Identity as citizenship and the human rights

Identity as citizenship and the human rights This essay will be discussing about one of the three types of Bruneis citizenship. Brunei citizenship is divided into three categories. It is categorise by color which are yellow, purple and green and these color will be the color of the identity card hold by each of Brunei citizenships according to which citizenship they are categorised. In Brunei Darussalam, different identity card holder will get different specialty offered by the Bruneis government because in Brunei Darussalam, Brunei government is responsible for its citizen welfare. Specialty means welfare in terms of education, health care and job offer. The welfare given is different from one identity card holder to another. IDENTITY AS CITIZENSHIP AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS The focus of this essay will be on the purple card holder and my focal point is on students. The issue will be discuss after I elaborate the details of the purple citizenship status and their human rights in their stay in Brunei Darussalam. The purple card holder is for a citizen who came into Brunei Darussalam and married to a Brunei woman. This citizenship will also descent to their children if the father are not a local Bruneian. The child whose father holding the purple citizenship is categorise the same as their fathers citizenship even though they are born in Brunei. Purple card citizenship can also be given to people who plan to live permanently in Brunei Darussalam. The specialty given to the purple citizenship is different from what is given to the yellow card citizenship. Yellow citizenship is the pure citizenship which is called as local people. There is another citizenship status in Brunei which is a green card holder which will not be include in this discussion but the b est description is this type of citizenship is for temporary foreign worker who work in Brunei with two years renewable visa. The local people are the community who are given the specialty from the government in terms of education, health care and job offer. Local students are given scholarship for education. They do not have to pay anything for their primary school and secondary school even texts books are provided without any expense demands. Unlike the purple card citizenship, although they are born in Brunei they have to pay the school fees. The school fee is paid monthly and the cost will be increasing as they went to a higher level of education. Regarding health care, people with purple citizenship have to pay the amount of BND$30 for every prescription unlike the local citizenship which is the yellow card holder they only paying an amount of BND$1 for their prescription. They also have to pay for their stay if they were admitted in the hospital while local people pay nothing. Other than that, the purple card holder also cannot work as a government staff only until they get their yellow citizenship. The issue that questions this situation is why as a permanent citizenship (purple card holder) do not get the government specialty even though they have been staying in Brunei permanently and even some of them are born in Brunei. In Brunei if a local resident (yellow card holder) students applying for university they have to have an outstanding result in order to get a scholarship. If they are qualified with their result they will continue their study to the university and they will be given monthly allowance by the government. Unlike the purple citizenship, even though they get an outstanding result but they cannot enter the university by scholarship. They have to pay the school fee which is at the amount of BND$4000 per semester and this will cost them an overall of BND$24,000 for the whole degree course which took four years to be completed. As of the different welfare, occur some cases in Brunei where some parents did not afford to pay their childrens school fee and despondently their children are categorise as a very outstanding student in school. Sometime the students have to quit even at their early primary or secondary school because they could not continue their study due to financial matter. What makes it as a fair decision to differentiate a student with foreign father to pay for their education but they have been in Brunei since they born and are not going to another place to stay and grow other than in Brunei. If the government let them get the same benefit as the local resident will that harm the government in any way? This is the question which really needs a clear explanation especially for those who faced this situation. The children are considered as Brunei asset but why they have to be treated like foreigner. If the government cannot make any change to this children welfare who else can support their future. If the government cannot overcome this situation what will happen in the future if the number of unemployment is increasing. This would trouble the country and even adverse the future of Brunei because of the regardless of some outstanding asset. Below are the law and regulations of Brunei Government for applying the yellow card citizenship as stated in Brunei National Registry Members Section.  Available: http://www.imigresen.gov.bn.html. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011. The yellow card citizenship are recognise as the people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. Only this people are eligible to get the welfare specialty given by the government. So in order to get the entire welfare from the government the resident with purple card holder can apply to change their purple card to yellow by the following regulations. ABSOLUTE EFFECTIVE BY THE LAW (CHAPTER 4 OF THE NATIONAL STANDARD OF BRUNEI) Application Requirements Status as a people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam: 1 Section is recognized as the Peoples Representatives of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. 2 Assign legally in the country while the application is made. REGISTRATION BY [Chapter 5 (1), 6 (1) and 8 (1) OF THE NATIONAL STANDARD OF BRUNEI] CHAPTER 5 (1) THE APPLICANT IS BORN IN STATE Requirements for Applying for Status as the People of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam: The applicant has reached 18 years when the application is made The applicant is recognized as permanent residents to have Entry Permit / Residence Permit for 12 years from the date of issue Resided continuously in the country for 2 years prior to application Qualifications to people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam: Good behavior (to be reviewed by the parties concerned) Malay Language Examination Citizenship Status should divest Origin Obedience Oath lift Seta (after obtaining consent of His Gracious Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. CHAPTER 6 (1) APPLICATION STATUS BY FATHER / MOTHER / PARENTS lift CITIZENS OF BRUNEI Application Requirements Status as a people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam The applicant is under 18 years old when the application is made Father / Mother / Parent Adoption is recognized as a people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam Legally residing in Brunei Darussalam during the application is made. Eligibility To be people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam Good behavior (to be reviewed by the parties concerned) Shall deprive Kewarganegraan Original Status CHAPTER 8 (1) THE APPLICANT IS BORN ABROAD Application Requirements Status as a people of His Royal Highness Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam The applicant is under 18 years old when the application is made The application is recognized as permanent residents with Entry Permit / Residence Permit for 20 years from the date of issue Resided continuously in the country for 2 years prior to application. Eligibility To be people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam Good behavior (to be reviewed by the parties concerned) Passed the Malay Language Shall deprive Kewarganegraan Original Status Faithful Obedience Oath lift (after getting Perkenaan His Gracious Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam) As the regulation stated in the law of Department Of Immigration and National Registration Ministry of Domestic Affair Brunei it shows that it is applicable to be the people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam as long as they are qualified according to the law and regulation of National regulation. Somehow what can be seen from the regulation is it took a very long time for a purple card citizen to become and even apply the yellow citizenship. It is at some points wasting their time waiting and also wasting their money to spend on expense demand as a purple citizenship while at the end they will still to be recognized as a yellow citizenship. Therefore in this case time is really matter because through time it shows how much we spend for the expense demand and we could thing how worth it is to spend that amount of money just to go through that time estimation stated in the regulation. What if within the time the students are not be able to continue their study just because they cannot afford to pay the fees and after a long time when they get the yellow citizenship but at that time it is already impossible for them to continue their study because of their age factor. In Brunei there is school regulation where only certain age can enter certain level of education as stated in Education System.  Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. If they could not continue their study just because of this matter then who are to be blame and who are to be responsible for their future. According to regulation on chapter 5(1) for applicants who born in Brunei. They can only apply the yellow citizenship if the y reach their age of 18 years old. But if we think about this prudently why do the parents have to pay for their education until they reach their age of 18 years old and then after that they are conform to be a local citizenship. This is a waste of money. Of course in terms of future it is sometimes under the responsibilities of their parents. But what if the father earns low income just because he cannot work with the government. The government cannot offer any job and he has to work at private sector with low salary because he is still waiting for the yellow citizenship and he could not get the job offer by the government since he is still holding the purple citizenship. This will affect the future of their child especially when they have number of children to depend on them. As stated in Job Vacancy.  Available: http://www.pelitabrunei.gov.bn. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011 which is showing the conditions for applying government job as below: General Conditions: The applicants of the people of His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam. The applicant knowledge of kerasmian religion, customs, culture, social development, economics and politics of Brunei Darussalam. Willing to work anytime outside normal working hours on working on a rotation basis (shift) or during public holidays and also be willing to serve in any district in the country. In order for a child to rely on their fathers citizenship as stated in the regulation chapter 6(1) the father has to have a permit of 20 years as a purple citizenship (permanent citizenship) and the child must not yet reach the age of 18. Lets say the father has not reach the estimation time staying in Brunei for 20 years and the child are already eligible to apply the yellow citizenship, this would delayed the child from making the application for the yellow citizenship until they reach their age of 18 years old. There are also cases happen to purple citizen students where they have to postpone from entering the university because they have to wait until they reach their age of 18 years old to make them eligible to get the scholarship to enter the university as the regulation stated in admission.  Available: http://www.ubd.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. They also do not have any option for example to work with the government even though the finished their study in the government school by fee because they have to have the yellow citizenship. In cases like this also happen that the child cannot make the application to get the yellow citizenship at all because if they already reach their age of 18 and was born abroad and their father have not reach the 20 years being a permanent resident they are no longer eligible to make an application. This is because as stated in chapter 8(1) if applicants are born abroad they are only eligible to make application before they reach the age of 18 years old. They also having problem to apply for scholarship to study abroad. In Brunei, students with outstanding A level result will be eligible to get study abroad scholarship but the condition is they must be holding the yellow citizenship as stated in Scholarship.  Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. For students who are holding purple citizenship, they cannot apply for this scholarship even they have got a very excellent result. Therefore some of them who did not afford to pay for a very expensive school fee cannot continue their study to a higher level of education especially university. Sometime they have to waste their time waiting for their citizenship application to be approved by the Department Of Immigration and National Registration Ministry of Domestic Affair Brunei. For applicants stated in chapter 8(1) the law and regulation of Department Of Immigration and National Registration Ministry of Domestic Affair Brunei for applicants who was born abroad in order to be have the yellow citizenship of Brunei they have to pass their Malay Language Test. If they do not pass the test they have to try until they can get through and qualified to be the yellow citizenship. In this cases happen that they have to try for so many years to be qualified but what is worth trying in years in order to get the scholarship if the scholarship has limit the requirement only to students who is below 25 years old. In Brunei if someone is to apply for education scholarship they must be not more than 25 years old. If someone with purple citizenship are recognised as the yellow citizenship after their age of 25 years old than what is worth fighting for doing the test in years while according to their academic qualification they are actually qualified to continue their study. For those who can afford to pay for their education to university level and manage to complete their degree with outstanding qualification that does not mean that they can work with the government. This is because the regulation to work with the government is they must have a yellow citizenship. If they do not qualified in terms of citizenship their academic result will not be considered by the government even though they are qualified in terms of academic qualification. In the end they have to spend years working with private sector and earn lower income which is not suitable for their academic qualification and what have they been going through will continuously happen to their children as well. Some of them also have to move to other country to seek for appropriate and suitable job for their qualification. CONCLUSION There are so many things to be considered and analysed in this issue. The regulation delayed the application in terms of the demand of the time requirements to be the yellow citizenship. Most applicants have to wait for a very long time until they are applicable to be the yellow citizenship. Along their journey to get the yellow citizenship they have lost so many valuable things such as their time, their effort and even their future. If this happen continuously to the resident of Brunei specially the purple citizen it will leads to a big lost to the country in terms of losing the intelligent assets and also will leads to massive number of unemployment in the future. It is not erroneous to put a law for people to apply the yellow citizenship of Brunei. But the time required for the purple citizenship to apply the yellow citizenship should be decreased for the country and resident own good and for a better future. (2,860 words) Bibligraphy: admission.  Available: http://www.ubd.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011 Education System.  Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011. Job Vacancy.  Available: http://www.pelitabrunei.gov.bn. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011 Members Section.  Available: http://www.imigresen.gov.bn.html. Last accessed 19th Jannuary 2011 Scholarship.  Available: http://www.moe.edu.bn. Last accessed 15th Jannuary 2011.

