The use of charcoal as a simple remedy for different health problems is an ancient way of treating many common diseases that afflict humankind dates back in the time of Hippocrates who lived from 460 to 370 B. C. In the late 1800, Ellen G, White spearheaded the use of charcoal in the treatment of different diseases. She said, “The Lord has given some simple herbs of the field that at times are beneficial; and if every family were educated in how to use these herbs in case of sickness, much suffering might be prevented, and no doctor can be called. One of the most beneficial remedies is pulverized charcoal placed in a bag and used in fomentations. This is a most successful remedy…I have prescribed this simple remedy, with perfect success…This works like a charm. †The use of charcoal in treating diseases is a product of long years of scientific studies. Charcoal is defined as an amorphous, porous form of carbon made by the destructive distillation of almost any carbonaceous material such as wood, coconut shells animal bones, and corn cobs. The medicinal properties of charcoal are given strong boost by the United States (a book that tells how to prepare and use medicines). Besides giving direction for making charcoal, the Dispensatory lists several problems that can be treated with charcoal. Activated charcoal exerts its effects by absorbing a wide variety of drugs and chemicals. The important work of charcoal powder in the treatment of diseases is to adsorb chemical substances that are harmful to the body, like germs, viruses, toxins, wound secretions, and other products of infections. To adsorb means to take up, hold on, or spread out on the surface of the molecules. Charcoal works like a magnet. Charcoal poultice is made up of charcoal powder mixed with enough water to make into a paste. It is spread into a thin dry cloth with all the sides folded over the charcoal paste and then applied over the affected area of the skin or over the body organ. From thirty minutes to two hours after the application of the charcoal poultice, there is a feeling of itching around the area or a little pricking pain. That is because charcoal sucks what it can absorb from within. The advice is to never remove the poultice. Keep it on because your body is responding positively to the treatment. Pain may be felt from three to seven days. The internal use of charcoal powder is called charcoal drink. Charcoal drink is made of charcoal powder diluted in a glass of drinking water according to dosage for medical purposes. The charcoal drink is tasteless. The taste of the drinking water when mixed with charcoal powder doesn’t change. There is no difference in taste between a glass of clear drinking water and a glass of water with charcoal powder. The only difference is the color. Treatment is a therapy used to remedy a health problem. It is a process or intervention in the design of experiments a method of combating, ameliorating, or preventing a disease, disorder, or injury. Active or curative treatment is designed to cure; palliative treatment is directed to relieve pain and distress; prophylactic treatment is for the prevention of a disease or disorder; causal treatment focuses on the cause of a disorder; conservative treatment avoids radical measures and procedures; empiric treatment uses methods shown to be beneficial by experience; rational treatment is based on a knowledge of a disease process and the action of the measures used. Treatment may be pharmacologic, using drugs; surgical, involving operative procedures; or supportive, building the patient’s strength. It may be specific for the disorder, or symptomatic to relieve symptoms without affecting a cure. Leg ulcers refer to full thickness skin loss on the leg or foot due to any cause. They occur in association with a range of disease processes, most commonly with blood circulation diseases. Leg ulcers may be acute or chronic. Acute ulcers are sometimes defined as those that follow the normal phases of healing; they are expected to show signs of healing in less than 4 weeks and include traumatic and postoperative wounds. Chronic ulcers are those that persist for longer than 4 weeks and are often of complex poorly understood origin. There have been a vast number of case reports of individuals who have benefited most decidedly from external applications of charcoal. Charcoal has been found to adsorb wound secretions, bacteria, and toxins. It appears to keep the bacteria from entering the blood stream. D. PROCEDURE HOW TO PREPARE CHARCOAL POWDER MATERIALS NEEDED: 1. Charcoal from hard wood or coconut shell or bones of clean animals such as cows, carabaos, goats, etc. 2. Coffee grinder or wooden mortar. 3. Fine coffee strainer. PROCEDURE: 1. Pulverize the charcoal by grinding or pounding. 2. Strain the charcoal powder through a fine coffee strainer. 3. Sterilize the charcoal powder in an oven or in a dry covered kettle or frying pan for 15 to 20 minutes. 