Genocide in Rwanda: International Response

In the course of a hundred days in 1994, over 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in the Rwandan genocide. It was the fastest, most efficient killing spree of the twentieth century. My thesis is that the international community utterly failed to prevent and stop this atrocity. I will focus on numerous interconnected aspects that led to international inaction and also on the main actors, Belgium, the United Nations Secretariat, the United States and France, that knew that there was genocide underway in Rwanda – therefore, they had a responsibility to prevent and stop the genocide, but lacked political will.This led to inaction at the level of the Security Council (SC), where member states fixated on the ongoing civil war rather than discussing the genocide, which would have required them to act under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948, article 5)1. Finally, it will be shown that this international letdown had dreadful conseque nces for the United Nations Assistance Mission For Rwanda (UNAMIR), which, with neither adequate resources nor mandate, became an eyewitness to the extermination.SUMMARYThe article focuses on the course of the events in the civil war in Rwanda, parallel with the decisions made by the honourable diplomats in the forum for international community, the UN. In 1990, the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda from their exile in Uganda, setting off a civil war with the Hutu-dominated Government of Rwanda. The international community did not pay a lot of attention to the systematic discrimination and violation of human rights in the country, since the government was generally quite stable.Three years later, this conflict was seen as a good opportunity for international community (the UN) to reestablish its reputation after a failed intervention in Somalia. They believed that the conflict will be solved successfully, since after almost two years of fighting, the RPF a nd three opposition parties pursued to negotiate a peace agreement. This would become known as the Arusha Accords, signed in August 1993. UNAMIR was sent to Rwanda to help the implementation of the Accords, with Romeo Dallaire as its commander.The UN, at that time, faced escalating costs for peacekeeping operations, so they granted a reduction of force sent there, on request of the US, Belgium and the UK. During the years before the beginning of the genocide, Hutu Power (Hutu extremist, anti-Tutsi movement) began systematically distributing weapons and spreading propaganda about Tutsi via the Radio et Television Libres des Milles Collines (RTLM). The genocide would be systematic, planned, and had nothing to do with ancient warfare or tribal inclinations. By 1994, tensions were high.On January 11th, Commander Dallaire sent a fax to the UN headquarters in New York, warning of a massive slaughter being prepared in Rwanda. Also, the reports from intelligence agents were always present d uring this period, so the representatives of Belgium, France and the US were very well informed about the situation rising. â€Å"In January, an analyst of the US Central Intelligence Agency knew enough to predict that as many as half a million persons might die in case of renewed conflict and, in February, Belgian authorities already feared genocide† (Des Forges 1999, 20). The UN Secretariat is the United Nations’ bureaucratic arm.As such, it passes on vital information to decision-making bodies such as the SC. The Secretariat and the Secretary General, however, have come under considerable criticism for failing to pass on information before and during the Rwandan genocide. Despite ample information about the genocide, staff spoke in terms of a â€Å"civil war† and the need to obtain a ceasefire. As a result, non-permanent members in the SC, who rely on the Secretariat for information, did not come to see the killings as genocide and they misjudged the gravity of the crisis. Instead of strengthening the mission, the SC only made some small changes in the mandate.On April 6 1994, Rwandan President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down and he was killed. Almost immediately, there was a nationwide call to arms from Hutu Power to begin the slaughter of Rwandan Tutsi. Spread over the propaganda radio station, the message was clear: it was time for the Tutsi in Rwanda to be wiped out. As a consequence of either lack of information or lack of political will to intervene, the policymakers described the conflict as â€Å"tribal killings†, â€Å"tribal resentments†, rather than genocide. There was also an inadequate understanding of the conflict.Foreign observers treated the genocide as a collateral damage of war, rather than an ethnic cleanse, which should be attacked directly. Diplomats addressed the problem in the usual way, by promoting dialogue between both sides and tried to maintain the posture of neutrality. If foreign troo ps have been sent, this would have signalled that the interim government was illegitimate in the eyes of the international community. In the mid-April, after two weeks of killings, the SC (mostly on the initiative of Belgium, the US and the UK) withdrew most of the UN troops from UNAMIR – from 2500 to only 270 soldiers.Discussion about the new peacekeeping force continued until mid-May, mostly because of the slowness of bureaucracies, since participating nations tried to get more from the situation and give the least possible. â€Å"What was extraordinary was that such behaviour continued to be acceptable in the context of genocide, by then openly acknowledged by national and international leaders† (Des Forges 1999, 24). International leaders had available means other than armed force, which could influence the conflict but decided not to use them. During the first weeks even simple actions, with almost no expense, could have saved thousands.Major donors of aid to Rwan da did not ever threaten to withhold the financial assistance from a government guilty of genocide. Radio RTLM was communicating orders for the implementation of killings, naming persons to be killed and revealing areas for future attacks through the entire course of genocide. The broadcast stations could have been interrupted without military action. They discussed the idea shortly in the SC, but dropped it soon, because the traditional American commitment to freedom of speech, which was more important than disrupting the voice of genocide.Third cost-free action that could be done was imposing an embargo on arms to Rwanda, which only happened on May 17th, after almost two months of killing. The potential effect of these actions would also be weakened by continued French support of the interim government. Two weeks after the start of the massacres, governments refused to admit Rwandan delegation sent to justify the genocide – with exception of France. The Rwandan representati ves were greeted in Paris at the highest levels and France officials offered help to genocidal government, on a condition to end bad publicity about the slaughter.France also helped to flee some of the perpetrators of the genocide later. When the Rwandan representatives came to the meeting of the SC, most members failed to condemn the slaughter clearly. But there were also actors that did criticize the decisions made by the SC. The Organization of African Unity, government of Tanzania, Human Rights Watch, The International Federation for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross all stepped up their efforts to demand action from national governments and the UN.When the non-permanent members of the SC began to doubt the interpretations of the crisis as presented by the secretariat, changes started to happen. The ambassador of the Czech Republic organized a meeting with representatives of the Human Rights Watch, where he discussed the problem and informed himself. He said â€Å"The issue of Rwanda is not a national priority for the Czech Republic, but as a human being, I cannot sit here and do nothing† (Des Forges 1999, 494). The ambassador of New Zealand (in that time the president of the SC), threatened to open session for public and that way forced all the states to compromise and draft a statement.The diplomats from Czech Republic, New Zealand, Spain and Argentina took the initiative to insist on the measures to halt the genocide and were persistent in pushing for action in Rwanda (ibidem). 3ANALYSIS In the case of Rwanda, the international response to the crisis consists of various complex factors, mentioned above. A misguided view of African conflicts, the bureaucratic nature of the United Nations and peacekeeping fatigue in general are just some of them.Every state that was in a position to decide differently has its own reasons for being inactive – most of them are influenced by their national interests or maybe even bet ter, a lack of a national interest in that region. Unfortunately for the people of Rwanda, their country did not â€Å"qualify† for a peacekeeping operation that would bring the actual peace. To support my thesis further, I would like to point out some of the matters that seem to present the international community that knew and ignored what was happening and consecutively failed to prevent and stop the genocide.Firstly, there was plenty of intelligence to support the likelihood of the genocide. One sample was the â€Å"Dallaire fax†. Dellaire’s claims were discharged because he was new to operating in Africa and assumingly, not enough experienced in that field. Secondly, during the actual events media coverage in the Western World delivered considerable proof of genocide. In the United States, the Washington Post and New York Times had front page reporting about the events in Kigali for a two week period. The evidence proves that the UN and US officials claim o f non-awareness, was completely baseless.The main actors Belgium, the US and France had sufficient information on what was going on and the quick and effective evacuation of foreign nationals show that they also had the capacity to intervene (Barnett 1997). Another failure amongst the international community was by the hesitant use of the word ‘genocide’ instead they described the ongoing conflict as ‘civil war’ or ‘acts of genocide’, despite evidence to the contrary. Such statements would imply that the United Nations would be legally bound to intervene in accordance with the Genocide Convention of 1948.Another demonstration of international let-down was the departure of the UN troops. Romeo Dallaire sent a request for additional peacekeepers, however, the request was denied by the UN because the United States opposed the notion. To further frustrate the circumstances, the bodies of ten Belgium militias were found which led to withdrawal of al l Belgium peace corps. After this event, General Dallaire was left with 270 peace keepers for the whole country – most of them unarmed and only allowed to shoot in self-defence (Putterbaugh 2010).All in all, this means that Rwanda was really abandoned by the international community. What interest me the most, is that the UN decided to send troops in after the Arusha Accords. It seems that public and the media, had an ill opinion about the UN missions, because of the loss of the US soldiers on the mission in Somalia a year before. So the civil war became a good opportunity to reinstate good name of the UN occurred. They did not do this because of their moral responsibility to protect and safeguard peace; they did it because of their reputation. Doesn’t that cast even a bigger shadow over the institution as a whole?There should be a mechanism introduced, which would help to prevent situations like genocide in Rwanda – when human lives are at risk, this should be a national interest of every country, of every institution or organization. But in the case of Rwanda, there was a complete opposite – when first victims fell, when the potential danger presented itself – they recalled troops back home. Another mechanism is obviously not working in the system of the UN; Dallaire had many opportunities to confiscate the arms, to help the civilians – but he could not because he did not have the required authorization.A lot could have been done if the countries knew more about the situation and the possibilities which could have been seized, without much expenses and force. At the same time, Yugoslavia was falling apart. The US had a big role in that conflict, where it presented itself as a major peacemaker; and Rwanda was not getting the attention it should (Barnett 1997). Another thing that I find appalling is the arms trade that was happening at that time. Belgium, Israel, France, the UK, Netherlands and Egypt were the main distr ibuters of weapons to Rwanda.These were forces that equipped the genocidal government of Rwanda for the killings and they set example of what will happen if small arms and light weapons are sold to a country with ethnic, religious or nationalistic frictions. In modern wars light weapons are responsible for most of the killings of civilians and combatants, since they are used more often than heavy artillery in human rights violations of international law. Yet the international community continues to ignore trade in those weapons, or they even trade themselves.Trade with these arms has helped to undermine peacekeeping efforts and allowed local troops to challenge UN militias (Goose and Smyth 1994). There would be another positive effect of the embargo on trading arms – the international community would expel Rwandan government from their circle, which would stigmatize it. Hutu supporters would not follow a government that would not be legitimate in the international society and could not make business within this society. 4CONCLUSION After one hundred days of unimaginable violence and hatred, the RPF prevailed and declared a ceasefire.RPF tried and created mass graves for almost million bodies spread across the country. An effort to rebuild their country and to appoint a new government was made by both, Hutu and Tutsi leaders. This tragedy could have been prevented. The death of a million people in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 must be viewed as an abysmal failure on the part of the international community to respond to a humanitarian crisis of proportions rarely seen. Therefore, I can confirm my thesis – various and complex factors, explained in this essay, influenced main actors and impaired the functioning of the SC to the point of inaction.They had the means and especially a responsibility to protect civilians, prevent a genocide, but lacked political will, because of their national interests. Did we learn anything from this experience? The slog an â€Å"never again† which was coined immediately in the aftermath of the Holocaust in the twentieth century, still poses challenges to the world community – it was a promise that genocide would be prevented and stopped. But the West abandoned Rwanda and it continues to abandon Dafur, Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria and many other countries.The task of genocide prevention can be accomplished only through the mutual cooperation of countries around the world and one can only hope that an awareness of this will go some way toward preventing unnecessary reluctance to intervene in similar conflicts in the future. 5GLOSSARY OF TERMS GENOCIDE [dn?s?jd] – iztrebljenje skupnosti 1. The deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group. 2. Deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, religious, political, or ethnic group. 3.â€Å"The Rwandans who organized and executed the genocide must bear full responsibility for it . † 4. Synonym: slaughter; hypernym: kill; hyponym: ethnic genocide. EMBARGO [?mb?rgo] – prepoved uvoza 1. A government order that limits trade in some way. 2. An official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country. 3. â€Å"Imposing an embargo on arms to Rwanda would have been another effective, cost-free way of indicating international condemnation of the interim government, but this measure, first raised in the Security Council at the end of April, was implemented only on May 17.†4. Synonym: prohibition; hypernym: trade barrier; hyponym: arms embargo. PEACEKEEPING [pes-?ke-pi?] – vzdrzevanje miru 1. The preserving of peace. 2. International enforcement and supervision of a truce between hostile states or communities. 3. â€Å"Faced with escalating costs for peacekeeping operations, the UN staff and members wanted not just success, but success at low cost. † 4. Synonym: mediation, pacification; hypernym: operation; hyponym : peacekeeping mission. CEASE-FIRE [?ses-?fi(-?)r] – ustavitev ognja 1. A temporary stopping of fighting.2. An agreement to stop fighting a war for a period of time so that a permanent agreement can be made to end the war. 3. â€Å"Accustomed to dealing with wars, not with genocides, diplomats addressed the familiar part of the problem in the usual way, by promoting a dialogue between the belligerents and seeking a cease-fire. † 4. Synonym: armistice; hypernym: peace; hyponym: long-lasting cease-fire. WARFARE [w?rf?r] – vojno stanje 1. Activity that is done as part of a struggle between competing groups, companies, etc. 2. A lack of agreement or harmony 3.â€Å"A leading columnist for the New York Times even managed to put the new and the old cliches in the same sentence, referring to a â€Å"failed state† and to a â€Å"centuries-old history of tribal warfare. † 4. Synonym: conflict; hypernym: action; hyponym: tribal warfare. Unknown words 1. amm unition [cmjunis?n] the objects (such as bullets and shells) that are shot from weapons – strelivo 2. belligerent [belidz?r?nt] angry and aggressive : feeling or showing readiness to fight – bojevit 3. cadaver [k?deiv?] a dead body – truplo 4. calamitous [k?lc?mit?s] causing great harm or suffering – nesrecen, razdejalen5.  inept [inept] lacking skill or ability – nesmiseln, nespodoben 6. inertia [in:si?] lack of movement or activity especially when movement or activity is wanted or needed – lenivost, lenoba 7. interim [int?rim] intended to last, continue, or serve for a limited time – zacasen 8. paucity [p?:siti] a small amount of something : an amount that is less than what is needed or wanted – malenkost, majhno stevilo 9. purport [p:p?t] the main or general meaning of something – smisel, pomen, smoter10. reconnaissance [rik*?nis?ns] military activity in which soldiers, airplanes, etc.  , are sent to find out info rmation about an enemy – poizvedovanje 11. to balk [b:k] to show unwillingness to accept, do, engage in, or agree to – preprecevati, ovirati 12. to condemn [k?ndem] to say in a strong and definite way that someone or something is bad or wrong – obsoditi 13. to deteriorate [diti?ri?reit] to become worse or of less value – poslabsati se 14. to rebuff [ribf] to refuse (something, such as an offer or suggestion) in a rude way – odbiti, odkloniti 15. to shun [s?n] to avoid (someone or something)DEBATE PREVIEWI will focus our debate on four discussable questions – each one of them related to the international response to the Rwandan genocide.Firstly, in my seminar I presented the role of France as a Rwandan government's number-one supplier of weapons. Does this fact alone make France more culpable for the genocide than the rest of the international community? How should responsibility be allocated for what happened, both inside and outside Rwanda? How has the international community, in particular Belgium, France, the United States, and the UN, faced up to the question of responsibility and blame in the years since the genocide? Secondly, the UN authorized the troops as the â€Å"peace-keepers,† not â€Å"peace-makers.†By UN mandate, UN troops were permitted to use their weapons only in self-defense. If the generals had disobeyed orders and authorized their troops to fire on fighters who were killing masses in front of their eyes, would they have done the right thing? Next, I mentioned that various factors contributed to the inactivity of the international community, such as the disastrous U. S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia in 1993, less than a year before, which ended with the U. S. helicopter shot down and the bodies of U. S. soldiers dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.Does this justify the U. S. and the UN's refusal to intervene? Can we risk our own citizen's lives in order to save foreign and can we risk the reputation of an intergovernmental institution, which possibly could never be restored again in order to help – even if that means that some major countries may not want to cooperate at all in the future? Finally, I will also encourage a debate over possible solutions for halting genocide and violation of human rights – when and how should the governments act, who should contribute the resources etc.

