The Weather Underground Essay Example

The Weather Underground Essay Name: Course: Instructor: Date: We will write a custom essay sample on The Weather Underground specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Weather Underground specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Weather Underground specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The Weather Underground The film, Weather Underground, is a 2002 documentary based on the American radical organization, The Weathermen. The film, based on real life events characterizing the American political system narrated the ascent and descent of the organization employing the use of archived footage from 1969. Directed by Bill Siegel and Sam Green, the documentary explored the lives of a few young people waging war against the United States Government, who would eventually be inaugurated from college activists to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted. Reactions to the film Centered on a political theme, the Weather Underground elicited various but profound reactions. At a time where the United States government was largely involved in the Vietnam War, most Americans were aware of the violence that escalated but could not do anything about the bloodshed. Negative rejoinders were centered on criticizing the group’s violent tactics oninnocent government officials asserting that the youth carried out politics that was misguided. Furthermore, negative reactions stemmed because of the revelries the youth engaged in at college such as sex and drugs asserting that the youth were idle and thus wanted action. However, some reactions praise the efforts of the Weathermen. Most of the reactions deem them as the pioneers of activism and American revolutionaries addressing the repressive tactics of the government to silence the discontentment of the American citizens. Political Views The main theme of the film was on politics. The documentary, though portraying the lives of the Weathermen in 1969, addressed the polarization of the political situation in America between the 1960s and the 1970s. The schism was becoming more acute characterized by the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, which pressed the government. Such strong issues led to the creation of various youth political movements such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) who utilized peaceful protest methods to protest against the Vietnam War. The movements also protested against the role of the United States government in addressing racism because it was profound at that time, especially against the African American community. Furthermore, the movements criticizing the government eventually portrayed the dictatorial side of the government, which used law enforcement agencies such as the police to suppress the efforts of the activists. Storyline The documentary focuses on the lives of a group of college activists bent on addressing the government’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the repression of the Civil Rights Movement. Such issues led to the rise of youth movements who employed peaceful protest techniques to address the political issues. However, some factions of the movements found it ineffective to express peaceful dissent against the government. This notion eventually led to the separation of a group of college activists from the youth political movement, SDS, who advocated for the use of extremist approaches, which the government could not risk ignoring. The group, which would later become known as the Weathermen, joined together with another extremist group, The Black Panthers, and begun participating in street riots and even proceeded to bombing buildings and further planning to bomb government representatives. Eventually, the group became most wanted according to the FBI, undergoing violent suppression tactics and eventually being forced to go underground. The Weathermen will continue being emulated in America’s political history as the voice of a distressed nation. Presently, people are able to form movements that criticize the government without ear of suppression once they express dissent. Furthermore, the group indirectly raised awareness on the privileges and rights accorded by the United States Constitution such as the freedom of association, which at that time the government censored. Without such influential movements, activism and democracy would be devoid of the United States.

Tourism Essay Writing

Tourism Essay Writing What is a Tourism Essay? Tourism essay is a type of writing that explains, narrates or recommends relevant touristic information. For example, you spend an awesome vacation in Paris and your teachers want you to inform your fellow students about what you saw, what you liked, what impressed you, what is worth visiting, what is not and so on. From this perspective, an essay about your touristic impressions is a task that meets that objective. For this reason, students can receive tasks to write about their touristic experiences. Tourism essays can be written at various complexity levels that might differ significantly depending on the level of the paper. For instance, a high school level tourism essay will require students to provide a general account of events and provide the reader with very basic information about the place of interest, its attractions, impressions and the like. A masters level tourism essay is highly likely to be a proper research paper centered on tourism. A paper of such caliber, depending on the requirements, will require the writer to provide in-depth analysis of the regions touristic potential, analyze main reasons and problems that visitors encounter during their stay, discuss or explain touristic infrastructure of the place and so on. Bottom line is the writer will need to put much more effort in order to provide a quality product that meets the academic standard. What is Tourism? Tourism is defined as travel for social, business, medical and other purposes and involves living outside your normal living environment and last no longer than one calendar year. Stemming from the purpose, we can define various types of tourism, e.g. recreational, medical, business, religious, space, sex, safari and other kinds of tourism. According to the World Tourism Association, the top three most visited countries are the United States of America, Spain, and China. These are the locations that attract most tourists from other parts of the world. Here is one more example of tourism essay: Essay about Traveling Need a Tourism Essay? If you need to write an essay on tourism, youve come to the right place. Whatever your topic and level of complexity, we will be happy to help. Weve got the people, the experience and the technology needed to achieve the best result possible. We have been successfully writing essays on various topics, including tourism, since 2005 and guarantee you a top-notch end product. We know how to structure essays, know how to format them according to MLA, APA and/or other writing styles. Briefly, here is how writing at is done: You send us a request via the order page (or a simple email inquiry prior to ordering a paper). We review your request and respond with a preferable timeline, and if something is missing will ask you to supply the missing information (or will ask more questions). Once we have made sure the paper contains complete instructions, we assign a writer to work on it. If he or she has any questions, they will be sent to you via the messaging board of the customer control panel. Once the paper is complete, it will be scanned to plagiarism and emailed to you. In case you request any changes to the paper, we will gladly incorporate them as a part of our revision policy. We guarantee you that your experience with will be enjoyable and that you will be satisfied with the outcome.

