A Good Man Is Hard To Find(And Write About=) Essays - Free Essays

A Good Man Is Hard To Find(And Write About=) Essays - Free Essays A Good Man Is Hard To Find(And Write About=) Ravi B. Lucas April 18, 2000 A Good Man Is Hard to Find The story of A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor has been debated and analyzed so much because it can be interpreted one thousand different ways. OConnors characters are usually searching for an elusive salvation, and her stories illustrate her views on the human condition. Many spiritual themes weave their way through her work, but never seem to achieve their intended ends. In this story, groups of criminals massacre an entire family while their ringleader discusses theology with the family's grandmother, only a hundred feet away. The source of the misinterpretation of the storys crux emerges from two key characters that OConnor weaved together: the Grandmother, and the Misfit. These two are so complex because they stand for many different things. The most reasonable interpretation of these two characters is that they represent OConnors view on the evil in society. The story begins with the typical family challenged by their grandmother who does not want to take the vacation to Florida. She has read about a crazed killer by the name of the Misfit who is on the run heading for Florida. Unfortunately, she is ignored by ever member of the family except for the little girl June Star who has come to read her grandmother like a book. Ironically, the morning of the trip the grandmother is dressed in her best Sunday clothes and the first one in the car ready to travel as June Star predicted she would be. The grandmother's dress is very nice for a trip she was horrified to take only a day earlier. The grandmother festooned in white gloves, a navy blue dress, and a matching hat, only for the sole purpose of being recognized as a woman in case someone saw her dead on the highway. This logic may seem absurd to anyone who is unfamiliar with aged aristocratic southern culture. Southerners of a high class would dress in their fine clothes when they traveled o n vacations, especially ladies. The reader is clued into the grandmother's shallow thoughts of death. In the grandmother's mind, her clothing preparations prevent any doubts about her status as a fine lady. However, the Misfit later points out, There never was a body that gave the undertaker a tip. The grandmother's superficial readiness for death is a bleak characteristic and revealed when she encounters the Misfit. She shows herself to be the least prepared for death when she is left alone with him. As the trip progresses, the children reveal themselves as brats, mainly out of O'Connor's desire to illustrate the lost admiration for the familys respect for their grandmother. The family lost their respect for their grandmother only because she proposed a different life style. She was part of a Southern aristocratic culture where people behaved much more conservatively. Her beliefs, attitudes, and morals were from another time where people respected what older people had to say, and what they stood for. Naturally, she was never reluctant to share her opinion on matters, and was a little forceful about sharing her thoughts. She made sure to watch over her son, and kept a grip on what he did- even as a grown man. She refused to retire and become a composed old woman. She wanted to stay involved in the familys matters, and show that she was still an significant person with the knowledge that came with her age. Consequently, with all her bickering the family began to hold a grudge agai nst her. The Grandmother lacked comprehension, and did not know that she became annoying, but she was not spitefully bothersome. The reader should notice when the family passes by a cotton field, five or six graves are exposed, and conceivably, they foreshadow the near future. Some interesting dialogue takes place when John Wesley asks, Where's the plantation, and the grandmother replies, Gone with the Wind. This is perhaps another attempt by O'Connor to illustrate the breakdown of the familys absence of respect and reverence for the grandmothers old life. The family 's encounter with Red Sammy Butts serves as another outlet for O'Connor to express how trust and

Medical Misdiagnosis Essay Example

Medical Misdiagnosis Essay Example Medical Misdiagnosis Paper Medical Misdiagnosis Paper Lies covering up medical misdiagnosis can never be morally justified. One who is found responsible for medical misdiagnosis should never be allowed to flee without compensating the aggrieved party for any injury done or being accountable for his/her mistake. Such accountability would be lost if one is allowed to nullify his mistakes through lying. On the other hand, any aggrieved party must not be complacent in any given instance of medical misdiagnosis because the injury caused may have been insubstantial or it is believed that it is not something worth pursuing. Medical misdiagnosis consists of serious mistakes that should be dealt with in accordance with what morality dictates. Two leading ethical theories will support the opinion that serious sanctions should be imposed on practitioners or doctors who are found guilty of medical misdiagnosis, and that lying to cover up these medical malpractices are not morally right. (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Medical misdiagnosis occurs when doctors, nurses, or surgeons give wrong information to their patients regarding their actual illness or medical condition. It presupposes that they were guilty of negligence in the performance of their duties and they have fallen short of the standard quality of care that they are duty bound to provide to their patients. Medical misdiagnosis is very harmful, as it may result in very dire medical consequences to patients, ranging from severe complications to death. (â€Å"Facts about Medical Malpractice†). Because of the dire consequences involved in medical misdiagnosis, it is tempting for anyone guilty thereof to lie about their mistakes and thus deny responsibility. Such act is reprehensible and can never be justified by any moral theory. One ethical philosophy that can be explored in the search for moral justification of lying about medical misdiagnosis is Kantian moral philosophy. Kantian philosophy was formulated by a rationalist philosopher named Immanuel Kant. (â€Å"Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)†). Kant’s ethical theory was called the categorical imperative. It means that moral law is in the form of an unconditional command. For him, the test of morality is universalizability. Moral law must be of such nature that everyone who will be placed in the same position shall be bound to obey it in the future. (Catholic Encyclopedia). Applying this theory, it cannot be said that lying about medical misdiagnosis can pass the universalizability test. Patients deserve to know the truth in order to enable them to take the appropriate course of action, notwithstanding the danger of facing sanctions on the part of the doctor or nurse. The other ethical theory to be considered is utilitarianism, a tradition that was put forward by English philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. According to this theory, â€Å"an action is right if it tends to promote happiness and wrong if it tends to produce the reverse of happiness. † (Encyclop? dia Britannica). Otherwise stated, it means that the thing which will promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number is good. Lying to cover up medical misdiagnosis can never be morally justified in the viewpoint of utilitarianism. As stated above, medical misdiagnosis tends to produce more harm than good. Wrong treatment and medication of a patient can lead to worse sickness or even death. Lying to cover up mistakes will not solve these problems but rather make them more complicated, by preventing concerned persons from taking appropriate actions designed to mitigate the damage done. This cannot be claimed to promote happiness, much less to the greatest number. The only possible objection to this position is the defense that lying can be justified where telling the truth would only cause emotional pain to the patient and his/her family. Moreover, medical misdiagnosis may not be consciously or maliciously committed by the doctor or nurse concerned and therefore, any punishment that may be imposed on that account would be unfair and unnecessary. Such an argument is morally wrong, because it denies the responsibility of doctors and nurses with regard to the very critical position they occupy with respect to the life and health of their patients. Doctors and nurses should be extremely careful in all their actions. They would not be encouraged to exercise the required degree of diligence when they know that they can always get away with malpractice through lying about it. Catholic Encyclopedia. â€Å"Philosophy of Immanuel Kant. † 10 Feb. 2007. newadvent. org/cathen/08603a. htm. Encyclop? dia Britannica. â€Å"Utilitarianism. † 11 Feb. 2007. utilitarianism. com/utilitarianism. html. â€Å"Facts about Medical Malpractice. † 2007. 11 Feb. 2007. medicalmisdiagnosis. com/. â€Å"Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). † 10 Feb. 2007. friesian. com/kant. htm. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ethics. 11 Feb. 2007. iep. utm. edu/e/ethics. htm.