Freshman Year Survival Guide

Freshman Year at Howard University: Survival Course Being a freshman at Howard University can be the start of a great life for a young black person. Student’s freshman year is the year that can mold or break them. Being a freshman at any college is very opportunistic. However, at Howard if a student starts of their college career strongly, it can propel them to do well their remaining years at the university. On the other hand, at Howard University if a student doesn’t address school seriously they can run into an abundance of distractions that can hurt a student’s college career.In saying that, it’s evident that the social scene at Howard University is prelevant enough to swallow a student’s time and focus. How would freshman students know how to balance out the fun and still focus on their education without previous knowledge of how Howard is? It would be very difficult to say the least. Howard University should require mandatory courses and meeti ngs that freshman attend to tell them how to get through their freshman year the correct way. One might ask, what does the proposed way of getting through your freshman year consist of?I think the prototypical freshman year should consist of getting solid grades, joining clubs that has other students from the same states, maybe getting a job on campus your second semester, and having an easy transition to becoming an independent person, would be the main components. In addition, clubs and groups can be very effective to students coming from sheltered backgrounds. In addition, students who will have always been organized have a vision of what they should live up to or excel beyond.Furthermore, these mandatory courses would just be a three credit hour course taken one of the semesters of the year. To reiterate, there are lot of books written on how to get through your freshman year of college. I think that a book could be written on how to get through your freshman year specifically a t Howard University as well as a course being taught about the book. In high school, students were required to go to advisory meetings. So that the students could be hear what the school thought was necessary for them to know.So I think that college freshman should be required to do the same thing. On the other hand, sometimes, mandatory meetings in freshman dormitories are held that exemplify about ways to help freshman get through their first year at Howard. However, not all students attend these meetings and miss out on important information for them. If students had to attend seminars that teach them how to get through their year by showing the futures of a balanced student and a student who parties too much, I think they would follow the right path.Likewise, one of the biggest reasons why students struggle or even drop out their first year of school is because they can’t balance partying and extra curricular activities with school. That is why students should be shown wh at happens when a freshman at Howard takes the wrong route by almost dropping out. Easily, freshman could easily get too wrapped up in everything else besides school because of Howard University’s environment.So when students attend these seminars and classes they can see the careers of a prototypical student and worst possible student at Howard University. Obviously, freshman year for a student at any school is important. Students should have the opportunity to know the best and worst they can do as they take on a big change in their life. At a University as prestigious as Howard University, why not ensure future greatness by attempting to make the freshman of Howard as comfortable and informed as possible. Word Count: 627