Scientology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Scientology - Essay Example Thus, it is through spiritual enlightenment that human beings are able to understand their creator, and enlightenment is only attainable through gaining infinite knowledge. However, the departure of the new religion from those of the past occurs in the belief that personal enlightenment, as opposed to enlightenment through religious doctrines, principles and beliefs, forms the basis of enlightenment, which then enables the individual to understand the creator (Davis, n.p.). Scientology is a religion that borrows from the ancient religions of the west, but applies none of the basic tenets of such religions, rather preferring to apply the technological language as the basis of developing and advancing spiritual concepts in daily life (Fox, 131). The faith of this new religion is in technology, and technology is the basis of running the new faith2; thus, the basis of Scientology is clouded by controversy, making it difficult to differentiate between the faith of Scientology and the way the Church of Scientology is run. The fundamental principle that qualifies scientology as a religion is that; the religion holds the belief that man is basically good, and that his fate regarding salvation ultimately depends on how man relates with the others and the universe at large (Urban, 22). This principle therefore postulates that man is the sole determinant of his own salvation fate, considering that it is based on how he develops relationships with humanity and the universe that determines his religious fate. Therefore, in a way, the religion of scientology advances morality as the basis of mans spiritual life, since it is through his awareness and capabilities to apply morality that determines his final religious fate (Davis, n.p.). Simply put, the basis of scientology as a religion is freedom; where man should live in a free world, where he is able to apply his capabilities to advance, prosper and rise to greater heights, without the limitation of social ills such as crim e, war and prohibitory laws. However, while advocating for a free world that transcends all limitations that can hinder man from rising to greater heights based on his capabilities and morality, the religion of scientology addresses the basic and fundamental principle of every other religion, whether modern or traditional; that of addressing the spiritual and natural concerns of man, in relation to eternity (Weldon, 20). This is the actual point where the confusion around scientology religion emanates, since it does not place its belief system on the religious doctrines that clearly demonstrates the relation between human life in the world and eternity, since most of the doctrines of the church of scientology are vague even to the adherents, and can only become apparent to them, after many years of followership (Fox, 133). The origin of the Scientology religion is traceable to the scientific experiment undertaken by Hubbard3, a scientist and the pioneer of the religion, who set to e xperiment on the state of mind of humans, eventually coming up with scientific findings that have been vaguely disclosed, but which forms the basis of the doctrine of the Scientology religion, referred to as the Dianetics Doctrine (Urban, 47). The field of psychology and psychosocial analysis is a field that has been widely researched, but the knowledge in this field is only held by a few. Similarly, while the issue of technology in the modern world is no longer new or associated with a

Perception and Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Perception and Decision Making - Essay Example Perception is defined on the Wikipedia as follows: "In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information." (Wikipedia, 2006b). It goes further explaining how perceptions are formed, how they change, and how there can be no perception at all. Let's see: "Many cognitive psychologists hold that, as we move about in the world, we create a model of how the world works. That is, we sense the objective world, but our sensations map to percepts, and these percepts are provisional, in the same sense that scientific hypotheses are provisional (cf. in the scientific method). As we acquire new information, our percepts shift. () Just as one object can give rise to multiple percepts, so an object may fail to give rise to any percept at all: if the percept has no grounding in a person's experience, the person may literally not perceive it." (Wikipedia, 2006b). "Decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. Every decision-making produces a final choice. It can be an action or an opinion. It begins when we need to do something but we do not know what. Therefore decision-making is a reasoning process which can be rational or irrational, and can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions." (Wikipedia, 2006a). In the decision-making process many biases can get in the way. Among the reasons for this kind of drawback the Wikipedia enumerates the following reasons: "Selective search for evidence Premature termination of search for evidence Conservatism and inertia Experiential limitations Selective perception Wishful thinking or optimism Recency Repetition bias Anchoring and adjustment Group think - Peer pressure Source credibility bias Incremental decision making and escalating commitment Inconsistency Attribution asymmetry Role fulfillment Underestimating uncertainty and the illusion of control Faulty generalizations Ascription of causality". (Wikipedia, 2006a). On a closer analysis to all these causes that provoke error in the decision-making process it is easy to find "perception" at the core of all these evils. Most of the causes for faulty decisions in the business real of action happen due to misperceptions in one way or the other. The Wikipedia goes on explaining how the ethical principles of decision making vary widely. It lists the following principles and methods as the most common in any decision-making process: "the most powerful person/group decides (method: dictatorship or oligarchy) everyone participates in a certain class of meta-decisions (method: parliamentary democracy) everyone participates in every decision (direct democracy, consensus decision making)" (Wikipedia, 2006a). As "Groundwork for Making Effective Decisions" the Josephson Institute of Ethics states the following concepts, emphasizing our responsibility and accountability in any decision-making process: "Whether or not we realize it at the time, all our words, actions and attitudes reflect choices. A foundation to good decision-making is acceptance of two core principles: we all have the power to decide what we do and what we say, and we are morally responsible for the consequences

