Namibia’s Mobile Clinics & Nurse Training Program Homework Essay Sample

Introduction

This training program is meant to facilitate in the training of native Namibians who wishes to become paid workers of one of the three mobile clinics that shall operate across the country. The idea is to enable the creation of multifunctional clinics that shall seek to attend to the medical needs of the rural population in Namibia.

Rural population in Namibia has been shown to be more vulnerable to certain specific diseases, in comparison to those people who are living in less remote areas (Barnum 1993). In addition, there is also the issue of a limited access to health care, seeing that the nearest health care centers are few and far between.

There is therefore a dire need to bring such services closer to the population who are at a higher risk of suffering from these vulnerable diseases. Moreover, the biggest challenge to rural health care in Namibia seems to be the limited health care facilities especially in the rural communities.

This implies that there are only limited health services for large population. As a result, the number of health amenities in the rural areas per person seems to be overstretched (Casey et al 2001). As a result, no adequate health care can be given to such a population. There is also the issue of a chronic shortage of physicians, as well as assistant nurses.

More often that not, the few medical workers that are there have to struggle in a bid to ensure that the rural populace in Namibia are able to acquire all the medical attention that they might be in need of, within the reach and capability of such a health facility of course. Often, exiting facilities tends to be deficient both in supply and personnel (Rickets, 2000).

Frequently, a majority of the rural folk in Namibia have had to settle for the referral services offered by non-medical providers, thereby further exacerbating the risk to their health. Usually, poverty levels force the rural population to resort to such affordable yet risky medical interventions (Mills, 1990).

Access to medical care is another issue for these members. There is a need therefore to institute a mobile health clinic to bridge these gaps, and hence reduces the risk levels of the community. Some of these risks that pose a challenge to the rural poor in Namibia could as well be contained through early intervention mechanisms, such as bringing health care facilities closer to the community.

A rise in health risk

By and large, rural population ends to be older, and this in itself is a risk factor to chronic diseases such as heart diseases and diabetes (Hourihan et al 2003). There is thus a need to have medical support services closer to this kind of population, if at all we are to offer a relief to their risk factor.

Besides, government health statistics in Namibia indicates that rural residents have a higher chance of reporting poor health incidences ion comparison to their counterpart residing in less remote areas. The main economic activities of the rural population includes agriculture, Forestry, mining and to some extent, fishing.

Consequently, this population gets exposed to such health hazards as pesticides, toxic dust that they inhale, and the risk of operating dangerous machinery. As a result, injury and health-related complaints tend to be higher (Mills, 1990).

Additionally, the education levels in rural Namibia tend to be lower than average, meaning that the per capita household income also tends to be lower, as there is a direct correlation between education status and levels of incomes.

The implication here then, is that poverty impacts on access to medical attention by the poor members of a community. Towards this end, government statistics in Namibia have revealed that poverty levels in the remoter rural areas are way below the national average (MMHS 2003). Provision of free medical attention then comes as a great relief to such communities.

Reduced access to health care

The rural population experiences less accessibility of such primary health care providers as physicians, nurses and community health workers (Ormond et al, 2000).

Besides, their chances of obtaining such health care on time are also extremely remote (Casey et al 2001).

There is also the issue of health insurance, with a very large population of rural populations in Namibia, and indeed the whole of Africa lacking a health insurance cover. This is in comparison to the residents of major towns, who are more likely to have better means of income, thus affording medical care services. Additionally, they are also capable of accessing better health services (El Obeid et al, 2005).

External support needs

The dependency ratio of health care systems in rural areas is quite high. A majority of these are often supported by donor funds (Stratton et al 2003). Without this kind of donor support, it would otherwise be very difficult to deliver sound health care to this population.

The training and use of the local community members to assist in the provision of better health care services further boosts the success of such a program. For example, according to (Stratton et al 2003), it has been shown that the use of trained community pharmacists in the provision of screening services leads to enhanced health care accessibility in health care provision.

Description of the mobile clinic program

The idea behind the choice of a mobile health clinic in rural Namibia is with a view to ensuring that rural communities have access to emergency health care. Three mobile clinics are set to be established at different geographical locations of rural Namibia.

One of these mobile clinics shall be based at the refugee camp in Osire, home to 6,500 refugees. The areas around Osire have one of the largest populations in Namibia, thus justifying its choice. The second mobile clinic shall be located on the western part of Namibia, nearer to Arandison.

Finally, a third mobile clinic shall be set at Uhlenhorst, south of Windhoek. In itself the mobile clinic shall consist of three units, all resembling the inside area of for example, a well equipped ambulance. In terms of size, the mobile clinic shall be 30 ft. long and 8 ft. wide.

For each new of these mobile clinics 2 nurses shall be on duty around the clock, 24 hours every day of the week. This way, the mobile clinic concept seeks to ensure that the rural communities have access to medical services and supplies whenever they are in need of it.

