Summarize chopin's The Story Of An Hour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summarize chopin's The Story Of An Hour - Essay Example On the list of people who were killed in the accident, he saw Brently Mallard, Mrs. Mallard’s husband. He went to the house to tell her. Although Josephine and Richard’s feared that the news would kill Mrs. Mallard, the news made her happy. The more Mrs. Mallard thought about her husband being dead, the better she felt. She relished the idea and was getting used to it. Just as she was feeling free, she looked out her window and saw many images that were also a sign of freedom. For example, Mrs. Mallard observed the impending spring rain, the songs of the birds, and the blue sky. Mrs. Mallard was happy for the first time in her life. She would not be under the thumb of her husband anymore and she would be able to live as she wanted. â€Å"Free, Free, Free† (par. 10) she exclaims, as a rush of that freedom washed over her while she sat in the chair. She was giddy from the thought of this wonderful freedom. Mrs. Mallard felt so happy that she cried and laughed at th e same time. She, nor her family thought that perhaps Mr. Mallard had not been on the train. When Mr. Mallard walks through the door, as though nothing had happened, Mrs. Mallard felt a sudden sense of shock and disappointment. As a result, Mrs. Mallard’s heart gave out and she died of

Revenue Management in Hospitality Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Revenue Management in Hospitality - Assignment Example YM majorly focuses on revenue generation and management by emphasizing the concept of ‘4 C’s’, comprising Calendar, Clock, Capacity and Cost associated with forecasting of demand. From the provided case study, it has been identified that Aldermar Resorts & Spas is a premium and luxurious family run company that specializes in the hotel industry and is located in Greece. The business is recognised to be facing a number of problems associated with fluctuations in demand patterns. Hence, the operation management consultant is to concentrate on the development of an YM strategy that would replace the existing strategy used by the company in order to ensure effectiveness and success of the YM performance in the business operations. The report would outline the importance and applicability of YM in enhancement of performance and would assess the impact of CRM integration in YM. Furthermore, the report would concentrate on discussion of the various job roles that must be adhered by the staff members concerned with the implementation of YM. Moreover, the report would examine the strategies that can be used by Aldermar Resorts & Spas to enhance performance and mitigat e the problems. Finally, the report would disclose a number of YM metrics that the firm needs to consider for performance assessment and generation of higher revenues. YM is considered as one of the prominent tools to determine the risks associated with decisions taken by the firm to ensure generation of higher performance and revenues in the present as well as future markets. Aldermar Resorts & Spas comprises eight properties that have a distinct client mix including conference guests, individual clients and tour operators. Each of the eight properties is concerned with application of a unique product mix, which assures successful application of the YM strategy with due consideration to the available resources. The problem of high fluctuations

Examining the theory of mind hypothesis for autism

Examining the theory of mind hypothesis for autism The Theory of Mind (TofM) hypothesis for autism has been investigated extensively in the last 30 years. This essay will review the literature which examines this theory, considering a wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches. It will be argued that whilst there are several strengths of the theory, the TofM hypothesis cannot account for the non-social symptoms of ASD, and therefore cannot be considered to provide a comprehensive account of the disorder. Cognitive evidence (including a range of TofM tests), theoretical issues, and alternative hypotheses of autism will be considered. What is the Theory of Mind Hypothesis for Autism? The TofM hypothesis of autism was first proposed by Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith in 1985. It proposed that individuals with autism lack a TofM, leading them to have specific deficits, such as an inability to partake in pretend play and impairment in social skills. The theory has been controversial since its proposal, with several alternative hypotheses being suggested. Cognitive Evidence The earliest tests of TofM ability often relied heavily on tests of false belief, in which participants are required to understand that other people do not necessarily know (or believe) the same as them. For example, Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith (1985) investigated TofM ability in children with autism and children with Downs syndrome, and found those with autism were significantly impaired in their understanding of false belief, suggesting a deficit in TofM ability in autism, and thereby supporting the TofM hypothesis for autism. Similar tests involving false belief, such as those carried out by Happe (1995), have supported findings by Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith (1985), providing strong support for the TofM hypothesis of autism. The principle problem in using false belief tests is their reliance on language use. (Bloom and German, 2000). Colle, Baron-Cohen and Hill (2007) investigated concerns that a potential inability to understand language associated with false belief tasks may result in individuals with autism failing these tasks, despite have the TofM ability required to pass tests (e.g. Bloom and German, 2000). They used a non-verbal false belief test to compare the TofM understanding of children with ASD to children with SLI, and found that autistic children have specific deficits in TofM which were not present in the SLI control group. They concluded that previous findings of a TofM deficit by research using standard tests of false belief (e.g. Surian and Leslie, 1999) were unlikely to have been confounded by language ability, thereby revalidating claims made by this research. However, there are other issues associated with the reliability of false belief tasks. For example, Bloom and German (2000) have suggested that a single test of TofM is unlikely to comprehensively test all elements of TofM ability in an individual. Furthermore, whilst research in the field shows the majority of autistic participants fail tests of false belief, a small minority of high-functioning autistic individuals pass the test (e.g. Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith, 1985). This has raised questions regarding the ability of false belief tests to recognise subtle deficits in TofM ability potentially shown in the high-functioning autistic population (Rutherford, Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2002). As a result, new research in the field has often focused on using alternative tests of TofM. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) is an alternative to false belief tasks, in which participants are required to recognise emotions based on images of a persons eyes. To pass this test, participants must rely on subtle cues indicated in the eyes, thereby indicating ability in mental state understanding, or TofM. Baron-Cohen et al. (2001) used this test to show that individuals with ASD are significantly impaired in their ability to recognise emotions using subtle cues, thereby indicating a deficit in TofM ability. A similar test was used by Rutherford, Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright (2002) and Golan et al. (2007) in which participants were required to establish how a person was feeling after listening to a phrase spoken by that person. This test also indicated social impairments caused by a deficit in TofM ability in ASD, as participants with ASD were significantly impaired in their ability to recognise emotions using vocal cues. Research into TofM ability using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test is particularly beneficial in supporting the TofM hypothesis. Methodologically, the test does not rely on language comprehension, and therefore passing or failing the test is based purely on TofM ability. Both the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test and the Voice variation are able to detect subtle differences in participants social sensitivity, allowing for deficits to be identified in populations that often pass false belief tasks (such as individuals with high-functioning Autism, Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith, 1985), and thereby suggesting the TofM hypothesis is generalisable and universal across the highly varied autistic population. The Faux Pas test was also developed by Baron-Cohen et al. (1999), and assesses recognition of faux pas (defined as being when something is said without consideration of whether the information may be something that the listener does not wish to hear or know, Baron-Cohen et al., 1999). In 2009, Zalla et al. investigated faux pas recognition ability in individuals with Aspergers syndrome using the Faux Pas test, and found these individuals made significantly more errors in detecting faux pas than typically developing individuals, were unable to correctly justify the speakers behaviour and were unable to comprehend the impact of this behaviour. Zalla et al. (2009) concluded that this showed a specific deficit in TofM ability in individuals with ASD. Methodologically, research using tests of faux pas lend strong support for the ToM hypothesis for autism by using an alternative test to false belief tasks. Using faux pas tests helps to revalidate claims made by the theory, which could have been considered questionable if relying purely on false belief tests. As a result, these tests provide strong support for the theory that individuals with autism have deficits in TofM. The TofM hypothesis for autism is also strongly supported by research into joint attention ability in autism (Baron-Cohen, 2009). Evidence suggests that joint attention and TofM ability are linked, such that early joint attention ability is a precursor to TofM ability (e.g. Charman et al., 2000). Furthermore, research has indicated that joint attention skills are significantly impaired in infants with ASD. For example, Charman (2003) investigated joint attention ability in infants (aged 20 months) with autism, and found significant deficits. Charman then assessed the social and communication symptoms of these infants at 42 months, and found that symptom severity was correlated with joint attention disability indicated at 20 months. Colombi et al. (2009) also found that young autistic children show joint attention deficits. As joint attention ability is considered to be a precursor for TofM ability, this suggests that TofM deficits are present from infancy or birth in individuals with ASD. This thereby provides support for the TofM hypothesis as a causal account of autism, by suggesting that a TofM deficit may be a primary deficit. This concept is supported by research into symptom severity and TofM ability. In 2003, Tager-Flusberg et al. used a battery of tests to assess TofM ability and symptom severity in autistic participants, and found that severity of social and communication symptoms was partially explained by TofM impairment. These conclusions imply that TofM deficits are causal in producing the social and communication impairments shown in ASD, thereby supporting claims made by the TofM hypothesis that a deficit causes symptoms associated with the condition. In 2007, Tager-Flusberg presented one of the most comprehensive reviews of the hypothesis to date. She assessed evidence which addressed key issues associated with the theory (for example, why some children pass false belief tasks, and whether a TofM deficit can account for all deficits associated with autism), evaluating a wide range of evidence (including cognitive testing and neurological evidence). She concluded that whilst there is a TofM deficit in autism, the hypothesis cannot account for all deficits in social-affective information processing associated with the condition. The issue raised by Tager-Flusberg (2007) is perhaps the most important weakness in the TofM hypothesis. Whilst the theory provides an explanation for social and communication deficits typically found in ASD (as successful communication skills require TofM ability, Baron-Cohen, 2009), there is no evidence to suggest that a TofM deficit may account for symptoms such as repetitive behaviour, obsessively pursued interests, and dislike of change (Baron-Cohen, 2009). Joseph and Tager-Flusberg (2004) investigated TofM deficits and repetitive behaviour in ASD, and found no correlation between deficits and severity of repetitive symptoms, thereby supporting the suggestion that the TofM hypothesis cannot account for repetitive behaviour. As a result, the theory cannot be considered comprehensive in terms of explaining all possible symptoms associated with autism. Another issue associated with the TofM hypothesis is that individuals with other disorders have also shown deficits in TofM. For example, Brune (2005) found that individuals with schizophrenia showed significant impairment in TofM, and associated impairments in social behaviour and emotion recognition, similar to deficits shown by individuals with autism. The TofM hypothesis for autism provides no explanation for how autistic individuals are unique in their symptoms, when other conditions exist which show similar TofM impairment. A theoretical constraint associated with the TofM hypothesis is the potentially ambiguous nature of the term TofM. The hypothesis is complicated by debates surrounding the nature of TofM ability in typical individuals. The two principle theories of TofM (Theory Theory and Simulation Theory) explain autism in terms of an inability to form thoughts, representations, and hypotheses about the social world (Theory Theory), or alternatively in terms of an inability to simulate the mental states of others (Simulation Theory) (Currie, 1996). Until an absolute theory of TofM can be established, any evidence in support of a TofM hypothesis for autism remains ambiguous in terms of exactly what deficits individuals with autism have (i.e. deficits described by Theory Theory or deficits suggested by Simulation Theory). When considering the literature investigating the TofM hypothesis, it is worthwhile acknowledging the wide body of neurological research. Research in this field provides strong support for a TofM deficit in ASD, with studies such as those by Kana et al. (2009), Mason et al. (2008), and Dapretto et al. (2006) suggesting abnormal brain activation in autistic participants in brain regions associated with TofM. However, research into a neurological basis for autism has also emphasised the issues associated with the TofM hypothesis. For example, Hadjikhani (2007) state that it is unclear whether dysfunction in brain regions associated with TofM could explain behavioural symptoms shown in autism (such as repetitive behaviour and concrete thought), or how structural and functional brain abnormalities originate in autistic individuals. This research highlights the key strengths and weaknesses associated with the TofM hypothesis as a cognitive account of autism, and reinforces cognitive resea rch suggesting the hypothesis cannot be considered as a comprehensive account of the condition. Summary The preceding review provides strong evidence to support a deficit in TofM in autism, which is likely to be present from birth. The review also suggests that symptom severity can be at least partially accounted for by degree of TofM deficit. However, there are significant issues when considering the TofM hypothesis for autism. These issues include an inability of the hypothesis to explain how non-social symptoms can be accounted for by a TofM deficit, a lack of explanation of the significant symptom variability shown in the autistic population, as well as theoretical constraints. Until these issues are addressed, the TofM hypothesis cannot be considered as a comprehensive account of autism. Alternative Theories of Autism The issues associated with the TofM hypothesis led to a range of alternative theories of autism being developed, which must be considered when reviewing literature investigating the TofM hypothesis. One of the first theories to be proposed since the TofM hypothesis was the Executive Dysfunction theory (Ozonoff, Pennington and Rogers, 1991). This theory contradicted the TofM hypothesis, in that it proposed that individuals with autism have deficits in executive function ability (Yerys et al., 2006). This theory became popular in autism research, as the theory appeared to provide more comprehensive accounts of the autistic traits (both social and non-social) presented in these individuals daily (Hill, 2004). Furthermore, a large number of investigations found executive dysfunction in autistic individuals. For example, Ozonoff and McEvoy (2008) examined cognitive development in autistic individuals over a three-year period, and found significant deficits in executive functioning. McEvoy , Rogers and Pennington (2006) also found a deficit in executive functioning in autism. However, recent research has suggested that executive dysfunction may be secondary to the autism. Yerys et al. (2006) investigated executive function in young children with ASD and found no evidence of dysfunction, suggesting that executive dysfunction in adults with ASD has developed gradually and is not a causal factor of the condition. Dawson et al. (2002) also found evidence for normal executive function ability in young autistic children, and concluded that dysfunction found at a later age was a consequence of living with the disorder. As a result, whilst this theory initially appeared to provide a valid and reliable alternative to the TofM hypothesis for autism, there is now strong evidence to refute executive dysfunction as a causal account of autism, and this research cannot be considered to provide evidence to invalidate the TofM hypothesis. A more successful theory was proposed by Baron-Cohen (2008) as a development of the TofM hypothesis of autism. The Empathizing-Systemizing theory proposes that individuals with autism have deficits in understanding others mental states and responding appropriately (empathy), but have an average or above average systemizing ability (i.e. using rules and regularities to analyze and construct systems). As a result, autistic individuals show deficits in social ability (caused by empathy deficits) and non-social symptoms such as repetitive behaviours, obsessively pursued interests, and dislike of change (caused by average or above systemizing ability) (Baron-Cohen, 2009). This theory is particularly successful for several reasons. From a methodological perspective, the theory provides an explanation for both social and non-social symptoms of autism, a key issue in the TofM hypothesis. The theory also explains the uniqueness of autism, such that whilst other conditions may show deficits in empathy (e.g. schizophrenia, Montag et al., 2007), no other condition also shows average or above average systemizing ability (Baron-Cohen, 2009). The theory is also strongly supported by research. For example, Lawson et al. (2004) investigated empathizing and systemizing in participants with ASD and typically developing controls, and found those with ASD were significantly worse at empathizing than controls, but were not significantly different in their ability to systemize. Wakabayashi et al. (2007) found individuals with ASD were impaired in their ability to empathize, but significantly better than typical controls in their ability to systemize. This theory has therefore become a valid and reliable alternative to the TofM hypothesis for autism. Conclusions This essay has reviewed the literature which critically examines the TofM hypothesis for autism. It is clear that whilst there is adequate evidence to suggest a TofM deficit in autistic individuals, the hypothesis cannot account for non-social elements of ASD. New theories of autism must incorporate the concept of TofM deficits, whilst aiming to account for all social and non-social symptoms, as well as symptom variability and severity. A greater emphasis on the understanding how cognitive deficits associated with autism generate the symptoms shown in the condition would have important implications for the development of interventions aimed at improving social skills and symptom management in individuals with autism.

