Analysis Of Cancion Protest Protest Songs Of Latin America

Ethnographic CD Review: Cancion Protesta During the 20th century, Cuba was economically weakened and civilians began protesting the governments corruption. Once Fidel Castro’s Communist intentions came to light, many residents fled the country, only to find out that they would no longer be allowed back in the country regardless of their origin, in consequence for betraying Castro. Protests rose during this time and musicians began using their talents to voice their opinions. The CD I will be focusing on is Cancion Protesta: Protest Songs of Latin America, produced by Barbara Dane. The production of this CD, which was focused on the historic protests, began in 1927 and it was published by Paredon Records in 1970. The CD’s field of interest†¦show more content†¦It sounds like a poet is expressing himself to a crowd, which you can hear in the background with noises of laughter or agreement to the poet’s words. At 20:21 minutes in the CD the crowd starts cla pping in awe of the poem and the track ends. Hasta Siempre, Comandante (Song for Che Guevara) is track six on the CD, it starts off with a slow tempo and soft voices in the background, almost as if you were outside, around a group of older men. It then accelerates to a type of tone that hints off a sad scenario in the lyrics. You can hear a membranophone in the background alongside a chordophone. The song La OEA, Me Causa Risa (The OAS Makes Me Laugh) has the vocalists literally laugh to the beat which sounds happy and up-beat. I hear an idiophone and a chordophone. At the end of the song the men laugh outside of the tempo and in a way that frightens a little bit. The song on track eight is named Coplas del Pajarito (The Little Bird’s Complaint), and it starts of by gradually speeding up the tempo. You can hear the song speed up between each stroke made on the chordophone being used. The singer sounds nasally with a quick vibrato in his voice at the end of certain words. The song Porque los Pobres no Tienen (Because the Poor Have Nothing) there is a woman singing with a warm voice along to a slow tempo. There is thump in the background, which means there is an idiophone being used alongside a guitar. The song Me Gustan los Estudiantes (I Love the Students) has a very clear

Caught Between Two Worlds the Search for Cultural...

Caught between Two Worlds: The Search for Cultural Identity in Lahiri’s The Namesake Titien Diah Soelistyarini Abstract The question of identity is always a difficult one for those living in one culture, yet belonging to another. This question frequently lingers in the mind of most immigrants, especially the second generations who were born in a country other than their parents’ motherland. They feel culturally displaced as they are simultaneously living in two cultures. On the one hand, they no longer feel emotionally attached and cannot fully identify themselves with their indigenous culture; while on the other hand, when they wish to adopt the identity of the new culture, they have not been fully accepted as its members.†¦show more content†¦In considering the challenges of immigration, as Gupta (2005: 5) suggests, it is important to note that the experience of immigration is a combination of two different sentiments. The first one relates to the life in one’s homeland and the other to the life in the new country. In other words, a new immigrant has to deal with his or he r emotions in two different spheres at the same time – loss of home and adjusting to the new home. Whether the immigration is forced or chosen, almost all immigrants go through a feeling of loss of home. Furthermore, immigration is accompanied by the demands of adjusting to the new country. These sentiments are clearly portrayed in The Namesake which outlines the stark differences between Indians raised in the States trying to embrace parental Indian values while also seeking inclusion in the American way of living. The Namesake, which was also made into a major motion picture in 2007, is an American immigrant saga revolving around a Bengali family living in the United States. The New York Times bestseller novel illustrates the journey of the Gangulis originating from Calcutta going through the motions of cultural adaptation in an unfamiliar land and through two generations of marriage, births, and deaths. The story first details the life of newlyweds Ashima and Ashoke Gangul i who make the drastic move toShow MoreRelatedThe Origin Of The Jews After The Babylonian Exile2317 Words   |  10 Pagesrefers to â€Å"dispersion† so we can say that the word represents a centre called home from where the dispersion occurs. In addition to it the dictionary it also associates the meaning with the dispersion of the Jews after the Babylonian exile. Thus we get two meanings of the word Diaspora- as a spread of population and a forcible dispersal. However the term Diaspora doesn’t mean any nomadic existence, though it suggests a movement from one place to another, but it’s not a nomadic existence because it isRead MoreThe Origin Of The Jews After The Babylonian Exile2320 Words   |  10 Pagesrefers to â€Å"dispersion† so we can say that the word represents a centre called home from where the dispersion occurs. In addition to it the dictionary it also associates the meaning with the dispersion of the Jews after the Babylonian exile. Thus we get two meanings of the word Diaspora- as a spread of population and a forcible dispersal. However the term Diaspora doesn’t mean any nomadic existence, though it suggests a movement from one place to another, but it’s not a nomadic existence because it is

Omega Dietary suppliments Free Essays

Organizations being squeezed between labor and product markets need to A. Couple pay policies with creative HER, production, and marketing management to make workers’ contributions more valuable and products more profitable. B. We will write a custom essay sample on Omega Dietary suppliments or any similar topic only for you Order Now Change their strategic mission and direction, moving to more attractive Industries. C. Move from Job-based pay structures to skill-based pay systems, where employees are empowered and jobs are more enriched. D. Move their operations overseas. 2. Pay specifically designed to energize, direct, or control employees’ behavior is known as A. Empowerment pay. B. Exempt pay. C. Indirect pay. D. Incentive pay. 3. Three of the following are vesting rights. Which is not a vesting right? A. The right to a pension regardless of whether or not the employee remains with the employer until retirement B. In most cases, a waiting period of no more than five years or a three- to seven-year period, with 20 percent in the third and each year thereafter C. The right to a pension at retirement D. A guarantee that the employer won’t switch the pension plan from defined-benefit to defined-contribution plan 4. A system in which an employer pays a worker specifically for each unit produced Is known as A. Hourly wage. B. Salary. C. Piecework rate. D. Gross pay. 5. Which level of child care Is most frequently provided by organizations with 100 or more employees? A. The organization offers no support within this area. B. The organization operates a day- care center at or near the workplace. C. The organization supplies and helps employees collect information about the cost and quality of available child care. D. The organization provides vouchers or discounts for employees to use at existing hill-care facilities. . Due to increasing diversity within the workplace, many employers are extending benefits to A. Independent contractors. B. Domestic partners. C. Anyone living within the employee’s household. D. Extended-family members. 7. Since the sass, the trend in larger public companies is to grant stock options to A. All exempt employees. B. All employees. C. All top and middle managers. D. Only top management. 8. Which act permits a lower training wage, which employers may pay to workers under the age of 20 for a period of up to 90 days? DAD 9. On average, out Of every donor spent on compensation, about cents go to benefits. A. 30 B. 8 C. 45 D. 17 10. The Scandal plan is a variation of which type of incentive? A. Merit pay B. Shanghaiing C. Profit sharing D. Individual 11. From which source do most retirees receive the largest percentage of their retirement income? A. Private pensions B. Social Security C. Disability insurance D. Earnings from personal assets 12. Which of the following is a false statement about key jobs? A. Key Jobs are Jobs on which it’s possible to obtain arrest-pay survey data. . Key Jobs are relatively stable in content. C. Key Jobs have many incumbents within the organization. D. Key Jobs are common to many organizations. 13. Employees who have met the enrollment and length-of-service requirements to receive a pension at retirement, regardless of whether they remained with the employer until that time, are said to be A. Pensioners. B. Vested. C. Retirees. D. Expatriates. 14. Which of the following is not an advantage of a balanced measures that are directed toward both the company’s longhand short-term objectives. B. Communicating a balanced scorecard helps employees understand the organization’s goals and how they might contribute to these goals. C. A balanced scorecard links external pay rates with internal Job structures, allowing organizations to gain both internal and external pay equity. D. A balanced scorecard balances the disadvantages of one type of incentive pay with the advantages of another type. 15. If employees conclude that they’re underrated, they’re likely to make up the difference in three of the following ways. Which is not a way in which employees who eel underrated are likely to make up the difference? A. Refusing to cooperate B. Finding a way to reduce their outcomes C. Reducing their inputs D. Withdrawing by leaving the organization 16. Which of the following is an advantage of group incentives? A. Groups trying to outdo one another in satisfying customers B. Encouraging team members to compete with each other so they can achieve their goal C. Group more likely using a broad range of performance measures D. Rewarding the performance of all employees at a facility 17. An employee produces 0 components in an hour and earns $8. 00 ($. 80 x 10), while an employee who produces 12 components per hour earns $9. 60 ($. 80 x 12). This arrangement is an example of a plan. A. Straight-salary B. Commission C. Differential-piece-rate D. Straight-piecework 18. Which of the following is a false statement about the Fair Labor Standards Act? A. Nonexempt employees are covered by ELSE and include most hourly workers. B. The overtime rate under the ELSE is one and a half times the employee’s hourly rate, including any bonuses and piece-rate payments. C. The FALLS remits a submission training wage equal to 85 percent of the minimum wage. D. The ELSE requires federal contractors to pay prevailing wage rates. End of exam 19. An organization is adjusting pay to better match a local labor market in which the cost of living is rising sharply. These adjustments are called A. Green-circle rates. B. Rank-and-file adjustments. C. Pay differentials. D. Bonuses. 20. The National Compensation Survey is an ongoing activity of the A. FALL-CIO. B. Society for Human Resource Management. C. American Management Association. D. Bureau of Labor Statistics. How to cite Omega Dietary suppliments, Papers