Furthermore, those patients examined and found to be in need of specialized medical attention shall also benefit from transportation services of the mobile clinic program. These shall hence be transported to the nearby hospital for further medical care.

Who is doing it?

The mobile clinic concept is an ongoing project in Namibia, thanks to the support to funds from an American organization. The idea is to facilitate emergency medical aid to rural patients. There is a need to have skilled medical professionals, such a trained doctors and nurses to ensure the success of this program. The staff will be charged with the responsibility of improving health care delivery to the rural population.

It is also a chance for the staff to provide first aid to the rural patients, and also in the treatment of minor ailments. For those patients that manifest symptoms of disease requiring specialized attention, transport shall be arranged by the mobile clinic staff to get these to the closest hospital for further treatment. By operating on a 24/7 basis, it means that the rural population have a chance of accessing health care services around the clock.

Training of local nurses

It is the intention of this medical program to offer medical training to those Namibians who are committed to be part of the medical staff for the three mobile clinics. Basically, the form of training shall be on-the job in nature. Those local volunteers for the program shall be trained on the basic skills on health and hygiene issues.

This is an opportunity for the willing members of the population, especially the youths who have no formal employment, to volunteer and serve the community. Additionally, such members of the community shall also get paid for services provided.

The students chosen for training will be required to observe and assist nurses at each of the three mobile clinics, in order to learn basic medical skills. Through practice, the volunteers will not only gain medical experience, but shall also have been trained to assume duty in these same clinics in the future.

In terms of training, it is projected that such trainees will work on the threes mobile clinics on a rotational basis, to gain experience form diverse backgrounds. It is also the expectation of this training program that such trainees will be involved in a number of activities that will augment their training program.

The idea of incorporating the locals into the mobile clinic program is ideal for sustainability of this project. Besides, these volunteers are allocated incentives for their participation, and this acts a motivation for them to join the program. This is besides the certificates that they are going to obtain once the training program is over.

Basically, the trainees will be required to show a lot of attention during the entire training period. At the observation station, trainees will be expected to learn how to carry out such practices as pregnancy tests, urine tests, and glucose tests. They will also be trained on how to interpret the result obtained.

At the nursing station, the trainees shall be required to spend three hours each day assisting the nurse with his/her activities. During this time, they will closely watch and observe how the nurses approaches a patients and administer for example, injections, distribute medication, and offer medical advise such as in proper nutrition.

Furthermore, trainees will also attend some of the consultation session with the doctor, and see how they usually listen to a patient’s ailments, make a diagnosis, and prescribe medication. Tips on first aid shall also be offered to the trainees by the nurses. Training on the use of equipments and tools of an emergency case shall also be explained and demonstrated to the trainees.

This will ensure that in the absence of either a doctor or nurse, a trainee will be better able to handle emergency situations without panicking. At the pharmacy station, the trainees shall be trained on the proper methods of dispensing various forms of drugs, as per the prescription of a doctor or authorized clinical officer.

The initial training shall consist of three months training at the mobile clinic. At the end of this period, the participant will undertake an evaluation test, consisting of both a written paper and two practical demonstration tests on the area of training. The doctors and nurses will be charged with the responsibility of administering this test.

Upon a satisfactory performance, the successful candidates shall then be incorporated as staff members of the mobile clinic. They will also be put of the payroll of the program, as part of the nursing staff members. The local members shall be charged with a number of responsibilities. These include the provision of primary health care t patients.

This will be in the form of medical examinations of patients, offering treatment, emergency referrals, and reassuring patients who have been diagnosed with or are awaiting results of a serious condition. In addition, these trained nursing staff shall also be expected to assist in carrying out pregnancy and urine tests, as well as in the recording of findings.

Blood and glucose testing and recording is yet another responsibility that this nursing staffs are expected to carry out. Other responsibilities includes carrying out X-rays and ultra sound services, testing for malaria and HIV, cleaning and dressing wounds, counseling of patients undergoing a HIV/AIDS test, family planning services and counseling of substance abuse victims.

Operations of the mobile clinic

In terms of operation, there shall be a total of three clinics, with the main one operating from the most highly populated rural area in Namibia. The other two clinics shall hence be located in areas that are less condensed population-wise. All the people in the surrounding community shall have access to health care. The mobile clinic shall be restocked fortnightly, with the supplies being acquired from the main station. This of course shall be dependent on the needs of the patients for medical supplies.

Two nurses shall take charge of the individual clinic every hour of the day. The nurses shall also be assisted to local volunteers who will be admitted into the program as trainees. Once training is over, these trained locals can then be trusted to take charge of health care provision at the mobile clinic, on a shift basis.

They will be expected to assist the nurses in order that they may not be overwhelmed by the demand for health care services. In any case, the locals will be expected to sustain the mobile clinic once the donors have left. Moreover, this is also an opportunity for these trained nurses to give back to the community, while at the same time also earning an income.

