Rice Production Essay Example

Rice Production Essay I. Introduction The most important food crop in the Philippines is rice, a staple food in most of the country. It is produced all throughout Luzon, the Western Visayas, Southern Mindanao, and Central Mindanao. 9. 5 billion tons of palay were produced in 1989 almost. In 1990 palay, which caused a 27 percent value added in agriculture and 3. 5 percent of GNP. Per hectare yields have generally been low in comparison with other Asian countries. Since the mid-1960s, however, yields have increased substantially as a result of the cultivation of high-yielding varieties developed in the mid-1960s at the International Rice Research Institute located in the Philippines. The proportion of miracle rice in total output rose from zero in 1965-66 to 81 percent in 1981-82. Average productivity increased to 2. 3 tons per hectare (2. 8 tons on irrigated farms) by 1983. By the late 1970s, the country had changed from a net importer to a net exporter of rice, albeit on a small scale. In the 1980s, however, rice production encountered problems. Average annual growth for 1980-85 declined to a mere 0. 9 percent, as contrasted with 4. 6 percent for the preceding fifteen years. Growth of value added in the rice industry also fell in the 1980s. Tropical storms and droughts, the general economic downturn of the 1980s, and the 1983-85 economic crisis all contributed to this decline. Crop loans dried up, prices of agricultural inputs increased, and palay prices declined. Fertilizer and plant nutrient consumption dropped 15 percent. We will write a custom essay sample on Rice Production specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Rice Production specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Rice Production specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Farmers were squeezed by rising debts and declining income. Hectarage devoted to rice production, level during the latter half of the 1970s, fell an average of 2. 4 percent per annum during the first half of the 1980s, with the decline primarily in marginal, nonirrigated farms. As a result, in 1985, the last full year of the Marcos regime, the country imported 538,000 tons of rice. The situation improved somewhat in the late 1980s, and smaller amounts of rice were imported. However, in 1990 the country experienced a severe drought. Output fell by 1. 5 percent, forcing the importation of an estimated 400,000 tons of rice. In few years, we may have to squeeze out whatever is left of the country’s rice stock. This paper aims to find out what factors affect the production of rice in the Philippines to be able to formulate policies which may give the Filipinos more than enough hope and promise to help Filipinos on the way not only to rice sustainability, but also to national food security. II. Statement of the problem and object of the analysis General: This paper attempts to analyze Palay Production in the Philippines from the first semester of 1991 to the second semester of 2002 as affected by the size of land used for planting palay, amount of rain, and advancement of technology. Specific: More specification, this paper answers the following questions: 1. Does each of the following variables has significant effect on Palay Production. a. Area of land allotted for planting palay. b. Amount of rainfall. c. Advancement of technology. 2. Is there a significant effect on rice production given that the area of land allotted for planting palay, amount of rainfall, and advancement of technology are combined. III. Specification of the model This paper utilized a multiple linear regression model which can be described as follows: PROD = b0 + b1AREA + b2RAIN + b3TECH Where: b = parameters estimates PROD = volume of rice produced AREA = area of land allotted for planting palay RAIN = amount of rainfall in the areas TECH = advancement of technology in the agricultural sector Furthermore, to determine the individual level of significance of every ndependent variable, the t-statistic will be used. In order to estimate the values of coefficient, the Least Square Method was used, with a confidence level of 95 percent, while to probe into to over-all significance to these variables to the dependent one, the f-statistic was used. Finally, the results are to be validated through the usage of R2 which determines the degree of influen ce of all variables to the dependent component. The level of significance used in this study is 5 percent, while the degrees of freedom is 21, derived by deducting the number of observations (24) by the number of independent variables in consideration (3). IV. Hypothesis To Be Tested That the variables such as area allotted for planting palay, amount of rainfall, advancement of technology in the agricultural sector have no significant effect on rice production in the Philippines. V. Presentation of Data The Table below shows the data from the first semester of 1991 to the second semester of 2002, showing figures about palay production, area harvested, amount of rainfall and the advancement of technology. Palay ProductionArea HarvestedRainfallTechnology (All Ecosystem, In Metric Tons)(All Ecosystem, In Hectares)(in millimeters)Trend variable PRODAREARAINTECH 1991. 