Cloning Essay -- essays research papers fc

Cloning. Many people associate it with science-fiction novels, not with real life, but animal cloning is a process that is being attempted today all over the world, and human cloning might be next. But should cloning be made illegal? According to the Washington Post, cloning should be made illegal because all nursery rhymes would have to be rewritten: Mary didn’t have a lamb, she had two lambs and a sister named Bridget who looked exactly like her. Mary and Bridget went to school one day with both lambs, but the school board threw them out as cloning was against the rules. Also, the role of the father is not important in cloning. He can make one child, but the next is done by Xerox machine. Cloned children, however, would also celebrate Father’s Day. All cloning should be made completely illegal because such an insignificant amount of births are successful, nearly all clones have health problems, and the technology is far from perfected.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Very few animal clones make it to birth, and the ones that do usually have serious health problems, including physical deformities (such as enlarged umbilical cords) to life-threatening conditions (like being born with no immune system) (Boyce 42). Less than three percent of all cloning attempts succeed: â€Å" . . . scientists have good reason to be pessimistic: several years of animal cloning work has taught them that most cloned animals never even make it to birth and the rare ones that do all too frequently have [serious health] problems† (Boyce 42). Because of all of these facts, cloning should never even be considered on human beings. â€Å"Scientists estimate that fewer than a quarter of [cloned] newborns would survive without intensive care† (Boyce 43).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A very high probability of animal clones having all sorts of problems including poorly developed lungs and failing hearts, to grossly enlarged placentas and misshapen heads exist in all cloning attempts. Any attempts to clone a human with today’s technology would almost always produce a child with some sort of defect, whether major or minor. â€Å"Many [cloned animal] newborns have poorly developed lungs. And cattle have been born with deformed heads† (Boyce 42). Scientists say that they see some sort of genetic problem almost every time they clone and they do not know what is wrong with the cloning process, or why the cl... ... not have enough room to develop in the uterus. Cloned animals have nearly always had some sort of obvious defect, and the ones that do not look normal almost always are not really normal. Also, there are 30,000 genes and the chances are extremely small that an egg cell would reprogram all of these genes correctly (Kolata 1). As a result, the clones are not normal. Because of all of this, cloning should be made illegal. ********************************** Works Cited Boyce, Nell. â€Å"Multiplicity Perils. A Human is Likely To Be Cloned and Soon. Is It Worth the Risk?† U.S. News & World Report 19 Mar 2001: 42-43. Griffith, Victoria. â€Å"Scientists To Lend Weight To Attack On Human Cloning.† Financial Times 28 Mar 2001: 6. Kolata, Gina. â€Å"Researchers Find Big Risk of Defect in Cloning Animals.† New York Times 25 Mar 2001: 1. Josefson, Deborah. â€Å"Scientists Plan Human Cloning Clinic in the United States.† British Medical Journal 10 Feb 2001: 315. McPherson, Coco. â€Å"Creation Myths.† The Village Voice 13 Feb 2001: 12. â€Å"Why Not Human Clones?† The Christian Century 21 Feb 2001: 5. Zitner, Aaron. â€Å"House Sets the Stage for Debate on the Cloning of Humans.† The Los Angeles Times 25 Mar 2001: A.20. Cloning Essay -- essays research papers fc Cloning. Many people associate it with science-fiction novels, not with real life, but animal cloning is a process that is being attempted today all over the world, and human cloning might be next. But should cloning be made illegal? According to the Washington Post, cloning should be made illegal because all nursery rhymes would have to be rewritten: Mary didn’t have a lamb, she had two lambs and a sister named Bridget who looked exactly like her. Mary and Bridget went to school one day with both lambs, but the school board threw them out as cloning was against the rules. Also, the role of the father is not important in cloning. He can make one child, but the next is done by Xerox machine. Cloned children, however, would also celebrate Father’s Day. All cloning should be made completely illegal because such an insignificant amount of births are successful, nearly all clones have health problems, and the technology is far from perfected.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Very few animal clones make it to birth, and the ones that do usually have serious health problems, including physical deformities (such as enlarged umbilical cords) to life-threatening conditions (like being born with no immune system) (Boyce 42). Less than three percent of all cloning attempts succeed: â€Å" . . . scientists have good reason to be pessimistic: several years of animal cloning work has taught them that most cloned animals never even make it to birth and the rare ones that do all too frequently have [serious health] problems† (Boyce 42). Because of all of these facts, cloning should never even be considered on human beings. â€Å"Scientists estimate that fewer than a quarter of [cloned] newborns would survive without intensive care† (Boyce 43).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A very high probability of animal clones having all sorts of problems including poorly developed lungs and failing hearts, to grossly enlarged placentas and misshapen heads exist in all cloning attempts. Any attempts to clone a human with today’s technology would almost always produce a child with some sort of defect, whether major or minor. â€Å"Many [cloned animal] newborns have poorly developed lungs. And cattle have been born with deformed heads† (Boyce 42). Scientists say that they see some sort of genetic problem almost every time they clone and they do not know what is wrong with the cloning process, or why the cl... ... not have enough room to develop in the uterus. Cloned animals have nearly always had some sort of obvious defect, and the ones that do not look normal almost always are not really normal. Also, there are 30,000 genes and the chances are extremely small that an egg cell would reprogram all of these genes correctly (Kolata 1). As a result, the clones are not normal. Because of all of this, cloning should be made illegal. ********************************** Works Cited Boyce, Nell. â€Å"Multiplicity Perils. A Human is Likely To Be Cloned and Soon. Is It Worth the Risk?† U.S. News & World Report 19 Mar 2001: 42-43. Griffith, Victoria. â€Å"Scientists To Lend Weight To Attack On Human Cloning.† Financial Times 28 Mar 2001: 6. Kolata, Gina. â€Å"Researchers Find Big Risk of Defect in Cloning Animals.† New York Times 25 Mar 2001: 1. Josefson, Deborah. â€Å"Scientists Plan Human Cloning Clinic in the United States.† British Medical Journal 10 Feb 2001: 315. McPherson, Coco. â€Å"Creation Myths.† The Village Voice 13 Feb 2001: 12. â€Å"Why Not Human Clones?† The Christian Century 21 Feb 2001: 5. Zitner, Aaron. â€Å"House Sets the Stage for Debate on the Cloning of Humans.† The Los Angeles Times 25 Mar 2001: A.20. Cloning Essay -- essays research papers fc Cloning. Many people associate it with science-fiction novels, not with real life, but animal cloning is a process that is being attempted today all over the world, and human cloning might be next. But should cloning be made illegal? According to the Washington Post, cloning should be made illegal because all nursery rhymes would have to be rewritten: Mary didn’t have a lamb, she had two lambs and a sister named Bridget who looked exactly like her. Mary and Bridget went to school one day with both lambs, but the school board threw them out as cloning was against the rules. Also, the role of the father is not important in cloning. He can make one child, but the next is done by Xerox machine. Cloned children, however, would also celebrate Father’s Day. All cloning should be made completely illegal because such an insignificant amount of births are successful, nearly all clones have health problems, and the technology is far from perfected.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Very few animal clones make it to birth, and the ones that do usually have serious health problems, including physical deformities (such as enlarged umbilical cords) to life-threatening conditions (like being born with no immune system) (Boyce 42). Less than three percent of all cloning attempts succeed: â€Å" . . . scientists have good reason to be pessimistic: several years of animal cloning work has taught them that most cloned animals never even make it to birth and the rare ones that do all too frequently have [serious health] problems† (Boyce 42). Because of all of these facts, cloning should never even be considered on human beings. â€Å"Scientists estimate that fewer than a quarter of [cloned] newborns would survive without intensive care† (Boyce 43).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A very high probability of animal clones having all sorts of problems including poorly developed lungs and failing hearts, to grossly enlarged placentas and misshapen heads exist in all cloning attempts. Any attempts to clone a human with today’s technology would almost always produce a child with some sort of defect, whether major or minor. â€Å"Many [cloned animal] newborns have poorly developed lungs. And cattle have been born with deformed heads† (Boyce 42). Scientists say that they see some sort of genetic problem almost every time they clone and they do not know what is wrong with the cloning process, or why the cl... ... not have enough room to develop in the uterus. Cloned animals have nearly always had some sort of obvious defect, and the ones that do not look normal almost always are not really normal. Also, there are 30,000 genes and the chances are extremely small that an egg cell would reprogram all of these genes correctly (Kolata 1). As a result, the clones are not normal. Because of all of this, cloning should be made illegal. ********************************** Works Cited Boyce, Nell. â€Å"Multiplicity Perils. A Human is Likely To Be Cloned and Soon. Is It Worth the Risk?† U.S. News & World Report 19 Mar 2001: 42-43. Griffith, Victoria. â€Å"Scientists To Lend Weight To Attack On Human Cloning.† Financial Times 28 Mar 2001: 6. Kolata, Gina. â€Å"Researchers Find Big Risk of Defect in Cloning Animals.† New York Times 25 Mar 2001: 1. Josefson, Deborah. â€Å"Scientists Plan Human Cloning Clinic in the United States.† British Medical Journal 10 Feb 2001: 315. McPherson, Coco. â€Å"Creation Myths.† The Village Voice 13 Feb 2001: 12. â€Å"Why Not Human Clones?† The Christian Century 21 Feb 2001: 5. Zitner, Aaron. â€Å"House Sets the Stage for Debate on the Cloning of Humans.† The Los Angeles Times 25 Mar 2001: A.20.