The Sorrows of Young Werther Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Sorrows of Young Werther - Essay Example Werther finds Lotte to be the object of his hopeless desire, but social conventions of a world based on reason keep her just out of his reach. His unrequited passion for Lotte ultimately destroys him as his frustrated melancholy drowns every other aspect of his personality. Werther too can be defined by one key trait: his inner sensitivity. His sensitivity enables him to be acutely aware of his emotions and the beauty around, which makes him attractive to others. Sensations can be intensified to such an extent that he is often entranced to a blissful state. The introduction, as written by the fictional editor, establishes Werther as worthy of admiration: "You cannot withhold your admiration and love for his character, any more than your tears for his fate... take comfort in his suffering" (Introduction, l. 3-6). However, the same trait cultivates Werther's flaws: self-absorbed, egotistic, and hypersensitivity. Werther, has little internal struggle and is usually forthright about his emotions. Werther's defining trait also acts as the central cause of his actions: "my heart, which is the fountainhead of all-all strength, happiness and misery my heart alone is my own." (p. 97) Werther often complains about the hardships of living, and yet he proclaims: "We human beings often complain that there are so few good days and so many bad ones; but I think we are generally wrong. If our hearts were always open to enjoy the good, which God gives us every day, then we should also have enough strength to bear the evil" (p. 38). As The Sorrows of Young Werther's end approaches, Werther is in a deep depression and is allowed to fall deeper in love despite recognized consequences: "Dear God! Am I culpable that I even now feel a supreme happiness in again living through those glowing moments of joy in all their intensity Lotte! Lotte! - And this is the end!" (p. 135). Suicide is an unnatural act, fundamentally contradicting the central action of life: living. Death renders beings ultimately desensitized, the complete opposite of Werther's trait. Concluding, the story is not just about a young man who is obsessed with a young woman and kills himself because he cannot have her. The main theme is more about passion which completely drives the story. Werther is passionate about practically anything. He clearly values nature, youthfulness, society and the love for Lotte. He is totally dominated by his hopeless passion for all things in life. From the beginning of the story, Werther takes particular pleasure in nature. He tells William "I feel content herethe abundance of this youthful season gives warmth to a heartevery tree, every hedgerow is a bouquet" (p. 24). Werther is devoted to nature; his "whole being is filled with a marvelous gaiety, like the sweet spring morning" (p. 24). When his mother first sends him on the journey, he says he is "alone and glad to be alive" (p. 24). He talks about a spring he is mysteriously drawn to: the natural beauty that surrounds him enchants him. He goes on to talk about the "footpath that leads to the villageoverlooking the entire valley" (p. 30). He puts so much emotion into his letters to William about the "most marvellous sunrisethe trees, wet, the fields refreshedblustering wind stormsrush of a forest" (p. 92). And from this, we can see exactly why he has

Overcrowding and Inmigration in Miami Dade-County and USA Essay

Overcrowding and Inmigration in Miami Dade-County and USA - Essay Example The arrival of Cuban refugees in the 1960s created a foundation for Miami as the gateway for Latin America. Lucrative trading, banking, and investment opportunities have made Miami a hot destination for the population of Central and South Americans as well as Caribbean Island. It is fact that the fast growth of immigrations and overcrowding has transformed the social environment. And this creates pressure for the government to understand the significance of social tensions within a planning framework by considering how growth management policy is primarily concerned with the potential environment. (Gans, 1991) After Los Angeles and New York, Miami-Dade County is the third leading metropolitan area in terms of immigrants and overcrowding. In 1997 Miami-Dade County had one million foreign-born populations and now it has 48 percent of its population comprised of immigrants. After 1960s Miami has become the important destinations for immigrants as the ethnic change has greatly influenced the characteristics of the county as well as the United States. (MiamiHerald.com) Different opinions about the immigrants were doing round the corner since 1960s. Some believe that immigrants in some counties of USA are using welfare services disproportionately and paying low taxes because they are poor. Others argue that immigrants today are economically assimilating into the American mainstream. Then there are some who believe that immigrants are making positive contribution to the economies of these counties. Legal hawks claim that the immigrants to these counties not to use welfare, but because they are ambitious and want to work hard to achieve a higher standard of living. (Research Perspectives on Migration, 2001) From 1980 to 1981 the health centers in Miami were filled with Cuban and Haitian refugees. According to the Miami Health Center more than 5,000 refugees were