Retailing in the Digital Age :: M&M’s World at Leicester Square

Introduction To expand the customers’ shopping experience and satisfaction, the atmosphere while they are shopping was necessary. The atmospherics were first founded by Kotler (1973) as an essential instrument to hold the shopping environment to produce the emotional effect on the customer buying decision. There are further studied to classify these. However, most of them were about the physical environment but after the 21st century, concepts of an online store were applied. Multiple channels are a concept of this era, to be the survivor retailers have to adapt themselves as well. This report contains the findings and analyses, which include the atmospheric variables, online retail environment, online retail atmosphere and opportunities and challenge of e-retailing. Findings and Analyses Atmospherics in term of Kotler (1973) definition are an important marketing tool that effect directly to the customer behaviour. Putting it simply, this is about the sensory effect atmosphere including sight, sound, scent and touch. This is also a part of the product that could effect to the consumer behaviour. To attempt and hold the specific segment of the target could increase the atmosphere in the store an increase buyers’ rate consumption thereby causing the increase of purchase probability. According to Turley and Milliman (2000), the behaviour of consumer could influence by the environment. From the study, there could come up with five categories that effect to the consumers’ evaluation and lead the behaviour response consist of external variables, general interior variables, layout and design variables, point-of-purchase and decoration variables and human variables as can be seen in figure 1. Figure 1: Turley and Milliman’s retail atmospherics framework Nowadays, the retail industry transitioned from brick-and-mortar to click-and-mortar retailing. As a result of developing on the Internet that has increased the flexibility for retailers to operate an online store in addition from their physical store. Moreover, the online channel also offers the benefit in selling products to the online shopper that value another customer segment (Ofek et al, 2010). Otherwise, the consumers’ behaviour in the era was not relying on one channel. They use relevant of technologies to search for an information in different ways, such as, read reviews from other customers, visit the physical store before purchasing online, finding the best price of purchase (Aubrey and Judge, 2012). This could illustrate that the customers use multi-channel for their purchase decision. In the 21st century, customers tend to be the multi-channel shopper that effect in the retailing industry.

Observing the Human Condition :: essays research papers

Human’s, according to the bible, will always be evil because of one action; the action of biting the apple. Films like Fargo, Magnolia, and Pleasantville portray human nature constantly â€Å"biting the apple.† These films seem to share many views on how human nature is portrayed with the Bible. Betrayal and forgiveness are two prominent themes in the Bible as well as all three of these films. In particular, the film Magnolia seems to have almost every character commit betrayal of some kind. The one character that is true to Bonhoeffer’s â€Å"true discipleship† is Officer Jim Kurring. He values the lives he saves more than his own life, he is truly unselfish.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The movie Pleasantville is a clear parable to the Bible’s description of the Garden of Eden. Pleasantville portrays complete innocence amongst its population. Complete innocence that is, until David Wagner betrays the TV repairman (God) and begins to change the world of Pleasantville along with his sister Jennifer. Like the film, the Bible portrays humans as sinners by consequence. The movie also brings out the question of whether or not there is one true â€Å"garden of Eden† for everyone, or if we must learn to create our own paradise in order to truly be happy. Does God have our destiny created for us or must we create our own? When it comes to reconciliation and forgiveness, the movie does not seem to be a parable to the passages of the Bible. The Hebrew god brings chaos when he is betrayed by the sinners of the earth, like the flood. The movie has a much unrealistic view of how forgiving God is.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story of Cain and Abel can be paralleled to the movie Fargo. Jerry Lundenguard sacrifices his family for his own gain in much of the movie. The kidnapping of his wife depicts his total lack of clarity towards the safety of his wife. Even his own son seems unimportant to him, he is asked how his son is holding up and he has a moment of realization that he has not even thought about his son’s well being. Even the betrayal of the two killers at the end of the movie can be paralleled towards Jerry betraying his wife. Backstabbing is an essential part of this movie when compared to the Bible whether the betrayal involves evil vs. evil, or evil vs. good.