Feral Hogs

Feral hogs have recently become a problem in middle Tennessee. Although these animals are not native to this area, it is believed that the hogs were brought in illegally for sport hunting. Although this move was ill advised, the wild hogs were trapped and brought into North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. If not controlled, the overpopulation of these animals will continue to cause extensive damage for residents. Wild hogs have continued to overpopulate areas and in an effort to find new land and areas of food sources, have continued to move west.These hogs are becoming a nuisance as far west as Wilson County in Tennessee. Feral hogs are hunted for sport in east Tennessee, as they have been for many years. With the illegal transportation to Tennessee, and migration east, the animals have become a nuisance quickly. A female pig can reproduce twice a year with a litter of up to eight piglets each time. This can add up quickly since there are not many predators of wild hogs. Pigs are hi ghly adaptable to most areas and can tolerate a wide range of climates.Wild hogs also eat mostly plants but will also eat insects, worms, bird eggs, small birds, and reptiles. Feral hogs reproduce rapidly, increasing their population dramatically and very quickly. The hogs not only cause damage to farms, they can also transmit diseases to livestock. Jason Garrett of the Overton County Cattleman’s Association says, â€Å"This is a serious threat to all of agriculture† (Garrett). If the wild hog population is not controlled, these animals can take a toll on farmland and also on revenues from crop and livestock production.Wild hogs can be an extreme nuisance to farmers. A total of $1. 5 billion lost annually because of wild hog damage plus the potential crippling effects that disease transmission could have on the livestock industry. They can damage cropland in various ways: eating crops, trampling crops, rooting in the farmland and damaging the plants roots. â€Å"They just tear up everything that they come to, and make trails across all the fields†¦ And just wander out in the corn stalks and maul down what they don't eat†¦ just mow them down. said Overton County farmer, Freddie Paul (Paul). While making these trails, they also create ruts that can damage farm equipment and endanger the operator of the equipment. This can be not only dangerous but also costly to repair. The way the economy is presently, most farmers cannot afford to deal with costly or unexpected repairs. Wild hogs will also prey on livestock. This is another hit on a farmer’s checkbook. Cattle are the main income for most livestock farmers in middle Tennessee. The diseases spread by theses hogs pose a serious threat to farmers income as well.As of July 31, 2011, the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA) put an end to sport hunting of wild hogs and placed into effect some new hunting regulations to assist in population control of wild hogs. The TWRA has remove d wild hogs from big game status and place them in a nuisance category. This implementation technically takes the sport out of wild hog hunting and turns it into eradication efforts. This will allow landowners to use more methods to trap and kill the hogs, methods such as using rifles during daylight hours and live traps with bait.Landowners are also allowed to shoot hogs at night, using bait all year, with no weapon restrictions. During an interview with TWRA Officer, Pete Geesling, he explained some of the new changes: Landowners, family members legally allowed to hunt the property without a license and up to 10 designees may assist in the control effort provided by the methods exemption. No more than 10 individuals may be used as designees annually. The exemption will allow shooting at night with the aid of artificial light, shooting over bait during big game season, or any other methods, approved by TWRA.Dogs may be used as part of the experimental management program in Overton, Fentress, Cumberland and Pickett counties, but no dogs may be used during November or December (Geesling). The TWRA has previously and continues to adjust hunting regulations to aid in eradication efforts. However, research has shown that until these eradication hunts become more evenly spread across the affected area, they may only multiply the problem. Overpopulation will exacerbate in regions, causing more damage, and the efforts to find new food sources will lead these hogs to new areas.The citizens and farmers of Tennessee, along with TWRA, must work to spread awareness to areas that are beginning to see this problem and try to eliminate it early. The heavily affected areas must continue an eradication effort until the wild hog population is reduced drastically, allowing farmers to reclaim their land. Works Cited â€Å"Controlling Wild Hogs. † Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Web. April 02, 2012. ;http://tn. gov/twra/feralhog. html;. Garrett, Jason. Personal Intervi ew. 1 April 2012. Geesling, Pete. Personal Interview. 1 April 2012. Paul, Freddie. Person Interview. 31 March 2012.

Floods in India Essay

India, being a peninsular country and surrounded by the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, is quite prone to flood. As per the Geological Survey of India (GSI), the major flood prone areas of India cover almost 12.5% area of the country. Every year, flood, the most common disaster in India causes immense loss to the country’s property and lives. India Flood Prone Areas The states falling within the periphery of â€Å"India Flood Prone Areas† are West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Assam, Bihar, Gujrat, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. The intense monsoon rains from southwest causes rivers like Brahmaputra, Ganga, Yamuna etc. to swell their banks, which in turn floods the adjacent areas. Over the past few decades, central India has become familiar with precipitation events like torrential rains and flash floods. The major flood prone areas in India are the river banks and deltas of Ravi, Yamuna-Sahibi, Gandak, Sutlej, Ganga, Ghaggar, Kosi, Teesta, Brahmaputra, Mahanadi, Mahananda, Damodar, Godavari, Mayurakshi, Sabarmati and their tributaries. Though the north-Indian plains prone to flood more, the â€Å"India flood prone areas† can be broadly categorized in three divisions: Besides the Ganga, rivers like Sarada, Rapti, Gandak and Ghagra causes flood in eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. The Yamuna is famous for flooding Haryana and Delhi. Bihar experiences massive dangerous flood every year. River Burhi, Bagmati, Gandak, Kamla along with many small rivers contribute to that. In West Bengal, rivers like Mahananda, Bhagirathi, Damodar, Ajay etc. causes floods because of tidal effects and insufficient river channels. * Brahmaputra and Barak Basins: The river banks of Brahmaputra and Barak gets flooded due to the Surplus water found in the Brahmaputra basin and the Barak basin. These rivers along with their tributaries flood the northeastern states like West Bengal, Assam and Sikkim. Jaldakha, Teesta and Torsa in northern West Bengal and rivers in Manipur often overflow their banks. * Central India and Deccan Rivers Basin: In Orissa, spilling over of river banks by Mahanadi, Baitarni and Brahmani causes havoc. The deltaic area formed by these three rivers is thickly populated. Even some small rivers of Kerala and mud stream from the nearby hills add on to the destruction. Southern and central India observes floods caused by Narmada, Godavari, Tapi, Krishna and Mahanadi due to heavy rainfall. Cyclonic storms in the deltaic regions of Godavari, Mahanadi and Krishna even floods the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu occasionally.

International Human Resource Management Essays - Business

International Human Resource Management Essays - Business EXECUTIVE SUMMARY International Human Resource Management (IHRM) is a method of selection,acllotication and utilizing of human Resourses in an international context. This report focuses on IHRM practices and the issues MURDOCH University faces in its IHRM strategies. The management of Global workforce policies and practices. Recruitment and Selection, training and perfomance management and renumeration process of Murdoch. MURDOCH University is regarded as a leading Australian and Global university. For it to be sucessful, the university focuses on attacting, retaining, and patronizing the eductaional staff that are dedicated to bring quality students some experiences and best learning output. The university introduced recognizing, and rewarding current staff for exceptional assistance in learning, training and research. It also follows a major IHRM strategy for managing its Global staff members. INTRODUCTION Human Resource Management (HRM) is the process of hiring, managing, and providing direction of the candidates that work in an organisation. HRM is vital in an organisation activity that focuses on factors in relation to the staff such as Hiring, compesatition, organisation development, perfomance management, wellness, safety, benefits, compesation, company development, staff motivation, comapny development , training, administaration, and communication. HRM is also called a comprehensive and strategic approach to mange and work force and enviroment of the workplace.It enalbles the staff to perform efficiently and effectivily to expand production and achieve the companies goal. the most important parts of HRM is IHRM which involves selction, allocating, and utilizing human resources in an international percespective. It includes activities that allows the organizations to manage staff at global level to achive objectives and performing HRM activities internationally. The process of IHRM can be simplifies if MNC(Multinational Corporations) traded thier products in few countries and few offices in foreign countries. Current Business operations push orgainisations to spread their activities globally to as many countries as possible thus IHRM is needed for that. An organisation has to build intergration among HR policies and practices to its subsidiary firms in various countries so to achive it so objectives and aims. Also to incorporate significant levels of flexibility on IHRM Strategy as employees from diffrent counries are supported by various cultures and social values and language. Flexibility has and abundance influence on perfomance on employees(Richman et al. May 2008). Forces of international and demand of the organisation to develop and implement a valid strong international strategy, IHRM is becoming a pre-requiste to the sucess of the organisation. IHRM management face difficulties to decide whether a company should start its HR policies and pratices on the local context( Lloyd & Hartel, 2004) Effective HRM system is important to focus on aliegnment with perfomance management systems of the companies. Example include the criteria used for perfomance management is to be implemeneted for staffing, hiring, and training. This shows a strong message of what is expected by the company from its staff (Pulakos, 2004) The survivalof the organisation on this high competive market, it is complusory to develop a cabable and effctive workforce. It is hard to find qalified international candidates, so it is imperative that companies achive their goals for staff development and control and co-ordination of employees, so to transfer knowledge by taking effective staff policies which inlude Ethnocentric Practices and Policies. Policies may be based on the view that the first choices for international or parent country positions are the parent country nationals. The 2nd choice can be based on Geocentric Policy that makes sure that qualified staff for the position is selected regardless of their country of origin. Emphasizing on the movement to overseas locations from parent company location is considered to be an important strategy for staffing and workforce development in a international position. Organisations that follow a Geocentric Staffing Policy focusses on recruiting candidates irrespective of nationality many include 3rd country nationals rather than subsidiary and the organisations parent country( Reiche & Harzing, December 2009) FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN SETTING UP BUSINESS OPERATION IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES INTERNATIOAL TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Various types of training is needed such as orientation, language intruction, cultural training for staff of MNCs. Experiates face difficulties in social and cultural barries in host countries. E.G in Japan eben with suffiecient medical care, foreign workers and thier families are worried about Japanese doctors may reveal little to patients medical assistance. CULTURE SHOCK This

