Modern Literature Existentialism Essays - Philosophy Of Life

Modern Literature: Existentialism EXISTENTIALISM Existentialism is a philosophical movement that developed in continental Europe during the 1800's and 1900's. Most of the members are interested in the nature of existence or being, by which they usually mean human existence. Although the philosophers generally considered to be existentialists often disagree with each other and sometimes even resent being classified together, they have been grouped together because they share many problems, interests, and ideas. The most prominent existentialist thinkers of the 1900's include the French writers Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sarte, and Gabriel Marcel and German philosophers Karl Jaspers and Martin Heidegger. The Russian religious and political thinker Nicolas Berdyaev and the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber were also famous existentialists. Existentialism is largely a revolt against traditional European philosophy which reached its climax during the late 1700's and early 1800's. Principles of knowledge that would be objective, universally true, and certain were produced. Existentialists rejected the methods and ideals of science as being improper for philosophy. They investigated what it is like to be an individual human being living in the world instead of making the traditional attempt to grasp the ultimate nature of the world and abstract systems of thought. They stress the fact that every individual is only a limited human being. Each must face important and difficult decisions with only limited knowledge and time in which to make these decisions. Human life is seen as a series of decisions that must be made without knowing what the correct choice is. They must decide what standards to except and which ones to reject. Individuals must make their own choices without help from external standards. Humans are free and completely responsible for their choices. Their freedom and responsibility is thrust upon them and they are ?condemned to be free?. Their responsibility for actions, decisions and beliefs cause anxiety. They try to escape by ignoring or denying their responsibility. To have a meaningful life one must become fully aware of the true character of the situation and bravely accept it. Existentialists believe that people learn about themselves best by examining the most extreme forms of human experience. They write about such topics as death and extreme situations. This concentration upon the most extreme and emotional aspects of experience contrasts sharply with the main emphasis of contemporary philosophy in England and the United States. This philosophy focuses upon more common place situation and upon the nature of language rather than experience. JEAN-PAUL SARTRE Jean-Paul Sarte was born in Paris in 1905, and died in 1980. In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. However he refused to accept the reward. Sarte was a French existentialist philosopher who expressed his ideas in novels, plays, and short stories, as well as theoretical works. The mere existence of things, especially his own existence, fascinated and horrified him. To Sarte there seemed no reason why anything exists. He stated that only human existence is conscious of itself and of other things. He argued that non-living objects simply are what they are and people are whatever they choose to be. People exist as beings who must choose their own character. He agreed with the existentialists philosophy that people are completely free. Sarte said, ?People are afraid to recognize this freedom and to accept full responsibility for their behavior.? Throughout his philosophical and literary works, he examined and analyzed the varied and subtle forms of self-deception. In Sarte's chief philosophical work, Being and Nothingness, he investigated the nature and forms of existence or being. In his essay, Existentialism and Humanism, he defined existentialism as the doctrine that, for humankind, ?existence precedes essence?. In the Critique of Dialectical Reason, Sarte presented his political and sociological theories. THEATER OF THE ABSURD MOVEMENT The theater of the absurd refers to tendencies in dramatic literature that emerged in Paris during the late 1940's's and early 1950's. It's roots can be found in the allegorical morality plays of the middle ages and the allegorical religious dramas. The term theater of the absurd derives from the philosophical use of the word absurd by such existentialists thinkers as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sarte. A fully satisfying rational explanation of the universe was beyond its reach and the world must be seen as absurd. The images of the

Free Essays on Immigration

Immigration Immigration is the foundation of this country’s greatness. It is made up of different cultures, ethnicities and races. I myself would not be able to enjoy life in the United States of America if immigration was limited when my parents arrived in this country. I feel making immigration illegal would deprive the rest of the world of being able to experience a land like no other. Immigration has largely increased over the last 100 years causing many problems such as immense population growth, heavy traffic, air pollution, water and energy shortages, overcrowded schools, declines in purchasing power and quality of life and tax increases. New York is known for being so culturally diverse. The culture brought by these immigrants gives us the positive aspects of there homeland without having to face the negatives of it. Some examples of culture being brought is the different parades we have here in the city celebrating different countries from around the world, also the diverse dinning capabilities. We get to experience this with out having to see the hardships that they face such as child labor and extreme poverty. Immigration has its problems but it is also the foundation in which America is built on. It always promised immigrants a future and a great life.... Free Essays on Immigration Free Essays on Immigration In education of immigrants, English as a second language teachers are often among the first people available to help refugees and other immigrants cope with a new cultural and linguistic environment. Although the identified role of the teacher is to teach English language skills, the teacher's role as a cultural broker is very important as well. One can focus on how teachers can help adult refugee and immigrant learners make significant progress in adjusting to a new life in an unfamiliar culture. It discusses the qualities of mental health, stresses faced by refugees, and three things that teachers can do to help their students Concepts of mental health are laden with cultural bias. For example, one of the most important ways that cultures differ is that the societies where many of the refugees and immigrants to the United States come from tend to be more collectivistic, whereas U.S. society is more individualistic. In the United States, parents are generally encouraged to rear their children to be independent and self-reliant, to leave home early, and to be responsible for their own happiness and well being. In collectivist societies, parents raise their children to be interdependent and to be responsible for others, within a system of relationships where others in turn care for them. Americans may see behavior of people coming from such cultures as overly dependent and dysfunctional. However, behaving in individualistic ways could be seen as dysfunctional within the context of these other societies. Because of these cultural differences, U.S. teachers of refugee adults must be cautious in passing j! udgment on behaviors they may not understand. Teachers of adult refugees can promote cultural adjustment and mental health by learning about the challenges facing refugees; by providing material and activities in the classroom that will address some of the individuals' particular needs; and by becoming an integral part of a larger ne... Free Essays on Immigration Immigration is one of the largest factors in making the United States of America the economic juggernaut it is today. The United States of America is a country of immigrants, and legal immigration is embraced and welcomed here. Starting in 1952 when the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was passed, many major changes were made to the immigration policy of the United States by it. The USA needed to begin regulating immigration more heavily to prevent the country from being flooded with too many immigrants. Currently the United States are un-secure and the immigration policies in place are not enough to protect our country and its citizens. Immigration, by definition, is â€Å"to enter and settle in a country or region to which one is not native.† Immigration has a very large social and political significance in American society. Since the time the United States was formed as an independent country, many immigrants have been discriminated against. However, immigration was and still is needed to continue the growth and well being of our country. Immigrants provide diversity in the population, and gives great opportunities to make money and have a good living for people that would not have that in other countries. To some people, immigration means Mexicans illegally crossing the border and being hired for their cheap labor by dishonest American employers who know these people are illegal aliens. To others, immigration means opportunity; people coming from other countries to try to make it in our vast capitalistic economy. Immigration as a whole can stand for opportunity, freedom, civil and human rights, ill egality, terrorism, and many others. Personally I feel that immigration provides great options to people in countries that would not normally have the chance to succeed that would in the United States of America. Immigration is a great thing for this country, as long as it is done responsibly and in a secure fashion... Free Essays on Immigration Immigration Immigration is the foundation of this country’s greatness. It is made up of different cultures, ethnicities and races. I myself would not be able to enjoy life in the United States of America if immigration was limited when my parents arrived in this country. I feel making immigration illegal would deprive the rest of the world of being able to experience a land like no other. Immigration has largely increased over the last 100 years causing many problems such as immense population growth, heavy traffic, air pollution, water and energy shortages, overcrowded schools, declines in purchasing power and quality of life and tax increases. New York is known for being so culturally diverse. The culture brought by these immigrants gives us the positive aspects of there homeland without having to face the negatives of it. Some examples of culture being brought is the different parades we have here in the city celebrating different countries from around the world, also the diverse dinning capabilities. We get to experience this with out having to see the hardships that they face such as child labor and extreme poverty. Immigration has its problems but it is also the foundation in which America is built on. It always promised immigrants a future and a great life.... Free Essays on Immigration Immigration Immigration in the United States began partly because Europe didn’t have enough room, so people mainly started to come to the United States because the freedom from aristocratic state and Church. During 1840s and 1850’s immigrants tripled then quadrupled from 60,000. As immigrants moved in the Navitists flared up against the immigrants because they believe that they were over running the country. Navitists form the Order of the Star Spangled Banner or the Know-nothing party. They even went as far to burn down a Catholic convent. Today immigrants or people from immigrant descent are everywhere. They contributed not only to the economy but to the history of America. . The Irish were the largest group of immigrants to ever enter the United States. They came to America in search of freedom, jobs, and a new life free from religious persecution. In Ireland the British still ruled Ireland and persecuted Catholics because of their religion. Then a potato famine struck in the early 1840s that killed one forth of the population. Irish heard of better opportunities in America and came over. Irish stayed mainly in the North eastern cities such as Boston and New York. They took jobs in unskilled labor such as plucking chicken to help further their advancement. They retain the religion and it became the center of the life. They saved pennies to help their children become better in life and succeeded by many including John Kelly. Tammany hall was a political machine that helps also in the development of the Irish. The Irish contributed much to our society today. The German immigrants were one the most valuable immigrants to come to the United States. They came to the United States because of political asylum, uprooted farmers, and other difficulties. With that they could move farther west than the Irish because of the simple fact that they had the money. They consisted of mainly farmers, trader, teacher, and worker m... Free Essays on Immigration America is sometimes referred to as a â€Å"nation of immigrants† because of our largely open-door policy toward accepting foreigners pursuing their vision of the American Dream. Recently, there has been an effort by some politicians and citizens toward creating a predominantly closed-door policy on immigration, arguing that immigrants â€Å"threaten† American life by creating unemployment by taking jobs from American workers, using much needed social services, and encroaching on the â€Å"American way of life.† While these arguments may seem valid to a lot of people, they are false, and more likely confused with illegal immigration. In fact, immigrants actually enhance American life by creating, not taking jobs, improve social service funds through tax payments, and bring valuable technical knowledge and skills to our country. If we are to continue to excel as a nation, the traditionalists who fear an encroachment of foreign born Americans must learn to acce pt that we achieved our greatness as a result of being â€Å"a nation of immigrants.† A common argument among those opposing further immigration is that foreigners take U.S. jobs and cause unemployment among American workers. In an edition of Business Week, a poll states that sixty-two percent of non-blacks and sixty-three percent of blacks say that â€Å"new immigrants take jobs away from American workers.† This is a widely held belief among Americans. However, Julian L. Simon, author of The Economic Consequences of Immigration, says â€Å"immigration does not exacerbate unemployment...Immigrants not only take jobs, but also create them. Their purchases increase the demand for labor, leading to new hires roughly equal in number to the immigrant workers.† In the same Business Week poll, eighty-three percent of non-blacks and eighty-seven percent of blacks agree that â€Å"many new immigrants are very hard working.† However, in order to overcome their distrust of foreigners, A... Free Essays on Immigration Immigration Immigration is a worldwide phenomenon. Canada is an increasingly ethnically diverse country. Canada’s reflection of ethnic diversity is due to the increasing flow of immigration. The vast majority of Canadians are born in Canada, and most of them are from European descent. Close to, half of all immigrants that came to Canada between 1991 and 1996 reveal a first language other than French or English. During this time, many immigrants came from Asia and the Middle East. It’s been reported that 29 percent of Canadians have more than one ethnic origin. Native peoples make up about 3 percent and blacks about 2 percent of the population. Canada has an open immigration program that accepts newcomers approximately from every other country in the world. The estimated population in 2002 was 31,902,268. Immigration is important in maintaining Canada’s population. The current childbearing generation has smaller families than earlier generations: the fertility rate is 1.6, less than the population replacement rate of 2.1. At the same time, older people are living longer, so that the average age of the population is higher. In 2002, Canada’s rate of natural increase was 0.36 percent, resulting from a birth rate of 11.1 per 1,000 persons and a death rate of 7.5 per 1,000. There is a downward trend in the birth index- in 1981, it was 15.3- and the likely result will be zero growth or population loss. For this reason the Canadian government in the 1980’s decided to balance the low birth rate by allowing more immigration into the country. The way immigrants adjust to life in Canada has much to do with the reason why they came here. Most modern immigrants are motivated to relocate far from their homelands by the desire to improve their and their family’s lives. Such people are known as economic immigrants. They r...

