Deadly Compassion Essay

Euthanasia means â€Å"good death†. It must not be misunderstood to mean simply killing he elderly. The purpose of euthanasia is to relieve the terrible suffering and pain of a terminally ill person with an incurable disease. The cause of euthanasia is compassion. Deadly Compassion There are many ways to euthanize. Some of the more common ways in the recent past: * Suffocation with a plastic bag, most of the time (but not all of the time) drugging the patient first. * Gassing them to death with carbon monoxide: not even approved for putting down a dog or executing a convicted murderer * Lethal injection, but families are not usually allowed to watch because of what the cool poison does to a person as it slides down the bloodstream. True, many people experience pain, pain that I could not imagine. But at twelve years of age, I watched as cancer ravaged my father’s body. He died from advanced stage malignant melanoma, using the selfless care of hospice workers and the anesthetic effects of morphine to die with true dignity. Termanally ill patients DO NOT have to die a painful death. Modern technology has made the passing of millions much less painless than anytime in the past. Proponents of euthanasia exploit our natural fear of an excruciating death by ignoring this technology. This deadly compassion will end up giving the Grim Reaper one more tool, and in the hands of greedy relatives, uncaring doctors, and less-than-thorough legislatures, the choas demonstrated in the Netherlands will be mirrored in every country that gives doctors the power to end their patients’ lives. The causes of euthanasia are a desire to end suffering and the viewpoint of having mercy on the suffering person by ending his or her life. Euthanasia is when a person is assisted in suicide because he or she can no longer stand the suffering that he or she is incurring. Proponents for euthanasia believe that it is a merciful and humane way to end life, instead of watching someone suffer. Opponents to euthanasia believe that people’s lives should be respected to natural death and should not be taken prematurely. Euthanasia is assisted suicide. In animals, it is often referred to as â€Å"putting to sleep.† For people, it is a crime. I’m not sure what causes of euthanasia would be, exactly, since it isn’t a disease but rather an action. Someone would commit euthanasia, or help someone commit suicide, if that person were sick or dying. A famous example of this was Dr. Kevorkian. For animals, euthanasia happens when animals are sick or if an animal shelter ha s too many animals to care for. The effect of euthanasia is death. Euthanasia is a desperate act that comes in many forms according to the definitions below. Consider the motifs when considering causes. Each case has its own circumstances and many ethical, moral, and legal considerations are taken into account. The purpose is to relieve suffering of an individual or animal and a difficult judgement is at stake. There are many controversial issues in regard to religion also. Euthanasia: the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit. (The key word here is â€Å"intentional†. If death is not intended, it is not an act of euthanasia) Voluntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed has requested to be killed. Non-voluntary: When the person who is killed made no request and gave no consent. Involuntary euthanasia: When the person who is killed made an expressed wish to the contrary. Assisted suicide: Someone provides an individual with the information, guidance, and means to take his or her own life with the intention that they will be used for this purpose. When it is a doctor who helps another person to kill themselves it is called â€Å"physician assisted suicide.† Euthanasia By Action: Intentionally causing a person’s death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection. Euthanasia By Omission: Intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary (usual and customary) care or food and water.

Demographic Change And Influence In Peoples Development

Throughout universe history, have ever presented different demographic tendencies and assorted population-related events and motions of this, which does non be given to be stable but on the contrary, both interregional moves inA out of these states as elsewhere, about ever in hunt of better chances in life.A The influence of these motions is big and tends to turn around the universe, bring forthing alterations non merely in host states but besides in the place, so doing necessary alterations in the policies of these states to turn to the assorted effects of the motion migration Were submitted times in the universe where population alterations have non been so great, but alternatively there have been others where migration has increased significantly.A The 20th century was one of the latter because many experts was a century where migratory motions set the tone, seeing that if the chief characteristic of these is that they were from south to north, east and west, looking as countriesA less developed south many people migrated north and most developed industrialised states, and besides the Asiatic continent was a great migration to Europe, the United States and Canada.A This has impacted to a great extent on the host towns, as these now hold a big figure of people of other nationalities with the usual influences both culturally, and economically and politically of class. But these motions have non completed and the hereafter has to be really influential in footings of the guidelines which states are to put off the migration.A You can speak so, that was given a new order in the universe because of demographic alterations, seeing that there are countries like the United States and Canada that have a big figure of migrators from other countries, for illustration in the U.S. is a really big populationA who have arrived in the state of the South American continent, even to talk of a Hispanization of this state, while in Canada the bulk of migrators come from eastern states like China.A Meanwhile on the European continent there are two phenomena worthy of analysis foremost of all the aging European population because most of all to the low rate of births that occur in this continent due to factors such as households with one kid, marriagesA more delayed when there is no opportunity of gestating, usage of all methods of contraceptive method, which has resul ted in jobs in the economic system of these states as easy running out of labour, there is a good venture that lead to the creationA new concerns and besides has increased the load on the provinces due to pensions to be paid to a population that is non productive.A Even states that the European population is â€Å" hedonic † and is excessively lazy to work out what is damaging to its economic system[ 1 ]along with this phenomenon is one that is migration in big Numberss of people from Eastern states, most of all withA Muslim faith have come to the old continent and multiplied in great Numberss, bring forthing as a population job that is non good prepared, no one truly skilled labour to help the production and besides that they have been turning muchA , to the extent that some are stating that in 2050 Europe will be Muslim.A CEPAL has cleared these alterations in the European population by stating in his study of the Symposium on International Migration: â€Å" In the early 20th century population of Europe had, about ternary the size of the African, while today the populations of Africa and Europe are about the same size, but by 2050 it is expected that the population of Africa has threeA times the size of Europe †[ 2 ] As you can see this influence occurs non merely in bring forthing societal alteration in society which highlights the socialization of the states of the mixture of civilizations and traditions that can agitate the national individuality loss values of eachA part, but besides affects the economic and of class political. All this has had little by small in having states arise jobs such as neo-Nazi groups which are against the â€Å" invasion † of their districts pro from people from other states, taking to societal struggles and even in metropoliss like disordersA seen in some European states, most of all by immature people who feel that their occupation chances are being taken by migrators, harmonizing to CEPAL â€Å" turning xenophobia in some states, caused by recession and unemployment has exacerbatedA ill will towards migratory workers †[ 3 ].A But look at the political degree because host states seeking to halt a sea of people, so to talk, that comes to your floors begin to place and develop criterions that can be considered anti-immigrant, seeking to forestall the population becomingA largely migrators, as was the instance of the U.S. in recent times has even constructing a wall merely seeking to forestall more Mexicans from come ining their district illicitly. All this has deductions in both, in the receiving state and the beginning one, seeing such an of import facet with respect to economic sciences, since migrators normally work to acquire money sent back to their households, which is called remittals andA that have become a really of import point in the economic system of less developed states, to the extent that the crisis of recent old ages affect this facet of the economic system by diminishing the sum of remittals due to the loss of occupations on allA United States.A These remittals are invested in betterments in the quality of household life that migrators have left buttocks and there are besides nest eggs in investing, which can take to greater advancement and development of these regions.A But neither can deny that â€Å" south-north migration has contributed to the sustained development of states of the North †[ 4 ] But this implies some jobs for having states like the U.S. and Canada, although the major impact has been the first to hold the largest figure of migrators, since many of them are illegal or undocumented immigrants are engaged in work, which form portion orA the informal or belowground economy.A And this must go on so as the tendency given that there ‘s more to migrate despite all limitations that might be, it is besides clear that the population will be from now on uninterrupted diminution, even the least developed countriesA But despite all this in 2050 there will be more or less 9.6 billion people[ 5 ].A But sing that in Europe by and large, that population diminution, rise in the U.S. and Canada, trebling in Africa. While Latin America, will hold a medium growth.A In general we can state that the rate of kids per adult female in hapless states will be reduced to 2.5 whereas in industrialised states will be even lower, but these will hold a rate higher than for older individ uals, to the extent thatA is said to be two aged for every child.A In general, surveies on universe population and its tendency until 2050 says that in industrialised states like Japan, China and Europe every bit good as the North American birth rate will be merely the lower limit to guarantee the endurance of the population.A But in most states of the universe much of the population will be over 40 years.A Can so be summarized by stating that in the poorest states will hold an mean population growing while developed births this growing will be lower but the population may stay more or less stable growing by migration. But another job that must be considered is that slow population growing that is every twenty-four hours more and more resources consumed many of which are slow to be replaced and others can non be replaced because in many instances have lost the ability regenerative capacity of the land so that resource will be a large job in 2050 doing it the poorest states that normally consume more resources are going poorer, which of class may increase the migration of these intoA more developed states.A A A A AFor all the above is clear that all states, both having and beginning states of migrators to take every one by his side steps to cut down this migration worldwide. Recipient states should endeavor to cut down this moving ridge with new legislative acts for the migrators but thereby bring forth xenophobic hatred and strife that finally merely convey societal and security jobs, should besides give more support without excessively many conditions on developing countriesA that they can in bend offer policies that encourage their citizens to stay in its district. The truth is that a true population policy has non been anyplace in the universe, there have been some stray steps but small has been achieved together.A By states seeking development should hold authoritiess who believe authorities policies that either direct or indirect impact on demographic procedures such as in-migration and airing of prophylactic methods, and stronger controls on immigration.A It should be clear that for states like Canada or the United States, long-run chances depend greatly on economic affairs of planetary demographic alterations that determine the mobility of labour in the international, so that by 2050 the successA of states and its prosperity depends on holding a good work force, trained and ever ready for invention and version of the alterations that are traveling being made As shown in the figures for the universe state of affairs in 2050 will non be good in footings of population, but authoritiess to take steps non merely have to see the figures, but must find themselves personally acceptable rates population growing, migration, and territorial distribution.A And when we determine that is what is right for them in this affair should explicate appropriate schemes that lead to improved quality of life of people. Those schemes have to be done by the host developed states like Canada and united provinces, because there are the most affected 1s with the illegal in-migrations, if they do n't take actions in this topic, the economic system of these two states is traveling to be affected, and non merely the issue of the economic system, but besides the political relations and civilization, both states must make or implement a large strategic to keep the security of the boundary lines to forestall more people to travel illegal to their lands, but at the same clip give chances to those that already are inside those states this would assist many households and subsequently will be the following coevals that will work and contend for their host state. Mostly Canada that has a really low life speciation ‘s, because its population is acquiring older faster and by 2050 will be a really old population, that ‘s why they should maintain those immigrants and had a good political relations of in-m igrations to give helped to those who truly needed in the hapless states, but is this the solution? Or what about if those states restricted all sort of in-migrations, and set up a new civilization with the people that are already populating at that place, doing a mix civilization like one clasp piece and get down a new life, these are inquiries and avowals that are discuses every twenty-four hours by every one, those who approve migrations, and those who does non O.K. it[ 6 ] But the treatment will stay for long clip, because is natural for he authoritiess to discourse this forever without taking belongingss determinations, but when the clip acquire shorter is when migration wo n't hold control and those states will be really affected either if they have many illegal people traversing boundary lines or no one traveling at that place, the thru is that Canada and united provinces need the immigrants to take their economic systems to the top but with high control to forestall to neglect in security spreads where united provinces is really concern and where Canada helped a batch to its neighbour, besides the growth of unemployment degree in united provinces caused by the crisis, China and besides by the illegal in-migration, that ‘s manner they have to play together for this of import issue.