Free sample - The Battle of Algiers Movie Review. translation missing

The Battle of Algiers Movie Review. The Battle of Algiers Movie ReviewThesis Statement of Purpose: Verbatim report of research assignment. The Battle of Algiers: Movie Review Description of the movie The Battle of Algiers is a classic 1965 year movie based on the events of the Algerian War (1954-1962) and filmed by the Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo by the sketchy screenplay written by the former Algerian political leader Saadi Yasef with a script co-written by Franco Solinas, the Italian writer. In the original movie version there was a disclaimer: â€Å"Not one foot of newsreel or documentary film has been used.†(Johnson), however, the movie has a perfectly documentary nature. It was made black white to increase the viewer’s impression of facing the reality and not the choreographically set scenes. The movie was filmed in the natural sceneries of Algiers of 1965 and most of the cast were chosen from the non-professional Algerians picked up for their typical appearance and emotional effect. The language of the film is French and Arabic, and its latest release with English soundtrack and English subtitles was issued by Criterion Collection in a 3-disc DVD set, including interviews with the members of FLN and the discussion of Battle of Algiers's depiction of terrorism and guerilla realities by the USA counter-terrorism advisors and film directors. Exposition The movie opens with the scene of French soldiers brutally torturing an aged Algerian man and finally forcing him to agree to show them the location of Ali la Puente , the last alive member of the General Staff of FLN, the rebellion movement they are determined to destroy. The tormented man is trembling of pain and shame; the tears are running down on his cheeks, suddenly he rushes to a window trying to escape, but the soldiers catch him and force to follow them. The next scene shows the occupation of the house where Ali la Puente found refuge, soldiers drive out men and women to the hall, and the tortured traitor, dressed in the French military uniform, shows the place where La Puente is hiding with three of his companions-in-arms, one of who is a teenage boy. French soldiers are convincing them to surrender, but they stay silent and are waiting for death. The camera shows their faces – a very young man, a woman with a dark and resolute face, a boy and finally Ali la Puente himself, his eyed flashing with rage and bitter contempt. In this moment the vision becomes blurred and the film retraces to the past of the Algerian revolution and history of FLN formation, showing the viewer some random realities of treatment of Arabs by pied noirs: several French young men trip running Ali just for having fun of seeing him to fall, of French commissar provoking FLN activists by setting a bomb in one of the sleeping quarters, pied noirs enraged a fter the explosion attacking a small Arab child in a street and so on. Characters The Battle of Algiers is based on true events; nevertheless, there are used composite characters together with those depicting historical personalities. One of these composite characters is â€Å"Colonel Philippe Mathieu†, commanding the 10th Airborne Division that arrived to Algiers on the 10th of January, 1957 to organize the fight against rebel activity. He participated in campaigns in Italy and Normandy, was a member of an anti-Nazi resistance movement, and took part in the Indochina war. This character is a composite of several French officers, especially Jacques Massu and Marcel Bigeard (Maxey). This character is played by the only French actor in the cast, Jean Martin, who, ironically, was fired from the French theatre for signing a manifesto against Algerian war. Colonel Mathieu seems to be a decent soldier who is performing his duty (â€Å"We are soldiers, our duty is to win†), dissecting a problem into structural parts and trying to solve it in the most ration al way, isolating and destroying the active minority of rebellious Arabs. Though disliking the police aspect of fight against the revolution, he introduces the measures of total investigation and â€Å"exhausting† interrogations, that is to say, tortures. He states that the success is in the result if these methods. The FLN members are allowed to disclose the secret data only in 24 hours after arrest, which enables FLN to make any data irrelevant by this time. That is why the soldiers have to use other methods than common civil law procedures. Colonel Mathieu, though elegant and noble, seems to be a person who cut off his human qualities and turned into an icy machine to perform his duty.   The key character of the movie is Ali La Puente, one of the leaders of FLN, played by Brahim Haggiag, an illiterate Algerian selected for his character heroic appearance of a strong and passionate personality, and several times in the movie an accent is made on his eyes. Ali La Puente was imprisoned several times for minor crimes and vandalism, and upon his release was recruited by FLN. To ensure that he was not a spy or a traitor, he was ordered to assassinate a French policeman. In the recollections of Saadi Yasef (a prototype and a performer of the role of Jaffar) Ali La Puente appears a person of extraordinary courage, but also precise, practical and just. â€Å"After each of †¦ actions he was conscious of having carried out a doubly useful task. In fact, on one hand he eliminated a slyly effective enemy of the organization; on the other he increasingly liberated the inhabitants of the Casbah - they who were also daily victims of the often brutal conduct of these auxiliari es of the police - from fear†. (History of Algerian Independence).   Ali is a personification of thousands Muslim people crying for liberty and rights, in his eyes there is the unforgettable sharp feeling of rage and suffer, here he is truly a hero of his time.   Another prominent character of the movie is El-Hadi Jaffar, also the member of the FLN General Staff. This is a fictional character, based on the personality of Saadi Yasef, who himself also performed this role in the movie. Jaffar is presented as an intellectual inspirer and tactic organizer of all rebellious actions, including the 8-day strike in Casbah. The real Saadi Yasef was an organizer of the military wing of the Algeria National Front (Roth) and he physically conducted and led all the events that are depicted in the movie. The Battle of Algiers is based on his notes that he wrote on an envelope when he was imprisoned and spent five years in jail. (Roth). Saadi Yasef states that under those circumstances there was no another way either for French soldiers than to imply tortures, and no way for Algiers population than to react by violence to violence. Besides, french tortures caused in massive recruitment of Algerian people, which produced a strong impact to the destabilizatio n of France. Larbi Ben M’Hidi, who is now considered a National Hero in Algeria, is also an important character in the movie. He was a prominent Algerian leader, one of the headquarters of FLN, and was captured, tortured and executed by the French paratroopers in 1957. In The Battle of Algiers he is depicted as a strong personality, a political and war leader, possessing invincible will and charisma. In the scene of the press conference with Ben M’Hidi in the 4th of March, 1957, he behaves with a sense of incredible dignity and is even able to make bitter jokes, which surely causes respect towards the moral fiber and courage of this man, so strongly devoted to his ideals and his people. In the ranks of the Algerian revolutionaries there were women as well as men. In the movie veiled Muslim women hide in their wicker baskets guns for the assassinators performing hit-and-run attacks on policemen and soldiers. One of the strongest scenes on the film is the scene where three women, Djamila, Zohra, and Hassiba (one of those who joined in death to Ali La Puente), change their traditional clothes concealing all the face and body according to the Muslim laws and religion to the European skirts and blouses and even flippant trousers to pass French checkpoints unsearched, carrying bombs. One of these women even cuts her long black hair and dyes it light, another takes her son with her. They leave their handbags with bombs in a cafe, full of people, in a bar, where dozens of young people are drinking and dancing, and in the office of Air France. They see people - all civilian, practically innocent people - passengers awaiting their planes, aged people drinking coffee and talki ng, teenagers dancing, a diffident boy who is afraid to invite a girl to dance, and - as a culmination - a small child licking ice-cream - all this to be blown up in several minutes. One can only guess what might these three women feel - but nevertheless, they leave the bombs and go away, and there are dozens of victims, and blood, and fear. Petit Omar is a small hero of the Algerian War, a street urchin and a FLN messenger, who then becomes one of the most devoted fellow-soldiers of Ali La Puente and is executed by the French soldiers together with him. He is probably an embodiment of all Muslim children of Algiers of that time, maybe not understanding political motives and reasons, but strong in their hate to the enemy who killed their loved ones, and that is why devoted to the cause of the revolution. Analysis of the movie Plot Lines and Themes The film, subsidized by Algerian government, was originally intended as a part of propaganda for anti-colonialism. In 1965, the time of the movie filming, the Algerian War was still fresh for pubic, as Algerian independence was proclaimed only three years ago, in 1962, after 8 years of struggle. The movie that began as a sketchy screenplay written by Saadi Yasef in prison nowadays became one of the so-called training films for Pentagon officers for them to understand the regularities and rules of partisan war and ways of struggle against world terrorism. However, Saadi Yasef himself in his interview to Diplomatic License states that â€Å"the style, the urban guerilla style, the Chinese style, the Latin American style, South American style, did not have the same human elements, geographic elements or social elements. There is nothing comparable. So Algeria really has nothing in common with all of that†. (Roth). To make the events of the Battle of Algiers more personal and to create a single plot line, the creators of the movie concentrate the attention on Ali La Puente as the personification of the rebellious spirit, and partially the story is told as witnessed by his eyes. The camera focused on his face, as if carved out of stone, and his short biography of an ordinary street criminal is told, but nevertheless it is clearly felt that he is deemed to play the great role in the story of Algerian revolution.   After the stories of Ali La Puente, Jaffar, Larbi Ben M’Hidi and three women who carried bombs, another subtle plot line is a story of a young Algerian couple, both of them belonging to FLN. The scene of their wedding ceremony comes shortly after the scene of Algerian children kicking and mocking the alcoholic, as due to FLN propaganda alcoholism, prostitution and selling drugs in Casbah were considered illegal and such that undermine health and fighting capability of Algerians. The wedding ceremony is conducted by Larbi Ben M’Hidi himself and the marriage is registered by FLN. The bride, Fatiha, is very young, almost a girl, and so young is her chosen one, Mahmud. He will be one of those who will join Ali La Puente in death, blown up in their hiding place. There is a short prayer, the newly married sign their names, and then - another prayer, the voices of many people standing not only in the room where the marriage took place, but also in the yard, on the roofs of hou ses, join into a rhythmic choir, This prayer flows over the dirty and ragged walls of Casbah to the lighted streets and rich white houses of the European quarters. Despite its seeming simplicity, it is a very strong scene, showing the viewer the connection between FLN and civilian people of Algiers, unanimously determined to win their freedom and their right for own culture and religion.  Ã‚   Propaganda and Tortures Constant attacks on policemen and police stations keep French population of Algiers in terror. The Government is trying to introduce measures to control terrorism, such as reporting about people with gunshot wounds in hospitals and blocking entrances to the Muslim quarters of city at night and installing there police checkpoints in the daytime. Then women start carrying guns under their veils, guns can be hidden in the fruit baskets and can appear in a hand of an Algerian teenager. Yes, this is terrorism, but after the explosion of the bomb set in a Casbah sleeping quarter by French, when a viewer sees Algerian man carrying the mutilated bodies of children out of the ruined house, the crying and screaming women searching for their loved ones in the ruins, after that it is easier to apprehend the motives of FLN members setting bombs in public places. Either in guerilla or in civil war propaganda is one of the most effective ways of influence on the society and public opinion. As The Battle of Algiers is a reconstruction of the real events, this movie can be chosen as an example of such influence. Really, propagandistic appeals to the Muslim population of Algiers sounding from the megaphones in the casbah streets are a part of the natural background of these years’ city life. Such appeals have destructive strength that is hard to exaggerate, because they are intruding into thoughts of each single person, changing opinion and causing doubt in what they used to believe, especially if such propagandistic appeals were competently composed. French radio emissions in casbah contain nothing except lists of names of those who were recently arrested and killed, but considering the structure of FLN, it could be one of the best ways to convince people that hear familiar names of that the organization is on its last legs and to persuad e them to collaborate with police. One can never say now how well this worked; taking in account that fact that the police still had to imply the most severe tortures to force the arrested to disclose their fellow-soldiers. Later appeals become more persuading and non-compromising, directly stating that FLN is disorganized and the battle is lost, and convincing Muslim citizens to step under the protection of French army. In the movie these words sound in the background of frightening scenes of Algerian people standing with their faces to the walls and searched by the policemen, dead bodies lying in the streets and – there is a tear-stained Muslim child, watching a soldier to search a killed man. Propaganda can work only if it is supported by real actions, at least partially, but never if it fully contradicts the reality. Besides, people are always more likely to believe propaganda that corresponds their convictions and that is issued by someone from their own side. The strong scene of the movie is when Petit Omar steals a microphone from a police officer in the checkpoint on the 6th day of the strike. The officer was reading the text stating that FLN impedes normal prosperous life of casbah people and that France is their real motherland, all this in the background of Algerian women searching their probably arrested or killed sons and husbands in the rows of men coming back from work in the European quarters. No one believes this French propaganda, no one listens to it. But then Omar steals the microphone, and his ardent appeal to his compatriots sounds above the rows of the exhausted and despaired people – an appeal to resist and to believe in their future freedom, and this is met by the immediate furious support of people, a frightening scream of women, sending shivers down the spine, and this can not be stopped by fear of guns and arrest. This proves once more that propaganda, despite its obvious effectiveness, can not work well if it meets st rong resistance of the antagonizing population. Tortures are another important theme and problem of the movie. On the part of the French headquarters, the use of tortures seems to be justified by the necessity to get information from the arrested members of FLN as quick as possible, taking in account that fact that the police can not linger and use common methods of civil investigation while bombs are exploding in the city quarters and dozens of victims die every day. And they implied burning hot iron, waterboarding, hanging people upside down and electric shocks, and for sure, they got information, figuring out members of FLN and defining its structure. After the series of such "investigations" (Webber, Chapter 3), FLN headquarters were forced to leave the capital, and this was the first victory of France. But there was also the opposite result: these tortures completely destroyed the image of France as a democratic country and caused massive voluntary recruitment of Algerians to the ranks of FLN. Saadi Yasef says in his interview to Diplomatic License:   â€Å"I don't see how the French Army could have acted in any other way under the circumstances. We simply had to accept this fact of torture [†¦.] Automatically there was a massive recruitment as a result [†¦]. When you killed someone, 10 more recruits flocked to our side. So we needed this kind of torture, this brutality, to destabilize France, eliminate the 4th Republic, and everything else involved in terms of brutality and cruelty†(Roth). Implying tortures also caused great scandal in French society, which is almost not shown in the movie. Several brochures of the re-called reservists in Algeria were published generally in 1957, disclosing for the French public the real nature of Algerian conflict, despite the veil of secrecy and censorship. The publications in journals and newspapers involved intellectuals that soon formed networks fighting against human rights violations. The significant example of the mood of certain spheres of French society could be a phrase of the anti-colonialist historian Robert Bonnaud: "If France's honor can go along with these acts of torture, then France is a country without honor."(Webber, Chapter 3). Sometimes while watching a movie a question may appear: is the Algerian independence worth all this? Algeria had been a French colony for 130 years by that moment, so was there a reason to start a revolution? This paper is not dedicated to the reasons of Algerian War, but here is just a logical remark: people do not start rebellious actions if they have economic and cultural freedom. The obtrusive politics of France and nationalistic behavior of â€Å"pied noirs† caused indignation and insurrection, and probably there was no another way to solve the conflict except guerilla. The movie was filmed with an attempt to show the events from the neutral point of view. In fact, in such a movie there can not be any neutrality. There are two parties fighting against each other, each applying methods that have nothing in common with humanity and morality. In fact, there is no difference, whose children – French or Algerian - are pulled out of the ruins; there is no difference, with whose blood the stones of the city streets are soaked. The thing is in that any violence has its subsequences, either fear and submission, or resistance and even stronger violence, and this second effect we actually see in the events of Algerian war. Glossary of Key Terms Algerian War - a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. Casbah - specifically the citadel of Algiers in Algeria and the traditional quarter clustered around it. FLN (transliterated: Jabhat at-Ta?rir al-Watani, French: Front de Libà ©ration Nationale, hence FLN)   -   a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France. Guerilla - a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians (or "irregulars") use military tactics, like ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and less-mobile traditional army, or strike a vulnerable target, and withdraw almost immediately. Paratroopers - soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force. Pieds-Noirs - a term used to refer to colonists of French Algeria until the Algerian independence in 1962. Specifically, Pieds-Noirs were French nationals, including those of European descent, Sephardic Jews and settlers from other European countries such as Spain, Italy and Malta, who were born in Algeria. Propaganda - a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. Appendix 1. Map of Algeria at the time of the war 2. Information about France and Algeria  Ã‚     Languages   Religions  Currency  France  French  Christian  Francs  Algeria  Arabic and French  Muslim  Francs   3. Algerian War Numbers: Casualties and Losses: Algeria: 153,000 dead, 160,000 wounded, 1,500,000 dead according to the Algerian government; France: 25,600 dead, 65,000 wounded.