Hiroshima and Nagasaki free essay sample

It sheds the light of the past upon the present, thus helping one to understand oneself, by making one acquainted with other peoples. Also, as one studies the rise and fall of empires and civilizations, the lessons of the past help one to avoid the pitfalls of the present. History makes one’s life richer by giving meaning to the books one reads, the cities one visits or the music one hears. It also broadens one’s outlook by presenting to one an admixture of races, a mingling of cultures and a spectacular drama of the making of the modern world out of diverse forces. Another importance of history is that it enables one to grasp one’s relationship with one’s past. For example if one wonders why the U. S. flag has 48 stars or why Great Britain follows monarchy, one has to turn to history for an answer. History is of immense value to social scientists engaged in research. Thus the political scientist doing research on the parliamentary form of government, has to draw his materials from the treasure trove of history. It preserves the traditional and cultural values of a nation, and serves as a beacon light, guiding society in confronting various crises. History is indeed, as Allen Nerins puts it, a bridge connecting the past with the present and pointing the road to the future. The knowledge of past events provide you guidance and direction. examples of how the Spanish American War, the U. S. military experience in Cuba, and Muslim counter insurgency in the Philippines shed light on our world today. if history is not studied and understood, we will be setting ourselves up to repeat the mistakes of the past. There are several examples of how similar conflicts in the past have a common theme for today. The study of history makes a person more knowledgeable . That knowledge can always make a difference today for a better future . The study of historical decisions can show both the correct and incorrect path to take. It should at least give the decision maker an understanding of how past decisions played out. This is why it’s important for us to take time out of their busy schedules to study history. HIROSHIMA amp; NAGASAKI On August 6, 1945, at 9:15 AM Tokyo time, an American B-29 warplane, the Enola Gay piloted by Paul W. Tibbets, dropped a uranium atomic bomb, code named Little Boy’—a reference to Roosevelt on Hiroshima, Japans seventh largest city. he bomb was 3 m. (9 ft. 9 in. ) long, used uranium 235, had the power of 12. 5 kilotons of TNT, and weighed 3,600 kg. (nearly 8,000 lb. ). In minutes, half of the city vanished. According to U. S. estimates, 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed or missing, 140,000 were injuried many more were made homeless as a result of the bomb. Deadly radiation reached over 100,000. In the blast, thousands died instantly. The city was unbelievably devastated. Of its 90,000 buildings, over 60,000 were demolished. Another bomb was assembled at Tinian Island on August 6. On August 8, Field Order No. 7 issued from the 20th Air Force Headquarters on Guam called for its use the following day on either Kokura, the primary target, or Nagasaki, the secondary target. Three days after Hiroshima, the B-29 bomber, Bockscar piloted by Sweeney, reached the sky over Kokura on the morning of August 9 but abandoned the primary target because of smoke cover and changed course for Nagasaki. Surveys disclosed that severe radiation injury occurred to all exposed persons within a radius of one kilometer. Serious to moderate radiation injury occurred between one and two kilometers. Persons within two to four kilometers suffered slight radiation effects. What the bomb had produced was concentrated chaos, from which no city or nation could easily or rapidly recover. No significant repair or reconstruction was accomplished until months later. On September 2, the Japanese government, which had seemed ready to fight to the death, surrendered unconditionally. In the early morning hours of August 6, 1945, an American B-29 warplane, named the  Enola Gay, rolled down the runway of an American airbase on the Pacific island of Tinian. It flew for almost six hours, encountering no resistance from the ground. At 8:15 a. m. local time, the plane dropped its payload over the clear skies of Hiroshima, a Japanese city with an estimated population of 255,000. The atomic bomb that the plane was carrying, â€Å"Little Boy,† detonated some 600 meters above the city center, killing 80,000 people—30 percent of the population—immediately or within hours of the explosion. Three days later, on August 9, a similar plane carrying a more powerful weapon left Tinian but had more difficulty reaching its intended destination. After encountering fire from the ground, and finding its target city Kokura covered in clouds, it flew on to its second target, Nagasaki, a heavily industrialized city of about 270,000. Due to the specific topological features of Nagasaki, and to the fact that the bomb missed the city center, the effects were slightly less devastating. An estimated 40,000 people were killed outright. Hiroshima Hiroshima, Japanese city, situated some 8M km. (500 mi. ) from Tokyo, on which the first operational atomic bomb was dropped at 0815 on 6 August 1945. Nicknamed Little Boy’—a reference to Roosevelt—the bomb was 3 m. (9 ft. 9 in. ) long, used uranium 235, had the power of 12. 5 kilotons of TNT, and weighed 3,600 kg. (nearly 8,000 lb. ). Nagasaki, Japanese city on which the second operational atomic bomb was dropped. Nicknamed Fat Man (a reference to Churchill), the bomb, which used plutonium 239, was dropped by parachute at 1102 on 9 August by an American B29 bomber from the Pacific island of Tinian. It measured just under 3. 5 m. (11 ft. 4 in. ) in length, had the power of 22 kilotons of TNT, and weighed 4,050 kg. (nearly 9,000 lb. . The aircrafts first target was the city of Kokura, now part of Kitakyushu, but as it was covered by heavy cloud the aircraft was diverted to its second target, Nagasaki. Among the 270,000 people present when the bomb was dropped, about 2,500 were labour conscripts from Korea and 350 were prisoners-of-war. About 73,884 were killed and 74,909 injured, with the affected survivors suff ering the same long-term catastrophic results of radiation and mental trauma as at Hiroshima. Much discussion by a Target committee had preceded the decision to make Hiroshima the first target. To be able to assess the damage it caused, and to impress the Japanese government with the destruction it was expected to wreak, it was necessary to choose a city that had not yet been touched by the USAAF’s strategic air offensives. Kyoto was also considered but its unrivalled beauty ruled it out. The bomb was delivered by a US B29 bomber, nicknamed Enola Gay, from the Pacific island of Tinian. Dropped by parachute it exploded about 580 m. (1,885 ft. ) above the ground, and at the point of detonation the temperature probably reached several million degrees centigrade. Almost immediately a fireball was created from which were emitted radiation and heat rays, and severe shock waves were created by the blast. A one-ton (900 kg. ) conventional bomb would have destroyed all wooden structures within a radius of 40 m. (130 ft. ). Little Boy destroyed them all within a radius of 2 km. (1. 2 mi. ) of the hypocentre (the point above which it exploded). The terrain was flat and congested with administrative and commercial buildings, and the radius of destruction for the many reinforced concrete structures was about 500 m. 1,625 ft. ), though only the top stories of earthquake-resistant buildings were damage or destroyed. Altogether an area of 13 sq. Ikm. (5 sq. mi. ) was reduced to ashes and of the 76,000 buildings in the city 62. 9% were destroyed and only 8% escaped damage. Within 1. 2 km. (. 74 mi. ) of the hypocentre there was probably a 50% death rate of the 350,000 people estimated to have been in Hiroshima at the time. Hiroshima City Survey Section es timated a figure of 118,661 civilian deaths up to 10 August 1946 (see Table). Add to this a probable figure of 20,000 deaths of military personnel and the current figure—for people are still dying as a result of the radiation received—is in the region of 140,000. Among those who survived, the long-term effects of radiation sickness, genetic and chromosome injury, and mental trauma have been catastrophic, even unborn children having been stunted in growth and sometimes mentally retarded. Committee on Damage by Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,  Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Physical, Medical, and Social Effects of the Atomic Bombings  (London, 1981). Nagasaki Unlike Hiroshima, Nagasaki lies in a series of narrow valleys bordered by mountains in the east and west. The bomb exploded about 500 m. (1,625 ft. ) above the ground and directly beneath it (the hypocentre) was a suburb of schools, factories, and private houses. The radius of destruction for reinforced concrete buildings was 750 m. (2,437 ft. ), greater than at Hiroshima where the blast caused by the bomb was more vertical. But because of the topography, and despite the Nagasaki bomb being more powerful, only about 6. sq. km. (2. 6 sq. mi. ) of Nagasaki was reduced to ashes compared with 13 sq. km. (5 sq. mi. ) of Hiroshima. Of the 51,000 buildings in the city 22. 7% were completely destroyed or burt, with 36. 1 % escaping any damage. Committee on Damage by Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hiroshima and  Nagasaki: The Physical, Medical and Social Effects of the Atomic Bombings  (London, 1981). Effects Within the first few months after the bombing, it is estimated by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (a cooperative Japan-U. S. rganization) that between 90,000 and 166,000 people died in Hiroshima, while another 60,000 to 80,000 died in Nagasaki. These deaths include those who died due to the force and excruciating heat of the explosions as well as deaths caused by acute radiation exposure. While these numbers represent imprecise estimates—due to the fact that it is unknown how many forced laborers and military personnel were present in the city and that in many cases entire families were killed, leaving no one to report the deaths—statistics regarding the long term effects have been even more difficult to determine. Though exposure to radiation can cause acute, near-immediate effect by killing cells and directly damaging tissue, radiation can also have effects that happen on longer scale, such as cancer, by causing mutations in the DNA of living cells. Mutations can occur spontaneously, but a mutagen like radiation increases the likelihood of a mutation taking place. In theory, ionizing radiation can deposit molecular-bond-breaking energy, which can damage DNA, thus altering genes. In response, a cell will either repair the gene, die, or retain the mutation. In order for a mutation to cause cancer, it is believed that a series of mutations must accumulate in a given cell and its progeny. For this reason, it may be many years after exposure before an increase in the incident rate of cancer due to radiation becomes evident. Among the long-term effects suffered by atomic bomb survivors, the most deadly was leukemia. An increase in leukemia appeared about two years