Utility of Concept of Marketing to Organizations Essay

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Sun Yat Sen and Democracy in China - Indispensable to each other Dissertation

Sun Yat Sen and Democracy in China - Indispensable to each other - Dissertation Example With these ideas in mind Sun set out with the task of materializing his ideas of establishing democracy in China. Commonly recognised as the â€Å"Father of Modern China† Sun was successful in neutralizing the power of the Qing dynasty and was elected as the President of the Republic of China and later became the forerunner of the Nationalist Party in China. The paper focuses on the elaboration of contributions that Sun Yat-Sen made in China for establishing democracy. The prime agenda is to seek an answer to what extent was Sun successful in establishing democracy in China. The paper is disintegrated into several segments in order to critically analyze and reach optimal inferences 1. Introduction Sun Yat-Sen (1866–1925 AD), also known as the ‘Father of Modern China’, was an ardent advocate of constitutional democracy. A Chinese thinker, political leader, and a medical practitioner, Sun-Yat-Sen is renowned for his contribution in the collapse of Chinaâ€⠄¢s two thousand years old autocratic imperial system. Sun Yat Sen’s philosophy was motivated by the modern western culture and he tried to incorporate in China the very characteristics of the same along with the traditional Chinese tradition at its base in order to make China competitive on the global platform. Majority of Sun Yat-Sen’s constitutional thought was built on blocks of ancient Chinese political philosophy with regionalized Oriental political tradition, which might not be easy for outsiders to understand. Considerable volumes of works by Sun Yat-Sen influenced heavily the governmental structure of Republican China between 1928 and 1949. Sun’s prescribed models of democracy were a true... Majority of Sun Yat-Sen’s constitutional thought was built on blocks of ancient Chinese political philosophy with regionalized Oriental political tradition, which might not be easy for outsiders to understand. Considerable volumes of works by Sun Yat-Sen influenced heavily the governmental structure of Republican China between 1928 and 1949. Sun’s prescribed models of democracy were a true mixture of distinctive cultural norms of the East and the West (Chiyeung Ip, 2008: 1-2). With a combination of the Western elements and Oriental theory of constitutionalism, Sun Yat-Sen’s philosophy provides valuable information and solution for problems of the liberal democratic policy faced by the other countries .The policies address the domination of the ‘best marketed’ politicians of â€Å"low-caliber† over the best statesmen; the powerless state of the electorate and also the difficulties faced in the promotion of democratic and socio-economic reforms together. But at the same time he is criticised for the blending of Confucian political ideas (Chinese ethical and philosophical systems developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius) with liberal democratic elements. Considering the criticisms, SunYat-Sen sometimes have been regarded as illogical and disorganised (Chiyeung Ip, 2008: 8).

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Assignment2 - Essay Example Just when you think you have yourself figured out you learn something new. Though no matter what a piece of paper with a bunch of numbers on it tells you, how someone really acts cannot be deflected on a piece of paper. When setting up the game, it took a little bit of time to figure out how exactly to execute the game in a way that it would cover the vast verities of personalities that are spread among my group of friends. Sure, we have all played games together before, but not for the purpose of analyzing the way that my friends’ personalities fit into the way that they strategically play a game. So, I decided to take a normal card game, and add a twist to it. Phase 10 is a simple card game where the players go around in a circle and pick up and discard cards and the hope to complete the phase that is required before another player goes out. It is usually a game played with several individuals competing together, but instead, I broke my friends up into groups. Since there we re 5 friends, one player had to play alone, leaving them at a disadvantage from the beginning. So I chose the friend who scored the highest in the assertive category, to test their true assertiveness. Each group received the same amount of cards as each other and played the game as usual. Though, the team who came in last had to choose another player to eliminate. If the single player was eliminated, the team who won would have to divide and play individually. Now, within the game there are skip cards, which allows a player to skip the next team, but what I allowed was the person who held the skip card could strategically skip which team they would like. This allows them to have some control of who has the ability to go out of cards first. I knew what I was going into this expecting, the assertive person would do what they needed to win, and the people who saw the world as unfair would surly rant and rave as they lose the game, the equalitarian would feel guilty causing another play er to lose, and the person with the high introspective score would over analyze the game a little too much. I myself did not participate in the game. I did not want to skew the results, and boy am I glad that I did not play. The game started out as I had expected, but quickly the tables had turned. I might as well have thrown the personality test out the window, because when it came down to it, everyone was assertive. There was this competitive nature that came out in everyone and people where in the game to win it. I know that people do not like to lose, but it really surprised me how into the game people really had gotten. Usually when we play games together people are slightly competitive, but maybe it was because I was an outsider observing I had the chance to really see how things were. My friends who scored the lowest on the assertiveness section defiantly outshined the assertiveness of the friend who scored the highest. There wasn’t one person who thought of the game a s treating them unfairly, or the world around them for that matter during the time the game was played. There were also people who I figured would over analyze the game and really think about everything that was going on and try to figure out others strategies, but that was not the case either. Everyone was so focused on winning that they paid more attention to what they needed to do, rather than focusing on what everyone else was doing. So, I knew that the

Research methods and study skills Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Research methods and study skills - Coursework Example The study relates the area of urbanisation with social relations at community level by focusing on social indicators associated with housing. The analysis dwelt in the pace of historical development in measuring the diversity house age in predicting the measurement of the relations associated with neighbourly social based on multilevel framework. The researcher used neighbourhood built and individual’s socio-demographic data as the controls to validate the finding (king, 2013). The meta-analysis study by Ewing and Cervero (2010) is built on the realisation that built environment and the use of automobiles are associated in many ways. For instance, the problems associated with climate change, dependence on oil, congestion within the cities, and sprawl associates with the urban designs and the planning, which prompts the locations and the states to use the concepts of built environment to bring sanity to the automobile use. The building of roads has not been in tandem with the demand of the travel. To achieve the objective of the study, the researchers determined the elasticity by computing the values for the individual studies selected and later pooled to generate the weighted average. The study found that variables associated to travel were inelastic when assessed from the built environment perspective (Ewing and Cervero, 2010). The method adopted by King to acquire the data for the study was survey. The source of the data was the Chicago community adult-health studies. The data obtained for this study involved respondents characteristics of the neighbourhood in relation to their physical and social status, the psychosocial and socioeconomic status. The most important factor that was put into consideration is the fact that the Chicago community adult health data has a clustered sampling framework. The framework is essential for facilitating the human development project in the entire Chicago neighbourhood. This means that getting the respondents

Disneyland and history of it Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Disneyland and history of it - Essay Example Ultimately, rather than merely being an entertaining environment for families to spend leisure time, Disneyland was intended to be something of a historical/cultural interpretation of America, the American dream, the American past, the American future, and the American president. Through such a delineation and discussion of these different time frames and interpretations, it was Walt Disney’s distinct hope that Disneyland could be representative and indicative of the way in which individuals understood the country in which they live or indeed the country in which they visited. As a function of understanding this particular dynamic, the following analysis will be concentric upon discussing the way in which Disneyland was representative of the United States, its experience, culture, and potential future, as well as discussing whether or not this representation was merely imaginatively fanciful or in fact was effective and ultimately represented a realistic/crude interpretation o f life. Moreover, a unique discussion of what defined American greatness, at least with respect to Walt Disney himself, will also be engaged. ... However, within this â€Å"Main Street USA†, Walt Disney represented a close-knit community that, although exhibiting a level of development and modernity that reflected the era in which it represented, nonetheless had a very small town feel and emphasize the importance of community interaction above many other aspects. Yet, rather than representing Disneyland as something that was entirely concentric upon an idealized nation of Midwestern life, Walt Disney also created another identification of the United States with respect to what was termed as â€Å"Adventureland†. This particular representation was unique in that it represented the global reach and power that the United States was able to impact upon the world. A psychological or sociological analysis of this particular representation might lend the reader to assume that an element of colonize Asian or empire building was contingent upon Walt Disney’s personal interpretation of what made the United States gr eat. In short, â€Å"Adventureland† represented a Caribbean or Asian complement of the United States; indicative of territories that the United States held overseas as a result of both the Spanish-American war and the second world war. Naturally, and identification of Hawaii and the global reach of the United States, as well as the interaction between different cultures that represented the United States, was also part and parcel of this particular representation. Interestingly, â€Å"Adventureland† is one of the only interpretations the United States the Walt Disney made which emphasized cultural diversity. Whereas Walt Disney was continually criticized for representing only a handful of African-American employees at Disneyland, first opened in the early 1950s, this representation of a