An Ethical Dilemma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

An Ethical Dilemma - Essay Example It was a new company in the field of product manufacturing. Therefore, in order to draw more customers towards the newly manufactured products, the company used to deliver gifts and discounts to the customers. Such strategies used to work well for the company, as they were able to attract a large number of customers. The reason was not only the discounts and gifts that the company offered to the customers but also the quality of the products manufactured by the company was very high. The ethical dilemma, which I am going to relate, occurred when the operation manager of the company left the job due to some personal reasons and the company hired a new manager, James Ferrel. The new manager had a different and less professional approach towards the business. An ethical dilemma occurred when he used the strategy of buy one get one free for a newly manufactured product of the company. The scheme was that if a customer buys a LCD TV from the company, the company would provide the customer with a free DVD player of the same quality. The scheme proved successful in the start as a large number of customers opted to buy the company’s products. ... He told me about the situation. He told me that the new manager gives importance to profits more than quality and for that, he planned to attract customers by providing them with a free product. However, the strategy resulted in losing the customers’ confidence in the company’s products. The ethical issue involved in this example was that the company should have provided the customers with excellent quality not only in the product that intended to buy but also in the product that the company used to provide them as a gift. The company went against business ethics, which not only resulted in loss of customers’ confidence but also affected the image of the company in the minds of the customers. The company faced huge criticism, which ultimately led to dismissal of my friend and his manager. According to Ferrell and Gresham, ethical decision making in business is a key towards a business success. Had I been at the post of my friend, I would have informed the top man agement about the manager’s approach towards business. I would have also asked the manager to use some other way to increase the company’s sales instead of cheating the customers by providing them with a low quality product. â€Å"Ethics are standards of conduct† (Smith). I would have used an ethical decision making model to tackle the situation. I would have proved my words of delivering the free item of the same quality. I believe that the Trevino and Nelson's eight-step model to ethical decision making would have helped me in taking suitable decisions. Being in the situation of my friend, I would have gathered the facts at first in order to know the exact position of company in the market. Next, I would have defined the

