Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Fight For Womens Rights in India †History Essay

Fight For Womens Rights in India – History Essay Free Online Research Papers Fight For Women’s Rights India – History Essay The fight for women’s rights would prove to be a long and grueling process, but British presence in India would prove to play a positive role in this process. The fight would be especially difficult because those religious traditions that were part of the culture in the country were very adamant in their beliefs on the role of women in society, but British seemed to be determined to turn India into what they deemed as a civilized nation. The British believed that the â€Å"Indians, like anyone else, could be transformed through the workings of law, free trade, and education.† This statement proves that the British came into India with the idea that they were going to transform this nation into one they could be proud to call a colony. With this in mind it could be argued that the British are actually responsible for starting a women’s rights movement in India. In order to be successful in their fight to give women more rights in India the British utilized several tactics. Now in power of governmental activities in India, and not afraid to flex their power to promote their own ideals, they began to pass important pieces of legislation. One of the most powerful tools a government has is its ability to pass legislation. The British started with proclamation that would prove to be extremely influential, the abolition of sati. The abolition of sati was not so much a victory for women in terms of saving them from the funeral pyre, but it was more of an invitation for women (and men) to involve themselves in a movement against a barbaric religious tradition. This sent a message to women throughout the country telling them that their rights were an interest of the British. In addition to legislation, education was a key component of the fight for women’s rights. A popular quote sums up the role education played in the advancement of womenâ €™s rights very nicely. â€Å"God helps those to help themselves.† Now that women had the tools to educate themselves they could make their opinions known. Education of course was passed onto men as well, and lucky for women western ideas were in favor of women’s rights. Men became more tolerant of their women as western education took root. Not one of these movements was more important then another, every one helped contribute to what would eventually be a successful women’s movement. The stories in Of Women, Outcastes, Peasants and Rebels do a very good job of illustrating the progress being made in its different forms. An example of each of these movements can be found in at least one story throughout this text. In our country [India], once a man is married, he no longer has, or needs to have, any kind of concern about the marriage. His attitude toward his wife becomes like that of a man-eating tiger’s need to have a human, any human. Whatever his condition and age, as soon as he lacks a wife, he has no hesitation, nothing but compulsion, to get another (Rabindranath Thakur Haimanti). This is an excerpt from the short story Haimanti. This quote does a very good job of illustrating the woman’s place in Indian society prior to reforms made in the 19th and 20th century. For women the fight for equality was not an easy task. Mass amounts of men in India who held more traditionalists attitudes felt that woman’s place in society was as it should be. â€Å"Many movements of the later nineteenth century gave a central place to teachings related to women, seen as a particularly potent symbol of the proper moral order (Metcalf Metcalf 144).† A woman’s purpose in life is very clear, they are to marry a man, give birth to his children, and answer to his every whim. Those men that were not in favor of reform in the country used religious propaganda to make certain that these British ideals of women’s rights did not sink in. Unfortunately for those traditionalists the religious ideals they promoted would prove only to slow down the process, n ot stop it. In the Old Woman, written by Manik Bandyopadhyay, a young woman, named Menaka, is being thrown out of what has been her residence for the past year. She married and lived in her husband’s house, with his family. His family was not very fond of her and once her husband passed away she was no longer a welcome member of the household. â€Å"†¦because she had no parents and was married off by her uncle’s family, they could not get back at the shrewd uncle for not giving all of the promised dowry.† Assuming this family is of a lower caste, and not in a financially comfortable condition they have no problem dismissing this woman who had married into their family. In lower castes a woman was put on the street if she was a widow and no longer contributed financially to the family she married into, in some cases she could go back to live with her parents, but many times even her own parents would refuse her simply because they could not afford to feed, cloth and shel ter another person. Families of lower caste felt very little responsibility towards a widow, mostly because she was now seen simply as a financial burden. At the end of this story Menaka encounters an old woman who has a profound effect on her life. The old woman sees Menaka weeping and shares with her, her own story of grief that is very similar to Menaka’s. â€Å"I spent less than one night with my husband. After he died on the wedding night, they all said, ‘Throw out that unlucky wife.’ Did I leave? Could anybody make me leave? I bit the ground that the home stood and hung on.† The lesson of this old woman very much reflects the teachings of another woman that dedicated herself to educating and motivating widows like herself. Pandita Ramabai advocated women’s education and social reform. When she was widowed at the age of twenty-five, Ramabai educated herself in England, returned to India and proceeded to found several home schools dedicated to t he education of widows. Throwing women out on the street to fend for themselves may seem barbaric, but doesn’t compare to what was practiced by smaller groups of upper caste families. A religious tradition known as sati was observed. Sati was regarded as a â€Å"heroic act of romantic self-sacrifice† by those people who practiced it, but was regarded as barbaric by British colonists. This religious ceremony consisted of a widower throwing herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, burning her to death. Sati was a traditional religious ceremony that was not considered out of the ordinary by most. Despite its publicity, sati was not responsible for the deaths of thousands of woman a year, it was not widely observed, but was still responsible for approximately eight hundred deaths per year. It did not face any resistance until 1829 when Lord William Bentinck abolished this religious observance to the dismay of those people who had practiced this religious tradition. The British used the treatm ent of women in Indian as a substantiation of what they believed to be a barbaric and brutal culture that they needed to correct. Of course traditionalists did not take this sitting down. Many families that had practiced sati in the past continued to do so, when they were punished for their crimes they protested. The power of the British was simply too strong, and the abolition of sati was only the beginning of the British effort to give woman a fighting chance in Indian society. Woman, in addition to basically being seen as an expendable asset, they contributed very little to society in India. This was not a matter of choice, but was tradition. A woman in the story Letter from a Wife, by Rabindranath Thakur, is obviously distressed with women’s current position in Indian society. â€Å"It seems ironic to me that human beauty, which the Creator makes in a flitting mood of enjoyment, should be priced like a commodity in a religious society such as yours.† Although women were still discriminated against there was â€Å"a new ideal of female domesticity, across religious lines, also took shape during the decades at the turn of the century. In that ideal women were meant to be educated and ‘respectable’†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Metcalf Metcalf 146). This was huge turn of events for woman. Before women were uneducated, therefore few really knew how little rights they had. Now that women were being educated they began to analyze their surrounding s and realize that something was not right. The ‘new’ women soon began to play an active role as advocates of reform. Soon educated women were fighting against this repressive tradition and setting up schools to further the education of women in India. â€Å"The new norms of female behaviour helped draw new lines of social identity (Metcalf Metcalf).† Education was taking root in the society of India, but there was still a great deal of resistance to this women’s movement. After all it had only been a few decades, and for an entire country of people to abandon their religious traditions and ideals because of western teachings is not realistic. â€Å"Your never recognized in these fifteen years the part of me that wrote poetry, perhaps because you did not wish to see in me anything that went beyond my role as your wife and a daughter-in-law of the family (Thakur 98).† Once one reads further into Haimanti it becomes apparent that Thakur supports the reformist attitude. The narrator of the story is a young man in love with a girl only two years his junior, her name is Haimanti. Traditionally men married girls that were much, much younger, it wasn’t strange for a man as old as thirty to marry a girl that was only twelve years old. This young man insists that he is in love with this woman, and lucky for him he is the member of a household that is very tolerant of reformist’s beliefs. â€Å"†¦my grandfather was a staunch rebel against the tradition, with no belief in any of the established customs and rituals. He had eagerly read and absorbed English liberalism. But my father was a staunch follower of the tradition.† With beliefs that were this reformist the narrator’s grandfather was most likely a member of the bhadralok. If he was not a member of the bhadralok he definitely benefited from their movement. The bhadralok prospered under British colonialism, and were very found of the teachings of western education, like English liberalism. The bhadralok movement was very popular amongst those people of upper-castes such as merchants, clerks and government employees. In its beginnings the bhadralok movement was confined to people of the upper-caste, but it slowly made its way to the masses. The bhadralok were very proud of there newly discovered knowledge and wanted to share it with the common people. Soon the education of men, coupled with the education of women offered opportunities for reform in the country. Although woman were being educated and focused on achieving equality they could not have done it alone. Reformist thinkers like the grandfather Haimanti were a big part of the advancement of women’s right. British colonialism had very few positive impacts on society in India, but the result of their presence was not all bad. They were vital in the women’s fight against discrimination in India. The British were advocators of woman’s rights, and were disgusted by the fact that such a cruel and intolerable act could be committed with such social acceptance, in addition to the discrimination they face in every day life. Not only did the British themselves support the women’s movement, but they were also responsible for the Indian people’s exposure to western education and culture. The ideals and morals that western education promoted were beginning to take their toll and helped in the advancement of women’s right significantly. Although the British regarded the Indians as an underdeveloped people they believed they were capable of making changes. As people in India began to embrace more western ideas, and education they began to turn away from religious t raditions that were seen as unsavory in western teachings. The fight for women’s rights would prove to be a long and grueling process, but British presence in India would prove to play a positive role in this process. The fight would be especially difficult because those religious traditions that were part of the culture in the country were very adamant in their beliefs on the role of women in society, but British seemed to be determined to turn India into what they deemed as a civilized nation. The British believed that the â€Å"Indians, like anyone else, could be transformed through the workings of law, free trade, and education.† This statement proves that the British came into India with the idea that they were going to transform this nation into one they could be proud to call a colony. With this in mind it could be argued that the British are actually responsible for starting a women’s rights movement in India. Of course do not make the mistake of believing that the British were responsible for all the progress ma de. Those women who had suffered for centuries and those few progressive men did most of the leg-work. The British merely laid the foundation for th movement, and simply sat back and watched it unfold in front of them. Research Papers on Fight For Women’s Rights in India – History EssayPETSTEL analysis of IndiaQuebec and CanadaThe Fifth Horseman19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesTrailblazing by Eric AndersonBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XBringing Democracy to AfricaAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Relationship between Media Coverage and Social and