1 4,047,513 1,418,640 6,674. 0 1 1991. 2 5,625,749 2,006,320 13,124. 0 2 1992. 1 3,505,984 1,282,330 6,623. 7 3 1992. 2 5,622,956 1,915,740 16,278. 0 4 1993. 1 3,890,149 1,320,700 6,319. 8 5 1993. 2 5,544,059 1,961,650 18,756. 5 6 1994. 1 4,378,533 1,483,330 10,362. 5 7 1994. 2 6,159,521 2,168,200 13,995. 8 1995. 1 4,317,331 1,501,408 7,510. 3 9 1995. 2 6,223,318 2,257,283 21,217. 0 10 1996. 1 4,950,910 1,666,483 10,704. 3 11 1996. 2 6,332,658 2,284,653 16,258. 0 12 1997. 1 4,846,461 1,624,241 7,303. 0 13 1997. 2 6,422,502 2,218,029 11,052. 9 14 1998. 1 3,558,976 1,283,197 4,974. 4 15 1998. 2 4,995,848 1,886,845 24,330. 5 16 1999. 5,272,053 1,743,026 19,011. 6 17 1999. 2 6,514,572 2,256,813 26,291. 3 18 2000. 1 5,442,496 1,737,623 17,458. 1 19 2000. 2 6,946,916 2,300,462 27,202. 0 20 2001. 1 5,567,831 1,729,096 13,767. 5 21 2001. 2 7,387,039 2,336,345 23,721. 0 22 2002. 1 5,672,369 1,753,200 10,637. 3 23 2002. 2 7,598,284 2,293,118 20,401. 0 24 Prod = f(area, r ain, tech) VI. Summary of Findings After processing the gathered data into information, through the regression analysis, AREA, RAIN, TECH, and PROD, gave off the following estimated regression equation and other regression results: PROD = -282911 + 2. 959577AREA – 14. 77746RAIN + 37848. 18TECH The equation states that at every 1hectar increase in Area, there would be a 2. 959577 metric ton increase in rice production. Ceteris paribus. It also shows a negative relation between rainfall and rice production, were an increase of 1mm. Of rain fall would cause a decrease of 14. 7746hectars of rice, ceteris paribus. Finally, the equation also indicates a positive relation between technological advancements to rice production. As technology has a 1 unit increase, rice production would increase by 37848. 18. Dependent Variable: PROD Method: Least Squares Date: 07/12/04 Time: 23:04 Sample: 1991:1 2002:2 Included observations: 24 VariableCoefficientStd. Errort-StatisticProb. C-282911. 0334520. 1-0. 845 7220. 4077 AREA2. 9595770. 24752211. 956820. 0000 RAIN-14. 7774613. 73005-1. 0762860. 2946 TECH37848. 188842. 3054. 2803520. 0004 R-squared0. 954369 Mean dependent var5451001. Adjusted R-squared0. 947524 S. D. dependent var1137085. S. E. of regression260478. 8 Akaike info criterion27. 92944 Sum squared resid1. 36E+12 Schwarz criterion28. 12578 Log likelihood-331. 1533 F-statistic139. 4325 Durbin-Watson stat1. 048045 Prob(F-statistic)0. 000000 The regressed data show that only the amount of rainfall has no significant effect on the dependent variable, as shown by the variables’ t-statistic. It did not meet the critical value of 2. 080 with a t-statistic of 1. 76286. All in all, the whole estimated equation is highly significant as shown by the f-statistic of 0. 0000. There is a 0. 954369 R-squared data, which shows that there is a 95. 44% influence of independent variables to the dependent variable. This graph shows the trend of Rice Production in the Philippines and amount of Rainfall during 1991 to 2002. As one can observe, rice production and rainfall are almost going at the same trend, but when there was a massive amount of rainfall during 1998, rice production slowed it’s ascend to it’s peak. This graph shows the trend of rice production and area for planting palay from the first semester of 1991 to the second semester of 2002. as we can observe, the graphs are almost overlapping each other, except during 1998, where rice production slowed during the beginning of the second semester. VII. Conclusion With the country’s fast increase in population and the slow pace of our technology and limited land area, the rice our farmers are producing are not sufficient to feed all of our â€Å"kababayans† and have more to sell throughout the world. Policy makers should try to formulate policies that would help increase rice production. The input requirements of the new technologies were skewed, in the direction of capital inputs, mainly irrigated land, fertilizers and other forms of capital. By definition, capital is scarce, and therefore the implementation of the new technologies stretched over a long period of time. This is on the supply side, whereas on the demand side, the countries have to expand their export in order to supplement the growing domestic demand in absorbing the growing supply. The message for the future is clear, for the growth to continue, the available technologies must continue to grow. Without such growth, the impact of input growth will eventually decline; we see some evidence to this effect already in the estimated regression equation. But this is not the only determinant of future growth. In order to take a full advantage of new techniques, there must be a smooth flow of the required resources into agriculture. VIII. Bibliography Economic Development 8th edition, by Michael s. Todaro and Stephen C. Smith, page 418-454 Agricultural Statistics c/o San Beda College Prof. Harold Glenn Valera