Instructional and Behavioral Support Essay -- Education

Mrs. S. has a classroom of 22 kindergarten students; one student is a retention from last year. The classroom has an even split between boys and girls. The class has had a stable class roster since second quarter, only gaining one student, and losing two. This is unlike the other kindergarten classrooms at the school that have gained and lost many students over the past few months. Four students are on speech IEPs, and the one new student was just recently placed on an IEP for math and behavior concerns. The classroom is fairly diverse in both ability and racial makeup. While there are many Hispanic students in the class, there are also Caucasian, African American, American Indian, Korean. The classroom is comprised solely of English speaking only students. The class has some of the academically highest students in the grade, but also some of the lowest. The school itself is a Title 1 school, where all students receive free breakfast and lunch because so many students qualify for free lunch according to government standards. A few students receive food assistance to help the family get through the weekends. Mrs. S uses a color chart to help monitor her students’ behavior. Each child has a clip with his or her name written on it. Each child starts their name off on green and moves up or down the chart depending on the choices that are made throughout the day. The colors are blue for ‘excellent’, green for ‘good’, yellow for ‘warning’, orange for ‘stop and think’, and red for ‘hot lava’. At the end of the day each child has a communicator that is sent to and from home which gets marked with the end color of the day. This allows parents to see what kind of day their child had, and any quick notes from Mrs. S. This system of man... ...ications in her behavior plan, and academic expectations when needed. For the most part every child is treated the same, each held to a high level of behavioral excellence that most easily accomplish. By splitting the class into groups based on academic need each student is given instruction at his or her level. Doing formal assessments on students frequently allows her to monitor each student’s progress and take action if and when needed. Her students seem to not only do their best to please her, but also because they have become intrinsically motivated to always do the best they can, in both academics and behavior. Works Cited National Center for Learning Disabilities. (2000). Early Identification: Normal and Atypical Development. Retrieved April 4, 2012, from LD Online: http://www.ldonline.org/article/Early_Identification:_Normal_and_Atypical_Development

Hero and Ceremony

The Monomyth The monomyth is a recurring, underlying theme that many writers follow not only intentionally but unintentionally as well; it follows the hero throughout the novel and explains the success of many mainstream novels. The monomyth is in its entirety he hero’s journey, beginning with the departure, then the initiation and ending with the return.In the novel of ceremony there is no real sense of time there are many flashback’s but there still is a monomyth and it also fills many of the categories to be one. Our hero in ceremony is Tayo even though he is not the average hero with great strength or intelligence but a hero who has an inner battle with himself and stress; he falls into the category of a romantic hero.The refusal in the monomyth has 6 step’s and ceremony manages to cover 5 of them , the first being the refusal and in ceremony it is not as a genuine refusal but a morale one that he wishes to continue to be accepted and not belittled by just be ing native American by the white people, during the war he was accepted and considered a hero by white people but when his uniform was off and he was returned home he was thought less of just because of his ethnicity so the real refusal here is his refusal to return to blatant racism even if it is not direct.A hero must also have a rescue from without that lets the audience see that even heroes are mortal and require help or rescue at one point to appeal to pathos or emotion. Tayo’s issue or battle with post-traumatic stress that causes him to drink to try to escape the sadness and memories of all his friends and loved ones death in the war, he is from without and also has a personal identity crisis that troubles him throughout the novel.The crossing of the threshold in the novel is not marked by a arduous task or magnanimous event but subtle and gentle , after meeting the â€Å"the woman† in the mountains who help’s Tayo with catching Josiah’s cattle or â€Å"the cattle of his dreams throughout his and her meeting by the last meeting Tayo feel’s much better about himself and his heritage, Tayo officially crosses the threshold after freeing the cattle of Josiah from a white man’s ranch but shows him the bill of sale and the cattle are wrangled to the woman’s house, so Tayo gets Robert and they head to the woman’s cabin and when they arrive the cattle are corralled in old Indian fashion and the house is abandoned and a few months after that Grandma claim’s he’s cured but Tayo’s true cure come when he puts an end to the ceremony, which is when Emo comes chasing him and torture Harley, a little before this. Tayo runs into a uranium mine and notices from the patterns on in the mine that it is the final stage of his ceremony.Master of two world's is when the hero realizes that there is nothing separating the new world from old world and is has a better understand and in ceremony this step is very clear when Tayo is finally cured and even a bit before that he is at peace with his old memories and sense of loss and his major self-realization that renders knowledge is after having relations with the woman in the mountain's he knows that the land and people you love are never truly lost because they had existed in the first place. The hero's final step is the Freedom to Live, Tayo with his new found knowledge of himself and the land is finally able to live at peace with himself and calm his inner demons to no longer cause nightmares and be able to live his life as a regular Indian now accepted by the tribe.