Sunday, November 24, 2019

The Mysteries Of The Sonnets Vargo 1 Essays - Literature

The Mysteries Of The Sonnets Vargo 1 Essays - Literature The Mysteries of the Sonnets Vargo 1 William Shakespeare?s sonnets may have been the best poetry ever written. The sonnets are beautifully written with many different feelings expressed in them. Although they may have been the most autobiographically written poems of all time, they still present a number of questions. Many Elizabethan historians and Shakespeare enthusiasts often wonder who Shakespeare was writing about when he wrote the sonnets. There are three main questions which come to mind when one is reading the sonnets. The mysterious dark lady, Mr. W. H., and the young man that Shakespeare wrote of are three of the sonnet mysteries. Although William Shakespeare did not write the sonnets to be a puzzle for the reader to solve, the dark lady of the sonnets is perhaps the most puzzling of the mysteries. There is a whole sequence of sonnets that mention the dark mistress. Sonnets 127-154 are the sonnets that deal with the dark lady. From these sonnets, a good description of the dark lady is given. The first of the dark lady sonnets, Sonnet 127, gives a good physical description of the mistress. ?...Therefore my mistress? eyes are raven black, / Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem/ At such who, not born fair, no beauty lack,/ Slandering creation with a false esteem./ Yet so they mourn becoming of their woe,/ That every tongue says beauty should look so? (Booth ed. 110). Lines 9-14 of this sonnet tell the reader that the mistress has dark features and there is a hint that perhaps she wore makeup. Also, in Sonnet 130, another good physical description of the dark lady is given. ?My mistress? eyes are nothing like the sun;? Coral is far more red then her lips? red;/ If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head./ I have seen roses damask?s red and white,/ But no such roses see I in her cheeks;...?(Hubler 104) Although Shakespeare gives a harsh description of the dark lady?s features, he does mention that he cares for her. ?He does not say that he loves her in spite of her faults; he loves her faults and all.? (Hubler 104) In other sonnets, such as Sonnet 127, William Shakespeare admits that he finds the dark lady?s features beautiful. The variety of Shakespeare?s descriptions of the dark lady make it seem as if there may not be a dark lady at all. She may be a literary creation. Vargo 2 The identity of the dark lady cannot be based on physical description alone. A good behavioral description of the dark lady can be found in many places in the sonnets. ?And whether that my angel be turned fiend,/ Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;/ But being both from me, both to each friend,/ I guess one angel in another?s hell...? (Hubler 107). This section of Sonnet 144 tells the reader that the dark lady had a way of torturing Shakespeare. He has figures out that the mistress is unfaithful and he does not know what exactly she is doing. According to Edward Hubler, Shakespeare?s sketch of the dark lady is a piece with the view of sex without romance revealed throughout his works (107). It seems that Shakespeare did not find the dark lady to be a very appealing person, but he did, however, find her to be very sexually appealing. William Shakespeare was not in love with the dark mistress. It seems that his feelings for her are clearly only lustful ones. William Shakespeare was in contact with many women throughout his life. Therefore, there are many theories as to who the mysterious mistress is. The most popular name concerning the dark lady?s identity is Mary Fitton. Mary Fitton was a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth and was a mistress to William Herbet. ?She was a lively lady who became the mother of three illegitimate children by different men, but afterward married richly and died very respectable.? (Harrison 44). The only problem with Fitton being the dark lady is that she did not possess the dark features that Shakespeare so vividly described throughout his poetry. In addition to Fitton,

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Definition and Examples of Questions in English

Definition and Examples of Questions in English In grammar, a question is a type of sentence expressed in a form that requires (or appears to require) an answer. Also known as an interrogative sentence, a question is generally distinguished from a sentence that makes a statement, delivers a command, or expresses an exclamation. In terms of syntax, a question is usually characterized by inversion of the subject and the first verb in the verb phrase, beginning with an interrogative pronoun or ending with a tag question. Linguists commonly recognize three main types of questions: Yes-No Questions, Wh- Questions, and Alternative Questions. Examples and Observations This is a question that no one particularly wants to hear, but, where did they put his head?(Xander in Teachers Pet. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997)I know this is a silly question before I ask it, but can you Americans speak any other language besides English?​  (Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark in Inglourious Basterds, 2009)Question is, what did camouflaged robot mercenaries want with you? And how did you get inside the TARDIS?​  (The Doctor in The Runaway Bride. Doctor Who, 2005) Structuring Questions To form a polar question (one expecting yes/no as an answer), the first auxiliary verb, which bears a tense inflection, is moved to the front of the clause. Corresponding to John was eating the halva we get Was John eating the halva? There must be at least one verb in the auxiliary for question formationif the VP contains none of have, be or a modal then do must be included to take the tense inflection; thus, corresponding to the statement John ate the halva, we get the question, Did John eat the halva?   A wh- question (expecting a phrase or clause as answer) involves the same fronting, and in addition a wh- word (who, whom, whose, what, which, how, why, where or when), which refers to the same constituent of the main clause, must precede the preposed auxiliary word. Compare John was hitting Mary with Who was hitting Mary?  Mary arrived yesterday with When did Mary arrive? and John ate the halva with What did John eat? If the constituent being questioned had a preposition associated with it, then this may either be moved to initial position, before the wh- word, or it can be left in its underlying position in the clause. Thus, corresponding to He owes his success to hard work we can have either What does he owe his success to? or To what does he owe his success?(R.M.W. Dixon, A New Approach to English Grammar, on Semantic Principles. Oxford University Press, 1991) Examples of Question Types [In the following joke, the attorneys initial wh- ​question is followed by two yes-no questions and a final alternative question.]A woman went to an attorney to ask about a divorce.What grounds do you have, madam?About six acres.No, I dont think you quite understand. Let me rephrase the question. Do you have a grudge?No, just a parking space.lll try again. Does your husband beat you up?No, l always get up at least an hour before he does.The attorney could see he was fighting a losing battle. Madam, do you want a divorce or not?Im not the one who wants a divorce, she said. My husband does. He claims we dont communicate.(adapted from The Mammoth Book of Humor, by Geoff Tibballs. Carroll Graf, 2000) Intonation in Questions American English typically has rising intonation across the utterance for what are called yes-no questions (She bought a new car?) and falling intonation for information-seeking questions (also called wh- questions) (What does she want to buy?), although there is much variation in these patterns in both American and British dialects.​  (Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck, Linguistics for Everyone. Wadsworth, 2010) Why Ads Use Questions Questions, like commands, imply a direct address to the readerthey require someone to answer. Thats why they are often used on magazine covers, like these from one issue of Cosmopolitan: At long last love. Are you sure its the real thing?THE CONDOM. Whats in it for you?Hired or fired? How to leave your job in style. We take them as requiring a response, like a ringing phone. There is another more subtle effect questions can havethey can contain presuppositions that are almost impossible to discard if one interprets the text.​  (Greg Myers, Words in Ads. Routledge, 1994) Questions as Technologies in Disguise Questions, then, are like computers or television or stethoscopes or lie detectors, in that they are mechanisms that give direction to our thoughts, generate new ideas, venerate old ones, expose facts or hide them.​  (Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992)

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Global Warming in Florida Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Global Warming in Florida - Essay Example Today however, the global increase in temperature is destined to affect the natural as well as the physical activities in Florida. Evidence of the global warming is apparent in the gradual immersion of the beaches to the sea caused by temperature rise and thawing of glaciers increasing ocean waters. Change in the weather is another attribute of the global warming; recent times have seen devastating hurricanes sweeping across the state leaving behind enormous loss of property and destruction of vegetation (Southern Alliance for Cleaner Energy, 2007). The average rise in sea level globally has been estimated to be 6 inches in the 20th century. By 2100 the immersion of the beaches is expected to reach 15 inches. The global warming impacts in the Florida state are evidently seen in other areas of wildlife and tourism. The Florida has been stated as a ground zero in terms of the climatic change impacts in the United States of America this statement is based on the extents and effects of g lobal warming already experienced in Florida (NRDC, 2001). On the other hand skeptics do not believe that global warming is a serious problem at all, they are attributing theses changes to effects of evolution rather than those of human activities industrialization. Let us now look at the realities of the global warming and awareness to people. Alertness of Global warming to Floridians According to a research done by the Florida Wildlife Federation and National Wildlife Federation (2006) on March to April 2006 where a group of people were interviewed at the end of the research 63% were aware of the global warming and the its effects in Florida, 27% were unaware while 10% thought otherwise, the global warming in Florida is a fact with effects on the... The state of Florida is well known for its tourism attraction due to its excellent beaches, diverse native wildlife species, variety of fish and birds. However, the evidences of the global warming are also present in Florida today. Elaborate explanation of the causes and the overall results of the global warming in Florida are discussed in the essay. Nobody can now provide any argument to belittle the effects of the global warming in Florida based on what we have found out. With confirmation of the global warming it is up to the Floridians and everybody else to take a positive step now. According to scientists the threat of the global warming can be overcome by a 40 year 2% reduction in the greenhouse emissions. The governments together with the environmentalists and the individuals have a role to play in reduction of the global temperatures. Failure to take an action will seen the nature’s anger in form of adverse climatic effects on human being and wildlife alike. Cases of s uch have been seen in form of hurricanes in Florida, El.nino rains in various parts of the world and excessive droughts in Africa. Of course Florida’s attempts to reverse the global warming would be in vain without the cooperation of the other states and countries. The researcher hopes that International policies can help to reduce the global warming, such as the Kyoto protocol. Implementation of such policies should be underway to alleviate the occurrence and the magnitude of such disaster as has been experienced in the recent past across the world.

