Care of Creation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Care of Creation - Essay Example This applies to my experience of that hour spent in God’s creation and my renewed appreciation for the Sabbath, an old practice that has gained a new modern dimension. This experience has given me a renewed vision of God, the purpose of my life and of those around me, more especially the people who depend on me for pastoral leadership, and of what I need to do to be more effective as a follower and pastor, of one who leads others to God’s kingdom and who is led by the hand by the Divine Master. My first lesson is that of having gained a deeper understanding of the meaning of the Sabbath, a weekly reminder that God blessed and made holy this day of rest (Bass 78). Being the perfect teacher he is, God laid down in scripture that on the Sabbath day, he rested, not so much to tell us that he got tired from all that creating stuff, because God by definition does not get tired. Rather, God rested to show us how important it is to spend time, slow down, experience moments of t ranquility and peace, and reflect on the important things in life. God in his divine wisdom foresaw how exciting the world would become, and how man and woman would be so caught up with the beauties and riches of this world that we forget why we are alive and how we ever get to be here at all; in a word, to â€Å"remember who we are and what is important† (Bass 88). Just looking around me and reflecting on what I witnessed that Sabbath hour, I remembered those words about Jesus looking at the people around him who went around like sheep without a shepherd, living lives devoid of meaning and purpose. We work so hard to earn money so they can enjoy life, but with the economic difficulties happening all around us, many realize that making both ends meet is not easy. Likewise, we experience that the world, limited and full of evil, only offers limited and imperfect happiness. The second series of lessons proceed from the renewed understanding of the Sabbath. Experiencing the Sabb ath with a deeper and more personal and spiritual meaning made me realize that I too have been engrossed with the worldly dimension of life and even of prayer and worship. I have focused on the means and not the ends, on the form, not the substance, and on the body of faith, not in its soul. Like the religious leaders of whom Jesus warned the people to do what they preach, but not do as they do, I realized that pastors who should lead their flocks to God are focusing too much on â€Å"preaching and teaching† instead of â€Å"leading and living by doing†. Sure, one needs to preach and teach, but the best way to learn is by doing, watching and learning from the example of Jesus himself, who taught by word and example. Like most pastors, I need to hone and develop that dual vision of which Scharen and Volf (97) wrote, of seeing material things and their relation to God, as source, creator, joy, good, gift, talent, the one to which everything leads, to see the invisible Go d in the visible things of the material universe. A more effective pastoral leadership must be characterized by a spiritual life grounded on God through prayer and the imitation of Jesus’ life of sacrifice and love for all souls, even those

To what extent has Henry VIIs success as the first of the Tudor Essay

To what extent has Henry VIIs success as the first of the Tudor Monarchs been exaggerated - Essay Example This was shown in his productive use of the chamber system for money matters during his â€Å"personal rule† from 1503-1509, which Edward IV (1471-1483) introduced previously. Furthermore, we find fault in Christine Carpenter’s observation that Henry â€Å"became king under better circumstances than any other† – because the country itself was battered and bruised from the long and arduous Wars of the Roses. The above issues are just some of the arguments that make Henry VII’s alleged success controversial and exaggerated. But in order to come to a conclusive and relatively balanced position as to how exaggerated Henry’s success has been, it is imperative to review some of the historiographical evidence available to us from contemporary and modern day accounts. Why would anyone want to distort or exaggerate Henry’s success? Usually the answer can be found embedded in matters concerning patronage, flattery and the obvious fact that few individuals would wish to risk their lives in making the king appear ignorant or incompetent. For starters, I can easily understand what Michael Sittow’s portrait of Henry in 1505 was trying to depict. Sittow conveyed a man that is richly dressed (showing his omnipotent Tudor badge) with the faint presence of what seems a slight, grudging smile. Here, we first encounter the exaggeration in terms of his physical appearance. If Sittow’s portrait were entirely accurate, for instance, then why would Pietro Torrigiano’s sculpture be so very different? As Dawson stated, they are so peculiarly distinct from each other that the latter’s Henry â€Å"could be a different man.† Torrigiano used higher cheekbones and a longer nose, which, no doubt, modified to take after the â€Å"high Roman fashion† reflected in Shakespeare’s own, Antony and Cleopatra. Obviously, the sculptor aimed to create a domineering, decisive and commanding figure.

Information Theory and Thermodynamics

Information Theory and Thermodynamics In order to develop better tools, machines and technology we have had to develop our understanding of the physical world. This has allowed us to construct machines that are more capable than those preceding it. The French scientist Carnot was studying machines and was trying to understand how to make them better and more efficient. As part of his studies he calculated the maximum efficiency of any machine and was able to relate this to temperature. Carnots idea was to simplify the machine to its simplest form (this generality that makes it universal) and analyse that Carnot knew that machines of the time (and of today) work as a result of a temperature difference across the machine. In his time it was obvious, fire produced steam which turned a turbine that did work; today is not too different, all of our machines still need a temperature difference to make them work, however the temperature difference driving the machines may be at some distance, for example a power station producing electricity. Even wind, and solar require temperature differences to work. Analysing these machines further lead to concepts that we, perhaps, take for granted: work, power and energy notable examples. Whilst working on these concepts Boltzmann came up ideas that grew into statistical thermodynamics. It was extended and correctly describes a whole range of phenomena. The idea of thermodynamics is to relate various physical properties of a substance to the bulk behaviour of the constituent parts within. Microstates and Macrostates: Boltzmann realised that by knowing the number of different states that a system could be in and the number of configurations that each state would enable him to work out the probability of a particular state occurring. And that on average when something is observed it is more likely to be found in one of its more probable states. Many systems have lots of moving components and this means that over time a system will have evolved into a more probable state. This may now seem obvious, but it hadnt been pointed out explicitly at the time. A Macrostate is the global state of a system. For example if we consider a box with red, blue and green balls a possible macrostate might be to find all of the red balls are in the bottom left corner, whilst all of the others are randomly distributed in the rest of the box. Another example of a macrostate might be that the total electrical charge of block could be Coulombs. A Microstate is one particular configuration of the system that produces a macrostate. In the balls example if the balls are identical apart from colour we can permute the balls with the same colour amongst themselves and end up with different microstates. An example with the charged block might be that we have 4 particles each with charge as one microstate, and another might be to have 1 particle with and another with Below is a figure that represents a hypothetical macrostate of three colours of balls three particular microstates that can be used to achieve it. In the leftmost diagram we have a macrostate with all of the red balls in the bottom left corner, the other diagrams show different permutations of the balls that also achieve the desired macrostate. In order to calculate the probability of this state we would need to know how many combinations of it there are. This is a simple counting argument: we have 1 way of putting the green ball in its spot, two ways of putting the blue balls in their position and ways of arranging (we can pick any of the 5 to go in the corner, then any of the remaining 4 to go next to that, then any of the remaining 3 etc). There are a total of 8 balls and so the In general if there are objects we have possible arrangements; if we also have different types and if of them are of type 1 (say red), are of type 2 and are of type then we can find the total number of permuted arrangements with: We can use these two facts to calculate the number of accessible microstates of type , this is called the weight of the microstate and is denoted by, : The weight of a microstate is proportional to the probability of the system being in it. So one way to calculate the probability of being in the state is via: where the summation is over the weights of all the other possible microstates. A handy way to view a microstate is with a pack of cards (Birks bath), in a pack of playing cards the statistical weight of a club is 13 since there are 13 of then the statistical weight of a queen is 4. The probability of selecting a club card is the chances of picking out a club are times greater than picking out a queen. The statistical weight of the queen of hearts is 1. There is one obvious constraint that can always be imposed and that is that the total number of particles is the sum of the number of particles in each state: We can impose other constraints on the system as they are required later. Because the particles of each type are identical it is natural to assign a probability that a randomly selected particle is of type, , as: We are also able to define an Expectation value for the system. If we were interested in the average occupancy of each of the types we would have: which would represent the average occupancy of each type. If we were interested in the charge (or energy (I shall use for either) we would similarly have: Let us take some examples and compute the statistical weights, average occupancy and average energy (represented by the value of the type index e.g. if , the energy would be two units). I shall consider that the atoms are all identical apart from the energy that they have and that a macrostate is the same for each. For the first case let us assume that we have 5 atoms and the macrostate corresponds to an energy of 5 units. The table below shows that (for example) the microstate 3 has a weight of 20, this means that there are 20 microstates with the occupancy levels given that correspond to the macrostate We can tabulate the various combinations as below: microstate number Occupancy of type i weight probability n0 n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 1 4 0 0 0 0 1 5 0.0397 2 3 1 0 0 1 0 20 0.1587 3 3 0 1 1 0 0 20 0.1587 4 2 2 0 1 0 0 30 0.2381 5 2 1 2 0 0 0 30 0.2381 6 1 3 1 0 0 0 20 0.1587 7 0 5 0 0 0 0 1 0.0079 totals 15 12 4 2 1 1 126 1 Average occupancy 2.222 1.389 0.794 0.397 0.159 0.040 Table 3.1: Table showing occupancy levels for a 5 atom system with a macrostate of 5. This table was generated by finding all of the numbers that sum (in this case) to 5 which is the macrostate. It shows the number of atoms with a particular energy in the columns headed , the statistical weight of each microstate is in the weight column, the probability column next to it shows the probability of randomly selecting this microstate from a given macrostate (in this case 5 atoms and a total energy of 5). The row titled average occupancy shows the expected occupancy of an energy level of type , calculated from the table. Looking at the table there are two equally most likely microstate arrangements. The first of these corresponds to and , both occurring with a probability of 0.238. Another possible macrostate is listed below, this time we have 7 atoms and an energy of 7 units. The headings of the table are the same as in the previous example. We can see that the weight of the most probable microstate is 420 and that we have a probability of 0.245 of randomly selecting one of them. The occupancy levels are: microstate occupancy of type i weight probability n0 n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 n6 n7 1 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 0.004 2 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 42 0.024 3 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 42 0.024 4 5 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 42 0.024 5 4 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 105 0.061 6 4 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 210 0.122 7 4 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 105 0.061 8 4 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 105 0.061 9 3 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 140 0.082 10 3 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 420 0.245 11 3 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 140 0.082 12 2 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 105 0.061 13 2 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 210 0.122 14 1 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 42 0.024 15 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.001 totals 51 30 11 6 3 2 1 1 1716 1 Average occupancy 3.231 1.885 1.028 0.514 0.228 0.086 0.024 0.004 Table A3 2: a seven atom system with a total energy of seven A final example consists of a system of 10 atoms and a total energy of 9. As will be readily seen as the number of atoms and the energy increases the number of microstates corresponding to a given macrostate increases so does the size of the table. It was quite difficult to work out the number of combinations of energy that could occur and I wouldnt want to do it again for larger tables. In the next part we shall use the method of Lagrange multipliers to massively simplify the calculations for the probabilities and expectations. For the case of 10 atoms and an energy of 9 units. We see that the most probable microstates have the following occupancy levels: The most probable microstate has a probability of 0.1555, but there is another microstate that is only slightly less probable (a probability of 0.1300) and this has occupancy levels of: The two least likely microstates are the following: Both have a probability of 0.0002 which is very small indeed. Table 3 is below: d occupancy of each type i weight probability n0 n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 n6 n7 n8 n9 1 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0.000205677 2 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 90 0.00185109 3 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 90 0.00185109 4 8 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 90 0.00185109 5 8 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 90 0.00185109 6 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 360 0.00740436 7 7 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 720 0.014808721 8 7 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 720 0.014808721 9 7 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 360 0.00740436 10 7 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 360 0.00740436 11 7 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 720 0.014808721 12 7 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 120 0.00246812 13 6 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 840 0.017276841 14 6 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 15 6 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 16 6 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 17 6 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 18 6 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 840 0.017276841 19 5 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1260 0.025915261 20 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5040 0.103661045 21 5 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 22 5 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 7560 0.155491567 23 5 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1260 0.025915261 24 4 5 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1260 0.025915261 25 4 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 6300 0.129576306 26 4 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4200 0.086384204 27 3 6 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 840 0.017276841 28 3 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 29 2 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 360 0.00740436 30