For purposes of containing emergency cases, each of the two nurses at a local mobile clinic will be equipped with a pager. This is meant to call for back-up from the main station in the event that an emergency situation has occurred. Patients attending the mobile clinic shall have access to such basic health care services as dental, prenatal, and optometry, among others.

The nature of the individual mobile clinic stations is that they can easily be towed away as the need arise, and hence the mobile clinic concept. As such, the actual clinic shall be in the form of a truck equipped with the necessary medical facilities. This is a both a cost-effective and flexible method of getting health services to people in remote areas.

Consultations and minor procedures shall be taken care of outside the truck mobile clinic. Here, a makeshift table and a nurse shall be stationed to receive patients and book an appointment with the doctor. Inside the truck, an examination table with another nurse will be present, along with the needed medical equipment and supplies. These would include a stethoscope and a blood pressure kit.

Each one of these clinics shall be 30ft long and 8ft wide. The main government hospital in Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, shall act as the central supply point of medical supplies fro these mobile clinics, once the supplies have run out. Besides, this could act as a good chance for the program to liaise with the government in strengthening the provision of health care to the rural areas.

Significance of the program

The idea of training local Namibians to work in the mobile clinics is important for a number of reasons. First, it acts as a method of knowledge transfer to the local community; in that they are better able to take charge of their health care needs by way of receiving medical attention and education.

There is also the issue of building confidence and trust, by involving members of the community in such a program. Besides, this is one way through which the program can be able to establish capacity building within the remote areas of Namibia, in terms of health care provision.

Through training and absorbing the locals, this is another way of assisting in the creation of jobs for the local community. As such, those members of the community employed by the mobile clinic program will have improved economic conditions. This then enable them to meet the basic needs of their families, include access to health care.

Besides, the locals are able to acquire a lot of knowledge as regards the nature of a wide range of diseases, how to handle first aid cases, emergency situations, while at the same time assisting the larger community with advice regarding health and wellness.

Such a program is also bound to help increase levels of hygiene at the household levels. The trained members of the community happen to belong to a larger community, and it is only natural that they would impart the same knowledge they received on to others.

In this way, the overall health status of the community may be seen to improve, thus relieving the pressure of disease burden among the rural poor.

Furthermore, it has often been reveled that the success of community projects especially in the third world countries depends on the level to which they are involved in its implementation (MHHS 2003).

When a program seeks to train the locals to become active participants of its activities, this tends to motivate them. As such, the progress and sustainability of a program of this nature is made much easier (Stratton 2005).

This is because the local community tends to feel as if they own the program. By training the local members of thee community as health care givers in the mobile clinics, this is also a form of empowering the local community to take control of their health care.

According to previous research findings, it had been revealed that a lot of the rural population continues being marginalized in as far as the provision of health care is concerned.

On the other hand, the provision of health care program in the urban areas nearer to major cities seems to be better, perhaps due to accessibility by the members of public, and the fact that a lot more of the medical professionals are also likely to be concentrated around the city.

By training the local members of the community, this program hopes to attain tremendous accomplishments in the prevention and control of infectious diseases. Furthermore, the disease burden of especially tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria seems to be more concentrated in Africa, with the rural population having a higher prevalence rate among this group, as opposed to urban dwellers (Hourihan 2003).

All too often, health care givers are not always able to reach the remotest parts of the rural communities. This means that such members are cut-off from receiving health care and advice on the ways and means through which hey can take control of their health (MHHS 2000).

In light of this, it is anticipated that the local nursing assistants shall help in reversing this trend, by facilitating a higher rate of penetration into the interior parts of the rural areas. In any case, they are more acquainted with the culture of the local community, and this is a big boost to a program of this nature.

Literacy levels in a majority of the rural communities in Namibia are exceedingly high (MHHS 2003) and there is therefore a need to have one of their own involved in the mobile clinic program to act as a facilitator between the members of staff of the program on the one hand, and the locals on the other.

Consequently, it is expected that the program will be a good opportunity to help the community improve their livelihood both economically (by providing jobs) and health-wise.

Shortcomings of the program

In as much as this program may be of benefit to the rural community, there are also some disadvantages that could accompany a nature of this nature. In the remote parts of Namibia, the success of such a program is also faced by a number of obstacles. First, getting the local to show interest as nursing staff trainees is rather difficult.

It becomes hard for the organizers of such an initiative to convince the locals owing to resistance on heir part. This from of resistance may be related to the fact that such an initiate is a foreign concept, and some community members have been known to frown on foreign-based programs regardless of the ensuing benefits.

Resistance on the part of the would-be trainees could also be on the basis of cultural differences. Besides, levels of educations are quite low in a majority of the rural areas in Namibia. For this reason, the prospective trainees may be educationally challenges to assume this kind of responsibility.