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buy custom Knowledge Measurement essay Knowledge measurement refers to the activity undertaken by an organization in order to assess the rating of its staff, technology, processes and content against the expected or peak performance. Mainly, knowledge measurement revolves around staff and is applied during hiring, training, and assessment of performance of staff members. Knowledge maturity refers to the production level of an organization, that is, how effective an organization is at achieving a task and how much risk one would be taking in investing with them. Determination of the knowledge maturity of an organization is done by carrying out knowledge measurement using criteria known as knowledge maturity models. These models describe the basic factors to consider in determining the knowledge maturity of an organization. Knowledge Management Maturity Models have been a topic of discussion for a long time. This is because although they provide a means of determining the dependability of an organization or individual, it is not agreed upon what factors should be considered and to what degree. KM spans across a wide range of different activities and at different stages. Furthermore, due to the varying nature of situations facing different organizations, finding an average of what factors should be considered will possibly end up leaving other important factors that may be very important to a particular organization or a particular situation. Another problem with KM maturity models is that it is hard to determine the average value even for compatible situations. This is because questions that may arise do not have definite answers. Rather, they bring up many other factors that have to be considered in order to determine the maturity level of the entity at hand. Different people have different perceptions about important elements to be considered. For Example, people will have different ratings on an issue such as a showering activity in determining how clean the subject is. In conclusion, it is hence derived that it is not practical to have maturity models in knowledge management. Buy custom Knowledge Measurement essay

Understanding Jim Crow Laws

Understanding Jim Crow Laws Jim Crow laws maintained racial segregation in the South beginning in the late 1800s. After slavery ended, many whites feared the  freedom  blacks had. They loathed the idea that it would be possible for African Americans to achieve the same social status as whites if given the same access to employment, healthcare,  housing ,  and education. Already uncomfortable with the gains some blacks made during  Reconstruction, whites took issue with such a prospect. As a result, states began to pass laws that placed a number of restrictions on blacks. Collectively, these laws limited black advancement and ultimately gave blacks the status of second-class citizens. The Origins of Jim Crow Florida became the first state to pass such laws, according to Americas History, Volume 2: Since 1865.  In 1887, the Sunshine State issued a series of regulations that required racial segregation in public transportation and other public facilities. By 1890, the South became fully segregated, meaning that blacks had to drink from different water fountains from whites, use different bathrooms from whites and sit apart from whites in movie theaters, restaurants, and buses. They also attended separate schools and lived in separate neighborhoods. Racial apartheid in the United States soon earned the nickname, Jim Crow. The moniker comes from a 19th-century minstrel song called â€Å"Jump Jim Crow,† popularized by a minstrel performer named Thomas â€Å"Daddy† Rice, who appeared in blackface. The Black Codes, a set of laws Southern states began passing in 1865, after slaverys end, were a precursor to Jim Crow. The codes imposed curfews on blacks, required unemployed blacks to be jailed and mandated that they get white sponsors to live in town or passes from their employers, if they worked in agriculture. The Black Codes even made it difficult for African Americans to hold meetings of any kind, including church services. Blacks who violated these laws could be fined, jailed, if they could not pay the fines, or required to perform forced labor, just as they had while enslaved. Essentially, the codes recreated slavery-like conditions. Legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments sought to grant more liberties to African Americans. These laws, however, focused on citizenship and suffrage and did not prevent the enactment of Jim Crow laws years later. Segregation did not only function to keep society racially stratified but also resulted in homegrown terrorism against blacks. African Americans who did not obey Jim Crow laws could be beaten, jailed, maimed or lynched. But a black person neednt flout Jim Crow laws to become a target of violent white racism. Black people who carried themselves with dignity, thrived economically, pursued education, dared to exercise their right to vote or rejected the sexual advances of whites could all be targets of white racism. In fact, a black person neednt do anything at all to be victimized in this manner. If a white person simply didnt like the look of a black person, that African American could lose everything, including his life. Legal Challenges to Jim Crow The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) constituted the first major legal challenge to Jim Crow. The plaintiff in the case, Homer Plessy, a Louisiana Creole, was a shoemaker and activist who sat in a whites-only train car, for which he was arrested (as he and fellow activists planned). He fought his removal from the car all the way to the high court, which ultimately decided that separate but equal accommodations for blacks and whites werent discriminatory. Plessy, who died in 1925, would not live to see this ruling overturned by the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which found that segregation was indeed discriminatory. Although this case focused on segregated schools, it led to the reversal of laws that enforced segregation in city parks, public beaches, public housing,  interstate and intrastate travel and elsewhere. Rosa Parks famously challenged racial segregation on city buses in Montgomery, Ala., when she refused to relinquish her seat to a white man on Dec. 1, 1955. Her arrest sparked the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott. While Parks challenged segregation on city buses, the activists known as the Freedom Riders challenged Jim Crow in interstate travel in 1961. Jim Crow Today Although racial segregation is illegal today, the United States continues to be a racially stratified society. Black and brown children are much more likely to attend schools with other black and brown children than they are with whites. Schools today are, in fact, more segregated than they were in the 1970s. Residential areas in the U.S. mostly remain segregated as well, and the high numbers of black men in prison mean that a large swathe of the African American population does not have its freedom and is disenfranchised, to boot. Scholar Michelle Alexander coined the term the New Jim Crow to describe this phenomenon.   Similarly, laws that target undocumented immigrants have led to the introduction of the term Juan Crow. Anti-immigrant bills passed in states such as California, Arizona,  and Alabama in recent decades have resulted in unauthorized immigrants living in the shadows, subject to shoddy working conditions, predatory landlords, a lack of healthcare, sexual assault, domestic violence and more. Although some of these laws have been struck down or largely gutted, their passage in various states have created a hostile climate that makes undocumented immigrants feel dehumanized. Jim Crow is a ghost of what it once was but racial divisions continue to characterize American life.

How the Anglo-American Special Relationship between Britain and Research Paper

How the Anglo-American Special Relationship between Britain and America was influenced during the American Revolution through the use and politics of eighteenth century newspapers and other media - Research Paper Example It is against such a backdrop that this paper analyzes the influence of media on the American Revolution from both angles. The American Revolution forms one of the most prominent events in the history of America. The themes of loyalists and patriots are synonymous with American Revolution in many historical discourses. These themes are usually accompanied with American icons, such as John Adams, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.1 Even though the revolution is identified with few historical icons, the revolution agenda would not have materialized without the input from commoners and other factions. In essence, the Founding Fathers relied heavily on support from diverse factions in their quest to achieve social, political and economic emancipation. One of the factions that lend more credence to the American Revolution was the press.2 The Concept of American Revolution has always been confused or even synonymously treated the same as the American War. John Adams addressed himself to this issue, stating that the American Revolution and the American War are completely two different phenomena. The American Revolution preceded the American War. Adams, who became the second president of the United States, wrote that: â€Å"The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people†¦ This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.†3 In light of Adams sentiments, the answer as to why colonists were so unhappy to the point of challenging the strongest army in the world at the time (British Army) lies in printed word. Before 1776, American colonies were awash with small newspapers. Publishers and printers behind these newspapers were among the most rebellious and enlightened Americans. Some of notable publishers and printers included Samuel Adams of Boston (the founder of the Public