Canadian and Taiwanese Schools Essay -- Education Teaching Essays

Canadian and Taiwanese Schools School is the best place for people to be educated. Everyone has to go through this stage in order to be knowledgeable, so they can be useful in society and solve any problems they encounter. Not only they are educated for themselves but also for their countries. Different countries have different systems on how to teach students. Canada's educational system is a perfect and ideal way to ensure that students will live successful lives. Canadian high school students study both compulsory and elective courses together. They pursue academic studies based on the achievement of credits. In the meantime, they take prerequisite courses that are related to their university studies. Hence, they know the basic fundamentals before getting in the universities. After completion of required number of credits, the universities take their averages and determine if they are qualified for the studies in universities that they choose. Even the students' averages are low, they can still go to universities that don't require high averages. Therefore, many students can easily study in this highest level of education. However, all courses are mandatory in Taiwan. High school students study the same courses together no matter what they plan to take in the universities, and thus it is hard for them to know what they are interested in. After graduation from high school, students have to write a major exam on all kinds of courses to achieve a sco...

Master1 Essay

Psycholinguistics merges the fields of psychology and linguistics to study how people process language and how language use is related to underlying mental processes. Studies of children’s language acquisition and of second-language acquisition are psycholinguistic in nature. Psycholinguists work to develop models for how language is processed and understood, using evidence from studies of what happens when these processes go awry. They also study language disorders such as aphasia – impairment of the ability to se or comprehend words and dyslexia – impairment of the ability to make out written language. It is the study of interrelationship of psychological and linguistic behaviour. Its most important area of investigation has been language acquisition. It has raised and has partly answered questions such as how do children acquire their mother tongue? How do they grow up linguistically and learn to handle the registral and stylistic varieties of their mother tongue effectively? How much of the linguistic system that they ultimately command, are they born with and how much do they iscover on the basis of their exposure to that system? John D. Carroll states that this branch uses: â€Å"Some aspects of psychology and some aspects of linguistics. It is confined to the study of how people use a language system and how they learnt it† By language acquisition is meant the process whereby children achieve a fluent control of their native tongue. By 1950, people thought that children imitated their elders and got language but now various theories have been presented. Some argue that it is the environmental impact and product of our experience and others discuss the nnateness of language or Empiricist (Behaviorists) and Rationalists (Mentalists). The theoretical questions have focused on the issue of how we can account for the phenomenon of language development in children at all. Normal children have mastered most of the structures of their language by the age of five or six. The earlier behaviorist assumptions were that it was possible to explain language development largely in terms of imitation and reinforcement. Psycholinguistics therefore argue that imitation is not enough; it is not merely by mechanical repetition that children acquire language. They also acquire it by natural exposure. Both nature and nurture influence the acquisition of language in children. Both schools of thought have said significant things but neither is perfect. Language Acquisition is a process of analogy and application, nature and nurture. Experience and innateness. Imitation is there but the child forms his own grammar of rules. Children learn first not items but systems. In other words, what is being claimed is that the child’s brain contains certain innate characteristics which ‘pre-structure’ it in the direction of language learning. To enable these innate features to develop into adult competence, the child must be exposed to human language, i. e. it must be stimulated in proper to respond but the basis. David Crystal asserts: â€Å"On which it develops its linguistic abilities is not describable in behaviourist terms† Psycholinguistics nas researched and exposed that there is a critical period in first language acquisition. If the child, in the first thirteen years, is not exposed to language, he loses his critical period and then he can never master a language; even his native tongue. Genie and Chelsea ho lost their critical period, are the examples in this proof. If he is exposed to language in his childhood, he goes certain stages to learn his mother tongue. The development of a child’s language starts from babbling; merely saying /b/, [p/ and / m/ etc. and then he goes on to word level. His One-Word Stage is between the ages of 12 months, children are able to produce one word utterances. And the child can use one word to mean the whole thing as dada to mean I see daddy or daddy is coming etc. or Juice to means give me Juice etc. In Two-Word Stage: such as baby chair eaning the baby is sitting in the chair or babys chair etc. Hit Doggie meaning I hit the doggy etc. In Telegraphic Stage, children begin to produce longer and complex sentences such are chair broken, Car make noise, I good boy, man ride bus today etc. Language development from age 2 is rapid and fast. The telegraphic stage is a very important period which is characterized by the emergence of powerful grammatical devices. In short, Psycholinguistics deals with relationship between language and mind focusing mainly on how language is learnt, stored and occasionally lost. Mind and language have two functions: Acquisition and Performance and the two are linked. For empiricists, language learning is the result of conditioned behavior while Chomsky maintains that every human being has an innate capacity to learn his language. Language behavior is a very complex phenomenon. Language behavior is subject to different social and psychological factors. There is strong evidence to prove that language learning is a biologically controlled process. Psycholinguistics seeks to study all these issues and more.