World Popuation in 1970 Essay Example for Free

World Popuation in 1970 Essay As the global population expanded at an unprecedented rate, humans fundamentally changed their relationship with the environment. Human’s population growth changed their relationship with the environment for the worse and did not change until environmental issues were realized and people realized they needed to do something to stop more environmental damage to the earth. Humans exploited and competed over the earth’s finite resources more intensely than ever before inhuman history. Also, global warming was a major consequence of the release of greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere. However, in the 1970s governments took initiatives to preserve and protect the environment. As the world’s population increased so did the need for materials and goods. The growing population over looked environmental issues due to the need for goods which caused pollution, global warming, and the over use of our world’s natural resources. Pollution threatened the world’s supply of water and clean air because as human population increased so did the amount of trash and other pollutants we let infect our water and air. Rates of extinction of other species accelerated sharply due to human pollutants. Deforestation and desertification were continued consequences of the human impact on the environment because more and more humans used wood to build houses and buildings. Also, when we cut down the trees we did not replace them, which also caused deforestation and desertification. Rates of extinction of other species accelerated sharply. The increase in population also started global warming which is a major consequence of the release of greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Humans also exploited and competed over the earth’s finite resources more intensely than ever before in human history. During this time period, which the increase in population came later on in this period an increase in environmental awareness, rose also. The governments of the United States, the Europe, and Japan took a number of initiatives to preserve and protect the environment in the 1970s. Environmental awareness spread by means of the media and grassroots political movements, and most nations in the developed world enforced strict antipollution laws and sponsored massive recycling efforts. Many of these efforts were made possible by new technology, which produced significant results. However, in the developing world, population pressures and weak governments were major obstacles to effective environmental policies. The unprecedented increase of the rate of human population caused a huge change in the way human’s relationship was with the environment. Humans over looked what they were doing to the environment because humans were more concerned with their needs rather then what was happening to the earth due to those needs. This did not change until the 1970s when governments put movements into place to help the environment.

Independent Learner Study Skills For Independent Learners Education Essay

Independent Learner Study Skills For Independent Learners Education Essay Independent study is a process, a method and a philosophy of education whereby a learner acquires knowledge by his or her own efforts and develops the ability for enquiry and critical evaluation. Independent learning is a process in which development of values, attitudes, knowledge and skills are needed to make responsible decisions and teach students to take actions individually. Independent learning is promoted by creating study skills, which encourage students motivation, curiosity, self-confidence and self-reliance; it is based on students understanding their interests and the value of what they are learning. In this essay I will identify these study skills required for independent learning. I will discuss these individually further on. Organisational skills/ time management Stress management Critical thinking Research and information management Organisational skills/time management A very good basic technique is being able to mentally and physically prepare yourself for study. Organisation is widely thought to be the key to success in life itself, Let alone in studying. There are various ways of organising ourselves and managing time effectively. Everybody has a slightly different style of learning, so different things will work for different people. The goal of organising your time is to help become aware of how to use your time. Developing and planning for blocks of study time in a typical week is a useful way of getting things done. Keeping in mind some difficult material may require more time than others. Determining a place free from distraction where you can maximize your concentration like the library.   Having a simple To Do List will help identify activities, the reasons for doing them and the timeline for getting them done. Referencing back to the list for reminders of upon coming events like assignments and exams etc. a daily planner will help for lectures, labs and other daily routines. A long term planner can help plan ahead for assignments and exams. The activities motioned above are all well and good for any student to implement but it is not as simple as that. If you do not get organised and start managing you time effectively in the early stage of your studies it will be very hard to do so later on. Having said the above there are reasons for students not to be organised. Some students may not start work until the deadline starts frightening them. Others may compare it to climbing a mountain; these students may manage to finish their work in time and even get a feedback of their draft work. But they do not leave any time to implement this feedback in their work. Nor are they able to reflect on the feedback. No matter what useful comments the tutor may give these student have not left enough time to act on that advice. Furthermore because they have not paced themselves properly over the semester or year they have not given themselves the time to understand new material, to extend their learning with additional research. And to plan, prepare and refine their work. These students never get to reflect on their true potential. And remain unaware of what they can do. Whilst schools and colleges set homework in university you are on your own. You may be given lists of reading material but that is it. The rest is on the students themselves. Every student must work out how much time they are prepared to give to get the grades they want. Research/ information management Tom burns Sandra Sinfield (2003) Research is about investigating or searching for ideas to increase your knowledge. Listening in class, reading textbooks and journals, all involve research for they are all opportunities for engaging with theories and knowledge claims that already exist in the subject area. The purpose of research is to engage with these existing ideas to deepen understanding and to construct arguments within the subject area. By gathering new ideas and information student are adding to their sum of knowledge on the topic. Whilst you may be given information in lectures, classes, seminars and tutorials, this will not be all you need to know on the subject. You are also supposed to develop your knowledge of the subject beyond what the tutor has taught. Therefore you have to read what other thinkers and experts have written on the subject. There is usually far more information available than you need, you need to make choices about what to read and use. Consider: Your purpose? What do you intend to do with each piece of information? Do you really need it? Can you do without it? What you already have? Brainstorm your knowledge of the subject or make a list of keywords for the subject. Use this to guide your search for information in the index at the back of books, in catalogues and on the internet. Is it the best source? Check whether the source is reliable, up to date, written by experts in the field, and relevant to your needs. Is it the best example? You will usually be able to refer to very few examples in your assignments and seminars. As you find more information, the latest information may be better than that you have already collected. Be prepared to put the less valuable information into a separate section which you use only if absolutely necessary. Keep evaluating which material is the most up to date and best for your purposes. How much do you need? Usually word limits are strict. You cannot usually make more than a few lines or a paragraph on any one example. Bear this in mind when you make notes so that you do not record more than you need. This will save you a lot of time. Stress management Stress management is also very important for independent students. First step in stress management is to recognise stress. Exhaustion, loss of/increased appetite, headaches, crying, sleeplessness, and oversleeping are evidence of stress. Escape through alcohol, drugs, or other compulsive behaviour are often indications. Feelings of alarm, frustration, or apathy may accompany stress. Stress Management is the ability to maintain control when situations, people, and events make excessive demands. If there is something that needs to be done to change the situation, that will be a good step. Setting up realistic goals and achieving them in steps instead of at one time. No matter if your studying biology or playing pool it is focus on the task at hand that makes you succeed in your objective. The ability to concentrate and focus attention on a task is an important tool for independent learners. Sometimes the mind can wander off from one thing to the other. Students worries and outside distractions can affect learning. Reasons for loosing concentration include difficult or boring material. A dedicated space with no outside distractions like mobile phones and TV etc. is useful to maximize concentration. Changing subject after an hour keeps the focus in learning by offering variety. A positive attitude towards learning will give a good advantage to independent learners, recognizing that in order to succeed you need to make decisions about prioritizing time and resources. Putting things according to priority helps keeps things in check. Critical Thinking/ reflection Critical thinking is at the heart of independent learning and professional development and is fundamental for whatever subject you are studying. They are seen as a transferable skill which employers expect graduates to bring to the workplace from university. They are both developmental and particular to the individual. By thinking critically independent learners can engage more confidently in debate within their subject area. A well known writer on critical thinking, Jenny Moon, gives the following definition: Critical thinking is a capacity to work with complex ideas whereby a person can make effective provision of evidence to justify a reasonable judgement. The evidence, and therefore the judgement, will pay appropriate attention to context. (Moon, 2005) Reflection is a complex set of processes which can empower an individual to recognise their learning opportunities and make the most of them. In its simplest form, reflection is the ability to look back over your experiences and identify significant aspects, such as reasons for success and failure. The important thing, of course, is to then learn from these reflections, by using them to inform practice and future learning. Conclusion

Essay on Equality and Inequality in Their Eyes Were Watching God

Equality and Inequality in Their Eyes Were Watching God In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the author, Zora Neale Hurston, attempts to bring into light problems caused by prejudice. However, as she tries to show examples of inequality through various character relationships, examples of equality are revealed through other relationships. Janie, the novel's main character, encounters both inequality and equality through the treatment she receives during her three marriages.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Janie's first marriage is to Logan Killicks. Logan enters the marriage with a large portion of land. However, Janie enters the marriage with practically nothing. This ends up becoming a relationship based on inequality because Logan starts to use his ownership of the land to control Janie. He tries to make her feel that she owes him for part of the land, which he is sharing with her. What begins as a relationship in which Logan struggles to make Janie happy, turns into a relationship in which Janie is expected to make Logan happy. She is often reprimanded for not doing enough work or for not working in certain areas such as the fields.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is during that unhappy marriage that Janie meets Jody Stark, who comes along with dreams of power, wealth, and happiness. " De day you puts yo' hand in mine, Ah wouldn't let de sun go down on us single. Ah'm a man wid principles. You ain't never knowed what it was like to be treated lak a lady and Ah wants to be de one tuh show yuh." (Pg.28) Janie is promised that she will be treated quite well. So naturally, she leaves Logan and sets out for a new town with Jody. This relationship can be classified as equal in some aspects. However, for the most part, this too becomes a marriage based on inequali... ...g which is totally hers. Either her husband already owns it or he earns it. In the marriage to Tea Cake, Janie plays an active role in acquiring the money they use. It belongs as much to her as it does to him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Overall, these are the main forms of equality shared by Tea Cake and Janie. It is through these equalities, encouraged by Tea Cake, that they are enabled to live happy and fulfilling lives. Never once is Janie made to feel inadequate to Tea Cake, like she is to Logan and Joe. The happiness this has caused in their marriage is best summed up in a quote by Janie describing Tea Cake, " He kin take most any lil thing and make summertime out of it when times is dull. Then we lives offa dat happiness he made till some mo' happiness come along." (Pg.135) Works Cited: Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: HarperPerennial, 1998.