Progymnasmata Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Progymnasmata - Essay Example The Miller, his son, and their Ass Is an example of fable in which an old man and his son are approaching the city with their ass. On their way, they meet three groups of people in different occasions and each seems to be surprised by their way of journey (Aesop 76-9). Their first encounter with a group of women who are surprised at the old man his son walking when they can ride the donkey. These women’s sentiments convince the old man to mount his son on the ass. Just before they can go far, another group of old men come by them and express their disappointment at the boy riding the ass while the old man should be the one to rest his limbs. At this point, the old man brings the son down and mounts the ass. A few minutes later they meet with a group of women and children who criticizes the old man for being uncaring to the young boy by riding alone on the ass. This makes the old man call the lad up and both ride on the ass. They have not gone far and another citizen wonders ho w two people can oppress an ass while they should carry it and the old man abides by tying the ass and carrying it with the help of the son. This free drama attracts a crowd who begins to make noise and the donkey breaks off into the water. The old man has lost his donkey for listening to various people. A critical analysis of this fable presents various moral lessons. The society has various characters that hold diverse opinion on different circumstances. Considering the experience of the old man, it can be noted that listening to people may be misleading in various cases (Aesop 56-7). The different groups the old man met on his way are symbolic of different alternative ideas that come into people mind. The moral lesson that can be learnt in this case is emphatic to the need for independent decision making. The fable is relevant into contemporary time where people are advised to make informed and personal decision

