Who Is Responsible for the Actions of the Weak-Minded, Hypnotized, or Case Study - 2

Who Is Responsible for the Actions of the Weak-Minded, Hypnotized, or Paranoid - Case Study Example A was sitting on a park bench. A was of a nervous disposition. A saw three youths walking towards him. One of the youths was swinging a bicycle chain in his hand. A was apprehensive that they were going to attack him. A stood up and started to walk away. The youths followed. A turned around and shouted: ‘one step further and I’ll defend myself’. The youths believed they were being threatened and one ran away. The second youth was unable to run because he had heart illness. His brother, the third youth, stayed with him. The second youth, who by now was feeling very unwell, stumbled forward and fell on A. A believed that he was being attacked and kicked the second youth-inducing a heart attack. The third youth entered the melee to protect his brother and punched A in the face before a passer-by stopped the melee. The youths had not intended to attack A but had been walking through the park to retrieve a broken bicycle. Advise as to any criminal liability. Cite appropriate cases and/or authorities in support as necessary. Lukas, a 14-year-old, was playing next to a main busy road. He threw stones at passing traffic. Sheila who was driving her car on the main road was struck by one of the stones causing the car to crash. Sheila suffered back and neck injuries. Lukas also threw another stone at Jack’s lorry as it drove past but the stone missed Jack and instead hit Andy’s van, smashing the windscreen and causing Andy facial scratches and several cuts to his hands. Lukas was arrested and during the police interview, it appeared that Lukas was of low intelligence and had not realized the dangers of throwing stones. Advise as to any criminal liability. Cite appropriate cases and/or authorities in support as necessary.

Floods and subsequent death Essay Example for Free

Floods and subsequent death Essay Hurricane Katrina formed in the United States in the year 2005, causing floods and subsequent death many people. It is estimated that more than 1800 people lost their lives due to the hurricane. This data makes it the worst in the history of the United States since the year 1928. It is considered to have been the hurricane most costly and deadly in the history of the U. S and was considered a natural disaster. Among the affected places is St. Rita’s nursing home which has let to the trial of the owners Sal and Mabel Mangano. The nursing home was situated in New Orleans in St Bernard parish. It has been build 20 years before the hurricane struck. This home was situated in a depression in the ground. The approximate number of residents of the nursing home was 65 and out of these 35 of them died when the hurricane struck. This has led to the indictment of the owners the Manganos, after investigations were done on deaths at nursing homes and hospitals. Their trial was for negligent homicide where it was alleged that they willfully caused the deaths of 35 people by not evacuation them and also tying them to their beds. However I beg go differ with these allegations and they should not have been convicted for negligent homicide. Nursing Home Establishment Sal and Mabel Mangano were the owners so St. Rita’s nursing home having built it 20 years before the hurricane Katrina. The area where they built the nursing home had patches of terra firma. In marshlands this is a good area and the reason why they had considered it, was because in 1965 during the hurricane Betsy this is the only area that did not flood. In this consideration it means that with the establishment of the nursing home they had considered that incase there was a hurricane, there at St. Ritas it would not flood. This shows clearly that they would not have intentionally neglected their residents to suffer and drown in the floods and the subsequent death hence they should not have been convicted. For this consideration they had in mind that, just like in 1965 the hurricane was not going to affect them and for this reason they did not evacuate but instead they went up their one story building. A Show of Kindness During the time of imminent floods the Manganos has intended to safe other people by inviting them to St. Rita’s nursing home among these their staff and relatives as well as their won relatives. The reason they had done this was because they were kind enough and were ready to help other people. If they had a motive of willingly exposing their residents to flood and death they then could not have invited their resident. They had the best intention and they felt that they would not be affected by the floods and thus they did not neglect their residents or even wish for them to die. They had offered shelter to more than 25 people who had gladly accepted since they were exposed to the disaster of the hurricane. Safety Before the worst hurricane happened on 29th of august 2005, the manganos felt that everything was alright. They checked and inspected the area which showed that the ground were dry, the parking lot and the roof was also alright. However it is at this juncture that the hurricane struck. Sal mangano had herself gone outside with several other men to inspect the situation and ensure that everything was alright and that the people inside could not be in any danger whatsoever. Meaning they were concerned greatly about the safety of the people who were already inside at St. Rita’s nursing home, they could have done anything to ensure that these people were safe. The Hurricane Katrina Even when the hurricane struck the managos did not neglect heir resident in cat they went inside and tried to fortify the windows and the doors in desperation of trying to protect them. All the same a strong wind and a strong flow of water hit the nursing home’s walls and even penetrated inside, rising in the building. The mangano’s alongside their relatives some of them as well as their staff worked relentlessly during this time of the floods and also made frantic efforts to safe the people at the nursing home. This means all this time what they had intended was the good of the people at the nursing home and more than anything they used their judgment with the utmost good intentions of saving the people. Conclusion According to the law in the united sates of America the Louisiana requirement is that an evacuation plan should be in the nursing home but id does not state about being mandatory during an actual o evacuation. The law also recognizes a safe place and allows the nursing home to evacuate to such a place In this context the mangano’s did not willfully ignore these rules because they did everything that they could in fortifying their doors and windows in an effort to make their residents secure and to protect them from harm fro the Katrina hurricane and to protect them from drowning as well. St Rita’s nursing home was for the elderly people and others with special needs. One of the reason s why then mangano’s did not evacuate them is because they felt that by moving the people they would have been doing more harm than good, since most of the frail ones would have suffered or even died in transit. This again comes to show that the mangano’s made one judgment which was in consideration of their residents to protect them more than to harm them. The mangano’s did not at any one time leave or abandon their residents, they were there themselves and they had also invited their relatives and other people to offer them shelter, if they were willingly exposing them to danger they would not have invited their relatives and they also so would have rescued themselves leaving their residents to die. Therefore, the mangano’s used their judgment and safety measures. They felt that this area where the nursing home was situated probably could not be affected by the hurricane. They should not have been convicted of negligent homicide for the above reasons. References: Carrie Khan, Nursing home owners not guilty. 5th December, 2008. http//www. npr. org/templates/story/story. php? storyId=14261612 Dawn Fratangelo, what happened at St Rita’s Nursing Home? 3rd march, 2006. Http//www. msnbc. msn. com/id/11658446 Paul Rioux, St. Rita’s owners say no help was offered before Katrina hit, 15th September, 2005. http//seniorjournal. com/NEWS/Eldercare/5-09-15StRitaNoHelp. htm