How Bernard Malamuds, The Natural, uses Style to potray Historical events in his era :: essays research papers

Each writer is influenced in many different ways, but, in general, most of their inspiration comes from those events occurring within the era they are living in. They also use various different techniques or styles to portray those events in their writings. Bernard Malamud wrote a novel, published in 1952, called The Natural. This novel used numerous different stylistics elements to reveal the impact sports had in the late 1940s.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One central stylistic element used, in The Natural, to show the impact of sports, in the late 1940s, was structure. The sequencing of the novel is immensely different from the majority of novels. It begins with Roy Hobbs (the main character), at nineteen years of age, when he is aspiring to become a famous baseball player. Almost everyone thinks that he is too young to become a ball player except for one man, Sam Simpson. He became Roy Hobbs’s manager and was taking him too tryout for the Chicago cubs. Ever since he seen him play in high school he believed he had what it took to make it. The ones that didn’t believe in Roy Hobbs Sam Simpson would tell them, â€Å" Well, like I said, he’s young, but he certainly mowed them down in the Northwest High School league last year† (Malamud 14). But, Sam Simpson is killed later on in that chapter, on the way to Roy Hobbs's tryout. No one else is willing to give him a change due to his age, despi te his great high school record for through the most no hitters in high school baseball history. Then, in the next chapter, Batter Up! Part I, it skips to fifteen years later when he gets his first chance to become a baseball player. In the beginning Pop Fisher, manager of the New York knights, did not want to sign him due to his age. Fisher is heard telling him, â€Å" Thirty-four --Holy Jupiter, mister, you belong in an old man’s home, not baseball† (42). But this did not matter because Judge, the owner, had already signed him for a four year contract with the knights. Fisher wanted to contest the contract, yet had no one else to put in his place. So he decided to give him a chance. Finally, the novel reaches the ending of his career, when the Knights are at their peek. Roy Hobbs gets horribly ill and is incapable of playing.

{Punctuality: Personal Nd Professional Image Essay

Punctuality: Personal and Professional Image A man of experience once said that there are four good habits-punctuality, accuracy, steadiness and efficiency. Without punctuality, time is wasted; without accuracy, mistakes are made: without steadiness, nothing can be done; and without efficiency, all is lost. To this we may add the habits of prudence, discipline and contentment as being most desirable. So what are the payoffs of punctuality? Two important ones are that it is an indicator of professionalism, and it’s respectful to the other person. These are certainly important in business. Another payoff is that it is moral and ethical. As someone once said, â€Å" A man who has taken your time recognizes no debt, yet it is the only debt he can never repay’. A taken for granted aspect of everyday life is that people are usually punctual. This norm is so well established that a common sense understanding of unpunctuality as a personality defect prevails in the social science literature. Drawing on qualitative and experiential data from the Mass Observation Archive, this paper argues that punctuality is less a matter of individual virtue and more one of age, gender, and work situation. It proposes that a close study of these differentiating â€Å"surface† conditions leads back to more fundamental questions of social structure and solidarity. The sentiments underlying the norm demanding unconditional punctuality correspond to, and may be a legacy of the mechanical solidarity that Durkheim stressed underpinned even the most complex and advanced societies. With all the tasks on our plates, it is easy to try to cram in one more activity before rushing off to the next engagement, but when you arrive late, it can resul in any of the following: Conveying to the other party involved that you feel your time is more valuable than theirs. Presenting the image that you are poorly prepared causing others to fall behind in their schedules for the rest of the day. Contrast the symptoms that often result from running late with the confident feeling of arriving at an event on time, feeling calm and in control. Punctuality is a habit that takes time and practice to develop, but both your self-esteem and your professional image will benefit. It is most important, therefore that we should acquire good habits at the very start of our life. As a friend and an individual, learn to meet people on time. Every minute counts, do not be late for doctors or dentists appointments, do not be late to school and do not meet friends 10 or 15 minutes late. Dhirubhai Ambani who started Reliance Industries says that one of his greatest achievements lies in having promoted punctuality at all levels from top executives to the workers. All had to keep exact time. It is a form of discipline that has effect on all your achievements. Many people like to get their coffee and breakfast prior to starting their work day. The biggest problem with this is that it is being done on company time. Corporate America suffers millions of dollars in losses each day because of employees spending the first 10 to 15 minutes of their workday conducting non-business rituals, such as getting coffee, eating breakfast, and chatting with co-workers about their evening or weekend. The figures given in the following example are a conservative estimate. It must be acknowledged that not all employees would make the same hourly wage and not all employees waste company time. Of course, there is also the fact that some employees waste more time than others do during a work day. Say an employee is paid $20. 0 per hour, during a 5 day work week a company would pay $25. 00 just for that employee to get their morning coffee. That is $1,250. 00 per year (this estimate deducts two weeks from the year for illness, vacation time and holidays. Next, imagine that every employee in a company of 5,000 wastes 15 minutes every day. That is an incredible $6,250. 00 that the company would lose each and every yea r because its employees utilize company time to conduct personal errands each morning. As with formal controls, informal controls reward or punish acceptable or unacceptable behavior. Informal controls are varied and differ from individual to individual, group to group and society to society. For example, in a college class, a disapproving look might convey the message that it is inappropriate to arrive late and disrupt the lecture. In a business setting on the other hand, a stronger sanction applies in the case of someone who arrives late for a business meeting and threatens to jeopardize the company’s image. Did you ever notice that sometimes, if not often, you arrive late, even when you have carefully planned to arrive on time to a meeting, date, or appointment? Possibly, you are among those who are chronically late. One reason for constant tardiness is that it’s extremely difficult to arrive on time, especially in large metropolitan areas. Unexpected traffic congestion, taking that last minute call, running back to the office or home to grab forgotten articles, are all impediments to being on time. Even the most time conscious, careful planners can be undermined by these factors. While this seems obvious at first, it’s really not that simple. One thing that makes this difficult is simply human nature we simply don’t like waiting.

Indian Cultural Background Essay

I have two cultural background which are Cherokee Indian and African American . Cherokee is really pronounced as â€Å"CHAIR-uh-kee† in our language. Cherokee comes from a Muskogee word meaning ‘speakers of another language’. Cherokee Indians originally called themselves Aniyunwiya â€Å"the principal people,† but today they accept the named Cherokee. But in their language it is pronounced Tsadagi . The Cherokees are original residents of the American southeast region, particularly Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Most Cherokees were forced to move to Oklahoma in the 1800’s along the Trail of Tears. The Cherokee Indians who survived this death still live in Oklahoma today. Some Cherokees escaped the Trail of Tears by hiding in the Appalachian hills or taking shelter with white neighbors. These people live scattered throughout the original Cherokee Indian homelands. Trail of Tears was the Cherokee name for what the Americans called Indian Removal. During the 1800’s, the US government created an â€Å"Indian Territory† in Oklahoma and sent all the eastern Native American tribes to live there. Some tribes agreed to this plan with no problem. Other tribes didn’t like this plan at all , and the American army forced them. The Cherokee tribe was one of the largest eastern tribes, and they didn’t want to leave their homeland. The Cherokees were peaceful with the Americans. So they asked the Supreme Court for help. The judges decided the Cherokee Indians could stay in their homes. But the President, Andrew Jackson, sent the army to march the Cherokees to Oklahoma . They weren’t prepared for the journey, and it was winter time. Thousands of Cherokee Indians died on the Trail of Tears. Many Native Americans from other tribes died too. It was a terrible time in history. There are three federally recognized Cherokee tribes: the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the United Keetoowah Band in Oklahoma, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. Other Cherokee communities in Alabama, Georgia, and other states are considered unofficial by the US government. The Eastern Cherokee people live on a reservation. Indian reservations are lands that belong to Native American tribes and are under their control. The Oklahoma Cherokee people live on trust land, though many Cherokees call it a reservation anyway. The Keetowah Cherokee do not have a land base. Each Cherokee tribe has its own government, laws, police, and services, just like a small country. However, Cherokee Indians are also US citizens and must obey American law. In the past, each Cherokee group was led by one war chief and one peace chief. Cherokee chiefs were chosen by a tribal council. Cherokee war chiefs were male, but the peace chief could be a woman. Today, Cherokee tribal councils and chiefs can be either gender and are popularly elected, like senators and governors. Most Cherokee people speak English today, but 20,000 people also speak the Cherokee Indian language. Cherokee is a complex language with soft sounds. The Cherokee language has an innovative writing system that was invented by the Cherokee scholar Sequoyah. Sequoyah’s writing system is a syllabary. That means one character represents each syllable. The other cultural background is African American .