Representation Of Morocco In Western Cinema

Representation Of Morocco In Western Cinema Morocco, its people and culture, has tickled the fancy of westerners long times ago, even before the colonial era. With the western industrial revolution under the advocacy of the imperial inclination, different generations of western writers and film makers have depicted Morocco according to the colonialist requirements and desires of the moment. The Anglo-American literary and mediatic productions as a scion and legatee to the ideology of European colonies in general, turned their gazing gawk on another Arab space of North Africa, mainly Morocco. The original outset of the Anglo-American interest in Morocco can be traced through the successive genres of travel narratives, novels, essays, etc. which took Morocco as their subject of writing and setting of shooting films. Going back to some historical reviews of the literature written about the representation of Morocco in the Anglo-American cinema and literature, we find that political, economic, and religious motivations are various pretexts that legitimize the western representation of Moroccan people together with their different cultural aspects. In Belated Travelers, Ali Bahdad has shown that westerners from the early travelers to modern tourism have defined the other including Moroccan people as savages, child like, sexually thrilling, etc. From the early British literature led by Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe(novel film) to the American writers led by Paul Bowles The Sheltering Sky(novel film), Morocco has been presented in the western imaginary as a land of jinns, dervishes, harems, all darkly promiscuous, sly and inscrutable. The film in its turn as an extension of narratives has sustained the same discourse of novelists. Most films shot in Morocco present the Moroccan space -desert and kasbah- as a dangerous setting. Through such representations, film makers seem to seek an identity through military, economic and sexual adventures, in which the Moroccan other is continuously cast as inferior and the dark element of the night. Babel, The Sheltering Sky, Legionnaireà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦remain major films where film makers insist on the alienating forces of the Moroccan cultural threats, in which the pure nobility of the white character must defy. It is rarely that we see some fair characteristics displayed by actors, showing the real image of Moroccans. The favourable setting favoured by film makers is most of the times dirty and shabby districts. The film makers always try to find places even far and may cost them more money just to find a place that can cast Morocco as inferior and uncivilized lacking the basi c requirements of life. Traditional and orientalist writings about Morocco are indistinguishable texts and images affixed and engrafted onto the modish mode of films. From the early talkie, Morocco (1930), the classic Casablanca (1942), road comedies Road to Morocco till Five Fingers (2006), Morocco becomes a confining other space and a penal complex for the recalcitrant Anglo-American heroes. The Muslim and Arab gears of prevalently fixed stereotypes are applied likewise to portray Moroccans and supply the requisite background rapscallions, dickhead and wilful, etc. Such representations persevere to inhabit the imaginations and thoughts of the western audience largely and hardly to be changed. Edward Said has clearly identified the function of Arabs in western cinema: In the films and television the Arab is associated either with lechery or blood thirsty dishonestly. He appears as an oversexed degenerate capable (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) of cleverly devious intrigues, but essentially sadistic, treacherous, low. Slave trader, camel driver, money changer, colourful scoundrel: these are some traditional Arab roles in the cinema. (Orientalism, 286-87) Unfortunately, Morocco is geographically situated within two antagonist streams of the west as an Arab and African, uncivilized parts of the world. All types of stereotypes given to Arabs, Muslims and indigenous black Africans are also used identically to describe Moroccans. Throughout history of the Anglo-American cinema, Moroccan characters (Arab Africans) have served as the quintessential other in foreign cinema. Moroccans have been consistently represented as inferior to the west orally, intellectually, culturally and politically. In the post 9/11 world and London bombardment, where some Moroccans were found guilty and involved in terrorist acts, Moroccans are perceived as antagonistic to western values and a threat to the western stability. In Babel, the film maker clearly shots this belief to show that all Moroccans are against the American presence in Morocco including tourists who are bulleted by a small Moroccan child in the mountains. CNN reports and considers this event a terrorist attack. In this conjunction, Woll and Miller argue that the Arab image has stalked the silver screen as a metaphor for anti-western values. The movie Arabs, and the television Arabs, have appeared as lustful, criminal, and exotic villains or foils to western heroes and heroines (Ethnic and Racial Images in American Film and Television, 79). Across the films under study, Anglo-American cinematic productions seem highly obsessed by stereotypical images of Moroccans. Arabs and Africans in general and Moroccans in particular are cinematically constructed to possess a wide array of loathsome characteristics: they may be backward, wild, cruel, blood thirty, crude, sex-crazed, stupid, dishonest conniving or menacing. Year after year and decade after decade, hundreds of films have flooded the market with a large number of unfavourable Arab and African depictions. In his book, Reel bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, Jack Shaheen has studied more than one thousand films with major Arab themes and settings, about 40 of which are about Morocco. In his latest book, just after 9/11, Guilty: Hollywoods Verdict on Arabs after 9/11, Shaheen has studied again more than one hundred films about Arabs picturing them as responsible for what is happening now around the world. Within these bundles of stereotypes, one can wonder about the reasons behind all these biased descriptions. As a response to such questions, many scholars like Churchill agree that it seems necessary to alter realities to assume the maintenance of empire (Fantasies of the Master Race, 38). Churchill goes on saying that mere conquest is never the course of empire in the achievement of mission can only be attained through the productive utilization of captured ground (34). Within the same line of thought, Pieterse writes that the legacy of several hundred years of western expansion and hegemony, manifested in racism and exotism, continues to be recycled in western cultures (White on Black: Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture, 9). Coming to mediatic representations, we find that Brzezinki in Out of Control: Global Turmoil on the Eve of the 21st Century, Naylor in Cultural Diversity in the United States, and Shohat and Stam in Unthinking Eurocentrism all agree that Hol lywood cinema promotes Eurocentric representations in order to further an economic and political propaganda. In the present time, which is characterized by terrorism, we see that the movie discourse of the First and the Second World Wars repeats itself and continues to endorse and legitimize the imperial vision of the white mans burden. Buschbaum asserts that as early as the First World War, many western governments recognized the propaganda potential of film (Left Political Filmmaking in the West: The Interwar Years, 26), in the Second World War, in Rosss words, the movie industry and its key personal exempted from military service (Cinema and Class Conflict, 82). Many scholars like Martin, Hoberman and Shaheen claim that the best movies of the 1930s promoted colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism. These films include Marta Hari, Shangai Express, Tarzan the Ape Man, Flying Down to Rio, etc. During the 1950s, this imperialistic agenda was furthered in films such as those starr ing Ronald Reagan- Hong Kong, Tropic Zone, Prisoner of War- all uphold the idea of the United States domination of the third world countries and were often made with the government assistance. Passage to india: british cinema Although these biased representations within the commercial films have moderated somehow over years, we can say that the visual image of the other Arab and Moroccan in particular is still very poor. Jack Shaheen in his interesting documentary Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (YouToub Video), explores that the 20th century witnessed a large number of films degrading and distorting the image of Arabs including Moroccans. Anglo-American film industry is now theorizing and supporting wars through different scenes that the audience seems to take for granted. Due to this grave impact that such films have on the targeted viewers, Hoberman finds it very necessary to assign these Eurocentric films a new genre called war-nography (Vulgar Modernism, 227). Many films unabashedly affirm traditional Anglo-American values and institutions and negate everything anti-western. Among these movies, we can mention Kingdom of Heaven, Black Hawk Down, True Lies, The Mummy, Raiders of the Los t Ark, The Stone Merchant, to name but a few. In my thesis, I will study and attempt to prove that the films made about Morocco: Babel, Casablanca, Hideous Kinky, Five Fingers, The Road to Morocco, A Night in Casablanca, Legionnaire, The Man Who Knew too Much, The Sheltering Sky, Our Man in Marrakesh, Man of Violence, Unveiled, and some others fit within the aforementioned category as well. In Hideous Kinky, despite some short instances where fairness manifests itself, Moroccans are targeted for stereotypical representations within British films. As Varsey succinctly states: the British influence in general, and its impact in the area of colonial relations in particular, had far reaching implications for Hollywoods depiction of ethnic difference (Foreign Parts: Hollywoods Global Distribution and the Representation of Ethnicity, 699). She concludes that Hollywoods representations of ethnic and national difference and the movies modulation of these stereotypes were informed not by the personal psychologies of individual production, but by the economic imperatives of global distribution. Shome in Race and Popular Cinema: the Rhetorical Strategies of Whiteness in the city of Joy, and Young in Fear of the dark: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Cinema have all concluded that racial representations within cinema exemplify how the discursive productions of whiteness is often complicit in the practices of neo-colonialism. Religious representations are equally as stereotypical as other cultural portrayals within films. According to Newcombe, film images of