Okonkwo: a Life Story of a Tragic Hero

Esha Moore Honors English II- Hyatt May 23, 2012 Things Fall Apart Final Literally Analysis Essay Okonkwo: A Life Story of a Tragic Hero What makes up a hero in today’s society? Young children today imagine a hero with superpowers and a cape, but little do they know heroes come in many different forms. In his novel, Things Fall Apart, the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe illustrates the making of modern hero. Even though Okonkwo does not act like a regular hero, he still has a noble structure, makes mistakes throughout life, and experiences a great downfall.Elijah Wood once said â€Å"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self. † Growing up, the Umuofia clan did not consider Okonkwo noble because of his impecunious father, Unoka: â€Å"Unoka was, of course, a debtor, and he owed every neighbor some money, from a few cowries to quite substantial amount† (Achebe 5). When Unoka died ten years ag o he has taken no title at all and left Okonkwo in debt. Greatly ashamed of his father, he based many of his beliefs about how life should be lived by doing the exact opposite of his father.Okonkwo’s nobility all begins about twenty years ago, when his clan announces him the best wrestler. This all happened when Amalinze the Cat- seven year champion- who fights Okonkwo; however, Okonkwo throws the Cat and won the match. Meanwhile, a war was going on in Mbaino, so in the nine villages of Umuofia, all the men must be present tomorrow morning. Umuofia needed a young man and a virgin: â€Å"He was a man of action, a man of war† (10). Okonkwo leaves for Mbaino knowing not to suspect upon his arrival. Okonkwo suffers various hamartia or mistakes that he truly regrets.Okonkwo starts out being his town hero; however, his biggest flaw was having uncontrollable anger, which eventually leads to his violent behavior. Okonkwo violent behavior starts before the Week of Peace. He com es home expecting Ojiungo and dinner she usually prepares for him. Okonkwo realizes her lack of absence; he then starts freaking out because she went to her friend’s house to plait her hair. Since she was not at the house, he came back to the hut and waits upon her arrival, which lead to Ojiungo beating.Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess comes to the hut to discuss Okonkwo’s actions and how he could ruin the clan. While getting ready for The Feast of the New Yam, he makes another mistake by shooting at Ekwefi-his second wife- she mocks her husband's poor hunting ability, making a remark about guns that never shoot: â€Å"He pressed the trigger and there was a loud report accompanied by the wail of his wives and children† (39). Okonkwo tends not to think and he acts impulsively and inconsiderately.Okonkwo tries instilling his personal views on how to live as a man to Nwoye and according to Okonkwo, showing emotions are signs of acting womanly. The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves pronounce Ikemefuna should be killed, and the oldest member of the clan informs Okonkwo of this. Okonkwo has an obsessive fear of anything that can be associated with the image of his weak, lazy and gentle father whom he always considered a failure. As an ambitious man who became a successful, respectable warrior of the clan, he wants to take part in the killing of the boy; however, the older clan member forbids him to do so.Forced to march in a procession, Ikemefuna stricken by one of the clan members, when he tries to seek Okonkwo's protection, Okonkwo so as not appear weak performs: â€Å"Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down† (61). His irascible behavior leads to besmirching his reputation. Ikemefuna's death generates a series of events, which lead to Okonkwo's downfall. Okonkwo's son, Nwoye and Ikemefuna have grown close like brothers and even Okonkwo has grown fond of Ikemefuna.While attending Ezeudu’s funeral another disaster befalls him: â€Å"Okonkwo’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart† (124). The death of Ezeudu's son went against the Earth Goddess, so he was forced into exile for seven years to his mother's village. During the time of exile, white missionaries appeared on their bicycles. The Oracle warns the clan about death and destruction in the future. They ask for land to build a church and they are given the Evil Forest, with hope the cursed land will lead to their demise; instead, their church flourishes and gains more and more converts each day.When Okonkwo finds out about Nwoye’s conversion, he beats him so severely. Upset by his father’s action Nwoye runs away and never comes back; he joins the missionaries as a teacher. He sees himself and his fathers’ crowding around their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days, and his children the while prayin g to the white man's god. After seven years he returns to his village, hoping to regain his position of importance, but much has changed with the invasion.Resistance to the white men was agreed upon because of fear of killing their own clansman. While the meeting was taking place, a group of messengers from the white men arrive and orders them to stop: â€Å"In a flash Okonkwo drew his machete. The messenger crouched to avoid the blow. It was useless. Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body† (204). From this action, Okonkwo knows that his clan will not go to war. He has lost his respect and authority he once had from his family and his Umuofia clan.He then commits suicide by hanging himself. Okonkwo starts out being his town hero but later sees himself in situations he regrets. Okonkwo’s inflexibility to accept causes his downfall because he became so obsessed with being everything his dad was not. This causes Ok onkwo’s to no longer care whether things were wrong or right. Although Okonkwo demonstrations fear and anger actions much consideration should be taken to make sure his personal flaws in society do not interfere with one’s judgment.Work Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Anchor Books: New York: 1994.

Cold War and Communism Essays - United States Civil Defense

Cold War and Communism Essays - United States Civil Defense Cold War and Communism Victoria Mullally HIS/145 September 7, 2015 Jennifer Moore Cold War and Communism Try to imagine a world where you are constantly in wait for an attack. Oh, wait we do that everyday. During the 1950s there were great fears and preparation for nuclear attack. In todays society we fear terrorism. In many ways these types of attacks are similar. We have to be prepared at any moment for either, but they differ as well. In 1951 children were shown the video Duck and Cover to prepare them for nuclear attacks. The video had a catchy song and mascot who showed you that when you are under attack: to duck and cover. It then went into details of the warning signs of a nuclear attack. The main thing to watch for was the atomic flash. The atomic bomb flash could burn you worse than terrible sunburn. (Archer Productions, 1951). The children were shown different scenarios of being under attack and taught different ways to handle each situation. The video had one common piece of information: if you are under attack duck and cover. Today with the constant fear of terrorist attacks we should have a plan as well. There is no video to help us understand what we can do in the case of a terrorist attack. Making a video would be difficult too. There is no one way a terrorist can attack, for all we know they could use an atomic bomb. If everyone saw the Duck and Cover film we would have at least that information to help protect us. Lets go back to the day of 9/11. There was no warning these attacks were coming and there was no way a duck and cover would have protected us. Needless to say it is more difficult to live in fear of terrorism than just an atomic bomb. People are unpredictable and being as best prepared as possible is all you can do. Living in the constant fear of any attack is difficult. You can never be fully prepared for what may come. Terrorist or atomic bombs, it doesnt matter. Nothing changes the fact that attacks can happen any time and any place. Remember what you know, but dont assume you know what exactly is happening either. References Archer Productions (1951). Duck and Cover [Video file]. Retrieved from Internet Archive website: https://archive.org/details/DuckandC1951

French Expressions Using Champ

French Expressions Using Champ The French word un champ literally means field and is also used in many idiomatic expressions. Learn how to say sphere of activity, battlefield, having room to move, and more with this list of expressions with champ. Possible Meanings of Un Champ field (all senses)area, domainshot, frame (filming)champagne (apocope) Expressions with Un Champ un champ closcombat areaun champ dactionsphere of activityun champ dactività ©sphere of activityun champ daviationairfieldun champ davoinefield of oatsun champ de bataillebattlefieldun champ de blà ©field of corn/wheatun champ de coursesracecourseun champ de foirefairgroundun champ de manoeuvreparade groundun champ de minesminefieldun champ de neigesnowfieldun champ de tirshooting range, field of fireun champ de trà ¨flefield of cloverun champ de visionvisual fieldun champ dhonneurfield of honorun champ à ©lectriqueelectric fieldun champ magnà ©tiquemagnetic fieldun champ opà ©ratoireoperative fieldun champ optiqueoptical fieldun champ ouvertopen fieldun champ visuelvisual fieldles champscountry(side)les Champs Élysà ©esElysian Fields (mythology), street in Paris tout bout de champall the time, at every opportunitydans le champin the shot/picture (filming)en champ closbehind closed doorsen robe des champsunpeeled (potatoes)une fleur des champswild flowerhors champoff-camer ala profondeur de champsdepth of fieldsur-le-champimmediately, right awayla vie aux champscountry lifeavoir du champto have room to moveavoir le champ libreto be free to do as one pleasesLe champ est libre. The coast is clear.à ©largir le champto broaden the scopelaisser du champ quelquunto leave someone room to movelaisser le champ libre quelquunto leave someone a clear fieldmourir au champ dhonneurto be killed in actionpasser travers champsto go through/across fields/countryprendre du champsto step/stand backprendre la clà © des champsto run awayse retrouver en plein(s) champ(s)to find oneself in the middle of a fieldsonner aux champsto sound the general salute (military)sortir du champto go out of shot (filming)tomber au champ dhonneurto be killed in actiontravailler aux champsto work in the fields