The Double-Edged Swords of Autonomy and External Knowledge by M. R Article

The Double-Edged Swords of Autonomy and External Knowledge by M. R Article The Double The paper "The Double-Edged Swords of Autonomy and External Knowledge by M. R. Haas" is a delightful example of an article on management. The purpose of Haas article is to explore the importance of both autonomy and external knowledge in self-managing teams within an organization. Since both autonomy and external knowledge have their benefits and risks, Haas aims to provide information in recognizing the auspicious conditions to minimize the risks related to autonomy and external knowledge. Haas gathered data from a multinational organization employing over 10,000 employees worldwide. Data gatherings methods used were semi-structured interviews, and quantitative data from the companys project evaluation unit, team member surveys, and archival project records (p.994). He used two dependent variables, strategic effectiveness, and operational effectiveness, and quantified the data using ordinal scales (p.995). Additionally, he also utilized controlled variables, namely team location, te am satisfaction, and team size. These variables were also quantified using the ordinal scales. The results show that both autonomy and external knowledge complement each other in increasing team effectiveness (p.1001). Research results demonstrate that there is increased strategic and operational effectiveness in teams with higher autonomy and external knowledge compared to the teams with low autonomy and high external knowledge, or teams with high autonomy and low external knowledge (p.1006). Combining autonomy and external knowledge increased strategic and operational effectiveness when the required knowledge is non-organizational, but not when they were organizational. They also increased the two types of effectiveness when the required knowledge was in short supply, but not when it was general. Therefore, the combination of autonomy and external knowledge promote effective performance for self-managing teams because it will allow them to make decisions that are independent yet i nformed, and avoid possible risks of too much influence or too rigid isolation.

Analysing The Characters Of Hedda Gabler English Literature Essay

Analysing The Characters Of Hedda Gabler English Literature Essay We are introduced to Hedda Gabler as the daughter of the venerated General Gabler, and as a woman born into an extremely wealthy aristocratic family. Though having lived a pampered life, she believed her time as a single woman was growing thin, leading her to marry George Tesman, a man she clearly no longer has feelings for – if indeed she ever did. Throughout the rest of Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler, we observe how Hedda’s obsession with freedom and free will conflict with the norms of nineteenth-century society which surrounds her, leading her to manipulate those around her, and eventually her own death. It would seem that Hedda’s greatest asset throughout the play is her ability to manipulate the individuals around her. The tediousness of monogamy is most likely the largest driving factor for her scheming all through the play: â€Å"How mortally bored I’ve been†Ã‚   [ 1 ]   as she conveys it to Judge Brack. The deception of others i s one of her solutions to the suppressed life she must lead under the nineteenth-century societal standards. We witness her feign friendship in the conversation between her and Miss Tesman, all the while deviously making remarks about her hat: â€Å"Look there! She has left her old bonnet lying aboutà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦fancy, if anyone should come in and see it!†.   [ 2 ]    We witness her clandestine motives when she burns Eilert Là ¸vborg’s manuscript and convinces her husband that she did it because she â€Å"could not bear the idea that any one should throw you [George] into the shade†.   [ 3 ]   We also see evidence of her suppressed emotions as she â€Å"walks about the room, raising her arms and clenching her fists as if in desperation†.   [ 4 ]   Her greatest skill however lies with her ability to extort information and secrets from others; as Eilert remarks about their past relationship: â€Å"[I] told you about myself, things that no on e else knew†.   [ 5 ]   She frequently displays her talent of asking questions without actually answering any on her part; soon after, Eilert asks: â€Å"What was the power in you that forced me to confess these things?† to which Hedda replies elusively: â€Å"Do you think it was any power in me?†.   [ 6 ]   Hedda feels as though she can suppress the boredom in her life by obtaining power over others. When asked by Mrs. Elvsted why she is manipulating Eilert so, she replies: â€Å"I want for once in my life to have power to mould a human destiny†.   [ 7 ]   Although Hedda is wealthy, she considers herself lacking in influence, and thereby poor. If Hedda cannot attain any sort of power – whether it is political, authoritative, or pecuniary – then she must find power through the lives of others. Because Hedda is proscribed from carrying out the life that she wishes to live, she finds that she must live vicariously. However, the life of another woman – namely Mrs. Elvsted – would not suit Hedda’s criteria, for she is just as subdued as any other woman during that time. We come across this notion when Hedda asks to Là ¸vborg:

History of German Films and Cinema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

History of German Films and Cinema - Essay Example Fassbinder's success in German theatre allowed him leverage when it came to ascending the rungs in mainstream cinema which he considered in greater esteem than theatre. But the German bourgeois always valued the older German theatre more highly than the younger cinema (Barnett p.137). He continued to make an impression in German theatre, and this improved his chances of being recognised and accepted in popular cinema which he did with films on a diverse range of prevalent issues. One such film that explored the issue of individuals resisting traditionalism was Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. A storm outside forces a middle-aged cleaning lady named Emmi into a local German bar. The place is filled with Arabic regulars who gaze at her entrance. This bar is one of the select few public spots where foreigners are openly received. It's owner fills the jukeboxes with Arabic music but when Emmi enters, she is no longer a welcome visitor but is looked on as a stranger. The owner prods a former lover, a Moroccan man named Ali, to engage Emmi in a dance. Soon after, they become close companions, sharing common internal conflicts and emotions, along with feelings of loneliness and isolation. As their union develops, they find that society turns harsher towards them more so now than when they were isolated individuals. Emmi's neighbours chitchat continuously about her companion who is living with her and this provokes the landlord to question their living arrangements. Ali fac es further embarrassment when a local grocer refuses to serve him until he improves his German. When Emmi meets her family and divulges her relationship with the Moroccan, she is met with cynicism and ridicule. The quarrel finally ends up with her TV set being destroyed. Later after Emmi's co-worker visits her at her apartment and finds Ali there, the following day she is spurned by her cleaning squad. She is then left to wallow in her predicament. In this film, Fassbinder explores the experiences of people who do not conform to society's norms. His cinematography uses space and framing of the nonconforming individual to mirror his or her isolation and seclusion from the rest of society. When Emmi and Ali dance on the floor, a long shot of them amplifies their isolation. The confined kitchen also highlights the suffocation she feels about her life. At a bistro, the vacant surrounding tables overstated by the staff's distance from the present visitors also reflects her isolation. Fassbinder, referring to use social commentary rather than melodrama, produces a narrative that reveals the depth of exclusion that the two protagonists are faced with. He shows that although they learn to deal with unwelcome pubic scrutiny, the pressures of society continually eats the soul of both Emmi and Ali. This fractures their delicate relationship and the question begs, will the two survive their union. There are no simple answers in the real w orld. In his 1979 film, The Marriage of Maria Braun, Fassbinder crafts a darkly comic and contemptuous portrayal of the revitalization program undertaken by Germany. The story is of Maria Braun whose wedding happened as a result of a swift two week courtship and a hastily conducted marriage ceremony during the last period of the second world war when

Common Difficulties Encountered in Academic Writing Essay

Common Difficulties Encountered in Academic Writing - Essay Example For me, writing can be really difficult at times because the act itself is solitary. It comes from within us. We concentrate on planning and thinking on how to transform our complex thoughts into an organized written text. For instance, when I write argumentative essays, there are abstract concepts that I need to explain using my own words and this makes writing difficult for me. Sometimes, I would find myself staring at a blank paper for hours because I do not know how to start the topic I am working. I would have difficulty in coming up with solid arguments for my essay topic. Even though I have read a lot about the theme of the essay, I still have trouble translating what I have read into writing. Worse, when I get to start writing, I would it difficult to end the topic. It is as if I am going nowhere when I start my writing task. Moreover, in the middle of the work, I would get distracted because sometimes I would be confused in grammatical rules especially when I construct complex sentences. Also, the rules in punctuation and spelling would confuse me a lot, especially when I would try to write longer sentences. Indeed, I am very conscious of all the technicalities in grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary when I start to write. However, amidst all these difficulties I encountered in writing, I have remained patient in re-writing and editing my drafts to come up with a presentable essay. I have learned that there are methods that would make writing easier for beginning writer and that is to have a plan. In this class, I have learned the process of pre-writing, writing, revising, and editing in order to get my essays done. Prewriting would mean that I have to jot down all the ideas I have, regardless of my ideas are correct or not. Writing an outline would then help me in organizing my thoughts and ideas.