people associated with religion typically represent widely shared level(s) of popular cultural expressions of religious attitudes that are safe neutral, and often used because of their immediate visual qualities (Religion on Television, 33). These religious representations also serve to support neo-colonialism since they frequently ritualize the values, beliefs, in Schultzes words, and even the sensibilities of a people (Television Drama as Sacred Text, 5). Moroccan religion or Islam in general has been the victim of representations that pre-date the movies dual purposes of religious loathe and economic exploitation. In this conjunction, Rose elaborates: There are Muslims who are of different origins, while most, like the majority of Palestinians, are Arabs, the followers of Muhammed are found in parts of the world. There is the dominant religion in such non-Arab states as Bosnia, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. (They and We: Racial and Ethnic Relations in the United States, 58) However, in the films under study, the Moroccan Muslims are often depicted as dark Arabs and nomadic heathens because black becomes the colour of the devil and demons. While watching the movies, the majority of Moroccans remain cinematically either part of the movie backdrop or totally invisible. In addition to this stereotypical account, another representative feature that portrays Moroccans in the Anglo-American cinema is that they are doubly misrepresented as Arabs and Africans. Hoberman concurs that the misrepresentation of the Other in general has achieved a state that had surely blistered the paint and the chrome of the American dream machine. Why should anyone want the facts? Shared fantasies are what hold a people together (Vulgar Modernism, 328). Within this religious representation, Moroccans could not escape the Hollywood machine through its films about Morocco, mainly The Five Fingers, which depicted Morocco as a place of terrorist groups and savage terrorists. What makes this religious representation very perilous is the audience who take things presented through the motion picture for granted may be throughout their lives. In a study conducted by Schaefer, the American sociologist, about school children who watched D.W. Griffiths Birth of a Nation, he found that watching the movie made them more favourably inclined towards blacks for five months when children were retested (Racial and Ethnic Groups, 80). So if school children could not forget the image of blacks presented in The Birth of a Nation, how adults of world audience could overlook the Moroccan image in Babel, Five Fingers, Casablanca, etc., especially if we consider that most people take images as truth based. The audience gameness to believe whatever images th ey see in the movies is clearly explained by Contreras in Practical Consideration for Living and Working in Contexts of Diversity: Most individuals are quite capable of forming opinions without adequate prior-knowledge, thus forming a prejudgement either for or against a group, idea, or person. For example, after learning about the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma, how many people immediately thought the explosion had been the work of Arab terrorists? (Cited in Naylors Cultural Diversity in the United States, 330) Similarly to what happened during the evens of Oklahoma, moviemakers have tried to instil the idea of Arab terrorism in the minds of the audience either through special effects or real military victories. Balio, Barder, Bordwell and Thompson, Shohat and Stam and Hoberman all concur that the movies have influenced virtually every human activity, from politics and warfare to sexual behaviour and dreaming. It is true that after the events of 9/11 for example, the movies have turned Americans as Hoberman notes into Bob Hoskins in Toontown, real people wandering around delirious mental landscape of special effects, feel good fantasies, and militaristic spectacles (Vulgar Modernism, 334). Method This thesis is a cultural studies-based inquiry into the politics of Moroccan representation in the Anglo-American movies and the role they play in deepening the abhorrence and misperception of Moroccan cultural aspects by the west. This thesis will also re-articulate a way of understanding the links between the representations of Moroccans in the Anglo-American films and the unleashing of violence and insolence towards Moroccans and Arabs in general. The primary research questions guiding my research are: In what ways have Moroccans and Moroccan land been represented in the Anglo-American movies? Is it possible to describe a new specifically Anglo-American form of Orientalism that is distinct from old European forms? How is the identity of Moroccans articulated in opposition to an Anglo-American identity? To investigate these questions, the thesis relies on a range of data sources: primary and secondary analysis of films, scholarly books and articles, reviews of films, etc. that can help to contribute to a better understanding of how cultural domination can work upon the minds and practices of filmmakers to act around the Moroccan character in a large sample of movies. To decode the movies messages, I find myself in a situation where every component in the film must be analysed critically as Martin says in his book, Hollywoods Movie Commandments the critic must consider both the way in which the action is portrayed and the effect on the audience (91). Plot, character, theme, point of view, and setting are all typical areas upon which analysis should concentrate. Because of the films peculiar visual qualities, each of these areas takes on additional dimensions. Character, for example, is not only written into the screenplay, but also interpreted and portrayed by the actor. Even more im portantly, many of these traditional elements of narration are staged through mise-en-scene. When the action is being filmed, the shot, speed of motion, tonality, sound and special effects become also important interpretive factors within a film since cultural representations within a film can be depicted or influenced through these elements. In this research, I will shell out more concentration to issues raised in the different films and to what they say about Moroccan society and its values. The research relies on cultural studies and the postcolonial theory as its main theoretical and methodological approaches to interpret and analyse the selected films. I will make use of the literary critique of the elements of narration together with the ways in which these elements are portrayed visually. I will use the elements of narration as a guide to discuss the cultural representations across the scenes. Through the postcolonial theory, I aim at re-examining the Moroccan reality with the process of redefining Moroccan identity presented in the Anglo-American cinema. Thus the Moroccan voice will be raised with the promise of giving optimism to the silenced Moroccans in the films. Three native Moroccan movies will be employed in this research as a postcolonial means to describe people, things and values that live or relate to the geographical locations of the Moroccan society. These films are: M. Abdderrahman Tazis Badis, Farida Belyazids A Door to the Sky (Une Port sure le Ciel) and Laila El Marrakshis Maroock. Through Moroccan third cinema, Moroccan filmmakers led by Abderrahman Tazi define themselves and participate in the discursive processes that rule their destiny. It is true that A. Tazi remains the leader of the third cinema in Morocco which is manifested in his films Badis, Looking for my Wifes Husband, Lalla Hobby, etc. in these films, he tries to avoid shooting scenes that seem a kind of fetish for the west (cited in Beyond Casablanca, 66). A. Tazis wakefulness of the subjective representations of western movies is developed during his work with Anglo-American filmmakers who came to make films in Morocco. In his interview with the American anthropol ogist, Kivin Dwyer, A. Tazi recounts one of the bad experiences that demeans his pride as a Moroccan working with a Hollywood film maker John Derick while filming Bolero (1984). John Derick says to A. Tazi while facing a problem in one of the shots: what the hell am I doing here in this country? Why didnt I go to Israel, where people are more civilized, where people are less like-savages (Beyond Casablanca, 44). It is hoped that the postcolonial approach which allows for and respects different narrative voices will provide an apt method for looking at the different histories and values reflected in selected Anglophone movies. It is also my hope that the postcolonial method will enhance an understanding of different approaches used by various filmmakers as they attempt to disengage the Moroccan identity from the imperial syndrome. Rationale for the corpus The studies of the history, criticism and analysis of these films about Moroccan people and culture are significant in many ways. These films are sampled across the British and American film productions. The selection of the films is based on certain criteria. Since Im dealing with the representation of Moroccan identity in the Anglo-American cinema, I tried to choose only films that have been shot in Morocco and taking Moroccan culture as the main theme. The films are also selected according to the messages they transmit to the audience about the Moroccan religion, politics, culture, space, geography, women, traditions, etc. in Babel, for example, we see the filmmakers representing Morocco in unfair way; we see very old women in black smoking, even young children attacking American tourist- an action which seems to present that all Moroccans young or old hate the American people. In the same movie, we notice again the same old story of sexuality reiterated in the acts of presenting the Moroccan characters sexually thirsty even to their brothers and sisters. In the Sheltering Sky and Hideous Kinky, again, we see stealthy figures appear and disappear without intimating whence they come, nor where they go. These figures seem wearing turbans as big domes standing in shadows waiting to mug a western passer-by. In this film, we also see presentations of the Moroccan Kasbah as a labyrinth where western people are doomed to death. In Five Fingers, Islam, main religion in Morocco is associated with terrorism and denunciation of western spectrum. Legionnaire is the film where Moroccan space is divided into two: a dangerous desert from which no western visitor can escape, and whore streets for sexual pleasure for soldiers. All the films selected for this study are those that narrate Moroccan experience from an imperial eye. This presentation of course affects the Moroccan individual and society. The films continuous impact on identity and culture leads us to study some indigenous films productions shot by Moroccan film makers. The Moroccan films would serve a counter discourse to question and rectify the ideological representations imposed by outside cinematic productions.