after the attacks and peaked around four to six years later. Children represent the population that was affected most severely. Attributable risk—the percent difference in the incidence rate of a condition between an exposed population and a comparable unexposed one — reveals how great of an effect radiation had on leukemia incidence. The Radiation Effects Research Foundation estimates the attributable risk of leukemia to be 46% for bomb victims. Nearly seventy years after the bombings occurred, most of the generation that was alive during the attack has passed away. Now much more attention has turned to the children born to the survivors. Regarding individuals who had been exposed to radiation before birth (in utero), studies, such as  one led by E. Nakashima in 1994, have shown that exposure led to increases in small head size and mental disability, as well as impairment in physical growth. Persons exposed  in utero  were also found to have a lower increase in cancer rate than survivors who were children at the time of the attack. One of the most immediate concerns after the attacks regarding the future of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki was what health effects the radiation would have on the children of survivors conceived after the bombings. So far, no radiation-related excess of disease has been seen in the children of survivors, though more time is needed to be able to know for certain. In general, though, the healthfulness of the new generations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki provide confidence that, like the oleander flower, the cities will continue to rise from their past destruction. Today, the liveliness of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki serves as a reminder not only of the human ability to regenerate, but also of the extent to which fear and misinformation can lead to incorrect expectations. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many thought that any city targeted by an atomic weapon would become a nuclear wasteland. While the immediate aftermath of the atomic bombings was horrendous and nightmarish, with innumerable  casualties, the populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not allow their cities to become the sort of wasteland that some thought was inevitable. This experience of can serve as  lesson in the present  when much of the public and even some governments have reacted radically to the accident in Fukashima–in the midst of tragedy, there remains hope for the future The blast of the uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima had the explosive equivalent of about 13,000 tons of TNT. The nuclear reaction in the bomb generated temperatures of several million degrees Centigrade. At the hypocenter, the point on the ground 600 meters below the explosion, temperatures reached 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Centigrade, two times the melting point of iron. The intense flash of heat and light, which incinerated everything within a kilometer-and-a-half of the hypocenter, was followed by an enormous shock wave that destroyed most buildings within two kilometers. The Hiroshima bomb was targeted at the Aioi Bridge, which it missed by about 250 meters. According to one account, the bomb exploded instead directly above a hospital headed by a Dr. Shima: â€Å"The Shima hospital and all its patients were vaporized. Eighty-eight percent of the people within a radius of 1,500 feet died instantly or later on that day. Most others within the circle perished in the following weeks or months. †Ã‚  [1] Those close to the hypocenter were instantly incinerated without leaving behind a trace, except for perhaps a shadow on a wall or street where their bodies had partially protected the surface from the initial flash of heat. One author notes that those closest to the blast â€Å"passed from being to nothingness faster than any human physiology can register. †Ã‚  [2] Those slightly farther from the center of the explosion did not die immediately, but suffered from severe third-degree burns all over their bodies, in particular to any areas that were exposed directly to the heat. They suffered a period of intense pain before dying of their injuries. Those who witnessed the explosion and survived invariably describe these victims in the most horrific terms. The decision by the administration of President Harry Truman to use atomic weapons against Japan was motivated by political and strategic considerations. Above all, the use of the bomb was meant to establish the undisputed hegemonic position of the United States in the post-war period. These motivations were also the basic driving force behind the American intervention in the war itself. The Second World War has long been presented to the American people as a â€Å"Good War,† a war for democracy against fascism and tyranny. While it was no doubt true that millions of Americans saw the war in terms of a fight against Hitlerite fascism and Japanese militarism, the aims of those who led them to war were altogether different. The American ruling class entered the Second World War in order to secure its global interests. While the political character of the bourgeois democratic regime in the United States was vastly different than that of its fascist adversaries, the nature of the war aims of the United States were no less imperialistic. In the final analysis, the utter ruthlessness with which the United States sought to secure its objectives—including the use of the atomic bomb—flowed from this essential fact. The American government hoped that by using the bomb it would shift the balance of forces in its growing conflict with the Soviet Union. However, the American monopoly of the bomb was short-lived. The Soviet Union responded to the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 by rapidly increasing the amount of resources devoted to its own atomic bomb project. In 1949, the Soviet Union carried out its first atomic weapon test. Sections of the US ruling elite and military establishment still hoped that they might be able to use the bomb in actual military situations. In 1950, Truman threatened to use nuclear weapons against the Chinese during the Korean War, and General Douglas McArthur urged the government to authorize the military to drop a number of bombs along the Korean border with Manchuria. These proposals were eventually rejected for fear that the use of the bomb might provoke a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. With the development of the much more powerful hydrogen bomb, first tested in late 1952, the US hoped to renew its nuclear advantage. The Republican Eisenhower administration came into office in 1953 pledging a more aggressive policy against the Soviet Union, including the â€Å"rollback† of Soviet control over Eastern Europe. In January 1954, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles gave a speech in which he stated that the US would â€Å"deter aggression† by depending â€Å"primarily upon a great capacity to retaliate, instantly, by means and at places of our own choosing. This pledge of â€Å"massive retaliation† was generally interpreted as a threat to use nuclear weapons in response to a local war such as the Korean War or the war that later developed in Vietnam. However, this nuclear advantage was again eliminated in August 1953, when the USSR tested its first hydrogen bomb. The two countries rapidly developed a capacity that created conditions of â€Å"mutu ally assured destruction† in the event of a nuclear war. Throughout this period and the following decades, a battle raged within the political establishment over policy in relation to the Soviet Union and the atom bomb. Even with the threat of nuclear war, there continued to exist a substantial section of the American ruling class that was unwilling to tolerate any constraints on American military power. The option of engaging in nuclear war was never off the table for any post-Hiroshima/Nagasaki administration, Democratic or Republican. What Truman’s Secretary of War Henry Stimson called the â€Å"master card† was always there in the background ready to be pulled out if need be. In 1962, the Kennedy administration nearly initiated a nuclear war with the Soviet Union over the Cuban missile crisis. As the economic situation deteriorated in the 1970s, those who advocated a more aggressive orientation toward the Soviet Union began to gain in prominence. This started under the Democratic Party administration of Jimmy Carter and received a boost during the Reagan administration in the 1980s. Reagan oversaw a renewed arms buildup and also sought to gain an offensive nuclear superiority by developing a defensive missile shield (the so-called â€Å"Star Wars† program), something that the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972 had been designed to prevent. A successful defensive shield would allow the US to strike with nuclear weapons first, since it could shoot down any retaliatory action. Since the self-destruction of the Soviet Union in 1991, the American ruling class has reached a new consensus based upon preemptive war and the unilateral assertion of American interests through military force. Fewer treaties, more bombs The post-Soviet eruption of American militarism has assumed an especially malignant form during the presidency of George W. Bush. Since coming into power, the Bush administration has developed a two-pronged strategy to expand American military capacity. On the one hand, it has rejected or undermined any international agreement or treaty that places boundaries on what the United States can or cannot do militarily. On the other hand, it has taken steps to develop its military technology, including its nuclear technology, to prepare the way for the use of this technology in future wars. In 1999, the Republican-dominated US Senate went out of its way to reject the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which had previously been signed by the Clinton administration. In 2001, Bush announced that he would not seek Senate approval again, and instead would look for a way to â€Å"bury† the treaty. The treaty would ban the testing of new nuclear weapons, which the Bush administration opposes because it is planning on developing new nuclear weapons that it will need to test. In December 2001, Bush announced that the US would unilaterally withdraw from the ABM Treaty in order to allow it to renew the â€Å"Star Wars† project, now called National Missile Defense. The development of a NMD system is still a priority of the administration, and is part of its drive to achieve military domination of space. Like the Reagan administration program, a missile defense system would open up the way for offensive nuclear strikes against countries such as China or Russia. During an international review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) earlier this year, the Bush administration announced a position that was aimed at undermining the foundation of the agreement. In exchange for a promise not to acquire nuclear weapons, the treaty guarantees non-nuclear powers the right to develop non-military nuclear technology. The treaty also includes a pledge from the nuclear powers to gradually eliminate their nuclear stockpiles. The new Bush administration position, however, is to deny