A research paper on cocaine Essay Example for Free

A research paper on cocaine Essay Research Paper (230) , Drug (166) company About StudyMoose Contact Careers Help Center Donate a Paper Legal Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Complaints ? Grown in the countries of South America, with Columbia being the most productive, the Erythroxylon Coca bush is the natural origin of cocaine, a central nervous stimulant. Its history is as rich and diverse as the people using and dealing the drug. Cocaine use dates as far back as the 16th century when it was used among Inca royalty. In the early 1800’s cocaine was introduced to Europe. Sigmond Freud wrote a song in its honor and famous author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote â€Å"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde† during a six -day cocaine binge. In the early 1900’s cocaine was available to consumers over the counter. Its medicinal value was a relief for toothaches and congestion. Parke Davis advised their consumers of the effects of cocaine by stating that it â€Å"could make the coward brave, the silent eloquent, and render the sufferer insensitive to pain†. The use of cocaine found its way into other products like wine and the most famous of all, Coca Cola. Early production of Coca Cola contained 60mg of cocaine. Today, the popular soft drink still uses the leaves of the Coco Bush for flavor but the illicit drug has been removed (www.cocaine.org). The resurrection of cocaine use as a recreational drug began in the 1960’s, and was used mostly among the affluent because of its price. Movie stars, sport stars and the like give cocaine its mystique and draw; psychological and physical effects make it addictive. Changes in form and price make cocaine far more accessible and affordable. Today, there is no clear connection between the use of cocaine and education, occupation or socioeconomic status. Cocaine is generally sold as a hydrochloride salt, a fine white powder substance that is commonly referred to as â€Å"snow†, â€Å"coke† or â€Å"blow†. Street dealers of cocaine commonly dilute, or â€Å"cut† the drug with similar looking substances like talcum powder or with active local anesthetics and even sometimes with other stimulants like amphetamines. The purity of street cocaine, powder form, is about 75 percent. When the impurities of this form are removed, it is known as â€Å"freebase† or â€Å"crack† cocaine. â€Å"Crack† cocaine  is easier to find and less expensive to buy. Cocaine in any form can be found in almost every town and city. Research studies done in 1999 showed cocaine is used by over 3.7 million Americans 12 years old and over, with the highest rate among people 18 and 25 years of age. The use among people 35 years and older also continues to rise (www.cocaine.org). The effects of cocaine depend on the route of administration, the amount of consumption, the user’s past experience, and the circumstances under which its taken. The major routes of administration are snorting, injecting, and smoking. Snorting is inhaling the powder form through the nasal cavity. The drug enters the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting cocaine is using a syringe to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking cocaine is inhaling the cocaine vapors or smoke delivering large quantities to the lungs where it then enters the bloodstream as quickly as injecting. Cocaine interferes with the re-absorption process of dopamine that is a chemical messenger of pleasure to the brain. The effects are instant and intense but not long lasting (www.drugs.indiana.edu). The short -term effects usually make the user fell euphoric, energetic, and alert to their senses. It can decrease your anxiety and heighten your sexuality. Crack users have described the rush as a â€Å"whole body orgasm.† Or, a user can feel anxious or panic-stricken. The drug is a parody of heaven and hell. Often times the cocaine user craves other drugs. These symptoms appear quickly and disappear within a few minutes or a few hours. Physically, a person’s blood pressure, body temperature, heartbeat, and breathing accelerate, along with pupil dialation. In larger amounts the side effects intensify. The â€Å"high† might include feelings of paranoia, vertigo, and muscle twitches and physically a user might experience chest pains, nausea, blurred vision. Over time with continued use, the effects of cocaine gradually change. Irritability, restlessness, insomnia and paranoia replace the euphoria. Physically, the long- term user will lose interest in sex and lose weight. Those who snort the drug wear out their nasal septum while those who inject it risk the chance of contracting hepatitis or AIDS. Cocaine related deaths  are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest. Over time, to the user’s tolerance, the drug will build. To achieve the same effects as that of early usage requires larger doses of the drug. The user becomes psychologically dependent. The drug becomes pivotal to their thoughts, feelings and their daily activities. â€Å"Cocaine just made you feel really good. Then after you get done feeling really good then you start to get a Superman ego and that’s the beginning of the end.† (â€Å"Drug Wars†; A Frontline, PBS Production) Often times, cocaine addicts develop an illicit lifestyle to keep up with their drug habit. Cocaine’s influence leads a user to stealing from family, friends and even employers. The lifestyle of addicts becomes as corrupt as the organizations that produce and supply the product. Cocaine’s addiction has two sides: the love of the high and the love of the money. The US Government has estimated that cocaine trafficking takes nearly $80 billion a year out of our economy. In 1990, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) estimated about 20 Colombian organizations controlled most of America’s cocaine supply. Annual revenues of the Colombian drug trade have been estimated to be 5 billion dollars. The drug cartels existing today control every phase of the drug trafficking business. They manufacture, transport, distribute, and finance cocaine. Like many large corporations, the business involves bankers, accountants, and lawyers, wholesalers and retailers. More special to this business the cartel â€Å"payroll† also includes chemists, pilots and enforcers of security (www.drugs.indiana.edu). The cartels are structured in layers, at the center is the cartel manager or â€Å"kingpin†. Information shared among the members of the cartel is highly secularized. Only a choice few are privy to all the workings of the cartel. Those employees holding positions in the outer layers of the organization (the lawyers, accountants, bankers, and enforcers) reap the financial benefits of serving their bosses but are strictly put on a need to know basis. Cartels operating in the United States are referred to as â€Å"cells† which are â€Å"self contained organized units.† The Medillin Cartel was the first known, successful cartel of cocaine  traffickers coming from Colombia. It was established in 1978 and lead by Carlos Lehder. It used violence and intimidation to stay one step ahead of the justice system. The cartel bribed police officers with money or threatened them with death if they did not honor the cartel and look the other way when they did business. The Medellin Cartel was taken down in March of 1984. Carlos Lehder was arrested in 1987, tried in the United States and sentenced to 135 years without the possibility of parole. George Jung’s, the Medillin Cartel’s American contact, testimony against Lehder assured his conviction. In the 1990’s, on the heels of the Medillin, came the Cali Cartel. They are responsible for 70-80 percent of the cocaine coming into the United States and 90 percent of that entering Europe. Instead of violence and intimidation like their counter parts, the Cali operated their business using a subtle approach. Law enforcement has had difficulty in closing the Cali operations for many reasons. Their structure is different from that of the Medillin, as is their methods of smuggling. They are much more conservative. They only sell to people they know. The â€Å"home office,† which is the CEO and vice presidents, coordinate the cells. The cells contact the buyers usually by cellular phone or pager and arrange the time and place to distribute the drugs. Payment is made at the second meeting. When the deal is done, the home office is contacted and accurate records are kept by both (www.awesomestories.com). While the Colombians may monopolize the cocaine market, there are similar organizations in other countries. The Triads and Tongs of China, La Compania of Cuba, and the Yakuza of Japan are some other major drug trafficking organizations. They have successfully invested into legitimate American business. The one thing they all have in common: United States of America as a client base (www.cocainefacts.com). Cocaine touches many people on a variety of levels. It can completely change a person’s personality, for the worse. It spins a web of deceit and destruction. Physically and mentally the drug tricks you from recognizing reality. Euphoria tricks you into believing that the high is good, all the while the time bomb is ticking. Blowing up your mind is just a matter of time. Bailey, William J. Factline on Cocaine. 1995: Heller, Matthew. â€Å"Addicted to Love.† Los Angeles Magazine. Sept. 1999. A research paper on cocaine. (2016, Jun 25).

Week 5 Discussion 1 Law Enforcement Research Design and Analysis Essay

Week 5 Discussion 1 Law Enforcement Research Design and Analysis - Essay Example he reason for using mixed method as being due to research projects being non-linear but facing unanticipated directions with time which result to changes in the purpose. However, the researcher defines that the original purpose should be retained such that any changes within the research whether consistent, resistant or contrary to the original purpose can aid the researcher to craft them to meet the needs of the original purpose. The author gives examples of the use of mixed methods theory with a consistent original purpose through the Finn and Achilles (1990) to identify the failure of students to learn reading and math (Newman, Ridenour, Newman, & Paul DeMarco). This made it possible to draw implications to support the study or the reason for conducting the study. With the results, then it is possible to craft them to meet the needs of organizing school environments. The author advances propositions of the theory through a typology of thinking through the research process using the researcher’s lens. At any given time, the researcher should work using only one lens since more than one lens used simultaneously results to failure of even good research intent. While the original purpose (independent variable) drives the lens used by the researcher, the resistant, consistent and contrary purposes of study are dependent on it and can only be crafted in line with it. Based on logic theory, the purpose of the study is bound to change owing to unanticipated events but this does not automatically change the original grounded and rooted purpose of the research. In this respect, the original meaning has to remain intact and craft the meaning of the changed

Surviving Divorce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Surviving Divorce - Essay Example For sensitive beings, it really is a trauma, or may be more than that. To come out of the cocoon shell after the divorce, and start leading a normal life, is actually a task that demands a lot of determination, energy, and strength of character and mind. Surviving a divorce alone is not that difficult as it is when there are children. This paper tends to discuss how surviving a divorce is difficult, and how one should be able to survive it, with and without children. â€Å"More than 40 percent of marriages in America end in divorce† (The Survivor’s Club, para.2). There are a lot of people out there who have decided to get separated from their spouses, have signed the papers, have convinced their children that they would be going to live a single-parent lifestyle, have moved, and have finally settled. So, this is not something out of the world. People get married, and if they find out that they are not going to be compatible to spend their whole lives with each other, they get divorced. However, what happens next is a matter of sensibility and good planning. An ill-planned life after a divorce results in a greater havoc and a heavier mess than before. On the other hand, a well-planned life after a divorce brings much more happiness and satisfaction than the time before divorce. All of us have known someone who has survived a divorce with strength and potency; and, all of us have also known a person who has chosen to be a victim of t raumatic stress for good, or at least for many years after the divorce, not letting the dark shadows of sadness and gloom end. So, to survive a divorce or be a life time victim of stress and depression is all a matter of using sense and sensibility. Of course, there is pain attached to the whole thing, but how we lessen the pain, or bear it, is the magic trick. According to Wendy Walsh (para.2): A pain-free divorce is limited to those who are

Moral Obligation by Bentham Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Moral Obligation by Bentham - Essay Example According to Bentham, "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as determine what we shall do." (Moore, "Moral and Political Philosophy", p. 282). How a person perceives such obligations to be accepted or rejected, depends upon the conditions it describes make it fair to adopt the stance or not. Moral obligations can be referred to those errands, which one considers to be an essential instance of personality to be adopted. It depends upon as to what extent one feels him socially responsible to be answerable to those instances. These instances show the extent of how much a person is humanistic in behaviour and shows that the conditions of rational power satisfy this constraint: that it is fair to hold people morally responsible if they possess the rational power to grasp and apply moral reasons, and to control their behavior by the light of those reasons. As far as my opinion is concerned I believe every individual in this society has a right to live and let live and not only live but live happily and contentedly which can only possible if one is aware as how to justify morality whatever be the circumstances, this morality teaches us as to how to least expect from the society and giving the society the best we possess in moral notions. When it comes to 'expectations', episodes of guilt, resentment, and indignation are the outcomes of our justifications. Once this interpretation of the reactive emotions is in place, we can draw on it to account for the stance of holding people morally responsible. That stance is characterized by the responses of blame and moral sanction; to understand the stance, we therefore need an interpretation of blame and morals. We should consider those facts that we believe society expects from us, rather than what we expect from society. Only in this case we would be able to fulfil our moral obligation toward s society, our country and above all, ourselves. Â  Euthanasia - Is it immoral to allow Euthanasia to a patient "Euthanasia is the deliberate production of the death of a human being on the grounds that in his situation it is considered that it is better that he should be dead than that he should continue to live". (Wilkinson, 1990, p. 10) Many thinkers and philosophers believe that Euthanasia is immoral. According to Rachels, "thinkers oppose killing patients in any circumstances whatever. However, they think it is all right, in some special circumstances, to allow patients to die by withholding treatment". If we view 'Euthanasia' in the light of philosophical rationalizations, we would come to know what Epicurus has tried to explain, "death is nothing to us. For all good and evil consists in sensation, but death is deprivation of sensation. And therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not because it adds to it an infinite span of time, but because it takes away the craving for immortality". (Moore, "Moral and Political Philosophy", p . 291) As said by Epictetus, "Some things are under our control, while others are not under our control". (Moore, "Moral and Political Philosophy", p. 293)