Philosophy of Food - An Authentic Approach to Eating

Philosophy of Food - An Authentic Approach to Eating A good philosophical question can arise from anywhere. Did you ever think, for example, that sitting down to dinner or strolling through the supermarket might serve as a good introduction to philosophical thinking? That is the foremost philosopher of food’s credo. What’s Philosophical About Food? Philosophy of food finds its basis on the idea that food is a mirror. You may have heard the saying ‘we are what we eat.’ Well, there is more to say regarding this relation. Eating mirrors the making of a self, that is, the array of decisions and circumstances that bring us to eat the way we do. In them, we can see reflected a detailed and comprehensive image of ourselves. Philosophy of food reflects on the ethical, political, social, artistic, identity-defining aspects of food. It spurs from the challenge to more actively pondering our diets and eating habits so as to understand who we are in a deeper, more authentic way. Food as a Relation Food is a relation. Something is food only with respect to some organism, in a set of circumstances. These, first of all, are bound to vary from moment to moment. For instance, coffee and pastry are a fine breakfast or afternoon snack; yet, to most of us they are unpalatable for dinner. Secondly, circumstances are bound to involve principles that are, at least in appearance, contradictory. Say, you refrain from eating soda at home, but at the bowling alley, you enjoy one. At the supermarket, you buy only non-organic meat, but on vacation, you crave for a McBurger with fries. As such, any given ‘food relation is first and foremost the mirror of an eater: depending on the circumstances, it represents the eater’s needs, habits, convictions, deliberations, and compromises. Food Ethics Probably the most obvious philosophical aspects of our diet are the ethical convictions that shape it. Would you eat a cat? A rabbit? Why or why not? It’s likely that the reasons you give for your stance are rooted in ethical principles, such as: â€Å"I love too much cats to eat them!† or even â€Å"How could you do such a thing!† Or, consider vegetarianism: a large number of those who conform to this diet do so to prevent unjustified violence being done to animals other than human. In Animal Liberation, Peter Singer labeled â€Å"speciesism† the attitude of those who draw unjustified distinctions between Homo sapiens and other animal species (like racism sets an unjustified distinction between one race and all others). Clearly, some of those rules are mingled with religious principles: justice and heaven can come together on the table at, as they do on other occasions. Food as Art? Can food be art? Can a cook ever aspire to be an artist on a par with Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Van Gogh? This question has spurred heated debates over the past years. Some argued that food is (at best) a minor art. For three main reasons. First, because foods are short-lived in comparison to, e.g., chunks of marble. Second, food is intrinsically linked to a practical purpose – nourishment. Third, food depends on its material constitution in a way in which music, painting, or even sculpture are not. A song such as â€Å"Yesterday† has been released on vinyl, cassette, CD, and as a mp3; food cannot be alike transferred. The best cooks would hence be very good artisans; they can be paired with fancy hairdressers or skilled gardeners. On the other hand, some think that this perspective is unfair. Cooks have recently started featuring in art shows and this seems to concretely disprove the previous remarks. Probably the most famous case in point is Ferran Adri, the Catalan chef who revolutionized the world of cooking over the past three decades. Food Experts Americans keep in high esteem the role of food experts; French and Italians notoriously do not. Probably, it’s because of different ways to regard the practice of evaluation of a food. Is that French onion soup authentic? The review says the wine is elegant: is that the case? Food or wine tasting is arguably an entertaining activity, and it’s a conversation starter. Yet, is there a truth when it comes to judgments about food? This is one of the hardest philosophical questions. In his famous essay â€Å"Of the Standard of Taste†, David Hume shows how one can be inclined to answer both â€Å"Yes† and â€Å"No† to that question. On the one hand, my tasting experience is not yours, so it is totally subjective; on the other, provided an adequate level of expertise, there is nothing odd with imagining to challenge a reviewer’s opinion about a wine or a restaurant. Food Science Most foods we buy at the supermarket carry on their labels â€Å"nutritional facts†. We use them in order to guide ourselves in our diet, to stay healthy. But, what do those numbers have to do really with the stuff we have in front of us and with our stomachs? What â€Å"facts† do they help us establishing really? Can nutritionism be regarded as a natural science on a par with – say – cell biology? For historians and philosophers of science, food is a fertile terrain of research because it raises basic questions regarding the validity of laws of nature (do we really know any law regarding metabolism?) and the structure of scientific research (who finances the studies on the nutritional facts you find on the labels?) Food Politics Food is also at the center of a number of funding questions for political philosophy. Here are some. One. The challenges that food consumption poses to the environment. For example, did you know that factory farming is responsible for a higher rate of pollution than airfare travel? Two. Food trades raise issues of fairness and equity in the global market. Exotic goods such as coffee, tea, and chocolate are chief examples: through the history of their commerce, we can reconstruct the complex relationships between continents, States, and people over the past three-four centuries. Three. Food production, distribution, and retail is an opportunity to talk about the condition of workers across the earth. Food and Self-Understanding In the end, as the average person enters at least a few ‘food relations’ per day, a refusal to ponder eating habits in a meaningful manner can be likened to a lack of self-understanding or lack authenticity. Since self-understanding and authenticity are among the chief aims of philosophical inquiry, then food becomes a true key to philosophical insight. The gist of the philosophy of food is hence the quest for an authentic diet, a quest that can be readily furthered by analyzing other aspects of ‘food relations’.

Electroal College Reform Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Electroal College Reform - Research Paper Example Supporters of election reform want to eradicate the Electoral College system and substitute the one person, one vote which is more familiar and seemingly to some, a more democratic means. Under the Electoral College system the number of electors each state is allocated equals the number of its U.S. House Representatives it currently has plus two, the number of its U.S. Senators. (Kimberling, 1992). Persons in the smaller populated states maintain that if the electoral system were eliminated, presidential candidates would have no incentive to advertise or campaign in their states. â€Å"Why visit a small state with a media market that reaches, say, 100,000 people, when a visit to a large state can put the candidate in touch with millions?† (Gregg, 2001). The McConnell Center for Political Leadership at the University of Louisville studied the grounds for the public’s opinion that a direct, one-person-one-vote procedure would be fairer than the present system. The findings discredited common perceptions that eradicating the electoral system would improve the process. The Electoral College system isn’t usually a contention amongst the electorate unl ess an anomaly in the vote arises and it did fairly recently, in 2000, an event which moved the issue to the forefront of debate where it remains still. The simple truth is if the 2000 election were based on a popular vote, Al Gore would have won by about half a million votes. Many rightly cries foul but actually the Electoral College spared the nation from a substantial dilemma. Envisage the anguish of the nation in the event such a close outcome was determined by a simple majority. â€Å"With just a few hundred thousand votes separating the candidates, every vote in every precinct, in every state would have been worthy of a recount and every recount in every county subject to suit and countersuit† (Gregg, 2001). The outcome may still not be

A Study on the Impact of Coal Use Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A Study on the Impact of Coal Use - Essay Example This obtained from coal which is a  combustible  dark  or dark brown sedimentary rock that occurs within the rock strata. This is in vain layers referred to as coal seams or coal beds. It is this rock mined to  produce  the  required  industrial  energy  through its combustion. Coal primarily comprised of various elements like carbon, sulphur, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen among other elements. These elements emitted to the atmosphere upon combustion of coal causing various adverse environmental and health effects.  This is also true for the other alternative fossil fuel sources of energy such as wood energy, petroleum, hydroelectric and nuclear  energy  whose consumption trends in the U.S has been on a constant  rise  from 1775-2010, (appendix 1), (Kristina, 6). ... This is a combined statistic for  industrial  and residential  consumption. In the year 2008, coal constituted 21% of its total energy consumption which rose to 28% in the year 2009, and this projected to  be  increasing with every year among all the coal consuming  key  states (Kristina, 4). The exports and imports of coal among these countries  mainly  depicted by the  amount  and rates of coal energy requirements within the state less the amounts and rates of coal mining and exports the  state  handles. China's total exports and imports during the year 2009 were about 32.20 and 10.53 million tons respectively. The environmental consequences of the coal industry are wide spread and felt from the extraction to the combustion of coal to produce energy.  This is  mainly  through atmospheric emissions and solid wastes productions that contribute to various heath complications such as cancer and bronchial complications. This is also true for environmental consequences including climate change and global warming. In the process of coal use, various forms of harmful environmental gasses produced such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and oxides of nitrogen and from such emissions  component  hayrides and nitrides such as sulphur nitrate and hydrogen cyanide produced (James, 1-4). The  emission  of such gasses into the atmosphere contribute to the  aspect  climate change that poses a  considerable  challenge to the survival of the planed and can also lead to the production of acid rain; reaction of  rain  water molecules and sulphur trioxide in the atmosphere, which also has significant effects to the vegetation. In order to  avert  and prevent against the various

Response to the Book George Orwell's 1984 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Response to the Book George Orwell's 1984 - Essay Example It is discovered that the process injected and agitated with the poison of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control. Words such as "Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength" are a few of the tactics used to control the minds of its individuals and stomp out any free thinkers and open mindedness. The Citizens of Ocianian, conditioned at birth to be subordinates to a tyrant state stripping the essence of individualism and causing existing persons to pick their way through an ambiguous and meaningless existence. At the heart of this unforgiving novel, the reader discovers a protagonist character that emerges, Winston Smith. Working for the "Ministry of truth" Winston finds himself perpetuating a lie, pumping propaganda and controlling the flow of historical papers and at various times erasing the existence of people identified as" un persons," throwing them down the memory hole. Winston job is to revise the Parties history, water ing down ideals and truth so the dominate strain of the Party is not affected in any way, always on top and never wrong for the choices it makes. Inwardly, Winston struggles with the absurdity of these existential tasks and he find himself profoundly torn with a fundamental universalism; choice.