Political Potential of Citizen Journalism Essay

Political Potential of Citizen Journalism - Essay Example In such circumstances when reporting from the place affected by crisis becomes valuable and essential, those who earlier were simple observers take roles of journalists with the help of modern technologies. It makes professional journalists face a serious question about the future of their profession as information is becoming more available and easier to generate. A possibility to disseminate news within a click of a mouse is turning the whole process of information production into a tool of political influence and democracy establishment, and historical events in Eastern Europe and in Arab countries can serve as bright examples of the statement.   However, it is necessary to define what the concept of citizen journalism means as it has appeared quite recently and is still shaping. According to Bowman and Willis, citizen journalism is defined as the media content produced by citizens who take an active role in â€Å"collecting, reporting, and analyzing information and news† (2003, 9). Reasonably, it is the Internet that has played a crucial role in emerging citizen journalist phenomenon. Moreover, technological evolution and fast spread of innovations were important for accidental journalism emergence. A great variety of devices that are charged and plugged rapidly and connected to the Internet within seconds permitted almost every citizen to create some content from posts on Facebook to videos on YouTube. It allowed many people sharing their information instantly and also gave a chance to find the right auditory for this information. And the combination of these two factors: instant and relevant content and those wh o consume it was the primary factor in the phenomenon emergence (Bruns, 2005, 1).   The appearance of citizen journalism is closely connected to the introduction of digital culture.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Adjusting entries Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Adjusting entries - Assignment Example One of the steps included in the accounting cycle is the recording of adjusting entries. Adjusting entries are always needed every time a company prepares financial statements. At the end of the accounting cycle the four financial statements are ready to be prepared and published for the users of financial information. â€Å"Adjusting entries are needed to ensure that the revenue recognition and matching principles are followed† (Weygandt & Kieso & Kimmel, 2003, pg. 91). Adjusting entries are necessary because they are one of the steps of the accounting cycle. The fourth step of the accounting cycle is to journalize and post adjusting entries (Cliffnotes, 2011). Accounting entries exist to make sure revenues are recorded in the period in which they are earned, and expenses are recognized in the period in which they are incurred (Weygandt, et al. 2003). Accounting results are supposed to be reliable and accurate. The use of adjusting entries adds validity to the claim of accura cy in accounting work. A financial statement that benefits from adjusting entries is the balance sheet because adjusting entries allow accountants to adjust the assets, liabilities, and equity accounts. The four types of adjusting entries are prepaid expenses, unearned revenues, accrued expenses and accrued revenues. Prepaid expenses are expenses that are paid in cash by a company before they are consumed. These types of transactions occurred for a variety of reasons including contractual obligations. In the insurance industry it is common practice for insurance coverage to be signed in yearly contracts that must be paid in full prior to coverage starting. In this type of transaction the company receives benefits as time passes. An adjusting entry is necessary to record the actual consumption of the expense. These types of adjusting entries are typically recorded on a monthly basis. The journal entry to record this adjusting entry is a debit to insurance expense and a credit to prep aid expenses. Another example of a prepaid expense is the recording of depreciation. Depreciation is recorded through the passage of time on a monthly basis. The second type of adjusting entries is unearned revenues. Unearned revenues occur when a client pays in cash for a service that has not been provided to them. An unearned revenues account is considered a liability because the company that took the payment owes the service to the client. A practice in which unearned revenues are a common occurrence is in the law practice. A lot of companies pay corporate lawyers retainers to be on call for any legal problem that may occur in the future. The lawyer must record the transaction when they are originally paid as unearned revenue. When the lawyer provides a legal service for the client the liability is reduced through an adjusting entry. The adjusting entry to record a service rendered to a client that had an unearned revenue pending is a debit to unearned revenue and a credit to ser vice revenue. The third type of adjusting entry is accrued revenues. Accrued revenue refers to transactions in which the business earned an income, but has not yet received payment for the work. Accrued revenues can accumulate over time in cases such as unpaid rent. Sometimes accrued revenues occur as a consequence of the company not billing the customer at the time the service is rendered. The typical adjusting entry for accrued revenues once service is provided is a debit to account receivable and a credit to service revenue. Companies that always receive payment in the form of cash at the moment the service is provided would not accumulate any accrued revenues. The fourth type of adjusting

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Comparison and Contrast Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Comparison and Contrast - Essay Example Often movie adaptation are a source of disappointment after they are released but this was not so with this movie. Movie adaptations offer a more visual experience of the story but they place certain burdens on the writers and scriptwriters. It is often taxing for the directors to adapt the novel into a movie. Often movie adaptations of a novel are met with a strong sense of anticipation before the release of the movie but viewers are left with a sense of being robbed of the novel’s essence when they watch the movie. This is often because the audience feels that the characters were not portrayed properly in the movie. Also the novel is often shortened when it is adapted into a movie. However, the movie adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird does not displease the audience. The movie has been able to catch the essence of the novel and is considered to be one of the best movies of modern American cinema. The movie, though has its limitations, but director Robert Mulligan has been able to overcome these to deliver a great piece of film that entices the viewers to read the novel if they have not already done so. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, is written from the perspective of a small girl, Scout Finch who lives in Maycomb County with her older brother, Jem and father, Atticus. The book deals with Scout’s life in Maycomb at a time when the term desegregation was not coined. The author takes on a narrative form of writing in this book. The movie, has tried to keep up with the similar element of narration. Even as the movie begins, it is clear that the child’s perspective is kept in mind. The movie begins with credits being rolled out with a child-like voice humming in the background. The movie begins on a similar tone as that of the book. The voice of the woman in the background is introduced to capture the narrative form of writing in the original novel. Even the narration offered in the movie

Monday, November 18, 2019

Vodafone Group PLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Vodafone Group PLC - Essay Example We will use the same conduct fundamental analysis of the company to assess whether the stock is likely to increase or decrease in value in the short- and long-term and whether the stocks current price is an accurate reflection of its value (Street.com, Inc.,2007) Revenues exhibited growths within the range of 10% to 33% for the last five year period except for the decline from 2004 to2005 by 21%. Despite the decline in 2005 from 2004, gross margins were noticeably high from 29% for the years 2003 and 2004 respectively and still high at 22% and 21% respectively for the years 2005 and 2006 respectively. This means that decline in company revenues for a given year which could have been an indication of lower output did not cause the company to suffer the decline in terms of productivity or efficiency since the gross margins were still high, although the decline was still felt since the gross margin from2004 to 2005 also declined from 29% to 22%. The apparent decline in mark up due to decline in revenues from 2004 to 2005 was remarkably offset by the increase in bet profit margin relative to the years where changes were noted. The lower gross margin for the year 2006 and 2006 as against 2004 and 2003 did not necessarily resulted to lower net profit margin for the corresponding years under study, since net profit margin for the years 2006 and 2005 stood at both similar rates of 22% which were surprisingly higher than for 2004 and 2003 respectively. This difference in the results could only mean better efficiency for the years 2006 and 2005 over the year 2004 and 2003. Viewed from perspective of improving management performance in terms of efficiency, the management has indeed shown resiliency and disciple for the latter years as compared against the earlier years. This is however not to lose the remarkable achievement net profit margin 1n 2002 which got reflected at 69%. What clearly showed an increasing trend without sign of going down are the

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Life in the Trenches Essay Example for Free

Life in the Trenches Essay World War One, also known as the Great War, was a war that would change all wars. Never in the history of humanity had there been a war fought in such a manor, and it would change the way all wars that followed it were fought. World War I was expected to be a relatively short war, as those in the past had been, and a war of great battles and movement. However WWI was typified by its lack of movement, years of stalemates and great battles that turned out to be massive slaughters where hundreds of thousands of men died for a very small gain in territory. The most important aspect of WWI that made it so unique was its use of a new tactic of digging a series of connecting trenches that carved up the landscape of the Western and Eastern fronts. This use of trenches by both the Allies and the Germans was one of the primary reasons that WWI lasted as long as it did. Life in the trenches was a horrifying experience for any man who served in the Great War. The terrible conditions in the trenches would only be fully known by the public after the war was over in late 1918. The armies of the Allies had strict rules against the public gaining knowledge of the details of the war and used many methods to prevent them knowing the truth. After the Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the German army was forced to retreat. They had failed in their objective to force France into and early surrender and rather than give up the land that they had gained they dug into the ground to secure their position and protect themselves from the Allie fire. Because the Germans were at an advantage of being able to fire at the Allies from below ground level because of this the Allies could not break the German trench line. It was apparent that the Germans would not be removed the Allies followed the German example and dug their own trenches. It was this event that halted movement on both sides and changed the style of warfare forever. Trenches soon stretched across the countryside and spread from the North Sea to Switzerland. Trench life soon became as mentally and physically taxing on soldiers as the actual fighting element of the war. Disease, rats, lice, and boredom became a part of daily life for a soldier in the trenches. After the war was over there were many accounts from soldiers of the appalling conditions and the amount of death that occurred in the trenches. It was estimated that up to  one third of Allied casualties on the Western Front were actually sustained in the trenches . Aside from injuries caused by the enemy, disease accounted for a large amount of that total. Many accounts from soldiers of their time spent in the trenches are dominated by an emphasis on the amount of mud. Living in the trenches soldiers were rarely clean and when they were they did not stay that way for very long. Because of the lack of sanitary conditions in the trenches men suffered from many pests such as rats and frogs as well as more harmful things like lice and diseases like trench foot and shell shock. The rats in the trenches became a problem for the soldiers because there was no way to avoid them or get rid of them. A single pair of rats could produce almost 900 offspring in a year so the infestation continued throughout the war. Rats in the trenches were rumoured to have grown as large as cats on occasion, from eating or stealing scraps and feeding off the corpses of dead soldiers. Because the rats became so fearless the men in the trenches came to loathe them and often spent free time killing them and setting traps . Yet another annoying pest was the lice that continually plagued the men. Soldiers could spend up to an hour a day burning the lice off their bodies and clothes in an attempt to rid themselves of the pests; but the effort was all in vain because they would only be re-infested the next day. Occasionally the men were sent to clean themselves in large baths while their clothes were being put through delousing machines. Unfortunately, this rarely worked; a fair proportion of the eggs remained in the clothes and within two or three hours of the clothes being put on again a mans body heat had hatched them out. Because of the continuously muddy conditions the men often walked around in mud and water sometimes covering as far up as their knees or waists. During the early part of the war over 20,000 men were treated for a condition that became known as trench foot. This was an infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and unsanitary conditions. Without being able to remove wet socks or boots the feet would gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or blue. If untreated, trench foot could turn gangrenous and result in  amputation. The only remedy for trench foot was for the soldiers to dry their feet and change their socks several times a day. By the end of 1915 British soldiers in the trenches had to have three pairs of socks with them and were under orders to change their socks at least twice a day. As well as drying their feet, soldiers were told to cover their feet with grease made from whale oil. The Allies needed to make sure that there would be no additional factors that would affect the morale at home; news of the conditions that the soldiers were forced to live in and the continuing stalemates would surely do that. If confidence in the war effort was diminished and the truth about the trenches was known there would be fewer new recruits and the Allies would be challenged to keep up with the Germans numbers. Most soldiers during the war chose to conceal the horrors of the trench warfare not wishing to expose their families to it. But those who wished to confide in family members and try to share with them their experiences were prevented from doing so by new laws that were put into place. The House of Commons passed the Defence of the Realm Act on August 8th 1914 without debate . The Act gave the government executive power to suppress criticism, imprison without trial and commandeer economic resources for the war effort. As a result all letters that the men wrote were read and censored by the junior officers. Although soldiers were encouraged to write letters to friends and family, the contents of the letters were monitored strictly by the junior officers in accordance with the new laws guidelines. Anything that disclosed information about military action would be removed to ensure that the Allies plans could not get to the Germans. The junior officers were also instructed to remove anything from the letters that discussed the conditions of the trenches or insinuated that the soldiers did not have faith in the actions that were being taken by the army. The members of parliament believed that if family members were to receive letters of that nature the morale in Britain would be effected which would affect the war effort all together. Britain and France also had problems deciding what to do about journalists who were reporting the war. Originally under the Defence of the Realm Act Britain put strict limitations on all reporters often preventing their  articles from making it back to Britain from France. After complaints from the USA on how the British government was treating the situation a cabinet meeting was held to change the policy and to allow selected journalists to report the war. The British government appointed five men to be accredited war correspondents in January of 1915. These men were to remain on the Western Front but to be permitted to do so these journalists had to accept government control over what they wrote. As a result of government interference even the disastrous first day of the Battle of the Somme was reported as a victory. Although some defended their actions saying that they were attempting to spare the feelings of men and women, who, have sons and husbands fighting in France; most of the journalists admitted that they were deeply ashamed of what they had written. After the war most of the accredited war correspondents were offered knighthoods by George V. Some agreed to accept the offer but others like Hamilton Fyfe refused seeing the knighthood as a bribe to keep quiet about the inefficiency and corruption he had witnessed during the war. Fyfe would later become a member of the Union of Democratic Control after the war, and would speak out as a strong critic of the Versailles Peace Treaty . There were a few other instances of the British government preventing criticism of the war from being published. In 1916 the Clyde Workers Committee journal, called The Worker, was brought to court under the Defence of the Realm Act for an article that criticized the war. The two editors of the journal were found guilty and sent to prison, one for six months and the other for a year . Critical novels that were written during the war were prevented from being published or banned if they did make it to publication. A.T. Fitzroys Despised and Rejected, about conscientious objectors during WWI, was published in April 1918. A thousand copies were sold before the book was banned and the publisher prosecuted under the Defence of the Realm Act. Another novel, What Not: A Prophetic Comedy by Rose Macaulay, which ridiculed wartime bureaucracy, was prevented from being published near the end of 1918. Instead it was not published until after the Armistice. So although the conditions for the men who fought in the First World War were horrific, the public did not realize the sacrifices that had been made for their freedom on a daily basis. The suppression of the truth by the British government is a controversial topic that is still debated today. Whether or not the British were justified in preventing the public from knowing the truth it was inevitably disclosed after the wars conclusion. The images seen and the conditions endured plagued on many mens minds after the war was over. The Great War, a war that was to be one of heroic battles and great movement, turned into a war remembered for its lack of movement, its number of casualties and the conditions that had to be endured. World War One changed the way all wars after it were fought, but not for the better.