Politics Essays Making Democracy Work

Politics Essays Making Democracy Work Making Democracy Work A Review of Robert Putnam’s Making Democracy Work Introduction: Since its publication in 1993, Robert Putnam’s Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy has been hailed for changing the way academics and policy-makers approach the relationship between politics and society. Putnam accomplishes this feat not so much with his compelling arguments, but with the innovative methodology he employs. Much attention has already been given to the way Putnam combines quantitative and qualitative data in his research; he amalgamates numerical data on Italian institutional performance and civic culture, with the path-dependent historical legacy that predates it. Similarly, much attention has also been focused on the introduction of social capital as a new variable worthy of social scientists’ consideration. Since these topics have already been exhausted in reviews as well as other literature connected to Putnam’s book, this essay will attempt to go a different route. This essay will primarily argue that Putnam has successfully managed to combine both a structure and agency-centered approach into a cohesive research design project. Firstly, the structural approach is inherent in Putnam’s study due to the fact that he is attempting to analyze why Italian regions with the same political structure perform differently. Secondly, using network analysis, Putnam’s social capital and civic culture variables will be understood as being related to agency and of affecting institutional performance. Finally, the overall strengths and weakness that arise from combining the two approaches in a research design project will be highlighted. Overall, despite several unavoidable limitations, in Making Democracy Work Putnam shows that using a combined structuration approach is capable of harvesting a fuller understanding of a particular issue in this case, Italian institutional performance. The Study and the Setting: In 1970 the highly centralized Italian government set-up identical regional governmental institutions in each of the country’s twenty regions. The experiment offered Robert Putnam and his colleagues a unique opportunity to analyze institutional performance over time, and what precisely makes government work in a setting where national factors and institutional design are held constant. Despite the fact that all the Italian regions got identical institutions, the performance of these institutions varied widely across Italy. The discrepancy between the regions particularly between the North and the South led Putnam to believe that â€Å"social context and history profoundly condition the effectiveness of institutions† (Putnam, 182). Therefore, in the causal argument that Putnam puts forth in order to explain what affects institutional performance, institutions are framed as both an independent and dependent variable. So to speak, even though institutions do shape politics, institutions themselves are shaped by social context and history. For this reason, Putnam considers yet another independent variable in his complex causal relationship civic culture. Putnam’s Methodology: Before analyzing how structure and agency unite, and the way in which civic culture is measured in Making Democracy Work, it is worthwhile to take a look at the broader and overarching methodological backdrop on the grounds of which Robert Putnam’s study takes root. The setting for the study, as alluded to above, offered Robert Putnam and his colleagues the opportunity to embark on a twenty year voyage of inquiry; their choice of vessel, a sub-national comparison. Certainly with the case of Italian institutional performance a sub-national paired comparison is sure to prove more illuminating than a cross-national comparison because one can hold-constant for national context. That being said, it is necessary to note that often when one considers cultural, historical, economic and/or socioeconomic conditions, there will invariably be cases where greater variation exists within countries than does between them (Snyder, 96). The experience of Italy provides a unique backdrop for Putnam to study institutional performance because many factors are held constant, relatively speaking. Aside from holding institutional design constant, Italy is a far less diverse country than say India or even Russia with regards to language, religion, ethnicity, class and caste. Though it might prove hard for Putnam’s methods to travel beyond a Western context and be directly applied, it should not be held against him or discredit his book by any means. Just because the arguments might have difficulty traveling (and we should note that Putnam’s arguments in Making Democracy Work are the underpinnings of his second book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of the American Community) does not mean that they should be judged negatively. After all, this is the precise purpose of a sub-national paired comparison to develop theories or generalizations that one is unable to make through cross-national paired comparisons due to all the intervening variables that cannot be held constant. Furthermore, Making Democracy Work does not qualify merely as a sub-national paired comparison. Putnam really tests his arguments against a broad spectrum. In so doing, he avoids the common problem of selection bias, and derivatively of false dichotomies. Putnam does not pick and choose the regions he incorporates in his study. Making Democracy Work is extensive in that it includes and considers all of the regions in Italy equally, and weighs them up against the same credo (where information permits). In each region Putnam interprets quantitative data on institutional performance and then analyzes it alongside quantitative data regarding its civic culture. He then pushes the envelope by reaching far-beyond direct causal inference and into history. The historical qualitative data that Putnam accumulates, allows him, ostensibly, to isolate the main factor that leads to variance in institutional performance in Northern and Southern Italy social capital. Making Democracy Work benefits from diverse measurements the indicators used are wide-ranging, innovative, impressive, and provide for a superior demonstration of Putnam’s arguments. In fact, it is the combination of both the quantitative and qualitative data that earn Robert Putnam and Making Democracy Work the recognition of being simultaneously both a large-N and small-N sub-national comparison. Structural Forces: Having laid out the methodological framework that Putnam has developed it is now possible to focus on the structuration approach that he incorporates. The explanation of institutional performance the dependent variable is contingent to a certain degree on a structural analysis. While all the regions in Italy are constrained by the same national structural force the highly centralized government, the regions are also constrained by their own historical legacies and the structures that have emerged from the past. In this sense, according to Putnam, the history of the North has cultivated an arena/structure much more conducive to proper institutional performance than has the South. Putnam chooses twelve indicators as evidence of institutional performance, or â€Å"good government†. These indicators include: Cabinet stability, budget promptness, statistical and information services, reform legislation, legislative innovation, day care centers, family clinics, industrial policy instruments, agricultural spending capacity, local health unit expenditures, housing and urban development and bureaucratic responsiveness. Far from agency-centered, the conditions of these indicators are all determined by the structure in which they are situated. Essentially, the greater the influence of the structure, the more predictable the political behaviour is likely to be. Following Putnam’s path-dependent argument that historical legacies shape the structural forces (which come to light from such indicators), it is important to then consider the nature of the historical legacies themselves. In Putnam’s view the historical legacies worth exploring are those of civic culture. Analyzing the Affects Agency: The affects of agency on Italian institutional performance is not analyzed explicitly in Making Democracy Work. Putnam does not look at individual leaders, regional representatives, or even influential citizens in any of Italy’s diverse regions contemporarily nor historically. However, implicit in his definition of civic culture, as the â€Å"norms of reciprocity and networks of civic engagement† (Putnam, 167) is an understanding of agency nonetheless. If agency is based on the actions and decisions