X-ray Fluorescence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

X-ray Fluorescence - Essay Example J. Moseley number elements in 1913 through the observation of K-line transitions as observed in X-ray spectrum. This formed the basis of element identification through X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy by considering the relationship between the atomic number and the frequency. X-Ray fluorescence, XRF refers to the emission of characteristic secondary, also referred to as fluorescent X-rays by bombarding a material with X-rays at high energy or gamma rays so that the material gets excited. The wavelength of X-rays range between 50 and 100 A related to energy in the relationship: E = h? where h is Planck constant, 6.62 * 10-24 and ? is the frequency in Hertz. High energy X-rays would be required for XRF as the soft X-rays get absorbed by the target element, with the absorption edges depending on ionisation energies of the respective electrons, unique to each element. While the energy dispersive XRF, EDXRF methodology detects all elements from Na through to U, the wavelength dispersive X RF, WDXRF detects down to Be (Shackley 34). How XRF Works When the atoms of the target material absorb the high energy photons from the X-rays or gamma-rays, the electrons at the inner shell would be ejected from the atom transforming them to photoelectrons. As a result, the atom would be left at an excited state having a vacancy in its inner shell. The outer shell electrons would then fall into this resultant vacancy in the process emitting photons whose energy equals the difference in energy between the two states. It would be appreciated that each element has its unique energy level set, implying that each element would emit characteristic pattern of X-rays unique to itself which Sharma (527) refers to as characteristic X-rays. With increase in the concentration of the corresponding element, there would also be an increase in the X-ray intensity. This phenomenon also applies in the quantitative analysis of elements through the production of optical emission spectra. With characte ristic X-rays resulting from transition between the energy levels in an atom, the electrons that transition from energy level Ei to Ej would emit X-rays with energy Ex = Ei – Ej. With each element having unique atomic energy level set, a unique X-rays set would be emitted characteristic of the element (Sharma 526). Considering Bohr’s atomic model (see fig. 1), with atomic levels designated as K, L, M and so forth, each with additional sub-shells, a transition between these shells would result in the emission of characteristic X-rays. Fig. 1. Bohr’s atomic model from Sharma (527) As such, M X-ray would result from transition to M shell, so would K X-ray be a result of transition to K shell. K?1 X-ray would result from an electron dropping from M3 shell to fill in a vacancy in the K shell (see fig. 2). The emitted X-ray would have energy EX-ray = EK – EM3. Figure 2: X-ray line labelling from Bounakhla and Tahri (12) Sources According to Bounakhla and Tahri (21), radioisotopes provide the simplest source for configuration since one selects a source that emits X-rays slightly above the target element’s absorption edge energy. They have found wide application due to their stability and smallness in size in the context where monochromatic and continuous sources would be required. It serves well with regard to ruggedness, reliability, simplicity and in the consideration of cost of equipment. For safety, emissions would be limited to approximately 107 photons. The activity would be described in terms of disintegration rates of the radioisotopes where this activity would decrease from initial activity, A0 to final activity At for a duration of time, t. At = A0e(-0.693t/T?) where T? is the

Bilingual Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Bilingual Education - Essay Example Learning a second language was crucial due to the need to grow my social network and interact with people from different cultures. It was quite embarrassing to study overseas and require someone to always translate what other people were saying and I had to take the initiative of undertaking bilingual education. According to Krashen, there are two ways of getting to know the second language – by acquisition and by learning. I had to go through the two processes, acquiring the language skills by interacting with natives and by taking up classes to grow my vocabulary knowledge (Krashen, 1992). Similar to Krashen’s view, it is difficult to monitor the language in which one communicates in. Writing it down makes it easier to analyze. When one speaks, they tend to modify the rules of the language, and at times are grammatically wrong and this can only be noticed in a written composition. This was seen in the way I would pass written language examinations and still find it difficult to communicate fluently by word of mouth. Krashen’s input hypothesis takes note of the importance of exposure and explains the fact that one acquires a language by being exposed to comprehensible input of it, be it written or spoken. This view can be supported by the fact that one tends to learn a language by living with people who speak it correctly and the learner requires no effort from their side, just the exposure. If the language as used by its speakers is not rendered in a logical and understandable manner, the learner will have a hard time acquiring it (Krashen,1992). Before embarking on bilingual education, one has to start by being ready to learn, being motivated and believing that they can learn the language and use it like its native speakers. Similarly, Krashen brings out the affective filter hypothesis which looks at acquiring a language through comprehensible input, which must reach the brain without undergoing

Asian financial crisis of 1997 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Asian financial crisis of 1997 - Essay Example the place and the fact that Thailand was already buried in debts that it could no longer hope to recover without any active and strenuous intervention from the international community. As the baht sank like a rock, it took with it the currencies of other neighboring countries. Malaysia and Indonesia were among the first casualties and the rest of the Asian countries followed. North Korea suffered an economic meltdown together with the rest of the nations in Asia. One of its biggest car producers, Kia Motors buckled down under the crisis. Kia Motors was one of the hardest hit companies during the crisis in Asia. On the other hand, The Philippines was also badly shaken during the Asian crisis. In fact, the value of the Philippine peso sank so badly that its value was almost zero. The once promising economy of the Philippines once again slumped down and threatens to a government that is already heavily laden with foreign debts. The Asian economic crisis happened just about 24 hours after the United Kingdom turned over the sovereignty of Hongkong back to China. Despite the economic turmoil and the uncertainty that had been brought about by the change of powers in Hongkong, the Hongkong banking system, with the strong backing of the China, survived the crisis but suffered some major losses. The economy because sluggish and save for the economies of Singapore and Taiwan that were able to withstand the onslaught in spite of some serious hits in passing, the rest of Asia was in a state of economic shock. The Asian economic crisis opens the eyes of the world of the volatility of the economy. The Asian crisis affected the entire world and triggered some economic difficulties even in the developed nations. To facilitate the economic recovery of the countries most affected by the crisis, major changes in the economic strategies and policies were instituted in the area (IMF 2000). Major changes in the business environment include the opening up of the economies of these

Sony Play Station Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sony Play Station - Essay Example (Suarez, 2004) Initially, Sony and Nintendo intended to work together and develop the Super Disc however the two companies parted ways and the Playstation was born and it was a modified version of the Super Disc. The second milestone is marked by the unveiling of the first working prototype. In the case of the Playstation this was in Japan in the year 1994 December 03 before the product was launched into the market in 1995. (Suarez, 2004) As previously stated, the Playstation was released into the world and this is the third milestone. In most cases, such new products retail at very high prices however in the case of the Playstation, it retailed almost $100 cheaper than the Nintendo. The last milestone is in achieving market dominance. Since its introduction, Sony has sold millions of Playstation consoles and it has become the most sought after video game. (Suarez, 2004) Public Policies What is public policy? Public policy is a purposive and consistent course of action produced as a response to a perceived problem of a constituency, formulated by a specific political process, and adopted, implemented, and enforced by a public agency. The evolution of the computer industry began in the 1940s with the early experimentation with computers in a few companies, universities and public research laboratories, culminating in computer designs suf?ciently attractive to induce the production of the ?rst computers and their purchase by large ?rms with massive computation tasks, as well as by scienti?c laboratories. (Malerba, Nelson, Orsenigo, Winter, 2008) This opened the era of mainframe computers. The methodology of â€Å"history-friendly† involves both establishing some runs that match the qualitative... The paper describes the dominance process and public policy as a purposive and consistent course of action produced as a response to a perceived problem of a constituency, formulated by a specific political process, and adopted, implemented, and enforced by a public agency. Than it speaks about the methodology of â€Å"history-friendly† involves both establishing some runs that match the qualitative features of the historical patterns that the analysis is about and some runs that do not match these historical patterns.This model can be used for different purposes. The history-friendly model has contributed to the growth of computer technology in different regions. One, the semiconduct has allowed major improvements in mainframes and contributed to create new computer types. In conclusion we can say that public policies on the supply side have different effects on the various policy targets. We have shown that support for basic research increases industry technological performance while policies that favour the diffusion of knowledge reduce the gap between the best and the average practice in the industry as well as the growth of the best design in the industry. Policies that favour the entry of new producers have the effect of decreasing concentr ation only if they take place on a continuous base At the end of the report on the issue of self-sustainability, the college can include in its terms and condition before joining the college that upon completion of ones studies there, those hand-picked by the administration should teach the students for a period of one year at low pay. This ensures that the college’s alumni do not loose touch with the school upon completion and it also acts as a source of motivation for the students.