states that the US determines to be â€Å"rogue states,† such as Iran, the right to develop nuclear energy programs. At the same time, far from eliminating its own nuclear stockpiles, the US has taken steps to modernize its existing weapons and develop new weapons for offensive use. Indeed, in the run-up to the conference, which ended without an agreement, the Bush administration explicitly insisted on its right to use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear power. Over the past decade, the US government has developed a policy of offensive nuclear weapon use, rejecting the Cold War conception that nuclear weapons would be intended primarily as a deterrent. A Nuclear Posture Review in 1997 during the Clinton administration reportedly took the first steps toward targeting countries such as North Korea, China and Iran. This policy was made explicit in another review, leaked to the press in 2002, in which the Pentagon announced that â€Å"the old process [of nuclear arms control] is incompatible with the flexibility US planning and forces now require. † It explicitly hreatened a host of countries by targeting them for potential nuclear attack. It also provided very general guidelines for the future use of nuclear weapons, declaring that these weapons may be used â€Å"against targets able to withstand nonnuclear attack† or â€Å"in the event of surprising military developments. † Last summer, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld i ssued an â€Å"Interim Global Strike Order† that reportedly includes a first strike nuclear option against a country such as Iran or North Korea. There were also nuclear weapons options in the planning guidelines for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bush administration has taken steps toward the development of new â€Å"bunker-busting† nuclear weapons specifically designed for use in combat situations. Existing stockpiles have been modernized, and according to a  New York Times  article from February 7, 2005, â€Å"American scientists have begun designing a new generation of nuclear arms meant to be sturdier and more reliable and to have longer lives† than the old weapon stockpiles. The US repeatedly issues threats against countries over their alleged development of nuclear weapons and other â€Å"weapons of mass destruction. The most recent target has been Iran, which the US has threatened with military attack if it does not abandon its nuclear energy program. All these threats are meant to justify future US invasions, in which the use of nuclear weapons by the United States is by no means excluded. Through the policy of preemptive war, the US has arrogated for itself the right to attack any country that it deems to be a threat, or declares might be a threat sometime in the future. There is no part of the world in which the United States does not have an interest. It has sought to progressively expand its influence in Central Asia and the former Soviet Union through the war in Afghanistan and political intervention in countries such as Ukraine. It is seeking to dominate the Middle East through the war in Iraq and the threat of war in Iran. It is expanding its activities in Africa and has made repeated threats against North Korea and China as part of its efforts to secure its influence in East Asia. Under these conditions, there are innumerable potential scenarios in which a war will erupt leading to the use of nuclear weapons. This includes not only invasions of countries such as Iran; an American war against a smaller power could easily spark a broader conflict—with China, Russia or even the powers of Europe, all of which have nuclear weapons themselves. The catastrophe that befell Hiroshima and Nagasaki will never be forgotten. Their fate will stand forever as testimony to the bestiality of imperialism. Against the backdrop of the renewed eruption of American militarism, the events of August 1945 remind us of the alternatives that confront mankind—world revolution or world war, socialism or barbarism. The perceived threat from weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has become one of the most important issues on foreign policy and national security agendas. In security and foreign policy analyses, weapons of mass destruction is a term that generally encompasses nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, with radiological weapons occasionally included. The traditional arms control approach no longer monopolizes the international legal strategy against WMD. This development suggests that the need for international law in connection with the WMD threat may be higher now than in previous historical periods. The dangers and uncertainties confronting the use of international law in this new WMD environment may also be historically unprecedented, as U. S. interpretations of international law to justify military action against Iraq and the worsening crisis with North Korea both demonstrate. Time to get smarter about stupidity If we want to avoid repeating past mistakes, we must acknowledge that even the brightest people can do monumentally daft things A  weapon of mass destruction  (WMD) is a  weapon  that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans (and other life forms) and/or cause great damage to man-made structures (e. . buildings), natural structures (e. g. mountains), or the  biosphere  in general. Nuclear weapons The only country to have used a nuclear weapon in war is the  United States, which  dropped two atomic bombs  on the Japanese cities of  Hiroshima  andNagasaki  during World War II. There are eight countries that have declared the y possess nuclear weapons and are known to have tested a nuclear weapon, only five of which are members of the NPT. The eight are  China,  France,  India,  North Korea,  Pakistan,  Russia, the  United Kingdom, and theUnited States. Israel  is considered by most analysts to have nuclear weapons numbering in the low hundreds as well, but maintains an official policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither denying nor confirming its nuclear status. Iran  is suspected by western countries of seeking nuclear weapons, a claim that it denies. While the truth is unknown, the November 2007 NIE on Iran stated that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003. [37] South Africa  developed a small nuclear arsenal in the 1980s but disassembled them in the early 1990s, making it the only country to have fully given up an independently developed nuclear weapons arsenal. Belarus, Kazakhstan, and  Ukraine  inherited stockpiles of nuclear arms following the break-up of the  Soviet Union, but relinquished them to the Russian Federation. Countries with access to nuclear weapons through  nuclear sharing  agreements include Belgium,  Germany, Italy, the  Netherlands, and  Turkey. North Korea  has claimed to have developed and tested nuclear devices. Although outside sources have been unable to unequivocally support the states claims, North Korea has officially been identified to have nuclear weapons. - Media coverage of WMD  [edit] In 2004, the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) released a report[48]  examining the media’s coverage of WMD issues during three separate periods:  nuclear weapons tests  by India and Pakistan in May 1998; the US announcement of evidence of a  North Korean nuclear weapons program  in October 2002; and revelations about  Irans nuclear program  in May 2003. The CISSM report notes that poor coverage resulted less from political  bias among the media  than from tired journalistic conventions. The report’s major findings were that: 1. Most media outlets represented WMD as a monolithic menace, failing to adequately distinguish between weapons programs and actual weapons or to address the real differences among chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological weapons. 2. Most journalists accepted the  Bush administration’s  formulation of the â€Å"War on Terror† as a campaign against WMD, in contrast to coverage during the  Clinton  era, when many journalists made careful distinctions between acts of terrorism and the acquisition and use of WMD. 3. Many stories tenographically reported the incumbent administration’s perspective on WMD, giving too little critical examination of the way officials framed the events, issues, threats, and policy options. 4. Too few stories proffered alternative perspectives to official line, a problem exacerbated by the  journalistic  prioritizing of breaking-news stories and the â€Å"inverted pyramidâ₠¬  style of storytelling. In a separate study published in 2005,[49]  a group of researchers assessed the effects reports and retractions in the media had on people’s  memory  regarding the  search for WMD in Iraq  during the 2003 Iraq War. The study focused on populations in two  coalition  countries (Australia and USA) and one opposed to the war (Germany). Results showed that US citizens generally did not correct initial misconceptions regarding WMD, even following disconfirmation; Australian and German citizens were more responsive to retractions. Dependence on the initial source of information led to a substantial minority of Americans exhibiting  false memory  that WMD were indeed discovered, while they were not. This led to three conclusions: 1. The repetition of tentative news stories, even if they are subsequently disconfirmed, can assist in the creation of false memories in a substantial proportion of people. 2. Once information is published, its subsequent correction does not alter peoples beliefs unless they are suspicious about the motives underlying the events the news stories are about. 3. When people ignore corrections, they do so irrespective of how certain they are that the corrections occurred. A poll conducted between June and September 2003 asked people whether they thought evidence of WMD had been discovered in Iraq since the war ended. They were also asked which media sources they relied upon. Those who obtained their news primarily from Fox News were three times as likely to believe that evidence of WMD had been discovered in Iraq than those who relied on PBS and NPR for their news, and one third more likely than those who primarily watched CBS. In 2006 Fox News reported the claims of two Republican lawmakers that WMDs had been found in Iraq,[51]  based upon unclassified portions of a report by the  National Ground Intelligence Center. Quoting from the report Senator  Rick Santorum  said Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. According to David Kay, who appeared before the US House Armed Services Committee to discuss these badly corroded munitions, they were leftovers, many years old, improperly stored or destroyed by the Iraqis. 52]  Charles Duelfer agreed, stating on NPRs  Talk of the Nation: When I was running the ISG – the Iraq Survey Group – we had a couple of them that had been turned in to these IEDs, the improvised explosive devices. But they are local hazards. They are not a major, you know, weapon of mass destruction. [53] Later, wikileaks would show that these kind of WMDs continued to be found a s the Iraqi occupation continued. [54] Many news agencies, including Fox News, reported the conclusions of the  CIA  that, based upon the investigation of the  Iraq Survey Group, WMDs are yet to be found in Iraq.