4. Let cool and store in a dry, clean, covered glass jar or container. HOW TO PREPARE THE CHARCOAL POULTICE MATERIALS NEEDED: 1. Charcoal powder 2. Two pieces of thin cotton cloth or diaper 3. Cellophane or plastic bag 4. Cold or warm water 5. Mixing bowl 6. Mixing spoon and ladle 7. Elastic roller bandage number 4 or a 4-inch-wide cloth 8. Safety pins PROCEDURE: 1. Place the charcoal powder in a mixing bowl. 2. Pour in water gradually. 3. Stir it slowly with a spoon or ladle to make a charcoal paste. Mixture should not be too dry or too wet. 4. Spread a piece of cloth on the table. 5. Spread a ? inch charcoal paste on the center of the cloth. See to it that it’s one or two inches wider than the diseased body part which will be applied on. 6. Fold the four sides of the cloth over the charcoal paste. 7. Turn the covered charcoal pate upside down and drain the excess water by pressing it with a piece of dry cloth. HOW TO APPLY CHARCOAL POULTICE: 1. Apply poultice over the center of the area to be treated. 2. Cover it with a thin cellophane or plastic to keep the heat and moisture intact. 3. Cover with a clean and dry cloth. The cloth must be one or two inches wider than the poultice so the heat cannot escape. 4. Bind tightly with a roller bandage or with a strip of cloth. 5. Leave it overnight or do it three times a day. 6. Dress the patient in the morning. 7. Repeat the treatment until the condition is placed under control or healed. FREQUENCY OF APPLICATION: 1. Overnight7:00 p. m. to 5:00 a. m. 2. Three times a day7:00 a. m. to 11:00 a. m. 1:00 p. m. to 5:00 p. m. 7:00 p. m. to 5:00 a. m. HOW TO PREPARE THE CHARCOAL DRINK MATERIALS NEEDED: 1. Sterilized charcoal powder 2. Two glasses of cold or warm drinking water 3. Spoon 4. Two feeding bottles (for babies) DOSAGE AND PROCEDURE: 1. Dilute the charcoal powder in cold or warm water according to the dosage. four times a day7:00 a. m. 1:00 p. m. 7:00 p. m. 1:00 a. m. •Newborn babies a. One teaspoonful of charcoal powder in a glass half-filled with drinking water. •Children a. Into a glass of half-filled with drinking water, dilute one heaping tablespoon of charcoal powder. b. Stir the mixture thoroughly. c. Let the charcoal powder settle down in the glass for five minutes before giving it to the child or pouring it into the feeding bottle. •Adult and Youth a. In a glass filled with water, dilute two heaping tablespoonfuls of charcoal powder. 2. Let the patient drink all the mixture at one time. Babies and children may be given charcoal drink little by little. 3. Let the patient drink pure water to rinse and throat after each drink. 4. Repeat the treatment three times a day or as indicated until healed. E. REFERENCES: 1. Paypa, Severino S. , M. H. SC. , M. P. H. , 2006, Healing Wonders of Charcoal 2. http://www. time. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,771082,00. html 3. http://www. emedicinehealth. com/activated_charcoal/page2_em. htm 4. http://www. soyouwanna. com/ways-cure-leg-ulcers-4348. html 5. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Treatment 6. http://medical-dictionary. thefreedictionary. com/treatment.
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Australia is known for its multicultural society, but race and ethnicity are a huge factor of persistent racism and inequality in this country. The driving force behind this is the strong belief that some of the population still hold against people who appear different to themselves. To gain a clear understanding of this sensitive topic one must look at the origins, forms and effects of racism. This essay will look at how the concepts of ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ perpetuate inequality in our society, a brief history of Australia in relation to racism and how people experience these inequalities today in a society that we call multicultural. Modern Australia was established as a ‘region of recent settlement’ in 1788 which was a small part of a larger process of European colonisation (Bessant & Watts, 2002, p. 219). They had a set of ideas, values and beliefs and assumed that aborigines had no system of land ownership, agriculture, animal husbandry. Indigenous people have been in Australia for more than 100,000 years (Bessant & Watts, 2002, p. 222). The White Australia Policy in the 20th century encouraged immigration only from Britain, but didn’t allow ‘Asians’ and ‘Non-whites (Economou N, 1998, p.363). By 1950’s people from all countries were allowed to migrate into Australia to help post war reconstruction. The colonial immigration saw a mass migration of European people mostly from Britain to Australia. It is said that between 1788 and 1852 approximately 170,000 people moved to Australia, and the gold rush era after 1851 made it a highly desirable country for migrating (Bessant & Watts, 2002, p. 231). By end of World War two, as war forced Australia to get closer to other countries, which resulted in the first significant weakening of the policy in 1951. Later in the 1950s and 1960s other parts of the White Australia Policy were gradually dismantled. By the 1970s the federal government had removed all racial restrictions from