Dueling and Honor in the Old South Essay Example for Free

Dueling and Honor in the Old South Essay The practice of dueling in the Old South was inseparably bound to the notion of honor, in all its manifestations, that in large part defined the Southern self-image. Though dueling was a very male activity, its influence as far as defining a man’s character, courage and viability as a gentlemen was also a powerful one with women. The practice was anathema to Northern notions of honor and accomplishment but for the Southern men who dueled the practice was inseparable from their identity as gentlemen, members of an elite and noble caste. A CULTURE OF HONOR It is impossible to understand the importance of the ritual of dueling in the Old South without understanding the traditions of honor as they were celebrated by the men and women of the elite classes of the antebellum period. Honor, or the offence of one’s honor, was the motivation behind the carnage that the practice of dueling left in its wake. Honor, and the importance placed upon it by the Southern aristocracy, flowed from the ideals of hierarchy and entitlement. It was inseparable from the need to defend one’s family, reputation and one’s community (Wyatt-Brown, p. 4). The sanctions for violating honor were not trivial, given that one’s personal honor could be connected to the honor of one’s family and one’s community as a whole. To be truly honorable in the South required adherence to a particular paradigm: Honor was obviously a very personal matter but it was also a very real public matter that merited enforcement by elite the community. In the South, the community, and one’s reputation within it, were as important as and a vital part of one’s self-image. Everyone had to subordinate personal autonomy to the collective will. It was the test of leaders to carry out the comminity’s desires, to uphold its sacredness; otherwise they would find that they themselves were the sacrifices offered up to the sanctified ideals. (Wyatt-Brown, p. 12) Elitism was intrinsic to the idea of Southern honor. The North had largely abandoned the idea that honor, distinction and priveledge where things that were earned through family lines or wealth. The South, however, maintained the ideals of aristocracy long into the 19th Century (Wyatt-Brown, p. 19). Where the North idealized that all were equal before the law, the South still held on to notions of there being different standards for different classes of people. For the Southerner of the elite classes, the Nothern view would represent an affront to their notions of entitlement. The Southern aristocrat was assumed to be a man, or woman, of honor simply because of their station in life. In the North, the situation was quite different. Northern ideals of equality of all men before the law, though imperfect in practice as always, undermnined the privileges of the wealthy and wellborn. To get ahead required skill at intellectual tasks, not just expertise at manipulating others—or at least so the ideal became (Wyatt-Brown, p. 20). While honor in the North was quite often defined by temperance, intellectual achievement and rising above vice (Wyatt-Brown, p. 21), Sothern honor was inseperably attached to notions of masculinity and an important part of being masculine was the willingness to use violence and face death to settle disputes. The Sothern idea of honor is incoherent without understanding its opposite, shame. In the South, public chastizement was still embraced as a good and right way to deal with those who had violated community standards, the culture of honor or had shown themselves to be, perhaps, unworthy of the station to which they had been born (Wyatt-Brown, p. 19). In the North, the pentitentiary system, an essentially private affair, and the idea that a deviant was accoutnable before the law instead of being accoutnable to the wrath of the community in such a public sense, represented a remarkable difference. A crime in the North was a crime against the written letter of the law. A crime in the South, however, could be cast as a violation of an archaic, elitst set of values and accountability was not tied to the private punishment of prison, but to public shame. In fact, Southern honor was such a powderkeg that one who was not familiar with local customs regarding what constituted an insult literally took their life in their hands when travelling to one part of the South from another or to the South from another region (Williams, p. 23). If one were planning to exhibit a bit of wit at the expense of another, the only way to safely do so was to be certain that one knew the recipient of the jest well enough that the subject mater would not be one that addressed too sensitive an issue or challenged too harshly the gentleman’s honor (Williams, p. 24). Another form of public shame was public goading. Challenges to duels were frequently printing in newspapers or hung up in public places—called â€Å"posting† someone— and, of course, many were given verbally in public settings. Both often consisted of rather eloquent insults directed toward the desired opponent. (Williams, p. 23). Given the contraints of such an exacting culture of honor, it’s easy enough to understand how this would leave a man unable to let go such a public humiliation without seeiming to confirm the allegations of the challenger. Another way to issue a challenge to duel with almost certain success was to call another man a liar (Greenberg, p. 32). For the Southern man, being â€Å"given the lie†, which meant to be called out for lying or to simply be accused of being a liar, was one of the highest forms of insult. Greenburg notes that determining whether or not Southern men were on the whole more or less honest than their contemporaries is essentially impossible but that is not the issue. What was important was that one’s honesty was called into question and that, as much or more than anything else, was cause for deadly retribution. Cherchez la femme Southern women were as bound to the culture of honor as were men. In fact, a great deal of a man’s personal and family honor was vested in the women of his family. An insult toward a wife, daughter, cousin or mother represented a slight against all that the man held dear, especially his notion of personal and public honor. Possibly the worst insult that could be leveld against a woman was one implying promiscuity. To say as much of anyone’s wife or daughter almost guaranteed that violence would follow quickly. This flowed from the notions of nobility carried on through a family line. A woman’s promiscuity implied the dishonor of the man, unable to protect his home of which his woman was part. Women also presented a threat in that they could present the man with an illigitimate child. This would cast doubt upon the legitimacy of the entire line. (Wyatt-Brown, p. 54) Of course, in a region where the legitimacy of one’s family claim to aristocracy was essentially one of birthright, and insult such as this implied that the gentleman himself may be unworthy of the privelidges afforded the upper classes. Quite a strong implication: not only was the man, in this case, having his honor challenged but he was also was having his right to even call himself worthy of the title of an honorable man challenged. An insult such as this could not go unanswered. Wyatt-Brown traces this tradition all the way back to the ancestral lands of many white Sotherners. â€Å"Fierce retaliation was therefore mandatory when a daughter, wife, or mother had been dishonored. So it had been in ancient German and Celtic tribes, and so it continued to be in antibelum society (Wyatt-Brown, p. 53). † To modern minds, this brings up an obvious conflict between the typical freedom to be promiscuous granted to males and its not being granted to females. One must keep in mind that the world of the Old South was, in reality, a collection of many worlds. The worlds of the elite and the common, the free and slave and the man and woman. †¦ to the traditional mind there was no â€Å"double standard† of morality. The sexes differed. They lived separate lives—one in the world, the other in the home, one in exterior cicumstances, the other in the inner sactuary that required vigilant safeguarding. (Wyatt-Brown, p. 54) This does not mean that women were simply the targets of insults over which duels ensued where men defended their honor or that they were not a part of the honor culture that lead to the ritualized violence. Quite to the contrary, women were often the causes, and sometimes the instigators, of duels. The view that a woman might not care for a man unwilling to duel when challenged had implied support, at least, from the wife of a Clinton, Mississippi man who told him on the eve of a duel that she would ‘rather be the widow of a brave man than the wife of a coward† (Williams, p. 19). This culture of manliness being validated by way of violence was characteristic of Southern honor and seems to have crossed gender-lines without difficulty. In order for the sort of ritualized killing embodied by dueling to continue, there needed to be a sort of conformity that existed above and beyond independent thought. â€Å"Dueling depended strongly on those who gave faithful and somteis mindless adherence to the trappings of social elitism, who paid open homage to controlleed violence as being synonymous wwith both maleness and personal honor (Williams, p. 39)†. As we can see from the examples above, it was not only men who adhered to these notions of what defined them as masculine. Race and Class White Southerners saw themselves as aristocrats and, like all good aristocrats, one’s position could partially be measured by the amount of land over which one held power. Landownership was important for a great deal more than economic advance. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries landownership provided the necessary key to respected social position and to participation in political life (Cooper Cooper, p. 6) This, of course, is anathema to the Northern ideal—if not always the practice—that all members of a society are entitled to an equal voice in politics. It is also indicative of the way in which Southern society was divided along class lines. However deep these divisions between rich and poor may have been, however, there were nowhere near as deep as the divisions between black and white which, in the old South, amounted to a division between human beings and those treated as if they were something less. Southern blacks were excluded from most of the benefits of personhood which, obviously, excluded them from the culture of honor which dominated the South. In fact, blacks weren’t even able to make a legally-binding statement. Those outside the commuiyt ranks, most especially blacks in the American South, were inelegible for oath-taking. For that reason, among others, slaves and free blacks could not serve as witnesses in trials of whites (Wyatt-Brown, p. 57). Oath-taking, denoting an unwritten, unbreakable code of ethics among men of honor, was an obsession in the South. Taking on debts, particuarly, was an instance where an oath substituted for the stronger bonds of family among Southern whites (Wyatt-Brown, p. 55). This exclusionary idea of whom could give an oath, only a man whose honor was beyond reproach, and who could not, those classes and peoples who honor was suspect because of social rank or racial background, kept the white aristocracy on a pedestal forever above those they considered their lessers. It also presented an obvious route to a duel, should conflicts over loyalty to an oath ever present. To defy an oath was, essentially, to lie and to accuse one of breaking an oath was to call them a liar. In its exclusionary nature, the cutulre of honor had obvious connections to the perpetuation of the institution of slavery. Slaves were deprived by masters of all the elements necessary for the formal duels of gentlemen of honor. They could not exchange notes because law and custom forbid their literacy. After all, a slave who could write a challenge could also write a pass allowing him his freedom—or could read the abolitionist press. (Greenberg, p. 34) Likewise, a slave would certainly not be give the knife, sword or pistol of the duelist! A weapon of avenging one’s honor could easily be turned upon one’s master. While a gentleman was encouraged to risk his life in the defense of his honor, the institution of slavery was largely dependent upon the fear of life and limb on the part of the slaves. The last thing a slave owner wanted to encourage in his slaves was a willingness to risk their lives, lest they decide to risk those lives in an attempt to escape (Greenberg, p. 34). Of course, if a slave were encouraged to have a personal sense of honor, it is only obvious where he might find the first offender of that honor and against whom he may well have chose to avenge himself. Likewise, because a slave was absolutely subject to the will of his master and unable to form any legal contracts on his own (Oakes, p. 4), he was, by default unable to enter into the legal and honorbound world. How could someone less than a man deliver an insult to a man? How could one impugn the honesty of another man if his honesty, by virute of his race, was always assumed to be non-existent? OPPOSITION TO DUELING The impact of dueling was so great on Southern life that officials in some states still have to swear an oath regarding their opposition to and non-involvement in the old practice. Dueling in Kentucky dueling remains a serious matter. In Section 228 of the state’s constitution there remains a link with Kentucky’s violent past. That link is the famous â€Å"dueling clause. † Since 1891, the commonwealth’s officials have had to swear or affirm that â€Å"since the adoption of the present Constitution, I being a citizen of the state, have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within the State or nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as a Second in carrying a challenge nor aided or assisted any person thus offending, so help me God. (Kentucky, 2005) Given the strict culture of honor in the South and the very real damage that could be done to a man’s economic and social status by turning down a challenge, legislators found themselves with a complex legal problem: How does one pass a law that protects a man’s honor and allows him to turn down a challenge to duel? For those men who already were serving as government officials, it was easy enough to make laws such as the Kentucky law quoted above to deal with the problem. The problem was that the people who engaged in duels thought of themselves as members of an elite; and if a gentleman said, I cant duel because Ill go to jail, his challenger would accuse him of being a coward. So the states in the early 19th century tried an indirect approach: They passed a series of laws that attempted to break the connection between dueling and honor by prohibiting people who dueled from holding public office (Rosen, 2002). A curious example of dueling, once a symbol of the status of those who had access to power now becoming a barrier to the legal, governmental power structure that would come to replace the old aristocracy of the South. Ostracism and criminalization were frequently used as means to discourage dueling. Another solution, though it seems to brush up hard against the first amendment, was to pass laws prohibiting â€Å"fighting words†. Fighting words being those said with the intention of inciting violence, whether they be true or not. By 1942, the Supreme Court had â€Å"marginally enshrined† the concept of â€Å"fighting words† as constitutional (Rosen, 2002). Even though the concept had been accepted, by the time 1942 came along the culture of honor that would have led to personal insults resulting in duels to the death had long since passed away. The Old South was forever gone and, with it, the need for gentlemen to settle their disputes, however petty they may seem by modern standards, with a flintlock pistol or shotgun. Another antidote to the culture of honor was ridicule. A New York Times Article from May 19. 1886 betrays a bit of Northern condescension toward the honorable society of the sophisticated Southern gentry: What would a few years ago have been a difficulty between two eminent Colonels in North Carolina has now shrunk to the proportions of an affair, and now seems likely to dwindled still further to a mere incident. It is well worth noting as an illustration of how far modern ideas have penetrated the fastness to which chivalry has betaken itself (New York Times, 1886). With the end of the Confederacy came the end of the antebellum notions of honor and, with it, the feeling, at least in the Northern states, that its demise was no cause for nostalgia but a sign of progress. RULES OF THE GAME Like the vast majority of the men who engaged in then, duels had their roots in Europe. Like many early American customs, dueling was imported. Starting in the Middle Ages, European nobles had defended their honor in man-to-man battles. An early version of dueling was known as judicial combat, so called because God allegedly judged the man in the right and let him win (Public Broadcasting Service, 2000). Above all other things, duels are a highly regulated, ritualized form of violence. They are not a spontaneous brawl nor are they an organized military battle where commanders endeavor to keep their tactics and intentions secret from their opponents. In a duel, both parties know the rules from the start and make their intentions clear. If there is a source document for the accepted rules of dueling, it would have to be the 1777 Code Duello, written by a group of Irishmen (Public Broadcasting Service, 2000). The code was finalized at Clonmel Summer Assizes and intended to be adopted throughout Ireland. It was followed in adoption in England and in America with some variations in the latter (Public Broadcasting Service, 2000). The rules are quite exacting. The first rule, in fact, specifies that in a case where a man was insulted, it is the obligation of he who insulted him to apologize first, even if the insulted offered a much harsher retort than the original insult. Much of the document has to do less with the rules of the actual duel and more to do with mending the wounds to the insulted party’s honor, or ego. The Code Duello applies to combat undertaken with sword and gun but does mention the most condescending form of punishment, being beaten or caned, usually reserved for lower classes, in the context of offering oneself to be caned as a way of apologizing and taking responsibility for the instigating insult. Rule 5. As a blow is strictly prohibited under any circumstances among gentlemen, no verbal apology can be received for such an insult. The alternatives, therefore the offender handing a cane to the injured party, to be used on his own back, at the same time begging pardon; firing on until one or both are disabled; or exchanging three shots, and then asking pardon without proffer of the cane (Public Broadcasting Service, 2000). The rules are predictably chauvinistic, as well, insults to a lady being regarded as particularly heinous and requiring their own extreme form of apology. Two of the rules are particularly interesting in the way they act to control the violence. Rule 13 states that there shall be no â€Å"dumb shooting† or firing into the air as a means of preventing frivolous disputes from escalating to the level of a duel. Though the rule stipulates that â€Å"The challenger ought not to have challenged without receiving offence† and that the challenged should have apologized before he reached the place of the duel. Jackson and Avery, in a duel where they both forewent taking a fatal shot at their opponent, clearly both violated this rule. Depending on one’s perspective, this could be taken to both of their credits or detriments where honor is concerned. Seconds, through whom the duelists communicated and who were responsible for arranging the terms and rules of the duel, are regulated heavily in behavior and station in the Code Duello. Seconds were to be the duelist’s equal in social rank. The Second’s job, aside from facilitating and arranging the duel, was to try to reach reconciliation between the parties. According to Rule 21 of the Code, â€Å"Seconds are bound to attempt a reconciliation before the meeting takes place, or after sufficient firing or hits, as specified. † What is particularly telling about The Code Duello is the specificity of the rules. Dueling was clearly a sport, though a deadly one, by which men could redeem whatever honor had been taken from them by an insult, deed or implication. As gentlemen, the strictly-regulated nature of their conflicts separated them from the brawlers of the lower classes. In America, there were conventions not specified in the Code Duello. Duelists, though their Seconds could draw up contracts detailing the specifics of the duel and weapons other than pistols or swords could be used at the duelist’s preference (Williams, p. 50). Particularly deadly as a dueling weapon was the shotgun. Where the high degree of inaccuracy associated with smooth-bore, flintlock weapons may well have saved the lives of more than one duelist (see the Clingman vs. Yancey duel described below) a shotgun requires little skill to ensure a hit. However, even among the elite classes, dueling was not automatically thought of as manly or honorable and was even viewed with scorn by some of America’s most famous men. George Washington congratulated one of his officers on refusing a challenge to duel (Public Broadcasting Service, 2000), quite