Ethical Scrapbook

In any profession unethical behavior can be present, it is ultimately up to the individuals. They have to decide what is ethically right and not take short cuts or engage in unethical behavior. The banking profession, such as bank tellers, is exposed to large amounts of money. They can choose to be ethical and not attempt to steal from their clients, or they can act unethically by choosing to steal money. Another profession is research, there are conditions that exist for unethical behavior. When researchers conduct experiments, they usually write a report about their results.If the results do not go in the direction that they wanted them to, this gives the researchers an opportunity to act unethically. They can either choose to act ethically, and report the true results from the experiment, or they can choose to act unethically, and report the results in a manner that will benefit them. â€Å"In the process of making decisions regarding their professional behavior, psychologists mu st consider this Ethics Code in addition to applicable laws and psychology board regulations.In applying the Ethics Code to their professional work, psychologists may consider other materials and guidelines that have been adopted or endorsed by scientific and professional psychological organizations and the dictates of their own conscience, as well as consult with others within the field. If this Ethics Code establishes a higher standard of conduct than is required by law, psychologists must meet the higher ethical standard.If psychologists’ ethical responsibilities conflict with law, regulations or other governing legal authority, psychologists make known their commitment to this Ethics Code and take steps to resolve the conflict in a responsible manner in keeping with basic principles of human rights† (American Psychological Association, 2014). Another profession is professional sports, the athlete could take enhancement drugs to improve themselves at the sport, like taking steroids which is also against the law.Most athletes choose to  do what is ethical and stay away from drugs to ensure that they keep their jobs and the respect of their fans. In medical professions, doctors could take the unethical route and give their patients their drug of choice just to satisfy them, but doctors that admire what they do will be ethical and give the patient what they need and get them help if they are showing signs of drug abuse. â€Å"Within the patient-physician relationship, a physician is ethically required to use sound medical judgment, holding the best interests of the patient as paramount† (The Patient-Physician Relationship, 2001).Pharmaceutical companies are a profession that also has to choose to be ethical or unethical. The individuals that work for pharmaceutical companies are tempted to take medication for their own use. They may steal medications to sell them to make money for themselves. Politics also can contribute to ethical or une thical behavior. If politicians do not like something, they try to hide it from Americans, or they may not tell the whole truth of certain facts. Politicians are famous for covering all of the facts up.