Sports History and Sports Halls of Fame :: Sports

Sports History and Sports Halls of Fame Below are websites dealing with sports history, particularly those halls of fame which exist. In the dead of winter, many people's interest turn to sports, and the nominees and inductees are announced for many halls, including professional baseball and professional football. Professional Baseball Hall of Fame http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/ This website discusses the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The site combines baseball history and the Hall of Fame itself. The rotating exhibits at the museum are prominently featured, along with the members of the Hall. The site also discusses the rules for induction. Among the items available for the Hall of Fame members are their lifetime statistics, their biographies, pictures of their plaques, and desktop wallpaper. For those interested in analyzing the history of baseball elections, the results of the past votes are available. An online catalog of the museum's holdings is accessible here. The baseball history here is good, if sometimes not overly evaluative. The exhibits at the museum are also portrayed, and among the current exhibits are one on Ichiro Suzuki and another on Sports Illustrated. Information about visits is here as well. Basketball Hall of Fame http://www.hoophall.com/ This hall of fame (located in Springfield, Massachusetts), unlike baseball and football's hall of fames, represents all of basketball in one hall. (The other halls have separate halls for college and professional). Among the items on the site are information about the Hall of Famers, running from James Naismith, who invented basketball, to Medowlark Lemon, to Phog Allen, to Lynette Woodward. Five whole teams are also honored as members, including the Harlem Globetrotters, the New York Rens and the Buffalo Germans. Three people, Lenny Wilkens, Bill Sharman and John Wooden, are honored both as players and as coaches. The history here, outside of the hall, is generally good if not extensive and includes interesting sections on the original rules of basketball and the story of how the Hall of Fame was founded. Pro Football Hall of Fame http://www.profootballhof.com/ This hall of fame, located in Canton, Ohio, honors the game of pro football. The site includes information about visiting the hall, the history of the hall, and the hall of famers. Like most other halls, it lists the inductees, provides short biographies of them, and details the induction process. Information about this year's class is featured prominently, as the finalists were just announced. History of the NFL is provided, although it is not featured prominently.