Bullet In Head Analysis Oral :: essays research papers

Bullet in the Head This time the bullet cold rocked ya A yellow ribbon instead of a swastika Nothin' proper about ya propaganda Fools follow rules when the set commands ya Said it was blue When ya blood was red That's how ya got a bullet blasted through ya head Blasted through ya head Blasted through ya head I give a shout out to the living dead Who stood and watched as the feds cold centralized So serene on the screen, You was mesmerized Cellular phones soundin' a death tone Corporations cold Turn ya to stone before ya realize They load the clip in omnicolour Said they pack the 9, they fire it at prime time The sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz And mutha fuckas lost their minds Just victims of the in-house drive-by They say jump, you say how high Yeah Just victims of the in-house drive-by They say jump, you say how high Run it! (Guitar solo) Just victims of the in-house drive-by They say jump, you say how high Just victims of the in-house drive-by They say jump, you say how high Check-a, check-a, check it out They load the clip in omnicolour Said they pack the 9, they fire it at prime time The sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz And mutha fuckas lost their minds No escape from the mass mind rape Play it again jack and then rewind the tape And then play it again and again and again Until ya mind is locked in Believin' all the lies that they're tellin' ya Buyin' all the products that they're sellin' ya They say jump and ya say how high Ya brain-dead Ya gotta fuckin' bullet in ya head Just victims of the in-house drive-by They say jump, you say how high Yeah Just victims of the in-house drive-by They say jump, you say how high Uggh! Yeah! Yea! Ya standin' in line Believin' the lies Ya bowin' down to the flag Ya gotta bullet in ya head (Repeat x2) A bullet in ya head (8 times, building to a shout) A bullet in ya head (7 times, shouted/screamed) Ya gotta bullet in ya fuckin' head! Yeah! Yeah! (Sustained to end of drum roll) My talk 2 the class for RATM - â€Å"Bullet in the Head† Rage against the machine are a band that are completely influenced by recent happenings and political events and they band members portray this through their music and lyrics. The song I chose to do was bullet in the head. The song was written in 1992, which was a very political era. Here is the song I will be talking to you about in which I analyzed. (Play song) As you can see Rage against the machine do a very good job of getting their message across to the fans and everyone out there.