Reason and emotions in justifying moral decision Essay Example

Reason and emotions in justifying moral decision Paper To do so, we can use reason or emotion as a way of knowledge to justify our actions. When using reason to justify a moral judgement, there may be separate reasons for people to have an argument. If it is based in fact, the argument is open to settlement by evidence, though the evidence may be very difficult to obtain and interpret. However, if it is based in principle, it is very hard to use evidence to solve the dispute as everyones principle differs from each other. Making such a distinction is important as arguments of principle and arguments of evidence are solved differently. We will write a custom essay sample on Reason and emotions in justifying moral decision specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Reason and emotions in justifying moral decision specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Reason and emotions in justifying moral decision specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Thus, morality may come down to just a personal opinion. In this case, the prospects of finding the correct form of morality are and trying to persuade someone that one course of action is morally better than the other, is like trying to convince them that apple taste better than oranges. After making a vital distinction between principle and evidence, the choice of premises when justifying a moral judgement is also equally important. In most situations involving ethics, we would usually choose to act in self-interest but there are situations [ethical egoism], there are times when we sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others. This notion is known as altruism, which is opposed to that of ethical egoism. There are many people who do sacrifice their own interest to help others. However, the root of the problem is that if we see altruism as being an excellent thing then we can be egoistic by being altruistic. It provides no guide to action and seems little use as a moral theory. Although we would certainly want to take others welfare into account, it does not seem reasonable to live totally for others. So we need to find a way of balancing our needs with those of other. Utilitarianism allows both altruists and egoists to attempt to maximise someones utility. Utilitarianism states that we are all equally valuable- that all utility are equal and it takes sheer prejudice to take ones own point of view as the standard judgement. The idea of moral duty is a choice of premises as well, which needs to be scrutinised carefully as it is dangerous to answer questions with reference to other schools of ethical thoughts. We may end up following these schools of thought rather than trying to develop fully the duty theory. Thus we must acknowledge that reason alone can never motivate actions. People who can agree how to act in specific cases, yet have no agreement on principles, prove that we have far missed something in our search for ethical truth. Emotions is necessary in justifying a moral decision as good utilitarians have to weigh the pros and cons and decide if there is a net gain of happiness and if they feel that it is right to do so. The notion that character(rather than the outcome or duty) can matter seems to be reflected in the idea of intention as an important factor in moral decisions. This approach is known as virtue ethics, which is a set of philosophies that hold moral life should be concerned with cultivating a virtuous character, as opposed to following the rules of action. This means that a decision can be moral even if the outcome is a bad one and irrespective of ideas such as duty. One situation where the use of reason and emotion may come in is when a teacher miscalculated a students test marks, giving her more than what she was supposed to get. The student realises this and the extra marks had allowed her to pass her test. However, she also knows that she should be honest and inform her teacher about the error. This is a moral decision which the student has to make. She reasons that if she tells the teacher, she will be living up to her morals, but her if she does, she will fail the test and she will be upset. In this case, reason and emotions are both factors that will contribute to her moral judgement. In the end, the student decides to tell the teacher of her error as she felt that it was logical and morally right to do so. Although she failed the test, she had a net gain of happiness as the teacher had praised her for being an honest student. Reason and emotion are both equally necessary in justifying a moral decision. Utilitarian, duty-based and virtue-based theories of ethics all rely on both reasons and emotions to differing degrees. Each system has its own flaws and despite the reams of profound books we can turn to, we will still be doubtful if any of these systems will pose severe difficulties and if a compelling theory would arise. However, theories are only guidebooks and do not make a moral decision as this is what humans do. As it is hard for a human not to have any emotions, justifying a moral decision would require both the use of reasoning and our emotions play a role in decided what we feel like doing. 1573 words 3 http://www. scu. edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework. html 1 http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/logic-inductive/#1 2 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Emotion Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge section.

The eNotes Blog Surprise of the year Franzen is being a jerkagain.

Surprise of the year Franzen is being a jerkagain. Yes, he who snubbed Oprah and her schmaltzy book club, he who lacked the capacity to laugh at the ransom of a pair of glasses kidnapped from under his nose (quite literally), has climbed back onto his high horse again. The author of The Corrections and Freedom  now declares in a new Guardian essay his disappointment in authors who turn to Twitter, lovingly casting himself as the reincarnation of Austrian satirist Karl Kraus, aka The Great Hater. Not that you would know who that is, being a techno-communicating cretin and all. I mean, #karlkrausthegreathater takes up a big chunk of 140 characters. I would explain more of Franzens essay for you, but like his other work, I didnt get through it. So, Ill just leave you with a link and some idiot friendly bullet points: Jeff Bezos of Amazon may not be the antichrist, but he surely looks like one of the four horsemen. The work of yakkers and tweeters and braggers, and of people with the money to pay somebody to churn out hundreds of five-star reviews for them, will flourish in that world. But what happens to the people who became writers because yakking and tweeting and bragging felt to them like intolerably shallow forms of social engagement? What happens to the people who want to communicate in depth, individual to individual, in the quiet and permanence of the printed word, and who were shaped by their love of writers who wrote when publication still assured some kind of quality control and literary reputations were more than a matter of self-promotional decibel levels? As fewer and fewer readers are able to find their way, amid all the noise and disappointing books and phony reviews, to the work produced by the new generation of this kind of writer, Amazon is well on its way to making writers into the kind of prospectless workers whom its contractors employ in its warehouses. And with that, I have to get back to Twitter. I think Ill be in good company, what with  Neil Gaiman,  Joyce Carol Oates,  Joanne Harris,  Ian Rankin,  Margaret Atwood,  Stephen Fry,  Salman Rushdie et al. Besides, Im kind of a sucker for the cat pictures.

Equal opportunities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Equal opportunities - Essay Example The proportion of women working in essentially male staffed sectors, the informal sector, or in various forms of contract labour, is often high, just as the proportional participation of women in the formal sector are often lower and they tend to suffer from occupational segregation and disadvantage in terms of their conditions of employment (those who receive unequal pay for work of equal value). Gender equality in GLA has been clearly set out from the start, with important issues of the process already in motion. It is exceptional in that the organization doesn't suffer the history of disadvantage found in the many of public sector bodies, and can therefore work on gender equality can go ahead without the traditional constraints. The public duty on gender equality in GLA makes required arrangements with regard to the principle that there should be equality for all. Its strategy for equality for women attempts that the organisation reflects the entire local community at all strata. The mainstreaming of gender equality has been found to be considerably easier in a newly created public body with equalities as a dimension of officer responsibilities. This is visible in The GLA advocates: A common approach for performance indicators on equalities Clear equalities targets to measure performance Equalities indicators integrated into the best value process These recommendations have streamlined the policies and practices that have helped the GLA become an exemplary employer that reflects the equalities programme for the population of London. This is visible in all functional bodies that include the Metropolitan Police, London Transport, the Fire Service and the London Development Agency. However, the still existing problem sectors, such as, employment of fewer women at particular grades in the Metropolitan Police and the lack of women transport planners are being addressed with the agility it deserves. The GLA is aiming to analyse the results of its current policies on: Outcomes of the best value review of equalities Improving the performance of managerial performance, particularly around serving of functional bodies Learning from the experience of the first two years The overall impact of the recent directives of the GLA on equality have been appreciated in the work of the London Development Agency, though there are critics too, still two years of operation is early enough to conduct a detailed assessment of the success or otherwise of particular strategies. Critics have stated that the new policies and programmes have failed to satisfy the equality issues. The special appointment of the Director (Equality

Learning to critique by critiquing critiques Essay

Learning to critique by critiquing critiques - Essay Example This author brings out her illustrations through a destruction, which took place at the Murrah Federal Building. It is after this devastating event that several developments taka place in the architectural field in the city. Krinke employs significant use of symbols for the purpose of communicating some of her ideas. For instance, she elaborates the elements that are associated with a sacred space. There is a lot of symbolism, which is applied for the purpose of bringing to light what the elements represent. The stone is the first element that is used. The stone elements in the city are tailored to serve as permanent markers for a given phenomenon. This is majorly due to the durability, which is associated with them. For example, on the concrete floor of the Murrah Building there are names of those individuals who survived the ordeal. Near the epicenter of the pool, there has been a development of a reflective pool. The changes that take place in the atmosphere are noted or brought out by the water. This also represents the changes, which took place at the city after the blast. The trees represent the ability of an entity to remain unscathed in the course of its existence. The tree, which stands out in the city, is the Survivor Tree. This tree is a representation of the survival and endurance, which has characterized the city together with its inhabitants through the years since the explosion. Krinkle significantly applies the approach, which entails imagery and symbolism. This elaborates the significant developments, which have been taking place. The imagery and symbols also point out that the explosion seems to have had a significant effect on the residents of the town. The approach, which is taken by Melcher in her article, is one, which is rather critical of the happenings in the city. For example, she points out that the names, which are embossed on the wall, may not be significant to a person

A conversation with my father by grace paley Essay

A conversation with my father by grace paley - Essay Example The entire story is based on the relationship of the two main characters in the story, the writer daughter and her father. The story begins with the father in the center stage and the daughter a mere follower of his directions. As the story progresses, the limelight slowly shifts on to the daughter who creates a story that is impactful and apparently tragic. All through the story, the father and daughter duo share a healthy, communicative, expressive, and genuine relationship as two admirers of life, society, writing, and literature. The father has the air of superiority in his voice since he is considers himself more knowledgeable and a well read fan of literature in Russian and English. This is evident from his tone at: â€Å"With you it’s all a joke,† (Paley, 1994, p.233) The daughter has a more kind and considerate outlook towards the father as her affection towards him forces her to write the same story twice. It is evident from her tone at, â€Å"His heart, that bloody motor, is equally old and will not do certain jobs anymore†¦..†Yes, Why not? That’s possible.† I want to please him.† (Paley, 1994, p.232) She however, dons a corrective role when her father gets cynical about the tragic ending that men and women in society face. She defines her confidence, free-spirited nature and positivity by turning the story into a happy and well meant ending. Overall, it is a good and healthy relationship that the two main protagonists in this story share. To achieve these goals, she has used two stories in between the main story. Her conversation with her father is one story, her simple depiction of a neighbor woman another, and her detailed depiction of the same woman is the third story. While the second and third stories are the same, they are created with an emphasis on writing styles which in the first one was tragic and negative and in the second one was humorous and