Democratic Peace-International Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Democratic Peace-International Relations - Essay Example Since World War II, realists have sought a balance of power between the US and the USSR as a means of maintaining the peace. Constructivists have sought to socially construct a new political reality based on liberal values, trade, and international organizations. In a world with weak international organizations, such as the United Nations, the world is left to anarchy. Veto power by selected member nations has left the UN as an impotent body to determine the lawful respect for sovereign states. The US War in Iraq is an example where a weakened UN was powerless to stop a unilateral action. According to Brown, "Anarchy alone does not create the insecure, competitive, and war torn world... Social structures and shared knowledge determine whether states are friends or enemies. The fact that social structures are socially constructed does not, however, mean that they can be changed easily" (xxxi). Institutionalists hold some hope for order, but "treat states as rational egoists operating in a world in which agreements cannot be hierarchally enforced, and that institutionalists only expect interstate cooperation to occur if states have significant common interests" (Brown 384). Common interests most often revolve around trade and commerce. Actors do not wish to disrupt trade agreements and lose economic benefits. In the post Cold War period of nuclear availability, realism presents some clear dangers. The break-up of the Soviet Union has left a Europe where nationalism could be problematic in a scenario where a nuclear balance of power exists. Realism, a pessimistic view of human nature, would lead to further tensions in Europe and while it may provide a temporary lull in hostilities, it is incapable of solving the complex social problems of immigration, religious zeal, global health issues, or world environmental problems. Humanitarian intervention has

Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Russia - Essay Example The Prime Minister heads the government, which the president appoints but at the parliaments approval. The crafty use of democratization agenda in the post-Cold War world has evoked a backlash against the whole notion of the expected transition to democracy. Democratization is also in question here as the ground reality has prompted rethinking because much of the post-Soviet region appears trapped between authoritarian past and a murky future. The experts use the term of managed democracy for the Russian system of government. The rise of political authoritarianism or managed democracy is an object of fascination for the West. The geopolitical realities such as Russian oil and gas reserves make sure that these Western interests remain engaged in evolution of the Russian democracy. It is hard to conclude whether Russia is still a democracy or not. But one thing is certain that it represents a unique version of democracy which is considerably

General motors transnational strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

General motors transnational strategy - Essay Example General motors’ is a multinational organization with and have factories manufacturing vehicles and vehicle accessories in at least 37 countries and has 10 established brands (Pelfrey 2006: 129). The company was the leading automotive seller for 77 years which is the longest time that any automotive company has dominated the automotive industry (Holstein 2010). However, the company was seriously affected by the 2008 economic crisis which led to it closing three of her brands. Since 2008, the company has been observed to continue declining in terms of revenue earned.The data needed for this research will be collected by analyzing different papers that have been written regarding the strategies written by general motors and also scrutinizing its financial performance from the company annual reports. There are many studies that have been conducted to analyze GM performance.Expected resultsThis has resulted in creation of competition among different brands thus the company ends up sabotaging its own products (Husted & Allen 2011: 49). The structure is also vertically organized which inhibits communication between the top managers and the employees. This has resulted in a lot of labor union problem which has affected the company productivity (Crumm 2010: 267). GM has also failed to cater for the needs of the customer by developing alternative fuel vehicles in this age of energy crisis. Nevertheless, the company has been successful in entering emerging markets such as China and this has improved its global presence.

Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Russia - Essay Example The Prime Minister heads the government, which the president appoints but at the parliaments approval. The crafty use of democratization agenda in the post-Cold War world has evoked a backlash against the whole notion of the expected transition to democracy. Democratization is also in question here as the ground reality has prompted rethinking because much of the post-Soviet region appears trapped between authoritarian past and a murky future. The experts use the term of managed democracy for the Russian system of government. The rise of political authoritarianism or managed democracy is an object of fascination for the West. The geopolitical realities such as Russian oil and gas reserves make sure that these Western interests remain engaged in evolution of the Russian democracy. It is hard to conclude whether Russia is still a democracy or not. But one thing is certain that it represents a unique version of democracy which is considerably

Of mice and men Film Essay Example for Free

Of mice and men Film Essay Of mice and men is a very touching film of hopes dreams and friendship. Adapted from the novel by John Steinbeck. The film is about two friends, Lennie and George, with a dream of great times with their own land and house. But there is a another story intertwined with theirs, about what people think of women. The two stories together will hold you in an array of emotions from joy to sorrow, and pride to guilt. This film if full of brilliant acting and meaningful uses of light and props. Of the two stories we will look at the one about women. We open the film with a man sitting in the shadows. Little light is coming in through the slits in the wood he is leaning on. He looks depressed and upset and bows his head as if hes trying to recall his memories of what went wrong to lead to this depression. And then we are suddenly in a field with early evening light filling a beautiful landscape, the main focus of our attention is of the woman running across the picture, shes white with brown hair wearing a torn red dress. As she runs we can see shes trying to run away form something or somebody, shes crying and the only sound we hear is her distressed breathing like she wants to cry but is holding the tears back. She looks like she has been attacked, although the dress is torn we only see a petty coat and not any flesh so this suggests that it might not have been sexual. But we cant really say for sure. The red dress represents passion so this says it could be sexual. We the see the two main characters running so we now think that they are connected to this. We never see this woman again in the whole of the story. The next woman we find is first only known as Curlys wife. She first comes into the story when she enters the bunkhouse where Lennie and George have only just arrived and are unpacking. Shes wearing a flowery dress which could be seen as innocent as it is cool colours and doesnt reveal much of her figure. Her hair is also in a very feminine style again to show innocence. Im looking for curly she says, almost as if she needs an excuse for being there. But also at the same time using it in an almost flirty sort of way trying to see how the new boys will react. He was in here a minute ago, but he left George replies cutting off that conversation. He hasnt stopped staring at her since she entered but not in a flattering way. We know he is a cautious person and he is almost looking at her trying to spot any type of threat. Especially as when Curly was in here he wasnt particularly nice. So his wife, even if she isnt like him in character, can still get him into trouble. Well I guess I better look some place else she says turning to face the door, only not to leave, just so the light shines on her from outside, showing off her figure. We now know that this girl is just one big flirt and George can see that. He wants her to leave as its the only thing that can happen to stop this tension, he cant leave with Lennie as they have no excuse to. Eventually after some more flirty lines she leaves. Through this scene we have been introduced to the only other woman in the film and we know shes a flirt and danger even if her image suggest otherwise at times. The camera reinforces this along with what she does. It starts with full body shots at the beginning of the scene and as she gets more flirtatious the shots concentrate on her upper body, then just her face, the attention is on her a lot of the time. The next scene with Curlys wife is in a barn as George takes a mule in. As he calls out for the stable buck she answers instead and comes half way over to some bags of hay. Shes in another flowery dress, again trying to portray innocence be we know that she is anything but innocent. This time she is also holding a book, possibly a story or maybe a diary, either suggest that maybe she isnt as much of the tart as we first thought and that she enjoys reading. Once again she tries to start a conversation, but George is still cautious of her and ignores her, concentrating on the mule. So to try to entice him she starts to once again flirt, as she sits on the bags of hay she leans back a little defining her chest. Her dress has ridden up revealing quite a bit of her leg, she pats the seat next to her trying to get him to come over. But still he just ignores her so she shouts. come over here and talk to me! he gets up and walks over to her. She calms down now she has her way. So she flirts to get her way most of the time but what we really want to know is if she really after a conversation or whether she only wants a cheap thrill like she has implied. All we have seen of her is her flirting and even now as hes come over to talk she is leaning against a pole like a lap dancer, asking about whether he has a sweetheart back home. We can almost certainly say that she is only after one thing. But then some thing happens that maybe changes our perspective of her. Her husband comes in. He ask whats going on and she says nothing I wasnt talking to you. he replies get back in the house. you dont own me curly. She says he now comes close to her and says in a way that seems like he might hit her I said go. And so she does. In this brief 2 minute talk we can see her relationship with her husband isnt a good one but he had just caught her with another man so maybe he can justify his anger. In this scene we have seen that Curlys wife is as we thought very flirty but that her relationship with her husband might cause this. She next walks into shot again in a flowery dress with a book as Lennie and George are hard at work in a field. In the scene before this Lennie and Curly have a fight. Lennie ends up with a bruised and scratched face and Curly gets a broken hand. Hi. she says, this is given a glance but they dont reply or give any recognition. sure is hot out here to day. She trys again to get conversation going. But again they dont care and keep on working. So she trys again. I said it sure is hot out here. why dont you go back to your house we dont want no trouble. Says George in a way that says I know I cant force you but I dont want you here. This is of course because of what Curly did. She is taken aback by this, she is used to being ignored but not told to leave by anyone other than her husband. I just want some one to talk to. She says. you got a husband, go talk to him George replies. yeah I got a husband. She says almost in a disappointed way. She then asks how Curly got his hand broken. To which George lies and says he got his hand caught in a machine. But this doesnt fool her so seeking an answer she asks Lennie who she knows wont have the mental capacity to make up a lie. how did you get those scratches on your face? she asks. Lennie looks to George and then looks away saying, he got it caught in a machine. He answers. is that so? She says with a look that is trying to work out how Lennie thinks. Almost as if she is concerned for him. She then quietly leaves. In this scene we begin to see that she isnt stupid she can work things out. Also that she doesnt like Curly and being married to him. The possibility that all she wants is some one to talk to is again present. In her penultimate scene we change our whole opinion of Curlys wife. Its set at night as Lennie and George are returning to the bunk house. Most of the other men are still in town spending their money in a whore house on girls and drink. Just as they are about to enter the bunk house Curlys wife comes out of the shadows looking upset and as if she has been crying. is curly back yet? she asks. no. says George knowing that Curly could very well be with another woman right now. She then says how Curly broke her records and we finally see a frail side of her caused by the fact her husband is now out possibly with another woman, he doesnt even talk to his wife, he doesnt even leave her with some measly records to listen to. We are shoved into feeling sorry for this poor girl and guilty that we thought she was just after a cheap thrill, when all she really wanted was someone to talk too. We get to see the womans frail side in this scene and we finally see her true motivation for the way she is, we see that she is very hurt and is just good at putting a brave face on things. In her last scene Curlys wife walks into a barn where Lennie has just accidentally killed a puppy. As she comes over he hides away and says how she would get him in trouble. whats wrong with me? she shouts at him as he rejects her company. Lennie doesnt see her as a sex object and so he doesnt see any danger in her although he is slightly attracted to her. So he opens up a little to her and in turn she opens up and finally we see her shed this mask that only shows her body and the fact that she is just a woman and should be treated as just some object. But now Lennie is sitting there talking to her as an equal and this is the sort of interaction with other people that she has tried to get through out the whole film. We find out as she opens up that she wanted to be an actress and she had plans to go to the theatre or Broadway and be an actress. Lennie is going on about tending the rabbits and not really listening but still Curlys wife doesnt care and talks about her dreams still. Eventually they do start listening to each other, and they find a common like for soft things. She lets him feel her hair, and then we see her open up in another way. Usually Curly is only interested in one thing, quick sex to satisfy him with no feelings involved, but here with Lennie she is being appreciated with close touch. She likes the fact he is being gentle and soft only after the simple pleasure of being able to stroke her hair. But he is a child in a strong mans body and he doesnt let go of her hair when she asks him to stop as he gets a little rough, and she screams, he grabs her and gags her, he only wants her to stop shouting but as he lays her back down we see that he has broken her neck. She lies silently in a pool of light on the hay as Lennie runs in fear. For a brief second we saw this beautiful woman blossom and show her true self and now she is gone. Though this film we see a progressing way in how men picture women. In the bunk house scene all we see is a flirty woman, and we are focused on her body. In the second scene we get another showing of this but at the end we see her giving in to her husband and maybe a suggestion of how he treats her. Next we see her being ignored by the boys, they consider her trouble even thought its not directly her fault, also we see a bit of her intelligence and that she isnt that stupid. Then finally we see her frailty and that she is not just a pair of breasts on legs, she has feeling as well as a mind and emotions. We can conclude that because of the way men see her, causes her to flirt as its the only way to get any attention. Because she doesnt get the conversation and interaction from Curly she turns else where and flirting is the only way to get that interaction she wants. In the last scene we see her mind, her dreams, opinions and thoughts. we see the side of her that has been ignored by every one just because shes a woman. Through the whole film we dont even get to know her name. But with Lennie these barriers are broken as he doesnt understand them and so she can open up and talk to this person. Even though he might not be listening he isnt blocking her out because she a woman and she gets the interaction that she wants and that she has been searching for. Then finally she dies and we are left with a memory of a woman that showed her mind to us and how she was no longer just a body to be looked at by men. But for a brief moment considered as an individual person.