Human Communication Process in the Small Group Context Essay

Question #5 How would you rewrite some of Lam’s comments to show how he could have paraphrased what Kelli, Ryan, and Tamika said? â€Å"Tyler has been late to meetings, because he has been caring for his sick parents. Because he his late and missing meetings, we are missing his part of our assignment. Let’s just go ahead and get started and try to finish tonight. If we need another meeting, we can meet at my place to give us more room, instead of meeting in this old stuffy room.† It’s good to paraphrase because, it lets to previous speaker know if you understood what was said. If incorrect, the message can then be delivered in another way, so that the listener understands the message the speaker it trying to make (Galanes & Adams, 2010). This allows for effective communication. Question #6 Which of the eight major categories of nonverbal behaviors are most relevant to this study group? Several of the eight major categories of nonverbal behaviors are expressed in this study group. First of all space and seating play a part because, the group was sitting in a circle, and when Tamika pulled away from the table, it showed that she was upset about Tyler not being present; demonstrating â€Å"kinesics.† In addition, Tamika was using â€Å"time cues† by complaining that Tyler was late and that 20 minutes had gone by. When Kelli began to pack up her things, her movements expressed that she too was unhappy about the situation. â€Å"Paralanguage† was used when the pitch of Tamika’s voice changed as she asked the question â€Å"Man, what time is it.† It is evident that there was no â€Å"transactional process† within the group as a whole. Tamika and Kelli were expressing how they felt about Tyler on being present at the meetings. They were clearly sending a â€Å"message† throughout the group. As Ryan was demonstrating â€Å"paraphrase† by reminding the group the everyone knew that Tyler’s parents was sick and Lam â€Å"action-oriented listening† turned everyone’s attention back to the task of completing the project. It is clear that there was plenty of â€Å"nonverbal behavior† with this group. Nonverbal behaviors can be interpreted by other in ways not intended. Our text states â€Å"nonverbal behaviors can contradict verbal behaviors (Galanes & Adams, 2010).† As we speak to another person or a group, our tone of voice and body language are also speaking for us. It’s important to be aware, so that our actions aren’t taking away from what we are trying to speak. By observing nonverbal ques, we are able to recognize if what we are saying is being taken serious, upsetting someone, confusing or if people are in agreement. Question #7 How might computer-mediated communication been used by our student group? What precautions might they take should they choose to use it to compensate for absences from meetings? Computer mediated communication could have been used in the form of video conference where every member can see and hear their team member, or a chat room where all team members can post their work and respond to other members work. They could attach their assigned work to an email and forward the work to all the members of the group; this would have eliminated Tyler missing meets and Tamika being in that stuffy room. The first precaution is making sure each member has a computer or access to one. If the group is going to use the video conference, then the group need to make sure everyone has the proper equipment and software to participate in the group project. Once the group establishes everyone has a computer or access, they need to understand how to upload their work if they decide to use the chat room as a communication channel. Question #8 Given your understanding of communication principals, including nonverbal messages, what advice would you give to this student group? The group in chapter two should have, communicated differently. Communication is the key to an effective group. You must communicate with your fellow team members, be open about what you are feeling so that way tension does not build and explode making thing much worse than they have to be. Lam could have paraphrased the group feeling when he took control, and decided to start. If lam would have paraphrased, it would have let the other member’s know that he was listening to their concerns. The group should be more mindful of their nonverbal behavior. Lam did do a great job displaying â€Å"action-oriented† listening and getting the team back on track. As a group they should have focused on a solution to get Tyler’s part of the assignment, since they know his pattern with the group. Email and video conferencing are a couple of solutions. References Galanes, G. J., & Adams, K. (2010). Human Communication Process in the Small Group Context. In Effective Group Discussion (pp. 22-47, Chapter 2, pgs. 39 – 46, Chapter 3). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Property Taxes

Property taxes – local taxes, immovable property/land tax, motor vehicle tax . (Lukas Szita) A property tax also known as millage tax is a charge on possessions that the holder is obligatory to pay. The tax is imposed by the governing authority of the area in which the property is placed; it can be a national government of country, a federated state, a county/region, or a municipality (In Slovak Republic property tax is the most important income for municipalities).We basically distinguish four general kinds of property: land, improvements to land (which are immobile man-made objects, such as buildings), personal property (transportable man-made objects), and intangible property. Combination of land and developments are called real estate or reality. Under a property tax system, the governing authority implements assessment of the financial value of every single property, and tax is measured in quantity to that value. Methods of property tax utilized differ significantly among different countries.Tax on property is often confused with special assessment tax. There are two basic forms of taxation which are the most popular: first (ad valorem tax) depends on the fair market value of the property. The second one other also called special assessment depends on a special enhancement also named a â€Å"benefit† for its reason. The property tax rate is frequently specified as a proportion. To compute the property tax, the local government uses multiplication of the evaluated value of the property by the mill rate and then divide by 1,000.For instance, a property with weighed value of 100,000EUR situated in a municipality with a mill rate of 20 mills would have a property tax bill of 2,000EUR per year. Property tax in Netherlands is imposed on homes on a municipal origin in two fragments: for the individual who lives in the household, and for the landlord of the house. Individuals who rent house are accountable only for the living part of the tax. Austral ia’s property taxes are known as property or parcel rates. Parcel rates and regularity of payment are set by local municipialities or councils.Each council has employees who value the land's price. The land value is value of the just land; they do not include existing non-moveable buildings on property. The measured worth of the land is base for the total charges of rates. Those charges differs from $100 per quarter to 1$, and frequencies of payments are differs according locality. Water rates are also common charges for property owners in Australia. Australia furthermore has stamp duty, used at the time when a property is sold.Fee is paid by the purchaser to the Office of State Revenue. Moreover to mentioned stamp duty there is also a Land Transfer Charge under the NSW State Revenue Legislation Amendment Bill 2010. Stamp duty rates are from 1% to 6. 75% based on the value of property and the state of Australia. Denmark has much simple system for taxing property. There it is 1% fee for property appreciated at less than DKK 3 million and 3% rate for above DKK 3 million. In Greece, property tax is set upon floor-area and bills for electricity.