Religious Tolerance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Religious Tolerance - Essay Example In addition, the reorganization and study of distinct religious tradition offers different way of conceptualizing and organizing the differing ideas about god and social organization that arise from these different opinions concerning the understanding of God. For long time, religion has been helpful to mankind in that it is very for humans to live without order orientation or religion. This is because; religion provides a basis on which people, societies and different world cultures built their lives and institutions. In order to embrace religious tolerance, it is important for people to establish a basic familiarity with other traditions and develop an open mind to be comfortable with the concept that it is possible for others to apply different conceptual systems to organize the same experience and aspirations that we posses. Additionally, it is also ital to recognize and understand how that in modern age, religion is playing a big role in social and political arena thus we need to be very careful on how we asses and evaluate other religions and develop a mechanism on how to deal with variety of religions and tolerate divergent practices. It is significant to note that religious diversity and the role of religion should play in people’s lives are not new issues. This is because encouraging religious toleration makes people to shun away from religious fanaticism and challenges them to pursue life, liberty, and happiness commanded by rational choice and personal judgment. It is worth noting that awareness of religions distinct from ours and tolerance for them is a rare virtue in any world society. But based on rational choice and personal judgment, makes such awareness essential or important. Religious toleration is very important in maintaining a harmonious civic society and promoting personal religious or spiritual aspirations (Esposito et al, 2002). In order to understand the Hindu religion, it is vital to look at the brief history of Hindu

Geographic Information Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Geographic Information Systems - Essay Example Natural catastrophes such as hurricanes can have devastating effects on the life and economic stability of any area hit. This has been experiencing more than once in America where lives and property have been lost and the government forced to spend so much on rescue and restoration mission. It is, therefore, a big relief that such a problem can be effectively solved through GIS and thus reduce the loss or avert the danger as a whole. As mentioned earlier, GIS is all about collection and use of date. To solve the problem of the hurricane, several sets of data are necessary. First, the system must indicate the kind of problem expected, the specific time and region of the target and the population involved (Fu & Sun, 2011). This information will help in setting up a response plan and help evacuate the area if possible before the problem hits. The information will also help in alerting the authorities in time for mitigation measures (Singhroy, 2003). Secondly, the problem will also require information on the accessibility of the area, geological structure, weather pattern and hence the possible route of the hurricane in relation to the prevailing winds (Goodchild, 1996). In all these situations, the GIS provided vital information on the location, scale and possible effects of the hurricane on the people and the structures. Using the maps, the rescuers can locate the problem and even trace a safer route to evacuate the people and reach to them during the rescue operations (Goodchild, 1996). Further, the information also notifies the authority on the crisis that can result from the hurricane if it reaches the power plants. I believe that the development of the GIS is a welcome technological input to solving both natural and manmade problems. Using the information so developed, the danger is either evaded or the destruction

Moral Obligation by Bentham Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Moral Obligation by Bentham - Essay Example According to Bentham, "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as determine what we shall do." (Moore, "Moral and Political Philosophy", p. 282). How a person perceives such obligations to be accepted or rejected, depends upon the conditions it describes make it fair to adopt the stance or not. Moral obligations can be referred to those errands, which one considers to be an essential instance of personality to be adopted. It depends upon as to what extent one feels him socially responsible to be answerable to those instances. These instances show the extent of how much a person is humanistic in behaviour and shows that the conditions of rational power satisfy this constraint: that it is fair to hold people morally responsible if they possess the rational power to grasp and apply moral reasons, and to control their behavior by the light of those reasons. As far as my opinion is concerned I believe every individual in this society has a right to live and let live and not only live but live happily and contentedly which can only possible if one is aware as how to justify morality whatever be the circumstances, this morality teaches us as to how to least expect from the society and giving the society the best we possess in moral notions. When it comes to 'expectations', episodes of guilt, resentment, and indignation are the outcomes of our justifications. Once this interpretation of the reactive emotions is in place, we can draw on it to account for the stance of holding people morally responsible. That stance is characterized by the responses of blame and moral sanction; to understand the stance, we therefore need an interpretation of blame and morals. We should consider those facts that we believe society expects from us, rather than what we expect from society. Only in this case we would be able to fulfil our moral obligation toward s society, our country and above all, ourselves. Â  Euthanasia - Is it immoral to allow Euthanasia to a patient "Euthanasia is the deliberate production of the death of a human being on the grounds that in his situation it is considered that it is better that he should be dead than that he should continue to live". (Wilkinson, 1990, p. 10) Many thinkers and philosophers believe that Euthanasia is immoral. According to Rachels, "thinkers oppose killing patients in any circumstances whatever. However, they think it is all right, in some special circumstances, to allow patients to die by withholding treatment". If we view 'Euthanasia' in the light of philosophical rationalizations, we would come to know what Epicurus has tried to explain, "death is nothing to us. For all good and evil consists in sensation, but death is deprivation of sensation. And therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not because it adds to it an infinite span of time, but because it takes away the craving for immortality". (Moore, "Moral and Political Philosophy", p . 291) As said by Epictetus, "Some things are under our control, while others are not under our control". (Moore, "Moral and Political Philosophy", p. 293)

Geographic Information Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Geographic Information Systems - Essay Example Natural catastrophes such as hurricanes can have devastating effects on the life and economic stability of any area hit. This has been experiencing more than once in America where lives and property have been lost and the government forced to spend so much on rescue and restoration mission. It is, therefore, a big relief that such a problem can be effectively solved through GIS and thus reduce the loss or avert the danger as a whole. As mentioned earlier, GIS is all about collection and use of date. To solve the problem of the hurricane, several sets of data are necessary. First, the system must indicate the kind of problem expected, the specific time and region of the target and the population involved (Fu & Sun, 2011). This information will help in setting up a response plan and help evacuate the area if possible before the problem hits. The information will also help in alerting the authorities in time for mitigation measures (Singhroy, 2003). Secondly, the problem will also require information on the accessibility of the area, geological structure, weather pattern and hence the possible route of the hurricane in relation to the prevailing winds (Goodchild, 1996). In all these situations, the GIS provided vital information on the location, scale and possible effects of the hurricane on the people and the structures. Using the maps, the rescuers can locate the problem and even trace a safer route to evacuate the people and reach to them during the rescue operations (Goodchild, 1996). Further, the information also notifies the authority on the crisis that can result from the hurricane if it reaches the power plants. I believe that the development of the GIS is a welcome technological input to solving both natural and manmade problems. Using the information so developed, the danger is either evaded or the destruction

Police Essay Example for Free

Police Essay Police generally perceive the risk of injury, assault, and even death to be greatest for domestic violence calls. Why do police have these beliefs, and what is the reality of the situation? When responding to calls few inspire more dread among police officers than answering to a domestic call. Police have generally the perception of risk of injury, assault and even death. There is always this perception among police officers when answering domestic calls. Such perception cannot be avoided because domestic calls most often than not have the element of unpredictability. Emotions are high and this can run even higher if coupled with drugs and alcohol. Indeed, responding to a domestic call can be very risky on the part of the police officers. When they respond to such call, they are perceived as the threat instead of being the protector. Traditionally, a police officer would respond to a call and restore peace as soon as possible and then clear from the call. The community policing philosophy dictates that the officer review of the problem, analyze it and try to come up with a solution to the problem. (Denise Papagno). However, this theory is not realistic at all. Upon responding to a domestic call, the police officer enters into a domestic abode as a protector, but in the eyes of the owners of the abode despite his good intentions, he will always be the intruder. Hence, the police officer cannot effectively do his job especially if the victim refuses to leave and instead would insist in not doing anything or even file a complaint for that matter. It is essentially difficult for police officers to face and respond to domestic calls as society now views domestic calls as a serious crime and not merely a private family quarrel. The fact that not all of the police are educated in handling domestic issues or why the victim does not leave her abuser or why the batterer abuses the victim. Because of this, the police fail to understand victims of domestic calls and are less inclined to help them in the next call. In your opinion, what is the most problematic myth associated with policing? Explain your answer. As early as the 18th century, police work or policing is associated in being a night watchman. The job basically entails maintaining order against threats to order itself – wild animals, fire or unruly behaviour. However, at the turn of the century, policing has evolved into something more than being a night watchman. Police not only has to maintain order in their respective communities but they are also tasked to solve and fight crimes. Hence, the notion that police can solve any crime reported to them grew. As crime fighters, this notion has proven to be an additional burden to policing. Even simple and private nuisances such as littering, drunkenness and unruly behaviour are called in and reported to the police. Hence, this takes up on the workload of policing instead of focusing more on the serious crime-solving work. But together with the notion of being crime-fighters came the myth of police brutality. The average citizen sees policemen as having â€Å"zero-tolerance†. For example, in domestic calls, instead of turning in their abuser, victims would opt not to do anything for fear of the police. If they fear their abusers, victims fear the police more. It does not help that there are also police mandates such as that of Rudy Giuliani who implemented a version of Broken Windows policing across New York City. Thus, policemen were tasked to become aggressive in stamping out public disorder such as drunkenness, jaywalking and noisiness. In reality however, policing is not just being brutal and aggressive towards those lawbreakers. The concept of â€Å"community policing† has made advancement in policing. Thus, police officers who are on foot patrol have elevated the common myth about policing because admittedly, an officer who is inside the squad car and safely sealed inside cannot relate with the other people from the neighbourhood.