its immigration law (Bessant & Watts, 2002). Various writers have contradictory approaches and ways of looking at racism, making it a complex topic. It takes many different forms, ranging from physical violence to derogatory language. A person or group’s belief that their race is superior or inferior, or their moral and social traits are predetermined, based on biological differences can be termed ’racism’. A group of people sharing the same skin colour, same values, coming from the similar backgrounds may constitute as ’race’. One of the most common forms of racism found today is Institutional Racism, which stems from established corporations, and other powerful forces in society, thus making it hard to question and faces less public condemnation. Examples include housing, employment, businesses, education, religion and media (Healey, 2002). Typically, the basis of this type of discrimination is from irrational fear of people at the receiving end who belong to a different culture or ‘race’. Although, there have been ongoing debates about racism all around us for centuries, it is an assault on human rights as it methodically refuses people of different caste, colour, race, sex or their country of origin basic values underlined by Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which states that human rights are everyone’s birthright and apply to all without difference (Healey, 2002). Common perception of shared origins, culture, lifestyle and traditions amongst a group of people or society is the universal definition of ethnicity (Bessant & Watts, 2002). People can share the same nationality but have different ethnicities. A few writers have put forward fascinating explanations of ethnicity. Edward Shils in his ‘primordial approach’ argues that he believes everyone has a primordial attachment to their motherland, people and religion which brings out strong emotional ties by socialising, which further gives rise to the need to have a separate identity and belonging. Then the ‘Mobilisationist Approach’ suggests that nothing is predictable or normal about ethnicity. Rather, ethnic identities come into sight and are toughened in political contexts where groups struggle to get access to inadequate and valued resources (Van Krieken et al, 2000, p. 519). The basis of ethnocentrism is a conscious or unconscious belief that one’s ethnic group, culture, religion, custom or behaviour is superior to another ethnic group. Politicians boast that Australia is a multicultural, open and classless society. Despite the well known image of Australia’s everyone have “a fair goâ€, the country is still full of both institutional and popular racism. Education has always been very important when it comes to moving up in class and has been very liberating in Australian society. However, indigenous and ethnic groups have been somewhat disadvantaged in opportunities to acquire education. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics only five Indigenous Australians per 1,000 obtain tertiary qualification, compared to 70-80 per 1,000 for Anglo Australians. In the 1990s welfare, health care and education support for Aborigines accounted only to 2% of total budget outlay (ABS 2000:21). In order to receive an education a person requires an income, but to get an income one needs a job, and a job is challenging to find without an appropriate level of education. Therefore an individual’s chance of education is influenced by the socio-economic status of one’s parents which is a cyclic social inequality hard to break. Migrants and their children often find it challenging to adjust to the Australian school system as they often come from countries that have a poor education system, and even if they have tertiary qualifications they mostly are not recognised, resulting in them taking lower paid and lower status jobs. Working class children often attend schools in working class suburbs where pupils are directed into working-class jobs. A high number of students leave school early and the expectation that they will attend university is low. In comparison, upper-class children attend private schools, and the expectation that they will attend university is high. Migrants and ethnic groups are often at a lower end of the socioeconomic scale (Aspin, 1996, p. 87) Migrants arrive with little money and few skills. Already at a disadvantage with language barriers, migrants and ethnic groups are also faced with racism and discrimination in their search for employment. In 1996, One Nation political party leader Pauline Hanson made a speech that claimed that Australia was being overwhelmed by ‘Asians’ and feared that Asians were taking over jobs. The fact is that Asians at the time only accounted for 5% of total population and ‘there is little evidence to support the claim that high rates of immigration ‘cause’ unemployment or ‘cause’ Australians to lose their jobs’ (Bessant, 2002, p. 219). Indigenous people had a 24. 