The Uniform Commercial Code

The Uniform Commercial Code By Wesley Shropshire Abstract The Uniform Commercial Code has many requirements and laws that govern it not only in trading within our country but also in trading internationally. It has been brought into question if we as a nation need to make some serious changes or update some of the laws when it comes to trading internationally. If we leave it like it is then many problems can arise and make most big business discouraged or even stop trading internationally altogether. With this being the case it makes it very hard when deciding what the effect the U. C. C. as on international commerce and there will be many factors brought up on to which side it leans toward. The Uniform Commercial Code The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), a comprehensive code addressing most aspects of commercial law, is generally viewed as one of the most important developments in American law. The UCC text and draft revisions are written by experts in commercial law and submitted as drafts for approval to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (now referred to as the Uniform Law Commissioners), in collaboration with the American Law Institute. (Uniform Commercial Code, (n. . ). Attorneys, which are the Commissioners include federal and state judges also including law professors and legislators, are able to practice law throughout the U. S. These organizations decide and meet on whether to send drafts back for revision or if they should endorse them. Most of the time it does not involve only one revision but after deciding to endorse them the states are forced to adopt these rules by the Uniform Law Commissioners. Since the Uniform Commercial Code, which is a model code, does not always have jurisdiction in a legal effect unless the legislatures as statutes enact them. Domestic transaction† means a transaction other than an international transaction. â€Å"International transaction† means a transaction that bears a reasonable relation to a country other than the United States. (UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE, (n. d). Computers and technology has grown rapidly over the past fifteen years, and this has enhanced the growth of financial markets globally which has led to around the clock trading in foreign exchange, financial instruments, and securities. Services and goods in international trade have also grown in speed and volume.Since the growth and change in technology settlements of payments in these transactions has sped up how fast they can receive these payments. Because of this money is being moved around the world faster than ever before. The economic significance of national boundaries to large corporations and financial institutions is being reduced. These trends in transactions, payments, and transnational operation of corporations have led to commercial pressure for greater certainty and uniformity in the law governing international transactions. (The Effect of Uniform Commercial Code, (n. . ). In thes e international transactions you have to worry about more jurisdiction laws taking place. Rules of private international laws will be the deciding factor into which jurisdiction laws that will be enforced. When it comes to commercial interests many are against this grey area of unknown and look for certainty in which legal rules in these international transactions to reduce and correctly measure the legal risks they may be taking. They also are pushing for the unvarying of these rules throughout jurisdictions in order to lower compliance costs.Because of the pressure for more uniformity and certainty in international transactions and the legal rules they are governed by, the private international law rules are being added to too bring together the legal rules at hand in international conventions to be foreseen across the nations. There has been little to no attention paid to what these international laws represent and I think and the United States should make it a part of their laws . With this being said pressure is rising on responsibilities of state and federal governments to fit these international developments and should deserve more attention than what they are receiving.The Uniform Commercial Code will reach a point where the process will need to be revised and when it takes place it will put these processes to the test. Because of failure in the enactment process there has been a lot of doubt on the uniform law process and its vitality, and this has caused even more doubt that changes can be made on an international level. If the United States ratified all existing conventions and implemented those treaties on a federal level, a good portion of the Uniform Commercial Code would be preempted (Amelia H. Boss, (n. d. The Future of the Uniform Commercial Code Process in an Increasingly International World), and if this happened the Uniform Commercial Code as a whole would be brought into serious questioning. References Uniform Commercial Code, (n. d. ) Retr ieved from http://law. duke. edu UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE, (n. d) Retrieved from http://www. law. cornell. edu The Effect of Uniform Commercial Code, (n. d. ) Retrieved from http://digitalcommons. lmu. edu Amelia H. Boss, (n. d. ) The Future of the Uniform Commercial Code Process in an Increasingly International World