Assess Albert Speer’s contribution to the Nazi war effort Essay

Albert Speer’s contribution to the Nazi war effort started well before the declaration of war. His work for the Nazi regime aided Adolf Hitler in lifting the morale of the German people and consolidating Nazi power which was determined to engage in armed conflict. Speer was an accomplished architect and a highly efficient organiser. Hitler addressed Berlin’s university students at a Berlin rally in 1931, and Speer who was in the audience was so overwhelmed by what he heard that he joined the Nazi party and committed himself to his work. By 1932 he was working independently as an architect and used his party contacts to gain him more work. In 1933, Goebbels asked Speer to renovate the Propaganda Ministry. His next project proved to be even more successful planning and organising massive banners, swastikas and searchlights for the celebration of the Day of National Labour on the Tempelhof Field in Berlin on May 1st 1933. Goebbels was so impressed that he commissioned Speer to design the surround of the Nuremberg Rally later that year. Soon he was renovating Nazi Party offices and through his hard work and enthusiasm he mad a name for himself amongst the Nazi leadership. With the death of Hitler’s architect Troost, Hitler co-opted Speer as his personal architectural advisor. They became personal friends and Speer moved his family to be near Hitler’s mountain lodge. Speer was commissioned to rebuild the Nuremberg Party Rally grounds and due to his success in propaganda architecture Hitler appointed him in 1938 as General Building Inspector for the National Capital. Speer placed his department at the disposal of the Wehrmacht. Among his innovations were quick-reaction squads who construct roads and cleared away debris. Before long, these units would be used to clear bomb sites. As the war progressed, he failed to convince Hitler of the need to suspend peacetime construction projects, so he continued to work on the Berlin and Nuremburg plans. Speer also oversaw the construction of buildings for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, and developed a considerable organization to deal with this work. Speer continued with his duties designing and constructing for the Reich up until 1942. In this period, his ideas and plans were used by Hitler to show the German population how great the nation could be. That year he was appointed Reich Minister for Armaments & Munitions as a reward for his faithful and unswerving loyalty to Nazi Party and Hitler. Hitler also believed that due to his close relationship to Speer and Speer’s loyalty, he could control arm’s production. Speer’s effect was immediate. In the first six months, he increased production of guns by 27%, tanks by 25% and ammunition by 97%. By the end of 1944, production had increased by 300%. This included a rise in the construction of aircraft from 9500 in 1941, to 34300 by 1944. All this was done with only a 30% increase in the workforce. Speer convinced Hitler that many workers should be diverted from producing consumer items for armaments production. He also used foreign workers and prisoners to work as forced labour. When German war production was at its peak in late September 1944, there were over seven million foreign labourers and 400,000 prisoners of war working as slave labourers. This was approximately 20% of the total workforce. Speer was so efficient with his duties, that many historians credit him with prolonging the war for a further twelve months. Speer was a great believer in the V1 & V2 Rocket programs to swing the tide of the war in Germany’s favour. He claimed that the inability of senior Nazi figures to fully comprehend rocket technology led to a delay in overcoming initial problems with the V2. He believed that the V2 would have been operational far sooner if the project had received greater backing. General Eisenhower claimed after the war that if the V Weapon program had been in place in earl 1944, the D-Day landing may have been impossible. In early 1944, Speer was admitted to a clinic as a result of health problems. During the period of his recovery, he had time to reflect and in doing so, realised his growing disenchantment with Hitler and the Nazi regime. In November 1944 in a private conversation with Joseph Goebbels he indicated his belief that a German victory was not possible. The war was going so poorly for Germany that even Speer’s talent and efficiency drives were unable to reverse the oncoming defeat. By the middle of the year, he had disobeyed Hitler’s orders to put a halt of producing aircraft and boost anti-aircraft production. He also refused to engage in Hitler’s ‘Scorched Earth’ policy which meant that all infrastructure, power supplies, records & documents and food be destroyed before it could fall into the hands of the advancing Allied forces. He did this because he had realised that such an action would devastate any possible chance of recovery for the German people after the war had been lost. It is evident that Albert Speer had an overwhelming effect on the Nazi war effort. His ability to organise and plan projects from architecture, which would lift the peoples morale, to the production of arms which enabled the German armed forces to continue the fight against the allies for so long. Without a person of his ability, the German war machine and the Nazi government would have fallen far earlier.

CRITICAL APPRAISAL Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

CRITICAL APPRAISAL - Essay Example This trend first came forth during the 1990s, when companies were trying to outsource non-core business tasks to specialist firms that cost less, which meant giving out a lot of information to smaller groups of contractors in different parts of the globe. It was like inviting outsiders into their company to help in finding innovations and solutions to current problems. This was a great fundamental change that spread among all companies, a business breakthrough made possible by Wikis. The Wiki platform has been one of the widely used Web 2.0 technologies. Wikis are web-based software that allow Internet users to edit data and other material (e.g. Wikipedia). So, the business model was named Wikinomics (Dawe, 2009). According to Don Tapscott, an expert on business-strategy and a co-author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, companies have realized that they have to connect to their customers and listen to what ideas they can offer. It means that companies have to interact with the outside world and gather ideas from the outside to use for new products or product improvement. This business breakthrough positions companies who are already using it in their strategies to face today’s changing economy with ease and gear themselves towards success (Dawe, 2009). With the time’s fast-paced global marketplace, successful collaboration is the answer to achieving a competitive advantage in the business field, and Cisco has through forward regarding mass collaboration. Cisco is known to be the worldwide networking leader that changes the way people connect, communicate and collaborate with each other. It is a multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. It manufactures switches, routers, and other networking and communications hardware both for business and home usage (St. James Press, 2000). Cisco Systems was founded in 1984 by Len Bosack, Sandy Lerner, and Richard Trojano in

Plagiarism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Plagiarism - Essay Example Plagiarism is a serious offence as it involves intellectual theft which is an offence against the original author. Plagiarism will entail not giving sufficient credit for another author’s ideas or words, claiming to be the author of some work without doing the work and claiming another author’s artistic or scholarly work as your own (Thompson, 2008). Plagiarism is wrong as it involves stealing another authors ideas which is morally not any better than stealing a car, or something else. It is also wrong because it represents information illiteracy as it shows that someone is not capable of researching and presenting one’s own ideas and thoughts, and this means that someone is not capable of handling their own information, which amounts to effective illiteracy. The Internet has made cheating or plagiarism easier than ever before as there are thousands of relevant sources in the Internet and students can simply copy and paste information and use it on their term pap ers or essays. Students may engage in plagiarism for various reasons and it can be intentional or unintentional. At times, students are overwhelmed by workload, and they may have deadlines being the first reason for the lack of understanding of the procedures for citing materials from other sources. Not understanding how to cite will make the student make mistakes while citing sources, and this amounts to unintentional plagiarism. Some students may have bad time management skills, which will result in plagiarizing their assignments or term papers because they do not have enough time to search for information and present it as their own through proper paraphrasing and citation. Deadlines and multiple assignments at the same time make other students plagiarize as they will have not enough time to research and present plagiarism free papers.in the event of trying to hand in assignments on time, students will search the Internet and copy paste information so as to beat the deadlines.