Ways Of Transferring Capital From Savers To Borrowers Finance Essay

Ways Of Transferring Capital From Savers To Borrowers Finance Essay Find the most recent financial statements for two companies of same industry which are listed in KLSE (Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange). Evaluate the financial position and performance for each of these two companies using accounting ratio analysis. You are required to compute and compare the accounting ratios between these 2 companies, and conclude the results of your findings. The limitations or problems of using accounting ratios for performance analysis should be included in your conclusion. Identify and discuss three different ways of transferring capital or fund from savers to borrowers in the financial market. 1.0 Introduction What is accounting ratios? Accounting ratios are the ratios which used in calculation and indicate the relationship between figures from the financial statements of a company. The financial statements are the statements that summarized a companys activities either quarterly or annually. It consists of a profit and loss account and a balance sheet. In accounting, accounting ratios are often used in interpreting and evaluating a companys overall financial condition and business performance. Accounting ratios are classified into 5 categories for measuring 5 different aspects of business performance. The 5 aspects are shown as follow: Profitability of company Liquidity of company Asset management of company Debts management and capital gearing of company Market value of investment to ordinary shareholders / common stockholders 1.1 Profitability of company Gross profit markup Gross profit markup (%) = Gross Profit x 100 Cost of goods sold Gross profit margin Gross profit margin (%) = Gross profit x 100 Net sales value Operating profit margin on sales Operating profit margin (%) = Operating profit before interest and before taxation x 100 Net sales value Profit margin on sales Profit margin on sales (%) = Net income available to common stockholders x 100 Net sales value Basic earning power (BEP) Basic earning power (BEP) = Operating profit before interest and before taxation x 100 Total assets Return on total assets (ROA) Return on total assets (ROA) = Net income available to common stockholders x 100 Total assets Return on total equity (ROE) Return on total equity (ROE) = Net income available to common stockholders x 100 Common equity 1.2 Liquidity of company Current ratio / Working capital ratio Current ratio / Working capital ratio = Current assets Current liabilities Liquid ratio / quick ratio / acid-test ratio Liquid ratio / quick ratio / acid-test ratio = Liquid assets Current liabilities 1.3 Asset management of company Inventory turnover or stock turnover Inventory turnover or stock turnover = Cost of sales Average stock value Fixed asset turnover Fixed asset turnover = Net sales Fixed assets net book value Total assets turnover Total assets turnover = Net sales Total assets Debtor ratio Debtor ratio = Debtor Credit sales Debtor payment period Debtor payment period = Debtor x 365 days/ 52 weeks / 12 months Credit sales Days sales outstanding (DSO) Days sales outstanding (DSO) = Debtor x 365 days Credit sales 1.4 Debts management and capital gearing of company Debts ratio Debts ratio = Total debts Total assets Capital gearing ratio Capital gearing ratio = Prior charge debts capital Total capital Debts equity ratio Debts equity ratio = Total debts Common Equity Times interest earned Times interest earned = Profit before interest and before taxation Interest charges Creditor ratio Creditor ratio = Creditor Credit purchase Creditor payment period Creditor payment period = Creditor x 365 days / 52 weeks / 12 months Credit purchase 1.5 Market value of investment to ordinary shareholders/ common stockholders Earnings per share Earnings per share = Net income available to common stockholders Number of ordinary shares in issue Price / Earnings ratio Price / Earnings ratio = Market price per ordinary share Earnings per share Dividend cover Dividend cover = Earnings per share Net ordinary dividend per share Earning yield Earning yield = Gross earnings per share x 100 Market price per ordinary share Dividend yield Dividend yield = Gross ordinary dividend per share x 100 Market price per ordinary share Price / cash flow ratio Price / cash flow ratio = Market price per ordinary share Net cash inflow per ordinary share Market price / book value ratio Market price / book value ratio = Market price per ordinary share Net book value per ordinary share 1.6 Companys background Gamuda was incorporated on 6 October 1976. It was listed on the main board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) on 10 August 1992. In Malaysia, Gamuda is a leading infrastructure group. It has a wide range of business activities all over the world. Its core competencies are engineering and construction, infrastructure concessions, and also township development. Besides, they have mega projects such as internationally acclaimed SMART (Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel), intra-urban highways, Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit System in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and so on. On the other hand, WCT was incorporated on 14 January 1981 as WCT Earthworks Building Contractors Sdn Bhd. Then, it went public on 1 April 1994 and listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) on 16 February 1995. The business nature of WCT Berhad contains engineering and construction, property development, and also assets management. The business coverage of WCT is in Malaysia and abroad. Its projects and services include F1 international racing circuit, international airport, hydroelectric dam, township planning development and so on. Then, the next step is applying the accounting ratios to calculate the 2 companiess business performance. The companies are Gamuda Berhad and WCT Berhad. In order to compare these 2 companies, the selection is inter-firm which is comparing based on the industry average. It is because they have the same business nature. Before doing comparison, a person must obtain the financial statements of a company. In general, the financial statements are released in annually basis, but some of the companies are quarterly basis. Financial statements are the vital resource for a researcher used to calculate and compare the companies business performance. The financial statements adopted from Gamuda Berhads annual report 2010, whereas WCT Berhad is 2009. Figures inside the income statement and balance sheet are used in apply to the accounting ratio in calculating purposes. After done the calculation, there is a standard weigh available in each accounting ratio to interpret the data. Each answer gen erated is referring to the weigh in comparison and generate a comment. These 2 annual reports of Gamuda and WCT are adopted from their official website in the column of the investor relations. The website address of Gamuda is http://www.gamuda.com.my, whereas website address of WCT is www.wct.com.my. 1.7 Calculation worksheet Types of ratio Calculation of Gamuda Berhad Calculation of WCT Berhad Profitability Gross profit markup (%) = Gross profit x 100 Cost of goods sold = RM 422976000 x 100 RM 2032167000 = 20.81 % = RM 354659000 x 100 RM 4311943000 = 8.23 % Gross profit margin (%) = Gross profit x 100 Net sales value = RM 422976000 x 100 RM 2455143000 = 17.23 % = RM 354659000 x 100 RM 4666602000 = 7.60% Operating profit margin on sales (%) Operating profit before = interest before taxation x100 Net sales value = RM 259852000 x 100 RM 2455143000 = 10.58% = RM 244145000 x 100 RM 4666602000 = 5.23 % Profit margin on sales (%) = Net income available to common stockholders x 100 Net sales value = RM 280693000 x 100 RM 2455143000 = 11.43 % = RM 147098000 x 100 RM 4666602000 = 3.15 % Basic earning power (BEP) = Operating profit before Interest and before taxation x100 Total assets = RM 259852000 x 100 RM 6550910000 =3.97% = RM 244145000 x 100 RM4478484000 = 5.45 % Return on total assets (ROA) = Net income available to common stockholders x100 Total assets = RM 280693000 x 100 RM 6550910000 = 4.28% = RM 147098000 x 100 RM 4478484000 = 3.28 % Return on total equity (ROE) = Net income available to common stockholders x 100 Common equity = RM 280693000 x 100 RM 325752500 = 8.62 % = RM 147098000 x 100 RM 1250246000 = 11.77 % Liquidity Current ratio = Current assets Current liabilities = RM 4203173000 RM 1930241000 = 2.18 : 1 = RM 2553187000 RM 1807550000 = 1.41 : 1 Acid-test ratio = Liquid assets Current liabilities = RM4123435000 RM1930241000 = 2.14 : 1 = RM 2439478000 RM 1807550000 = 1.35 : 1 Asset Management Inventory turnover = Cost of sales Average stock value = RM 2032167000 RM 79738000 = 25.49 times = RM 4311943000 RM 113709000 = 37.92 times Total assets turnover = Net sales Total assets = RM 2455143000 RM 6550910000 = 0.37 times = RM 4666602000 RM 4478484000 = 1.04 times Debtor ratio = Debtor Credit sales = RM 1607772000 RM 2455143000 = 0.65 : 1 = RM 1472655000 RM 4666602000 = 0.32 : 1 Day sales outstanding (DSO) = Debtor x 365 days Credit sales = 0.65 x 365 days = 237.52 days = 0.32 x 365 days = 116.8 days Debts management and capital gearing of company Debts ratio = Total debts Total assets = RM 3243187000 RM 6550910000 = 0.50 : 1 = RM 2991508000 RM 4478484000 = 0.67 : 1 Debts equity ratio = Total debts Common equity = RM 3243187000 RM 3257525000 = 1 : 1 = RM 2991508000 RM 1250246000 = 2.39 : 1 Times interest earned = Profit before interest and before taxation Interest charges = RM 259852000 RM 43813000 = 5.93 times = RM 24414500 RM 50308000 = 4.85 times Market value of investment to ordinary shareholders / common stockholders Earnings per share = Net income available to common stockholders Number of ordinary shares in issues = RM 280693000 2025888000 shares = RM 0.14 = RM 147098000 777712000 shares = RM 0.19 Price earnings ratio = Market price per ordinary share Earnings per share = RM 3.20 per share RM 0.14 per share = 22.86 times = RM 2.60 per share RM 0.19 per share = 13.68 times Earnings yield = Gross earnings per share x 100 Market price per ordinary share = (100/75 x RM 0.14) x 100 RM 3.20 = 5.83 % = (100/75 x RM 0.19) x 100 RM 2.60 = 9.74 % Market price per book value = Market price per ordinary share Net book value per ordinary share = RM 3.20 per share (RM 325752500 / 2025888000 shares) = RM 3.20 RM 1.61 = 1.99 : 1 = RM 2.60 per share (RM 1250246000 / 777712000 shares) = RM 2.60 RM 1.61 = 1.61 : 1 1.8 Ratios comparison between Gamuda and WCT 1.81 Profitability Gross profit markup and gross profit margin Based on the profitability ratios calculations result generated above, Gamuda Company is generating higher profit compared to WCT Company. The both gross profit markup and gross profit margin of Gamuda is higher than WCT. High gross profit earned by Gamuda shows that it has effective and efficient control in lowering its purchasing cost and production cost. Lower gross profit earned by WCT indicates it does not effective and efficient control in lowering its purchasing cost and production cost. Besides, both operating profit margin and profit margin on sales of Gamuda is higher than WCT. Higher profit margin earned by Gamuda shows it has an effective control in lowering its expenditures and interest cost. Whereas it indicates WCT is ineffective in controlling its expenditures and interest cost. Basic earning power, return on total assets, and return on common equity However, in basic earning power and return on common equity, Gamuda is lower than WCT. Return of asset of Gamuda is slightly higher 1 % than WCT only, which is 4.28 % and 3.28 % respectively. It shows that WCT is generating higher profit regarding to its effective and efficient in using its assets and capital in the business. In contrast, Gamuda is ineffective and inefficient in employing its assets and capital. 1.82 Liquidity Current ratio In liquidity aspect, the current ratio of Gamuda and WCT is 2.18: 1 and 1.41: 1 respectively. If the current ratio is higher than average of industry, it means a company has a larger amount of current assets to pay its current liabilities. Besides, it proves that a company has a stable financial condition. In contrast, when current ratio is lower than average of industry, it shows the companys financial condition is unstable. The company has lower amount of current assets to pay its current liabilities. Acid test ratio On the other hand, acid test ratio of Gamuda is 2.14: 1, whereas WCT is 1.35: 1. When a companys acid test ratio is higher than average of industry, it shows that it has larger amount of liquid assets to pay its current liabilities. In contrast, lower acid test ratio shows a company has lower amount of liquid assets to pay its current liabilities. 1.83 Asset management Inventory turnover In asset management aspect, the inventory turnover of Gamuda is 25.49 times and WCT is 37.92 times. Higher inventory turnover shows that a company experiences fast stock turnover, so stocks are not accumulated, and no money to be tied up. WCT has a higher inventory turnover than Gamuda. It means that WCT has fast turnover, less stocks to be accumulated, and less money to be tied up compared to Gamuda. Total assets turnover Besides, total assets turnover of Gamuda is 0.37 times, and WCT is 1.04 times. Total assets turnover of WCT is higher than Gamuda. WCT has higher sales generated from its business due to its effective asset usage which increases the production volume. Debtor ratio days sales outstanding Debtor ratio of Gamuda is 0.65: 1, and WCT is 0.32: 1. Besides, the day sales outstanding of Gamuda are 237.5 days, and WCT is 116.8 days. Higher debtor ratio and day sales outstanding shows that Gamuda gives a longer credit time to its debtors which cause a longer time to collect back the money. Gamuda may accumulate the debts balance and experiences shortage of money which unable to finance its current liabilities. In contrast, WCT has a lower debtor ratio and day sales outstanding. It has shorter debtor payment period, experience less debts balance, and less money to be tied up from its debtors. 