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Komento for EasySocial
The Komento application for EasySocial extends the integrations between both Komento and EasySocial by offering a number of cool integrations such as:
- Ability to process stream items in EasySocial.
- Badge integrations with EasySocial
- Points integrations with EasySocial
- Displays comments post that is posted by user on a user's profile
- Notifications whenever user posts a comment
Note: This app requires the main Komento extension to be installed.
Komento for EasySocial
- Version:
- 1.0.3
- Developer:
- stackideas
- Date added:
- Nov 19 2014
- License:
- GPLv2 or later
- Type:
- Free download
- Includes:
- e
- Compatibility:
This extension does NOT implement the Joomla! Update System

subset: commoncrawl


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Tip for bankers: Lock the door
'closed' bank
A five-year-old boy pushed a bank door and it opened – 19 hours after it was supposedly locked up for the weekend.
Oliver Pettigrew wandered into the HSBC branch in Easingwold, North Yorkshire, as his dad used a cash machine outside. Dad Daniel, 50, told the The Sun: "Oliver vanished and then appeared again. He said, 'Dad, the bank is open'. At first I thought he was joking – but it was."
Daniel and Oliver called police after walking right up to the vault of the deserted bank on Saturday. The bank had closed for the weekend at 4.30pm on Friday.
Ghost picture? You judge.
There's more at this link. Bear in mind that this is the Daily Mail and they just might be pulling your leg.
Grandmother Anne Lambert was stunned when she captured what looks like the ghost of Henry VIII on her mobile phone while staying at a Tudor manor house.
The 54-year-old was spending the night at Samlesbury Hall, when she heard some ghostly noises.
The nail technician, from Clayton Brook, Lancs, was alone in a dark room when she sensed something and quickly pulled out her mobile phone and started taking photographs.
But it was only when she got home the following day and looked at the images that Anne realised she may have captured a ghostly figure resembling the Tudor monarch on camera.
Recalling the late night tour of the 14th century manor house, near Preston, Anne said: "I was upstairs near the Priest Room.
"There were two people in the room, then they left, and all the hairs on the back of my neck started to stand on end.
"I thought, there's something there. I was taking different photos around the room. It was pitch darkness. I was on my own. I thought, if there's something there it will come up on the film.
"I didn't find out until the day after. I said to my son, 'that's a ghost on there isn't it?' and he said, 'it looks like it'.
"Then I said, hey, it looks like Henry VIII."
This solar eclipse is for the birds…Penguins, that is
On Feb. 7 the sun will undergo an eclipse that few will see. It will be an annular eclipse, a "penny on nickel" effect in which the moon will be too small to completely cover the disk of the sun.
The result will be the sun mimicking a blazing ring of fire — hence the term "annular," derived from the Latin anularis which means "ring." It will certainly be an unusual and spectacular sight, but only a very few people (and perhaps some penguins) will see it.
The region of visibility, if you haven't already guessed, is Antarctica, the only continent in the world with no permanent or indigenous human inhabitants.
…and the blind shall see…
It took almost 50 years, but slowly, slowly David Stewart went blind.
A former long-time executive at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C., Stewart has a hereditary disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which affects the rods and cones in his eyes. In his 20s, his vision narrowed. By the time he hit 80, he was almost totally blind.
But then he discovered that sometimes blindness comes with a bonus.
One day while listening to a book on tape — 1776 by David McCullough — he heard how American sailors helped George Washington sneak cannons and horses across the Hudson River to escape the British.
As Stewart mused about those sailors, very strangely, one of them appeared in his head — not a dreamy fantasy, but a vivid, highly detailed, very real-like hallucination.
"He had on a cap, a blue cap with a polished black beak and he had a pipe in his mouth." The sailor gazed right at Stewart. Then he winked. Stewart was amazed.
There's lots more at this link including audio. Apparently this is not an unusual happening.


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This is the first of two Sunday services at Lake Community Church and it begins at 9:00 am.
Typically, the entire service lasts around 70 minutes, includes great music led by a full band and a relevant message from our senior pastor Jon Ewton.
We provide a great Children's Ministry during the entire service for kids from birth through 5th grade. If you prefer to have your kids with you in the service we also provide activity bags you can pick up as you enter the service. – check out all the details here


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We've detected that your browser may be outdated. We recommend you upgrade your browser to a more recent version.
For the best BagTheWeb experience, we recommend using Google Chrome. .
Mrockland is a clinic that is fully focused on helping individuals reclaim their youth and beauty. They offer a variety of laser therapy options to help with tattoo removal, skin discolorations, and a host of other cosmetic concerns.
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Sunday, May 23, 2010
FB post of my kid brother, Noel. WE are so PROUD OF YOU!!!
To many, the May 10 election came as a shock. There were a lot of allegations that it would be rigged and the presidential candidates who asked for manual parallel count would be affected. But when the first transmission was received at 8:36PM, which took less than 10 minutes to import and parse, those who saw the first partial unofficial results were relieved to find out that front-runners came from different parties. We aired the first set of data around 9:15PM.
The objective of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas is to deliver timely information to the public and to act as watchdog. The KBP Board of Directors met with Comelec to coordinate and ask for information on how the election would be conducted. The initial talks resulted with KBP to be given PDF files showing election returns which it would collate to tabulate. In a subsequent meeting with the IT heads of different KBP member networks, they requested for a different type of file. After a few days, we were told that apparently, HTML will be the type of file that would be given... and then PDF again.
Because the workstations connected to Smartmatic's server at Pope Pius were only 5 (these were used by KBP-2, PPCRV-2, Others, including non-KBP member networks and different parties), and downloading all 76,475 ER's would take around 2 months, the KBP Board headed by Chairman Ruperto Nicdao, Jr. and President Herman Basbano decided to explore the possibility of partnering with PPCRV.
We met with Ms. Anna Singson of PPCRV at KBP office on the day The Inquirer said that KBP and PPCRV would meet to discuss about the election. Anna said that for them, it would take 1 month to finish tabulating the PDF's but if PPCRV and KBP would help eachother, we can bring it down to 10-14 days. And if the non-KBP member networks would join us (GMA and NBN), their extra workstation would expedite the process. We will just divide the workstations into different regions so we won't make waste time downloading duplicate PDF's.
KBP knew that in the interest of the people, its members had to set aside differences and unite for this single purpose. And with PPCRV, the puzzle would be complete.
That's how I witnessed the start of the partnership between KBP and PPCRV.
Just when the IT people were preparing for Plan C wherein we would download PDF's, we were told by KBP's Executive Director Mr. Hulog that our request was granted by Comelec. However, the company that was supposed to do the tabulation program for KBP already backed out.
Mr. Hulog then approached me after the meeting and asked if we could do something for the members. Though Vanguard Radio Network's initial plan was to be one of the tabulators just like ABS-CBN and MBC and air the results for the benefit of our own listeners/viewers, I agreed to help and do the program under KBP. Thus, the program or software was called 2010 National Election Results for KBP Members. Its creation started 2 weeks before the election.
I remember my friend from MBC, Mr. Jomai Parroco, coming up to me during the culmination of the KBP anniversary in April, asking me how the program was doing. I said it was making progress. He said, "Surely, you have a team that helps you do it". Reluctantly, I said, yes, because I saw the different IT teams and I didn't want the members to fear that the program was being done by one person only. Well, I also thought that technically, I had a team. Whenever there was something that needed an answer, my "Google" team never failed me. So Jomai, I'm sorry, but I really intended to tell you this... after the election. ;) However, your IT person, Tyrone, was seated beside me so I know that while the computer I used shared the information with the outside world and his workstation tabulated independently, the results were the same. That is the beauty of being under one organization. We tabulated separately using different proprietary scripts, but were able to counter check our data.
All 122 KBP member networks representing more than 600 stations nationwide were given user/password combinations so they may give the information to their listeners/viewers as the KBP Unofficial Partial Count or compare it with their results. Unlike the proposed program by the other company, the one shared with KBP can drill down from national, to regional, to city/municipal, to barangay, and up to clustered precinct levels. The data was only available to members so that people would tune in to their stations. The power of radio was shown as its relevance was acknowledged by the people in the provinces. Because national television cannot tell a person who won as councilor in his area, he would tune in to his favorite radio station and text his "requested" election result.
Last night, I was given a plaque of appreciation by KBP which states "In recognition of his unselfish service that made it possible for KBP member radio and television stations throughout the country to bring to the Filipino people in a timely and relevant manner the results of the historic 2010 automated elections. Given this 19th day of May, 2010 at the Crown Regency Hotel, Makati City Phils, signed Herman Basbano-Pres., and Ruperto Nicdao Jr.-Chairman."
Thanks to the KBP members for believing that we can be united in delivering timely information to the public as one organization.
Thanks to the different IT heads of KBP networks for coming up with great plans that we would use as a team in case we had to do a quick count for 60 days.
Thanks to Raffy Barreiro, owner of RX93.1. While some members were complaining, he gave very encouraging words as we fixed the DSL to give the members access to the server.
Thanks to Ate Nora and the rest of the staff of KBP for making sure that we were taken care of.
Thanks to Exec. Dir. Rey Hulog for suggesting that I do the tabulation program for KBP.
Thanks to Election Committee Chairman Erwin Galang for being able to pull all the necessary resources together, including the partnership with LoadCentral.
Thanks to Jeff, Steve, Jomarc Orpiada and the rest of LoadCentral for sharing their server for KBP's use at Pius Center and for the sleepless nights that they spent to ensure that KBP gives the quickest but accurate count. Jomarc still goes to Pius everyday to send us the latest files.
Thanks to all the representatives of KBP member networks who stayed at Pius. This includes Mar of Bombo. We have shown that regardless of the different competing networks we represent, we can work together.
Thanks to the men and women of Vanguard Radio Network for their cooperation which led to our first networkwide simulcast.
Thanks to Bruce Mones, Sherwin Racelis and Gear Arellano for not hesitating to help when they were most needed. Bruce, you made our vision in 1997 a reality. Sherwin and Gear, we were the ones talking about it during that time. (You too, Diadz Louis.)
Thanks to my family, especially my wife, Jenn, Kitkat, Boing and Neil, for supporting me while I did the program for 2 weeks, day and night.
Thanks to Comelec for allowing us to get the files that enabled us to tabulate quickly.
Thanks to PPCRV's Anna Singson for pushing for the type of file that we needed.
Thanks to the BOD of KBP for making the right decision to partner with PPCRV as non-KBP members benefited from it by receiving the same files we asked for (kaya panalo ang lahat ng Pilipino).
Thanks to the Filipino people, for lining up on May 10, eventhough it was very inconvenient, but still did their duty and hoped that the election would be credible.
Thanks to my dad, Manuel Gregorio Galvez, Jr., for buying me a thick "Mastering PHP 4.1" book worth P1,395 on Jan. 6, 2003 with the following dedication: "To Noel, May this book help quench your thirst for knowledge and understanding in this special field of endeavor...Love, Daddy". After 7 years, you have seen how that single act of generosity towards your son made a BiG difference in the country.
Thanks to Junior Chamber International - Makati or JCI, for always reminding us that "Service to humanity is the best work of life".
And thank God for giving me the privilege to use my passion for the benefit of this nation.
It's great to be a Filipino!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
"There once was a town full of people who grew hysterical because they saw mysterious lights in the sky that they taught were Flying saucers passing overhead. Everybody became paranoid. Everybody suspected everyone as being aliens disguised as humans. Their fear grew when the town was suddenly plunged into total darkness. All houses had power failure, except for a few. Those who lived in them were suspected as part of the alien invasion. Since they could not explain the glitch why their houses had lights and the others didn't, they were killed by the townspeople. The family who lived in the next house that got back its light were killed by the townspeople too. One by one, as the houses regained power, the people who lived in it got mobbed to death. This went on until all houses lit up, recovering from the brown out.
By then, everyone was dead.
There were no aliens that died that day. And they didn't even have human collaborators in that town.
The alien invaders were safely orbiting the earth in their spaceship. The mysterious lights the people saw were small, minor lasers targeting the computers of the power plant of the town. The resulting computer glitch was only equally small and resulted in temporary random minor brown outs. But this small computer glitch served its purpose for the aliens: they didn't have to kill any humans themselves. The stupid humans, with their innate paranoia, ignorance of technology, and murderous distrust of each other are perfectly capable of doing that job themselves."
I heard this story a long time ago. It's something I call "Kwentong Barbero." But in the light of what is happening today I find the story very relevant. I just heard over the radio that Losers in the just concluded elections, the ones I call League Of Losers (LOL), have banded together to question the PCOS machines. They presented a witness. With his disguise he looks like he descended from the Makapilis whose noble lineage can be traced all the way back to the alien invasion of the
They seemed to be determined to move heaven and earth to prove that the election results were faulty, especially in their districts where they lost. They would rather see the national elections nullified or atleast see the country dragged back to the dark ages with interminable manual recounting of the ballots. Like in the story, we stupid humans are perfectly capable of shooting ourselves in the foot while standing on each other's heads.
What these League Of Losers (LOL) have not realized is that their predictable defiance in accepting defeat has always been part and parcel of the master plan of Invading Aliens who are safely orbiting the earth in the space ship called Malacanang.
She didn't have to rig the elections in favor of their candidate.
She didn't have to plot failure of elections.
She didn't have to lift a finger.
It will be given to her while she Laughs Out Loud (LOL)
All she has to do is sit this one out
and wait…
and wait…
And wait…
Monday, May 17, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Ayheen on Election Day
"Angel!: If there were a place that we didn't know of
and there, on some unsayable carpet,
lovers displayed what they could never bring to mastery here—
the bold exploits of their high-flying hearts,
their towers of pleasure,
their ladders that have long since been standing
where there was no ground,
leaning just on each other, trembling,—
and could master all this,
before the surrounding spectators,
the innumerable soundless dead:
Would these, then, throw down their final,
forever saved-up,
forever hidden,
unknown to us,
eternally valid
coins of happiness
before the,
at last,
genuinely smiling pair on the gratified carpet?"
Monday, May 03, 2010
I snitched the picture below from Sage's FB account (Sorry, man.)


