whereas the job description defines the duties and requirements of an employees job in detail. The job specification provides detailed characteristics, knowledge, education, skills, and experience needed to perform the job, with an overview of the specific job requirements. Job Description Job descriptions are essential. Job descriptions are required for recruitment so that organisation and the applicants can understand the role. Job descriptions are necessary for all people in the organisation. A job description defines a persons role and accountability. Without a job description it is not possible for a person to properly commit to, or be held accountable for, a role. Smaller organisations commonly require staff and managers to cover a wider or more mixed range of responsibilities than in larger organisations (for example, the office manager role can comprise financial, HR, stock-control, scheduling and other duties). Therefore in smaller organisations, job descriptions might necessarily contain a greater number of listed responsibilities, perhaps 15-16. However, whatever the circumstances, the number of responsibilities should not exceed this, or the job description becomes unwieldy and ineffective. Some feature in most job descriptions are as following; communicating ( How to communicate with upper and lower level of management from his/her level) Panning and organising. Managing information and general administration support. Monitoring and reporting. Financial budgeting and control Producing things. Maintaining and repairing. Quality control. Health and safety. Using equipment and system. Developing and creating things. Importance of Job Description: Job descriptions improve an organisations ability to manage people and roles in the following ways: Clarifies organisation expectations for employees. Provides basis of measuring job performance Provides clear description of role for job candidates Provides a structure and discipline for company to understand and structure all jobs and ensure necessary activities, duties and responsibilities are covered by one job or another Provides continuity of role parameters irrespective of manager interpretation Enables pay and grading systems to be structured fairly and logically Prevents arbitrary interpretation of role content and limit by employee and employer and manager Essential reference tool in issues of employee/employer dispute Essential reference tool for discipline issues Provides important reference points for training and development areas Provides neutral and objective reference points for appraisals, performance reviews and counselling Enables formulation of skill set and behaviour set requirements per role Enables organisation to structure and manage roles in a uniform way, thus increasing efficiency and effectiveness of recruitment, training and development, organisational structure, work flow and activities, customer service, etc Enables factual view (as opposed to instinctual) to be taken by employees and managers in career progression and succession planning Job Description Components: Job Title Based at (Business Unit, Section if applicable) Position reports to (Line Manager title, location, and Functional Manager, location if matrix management structure) Job Purpose Summary (ideally one sentence) Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities, (or Duties. 8-15 numbered points) Dimensions/Territory/Scope/Scale indicators (the areas to which responsibilities extend and the scale of responsibilities staff, customers, territory, products, equipment, premises, etc) Date and other relevant internal references Hiring: Organisation basically has two main resources to get Human resources Internal Promotion Recruitment Outsourcing Internal Promotions: In this scenario existing employees of the organisation are promoted to fill the required place in the organisation. Recruitment: In this case organisation takes new employees in the organisation to fill the vacant places. Outsourcing: Outsourcing refers to a company those contracts with another company to provide services. Recruitment and Selection: Recruitment is the process of identifying that the organisation needs to employ someone up to the point at which application forms for the post have arrived at the organisation. Employee selection is the process of collecting and evaluating information about an individual in order to extend an offer of employment (R.D. Gate wood and H.S. Field) Employee selection is part of the overall staffing process of the organization, which also includes human resource (HR) planning, recruitment, and retention activities. By doing human resource planning, the organization projects its likely demand for personnel with particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), and compares that to the anticipated availability of such personnel in the internal or external labour markets. During the recruitment phase of staffing, the organization attempts to establish contact with potential job applicants by job postings within the organization, advertising to attract external applicants, employee referrals, and many other methods, depending on the type of organization and the nature of the job in question. Employee selection begins when a pool of applicants is generated by the or ganizations recruitment efforts. During the employee selection process, a firm decides which of the recruited candidates will be offered a position. Effective employee selection is a critical component of a successful organization. How employees perform their jobs is a major factor