of a single person, it must also be based on the interactions and collective wills of many people. A horizontal-network analysis is an ideal approach to take when trying to understand the affects of agency in regional patterns of behavior. From a nominalist point of view the researcher must use a conceptual framework to define the boundaries of the network or who/what is and is not included in the research agenda. For his part, Putnam proposes four indicators in which one can find evidence of a civic culture; these indicators include participation in voluntary associations, newspaper readership, referenda turnout, and personalized preference voting (or lack thereof). Even though groups like football clubs are internally heterogeneous and diverse, network analysis helps Putnam to disentangle the inherent complexity and to highlight the important aspects of functioning as a group. To the point of emphasis, the fact that Putnam also correlates these â€Å"objective† measures with more opinion-based survey indicators of civic culture goes to show that Putnam is committed to incorporating the role of agency in his research design. Essentially, he moves from a nominalist to a more realist network analysis by focusing on the individuals. More specifically, Putnam shows that network boundaries are established based on the subjective perspectives of the network actors themselves. For this reason, the data in his research is based to large degree on surveys, questionnaires and interviews. The difference between the North and the South of Italy therefore, can be expressed in the different types of networks they produce. Putnam considers all of the following: the different types of networks that exist, the organization of the networks, and the individuals within the networks. Relating to the different types of networks, Putnam notices that the density of networks in the North is much greater than in the South. Not only do more social groups exist in the North, but membership in them is greater and the pattern of ties between the members is stronger. With regards to the networks’ organization, in the North there is a higher frequency of interaction, and a larger amount of emotional investment within the network. Lastly, as far as individuals are concerned, Putnam looks at subjective measures like trust, solidarity, personal closeness and ideological proximity to ultimately discern that in Northern Italy individuals are more likely to enter horizontal-networks and develop a more cohesive civic culture that fosters responsive government and higher institutional performance. Strengths and Weakness of Structuration: In a sense, Putnam has combined a structural and agency approach into a single research design. The structuration approach has several strength and weaknesses worth highlighting, particularly with reference to Making Democracy Work. Perhaps the major benefit of combining the analysis of structure and agency in the case of Italian institutional performance is that Putnam is able to recognize and demonstrate the interplay between the two. Putnam shows how structures and agents are co-determining and mutually implicating. When assessing the causal relationship between civic culture and Italian institutional performance the case is made that the two entities are defined by their internal relationship, such that the two entities derive their meaning by their relationship and have no meaning or basis without the other. People produce the structure, and the structure in turn reproduces the people. So to speak, agents and structures are ontologically equal in Making Democracy Work. Inherit in this methodological approach’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. One of the major problems with operationalizing the structuration approach is that it is often difficult to design a research strategy that can draw valid causal inferences. As with the case of Making Democracy Work, the difficulty in making inferences is determining whether something is a cause or an effect there has to be a starting point for an analysis. One inevitably has to choose a bottom-up or top-down approach treating either agent or structure as ontologically primitive. Robert Putnam, by discerning them ontologically equal has failed to choose a starting point for analysis. Instead of a parsimonious and simple linear causal relationship, Putnam points to vicious and virtuous circles that have led to contrasting, path dependent social equlibria (Putnam, 180). Good or bad institutional performance will further continue a history of good or bad civic culture. More so, the correlation between civic associations and social capital that Putnam professes is also circular: While to think purely in terms of linear causation is to do injustice to the overall interconnectedness of the variables, the danger of thinking in terms of equilibria is that you develop a ‘chicken or egg’ scenario. One begins to beg the question of where in history it is right to draw the line when studying Italian civic culture? Indeed, Putnam’s historical record has become the focus of considerable criticism from scholars. Sidney Tarrow, in â€Å"Making Social Science Work across Time and Space†, contends that social scientists go to history with a theory to prove, and do not objectively derive viable generalizations from history. History requires picking and choosing; one must even choose where in history to draw the line before beginning a study. However, if a line can always be drawn back farther one must ask whether cases can really be isolable and independent at all. For example, can the case not be made that because the North of Italy colonized the South, that the problems of the South are really the problems of the North? Some critics say that it is unfair for Putnam to displace the problem of poor institutional performance on the South and not to consider the possibility of contamination. However, Putnam can hardly be criticized for this everything can be understood as ex post facto something else. Irrespective of whether Putnam is right or wrong on where in history he draws his line, Making Democracy Work should be hailed for its attempt to regardless of its actual success at combining quantitative and qualitative data, and structure and agency, in creating a complex causal relationship. Conclusion: In Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Robert Putnam has successfully managed to unite both a large-N and small-N sub-national comparison into a single model of inquiry. Equally as impressive, he has successfully managed to combine both a structure and agency-centered approach into a cohesive research design project. Putnam uses a structural approach to analyze his dependent variable political institutions, and an agency-centered approach to analyze an independent variable that has an affect on the development of political institutions and their efficacy civic culture. In so doing, Putnam manages to turn political institutions into an independent variable too, highlighting the interconnectedness of the two variables. Due to this interconnected circular nature of Putnam’s argument, Putnam’s study of Italian institutional performance, though both descriptive and predictive, lacks convincing prescriptive capabilities. Nevertheless, despite its prescriptive shortcomings, Putnam shows that using a combined structuration approach is capable of harvesting a fuller understanding of a particular issue in this case, Italian institutional performance. Works Cited Putnam, Robert D. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). Snyder, Richard. â€Å"Scaling Down: The Subnational Comparative Method,† Studies in Comparative International Development 26:1 (Spring 2001), pp. 93-110. Works Consulted Dwainpayan, Bhattacharyya, et al. (eds.) Interrogating Social Capital: The Indian Experience. (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2004). Furlong, Paul. â€Å"Review of: Robert Putnam’s Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy,† International Affairs 70 (January 1994), pp. 172. Kwon, Hyeong-Ki. â€Å"Associations, Civic Norms, and Democracy: Revisiting the Italian Case,† Theory and Society 33 (2004), pp. 135-166. Levi, Margaret. â€Å"Social and Unsocial Capital: A Review Essay of Robert Putnams Making Democracy Work,† Politics and Society24 (March 1996), pp. 45-55. Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000). Sabetti, Filippo. â€Å"Path Dependency and Civic Culture: Some Lessons from Italy About Interpreting Social Experiments,† Politics and Society 24 (March 1996), pp. 19-44. Tarrow, Sidney. â€Å"Making Social Science Work Across Space and Time: A Critical Reflection on Robert Putnams Making Democracy Work,† American Political Science Review 90 (June 1996), pp. 389-397.