Electric monitoring essays

Electric monitoring essays The focus of the criminal justice system in Canada and all around the world for hundreds of years has been retributive justice. One of the main ideas has been you do the crime, you do the time. Thus, all of our prisons were beginning to fill up and exceed their capacity. This was a result of basically everyone who was found guilty of committing an offence under the criminal code, was sentenced to time in jail or prison. Therefore, during the 1980s and early 1990s, like many countries, Canada experienced significant prison population growth(Bonta, Wallace-Capretta Thus, during the late 1980s and early 1990s governments developed what is known today as community based sentence orders. These community based sentence orders would allow offenders to serve their sentence in the community. There were different levels of severity that each community sentence order had like community service hours being one of the least restrictive measures to electronic monitoring which is the most restrictive community based sentence that an offender can be placed on. Other community based senten...

Rich Pictures and Use Cases as analysis tool Article

Rich Pictures and Use Cases as analysis tool - Article Example Requirement analysis is carried out by using different techniques: one of these methods is Rich Picture. Rich Picture can be described as a graphical tool comprising of annotations and representations for different stakeholders in a system and the surrounding issues, their problems, conflicts, relationships, processes and motivation in a complicated circumstance. Peter Checkland developed this method as a way of collecting information about a complicated situation, and he termed it Soft System Methodology (Checkland 1981, p.37). system, actors are the stakeholders: these could include the end-users and other systems that operate in the environment of the main system in use. Stakeholders aren't naturally parts of the system, but their activities or actions are given optimal recognition as the system is developed. Therefore, Use Case method helps to analyse what the primary actor in a system is expected to be doing as it relates to the main system. Hence Case Modeling is generally employed in software application. Knowing fully the usefulness of Use Case could help in the application of UML and other related software development processes. comparing and contrasting its usages, merits and the problems that are associated with its application. Using a case study concerning a CHILD SUPPORT AGENCY, the two methods of analysis described above would be employed to highlight the principal actors in the agency's environment and the requirement expected of them. SECTION A: Soft Systems Analysis using Rich Pictures Rich Pictures emanate from the idea of Soft System Methodology (SSM), and they are used to indicate clearly how various problems, whether in the society, politics and among human being could be resolved. Concerning the CHILD SUPPORT AGENCY, the inherent "soft problems" could be identified and successfully resolved. Checkland (1990) explained that SSM comprises of seven stages: knowing the problem situation, expressing the problem situation through Rich Pictures (i.e., representations of organizational structure and processes pertinent to the problem situation), viewing the situation and producing root definitions, building conceptual models of what the system must do for each root definition, comparing the conceptual models with the real world, identifying feasible and desirable changes, to making recommendations to improve the problem situation. Below is the Rich Picture that explains the interrelationships among the main compositions of the CHILD SUPPORT AGENCY. This Rich Picture highlights the stakeholder, the structures in the system, their processes and their concerns. The Rich Picture above clearly explains the whole situation at the CHILD SUPPORT AGENCY, by outlining the major actors, their actions and what are expected of them in the suggested Management Information System (MIS). Having the knowledge of how such an Agency operates in the scenario described above would help to further understand its important expectation in the real world. The Rich Picture above shows the expected conflict, agreement and common solution to the social problem of attending to the medical needs of young, distressed people. However, the Rich Picture is silent on some important

Strategic Leadership Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Strategic Leadership - Assignment Example The tactical implementation plan is as important as the strategic plan because it takes the vision and strategy to the point of contact.† The author likens Sun Tzu’s leadership with the European strategist, Captain Johnstone, wrote mention in his 1916 research that one must fight the enemy to uncover the enemy’s weaknesses. With the initial proving attacks, the army can engineer the main decisive attack based on the outcome of the initial attack advances. The tentative attack should not be classified as a separate attack but s part and parcel of the main attack. The initial attack is classified as the beginning of the war. Sun Tzu’s attack formation can include a surprise attack on the enemy’s seemingly formidable front to learn the true shape, and strength of the enemy’s forces. With the most suitable war strategy, the battle is 50 percent won; the strategy succeeds only with professional execution of tactics Machiavelli. In terms of Machiave lli, Maurizio Viroli2 emphasized Machiavelli focused on national interest and military objects in the war implementing several war principles. ... military resistance against absolutism.† The formidable army of Machiavelli showed strong dominance of the political as well as European military environment The strong message of the Machiavelli’s Republican patriotism is a very clear sign to re-emphasize, against the politics of the moderns, in relation to the political efforts of its leaders, also known as the politics of the ancients. Machiavellian politics shows that the word Patria is another word to mean Machiavelli republic. Machiavelli’s government is grounded on a self-governing community of individuals snugly staying together within the justice terms of the law. The Machiavelli government implements rule law, which incorporates patriotism. Clauseritz. In terms of Clauseritz, Tiha Ghyczy3 insists the conduct of war includes the important planning stage. The author states that â€Å"were this combat a single act, there would be no need for further subdivision. But combat consists of a greater or lesser n umber of individual acts, each complete in itself, which we call engagements, which constitute new things. This gives rise to an entirely different activity, namely, individually planning and conducting these engagements and joining them together to achieve the objective of the war.† The quote clearly shows that that it includes the important tactics in the governance of the constituents. Likewise, the tactics includes the many advantages of implementing a well engineered war and government strategy. The segregation of the government’s act to divide the planning stage into both the tactics and strategy is now quite a common- lace in occurrence. All individuals are reasonably sure where to classify a specific factor without necessarily taking considerable notice of the reasons underlying such