in determining how successful an organization will be. Job performance is essentially determined by the ability of an individual to do a particular job and the effort the individual is willing to put forth in performing the job. Through effective selection, the organization can maximize the probability that its new employees will have the necessary KSAs to do the jobs they were hired to do. Thus, employee selection is one of the two major ways (along with orientation and training) to make sure that new employees have the abilities required to do their jobs. It also provides the base for other HR practices-such as effective job design, goal setting, and compensation-that motivate workers to exert the effort needed to do their jobs effectively. Gate wood and Field. Organisational document that details what is required to successfully perform a given job. The necessary KSAs are called job requirements, which is simply means they are thought to be necessary to perform the job. Job requirements are expressed in terms of desired education or training, work experience, specific aptitudes or abilities, and in many other ways. Care must be taken to ensure that the job requirements are based on the actual duties and responsibilities of the job and that they do not include irrelevant requirements that may discriminate against some applicants. For example, many organizations have revamped their job descriptions and specifications in the years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act to ensure that these documents contain only job-relevant content. Validity of selection methods Validity refers to the quality of a measure that exists when the measure assesses a construct. In the selection context, validity refers to the appropriateness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of the inferences made about applicants during the selection process. It is concerned with the issue of whether applicants will actually perform the job as well as expected based on the inferences made during the selection process. The closer the applicants actual job performances match their expected performances, the greater the validity of the selection process. Selection methods A Organisation should use selection methods that reliably and accurately measure the needed qualifications. The reliability of a measure refers to its consistency. It is defined as the degree of self-consistency among the scores earned by an individual. Reliable evaluations are consistent across both people and time. Reliability is maximized when two people evaluating the same candidate provide the same ratings, and when the ratings of a candidate taken at two different times are the same. When selection scores are unreliable, their validity is diminished. Some of the factors affecting the reliability of selection measures are: Emotional and physical state of the candidate. Reliability suffers if candidates are particularly nervous during the assessment process. Lack of rapport with the administrator of the measure. Reliability suffers if candidates are turned off by the interviewer and thus do not show their stuff during the interview. Inadequate knowledge of how to respond to a measure. Reliability suffers if candidates are asked questions that are vague or confusing. Individual differences among respondents. If the range or differences in scores on the attribute measured by a selection device is large, that means the device can reliably distinguish among people. Question difficulty. Questions of moderate difficulty produce the most reliable measures. If questions are too easy, many applicants will give the correct answer and individual differences are lessened; if questions are too difficult, few applicants will give the correct answer and, again, individual differences are lessened. Length of measure. As the length of a measure increases, its reliability also increases. For example, an interviewer can better gauge an applicants level of interpersonal skills by asking several questions, rather than just one or two. Up to this point, our discussion has assumed that an employer needs to validate each of its: Studies summarizing a selection measures validity for similar jobs in other settings. Data showing the similarity between the jobs for which the validity evidence is reported and the job in the new employment setting. Data showing the similarity between the selection measures in the other studies composing the validity evidence and those measures to be used in the new employment setting. Making final selection: The extensiveness and complexity of selection processes vary greatly depending on factors such as the nature of the job, the number of applicants for each opening, and the size of the organization. A typical way of applying selection methods to a large number of applicants for a job requiring relatively high levels of KSAs would be the following: Use application blanks, resumes, and short interviews to determine which job applicants meet the minimum requirements for the job. If the number of applicants is not too large, the information provided by applicants can be verified with reference and/or background checks. Use extensive interviews and appropriate testing to determine which of the minimally qualified job candidates have the highest degree of the KSAs required by the job. Make contingent offers to one or more job finalists as identified by Step 2. Job offers may be contingent upon successful completion of a drug test or other forms of back-ground checks. General medical exams can only be given after a contingent offer is given.