In addition, the idea of a mobile clinic program may face challenges with regard to sustainability from the local context. Although foreign aid may be there, still there is a need to have the blessings of the local community to avoid a rejection of such a program. For this reason, it becomes necessary to train the local members of the community so that the entire community may feel as if they ‘owned’ the program.

There is still the issue of trainees dropping out mid-way through the course, meaning that more will have to be trained. This adds onto the operation cost of a program of this nature. Already, two nurses may be enough for a single mobile clinic, and the absorbing of extra staff members could eat onto the budget of the program. Such funds could be put to better use by restocking the supplies for enhanced provision of medical care.

There is also a need to have more clinics in other remote areas; if at all a large portion of the population is to be reached. Three mobile clinics may not fully meet the needs of the rural population in Namibia, as the disease burden is pretty high. Nevertheless, this is a good start, and there are projection to expand in the near future depending on the availability f funds, and the initial reception of the program by the locals.

The future of the program

The program means more to the people of Namibia besides merely the training of volunteer nurses. Upon the successful completion of the training course, the successful members of the staff who gets absorbed into the program stands a chance of furthering their careers in the field of health care provision.

This would be based on the existing talents and acquired skills by these trained nursing staff. Should this happen, then it would mean that Namibia would have more health care profession in the future. Such professions would thus be faced with a challenge of replication similar health care projects in the rural areas and among other vulnerable groups. Consequently, the number of mobile clinics in Namibia could rise significantly, in tandem with an increased in health care professionals. Alternatively, they might opt to expand the existing program.

The future of mobile health care programs depends to a large extent on local health care providers. It is they who clearly understand the magnitude of the health condition in the population. As such, local voluntary nurses could in future assist a program of this nature in improving penetration and improved accuracy in the identification of the vulnerable members of the community.

Conclusion

The difficulties that the rural population faces in as far as the accessing of health care is concerned depend to a large extent on the ability of a health care provider to reach such members of the population. For this reason, a lot of health care givers are often hampered by poor road infrastructure, a common sight in a majority of the rural regions in Africa, including Namibia.

There is also the issue of deficient health care assistants, such as trained nurses, and Namibia seems to be in a dire need for these. The idea of a mobile clinic initiative ensures that these people have access to nurses, doctors, volunteer health workers, as well as optometrist.

Consequently, such programs tend to uplift the health and social status of rural communities. Extreme poverty cases among the rural poor means that getting medical attention becomes a luxury for them. Consequently, they continue suffering silently. Their economic activities get affected due to the immense disease burden that often accompanies the vicious poverty cycle.

Their financial situations do not get any better and they are also not capable of taking care of their families as they would wish. Mobile health clinics of this kind are free, as they already have been funded by international organizations. This means that people of all walks of life gets medical attention for free, and therefore there is no reason why anybody may not benefit from it.

The challenge then is how to bring such services to the people. Mobile clinics come in handy, by offering members of the rural areas convenience and accessibility in terms of health care, at no cost. By training local members as part of the nursing staff, the access of this kind of program is also enhanced.

Works cited

1. Barnum, Kutzin. Public Hospitals in Developing Countries: Resource use, Cost, Financing. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
2. Casey, M, Thiede K, Klingner J. M. “Are rural residents less likely to obtain recommended preventive healthcare services?” Am J Prev Med, 21.3(2001):182-8.
3. El Obeid S, Mendlsohn J, Lejars M, Forster N, Brulé G (2001). “Health in Namibia: Progress and Challengers”. Research and information services of Namibia. Windhoek, 2001.
4. Hourihan, F, Krass, I, Chen, T. “Rural community pharmacy: a feasible site for a health promotion and screening service for cardiovascular risk factors”. Australia Journal Rural Health, 2003:11.1 (2003):28-35.
5. Mills, A “The economics of hospital in developing countries” Health Policy and Planning, 5 (1990):203-218.
6. Ministry of Health and Social Services. Namibia Demographic and Health Survey, MoHSS 2000 Preliminary Report. Windhoek, 2000.
7. Ministry of Health and Social Services (MHSS). Draft National Health Accounts Report. Windhoek, 2003
8. Ormond B.A, Wallen, S, Goldenson, S. M. “Supporting the rural health care safety net”. Washington, DC: Urban Institute; 2000.
9. Ricketts, T. C. “The changing nature of rural health care”. Annual Rev Public Health. 21 (2000):639-57.
10. Stratton, T.P, Williams R, Meine K.L. Developing a mobile pharmacist-conducted wellness clinic for rural Montana communities. Journal of American Pharmacy Association, 45.3(2005):390-9.

Some Reasons Why Reading Is Important

Introduction. Books are an integral part of our life. Develop imagination, transfer to the world where magical things are possible. “Haroun and the Sea” is written for a ten-year-old boy, Rushdie’s son. Reading is not just amusement. There is a couple of reasons why reading is important.