Friday, November 15, 2019

The Impact Of Globalization For Children And Families Economics Essay

The Impact Of Globalization For Children And Families Economics Essay Globalisation perks in the 1990s, in the research studies of Draxler (2006) reported that government of many countries, both developing and developed countries embraced changes towards one global market place (Michael et al., 2003). Though it opens up new revenue for trade, technology, information and knowledge transfer worldwide, globalization helps to aid this world to a more disintegrated sphere (Kolarova, 2006). Rieger et al. (2003) questioned the consequences of cultural and social malfunction due to the influence of globalization. Spybey (1996) also mentioned in his findings that globalisation creates more conflicts in this rapid information networking, trading and technology freedom of this new shift of large-scale manufacturing and producing business establishments worldwide (Goldberg et al., 2007). Researches and report findings by World Bank (2000-2002) found that as different countries step up to change their productive organization of work, it also changes countries social and human capital structures (Willams et al., 2005). The Organisation of Cooperation and Development (OECD) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) reported its finding of globalization leads to a sharp demand of highly educated and skilled labour in developed countries, ironically an upsurge of lowly skilled workers with poor wages, prejudicial social injustice and health care in poor developing countries (Lall, 2002). Marshall (1962) stated the shift of the social relation changes patterns and lifestyle of time and space of mankind. Hence, with the implication of globalization will it cause more poverty or affluence universally (Hartman,2002)? Carnoy (1999) stated when nations open to trade and create more capital affluence and manufacturing goods for exports, there are manufacturing turnover and transferal of employment (Brady et al., 2005). Globalisation rises skills in developed countries however it reduces employment skills and talents in developing countries. For example, in Vietnam if an individual could not sustain himself/herself and his/her family in a small plot of land in hometown. He/she has to sell his/her labour to support his/her family in urbanized cities (Choi et al.,2001). Yet due to globalization he/she may be employed by a global company with highly technologized machinery which made him/her a low skilled worker (Freeman, 2001). Kalarova (2006) claims that in some of developing countries, benefits and welfare for workforce are frequently mistreated by privatized global companies even if countries have employment policies for employees. The lack of social coherence, coordination, sustainability and long term protection policies due to the lack of funding for proper healthcare, eventually leads to a depressed moral opportunity and welfare, depletion of social protection and surge inequality of these low skilled worker in these manual work industries (Milanovic,2002). Likewise, Spybey (1996) argues that in order to finance these worldwide investments in the global finance capital sector, globalisation affects a nations social inequality when it comes to the funding distribution and assets for its education, healthcare and childcare policies and reforms for families and children, resulting to an exploitation of adults and children labour (Michael et al., 2003). Stokey (1991) agrees that in conservative and conventional countries like Thailand and Indonesia, though women rights aid and free women from poverty, exploitation and oppression, Horgar (2001) pointed the contradictory of global capitalism repeatedly decoy women and children to cheap labour with long working hours and poor welfare despite of their desires to be independence from their husband or father at home and that conflicts against its social-cultural aspect of the nations (Edmonds et al.,2001). Moreover, Horgar (2001) argues that as more women enter the global workforce, more children are often left at home alone with relatives or siblings, contributing to its nation increment of non-schooling and poor school attendance children, malnutrition and ill health of children due to the lack of quality care and child-rearing issues (Hatch Grieshaber, 2002).. On the other hand, in the developed countries, globalisation may cause relocation, migration of workers as technology and machinery replaced manual-skilled workers (Willams et al., 2005). Thus, many of these workers are forced to look for more job opportunities in other countries, likewise nations also prefer to send low skilled workers to be trained in well developed country, hoping to increase the countrys technological knowledge and skills, and bringing about the increment of wages and remittance of money to support their families at homeland (Hartman, 2002). Furthermore, as global capitalism took place, it often comes along with poverty and conflicts between its social-cultural backgrounds (Edmonds Pavcnik, 2001). Edmonds et al. (2006) also state that globalization makes and pressures a nation not to be left out but it is important for its nations ability to be part of the global mandate. In 1990s, it is surveyed about 80 million labour forces and work migration from Middle Eastern and African countries to America (Goldberg, 2007). Due to the influx of immigration in America, the survey conducted by Hartman (2002) shows a significant increase of multi-cultural and multi-ethnical aspects in America. Correspondingly, change of family structures in Middle Eastern and African countries affect native families as they no longer could rely on their male breadwinner (Hartman, 2002). The shift of native and immigrants marital status where an individual choose to be lone mother/fatherhood, single or divorced, eventually, leads to decrease of birth rate due to different fertility patterns, notably by postponing birth/ no desire of having children (Horgan, 2001). These factors further afflict and add on to a nations social-economic issue, especially when there is a high reallocation of old aged people in a society due to low birth rate (Freeman, 2001). In addition to it, pressure for globalization also hustle the changes of the worlds social and cultural aspects in peoples lives (Penn, 2005). Statistics an d studies conducted by Waller (2009) show huge distinction and diversity differences as regards to the average of children, life expectancy, school expectancy, illiteracy rate, child labour and in industralised countries, give to the rise of the lack of overall human and childrens rights implementation (Gregory, 1999) . A survey conducted by Cigno et al. (2002) reports that parental decisions often affects children education rights and the national education policies structures, since parents consider the cost of children education, expected returns when they invest in their childrens education and the state educational investment for their children (Roseberg Puntch, 2003). A childs future is frequently contrary to the childs future earning return to the family (Cigno et al., 2002). Thus, in developing countries children are used as domestic helper at home and expose to hard labour, children soldiers and even as prostitutions(Carnoy, 1999). Hence, to counteract these hindrance, a clear and direct government protection policies and subsidies for children education and regular school authority inspections to homes could help to support families on childrens education, which eventually encourage the rise of high educated future population and increase highly skilled trained workers in its human capital investment(Cigno et al., 2002). In the research studies of Timimi (2005) it shows a hugh mortality and morbidity of females and children in poor developing countries due to severe ill health and poor healthcare, where poor national economic has prolonged their poverty (Ravens et al.,2009). A qualitative study conducted by McMichael (2000) native government in developing countries lacks the resources and commitment to aid the problems especially in healthcare such as malnutrition and infectious diseases that come along with poverty. Likewise, urbanized cities in developed countries do struggle with poverty but it is the poverty of health. As the cities open to industrialization and globalization, its residents often at risk with illness and sickness link with pollutions- water, air, chemical and toxic pollutions (Ravens et al., 2009). However, if national policies and international organizations decide on how to implement reliable healthcare policies and improve financial incentives to address states healthcare spending through the development of new medical technology internationally (Draxler, 2006). The integrity of nations policies and commitment to childrens and families welfare are often compromised, as these is no clear solution to the question to protect children and families (Draxler, 2006). Hence, Siraj and Woodhead (2009) sought that if the affluence of globalization recognizes the rights of children and families, countries policy makers have to gear themselves and strengthen their policies through clear, direct implementation and frequent reviews of its nation policies for protection and assurance of quality education, healthcare and welfare for children and families. Government has to step up and act in behalf of these children and ramify the issues of poverty, education, healthcare and stable families (Timimi, 2005).