different from what would have been expected by a Southern military man who had declined such a challenge. Benjamin Franklin, for his part, failed to see the point of dueling at all. â€Å"For him , the duels seemed a pointless activity because it could not determine whether a man had really lied†¦ (Greenberg, p. 14). † From Franklin’s perspective, all the emphasis on honor was rather silly. For the Northerner, a duel over a debt failed to get the money back and was, therefore, essentially useless. For the Southern gentleman, the debt itself was pointless, the duel was about honor and tradition (Greenberg, p. 15). It would be difficult to find a modern American equivalent to the honor dueling that took place in the antebellum South. One could argue that sports such as boxing, wrestling and the â€Å"cage fighting† events such as the Ultimate Fighting Challenge are similar, but they are typically arranged fights based on factors such as weight class and fighting record, not on personal slights. While a fist-fight may erupt over an insult to a woman’s honor or a man’s, these are not the regulated, proscribed duels of the past. In short, a duel existed as a means of controlling and regulating violence as much as it was a means of fostering it. Where the modern world is concerned, the heavily-regulated and ritualized world of the Southern gentleman duelist is conspicuously absent. NOTABLE AMERICAN DUELS Burr vs. Hamilton On July 11, 1804, long-standing political and personal tension between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, two of America’s â€Å"founding fathers† came to a head. Their rivalry was longstanding and Burr believed he may have been the President, instead of the Vice President, if it had not been for Hamilton’s interference (Americas Library, 2008). The Hamilton-Burr duel is an instance where a personal insult was the impetus for the duel. Hamilton voiced his disdain for Burr at a political dinner held for the Federalist party. The exact slur was not printed but Burr twice demanded and failed to receive what he would have considered an adequate apology from Hamilton. After failing the Second time, Burr demanded a duel (Jefferson National Expansion, 2008). Burr, ultimately, did receive â€Å"satisfaction†. He shot and mortally wounded Hamilton, who shot his pistol into the air, and Hamilton died the next day (Jefferson National Expansion, 2008). Burr was indicted for murder, dueling was not legal in New York, but was never prosecuted for the crime (Americas Library, 2008). He went on to serve out his term as Vice President. A question that had plagued historians is why, exactly, these men undertook such a drastic means of settling what amount to a fairly petty matter. For Burr, obviously, the idea of avenging an insult is explanation enough. But Hamilton was opposed to dueling on moral and religious grounds. He did not even expect to be challenged to a duel but was known for being very protective of his notions of personal honor, possibly because of his insecurities concerning his own illegitimacy (Freeman, 1996). However, Hamilton’s failure to respond was not meant as an insult. Rather, a friend, Rufus king, advised Hamilton that the letter sent to Hamilton by Burr did not merit a response. Hamilton intended to accept a challenge should it have been offered but he hadn’t any intention of shooting Burr (Freeman, 1996). According to Joanne B. Freeman, Hamilton’s moral reasoning for accepting the duel was thus: He had satisfied the code of honor by accepting Burr’s challenge, violating the civil law only under duress. He had maintained his political integrity by refusing to apologize for heartfelt political convictions. Now he would uphold his moral and religious principles by withholding his fire (Freeman, 1996). It is interesting that Hamilton wanted none of the â€Å"satisfaction† of killing or wounding his opponent. As we shall see, this pageant aspect of dueling was not entirely unique, as represented in the Jackson vs. Avery duel described below. For Hamilton, his honor would be sustained by not killing his opponent. Convoluted reasoning, to be certain, but quite in line with the more Northern ideal that honor could be measured by a man’s ability to withhold from vices, in this case bloodlust. Hamilton saw the honor in dueling not in the death of his opponent, but in having the courage to participate in such an affair, which he felt would benefit him politically as well as personally (Freeman, 1996). Jackson vs. Dickinson A very characteristically Southern duel between Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson. Charles Dickinson, 27 years old and having had a few drinks in him, made some â€Å"uncomplimentary remarks about Rachel Jackson, Andrew’s Wife, who was the subject of much gossip (Williams, p. 18). † The reaction was predictable, the next day Andrew Jackson confronted Dickinson, who attempted to no avail to apologize and found himself facing off against Jackson on â€Å"the field of honor† in May of 1806. According to William’s account, Dickinson aimed and did successfully wound Jackson in the chest. Old Hickory, however, lived up to his name and did not fall when struck. He clutched the wound, took one shot that failed to discharge his weapon and then a Second that killed Dickinson. Clay vs. Randolph On Saturday, April 8, 1825, Henry Clay and John Randolph squared off in Virginia over the latter’s support for John Quincy Adams and Clay’s having insulted Randolph for it. Randolph had a reputation for being a deadly-accurate marksman and it was assumed among most Washington officials that Clay would not survive the encounter. What followed was as farcical as any duel could have been. Randolph’s pistol discharged before the duel was underway. Clay, not satisfied, insisted that they carry though. The duel was held at thirty-steps distance, apparently beyond the marksmanship skills of either duelist. Clay shot and hit the ground, Randolph managed to hit a tree stump. Still, despite the urging of a Second, they insisted on carrying through. The third attempt was slightly more impressive, Clay managed to penetrate Randolph’s coat. Randolph, according to the Code Duello, now had the right to fire upon Clay. After stretching out the moment, apparently for maximum dramatic impact, he opted to fire into the air, against the rules of the Code Duello. Clay inquired whether he had injured Mr. Randolph’s to which Randolph replied â€Å"No, Mr. Clay. But you owe me a new coat. † (Kentucky, 2005) NOTABLE NORTH CAROLINA DUELS Carson vs. Vance The Carson vs. Vance duel is representative of most Southern duels in both its impetus and the means in which it was conducted. Samuel P. Carson and Robert Brank Vance would seem, at first blush, to be men who had much in common. Both were known for their intelligence, their political skill and their charisma. In fact, the pair of them were friends before a political debate and a series of bitter slurs against Carson and his family on the part of Vance would tear the two apart and lead to their meeting on â€Å"the field of honor†. Vance and Carson both came from families with prestigious backgrounds, Carson’s noted for his father’s service under Washington. Vance was a physician who, upon winning a lottery, retired early and entered politics. Both served as members of Congress where their skill came to be well-respected among their peers. Carson, for his part, was popular not only among people of his own class but even among the slaves at his father’s plantation. Vance was noticeably short, having a left leg six inches shorter than his right but his remarkable intelligence came to overshadow his physical form to most who made his acquaintance. Though the two were friends, during the course of a political debate in 1827, Vance would set into motion a series of events that would lead to their eventual duel. During the debate, after both men insinuated that the other wasn’t so honest or trustworthy as they represented, Vance called Carson, in so many words, a coward. Vance did not believe that Carson would ever resort to a duel as Carson had refused to enter one years before. Things got even worse when Vance began attacking Carson’s father’s military record. Implying that Col. Carson had sought the protection of the British, Vance essentially accused the Colonel, and, thereby his family, of being cowards and unworthy of their social status. Vance, despite his rather vicious efforts to disparage his opponent, lost the election. Colonel Carson wrote Vance an angry letter in regards to the accusations. Vance replied that he could not have an altercation with so aged a man as Colonel Carson and said that one of the Colonel’s son’s should step up to defend the old man’s honor. Colonel Carson sent a proxy to inquire as to which son Vance meant and Vance replied that Sam knew that Vance was speaking of him. Sam accepted the challenge. The duel took place on Saluda Gap on the North/South Carolina line. The weapons were pistols at ten yards. Vance missed his mark but Carson did not, sending a ball through Vance’s hip where it lodged. Vance died of his wound about 30 hours later at a hotel. Carson had expressed a desire to speak with Vance following the duel and Vance said that he held no ill-will toward Carson. The two never did speak, however, and the incident is said to have had negative repercussions on Carson for the rest of his life (Arthur, 1914). Clingman vs. Yancey Depending upon one’s view of the custom of dueling, the â€Å"duel† between Thomas Clingman and William Yancey was either a noble instance of two men desperately trying to uphold the rigid customs of honor or a revealing example of the ridiculous nature of wanting to avenge insult with murder. Yancey, an Alabama congressman, had viciously attacked Clingman in a political speech, impugning Clingman’s loyalty to the South. This was in retaliation to Clingman’s attacks upon the Democrats which was a notably fiery piece of rhetoric (Jeffrey, p. 49). Both speeches were characteristic of the fierce partisanship of the time. Clingman was a Whig and Yancey a Democrat. However, a distinction between the remarks given by Clingman and those given by Yancey were that Yancey’s attacked Clingman personally . Clingman’s remarks were certainly over-the-top but they were not, at least in a personal sense, over-the-line (Jeffrey, p. 49). Yancey had turned the art of parliamentary rhetoric into a personal assault. The North Carolina Standard said that â€Å"Never was any man so severely castigated as Mr. Clingman was. (Jeffrey, p. 49). On January 6 or 1845 Clingman told Yancey that he intended to press the matter. He challenged Yancey to meet him in Baltimore where he intended to deliver a formal challenge. Unfortunately, despite Clingman’s enthusiasm for the duel, he was not familiar with the art of shooting