Renting A House :: essays research papers

Communicating with people from other countries often makes me bother, and it happens when I am totally not expected about. This is not the first visit to the other country, but talking non-native language in non-native country is quite different from the long time study in my country. Especially, when we face some special occasion, like renting a room, it is very hard to negotiate with people. Renting a room is not a thing I am familiar with even in Japan. One day on July, one rumor among Japanese students became true, that not all of us can have a room in dormitory even if one send request in this April. My friend received a mail from UNR, which said that he could not have a room next semester. My friend and I were just shocked and on that day we started looking for a room.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most important thing to do when we want to find a nice room, I thought, was that to correct as much information as I can. Therefore, what I did at first is to check every public board not to miss any information that says, ?gRoommates wanted?h,?h Room for Rent?h or ?gHouse for rent?h. I searched the board in Business Building, EJCH, JTSU, and Main library. However, I could not many of them and if luckily I found these were not so cheap or too far from UNR. Then I started to search the room list at Student Residency Service office. There I found one room five minutes from school on foot. I went back to the dorm I live now in a hurry and called, it was my first phone call to person from other country. The call rang, but no one answer. I waited for a while, then the massage started saying ?hThis number is no longer valid?cplease call XXX-XXXX?h. A short tense atmosphere ended, and I felt relieved. I called the new number, but I could not talk to anyone. After a while, I received new information of vacant room very near from a school. When I was writing e-mail, one of my roommates backed home. He was going to pay a deposit of the room and he told me that the house has some more vacant room available. We went to see the room. There were two vacant rooms; one was on the basement another was on the first floor. Renting A House :: essays research papers Communicating with people from other countries often makes me bother, and it happens when I am totally not expected about. This is not the first visit to the other country, but talking non-native language in non-native country is quite different from the long time study in my country. Especially, when we face some special occasion, like renting a room, it is very hard to negotiate with people. Renting a room is not a thing I am familiar with even in Japan. One day on July, one rumor among Japanese students became true, that not all of us can have a room in dormitory even if one send request in this April. My friend received a mail from UNR, which said that he could not have a room next semester. My friend and I were just shocked and on that day we started looking for a room.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most important thing to do when we want to find a nice room, I thought, was that to correct as much information as I can. Therefore, what I did at first is to check every public board not to miss any information that says, ?gRoommates wanted?h,?h Room for Rent?h or ?gHouse for rent?h. I searched the board in Business Building, EJCH, JTSU, and Main library. However, I could not many of them and if luckily I found these were not so cheap or too far from UNR. Then I started to search the room list at Student Residency Service office. There I found one room five minutes from school on foot. I went back to the dorm I live now in a hurry and called, it was my first phone call to person from other country. The call rang, but no one answer. I waited for a while, then the massage started saying ?hThis number is no longer valid?cplease call XXX-XXXX?h. A short tense atmosphere ended, and I felt relieved. I called the new number, but I could not talk to anyone. After a while, I received new information of vacant room very near from a school. When I was writing e-mail, one of my roommates backed home. He was going to pay a deposit of the room and he told me that the house has some more vacant room available. We went to see the room. There were two vacant rooms; one was on the basement another was on the first floor.

