Every man woman and child in this country should have health insurance but for some people it is nearly impossible to get health insurance. People with serious pre-existing medical conditions may have a difficult time getting coverage. This article will give some tips and suggestions that will help the uninsurable obtain health insurance.

If an insurance company turns you down for coverage due to a pre-existing medical condition there is usually a period of time that must go by before they will issue a health insurance policy. This time period is known as an exclusionary period. In 1996 The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was passed and one of the things that this law does for people is to reduce the exclusionary period. However for some people that work in very small companies or are self-employed this law does not apply. These people must find another way to obtain health insurance.

People over the age of 65 can apply for Medicare and low income individuals can apply for Medicaid but this still leaves a large number of people that will find it very difficult to find health insurance. For people who cannot benefit from The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Medicare, or Medicaid there are a few more options.

Many states sponsor health insurance pools which these uninsurable individuals can buy into. You can learn more about these by contacting your state insurance commissioner for more information as the details vary greatly from state to state.

Another option is to contact insurance agents and ask for a referral to a company that may take on high-risk individuals. You may also contact the Patient Advocate foundation to ask for referrals and possibly even get financial assistance to help with the high co-payments.

Of course if you’re already insured you can choose to stay with your present company or go with a new company if you want to, but low cost or cheaper rates may be a good reason to switch to another company. You also need to find out if it’s possible to make your monthly or quarterly payments online. This can save you a lot of hassle and avoid cancellation of your insurance because you can pay early and know they have received your payment, where sometimes by mail payments get lost. You’ll want to make sure that you have full coverage or at least the coverage you basically need in your insurance policy and that the insurance agents will be easy to contact at their office or home most of the time.

You definitely want to compare insurance policy features; compare the wide range of deductibles that are offered and compare the level of coverage they provide, they can vary quite a bit. When you’re doing your research you’ll want to check out the companies rates, the types of coverage they provide you, the deductible information and any and all discounts that they have available to their customers. Once you become insured and you have an accident or theft, for example, and you need to phone your agent, you want to know that he or she will be available and ready to help you no matter what your needs are and no matter what time of the day or night it is.

A discounted insurance policy doesn’t mean that you’ll have the best car insurance policy so you’ll need to check this out carefully first; make sure to compare it with other insurance companies to make sure you’re getting the best deal. If you don’t have a good driving record you may not be able to get the deductible you want; so make an attempt to focus on trying to turn your driving record around to lower your insurance costs. If you’re more than 50 years of age, you (your spouse is included in the fee) can become a member of the American Association of Retired People (AARP) for only $12.50 a year for US residents. They deeply discount insurance and are currently affiliated with one company, thus able to give you an online cheap car insurance quote.

If you’ve always been with the same company, don’t assume you’re getting the best rate. Compare features and get quotes from other companies too. Every auto insurance company has low cost deductions; make sure to ask how you can get them. If you’re planning to buy a car, make sure you check on rates with your insurance agent first; some cars will cost you more in premium such as sports cars and cars that are frequently stolen.

Most single line and multiple line companies offer discounts and other great benefits for carrying multiple car insurance policies and other lines of insurance in the same household. You can visit insurance company websites and request free cheap car insurance quotes. You’ll need to give them basic, detailed information about your history, your current situation and what your needs are in terms of your policy.

It’s usually a simple process to get a free online quote and should only take a few minutes or so. Make sure to check out the online discount car insurance brokers who can give you fast online cheap quotes from several companies.

Make sure to find out what a company can do for you in terms of discounts to determine if you’re getting the best quotes. And compare, compare and compare again; get as many quotes as you can find time for and you should be able to come up with some of the best, free, online, cheap car insurance quotes. Remember you want the best value, quality car insurance with the cheapest auto insurance rates and the best customer service.

- The plans pay up to 60% of regular income, however, all benefits are fully taxable, reducing take-home pay to roughly 42% of your standard paycheck.

- Group benefits are commonly reduced based income from other sources such as federal Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Worker’s Compensation, or any plan/program toward which the employer contributes or makes payroll deductions.

- Group coverage has monthly benefits limits, usually in the $5,000 range (before taxes). If your annual salary is more than ~$70,000, you will find benefits from your disability insurance to be woefully less, even though the policy is paying a maximum benefit.

- Read the fine print! Group policies can include exclusions or limited coverage for specific situations such as mental or nervous-related conditions. Coverage for alcohol or drug-related disabilities can be limited to as short as 6 months or excluded altogether.

While such policies often have these and other limitations, group coverage can provide an excellent foundation for proper income protection at a very low monthly cost.

The problem is that many people assume group coverage is the entire answer when, in fact, it is just a beginning.

“People think because they deduct a few bucks from their paycheck each time that they’re covered if they can’t work.”, explains Rene Apack, President of Insure Your Future, the nation’s leading independent disability insurance brokerage. “It’s only after the first disability income check that the hard reality sets in, and by then, supplemental coverage is no longer an option.”

Supplemental disability insurance is coverage purchased to fill in the gaps found with the group disability insurance offered by your employer.

A supplemental disability insurance policy can reduce your risk of severe income loss in several ways:

• Policies can be written to extend your income coverage to 100% very affordably.

• Because you pay the premium, all benefits received via the supplemental policy are tax-free.

• Gaps in coverage identified by your insurance agent can be specifically closed in the supplemental policy.

• While group coverage ends when you leave your employer, supplemental coverage remains with you regardless of for whom you work.

Depending on your group policy, a supplemental policy can be further customized to fit coverage to your specific needs.

Apack continues, “The most affordable disability coverage available is supplemental insurance. We have clients that pay less than $60 per month for coverage that shores up their group disability to cover 100% of their regular income and closes gaps in their employer’s policy.”

Income Protection Takes Planning

Supplemental insurance can be a viable, affordable solution for couples planning to have a child as well. The number one cause of missing work for 180 or less consecutive days (i.e., short term disability) is pregnancy. The second leading cause of long term disability (over 180 days) is also pregnancy, both before and after delivery.

Future moms can apply for insurance supplemental to their group coverage prior to becoming pregnant as a hedge against missing work during the maternity months. Once back at work, the option exists to continue the coverage or let it expire.

The key to protecting a household’s cash flow during and after pregnancy is for the future mom to get supplemental coverage before getting pregnant. Once pregnant, the disability benefits insurance companies offer disappear.

“We literally get 2-3 calls per day from women that are already pregnant looking for disability insurance. We’d love to sell them a policy but the dozen or so major carriers we work with have no such coverage,” explains Apack.

Don’t let your group disability benefits insurance give you a false sense of security. It’s cheap and it’s easy…but it’s just a start! True income protection can be affordably achieved by strengthening your group policy with supplemental disability insurance.

1. Start at affordability. It is easy to think insurance should cover every need and contingency. Remember, it is there to keep you from going into debt, not to put you in debt. Set a budget that makes sense and do the best you can within that framework.

2. Proceed to your existing physician. If you have a good relationship with your current doctor and want to continue seeing him or her, your choices may be limited for individual health insurance. Find out if your doctor is affiliated with an HMO (Health Maintenance Organization), PPO (Preferred Provider Organization), POS (Point of Service), or IPA (Individual Practice Association). If your doctor is in one network, then your decision is simple. If he or she is in more than one, you can weight other plan features. If your doctor is not in any network, you will need a “fee-for-service” or indemnity plan. Under this plan, you go to any doctor or hospital you wish. An indemnity plan normally will cover only a percentage of the changes—usually 80 percent. You are responsible for the other 20 percent. The insurance company also sets its own “usual and customary” rates for services. If your doctor charges more than the usual and customary rate, you will have to make up the difference.

3. Signal your health issues. You will need to inform the insurer of any medical conditions for which you have been diagnosed or treated. The insurer will consider these “pre-existing” conditions. If you were joining a group policy, the insurance company would be required by law to cover the pre-existing condition without a waiting period, assuming you had insurance coverage in the previous twelve months. When you are buying individual health insurance coverage, however, the insurance company has the right to declare a waiting period for payments related to the pre-existing condition or to decline to cover you at all. Five states have made denial of coverage illegal. Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Vermont all have adopted “guarantee issue” laws that make insurance companies offer health insurance to everyone regardless of their medical conditions. Other states have created insurance “pools” that provide coverage to high-risk individuals.

4. Slow down for prescription drugs. If you have found two or more plans that are comparable, take a moment to review their prescription drug benefits. Some plans cover medications immediately, requiring nothing more than a co-payment. Other plans do not pay for prescription drugs until the annual deductible has been met. Be sure to compare the co-payment amounts to see what the difference would be, especially over time. Most insurance companies cover medications on a non-preferred for name brand drugs, but others cover only generic brands (when available). If name brands are important to you, make sure you choose the plan that offers them.

5. Watch for falling taxes. If someone wanted to hand you a check for $2,539, would you take it? That is what the Uncle Sam is doing with Health Savings Accounts. You can deposit up to $5,650 into a Health Savings Account (HSA), sheltering it from as much as 9.3% in state income tax, 28% in federal income tax, and 7.65% in Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax. That is a total tax savings of 44.95%, or $2,539 out of a $5,650 contribution. The HSA contribution rolls over from year to year, and remains tax-free, provided you withdraw the funds after age 65 or use them for medical expenses. In addition, the earnings on HSA funds are tax-deferred. To open an HSA, you must enroll in a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), with minimum deductibles of $1,100 for an individual or $2,200 for a family. The deductibles are paid with untaxed dollars from the HSA account, increasing your buying power. Because of the high deductible amount, the monthly premium is low, making an HDHP plan an attractive option for many people.

By following this roadmap, you should arrive at a choice that is relatively simple to make.

Why travel insurance?
When you are away from home even the most minor injuries or illnesses can become a major expense. So while an accident or illness can happen anywhere at anytime, emergency medical travel insurance helps to protect you from the unexpected costs that can come with a visit to a doctor or hospital outside of your home country.

Out of country medical expenses are costly.
The cost of medical treatments and services abroad can be staggering. Even the most minor injury or illness could cost you thousands of dollars. Consider the following example provided by a leading Canadian travel insurance provider - the total cost of medical expenses for a 44-year-old who accidentally fell from a ledge was a staggering $457,370. His provincial health plan only covered $29,149, which means that, without emergency medical travel coverage he would have been $428,221 out-of-pocket.

Your provincial health plan may not cover the bill.
Many travellers don’t realize that their provincial health plan doesn’t cover all the costs of medical treatments received outside Canada. At best, your health plan may cover a small portion of your medical emergency costs.

A flight home may not be an option.
Medical evacuation can easily cost more than $10,000, depending on your location and medical condition.

The good news is that even the most basic emergency medical policies can cost as little as $13 dollars a week and provide coverage for emergency medical treatment and services such as:

§ Hospitalization
§ Ambulance services
§ Lab tests
§ X-rays
§ Prescription drugs
§ Emergency flights home

In addition, more comprehensive packages can be purchased that include:

§ Transportation of a relative to your bedside
§ Dental accidents
§ Vehicle return
§ Out-of-pocket expenses
§ Childcare attendant
§ Meals and accommodation
§ Pet return
§ Baggage loss or damage

However, you should be aware that emergency medical travel insurance policies do have exclusions, which is why it’s important to read through the coverage details carefully.

Common travel insurance exclusions
In general, most emergency medical policies do not cover the cost of medical treatment for accidents, injuries or illnesses caused by or related to the following conditions or activities:

§ Professional Sports
§ Elective treatment or surgery
§ Alcohol or drug use
§ Pre-existing conditions
§ Mental, emotional or nervous disorders
§ Speed contests or organized motor contests

In addition, most basic emergency medical policies do not provide coverage for or have significant restrictions on the following activities or events:

§ Scuba diving, sky diving, rock climbing etc.
§ Pregnancy/Childbirth
§ War or Terrorism

If you plan to participate in any sports or activities similar to the ones highlighted above you should speak to a travel insurance representative to get more information on any exclusions or conditions. Additional coverage may be available for certain activities.

Finally, some travel insurance savings tips

§ Don’t accept the first package you’re offered. Travel insurance policies can vary by over 100% for similar coverage. By doing a little legwork, you could save a lot of money.
§ Don’t feel pressured into buying a policy from your travel agent. Although you may save a little time by buying your policy through your travel agent, it is unlikely you’ll get your policy at the best price.
§ If you are a frequent traveller consider purchasing an annual policy. If you plan to take more than one trip this year, buying an annual policy instead of a single trip policy could save you both time and money.

Before you leave, get emergency medical travel insurance quotes from competing insurers online and get the coverage you need. Compare emergency medical travel insurance today!

Lives disabled in one year per 100,000 active lives exposed
Age disability
1. Age of 22 to 26
Out of 100,000 participants 3923, 664, 75, 51, 27, 16 are still disabled at the end of 1 , 3 , 6 month(s) and 1, 2, 5, 10 year(s) accordingly.

2. Age of 27 to 31
Out of 100,000 participants 3877, 657, 72, 52, 29, 19 are still disabled at the end of 1 , 3 , 6 month(s) and 1, 2, 5, 10 year(s) accordingly.

3. Age of 32 to 36
Out of 100,000 participants 4372, 778, 91, 63, 39, 26 are still disabled at the end of 1 , 3 , 6 month(s) and 1, 2, 5, 10 year(s) accordingly.

4. Age of 37 to 41
Out of 100,000 participants 5029, 981, 119, 87, 45, 38 are still disabled at the end of 1 , 3 , 6 month(s) and 1, 2, 5, 10 year(s) accordingly.

5. Age of 42 to 45
Out of 100,000 participants 5895,1257, 172, 129, 85, 60 are still disabled at the end of 1 , 3 , 6 month(s) and 1, 2, 5, 10 year(s) accordingly.

6. Age of 46 to 52
Out of 100,000 participants 6918,1676, 283, 219, 148, 105 are still disabled at the end of 1 , 3 , 6 month(s) and 1, 2, 5, 10 year(s) accordingly.

7. Age of 53 to 56
Out of 100,000 participants 8158 , 2239, 463, 372, 260, 178 still disabled at the end of 1 , 3 , 6 month(s) and 1, 2, 5, 10 year(s) accordingly.

8. Age of 57 to 61
Out of 100,000 participants 9816,3110, 842, 707, 501, 328 still disabled at the end of 1 , 3 , 6 month(s) and 1, 2, 5, 10 year(s) accordingly.

9. Age of 62 and beyond
Out of 100,000 participants 11737, 4420, 1491, 1286, 910, 558 still disabled at the end of 1 , 3 , 6 month(s) and 1, 2, 5, 10 year(s) accordingly.

I hope this information will help. If you need more information of the above subject, please visit my home page at:
http://disabilityinsurance17.blogspot.com/
http://lifeanddisabitityinsuranceunderwriter.blogspot.com/
http://businessdisabilityinsurance.blogspot.com/

All rights reserved. Any reproducing of this article must have all the links intact.

In this paper I will discuss the phenomenon of using native English teachers in the Middle East region, precisely in United Arab Emirates in the context of EFL in the public primary schools. In this discussion I will examine the reasons beyond such a phenomenon. I will also examine the attitude of native and non-native speaker teachers who teach English language along with students’ parents’ attitudes. Moreover, I will link “communicative imperialism” (Phillipson, 2006) and the role of the media with the context of EFL in the Middle East region. Due to the natural of my paper, a “self reflective” (Pennycook, 2001: p.1) and previous experiences of other countries are expected to be present.

ELT in United Arab Emirates has witnessed an extraordinary revolution in the last 6 years. My interest of this issue emerged simultaneity with the appearance of a new type of schools which are gradually replacing the ordinary public schools in UAE. This type is called (Al-Ghad schools) which literally means “tomorrow schools” in Arabic. It clearly indicates the main purpose of these schools is to produce more sophisticated, moderated and competitive students. The vision of ministry of Education and Youth in UAE as what they declared is “to have a new generation who is more capable of English language and its vocabulary and grammar skills”, in other words “we need a generation who speaks English as it is his or her first language”, thus to achieve this goal teachers who “have a better command of fluent, idiomatically correct language forms, are more knowledgeable about the cultural connotations of the language” (Braine, 1999: p.xiv) are needed. In order to make this vision alive, a huge number of native English teachers had been brought from areas such as “North America, Britain, new Zealand and Australia which claim ownership over English”( Canagarajah, 1999: p.79). Furthermore, to support this vision, some authorized sources in the government argue that this new methodology of teaching is the best in teaching English which enables the students to acquire the language very easy and smoothly. Schiitz (2007) cites Krashen’s (1987) view that acquisition any language requires meaningful interaction in the target language (natural communication) thus, language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules because learners grow up learning the language as it is something very natural in their life without an effort, especially at the beginning levels of their life. Moreover, Boyle (1997) illustrates that native speaker teachers have a range of advantages over the non-native speaker teachers because (a) English learned from birth and developed through his/her life as primary language which been used in his/her life (b) the intricacies of the grammar of the language are learned instinctively and can be employed with speed and certainty (c) native speaker of English engages with other native speakers of English as something natural in his/her social context, so he/she uses the language all the time as the dominant language, thus it is better to use native speaker teachers of English to teach their first language. Additionally, McNeill (1994) in his study about the characteristics of native and non-native speaker teachers of English argues that native speaker teachers have the advantage when it comes to learners’ vocabulary needs. It is sensible to point here; the government is replacing non-native speaker teachers with native speaker teachers of English gradually in order to provide their students with the opportunity to hold conversations with teachers in English, and only in English.

On the other hand, Al-segair (2007) who works as a teacher in a prestigious university in the Middle East illustrates that in his investigation about native speaker teachers in the Middle East, “I found some of them used to work as dog-trainers back in Chicago” (paragraph, 2). He also pointed out that some teachers were “a bunch of former company employees and some had worked in western embassies” (paragraph, 2) who did not work as teachers before. Al-segair thus explains that not because you are a native speaker of a language qualifies you to teach it! Teaching a language requires “skills, competence, training and knowledge” (paragraph, 3). Going further in this issue, Al-Osaimi (2007) illustrates that some schools do not bother to recruit qualified English teachers, however, parents usually more impressed by where did teachers come from and the fact that their accent sounds more ‘American or British’ considered to be enough to convince them that they are the most suitable teachers to teach their children, regardless what they have of qualifications or experiences. Such criteria forced me to wonder why such thinking is dominant in the region.

America and its Politics play a major part in all of this. The American tenet that “the current educational systems in place in the Muslim world were partly responsible for motivating the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the pentagon. In June 2002” (Karmani, 2005:p.262), thus in order to change their attitude towards the western and the American culture, a new concept should be replaced with what is described as a “combination of intolerance, ignorance, anti-Semitic, anti-American, and anti-Western views” (Karmani, 2005: p.262) by using native speaker teachers as means to apply this project.  By importing native speaker teachers of English from what Kachru calls “inner circle countries” (Kachru & Nelson, 1996: p. 78) with westerns’ beliefs and values, a new Americanized generation would be the total outcome. In simple words, educational or mind colonialism and “linguistics imperialism” (Phillipson, 2006: p.346) are the main goals in such invasion of native speaker teachers at the Middle East region.

Searching for its alleged security:

Handley (2004) mentions that in the late 1700s, America was surrounded by great European superpowers, thus America was “economically and militarily disadvantaged” (Hadley, 2004). Therefore, to build a strong and superpower nation, America must expand its borders by negotiation or war. The American citizens had been convinced that the world and America’s national security always in danger, so in order to protect the world and America, any country that threats us should be attacked. Furthermore, “lack of expansion implies the possibility of defeat” thus, “American insecurity was an important factor in the invasions of Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Philippines” (Hadley, 2004) in the past. Other form of such American fears is the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) which was a proposal by the American president Roland Reagan in March 23, 1983. The main goal of this proposal as what Wikipedia illustrates is “to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles”. This proposal carried the popular name “Star Wars” in 1977 after movie by George Lucas. According to Handley, the Star Wars program is an expansion of America’s continued need searching for its national safety “by now expanding its borders into outer space” (Handley, 2004 cited Mauk and Oakland, 154), moreover, the recent invasions on Iraq and Afghanistan interpreted by a large number of American citizens is they had been convinced that America’s national security was threatened. Thus, in order to assure that no one threats America’s security in the future, a new ways of domination and controlling should take place in areas such as Eastern Asia, Africa and the Middle East not only military, but also as media and academic occupation.

The role of Media in the Middle East:

No one can deny the strong role played by Media in any place in the world. America tries to impose its policies and its ideologies in the Middle East whether by using force or not. In order to dominate the region, the American beliefs should be promoted in the area. Phillipson (2006) argues that the development of communications networks has a basic relationship to the emergence of the new world order. He illustrates that “communication organizes the movement by multiplying and structuring interconnections through networks” (p. 352). Thus, in order to dominate a particular country and its culture, you must control its media and what is being showed to the people inside their homes.  A controversially television network channels like MBC group (Middle East Broadcasting Center) and Alhurra (means the ‘free one’ in Arabic) had emerged in the Middle East and dedicate the lion’s share in Middle Easterners’ minds and homes. Such channels can be seen by some people as mediums to spread the American’s plans and principles in the region using another means beside tanks and rockets. Alhurra is a commercial-free Arabic language satellite television network for the Middle East operated and funded by the United States of America. This channel is financed by the American people using their taxes through the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the U.S. Congress. Many Arab political critics argue that this channel lunched to change the views of Arabs and Muslims around the world towards the west and America by showing football games, explaining the acetic dimensions of baseball and airing documentaries about the ‘fence’ in Palestine, along with doses of fashion. Alhurra in its official web site claims that:

“We are devoted primarily to news and information. In addition to reporting on regional and international events, the channel broadcasts discussion programs, current affairs magazines and features on a variety of subjects including health and personal fitness, entertainment, sports, fashion, and science and technology” (Alhurra official web site).

Give me a break! In order to facilitate TESOLers’ jobs who came from inner circle countries, an anesthetization of Middle Easterners’ hearts and minds must be done so people can accept these teachers with a positive attitude and a wide smile on their faces. People in the Middle East must be convinced that they are not proficient enough to teach English, thus teachers their first language is English must take over and teach English for your child’s own benefit. According to Phillipson (2006) media is not only organize production on a new scale and force a new structure sufficient to global space, but also make its justification inherent power, as it “produces, organizes, as it organizes, it speaks and expresses it self as authority” (p. 352). Why I would pay my good money to fund an Arabic channel such as Alhurra when I cannot earn money from it. Alhurra in its web site mentions that “Alhurra is operated by non-profit corporation, The Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. (MBN)” (Alhurra official web site). The Arabic satellite dish contains more than 300 free entertainment channels which can be accessed by Arabs from any place in the Middle East with more than 6 news channels such as Al-jazeera, CNN and BBC. Therefore, the purpose of such channels is that the American government can trade its citizen’s money with its future security by dominating and directing Arab youths’ minds and beliefs toward its own interest, by providing ‘a purely American Arabic speaker’ channel. The other case is MBC group channels which “started in London as the first satellite, free-to-air multi-channel media group of its kind in the Arab world” (MBC official web site). Al-Arabiya (means the ‘Arabian channel’ in Arabic) which is one channel from the MBC 6 free channels specialized with news and press. The reason behind the emergence of such channel has been declared by the people work there is to have a democratic channel which fights Aljazeera’s thoughts (an Arabic news channel) and its anti-democratic trends. Since Al-jazeera has been described by many Westerner politicians as anti-American bias, thus we need a channel against any anti-American thoughts in the Middle East region. According to Ryan (2005) Donald Rumsfeld has accused the station of persuading people that the US is an occupying force in Iraq, which he describes as a lie! On the contrary, the expansion into Iraq was to “brought freedom, economic growth, education and democracy to people who have suffered under years of oppression and mismanagement” (Hadley, 2004 quoted Assistance for Iraq). As a result, America is trying to Americanize the Arabic society the same way as she Americanized the Japanese society after the World War ll. Therefore, the road will be paved for native English teachers when they come to teach the ‘Western values’.

The world of TESOL and the native speaker teacher of English:

To impose the American ideologies in the Middle East, America promoted very well the teaching job for the native speaker teachers of English by promising them with “ good salaries and an exotic overseas adventure” (Hadley, 2004). According to Hadley many scholars such as Troike and Crystal have linked the expansion of TESOL to the expansion of former British and present American empire. Furthermore, native English teachers serve as “part of the educational aid packages exported to countries throughout South America, South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East” (Hadley, 2004) who work as colonial administrators. Handley in his paper cited Edge’s view that EFL teachers have become an academic army that satisfies intellectual conflict and occupies the linguistic dominions of an Anglophonic empire:

“…it is now possible to see us, EFL teachers, as a second wave of imperial troopers. Before the armoured divisions have withdrawn from the city limits, while the solders are still patrolling the streets, English teachers will be facilitating the policies that the tanks were sent to impose. And whether, and to whomsoever, I teach EFL, I am part of that overarching system” (Hadley, 2004 quoted from Edge, 10)

 Karmani (2005) argues that an extraordinary pressure has been put on Muslim governments to reform their educational curricula.  A very interesting article by Glasser (2003) who works for the Washington Post illustrates that many Arabic Gulf countries reshape their schools and put English over Islam, so in order to make way for more hours of English, classes in Islamic studies and Arabic are being reduced. A new stuff of native English speaker teachers has been brought into the schools of United Arab Emirates to teach the students from early ages. What is interesting is that the native speaker teachers are brought from inner countries as experts who do not need any preparing or training. They are who design the textbooks, monitoring the non-native speaker teachers and deciding who should stay and who should not stay in the school. However, American policies had succeeded in this country. Almost every non-native speaker teacher convinced that the native speaker teachers are better than non-native speaker teachers in English and this system is the best to teach the students this language even if they do not have the required qualifications, because English is their first language. This persuasion created negative outcomes with less positive results. In such schools a world full of racial discrimination in job opportunity, payment and respect has emerged. Non-native speaker teacher is no longer trusted by parents and his or her students. The native speaker teacher’s salary must be double than the non-native speaker teacher as one condition to import these teachers. Moreover, they must be provided with luxury accommodations, free transportations and first class annual flight tickets to their mother land. Of course, these conditions had been set by the American government to ensure that their citizens are treated well. Such conditions are imposed against governments’ wish in the Middle East region. What is ironic is that even if you have an American passport or you are a citizen from inner countries and you were not white or you were originally from Arabic country, you may not have these facilities! In some cases your contract might be cancelled even after you have signed the contract if your original identity has been discovered.

Conclusion:

In order to achieve the maximum domination on the Middle East and to make sure that no anti-American bases are exist in the region. Moreover, to insure that what happened in September 11, 2001 is not going to happen again, an American political equation must be applied, first, using the tank to impose the power. Second, programming youth’s minds and their views on what America ‘believes in’ is right. Third, teach the child what is against America is against you in the classrooms. It is not a coincidence that the emergence of (Al-Ghad) schools was after only one year from the dramatic events of September 11, 2001. It is not a coincidence that the reform of the educational curricula implemented after September 11, 2001. It is not also a coincidence that, channels like Alhurra and Al-Arabiya had been lunched after what happened in September 11 in 2001 which they are now based in Dubai, in United Arab Emirates. However, no one can disagree that Middle East countries need skilled and experienced workers and teachers from developed countries such as America, and Britain, but a direct supervising to those employees must be done by Middle Eastern countries that brought those experts and pay their salaries from their money for a preset goal. According to Fields (2005) who is a native speaker teacher of English works in Abu-Dhabi, UAE, teachers should be hired based on their qualifications to work in an atmosphere of fairness and respect, free from fear of discriminatory treatment or arbitrary dismissal because of their ethnicity, whether they were native or non-native speaker teachers of English.

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Reference:

Alhurra, 2005, ‘About us’. Available from: http://www.alhurra.com/sub.aspx?id=266 [Accessed 12 Jun 2008]

Al-Osaimi, N., 2007. English Teachers Not Always Qualified [online]. Arab News. Available from:http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=104142&d=30&m=11&y=2007. [Accessed 17 May 2008]

Al-Segair, K., 2007. Only Native Speakers as English Teachers! [online]. Arab News. Available from:

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article=101526&d=22&m=9&y=2007. [Accessed 17 May 2008]

Boyle, J., 1997. ‘Native-speaker teachers of English in Hong Kong’. Language and Education vol. 11, No.3

Braine, G., 1999, Introduction, in G. Braine (Ed), Non-Native Educators in

English Language Teaching, Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum,

pp.xiii-xx

Canagarajah, A. S., 1999, Interrogating the “Native Speaker” Fallacy:

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Our first real meeting with our Sales Manager is a brainstorming session to figure out who to network, who to call, basically how to get you in front of as many people as possible, so that you may put all your new found knowledge to the test and hopefully stumble across someone who knows less than you and you make a sale.

You are typically encouraged to buy a mortgage list and mass mail, to join the Chamber of Commerce and attend their networking luncheons and after-hour events, to talk to members of your Church, or even join one if you are not currently a member, and solicit every person in your family and all of their friends.

Sound familiar?

What the more experienced and successful Insurance Agents and Financial Planners know; is that in order to be successful, you need to narrow your focus. Knowing a little bit about everything can actually do more harm to your success and your client, then knowing a lot about one or two specific products or services. Why? Because of the many nuances of the products and services out today are more detailed and comprehensive than a quick glance will educate us on.

Some people stumble into their niche, meaning they never even knew that type of service was offered and for some reason found a knack for discussing its features and benefits. Some people base their niche on their age and experience. For example, it may be very difficult for a 20 year-old, fresh out of college to go into estate planning or retirement planning with the expectation that these older and wealthier people will trust their money and security to someone with so little life experience.

Why does having a niche make you successful? It gives you a focus. You spend your time searching for and discussing the benefits of your primary service all day long. You know the details of it, and you are able to successfully show a potential client how it would work and benefit them versus calling this person for mortgage insurance and that person for college planning, and this business owner over here for a group health insurance plan.

Another reason of how having a niche can help you become more successful is that your peers will perceive you as an expert. By plat forming yourself as the Disability Specialist in your office, other will come to you with split commission offers to help them secure the disability policy sale. For many, 50% of something is a LOT better than 100% of nothing. And good Sales Managers will support this type of work camaraderie.

Even the general public is more attracted to people they perceive to be experts in the services they desire, versus someone who stumbles through and attempts to answer all their questions with vague answers and “I’ll get back to you on that one”. They will come to you and refer their friends and family because of your expertise. Helping you generate referral business, more experience and a strong client base you can ultimately cross-sell additional products and services to.

Finding your specific niche and what you ultimately want to spend a large percentage of your time focused on may take many trials and errors. Be open-minded, discuss the various services and products with other “specialists” in your office, perhaps one will take you under their wing and teach you the trade. Be realistic, it will be difficult for you to engage in the emotional sale of college planning or insurance for a child if you do not have any children of your own to reference. And finally, be thorough, don’t just base your decision to pursue or not pursue a niche based on what someone else tells you or the lack of resources within your office. Investigate a product or service, its features and how you would potentially sell it to the public.

Figures discovered by the Conservative party transport department, showed that the number of drivers evading tax had increased over the last decade by 63 per cent, yet the number of people facing prosecution stood only at half. They say that back in 1999 people driving without road tax faced a one in six chance of being caught compared to more recent figures of one in twenty.

A Tory party spokesperson said, “These figures are a shocking indictment of the Government’s truly hopeless record on dealing with rogue drivers. The Government needs to get a grip on this issue. What these stats highlight is that, under this Government, things have been getting steadily worse. Rogue drivers without tax or car insurance are a menace to other road users. The direct result of Labour’s incompetence in dealing with rogue drivers is that our roads are more dangerous.”

The Department for Transport estimate that the number of untaxed cars on Britain’s roads increased over ten years from 1.33 million to 2.17 million, yet the number of successful prosecutions for car tax offences over the same time fell by almost 50 per cent from 204,606 to 103,108.

Government ministers believe this led to a £79 million loss in revenue for the period 2007-2008 alone.

An increase in foreign drivers on the UK’s highways from EU countries, mainly from Eastern Europe, has been blamed for the hike in illegal motorists. Many documents needed to acquire a tax disc are not in order which MP’s believe has contributed to the number of untaxed and uninsured cars.

The Commons public accounts committee released a report describing the Governments record on road tax and car insurance as ‘poor’ adding that they were ‘losing ground’ in the fight against people avoiding these charges and risked becoming a ‘complete laughing stock’ as the situation span out of control.

Chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, Edward Leigh MP said, “Motorists and motorcyclists who refuse to pay road tax and insurance are stealing from law abiding taxpayers.”

The RAC Foundation claimed the figures should be a wake up call for better enforcement measures. Spokeswoman Sheila Rainger said, “Motorists driving without tax are also likely to be driving uninsured and without a MoT certificate. Responsible motorists are not only picking up the tab for evaders, they are also being put at risk by them. The Government needs to boost the number of traffic police carrying out on road crackdowns, so that the motoring underclass and the hardcore tax and insurance dodgers are the ones feeling the pressure, not the law abiding motorists.”

A Department for Transport spokesman revealed that, “The DVLA and this department, together with the police and local authorities, are determined to force tax and insurance evaders off the roads. We are targeting persistent evaders and seizing 100,000 unlicensed vehicles each year. New legislation will allow police, DVLA and local authorities to take action against unlicensed vehicles even if they are not parked on public roads.”

Quality is better than quantity. It is of no use writing numerous pages of nonsense for the reader. Instead, it is better to write a short, and informative article on specific subjects like health insurance. People tend to enjoy it more.

Health insurance brokers are sought by those individuals who, for various reasons, do not belong to a group insurance policy. These individuals are often the self-employed, or those with pre-existing conditions. However, a health insurance broker will also work with the coordinators of group insurance benefits in much the same way he works with an individual. The broker is given a list of desired benefits, either by an individual or a group coordinator, and the broker shops around to find the best match. The health insurance broker then presents what he feels is the best plan based on the list of needs, and if the person or group benefits coordinator agrees, the broker usually works to get a contract signed by both parties.

Who Does the Health Insurance Broker Work For?

It’s important to understand that a health insurance broker does not work for a health insurance company. Instead, a broker makes it his business to know all about the different health insurance companies in the area including their reputations, their frequency of rate increases, and even such things as the way they treat policy holders who submit a lot of medical claims. But even though the health insurance broker is different from a health insurance company, it often does happen that a broker is given an incentive (usually a financial incentive) to recommend one health insurance company over another.

There has been a gradual introduction to the world of health insurance projected in this article. We had done this so that the actual meaning of the article will sink within you.

Nothing abusive about health insurance have been intentionally added here. Whatever it is that we have added, is all informative and productive to you.

Will it Cost More to Use a Broker?

We have not actually resorted to roundabout means of getting our message on health insurance through to you. All the matter here is genuine and to the point.

Does the cost of health insurance differ if it is secured by a broker? That’s difficult to answer in general terms. A health insurance broker might be able to get an individual included in a group plan that is offered by the state or a trade union or organization and in such a case, an applicant might find the rates are lower and the coverage better than if he had attempted directly applying via a health insurance company. Most health insurance brokers work on commission and only make money when they’ve matched up insurer and insured. That means that one party or the other (and in some cases, both parties) typically is responsible for paying the broker’s fee.

Because the rates and the rules regarding health insurance are continually changing, health insurance brokers are few and far between. Most states do have licensing requirements that brokers must meet before they’re allowed to work as a health insurance broker. And because these requirements are issued at the state level, they differ from state to state. But if you find yourself lost in the tangled web of health insurance red tape, consider working with a health insurance broker. That person might just turn out to be your best ally.