Globalization Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Globalization - Case Study Example Many things have conspired to make this trend a reality, primary of which is the constant push for globalization from liberal political theories that a â€Å"rising tide lifts all boats† as famously uttered by former president John F. Kennedy in one of his speeches. Another is rapid technology, especially in the areas of information and communications technologies (ICT) in which both geographic distance and time zone differentials had been shortened or compressed, in what is now called as a â€Å"flat world† where people produce goods and services continuously on a twenty-four hour basis. A very frequent theme of globalization critics is the concept of a â€Å"race to the bottom† in which manufacturers try to get the cheapest products made abroad at the lowest labor costs possible. These issues are the main concerns in this management case study regarding bicycle manufacturing. Discussion Super Sized Cycles is a little niche maker of custom-built bicycles intende d for big (obese or fat) people who are too big or heavy for ordinary and conventional bicycles. It is owned by Ms. Denizot and is in existence for barely five years already and operates out of the Burlington city in Vermont State in the United States of America. Her bikes are certainly not cheap, as these costs range from $699 up to $3,395 in price but these are built sturdier to carry overweight people and not collapse under a heavy load; the wheels, tires, seats, and steel frames are built much stronger than ordinary bikes. Sales last year was around $104,000 only. Mission Statement – Big Bikes for Big People at an affordable price of high quality Target Market – the obvious target market for this small niche-market manufacturer of big bikes are people who are obese or overweight which ordinary bicycles cannot carry as their big weight cause these ordinary bikes to either collapse or suffer a flat tire. There is now a sizable number of people who belong to this cate gory of overweight people as there is an on-going obesity epidemic in the United States of America due to changing lifestyle patterns, primarily the lack of any adequate physical exercise to burn off excess calories and the habits of many people to consume a lot of junk foods such as fast-food which are low in nutrients but high in bad cholesterol. In fact, this obesity epidemic is now so bad it is estimated that one out of every three adult Americans is considered overweight based on the body mass index or BMI which is the easiest way to measure if a person is obese or not (The Economist para. 3). Even children today are also markedly obese compared to kids two or three decades ago. Economists have considered imposing a so-called â€Å"fat tax† to discourage the people from eating too much junk food these days. However, there is another more positive approach to changing people behaviors through an activist approach which is to encourage obese people to be more physically ac tive through exercise. One of the healthier and more fun ways to do so is through biking and Super Sized Cycles has wonderfully found this viable alternative by offering to overweight people the chance to own a bike that is suitable for their size. There is a clear customer need for big bikes for big people who often cannot find the right bike. A generic business-level strategy for this small company for big bikers is to market exclusively to people who are considered obese based on their individual BMI. This is a type of focused strategy which means the company should sell big bikes only and nothing else that will dilute its strategy and make it lose its marketing focus. Examples are the two models that the owner had developed by herself (named as â€Å"

Philosophy Articles Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Philosophy Articles - Assignment Example People have for many times viewed the establishment of acts that govern critical aspects as the air pollution as the way forward, this, she has indicatively shown not be true by pointing out different perspectives. In the article indication of the words of Robert Crandall of the brooking institution; said, the pollution reduction in the 1960’s was more effective before there was serious federal policy. This then shows that the reduction of pollution has not been as from the effects of the government issues (Shaw, 2005).Another issue that Jane has brought in light is the misconceptions of the love canal. There was a major contamination problem that ensued from the chemical leakage to the people’s yard in the year 1978. The blame was made to the chemical industry that was responsible for the chemical content that was buried under these developments. The misconception here that Jane sheds light on is that the blame from this was supposed to be on the school that ignored th e constant warnings from the Hooker chemical company. Another instance in the article is the aspect of the ‘Tennessee Tree massacre’, in this, Jane illustrate the fact that people blamed the clear cut of tree as an environmental hazard. The misconception of this aspect is that people tend to not have the motive that this activity is purposed for. By clearing parts of the trees, there is the intention to plant more trees that tend to grow at a faster rate and will then cover the lost parts of the trees. The process of clear cuts has been used by the Silviculture by both private and government based industry. In both, the intention has always been to replace the trees with fast growing pines. With Jane Shaw having made these points in her article, the arguments can be said to be true since in her indication of the fact that the establishment of Air pollution Act do not have a significant impact in the pollution reduction. This is true since there is more use of gas energy compared to coal which its usage became more and usage of such energy as coal was reduced. The other points including the Tennessee tree massacre scenario is true since the danger was imminent and the company had issued warnings of the damage that could have been felt and could have been avoided. 2. Many people believe that there are some things that only government can provide. One example is public schools but Sheldon Richman, in his article ‘can the free market provide public education?’ argues that in fact, better and less expense education could be supplied by private enterprise. Explain his argument. Do you agree? Why? Sheldon Richman tends to demonstrate that the private enterprise is capable of providing better and less expensive education. Richman states that there are the private and nonprofit organizations that provide all manner of education. These ranges from the comprehensive schools that has traditional academy subjects to the specialized schools that of fer subjects such as martial arts, fine arts and many other subjects. Richman argues that the public education is taxed and the government uses the unfairness of having resources compared to the free market to its advantage to the ‘unfair competitio

In your opinion, what is Walt Whitman's message regarding America and Essay

In your opinion, what is Walt Whitman's message regarding America and Americans - Essay Example Whitman reflected all the richness of life in American his poems. â€Å" leaves of Grass is highly praised by Connor. â€Å" Behold in Leaves Of Grass the immense and absolute rise. It is all our own. The nation is in it. To understand Greece study Iliad and Odyssey. Study ‘The Leaves of Grass’ to understand America.’ The leaves of Grass’ is the epic of America† Whitman delights in giving us catalogues of the variety of professions followed in America. He does not shrink from picturing prostitutes and butchers. The whole wide range of the American physical scene is brought before us. He succeeded in conveying to the readers, a broad panoramic grasp of America‘s spaciousness, her opulence and her veritable and multitude ness of life. Whitman’s’ Song of Myself contains plenty of catalogues of characteristic phenomenon of America. In â€Å"A Song for Occupation ‘he praises the divine average. Thieves’ prostitutes and d runkards are regarded by the poet with as much sympathy and love. No human being is treated with content.

Major U.S. Historical Events 1980-Present Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Major U.S. Historical Events 1980-Present - Essay Example When Ronald Reagan was inaugurated president in 1980, his term was ushered in with a wave of new conservatism. Reagan, a military hard-liner and staunch anti-communist, was able to confront the USSR and end the Cold War without precipitating a nuclear disaster. His administration enacted several initiatives that would form the basis of a multi-faceted attack on the USSR. This was accomplished by increased military spending, support of democracy in the Soviet's satellite countries, and crippling the economy of the Soviet Union. These initiatives in unison eroded the communist system and by the end of his term, the Soviets had capitulated. The increase in military expenditures was responsible for the implementation of National Security Defense Directive (NSDD) 32, signed by Reagan in 1982. Its purpose was to financially and covertly support anti-Soviet groups in Eastern Europe (Edward's). As anti-Soviet sentiment rose in Eastern Europe, Reagan enacted NSDD 66, which called for a clandestine economic war on the Soviet Union. It called for limiting the USSR's access to technology as well as curtailing their ability to produce natural gas (Edwards). Embargoing the Soviet economy was coupled with increased pressure exerted by American military goals to bring the Soviet system to a gradual halt during Reagan's administration. The dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the most celebrated symbol of the victory, ended 40 years of American effort and opened up new opportunities for peace around the world as well as new challenges for America's foreign policy. The ending of the Cold War served to increase the public's belief in America's system of democracy and allowed diplomatic and military resources to be turned towards other endeavors. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the memory of the failure to secure a victory in Southeast Asia decades earlier still fomented fears of another Vietnam. Iraq, debt-ridden and weary from years of war with Iran, made a desperate and miscalculated move to invade Kuwait. President George Bush Sr. was able to capitalize on Huessein's miscalculations and through diplomacy and political savvy was able to form a united coalition of nations to stand against Iraqi aggression. Saudi Arabia, a vital American interest, and 14 members of the Arab League joined to condemn Iraq's aggression (Persian Gulf War). Within days, international cooperation led by Bush, resulted in a global embargo against the Iragi regime. Bush, able to unite America under a new wave of national pride, assembled a military team to plan a strategic operation while diplomacy and UN Sanctions worked behind the scenes in an effort to oust the Iraqis from Kuwait. As diplomacy failed and UN deadlines expired, the first air attacks on Iraq began on January 17, 1991 (Atkinson). After more than a month of air strikes, a 4 day ground war decisively expelled Iraq from Kuwait and decimated their military. This rapid victory, with few casualties, placed America as an international military power once again. The coalition victory brought with it new hope for the future of global cooperation to suppress dictators and promote human rights. American pride had been restored and resulted in a new

RISK MANAGEMENT IN ABN AMRO BANK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