1. They are sources of information. We can learn from sb. else’s experience. “Haroun…” contains Urdu and Hindi words which the readers can learn. “a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad it had forgotten its name” (Salman Rushdie, p. 15). many places were named after letters of the Alphabet” which “led to much confusion because there were only a limited number of letters and an almost unlimited number of places in need of names” (Salman Rushdie, p. 24).
2. Book gives answers to difficult questions. They help to act in a particular way and show people what’s right or wrong. “What’s the use of stories that aren’t even true?” (Salman Rushdie, p. 20) This was the question repeatedly asked by Mr. Sengupta. telling the stories was the essence of the life of the boy’s father: “Storytelling is the only work I know” (Salman Rushdie 22). Stories are not always fiction. even when they are they can be closely connected with reality.

Books evoke emotions in readers. emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally. Bible speaks to readers spiritually. Books serve as a motivation for some people’s actions. “Africa, have you seen it? No? Then is it truly there?… Kangaroos, Mount Fujiyama, the North Pole? And the past, did it happen? And the future, will it come?” (Salman Rushdie, p. 63). These questions were asked by Water Genie to underline the importance of imagination which makes people believe in what may not exist. “You saved the princess and walked off into the sunset as specified, I presume?” (Salman Rushdie, p. 74). This was what Water Genie asked Haroun when explaining to him how the boy’s adventure should have ended. Evoking emotions is a matter of priority for every author.

Bibliography

1. Salman Rushdie. Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Granta Books, 1990.
2. Wendy B. Faris. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative. Vanderbilt University Press, 2004

Deciphering The Meaning Of Animals In Films

Introduction

In looking at the use of animals in film, with the possible exception of family type, feel-good animal stories, animals are usually symbolic when they are seen in anything more than a cameo type appearance as pets and other casual uses which simply give realism to the film. Most films show an animal or two somewhere in the film, simply because we live with them. It would seem strange to see a park without, at least, a leashed dog or two. Animals are simply a part of human cultures everywhere. However, in many films, they are used symbolically to add meaning to the story.

Different animals in films

This is how animals are used in The Birds and Blade runner, but the interpretation is left up to the audience. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, meaning is what is made by what the filmmaker and the audience each bring to the work, a collaboration between artist and audience.

In Blade Runner, animals are rare, endangered, and highly valuable. Humans are plentiful, perhaps too plentiful in the degraded environments of inner cities, especially the setting in Los Angeles, California. Human-like robots have been created and used for hazardous duties off-world, and they have rebelled, of course, because they are exploited and abused and they were made far too close to humans. In this film, the replicants are symbolic of animals, since they were created to serve the same purposes as the now rare, and largely extinct animals. Animals are mentioned all through the movie; each time they have a specific meaning and are usually tied to the specific action, as when Roy lets go of the white dove he has caught when he dies. In a way, we can assume that this is the statement that he is, after all, human, as his soul rises to heaven. In this movie, animals are not the main focus of the story, but they are used to define what it is to be human. Human beings are shown at their worst and their best, though the examples of the best are not necessarily human by the strict definition which includes birth. Many of the humans behave in a less than human way by definition, while the replicant often shines as an example of humanity. Rachel is an especially good example, but Roy, the prodigal son, is also redeemed in the story, even though he kills his father, rather an Oedipal theme.

In The Birds, the animals, specifically the birds are used differently. They are a collective character, almost devilish, perhaps the personification of evil itself. They prove the antagonist as a group against which the main protagonists struggle to survive. They are the symbols of everything we fear. They also remind us that we are probably the least necessary animals on the planet since we are at the very top of the food chain. The way Hitchcock used the birds in scenes like the playground, we see them as all our worst nightmares. They gather on the playground equipment, slowly increasing in number, watching the children. We get a distinct impression that they are communicating, planning something. Of course, what follows is the attack upon the children in the playground. Edelman and Benjamin read a lot more into this film than I noticed and maybe more than the filmmaker ever dreamed, rather like the surprise that Peter (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) expressed when he read that Puff, the Magic Dragon was a song all about drugs. Most of Hitchcock’s films are simply “jolly good tales” as he would put it. However, that is not to say that they are without undercurrents of meaning.

Hitchcock always had meaning, often quite wry humor and irony. He poked fun at most of society’s conventions and delighted in showing us how very primitive we are. It would certainly have been a very different film if it had been made today, as the little lovebirds would not have been likely to survive. The censors of the time would never have allowed the pretty blonde to smother the cute little lovebirds. Hitchcock would possibly not have been as subtle and might not have honed his skills as director as finely today in light of the relative lack of restrictions. Hitchcock left interpretation very open as he asked the question “Why?” all through the movie, but never presented an answer. As Rosenblatt said in The Reader, The Text and The Poem (1935) the reader brings their baggage along so the work is different every time it is read, or viewed in this case.