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Feminist Refutation of the Deconstruction of The True Confessions of Ch

A Feminist Refutation of the Deconstruction of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle  Ã‚   As Captain Jaggery’s ostensibly moral imperative from Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle implores, we the readers â€Å"protect the natural order of the world† through our disbelief in our heroine as reflected in our intuitive reflection upon and deconstructionalist critique of the book.  Ã‚  Ã‚   In fact, it is likely that our disbelief of Charlotte’s story is as much a comment on our attitudes towards gender roles as it is an educated and thoughtful response to its clues.   Even as we find ourselves believing along with the story, we, upon reflection, find valid ways to destroy that believability, in no small part because we define what she does as either â€Å"female† (believable) and â€Å"male† (not believable). The preceding was provided so that the student could gain an understanding of the paper. The complete paper begins below: So what we have here is a girl who admits she owns the weapon that murdered Mr. Hollybrass.   A girl who lied about where she got it.   A girl who was taught to use a blade, and learned to use it, as Mr. Grimes would have it, ‘uncommon’ well.   A girl who, all agree, is unnatural in every way she acts.   Gentlemen, do we not, as natural men, need to take heed?   Is it not our duty, our obligation, to protect the natural order of the world? (Avi, 178) As Captain Jaggery’s ostensibly moral imperative from Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle implores, we the readers â€Å"protect the natural order of the world† through our disbelief in our heroine as reflected in our intuitive reflection upon and deconstructionalist critique of the book.  Ã‚  Ã‚   In fact, it is likely that our disbelief of Charlotte’s story is a... ...ive to males.   This in itself indicates a gender expectation on the part of the reader, one that predisposes the reader to disbelieve and should lead us all to re-examine our motivations in deconstructing the text.  Ã‚   Moreover, females and males alike colored Charlotte’s adaptation to her circumstances with a movement from a female role to a male role as if gender roles were intractable and binding from both the male and female points of view -- she wouldn’t be able to do it, despite the fact that quite possibly her own survival dictated she probably could have not done otherwise!   Once again, logic dictates that we at least acknowledge that our inability to accept Charlotte’s account could be more of a reflection of our gender expectations than her twisting of the truth.    Works Cited: Avi. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. New York: Avon Books.1990.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

How Various Mechanisms By Which Substances Cross The Cell Me :: essays research papers

Homeostasis is essential to the cell’s survival. The cell membrane is responsible for homeostasis. The membrane has a selective permeability which means what moves in and out of the cell is regulated. Amino acids, sugars, oxygen, sodium, and potassium are examples of substances that enter the cell. Waste products and carbon dioxide are removed from the cell. All of these substances cross the membrane in a variety of ways. From diffusion and osmosis, to active transport the traffic through the cell membrane is regulated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Diffusion is the movement of molecules form one area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. Concentration gradient causes the molecules to move from higher concentration to a lower concentration. The side of the membrane that has the higher concentration is said to have the concentration gradient. It drives diffusion because substances always move down their concentration gradient. The pressure gradient also plays a role in diffusion. Where this is a pressure gradient there is motion of molecules. The pressure gradient is a difference in pressure between two different points. If the concentration of one side of the membrane is greater than the molecules will travel from the higher to lower concentration. Eventually there will be a dynamic equilibrium and there will be no net movement of molecules from one side to the other.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Osmosis is the diffusion of water. Like diffusion, the water moves from a region of higher water potential to a region of lower water potential. Solutions have three different stages that the solutes can be classified in: isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic. Isotonic is when the solutions have equal amounts of solutes. Like equilibrium, there is no net change in the amount of water in either solution. When the solutions have different concentration of solutes then the one with less solute is hypotonic and the one with more solute is hypertonic. Hypotonic takes in the solute from the hypertonic side that gives away the solute. There will be a net movement in these types of solution. The molecules will move from the hypotonic solution into the hypertonic solution.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The third way a substance can cross the cell membrane is through facilitated diffusion. This occurs when special carrier proteins carry solutes dissolved in the water across the membrane by using active transport. When the concentration gradient can not allow travel from one side of the membrane to the other fast enough for the cell’s nutritional needs, then facilitated diffusion is used. The transport protein is specialized for the solute it is carrying, just as enzymes are specialized for their substrate. The transport protein can be How Various Mechanisms By Which Substances Cross The Cell Me :: essays research papers Homeostasis is essential to the cell’s survival. The cell membrane is responsible for homeostasis. The membrane has a selective permeability which means what moves in and out of the cell is regulated. Amino acids, sugars, oxygen, sodium, and potassium are examples of substances that enter the cell. Waste products and carbon dioxide are removed from the cell. All of these substances cross the membrane in a variety of ways. From diffusion and osmosis, to active transport the traffic through the cell membrane is regulated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Diffusion is the movement of molecules form one area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. Concentration gradient causes the molecules to move from higher concentration to a lower concentration. The side of the membrane that has the higher concentration is said to have the concentration gradient. It drives diffusion because substances always move down their concentration gradient. The pressure gradient also plays a role in diffusion. Where this is a pressure gradient there is motion of molecules. The pressure gradient is a difference in pressure between two different points. If the concentration of one side of the membrane is greater than the molecules will travel from the higher to lower concentration. Eventually there will be a dynamic equilibrium and there will be no net movement of molecules from one side to the other.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Osmosis is the diffusion of water. Like diffusion, the water moves from a region of higher water potential to a region of lower water potential. Solutions have three different stages that the solutes can be classified in: isotonic, hypertonic, and hypotonic. Isotonic is when the solutions have equal amounts of solutes. Like equilibrium, there is no net change in the amount of water in either solution. When the solutions have different concentration of solutes then the one with less solute is hypotonic and the one with more solute is hypertonic. Hypotonic takes in the solute from the hypertonic side that gives away the solute. There will be a net movement in these types of solution. The molecules will move from the hypotonic solution into the hypertonic solution.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The third way a substance can cross the cell membrane is through facilitated diffusion. This occurs when special carrier proteins carry solutes dissolved in the water across the membrane by using active transport. When the concentration gradient can not allow travel from one side of the membrane to the other fast enough for the cell’s nutritional needs, then facilitated diffusion is used. The transport protein is specialized for the solute it is carrying, just as enzymes are specialized for their substrate. The transport protein can be

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

My Extended Family

It seems like yesterday all the kids where little and needed me all the time. Now Francesca is married, with children, Kaitlin is living on her own with her daughter, and JJ and April live with them. I feel like it was only the other day we were all crowding around the dinner table having a nice family meal, while John their father was off who knows where, drunk, high, spending money he didn’t really have to even spend. I stop and think how these kids ever made it all these years before without us. Us being myself and their uncle Scott, we had been together five years by then and I knew this was the beginning of something wonderful. If only I had known how much it would affect and change my life and theirs. I guess it happened gradually, the kids coming over for dinner, needing winter clothes, taking showers at my house and I always wondered where their father was. Then I found out, John was an alcoholic, drug addict who somehow had custody of these wonderful kids. I guess, I should have known how bad it was by how the kids acted but I didn’t. I hadn’t known abuse like that, I was from a place where we had parents and had dinner together, not 14 year old Frankie (Francesca) going into the bar and dragging her father out, which ended up being the event that finally caused me to go and file for full custody of these kids. It was the best choice I could have ever made. I remember filing the papers and thinking , I am either going to get an irate phone call from John acting like he cares, telling me I will never win, or he will say nothing and I will end up with these wonderful kids as my own. As I sat there in the court building filing the papers it occurred to me just how much help and love and parenting these kids where going to need and how happy I was to do it. But I should of known that the happiness was not going to last. It appeared to be a normal day August 18, 2009, the kids had just finished dinner, the older girls where going out and I just settled down after putting my boys to bed when the phone rang. It was Patty, the kid’s grandma and the other rock in their lives. She was hysterical, something was wrong with grandpa and Scott had to get over there right away. I remember calling the kids and telling them to come home, anxiously awaiting word on grandpa’s condition, when I received the worst call ever. I know I turned around at the eyes of these kids who had endured so much already. Ready to crush there world as they knew, if only I had known what was to come, perhaps I could of , nothing, there was nothing I could of done and I need to deal with that. I looked at them and said, â€Å"Grandpa, didn’t make it, I am so sorry guys,† everyone just broke down, not sure what to say or do I did what I thought I could which was just be there, holding them as tight as I could. The rest of the next week was a blur. I thought it could not get any worse for these kids, thinking back to how their mother left all those years ago, never looking back, JJ was only 3 years old then now turning 13 almost a man, I thought, how much more can these kids suffer. If only I had known. It’s been about a week since Grandpa had passed, no one was really grieving the stress was so high, and of course it made John do more drugs, drink more alcohol and be less of a parent than he was before. Then the final blow came or what I presumed to be the final blow. It was just over a week after grandpa passed, when the phone rang, a little after midnight, it was John, Patty, who was the kid’s grandma and wife of grandpa, had a stroke and had passed. It was like what, no way, how much can this family handle at one time. I remember thinking these kids are never going to be able to handle this, how as a family can we overcome this too. Who was going to help me the way she did with the kids, yes they lived with me but she was my rock. Now my rock was gone, my family never really supported what I was doing anyway so now , it was just me and Scott fighting to keep together a family that so desperately needed it. To lose both their grandparents less than two weeks apart, to lose my mother in law and father in law that way was so hard to handle for me as an adult. Let alone these kids who I know have gone through so much. We made it through though it was hard, tough, a mountain to climb, but we did it, and we came out better and stronger than before. Things were finally looking up for all of us. John was finally trying to get his life on track, maybe too late in my eyes, but it was the effort that counted right. Now it’s been a year since Grandpa and Grandma had passed, the kids where doing great, Frankie just graduated college, JJ and April with the best attendance and averages they have ever had. John working on a relationship with the kids, of course he fail like I knew he would, his effort was a joke in my eyes but to the kids it was what they could get. Of course they loved him he was there â€Å"father† but I just didn’t want to see them get hurt anymore than they already where by him and life. He gets arrested for Felony assault on two woman that where doing nothing but having a good time. I heard the charges and new, no matter what this was finally what was best for all of us. The trial and everything else seemed to fly by, b before we knew it john was being sentenced to five years in prison and we all felt like we could finally just be a family. It was a relief to know he could no longer hurt or guilt any of them into feeling sorry for him anymore. Now, its two years later, and I see, how beautiful these kids are, how great of parents they are and I know that’s because of what I had the courage to do, to love these kids no matter what and be there for them, when everyone else failed them. I would like to say I changed them, but in all actuality they changed me, into the mother I am today. I would not change any of it for a second. Those kids are my family and like my sons and daughters and they always will be. They are forever my extended wonderful, goofy, silly never change anything family.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Critically consider psychological explanations of love Essay