RISK MANAGEMENT IN ABN AMRO BANK - Essay Example Credit risk on loans is mitigated by reducing loan limits and exposures to companies that are below investment grade (BBB or UCR1 to UCR3-) levels. Limits are imposed on companies operating in industries that have been given an unfavorable economic outlook. In addition to carrying out a stress test on individual portfolios the company has also sought to mitigate credit risk by hedging in the form of credit default swaps (CDS) (ABN AMRO, 2010, p. ). Furthermore, the company carries out an assessment of the value of its collateral portfolio in order to determine how secured its loans are and therefore the extent of their exposure. Credit officers are given the task of monitoring the quality of ABN AMROs loan portfolio on a regular basis (ABN AMRO 2003, p.8). Credit risk is reported in the form of an analysis according to the industry sector in which the loans are made, the type of loans, with an indication of the carrying amount of the loans. An analysis of its credit exposure and thei r currency status is also given (ABN AMRO 2010, p.68-70). According to Bessis (2002, p15-16) and ABN AMRO (2010, p.71) Country risk is the risk that there are crisis related situations in a country. The causes of country risk in ABN AMRO are that funds or goods cannot be transferred from the country as a result of convertibility and transfer restrictions (ABN AMRO 2003, p. 10). ... 10). According to ABN AMRO (2010, p.94-95), interest rate risk is measured by calculating the net interest income (NII); NII-at-Risk; duration of equity; and VaR. The company monitors interest rate risk by noting the development of the NII under different yield curve scenario to determine the NII- at-Risk. Interest rate risk is mitigated by hedging, in the form of interest rate swaps. The company reports interest rate risk by providing a comparative analysis of the percentage NII-at-Risk; duration of equity in terms of years; and VaR banking book between the current and prior year. Currency risk is measured using VaR. It monitored by comparing short and long positions with limits set by the Group Risk Committee (GRC). Currency risk is mitigated with the use of various hedging strategies such as futures. Foreign currency gains and losses are reported in the Income Statement (ABN AMRO 2010, p.95; 2003, p. 14). According to ABN AMRO (2010, p. 83-84), market risk is measured using VaR an d a wide array of stress tests. Risks are controlled by setting limits for each trade desk and by setting counterparty credit exposure limits. ABN AMRO mitigates this risk by diversifying its risks across geographic locations and industries. Market risk is reported using a graph as well as a comparative analysis of the highest, lowest and average VaR of the current and prior year. Liquidity risk is measured using Loan to Debt (LtD) ratio, stable funding over non-liquid assets ratio (SF/NLA) which is an internally developed ratio and survival period (ABN AMRO 2010, p. 87). In order to mitigate liquidity risk ABN AMRO diversifies its currency and geography and maintains a wide investor base (ABN AMRO 2010, p. 87). A

American Dream Essay Example for Free

American Dream Essay In the literatures we have read this semester all of the characters have a dream that consists of a plan and multiple goals that sum up to the American Dream, however, there have been obstacles that sometimes hinder these American dreams. These obstacles range from internal conflict to society itself. The question is if it is possible for these characters to struggle with obstacles and overcome them to reach their dream? In â€Å"Step Children of a Nation† Isabel Gonzalez explains how the probabilities for Mexican-Americans in America during the mid 20th century for achieving the American Dream were very slim due to the obstacles that were presented by society (Gonzalez 162). Pedro Pietri details in the â€Å"Puerto Rican Obituary† the personal struggles endured by five Puerto Ricans in New York while attempting to achieve the American Dream (Pietri 212). We have no choice but to accept the standard of the United States and act in accordance with the society expectations as we see Ysreal do in Junot Diaz’ â€Å"No Face† (Diaz 417). Each character in these texts has the opportunity of success and only those who are willing to make a persistent and consistent effort will be able to achieve their dream despite their own personal struggles and the obstacles presented by society. Even though there are many obstacles to achieving this dream, it isn’t impossible for it to become a reality. The Mexican-Americans in Step Children of a nation lacked the ambition needed to achieve the American Dream. The most difficult obstacles to overcome are those presented by society. Isabel Gonzalez states what life was like for Mexican Americans trying to achieve the American Dream in the mid 20th century under poor living conditions and economic exploitation. These characters acculturated to the American lifestyle and the non citizens had the desire to become citizens. In fact they supported World War II (Leal) and Gonzalez noted that: It is a well known fact that the number of war casualties among the Mexican-American soldiers was very high in proportion to the population (Gonzalez , 163). But even after this the Anglo-Saxon society continued to discriminate and pursue segregation from their society. The Mexicans were forced to live in slums. During this time the homes these people lived in were hardly fit for animals and had no repairs in years but yet brought in income from Mexicans far beyond the value of the homes (Gonzalez , 165). They arrived in the United States believing a promise of personal economic growth (Aguilar), but instead came to live in substandard conditions with the hope of a better future for their children. Gonzalez states that industries have succeeded in keeping the Mexican the most underpaid and most oppressed worker so that they will always have a surplus of cheap labor (Gonzalez , 167). This economic exploitation caused the children to also have substandard education and health. These situations forced some of the characters to keep quiet due to fear of deportation and the reality of achieving the American Dream nearly impossible. But if these characters wouldn’t have overlooked the possibility of change and set aside their fear they would have been so much closer to achieving the American Dream. Another obstacle the characters from the texts we reviewed in class had to overcome was their own personal oppressions. In â€Å"Puerto Rican Obituary†, Pietri talks about 5 characters: Juan/ Miguel/ Milagros/ Olga/ Manuel and their daily struggles as a Nuyorican (Monthly Review Foundation) who didn’t accept the standards of the United States. These Nuyoricans were motivated to immigrate to this country by the American dream which turned into a nightmare presented as death. They were divided between two cultures and two languages. Juan/ Miguel/ Milagros/ Olga/ Manuel are attempting to live as a â€Å"gringo†. Their unfortunate situation is that as they attempt to leave behind their language they are also leaving behind their identity (Brook). And as they realize this they are torn between the dream and the nightmare. They feel overworked and underpaid. All died/ dreaming about america/ waking them up in the middle of the night/ screaming: Mira Mira/ your name is on the winning lottery ticket/ for one hundred thousand dollars (Pietri 36-41) The characters in this text believed they can achieve the American Dream by something simpler like winning the lottery. But by believing this almost impossible wish their dream becomes a nightmare which is reflected as their death. They dream of belonging to a community of â€Å"clean-cut lily-white neighborhood/ Puerto Ricanless scenes† and being â€Å"the first spics on the block† where â€Å"gringos want them lynched† (215). By not being able to accomplish this dream the â€Å"puertorriquenos† find themselves shut out of America’s economic opportunities and lifestyle, and realize that they are unemployed, living on welfare, bitter, and degraded. This situation leads to the death of their American dream along with their dignity; therefore the characters in this text do not achieve the American dream. Ysrael is a child with a disfigured face who knows all too well the difference between the nightmare and dream. He is a child that has accepted the fact that he has to wear a mask in public to be accepted in his community. He compares himself to Kaliman. Ysrael’s superpower is the power of INVISBILITY (Diaz , 418). He dreams of escaping Dominican Republic and going â€Å"up north† and has hopes that the doctor will fix him. In the end of the story Ysrael has to make sure to wear his mask when his father comes out but doesn’t have to worry when he’s around his mother. All of this symbolizes the life of an immigrant attempting to achieve the American Dream (Alford). Ysreal’s disfigured face is the life the immigrants have in their country of origin. The surgery that the doctor and the priest promise is the American Dream. The mask is the sacrifices the immigrants make by acculturating to the American society. The superpower of invisibility represents how people are obligated to put themselves out of sight from society when they do not act according to society’s expectations. When Diaz mentions that Ysrael wants to go â€Å"up north† he is referring to the United States. Also the father is stands for the American culture (where Ysrael always has to wear his mask) and the mother represents his own culture or his identity. The boys who throw rocks at him and the cleaning lady represent the obstacles the immigrants must surpass to achieve their dream. In this text Ysrael does achieve the American Dream because he has accepted the fact that he has to wear his mask in front of his father and when he goes out in public. But at the same time he does not lose his identify because those who are around him remind him of how his face became disfigured over and over again (Diaz , 419). Pietri talks about all the obstacles the characters face while attempting to achieve the American dream but if Juan/ Miguel/ Milagros/ Olga/ Manuel would have accepted the standards of society in the United States or if the Mexicans in â€Å"Step Children of a Nation† would have been more ambitious like Ysrael in â€Å"No Face† their nightmare could have converted back to the dream they immigrated to the United States for. So to answer the question if is possible for these characters to struggle with obstacles and overcome them to reach their dream the answer is only if they were all as ambitious, persistent, and committed as Ysrael. The character Ysrael did not let his disfigured face or his father hold him back from achieving his dream. Ysrael had people yell out to him â€Å"No Face† but yet he continues his path to his set goal. He was determined to be persistent and consistent in pursuing his dream. Works Cited Aguilar, Mario E. From Immigrant Ousiders to Indigenous Tribal National Identities. Web. 09 June 2011. Alford, William. Junot Diazs Drown Sex, Race and Power. 10 Feb 2005. Web. 08 June 2011. Brook, Elizabeth. Nuyroican Newness. 2010 11 May. Web. 08 June 2011. Diaz, Junot. No Face. Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States. Ed. Nicolas Kanellos. New York: Oxford Press, 2002. 417-420. Print. Gonzalez, Isabel. Step Children of a Nation. Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States. Ed. Nicolas Kanellos. New York: Oxford Press, 2002. 162-170. Print. Leal, David A. American Public Opinion. October 2005. webspace. utexas. edu. Web. 08 June 2011. Monthly Review Foundation. Monthly Review: Puerto Rican Obituary. 01 June 2004. Web. 08 June 2011. Pietri, Pedro. Puerto Rican Obituary. Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States. Ed. Nicolas Kanellos. New York: Oxford Press, 2002. 212-220. Print.