King Henry The IV :: Biography Biographies Bio

From king Henry's reign from 1399 to 1413 he had to deal with a lot tragedies. During his reign he foiled many assassination attempts, rebellions, and plots to restore King Richard to the throne. He was must successful at foiling these potential tragedies because of his well trained and loyal military (wikipedia). King Henry was born April 3, 1367(wikipedia), at Bolingbroke castle as a result of he is later nicknamed "henry of bolingbroke"(wekipedia). He was born to John of Gaunt the duke of Lancast , and Blanche of Lancaster(Britannia). As a child Henry would play with his cousin Richard the Future king of England who Henry would eventually over throw(Wekipedia). They were both admitted to the Order of the Garter in 1377. Later on in Henry's life he would participate in the Lords Appellant's Rebellion. After Richard regained his power he sentenced most of the rebels to be executed or exiled, but he spared the life of his cousin henry which would later come back to haunt him. In 1389 Henry and Richard had a second conflict when Richard exiled Henry with his fathers approval. Henry was banished to prevent a bloody confrontation with Thomas de Mowbray the 1st Duke of Norfolk who was exiled for life. The next year Henry's father John of Gaunt died, and king Richard decided to drop the legal documents so that Henry would be able to return. Henry inherited all of Guant's land(wikipedia), because he was the oldest son. While king Richard was in Ireland on a military campaign, Henry was on his own military campaign to kick Richard off the throne.

Gender Issues: Macbeth Muchado

Gender issues are prevalent in Shakespeare s plays Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth. Some of the key characteristics relevant to gender issues are masculinity, feminism, honor, bravery, and ambition. These issues will be examined through the dynamics of three couples, Hero and Claudio, Beatrice and Benedict, and Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. It is important to remember that these are two different genres of plays. Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy that satirically focuses on male-female relations. While Macbeth is a tragedy, which takes a serious tone where gender issues are subtly woven into the plot. The first couple, Hero and Claudio, represent the 16th and 17th century Elizabethan norm in marriage. Claudio is the model of masculinity and a gullible romantic. Hero is the modest docile young woman. They seem to have the picture perfect expectations of marriage. This optimism combined with the cuckold fear of the times allows Claudio to be easily deceived into believing the fabricated story of Hero s infidelity. Such an action is the ultimate betrayal to Claudio s honor. Similarly, the public accusation made by Claudio is a black eye to the honor of Hero s family. But in the end, Hero was the virtuous lady everyone wanted her to be. Hero and Claudio play the foil to the pessimistic couple, Beatrice and Benedict. Beatrice and Benedict are the cynics of love and romance. Their attitudes and relationship often breaks from the gender norms. In the beginning of the play both preached that marriage is an institution not meant for either. Beatrice is a free and uninhibited strong female. She eventually consents to marriage after she expresses her objections to the traditional voiceless role of the woman in a relationship. Her constant verbal sparring with Benedict shows she will not be the typical apathetic female in the marriage. Benedict is a fanaticizer who becomes smitten with the idea of Beatrice being in love with him. Benedict also exhibits honor, bravery, and loyalty by challenging his friend Claudio to a duel after he was asked to do so by Beatrice. The courtship of Beatrice and Benedict sharply contrasts that of Hero and Claudio. Hero submitted to marriage and accepted her docile role while Beatrice chose marriage after showing her disapproval to the gender structure of marriage. The gender issues in Macbeth are often skewed. Sometimes a character will fall into the proper gender identity, but often it appears that roles are reversed between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In the beginning Macbeth is brave man of honor. He was loyal and defended his king s honor as well as his own when he attacked the castle of the traitor, Macdonwald. Macbeth shows the masculinity of men as well as women. In Lady Macbeth it can be seen that some women are just like men in their quest for power and success. It is to the point where it seems Lady Macbeth is a man trapped in a woman s body. She is filled with greed and envy and will use any person or thing to get what she wants. When learning of the witches prophecy she feared that Macbeth was not ruthless enough to ensure the attainment of his ambitions, to full o th milk of human kindness to murder Duncan. So she took it upon herself to make things happen. She calls upon heavenly powers to unsex me here and fill her with cruelty, taking from her all natural womanly compassion. Later she reinforces this rejection of her femininity by saying she would go so far as to cast off all motherly sentiments that go with it by bashing the brains out of hew own baby to attain her goals. Lady Macbeth taunts Macbeth for his fears and ambivalence, saying he will only be a man when he commits the murder of Duncan. She sees feminine virtues as being remorseful, peaceful, kind and soft and calls Macbeth womanish. Macbeth is indecisive, he knows right and wrong, but sees his biggest flaw is not a lack of moral values but a lack of motivation and gumption. On the other hand Lady Macbath has such a vision and drive for advancement that she makes the murder happen and pushes Macbeth into doing it by pour spirits in [Macbeth s] ear. If comparisons are made between the couples in both plays it can be seen that in public Lady Macbeth and Macbeth appear to be as Hero and Claudio, but behind closed doors there is a strong minded woman swaying her influence similar to the relationship between Beatrice and Benedict. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want to appear to be like Hero and Claudio, the flawless norm in marriage, so that they don t bring suspicion upon themselves for the murders they have committed. Like Claudio, Macbeth needs to project an image of bravery and honor if he is to be respected as a king. Although they are fundamentally different in their heart, Beatrice and Lady Macbeth are similar in that they are both strong-minded opinionated women who have certain expectations of their man. In Conclusion, Much Ado About Nothing shows two extremes of a couple, the cookie-cutter orthodox couple and the bantering couple of individuality. The couple in Macbeth has a strange and unnatural dynamic that often sways from the gender norms.