There are three psychological theories of love, The Three Factor Theory of Romantic Love, Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love and Romantic Love and Attachment. The three factor theory of romantic love suggested by Hatfield and Walster, recognises two types of love, passionate love and companionate love. Whilst passionate love can be seen as an intense physiological arousal which involves a longing for the other person, companionate love is more a feeling of affection towards those whom we feel deeply about. Hatfield and Walster propose a theory to explain passionate love based on three factors; physiological arousal, appropriate love object and cultural exposure. The authors see love as a label that is placed on someone that we are physiologically aroused by. Experiencing this arousal will cause a person to state it is because of love, since this is what our culture teaches us happens when we are in love. This theory receives support from research by Dutton and Aron. In this study, male participants were interviewed on a high or low suspension bridge, by an attractive female. The results supported the prediction that those males interviewed on a high bridge felt more sexual attraction to the woman, presumably because they experienced stronger physiological arousal. The males on the lower bridge felt less physical attraction, presumably because their physiological arousal was not as strong. It is possible that this theory could explain certain experiences such as love at first sight. However, since most people seem to fall in love gradually, this would suggest that for the majority of individuals, the label, love, comes first rather that the physiological arousal. The theory is also more applicable to western rather then eastern or collectivist cultures. Sternberg defines love as – intimacy (sharing mutual understanding and emotional support), passion (involves physical attraction and sexual desire) and decision/commitment (involves the short-term decision that you love someone and a longer-term commitment to maintain that love). These three components of love can be combined in different ways to produce seven varieties of love; liking, infatuation, empty love, romantic love, compassionate love, fatuous love and consummate love. These seven types of love form a triangle. Consummate love being in the center as it is the strongest form of love since it involves all three components. Sternberg believes that people have two different types of triangle. The first is based on an individuals own theory of love and is formed in a cultural context from watching television, observing parents, reading books, including listening to fairy tales when young. The second triangle is based on the individuals’ current relationship. According to Sternberg when two triangles are similar, relationships tend to be more successful. The theory has practical applications – it is possible to measure the components in the two parties and then analyse the differences in the types of love shown by each partner. It helps pinpoint areas where change and compromise may be necessary. However, the components are rather vague, especially commitment, and it is therefore difficult to judge the basis on which one person decides to love another. Hazan and Shaver proposed that romantic relationships are attachment relationships, and that individual differences in adult attachment style, mirror those found by psychologists who studied attachment styles such as Ainsworth. So rather than love being formed in a cultural context, Hazan and Shaver believe that love originates from a person’s early relationship with a primary caregiver. This theory developed out of two earlier pieces of research by Ainsworth and Bowlby. Ainsworth’s strange situation and the observation that children have three different styles of attachment – secure, insecure/anxious resistant and insecure/anxious avoidant. Bowlby’s belief that the mother’s behaviour towards the child creates an internal working model that leads the infant to expect the same in later relationships. According to Hazan and Shaver, later love relationships can be predicted from a child’s attachment style. So therefore a secure child who had a positive image of a caring mother will have relationships in later life that are friendly, trusting and more enduring. A child classified as insecure/anxious resistant will have conflicting memories of the mother, both positive and rejecting, causing relationships in later life to consist of emotional highs and lows, with moments of jealousy and concerns whether their partners really love them. Insecure/anxious avoidant children will remember their mother as cold and rejecting and have relationships in later life where they fear being close to someone and believe love is not necessary for happiness nor is it long lasting. Hazan and Shaver’s research receives support from a number of studies in that there does seem to be a relationship between early attachment experiences and later attitudes and behaviour to love for example Feeny and Noller 1990. However the research has all been correlational in this area, so it cannot be claimed that early attachment causes later relationships behaviour. The relationship between the two could be caused by another factor. Kagon believes this other factor to be the temperament of the child. Infants are born with certain temperaments which determine the quality of their early relationships and these innate or genetic factors affect relationships throughout life. The three psychological theories of love provide partial explanations for this most intense of human emotion. Whilst Hatfield and Walster believe love to be a state of strong physiological arousal, Sternberg and Hazan and Shaver believe that love originates from a persons early relationships with a primary caregiver.