Psychology in a Prayer for Owen Meany Essay Example for Free

Psychology in a Prayer for Owen Meany Essay Thoroughly leading up until the climactic ending in A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving explains to his readers just how important it is to Owen Meany to fulfill his duties and obligations to God. Like a hobbit traveling to Mt. Doom in Mordor, he is determined and dedicated more than anyone in the novel to achieve his goals, despite his responsibilities and, what should be, his major concerns in his life. Owen completely envelopes himself in the fact that he is an instrument used by God, and doesn’t even stop to think to realize and remember his loved ones, whom are Hester, his love struck girlfriend, and John, his best friend who has been with him through thick and thin ever since they were children. It is bittersweet, I suppose, about the choices he ultimately ends up making until the end. On one hand he will miss out on the opportunities he can easily obtain through attending Harvard and making a life for himself with his most important people by his side (Hester and John); on the other hand, however, by choosing to follow God’s calling for his life, he will conclusively act upon the happening that impacts the ending of the novel altogether. Owen, as one finds out throughout the novel, is excessively brilliant, surpassing the intelligence of other people his age by far. Tabitha Wheelwright acknowledges this special gift in Owen insisting that he attend Gravesend Academy, where his brilliance be put to good use. It turns out that it was, for Owen ends up being the best student at the Academy, which almost guarantees him the ability to attend Harvard to now receive the best college education possible, but certain setbacks keep him from doing so. His careless mistake of getting caught making fake IDs for other students opens the door for the principle to seize at the opportunity to expel Owen, which severely hurts his chances to get into any worthwhile colleges. But with this, Owen understands that his purpose must lie elsewhere, because nothing happens for no reason. Even before this incident occurs, he knows his death will be undeniable for it is a part of God’s plan for him, and that â€Å"the shot† is involved in this future incident. Owen’s responsibilities to his education is nothing, however, compared to the conflicting feelings Hester and John feel about Owen’s prophecies and predictions about his death. â€Å"Owen knows that he must sacrifice his life to save others, both physically and spiritually (Rosefeldt, 1). Following this, he joins the army to go to Vietnam in an attempt to seal his fate as he believes God wants him to do. Hester practically resents Owen for his stubbornness in doing this, placing that as more important, his passion, in front of her, his implied â€Å"responsibility. † After his death, Hester becomes a hard rock sex icon in the music world in a ways to cope, and John completely unaware how he will now live his life, for Owen was always such a compass in his life, that he feels helpless without him. Owen’s obsession with his passion has completely blinded him to the fact that his responsibilities, the ones that care about him the most, need him the most, but even with them he puts his God given goals first, as always. Lastly, toward the end of the novel, Owen’s only, and I mean that literally, thing on his mind, is fulfilling his purpose, which he ends up doing in the chapter â€Å"the shot† where he sacrifices himself, as Jesus Christ did for the world, for the sake of the Vietnamese orphan children. â€Å"When Owen Meany said ‘READY? ’ I figured we had about two seconds left to live. But he soared far above my arms-when I lifted him, he soared even higher than usual; he wasnt taking any chances. He went straight up, never turning to face me, and instead of merely dropping the grenade and leaving it on the window ledge, he caught hold of the ledge with both hands, pinning the grenade against the ledge and trapping it there safely with his hands and forearms. He wanted to be sure that the grenade couldnt roll off the ledge and fall back in the room (Irving, 623-624). † Here Owen proves the symbolism for the concept of sacrifice, and just how much of a Christ-like figure he is, practically mirroring Christ’s life. From the mysterious secret revealed that Owen is actually from a virgin birth, to the sacrifice he makes for the sake of others, this mirror image is quite apparent. From the start Owen knew he would become a hero for those in need of one, and his lifelong passion for it is finally is proved to be worthwhile in the final chapter. Owen Meany has to be one of the most admirable characters in any novel ever written by the fact that once he sets his mind to something, there is absolutely no changing it by any means. Regardless of his loved ones, he new this is what he had to do, and did not want to disrupt God’s plans that He had for him. He knew being a sacrifice as well as a hero to others was his fate, and he learned long ago fate is not something to be messed with. This also reveals just how similar God and Owen are to each other, and how each other’s lives are identical in almost all means- they are selfless, and just want to prove to others, as well as themselves, tha t their purpose on this earth is put too tremendous use, despite the clashes with the outcome of their responsibilities.

The Psychology Underlying The Narrative Strategy English Literature Essay

The Psychology Underlying The Narrative Strategy English Literature Essay Robert Louis Stevensons novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a great illustration of how different disciplines of education are intertwined. Although this novel is used in many English courses, it could also be used in a Psychology course more specifically, an Abnormal Psychology course. On the surface, Dr. Jekyll is clearly suffering from dissociative identity disorder, more commonly known as a split personality. He alternates between the personalities of himself and his evil half, Mr. Hyde; however, below the surface there is another way this novel relates to Psychology. Dr. Sigmund Freud, a very notorious psychologist from the Victorian Era from which this novel is written, proposed a theory called Psychoanalytic Theory. This theory suggests the notion that the unconscious is split into three dimensions: the ego, the id, and the superego. Each of these dimensions represents one of the main characters in this novel. The narrative strategy in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is effective because it offers the perspectives of the three main characters, Dr. Hastie Lanyon, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, and Mr. Gabriel Utterson, which stimulates all parts of the unconscious making the novel appealing to all types of people. Dr. Hastie Lanyon represents the ego of the story which Freud describes as the decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle (McCann, and Weiten 523). Lanyon is very much a realist. He speaks dismissively of Dr. Jekylls experiments describing them as  unscientific balderdash (Stevenson, 38). Lanyons dominant ego also makes him very skeptical. An instance that shows this characteristic is when he is following instructions to gather the contents of Dr. Jekylls drawer. Upon finding the contents, Dr. Lanyon says, Here were a phial of some tincture, a paper of some salt, and the record of a series of experiments that had led (like too many of Jekylls investigations) to no end of practical usefulness (Stevenson, 73). Dr. Lanyon seriously doubts the value of the work of his former colleague, Dr. Jekyll. His letter which shows his point of view of the events involving Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde shows the cynical side of the story which stimulates the re aders own ego by allowing them to question the plausibility of the events that occur in this mysterious novel. Dr. Jekylls alternate personality, Hyde, represents the id, which according to Freud, is the primitive, instinctive component that operates according to the pleasure principle (McCann, and Weiten 523). Hyde is described as a troglodyte. This is basically defined as a primitive or caveman-like creature. Hyde is described as a short and hideous man that repulses everyone that crosses his path. The id can also be thought of as the devil on your shoulder that gives bad advice just to satisfy the here and now instincts of the unconscious. Evil is always described as inferior to good and the way Dr. Jekylls clothes are too big for Hyde correlates with this outlook. The id has a very powerful negative influence over the unconscious mind just as Hyde is very negatively influential over Dr. Jekylls personality. According to Freud there is always an internal conflict going on inside the unconscious sectors of the mind between the evil id and the good ego. An example of how this conflict arises in the novel is when Hyde murders Sir Danvers Carew. This shows how the id, Hyde, overpowers the ego-like, or good, Mr. Carew for no obvious reason other than it was something to do that would please him at that very moment. The perspective of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde presented through the letter at the end of the novel shows the reader how the id can sometimes overpower the rest of the unconscious and can also counter the attitude of the ego or Dr. Lanyon, therefore stimulating the readers id. Mr. Gabriel Utterson represents the last component of the unconscious, the superego. Freud describes this this part as, the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong (McCann, and Weiten 523). The superego acts as a mediator between the instinctive urges of the id and the realistic impulses of the ego. Mr. Utterson represents a perfect Victorian gentleman. He is polite and follows societys norms but his persistent investigations show that he cannot ignore the fact that something unnatural is going on with his friend, Dr. Jekyll. Although the three main characters were once best friends, after Dr. Lanyon decided that Dr. Jekylls experiments were too peculiar and later declaring to Mr. Utterson, Jekyll became too fanciful for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in mind (Stevenson, 38), Mr. Utterson became a mutual friend or the mediator between the other two gentlemen. The way the novel is structured, having Mr. Uttersons perspec tive contribute to the bulk of it, is effective because it is a midway point for the reader. It allows the readers own superego to mediate the events that occur regarding Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is interesting to see what can be uncovered when different areas of education are applied to one another. Through the research of Dr. Sigmund Freud, one is able to relate the psychology of the unconscious mind to the behaviour, motives, and opinions of the characters Dr. Lanyon, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Mr. Utterson in Robert Louis Stevensons novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This novel is remarkable because the author chose a creative way to narrate so that every person that reads the novel, no matter if they are dominated by their unconscious ego, id, or superego, they will be able to relate to at least one of the main characters. The narration technique of this novel is significant because it stimulates each region of the unconscious mind and allows the reader to separately evaluate the views of each of the three main characters which, in turn, eliminates bias.

Why is Frankenstein such a popular text? Essay -- English Literature

Why is Frankenstein such a popular text? Frankenstein is a science fiction novel written by Mary Shelley during the time of the Romantic Movement. It has remained popular ever since it was first published and still sells well today, with many reprints of the book since the first edition. One of the main characters of the story and probably the most (in)famous, Frankenstein's monster, has become an icon of all that is monstrous and wrong. The story has been adapted and interpreted many times all in different ways, causing the monster and the stereotypical view of him to become intertextual. The most popular and well recognised representation of the monster and the one that most people would attempt to draw for you if you asked them what he looked like, is that of a huge green man with bolts coming out of the side of his neck and a flat, broad head. This was created for film by Boris Karloff as his interpretation of what the monster should look like. He would typically move very laboriously, with his arms outstretched as if chasing something. His speech is slow and primitive. This, however, is not the true Frankenstein's monster as described in the book, but one created for television and primarily the cinema, as the book centred more on the issues and moral conflicts when dealing with such a creature, whereas cinema and the media tend to concentrate more on the action and thrilling sides of the story. Various other representations of the monster, including characters in television films such as "The Adams Family" and "The Munsters", as well in comics such as "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Fantastic Four", have occurred throughout the twentieth century, causing the image of the "real" monster to becom... ...xtent of what the is doing as sees that the lengths he is willing to go to are not acceptable or justified at all. This culminates two stories, that of Frankenstein's adventure and Captain Walton's giving the reader an increased feeling of cathagy. In conclusion, the two reasons I believe to be why Frankenstein has remained such a popular text are: a. That the central theme of the story and the issues and situations the arise throughout it are becoming more and more relevant in everyday society so people can relate to the story and b. That it is the first true science fiction story ever and so has been promoted as such that it has grabbed everyone's attention. There are probably a number of stories quite similar and perhaps of even better quality than Mary Shelley's work but few people have heard of them and so they remain in Frankenstein's shadow.