The Lost Squatron Short Story

On Tuesday morning, December 5, 2006, Lieutenant Jimmy McGrath, a fresh faced 22 year old, Naval academy graduate, maneuvered his fighter jet across the tarmac at the US Naval Air Station Florida to the designated runway. Behind him, awaiting their tower clearance orders were the four other members of Jimmy's squadron. The men, boys really, some with peach fuzz beards, were training for assignment in Dubai, where they could fly sorties over Afghanistan and Iraq. All five pilots had been training here in Florida for several weeks, their high stress air combat training punctuated by wild Florida nights of heavy drinking and non-stop womanizing. The locals were used to it, having hosted these flyboys since Lauderdale nearly burst at the seams with newly drafted airmen, training in T-6s, and SNJ fighter trainers during World War 2. McGrath readied his jet at the flight line and after a final instrument check, increased throttle towards rotation speed, rumbling down the runway and easing back on the stick until the two ton plane defied gravity and began a steady ascent into the clouds hanging over the azure blue ocean. McGrath banked the plane right and felt momentary g-force pressure as he rolled away from the take off flight path to allow the next jet to leave the Earth.†Hee-haw† shrieked through Jimmy's mic, as his wingman, Bobby-Joe Nicholson followed McGrath into the heavens. Nicholson grew up in tobacco rich North Carolina back country, and his accent and redneck colloquialisms made training a lot easier for everybody. Nicholson was followed by Andy Grayson, from Wichita, then Angel Fernandez of the Bronx, and finally Ron Fontaine, a graduate of the Donnelly Housing Projects in Detroit. Fontaine was voted by his peers the last person anyone wanted to meet in a back alley for a fight. He was also the most accomplished â€Å"stick man† among them. Despite his â€Å"officer and gentleman status, Fontaine's 6 foot 2 inch muscular frame and tattooed biceps gave off a menacing appearance respected and feared by the other young pilots. The five jets screamed through the blue sky, each plane's engine creating enormous jet trails flowing behind, until they maneuvered into formation. The planes floated in the air next to each other as if dangling on elastic strings, their high-powered engines, flying in unison, making it appear as if they were not even moving. â€Å"OK guys,† McGrath bellowed,† lets head south over the ocean and then take a bearing of 26 degrees, 3 minutes north, then 80 degrees, 7 minutes west toward Hen and Chickens Shoals.† Although he did not mention it, the day's flight path would eventually take them into them into heart of the Devils Triangle. The Devils Triangle, or Bermuda Triangle as it was sometimes called, was a triangular patch of ocean in the Atlantic stretching from the Florida Keys south towards the Bermuda Islands. As every school kid knows, the Triangle's legend of mystery encompasses numerous claims of disappearing ships and aircraft. None of the men gave any serious thought to the Triangle legend, not many people did anymore since the quasi-pulp fiction exposes published in the 1970s tried to give pseudo-scientific credence to alleged supernatural happenings in that part of the Atlantic Ocean. However, they all knew about it. â€Å"Where to skip,?† crackled over the airwaves from Ron Fontaine's cockpit. â€Å"We're headed to the old junked freighter for some bombing and strafing practice,† responded Lieutenant McGrath. â€Å"And Ron,† said the flight leader, â€Å"this time wait for my signal before you starting locking in on the target.† â€Å"Shiiiit,† Fontaine screeched into his headset, and the other pilots chuckled at the exchange between the two men. â€Å"Hey Lieutenant, this time can we go in youngest pilot first,?† said Fernandez. â€Å"What is it with you guys from New Yawk,† drawled Nicholson, â€Å"y'all think you're born to tell the rest of us what to do.† â€Å"Hey, Tobacco boy,† I saw a guy like you once in the Bronx Zoo, behind bars,† Fernandex replied with a laugh. â€Å"Aw can it, you two,† shouted McGrath, â€Å"and tighten up the formation. Fernandez and Grayson pick it up back there.† â€Å"Aye, aye sir,† came the reply, in unison. The old freighter had been towed to this classified location in 1945, near the war's end, and for 60 years had, along with several other decommissioned vessels, been used to train young hot-shot pilots in the art of air war. â€Å"All right, in about 60 second we'll come up on the shoals bomb site, Nicholson and Fontaine, break right and take the first pass. Remember, nose guns first, then use one Sidewinder missile each the second time around,† McGrath ordered. The silver jets streaked through the cloud-filled blue sky like sharp knives slicing through warm biscuits. The two pilots took the lead and banked towards the abandoned and anchored old ship and locked onto the target with their computerized weapons guidance system. With today's technology they could hit a small object from a distance of a mile or more, but their state side training still required close target approaches. The planes would come within 500 yards of the target on the first pass. The three other pilots kept a distance to watch the show and wait their turn, as determined by their flight leader, Lieutenant McGrath. Nicholson and Fontaine took turns firing their 30 Millimeter, seven barrel nose guns at the old tub, blasting holes in the rusting hull at apace of 3900 rounds a minute, which exploded with a fury of sparks, smoke and flying debris as they roared past â€Å"Nice work guys,† McGrath said. â€Å"Commander Taylor, my fuel is low, and my instruments are still acting up, maybe we should be heading West† crackled across his headphones in response. â€Å"Come back,† McGrath replied. Is that you Fernandez. Stop the bullshit, will ya.