HEALTH POLICY

Health is a standard of psychical and mental well being appropriate to a particular society. Of course, health depends on a number of factors, they are: biological and environmental factors, and the standard of living.

There are several differences in UK’s health policy comparing to Lithuania’s health policy. In UK there are clear differences in the incidence of ill by social class. People in lower social class, including children, are more likely to suffer from infective diseases, poisoning or violence. Adults in lower social classes more often suffer from cancer and heart diseases. This problem in Lithuania is even bigger. Not only because cultural and behavioral facts but also because of historical facts.

Health care in UK and Lithuania can be divided in several categories. Firstly, hospital care guarantees help for every person, no matter of which social class, if he has problems with health. Next – primary care. It is non-hospital care of all family members, for example dentistry, optics and pharmacy. The most important issue is public health. It includes housing, water supplies, food hygiene. Both countries have differences in dealing with health policy problems but the main facts are probably the same.

In UK and Lithuania people receive health care as a right to welfare. If a person wants to get a health care he has to be registered in his local hospital. The biggest problem is with homeless people. They have no home and no address so they are unable to register and get proper health care. In Britain social policy is better than in Lithuania, so this problem is not as big as in Lithuania. In UK there are a lot of day centers and other institutions for those people, though in Lithuania the situation is different, it is still an ongoing process.

Lithuania should promote a healthy lifestyle because the statistics show that our society is getting fat. Also, it should strengthen disease prevention and take measures against children abuse, violence, and addiction to tobacco, alcohol and drugs. I hope that Lithuania’s health policy will soon get closer to UK’s health policy, looking from good position.

Minority

A minority is group of people who differ from a larger group of which it is a part. A sociological minority is not necessarily a numerical minority — it may include any group that is disadvantaged with respect to a dominant group in terms of social status, education, employment, wealth and political power.

In socioeconomics, the term "minority" typically refers to a socially subordination ethnic group (understood in terms of language, nationality, religion or culture). Other minority groups include people with disabilities, "economic minorities" (working poor or unemployed), "age minorities" (who are younger or older than a typical working age) and sexual minorities (whose sexual orientation or gender identity differs from the sociological norm).
Every large society contains ethnic minorities. They may be migrants or others. International criminal law protects the rights of racial or ethnic minorities in many ways. Also there are religious minorities. Usually their religion differs from majority’s religion. Nowadays it is accepted that people should have the freedom to choose their own religion, including not having any religion. Therefore, every big society has gender and sexual minorities. An understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans- gender people as a minority group has started in the Western world, in the 19th century. What is more, disabled people are also understanding as minority. Some people with particular illness argue for acceptance of their disability, but many deaf people do not see themselves as disabled at all.

In conclusion, there are a lot of rights for minorities in Western world, but there is still big problem with minority`s rights in other countries ( for example, in East Europe). That is why many people, for example gays or lesbians, emigrate into Western world to have great and peaceful future.

SELF- ASSESMENT OF ONLINE LISTENING TO PODCASTS

http://www.last.fm/music/B.+Fleischmann/melancholy+podcast

B. Fleischmann - Melancholy Podcast

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/podcasts/
Scotland`s Tiree island

I have listened two podcasts. The first one was about B. Fleischman's - one of the best electronic musician's new album. He showed how the music was born and told some stories. Second podcast was about tiny island of Scotland's west coast. This practice was useful for me, because it gave me a chance to practice for my listening exam. It was very interesting indeed, because I have chosen topics which were important for me.

First podcast was not very difficult to understand. But I listened for it two times, because there were several words that I misunderstood and couldn't understand whole sentence. That problem was because of lack of musical terms in my vocabulary. The pronunciation was with nice German accent which was easy to understand.

Second podcast was much more difficult. I listened for it three times. The biggest problems were interferences and Scottish accent. I found it difficult to understand what people were trying to say. I need more listening practice with podcasts with different accents. This podcast showed me, that I have experience just with traditional English language. What is more, noisy background disturbed my concentration and in some places totally messed my brain.

All in all, this practice showed me that I have to watch more movies or listen radio in English. But the best solution to expand my vocabulary, in my opinion, is to read more literature in English. The easiest way to improve my knowledge of English is to communicate in English with people from different parts of the planet earth.