Analysing The Culture Shock For International Students English Language Essay

Analysing The Culture Shock For International Students English Language Essay Students from all around the world come to UK for building their career and to take the highly recognized qualifications. During their studies in the uk they face many challenges and the reality is different from their expectations. This report focuses on the experiences and issues faced by international students in the UK. The most common challenge is the culture shock. Culture shock results due to the new and unknown culture of uk for the most of the students and results in the stress, anxiety, frustration, loneliness and lower results in the studies. Oberg has explained it in his model. Making foreign friends, keeping close in touch with family and remaining busy in the academic activities are some ways of reducing the effects of culture shock. Plagiarism is also a problem faced by the students from developing countries as they dont know the importance of referencing. This report elaborates the importance and ways to avoid plagiarism and ways to learn how to reference your work. This report discusses the issues like teacher student role and the expectations and the different roles of the teachers in different parts of the world and their main focus. Finally this report emphasis on the importance of time management and working part time to meet the daily expenses by the students in the uk and what problems they face while working in the uk and improper time management. This report has also explained the experiences of the international students on the above mentioned issues. Introduction Thousands of students around the world travel to UK for study form the highly prestigious universities to build a brilliant career. They entre UK with high expectations and thinks that studying in the UK will be like a dream come true. This report highlights the experience of the students who has come to UK for study. This report will discuss the main issues which are faced by the international students in the UK and how they adjust in the new environment. The aim of this report is to show the life of a foreign student in the UK and how they manage all the challenges they face in the UK. This report will also help in understanding the foreign students approach in uk. This report will discuss issues like culture shock, plagiarism and referencing, teacher student role in UK, part time work and the time management relating to the international students while they are studying in UK. Culture shock Culture shock is the most common problem that foreign students face when they come to study in UK. The shock which people have to face when they are confronted with a new and unknown culture is called culture shock, say Elisabeth Marx (2001a). The experience of an unknown culture is always a surprise because the reality is usually different from the expectations, she added. This means that now the students have to live, adjusts and perform in an unknown culture. According to Elisabeth Marx (2001b), the symptoms of the culture shock are isolation, tension and confusion, feeling depressed and guilty, reduction in the performance, excitement and exhilaration, frustration, feeling lonely and helpless. Students from different countries travel to different universities of UK for their education. Every country has different culture and norms. So they have to adapt in a culture which has different language which causes communication problems. Even if someone knows the language very well, the different accents and different meanings of different phrases in different parts of the world of the same words can cause misunderstandings for them. Similarly people have different food priorities; lives in different climate, have different dress preferences, and have different social behaviors and different religious norms e.g. in the subcontinent the climate is very warm and people wear light clothes but in UK one have to wear heavy clothes as it remains cold most of the year. This can cause irritations to the students who are not in use of wearing such clothes. Similarly in the UK the accent of spoken English is different like French accent, Italian accent, polish accent etc while the students from different parts of the world may find all these difficult to understand. Similarly the food priorities are different in the UK giving more preference to fast food then in other parts of the world. These differences cause frustration and all the symptoms discussed above of the culture shock resulting sometimes in severe depression and loss of confidence. Students then start avoiding the host national students and starts feeling complex. Culture shock can also cause some physical health problems as well. Changes in the diet and mental stress sometimes make students seriously ill. Oberg (1960) has explained the culture shock in a model. In his model of adaptation, culture shock has four phases i.e. honeymoon phase, culture shock, recovery phase and adjustment phase. In the honeymoon phase the students are excited and ambitious due to the new environment and ignore any complex matters that they dont understand as a part of their learning process. They take everything positively and their judgments are reserved at this time. After the honeymoon phase the culture shock sets in with the negative emotions coming out and the unknown culture is taken as unpleasant experience. Everything foreign is taken as hostile and sometimes stress and boredom is the consequence. They feel themselves guilty and consider the decision of foreign education as wrong because of reduced academic performance. The next phase is recovery phase in which students start compromising between their expectations and reality. Then they start accepting and understanding the unknown culture. They r ealize that they have to work out this problem and concentrate on their future goals. Finally students accept the new environment and adjust with it by devising ways to cover up their weakness and understanding the new culture. (quoted in Elizabeth Marx, 2001). There are some ways which will help students to reduce the effect of culture shock. Students should keep in mind that culture shock is temporary and normal and this will not affect them permanently and it happens to everybody. Making friends from the host culture will help to understand their culture easily. Keep yourself busy in academics as well as sporting activities and keep in contact with your family so that you will not miss them much. Try to take the food which you are used to eat in their country and exercise well so that you remain physically well. Plagiarism and referencing Plagiarism The word plagiarism is refer to practices which involve deliberate taking another person words either directly or indirectly and claiming it as personal ideas when writing or researching, it also seen to be educational offence in Britain, it has been a major concern when studying in United Kingdom Since mid-1990s.this give more recognition to necessity of proper referencing practice to avoid plagiarism. Foreign student especially from the African and the Asia find it difficult to adapt to the issue of plagiarism, for example, majority of the student in the Nigerian university, about 95% have no or little knowledge about plagiarism, and coming from such background to studying in United Kingdom is quite challenging and difficult to cope. Angelil-carter (2000) make it critics which refers tutors have much emphases on referencing is like a fetish who engage in to thinking substitute (p, 130), also another critics from Levin which also feel that asking student to cite all source of work ,` insisting they learn to dance with their shoe tied together` (2003, p.7) he later argue academic and the administrators that is quite a time to recognised plagiarism among student unconsciously` work is inevitable and perfectly reasonable (Levin, 2003, p.7). Levin point of view is that student can get bogged because of the responsibility to search for the right source to back their piece of work or assertions, to know their capability to write without depending on others. Strategy to avoid plagiarism Reference every piece of work and cite references correctly. When writing a report or easy the source of the material used must be acknowledge. Completely understanding of material use is very important when paraphrasing and try as much as possible to use personal words. Quotation mark to indicate the citation and the verbatim text with material should enclose When using a journal, instruction that is provided by the author should be understood. When there probability about a particular concept or fact, it should be referenced. Referencing Studying in UK, more emphases are given to references, student studying in United Kingdom from other country where important is not given to references are often surprise because of the significant attached by the university or institute. Student Referencing a research work, it will show the appropriate source the student find his information, though many institution around the world do not keen to references. For example, Nigeria do not shows much interest to referencing compare to the rule that guild the system of studying here in England. Referencing in England is recognised even in social and political context not just the academic system. It is an aspect of societal system of value that seriously supports the knowledge of the credible right of other property. The British institutions lead the driving force of proper references to limit the Increasing rate of plagiarism. Importance of referencing Spreading of ideas Referencing gives opportunity to the writer and the readers to build their own ideas and knowledge. It assists them to locate the citation source. The significant of bibliography and the reference list at the end of every articles journal, will identically relate the source of research. Understanding the bibliography help to establish knowledge from original source to another, it will help to build learning round the study. Influence It s also important to list the reference of a research to enable the reader identifying which authors or source give the writer the shape and the direction used in the research. This will also help to introduce new ideal to author that will also generate and expand their knowledge. Criteria of making Studying in post graduate level, providing relevant evidence and proper referencing is very crucial in grading the assignment of student. Perfect referencing can distinguish different grade in the level of study. Avoid plagiarism Solving the problem of plagiarism to avoid educational offence, accurate references can help to avoid it. The grey line between deliberate cheating and carelessness, references assist to prove the ignorant of it. An appreciation Ideas are required from education with a prospective to strive. Strictly testing has to be applied and subjected to examination of others, this can be realised by good preparation, researching and presentation of work within the reach of public as a responsibility of formidable writers, and this can take long time to achieve. Referencing is then, to express appreciation and given regard to work of others. This is about given gratitude, respect and honouring the writer and acknowledging them. TEACHER STUDENT ROLE EXPECTATION Among all the relations in the world, teacher student relationship would consider as one of the transparent relation. All teachers have high expectations for students; their expectations may varies from student to student. Teachers have the great observation power with themselves, they have their individual views for every student who is in connect with them, they find the strength and weakness of a student and then they guide them, make them learn how to overcome with their weaknesses and how to get specialised or polish their strength. The students who come to uk for studies they belongs to different countries and in every countries the pattern of learning or teaching (studies) differ from each other say for example the students are not aware of the professional presentations who belongs to Pakistan they dont know how to present themselves in front of others they never did presentation work while studying in their country so they get nervous for the first time presenting themselves but this is very common here in uk to work on presentations because uk studies are more highlights the practical knowledge rather than the knowledge which students get from the books and other study materials. Problems faced by different students with uk teachers: Lack of bonding. Teachers have high expectation. Teachers are just to guide here, not to feed students with spoon. Lack of understanding about the concepts. Teachers are more interested to build the qualities of the students. Difficult for students to cope up with the teaching skills. Merits and demerits: Students may build their qualities but they dont get aware of their weaknesses. They learn how to perform well along with the groups but their individual skills may suffer. Students start presenting themselves to the world with more confidence but they face feeling of frustration, facing the problems while learning. Teachers are highly experienced here in terms of practical knowledge so they are tough towards students, sometime this may discourage the students. Working part time meeting your expenses In uk , students come from many different countries such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria and all have their home countries currency say for example a student from India have to convert his money from rupees to pound Because of the low value of his currency as compare to the uk currency he will go short of money in hand and he will start searching part time jobs he got disfocussed from his studies and once anyone start working here in uk he wants to earn more and more. Some of the students came here to earn money they thought of earning more money by working part time at two, three places and just start making money. There are so many expences which a student has to fulfill to meet the basic needs. The basic expenses are such as house rent, food, clothing, travelling etc. When any person come to the new country he doesnt know anything about that country so he will misuse that money because of the lack of knowledge about the country expences, when we move to a place which is developed and have high quality of food and facilities so it will charge even more to meet out the expenses. Normally, we have a huge excitment while visit a new country to see the different places, different cities, different towns, historical places, and even fun do places. When we start enjoying ourselves with all this special activities we have to invest money on it because without it nothing will come in our hand so, to meet those area of excitment one has to work for it and normally the mentality says that we can invest more easily when we earn more say for example if we had a conversion of a currency from rupees to pound it will problem a student bcauseof the fear of getting money short in his hand because he had limited amount in is hand or he borrowed limited amount from his place so, if he starts earning in pounds it will be easy to invest that money happily because that he considered as a extra money to meet out his expences than he will enjoy more and feel free to spend his money which he earned here. Factors influencing the topic (working part time-meeting your expenses) It affects the studies. It will also affect the health as well. It will disfocussed the mind in different direction. Some time it will resulted into big losses such as penalties, re-examintion fees etc. Some time students will start doing work illegally. It will result into lower grades that will impact bad senario overall on the professional career. Time management Time management is one of the most important aspects which play an important role while studying in uk. A student who come across from another country follows the different lifestyle belongs to different culture and society as well. Lots of job has to be done on time here in uk, the only person who can be successful here is the one who manages his time well, who will always keep on trying to accomplish the work before the deadlines. Importance of time management: It helps in managing the work and accomplished it before the deadlines. It creates a different image in the professional career. It allows students to learn how to value the time. CONCLUSION Students coming to uk from different parts of the world face problems like culture shock , time management , part time job, different teacher student role in the uk and avoiding plagirism. This report has covered all these aspects in the students life in uk and how they can avoid these problems. This report also has highlighted the ways to easily adapt the new studing experience and how to cope up the new challenges. REFERENCES Marx ,2001 breaking through culture shock , 1st edition Nicholas Brealey in association with cultural press. http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/133/2/579.short Colin Neville, 2007. The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism

Homeless Children and the Educational System Essay -- Family Poor Pape

Homeless Children and the Educational System Many people still think of homeless transients as alcoholics and/or mentally disabled. The truth is, the current homeless population consists of runaway adolescents, single adult males or females, battered women and over one million homeless families with children – typically headed by a female parent. To be homeless means that one’s primary residence is a public or private shelter, emergency housing, hotel, motel, living with family or friends or any public space – like parks, automobiles, aqueducts or abandoned buildings (Pawlas, 1996). Statement of the Problem With the number of homeless students on the rise, schools encounter new educational challenges that include: establishing and maintaining enrollment procedures that would not discourage school attendance; lack of teacher-training/awareness in the special needs of homeless children; the non-existence of a school transfer system for homeless children that would be least destructive to a child's education, while all the time not overlooking the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, security and medical care that homeless families with children require immediately. Framing Question Homelessness is now a major problem in the United States, with the growing population being homeless families or single mothers and their children. Due to the rapid growth and obvious presence (shelters, visibility) of homeless families in the United States – Are the legally mandated educational rights of homeless children being fulfilled? If so, how? If not, why not? Review of Literature The plight of homeless families with children was initially addressed in 1987. Congress passed the... ... http://www.ed.gov/database/Eric.Digest/ed308276.html Wells, Amy Stuart: Education Provisions of the McKinney Act (1989) http://www.ed.gov/database/Eric.Digest/ed.308276.html Wells, Amy Stuart: Problems Facing Local Educators (1989) http://www.ed.gov/database/Eric.Digest/ed.308276.html Eddowes, A (1994). Schools Providing Safer Environments for Homeless Children. Childhood Education Nunez, R., Collignon, K. (1997). Creating a Community of Learning for Homeless Children. Educational Leadership Pawles, G. West, G. Brookes, C. Russell (1994). A Safety Net for Homeless Students. Educational Leadership Rafferty, Y. (1998). Meeting the Educational Needs of Homeless Children. Educational Leadership Yon, M. (1994). Educating Homeless Children in the United States. Equity and Excellence in Education

Purpose of Education Statement :: Philosophy of Education Teaching Teachers Essays

Purpose of Education Statement The educational system in America serves many purposes, all of which are important in their own ways. Historically, education has served as both a building block and a cornerstone of our society, providing both childcare for working adults and a station for administering formal learning. Within the overall purpose of the educational system there lie different questions that must be answered in order to compile a formulaic and comprehensive rationale for the American educational system. These questions involve the structure of the system – why do we start at age 6 and end at age 18? What is involved in the education of youth? And why do we do it? The structure of the American education system is historically rooted in the farming system. It has remained as it is because of culture and tradition, but is also seeing a recent shift towards home schooling. I believe that this shift is a result of the surge of corporations allowing their employees to work at home – a direct result of technological advances in communications that have recently developed. With parents working at home, they are able to home school their children at the same time. Despite this increase in home schooling, however, the majority of the workforce must go out of the home. Public and private school systems, then, serve as childcare for parents who must work, which is the majority of the population. I believe that schooling begins at age 6 (approximately) and ends at age 18 (approximately) because at age 6, children are mature enough to be away from their mothers and fathers and participate in a structured learning and social environment. By the time that high school is over, students are normally 18 years old. I believe that the reason that school now ends at this age is because at this point in someone’s life, they are legally able to make their own life decisions and are (normally) mature enough to do the same. Now as to why we educate – what is the purpose? I believe that the purpose of education is to keep America as a competitive world power.