Music and the Sixties Essay -- Music Politics History Essays

Music and the Sixties What the music of the late 1960s and early 1970 are attempting to achieve is a protest to the U.S. government. From the lyrics of Neil Young's Ohio performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, the vocalists are memorializing the incident that occurred during a protest about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in Kent State University where nine students were injured and four students were killed by the Ohio National Guardsmen who opened fire on unarmed students: Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin,' We're finally on our own, This summer I hear the drummin' Four dead in Ohio Got to get down to it. Soldiers are gunnin' us down. Should have been gone long ago. What if you knew her And found her dead on the ground? How can you run when you know? Eddie Holland and Norman Whitfield's War is one of the best selling song of the 1970 who also protested about the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. It is in these lyrics that describes how war does not solve any problems and how it does not do any good to innocent civilians in Vietnam and to the families whose son(s) are off to war: War-huh-yeah What is it good for? Absolutely NOTHING! Uh huh, Uh huh (repeat) War-I despise 'Cos it means destruction Of innocent lives War means tears To thousands of mothers how When their sons go off to fight And lose their lives Comparing War and Ohio to the top ten singles of 1970s, it suggests that the music of the 1970s not only deals with issues dealing with U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The music of the 1970s also brought up many other issues such as love and relationships. For example, Jackson 5's I Want You Back describes how this person falls in love with a girl. But he ignores her ... ...it talks about how the Government is attacking Eminem of his lyrics when Eminem has the free will to write or say anything he wants, even though Eminem does not mean what he says. It also goes for the same when U.S. is in war with Iraq. Everyday, President Bush states that the troops of U.S. are liberating the Iraqi people to allow them to have freedom of religion, press, and importantly speech while here in the U.S. the protesters are being suppressed by the Government and the pro-war demonstrators. One of the person who was being surpressed by the government and pro-war demonstrators is a Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines who apologized to President Bush for saying she was ashamed that he was from Texas. And so in conclusion, the music of the late 1960s and early 1970s not only dealt with the Vietnam War, but many other issues such as love and relationships.

NASA Cries for Money Essay -- Politics Government

In Lee Billing’s article, What Future for NASA, Billing discusses the past and present situation of the NASA program and how over fifty years of running hasn't accomplished NASA very much. In 1958 the National Aeronautics and Space Act was signed allowing for NASA to be formed. This lead to a major race which caught America's eye. The goal was to reach the Moon as quickly as possible, not to develop a lasting ability to go there. After the race was won in 1969, America lost interest. Even on NASA's 50th year anniversary, they were still unable to send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit. Fundings dramatically decreased and NASA is still struggling to pay for any advancements. Something must be done to insure the advancements of research for new technology. But with the loss of funding there won't be anyway to do that very soon. According to Billing, NASA's 2009 budget is about $18 billion. Each year the US spends more than $300 billion paying interest on the growing debt. On defense and homeland security the US will spend $600 billion and that does not include the $12 billion spent...

Public and Private Policing Essay

Police, Securityguard, Security, Crimeprevention, Constable, Criminaljustice, SurveillancePublic and Private Policing The growing privatization of police services is a global phenomenon. It was first widely noted in the United States in a 1972 Rand Corporation study commissioned by the National Institute of Justice. Several years later, Stenning and Shearing observed that a â€Å"quiet revolution† toward private policing had occurred in Canada. South documented a similar trend in both western and eastern European countries. And an update of the original Rand assessment in 1985 concluded that private security outspent public law enforcement by 73 percent and employed two and a half times as many people. Public and private policing have many similarities, as well as differences and the distinction between public and private police are often blurred. Private policing, while emerging as a new industry, is not a new phenomenon and predates the existence of public police as witnessed today (Wilson 1994, p. 285). There are at least three reasons for the dramatic increase. First, in both post-industrial and developing nations, there has been an increase in what Stenning and Shearing call â€Å"mass private property†: shopping malls and gated communities. These spaces have traditionally fallen outside of the domain of public police, although this is now changing. Second, the fear of crime among those with property has grown faster than government’s willingness to spend more money on police protection. In many countries, this fear of crime among the propertied classes was intensified by the transition from authoritarian to democratic rule. Third, private police forces have often placed a higher priority on visible patrol than public police, hoping to deter crime through their presence. As early as 1971 Scott and McPherson worried that private policing might infringe upon civil liberties with impunity. Formal and familiar mechanisms exist around the world to hold public police accountable for their actions, but accountability mechanisms for private police are less well understood and often emanate from private rather than public institutions. In many cases, the state has little power or incentive to hold private police accountable. Stenning, however, believes that the inadequate accountability of private police has been overstated; marketplace competition, consumer pressures, demands of organized labor, and potential civil liability, he argues, compensate for lesser state regulation and oversight. Public policing has been known to have a monopoly on policing until the increased trend of private policing in the United States. Public police consist of the governmental department charged with the regulation and control of the affairs of a community, now chiefly the department established to maintain order, enforce the law, and prevent and detect crime. Private policing refers to that policing activity of crime prevention, detection and apprehension carried out by private organizations or agents for commercial purposes. Private policing may be defined to include those people who work for a security company or are employed by an individual or firm to carry out security work, crowd control or private investigations. In seeking to describe the policing activity of private police, however, most functional definitions stem from the perceived role of the public police (Nalla & Newman, 1990). Private police look and behave like public police and describing their function often involves a comparison of the activities and responsibilities of the two. Despite the differences, public and private police tend to mirror each other to a certain extent (Nalla & Newman, 1990). Private policing is provided by a private individual or organization, rather than by a public body or the state like public policing is. Private police are seen to be concerned with the protection of personal and corporate interest while public police represent the interests of the public and seek to enforce the regulations of the judicial system. The police are â€Å"persons with a special legal status employed by governments to preserve the peace† (Shearing, Farnell & Stenning, 1980,) Private policing, in comparison to public policing, has been described as passive policing as to active policing, or as proactive and preventative rather than reactive: where public police generally react to the crime, private police through surveillance and presentation are seen to prevent crime. (Wilson 1994) Private policing targets private crime and is in the business of protecting private and corporate interests. Private policing usually operates behind the traditional and legal boundaries where the public police cannot lawfully cross unless by invitation or probable cause. This leads to the private policing sector having a â€Å"broader enterprise than public policing, with a wider range of functions. † (South, 1988, p. 4) One difference between public and private police is private investigators are hired by individuals or businesses for a certain purpose and work mostly behind the scenes or undercover doing surveillance while Public policing is known to society as the police who protect our communities and arrest those individuals who commit crime. Public policing has the role to maintain law and order, preserve peace and prevent crime. Public police are employed by governments and paid for by tax dollars and grants. Another difference between the role of public and private policing is the private providers of security is their flexibility. They can, and will, perform most tasks they get paid to do. Their customers can demand a lot from them, since they are directly answerable to the paying clients and their needs. The private entrepreneurs are also forced to ‘do right’ by the market. If they fail, they will lose their money. Public police do not have the negotiation factor and are paid on salary, no matter how they perform or how efficient they are in performing their duties. Many have said that private policing is for the rich and public policing is for the poor. This could be effectively argued based on the fact that private policing is not designed to consider the general good for society, like public policing. Private policing is primarily protecting the interests of their paying clients and focuses more on â€Å"loss prevention†, rather than â€Å"crime prevention†. Private policing has been scrutinized and concern has expressed that private security can be overly intrusive, less than scrupulous in its adherence to self-imposed guidelines and, on occasion, the law, and threatening to civil liberties. Although public and private both play a major role in society, they do have different responsibilities. The responsibilities of a public officer include preserving the peace, preventing crimes and other offenses, assisting victims of crime, apprehending criminals, laying charges, prosecuting and participating in prosecutions, executing warrants, performing the lawful duties assigned by the chief of police, and completing the required training. The responsibilities of a private officer include training for private investigators and security guards is generally the responsibility of the employer. No license is required if the private investigator or security guard is hired . in house,. which means that he or she is an employee of, for example, an insurance company, court house, law firm, or store. Compared with police officers, private security in Canada is characterized by the following: lower wages, minimum or no recruitment standards, higher percentage of part-time work, higher turnover rate, lower levels of education, and minimum or no training (Marin,1997). In conclusion, Public and private policing are major components in the criminal justice field. It would be impossible for our communities to feel secure without the combination of both forces. The focus has been on public and private policing to effectively interact and cooperate with each other. Understanding the importance of one another’s responsibilities and roles could lead to a great partnership. Throughout recent years, some law enforcement agencies have come to realize how to benefit from private policing. Private security personnel differ from police officers in a number of ways. Private security personnel work for clients who pay them for services rendered, while police officers are responsible for serving and protecting the public. Minimum requirements and training are considerably less for private security than for police officers.