Abortion, Parenting, Animal Rights, Capitalism: Notes

Abortion: (See Abortion Murder, The Case Against Abortion in Highlights) Women are blessed with a miraculous reproductive system. They should be encouraged to honor and respect it. It should be used responsibly. We should not encourage women to abuse it because it is their body and thereby their right. Yes, there are circumstances where they have to make very tough decisions and choices because of rape or incest. But instead of encouraging abortion right from the start, they should be counseled on other solutions first and make abortion the very last absolutely tragic answer to their problem.Tell women they have a right to abort, it’s their body, and it’s their choice. No. Many will abuse that right and start using it as a method of birth control. I’d like to think this is not true but many will abuse that right and start using it as a method of birth control. I don’t ever want abortion to become fashionable or just another procedure. It should always be r egarded as the last possible option and only in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger.American Atrocities (Domestic) : Also see International American Atrocities Rockefeller has Coal miners union organizers murdered. The Ludlow Massacre in 1914 by the National Guard. 11 Children, 2 Women. In 1847 Federal troops killed 30 workers, 100 woulded in the battle of the Viaduct in Chicago. In 1894 Federal troops killed 34 Pullman railroad union members. 1897, 19 coal miners killed, 36 wounded in PA. Animal Rights: The Illogic of Animal Rights by J. Neil Schulman The so-called â€Å"animal rights† movement is relying upon a logical fallacy which is based on mutually exclusive premises. Animal rights† premise #1: Human beings are no different from other animals, with no divine or elevated nature which makes us distinct; â€Å"Animal rights† premise #2: Human beings are ethically bound not to use other animals for their own selfish purposes. If human beings are no different from other animals, then like all other animals it is our nature to kill any other animal which serves the purposes of our survival and well-being, for that is the way of all nature.Therefore, aside from economic concerns such as making sure we don't kill so quickly that we destroy a species and deprive our descendants of prey, human animals can kill members of other animal species for their usefulness to us. It is only if we are not just another animal — if our nature is distinctly superior to other animals — that we become subject to ethics at all — and then those ethics must take into account our nature as masters of the lower animals. We may seek a balance of nature; but â€Å"balance† is a concept that only a species as intelligent as humankind could even contemplate.We may choose to temper the purposes to which we put lower animals with empathy and wisdom; but by virtue of our superior nature, we decide †¦ and if those decisions include the consumption of animals for human utilitarian or recreational purposes, then the limits on the uses we put the lower beasts are ones we set according to our individual human consciences. â€Å"Animal rights† do not exist in either case. Even though I personally believe we were created by God, unlike advocates of the Judeo-Christian tradition I do not rely upon the question of whether humans have a â€Å"soul† to distinguish humans from animals.Like secular rationalists, I'm content to resolve the issue of the nature of human beings, and the nature of animals, by scientific means — observation, experiment, and the debate of paradigms. Each of these criteria is simply a proof of intelligence and self-consciousness: 1) Being observed as producing or having produced technological artifacts unique to that species; 2) Being observed as able to communicate from one generation to the next by a recorded language unique to that species; 3) Being observed as basing action on abstract reasoning; ) Being observed as engaging in inductive and deductive reasoning processes; 5) Being observed as engaging in non-utilitarian artistic activity unique to that species. I'm sure there are other criteria we could use, but these are obvious ones that come to mind immediately. None of them speculates about the unobservable functioning of a neural network; all of them are based on observable effects of intelligence and self-consciousness. Conclusively, we are of a different nature than other animals we know. Neither cetaceans nor other higher mammals, including the higher apes, qualify as â€Å"human† under these criteria.We do not observe these significations of intelligence and self-consciousness in any other species we know, such criteria being neither necessarily anthropocentric nor even terracentric. By the â€Å"survival of the fittest† which is the law of raw nature, no animal has rights: only the tools to survive as best it can. The chicken has no right not to be eaten by the fox. The wildebeest has no ethical recourse against the lion. If we are merely animals, no other animal has any ethical standing to complain against the human animal for eating them or wearing their skins.But, if we are superior to other animals — if our nature is of a different kind than other animals — then why should we grant rights to species who can not talk, or compose symphonies, or induce mathematical equations, or build satellites which send back television pictures of other planets? Why shouldn't we humans simply regard lower animals as things which may become our property? We may be kind to animals if it is pleasing to us to do so, but we should not grant animals an equal stature that nature has not given them. Respect for nature requires a respect for the nature of what things are †¦ nd we are better, stronger, smarter, than the animals we hunt, ranch, farm, fish, trap, butcher, skin, bone, a nd eat. They certainly have no ethics about us, for they are just animals. Nor are any â€Å"animal rights† activists themselves merely animals. There is no organization called Porpoises for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. It is People who make those demands of other People. Those who argue for animal rights argue that since animals are living and feel pain, that therefore nature gives them a right not to be treated cruelly.This is an argument that could only work on a being capable of empathy — and that requires an elevated consciousness. It is true that animals can feel pain, and that esthetically requires that we not be cruel in our treatment of them. But what is cruelty? Beating a horse that won't pull a wagon? Making animals fight each other for sport? That's no longer the issue, is it? The issue is ranching minks to skin them for fur; castrating and slaughtering steers to eat them; hunting and shooting deer, ducks, and elks; testing cosmetics on animals; doing medical experiments on animals to advance medical knowledge.Do we have a moral obligation not to use animals for human utilitarian purposes, which is another way of asking whether animals have the right not to be treated as objects to be exploited for their usefulness? The idea of a right means that which has rights may not be treated as a utilitarian object for the fulfillment of the purposes of others. Animal rights would mean animals would be immune from being used to fulfill any human purpose. PETA has it exactly correct. If animals have rights, then we may not ethically use them for our own selfish purposes, no matter how necessary we think that use or how humanely we assert we do it to them.This is, in fact, the logical conclusion of â€Å"animal rights. † If animals have rights then we need not make any distinction between an unnecessarily cruel use of animals (pick one: cock- fighting, animal testing for beauty products) or eating animals, because if animals have righ ts then we are not morally entitled to put them to utilitarian use, period. Let me make it clear: I am not questioning the humaneness or cruelty of any particular practice. My point is that the interests of those who assert that the lower animals have rights is not to protect animals against cruel treatment.That can be done merely by an appeal to our consciences. Those who assert that animals or even â€Å"habitats† have rights do so to destroy individual human rights to control what I term the anthroposphere: the human habitat. It is the individual human right to control our private spheres of action — our individual habitats — which they oppose. Some â€Å"animal rights† activists, basing their thinking on pantheism, equate humans with the rest of nature by saying that we are all share a divine consciousness.But equating humankind as no more divine than inanimate objects or other animals isn't raising nature but lowering humankind. Pantheists believe th at everything is sacred, including the inanimate. Yet, I don't notice them picketing Mount St. Helen's volcano for spewing its lava, burning trees and killing wildlife. It's only human action to which animal rights activists object. So where do we find ethics here? If we look to nature, we see only that the strong use the weak for their own purposes — and we are obviously the master of all other animals by that standard.If we look to the center of all human ethics, the Golden Rule, we are told to treat others as we would wish to be treated. But what others? Animals can't treat us as we wish to be treated because they don't have the wit to entertain ethics at all. Which leaves us esthetics, which exists only in individual humans. Since lower animals don't have rights, we humans need to make judgments on humane versus cruel treatment of lower animals not by treating animals as if they have rights but instead must rely on our esthetic values — our consciences.But, after s eeing tree-spikers, people throwing paint on fur coats, and Kentucky Fried Chicken being equated with Auschwitz, it's now apparent that the effect of trying to give animals the same ethical immunities as humans is that all esthetic distinction between cock-fighting and eating meat is lost. The effect of â€Å"all or nothing† in our uses of animals is to blunt our consciences, which makes us crueler to animals, not less cruel. Those people among us who would give lower animals human rights do not do it because they love other animals. They do it because they hate humankind.They hate the fact that their own superior nature as intellectual beings gives them superior challenges which they shrink from by attempting to deny the superiority of their human nature. â€Å"Animal rights† is just one more diabolic scheme for promoting government control over human lives by destroying our right to private property. It is the logical tactic of those who hate the individual creative ability and wish it replaced by the anti-human jackboots of collectivism. â€Å"Animal rights† activists use the tools of rationality which are uniquely available to the human species in order to deny the distinct nature of their own rational faculties.They raise up animals in an attempt to lower humankind. They may speak for themselves only, not for me. I know what I am. I know what animals are. And I will name what â€Å"animal rights† activists truly are: the Human Defamation League. And making us as oblivious to cruelty as are all other animals, if not the actual agenda of the Human Defamation League, is nonetheless the unintended consequence of their campaign. 7 Things You Didn't Know About PETA 1) According to government documents, PETA employees have killed more than 19,200 dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens since 1998.This behavior continues despite PETA’s moralizing about the â€Å"unethical† treatment of animals by farmers, scientists, restaurant owners, circuses, hunters, fishermen, zookeepers, and countless other Americans. PETA puts to death over 90 percent of the animals it accepts from members of the public who expect the group to make a reasonable attempt to find them adoptive homes. PETA holds absolutely no open-adoption shelter hours at its Norfolk, VA headquarters, choosing instead to spend part of its $32 million nnual income on a contract with a crematory service to periodically empty hundreds of animal bodies from its large walk-in freezer. 2) PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk has described her group’s overall goal as â€Å"total animal liberation. † This means the complete abolition of meat, milk, cheese, eggs, honey, zoos, aquariums, circuses, wool, leather, fur, silk, hunting, fishing, and pet ownership. In a 2003 profile of Newkirk in The New Yorker, author Michael Specter wrote that Newkirk has had at least one seeing-eye dog taken away from its blind owner.PETA is also against all m edical research that requires the use of animals, including research aimed at curing AIDS and cancer. 3) PETA has given tens of thousands of dollars to convicted arsonists and other violent criminals. This includes a 2001 donation of $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front (ELF), an FBI-certified â€Å"domestic terrorist† group responsible for dozens of firebombs and death threats. During the 1990s, PETA paid $70,200 to Rodney Coronado, an Animal Liberation Front (ALF) serial arsonist convicted of burning down a Michigan State University research laboratory.In his sentencing memorandum, a federal prosecutor implicated PETA president Ingrid Newkirk in that crime. PETA vegetarian campaign coordinator Bruce Friedrich has also told an animal rights convention that â€Å"blowing stuff up and smashing windows† is â€Å"a great way to bring about animal liberation,† adding, â€Å"Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it. † 4) PETA activists regularly target children as young as six years old with anti-meat and anti-milk propaganda, even waiting outside their schools to intercept them without notifying their parents.One piece of kid-targeted PETA literature tells small children: â€Å"Your Mommy Kills Animals! † PETA brags that its messages reach over 1. 2 million minor children, including 30,000 kids between the ages of 6 and 12, all contacted by e-mail without parental supervision. One PETA vice president told the Fox News Channel’s audience: â€Å"Our campaigns are always geared towards children, and they always will be. † 5) PETA’s president has said that â€Å"even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, we would be against it. And PETA has repeatedly attacked research foundations like the March of Dimes, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the American Cancer Society, solely because they support animal-based research aimed at curing life-threatening diseases and birth defects. A nd PETA helped to start and manage a quasi-medical front group, the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, to attack medical research head-on. 6) PETA has compared Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust to farm animals and Jesus Christ to pigs. PETA’s religious campaigns include a website that claims—despite ample evidence to the contrary—that Jesus Christ was a vegetarian.PETA holds protests at houses of worship, even suing one church that tried to protect its members from Sunday-morning harassment. Its billboards taunt Christians with the message that hogs â€Å"died for their sins. † PETA insists, contrary to centuries of rabbinical teaching, that the Jewish ritual of kosher slaughter shouldn’t be allowed. And its infamous â€Å"Holocaust on Your Plate† campaign crassly compared the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide to farm animals. 