Obediance and Deindividuation Essay

Most, if not all humans, have some ethics and morals, which help the individual make distinctions between right and wrong. Therefore, in most situations human beings behave in accordance with their morality. Studies on notions such as obedience to authority and deindividuation have shown that in some cases, an individual can be made to act in direct opposition to their morals and ethics. Studies conducted by Milgram (1963) on obedience have shown that if an individual is ordered to do something by someone who is perceived to be in power, it is possible that they will do it, even if it is something the person does not believe is right. Also, studies conducted by Zimbardo (1973) on deindividuation have shown that a normally healthy, intelligent person can lose their identity in a crowd, and commit acts of violence and aggression which they would not normally commit. According to the deindividuation theory, this is because the individual feels that they can no longer be singled out and held personally responsible for behaviour. The studies conducted by Zimbardo (1973) and Milgram (1963) have been examined and compared in this essay. The notions of obedience and deindividuation have been the subject of some very informative and sometimes disturbing research by social psychologists. Obedience is defined by Moghaddam (1998) as: â€Å"changes in behaviour that arise when people follow the instructions of persons in authority.† Our tendency to comply with authority figures can be surprisingly strong (Bourne & Russo, 1998). Experiments on the subject, particularly those conducted by Milgram (1963) have shown that though obedience is, in many forms positive, it can also be extremely negative, instigating individuals to commit acts of violence or aggression, of which they would not normally partake. Deindividuation is defined by Moghaddam (1998) as: â€Å"The loss of one’s sense of self identity as an individual person, associated with lower self awareness and decreased personal responsibility in group settings†. This can often lead to acts of aggression or violence, by a normally placid person. This notion, as well as the notion of obedience to authority, has been examined in this essay, by looking at, and comparing the studies conducted  by Milgram (1963) and Zimbardo (1973), Milgram looked to explore the notion of obedience by using the cover story that he was conducting research on the effects of punishment on learning. He advertised for volunteers aged twenty to fifty who would be paid four dollars an hour plus fifty cents petrol money. It is important to note though, that the participants were told that the money was theirs simply for coming to the laboratory no matter what happened after their arrival. A wide range of occupations, ages and backgrounds were represented in the chosen sample. The selected participant was introduced to a person (a forty-seven year old accountant, whom most observers found mild mannered and likeable [Milgram, 1963]) who pretended to be another participant, but was actually a confederate of the experimenter. It was explained that as this was a learning experiment, it was required that there be learner and teacher. The participants took a piece of paper from a hat to determine whether he was the teacher or learning. This was rigged so that the participant would always be the teacher (both pieces of paper said ‘teacher’). The teacher was then allowed to watch the learner being strapped into an ‘electric chair’ which was to be used to administer electric shocks. The learner was told that though the shocks could be extremely painful, they cause no permanent tissue damage. The teacher was then taken to an adjacent room and seated in front of a ‘shock generator’ consisting of thirty switches set in a horizontal line. The switches were marked, increasing from 0 to 450 colts, 15 volts at a time. Each group of four switches was also marked, from lowest voltage to highest, â€Å"slight shock†, â€Å"moderate shock†, â€Å"strong shock†, â€Å"very strong shock†, â€Å"intense shock†, â€Å"extreme intense shock†, â€Å"danger, severe shock† with the last two switches simply marked â€Å"XXX† (Moghaddam, 1998). The participant was given an example shock of 45 volts. The learning exercise was a word association task. Each time the learner got an answer wrong, the teacher was instructed to administer a higher level of shock. The teacher was also required to call out the voltage level before administering a shock, to make sure they were fully aware of the shock  level. The learner was instructed to give specific response to different shock levels. Between 75 and 105 volts, the learner grunted. At 120 volts, the learner shouted that the shocks were becoming painful, after that the learner complained of a bad heart and shouted that he no longer wanted to be part of the experiment. The cries became more and more distressed until shock level three hundred, when the learner indicated that he could no longer give answers to the memory test. After this, all that was heard from the learner was agonized cries. The participant was instructed to treat the lack of response as a wrong answer and continue increasing the shock level every five to ten seconds. At different stages of the experiment, the subjects looked to the experimenter for guidance or expressed their wishes not to continue, to which the experimenter’s responses were standardized. A series of ‘prods’ were established, which were to be used each time a participant indicated his unwillingness to go on. These prods were always given in order and were started again each time the participant showed reluctance These were: â€Å"Please continue†, then â€Å"The experiment requires that you continue†, then â€Å"It is absolutely essential that you continue† and finally â€Å"You have no other choice, you must go on†. If the participant refused to go on after the last prod, the experiment was terminated. The participants showed obvious signs of distress throughout the experiment, especially while administering the more powerful shocks. Subjects were observed to sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their fingernails into their flesh (Milgram, 1963). Many subjects said they could not go on, but nevertheless they did. Approximately sixty five percent of participants were fully obedient (Moghaddam, 1998), continuing until they reached the most potent shock on the generator, at which point, the experimenter called a halt to the session. Not one participant stopped before shock level 20, which was 300 volts, and the point at which the learner stopped answering questions. Milgram asked groups of laypeople and experts to predict the outcome of the experiment before it as conducted. As it was predicted that participants would refuse to administer shocks of more than a minimal voltage to learners (Moghaddam, 1998) these results amazed many people. This experiment demonstrated that normal, healthy, intelligent people are capable of carrying out violent and destructive acts, if placed  in the right (or wrong) situation. This was also demonstrated by a study carried out by Zimbardo (1973). The Stanford Prison experiment, as it was known, simulated a prison environment in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford University. The prison was made to be as realistic as possible, with bars, prison uniforms, identification numbers and uniformed guards (who wore mirrored sunglasses). Volunteers for the experiment were screened with clinical interviews and psychological tests to ensure that they were emotionally stable and mature. Participants were to be paid fifteen dollars a day for the two week experiment. The study required two roles, guards and prisoners, which were assigned by a coin toss. The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at their homes and brought to the ‘prison’ in a police car. They were handcuffed, searched, fingerprinted, booked, stripped, deloused, given a number and issued a prison uniform. Each prisoner was then placed in a six by nine foot cell with two other inmates (Bartol, 1998). The guards were simply instructed to keep order. They all wore standard uniforms and carried a night stick, keys to the cells, whistles and handcuffs. Guards drew up their own rules for maintaining law and order in the prison. Before the prisoners were allowed to do anything, they had to obtain permission, and they were required to address the guards as ‘Mr corrections officer, sir’. The participants quickly absorbed their roles. Guards degraded the prisoners in different ways, making them clean toilet with their hands, disrupting their sleep and using physical punishments and solitary confinement for minor infractions (Bourne and Russo, 1998). The prisoners broke down and accepted the brutal treatment. Three had to be released during the first four days because of hysterical crying and severe depression and many others begged to be paroled, willing to forfeit the money they had earned for participating in the experiment (Bartol, 1998). The experiment was terminated after only six days, well short of the planned two weeks, because of the guards’ brutality (Bourne and Russo, 1998). It is interesting to note some of the remarks made by the prisoners: â€Å"I practically considered the prisoners as cattle† and â€Å"I was tired of seeing  the prisoners in their rags and smelling the strong odours of their bodies that filled the cells† (Moghaddam, 1998). The experiment prompted Zimbardo to conclude â€Å"Many people, perhaps the majority, can be made to do almost anything when put into psychologically compelling situations-regardless of their morals, ethics, values, attitudes, beliefs, or personal convictions† (Zimbardo, 1973, cited in Bartol, 1998). Much the same conclusion had been reached by Milgram (1963) with respect to authority figures (Bartol, 1998). The results of these studies make statements about human nature and social psychology by demonstrating the importance of situational variables in determining behaviour. Zimbardo’s (1973) experiment illustrated the influence of deindividuation – the process of losing one’s identity and becoming part of a group, as a situational variable (Bartol, 1998), and Milgram’s (1963) study examined the variables involved in obedience to authority. Deindividuation follows a complex chain of events. Firstly, the presence of many other people gives rise to a sense of anonymity, the individual then loses identity and becomes part of a group. Under these conditions, the person feels that they can be no longer singled out and held responsible for their behaviour. According to the deindividuation theory, this generates a â€Å"loss of self awareness, reduced concern over evaluations for others, and a narrowed focus of attention† (Baron & Byrne, 1977, cited in Bartol, 1998). The combination of these things is believed to lower restraints against antisocial or aggressive behaviour. This theory is supported by Zimbardo’s (1973) prison experiment. As was demonstrated by Milgram’s (1963) experiment, individuals are likely to be obedient to people who have power (whether real or perceived) over them. Also, culture teaches people in certain roles to expect to be obeyed. As such, people learn to play authority roles, as well as roles submissive to authority (Moghaddam, 1998). This dominant-submissive relationship was demonstrated in the prison study. Stereotypically, prison guards are  perceived as having dominant, possibly even sadistic personalities, whereas prisoners, will tend to be aggressive and socially deviant (Moghaddam, 1998). The results of this study indicate that situational factors have a large bearing on behaviour, regardless of morals, ethics, values, attitudes or beliefs, or in short, the nature of the individual. This is also demonstrated by Milgram’s (1963) study. Milgram’s (1963) experiment also demonstrates how normal, healthy, intelligent people are quite capable of carrying out destructive acts, in this case, however, the individuals carried out these acts, because they were persuaded to do so by a person whom they perceived to be in authority. This can be seen on a much larger scale in the success of dictators, such as Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the context of the act and without limitations of the conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority (Milgram, 1977, cited in Bartol, 1998). A lot can be learned from this about human nature. It can be inferred from this study, as well as Zimbardo’s (1973) study that normal, healthy, intelligent human beings are capable of carrying out acts which normally go against their nature, if the individual is placed in the right (or wrong) situation. These studies showed the effects of authority figures and environmental factors involved in behaviour and suggest that in many cases, people engage in behaviour that goes against their very nature, simply because they are told to do so. The results also show, that under deindividualized conditions, people may do things that they would not normally do, or engage in acts that they did not think they were even capable of. A better understanding of deindividuation could lead to a decrease in violent or aggressive acts committed by individuals in a crowd, for example rioting, and a better understanding of obedience to authority could decrease the possibility of events like those caused by Hussein or Hitler happening again. References Bartol, C.R. (1998). Criminal Behaviour. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Bourne, L.E. and Russo, N.F. (1998). Psychology Behaviour in Context. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioural Study of Obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67 (4), 371-378. Moghaddam, F.M. (1998). Social Psychology. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.