Jane Austen’s Use of Irony in Pride and Prejudice Essay

Irony is the art of expressing two meanings simultaneously; the obvious surface meaning the majority will regard as the only meaning and on a deeper profounder meaning which lies behind the obvious. The tension created by this ambivalence can be and has been put to a variety of uses. Ironies abound in Shakespeare, so do they in Dryden and Poe.Shakespeare employs them to underscore the tragic plight of a man, while Dryden and Pope use them to mock at human follies and foibles.among the forty eight writings, Fanny urney’s ‘Cecilia’,’Comilla’ and other novels are based on quiet but incisive irony. Thomas Love Peacocks â€Å"Headlong Hall†, â€Å"Nightmare Abbey’,†Maid Marian† and so on are the vehicles of attacks on the cranks and the fads of his day.but very few writers have exploited all possible resources of irony as Jane Austen.It may not be an exaggeration to say that Jane Austen is nothing if not ironical.Irony is her very forte;it is in fact the very soul of her art. Pride and Prejudice, for instance, is steeped in irony.To put it in other words, it is an artistic blend of ironic  and dramatic design.almost everything in this novel, be it related to the context or to the style, points to an  ironic contrast between ‘appearance’ and ‘reality’.it is the complex handling of â€Å"First Impressions† that  lends to Austen’s irony. Perhaps the opening sentence of the book offers the aptest illustration of irony.It states that â€Å"‘a single man  in possesion of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife† and claims that â€Å"it is truth universally acknowledged.† But as the story unfolds itself we learn that â€Å"universal truth lies† in the opposite direction.Mrs Bennet’s concern for getting her daughters gainfully husbanded constitutes the basic theme of Pride and Prejudice. In an essay Reuben Brower writes: † In analysing the ironies and assumptions, we shall see how intensely the dialogue is, dramatic in the sense of defining the characters through the way they speak and are spoken about.† The confusion that even very intelligent people are capable of making between the apparent and the inherent is initially drawn towards Wickham mainly because of his external graces and Darcy’s first reaction to Elizabeth is that of repulsion simply because to quote Darcy, she is â€Å"not handsome enough to tempt† him. The situations——at least a good number of them —–in Pride and Prejudice. are also very ironical. Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth is made exactly at the moment when Elizabeth hates him most.When Darcy proposes to her she simply rejects him and blames him for separating Jane from Bingley;She further accuses him of his abominable treatment of Wickham.She tells harshly—-‘..my opinion of you was decided.Your character is unfolded in the recital which I received from Mr.Wickham†¦can you defend yourself?’ Later on Darcy changes,and happily, the changes are mostly for the better. The changed Darcy does not feel shy of confessing : † I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.†Once Darcy has been humbled,Austen turns her irony on Elizabeth.She shows that Elizabeth in resentment of Darcy’s conscious superiority, has exaggerated his faults and failed to see that there is much goodness in him.then again. Lydia’s elopement with Wickham, which Elizabeth fears shall spoil her prospects of marriage with Dercy, strangely enough brightens the same.similarly, Lady Catherine’s attempts to prevent this  marriage succeeds in only hastening it. All these clearly spells out Austen’s attitude towards life.She knows that human nature and human situations are often too incongruous and contradictory.But she does not deride this aberrations with the cruelty of a Dryden or a Pope,her irony is always gentle and sympathetic.she uses it mainly in order to raise a hearty laughter.This, however is not to suggest that her comic is not rooted in any sense of responsibility. She has very certainly a distinct moral purpose of her own. She will not only expose the antithesis between sense and nonsense,she will at the same time state her preferences in unmistakable terms.needless to say she casts her vote in favour of sense.there is pride in life as also there is prjudice; but life, in order to be ideally lived needs to be a combination of both..Darcy has to stoop to conquer his pride before he becomes worthy to be happy and Elizabeth has to get over her prejudice in order to enter into a life of bliss. It is this moral vision that spells itself out in course of the novel â€Å"Pride and Prejudice†, though Austen’s irony plays the all pervasive; yet it never allows this vision to attain the abominable portions of any kind of didactism.indeed, it may be said that one of the greatest charms of this novel is derived from the gentle â€Å"tongue in the cheek† way of describing people and situations.For this Jane Austen’s tales offer a rippling sense of pleasure to her readers.