† â€Å"Not me, Lieutenant,† Fernandez replied, â€Å"Don't expect me to give you a promotion,† he laughed. â€Å"Cut it out,† McGrath said, as he scanned the skies around him, â€Å"are one of you guys having instrument problems?† â€Å"Everyone check in,† he commanded. â€Å"Nicholson here, I'm fine Lieutenant.† â€Å"This is Fontaine, Jimmy, no problems with my bird.† â€Å"This is Grayson, sir, it wasn't me.† â€Å"Well who the hell is playing around.† McGrath shouted. â€Å"I can't see any land, sir† came the voice again. This time someone else responded. â€Å"Boys, this is Taylor, don't worry, we left the Georgia swamp area 30 miles back, and we should be coming up on the Keys shortly,† â€Å"Who's on this frequency, identify yourselves, † Lt. McGrath said into his helmet mic. He scanned his instrument radar panel and again looked outside his cockpit canopy but did not see any other planes in the bright, clear, mid-day sky. Without answering McGrath, the unknown chatter continued. â€Å"Hey Brownie, if we ever find our way back, I'm gonna propose to that nurse I met last week at the USO Holiday dance.† â€Å"Yeah, yeah sure, the one whose feet you kept stepping on during the Glen Miller piece?† â€Å"Shiiit, Glenn Miller, what the fuck is that all about,† Fontaine said. â€Å"Hey, one of you guys playing some sort of trick on our boy Jimmy,† Fernandez laughed. â€Å"Yeah, one of those old radio shows, or some shit like that,† Fontaine replied. â€Å"I don't know about you but it's freaking me out,† said Grayson. â€Å"Anyway, whoever it is mentioned Lauderdale, so it's probably some old Navy guys out for a joyride. I see those guys come out on Sunday's sometimes and fly around in those old radial engine trainers.† â€Å"Yeah, but it ain't Sunday, and what they all doin' on our radio frequency,† drawled Nicholson. â€Å"All right, all right, forget about it. It's probably just somebody playing around,† bellowed McGrath, â€Å"lets get ready for the second run. One missile this time.† Fontaine and Grayson broke away from the formation again and headed toward the target This time they programmed their guidance system to fire one AIM-9 Sidewinder missile each at a distance of a half mile. Within seconds each jet shimmied slightly as their missiles dislodged from under their wings and moved off in an arc of white smoke toward the old half-sunken freighter. The missile warheads were loaded with only small amounts of explosives so that they would create damage but not completely obliterate the boat, leaving it sufficiently intact for further training runs. The two missiles struck, on forward one aft, almost simultaneously, and a column of smoke, debris, and sea water rose high into the air. As the mix fell back again, the pilots who were all observing the action noticed small black objects off in the distance, beyond the target area, moving slowly toward them. â€Å"What the fuck is that,† sad Fernandez into his mic. Grayson and Fontaine, who had pulled up and over the target, getting a birds-eye view of the damage they caused, rolled across the sky, unknowingly hurtling their jets directly in the path of the shadowy, black objects. Some three miles away, the rest of the squadron watched as Fontaine and Grayson blew past the objects and then banked and ascended up and to the left. As they had flown by, in the seconds they were adjacent to the objects, both pilots had seen something that had startled them. Grayson and Fontaine had peered into the cockpits of a squadron of World War 2 naval fighters, â€Å"Avengers†, each operated by a two or three man crew, a pilot facing forward, sometimes with a co-pilot, and a gunner operating a ball turret weapon aft. â€Å"Shiiit,† Fontaine yelled into his helmet mic, â€Å"did you see that Grayson.† â€Å"What the hell are those old warbirds doing way out here, the air museum operates outta Pensacola,† Grayson replied. â€Å"Hell if I know,† Fontaine said, â€Å"but they were sure as shittin surprised by us.† â€Å"Damn lucky we didn't clip their wings.† â€Å"Hey skip,† Fontaine said, calling out to Lieutenant McGrath, † you won't believe what's headed your way.† â€Å"I see 'em, Fontaine, we're gonna give those old buckets some room so we don't blow their tails off with our engines,† McGrath replied. The remaining jets elevated their flight path to avoid the oncoming relics of the past, shooting with Mach speed into the lower stratosphere. â€Å"Commander, did you see that?,† said one of the warbird pilots. â€Å"I sure did, Tex,† replied Taylor, I don't know what the hell it was but I saw a red, white and blue star on it's side so it must be ours.† â€Å"Hell yes,† Tex's gunner cried, â€Å"we must be close to the Shoals now. I see the target ship they towed out this way a few weeks ago.