Globalisation Of Culture Global Culture Cultural Studies Essay

Globalisation Of Culture Global Culture Cultural Studies Essay Thus, globalization is often constructed as an impersonal and inevitable force in order to justify certain policies or behaviors, however praiseworthy some of them might be. In a broader historical sense, Mazlish (1993:6-7) and Robertson (1992:68-71) cogently argue that not only capitalism or advocacy movements but also Christianity, Islam, and Marxism have made global claims and harbored global pretensions. The start of globalization is also a contested issue (Held et al. 1999). World-system theorists maintain that the expansion of European capitalism in the 16th century marks the start of globalization (Wallerstein 1974; see also Waters 1995:2-4). Robertson (1992:179) argues that globalization took off between 1875 and 1925 with the time-zoning of the world and the establishment of the international dateline; the near-global adoption of the Gregorian calendar and the adjustable seven-day week; and the establishment of international telegraphic and signaling codes. term globalization was first used around 1960 in its world-wide sense as opposed to its much older meanings of the global as something sphericalor universal. It is far from a uniform and inexorable trend. Rather, globalization is a fragmented, incomplete, discontinuous, contingent, and in many ways contradictory and puzzling process (Guidry, Kennedy, and Zald 1999; Held et al. 1999:43proponents of the feeble thesis focus almost exclusively on the economic and financial aspects of globalization to the detriment of political, social and cultural ones. The literature offers and discuss evidence in support of political and cultural globalization that is, on the whole, qu ite persuasive. (Castells 1996:66-147) The anthropologist Jonathan Friedman (1994:210-211) asserts that globalization is the product of cultural fragmentation as much as it is the result of modernist homogeneity, and that what appears as disorganization and often real disorder is not any the less systemic and systematic. At the ideological and cultural level, globalization has been observed as a symptom of late imperial culture as Aijaz Ahmad calls it as the most recent and highest stage of imperialism (Ahmad: 2002). Does Globalisation Produce Convergence? A second contested issue in the literature on globalization has to do with its consequences as to the convergence of societies towards a uniform pattern of economic, political, and even cultural organization. Most famously expressed in modernization theory, the spread of markets and technology is predicted to cause societies to converge from their preindustrial past, although total homogeneity is deemed unlikely. The critique of the presumed convergent consequences of globalization. Political scientist Robert Cox (1996:28, 30 n. 1) writes that the social and ethical content of the economy may be organized differently in various parts of the world. Historian Bruce Mazlish (1993:4) argues that no single global history is anticipated. So It should be noted that some sociologists reject the very terms of the convergence debate by arguing that globalization homogenizes without destroying the local and the particularistic. For example, Viviana Zelizer (1999) argues that the economyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ differentiates and proliferates culturally in much the same way as other spheres of social life do, without losing national and even international connectedness. Thus, globalization is not seen as precluding or contradicting diversity. Like Zelizer, Robertson (1995:34-35) sees the global as the linking of localities. A final aspect of the convergence controversy has to do with the impact of globalization on inequality across and within countries. The evidence unambiguously indicates that there is today more inequality across countries than ten, twenty, fifty or even one hundred years ago. Stunningly, the gap in per capita income between rich and developing countries has grown five-fold between 1870 and 1990 (Pritchett 1997; Temple 1999). There are, however, several noteworthy developing countries that have managed to close half or more of the gap since 1960, e.g. South Korea, Taiwan, and Ireland. Very few developing countries, however, have consistently grown faster than the most advanced ones since 1980. Thus, development levels appear not to be converging as a result of globalization. By contrast to cross-national UNDERSTANDING CULTURE: What is culture? Culture is itself is diacritical rather than a substantive concept. In Frederick Jamesons words, culture is not a substance or a phenomenon in its own right, it is an objective mirage that arises out of the relationship between atleast two groups.No group has a culture all by itself: culture is the nimbus percieved by one group when it comes into contact with and observes another one. In a globalise economy culture is deemed as a matter of choice as much as of inheritance, and thus as a potentially less oppressive, and hence less politicising, category of identification than colour or ethnicity, class or gender. (See, Bennette, 1993:3-4) CULTURE AND GLOBALISATION: Global Culture When we talk about globalisation, we are in a sense talking about unity of the states across the globe. How this unity is brought up? Then how does it link the states together? What are the major contributors in this unification process? Along with a myriad of intellectuals I will also sum- up with an answer, global- culture. However, it is one of the measures required for the unification process. One set of theorists, who are pro-global- culture say, that the global culture is making the world closer and more united. The people of the world are combining their differences and being more cooperative towards one and other. This process of emerging global culture can be seen in times of need when everyone has pulled together to strive for peace and freedom. Although, there exists a wide range of religions of which people are becoming tolerant, forming a homogenised society. On the other hand there are also philosophers who scorn global culture for the reason, that the local culture and morality are all at stake. If we say that the global culture is the synonym of the common culture, then there are wide range of opinion on it. Wight uses the term common culture so loosely that it is unclear whether he has in mind a deep, historic sense of culture, or the more superficial agreed rules that compose a contractual society. (James 1993: 277-8) Alan James, System or society?, Review of International Studies 19: 3, 1993. I argue that to certain extent global culture is a common culture among the people of the world. Further, Appadurai, Arjun in Difference in global cultural economy talks about five dimensions of the global culture 1) ethnoscape, 2) technoscape, 3)medioscape, 4) finanscape and 5) ideoscape. Origin of Global Culture: To get through the idea of the origin of the global culture, I am at consensus with Barry Buzan, the way he differentiates the origin of the global culture by the way of Vanguardist and Syncretist accounts. Vanguardist account emphasizes the centrality of Europe in the expansion story and projects a rather one-way view of cultural transmission from the West to the rest of the world. The Syncretist account puts more emphasis on the interplay of civilizations during the expansion process, and takes a more fluid and interactive view of cultural transmission generally. (Buzan:3 ) Buzan says, that before working through these two accounts and their consequences, it helps to keep in mind that prior to them there are two models of expansion by which a global international society could have evolved from the late classical world. In that world there were several centres of civilization whose degree of contact with each other ranged from quite intense (the Islamic world with both Christendom and the Hindu world) through fairly thin (Christendom and China) to more or less absent (the civilizations of Eurasia and those of Meso-America and the Andean highlands). From that starting point, one way of reaching a global-scale international society would have been for the various civilizational cores of the classical world to expand into increased contact with each other, so requiring that they develop rules of the game to mediate their relations in a polycentric international society. In such a case, global international society would have developed on the basis of cultu ral diversity, perhaps along the lines shown by the Indian Ocean trading system before the European arrival. The other way would have been the takeover of the whole system by one civilizational core, the imposition of one culture on the others, and the absorption of all the others into its particular rules, norms and institutions. This monocentric model is close to most historical accounts of what actually happened. (Buzan: 3) . In Vanguardist terms, the development of a global interstate society has been almost entirely a function of the expansion of the West. From the sixteenth century onwards, the rise of European power quickly crushed the two civilizational areas in the Americas and eroded, and eventually overwhelmed, the four in Eurasia. By the end of the nineteenth century virtually the whole of the international system was recreated in the image of Europe, as in the Americas and Australia; or directly subordinated to Europe, as in the African and Asian colonies; or desperatel y trying to catch up with Europe in order to avoid being colonized, as in the few most resilient parts of the classical world: the Ottoman empire, Japan and China. The triumph of European power meant not only that a sharp and permanent rise in the level of interaction took place, but also that western values and institutions-the so-called standard of civilization-dominated the whole system in imperial fashion. This mixture of coercion and copying runs in close parallel to Kenneth Waltzs idea that anarchy generates like units through processes of socialisation and competition. (Waltz 1979:74-79) Looking at this process in Wendtian terms.(Wendt 1999: 247-50) outsiders might emulate the core because of direct coercion, or by calculation or consent. Whatever the mechanisms and whatever the rationales, the effect is one of a sub-global Vanguard remaking the world in its own political image. This account rests on a sharp distinction between West and non-West, and less sharp differentiations among the different cultures and civilizations within the non-West. It has parallels with other stories of expanding imperial cultures where westernization is a similar process to Sinification, Romanization, Russification, Islamization and suchlike. In explaining the breakout of one culture to dominate others, a Vanguardist account inevitably puts a lot of emphasis on cultural difference generally, and on the exceptionalism of the Vanguard culture in particular. As in much nineteenth-century European imperial discourse, exceptionalism easily drifts not only into a ranking of cultures from superior to inferior (civilized, barbarian, savage) but also into a racist ranking of peoples as superior and inferior. (Hobson 2004: 219-42) Because it rests on differences of both culture and power. (Buzan:6) Robert ONeill and John Vincent also noted the unequal relations between the West and the Third World and the consequent regional diversity of international society, with some Third World unity around non-alignment, development, and the elimination of colonialism and racism. (O Neill 1990: 283-5) The challenges to the West come in two forms. The first is that non-western powers manage to reduce inequality by developing, and then use their new power both to assert different cultural values and to resist the solidarist western values of human rights, democracy and the liberal market. The West has lost the dominance of the second phase, and its prospect is one of continued relative decline as countries like China, India and Iran acquire the elements of modernity, and the corresponding power, that the West has made available. Its only hope is that the homogenizing effects of capitalist development will reduce cultural difference at the same time as they redistribute power. But if culture is viewed in essentialist terms as more or less fixed, then in terms of the instability hypothesis the move to a multicultural foundation and a redistribution of power spells permanent trouble and weakness for international society. (Buzan: 7) The second type of challenge comes not from opposition combined with strength, but from weakness, whether oppositional or not. Part of the legacy of decolonization is an array of weak and failed polities that are unable to play their part in the game of states. Somalia, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and other notional states represent holes in the fabric of international society. Their levels of internal disorder make it difficult to pursue the western agenda within them, and provide bases for criminals and terrorists acting against the West. (Buzan: 7) The Syncretist account is based on the idea that it is the normal condition of human affairs for cultural ideas to flow between areas of civilization. Cultures thus evolve not only in response to their own internal dynamics, but also because of encounters with other cultures, even remote ones. The Syncretist account challenges the strong Vanguardist distinction between West and non-West, and its corollaries of w estern exceptionalism and superiority. (Buzan: 11) Rather than European international society emerging pristine out of a unique and self-contained European civilization, in the Syncretist account the development phase in Europe involves very significant interaction with the other civilizations of Eurasia and North Africa. As Wight notes, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the crusades brought Europe into close contact with the Islamic world, adding to the contact already created by the earlier Islamic occupation of Spain, the two episodes together serving as the channel for the acculturation of medieval Christendom. (Wight: 52). Almost at the same time, the Mongol conquest of much of Eurasia brought Europe into contact with China and enabled increased transmission of ideas. The rise of the Ottoman empire from the late thirteenth century, and its conquest of Constantinople in 1453, meant that a rising Europe was neighbour to, and in regular contact with, a hostile and powerf ul non-European culture. Given that classical Greece is sometimes used as a comparator for Europe in discussions of the relationship between culture and international society, it is a nice irony that the Ottoman modifier to the story of a pristine European development runs in close parallel to the way in which the Persian empire shared a system with the city states of classical Greece, initially as the greater power, and then as the victim of Greek expansion. (Wight: 46-109). To sum up: the Syncretist view is that culture and international society are both malleable. They can and do change; cross-cultural interactions are the normal condition of international society, and flow in many directions. The Syncretist account suggests that for two reasons there is less cultural difference between the West and the rest of the world than the Vanguardist account supposes. First, the emergence of European international society was not a pristine process but took place during a long period of s ustained cultural interaction with the other civilizations of Eurasia and North Africa. (Buzan: 19) This outcome envisages the triumph of the Vanguardist process. Either the Vanguard displaces and replaces other cultures, or it converts the rest of the world to its own standard of civilization, creating a universal culture based on a widespread acceptance of Western values, practices and institutions. We know that