Health promotion Essays

Health promotion Essays Health promotion Paper Health promotion Paper The issue of evidence in health promotion is debatable because there is need for any health promoter to carry out the promotion exercise in a way aimed at attracting more customers and at the same time the promoters should come up with a way of explaining the decisions they make. Most of the issues that are supposed to be taken as facts in the health care sector are always neglected. The issue of evidence in health promotion is debatable due to the fact that most of the health experts view health as a situation where there is no morbidity and mortality and these leads them to concentrate on causes and treatment for diseases only. The research that is normally carried out in the health sector mostly focuses on how human beings are exposed to the disease causing agents and how these individuals respond to different kinds of treatments. There is a need for evidence in the health promotion because the research carried out for the purpose of promotion in health is absolutely experimental and therefore cannot be reliable (Dennis, 2000). 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Raphael the health promoters should consider phrasing the current health promotion facts in another different way so as to turn the focus of some of the promotion facts on the affected individuals or organizations instead of putting the whole blame on the medical effects arising due to exposure to disease causing agents. The other issue is how different people view the determinants of health; some people think that they can be controlled by the individuals because they are part of the lifestyle of the individual while other people view the determinants of health to be beyond the human control since they are very structural. Ideology has also been seen as a major influence to level of acceptance of the evidence (Louse et al) 3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Principles are either functional or ideological and the health principles include; health policies, empowerment, redirecting health services, equity and health. Other organizations have defined these principles as respect, sharing resources, participation and the environment (Don, 1998).   There are differing values of health promotion principles hence values underlying the health promotion activities need to be made explicit even for the most neglected health promotion. For there to be evidence from the principles, ideology, values and data there has to be an interaction that considers the benefits the members of the community gain. The law, the code of practice respect and creation of autonomy should also be taken care of in the interaction. Health promoters need to assess the local needs of the community, come up with programs designed at the local level and carry out an evaluation of the local activities. These will have an implication on evaluation and planning in that the information needed to carry out the exercise is not always available. The other implication is that it would show the involvement of the community in health promotion exercise. Health promotion evidence needs to be evaluated with respect to the real criterion that is associated with the type of the knowledge (Wills and Naidoo, 1998). WORD COUNT: 514 Words REFERENCE LIST Dennis Raphael, 2000,the question of evidence in health promotion, Health promotion  Ã‚   international, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp.2-11 Louise Potvin, Slim Haddad and Katherine L. Frohlich, (2001), beyond process and  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   outcome evaluation: a comprehensive approach for evaluating health promotion  Ã‚   programs. Pp.85-103 Available online URL:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   euro.who.int/Document/E73455c.pdf, retrieved on 22/6/2009 12:15 Don Nutbeam, (1998), evaluating health promotion-progress, problems and solutions,  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   health promotion international, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.28-34 Wills, J and Naidoo, J. (1998), Effectiveness and evidence based practice in health  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   promotion, Balliere-Tindall, London, pp.49-52