Isaac Asimov, in his discussion of intelligence (1958 p 259-262) points to the critic as showing evidence of intelligence when he decides that some new form of music, previously thought to be mere noise, is beautiful by certain new standards. He then asks us how many critics would be exchanged for one Louis Armstrong. Maybe analyzing art is an intellectual pursuit worthy of scholars, but audiences go to the movies to enjoy the entertainment. Alfred Hitchcock always provides good entertainment, but it was not without thought. Alfred Hitchcock often made his points quite easy to see and understand. However, in The Birds, he left a lot to the audience, simply using the birds as a menace that could not be understood. Of the two movies, The Birds is less intertextual in content, drawing for its meanings and undercurrents instead upon cultural knowledge rather than other literature.

Edelstein and Benjamin see the film from a psycho-social viewpoint, digging out psychological theories and sociological statements based upon their interpretations according to their backgrounds. They both presented quite lucid theories as to the interpretation of Hitchcock’s work, but I think it was far more than what was intended to be there. I see Hitchcock’s film almost as a sky full of clouds, which an artist has painted, taking care to place all kinds of symbolic imagery in those clouds so that each viewer would have something to find in them. I understand Edelstein’s points about sexuality and the attack upon society when the conventions of creating progeny are flouted, as in homosexual marriage. However, I think Edelstein is reading far too much into the film. I do believe that Hitchcock intended to say something about the attack on the children being particularly important, but not because it is an attack upon society. Rather, I saw the attack upon the children as logical once the birds learned to communicate because the children were seen by the birds as defective birds, being unable to fly. Most animals will kill off defective progeny or leave them to die. A parallel between children and wild birds is easy to draw, considering how unruly and loud most children are on a playground, not unlike a mixed flock of birds. Of course, the common interpretation is that the birds are getting even for how we humans treat them, as in putting them in cages, killing them, and eating them.

Benjamin, who is only interpreting Baudelaire and arguing against the interpretations of others, would easily see from his point of view also, but I see his interpretation as even further away from mine, and I believe that Hitchcock never intended so much. However, his interpretation of shock is interesting. Hitchcock delighted in shocking the audience, as he often said in his television cameos. Hitchcock was an artist with film. He delighted in presenting the audience with questions, and in exciting them to a point of holding their collective breath. He could draw out the suspense further than any other filmmaker of his time, possibly of all time. He was known to have said that the excitement was in the anticipation of a bang, not in the bang. The scene in the playground, “utilizes pace, juxtaposition, and precise dramatic timing to transform meticulously planned shots into sequences of heightened, unrelenting suspense. ” (LoBrutto 233) The playground scene works perfectly in this intent, as it makes the audience sit up and take notice. We begin to anticipate each new arrival to the flock of birds. Hitchcock switches the camera between the children and the birds keeping the framing tight, and not letting us see the entire panorama. We hear the point and counterpoint of crows’ versus children’s voices and they are not unlike. When the attack finally comes it is more a release than a goal. As an audience, we find that once again we can breathe.

If the birds are at all symbolic, it is the primitive nature underlying humanity and human civilization that it points out. The juxtaposition of untamed adult birds versus pre-civilized humans in the form of rowdy children forms a symbolic collage. The birthday girl was right at that stage when we pass from childhood to adolescence and an ideal focal point for the action. Will nature survive the onslaught of the human race or will naturally rise and destroy us?

The answer to that is also a consideration of Blade Runner. The movie begins with an image of an owl, replicants as it turns out, with a camera for an eye. We see a close-up of the eye, and it appears several more times in the story as a transitional device to present flashbacks. The next animal we see is the snake which the entertainer uses in her dance. She even says that she would not be working in such a dump if she could afford a real snake. We begin to get the idea that animals are rare when the company doctor is questioning the male replicant. The questions are designed to incite emotional response and so the question about the tortoise on its back is important. A human would instantly say they would help the tortoise, protect it. The replicant does not even know what it is.

When the girl, Rachel, is questioned she gets the answers right whenever animals are mentioned, and even reacts emotionally correctly, mostly because she does not know she is a replicant and has been given false memories to help her to acquire personality and develop an emotional response. The owl is watching everything and filming it. In the old building where the first male replicant runs, we see a rat escape into the trash, and a crow hops across the empty floor where the last scene takes place. The replicant owl films the scene where Roy kills Tyrell after finding out that there is no way for him to get “more life”. We even see a white bird fly up as Roy dies after saving Deckard, symbolic, perhaps, of the soul rising to heaven.

Tyrell is seen as saying that the motto of the company is that the replicants will be more human than human. This explains why Roy saved Deckard before dying. He has achieved much more than is made instantly apparent, as he has not only developed emotional response, but he has acquired conscience and feels empathy and compassion. He has nothing to gain by killing Decker or letting him die and nothing to gain by saving him, except, perhaps, his redemption. He does not know about Rachel, so he thinks he is the last of Deckard’s targets, and he does not hate Decker for doing his job. Roy can forgive, so he can also earn forgiveness. He is more human than humans.