PoP Culture Trend and Media Essay

When I was a child, all I wanted was to be a doctor. I obeyed my parents, studied hard, and played around every once in a while. I had my simple ambitions and simple outlooks. I lived a simple life. Today, however, you can ask any child about his ambition and he would most likely tell you that he would be a Dennis Rodman someday, or a Britney Spears if it was a she you’ve happened to ask. Another possible scenario could be that the child you’d like to ask wouldn’t even talk to you because he/she is too busy with his/her cellular phone, Gameboy Advance, i-pod nanno, or personal computer. Looking at this everyday situation, my father had always been asking me what is happening to this generation. This picture had also been a popular topic for homeroom or sociology classes, and online debates. Each of these discussions, however, boils down to a common phrase: pop culture. Pop Culture, or Popular Culture, is the set of customs, beliefs, values, arts, and entertainment common to massive sectors of the society.  (http://www.cobb.k12.ga.us/~smitha/PopIndex.htm).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Oftentimes, it results from the everyday interactions, needs and desires, and cultural ‘moments’ of the mainstream. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_media). It is important that we examine the prevailing Pop Culture as it can shape people’s beliefs, values system, and attitudes since trendy music, movies, television programs, and fads often mirror the outlooks and behavior of the masses. James E. Combs recognized even in 1984 that â€Å"Popular Culture is so much a part of our lives that we cannot deny its developmental powers.   Like formal education or family rearing, popular culture is part of our ‘learning environment.’   Though our pop culture education is informal-we usually do not attend to pop culture for its ‘educational value.’ It nevertheless provides us with information and images upon which we develop our opinions and attitudes.   We would not be what we are, nor would our society be quite the same, without the impact of popular culture.† (Combs 1984). Nowadays however, an additional factor to the power of popular culture and to the importance of evaluating its effects is technological advancement. Specifically, electronic media has become a tool to further elevate the influence of pop culture, in an ever faster and unstoppable way, to all corners of the world. â€Å"Electronic media are those communications mediums which are based on electronic or electromechanical means of production and most often distinguished from print media. The primary electronic media sources familiar to the general public worldwide include radio, sound recordings, television, video recording, and streaming internet content†. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic media). Personally, I have been most fond of surfing the internet, watching television programs and movies, listening to contemporary and pop music through radio, cd player, and i-pod, playing computer games, and messaging through cellular phones, either for educational or entertainment purposes. I am now aware that most of my viewpoints have been influenced by the things that I watch, read, and listen to that’s why I have been trying to balance out my views by patronizing different sources of information. My most poignant realization was that pop culture has affected my viewpoint on what is beautiful. Seeing models and actors who are almost perfect and worshipped everyday and everywhere has blinded me into considering beauty as skinny, 36-24-36 for females, and hunky, tall, and handsome for males. Everything else that did not replicate what pop culture has embedded on me seemed merely normal, or worse, ugly. I very much think that this has also been the case for majority of the people in this generation, what with the number of anorexics and bulimics, and steroid users rising up to an alarming level internationally. Social responsibility and morality had also been largely affected by today’s pop culture. The case of pornography that has been very widespread, moreover in the advent of the internet and camera phones, is just an example. The concept of privacy has also been oftentimes mutilated either consciously or unconsciously through electronic means propagated by pop culture. Relationships have also been builded and shattered in the blink of an eye as a result of the prevailing culture and technology. Gossips and defamation had also been most common and aggravated these days, usually spreading worldwide in a split-second. These, however, can either be conscious or unconscious. It can be conscious in the part of the companies who perpetrate these kinds of trend to gain profits in the employment of their technology. It can also be unconscious or subconscious in both sides especially now that these trends have already been inculcated in the society’s culture. It must be noted though that pop culture, aside from its commonly criticized negative influences, also has contributed positive effects to the society. In the negative matters, social responsibility and civility must draw the line. This can only be done by a more conscious meditation and evaluation of the popular culture that is being imposed upon us. As human beings, we were given the capability to analyze the things that are going on around us. And we should. As for the trend in pop culture that had greatly influenced me, I have already mentioned that it is the way that I viewed beauty. Upon analysis, I have come to a conclusion that it had been a result of both my personal desires as a consumer, and the media’s making. Popular culture, in general, does not only result from the corporation’s commercial pursuits. I believe that it is a mixture of the continuous interaction of the consumers and suppliers in every society. References: Combs, James E. Polpop:Politics and Popular Culture In America. University of Wisconsin Pr. 1984 http://www.cobb.k12.ga.us/~smitha/PopIndex.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_media http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic media

Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 3

3. The Samurai of Jackson Street TOMMY When he first arrived in San Francisco, Tommy Flood had shared a closet-size room with five Chinese men named Wong, all of whom had wanted to marry him. â€Å"It's horrible-like being packed into a take-out box of Kung Pao chicken,† Tommy had said, and although it wasn't like that at all, and Tommy was just trying to use colorful language which he felt was his duty as a writer, it was very crowded and smelled strongly of garlic and sweaty Chinese guys. â€Å"I think they want to pack my fudge,† Tommy had said. â€Å"I'm from Indiana, we don't go for that kind of stuff.† As it turned out, the Chinese guys didn't go for that kind of stuff either, but were, in fact, very much interested in getting green cards. Fortunately, only a week later, in the parking lot of the Marina Safeway where he worked nights, Tommy met a gorgeous redhead named Jody Stroud, who rescued him from his confinement with the Chinese guys, by giving him her love, a nice loft apartment, and immortality. Unfortunately, little more than a month after that, their minion, Abby, had them bronzed while they slept, and Tommy awoke one night to find that despite his great vampire strength, he couldn't move a muscle. â€Å"I'd rather be trapped in a take-out box of Kung Pao chicken,† Tommy would have said if he could have said anything, which he couldn't. Meanwhile, right next to him, sharing the same bronze shell, his beloved Jody drifted in a dream-state, a side effect of being able to turn herself to mist, a trick she had learned from Elijah Ben Sapir, her vampire sire. Between the dead sleep of daylight, and the floating in a dream-world, she could endure decades inside the statue. Tommy, however, had never learned how to turn to mist. There had never been time to teach him. So come sundown, his vampire senses came on like neon, and he experienced every second of his confinement with an electric intensity that nearly had him vibrating in his shell-an alpha predator pacing the cage of his mind and shredding his reason. Of course, he did the only thing he could do: he went barking at the moon mad. CHET He'd have to lick about a mile of kitty-butt to get the taste of meter maid out of his mouth, but Chet was up for it. He raked a couple of hind-leg kicks through the dust that was the meter maid's remains, and headed across the street and into the alley, where he curled up in the dark and set about blunting the human taste. It was only a little over a month since the old vampire had turned Chet, but already he was losing all sense of his former self. Time was, that he spent his days on Market Street, napping next to William, the homeless man who made his living with a paper cup and a sign that said, I AM HOMELESS AND MY CAT IS HUGE. Chet was indeed very large, and while much of his volume had been fur, he had achieved a weight of thirty-five pounds on a diet of semi-used hamburgers and French fries donated by passersby outside of McDonald's. Now Chet hunted the night, taking down nearly any warm-blooded creature he encountered: rats, birds, squirrels, cats, dogs, and even the occasional human. At first it had only been drunks and other homeless, and the first time he had drained one, his old friend William, who turned to dust in front of him, Chet yowled, ran, and hid under a Dumpster for the rest of the night and all of the next day. There was no regret, simply hunger and elation of the blood rush. It was beyond the satisfaction of the kill, it was positively sexual, something Chet had never known as a normal cat, as he'd been neutered by the animal shelter when still a kitten. But along with speed, strength, and senses far more sensitive than even a human-based vampire, Chet, like his human counterparts, found that he was physically restored to perfection. In other words, his junk was working. He found that soon after the kill he desperately needed to hump something, and the more squirmy and wailing, the better. Above the smells of bus fumes, cooking food, and urine-bathed curbs that pervaded the City, he caught the scent of a female in heat. She might be a mile away, but given his newly heightened senses, he'd find her. A wave of excitement undulated under the fur of his spine, fur that had mostly grown back since the humans had shaved him, mated in front of him, and drank his blood, which served to traumatize his little kitty consciousness before he was turned vampire, and motivated a whole new feeling he'd grown into as a vampire cat: vengeance. For since his metamorphosis, it wasn't just his senses that had expanded. His brain, which before had run a loop of â€Å"eat-nap-crap, repeat,† was now growing into a whole new awareness, getting bigger, even as Chet grew. He was a good sixty pounds now, and roughly as smart as a dog, where before he'd only been a little brighter than a brick. Dog. The hated. There was dog on the air. Coming closer. He could smell it-them-two of them. And now he could hear them. He arose from his butt bath and screeched like an electrified lynx. In response, the neighborhood echoed with a chorus of yowls from a dozen other vampire cats. THE EMPEROR â€Å"Steady, fellows,† said the Emperor. He laid his hand across the neck of the golden retriever and scratched under the chin of the Boston terrier, who squirmed in the great pocket of the Emperor's overcoat, looking like a frantic, black-and-white, bug-eyed kangaroo mutant. â€Å"Cat! Cat! Cat! Cat! Cat!† barked Bummer, with a spray of doggie slobber across the Emperor's palm. â€Å"Cat! Murder, pain, fire, evil, cat! Can't you smell them? Everywhere! Must chase, chase, chase, bite, bite, bite, let me go you insane, oblivious old man, I'm trying to save you, for the love of God, CAT! CAT! CAT!† Unfortunately, Bummer only spoke dog, and while the Emperor could tell that the Boston terrier was upset, he had no idea why. (Anyone who translates dog knows that only about a third of what Bummer said actually meant anything. The rest was just noise he needed to make. Human speech is about the same.) Lazarus, the golden retriever, having battled vampires on and off for the last two months, and being steady by nature, was much calmer about the whole thing, but despite Bummer's tendency to overreact, he had to admit, the smell of cat was tall in the air, and what was more disturbing, it wasn't just cat, it was dead cat. Dead cat walking. Wait, what was that? Not cat-cats. Oh, this was not good. â€Å"He's right about the cat,† Lazarus ruffed, nudging the Emperor's leg. â€Å"We should get out of this neighborhood, maybe go over to North Beach and see if anyone dropped a beef jerky or something. I could sure use a beef jerky. Or we can stay and die. Whatever. I'm good with it.† â€Å"Easy, men,† said the Emperor, alert now that something was amiss. He knelt down, his knees creaking like rusted hinges, and as he looked around, kneaded the spot between Bummer's ears as if he were readying to make doggy-brain biscuits. He was a great, woolly, thunderstorm of a man-broad shouldered and gray bearded, fine witted and fiercely loyal to the people of his city. He had lived on the streets of San Francisco as long as anyone could remember, and while tourists saw him as a raggedy, homeless wretch, the locals viewed him as a fixture, a rolling landmark, a spirit, and a conscience, and for the most part, treated him with the deference they might pay royalty, despite the fact that he was a raving loon. The street was deserted, but a half a block away the Emperor saw the three-wheeled cart of an S.F.P.D. parking enforcement officer, stopped behind an illegally parked Audi. The cart's rotating yellow caution lights chased themselves around the surrounding buildings like drunken, jaundiced Tinkerbells, but there was no officer in sight. â€Å"Strange. It's long past time when a meter maid should be working. Perhaps we should investigate, gents.† But before he could stand, Bummer leapt out of the Emperor's pocket and made a beeline for the cart, trumpeting himself into the charge with a staccato barking fit. Lazarus took off after the black-and-white fur-rocket, and the old man ambled along behind, as fast as his great, arthritic legs would carry him. They found Bummer on the far side of the Audi, snorting and snuffling inside an empty police uniform, and covered with a fine gray powder. The Emperor's eyes went wide. He backed across the sidewalk and stood against the fire door of one of the industrial lofts that lined the street. He had seen this before. He knew the signs. But when he had seen the old vampire and his companions board an enormous yacht in the Bay over a month ago, he thought his city rid of the bloodsucking fiends. What now? There was a crackling static noise from the police cart: a radio. Call it in. Alert his people to the danger. He rolled to the cart, fumbled with the door catch, and reached for the microphone. â€Å"Hello,† he said into the microphone. â€Å"This is the Emperor of San Francisco, Emperor of San Francisco, protector of Alcatraz, Sausalito, and Treasure Island, and I'd like to report a vampire.† The radio continued to crackle and distant voices ghosted through the ether, uninterrupted. Lazarus padded to the old man's side and barked furiously, â€Å"You have to push the button. You have to push the button.† Unfortunately, while the noble retriever understood English, he only spoke dog, and the Emperor did not get the instruction. â€Å"Button! Button! Button! Button!† Bummer barked, springing up and down in front of the police cart. He scurried around to the door and jumped in on the Emperor's lap to show him. â€Å"Yeah, that helps,† growled Lazarus sarcastically. Golden retrievers are not a very sarcastic breed, and he felt a little ashamed and, well, catlike, using that tone of voice. â€Å"Okay. Button! Button! Button! Uh-oh.† â€Å"Button! Button! Button! Uh-oh, what?† barked Bummer. A short ruff from the retriever: â€Å"Cat.† Lazarus boiled out a low growl and laid his ears back against his head. The Emperor saw two of them: cats, coming down the sidewalk toward them. But they didn't look quite natural. The light from the police cart was reflecting back from the cats' eyes like red coals. A screech, there were two more coming across the street. Lazarus turned to face them, snarling now. A chorus of hisses from behind. The Emperor looked in the rearview mirror to see three more cats stalking from behind. â€Å"Quick, Lazarus, in the cart. Up, boy, in the cart.† Lazarus was spinning now, trying to watch all of the cats at once, warning them off with bared teeth and bristled hair. But the cats came on, baring their own teeth. â€Å"Come now,† said the Emperor into the microphone. Something landed hard on the roof of the cart and Bummer yelped. Another thump and the Emperor looked back to see a large cat in the bed of the cart, coming up on two legs and trying to claw around the back window. The old man pulled the door shut. â€Å"Run, Lazarus, run!† Lazarus caught the first cat in his jaws and was shaking it furiously when the rest fell upon him. STEVE â€Å"There's nefarious shit afoot, Foo,† said Abby. â€Å"Bring portable sun and fry these nosferatu kitties before they nom everyone in the ‘hood.† Steven â€Å"Foo Dog† Wong had no idea what his girlfriend, Abby, was talking about, and it wasn't the first time. In fact, much of the time he had no idea what she was talking about, but he had learned if he was patient, and listened, and more important, agreed with her, she would mercilessly sex him up, which he liked quite a bit, and occasionally he got the message. He used the same strategy with his maternal grandmother (without the sexing-up part), who spoke an obscure, country dialect of Cantonese, that sounded to the uninitiated like someone beating a chicken to death with a banjo. Just wait, and all would become clear. This time, however, Abby, whose tone ran from tragically romantic to passionately dismissive, was sounding much more urgent, and the patience gambit wasn't going to work. Her voice in his Bluetooth headset was like having a malevolent fairy bite his ear. â€Å"I'm in the middle of something, Abby. I'll be home as soon as I finish up here.† â€Å"Now, Foo. There's a herd, or flock, or a-what do you call a bunch of kitties?† â€Å"A box?† Foo offered. â€Å"Fucktard!† â€Å"A fucktard of kitties? Okay, sure, that could be it. A pride of lions, a murder of crows†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No. You fucktard! There's a bunch of vampire kitties about to eat that crazy Emperor guy and his dogs right outside on the street. You need to come save them.† â€Å"A bunch?† Steve was having a hard time getting his head around the idea. He'd only recently gotten his head around the idea of one vampire cat, but a bunch, well, that was more. He was just a couple of months away from having his master's in biochem at age twenty-one-he wasn't a fucktard. â€Å"Define a bunch,† he said. â€Å"Many. I can't count them because they're stalking the golden retriever.† â€Å"And how do you know they're vampire kitties?† â€Å"Oh, because I drew blood samples from them, ran it in that centrifuge thingy of yours, prepared some slides, and looked at the blood cell structure under a microscope, duh?† â€Å"No, really,† he said. She was flunking high school biology, there's no way she prepared blood slides. And besides- â€Å"Of course not, you douche nozzle, I know they're vampires because they're stalking a golden retriever and a homeless fuck who's hiding in the vaporized meter maid's cart. That's not standard kitty behavior.† â€Å"Vaporized meter maid?† â€Å"The one Chet ate-sucked her to dust. Come now, Foo, turn your sunbeam full-on and get your luscious ninja ass over here.† Steve had rigged the hatchback of his tricked-out Honda Civic with high intensity UV floodlights, which he'd used to flash fry a number of vampires, thus saving Abby and, for the first time in his life, having a girlfriend and someone who thought he was cool. â€Å"I can't come right away, Abby. The sun lights aren't in the car.† â€Å"Oh my fucking God, there's some little old guy with a cane coming out of the alley. Well, he's toast. Fuck!† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Fuck!† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Oh fuck!† â€Å"What? What? What?† â€Å"Oh-my-fucking-god-ponies-on-a-stick!† â€Å"Abby, you need to be more specific.† â€Å"It's not a cane, Foo, it's a sword.† â€Å"What?† â€Å"Come now, Foo. Bring the sun.† â€Å"I can't, Abby. My car is full of rats.† THE EMPEROR The Emperor watched in horror as the cats leapt onto the back of his noble captain, Lazarus. The golden retriever shook himself violently, dislodging two of the fiends, but they were replaced by two more, and three more leapt on top of them, nearly bringing Lazarus to the ground. But they weren't pack hunters, and as each maneuvered for the throat, another attacker was pushed off, his claws shredding both predator and prey as he fell. Blood splattered the windscreen of the police cart. Bummer bounced around inside the tiny cabin, barking and snorting, and throwing himself against the glass, covering everything with angry dog slobber. â€Å"Run, Lazarus, run!† The Emperor pounded on the glass, then pushed his forehead against it as he tried to squint back tears of anguish and frustration. â€Å"No!† He would not do it. He would not watch his companion slaughtered. Outrage filled the ancient, boiler-tank of a man and condensed to courage. He was fighting the door latch when half a cat hit the side window and slid down trailing gore. The door handle snapped off in his hand and he threw it to the floor of the cart. Bummer immediately attacked it and broke a tooth on the metal. Through the haze of blood spray, the Emperor could see another figure in the street. A boy-no, a man, but a small man, Asian-wearing a fluorescent orange porkpie hat and socks, tight plaid trousers that looked as if they'd been teleported out of the 1960s, and a gray cardigan sweater. The little man was brandishing a samurai sword, bringing it down again and again on Lazarus in quick snapping motions, but before he could cry out, the Emperor saw that the sword wasn't even grazing the retriever's coat. With each stroke one of the cats fell away, beheaded or cut in half, both halves squirming on the pavement. There was no spinning, no wind-up or flourish to the swordsman's movements, just grim efficiency, like a chef chopping vegetables. As his targets moved, he pivoted and stepped just enough to deliver the cut, then snapped the blade back and sent it to its next destination. The weight and fury removed from his back, Lazarus looked around and whimpered, which translated to: â€Å"Whaaa-?† The swordsman was relentless, step, cut, step, cut. Two cats came at him from under a Volvo and he quickly retreated and swung the sword in a quick, low arc that approximated a golf stroke and sent their heads back over the car to bounce off a metal garage door. â€Å"Behind!† the Emperor warned. But it was too late. The low attack had thrown the swordsman off-a heavy-bodied Siamese cat launched itself from the roof of a van across the street and landed on the little man's back. The long sword was useless at such close range. The swordsman arched in pain, even as the Siamese clawed its way up his back. He spun, then threw his feet out before him and fell hard on his back, but the Siamese took the impact and dug its fangs into the swordsman's shoulder. A half-dozen vampire cats came scurrying out from under cars toward the struggling swordsman. Lazarus, his fur matted with blood, caught one of the cats by the haunch and bit to the bone. The cat screamed and squirmed in the retriever's jaws, trying to claw his eyes. The others fell on the swordsman with fang and claw. The Emperor threw his shoulder against the Plexiglas door of the police cart, but there was no room to move, to gain momentum, and while the entire cart rocked and went up on two wheels under his weight, the door latch would not give. He watched in horror as the swordsman writhed under his attackers. The Emperor heard a steel fire door hitting brick and light spilled across the sidewalk and into the street. Out of the doorway ran a thin, impossibly pale girl with lavender pigtails wearing pink motocross boots, pink fishnet stockings, a green plastic skirt, wraparound sunglasses, and a black leather jacket that looked studded with glass. Before he could warn her, the girl ran into the street and shouted, â€Å"You motherfucking kitties need to step the fuck off!† The vampire cats attacking the swordsman looked up and hissed, which translated from vampire cat, meant: â€Å"Whaaa-?† She ran right at the swordsman, waving her arms as if shooing birds or trying to dry some particularly stubborn nail polish and screaming like a madwoman. The cats turned their attention to her, and were crouching, readying to leap, when her jacket lit up like the sun. There was a collective screech of agony from the vampire cats as all around the street, cats and cat parts smoked, then ignited. Burning cats made for the alley across the street or tried to hide under cars, but the thin girl ran after them, darting here and there, until each ignited, then burned and reduced itself first to a bubbling puddle of fur and goo, and finally, a pile of fine ash. In less than a minute, the street was quiet again. The lights on the girl's jacket went dark. The swordsman climbed to his feet and fitted his orange porkpie hat back on his head. He was bleeding from spots on his back and arms, and there was blood on his plaid pants and orange socks, but whether it was his or the cats' was impossible to tell. He stood before the thin girl and bowed deeply. â€Å"Domo arigato,† he said, keeping his eyes at her feet. â€Å"Dozo,† said the girl. â€Å"Your kitty-slaying skills are, if I may say so, the shit.† The swordsman bowed again, short and shallow, then turned and trotted across the street, down the alley, and out of sight. Lazarus was digging at the Plexiglas door of the police cart with the pads of his paws, as if he might polish his way through to release his master. Abby scratched his nose, nearly the only part of him not covered in blood, and opened the door. â€Å"Hey,† she said. â€Å"Hey,† said the Emperor. He stepped out of the cart and looked around. The street was painted with blood for half a block, punctuated by piles of ash and the occasional charred flea collar. Parked cars were sprayed in red mist, even the security lights above several fire doors were speckled with gore. Acrid smoke from burning cats hung low in the air, and on the sidewalk greasy gray ash spilled out of the sleeves and collar of the parking officer's uniform. â€Å"Well, you don't see that every day,† said the Emperor, as a police cruiser rounded the corner, the red and blue lights raking the building. The cruiser stopped and doors flew open. The driver stood behind his door, his hand on his gun. â€Å"What's going on here?† he said, trying to keep his eyes on the Emperor and not look at the carnage that surrounded them. â€Å"Nothing,† Abby said.