Fat Tax is the Best Possible Solution to Fight Growing Obesity and Depression Essay

The increase in the consumption of junk food across the globe has been causing serious concern to all who are aware of its negative effects, such as obesity and depression, which are considered as the initiator of many serious diseases like heart disease. While the research findings have clearly linked junk food with the rising rate of heart disease among teenagers (Cohen, 2000) nearly a decade ago, the business of junk food is only increasing and now it has become a craze among teenagers and is getting into their eating habits, which would be hard to break in later years. Another recent study in US has linked childhood obesity to junk food advertising (Sharma, 2008), which too seems to be a matter of serious concern, as a large number of TV viewers are either children or teenagers. There are many other studies too that clinically explain about how obesity and depression caused by eating junk food, and there are organizations too, which are working towards attracting the attention of all regarding the negative effects of junk food. However, in spite of all that, the business of junk food is only increasing in volumes, and consequently, countless children and teenagers, who are the future governors of the society are becoming victims of obesity and depression due to excessive consumption of junk-food. Therefore the gravity of the situation is definitely no less than the danger associated with smoking or drinking, which are officially considered as â€Å"injurious to health† and whose producers have to pay taxes. There is another philosophy works behind it – that high price of cigarette or other tobacco products or liquors would keep them beyond the buying power of the children who generally use their pocket money for fancy spending. However, there is no such price regulation in the business of junk-food, and children can easily afford them with their pocket money. This situation invariably invokes the arguments like why fat tax should not be imposed on junk food to regulate its consumption among all, especially among children, or if cigarette and liquor are considered dangerous to health and are kept under taxation, then why junk-food too should not be treated with same alacrity, as it is proving no less dangerous than tobacco and alcohol? Therefore, the gravity of the situation has influenced this study to examine the impact of junk food on the humans, and especially on the children and teenagers by reviewing the study and observations of the researchers on obesity and depression, before persuading its readers to raise their voices in favor of introducing fat tax on junk food for the sake of saving the future of human civilization. Impact of Obesity Obesity can cause several diseases, which can be fatal, besides being barrier to normal, healthy life. The risk factors associated with it don’t even spare children or teenagers, and that makes obesity as a dangerous carrier of diseases. According to the researchers Visscher and Seidell (2001), the increase in obesity across the globe will have significant contribution in the following diseases:  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Cardiovascular disease  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Type 2 diabetes mellitus  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Cancer  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Osteoarthritis  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Work Disability  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Sleep apnea Alongside they issue caution that â€Å"disability due to obesity-related cardiovascular diseases will increase along with an increase in disabling nephropathy, arteriosclerosis, neuropathy, and retinopathy particularly in industrialized countries.† They also observe that prevention programs on obesity would be effective than weight loss program, while adding that there is very few prevention programs have been developed so far and implementation of more such programs should be one of the major scientific and political agendas among both industrialized and industrializing countries. Connection between Junk Food and Obesity It would be even more frustrating if someone reviews the role of junk food in developing obesity amid such observations and recommendations of the researchers. The researchers at the Pacific Health Education Center in Bakersfield, California, and Prevention Concepts, Inc., in Los Angeles, who evaluated the dietary habits and cardiac risk profiles of above 200 high school students in as early as 2000, provided a gloomy picture about the state of health of the then children, where one-third of them showed abnormally high cholesterol levels and one in 10 students were found suffering from systolic hypertension, which is a form of high blood pressure (Cohen, 2000). Not only that, the report issued alarm on the possible rise of heart disease among the teenagers with thickening artery walls. The researchers also identified two causes behind the increase in the trend of forming eating habits with junk food, like teen attitudes and lack of government funding to counter attack the powerful advertising campaign of junk food, which heavily influences the attitudes of children and the teens. The current research on the effect of junk-food advertising on children and teenagers (Sharma, 2008) not only supports the earlier works on this field, but also directly links advertising to childhood obesity. In a study conducted by National Bureau of Economic Research clearly show a link between childhood obesity and fast food advertisements aired on American TV world. This inference is backed by the data found on the television habits of around 13,000 children through two national surveys conducted in 1979 and in 1997. The study also found that the ban on such advertisement would lower the number of obese children (belonging to 3-11 year age group) and teenagers (belonging to 12-18 years group) by 18 percent and 14 percent respectively. They study also reveals the bad news like 22 million children under age of five are estimated to be overweight and more than 9 million children in US are overweight, 25 percent American children below 10 years have high cholesterol and high blood pressure, along with other precursors of heart disease. However, it also presents good news that the countries like Sweden, Norway, Finland and UK have already banned junk-food advertisements in their televisions. This shows, that a general awareness regarding the deadly effects of junk food has been spreading.