New Religious Movements Essay -- Analysis, Lorne Dawson

Dawson (2010) Lorne Dawson presents a unique perspective on the similarities between New Religious Movements (NRM), which are also known as cults, and radical Islamic groups. Dawson (2010) questions why no dialogue has occurred because of the similarities between the two types of movements. Dawson (2010) stated that individuals that join Islamic extremist groups have the same issues of NRM members who experience a source of deprivation or alienation from the secular world. As with both groups, Dawson (2010) alludes that the deprivation is based on personalization of an issue that could be social, psychological, and moral. Dawson (2010) cautions that deprivation is not all about economics and there is no singular profile to fit an individual and pointed reason of why an individual will feel deprivation. Dawson points out the general public may view people as down on their luck and in economic strife. However, in actuality, both groups according to Dawson (2010) come from middle class families and have obtained some education and seem unremarkable, just as asserted in the Silber and Bhatt (2007) study. With this sense of deprivation, Dawson points out seeking individuals in both NRM and radical Islamic groups may want to pursue an identity which is influenced by socialization with other people going through the same situation or who understand what an individual is going through. Dawson makes an interesting point that the social bonds that are strong and give an individual a sense of belonging which help transform a person to a NRM or radical Islamic group. Dawson refers to two key socialization tenets that are in both NRM and radical Islam and was mentioned in Silber and Bhatt (2007) study that are appli... ...to steer away from the aspect of socialization as a conduit to propel radicalization. It does mention that Larose accused of conspiring to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks had social contacts through emails supporting her effort. The literature provides a valid point that the internet has transpired as a major component in increase of the radicalization process. This paper argues the researchers should have presented the argument that the internet is a gateway for socialization rather than a forum for self-radicalization. The paper did mention the importance of information operations to counter media promoting radicalization which has not been emphasized to the extent as it was in this literature. The Self-Awakening variable implies religion in this literature. The Social Conduit variable is obviously identified as the internet and extremist groups.