Book Critique on ‘Suicide’ Essay

Book Critique on ‘Suicide’ by Emile Durkheim Nearly a century ago, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim became interested in the phenomenon of suicide. Why, he asked, do people kill themselves? In his day, the common answer to such a question is: the suicidal person is depressed or mentally ill or has suffered an unbearable loss. An alternative philosophical answer is also presented: an individual commits suicide because it is part of his nature. But Durkheim was not satisfied with these explanations. He thought it likely that forces within society influenced people’s decision to kill oneself was never simply personal. Durkheim wanted to provide a sociological answer to the phenomenon of suicide. To find out whether his ideas were correct, Durkheim considered the explanations for suicide that were common in his day and systematically assembled the evidence for each. As his sources, Durkheim used government records that listed numbers of suicides and gave information about the people involved – their age, sex, race, religion, marital status. Upon analyzing this material, Durkheim saw that the usual explanations for suicide were contradicted by the evidence. There was a general variance of suicide rates across countries and time. Durkheim argued, â€Å"If suicide is considered a personal issue, why is there so much variation? † (Durkheim, 1897/1951:17). If suicide were related to mental illness, Durkheim would have found relatively stable proportions of suicide and mental illness within social groups. Durkheim found the opposite: some groups shared high rates of mental illness but little suicide; other groups shared high rates of both. Durkheim found that women were more likely to be diagnosed a mentally ill, but had less chances of committing suicide. Other contradictory information surfaced: Durkheim discovered that most people committed suicide during warmer periods of the year, not, as might be expected, during the cold days of winter. These initial findings forced Durkheim to conclude that suicide is determined by social forces; that is, forces external to the individual. Durkheim said, â€Å"suicide is based on social causes and is itself a collective phenomenon† (Durkheim, 1897/1951:145). Characteristics of the social group in which people find themselves make suicide more or less likely; self-destruction is not simply a private act. In analyzing his information, Durkheim looked for specific social conditions under which suicide occurred the most and least often. Here were some of his findings: 1) Protestants committed suicide three times more than Catholics and Catholics more than Jews; 2) Single people committed suicide more often than married people, and married people with children least often of all; 3) And, suicide rates are higher when people feel few or weak ties to a social group or community. The Jewish community was more tightly knit than the Catholic, the Catholic more tightly knit than the Protestant. Married individuals, especially those with children, had stronger social bonds than single people. After identifying the general cause of high suicide rates, Durkheim classified suicide into three types: 1) egoistic suicide, 2) altruistic suicide, and 3) anomic suicide. Individuals with few or weak ties to a community are likely to commit egoistic suicide, or suicide related to social isolation and individualism. The opposite of egoistic suicide is called altruistic suicide. Here individuals whose ties to their particular groups are so strong that their commit suicide for the good of the group. Durkheim also saw that suicide rates increased when there were sharp economic upturns, and decrease when there was economic stability. When times are stable, people feel better integrated into the social fabric and committed to social norms. When times are stressful, the resulting state of anomie leads people to commit anomic suicide. At the end of his research, Durkheim argued that ‘sociology is a legitimate field of study’ (Durkheim, 1897/1951). This statement is founded on two striking facts. First, he showed that suicide tendencies can be explained by social facts; that is, empirical statements with no psychological or philosophical implications. In essence, sociology is a field of study independent from psychology and philosophy. And second, social explanations about specific phenomenon are never inferior from other types of explanations. In essence, social explanations are sufficient to explain contradictory social facts, since the latter depends on the former for empirical validity. General Critique There are several criticisms on Durkheim’s research on suicide. Here are some of the criticisms: 1) Durkheim defined suicide as referring to ‘all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result’ (Durkheim, 1897/1951:44). By positive act, Durkheim meant such things as jumping off a bridge or shooting oneself. By negative act, he meant such things such as not taking necessary medicine or not getting out of the way of a moving vehicle. When Durkheim developed the concept of altruistic suicide, he himself committed a violation of his own operational definition. This violation constituted a flaw in his research. Given his data, it is almost impossible or difficult to find instances of altruistic suicide. One can infer that the inclusion of this type of suicide was the result of ‘overzealous inference’ from data; 2) Some sociologists argued that Durkheim was able to delineate the difference between personal issues and public problems. This is not entirely true. Durkheim never gave operational definitions to both personal issue and public problem. Durkheim only assumed that personal issues are issues peculiar to personal events; public issues are issues salient to the interests of a given social group. In a sense, it was Mills, not Durkheim, who formalized the distinction between personal issues and public problems; 3) Durkheim also ignored one important factor in his analysis of suicide: the political context of the late1890s. Durkheim argued that economic upheavals increased suicide rates, economic stability decreased suicide rate. If one closely analyzed the context of the late 1890s, one can perceive that it was not economic crisis (ups and downs of the economy) that determined suicide rates; rather it was the stability of political structures. The more stable the political structure, the more stable is the market. Hence, there are fewer tendencies for individuals to commit suicide. Conclusion Although these criticisms were significant in many respects, they are insufficient to demolish Durkheim’s theory of social facts. For one, Durkheim successfully defended the integrity of sociology as a field of study. And second, his analysis of suicide rates cannot be proved to be incomplete or faulty. His definition of suicide may be shaky, but the implication of such is of no theoretical importance. Hence, Durkheim’s study on suicide rates is sociologically acceptable. Reference Durkheim, Emile. 1897/1951. Suicide: A Study of Sociology. J. A. Spaulding and G. Simpson. New York: Free Press.

Optimizing Physical Properties of Municipal Waste Sites

OPTIMIZING PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF MUNICIPAL WASTE SITES TO SUITAS A CONSTRUCTION SITE Abstraction Waste is universally generated by homo from their assorted activities. Besides sum of waste coevals is increasing really quickly. Open dumping of municipal solid waste is common pattern in srilanka. Bloemendal waste pace was taken as instance survey of this research. Bloemendhal shit waste is silty sand type and such dirt can be treated with traditional calcium hydroxide and cement stabilizes methods. The end of this research was to better shit waste to upgrade its strength and public presentation of the dirt. The selected stabilizes were lime and cement. Key findings of the research are, ( 1 ) Strength of treated dirt additions with clip, ( 2 ) Strength fluctuation with cement and calcium hydroxide content, ( 3 ) Strength Variation with wet content, ( 4 ) Applicability of cement and calcium hydroxide as a stabilizer, ( 5 ) strength fluctuation with Water/amendment ratio. Introduction Waste We can be merely explicate as any stuffs that is discarded by worlds after its intent is obtained.Waste is increase twenty-four hours by twenty-four hours due to the all human activities in all over the universe. This sort of Waste we can split in to three classs. They are Solid, liquid and gaseous. In developing states Open Dumpsites are common, due to the low budget for waste disposal. Open dumping of municipal solid waste is common patterns in Sri Lanka. By pattern dumping of waste at land fill sites is done. But this can do by negative facets people populating in the vicinity. The chemicals used in waste can be carried by H2O and affects the land H2O. And besides these sort chemicals assorted with rain H2O and rain H2O transported them in to our imbibing beginnings. Such as rivers, lakes and etc. This has become a major issue at present. The shit paces, after stabilisation of solid waste utilizing calcium hydroxide and cement can be used for the building of assorted development undertakings like edifice sites, resort areas, recreational countries etc. this scheme is really advantageous when urban countries are concerned where sufficient infinite can non be found for recreational intents and other sort of development undertakings. Besides the stabilised solid waste can be economically used as fills for roads and roads embankments. Waste can be slackly defined as any stuff that is considered to be of no farther usage to the proprietor and is, therefore discarded. Waste is generated universally and is a direct effect of all human activities. Wastes are by and large classified into solid, liquid and gaseous. In developing states unfastened garbage dumps are common, due to the low budget for waste disposal. Open dumping of municipal solid waste is a common pattern in Sri Lanka. The disposal of wastes in landfill sites has progressively caused concern about possible inauspicious wellness effects for population life nearby, peculiarly in relation to those sites where risky waste is dumped. In the environment, chemicals and other contaminations found in solid waste can ooze into our groundwater and can besides be carried by rain H2O to rivers and lakes that are our beginnings for imbibing H2O. The shit paces, after stabilisation of solid waste utilizing calcium hydroxide and cement can be used for the building of assorted development undertakings like edifice sites, playgrounds recreational countries etc. this scheme is really advantageous when urban countries are concerned where sufficient infinite can non be found for recreational intents and other sorts of development undertakings. Besides the stabilised solid waste can be economically used as fills of roads and route embankments. Comprehensive research works must be carried out to measure the suitableness of stabilised solid waste for route fills in footings of its strength.LITERATURE REVIEWThis research is all about the traditional dirt stabilizers viz. lime and cement. The stabilisation mechanisms and the effectivity of those stabilizers have been demonstrated by many research workers in many applications. This literature reappraisal focal point on the known belongingss of traditional stabilizers as relevant to the r esearch.Soil stabilisationStabilization was defined as the betterment of dirt strength under applied burden by Bulbul ( 2013 ) and besides stabilisation was described as the change of the dirt belongingss by chemical or physical agencies in order to heighten the technology quality of the dirt by Ankit ( 2013 ) .In general dirt stabilisation can be described as a procedure of bettering certain coveted belongingss in dirt stuff. Soil stuffs which have been thought non utile in technology application can be improved utilizing dirt stabilisation procedure. McNally ( 1998 ) showed that the betterments of dirt belongingss are caused by dirt stabilisation can include the undermentioned strength, volume stableness and lastingness features. Sodium and K cations are normally found in expansive clay dirt and those can be exchanged with cations like Ca, which are found in calcium hydroxide, Portland cement and fly ash. This is a rapid reaction and ion exchange procedure takes topographic point frequently within a few hours. The Ca cations replace with the Na cations around the dirt atoms. So soil stabilisation is a long term strength addition activity. ( Justin 2004 ) Soil stabilisation is really utile when it is more economical to get the better of a lack in a readily available stuff than to convey in one that to the full complies with the demands of specification for the dirt ( Ola,1975 ) . This dirt stabilisation method can be used where no other economic option is available. The chief addictives for dirt stabilisation,Gravel crushed sumPortland cementCalcium hydroxideThe magnitude of dirt stabilisation is measured by the addition in strength as determined from unconfined compaction testing.Lime stabilisationThere are t wo primary types of calcium hydroxide is used today in the building field are quicklime ( Calcium oxide ) and hydrated calcium hydroxide ( calcium hydrated oxide ) . Heating limestone at higher temperatures produces quicklime and the add-on of H2O to the calcium oxide produces hydrated calcium hydroxide ( 5 ) . Equation ( 2.1 ) shows the reaction of limestone when it is heated. That produces quicklime with C dioxide as a by-product. CaCo3+ Heat i? CaO + CO2( 2.1 ) Equation ( 2.2 ) shows that add-on of H2O to the calcium oxide CaO produces hydrated lime/Ca ( OH )2with heat as a byproduct. CaO +H2O i? Ca ( OH )2+ Heat ( 2.2 ) Soil conditions and mineralogical belongingss have a important consequence on the long-run strength addition in dirt and lime blend ( 5 ) . Introduction of Ca hydrated oxide increases Ph, doing the silicon oxide and aluminum oxide in the clay particles to go soluble and interact with the Ca in a pozzolanic reaction ( 5, 7 ) . A pozzolonic reaction between silicon oxide or aluminum oxide in the clay atoms and Ca from the calcium hydroxide can organize a cemented construction that increases the strength of the stabilised dirt. Residual Ca must stay in the system to unite with the available silicon oxide or aluminum oxide and to maintain the pH high plenty to keep the pozzolanic creative activity ( 5 ) . The per centum of calcium hydroxide used for any undertaking depends on the dirt type being stabilized. The finding of the measure of calcium hydroxide is normally based on an analysis of the consequence that different calcium hydroxide per centums have on the decrease of malleability and the addition in strength of the dirt. However, most all right grained dirt can be efficaciously stabilized with 3 % -10 % of calcium hydroxide, based on the dry weight of the dirt. Lime is used extensively to alter the technology belongingss of powdered dirts. It is most effectual in handling plastic clays capable of keeping big sum of H2O ( 6 ) . 2.1.2 Cement stabilisation Portland cement is a multi-mineral compound made up of Ca oxide, aluminum oxide, silicon oxide and Fe ( 5 ) . When stabilisation of dirt is done by blending dirt with cement in different proportions is called as dirt cement stabilisation. Soil cement is a mixture of powdered dirt and mensural sum of H2O and cement, compacted to desired denseness and cured ( 1 ) . When cement is assorted with H2O, cementing compound of calcium-silicate-hydrate ( C-S-H ) and calcium-aluminate-hydrate ( C-A-H ) are formed ( 5 ) . With lime stabilisation, the silicon oxide is provided when the clay atom is broken down. With cement stabilisation, the cement already contains the silicon oxide without necessitating to interrupt down the clay mineral. Therefore, unlike lime stabilisation, cement stabilisation is reasonably independent of the dirt belongingss. ( 8 ) . Some Ca is available to respond with the clay atom early in the alteration procedure when H2O is added, and extra Ca becomes available subsequently as it forms during cement hydration ( 5 ) . The hydrates help to stabilise disturbed clay atoms through cementation. The hydration reactions and strength additions for the most portion between 24 hours and 28 yearss ( 5 ) . The function of cement is to better the technology belongingss of available dirt such as strength squeezability, permeableness, swelling possible and sensitiveness to alter in wet content. Soil cement stuffs range from semi flexible to semi stiff depending on the type of dirt and sum of dirt used ( 1 ) .