Natural Resources and Energy in the Rainforests

The beauty, majesty, and timelessness of a primary rainforest is indescribable. It is impossible to capture on film, to describe in words, or to explain to those who have never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in the heart of a primary rainforest. Rainforests have evolved over millions of years to turn into the incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store of living and breathing renewable natural resources that for eons, by virtue of their richness in both animal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the forest. However, the inner dynamics of a tropical rainforest is an intricate and fragile system. Everything is so interdependent that upsetting one part can lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to last forever. The scale of human pressures on ecosystems everywhere has increased enormously in the last few decades. Since 1980 the global economy has tripled in size and the world population has increased by 30 percent. Consumption of everything on the planet has risen- at a cost to our ecosystems. In 2001, The World Resources Institute estimated that the demand for rice, wheat, and corn is expected to grow by 40% by 2020, increasing irrigation water demands by 50% or more. They further reported that the demand for wood could double by the year 2050; unfortunately, it is still the tropical forests of the world that supply the bulk of the world's demand for wood. In 1950, about 15 percent of the Earth's land surface was covered by rainforest. Today, more than half has already gone up in smoke. In fewer than fifty years, more than half of the world's tropical rainforests have fallen victim to fire and the chain saw, and the rate of destruction is still accelerating. Unbelievably, more than 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year! More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely threatened as the destruction continues. It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year. If nothing is done to curb this trend, the entire Amazon could well be gone within fifty years. Massive deforestation brings with it many ugly consequences-air and water pollution, soil erosion, malaria epidemics, the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the eviction and decimation of indigenous Indian tribes, and the loss of biodiversity through extinction of plants and animals. Fewer rainforests mean less rain, less oxygen for us to breathe, and an increased threat from global warming. But who is really to blame? Consider what we industrialized Americans have done to our own homeland. We converted 90 percent of North America's virgin forests into firewood, shingles, furniture, railroad ties, and paper. Other industrialized countries have done no better. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and other tropical countries with rainforests are often branded as â€Å"environmental villains† of the world, mainly because of their reported levels of destruction of their rainforests. Why should the loss of tropical forests be of any concern to us in light of our own poor management of natural resources? The loss of tropical rainforests has a profound and devastating impact on the world because rainforests are so biologically diverse, more so than other ecosystems (e. g. , temperate forests) on Earth. Consider these facts: †¢A single pond in Brazil can sustain a greater variety of fish than is found in all of Europe's rivers. †¢A 25-acre plot of rainforest in Borneo may contain more than 700 species of trees a number equal to the total tree diversity of North America. A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of birds than are found in the entire United States. †¢One single tree in Peru was found to harbor forty-three different species of ants – a total that approximates the entire number of ant species in the British Isles. †¢The number of species of fish in the Amazon exceeds the number found in the entire Atlantic Ocean. The biodiversity of the tropical rainforest is so immense that less than 1 percent of its millions of species have been studied by scientists for their active constituents and their possible uses. When an acre of tropical rainforest is lost, the impact on the number of plant and animal species lost and their possible uses is staggering. Scientists estimate that we are losing more than 137 species of plants and animals every single day because of rainforest deforestation. Surprisingly, scientists have a better understanding of how many stars there are in the galaxy than they have of how many species there are on Earth. Estimates vary from 2 million to 100 million species, with a best estimate of somewhere near 10 million; only 1. million of these species have actually been named. Today, rainforests occupy only 2 percent of the entire Earth's surface and 6 percent of the world's land surface, yet these remaining lush rainforests support over half of our planet's wild plants and trees and one-half of the world's wildlife. Hundreds and thousands of these rainforest species are being extinguished before they have even been identified, much less catalogued and studied. The magnitude of this loss to the world was most poignantly described by Harvard's Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O.  Wilson over a decade ago: â€Å"The worst thing that can happen during the 1980s is not energy depletion, economic collapses, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that our descendants are least likely to forgive us for. † Yet still the destruction continues. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80 to 90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years. As human beings continue on the quest to find more efficient and economical ways of creating a better life, the world at large is feeling the effects. Searching for new land to build and to grow crops on has created a predictable disturbance to the biogeochemical cycle in rainforests. The biogeochemical chemical cycles in a rainforest rotates through both the biological and the geological world, this can be described as the biogeochemical process. Of course a rainforest takes hundreds of thousands of years to become lush and tropical, while it takes big business a matter of hours to demolish the land and begin building, farming or drilling oil wells on. The plants and animals in rain forest either remain undiscovered, become extinct or are lost to the destruction of the heavy machinery used to clear the land. This has an immense effect on the biogeochemical cycles in the rainforest. Reservoirs are affected and the trees of tropical rain forests are unable to bring water up from the forest floor that would naturally be evaporated into the atmosphere. This is a cycle that is necessary for the whole planet. Oxygen is released into the atmosphere by autotrophs during photosynthesis and taken up by both autotrophs and heterotrophs during respiration. In fact, all of the oxygen in the atmosphere is biogenic; that is, it was released from water through photosynthesis by autotrophs. It took about 2 billion years for autotrophs (mostly cyanobacteria) to raise the oxygen content of the atmosphere to the 21% that it is today; this opened the door for complex organisms such as multicellular animals, which need a lot of oxygen. (McShaffrey, 2006) This is typically the responsibly of trees in a rainforest to carry chemicals from the land into the atmosphere. Human beings are having a major impact on this action being completed. During the clearing of these rainforests, humans burn the area to be excavated and the carbon cycle in the area is then disrupted. Fossil fuels release into the atmosphere excess carbon dioxide. More carbon dioxide is then released into the air and the oceans eventually causing a common condition called global warming. Global warming simply means that the carbon dioxide produced in the atmosphere is permitting more energy to reach the Earth’s surface from the sun than is escaping from the Earth’s surface into space. Reference http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm