Monday, September 30, 2019
Criminal Justice in America: A Critical View Essay
Criminal justice Introduction            Criminal justice is a system of government institutions, which are tasked with upholding social control, and directed at mitigating crimes as well as sanctioning the law breakers with criminal penalties as and rehabilitation efforts as well.  Criminal justice covers a number of areas including; law enforcement, juvenile cases, correction and crime prevention. Criminal justice cases at level 200 cover a wide range of areas including policies on sentencing and practice, theories of policing and their effects criminal justice practice. As well as familiarizing with a wide range of police powers especially those involving searching and arrest powers.            The central role of law in social processes is explored under criminal justice 200, with primary legal regimes of various types being examined and compared from different national contexts as well as across different international context. Legal and non-legal reforms, those of social ordering, are contrasted; investigating human rights law in its practice and structure. Level 200 also focuses on ‘Disability studies’. Theories on how the society interprets disability and consequences in social justice. Factors and determinants that frame disability are factored. These factors include social, political, biological, cultural and economical determinants (Sheldon et al; 455).            On this paper, I will feature a case that will seek to examine how the judicial system decided to take a shift in the way juveniles were treated at trial in cases of criminal nature. The system saw it necessary to put into consideration the psychological factors, on growth of adolescents’ brains especially, when determining these cases as the aim of the system is more of reforming than punishing. Over the years, most states have believed the Juvenile system in the Judicial system is set up for public protection by providing a mechanism to respond to children who are getting into crime as they mature into adulthood. The children who commit these crimes are believed to be less dangerous and blameworthy hence the need to differentiate them from adults doing the same. States have been responsive to these differences and have in turn established separate court systems to cater for the juveniles. They have also provided separate youth-bas ed systems on service delivery that are different from those of adults.            Juvenile systems have grown remarkably since their first introduction. The first juvenile court was established in 1899 in the state of Illinois. At the time, the process was rather informal, consisting of conversations between the judge and the youth- with no legal representation for the youth. The system was aimed at creating a different probation system and replacing confinement of these youths in jails alongside the adults. A different approach to their incarceration was adopted which allowed for provision of guidance, education and supervision. All states later embraced the juvenile system including the then district of Columbia. In the year 1967, the ‘Re Gault’ landmark ruling by the Supreme Court determined the requirement of attorneys for youths in the system as well as provision of other constitutional rights like accused adults including confrontation of a witness before them. The Supreme Court later gave more consti tutional rights including undergoing trials requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt and against double jeopardy. However, some states give youths the right to trial y a jury through statutes and court rulings although the Supreme Court discouraged this (Bremna 342). Case ‘Miller v Alabama’            This case was a petition presented to the Supreme Court by the petitioner, Miller, against the state of Alabama. The case was argued on 20th March 2012 and was later decided on 25th June 2012. In this petition No. 10-9646, the petitioner by the name miller, with his friend beat up Miller’s friend seriously then continued to set his trailer on fire after a long evening of heavy drug abuse and drinking. The neighbor ended up dying. Initially, Miller had been charged by the court like juvenile, but when his case was later on removed and taken to an adult court, the court charged him with arson and murder. The jury found Miller guilty as charged and the trial court sentenced him to life without parole, which was a statutorily mandated punishment. The Alabama court dealing with appeals re-affirmed the ruling, arguing that Miller’s sentence was not even as harsh in comparison to the crime he had committed and the mandatory nature o f it was permissible according to the eighth amendment, which states that one should not be imprisoned for LWP for juvenile offenders that have committed homicide. The amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishments hence guaranteeing the defendant the right of refrain from being subjected to rather harsh sanctions. Punishment for a crime should be proportionate to both the crime and the offender. The amendment recognizes the lack of mental maturity n these youths, something that could lead to impulsiveness and recklessness as well as poor decision making (Adam 10).            This petitioned was argued and judgment given jointly with a case of the same nature, petition No. 10-9647 of ‘Jackson v Hobbs’ in which Jackson was charged with murder and thereafter sentenced to a life imprisonment with no parole. Jackson, a 14year old had taken part in a robbery where, unknown to him, one of his friends had carried a short gun with which he used to murder the clerk in the store. Jackson was charged by Arkansas as an adult with the crime of capital felony of murder alongside robbery. The jury found him guilty of both charges something that led to the sentence. The court likened life without parole to a death sentence (Adam 10).            On June 25 2012, the court gave a 5-4 ruling on the case, judging that a life imprisonment without parole was not constitutional if the accused is over the age of eighteen. The court was persistent on Graham’s foundational principle that states that the child status must be taken into account when passing such harsh judgments. Regardless of the crime committed, such severe penalties on juveniles cannot go on as if they were not children. The court also directed that sentences of life imprisonment without granting parole as such should be rare. The vulnerability of the children was taken into account as well as their high capability to change in the future and become better persons. The ruling would certainly have an after effect, especially on those whose sentencing did not take into account age and other mitigating factors (Adam 10).            This decision would see at least half of the states in America change their statutes on handling juvenile cases and sentences to life with no parole: including Alabama’s statute ‘code 13A’. Efforts to end harsh judgments and reduce solitary in confinement for juveniles were evident and efforts to close juvenile detention facilities as states started re-thinking of other ways on how to deal with juvenile offenders. Campaigns for youth reforms have been started with correctional facilities aimed at creating a view on young felons as victims of circumstances rather than felons who are irredeemable (Okonkwo 45). References Top of Form Shelden, Randall G, and William B. Brown. Criminal Justice in America: A Critical View. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003. Print. Bottom of Form Daniel Okonkwo The New York Times- Applying The Miller v Alabama Ruling Retroactively Must Be Done, 2013 Adam Liptak, Ethan Bronnerthe New York Times- Justice Bar Mandatory Life Terms For Juveniles, 2012 Source document
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 21
Chapter 21 â€Å"You make a very attractive woman,†Rumi said from the comfort of his pit. â€Å"Did I tell you that my wife has passed on to her next incarnation and that I am alone?†â€Å"Yeah, you mentioned that.†He seemed to have given up on us getting his daughter back. â€Å"What happened to the rest of your family, anyway?†â€Å"They drowned.†â€Å"I'm sorry. In the Ganges?†â€Å"No, at home. It was the monsoon season. Little Vitra and I had gone to the market to buy some swill, and there was a sudden downpour. When we returned†¦Ã¢â‚¬ He shrugged. â€Å"I don't mean to sound insensitive, Rumi, but there is a chance that your loss could have been caused by – oh, I don't know – perhaps the fact that you LIVE IN A FUCKING PIT!†â€Å"That's not helping, Biff,†Joshua said. â€Å"You said you had a plan?†â€Å"Right. Rumi, am I correct in assuming that these pits, when someone is not living in them, are used for tanning hides?†â€Å"Yes, it is work that only Untouchables may do.†â€Å"That would account for the lovely smell. I assume you use urine in the tanning process, right?†â€Å"Yes, urine, mashed brains, and tea are the main ingredients.†â€Å"Show me the pit where the urine is condensed.†â€Å"The Rajneesh family is living there.†â€Å"That's okay, we'll bring them a present. Josh, do you have any lint in the bottom of your satchel?†â€Å"What are you up to?†â€Å"Alchemy,†I said. â€Å"The subtle manipulation of the elements. Watch and learn.†When it was not being used, the urine pit was the home of the Rajneesh family, and they were more than happy to give us loads of the white crystals that covered the floor of their home. There were six in the family, father, mother, an almost grown daughter, and three little ones. Another little son had been taken for sacrifice at the festival of Kali. Like Rumi, and all the other Untouchables, the Rajneesh family looked more like skeletons mummified in brown leather than people. The Untouchable men went about the pits naked or wearing only a loincloth, and even the women were dressed in tatters that barely covered them – nothing as nice as the stylish sari that I had purchased in the marketplace. Mr. Rajneesh commented that I was a very attractive woman and encouraged me to drop by after the next monsoon. Joshua pounded chunks of the crystallized mineral into a fine white powder while Rumi and I collected charcoal from under the heated dying pit (a firebox had been gouged out of the stone under the pit) which the Untouchables used to render the flowers from the indigo shrub into fabric dye. â€Å"I need brimstone, Rumi. Do you know what that is? A yellow stone that burns with a blue flame and gives off a smoke that smells like rotten eggs?†â€Å"Oh yes, they sell it in the market as some sort of medicine.†I handed the Untouchable a silver coin. Go buy as much of it as you can carry.†â€Å"Oh my, this will be more than enough money. May I buy some salt with what is left?†â€Å"Buy what you need with what's left over, just go.†Rumi skulked away and I went to help Joshua process the saltpeter. The concept of abundance was an abstract one to the Untouchables, except as it pertained to two categories, suffering and animal parts. If you wanted decent food, shelter, or clean water, you would be sorely disappointed among the Untouchables, but if you were in the market for beaks, bones, teeth, hides, sinew, hooves, hair, gallstones, fins, feathers, ears, antlers, eyeballs, bladders, lips, nostrils, poop chutes, or any other inedible part of virtually any creature that walked on, swam under, or flew over the subcontinent of India, then the Untouchables were likely to have what you wanted lying around, conveniently stored beneath a thick blanket of black flies. In order to fashion the equipment I needed for my plan, I had to think in terms of animal parts. Fine unless you need, say, a dozen short swords, bows and arrows, and chain mail for thirty soldiers and all you have to work with is a stack of nostrils and three mismatched poop chutes. It was a challenge, but I made do. As Jo shua moved among the Untouchables, surreptitiously healing their maladies, I barked out my orders. â€Å"I need eight sheep bladders – fairly dry – two handfuls of crocodile teeth, two pieces of rawhide as long as my arms and half again as wide. No, I don't care what kind of animal, just not too ripe, if you can manage it. I need hair from an elephant's tail. I need firewood, or dried dung if you must, eight oxtails, a basket of wool, and a bucket of rendered fat.†And a hundred scrawny Untouchables stood there, eyes as big as saucers, just staring at me while Joshua moved among them, healing their wounds, sicknesses, and insanities, without any of them suspecting what was happening. (We'd agreed that this was the wisest tack to take, as we didn't want a bunch of healthy Untouchables athletically bounding through Kalighat proclaiming that they had been cured of all ills by a strange foreigner, thus attracting attention to us and spoiling my plan. On the other hand, neither could we stand there and watch these people suffer, knowing that we – well, Joshua – had the power to help them.) He'd also taken to poking one of them in the arm with his finger anytime anyone said the word â€Å"Untouchable.†Later he told me that he just hated passing up the opportunity for palpable irony. I cringed when I saw Joshua touching the lepers among them, as if after all these years away from Israel a tiny Pharisee stood on my shoulder and sc reamed, â€Å"Unclean!†â€Å"Well?†I said after I'd finished my orders. â€Å"Do you want your children back or not?†â€Å"We don't have a bucket,†said one woman. â€Å"Or a basket,†said another. â€Å"Okay, fill some of the sheep bladders with rendered fat, and bundle the wool in some kind of hide. Now go, we don't have a lot of time.†And they all stood and looked at me. Big eyes. Sores healed. Parasites purged. They just looked at me. â€Å"Look, I know my Sanskrit isn't great, but you do know what I am asking?†A young man stepped forward. â€Å"We do not want to anger Kali by depriving her of her sacrifices.†â€Å"You're kidding, right?†â€Å"Kali is the bringer of destruction, without which there can be no rebirth. She is the remover of the bondage that ties us to the material world. If we anger her, she will deprive us of her divine destruction.†I looked at Joshua across the crowd. â€Å"Do you understand this?†â€Å"Fear?†he said. â€Å"Can you help?†I asked in Aramaic. â€Å"I'm not good at fear,†Joshua said in Hebrew. I thought for a second as two hundred eyes pinned me to the sandstone on which I stood. I remembered the red-stained gashes on the wooden elephant statues at the altar of Kali. Death was their deliverance, was it? â€Å"What is your name?†I asked the man who had stepped out of the crowd. â€Å"Nagesh,†he said. â€Å"Stick out your tongue, Nagesh.†He did, and I threw back the cloth that covered my head and loosened it around my neck. Then I touched his tongue. â€Å"Destruction is a gift you value?†â€Å"Yes,†said Nagesh. â€Å"Then I shall be the instrument of the goddess's gift.†With that I pulled the black glass dagger from the sheath in my sash, held it up before the crowd. While Nagesh stood, passive, wide-eyed, I drove my thumb under his jaw, pushed his head back, and brought the dagger down across his throat. I lowered him to the ground as the red liquid spurted over the sandstone. I stood and faced the crowd again, holding the dripping blade over my head. â€Å"You owe me, you ungrateful fucks! I have brought to your people the gift of Kali, now bring me what I ask for.†They moved really quickly for people who were on the edge of starvation. After the Untouchables scattered to do my bidding, Joshua and I stood over the bloodstained body of Nagesh. â€Å"That was fantastic,†Joshua said. â€Å"Absolutely perfect.†â€Å"Thanks.†â€Å"Had you been practicing all that time we were in the monastery?†â€Å"You didn't see me push the pressure point in his neck then?†â€Å"No, not at all.†â€Å"Gaspar's kung fu training. The rest, of course, was from Joy and Balthasar.†I bent over and opened Nagesh's mouth, then took the ying-yang vial from around my neck and put a drop of the antidote on the Untouchable's tongue. â€Å"So he can hear us now, like when Joy poisoned you?†Joshua asked. I pulled back one of Nagesh's eyelids and watched the pupil contract slowly in the sunlight. â€Å"No, I think he's still unconscious from me holding the pressure point. I didn't think the poison would work quickly enough. I could only get a drop of poison on my finger when I loosened my sari. I knew it would keep him down, I just wasn't sure it would put him down.†â€Å"Well, you are truly a magus, now, Biff. I'm impressed.†â€Å"Joshua, you healed a hundred people today. Half of them were probably dying. I did some sleight of hand.†My friend's enthusiasm was undeterred. â€Å"What's the red stuff, pomegranate juice? I can't figure out where you concealed it.†â€Å"No, actually I was going to ask you about that.†â€Å"What?†I held my arm up and showed Joshua where I had slashed my own wrist (the source of blood for the show). I had been holding it against my leg and as soon as I removed the pressure the blood started spurting again. I sat down hard on the sandstone and my vision began to tunnel down to a pinpoint. â€Å"I was hoping you could help me out with this,†I said before I fainted. â€Å"You need to work on that part of the trick,†Joshua said when I came to. â€Å"I might not always be around to fix your wrist.†He was speaking Hebrew – that meant for my ears only. I saw Joshua kneeling above me, then beyond him the sky was blotted out by curious brown faces. The recently murdered Nagesh was in the front of the crowd. â€Å"Hey, Nagesh, how'd the rebirth go?†I asked in Sanskrit. â€Å"I must have strayed from my dharma in my last life,†Nagesh said. â€Å"I have been reincarnated, once again, as an Untouchable. And I have the same ugly wife.†â€Å"You challenged master Levi who is called Biff,†I said, â€Å"of course you didn't move up. You're lucky you're not a stink bug or something. See, destruction isn't the big favor you all thought it was.†â€Å"We brought the things you asked for.†I hopped to my feet feeling incredibly rested and energized. â€Å"Nice,†I said to Joshua. â€Å"I feel like I just had one of those strong coffees you used to make at Balthasar's.†â€Å"I miss coffee,†said Josh. I looked at Nagesh, â€Å"I don't suppose you†¦Ã¢â‚¬ â€Å"We have swill.†â€Å"Never mind,†I said. Then I said one of those things that as a boy growing up in Galilee, you never think you'll hear yourself say: â€Å"Okay, Untouchables, bring me the sheep bladders!†Rumi said that the goddess Kali was served by a host of black-skinned female demons, who sometimes during the feast would bring men to corners of the altar and copulate with them as blood rained down from the goddess's saw-tooth maw above. â€Å"Okay, Josh, you're one of them,†I said. â€Å"What are you gonna be?†â€Å"The goddess Kali, of course. You got to be God last time.†â€Å"What last time?†â€Å"All of the last times.†I turned to my intrepid minions. â€Å"Untouchables, paint him up!†â€Å"They're not going to buy that a burr-headed Jewish kid is their goddess of destruction.†â€Å"O ye of little faith,†I said. Three hours later we were again crouched beneath a tree near the temple of Kali. We were both dressed as women, covered from head to toe by our saris, but I was looking much lumpier under mine due to Kali's extra arms and garland of severed heads, played tonight by painted sheep bladders filled with explosives and suspended around my neck by long strands of elephant tail hair. Any observers who might get close enough to notice my protrusions were quickly deterred by the smell coming off of Joshua and me. We had used the goo from the bottom of Rumi's pit to paint our bodies black. I didn't have the courage to ask what the substance had been in life, but if there was a place where they allowed vultures to ripen in the sun before pounding them into a smooth paste and mixing it with just the right amount of buffalo squat, then Rumi called it home. The Untouchables had also painted huge red rings around Joshua's eyes, fitted him with a ropey wig of oxtails, and affixed to his torso six pe rt little breasts fashioned from pitch. â€Å"Stay away from any open flame. Your tits will go up like volcanos.†â€Å"Why did I have to have six and you only had to have two.†â€Å"Because I am the goddess and have to wear the garland of skulls and the extra arms.†We'd made my arms from rawhide, using my primary arms as models, then drying the molded arms in place over the fire. The women made a harness that held the extra arms in place under my own, then we painted the arms black with the same black goo. They were a little wobbly, but they were light and would look realistic enough in the dark. It was still hours from the height of the ceremony at midnight, when the children would be hacked to death, but we wanted to be there in time to stop the revelers from cutting off the children's fingers if we could. Now, the wooden elephants were empty on their turntables, but the altar of Kali was already filling with gruesome tribute. The heads of a thousand goats had been laid on the altar before the goddess, and the blood ran slick over the stones and in the grooves that channeled it into large brass pots at the corners of the altar. Female acolytes carried the pots up a narrow ladder at the back of the great statue of Kali, then dumped them through some sort of reservoir that fed it through the goddess's jaws. Below, by torchlight, worshipers danced in the sticky shower as the blood flowed down upon them. â€Å"Look, those women are dressed like me,†Joshua said. â€Å"Except they only have two breasts each.†â€Å"Technically, they're not dressed, they're painted. You make a very attractive female demon, Josh. Did I tell you that?†â€Å"This isn't going to work.†â€Å"Of course it's going to work.†I guessed that there were already ten thousand worshipers in the temple square, dancing, chanting, and beating drums. A procession of thirty men came down the main boulevard, each carrying a basket under his arm. As they reached the altar, each man dumped the contents of the basket over the rows of bloody goat heads. â€Å"What are those?†Joshua asked. â€Å"Those are exactly what you think they are.†â€Å"They're not the heads of the children?†â€Å"No, I think those are the heads of strangers who happened down the road we were on before Rumi came along to pull us into the grass.†After the severed heads were dispersed across the altar, the female acolytes came out of the crowd dragging the headless corpse of a man, which they laid on the steps leading to the altar. Each one mimed having intercourse with the corpse, then rubbed their genitalia against the bloody stump of its neck before dancing away, blood and ochre dripping down the insides of their thighs. â€Å"There's sort of a theme developing here,†I said. â€Å"I think I'm going to be sick,†Joshua said. â€Å"Mindful breath,†I said, using one of the phrases that Gaspar was always barking at us when we were learning meditation. I knew that if Joshua could stay with the yeti for days at a time without freezing to death, he could certainly conjure up the bodily control to keep from throwing up. The sheer magnitude of the carnage was all that was keeping me from vomiting. It was as if the atrocity of the whole scene couldn't fit in my mind all at once, so I could only see just enough for my sanity and my stomach to remain intact. A shout went up in the crowd now and I could see a torch-lit sedan chair being carried above the heads of the worshipers. On it reclined a half-naked man with a tiger skin wrapped around his hips, his skin painted light gray with ashes. His hair was plaited with grease and he wore the bones of a human hand as a skullcap. Around his neck hung a necklace of human skulls. â€Å"High priest,†I said. â€Å"They aren't even going to notice you, Biff. How can you even get their attention after they've seen all this?†â€Å"They haven't seen what I'm going to show them.†As the sedan chair emerged from the crowd in front of the altar, we could see a procession following it: tied to the back of the sedan chair was a line of naked children, most of them not more than five or six, their hands tied together, a less ornately dressed priest on either side of them to steady them. The priests began to untie the children and take them to the great wooden elephants lining the boulevard. Here and there in the crowd I could see people beginning to brandish edged weapons: short swords, axes, and the long-bladed spears Joshua and I had seen over the elephant grass. The high priest was sitting on the headless corpse, shouting a poem about the divine release of Kali's destruction or something. â€Å"Here we go,†I said, pulling the black glass dagger from under my sari. â€Å"Take this.†Joshua looked at the blade shimmering in the torchlight. â€Å"I won't kill anyone,†he said. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, drawing long red lines through the black and if anything making him look more fierce. â€Å"That's fine, but you'll need to cut them loose.†â€Å"Right.†He took the knife from me. â€Å"Josh, you know what's coming. You've seen it before. Nobody else here has, especially those kids. You can't carry all of them, so they have to have enough of their wits about them to follow you. I know you can keep them from being afraid. Put your teeth in.†Joshua nodded and slipped the row of crocodile teeth attached to a piece of rawhide under his upper lip, leaving the teeth to protrude like fangs. I put in my own false fangs, then ran into the dark to circle the crowd. As I approached the rear of the altar I pulled the special torch I'd made from under my girdle of human hands. (Actually my girdle of human hands was made of dried goat's udders stuffed with straw, but the Untouchable women had done a pretty good job as long as no one bothered to count fingers.) Through Kali's stone legs I could see the priests tying each of the children on the trunk of a wooden elephant. As soon as the bonds were tight, each priest drew a bronze blade and held it aloft, ready to strike off a finger as soon as the high priest gave the signal. I struck the tip of my torch on the edge of the altar, screamed for all I was worth, then threw my sari off and ran up the steps as the torch burst into dazzling blue flame that trailed sparks behind me as I ran. I hopped across the array of goat heads and stood between the legs of the statue of Kali, my torch held aloft in one hand, one of my severed heads swinging by the hair in the other. â€Å"I am Kali,†I screamed. â€Å"Fear me!†It came out sort of mumbled through my fake teeth. Some of the drums stopped and the high priest turned around and looked at me, more because of the bright light of the torch than my fierce proclamation. â€Å"I am Kali,†I shouted again. â€Å"Goddess of destruction and all this disgusting crap you have here!†They weren't getting it. The priest signaled for the other priests to come around me from the sides. Some of the female acolytes were already trying to make their way across the dance floor of decapitations toward me. â€Å"I mean it. Bow down to me!†The priests charged on. I did have the crowd's attention, though unfortunately they weren't cowering in fear at my angry goddessness. I could see Joshua moving around the wooden elephants, the guarding priests having left their posts to come after me. â€Å"Really! I mean it!†Maybe it was the teeth. I spit them out toward the nearest of my attackers. Running across a sea of slick, bloody heads is evidently a pretty difficult task. Not if you've spent the last six years of your life hopping from the top of one post to another, even in ice and snow, but for the run-of-the-mill homicidal priest, it's a tough row to hoe. The priests and acolytes were slipping and sliding among the goat and human heads, falling over each other, smacking into the feet of the statue, one even impaling himself on a goat's horn when he fell. One of the priests was only a few feet away from me now, trying not to fall on his own blade as he crawled over the mess. â€Å"I will bring destruction†¦oh, fuck it,†I said. I lit the fuse on the severed head I held in my hand, then swung it between my legs and tossed it in a steep arch over my head. It trailed sparks on its way into the black goddess's open maw, then disappeared. I kicked the approaching priest in the jaw, then danced across the goat heads, leapt over the head of the high priest, and was halfway to Joshua at the first wooden elephant when Kali, with a deafening report, breathed fire out over the crowd and the top of her head blew off. Finally, I had the crowd's attention. They were trampling each other to get away, but I had their attention. I stood in the middle of the boulevard, swinging my second severed head in a circle, waiting for the fuse to burn down before I let it sail over the heads of the receding crowd. It exploded in the air, sending a circle of flame across the sky and no doubt deafening some of the worshipers who were close. Joshua had seven of the children around him, clinging to his legs as he moved to the next elephant. Several of the priests had recovered and were storming down the steps of the altar toward me, knives in hand. I pulled another head from my garland, lit the fuse, and held it out to them. â€Å"Ah, ah, ah,†I cautioned. â€Å"Kali. Goddess of destruction. Wrath et cetera.†At the sight of the sparking fuse they stopped and began to backpedal. â€Å"Now that's the sort of respect you should have shown before.†I started whirling the head by the hair and the priests lost all semblance of courage and turned and ran. I hurled the head back up the boulevard onto the altar, where it exploded, sending a spray of real severed goat heads in all directions. â€Å"Josh! Duck! Goat heads!†Joshua pushed the children to the ground and fell over them until the pieces settled. He glared at me a second, then went on to free the other children. I hurled three more heads into different directions and now the entire temple square was nearly deserted but for Joshua, the children, a few injured worshipers, and the dead. I had built the bombs without any shrapnel in them, so those who had been injured had been trampled in the panic and the dead were those who had already been sacrificed to Kali. I think we pulled it off without killing anyone. As Joshua led the children down the wide boulevard and out of the temple square, I covered our exit, backing down the boulevard, my last explosive head swinging in one hand, my torch in the other. Once I saw that Joshua and the children were safely away, I lit the fuse, whirled the head around and let it fly toward the black goddess. â€Å"Bitch,†I said. I was out of sight when it exploded. Joshua and I got as far as a limestone cliff overlooking the Ganges before we had to stop to let the children rest. They were tired and hungry, but mostly they were hungry, and we had brought nothing for them to eat. At least, after Joshua's touch, they weren't afraid, and that gave them some peace. Josh and I were too jangled to sleep, so we sat up as the children lay down on the rocks around us and snored like kittens. Joshua held Rumi's little daughter, Vitra, and before long her face was smeared with black paint from nuzzling his shoulder. All through the night, as he rocked the child, all I heard Joshua say was, â€Å"No more blood. No more blood.†At first light we could see thousands, no, tens of thousands of people gathering at the banks of the river, all dressed in white, except for a few old men who were naked. They moved into the water and stood facing east, heads raised in anticipation, dotting the river as far as the eye could see. As the sun became a molten fingernail of light on the horizon, the muddy surface of the river turned golden. The gold light reflected off its surface onto the buildings, the shanties, the trees, the palaces, making everything in sight, including the worshipers, appear to have been gilded. And worshipers they were, for we could hear their songs from where we sat, and although we could not discern the words, we could hear that these were the songs of God. â€Å"Are those the same people from last night?†I said. â€Å"They would have to be, wouldn't they?†â€Å"I don't understand these people. I don't understand their religion. I don't understand how they think.†Joshua stood and watched the Indians bowing and singing to the dawn, looking occasionally to the face of the child that slept on his shoulder. â€Å"This is testament to the glory of God's creation, whether these people know it or not.†â€Å"How can you say that? The sacrifices to Kali, the way the Untouchables are treated. Whatever they might believe, in practice their religion is hideous.†â€Å"You're right. It's not right to condemn this child because she was not born a Brahman?†â€Å"Of course not.†â€Å"Then is it right to condemn her because she is not born a Jew?†â€Å"What do you mean?†â€Å"A man who is born a gentile may not see the kingdom of God. Are we, as Hebrews, any different from them? The lambs at the temple on Passover? The wealth and power of the Sadducees while others go hungry? At least the Untouchables can reach their reward eventually, through karma and rebirth. We don't allow any gentile to do so.†â€Å"You can't compare what they do to God's law. We don't sacrifice human beings. We feed our poor, we take care of the sick.†â€Å"Unless the sick are unclean,†Joshua said. â€Å"But, Josh, we're the chosen. It's God's will.†â€Å"But is it right? He won't tell me what to do. So I'll say. And I say, no more.†â€Å"You're not just talking about eating bacon, are you?†â€Å"Gautama the Buddha gave the way to people of all births to find the hand of God. With no blood sacrifice. Our doors have been marked with blood for too long, Biff.†â€Å"So that's what you think you're going to do? Bring God to everyone?†â€Å"Yes. After a nap.†â€Å"Of course, I meant after a nap.†Joshua held the little girl so I could see her face as she slept on his shoulder. When the children awoke we led them back to their families at the pits, handing them into the arms of their mothers, who snatched each child away from us as if we were devils incarnate; they glared over their shoulders as they carried the babies back to their pits. â€Å"Grateful bunch,†I said. â€Å"They are afraid that we've angered Kali. And we've brought them another hungry mouth.†â€Å"Still. Why did they help us if they didn't want their children back?†â€Å"Because we told them what to do. That's what they do. What they are told. That's how the Brahmans keep them in line. If they do what they are told, then perhaps they will not be Untouchables next life.†â€Å"That's depressing.†Joshua nodded. We only had little Vitra to return to her father now, and I was sure that Rumi would be happy to see his daughter. His distress over losing her had basically been the reason he had saved our lives. As we came over the sandstone rise we could see that Rumi was not alone in his pit. Rumi stood on his sitting rock, stark naked, sprinkling salt on his erect member as a large humpbacked cow, which nearly filled the rest of the pit, licked at the salt. Joshua held Vitra so she faced away from the pit, then backed away, as if he didn't want to disturb the moment of beefy intimacy. â€Å"A cow, Rumi?†I exclaimed. â€Å"I thought you people had beliefs.†â€Å"That's not a cow, that's a bull,†Joshua said. â€Å"Oh, that's got to be your super-bonus abomination there. Where we come from whole cities get destroyed for that kind of thing, Rumi.†I reached over and put my hand over Vitra's eyes. â€Å"Stay away from Daddy, honey, or you'll turn into a pillar of salt.†â€Å"But this is my wife, reincarnated.†â€Å"Oh, don't try that one on me, Rumi. For six years I lived in a Buddhist monastery where the only female company was a wild yak. I know from desperate.†Joshua grabbed my arm. â€Å"You didn't?†â€Å"Relax, I'm just making a point. You're the Messiah here, Josh. What do you think?†â€Å"I think we need to go to Tamil and find the third magus.†He set Vitra down and Rumi quickly pulled up his loincloth as the child ran to him. â€Å"Go with God, Rumi,†Joshua said. â€Å"May Shiva watch over you, you heretics. Thank you for returning my daughter.†Joshua and I gathered up our clothes and satchels, then bought some rice in the market and set out for Tamil. We followed the Ganges south until we came to the sea, where Joshua and I washed the gore of Kali from our bodies. We sat on the beach, letting the sun dry our skin as we picked pitch out of our chest hairs. â€Å"You know, Josh,†I said, as I fought a particularly stubborn gob of tar that had stuck in my armpit, â€Å"when you were leading those kids out of the temple square, and they were so little and weak, but none of them seemed afraid†¦well, it was sort of heartwarming.†â€Å"Yep, I love all the little children of the world, you know?†â€Å"Really?†He nodded. â€Å"Green and yellow, black and white.†â€Å"Good to know – Wait, green?†â€Å"No, not green. I was just fuckin' with you.â€
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Acropolis Museum
Acropolis Museum The (new) Acropolis Museum opened its doors to the public in June 2009 and is an important reference point for culture and consequently for the cultural law. The location of the museum, as well as the way of the exhibition practice, aims at collecting, protecting, studying, highlighting, and displaying the monuments of the sacred rock of Acropolis at national and international level. It is a museum specially dedicated to the monuments of the Acropolis. Among its missions, the museum focuses on making accessible to its visitors, scientists, and anyone interested the world-class archaeological treasures. It contributes to the promotion of historical and archaeological knowledge, aesthetic cultivation, creative thinking, and -in general- modern perception of classical education. The purpose of the Museum is to coordinate all its functions according to the visitor and his expectations. The institution seeks in many ways to make the guest a real shareholder in its research programmes for interpretation and understanding of the exhibits. The organization is an element that proves the museum orientation in the modern form of communication of the cultural institutions focusing on the visitor. Cultural organizations play a crucial role in our society, economy, and cultural life of every country. In an environment that is particularly competitive and difficult, all the cultural institutions should search for ways and tools to make themselves sustainable. Undoubtedly, communication is a fundamental function of museums and above all with the public. It should transmit and provide with information, messages, and experiences in a clear and effective way to different and diverse audiences. Through communication, the public image of the organization is also determined. The Acropolis Museum gives emphasis on its communication strategy. It includes the Front of House Department whose role is to ensure the smooth reception of the audience and flow of visitors, create a hospitable environment, and provide high-quality services. The Communications and Promotion Department is responsible for supporting and promoting the museum in Greece and abroad. Development and protection of the museum’s successful external communication include -among other things- the official website, Facebook page, Youtube channel, web newsletters, publications, written communication with the wide public and the media. This case study The Parthenon Gallery fully reflects the content of the organization as its architectural structure and exhibition practice aims at the balanced relationship between the museum and monuments of Acropolis and; the unique ability of visitor to connect comfortably and in a multiple ways the architectural sculptures with the ancient temple where they come from. The relationship of the building with the surrounding area is one of the biggest advantages of the exhibition.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Water Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Water - Essay Example It has however proven impossible to implement this slogan as due to the fact that human beings are still destroying our planet. Pollution is one of the greatest threats to our planet. Non biodegradable materials are the major causes of pollution as they are unable to decompose and therefore harm the environment. The most common non bio-degradable material is plastic bottles. Plastic bottles are majorly produced for bottled water. It is true that bottled has a better taste and feel than tap water, is more pure and is an industry that cut our unemployment levels down, but this is nothing compared to the damage it causes to the environment. Furthermore, bottled water companies sell the water for very high prices despite the fact that they pay their workers very little money and therefore, this impacts our economy negatively. Bottled water would not have such a major impact on the environment negatively if people took the initiative to recycle the bottles. However, that’s not the case. In the year 2006 â€Å"Of the 36 billion bottles vended, only 7 billion empty water bottles were recycled.†However on the other hand bottled water can be seen to be a solution to some environmental problem. The human race has faced a lot of challenges in the recent past but the most significant one has been that one to do with water. The contamination of this scarce vital resource has been a thorn in the back of developing countries and most parts of the world. Water Contamination has grave consequences on the health of those taking it. Therefore, it would be true to say that due to the increasing population, there has been rise in the rate of contamination of the water. I am also of the opinion that the crisis of water is because of the rising population and the lack of education among the people (NPR, â€Å"Mideast Water Crisis Brings Misery, Uncertainty†). The social issues are contamination of the water and its ill
Thursday, September 26, 2019
The Impact of Global Financial Crisis on the UK Consumer Buying Dissertation
The Impact of Global Financial Crisis on the UK Consumer Buying Behaviour - Dissertation Example Analysis 41 4.2.1.Demographic Findings 41 4.2.2.Descriptive Findings 45 4.2.3.Frequencies of Responses 48 4.2.4.Cross Tabulation of Responses with Respondents’ Income 59 4.3.Regression Results 63 4.4.Chapter Summary 66 Chapter 5: Interpretation of Research Results 67 5.1.Introduction 67 5.2.Interpretation of Results 67 5.3.Thematic Analysis of Interview Responses 67 5.4.Chapter Summary 71 Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendations 72 6.1.Conclusion 72 6.2.Recommendations 72 List of References 74 List of Figures Figure 1: Theoretical Framework 18 Figure 2: Risk Attitude and Risk Perception 25 Figure 3: Demographic Findings – Age Group 42 Figure 4: Demographic Findings – Gender 43 Figure 5: Demographic Findings – Marital Status 44 Figure 6: Demographic Findings – Occupation 44 Figure 7: Demographic Findings – Income 45 Figure 8: Regression Findings – Consumption Behaviour vs Psychological Factors 64 Figure 9: Regression Findings – Consumption Behaviour vs Situational Factors 65 Figure 10: Regression Findings – Consumption Behaviour vs Marketing Mix Factors 65 List of Tables Table 1: Risk Attitude and Risk Perception 24 Table 2: New Trends in Consumption Behaviour 27 Table 3: Impact of Financial Crisis on Consumption Behaviour 29 Table 4: Survey Questionnaire Statements 37 Table 5: Interview Questions 38 Table 6: Demographic Findings – Age Group 42 Table 7: Demographic Findings – Gender 42 Table 8: Demographic Findings – Marital Status 43 Table 9: Demographic Findings – Occupation 44 Table 10: Demographic Findings – Income 45 Table 11: Descriptive Findings – Psychological Factors 46 Table 12: Descriptive Findings – Situational Factors 47 Table 13: Descriptive Findings – Marketing Mix Factors 47 Table 14: Descriptive Findings – Consumption Behaviour 48 Table 15: Cross Tabulation – Respondents’ Income vs Responses Against Stateme nts 63 Table 16: Regression Findings 64 Table 17: Thematic Analysis 68 Abstract The researcher of this study aims at investigating how the recent financial crisis of 2008 influenced buying behaviour consumers in the United Kingdom. In this regard, the researcher has decided to adopt a mixed approach which covers both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the research. By opting for a mixed approach, the researcher is able to address the limitations associated with each of the two approaches. The research work has concluded that there is a significant impact of various factors, such as psychological factors, personal factors, social factors, situational factors and marketing mix on the development of consumption behaviour. Moreover, the impact of financial crisis has
Human Resources & EEOC Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Human Resources & EEOC - Research Paper Example Hence it is an integral part of the Human Resources Management in United States. It is headquartered in Washington DC (About EEOC, 2013). EEOC’s Vision is: â€Å"Justice and Equality in the Workplace†EEOC’s Mission is to: Stop and Remedy Unlawful Employment Discrimination (About EEOC, 2013) EEOC laws are applicable for almost all employers who have employee strength of minimum fifteen employees. In case of age discrimination, the firm should be of minimum twenty employees. EEOC laws also cover most employment agencies and labor unions. Hiring, firing, training, promotion, wages, benefits, harassment and all other work situations are covered by the EEOC laws. (About EEOC, 2013) The U.S. EEOC is a bipartisan Commission. The President appoints all of its five members. They are the Chair, Vice Chair and the three Commissioners (The Commission, 2013). The President also appoints EEOC's General Counsel (Strategic Plan for fiscal year 2012-2016, 2013). EEOC has a speci fic strategic plan and the three values that underlie the plan are: Commitment to Justice: The Commission has been entrusted by the Congress, with the duty of enforcing non-discrimination laws of employment for the nation. Accountability: EEOC is accountable to the nation, just like any other federal agency. Integrity: The Commission has to be objective in nature while investigating charges and adjudicating cases. Every person it serves or interacts with during work and every member of the EEOC workforce has to be respected and treated with good manners and professionalism. (Strategic Plan for fiscal year 2012-2016, 2013) Role of EEOC EEOC has the right to investigate any sort of discrimination charges against employers, duly covered by the EEOC law. Their investigation has to be fair and accurate in order to assess the allegations. If it is found that discrimination has taken place, EEOC will first try to settle the allegation. If they are unable to sort it out they have the right to file a lawsuit for the same. However, EEOC does not file lawsuits in every case of discrimination (About EEOC, 2013). EEOC also believes in â€Å"prevention is better than cure†that is, it tries to prevent discrimination through various awareness and technical assistance programs, before it occurs. Federal agencies are guided by EEOC on every aspect of equal employment opportunity program. Affirmative employment programs of federal agencies’ are being regularly monitored and evaluated by EEOC (About EEOC, 2013) The company distributes informative and educational materials and provides training, guidance and assistance to all stakeholders, including administrative judges who conduct EEOC lawsuits. (About EEOC, 2013) Laws Enforced by EEOC (listed in the sequence EEOC got authority): Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), as amended. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), as amended The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), as amended Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended - prohibits employment discrimination against federal employees and applicants with disabilities. Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as amended. The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). (Strategic Plan
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Charlie Chaplin & the Little Tramp Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Charlie Chaplin & the Little Tramp - Essay Example Susan Beegel has recently offered the intriguing speculation that the character f Manuel Garcia was based partially on the nineteenth-century matador Manuel Garcia "El Espartero." (Beegel 12-23) Hemingway's article in the Toronto Star Weekly (October 17, 1923) continues to suggest, however, that the character in question was inspired largely by Manuel Garcia Lopez, called "Maera," and his chaotic bullfight at Pamplona in July 1923. Hemingway was a relatively inexperienced spectator when he wrote the article for the Toronto Star Weekly. In fact, he had never seen a bullfight until earlier that spring, and the title f the article, "World Series f Bullfighting a Mad, Whirling Carnival," (White 99-108) characterizes his rather unsubtle response to what he saw. By contrast, in the so-called "miniature" that he wrote about the fictionalized "death" f Maera-shortly after seeing the fight-Hemingway's tone is, despite the subject matter, coldly, if not grotesquely, ironic. Although he had completed a draft f the miniature by late July, he apparently revised it in response to Ezra Pound's comments, because he wrote Pound that he had "redone the death f Maera altogether different.... The new death is good." (Baker 91) Although Hemingway is not, ... Indeed, the potential comedy f Maera's cinematic "death" was not lost on Scott Fitzgerald, who parodied the miniature in a letter to Hemingway in the fall f 1926, a year after the miniature appeared as "Chapter XIV" f In Our Time: "The King f Bulgaria began to whirl round and round.... Soon he was whirling faster and faster. Then he was dead." By the time Fitzgerald wrote him, however, Hemingway had long since moved from comparing Maera's death (in the miniature) to a sped-up film, to comparing Manuel Garcia's bullfight (in "The Undefeated") to a pratfall ballet which echoed not just Maera's bullfight at Pamplona in 1923 but the antics f Chaplin's comic tramp, "little Charlie." Comic bullfights featuring clowns dressed like Chaplin's little tramp were very popular in Spain and France in the Twenties and Thirties. (Campbell 42) And perhaps Hemingway was influenced solely by having seen a bullfight involving "Charlie Chaplins," as he calls them in "The Undefeated." But there is a good possibility that he was inspired to employ the tramp as an analogue in "The Undefeated" by a conversation he had with Fitzgerald's close friend Edmund Wilson, who had written what he called "a great super-ballet f New York for the Swedish Ballet--a pantomime explained by movie captions and with a section f movie film in the middle, for which Or nstein is composing the music and in which we hope to get Chaplin to act." (Wilson 117) Hemingway had first met Wilson in New York, in January 1924 (see Selected Letters, 103, Notes) and apparently learned about the projected ballet at this time. On October 18, 1924, a month before he completed "The Undefeated" (see Selected Letters, 133), originally entitled "The Bullfighters,"
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Moble Communication Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Moble Communication - Assignment Example It provides extraordinary quality so that it makes the HTML application more efficient in use. W3C ensures the long term development of the web by producing the strong protocols and guidelines for HTML whereas XHTML is preferred standard for W3C because it is the more extended version with better qualities and protocols. Moreover, the XHTML is better because more tools are available in it for the web development and it also more compatible for future as well as its more professional. b) W3C introduced new version of HTML which was HTML5 and this new version contains series of both text as well as html and its specification includes many applications programming’s. Advantages and Disadvantages: XML is the newer version and its more common tool for data alteration, manipulation and broadcast. CSS offers wide verity of providing specifications for XML elements. XML proves to be more flexible and efficient then HTML because user can modify it according to his/her owns requirements and XML is broader to support affluent media. For HTML, CSS provide a better way to maintain its standard. XML is uses more for the machine to machine communication as it is easier and flexible. HTML is that syntax which focuses on how the data looks when it is displayed whereas XML focuses on data and designing of the information and CSS is yet another tool to create the styling and giving format to the HTML. HTML is the whole semantic tool of creating web applications. Proper nesting for XML is required otherwise improper nesting of the information and data couldn’t perform effectively and XML allow user to make his/her own tags. HTML itself is widely used markup language therefore XML or CSS couldn’t replace HTML. HTML is flexible enough to deal with the hypertext linking and various activities, yet it is simpler to hold the establishment of web pages. c) The last three lines of this XHTML 1.0 document defines that XHTML 1.0 is used purely for structural mark-up an d it is henceforth free of the tags that are associated with the style. DTD in these lines are used for W3C’s to improve and add the font, color and alignment effects. For authoring any document in HTML or XHTML it is important to add the DOCTYPE declaration in order to ensure the proper performance of the document, whereas XMLNS is used for the presentation of the web page. XLMNS is used form qualifying names in the URL and its strict document where â€Å"en†means English and it’s a tag. The defines the information of the document and
Monday, September 23, 2019
Business Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Business - Case Study Example This is a point of concern because AIG was in the past, ranked among the world’s best performing insurance companies. Its closure in 2008, before the government bailed it out, happened in a period when the United States and other world regions were experiencing financial heat, because of the financial crisis that had rocked the world. However, the company had itself it blame for its downfall, since the management did not practise caution in running the company, neither did they develop effective business strategies that would see the company withstand any financial storm (Ferrell, Fraedrich &Ferrell, 2013). This case study therefore, raises different issues concerning AIG, its business practices, and its downfall. From its history, AIG was considered a competitive company, having a market value of approximately $200 billion in 2007. However, this changed in 2009 when the market value of this company sharply declined to only $3.5 billion. The government in 2008 came in to rescu e the company from facing total bankruptcy. This was an important move by the government, as it saved other companies, which depended on AIG, from facing equal bankruptcy. The AIG was a big player in the financial market; therefore, total bankruptcy would have worsened the 2008-2009 economic turmoil (Ferrell, Fraedrich &Ferrell, 2013). The factors that led to the decline of the AIG are analysed, and these mostly include internal factors in the company.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Martin Luther King Essay Example for Free
Martin Luther King Essay â€Å"I have a dream that one day my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character†(â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). These wise and upholding words of confidence and determination changed the face of America during a time of hate and discrimination. King’s inspirational leadership and speeches helped make a local bus protest into a historical event (â€Å"King, Martin Luther Jr. †) He gathered thousands of people, both black and white, to many encouraging protests and meetings to bring a hateful and racist world to peace. His strategy of â€Å"encouraging nonviolent protest and interracial cooperation helped him to fight effectively again the southern system†(King, Martin Luther Jr.†). These strategies were also based on the belief of Indian pacifist Mohandas Gandhi. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ambition to seek a perfect world was extravagant; he will always be in the minds and hearts of Americans in years to come. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). His birth name was Michael, but he later changed it to Martin (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). His parent’s names were Alberta and Martin Luther King, Sr. Alberta was a homemaker and Martin Sr. was a minister (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). Martin Jr. also had an older sister, named Christine, and a younger brother, named Alfred Rogers 2 (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.). Young Martin grew up in Atlanta to a very loving family highly devoted to service and faith. When Martin was young, he first encountered racism when his friends’ mother (who was white) did not allow him to play with her white son (Darby 8). Martin was too young to understand completely the meaning of why he was not allowed but the message he was simple, blacks were different from whites (Darby 9). Martin’s knowledge was known at a young age. He began reading at a very early age; his favorite books were about black history and the people who made it (Darby 13). He went to school at local segregated schools in Atlanta. He went to school when he was only five years old, but at the time it was only legal for kids to start school at the age of six. After officials found this out, he was forced to wait another year and start again. Martin attended Young Street Elementary and David Elementary Schools. When Martin was a junior in high school he was taking college exams that showed how advanced he was (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). He was able to go to college at the age of fifteen, skipping two years of high school. Martin attended Morehouse College, an all boy’s school and one of the finest black colleges in the country at the time. He studied sociology and received his bachelor’s degree Morehouse in 1948 (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). At the time Martin was thinking about becoming a minister. His father being a key role model on his decision to become a minister, he described his decision as an â€Å"inner urge,†calling him to â€Å"serve God and humanity (Carson 501). He was ordained during his final semester at Morehouse (Carson 502). At this time and point in his life, this is also where Martin began to precede his first steps towards his political spotlight. After departing Morehouse, King increased his understanding of liberal Christian thoughts while attending Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania from 1948 to 1951 (Carson 502). King had interest in Reinhold Niebuhr neorthodoxy which emphasized the impact of social evil. Martin added he didn’t begin a quest or method to eliminate social evil until he attended Crozer (Darby 20). Even as he continued to question and modify his own religious belief, he was performing outstandingly and graduated at the top of his class (Carson 502). He won the Plafker Award for the most outstanding student and received the J. Luis Crozer fellowship to study at any university of his choice (Darby 21). His parents gave him and hug and bought him a brand new Chevy. After graduating from Crozer, King began his doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University in School of Theology (Carson 502). The paper King had written during his time at Boston University had showed little originality but much plagiarism but had also formulated a decent perspective (Carson 502). By the time King had completed his doctoral studies in 1955, King had a strong view upon a wide range of theological and philosophical texts to express his views with precise information (Carson 502). His new and increased theological insights became known as he expanded his preaching activities at local Boston churches where he had assisted his father at masses. Also during King’s stay in Boston, he had met Coretta Scott, an Alabama born Antioch graduate who was then a student at the New England Conservatory of Music (Carson 502). On June 18, 1953, the students were married in Marion, Alabama, where Coretta’s family lived (Carson 502). During the following academic year, King began work on his dissertation which he completed during the spring of 1955. Thus finishing his dissertation, he was awarded a doctorate (Ph.D.) I theology and became Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Darby 23). Although he had thought about pursing an academic career, King decided to accept an offer to become the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama (Carson 502). In 1955, King was selected by the Montgomery Improvement Association to protest the arrest of NAACP official Rosa Parks for refusing to give her bus seat up to a white man (Carson 502). With King as their leader, the association led a year long boycott. King gained his leadership abilities through his religious background to gradually form a strategy that involved black churches to gain white support (Carson 502). Many of King’s beliefs were also mixed with the concepts on Indian pacifist leader Mohandas Gandhi to enforce non-violence during his protests. During King’s speech at a local segregated black church, he had gathered four thousand people to hear the story of Rosa Parks (Darby 34). After Martin’s speech, people cheered and stomped their feet as their reaction. The Civil Rights Movement had begun with King as their leader (Darby 35). King had led the MIA’s plan to the use of blacks not using buses until they were legal to have the right to sit anywhere they would please. During the time when blacks did not ride buses, Martin would preach too many to â€Å"not boast or brag,†and if struck, â€Å"do not strike back†(Darby 43). One evening Martin was pulled over by an officer on his way home, he said he was speeding (Darby 29). The officer had told Martin that he was to be taken to the Montgomery Police, but the way he was taking him was a way through Klansman land. Klansman land was where many African Americans were taken, beaten, and hung without anybody knowing (Darby 40). Martin was very scared but soon relieved after seeing the sign: Montgomery Jail ahead (Darby 40). King was soon released from jail too good news; Alabama had passed the new desegregation law, this meant victory for the blacks and the beginning of change for both races (Darby 42). With the victory, Martin cautioned black people to accept their victory with dignity and to resist violence. When King had time away from his social life, he liked spending time with his three kids. Spending time with his kids had made him stronger and more ready mentally for what was to come (Darby 61). King’s campaign to end segregation at lunch counters and in hiring practices drew nationwide attention when police turned dogs and five horses onto demonstrators (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). King was jailed with hundreds of supporters, many of them being schoolchildren (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). After being released from prison, Martin and other Civil Rights Leaders began organizing the historic march in Washington D.C. A mix of races of about 200,000 gathered peacefully at the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for all citizens (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). Here crowds were intrigued by King’s uplifting â€Å"I have a Dream†speech (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). His speech emphasized his faith that all men, someday, would be brothers (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). His speech encouraged national opinion that resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). The act enforced desegregation of public accommodation and outlawing discrimination in public owned facilities (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). The eventful year awarded King the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in December. Opposition hit within the Civil Rights movement during March of 1965 at a demonstration in Selma, Alabama. The opposition was aimed at giving blacks federal voting rights that would provide legal support for the African Americans in the south (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). King organized the initial march from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery but did not lead it himself. The marchers were turned back with tear gas and night sticks. Determined for a second march, King set out with fifteen hundred marchers, black and white until the group came to a barrage of state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, he led his followers to kneel and pray then unexpectedly turn back (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). The country was amazed by there actions resulting in the passage of Voting Rights of 1965 (â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr.†). In 1957, he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the civil rights movement (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). His ideas were based from Gandhi in the organization. In a period from 1957-1968, King traveled our six million miles and spoke over twenty five hundred times (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). He was arrested at least twenty times (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). He was assaulted at least four times (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). He was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963 (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). His strategy of encouraging nonviolent protest and interracial cooperation enabled him to fight against the Southern system (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). King’s inspirational leadership and his speeches helped to evaluate a local bus protest into a historical event (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). He was not only the symbolic leader of African Americans but also a world figure. He was the youngest man ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (thirty five years of age). He also turned down the prize money of $54, 123 and it would go to the civil rights movement. He delivered his famous speech of â€Å"I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,†April 3, 1968 (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). This had been King’s last speech. At 6:01 p.m. of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he lead a protest for striking sanitation workers, he was assassinated (â€Å"King, Martin Luther, Jr.†). Martin was a man, he was not God. His charismatic and powerful way of speaking had changed American lives until present day. He was a man of vision and determination. He was often overworked and overtired, but this had never stopped him of dreaming what could be.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Functionalism A Viable Materialist Philosophy Essay
Functionalism A Viable Materialist Philosophy Essay In evaluating the validity of Functionalism as a theory of mind, one must first understand the philosophy of Functionalism itself, and its roots. Functionalism has divided philosophers, and presented below are three of the main arguments against the validity of Functionalism, and these will demonstrate that as a theory of mind, although compelling and thought provoking, Functionalism is ultimately not viable. Functionalist theory has evolved from other philosophical theories of the mind, including Identity Theory of Mind, which in its simplest form states that mental states can be said to be exactly identical to brain states, and some forms of Behaviourist Theory, which suggested, amongst other things, that behaviour can be explained or justified without putting any emphasis on the mind as an instigator, and so behaviour can be rationalised by saying that the sources are not internal, but external. Functionalism can be said to be both and extension and a criticism to these theories. It is something of a middle ground between them. Similar to Behaviourist theory, Functionalism classifies mental states using a behavioural structure, but differs from this theory by suggesting that mental states originate internally. In terms of similarity to the Identity Theory of Mind, both agree that the process of producing a mental begins internally, but Functionalism differs in that it differentiates between the definitions of mental states and brain states. In its basic form, Functionalism can be defined as suggesting that mental states are characterised by their causal properties. In other words, instead of defining a mental state by its features, Functionalism suggests that it should be defined by what it does, or by its function. Expanding on this, Functionalism suggests that two thoughts can be considered identical if all relevant inputs, both those garnered internally and externally, can achieve the same eventual output. One of the first forms of Functionalism was created by Hilary Putnam, who, using the Turing Test, demonstrated his theory of Machine State Functionalism. The Turing Test was a proposal by Alan Turing to discover whether machines can imitate human behaviour in a manner satisfactorily enough that they appear to be able to think, and furthermore, Turing suggested that his test might, with more technological advancement, be able to determine if a machine is in fact able to think. Using the Turing Test, Putnam suggesting that any being possessing a mind could be said to be a Turing machine, and could be controlled using a set of instructions for its operation. Furthermore, early Functionalist theories suggested that a person or machine could be controlled by the input of instructions based on the probability of an outcome, and thus the behaviour would be modified according to the most likely outcome. From this, Putnam created his idea of Functionalism which suggested that sentient beings differ from non sentient beings not because of their physical make up, but because of the way that the internal mental states relate to one another causally to form outputs. However, Putnam later rejected his earlier proposals for Functionalism, citing his Twin Earth thought experiment as justification, and, being that he was instrumental in the formation of Functionalist theory, this gives weight to the argument that Functionalism as a philosophy of mind is not viable. The Twin Earth experiment is based around the idea of two identical worlds, except for one thing, that water is has a different name on the twinned earth. As Yemina Ben-Menahem writes in Hilary Putnam, the two people involved, Oscar and Toscar refer to the liquid water as what is familiar to them in their respective environments. Yet the liquidsare in fact very different. (p.236, ll.23-24). What this thought experiment is suggesting therefore, is that Oscar and Toscars thoughts about water are based on their knowledge of it. By extension, this suggests that for a person to have thoughts about water, they must have experienced it, since the brain itself has no such knowledge of water. Thus , some form of external stimulus must have created the knowledge of water in order for the brain to process it. This refutes the idea in Functionalism that mental states are created internally. A criticism of Functionalism, and indeed of all materialist theories, is that it does not account for the complexities of human emotion and feeling. For example, what is missing in the theory of Functionalism is the allowance for subjective, conscious emotion, or qualia. The argument for the existence of qualia is rooted in the idea that some emotions, namely pleasure and pain, cannot be analysed in an objective manner. If the example of pain is taken from a Functionalist standpoint, its only property is that it creates the appropriate output, such as flinching. However, it is difficult to imagine that this is the only component of pain. From the point of view of a Functionalist, pain is not defined in terms of how it makes a person feel, or what it is made of, but rather only in terms of what is input to create the relevant mental state, and what the output of that is. The problem with using qualia as an argument against the validity of Functionalism as theory of mind is that not all philosophers believe that qualia exists. However, if one agrees to the possibility of the existence of qualia, then this argument is valuable. As Edmund Leo Wright argues in The Case for Qualia, human experience can support the existence of qualiaqualia realism should be our default position. (p.286, ll.11-13). Using this standpoint as a basis, two arguments can be levelled against Functionalism and its validity. The first argument builds on Putnams own objection to his theory of Functionalism, and the relationship between cognitive function and experience. The example of colours can be used to illustrate this point. If a person sees red and calls it red, and another person sees it as green but calls it red, the function is identical, but the personal experience is not. Jaegwon Kim demonstrates this in his book, Physicalism or Something Near Enough, where he writes tha t what a colour looks like to a person should make no difference to the primary cognitive function of [their] visual system, (p173, ll. 2-4). In other words, Kim is arguing that the Functionalist approach does not allow for the variety of subjective experience. He goes on to qualify this: Intrinsic qualities of qualia are not functionalisable and therefore are irreducible, and hence causally impotent. (p.173, ll.9-10) If the existence of qualia cannot be reconciled with the theory of Functionalism, as Kim suggests, then the two must be mutually exclusive. If one assumes that qualia exists, as suggested by Wright, then Functionalism is not a viable theory of mind. Clearly, for this argument to be valid, one must first accept the existence of qualia. As such the argument from a qualia standpoint is not sufficient by itself to invalidate Functionalism if the existence of qualia is not proven. Indeed, the theory of Functionalism can be used as an argument against the existence of qualia , and no explanation for either theory has been issued which does not rely upon unknown factors and speculation. Arguing the case for Functionalisms shortfalls in terms of consciousness, Ned Block proposed a thought experiment in which a functioning mind could be created out of an entire Chinese nation. The point of this thought experiment was to illustrate that the theory of Functionalism fails to directly address the issue of consciousness as a condition of a mental state or functioning mind. As explained by Eric S. Chelstrom in Social Phenomenology: Husserl, Intersubjectivity and Collective Intentionality, If consciousness could be defined in only strictly functional terms, it would be possible for the population of China as a whole to realise the functionality of consciousness. (p.55, ll.17-19). If one were to take the Functionalist view on this matter, then this thought experiment should seem entirely plausible, since in keeping with Functionalist views, it does not matter what the mind is made up of, it matters only that functional roles are realised by different parts, as would occur in the Chinese nation scenario. There should be no need, Functionalism would argue, for the mind to be made up of anything specific. Indeed, providing the roles were carried out, it could be made of anything imaginable. As Ned Block points out, the idea of the Chinese nation as a whole having a collective consciousness, and by extension, the suggestion that a conscious mind could be made up of number of functioning parts of any description, although not necessarily impossible, seems absurd to most people, and as such demonstrates a flaw in the argument for Functionalism as a viable theory of mind. As established previously, there are a number of arguments against Functionalism as a viable theory of mind, and these must be taken into account when weighing up whether one agrees or disagrees with them. However, the basis of the theory of Functionalism, that mental states are only defined by their function, is one that is not easily reconcilable with the wealth of human experience. In fact, the idea that human experience is secondary to functioning mental states is somewhat abhorrent, since it is in human nature to want to believe that consciousness is a meaningful phenomenon and not an illusion created by causal functions. Furthermore, in accepting Functionalism in its entirety, one must also accept that that the machine function model suggested by Putnam could also be viable, and furthermore, that conscious beings are not unique and extraordinary, but can be created with any components, provide the equation of input and output is valid. This is a somewhat undesirable situation, and seems ridiculous as it is based in speculation of unknown factors. Ultimately, it can be said that Functionalism is not a viable theory of mind since it requires a suspension of ones experience of behaviour the knowledge of ones own consciousness, and is based almost completely on conjecture. Matravers, D (2011) Mind (A222 Book 5), Milton Keynes, The Open University Ben-Menahem, Y (2005) Hilary Putnam, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press Wright, E (2008) The Case for Qualia, Massachusetts, MIT Press Chelstrom, E (2012) Social Phenomenology: Husserl, Intersubjectivity and Collective Intentionality, Maryland, Lexington Books
Thursday, September 19, 2019
French and British Colonialism Bibliography usage :: essays research papers
Topic: What were the legacies of French and British colonialism in Sub-Saharan Africa? How similar/different were those legacies? Paul Nugent. (2004). Africa Since Independence. Palgrave Macmillan This is a comparative study of the different trajectories and experiences of independent African states. It addresses the differential legacies of British, French, Portuguese, Belgian and Spanish colonialism as well as the unique qualities of imperial Ethiopia and Liberia Richard Hughes (2003). Capricorn: David Stirling's African Campaign. Radcliffe Press Capricorn is the story of a small band of idealists in the decade before independence that believed a future without racial discrimination would allow the countries of east and central Africa to prosper. Story wises the effects of the turbulent history of post-colonial Africa and its disappointment to idealists and to politicians who hoped for peace in countries free of European control. Retrieved July 2004 from: Nicholas Pederson, ACDIS-Arms Control Disarmament and International Security, French Colonialism in Africa at: www.acdis.uiuc.edu/Research/OPs/Pederson/html/contents/sect3.html This series paper details France’s need for uranium, a resource made an advantage to France by its colonialism in Africa. The paper also details the events of Africa’s largest and longest lasting colonial empires in history-the French Colony. Details factors involved in the decision to pursue African based colonies and details the ideas involved in assimilating and associating the African people into French culture. Retrieved July 2004 from: Nicholas Pederson, ACDIS-Arms Control Disarmament and International Security French Colonialism In Africa Post-WWII at: www.acdis.uiuc.edu/Research/OPs /sect4.html The paper details the beginning of the end of French Colonialism in Africa by Charles de Gaulle creation of the Fifth French Republic in 1958 and his coming to power. Retrieved July 2004 from: University of Nothern Iowa, Geographic Alliance of Iowa: Standard Four: The Human Characteristics of Nigeria at: www.uni.edu/gai/Nigeria/Background The article details the events of Nigeria’s creation through British colonialism. Also details the legacies left behind in Nigeria such as the English language, culture, and presents a balanced view of Nigeria’s stereotypes and truths. Linguistic and the Political Geography of Nigeria are also detailed. Retrieved June 2004 from: University of Maryland. ICONS Americas Transatlantic Connections at: http://www.icons.umd.edu/americas/afr-am.htm The article highlights the differences between administrative policies of British colonialism and Latin, French policies. Very brief and to the point but also contains links to Organization of Africans in the Americas(Europe). O. Patricia Cambridge, Ph.D. (2000) Africa Untold. Ohio Univeristy Detailed similarities of the effects of European colonies on Africa’s Religion, Politics, Economics, Women, Children, Men and Kinship.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Jane Eyre By Charlotte Brontë :: English Literature
Jane Eyre By Charlotte Brontà « Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontà « was published in 1848, under the name of Currer Bell. Although the novel is over 150 years old, there are still themes that we can relate to today, such as bullying, prejudice and hypocrisy. In this essay, I am going to discuss the three themes mentioned and also consider admirable characters from the novel; the authors narrative technique and the part that I found appealing. The first issue that I will discuss will be on the bullying that Jane received at Gateshead Hall: the home of her Auntie and cousins. She is bullied by not just her cousins, but her aunt as well. In Chapter one, it shows the bullying from her cousins and aunt, when she has begun reading and John Reed, her cousin, throws the book at her head, and she retaliates. But because she retaliated, John's sisters ran up to their 'mamma' and blamed the fight on Jane. She was then escorted upstairs and locked in the red room. This could be counted as a form of bullying, as she only puts her in the red room as a punishment for attacking John, but we, the readers, already know that John started all of the commotion. Verbal bullying is also used in chapter one, where John Reed calls her names for throwing a punch at him (QUOTE: CHAPTER1/LINE 16: "I don't very well know what I did with my hands, but he called me 'Rat!, rat! ') During Jane's First term at Lowood, Jane is bullied out of food, when there was very little and the older girls wanted some more food to devour. Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative, related in the voice of the protagonist, or heroine. Jane Eyre is the "I" of the story, the person whose voice we hear as we read, and everything that happens is seen from her point of view. Nowhere in the novel does the author break the flow of the narrator's voice to give us an objective view of her main character. However, she does remind us once in a while that the story is being told by Jane as a mature woman, looking back on events that happened some years earlier. The mature Jane occasionally comments on the younger Jane's reactions to those events, and sometimes she even addresses you, the Reader, directly. You'll also find occasions where her narrative includes long stories told to Jane by other characters (such as Rochester's accounts of his past), conversations that Jane overhears between other characters, and even accounts of Jane's dreams. These not only add variety to the style but give the reader a Jane Eyre By Charlotte Brontà « :: English Literature Jane Eyre By Charlotte Brontà « Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontà « was published in 1848, under the name of Currer Bell. Although the novel is over 150 years old, there are still themes that we can relate to today, such as bullying, prejudice and hypocrisy. In this essay, I am going to discuss the three themes mentioned and also consider admirable characters from the novel; the authors narrative technique and the part that I found appealing. The first issue that I will discuss will be on the bullying that Jane received at Gateshead Hall: the home of her Auntie and cousins. She is bullied by not just her cousins, but her aunt as well. In Chapter one, it shows the bullying from her cousins and aunt, when she has begun reading and John Reed, her cousin, throws the book at her head, and she retaliates. But because she retaliated, John's sisters ran up to their 'mamma' and blamed the fight on Jane. She was then escorted upstairs and locked in the red room. This could be counted as a form of bullying, as she only puts her in the red room as a punishment for attacking John, but we, the readers, already know that John started all of the commotion. Verbal bullying is also used in chapter one, where John Reed calls her names for throwing a punch at him (QUOTE: CHAPTER1/LINE 16: "I don't very well know what I did with my hands, but he called me 'Rat!, rat! ') During Jane's First term at Lowood, Jane is bullied out of food, when there was very little and the older girls wanted some more food to devour. Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative, related in the voice of the protagonist, or heroine. Jane Eyre is the "I" of the story, the person whose voice we hear as we read, and everything that happens is seen from her point of view. Nowhere in the novel does the author break the flow of the narrator's voice to give us an objective view of her main character. However, she does remind us once in a while that the story is being told by Jane as a mature woman, looking back on events that happened some years earlier. The mature Jane occasionally comments on the younger Jane's reactions to those events, and sometimes she even addresses you, the Reader, directly. You'll also find occasions where her narrative includes long stories told to Jane by other characters (such as Rochester's accounts of his past), conversations that Jane overhears between other characters, and even accounts of Jane's dreams. These not only add variety to the style but give the reader a
Acid Base Extraction Essay -- essays research papers
Acid Base Extraction The purpose of this laboratory assignment was two-fold, first, we were to demonstrate the extraction of acids and bases, finally, determining what unknowns were present. Second, we were to extract caffeine from tea. These two assignment will be documented in two separate entities. Introduction: Acid/base extraction involves carrying out simple acid/base reactions in order to separate strong organic acids, weak organic acids neutral organic compounds and basic organic substances. The procedure for this laboratory assignment are on the following pages. 3) Separation of Carboxylic Acid, a Phenol and a Neutral Substance      The purpose of this acid/base extraction is to separate a mixture of equal parts of benzoic acid(strong acid) and 2-naphthanol(weak base) and 1,4- dimethoxybenzene(neutral) by extracting from tert-butylmethyl ether(very volatile).The goal of this experiment was to identify the three components in the mixture and to determine the percent recovery of each from the mixture. 4) Separation of a Neutral and Basic Substance      A mixture of equal parts of a neutral substance containing either naphthalene or benzoin and a basic substance containing either 4-chloroaniline or ethyl 4-aminobenzoate were to be separated by extraction from an ether solution. Once the separation took place, and crystallization was carried out, it became possible to determine what components were in the unknown mixture, by means of a melting point determination. Results Procedure Observations Inference Dissolve 3.05g Phenol Mixture was a golden-Neutral acid in 30ml brown/yellow color t-butyl methyl ether in Erlenmeyer flask and transfer mixture to 125ml separatory funnel using little ether to complete the transfer Add 10 ml of water               Organic layer=mixture                          aqueous layer=water(clear) Add 10 ml saturated aqueous           Sodium bicarbonate          NaHCO3 dissolves in solution sodium bicarbonate           ... ...sp;      Caffeine salicylate is a Pasteur pipette while the     isolated(white color)          formed. beaker is in the ice bath then vacuum filter. Caffeine beaker:     51.61g           -51.56g                .05g = 50mg % yield = .05g x 100% = 20%      .25g Caffeine salicylate:     17.198g           -17.036g                .062g % yield = .062g x 100% = 25%      .25g Conclusion      According to the HPLC graph that follows, my product was very pure. The actual melting point of caffeine salicylate is 137 degree(C), my product was found to have a melting point of 138 degrees (C). As before, of course this experiment was not done completely error-free, the error is due almost entirely on human error.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Afghanistan War Essay
Afghanistan has been in war with the U. S. mainly because, The Taliban refuses to follow through with the commands that the U. S. gave them, as well as ‘The Three Phases’, Also the planned attack in 2001, but mainly because the U. S. wants the mineral resources that are found in Afghanistan. The Taliban refused to undertake 3 simple tasks: shutting down the terrorist training camps, giving up the Al-Qaeda leaders and returning all American and Foreign citizens, which is part of the reason that we went to war with Afghanistan in 2001. The ‘Three Phases’ started in 1987-present the first phase was to topple the Taliban and destroy all terrorist camps from 1987-1997, the second phase was to defeat the Taliban military and re-build core institutes in the afghan state from 1997- September11, 2001, and the third phase was to turn to counterinsurgency doctrine due to increased military troop presence from 2001-present. America was planning an attack on Afghanistan to start off the third phase but what they didn’t know is that Afghanistan was planning an attack to the Twin towers to get back at the U. S. for what they did in the past years. The main reason to the war in Afghanistan was to get most of the mineral resources in Afghanistan that are very valuable, and costs lots of money. Afghanistan and The U. S. A. are at war d The Taliban has refused to do the commands that the president of the U. S. (Mr. Bush) told them to do. More than two weeks ago from October 7th, 2001 the Taliban refused to shut down their terrorist camps, give up their leaders, and return all American and foreign citizens. Even though the U. S. s at war with Afghanistan, president Bush set up an arrangement so that afghan people who were suffering from starvation and medical issues could be cured with the droppings of food, medical aid and, clean drinking water so that they can survive and keep the afghan population alive, and for them to know what America can do when other Countries are in a time of need. George W. Bush on Sunday October 7th, 2001 said â€Å"The Military action is a part of our campaign against terrorism†¦We will win this conflict by the patient accumulation of successes, by meeting a series of challenges with determination and will and purpose. (Bush) This quote states that America will do everything in its power to get revenge on Osama bin Laden (Jerry Robinson) the person that President Bush thinks that he was behind the attack of the Twin Towers. Barack Obama dramatically increased the military troop presence in Afghanistan to have a larger force to protect the population from Taliban attacks due to, the ‘Three Phases’. The Three Phases consist of: 1) Toppling the Taliban 2) Defeating the Taliban military and rebuilding core institutions of the afghan state 3) a turn to counterinsurgency doctrine due to the increasing rates of military troops in Afghanistan(Witte). Phase one had lasted from 1979-1989 when soviet troops were withdrawn. Phase two lasted from1989-2001 the forces the United States and its allies had trained and armed now fought each other in complex coalitions for control of Afghanistan. The Third Phase lasted from September 11, 2001-present during Phase three on September 22, 2001 The United Arab Emirates and later Saudi Arabia withdrew their recognition of the Taliban as the legal government of Afghanistan, leaving neighboring Pakistan as the only remaining country with diplomatic ties. o some extent most of the Terrorist camps in Afghanistan were destroyed, and the government was ousted. Also, The Taliban surrendered within two months, much more quickly than expected. The Taliban and al-Qaeda began to regroup in 2003, after the United States shifted its military efforts to fighting the war in Iraq, and attacks on U. S. and NATO troops have continued since. The overall aim now is to ensure a stable Afghanistan that is no longer a hotbed for terrorist organisations. This all happened due to the Three Phases.
Monday, September 16, 2019
Ideal Classroom Essay
When a teacher ask students what their ideal classroom is most people would usually reply with â€Å"no teachers to teach us and we can use our phones whenever we want, we can just chill and sleep. †However, the students never think about the consequences to that. Which are that we will not be prepared for any major tests and will fail tremendously. My ideal classroom consists of a handful of students, the students getting along with each other without having any problems, and a great teacher with a lot of patience. My ideal classroom has less than the average amount of students. I would like to have between ten through fifteen students in all my classrooms. That is because the less the students the more time the teacher can help all students individually. This will help us be better students and we’ll participate more; we will also learn more. With smaller classrooms the students will have the chance to communicate with every student in the class. This will help us not be strangers to one another, and we will be able to get along. If we all get along that makes things a lot simpler and there will not be any fights or altercations between one another. This will help the teacher because they won’t have to worry about students wanting to get into fights with one another. Since their would be smaller classrooms teachers will be more laid back and they might not assign as much homework. This is also an advantage for the teacher because they won’t have to grade as much work every single night and they’ll be in better moods. This is good for us because the teacher will have more patience and give us extra time for work or will not write us up as much whenever we do something dumb.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Do Superior Leaders Have Any Minimum Natural Born Traits?
It is a reality that quite a few people own inherited superior minimum natural born traits which provides them a ruling influence over their equals, and marks them out distinctly for leadership. This phenomenon is evident in all associations of human beings, in all assortments of conditions and on all levels of culture. Leadership is a figure of inherited superior minimum natural born traits. In other words, one is either born with it or not. The born leader will come out logically as the leader for the reason that one has inborn traits which provide one that certain and unquestioned label. Such a leader could most probably lead in all states of affairs. (Avolio, 2005) It is found heredity plays a vital role in certain behavioral features like bashfulness, intellect, ascendancy, social existence and aggression. Decisive part of leadership is truly elements of the personality. One either has charismatic personality or one doesn't. One was born with adore for hard work or one is lethargic. One has self-assurance or one has self-loathing. One is instinctive, with loads of common sense, or one is impetuous. And most prominently, one is sincere with oneself and can see where one’s mistakes lie. According to William Shakespeare â€Å"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.†(Scrapbook.com, 2006) Shakespeare’s statement clearly supports my point of view that superior leaders have some minimum natural born traits. Aristotle supports the view that â€Å"some men are born to lead, and others to be led.†(The Great Person ; Trait Theories of Leadership, 2006) In conclusion, there are certainly, born leaders with some minimum natural born traits. Still born leaders have to effort at their leadership abilities. It is not something one turns up at and that is it, one is there, a leader. References Avolio J. Bruce, (2005), Leadership Development in Balance: Made/Born. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ. Scrapbook.com, William Shakespeare, retrieved on October 24, 2006 from http://www.scrapbook.com/quotes/doc/2057/300.html The Great Person ; Trait Theories of Leadership, â€Å"Great leaders are born, not made†, retrieved on October 24, 2006 from http://faculty.css.edu/dswenson/web/LEAD/GreatTrait.html ;
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Macbeth Hallucinations
Desires of the Subconscious In the tragedy, Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses motifs as a way to portray several different underlined themes of his work. Of the numerous themes, one in particular is applied throughout the entire story, this motif being hallucinations. Even while mans conscious is actively thinking, his subconscious is also thinking. It is thinking about the true desires of ones heart. The subconscious also thinks about guilt and what it wants to forget about. These two ideas of the subconscious come alive in this tragedy through hallucinations.In the beginning of the tragedy, Macbeth receives a prophecy that he will become king. His aspiration for becoming king clouds his conscience. He desires to become king so much that he and Lady Macbeth create a plan to murder Duncan and take his power. While they are carrying out the plan, Macbeth sees something in front of him. This is further shown in the quote, â€Å"Is this a dagger which I see before me. the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have not, and yet I see thee still.Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight, or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from a heat-oppressed brain? †(2. 1. 33-39) This hallucination is particularly interesting. At this point in the tragedy, Macbeth is having second thoughts about murdering Duncan. As he hallucinates of a bloody dagger pointing towards Duncan’s room, it shows the reader that he is yearning to become king so badly that he would murder for it. Though the reader doesn’t see this from Macbeth’s exterior emotions, it is depicted through his subconscious.In the next act, Macbeth kills his best friend, Banquo, because he is becoming suspicious of the murder. Shakespeare shows Macbeth growing guilty of this act through another illusion in the quote, â€Å" If I stand here, I saw him†¦ Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ th’ olden time, Ere humane sta tue purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear. The time has been and there an end. But now they rise again With twenty mortal murders on their crowns And push us from our stools. This is more strange Than such a murder is. (3. 4. 89-99) As the story continues, Macbeth feels more and more guilt building up on him. This guilt persuades his subconscious to form a mirage of Banquo, arriving to dinner with him. This shows the reader that Macbeth is feeling overwhelming guiltiness. As Lady Macbeth played a large role in the murders of Duncan, Banquo and Macduff’s family, she is also being plagued with guilt. This is shown when she is sleep walking in the following quote, â€Å"Here's the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.Oh, oh, oh! †(5. 1. 49-51) In this quote, the blood that Lady Macbeth sees on her hands represents guilt. The hands represent her mind. Therefore, Lady Ma cbeth can’t disguise her guilt in anyway so much as to say that all of the perfumes of Arabia cannot overpower the guilt she feels. Shakespeare uses the motif of hallucinations to illustrate the theme that what man hallucinates is what man either wants to see or what he wants to forget about. This is shown in Macbeth before the murder of Duncan, after the murder of Banquo and at the end of the book.
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