Analysis of poem “Muliebrity” by Sujata Bhatt Essay

The poem muliebrity by Sujata Bhatt, talks about the power women possess and the character of women, who take pride in what they do, even if it is just picking cow-dung. The poet speaks of a girl, who is a representation of village women, who does the tedious job of picking cow-dung outside a temple and the girl is described in a very reverential manner. The title of the poem muliebrity, suggests womanhood. The connotation of the title, status and power of a woman, is reflected in the poem where the author uses the words greatness and power. The poet talks about her imperative childhood experiences through her poems, using an optimistic tone, to make it more affective. With a delightful tone, she describes the scenery at the village. There is use of enjambment in the poem, to stress on how long ago the poet saw the girl and it could also suggest a feeling of nostalgia. A very simple tone and language is used in the poem, to indicate the simplicity of the situation. The poet says that she has thought so much about the girl, suggesting that the poet respects the girl and is in awe of the way the girl holds her head high, despite the fact that she does a menial job of picking dung. The poet ponders on why the girl does something that isnt usually expected to be done by her and stresses on the dignity of labour showing how, even though it is an undermining task, she does it happily. She is impressed by the girls commitment and dedication to her work. A very positive approach is shown towards the work done, as expectations do not stop the girl from doing what she wants to do. The poet, very intricately describes the feminine movements and attitude of the girl toward her job. she talks about the way she moved her hands and waist, indicating the presence of womanhood in the girl, and even though her job is to scoop dung, which is considered as a very demeaning job, she has retained the femininity in her and still has pride in herself. Even further in the poem, the author depicts the independence of the girl, as she says power glistening through her cheekbones. The poet also describes the stench of the atmosphere in which the girl has to work, as she says smell of cow-dung and smell of monkey-breath. On the contrary, the smell of freshly washed clothes and of canna lilies is also  mentioned, which tells us that though the girls job is not very dignified, the poet approaches the girl very positively. The girl picks up dung outside a temple, which shows that she is serving the society. The poet interprets this job as one which is very respectful. She uses visual imagery, as she describes the surroundings of the girl and the repulsive smells in so much detail, that the audience would be able to imagine the situation. The smells besiege the poet separately and simultaneously, which tells us that though all these smells are present together, she describes them individually so that it has a deeper impact on the readers. The poet says that she doesnt want to use the girl as a metaphor, and as a role model for every other woman, but she doesnt want to forget the girl, who retained the womanhood in her, irrespective of her job. The poet explores all the feminine qualities of a woman through this poem, elegance, pride, dignity, independence and the way a woman presents herself to the world, having a strong and powerful personality. The poet indirectly conveys to her audience how an ideal woman should be, possessing all the above qualities, and even though the poet mentions that she doesnt want to use the girl as a metaphor, she subtly expresses that every woman should exhibit such traits. Even as the girl picks up cow dung, she feels good about herself, as she is doing this job for her living, and she takes pride in it, which is what the poet tries to tell the audience. The image of the girl is portrayed very well, and the author uses the girl effectively to explore womanhood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muliebrity

Alien

The airport seemed like a morgue in the Dark Ages through my toddler eyes. Everyone looked ill with excess travel, sick from impatience. Menacing towers, which looked to be in fact, men, glared at me as if I were someone to suspect. As if I didn’t belong. The expansive line of Immigrations painfully edged forward, but my mind scampered away to curiosity. What was India like? Was I going to enjoy it? What was I going to do there? We finally reached the stern officer in sky blue, equipped with a stately handlebar moustache. He and my dad exchanged sympathetic glances and polite greetings, as if they were old friends, seeing each other for the first time in years. He did the same for my mother and sister, but stopped at me. â€Å"Born in the USA? What is this boy doing in an airport in India?† Everyone laughed, but I didn’t. Regardless of what he meant, it hurt my toddler mind deeply. For the first time in my life, I felt different. I felt guilty of my presence, guilty to be who I was. As I walked into the streets of India, the kids stared at me for quite some time, and chattered accusingly amongst themselves. I did not dress like them. I did not act like them. I did not talk like them. I felt like the aliens I had read about so avidly from the comics back home. I tried fervently to make myself the epitome of a native Indian boy, but my relatives constantly hindered my progress. Cricket is like baseball. Flats are apartments. Auto-rickshaws are like taxies. I constantly reminded myself these things, but no matter how hard I tried, these concepts would not stick. Language became a ruthless and unforgiving adversary. My parents had prepped me well prior to the trip, yet still I was hit with unfamiliar phrases. While my accent was consistent, constructing the words proved to be a grueling task. I realized any slight mistake could question the quality of my parents’ teaching, and slowly I stopped talking. I was limited to a stubborn shake of the head for no, and an eager nod for yes. I was always the quiet one, the one who said very little, but they didn’t know why. I wouldn’t let them know, for my alien nature would be exposed. Years come and go with new perspectives. The toddler state of mind was black and white, frank and simplistic. I was so driven by stubborn anger and frustration that I never really tried or wanted to search for the answers I needed. Questions of doubt and difference gradually became answered by my friends, schoolmates, and teachers. We all realized our experiences were not so seclusive, and countless stories met laughs of recognition and understanding. Time allowed for me to accumulate the points that define who I am, whether it is by a distressing day at Immigrations, or the inability to master a language. By birth and by residency, I am an American. But, by the principals I abide to and the traditions I willfully obey, I am an Indian. I don’t feel different anymore. Rather, I feel honored to have the opportunity to share and experience two cultures simultaneously. The polarity of the two nations sometimes proves to be troublesome, but also adds a contrast that intrigues me t o the point of enlightenment. It now seems amusing to imagine a confused little boy, paranoid of his imminent transformation into an unknown being. Paranoid of becoming an unfamiliar creature in unfamiliar territory; not able to identify with his environment. I was once an alien.