Leonardo Davinci The Greatest Genius History Essay

Leonardo Davinci The Greatest Genius History Essay Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Anchiano, near Vinci in the Republic of Florence, which is now Italy. He died on May 2, 1519 in Cloux (now Clos-Luce) France. Leonardo da Vinci is believed to be the greatest genius that ever lived. Leonardo had become a master in more fields of any other before or since him. Most geniuses such as Albert Einstein or Alfred Hitchcock were masters only in a single field. It was not the case with Leonardo. He believed that all subject matter was interconnected in one way or another. Leonardo expressed a great deal of his other works in his works of art. He was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculpture, architect, engineer, mathematician, musician, scientist, a writer, and a well-known inventor. Da Vinci, the Artist Leonardo started his career as an artist in about 1469 in Verrocchios fabled workshop. Leonardo, a youth at the time was Verrocchios assistant. One of their famous masterpieces was the Baptism of Christ. This painting was started in 1472 and took roughly 3 years to complete. It is currently being housed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. A great deal of the detail of this painting was believed to be done by Leonardo himself. X-rays of the painting and comparing them to the original sketches shows that Leonardo had done the painting entirely different that the way Verrocchio had intended it to be in finished form. This may be the earliest indication that Leonardo was trying to free himself from his masters coaching to follow his own path. Verrocchio had felt threatened by the fact that da Vincis angel in the painting had seemed to be a great deal better than the other three which were painted by Verrocchio (John the Baptist) and other students) After this Verrocchio had lost in terest in painting and concentrated on his other talents such as sculpture and metal working. Suffice to say, this was Verrocchios last well-known painting and the start of Leonardos career as a famous artist. Another of his more famous works, the Mona Lisa, has brought forth much controversy over the years since its completion in 1506. It was painted in Florence, Italy on wood with oil paints and now currently resides at the Musee du Louvre, Paris. Some of this controversy includes such questioning as follows: Why is she smiling (was she secretly pregnant at the time of the painting), is this really a woman or a cleverly disguised self-portrait of Leonardo himself? If Mona Lisa was actually a self portrait of Leonardo, then the smile couldnt have been of a secret pregnancy, but most-likely of a secret that the painting is actually based on the artist. The Last Supper is another one of Leonardos great works of art. It is a mural that measures 30 feet by 14 feet. This great size mad it a great challenge for the very talented Leonardo. The work was started in 1495 and after 3 years of many sketches and preparatory drawings, the work was finally completed in 1498. This painting was done at the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie on the north refectory. This job focused on a scene at the moment of the announcement Judas betrayal. Instead of seating them in a traditional seating arrangement for that time, he seated them so that one could see each of the apostles faces and facial expressions as they hear the announcement of the betrayal of Jesus. This job couldnt have come at a more perfect time for Leonardo, for he was in his time of depression. This job not only brought him out of his depression, but it also won back the Duke Lodovicos patronage and through this he acquired a vineyard and a piece of property of 16 rods located near San Vittore. Other paintings by Leonardo include St. John in the Wilderness, Benois Madonna, Sala delle Asse, St. Jermome, Adoration of the Magi, and many others. Da Vinci and his sculptures Leonardo not only had a talent for art, which he seems the most famous for, but also he had a flare for sculpture. Some of his more well-known sculptures are the Horse in Bronze and the Il Cavallo. The Bronze horse was started in 1482 when the Duke of Milan had commissioned Leonardo to build the worlds biggest horse in honor of his father to guard over the Dukes castle. It stood 24 feet high upon its completion. The sculpture started out as a full size cay model and was eventually later cast in Bronze, thus the name the Bronze Horse. Leonardos other well known sculpture, Il Cavallo, was another horse sculpture that he would not see completed. This only exists in the form of the multitude of drawings that were left behind by da Vinci. Also left behind were two issues da Vinci had with his sculpture. The first was the fact that he needed to fill the space where the horses belly was to be and the second issue was settling on the position of the rider. Unfortunately for Leonardo, this wa s one sculpture he could not complete. Da Vinci, the Inventor Leonardo had many great inventions for his time period and a great deal of them was ahead of their time. These inventions can be put into a number of categories according to the invention and the intended purpose of the invention. The first category would be flight. This category includes the parachute, the helicopter, and the glider. The second category is forgeries. In this category would be the Turin Shroud. The reason for this as being in the forgery category is the fact that people question whether it is authentic or it was one of da Vincis illusions of making it look authentic by using his many artistic talents. The third category of his inventions is maps. Leonardo had made great improvements in the area of map making in his time period. The fifth category is the military. This category includes the plans he had drawn up for an automobile (re-invention), the invention of a three-tiered machine gun, a scaling ladder (improvement), and a military tank. Even his paintings, which are the sixth category, can be considered as inventions for Leonardo in the fact that he had made improvements in the art and also in his creative techniques. The seventh category for inventions for da Vinci is statues in the fact that, just as in paintings he had made improvements and used different techniques and also invention. The last but not least category in the inventions for da Vinci is a category that I would have never even thought or known about is robots. Leonardo was experimenting with this concept in 1495. The robot is a knight in appearance and is wearing the traditional armor for the time which was Italian-German. It had realistic features as well. For instance if one were to look into the mouth of the robot one would find it looked as a real humans mouth would. Leonardo had done this to prove to himself how easily a human beings body could be imitated. This to me in itself shows pure genius. I could go basically on and on forever about the great deal of accomplishments of the great Leonardo da Vinci. He had made great improvements to the art world, helped science a great deal, made inventions and plans for inventions that would be a great help to society. He was also a great mathematician, musician and writer as well. I believe that for one to be considered the greatest genius to ever live they need to have a vast knowledge of a multitude of different subjects. Leonardo da Vinci is the only person thus far has come to mind as that such person who greatly qualifies for such an honor.

Marijuana: The Science and The Law Essay -- Illicit Drugs

Marijuana was first discovered in China in 4000 BC, and was used to make ropes. It was grown for hemp, and the hemp fiber was twisted to make the rope. In 3000 BC, marijuana was first smoke. Then it began to be used as a medicine in China for the treatment of malaria, beriberi, constipation, rheumatic pain, and absent-mindedness. Furthermore, in ancient India, they used it to relieve headaches, whooping-cough, prolong life, improve judgment, lower fevers, induce sleep, cure dysentery, and control dandruff (Think quest, n.d). Marijuana also known as pot, weed, and ganja is reported by the Office of National Drugs Control Policy as the most widely used illicit drug in the United States. Although, people view the drug as harmless, the use of marijuana has adverse health, safety, social, academic, economic, and behavioral consequences. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (formerly called the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse), 95 million Americans age 12 and older have tried marijuana at least once (The office of the Drugs Control Policy, n.d). According to the New York City Health Department, marijuana is the most common illegal drug used by nearly 730,000 New Yorkers (12%) annually. The use is highest among 18- to 25-year-olds (30%). Since 2004, the rate of emergency department visits from the use of marijuana is reported to have more than doubled to 173 marijuana-related visits for every 100,000 New Yorkers in 2007 (New York City Department of Health and Hygiene 2010). Marijuana is extracted from the flowers and leaves of the hemp plant, which is dried and shredded. The scientific name for marijuana is cannabis. This plant can grow in nearly any environment. The average rate of growth is one to tw... ...ealth and Hygiene (2010). Illicit drugs in New York City. Retrieved from: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/survey/survey-2009drugod.pdf New York State DOH (2012). New York State health commissioner warns against the danger of synthetic marijuana. Retrieved from: http://www.health.ny.gov/press/releases/2012/2012-03-23_dangers_of_synthetic_marijiana.htm Random Facts (2012). Marijuana. Retrieved from http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/02/27_marijuana.html Scott, E.M. (2010). Marijuana decriminalization. Retrieved from: http://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/rpt/2010-R-0204.htm The Office of the Drugs Control Policy (n.d). Marijuana. Retrieved from: https://www.ncjrs.gov/ondcppubs/publications/pdf/marijuana_myths_facts.pdf Thinkquest Education Foundation (n.d). The history of marijuana. Retrieved from: http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/01474/history.htm