1.84 Debts management and capital gearing Debtor ratio In debts management and capital gearing aspect, WCT has a higher debts ratio compared to Gamuda. The higher debts ratio shows that a company experiences heavy debts and high interest cost. It may cause a company unable to pay back the debts, and forced to sell its assets to pay. Debts equity ratio Debts equity ratio is used to measure the proportion of company debts with its common equity. Both Gamuda and WCT debts equity ratio is higher than 0.5:1, but WCT is higher than Gamuda which are 2.39:1 and 1;1 respectively. It means these 2 companies operate at a high gear with larger proportion of prior charge debts capital. It views as unstable capital structure and bearing the high interest cost financed by larger proportion of profit. Time interest earned / Interest cover Both companies experience high capital gearing ratio, but WCT is higher than Gamuda. It means WCT experiences low times interest earned and indicates it is bearing the high interest charges in relation to its profit. 1.85 Market value of investment to ordinary shareholders / common stockholders Earnings per share Lastly, in market value of investment to ordinary shareholders / common stockholders, WCT has a higher earnings per share compared to Gamuda. It shows that WCT has a higher business growth and higher profit earnings. In converse, lower earnings per share shows that a company experiences a low business growth and low profit earnings. Price earnings per share Besides, WCT has a lower price earnings ratio compared to Gamuda. Lower price earnings ratio shows that Gamudas earnings per share is very high which influenced the common stockholders have to take shorter period use their profit earning to recover back their share investment amount. If the earnings ratio is high, it shows that a companys earnings per share are very low and the common stockholders spend longer period use their profit earning to recover their share investment amount. Earning yield The earning yield of WCT is higher than Gamuda. If the earning yield higher than the average of industry, it shows that a company has high net income and very attractive to the common stockholders. However, when the earning yield is lower than average of industry, it shows that a company has low net income and not attractive to the common stockholders. Market price per book value Besides, the market price per book value of WCT is lower than Gamuda. If market price per book values is lower than the average of industry, it means the share market price decreases below its real asset value and becomes attractive to common stockholders. In converse, if the market price per book value is higher than the average of industry, it means its share market price increases over its real asset value and become not attractive to the common stockholders. 1.9 Conclusion Based on the result of 5 aspects of accounting ratio above, WCT Company has a better overall business performance than Gamuda Company. Firstly, WCT has higher BEP and ROE which shows WCT is generating higher profit regarding to its effective and efficient in using its assets and capital in the business activities. Secondly, WCT has a higher inventory turnover than Gamuda. It indicates that WCT has fast turnover, more liquid, less stocks to be accumulated, and less money to be tied up compared to Gamuda. Thirdly, total assets turnover of WCT is higher than Gamuda. WCT has higher sales generated from its business due to its effective asset usage which increases the production volume. Fourthly, WCT experiences a lower debtor ratio and day sales outstanding than Gamuda Company. WCT has shorter debtor payment period, experience less debts balance, more liquid and less money to be tied up from its debtors. Fifthly, WCT has higher earnings per share compared to Gamuda. WCT has a higher busi ness growth and higher profit earnings. Sixthly, WCT experiences lower price earning ratio compared to Gamuda. Lower price earnings ratio shows that WCTs earnings per share are very high. It enables the common stockholders have to take shorter period use their profit earning to recover back their share investment amount. Seventhly, the earning yield of WCT is higher than Gamuda. When the earning yield higher than the average of industry, it shows that a company has high net income and very attractive to the common stockholders. Lastly, the market price per book value of WCT is lower than Gamuda. When market price per book values is lower than the average of industry, it means the share market price decreases below its real asset value and becomes attractive to common stockholders. Thus, WCT is more attractive than Gamuda. On the other hand, while doing inter-firm comparison, there are several limitations in applying the ratio and trend analysis. The first limitation must select the same industry norms and compare based on the industry average. The second limitation is each firm experiences a different financial and business risk profile. It also affected by the analysis differently. The third limitation is accounting policies. Each firm applies different accounting policies. For example, in small firm, it groups its stationery in current assets. However, in large firm, it groups it into expenses. The fourth limitation is the size of the firm would experience different level of risk from its competitors, structure, and returns. The fourth limitation is the area and environment of a firm. Home-based firm and multinational firm operate differently in different countries. 2.0 Introduction What is financial market? Financial market is a mechanism where surplus funds are gathered from the people who intended to lend out their money. Furthermore, it acts like a platform where provides the opportunities for the organizations and individuals who are short of money to borrow funds. Financial markets have different categories. Each financial market deals with a different type of financial instrument of its maturity and the asset backing it. Different financial markets serve different types of customers, and operate in different parts of the country. Financial markets are different from physical asset markets. Physical asset markets also called as tangible asset markets or commodities market which deal with the physical products like gold, crude oil, real estate, and machinery. Whereas the financial markets deal with the financial instruments like shares, bonds, notes, mortgages, and so on. Besides, these 2 markets can operate as the spot market or future market. Spot markers can be defined as goods are being traded on the spot and delivery within several days. Conversely, the goods that are being traded in future market are for future and delivery on future date. It could be six months or a year in future. 2.1 Types of financial markets 2.11 Primary markets There are various financial markets in each country. The first type is primary markets. It is the market for corporations to raise capital by issuing new securities or shares. The corporations collect the funds by selling off the new issued stocks in the primary market transaction. 2.12 Secondary markets The second type is secondary markets. Secondary markets are the markets in which existing and already outstanding securities or other financial assets that are traded among the investors after they have been issued by the corporations. 2.13 Initial public offering market The third type is initial public offering (IPO) market. It is a market that provides the company or corporations go public by offering new securities or shares to the public for the first time. Once the corporation or company went public, it will be listed on the stock exchange. These companies or corporations are usually newly established and go public to collect capital. 2.14 Private markets The fourth type is private markets. It is a financial market where the transactions are worked out directly between 2 parties. Private markets are different from the public markets where standardized contracts are traded on organized exchanges, but private market could perform privately without going to public where the transaction may be structured in any manner that appeals to the 2 parties. Bank loans and placement of debts with insurance are the examples of the private market transaction. 2.15 Consumer credit markets The fifth type is consumer credit markets. Generally, it deals with the loans on autos and appliances, loans for education, vacations, and so on. 2.16 Mortgage markets The sixth type is mortgage markets. Mortgage markets deal with the loans for the purposes of residential, commercial, industrial real estate, and also farmland. 2.17 capital markets The seventh type is capital market. Capital markets deal with the stocks or shares, intermediate or long-term debts in which funds to be loaned and borrowed for long periods. It usually more offered in one year or more than one year. 2.18 Money market The eighth type is money market. Money market deals with short-term, highly debt securities in which funds to be loaned and borrowed for a short period which usually less than one year. 2.2 Three ways for transferring capital or fund between savers and borrowers 2.21 Direct transfer from savers to borrowers The first way is direct transfer from savers to borrowers. It usually happens when a corporation (borrower) wants to collect funds by issuing and selling new securities or bonds to the savers (money lender). In this selling process, it does not pass through any financial institution which the corporations directly deliver the securities to the savers who in return pay money to the corporation. Therefore, it is a direct flow where the funds are directly transferred from the savers to the corporations. The following diagram can fully explain the process between corporations and savers. Issue corporations securities or bonds to Corporations (Borrowers) Savers (Money lenders) Receive capital or fund from Diagram 2.21.1- Direct transfer from savers to borrowers 2.22 Indirect transfer from the savers to the borrowers through investment banking house The second way is indirect transfer from the savers to the borrowers through investment banking house. It normally happens when an investment bank underwrites the issuance of a corporations securities where the investment bank acts as a middleman to facilitate the issuance of corporations securities. Indeed, investment bank purchases the corporations securities and then resell it to the savers. It means the money paid by the savers in purchasing corporations securities is passed to the investment bank and to be received by the corporation (borrower). Thus, money of savers and securities of company is only passing through the investment banking house. As a result, the fund is indirectly transferred through the investment banking house from the saver (money lender) to the corporation (borrower). The below diagram can fully explain the process among the investment banking house, corporation, and saver. Investment Banking House (Middle man) ( Corporations (Borrower) Savers (Money lender) Issue corporations Resell corporations securities to securities to Receive fund from Receive fund from Diagram 2.22.1- Indirect transfer from the savers to the borrowers through investment banking house 2.23 Indirect transfer from the savers to borrowers through a financial intermediary The third way is indirect transfer from the savers to borrowers through a financial intermediary. It usually happens when a financial intermediary like bank or a mutual fund collects the funds from the savers by issuing its own securities or certificate of deposit to the savers. After that, the financial intermediary uses the collected funds from the savers to buy and keeps the other corporations securities as its investments. It means that the money paid by the savers to purchase the securities or certificate of deposit issued by the financial intermediary. Then, the money passed to the financial intermediary, and then the financial intermediary paid the money for purchasing the other corporations securities. In fact, there are many people prefer holding the certificate of deposit and the securities issued by the financial intermediary. The reason is they are safer and more liquid than the mortgages and loans. Thus, financial intermediaries are greatly increasing the efficiency of m oney and capital markets. The below diagram can fully explain the process among the financial intermediary, saver, and corporation. Savers (Money lender) Corporations (Borrower) Financial Intermediary (Money lender to corporation) / (Borrower from saver) Issue corporations Issue intermediarys securities to owns securities to Receive fund from Receive fund from Diagram 2.23.1- Indirect transfer from the savers to borrowers through a financial intermediary 2.3 Types of financial intermediaries and its role Investment banking house is an organization that underwrites and distributes the new securities issued by the corporations which helps the corporation in obtaining the funds for financing. In Malaysia, examples of investment banking house are CIMB bank, Affin bank, and Maybank. Financial intermediary are the specialized financial organization that facilitate the transfer of funds from the savers to the borrowers. There are several types of financial intermediaries. 2.31 Commercial bank The first type is commercial bank. It is a traditional departmental store of finance which serves a huge population of savers and borrowers. Besides, commercial banks are the major institutions that handled checking accounts and through which Federal Reserve System increased or decre