The most powerful symbol in Blade Runner is the unicorn. It appears in Decker’s dreams as a powerful, very phallic, symbol of potency. It is a mythical animal that probably never lived, and so it cannot die. It is also Bryant’s logo, so to speak. By leaving it at Deckard’s apartment, we get a hint that maybe the girl will live after all, since the unicorn never did. Some interpret this as meaning that Deckard is, himself, a replicant.

These two movies are almost mirrored images of each other, rather like the two halves of a Rorschach test (made from an inkblot in a folded piece of paper and used to discern the thought patterns of deviant patients in psychiatry). The sense of how animals are used is almost exactly the opposite. In the Birds, the animals are ominous, dangerous, and quite horrifying. They seem to be the personification of evil. In Blade, Runner animals are revered and used to gauge the relative humanness of people and to condemn those who do not show the proper human reaction when presented with ideas of injuring animals. In The Birds, the animals (birds) are intent on destroying the children, the symbol of the future of the race. In Blade, Runner man has nearly destroyed the animal kingdom and it is the substitute for animals (humanoid replicants) which are seen as dangerous to humans. The action in Hitchcock’s film is centered in a small Oceanside community of the northern California coast while Blade Runner takes place in the degraded surroundings of a greatly changes Los Angeles inner city, but the off-camera action takes place as far away as the Orion cluster. Hitchcock’s story is almost introspective, looking in to explore the deepest fears of our culture, while Blade Runner looks out to the future results of who we are and what we do. Emotionally they touch on the same subconscious level, but they are displaying the two sides of human culture: inner turmoil and primal fear against culture-wide definitions of humanness and our cultural biases.

Eye of animals is used in both films. In Hitchcock’s film, the eyes are either human or avian. Often we see avian eyes as we are given the impression they are communicating. Birds have very large and sometimes quite wicked-looking eyes, and in great numbers that can appear quite formidable. The eyes in Blade Runner are watching and are sometimes used to communicate with the audience through filmed action, as done by the replicated owl in the office surveillance system. Blade Runner concentrates upon the eyes of certain humans and of the replicants, especially Rachel, whose eyes do not give away her status until nearly three times the normal diagnostic questions. We see her eyes as she is questioned then we see the replicant owl’s eyes.

Animals are not extinct in Blade Runner, but they are so prohibitively rare that many people have never seen most animals. It seemed particularly odd that replicants, being human-created, but organic, and so indistinguishable from humans to require a complicated psychological test to identify the non-humans, and even then, the only real separation was the existence or not of a real childhood. No children are appearing in the film. The closest we get is photos done in the 1940s style which is prevalent in the film as if they were history. The only other hint that children exist is the offer of a new start in the off-world colonies and in the idea that Rachel was modeled on Tyrell’s niece.

“DECKARD SHE DOESN’T KNOWS?

TYRELL SHE’S BEGINNING TO SUSPECT, I THINK.

DECKARD SUSPECT! HOW CAN IT NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS?

TYRELL COMMERCE is OUR GOAL HERE AT TYRELL; ‘MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN’ is OUR MOTTO.” (Blade Runner 1982)

We note that Deckard switches from “her” to “it” So he is not even granting the replicants the status of animal, even though they were biological. Yet, they fill the niche left empty by the conspicuous absence of animals, though there are replicated animals also.

Replicants had no childhood, since they were created fully grown, yet they were initially as innocent as children until the company decided to give them false memories. The emotional trauma which could result from that is barely touched upon in the story. However, there is a heavy allusion to it in Roy’s short soliloquy as he dies: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those… moments will be lost like tears in the rain.” (Blade Runner 1982) Roy is more human at this point than most of the “real” humans in the story. He speaks poetically and understands that it is his perception that has value when he expresses it in art (poetry).

“Something that Joseph Francavilla observes about the replicants in Blade Runner applies to the synthetics in the Alien series as well: “scientifically manufactured, ‘these entities’ function as mirrors for people, by allowing examination and moral scrutiny of ourselves, our technology, and our treatment of other beings.” Repositioned, postmodern synthetics like Roy Batty and Rachael Tyrell-or like Ash, Bishop, and Call- suggest the inevitable dissolution of the line between natural and unnatural or artificial life, a line that has thinned out not just in film but in everything. “ (Westfahl and Slusser 134)

What separates the replicants from the humans is said to be their emotions. However, it is so much more than that. It is not merely the feeling of emotions that makes us human, but the expression of those emotions, which includes good and bad. Animals only kill for food and protection. They also do not create art and music. An animal will sacrifice its life for its offspring driven by instinct, but what makes a dog sacrifice its life for its owner?