replacement did not and will not happen, so this outcome now rests on the success of westernization. The degree of cultural unity necessary to stabilize international society would come from the success of westernization, and would go a long way towards mitigating the contradiction between hegemonic practice and the legitimating principle of sovereign equality in present-day international society. This outcome would eliminate OHagans tension as to whether international society represents the values of a dominant culture or a neutral mode of communication across cultures. This outcome envisages the triumph of cultural mixing and adaptation. It is therefore in principle not wedded to any particular set of values, practices and institutions, but is normatively open, allowing these to emerge in the syncretic process. In practice, since the Syncretist account largely accepts the monocentric model, the actual homogenization would reflect the considerable success that the West has already had in projecting onto other cultures many of its values, practices and institutions: sovereignty, diplomacy, nationalism, the market and so on. The expectation here is also that international society will be strong and fairly uniform at the global level, but not exclusively based on western values. Rather, some mixture will emerge as western power wanes and the power and influence of non-western cultures rise. Here too we can find those who think that homogenization will result from the global operation of capitalism, though in this version the undoubted cultural carrying capacity of the global market will work both ways, with the West being as transformed as transforming by the cultural flows across the planet. There is plenty of Syncretist evidence to point to here, from the popularity of Asian food, fashion and film, and This outcome envisages the partial failure of both the Vanguardist project and the process of Syncretism. Such failure might occur for various reasons. The West might lose power before it can convert the rest. Political and cultural resistance in the non-West might be strong, particularly against the more recent and more liberal elements of Western international society. Global- culture and Religion Whether societies are becoming less or more secular? is another point of debate, but in the present context, to a certain extent, the societies are becoming secular . Religion became a categorical model for the ordering of the national society and their relations during nineteenth and early twentieth century. So it became an aspect of International law. The argument I want to raise here is there is a distinction between the culture and the religion? Some equate, culture with the civilisation and inturn, civilisation with the religion; which is not true practically. During seventies and eightees there were church and state conflict prevailing, in the same way as today we think of global culture and the religion. Here comes the issue of diffusion of the religion, and then its global- foci. I agree the way Robertson differentiates between the world and worldliness, on the similer terms as Max Weber does. (Robertson: 143) The major consequences of globalisation have been (1) the transmogrification of traditional religions and belief systems; (2) the beginning of the disintegration of the traditional social fabrics and shared norms by the invasion of consumerism, cyber- culture, newfangled religions, social fads, and changing work ethics and work rhythms; (3) the fast spreading anomie (in the Durkhemian sense) forcing an ever increasing number of individuals to fall back upon for moral and social support the easily accessible pretentious religious banalities; and (4) attributing to religion the creation and acceleration of extremist, fundamentalist, and terrorist tendencies in the third world countries, which are intended to destabilise them, and strike at the root of their civilisation, and multicultural and pluralist nature. (Radhakrishnan: 1403) The nature and functions of religion in society have been Under speculation and discourse for several centuries; the approaches to the understanding of religion philosophical, theological, anthropological, sociological and the related dimensions of religious ideas have been very old; and the nexus between religion and society has been very close, with wide, complex, intricate and elaborate ramifications: The role of religion in giving spiritual and moral sustenance to individuals, the related regulation of social life and moral order, creating and regulating cultural forms, and the inte- gration of society. One may go with the French sociologist Emile Durkheims postulate (endorsed by, among others, the English anthropologist A R Radcliffe-Brown) that the main role (or function) of religion [is] to celebrate and sustain the norms upon which the integration of society depends [Geertz 1968: 402]. While on religion and globalisation, it is important to know whether globalisation unites or divides religions; results in newfangled religions; and has a direct nexus with fundamentalism and religion-linked terrorism. It is also important to ascertain whether for its new imperialist project globalisation has been exploiting different religious forms; whether fundamentalism and religion-inspired terrorism have increased since the advent of globalisation; and whether religions, far from being belief sys- tems in their traditional sense, have spawned new dimensions which are far removed from the spiritual and religious realms. (Radhakrishnan : 1406) Challenges to the global culture: For Transnational corporations, However there are signs evidencing that the national culture no longer affects companies, when they enter other markets, because new global rules are becoming more important instead. Instances of Global- culture: To my way of thinking and after reading so many scholars, I come up with the following instances, which evidence the emergence of the global culture. People are having a shared belief of freedom, and safety across the globe. All do have some common issues like Human Rights, environment protection, Freedoms, technology- savvy practices, feminist issues, health- issues and all other who make the whole world unified in claiming them. Global culture is also emerging slowly in parts of the world. For example, Europe used to have different forms of money and now they have switched to one shared currency, the euro-dollar. Although there are many different form of money throughout the world, someday that might change. The world is shrinking. The things which were common to one particular country or region are now accessible to the world at large. Like Italian, Chinese, Mexican And Indian food. The world commercial market has given rise to the trans- national corporations. Although arranged marriage persists in many cultures today, as modernization proceeds and many areas become part of the global economy, parental influences on marriage continue to decline. Young people who work for wages rather than on the familys land no longer depend as highly on their parents resources. As Western popular culture-including motion pictures, television, music, and fashion-spreads around the world, many young people are drawn to Western notions of love, romance, and individual choice. In some places, such as Japan, people combine modern Western and older cultural practices. For instance, parents and computer matchmaking services help find prospective mates, and the individuals can accept or reject the proposed match. Since its inception in the 1950s, rock music has moved from the margins of American popular music to become the center of a multi-billion-dollar global industry. Closely connected with youth culture, rock music and musicians have helped to establish new fashions, forms of language, attitudes, and political views. However, rock music is no longer limited to an audience of teenagers, since many current listeners formed their musical tastes during the golden age of rock and roll. Similarly, while rock has historically encouraged new creative expressions, the innovations of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix have defined a tradition to which successive generations of musicians have repeatedly turned for inspiration. Natural resources are conserved for their biological, economic, and recreational values, as well as their natural beauty and importance to local cultures. For example, tropical rain forests are protected for their important role in both global ecology and the economic livelihood of the local culture; a coral reef may be protected for its recreational value for scuba divers; and a scenic river may be protected for its natural beauty. The same is the case with conservation of Water, the whole world collectively is in favour of water conservation policies. Cultural exchanges, across the world, for example, the spread of islam or Christianity has been seen in last few years as increasing. Internationalisation of the Media like radio, television, newspaper and internet are linking together the world at large. Apperception of Western culture as an attribute of the world today, as an outcome of the global expansion of industrial capitalism, which for the first time integrated the world into a global system centered in Europe. Major constituent of Western culture have ceased to be ethnic and have become internationalized as intrinsic constituent of a world shaped by the development of the West. Even the idea of art as a self-sufficient activity based on aesthetics, is also a product of Westernisation. The traditional art of other cultures, as well as that of the West from earlier eons, was a different type of creation, determined by functions of a religious, representational, or commemorative nature. Is a Global Culture in the Making? Perhaps the most popular and controversial of the debates about globalization has to do with the rise of a global culture. Actually, there are only a few scholars who maintain that a global culture is in the making. The idea goes back to Marshall McLuhans slippery concept of the global village (McLuhan 1964) The global culture driven by symbols, images, and the aesthetic of the lifestyle and the self-image-has spread throughout the world and is having some momentous effects, including the standardization of tastes and desires, and even , anthropologist Arjun Appadurai (1996:4, 21) argues that individuals and groups seek to annex the global into their own practices of the modern, and that consumption of the mass media worldwide provokes resistance, irony, selectivity, and, in general, agency. Some of the most persuasive arguments against the idea of the emergence of a global culture come from anthropologist Clifford Geertz. He observes that the world is growing both more global and more divided, more thoroughly interconnected and more intricately partitioned at the same time [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] Whatever it is that defines identity in borderless capitalism. And the global village it is not deep going agreements on deep going matters, but something more like the recurrence of familiar divisions, persisting arguments, standing threats, the notion that whatever else may happen, the order of difference must be somehow maintain (Geertz 1998:107-110). Like Geertz, sociologist Anthony Smith is skeptical, and notes an interesting initial problem with the concept of global culture: Can we speak of culture in the singular? If by culture is meant a collective mode of life, or a repertoire of beliefs, styles, values and symbols, then we can only speak of cultures, never just culture; fo r a collective mode of life [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] presupposes different modes and repertoires in a universe of modes and repertoires. Hence, the idea of a global culture is a practical impossibility, except in interplanetary terms (Smith 1990: 171). However, I argue that this notion is wrong, and the global culture is not only in existence, but it is flourishing as well. LOCAL versus GLOBAL Local culture and social structure are now shaped by large and powerful commercial interests in ways that earlier anthropologists could not have imagined. Early anthropologists thought of societies and their cultures as fully independent systems. But today, many nations are multicultural societies, composed of numerous smaller subcultures. Cultures also cross national boundaries. Some people fear a loss of cultural diversity as U.S. media companies become dominant. Such companies tend to bundle their products so that a blockbuster movie is promoted by selling soundtracks, books, video games, and other. However, the under- developed countries companies do not have such a control, even any sort of control over the market. On the one hand, as world beat became a more visible feature of the international popular musical landscape in the late 1980s and early 1990s, popular music scholars began to analyze its economic and cultural implications. Most analyses focused on the inequalities characterizing the bilateral relationships between north and south and accused the industry of exploiting Third World cultural resources. Others were concerned about the potentially disastrous consequences of homogenization and westernization upon folk cultures being swept up in and transformed by what has been called global culture flows. The most trenchant critics also charged the world music industry with racism, for ignoring the harsh realities of economic and political subordination experienced by Third World peoples of color, and instead constructing images of cultural authenticity in order to satisfy the desires of northern whites safely to consume exotic otherness. More optimistic observers, for example, have sugges ted that the powerful forces of cultural and economic hegemony are being resisted by culturally and technologically savvy Third World musicians who are taking control of the production of their own music, revitalizing local musical traditions by modernizing them. Furthermore, the international popular musical landscape, so long dominated by U.S. and European pop and rock, has unquestionably been diversified and enriched by the increased circulation of musics from multiple locations around the globe. To better understand the national and global linkages, Some observers would argue that it is inappropriate to distinguish Afro-Brazilian from Brazilian music, since black expressive cultures have contributed so profoundly to what is understood to be national culture. Perhaps no other artistic field in Brazil has been so deeply influenced by black cultures than popular music. Nevertheless, it is useful and necessary to identify distinct styles and movements in Brazilian popular music that are associated particularly with black urban communities. The past 20 years have seen the proliferation of Afro-Brazilian social, political, and cultural movements that explicitly reject the traditional belief in a unitary national culture. Yet, for the most part, contemporary Afro-Brazilian musical countercultures continue to be racially inclusive. An increasingly globalized world economy has intensified the influx of African and diasporic musical cultures, particularly from the United States and Ja maica, to major Brazilian cities. These forms of music and their attendant cultural styles, modes of dress, and dance steps have been widely appropriated and transformed by young urban Brazilians. Several broad currents in contemporary Afro-Brazilian music may be identified: contemporary samba, soul/funk/hip-hop, reggae, axà © music, and mangue beat. (See, Encarta) Another example of globalised music culture Samba emerged in the 20th century as the preeminent national music of Brazil. Modern urban samba was developed in the predominantly black favelas (shantytowns) on the morros (hills) of Rio de Janeiro, and now globalised. In addition to music, there are plethora of dancing style,