Graduation Speech: Dont Forget Where You Came From -- Graduation Spee

Good afternoon, I would like to begin by thanking the staff for the privilege of speaking before you on this bittersweet day. It seems like this past year has been a jumble of excitement, reminiscence of the past and uncertainty for the future. After dreaming about graduating since we jumped off the bus on the first day of kindergarten, it's finally here. With the years of number two pencils, group projects and final bells behind us, we find ourselves on the threshold of our future. Yet, it's difficult not to timidly glance back at our past and wonder if we are prepared for what lies ahead. Are we ready to face that thing called reality which our parents and teachers have constantly warned us about? I was unsure if I would be prepared to face this world which exists beyond the doors of high school until a recent incident changed my mind. It forced me to put all of my accumulated knowledge from high school to the test in order to survive. I wish I could say this experience happened to me when I was a silly freshman; unfortunately it was only a few months ago. It began with a routine trip to the high school to pick up my brother from a basketball game one cold, January evening. I arrived to find the game was long over, although at the time I didn't know that he had already gotten a ride home. I went looking for him, taking a shortcut fr om the gym through the courtyard. As I stepped into the frigid air, the door quickly clicked shut behind me. I strode briskly across the courtyard to the double doors in the old commons, only to find they wouldn't budge. Remaining calm, I tried the doors next to them and the gym doors; they were also locked. My heart began to race as I tried every door and gate in that courtyard, only to find I wa... ...e world, but also the memories and lessons from each other. Every time we lent our shoulder for somebody to cry on, laughed even when the joke wasn't funny or cheered loudly whether our team was ahead or not, we were teaching each other important lessons. This type of knowledge is just as necessary as math, science and history to carry with you in the future. So, when you step onto your college campus, begin your first day of work or travel the world this fall, be confident in your abilities and intelligence. However, as you drive into your future, remember to check your rearview mirror every so often so you don't forget where you came from. Laugh aloud when you mess up or lock yourself in a dark courtyard, for these experiences will become the lessons and memories which you pack into the trunk of your car to strengthen you as you drive down the road of life.

Jewish Resistance Essay -- essays research papers

Jewish Resistance   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We must first realize that resistance was in no way a survival strategy. Yet, even when it seemed obvious that death was near inevitable, why did they not put up a fight? This argument is still puzzling to many holocaust historians, yet the arguments of Raul Hilberg and Yehuda Bauer offer insight to possible reasons why they did not fight and that resistance was more widespread than most people think.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First of all we will look at Raul Hilberg’s â€Å"Two Thousand Years of Jewish Appeasement,† to give us possible reasons why Jews simply willing followed orders to their death. We must see the destruction in a way that has two role-players: the perpetrators and the victims. We will closely look at the role that Jews played in sealing their own fate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hilberg gives us five possible Jewish reactions to the situation they had been confronted with. First of all we will look at the possibility of resistance. It seems as though people would not willingly walk to their death, but 2000 years of appeasement was not easily changed. Along with the history of appeasement, the Jews were totally caught by surprise. They had little organization and so, could not put up a worthwhile fight even if they had wanted to. The SS also did a good job of mental warfare in that any resistance, no matter how significant, the perpetrators knew that the repercussions would affect the whole community and so it was hard to muster support for physical opposition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second reaction was Jewish attempt to make the struggle more of a mental battle than a physical one. They tried to avert the full plans of the German army by using written and oral appeals. Jews also tried to anticipate German wishes. The SS found that the ghettos could be very productive and tried to milk them for all they could. In this way, the Jews believed that if they were able to be productive, they would be spared long enough because of their economic value for help to arrive.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another possible reaction is flight. Only a few thousand Jews escaped from the ghettos in Russia and Poland, and very few escaped from the camps. This was the most viable survival option and yet very few took it. Von dem Bach talked about an â€Å"unguarded escape route to the Pripet Mar... ...was extremely difficult for many reasons. First of all, although there were armed undergrounds in two of the camps, they never acted, and other than this it was impossible to get arms to stage a real resistance. Second of all, the victims were so malnourished that they could not put up any reasonable fight. And lastly, they were in no mental state to fight the SS. They were instead, fighting for their life every second of the day. They had in some ways given up on life and often times willing to obey all orders because it was the easiest way to do things.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My immediate reaction is, how could they not resist when they know they are going to die. But, it is easy to say what you would do looking back at the situation. In many cases I believe that they did resist in the best way they knew how. They fought for life and did that by any means necessary. Many times they felt as though if they prolonged their life, that soon enough they would be saved. This seems as a very reasonable thought, so in my opinion I believe that they did resist more than Hilberg gives them credit for, but I believe they did it from lessons they had learned from the past 2000 years.