Organisms Physiology Essay

Organism Physiology is the method in which many diverse living organisms are considered to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth that can be defined as Evolution. Several organisms have evolved as a result of environmental changes within their habitats. Example is a diagram of a whale and details about how the whale has evolved physiologically and has become adapted to fit the environment. Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Cordata, Class: Mammalia, Order: Cetacea, Sub-order: Odontoceti, Family: Delphinidae, Genus: Orcinus, Species: Orca. Whales occupy all oceans and major seas, even some are in larger river systems. They are very large animals. They can grow up to 100 ft. or more in length. They can weigh up to 200 tons or more. Whales live in families called pods. These pods vary in numbers and consist of family members and family friends. Whales live in these families their whole life. Group living is safer when other whales or sharks attack. It also makes it easier to find food. Whales are always migrating. They travel to find food, breed and have young. Whales do not have eyelids. They rely on thick oily tears to protect their eyes. Whales hear from little holes behind their eyes. They talk to each other by making high pitched sounds like whistles, clicks, squeaks, rattles, and groans. Whales inhabit all oceans and the seven seas; some also inhabit larger river systems. They are extremely social organism and use communication for the function of hunting, defense, and reproduction. In general a dolphins live pods of up to a dozen individuals. Dolphin pods can emerge temporally forming a super pod the emerging pods may exceed thousands of dolphins. Attachments in pods are not set; interchange is regular. On the other hand, whales can generate great social bonds; they will remain with wounded or individuals in poor hea lth, even assisting other whales to breathe by bringing them to the surface if required. Whales arewidely classed as predators, but their food ranges from microscopic plankton to very large fish. Males are called bulls; females, cows. The young are called calves. Because of their environment, whales are conscious breathers: they decide when to breathe. All mammals sleep, including whales, but they cannot afford to fall into an unconscious state for too long, since they need to be conscious in order to breathe. Whales also communicate with each other using lyrical sounds. Being so large and powerful these sounds are also extremely loud depending on the species. The most dangerous predator for the whale is mankind and climate change. Man slaughters whales for their meat, fat, and for being in the same location where they fish. There studies at this time being done to evaluate the influence of pollution in the water and the effects on whales. Whales are threatened by climate change and global warming. As the Antartic Ocean warms, krill populations, that are the main food source of some species of whales, reduce dramatically, being replaced by jelly like salps. . Whales give birt h to live young, and the mother nurses the calf with her milk and provides care. The calf is nursed by the mother for one and one half years to three years and a mother will stay with her young three to eight years. Whales are thought to live about 40-80years. Whales vary basis of their ecosystem and what is necessary for them to survive in their ecosystem (Getten, 2006). All whales, dolphins, and porpoises species are related. Fossil data has been discovered from the early Eocene epoch that point toward information that whales were already aquatic 45-50million years ago. It is thought that animals that spent a great amount of time hunting for food around water areas and went through a period in an amphibious stage before becoming adapted to live in the water and the animal became dedicated to the water. Records show that by in their teeth it took millions of years for true cetaceans to develop (Brakes, Simmonds 2011). The whale has adapted to the environment in many ways from the once amphibious animal it is thought to have evolved from. Fossil evidence reveals that after prehistoric whales decided to be aquatic, it did not take long for bones of the hind limbs to disappear. The front limbs evolved into flippers and the powerful tail is their most important forward motion mechanism. Anatomically, dolphins’ bodies have adapted to become more efficient to move in the water. Whales, like dolphins are m arine mammals and like all mammals they require oxygen to  survive. Unlike other sea creatures such as fish, a whale would suffocate in water if it did not have a blowhole for oxygen. The blowhole is situated on or near the top of their head and acts as an airway passage for breathing. Whales cannot breathe through their mouth because the esophagus (food passage) and trachea (oxygen passage) are completely separated from each other. Although whales must breathe oxygen they can spend up to 90% of their lives underwater. The eyes of a whale are relatively small when compared to the rest of its body. Their eyes are well adapted to aquatic life and secrete oil used to lubricate and protect their eyes from debris and other chemicals in the ocean. They are not capable of secreting tears as humans do, but their cries can be heard vocally from many miles away. They have a condensed body with a somehow a tapered head that caused the vertebrae neck to fuse together. Instead of a main blood supply to the brain on the exterior of the neck, the whale blood flows through an artery in the vertebrae that supply a continuous supply of blood, which is most vital when diving into the depths of the ocean. The skin of a whale is extremely smooth, hairless, dense, and not do have glands. Their skin is kept smooth by continuously sloughing off and being restored. On average their skin is restored at a speed nine times faster than a human. Whales have a tendency to depend on their sense of hearing to survive. Other senses have had to adapt for survival in the blackness of the ocean’s deepness. The structure of the whale’s melon (the fatty tissue in front of the blow whole) functions as a lens to direct sound when the dolphin generates high pitched clicks for echolocation. When the sound echoes back the small bone under the chin, called trepan bone, receives the sonic report and stimulates the brain by means of the inner ear. By means of echolocation, whales can estimate distance by measuring the time between releasing the clicks and the return of echoes. Through this incredible ability, whales can consider the size, shape, direction of movement, and distance of objects in the ocean water (Getten, 2006). In conclusion dolphins have adapted agreeably to survive in the depths of the ocean, seven seas and in large rivers systems. They have evolved in structure and ability to reproduce successfully and flourish. Having the intriguing ability of echolocation provides whale’s considerable advantage while feeding in the environment in which they live. They are extrem ely energetic, gentle, and intelligent. The only main threats to whales are humans through various ways and climate change. If whales are left alone in their ecosystems their species would be able to survive successfully. References Brakes, P., & Simmonds, M. P. (2011). Whales and dolphins: Cognition, culture, conservation and human perceptions. London, UK: Earthscan. Getten, M. J. (2006). Communicating with orcas: The whales’ perspective. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Pub. Co. Whales and Dolphins Website : Whales. (2011, March 11). Retrieved December 7, 2013, from http://dolphins-and-whales.zoomshare.com/11.html

buy custom Simon Vilensky essay

buy custom Simon Vilensky essay Till my Tale is Told; Women's Memoirs of the Gulag by Simon Vilensky gives an incredibly touchy and candid insight into the suffering at the Gulag camps during the regime of Stalin. This is enhancing the fact that Simon Vilensky is a former prisoner of the Gulag system. Till My Tale Is Told is a translated and reduced version of the Russian work published in the Soviet Union in 1989. The book intention was to be first in a series of collections, and the entire volume devotion to women's memoirs. It was offering a candid and easy-to-relate-with introduction to a horrific world. Many of the parties giving confession knew each other, at least slightly, something that gives the book a feeling of being a unique collaborative effort. Only handful contributors describe the whole experience of arrest, interrogation and, serving the sentence. Some are just about a single episode or a number, while others were in the form of poetry. There was a notable interest in the prisoners' attempts to understand the disaster that had overtaken them. Read a chapter to chapter, the content is sentimental due to the cruel did that it has. People who do research mainly want to consult the Russian version, or at a time, that has the real materials which are in Moscow or Amsterdam. They contain a vivid introduction and their translation writings are easy to understand. Moreover, this book comes in handy as an English translated version of the record of events as experienced in the Gulag camps. The book comprises of sixteen riveting life stories; all a showing the uncertainty of the spirit of a human being, show of miracles of survival and endurance in the worst conditions. This book reminds us of how vital it is to remember and give testimony about that particularly brutal phase of human history. The gulag system in the Soviet Union was to contain political prisoners. They may not have been as evil as concentration camps in the Holocaust, but they were extremely the same thing. If the authority did discover that one was saying or doing anything that was against the government, this is where they would end up. The Gulag was the government agency that administered forced labor for prisoners in the camp till 1961. Also, note that the camps nicknames were the 'Gulags', after the authority and ended up becoming a vast network of forced labor camps as years progressed. Gulag did not start as a government system but, as the Soviet forced labor penal system. Later, the concentration camps creation in the Soviet Union shortly after the 1917 revolution, but the system kept growing fast during the campaign of Stalin so as to introduce modern source of power to the industries in the Soviet Union. The entire regime outlines by experiences such as arrest, interrogation, imprisonment, trial and sentencing, labor camps, internal exile, sometimes release and transportation. The re-arrest and re-imprisonment may follow for the survivors who are later going through rehabilitation. All these are candidly records by 16 courageous Russian women who have saddening testimonies. Most of them wrote in secret and at considerable personal risk, are present here. In the Gulag History, Lynne Viola related the tales of brutality and harrowing times of the so-called kulakspeasants kidnapped up by the Soviet state in the early 1930s and exiled to horrific conditions in the geographic extremes of the Soviet Union. (Lynne Viola) All the ladies contributing to the sixteen chapters suffered severe hardships, for no good reason, t the mercy of the Soviet state. Amazingly, they never gave up their passion of writing their experiences even after their release from prison. The infamous Gulag camps existed all over the Soviet Union, but the largest camps location is in the most extreme geographical and climatic regions of the country. Political prisoners did engage in a variety of economic activities. They did manual work, which did not require skills to work for low wages. The poor work conditions and, hardships led to the spread of infections and high death rates in the camps. Despite the fact, of Stalin death, the harassment and, poor work environment did not elapse in the Gulag camps. Prisoners had to carry on with the mistreatment in the Soviet Union right up to the Gorbachev era. The level of brutality was and remained so high that anyone caught with so much as a nail in his or her possession faces jail for one year. In the columns of Izvestya and Pravda are record sentences of one years imprisonment in the following cases: A worker caught with a lump of bronze, a driver with a few pounds of candy, a woman-worker with 13 meters of burlap, another with cookies and sugar and, a worker with two English locks. Women immensely suffered in the Prisons as male employees; security personnel did rape and abuse them. At the same time, some female prisoners took on camp husbands for protection from all the violence and brutality and companionship. Some were pregnant on arrival while others did conceive while in the Gulag. Sometimes, these women would get their freedom with their children in exceptional seasons. More often, mothers had little abatement so as to deliver. Their babies in isolation from them and put in distinct children homes. Frequently, these women did not succeed in locating their children after leaving the oppression camps. (Vilensky, Till my tale is told, 1999, 1-11.) Arrival at the corrective labor camp turned out to be the culmination of the humiliation. First they were to expose their nudity then led to a seclusion place. Above their heads, the stars twinkled; below their feet that did froze due to cold temperatures. An enclosure measured 3 square feet. Each held three to four naked, shivering, and frightened men and women. Then these kennel cages' were open one after the other, and the naked people were to pass across a court yard the camp version of a foyer into a distinctive building where formulation of their documents took place.'(Vilensky, Till my tale is told, 1999, 58.) The goal of these random searches was to leave them with rags and take anything of value in their possession for themselves. The guards conducted them in groups of ten and seemed to have one goal; to fleece them of every valuable item in total disregard of their destitute and, barely-alive situation. The even more satirical part is the vocabulary used in the whole setting. Words like corrective which was to change the way they felt and feel better, labor should enable them economically and a camp should certainly not refer to a jail! (Vilensky, Till my tale is told, 1999, 12-32.) A further ordeal of the situation is that given by Zoya; The night search and, the frequent repeat was the most degrading procedure. Get up! Get undressed! Hands up! Out into the hall! Line up against the wall. Naked we were especially in fright. Our hair was shaggy. What were they looking for? What more could they take away from us? However, they were pulling out all the ties that had been holding up the nuns' skirts and our underwear. (Villensky, Till my tale is told, 1999, 7-35.) The Soviet Gulag was the symbol of the Stalin regime. As, the case in the Nazi camps the Soviet ones, started to solve a particular political problem; how to eliminate undesired elements from the society at large, and then gradually formed a life of their own, sometimes becoming the driving force of policy rather than a tool of it. The horrors found hidden underneath silence that long protected both systems from public examination are in many ways similar. The only difference that stood out all along was that the design of Nazi camps that are to exterminate whole groups of people, while the Gulag camps were a political weapon meant to extend control of one country. Under Stalin the camp population steadily increased to around two million by the time of his death. An estimate of 18 million prisoners passed through the camps during his era. The important way in which they differed from the German camps, as pointed out, is that most people left them alive, if battered and scarred both physically and mentally. The other key difference is that most of the Soviet prisoners were ordinary criminals, not political opponents. Following the death of Stalin in 1953, Beria started shutting down the camps citing their economic efficiency and this of course came as a huge relieve to the whole country. The main myth in the system of Soviet was that the camps highest percentage was the anti-communist dissidents. In the 1930s, few prisoners were "political" and most of them were guiltless, the victims of malicious denunciation. Further about this distinction is that the development of the Soviet criminal system came to define the most trivial offenses as fatal. In 1947, the State Theft Law main aim was to protect the population from hunger and, to stop exploitation of these camp prisoners. Experiences of punishment, torture, rape, enforced prostitution, self-mutilation when deranged the goners' who left to die of disease or starvation and, the madness was to leave readers with the stomach to digest such details. Even the faint-hearted should rejoice at the stories of genuine heroism that emerge from the Stygian darkness. To rise in such circumstances must, even allowing for the recklessness of despair, have to take extraordinary courage. There were men bold or mad enough to circulate pamphlets calling for uprisings and freedom. At the Kengir camp, there was a strike - led by a committee that included a common criminal as well as the usual political prisoners, which at least hastened the end of the whole foul system. Conclusion However, the women did manage to keep their hope alive that all the suffering would soon end for a number of reasons. They were extremely aware that the hate speech against each other was mere political propaganda aimed at dividing them. The leadership tried their best to break personal ties between the citizens but the suffering in the camps only served to reunite them as they underwent similar conditions. It also all heightened during Stalin's regime, and they hoped that things would become better after his exit from power. (Vilensky, Till my tale is told, 1999, 46.) All in all, the book brings out probably the easiest to relate with narration of the state of the Gulag system and camps, sufferings to the worst hit gender, female, and, their ordeals during and after the life in the camps, their pain, hope and wishes about the future. Not only does the whole story come out as authentic as one can be but also one worth reading alongside the history of the Soviet and Nazis. Buy custom Simon Vilensky essay