Nelson Mandela and the Apartheid essays

Nelson Mandela and the Apartheid essays During the mid to late 20th century, South Africa was filled with discriminatory thoughts. Why? Because of the Apartheid policy. However one man stood up against this injustice. His name was Nelson Mandela. Mandela was part of the African National Congress (ANC), an organisation which contributed to the dismantling of the Apartheid, although numerous other influences also contributed to its disbandment. Many people played an important part in the process, however none more significant than Mandela. The Apartheid was a major issue in South Africa. It forced racial segregation on all of the country and created fear and despair in all those of non-European heritage. The Apartheid prohibited the black population from mixing with the white population in education, housing, employment and even on buses and park benches. It became policy in 1948 after Dr. Daniel Malan, leader of the National Party, was elected Prime Minister of South Africa. Malan once stated that, Apartheid is a way of saving the white civilisation from vanishing beneath the black sea of South Africas non-European populations. Many of Malans and the Apartheids supporters believed that the policy would allow each race to reach its full potential and not let its culture be influenced by any outside person, group or organisation. However the tables had already shifted in 1918, before Malan and later Prime Ministers even came into power. On July 18th, 1918, a boy was born in Transkei, South Africa to the Chief of the Tembu Tribe, Henry Mandela. His name was Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. At age the age of 24, after studying at the University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand, Mandela became qualified in law. In 1944, he joined the ANC and the resistance to the Apartheid policies in 1948. Between 1956 and 1961, Mandela went on trial for treason but was later acquitted. The ANC was banned in 1960 so Mandela ...

Equity in legal system origin, development and significance Essay

Equity in legal system origin, development and significance - Essay Example Today equity apparently has lost its significant correlation to 'justice,' as rules of equity are settled in much the same way as the common law.2 However creations of equity such as including the rights, interests and remedies continue to be of significance in English legal system3 The paper attempts to understand the origin and development of equity as a source of law in the English legal system and analyze the significance of rules of equity and equitable doctrines and remedies in legal proceedings today. While analyzing the significance of equity, it would be imperative to understand its percepts as well as the principles and remedies of equity; hence a discussion on the same is also included. The historical origin of equity in English legal system dates back to the late 13th and 14th centuries. The English legal system of the time - the common law system developed by the judges on the basis of unwritten customary rules and precedents or past judicial decisions - were very rigid and too technical with the procedures such as the writ. The procedural compliance and the legality of the writ often surpassed the merits of the case in legal decisions. The inadequacy of the common law remedy of damages was another issue with the system. Also, the common law only recognized certain kinds of cases; for example, the common law courts did not recognize the Trust deed.4 The defects in common law obviously led to distress, as disappointed litigants directly petitioned the King for justice. The King, considered the 'Fountain of Justice,' either determined the petitions himself or referred the cases to the King's Chancellor, usually a clergyman and priest, known as "Keeper of King's conscience." The petitions were decided on the basis of principle of natural justice and "moral rightness," considering the merits of the case rather than any precedent.5 The broad principles used by the King and his Chancellor's became to be known as rules of equity. Equity was not a complete system of law and as Jacqueline Martin observes, it "merely filled the gaps in the common law and softened the strict rules of the common law." 6 As the volume of cases increased separate courts called Court of Chancery, also called Courts of Equity, were established and administered by the Chancellor. The Chancellors developed new and flexible procedures, as well as new and appropriate remedies to compensate the plaintiffs, which are applicable to this day. However, the jurisdictional overlap of the two systems - common law and equity - led to an inevitable conflict between the two, impinging the certainty of law. The conflict was finally resolved by the King in Earl of Oxford's Case (1615) it was ruled that equity should prevail in case of conflict.7 While the equity courts continued to enjoy supremacy over common law courts, with the enactment of Judicature Acts 1873-75, the common law courts and the court of equity merged together to form the Supreme Court of Judicature, which would concurrently administer common and equity. The supremacy of equity in legal decisions was affirmed in Section 25 of the Judicature Act 1873 an d continues to be followed by the Supreme Court.

Management in GIFC Company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Management in GIFC Company - Case Study Example The company management should take an audit of the entire organization and get an understanding of their marketplace. Some of the issues Maria and the associates should survey the competitive environment to know the companies offering similar products. The company should establish whether there are other companies offering Chinese or Greek foods that Johnny suggests as an investment of the GIFC Company. The company should also establish the organization's real competencies to venture into a new expansion. For instance, it would be advisable for all the entire management team to join a management institute and acquire specific skills to suit their roles. The other step to assist the management to strategize the activities of the company and its expansion by identifying what is important (Brasfield, 2012). The company management should focus on where they have to take their organization over time to create a long-term defined mission. The most important things to bear in mind for the organization to grow are the customers, the market size, and the products they will offer to their clients. In addition, employee welfare, communication, and motivation are key issues for consideration (Brasfield, 2012). The conceptualizations of what the organization’s future should appear will enable it to achieve its vision and grow tremendously. The organization management should their priorities that will require the full and immediate attention of the whole team. The strategic plan should, therefore, focus on such issues to ensure that the right decisions are made they can embark on major changes for expansion of their business operations.