Death, Dying and Other Ethical Dilemmas

Death, dying and other ethical dilemmas are issues that all Intensive Care Units (ICUs) throughout the world have to face and address. In the Current Opinion in Critical Care, Vol 16, No 6, December 2010, p. 640, Dixon-Woods and Bosk, writing on the topic of â€Å"Death, dying and other ethical dilemmas† under the journal’s section of ‘Ethical, legal and organizational issues in the ICU’, have stated that â€Å"Recent ethnographic work suggests that ethical dilemmas associated with end-of-life care in ICU clearly persist, even if clinicians are now more open about patients’ chances of surviving.An Australian study identified how decisions and actions made outside the ICU—such as proceeding with surgical procedures with very poor prognosis or admitting moribund patients who had sustained severe respiratory or cardiac arrest—led to a higher than expected rate of non-booked admissions. Staff believed these to be the result of futile inter ventions by staff outside the ICU that then resulted in ICU staff having to manage the patient and family through the dying process.ICU staff believed that this practice was detrimental to families by offering false hope of recovery, and that they were left to ‘clear up the unfinished work of medical staff’. Other studies have also documented the problems faced by staff confronted by patients whose potential for recovery is, at best, marginal, or when patients’ ‘significant others’ seek to influence ICU priorities and distribution of resources. Tensions exist between the critical care clinician’s view of the ICU as a place for caring for patients who can be salvaged, and an external view of the ICU as a place appropriate to send desperately ill, dying patients.Patients admitted to ICU despite ICU staff’s belief that they are not candidates for intensive care lead to role conflicts and other dilemmas for staff. The conflict is embedded i n whom ICUs serve, the relative ease with which non-ICU clinicians can ‘turf’ their most critical patients to ICUs, the tensions ICU clinicians experience when delivering what they believe to be futile care, and the despair that family and clinicians share when having to abandon hope. †This administrative ethics paper takes a look at the issues contained in the article of the aforementioned journal, Current Opinion in Critical Care, Vol 16, No 6, December 2010, and applies these issues to the situations faced by ICUs today and in particular, the ICU healthcare personnel at the 6-bedded ICU at the San-Fernando General Hospital (SFGH), a general multi-disciplinary 680-bedded hospital situated in the south of the island of Trinidad and which serves a catchment area of 600,000 people. Trinidad and Tobago is a twin-island republic in the West Indies, south of the archipelago with a population of 1. million people. The SFGH also has a 4-bedded HDU (high-dependency unit) . Brainstem death The future plan for brain-dead patients whose hearts have been resuscitated by doctors in the Emergency Department (ED) of the SFGH following a cardiac and or respiratory arrest at home, poses an ethical dilemma for the healthcare personnel at the SFGH. Should these patients be admitted to the ICU which has only six beds to serve a population of 600,000? Shouldn’t these ICU beds be kept for patients with potentially reversible and salvageable pathology?Emergency physicians at the SFGH defend their decision to resuscitate such patients on the grounds that they cannot predict with any certainty which patients have reversible brain function and which do not. The present practice at the SFGH to provide ventilator support for these patients in the ED instead of the ICU while tests of brainstem function are being carried out, is frequently met with severe criticisms from relatives and loved ones who claim that the best is not being, and cannot be, done for such pa tients in the ED as opposed to the ICU.And to a certain extent, this is true bearing in mind the chronic shortage of doctors and nurses in the ED. Frequently therefore, here in Trinidad, the ICU personnel have no choice but to transfer such patients to the ICU for monitoring and cardio-respiratory support. Passive Euthanasia â€Å"While active euthanasia is illegal, passive euthanasia, or allowing a patient to die naturally, is legal everywhere. Passive euthanasia includes withdrawing basic needs such as hydration and nutritional feeding† (Fremgen, 2009, p. 304).The Ministry of Health, an arm of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, has issued a written protocol/policy for the discontinuation of life-support from patients on whom the diagnosis of brainstem death is confirmed but, for such discontinuation, written consent is required from the relatives. â€Å"The person should be pronounced dead, and there is no need for the permission of the surrogates to cease treatment, a lthough there are still questions about consent for donation† (Garett, Baillie, McGeehan and Garett, 2010, p. 253).But intensivists here in Trinidad face an ethical dilemma because forty-five percent of the population consists of people of East Indian descent who, because of their religious and cultural background, do not readily agree to the discontinuation of ventilator support from their loved ones who have been pronounced brain-dead. For similar reasons, they do not readily agree to the donation of organs while the heart is still beating, a situation that has stymied the development of transplant programs here in Trinidad and Tobago. The Surrogate’s Obligation Patient-physician relationship is at the heart of patient management. The trend over the recent years has been towards promoting patients’ autonomy. This model falls apart, however, when the patient loses decision-making capacity. Surrogacy is one means of preserving patient autonomy. Several European c ountries have recently developed laws defining the physician’s role, as well as patients’ and surrogates’ rights† (Lautrette, Peigne, Watts, Souweine and Azoulay, 2008, p. 714). â€Å"Each of the principles (the best interests principle and the rational choice principle) entails problems.The best interests principle asks the surrogate to do what is nearly impossible—to judge what is best for another. Furthermore, it does not address the fact that the interests of the patient and the interests of the surrogate may be in conflict. The rational choice principle assumes that we know what the patient would have chosen when competent and after having considered every relevant factor. This is a very broad assumption. We doubt that anyone can know what a person would have done in all circumstances† (Garett, Baillie, McGeehan and Garett, 2010, p. 2). When surrogates refuse to give permission for their brain-dead loved ones to be disconnected from the ventilator, intensivists at the SFGH in Trinidad, well aware of the limitations and constraints of the situation that exists at the SFGH, choose the ethical route and not only discontinue all drug and intravenous fluid therapy but also reduce the settings on, and oxygen therapy going to, the ventilator to as low as is possible, so as to satisfy the family that the patient has not been disconnected from the ventilator.A do-not-resuscitate order (DNR) is not only written, but is also verbally communicated to the nurses by the doctors in the event of a cardiac arrest. The Cost Factor â€Å"Critical care medicine is expensive and its high cost has been a concern for many years. † (Halpern, 2009, p. 591). Canada’s health care system, including its delivery of hospital-based critical care services, is changing due to fiscal pressures. â€Å"Critical care services should be delivered to those who can benefit from them.Limiting therapy in patients with a poor prognosis may he lp redirect resources† (Leasa and Sibald, 1997, p. 320). Trinidad and Tobago, like the rest of the world, is currently facing an economic recession and so the Government of the day has to be very prudent in its fiscal spending. The Ministry of Health which is responsible for providing the financial resources for running the health system in the twin-island republic simply does not have the money required for the provision of quality healthcare at this time.ICUs are expensive and as such all attempts must be made by all stakeholders involved in the ICU to ensure that monies spent in this area of the hospital are spent wisely, ethically, effectively and efficiently. Conclusion This administrative ethics paper took a look at various challenges faced by healthcare personnel in ICUs today as they deal with death, dying and other ethical dilemmas. Particular reference was made to the ICU at the San Fernando General Hospital, Trinidad, West Indies.