First Thanksgiving essays

First Thanksgiving essays Many questions arise when we think about the story of the first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a national holiday that is celebrated every year. How can we tell that Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the Pilgrims? The Pilgrims did have Thanksgiving after their first year in the colony. However, the tradition was not started by the Pilgrims. Native Americans were the one who celebrate their harvest by having a big feast. There are not many truthful facts about the stories of Pilgrims and their journey to America in history textbook. Textbook tend to have stories that would make the Pilgrims as the first to settle in Massachusetts. Textbooks write stories that would favor the Pilgrims. The reason is because this concept is the easiest concept for children to grasp. Another reason that all textbooks told the wrong truth stories is because of patriotism. As proud American, we all want to teach the next generation our glorious history even if it not true. We want to say that we were the first to settle in Virginia, the first to settle in Massachusetts, and that Columbus was the first to discover America. In a sense, it would be hard to teach the real history to the younger generation. For example, we cant say that Columbus sort of discover America. Columbus wasnt the first to reach America. So why did he goes down in history He was the first to represent Spain on the voyage. Spain, France, and England were the power player at the time. Every country wants to be the first to put their name down for discovery. The story of Pilgrims settle in Massachusetts in 1620 is not so true as it seem in history books. Most textbook state that Puritans come to America to enjoy religious freedom. They fail to mention the fact that they were only about 32 Puritans on board the Mayflower. The real reason for the voyage was probably greed. All the Pilgrims want ...

Economic Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Economic Development - Essay Example Therefore, in most developing countries, a wide gap can be seen between the rich and the poor unlike that in the developed nations. This gap widens more as long as rural development is ignored by economists and politicians. But there is a sudden change being experienced in the approach of economists and intellectuals. Those who have merely ignored the rural development in the past are now propagating for its development. Next sections of the essay will analyze the reasons behind ignoring rural development and the sudden change of approach. Reasons for Change of Approach Rural development mainly refers to the role of agriculture for the development of the nation. â€Å"Agriculture constitutes the main source of employment of the majority of the world’s poor. In total, the share of agriculture in total employment in developing countries constitutes 53% of the total workforce in 2004. In Sub-Saharan Africa 60% of the economically active population works in the agricultural secto r.† (Meijerink & Roza, 2007). This shows that agriculture or rural sector is the back bone of many developing economies. But the increased importance given to the industrialization opened up many industries and reduced the share of agriculture to the overall economic growth. Agriculture gradually became less attractive for the economies. This made the economists and intellectuals to reduce the focus on rural areas. But now economists and governments are seemed to be increasing their focus on rural development especially in developing countries. Some of the disadvantage of urbanization and industrialization helped them for this late realization. The main factors that lead to the change of approach are as follows: 1. Poverty 2. Unbalanced growth 3. Food Security 4. Lack of Infrastructure 5. Rural Marketing Poverty: Increased poverty in the rural area is the main reasons for this change of approach. Poverty is seen as a drawback for the development of a nation. Overall developmen t of an economy is not possible if there is a considerable percentage of poor among the population. Eradicating poverty became the major agenda of many countries. While looking back to the 19th century, economists realized that irrespective of the size of the nation, the sole factor that drove the economy was agriculture. But somewhere with the advent of technologies, countries reduced the focus on agriculture. This is one of the reasons that helped the economists to change their mind. Unbalanced Growth: In most developing countries, there is a wide gap between rich and the poor. Though such countries are recording tremendous economic progress, it could not be categorized as a developed nation when there is an unbalanced growth in the economy. Majority of the population should experience more or less similar growth and living conditions for a balanced growth in the economy. Food Security: Another major reason for the change of approach of the economists is food security. â€Å"At i ts June 2003 summit, the G8 group of countries recognized the need to increase investment in rural and agricultural development to achieve lasting food security. It pledged to reverse the decline in ODA for agriculture and to increase trade opportunities for developing countries.† (Bage, 2004) Food security is now a cause of concern for many countries. As a result of this, countries are increasing their respective funding to the agriculture sector in order to

Human resources system for employee self-self of royal mail Essay

Human resources system for employee self-self of royal mail - Essay Example It offers several services through these subsidiaries, which include parcel delivery system, postal mail services, general logistic system, and general services related to post (Russell, 2005 p45). Royal Mail focuses on delivering letters and packages to all part of the world. Currently, this company has 14,300 post office branches and 113,000 post boxes throughout the UK, which collect packages, letters and parcels from over 87,000 individuals and businesses. These commodities are collected through a diverse collection and transportation network that includes 33,000 bicycles and 30,000 vehicles (Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons Committee: Trade and Industry, 2006 p23). This paper provides strengths and weaknesses (internal analysis) of Royal Mail’s human resource management system for employees, and recommendation that should be adopted to improve its human resource management system and employees’ performances and efficiencies. Strengths The highly skilled and hard working employees, who are regularly motivated by the financial resources and efficient management, form the key strengths of Royal Mail. The company’s employees are offered improved new range of training and assured performance related pays (Plunkett, 2009 p76). Some of the Royal Mail’s employees are regarded as the company’s valuable assets. ... esource management system, and they include: the present contracts were renewed, and new standardized contracts were awarded to the employees; the newly introduced techniques and machinery help the employees achieve a world class standard performance, the newly revised Pension scheme plans were going to be directed to those employees in the Royal Mail pension plan (Russell, 2005 p58); the new plan for early retirement and temporary redundancy were going to be implemented with an immediate effect, and the minimum wages and working hours were also revised. The Royal Mail’s human resource management also puts employees’ safety in the forefront of the priority list. In order to motivate its staff members, this company has improved its working condition, stress relief exercise, self appraisal process, first aid facilities, and changes employees’ job duties over some time. The HRM has also included increments and promotions into the new plan. The Royal Mail has also de veloped a new method of dealing with the Trade Union. The trade union has been given a vital position in the company’s management activities. The union has also been requested to help employees to conform to the Organizational rules and regulations, and achieve sustainable competitive advantage (Chancery House, 2008 p26). An effective system of communication between the HRM and the trade union was also developed. Weaknesses There have been frequent complaints from customers regarding missing parcels and letters in some Royal Mail’s retail outlets. Careful investigation revealed that some of the company’s staff members have been involved in a series of mail theft over the past few years (Brooks, 2003 p118). This has reduced the Royal Mails reputation and prestige before it esteemed customers. This