One thing noticed in the readings for this film was that there is an impression that the replicants, especially the animals, were mechanical, as in robots. I do not believe this is so. I believe that the animals and the humans were all biological, even though they were, as was said in the film, created. It does not make sense to have mechanical animals when replication has been perfected. One would postulate that the replicants would not be able to reproduce, even though it is obvious that they can copulate. The escaped replicant Pris is designated as a basic pleasure model. This casts a whole new aura over the practice of creating and using replicants. They are slaves for hazardous duty, was, and human pleasure. This seems unethical as we, the audience outside the environment of the film, see them as more human than most of the throng inhabiting L.A.

The soundtracks of both the movies discussed incorporate animal sounds in very new and different ways for their time. The Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis is a dark melodic combination of classic composition and futuristic synthesizers which mirrors the film-noir retro-future envisioned by Ridley Scott. Vangelis, fresh from his Academy Award-winning score for Chariots of Fire, composed and performed the music on his synthesizers. (Sammon, pp. 419–423) In addition to some very eerie music, we hear ambient sound, much of it animal: the rhythmic sound of flapping owl wings, yowling cats and howling dogs, even rodent sounds. Most of these blends in with the music as if, somehow, the animals are part of the orchestra, but it gives the impression from the echoes that we are hearing ancient sounds of creatures long past.

Hitchcock used a lot of bird sounds and blended children’s voices in. The scene in the playground makes extensive use of this in almost a jazz kind of way as they speak and answer like jazz musicians but with a sharp, less than melodic tone. Dissonance and odd screeching sounds that sometimes decay into ominous silence and sometimes rise to a scream in the urban wilderness, literally shock the audience to instant alertness. The soundtrack for the birds was completely new to audiences of the time, who were used to “pretty” sounds. In any case, animal sounds punctuate the action of both these films and are evident, if attention is paid, all through the film.

Animals used in The Birds and Blade Runner serve a different purpose in each, but in both of these films, they provide the motif against which the story is told and they are used to define the limits of the action. In The Birds, the birds are active characters in the story, serving as a collective antagonist. They are the evil force against which the protagonists must fight, and they represent our deepest fears of attack upon our society. They attack the children, the symbol of the future of our culture, maybe our race. Hitchcock never explains why they do what they do, so the audience is free to fill that in for themselves. After all, they are animals, and we cannot know their minds.

The animals in Blade Runner are also used as a motif, but never actually appear in reality, unless one counts the odd rat or crow and the white dove (maybe). The animals which are seen throughout, especially the pets seen in the market, are all replicants, biological creations. The movie tries to define, or urge s the audience to define what it is to be human, using animals as the measuring stick against which the humanoid replicants are judged. While the replicants are never actually defined as to their place in the movie, they seem to be even less than animals in the culture of the movie, even though they sometimes behave better than the humans in the story.

Animals are the central theme here, and defining the place of the humans and replicants is the central issue of the story. The questions posed ask us if the replicants are human after all or are they also animals or something even less. The human race is not represented as very laudable here, mostly shown as destroyers or destroyed. The race has sunk to a lower level than ever since primitive times, become a parasite on everything else, and the destroyer of the planet. We get the impression that it is the common belief that humans were supposed to be the guardians of animals and have failed utterly in this task. There is even a hint that replicants are better humans than humans.

So, in the final analysis, these two movies represent opposite methodology in their uses of animals. In The Birds animals is a character, collective evil. They think and they communicate and they want to destroy our children, attacking them, which is a symbolic attack upon our culture. It is possible to interpret the reasons in many ways, and this is never explained. In Blade Runner animals are more thematic, defining humans. Genetic engineering has gone insane as has the destruction of the planet. People are even encouraged to emigrate to other worlds where they can have a new start. Animals are never actually shown, unless the crows and rats are real, which we are not told. The animals which do appear are highly symbolic and attached to specific meaning in the story, but not characters. In both movies, the soundtrack is filled with animal sounds, and we see images of animal eyes. However, while Blade Runner would have had a different theme and been a far lesser movie than it is, The Birds could not have been made at all without the use of animals.

References

1. Bankes, Paul, et al. “Censorship and Restraint: Lessons Learned from the Catalyst.” College Student Journal 35.3 (2001): 335+.
2. Blade Runner, 1982, Ridley Scott, Warner Brothers, California
3. Cowen, Tyler. “The Fate of Culture.” The Wilson Quarterly  2002: 78+.
4. Fiske, John. “Global, National, Local? Some Problems of Culture in a Postmodern World.” Velvet Light Trap not cited.40 (1997): 56-66.
5. The Birds, 1963, Hitchcock, Alfred, Universal Studios, California
6. LoBrutto, Vincent. Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005.
7. Mccarty, John A. “Chapter Three Product Placement: the Nature of the Practice and Potential Avenues of Inquiry.” The Psychology of Entertainment Media: Blurring the Lines between Entertainment and Persuasion. Ed. L. J. Shrum. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. 45-60.
8. Rosenblatt, Louise M., 1994; The Reader the Text the Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work ; Southern Illinois University Press, reprint edition
9. Westfahl, Gary, and George Slusser, eds. No Cure for the Future: Disease and Medicine in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.