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Iapetus is a crazy-ass moon! It bulges at the equator, squishes at the poles, and has an ancient equatorial ridge running around the dark part, rising up to 20 km above the rest of the surface; the moon has been described as "walnut-shaped." As is not surprising around a planet with such a huge ring system, Iapetus' surface is very heavily impact-scarred.
Is Iapetus Moon Of Saturn An Artificial Alien Construction? Watch video below


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ハムストリング&臀部エクササイズ Nov 20th 2018
This is a part of my today's leg workout. Currently for me, the primary purpose of deadlift is mainly hitting hamstrings and glutes together with quadriceps.
The first exercise : warming up cardio-step up on the bench
1st set of deadlift : 60kg narrow stance
2nd set : 80 kg narrow stance
3rd set : 70 kg medium stance.
For stimulating back side of the legs, weight distribution of the body needs to be a bit in the posterior direction compared to the standard form of deadlift, thus, as you can see in the video, I'm looking up (toward the ceiling) during the motion.


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A prominent Florida lawyer and his family were among the dead in a plane crash, which killed five people in Bartow, Florida, on Sunday, Dec. 24.
John Shannon, a 70-year-old attorney from Lakeland, Florida had his perfect Christmas Eve with family and friends all planned out—an early flight on Sunday morning, then breakfast and lunch, before heading home to prepare for the holiday, reported Tampa Bay Times.
Sheriff Judd giving final update on #BartowPlaneCrash death investigation. Local attorney 70 yr old John Shannon was the pilot pic.twitter.com/XeS3bhcUAl
— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) December 24, 2017
A photo from the scene of the Cessna 340 plane crash at the #BartowAirbase. FAA has arrived, NTSB is en route. Once we can release more about victims we will. Praying for these victims & their families. #BartowPlaneCrash pic.twitter.com/5jhFmPu1dS
— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) December 24, 2017
On Sunday morning, Shannon was in the cockpit of his twin-engined Cessna 340 ready to fly from Polk County to Key West. Accompanying him were his daughters, 24-year-old Olivia Shannon and 26-year-old Victoria Shannon Worthington, Victoria's husband, Peter Worthington Jr., 27, and family friend Krista Clayton, 32.
The 70-year-old accelerated down the runway about 7:15 a.m but a short time after taking off the plane plunged back down to the ground and caught fire, according to authorities. Everyone on board died on impact.
"There was no chance of survival—ever," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters, reported Daily News. "The crash is so horrific that no one suffered."
Authorities are not immediately certain what caused the plane to crash, however they suspect the heavy fog had played a role. A sheriff's pilot in a nearby hangar told Tampa Bay Times the conditions on the day were not suitable for flying.
Final news release on #BartowPlaneCrash please pray for these families pic.twitter.com/ZQBrtcM5OK
— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) December 24, 2017
An airport authority who filmed part of the crash told authorities that he couldn't believe "that they were taking off in this fog," reported the newspaper.
According to his website, Shannon has been practicing law since 1975 and handles serious injury, death, and insurance claims. He was also the president of the Republican Club of Lakeland and of the local Kiwanis Club. He also unsuccessfully ran for the state House of Representatives, reported Tampa Bay Times.
"I'm just stunned, I think like everybody else," Ben Hardin, a close friend, told the newspaper. "John was as fine and caring of a person as you would ever meet."
Olivia was a @seuniversity student; Victoria was a Baltimore school teacher; Peter was a 3rd year law student at Univ of MD; Krista was a Jewett Academy teacher https://t.co/blxL6zumrE
— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) December 24, 2017
His eldest daughter, Victoria, was a teacher in Baltimore, according to Judd. His youngest daughter, Olivia, was a student at Southeastern University in Lakeland.
Shannon's son-in-law, Peter Worthington Jr., was a law student at University of Maryland School of Law, according to his Facebook page. Krista Clayton, the family friend, was a teacher at Jewett Academy in Winter Haven, reported the newspaper citing the sheriff. She had two children.
Shannon was described as a loving father who was a "mother and father to his girls."
"His real love was his girls," friend and former state Rep. Neil Combee told the newspaper. "He was mother and father to his girls."
"He would want to be remembered as a good father," Hardin said. "That was his life."
From NTD.tv


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'THERE'S been times when it's really bad...'
England and Somerset spinner Dom Bess has revealed keeping on top of his fitness has proven a suitable distraction from the anxiety he felt when learning the country was going into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Bess last month opened up about his mental health struggles in an interview with a national newspaper and he discussed the topic further, including what can influence his "triggers", in a chat with former Somerset team-mate Marcus Trescothick.
The pair's conversation - during Mental Health Awareness Week - took place on Zoom, a necessity due to the Government measures imposed by the ongoing public health crisis.
He said: "I've actually been alright during the lockdown. I was very anxious about the situation, not knowing how long it could be, but getting that structure in has really helped me.
"Getting out running and fit always gets me in a positive mindset and having a bit of structure.
"I know how it affects me. I always call them triggers. Even little things like the weather. It is funny how little things like that can just change the whole atmosphere within my mood.
"There's times where it's been really bad and I really struggle to get out of bed and the motivation is not there any more.
"I struggle with that quite a lot and getting going is always the hardest part for me, certainly in this lockdown.
"There's been little triggers but I'm fortunate enough to have two people in my household, my girlfriend and my housemate, to make sure that I'm alright and keep going with it."
SUPPORT: Somerset cricket legend, Marcus Trescothick
Bess reignited his Test career with a five-wicket haul against South Africa in Port Elizabeth in January, part of a busy winter in which he also travelled to India, Australia and Sri Lanka.
The 22-year-old cited working with a psychologist who knows nothing about cricket - funded by the Professional Cricketers' Trust, a PCA-associated charity created to support the health and well-being of members and their immediate families - as crucial to his development in recent months.
He added: "Getting someone away from the game was so helpful for me, because it was as much outside life for me as it was about cricket. She is absolutely amazing and she only lives half an hour away.
"She certainly helped me plan the tours. I was really anxious about going away and I was hoping I was going to be okay, but we had quite a few sessions to get a real understanding of putting things into place to manage it.
"Offloading is a really hard thing to do but knowing you've got someone there is massive. I genuinely do feel a weight off my shoulders."
Bess was one of 40 current players supported in 2019 by the Trust, which is set for a £250,000 shortfall this year because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trescothick, the Trust director and himself a pioneer with regards to mental health in sport, spoke about how he has found the transition to coaching after ending his 26-year playing career at the end of the 2019 season.
The former England opener worked with the national side during the Ashes last year and the Twenty20 portion of the South Africa tour in February.
He said: "I was worried for a long time about what it would feel like and how it would go.
"But I've been pleasantly surprised, actually. It's been quite nice to have that release of pressure, to not have the burden or scrutiny of everything on top of you, the ups and downs.
"I would say it's made me a lot more level-headed although I still manage the mental health stuff around it. I'm more situational with my mental health now than I was when I was playing."
Mental Health Awareness Week, hosted by the Mental Health Foundation and which runs until Sunday, was this year based around the theme of Kindness, in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Mark Rowland, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: "Now more than ever, we need to re-discover kindness in our daily lives.
"We want to use Mental Health Awareness Week to celebrate the thousands of acts of kindness that are so important to our mental health. And we want to start a discussion on the kind of society we want to shape as we emerge from this pandemic.
"Kindness unlocks our shared humanity and is central for our mental health. It has the potential to bring us together with benefits for everyone, particularly at times of great stress.
"One thing we have seen all over the world is that kindness is prevailing in uncertain times, helping people to connect and communities to cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Kindness is also a vital way we can help support the millions of people who were experiencing mental health problems long before the pandemic started.
"The research clearly supports this – it shows that acts of kindness can help improve emotional wellbeing. This is true whether we are giving or receiving it."
Somerset County Council has a range of resources available for those struggling with their mental health during the crisis, at www.somerset.gov.uk/coronavirus/covid-19-mental-health-information, while Mindline Somerset's Coronavirus emotional support helpline runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on 01823 276892.


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Golf team manages traveling experience
Zachary Araki, Assistant Editor
April 16, 2019
With no home field, the golf team faces obstacles and rewards when traveling to each tournament. The team generally leaves the day before practice rounds on Saturday for possibly a six to seven hour drive and returns Tuesday after competition. Kristofer Kerr, a sophomore golfer, shared his experience ...


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This paper investigates the extent to which people in five Middle Eastern countries endorse key beliefs of developmental idealism that associate development with freedom, democracy, and human rights. Developmental idealism is a set of beliefs concerning the desirability of development, the methods for achieving it, and its consequences. The literature suggests that these beliefs have diffused worldwide among elites and lay citizens and posits that when such beliefs are disseminated they become forces for social and economic changes. Although developmental idealism research has primarily examined family and demographic issues, developmental idealism has tremendous potential to influence other aspects of society. This paper extends knowledge by considering societal aspects not addressed previously in the developmental idealism literature: personal freedom, democracy, and human rights. Using survey data from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, we investigate how publics of these countries associate development with these elements. We find that majorities believe development brings greater personal freedom, democracy, and human rights. Conversely, the data show that in four of the countries majorities believe more personal freedom contributes to development. These findings provide support for the idea that developmental idealism beliefs concerning freedom, democracy, and human rights have diffused to lay publics in these five Middle Eastern countries. We also find evidence of uniquely Islamic developmental models; a significant proportion of people in these countries believe that more religion will bring more development.
In this paper we investigate the extent to which important causal beliefs within the developmental idealism (DI) cultural model are present in the opinions of publics in five Middle Eastern countries: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. The DI causal beliefs of interest in this paper are that freedom, democracy, and human rights are causes of development and that development produces freedom, democracy, and human rights. We examine the hypothesis that these beliefs about the causes and consequences of development have been disseminated widely among ordinary people in these countries. Although it is important to investigate the worldwide prevalence of beliefs about the causes and consequences of development, we focus here on five countries in the Middle East.
It is important to note that our goal is not to examine the empirical relationships that exist among development, freedom, democracy, and human rights. Those important issues have been examined extensively by others. Instead, we examine beliefs concerning such associations, namely that development is a cause of freedom, democracy, and human rights and also a consequence of them. We are interested in the prevalence of beliefs about the causes and consequences of development within general populations because the spread of such beliefs can bring both social change and cultural tensions and clashes.
DI is a transnational cultural model encompassing many beliefs and values concerning how development occurs and the social changes associated with development (Thornton 2001, 2005; Thornton, Dorius, and Swindle 2015). It defines as desirable a constellation of attributes perceived to be associated with development, including industrialization, urbanization, education, free markets, low fertility, equality, freedom, democracy, and human rights. DI endorses a world that is dynamic, describes the pathway to development, and specifies Northwest Europe and its overseas populations as possessing the good life that serves as a model of development for the rest of the world. More specifically, DI informs people that to become developed, societies must embrace a free market economy, low fertility, gender equality, freedom, democracy, and human rights, to name a few of the desired elements of DI. DI also postulates that development will foster these attributes.
We recognize that values are important elements of DI and that beliefs can affect values (Lai and Thornton 2015), but we do not consider values in this paper. We exclude values because there is already considerable research investigating people's values—including the related concepts of preferences and tastes. For example, there are extensive literatures about values concerning economic growth, democracy, freedom, gender equality, family size, and other aspects of life believed by many to be related to development (Azadarmaki and Moaddel 2002; Inglehart and Baker 2000; Inglehart and Norris 2003; Moaddel and Abdul-Latif 2007; Norris and Inglehart 2011, 2012). Our paper is not about values and their association with development; instead, it breaks new ground by investigating a different set of ideational elements: causal beliefs about the relationships among development and freedom, democracy, and human rights. Individuals need not value freedom, democracy, or human rights in order to espouse causal beliefs between those elements and development. Causal beliefs indicate how people think the world works, whereas values capture how they want the world to be.
Survey data indicate that many people in the disparate countries of Argentina, China, Egypt, Iran, Malawi, Nepal, and the United States believe that development is both a cause and an effect of many dimensions of family and demographic life, such as gender equality, mature marriage, the involvement of young couples in spouse selection, and low fertility (Abbasi-Shavazi, Nodoushan, and Thornton 2012; Binstock and Thornton 2007; Lai and Thornton 2015; Thornton, Dorius, and Swindle 2015; Thornton, Ghmire, and Mitchell 2012c; Thornton et al. 2012b, 2014). Survey data also demonstrate that the notion that societies are organized in developmental hierarchies is widely held by ordinary people in such diverse countries as Albania, Argentina, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Hungary, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Malawi, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and the United States (Csánóová 2013; Melegh et al. 2013; Thornton et al. 2012a). Empirical evidence of the widespread prevalence of DI can also be found in an extensive body of ethnographic research, which finds that many developmental ideas are widely held at the grassroots in many international settings (Ahearn 2001; Allendorf 2013; Caldwell, Reddy, and Caldwell 1988; Dahl and Rabo 1992; Guneratne 1998; Osella and Osella 2006; Pigg 1992).
However, the evidence concerning the globalization of DI causal beliefs among ordinary people has primarily focused on family and demographic issues. We as yet know very little about the causal beliefs of ordinary people regarding the influence of development on other important matters such as markets, government, and freedom. We also know little concerning people's beliefs about the influence of such factors on development. This paper provides valuable new information to help fill this gap by examining the extent to which people in five Middle Eastern countries believe that development is a cause of freedom, democracy, and human rights (three factors that we refer to generally as FDR). Our paper also provides new insights into the extent to which people in these countries believe that freedom is a cause of development.
There are international surveys such as the World Values Survey that have measured values in many countries, but they have not measured beliefs concerning the causal connections among development, freedom, democracy, and human rights. Thus we designed and implemented new data collections between 2011 and 2013 that were the first we are aware of to measure causal beliefs concerning development and FDR. More specifically, we asked respondents about their beliefs concerning a) whether development increases or decreases FDR and b) whether personal freedom increases or decreases development.
We conceptualized and designed our data collections before the emergence of the political movements generally referred to as "the Arab Spring." However, as shown in table 1, the Arab Spring emerged the month before we began our data collection, and, consequently, our data collections occurred as the Arab Spring was occurring. Survey context can be important in all survey data collections, and we cannot know the effects of the timing of our surveys on respondent answers. What we have is a snapshot of beliefs regarding the causal connections between development and FDR at one time point—with the hope that future surveys will ascertain the stability of such beliefs.
|Mo./Yr. .
|Country .
|Event .
|Iraq .
|Lebanon .
|Egypt .
|Turkey .
|Nationwide protests following street vendor's
self-immolation in protest of his unpermitted
fruit cart seizure.
|Violent protests followed by fleeing of authoritarian
president to Saudi Arabia.
|Tahrir Square protests demanding resignation of
|Mass protests against ruling president.
|Resignation of Mubarak; temporary transfer of
powers to military.
|Mass protests followed by military crackdown by king
with assistance from SA.
|Protests begin in Benghazi, followed by armed
uprising against Muammar el-Qaddafi.
|Protesters call for political freedom in city of Deraa.
Quickly spreads to other cities. Government
responds with violent crackdown.
|Western coalition intervenes in conflict, staging
airstrikes against Qaddafi's troops, turning the
tide in favor of the protesters.
|Rebel troops enter the capital and Qaddafi goes into
|Qaddafi found and killed by mob.
|In first election since Arab Spring revolts began,
Tunisians elect a moderate Islamist party.
|President resigns.
|Islamist parties win 70% of seats in first
parliamentary election since Mubarak's ouster.
|Mubarak tried and found guilty on charges of
accessory to and attempted murder of 2011
protesters. Sentenced to life in prison.
|Islamic group Muslim Brotherhood candidate wins
first democratic presidential election.
|President issues decree giving himself broad new
powers, including placing himself above the
authority of the courts.
|UN announces death toll in continuing conflict has
topped 90,000 and >1 million Syrians are refugees.
Opposition forces becoming more fractured and
dominated by extremist groups, many with
connections to Al Qaeda.
|Military coup removes president from office and
detains him in secret location, triggering weeks of
|Mo./Yr. .
|Country .
|Event .
|Iraq .
|Lebanon .
|Egypt .
|Turkey .
|Nationwide protests following street vendor's
self-immolation in protest of his unpermitted
fruit cart seizure.
|Violent protests followed by fleeing of authoritarian
president to Saudi Arabia.
|Tahrir Square protests demanding resignation of
|Mass protests against ruling president.
|Resignation of Mubarak; temporary transfer of
powers to military.
|Mass protests followed by military crackdown by king
with assistance from SA.
|Protests begin in Benghazi, followed by armed
uprising against Muammar el-Qaddafi.
|Protesters call for political freedom in city of Deraa.
Quickly spreads to other cities. Government
responds with violent crackdown.
|Western coalition intervenes in conflict, staging
airstrikes against Qaddafi's troops, turning the
tide in favor of the protesters.
|Rebel troops enter the capital and Qaddafi goes into
|Qaddafi found and killed by mob.
|In first election since Arab Spring revolts began,
Tunisians elect a moderate Islamist party.
|President resigns.
|Islamist parties win 70% of seats in first
parliamentary election since Mubarak's ouster.
|Mubarak tried and found guilty on charges of
accessory to and attempted murder of 2011
protesters. Sentenced to life in prison.
|Islamic group Muslim Brotherhood candidate wins
first democratic presidential election.
|President issues decree giving himself broad new
powers, including placing himself above the
authority of the courts.
|UN announces death toll in continuing conflict has
topped 90,000 and >1 million Syrians are refugees.
Opposition forces becoming more fractured and
dominated by extremist groups, many with
connections to Al Qaeda.
|Military coup removes president from office and
detains him in secret location, triggering weeks of
Notes: Dark shading indicates data collection months for each sample country; lighter shading indicates months (events) preceding data collection months for each sample country. SA = Saudi Arabia. Time line events are according to the New York Times ("Timeline" 2013).
We have three main goals in our analyses of these new data. The first is to examine the extent to which people in these five countries believe that development causes FDR and that freedom causes development. The second is to examine how the prevalence of DI causal beliefs relative to FDR compares to the prevalence of DI causal beliefs concerning family issues—beliefs that previous research has shown to be widely disseminated. The third is to examine the extent to which DI causal beliefs vary by respondent education, gender, and age.
We recognize that it would be interesting to compare the extent of DI beliefs in the five countries in our study—both among themselves and with other places. However, comparisons across countries are outside the scope of this paper and must await future research.
We also recognize that causal beliefs about FDR and development are likely important for behavior and social structures, but we do not evaluate the effects of these DI causal beliefs on the behavior of individuals or on the actual levels of development, freedom, democracy, and human rights in any country. This issue is of great interest but lies beyond the scope of this paper.
Cultural Models of Development
Developmental idealism is a cultural model concerning societal development that shapes the perspectives of policy makers and public opinion. Cultural models, or ideational frameworks, are interrelated attitudes, beliefs, and values "about the proper order of society and how it can be achieved" (Erikson and Tedin 2001:64). Models provide beliefs and values that shape people's understanding of the world and orientation toward it and prescribe mechanisms for achieving personal and societal goals (Johnson-Hanks et al. 2011; Sewell 1992; Swidler 1986). DI is one such cultural model that is centered on development and its relationship to other dimensions of life (Thornton 2001, 2005). DI can have powerful influences on people's decision making and behavior (Allendorf and Thornton 2015).
Many ideas of DI can be traced back to the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the writings of philosophers, social scientists, and policy makers of the nineteenth century (Nisbet 1969; Sanderson 1990; Thornton 2005; Thornton et al. 2015). The scholars and policy makers of those eras promulgated worldviews and beliefs about the causes and consequences of development. As one would expect, there emerged and still exists a range of views on the exact specification of beliefs about the causes and consequences of development within DI. As Thornton et al. (2015) state, "DI is similar to other cultural models such as Chinese culture or American culture, which exist in different formats across geography and history. . . . The notion that the DI cultural model varies across places, times, and individuals is similar to the idea proposed by Eisenstadt (2000) of alternate modernities. Sometimes the differences between DI versions are fairly small and other times more substantial" (p. 285).
Despite the varying strands of DI beliefs diffused across individuals and groups, we argue that there is a dominant strand of DI that has been disseminated widely to scholars, political leaders, development agencies, and policy makers around the world, permeating the agendas of many governmental and nongovernmental organizations (Thornton et al. 2015). It is the causal beliefs about development within this dominant strand of DI that constitute the focus of this paper. As we discuss below, that dominant strand of DI indicates that development increases FDR and that FDR increases development. Our paper's key hypothesis is that the DI cultural model and its beliefs about the causes and consequences of development have penetrated local culture in the Middle East.
The Dominant Model of the Development-FDR Nexus
We now discuss the main elements and historical background of this dominant strand of DI concerning the causal relations among development and FDR. We also discuss some alternative modernities, especially as they might contradict and diminish beliefs in the dominant strand of DI.
The dominant developmental models of philosophers, social scientists, and policy makers for the past two centuries have depicted the world as a dynamic place with societies evolving at different speeds from low to high development (Nisbet 1969; Sanderson 1990; Thornton et al. 2015). Northwest Europe and its overseas populations in North America and Australasia have been portrayed at the apex of development, with other populations seen as distributed at various lower levels along the developmental scale. This model has proposed that movement from low to high development produces low fertility, equality, mature marriage, free markets, freedom, democracy, and human rights. Causality in this model has also been said to move in the opposite direction, with development being a consequence of free markets, low fertility, equality, mature marriage, freedom, democracy, and human rights.
More specifically, theory and public policy have posited strong positive relationships between FDR and development, and those themes have continued to characterize much of the academic and policy literatures of at least the last century. For example, modernization theorist Rostow (1971) argued that democracy, including the freedom of expression and political representation, is essential for societies to progress through "stages of growth." Since the 1980s, many development economists have argued that poor countries can best achieve economic growth through market liberalization (e.g., Bhagwati 2002, 2004; Wolf 2004). This idea gained mainstream acceptance at development organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, leading to the "Washington Consensus" in the 1990s, "aid for trade" policies since the 2000s, and the promotion of free trade today. Within this school of thought, democracy and human rights are believed to occur as a result of economic growth (Williamson 1990). At the United Nations and many other international organizations, the primary perspective is one of "human development," which posits that there are links between development and freedom, democracy, and human rights (Nussbaum 1997, 2000; Sen 1981, 1999, 2005). Additional approaches to development, including participatory development (Chambers 1997; Hickey and Mohan 2005) and rights-based development (Häusermann 1998; Sano 2000), also feature explicit links between development and FDR (Bollen 1979; Burkhart and Lewis-Beck 1994; Wejnert 2005).
Certain strands of thought on development are less enthusiastic about the proposition that development brings FDR, including proponents of dependency (Frank 1969), world system (Wallerstein 1974, 1991), and postdevelopment (Escobar 1995; Sachs 1992) theories. Some critics of mainstream development theory claim that it is precisely a lack of emphasis on FDR as a prerequisite to development that has brought about what they perceive to be dismal results in the global effort to "end poverty" (e.g., Easterly 2006, 2014; Moyo 2009). Others point to "East Asian Tigers" like South Korea as historical evidence that development has occurred because of restrictions on FDR (Chang 2002). Across all theoretical perspectives, however, disputes are not over whether there is a relationship between development and FDR but over the nature of the relationship. Development and FDR are intertwined in virtually all contemporary development theories.
We argue that beliefs about positive causal connections between development and FDR have been disseminated via many channels to Middle Eastern publics: from the world's policy and academic elites to national leaders, community elites, and on to the general public. Diffusion mechanisms include the United Nations, foreign aid programs, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, the mass media, and educational institutions (Thornton et al. 2015). Nation-states around the world have adopted a wide variety of institutional practices that are promoted as essential for development, including human rights and democratic governance (Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui 2005; Meyer et al. 1997; Tsutsui and Wotipka 2004).
The DI disseminated through these means exerts influence on many dimensions of life at multiple levels of social reality, from the individual to entire societies and the world at large. DI's dissemination and acceptance have contributed to greater popular support for freedom in personal affairs, which scholars have linked to dramatic increases in divorce, premarital sex, nonmarital cohabitation, and unmarried childbearing in numerous places (Aghajanian and Thompson 2013; Cammack and Heaton 2011; Esteve, Lesthaeghe, and Lopez-Gay 2012; Lesthaeghe 2010; Thornton 2005; Thornton and Philipov 2009). DI has also helped drive the international movement toward gender equality, small families, and mature ages at marriage (Dorius and Alwin 2010; Ortega 2014; Paxton, Hughes, and Green 2006; Thornton et al. 2012b).
Although DI causal beliefs about FDR and development are often rejected when first introduced, they are often accepted with additional time and reinforcement, though rarely wholesale. Typically, the adoption of DI beliefs involves the mixing of local (particular) culture with global (general) developmental culture into hybrid models of development, which become forces for social change. We recognize that alternative development models may dampen or even reverse beliefs concerning positive causal relations between development and FDR. We know, for example, that the Marxist developmental model promulgated in the former Soviet Union and other state socialist societies emphasized a dictatorship of the proletariat rather than freedom and democracy. We also know that several countries in eastern Asia followed a protectionist, state-driven, capitalist model, teaching their citizens that national development should take precedence over individual freedom (Chang 2002).
There is a growing recognition of uniquely Islamic developmental models, which in some ways decouple development from freedom, democracy, and human rights. According to the Islamic Development Bank (2006), the main development challenges of Muslim-majority countries include "sustainable economic growth," "good governance," and "human development." Partnership with the UN, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund is outlined as necessary and helpful, particularly with respect to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In this respect, Islamic models of development generally share many goals with dominant development models.
At the same time, many Islamic developmental models emphasize Islamic religious ideals. Some Islamic academics and policy makers integrate Islamic principles into preexisting theories of development, and often incorporate some of the principles of FDR into Islamic developmental models, not because FDR principles are tacitly accepted, but because they are rationalized as having deep roots in Islamic philosophy and law (Bayat 2007). Similarly, the concepts of empowerment, freedom, and individuality are deemed to be desirable, though typically only in "Islamic forms" (Hasso 2009). One example of this fine distinction is the avoidance of "democracy" and "secular politics" in the official vision of the Islamic Development Bank (2006), but the adoption of the global buzzphrase "good governance." This is noteworthy because it reflects a distinctly Islamic model of development, a model that in most respects is very similar to dominant developmental models, yet different in its association with FDR.
Lived Experience of FDR and Development in the Middle East
We recognize that the causal beliefs people have about development and FDR may be affected by the empirical relationships between development and FDR that people observe firsthand or hear about. People's beliefs about the causal relationships between FDR and development may be reinforced by knowledge of a positive cross-sectional correlation between national levels of development and country-level measures of FDR. We present here evidence regarding such relationships. Our intent is not to evaluate the cause-and-effect relationships between development and FDR in the real world but to recognize that such empirical relationships may weaken or strengthen people's beliefs about a relationship between development and FDR. That is, our focus in this paper is on people's causal beliefs about the relations between development and FDR and not on the actual relationships in the real world, but we talk about the actual relationships because these may influence people's beliefs.
The real-world correlation between development and FDR can be seen in figure 1, where we show the international cross-sectional association between the UN's Human Development Index (HDI) and national indicators of freedom for 175 countries. The linear regression line summarizing this association indicates that the HDI and freedom indices are strongly and positively related. Additional analysis (not shown) finds similar relationships between HDI and indicators of democracy and human rights. Observations such as these would reinforce public perceptions of a relationship between development and FDR.1
On the other hand, the realities of day-to-day living may influence people in the Middle East to doubt the existence of a positive relationship between development and FDR. Although the regression line between development and freedom for the 27 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries in figure 1 is positive, it is weaker than for the world as a whole. Also, figure 1 shows that, in general, MENA countries have substantially lower levels of freedom than one might expect on the basis of their HDI scores. These observations suggest that the lived experience of many people in this region may diverge from what the standard developmental model states concerning development and FDR (Clague, Gleason, and Knack 2001).
Temporal trends in HDI and freedom within Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia do not support a positive association between HDI and freedom in these countries. As shown in figure 2, HDI has been high and/or rising for much of the last 30 years, but levels of freedom have been low and, in most instances, declining. Additional analysis (not shown), indicates similar relationships when the indicators are GDP per capita, educational attainment, democracy, and human rights. Thus the over-time, lived experience of people within these five study countries would suggest only weak or even negative relationships between FDR and development.
We hypothesize that the combination of views held by international academic and governmental leaders, along with many local leaders, concerning the causal beliefs within DI that assume positive connections between FDR and development will be more powerful than the alternative models and the lived experiences of people in our study countries. That is, we expect the forces for beliefs in development as a positive cause and a consequence of FDR are stronger than the forces for belief in no relationship or an opposite relationship. This leads us to the general empirical hypothesis that the majority of publics in our study countries perceive development to be positively related to FDR. We also expect that people's personal experiences and some contrarian views expressed by Middle Eastern elites about the relationship between development and FDR could limit the overall perceptions of positive relationships between development and FDR. Unfortunately, we cannot evaluate the individual forces producing the final distribution of causal beliefs.
Our individual-level data come from face-to-face hour-long structured interviews conducted between 2011 and 2013 with respondents living in Egypt (N = 3143), Iraq (N = 3000), Lebanon (N = 3143), Saudi Arabia (N = 2003), and Turkey (N = 3019). Each participating country implemented a multistage probability sample design that produced a nationally representative sample of adults ages 18 and older, stratified proportionally to the urban and rural areas of that country. Response rates for Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey were 93, 88, 61, 73, and 62 percent, respectively. The data are self-weighting for all countries but Saudi Arabia, where data are weighted to account for an oversample of one region. The samples include roughly equal proportions of men and women. The average ages of respondents in each country were 39.0 in Egypt, 36.2 in Iraq, 35.2 in Lebanon, 33.8 in Saudi Arabia, and 41.3 in Turkey. Between half and three-quarters of Egyptian, Lebanese, and Saudi respondents reported completion of at least secondary-level education, as compared to around 40 percent of Iraqi and Turkish participants. Nearly all respondents in four of the five countries were Muslim; in Lebanon the distribution was more diverse—66 percent Muslim, 27 percent Christian, and 7 percent "none" or "some other religion." The surveys were administered within the context of a larger project that was designed, in part, to measure public perceptions of the relationships among development, family, and society in the Middle East. The research team took care to standardize as many aspects of the project as possible within and across countries, including sampling specifications, questionnaire content, Arabic and Turkish language translation, interviewer training, quality control procedures, and data entry and harmonization.
We asked respondents to answer three sets of questions concerning development and several societal and family attributes, including FDR. Exact wordings and coding schemes for these questions are found in table 2. For the first question (section I), respondents were asked: "What if there were more restrictions on personal freedoms? Would that help make your country a little more developed, a lot more developed, a little less developed, or a lot less developed?" We did not ask respondents whether they thought that democracy or human rights would make their country more or less developed. Our second set of questions (section II) reversed the causal arrow and asked respondents how increases in development would affect several attributes, including three FDR and four family attributes. For both sets of questions, we coded the small number of respondents who reported "don't know" into a separate category and analyzed this category along with the four answer categories given to respondents.
For the third set of measures, respondents were shown a list of five attributes that might increase in a country: more gender equality; more freedom of choice; more religiosity; more democracy; and more integrity in government. After viewing this list, respondents were asked to choose which of these attributes would have the greatest impact on making their country more developed and which would have the second greatest impact. Respondents in Saudi Arabia were not asked these questions.
By design we did not specify to respondents what we meant by development, freedom, democracy, human rights, freedom of choice, religiosity, and integrity in government. We also did not ask respondents to tell us what they meant by these terms. Evidence from other research indicates that people in the Middle East conceptualize development very similarly to the United Nations HDI, which is a composite of education, money, and health (Thornton et al. 2012a). Freedom, democracy, and human rights are broad concepts with multiple dimensions that can vary in their precise definition and meaning across groups and individuals. We do not believe that the meanings of these concepts among Middle Eastern publics exactly match the views of other publics, such as those in the United States. We also expect that the meaning of these terms can and do vary across people and groups, but, nevertheless, we believe that there are general meanings to such concepts. It is those general meanings that we address with these questions. Also, we recognize that responses to our questions may be affected by question order and historical timing, and we advocate for additional research on these issues.
Belief in Individual Freedom as a Cause of Development
We first discuss results using the question concerning respondent beliefs about the effects of a reduction in personal freedom on development (section I of table 2). Figure 3 shows for each country the percentage distribution of respondent beliefs about the effects of restricting personal freedoms on development in their country. Categories are listed from left to right from those strongly rejecting the DI belief (stating that less freedom would increase development a lot) to those strongly endorsing the DI belief (stating that less freedom would decrease development a lot). Countries are sorted from high to low according to the prevalence of DI beliefs. In addition to the distribution across all five response categories, we indicate in the far-right column the percentage saying that restricting personal freedoms would lower development a lot or a little (the DI response).
Fewer than 30 percent of respondents in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia believed restrictions on personal freedom would cause more development in their country. A majority of respondents in each country, ranging from 52 percent in Turkey to 79 percent in Egypt, reported that restrictions on personal freedom would make their country less developed. In each country, the modal belief was that restrictions on personal freedom would make the society "a little less" developed. In each country except Turkey, the second most common causal belief was that restrictions on personal freedom would make the country "a lot less" developed. Respondents in Turkey were more evenly divided about the consequences of personal freedom on development, with only a slight majority (52 percent) reporting that restrictions on personal freedom would cause their country to become less developed.
Belief in Development as a Cause of FDR
We next consider the distribution of beliefs about the effects of development on FDR (section II of table 2), which we report in figure 4. As in the previous figure, we order the responses reported in figure 4 so that the degree of endorsement of DI increases from left to right, and the percentage endorsing DI (either a little or a lot) is shown in the far-right column. Bars are sorted from high to low on the prevalence of DI beliefs, by country and measure.
The data support our hypothesis that most people in these Middle Eastern countries viewed development as a force for increasing each item of FDR. The strength of the association between development and FDR varied to some degree—in some countries respondents thought more development would bring "a lot more" FDR and in others they thought it would bring "a little more" FDR—but in all countries strong majorities believed that more development would cause more freedom, democracy, and human rights in their country.
The percentage of Egyptian, Lebanese, and Iraqi respondents with this DI causal belief exceeded 75 percent for all three items. With the exception of personal freedom, four-fifths or more endorsed each of the three DI items in Egypt and Lebanon; moreover, at least 90 percent of all respondents in Egypt, Lebanon, and Iraq believed that increased democracy was a consequence of development. More than 70 percent of respondents in Saudi Arabia reported the belief that development increases democracy and human rights, and 60 percent positively associated development with personal freedom. The majority of respondents in Turkey believed development increases all three items of FDR, yet in general the percentage of respondents reporting this was lower than for the other four countries. Nevertheless, the data are strongly consistent with our hypothesis that most people in each country believe that development leads to increased FDR.
There are some differences in the distribution of responses across the substantive dimensions of freedom, democracy, and human rights. Of the three dimensions, democracy was seen as the most affected by development among respondents in each country. In Egypt, the percentage who said that development causes democracy was essentially tied with the percentage saying it increased human rights. Although large numbers in each country said that development increased freedom, in Egypt, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia this was endorsed less than the belief that development caused democracy and human rights, and in Turkey the belief that development caused freedom was expressed slightly more than the belief that development caused democracy. In addition, in Iraq freedom tied with human rights in being seen as the least positively affected by development, whereas in Turkey the belief that development increased human rights was endorsed the least.
Comparisons with Causal Beliefs Concerning Development and Family Issues
We noted earlier that research has examined whether people around the world associate development with family attributes. That research shows that there is a substantial association in public opinion between development and family attributes as predicted by the DI cultural model. This raises the question of whether the dissemination of DI concerning FDR has been as great as the spread of DI concerning family issues. Previous research concerning the spread of DI in respect to causal beliefs about development and family matters provides a comparative framework to evaluate the extent of the dissemination of DI relative to causal beliefs about development and FDR.
For this reason, we compare the reported causal beliefs of individuals in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey regarding FDR with their reported causal beliefs regarding changes in gender equality, spouse choice, fertility, and age at first marriage (section II of table 2). In figure 5 we report the percentage distribution of responses on the four family items in each country. We also report in the margins of figure 5 the percentage stating the DI position that development reduces fertility and increases gender equality, self-choice of spouse, and older age at marriage.
A comparison of figures 4 and 5 shows that the range of answers for the family DI questions was generally consistent with the range of DI answers for the FDR questions. With the exception of the age-at-marriage question in Egypt and Turkey, where roughly half of respondents gave the DI answer, endorsement of DI for the four family items ranged from 58 to 95 percent, which is very similar to the level of endorsement of DI for FDR. Gender equality was the only family attribute that three-fourths or more in each country said would increase with more development; however, this three-quarters threshold was also reached for spouse choice in Egypt and Lebanon (and 73 percent said so in Iraq). Thus endorsement of DI causal beliefs regarding FDR was on par with endorsement of DI regarding gender equality and, to a lesser extent, spouse choice. In Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon, support for DI causal beliefs regarding FDR was actually higher than support for DI causal beliefs regarding fertility and age at marriage. This comparison illustrates the exceptionally high prevalence of DI causal beliefs regarding FDR in these countries.
Comparing Beliefs in Possible Causes of Development
To this point, we have focused on the prevalence and strength of DI causal beliefs concerning FDR and family matters. We now consider how respondents ranked various societal attributes for achieving development. As we mentioned earlier, we presented respondents with five attributes—gender equality, freedom of choice, religiosity, democracy, and integrity in government—that might help further development in their countries. We asked respondents to identify the first and second most efficacious things for making their countries more developed (section III of table 2). The first and second choices of respondents from Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey are displayed in figure 6.
Figure 6 shows that "governmental issues" was perceived as the most important factor for achieving development in all four countries. Of the five choices, democracy and integrity in government were perceived as the most important two. We interpret "integrity in government" to be a positive statement about the "absence of government corruption." Respondents in Iraq and Lebanon identified integrity in government as one of the two most important factors, more than any other option given. Among Egyptians, integrity in government essentially tied with democracy as one of the two most important attributes for bringing development. Turkish respondents chose democracy and integrity as the two most important items, but they indicated that government integrity was less important to development than democracy. Although democracy was endorsed less frequently than integrity in government as a cause of development in Iraq and Lebanon, between 45 and 61 percent of respondents in these countries endorsed democracy as one of the two most important determinants of development.
The great importance given to integrity in government is especially striking. The absence of corruption has been linked with development in the academic and policy literature (e.g., Collier 2000; Heidenheimer and Johnston 2002; Huntington 1965; UNODC 2004), and our results indicate that belief in this causal relationship has been broadly disseminated among publics in these Middle East countries. Irrespective of what academicians and policy people say about development and government integrity, there also have been cases of financial corruption in the recent histories of some countries, and respondents could be drawing on their experiences with such matters. Our data clearly suggest the importance of government integrity as a factor in development among the great majority of Egyptian, Iraqi, Lebanese, and Turkish citizens.
Many people rate both democracy and government integrity as more important influences on development than freedom of choice over one's own life. In fact, personal freedom was rated as one of the two most important factors by only 17 to 30 percent of respondents in the four countries. If we combine endorsement of personal freedom and democracy together as general indicators of freedom, we find huge endorsement of the belief that general freedom fosters development, again consistent with our hypotheses that many people believe development and freedom/democracy occur together.
Earlier we noted that very large percentages of people in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey said that gender equality was highly related to development. Results reported in figure 6 demonstrate that when respondents were asked to contrast gender equality with freedom, religiosity, democracy, and integrity in government, very few endorsed gender equality as one of the two most important factors in bringing development. In fact, with just 6 to slightly less than 16 percent of respondents identifying it as one of the two most important factors facilitating development, gender equality was the least chosen factor in each country. This suggests that although gender equality is seen as related to development by large numbers of people, it is seen as a less important cause of development than other measured factors.
A fair percentage of respondents rated more religiosity as one of the two most important influences on development (Egypt = 46, Iraq = 33, Lebanon = 16, and Turkey = 22 percent). The prevalence of the belief that religiosity causes development is important for our theoretical framework because religious beliefs and values are often viewed as obstacles to development (Harrison 1985) or as increasingly vestigial attributes of modernity (Norris and Inglehart 2003). Yet substantial numbers, especially in Egypt and Iraq, endorsed more religiosity as one of the two most important factors facilitating development. This is consistent with the notion that opinion leaders in the Middle East who promote Islamic development models that intertwine religious ideals with mainstream development models are influencing some people's causal beliefs.
The lower proportion of people in Lebanon who reported religion as being an important factor in facilitating development is likely tied to the greater degree of religious diversity there. Islam is less predominant in Lebanon than in the other countries, and Islamic opinion leaders in Lebanon are likely to have less influence than they do in Egypt and Iraq, so we speculate that the preference of Islamic developmental models over mainstream developmental models is a less common occurrence in Lebanon.
The Distribution of Developmental Idealism Causal Beliefs across Population Subgroups
We now address our third motivating question: Do DI causal beliefs in a positive FDR-development relationship vary by social and demographic groups within countries? To answer this question, we examine beliefs by the respondent characteristics of education, gender, and age. For this analysis, we took a global perspective and created an additive index summing the responses to the four FDR questions reported in figures 3 and 4. For each question, responses were coded from 1 to 5, with 1 indicating strong rejection of DI causal beliefs and 5 indicating strong endorsement of DI causal beliefs ("don't know" responses were coded 3). This additive index ranges from 4 to 20, and higher scores indicate stronger belief in a positive FDR-development relationship. We pooled the data from all five countries and report the mean scores for this scale by categories of education, gender, and age in figure 7.
The almost total absence of variation in beliefs in a positive FDR-development relationship by categories of education, gender, and age demonstrates the pervasiveness of such beliefs across important subnational groups. Among respondents with less than a secondary education, the mean score was 15.0. The mean score was 15.4 among those with a secondary education, for a difference of 0.4 between the two groups on the 16-point index. The 0.2 difference between male and female respondents was even smaller than that observed for education. Age differences concerning beliefs were not meaningfully different either, varying by 0.3 or lower for every age group except the oldest (70+), which had an index score of 14.6. These results suggest not only that DI causal beliefs are high in the general public but that they are remarkably high and uniform across subpopulations.
Using survey data from nationally representative samples in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, this research set out to document the extent to which people in the Middle East viewed personal freedom, democracy, and human rights as either a cause or a consequence of development. We hypothesized that the voluminous academic and policy literature and discourse, combined with the international cross-sectional correlation between development and FDR, would lead the majority of people in these countries to espouse belief in a positive association between development and FDR, even despite resistance to some aspects of DI. We hypothesized that these forces would be more powerful than the scholarly and policy literature discussing alternative development models and the fact that there is little over-time association between development and FDR in the Middle East.
Analysis confirmed that on most dimensions people in these five countries perceived strong causal associations between development and FDR. Although we cannot know from our data which forces produced the belief that development and FDR are intertwined, we can conclude that, overall, the forces producing these causal beliefs are stronger than those producing the opposite causal beliefs that development and FDR are not positively intertwined. Also, the lack of data from outside the Middle East makes it impossible for us to compare causal beliefs in that region with causal beliefs in other regions. We advocate for more research on these issues.
Substantial majorities in all five countries reported believing that development brings greater personal freedom, democracy, and human rights. Similarly, in four of the five countries substantial majorities believed more personal freedom would increase development. Our research also demonstrates that beliefs in the causal connections between development and FDR are widely accepted within subcategories of the population in each country. Belief in causal connections between FDR and development did not appreciably vary by age, gender, and education.
Iraqi and Turkish respondents were more likely to view development as a cause of personal freedom rather than a consequence. Although our goal is to evaluate overall endorsement of DI causal beliefs in the five countries and not to make comparisons across countries, we offer some speculations about Iraq and Turkey. We also advocate for future research to examine systematically the reasons for these differences.
In the case of Iraq, the results may be related to the fact that the data were collected several years after the ouster of Saddam Hussein and the transition of political authority from foreign administrators to democratically elected leaders. The immediate effects of war, occupation, and radical political reforms likely weighed heavily on Iraqis' views. Regardless of the unique experience of the Iraqi public in recent years, they still reported a belief in the relationship between development and FDR on par with the views reported in the other countries. Considering the magnitude of social change that the Iraqi public experienced in the years immediately prior to data collection, the strength of the beliefs among Iraqis regarding the relationship between development and FDR is stunning.
There are many possible explanations of the comparatively lower endorsement among Turkish respondents for the idea that FDR and development go together. One possibility is that the language and cultural differences between Turkey and the Arabic countries are relevant here. Also of possible relevance is the fact that Turkey has long been at the crossroads between Europe and the Middle East and has had more experience with democracy than the other countries. In addition, DI has been a very important element of Turkish public life for nearly a century, with many elements of it having been adopted as official government policy (Kavas 2015; Kavas and Thornton 2013). Such extensive experience with DI as public policy may have given the Turkish people more opportunities than others to see how the DI model was less successful than promised in bringing prosperity. Many of them may therefore be more skeptical of DI causal beliefs. In addition, the Turkey of today emerged out of the Ottoman Empire, which for centuries was one of the most powerful and important states in the region. It is possible that at least some Turkish citizens have idealized their historical roots in that empire, and this may have made them more skeptical of the causal beliefs of DI.
Public opinion in Turkey may also be affected by the country's recent experience with the European Union (EU). Public opinion polls in Turkey show that only 25 percent view the EU favorably and less than 40 percent want Turkey to join the EU (Pew Research Center 2014). These relatively low rates may be the result of the EU's reluctance to admit Turkey for so long. The EU's denial of admission may also have resulted in many Turks rejecting the idea that Western ideals as reflected in DI are necessary for Turkey's development. In addition, Turkey's economy seems to be doing well outside the EU, which may further weaken Turkish endorsement of DI.
The findings from this research not only provide further empirical support for the widespread prevalence of DI but also extend the literature on DI beyond family and demographic life to the political sphere. Previous research has shown that the great majority of people around the world believe there is an association between development and gender equality, age at marriage, fertility, and control over choice of spouse. Our research shows that the percentages of respondents expressing causal beliefs about development and FDR are as high as or higher than the percentages expressing causal beliefs about development and family matters.
Although we have shown that on most questions substantial majorities in these five countries reported belief in a positive association between development and FDR that is consistent with the ideas of mainline academic and policy discourse, we do not suggest that public opinion exactly matches elite opinion. And, as we discussed earlier, there are a variety of strands of thought among academic, governmental, and policy elites concerning how FDR and development are interrelated. We expect that public opinion lacks the kind of depth expressed in academic and policy literature, instead being vague and fuzzy. Nevertheless, such fuzzy causal beliefs can be powerful.
The close association between development and FDR in public opinion raises a conceptual issue: perhaps many people conflate FDR and development so closely that they see FDR as part of development, not just related to development. Although acceptance of this point of view presents issues of how to conceptualize the ideas, it would make the main conclusion of our paper even stronger. Instead of development and FDR being closely related in public opinion, as we have conceptualized it, FDR would be conceptualized as being as much a dimension of development as education and income. However, the fact that significant minorities do not see development and FDR to be related leads us to prefer to think of FDR and development as being related but distinct concepts, at least in many people's heads. Further research on how people conceptualize these issues would be helpful.
One of the more surprising findings of this research was that nearly half of respondents in Egypt and a third of respondents in Iraq reported believing that increased religiosity would bring more development. This finding also provides evidence that a substantial number of people in these countries have alternative or hybrid models of development that include religion as an influence on development. A promising line of future research would explore the ideational associations between religion and development more thoroughly.
The extent to which people espouse positive attitudes toward development and also believe that FDR causes development has important implications for the entire region, providing insights into some of the possible ideological underpinnings of political campaigns in the region (Hunter 2013). Since large numbers of people in each country want more development and also believe that good and democratic government is an essential determinant of development, it is possible that the idealism of the developmental model may serve as a motivating force for sociopolitical movements in support of more democratic governance in Middle Eastern countries.


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As a member of the public who is not employed in any of the emergency services my heart sinks when I listen to the talk of youngsters about the Police.
When I was little (in the sixties) I was brought up to believe the Police were there to help you, but don't you dare bring the Police to our door!! My Parents had very firm views on the Police. You rang them in an emergency only, but then where we lived we had no phone, but the Police had a regular beat and they knew the local bobby. My father had many tales to tell about growing up in the East End of London and how the local policeman took him home having clipped his ear for some misdemeanour only for his Mother or his older siblings (his father having died when he was very young) to inflict further punishment for bringing shame to the house. My mother lived in Leicester and her attitude was very much the same. She would have died from embarrassment if the Police had taken her home for any reason!!
So, when I had a minor traffic accident when riding my bike when I was about 8 or 9 and the local Policeman scooped me off the road, dealt with the car driver, and took me home, I was more worried about what my parents would say about a Policeman bringing me home rather than the state of my bike! Needless to say, I was re-assured by the Policeman and indeed my parents were more concerned about me than my bike! The man who ran me over came round later that night to check I was OK and paid for the repairs to my bike. Can't imagine that happening today.
I remember in my Junior School every four years they did a week-long whole school project on one of the Emergency Services, and in my time, it was the Police. We had visits from all sorts of policemen and women, the uniform has changed over the years hasn't it? I do remember one visit in particular. It was from a dog handler. He brought his dog with him, a huge German Shepherd. This dog padded around the classroom while we asked questions, we could pet him, and he did some basic exercises on the playground like a retrieve and then he chased a baddy.
Fast forward 45 years. The training for these dogs must have changed. Not too long ago we had a dog handler and his dog visit our Cub Pack. The Cubs couldn't touch the dog, and she wasn't allowed off the lead!
The attitude to the Police seems to have changed over the years. I can remember being shocked at the murders of PC Blakelock and WPC Fletcher, when the two Manchester WPC's were killed I was shocked again, my sons seemed to just shrug their shoulders and say, well I guess it is part of the risks of their job – I was shocked again.
When my oldest son was in the Junior School I discovered he had a bundle of sweets in his sleeve following a visit to a local shop. I knew I hadn't bought them. I was horrified. We went back to the shop, who were very understanding, and then I took him to the local Police Station. I asked them to frighten him rigid so he wouldn't do it again. The Sergeant gently told me that it wasn't what they did anymore, and he spoke to my son about the wrong he had done and the possible consequences. Water off a ducks back. His father was so disappointed in him, and his response had a far greater effect. I hit the roof and shouted and yelled!! The shame of it all.
So imagine my horror when my youngest son several years later rang me from a local supermarket to say he had been caught shop lifting. Having stupidly accepted a dare to lift a bottle of Jack Daniels from a local supermarket whose policy was always to call the police, he walked out of the store behind the security guard! Not exactly the smartest of moves. I was told by the police officer to moderate my behaviour as I ripped into my son for being so stupid, for doing something illegal, and for being a prat. I shut up immediately, scared that I would be in trouble too for trying to discipline my son.
We had mixed messages about what was to happen to him. Several phone calls from and to the station, then the courts, then the station again over a period of weeks and he ended up with a warning. So a trip to the Station again. I was in tears, my youngest son – he took it all in, apologised and appeared to be upset by what he had done. Again, he was more scared about what his father would say than anything the police could do to him.
This attitude puzzles me. Why is he more scared of his father (who has never laid a hand on him) than a police man?
I know who scares me more. In an age of Taser, armed police, and everything else, the programmes on the tv showing a portion of police life. The Police try hard to walk a very difficult line, some of them don't help themselves. Others are caring beyond the call of duty. I am full of admiration for those who run towards danger while others run away. However, I dread the Police turning up at my doorstep, because they can only bring bad news
Thank you for doing a difficult job. I couldn't do it. I might have been able to do it some 40 years ago, but not now!


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Charlotte is just days away from becoming the entertainment capital of the world for the weekend when NBA All-Star 2019 rolls into town.With Friday, Saturday and Sunday all littered with official NBA All-Star Weekend Events, the Queen City will be the place to be from February 15 through 17.
But here's where the fun may be ruined: hotel rooms throughout the city are, and will continue to be, expensive in order to accommodate for the max influx of people flooding into North Carolina's biggest city.
With NBA officials, players, media members and more coming into Charlotte for the event, there's less availability for those still aiming to join in on the action as a fan.
But this is where the bad news gets turned on its head. NBA Premium, an Official Hospitality Provider, has secured hotel access in the Charlotte area and is pairing the hotel accommodations with NBA All-Star 2019 tickets. This means that the hotel access is not fluctuating on the supply and demand curve, and is staying at a fair price.
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Charlotte — Uptown
1 Mile from the Spectrum Center
If you're looking to snag a hotel room within walking distance of the Spectrum Center and for a reasonable price, look no further than the DoubleTree in Uptown. Located in the heart of uptown Charlotte's Gateway Village, this boutique-style hotel has everything you need for access to NBA All-Star 2019. Also — upon arrival and departure — the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Charlotte is just a seven mile drive away from the Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Charlotte includes amenities like complimentary standard WiFi, an outdoor pool, a 24-hour business center, lounge and restaurant. All hotel rooms come with work space areas and a 37-inch flat-screen TV.
From this location you can easily walk to Bank of America Stadium, BB&T Ballpark, Discovery Place, the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the AvidXChange Music Factory.
Check In: February 16
Check Out: February 18
Rooms for either one or two occupants
DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel Charlotte — Southpark
6.2 Miles from the Spectrum Center
Enjoy NBA All-Star 2019 from the only all-suite, full-service hotel in SouthPark. The DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Hotel Charlotte SouthPark takes you away from the direct uptown scene, offering you a more relaxed dining and shopping experience in the SouthPark area.
The Doubletree Suites by Hilton Hotel Charlotte SouthPark includes Garden Courtyard and Garden Pavilion access, an outdoor pool, a 24-hour business center, and The Market Cafe and Banker's Club Lounge on the lobby level of hotel.
From this location you can access SouthPark Mall, the Village at SouthPark and Phillips Place — all within walking distance.
Check In: February 15
Check Out: February 18
Rooms for either one or two occupants
Want NBA All-Star 2019 Tickets?
Get everything you need for NBA All-Star 2019 — tickets, hospitality and hotel accommodations — in one package with NBA Premium. We still have NBA All-Star 2019 ticket packages available, but they are going fast as the weekend approaches. Make sure to attend State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, the 68th Annual NB All-Star Game and other All-Star Weekend Events with NBA Premium.


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Just the title of the film is enough to conjure up visions of a distant, longed-for past. Though perhaps not the greatest of the old Hollywood black-and-white films—that honor would probably fall to Citizen Kane-—Casablanca may be the most loved. When someone says, "They don't make movies like they used to," it is a good bet that Casablanca is the film they're measuring against the disappointing present. Unlike many other great successes, Casablanca's popularity is well deserved. The film is deeply intelligent and functions both as a political allegory about World War II and a timeless romance. While many critics respect the film for the former achievement, the film's overwhelming popularity rests squarely on the latter, and Casablanca remains one of the greatest love stories in movie history.
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Actor Varun Dhawan on Thursday unveiled the first official look of his character Zafar from upcoming period drama "Kalank".
"It's been a hell of a journey playing this gem of a character. So guys, meet Zafar," he tweeted along with a poster of the film in which he can be seen in intense look, having smudged kohl eyes, pierced ears and long tresses.
Even other stars of the film including Madhuri Dixit Nene, Alia Bhatt and Sonakshi Sinha introduced Varun's character.
Alia described Varun's character as "fearless in love, fearless for love". Sonakshi called Zafar "the flamboyant hero of our larger-than-life world".
Sharing a glimpse of Zafar, filmmaker Karan Johar said that Zafar "flirts with life and danger".
Earlier, Karan posted an emotional post about the film saying "Kalank" was very close to his heart as it was the last film on which his father, the late Yash Johar, worked on.
"A film that was born in my heart and mind 15 years ago… A film I passionately believe in… the last film my father worked on before he left us. It was his dream to see this film come through.
"I couldn't fulfil his dream then, my spirit was broken, but today his wish has found a relationship with celluloid. The story of turbulent relationships and eternal love has found a voice… Set in the 1940s, but its heart lives on. I am excited, anxious and emotional about this one."
Directed by Abhishekh Varman, "Kalank" also features Sanjay Dutt and Aditya Roy Kapoor. It is scheduled to release on April 19.


text: 'I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the world' – Albert Einstein I've seen the above quote numerous times, although it's usually only the Imagination is more important than knowledge bit. It's a real Einstein quote, unlikeContinue reading Can knowledge get in the way of creativity?


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Some solutions to the health-care worker shortage are coming from all fronts.
Employers have boosted their recruitment efforts, formed partnerships with colleges and have expanded imternships, opening the doors for more students to learn the profession.
Aurora Health Center has expanded its recruitment efforts. It now has more interns performing jobs in various departments in its hospital system. Officials say the interns are able to perform work tasks almost right away because of upgraded equipment and techniques on the college campuses.
"We have about 250 students per year that do their clinical rotations," said Matt Braun, an Aurora spokesman. "With additional departments and clinics, it's likely another 50 to 100 students per year from local colleges and universities receive training at Aurora Health Care facilities in Kenosha, Racine and northern Illinois."
Many students who complete their clinicals are offered jobs upon graduation, often in the areas where they obtained their clinical experience.
Caitlin Busse was hired right after doing her clinical in the radiology department.
While she could have selected another employer, she chose to work at Aurora's Kenosha hospital because she liked the friendly work environment.
"It was very welcoming," she said.
After only two weeks on the job, she was mentoring a student, Brooke Cole, who was doing a clinical in her department.
After extensive experience working with patients, Cole has made an impression, and she is considering an offer from Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa.
"There are a lot of opportunities out there," she said.
Partnering with schools
In addition to offering internships, Aurora has formed a partnership with the Kenosha Unified School District as well as Gateway Technical College and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside to introduce students to the health care field.
Another large employer, Unitedhealthcare, has taken it another step further. The UnitedHealthcare Foundation has created a $2.3 million matching grant program with Milwaukee Area Technical College to double the size of its registered nursing program over the next three years.
School officials expect to double enrollment by this fall, hire 16 new nursing program instructors, support the recruitment of low-income students and assist with placement services once students graduate.
Colleges step up
Some colleges have also expanded their curricula to accommodate more students looking to health-care professions.
Carthage College recently established a four-year nursing program, a first for the school. Frank Hicks, director of the nursing department, said the curriculum would fill a critical need for more nurses.
Gateway has expanded its nursing program to include simulation laboratories and classroom space.
"We're doing what we can to prepare people for the workforce," said Gateway's Anne Wilkinson, interim dean of nursing. "We have a very robust student support system."
Earlier this month, Herzing University hosted a symposium and announced that it was expanding its nursing program by enhancing simulation labs and by offering evening nursing classes to accommodate more students.