3% unemployment rate according to 1996 census (ABS 2000:23). Indigenous people are usually poorer than most non-indigenous Australians and receive a lower income on average than the total population. The household income for Aborigines in 1994 was $158 compared to $310 for white Australians (ABS 2000C:23) This also reflects the fact the there is a higher reliance by the Aboriginal population on social security payments (ABS 1996b: 122-4) Socioeconomic status is a major determinant of inequality as it influences access an individual has to the economic resources of a society. L. J. Aspin (1996) explains that white Australian-born males have a better chance of obtaining access to the resources of society. Inequality is also reflected in the differential access to housing and health services. For people who are paying rent and on a low income, it is almost impossible to save for a deposit on a house at the same time. Aborigines and migrants suffer discrimination in rental accommodation, where landlords preferring a two-parent, white, Anglo-Saxon families. Only 10% of Aborigines own housing compared to 70% of white Australia population (Aspin, 1996, p. 87). Most Aborigines live in rural and provincial Australia (Bessant, 2002, p. 226) far from big cities where there are more jobs, higher paid jobs, better education, better housing, good water and sanitation services, hospital medical services and other community amenities. Some ethnic backgrounds are still not accepted in our society and are treated differently and unequally. We see and hear about them on a day to day basis. In recent months the Indian community in Australia, especially students have become a vulnerable target for attacks, whether racist or not. On 31 May 2009 in Melbourne, about 5000 students marched through the streets of Melbourne protesting against these attacks on Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students. 25-year-old Sravan Kumar Theerthala was in a serious condition in intensive care after being stabbed in the head with a screwdriver one week earlier (Bolton & Peterson, 2009). In an article in The Age newspaper on February 19 Victorian police claimed that these attacks are not racially motivated, but opportunistic where Indian students are “over representing themselves as victims†and can be looked upon as soft targets. The police also advised them “not to speak in their native language loudly†or display signs of wealth. Attacks on Indians aren’t the only allegation Australia has faced over the years. It seems that anyone in power, including police, politicians or the media has had the tendency to somehow flare these attacks. In the Herald Sun on 11 June 2009, 3AW’s Neil Mitchell said: “Australians are also bashed and die in India, which does not provoke parades of chanting ocker backpackers in the streets of Mumbaiâ€. In 2007, the then immigration minister Kevin Andrews referred to the Sudanese community when he said “Some groups don’t seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope. †A spate of violent attacks were then unleashed against Sudanese migrants, and one was bashed to death by a group of white men (Bolton & Peterson, 2009). As Australia continues to argue that it is a just, tolerant, open and classless society, there is still evidence of race and inequality among us and affecting the many lives of migrants and Indigenous people. It is interesting to note that the very determinants of class – power, money, education, family background, occupation, health and general way of life are also the same factors where others experience inequalities. Race and ethnicity perpetuate inequality, and in any country including Australia, one would find that there are always some people with very strong values of racism, and media outlets which help in manipulating the views of general public. There still needs to be a massive drive by communities and governments on racism and inequality and it will be long before we will be a “happy multicultural Australiaâ€. Bibliography Aspin, L J 1996, ‘Social stratification and inequality’, Focus on Australian society, 2nd edn, Longman, Melbourne. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2009, Australian Bureau of Statistics, viewed 28 November 2009, < http://www. abs. gov. au/ >. Bessant, J & Watts, R 2002, ‘Neighbours and nations: ethnic identity and multiculturalism’, Sociology Australia, 2nd edn, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW. Bolton, S & Peterson, C 2009, Indian students speak: Stop the racist attacks! , viewed 28 November 2009, < http://www.greenleft. org. au/2009/798/41083>. Economou, N 1998, ‘The Politics of Citizenship: identity, ethnicity and race’, in Alan Fenna, Introduction to Australian Public Policy, Vol 1, Addison Wesley Longman, Melbourne. Healey, J 2002, ‘Racism: Beyond Tolerance, A Fair Go’, Racism in Australia, Vol 180, The Spinney Press, Rozelle, NSW. Van Krieken, R, Smith, P, Hobbis, D & McDonald, K 2000, ‘Migration, ethnicity and Australian Aboriginality’, Sociology: themes and perspectives, 2nd edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, NSW.
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