7) PETA frequently looks the other way when its celebrity spokespersons don’t practice what it preaches.As gossip bloggers and Hollywood journalists have noted, Pamela Anderson’s Dodge Viper (auctioned to benefit PETA) had a â€Å"luxurious leather interior†; Jenna Jameson was photographed fishing, slurping oysters, and wearing a leather jacket just weeks after launching an anti-leather campaign for PETA; Morrissey got an official â€Å"okay† from PETA after eating at a steakhouse; Dita von Teese has written about her love of furs and foie gras; Steve-O built a career out of abusing small animals on film; the officially â€Å"anti-fur† Eva Mendes often wears fur anyway; and Charlize Theron’s celebrated October 2007 Vogue cover shoot featured several suede garments. In 2008, â€Å"Baby Phat† designer Kimora Lee Simmons became a PETA spokesmodel despite working with fur and leather, after making a $20,000 donation to the animal rights group. It’s always been hard for me to understand why relatively intelligent people hold meaningless discussions based on the writings of a primitive and superstitious desert culture and believe it all to be true because their parents told them so.Talking snake, sun and stars created after the earth, the sun placed in the sky after fruit trees already here, woman created after man, man swallowed by a fish, regurgitated and lives to talk about it, no rainbows till after Noah’s flood, all the world’s creatures on one big boat, sticks turned into serpents, woman turned to pillar of salt, little children killed on God’s orders because they had the wrong parents. Religion is merely a combination of beliefs and cult practices used throughout history as a form of oppression by the ruling class. Religion is the exploitation of human ignorance and credulity. It would literally take a â€Å"genius† not to see that. Bible, The: The Big Bang? : Life on earth could never exist were it not for a series of very fortunate â€Å"coincidences† such as: location, orbit, tilt, rotational speed and unusually large moon. Also a magnetic field and atmosphere that shields the planet. Not to mention cycles that, replenish and cleanse the air and water. Is it blind chance or intelligent design?Location: Ideal perfect location in the galaxy, too close to center would allow dangerous and lethal radiation, too far from center would prohibit the needed concentrations of chemical elements needed to support life. Accident? Orbit: About 93 million miles from the sun, is just about the perfect zone that is habitable because life neither freezes nor fries. Earth’s path is circular, keeping it the same distance from the sun year-round. Happenstance? Extraordinary Large Moon: The moon’s diameter is a little over a quarter of the earth’s diameter, unusually large compared to all the other moons. It causes ocean tides that play a vital role in earth’s ecology. It contributes to the earth’s perfect spin axis, which w ithout, the earth would wobble out of control. Blind chance?Perfect Tilt and Spin: Earth’s tilt of about 23. 4 degrees causes the annual cycle of seasons, moderates temperatures and allows for a wide range of climate zones. The length of day and night, a result of the earth’s spin, maintains a habitable temperature for life. If the speed of rotation were slower, days would be longer and the â€Å"sunny side† would bake while the other side would freeze. If the speed were faster, days would be shorter; earth’s rapid spin would cause relentless gale-force winds and other disastrous effects. Coincidence? Protective Shields: Earth seems to fly through a shooting gallery of lethal radiation and meteoroids with relative impunity.Our powerful magnetic field stretches far into space, which protects us from the solar winds, flares, and explosions, which blast billions of tons of matter into space. Our blanket of gases (stratosphere) keeps us breathing, by absorbin g 99 percent of incoming UV radiation through our ozone layer protecting all life on the earth. Amazingly this amount of atmospheric ozone gases is not fixed, it changes in intensity as the UV radiation rises. And yet it lets in the heat and light so essential to life. Dumb luck? Natural Cycles of Water and Air: Fresh water is recycled and redistributed around the planet in three stages: evaporation, condensation and precipitation. An amazing process called photosynthesis creates life-giving oxygen.Plants take in our exhausted carbon dioxide, energize it with sunlight and produce carbohydrates and oxygen. We complete the cycle when we breathe. All this production of vegetation and breathable air happens cleanly, efficiently and quietly. The same holds with organic matter, or the nitrogen cycle. 78 percent of our atmosphere is nitrogen, lightning converts nitrogen into compounds, which are absorbed by plants. Animals eat those plants, when plants and animals die, the nitrogen compoun ds are broken down by bacteria and their decay releases nitrogen back into the soil and atmosphere, completing the cycle. Perfect recycling, or just a matter of random incidences?The greatest accomplishment of the 20th Century is the discovery of human ignorance. We can no longer make up stories to explain the world. We no longer accept the Church providing both the questions and the answers. All theories and solutions must be confirmed and reconfirmed through experiment. 4. Capitalism: The economic system based on the fiction of the productivity of capital, justifiable once, is henceforth illegitimate. Its inefficacy and malfeasance have been exposed; it is the cause of all existing misery, the present mainstay of that old fiction of representative government which is the last form of tyranny among men. Proudhon, Interest and Principal -1849The capitalist system flourishes through the use of economic disparity, social inadequacies, manipulative financial practices, planned obsolesc ence, discriminative procedures, and predatory exploitation of the 99%. Our banknotes are forgeries. We live in a counterfeit economy. The dollar will soon become useless and we are all living on borrowed time. The corporately funded politicians who by controlling the press, the schools, and the churches, impose capitalism upon the masses under the attractive guise of loyal patriotism. How Capitalism Works by Bruce Morgan Under capitalism, only money has value. Other items have value only to the extent they can be converted to money or can generate money.This includes things such as labor, commodities and property. What cannot be converted to money has no value and is often eliminated. This can include people. Profits are more valuable than the ecosystem or worker safety. The purpose of capitalism is to move as much money to the top 0. 1% of society, from those who are not (and will never be) at or near the top. Wealthy individuals, with few exceptions, do not come by their fortune by their own productive labor. Instead, they appropriate as much as possible from other people's productive labor. Capitalists themselves believe that they are entitled to this wealth; even if they did little to earn it.Illegality for the elites is inconsequential. Even if something is technically illegal, if it is not prosecuted it becomes de facto legal. Governments work either for their people or for the rich, they cannot work for both. In virtually all Western societies, the ultra rich (individuals and corporations) have captured their governments, to a greater or lesser degree. For the U. S. federal government, this capture is virtually complete. Once the privileged class has control of the government, they can have whatever laws passed that they want, including those that make their crimes retroactively legal. There, in 241 words is the essence of capitalism as actually practiced.Once these points are understood, the machinations behind current events in the areas of economics , politics and foreign affairs become evident. This article was deliberately presented in black and white. Those who want gray can get it from the lame stream media. â€Å"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson. † –Franklin D Roosevelt Money is a drug if the right dosage can be found, creating just enough, not too much — it's like magic. As long as people keep buying things they don't need. As long as those in the business don't hoard too much.As long as the real resources don't dry up, the illusion of prosperity can be maintained with more and more IOUs. Like all stimulants, money steals from tomorrow. The quest for fame and fortune, when will it end? This tyranny of early rising and retiring late. Riding on mules they long for noble steeds. Already prime ministers, they seek to be kings. For food and raiment, they suffer stress and strain. Never fearful of Yama’s call to reckoning. Searching for wealth and power to give to grandsons. No one is willing ever to turn back. (The Journey to the West) 1582 5. Children, Parenting: It couldn't have been because half our children are being raised in broken homes.It couldn't have been because our children get to spend an average of 30 seconds in meaningful conversation with their parents each day. After all, we give our children quality time. It couldn't have been because we treat our children as pets and our pets as children. It couldn't have been because we place our children in day care centers where they learn their socialization skills among their peers under the law of the jungle while employees who have no vested interest in the children look on and make sure that no blood is spilled. It couldn't have been because we allow our children to watch, on the average, seven hours of television a day filled with the glorification of sex and violence that isn't fit for adu lt consumption.It couldn't have been because we allow our children to enter into virtual worlds in which, to win the game, one must kill as many opponents as possible in the most sadistic way possible. It couldn't have been because we have sterilized and contracepted our families down to sizes so small that the children we do have are so spoiled with material things that they come to equate the receiving of the material with love. It couldn't have been because our children, who historically have been seen as a blessing from God, are now being viewed as either a mistake created when contraception fails or inconveniences that parents try to raise in their spare time. It couldn't have been because we give two-year prison sentences to teenagers who kill their newborns.It couldn't have been because our school systems teach the children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolved out of some primordial soup of mud by teaching evolution as fact and by handing out condoms as i f they were candy. It couldn't have been because we teach our children that there are no laws of morality that transcend us, that everything is relative and that actions don't have consequences. What the heck, the president gets away with it. Colonization: Also See Third World Nations European explorers were responsible for the extermination of 70 million souls in the New World between the years 1533-1588. They were murdered for their women, gold, silver, natural resources and land. Million natives were murdered within 3 years according to Leah Trabich. Within 15 years, the Arawak tribe of 250,000 was completely wiped out. The population of the United States prior to European contact was greater than 12 million. Four centuries later, the count was reduced by 95% to 237 thousand. From 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. These atrocities are seen throughout Africa, New Zealand, New Guinea, East Timor Cultures Right and Wrong Beauty is in the MIND of the beholder. Some may look upon murder as senseless vicious evil; others may see it as necessary. You may look at grass and see green; someone else will see blue.What may be music to your ears may very well be appalling noise to others. Inuits may be very comfortable in zero degree weather while you are freezing. Vice, virtue, sounds, colors, taste, beauty, heat, cold are not qualities in objects but perceptions in the mind. –Hume. Some cultures kill the weak and elderly to insure the longevity of the village. It’s a matter of survival. Amazonian women are not only happy but also proud to share themselves among the entire village, for they realize this creates life and perpetuates their species and yet would kill their third child to save the rest of their family from marauding slave traders. What brings joy to some may bring sorrow and woe to others.Hawaii’s ruling family not only accepted royal incest but also encouraged it as an exclusive roy al privilege. Sibling or parent child incest was common in our 50th state before they were â€Å"annexed† to the US. Different societies and cultures have different systems of laws. The rules of one’s own society are not sacrosanct and cannot be used to judge, condemn or decide others’ moral standards. Fixed ideas and values should be eliminated; primitive, civilized, child, adult, perverted and normal are all shattered and put on a sliding scale when addressing other cultures and societies. When there are so many differences in the moral codes of different societies, how can we regard our own, or any other, as the normal or standard way of thinking?Depletion of Natural Resources: (See Problematic World Economy) Everyone is concerned about Oil but water is the real problem. Oil can be replace but there’s no substitute for fresh water. We are running out of clean water. Nations fighting over natural resources. Ever expanding and sophistication of technolog y. Increased poverty caused by huge migration from rural areas to large cities throughout the world. Traditional lifestyle of farming and ranching has vanished and more people are dependent on government support. Feeding the growing population on the planet has become a huge problem for governments. Medical technology has increased life expectancy allows people to live longer than ever before.Greed and corruption among the world’s nations is becoming more and more the norm. Fewer people control the economic wealth and military might than ever before since earth’s creation.. We’re all on borrowed time. Evolution and Discrimination (Racism): Charles Darwin’s book’s full title is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. As much as many seek to disavow, generally speaking, man is NOT a gentle creature that just wants to be loved and will, at most, defend himself when attacke d. Man has an instinctual, powerful measure of aggression and his neighbor is for him someone on whom he is tempted to satisfy his aggressiveness.He will exploit the capacity to have someone work without pay, use sexually without consent, cause others pain, torture or death. It seems that mankind abandons their bad habits only when catastrophe is close at hand. The intellect alone is not enough. Men must be shaken, almost shattered before changing. – Sigmund Freud Family: I’ve received a cease and desist order prohibiting me from discussing: sexual preferences, politics, religion, abortion, nuclear power, peak oil, climate change, the environment, food shortages, economic instability, international terrorism and the military industrial complex. Failure to comply will immediately result in the termination of all intimate marital favors and services.We’ve known each other since childhood. Our souls are mingled and connected in so universal a blending that they era se the seam that joins us together. She alone has the privilege of my true portrait and understands me for who I think I am. If I were to lose her, I would merely drag wearily on. Famine, Food and Population Control: Wild, man-made viruses released and vaccines created for profit and population control by the military, medical, petrol-chemical pharmaceutical cartel. Life is tough and for many it is short, brutal, filled with want and pain. It seems that the well being of some, is sustained on the troubles and elimination of others.Last year, 17. 2 million households in the United States were food insecure, the highest level on record, as the Great Recession continued to wreak havoc on families across the country. Of those 17. 2 million households, 3. 9 million included children. On Thanksgiving Day, here’s a look at hunger in America, as millions of Americans struggle to get enough to eat in the wake of the economic crisis: Memo to Bill, Oprah, Brad and Angelina: Not enough p oor and hungry people in the US? You don’t have to go to Haiti and Africa to feed and shelter the poor. They’re right here in Florida, Texas, California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia.Why don’t you start giving back to the country where you made your millions? Or are you all full of shit? Collectively, among every human, the cancer upon our Earth is the domination of our false-ego and our divorce from nature. Collectively, among every human, vanity leads to segregation and competition. Competition leads to fear and greed. Greed leads to deceit and immorality. And immorality is the breeding ground for illness, waging war on our Earth. Every act of hatred and destructiveness in our world begins with self-hate, and self-destructiveness. And that all begins with a breakdown on communication. Just remember that the false-ego has only one desire – to become greater and more powerful than the true self.