Nowadays, Food Has Become Easier to Prepare Essay

Nowadays, Food Has Become Easier to Prepare. Has This Change Improved the Way People Live? Use Specific Reasons and Examples to Support Your Answer. By annicat Man, through the ages, has undergone many changes, from a period when he hunted for his food to the present era when man is dependent on preprocessed foods. During this period not only has man changed his mode of eating but his whole lifestyle as well. In pursuit of more in this competitive world, man no longer has time as he once had. He is caught in a race against the clock. A person who finishes more n lesser time is considered more efficient. This pressure to do more in less time has affected his eating habits as well and, as a result, man no longer has time to cook food. Early man’s only objective was to seek food to sustain him and his family. Nowadays finding food has taken a back seat to other priorities, such as career and education. Food is no longer of that importance. This is not an encouraging trend. People are too dependent on preprocessed or precooked food, which no longer has the freshness it once had. Such foods loose their mineral and vitamin content and re not as healthy as fresh food. That is why the number of diseases is also rising. People have also shifted to high calorie content food like French fries, pizzas, and ice cream, etc. , which is causing obesity, fatigue, etc. As man is becoming busy and too involved in his busy schedule, he has no time even to take care of his own personal needs. Furthermore, cooking is an art which is dying out. People once enjoyed cooking . It was a means of eliminating stress and tension. People were once able to relax during this time and reflect on their lives. People may tend to argue that by sing precooked and preprocessed food they are efficiently using time and can use this precious time saved for other purposes. But is it really worth it? This is a question whose answer can invite much speculation about whether by saving this little time we are inviting lots of other problems, which could easily be avoided. It is actually making our lives not simpler but more complicated. We have lost many of the simpler things in our lives, like the simple acts of selecting our evening meal, preparing it, and enjoying it with our loved ones, and we are worse off for it.

Lifespan Development and Personality Paper Essay

Lifespan Development and Personality Paper - Essay Example This essay will be considering several incidents that took place throughout the course of Hitler's childhood and youth, reflecting on the way that they may have been instrumental in shaping the future personality, philosophy, and beliefs of the dictator. Through this observation, thought will be given concerning the different influences that affected his psychological development, with a view to determining how his growth could have been optimized. Finally, two different personality theories will be discussed, with an emphasis placed on the theory that best accounts for Hitler's behavior, with reasons give for this choice. Adolph Hitler, like millions of other children, had a difficult childhood that was marked with diverse tragedies, violence, personal failure, and under achievement. Born 1889, in Braunau Am Inn, which is a small Austrian village just across the boarder from German Bavaria, Adolph lived with his family on a small farm. The family moved on several occasions when Adolph was a young boy, which caused several disruptions in his schooling, and his childhood was dominated by a father, who was a strict disciplinarian. The whippings and beatings were so bad that Alois Jn. left home at fourteen years of age, never to see his father again. Adolph was just seven years old at the time. Hitler's obsession with authority and power were present from a very young age, and were reflected through his love of playing war, role games, a fascination with any kind of authority figures, and his intense dislike of being corrected in any form. He had a terrible reputation at school, due to his refusal to either obey, or study. It is also evident from research material that Hitler, even when still a young child, believed himself to be different. He saw himself as 'one of the lads', a popular ring-leader, who enjoyed hanging around with the tougher boys, whereas others have described him as a violent child, with a harsh temper, and spoilt by his mother. It is evident that he needed to be the 'leader' during any game, portraying at an early age his need to control both events and people. The cold fingers of death first touched Hitler's life when his little brother Edmund died of measles, and was believed to have deeply affected him. He could see his brother's miniscule grave from his bedroom window and, in later years, neighbours spoke of remembering the young Adolph often sitting on the wall of the cemetery, just staring into space (Wikipedia, Online Article, 2007). The sudden, and early, death of Adolph's father in 1903 caused the thirteen-year-old boy to break down and cry. However, it also meant that no one was there to enforce discipline, or to guide the already headstrong young lad, and it was from this time onwards that Hitler began to really fail academically. Hitler had, before his father's death, already experienced difficulties at school, but after his father's departure, his behaviour deteriorated, and he was reputed as being a difficult student, with many teachers feeling that he ought to be expelled. He finally left school, definitively, at sixteen years old, without accomplishing his exams, claiming