† â€Å"I bet that was some experimental jet the Nazis were using, I saw a few being worked on at the base. Just come over from Germany last week for testing,† said one of the Avenger pilots. OK, men, settle down† Commander Taylor ordered, â€Å"set a course for the direction of the target vessels and let's get these tired birds home.† â€Å"Hey, my instruments are working again, Commander,† said one of the pilots. â€Å"Mine too, Chuck,† cried another. â€Å"Looks like we'll make it back after all,† the Avenger flight leader said, â€Å"and not a moment too soon with these near empty gas gauges. Keep a tight formation as we head in boys. Follow my lead. Last one on the deck has to kiss Charlie McCarthy's bald head.† The jet pilots listened, without a word, to the entire conversation going on below them. Fontaine and Grayson had rejoined the group and they were all now headed due East at 400 miles an hour at an elevation of 25,000 feet. Finally, Fernandez spoke up. â€Å"You catch that, Lieutenant.† â€Å"†Probably some re-enactors,† Lt. McGrath replied, although his voice had lost its usual firm, confident tone. â€Å"What the hell they doin' out here, Jimmy,† said Nicholson, â€Å"don't make no sense at all.† McGrath had to agree. This area was restricted to Naval air traffic. He thought he better contact the base and let them know what was going on. â€Å"Flight leader Bravo calling Lauderdale, come in Lauderdale.† The air was quiet. â€Å"Flight leader Bravo calling Lauderdale, come in Lauderdale† Nothing. â€Å"Hey Jimmy,† Fontaine said, â€Å"my computer just went down.† â€Å"Hey me too,† Nicholson shouted. The five jets flew in tight formation through the clouds as chaos erupted in their cockpits. â€Å"Flight leader Chuck Taylor calling Lauderdale, come in Lauderdale.† â€Å"This is Lauderdale, where the heck you guys been?† came the reply. The Base Commander's been going crazy. They even called the War Department.† â€Å"You guys can tell the patrols to come back, we're a little late but we're home, † replied Commander Taylor. On the stormy evening of December 5, 1945, five TBM Avengers, their heavy radial engines roaring across the Florida sky, approached US Naval Air Station in tight formation. One by one the gleaming blue fighter planes lowered their flaps, cut off their throttles and eased their tired metal frames onto the tarmac. As they rolled off the runway, they passed rows of B-17 bombers, fresh from the battle over Europe, being serviced and refit for duty in the Pacific against the Japanese. Worried ground crews raced in gray jeeps toward each plane, dropping heavy wooden blocks under the wheels, and climbing up on the wings to draw back the heavy canopies to release the human cargo. The fourteen crew members scrambled to the airfield grounds and embraced one another, removing their yellow Mae West vests and crush caps, giving thanks that what was lost was once again found. Meanwhile, miles away, five jet fighters crossed the sky into an ethereal graveyard. They hurtled at supersonic speed into an endless vortex of space and time without up or down, without time or space, without any connection to the world they left behind. At NORAD, desperate computer messages flooded the communications room alerting the men and women who worked there of a crisis in the making. An Admiral rushed into the room in time to confront a telecommunications staffer who was the most recent recipient of the tragic news. â€Å"Sir,† the young ensign said to the astonished man,† Flight 19 is missing.† â€Å"Get me Rumsfeld,† the Admiral replied. Two wars, 6 decades apart. Two tragedies, dance partners in a macabre story with ironic parallels. The past and the future, melded together, and separated, one mystery solved, another one just beginning.

Essay on READING AND WORK OF ART ANALYSISEssay Writing Service

Essay on READING AND WORK OF ART ANALYSISEssay Writing Service Essay on READING AND WORK OF ART ANALYSIS Essay on READING AND WORK OF ART ANALYSISIn the article Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity written by Griselda Pollock, there is much important information on the role of women in the construction of modernism. According to the author, â€Å"Modernity is presented as a far more than a sense of being â€Å"up to date.†1 The spaces of femininity take a special place in the representation of modernism in art. Modernity deals both with male and female sexuality, but there is a close relationship between modernism, modernity and sexuality. Griselda Pollock is focused on the analysis of the art pieces, which reflect the use of different spaces to place females for the proper art analysis. There are several important arguments made by the author of the article in relation to the role of the spaces of femininity in modernism and modernity.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   First, the author states that â€Å"sexuality, modernism or modernity cannot function as given ca tegories to which we add women.†2 From the masculine point of view, women are presented as the other because of social difference that plays an important role in gender relations. Artists use different dimensions of space. Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot are the most important impressionist female artist of the 19th century. They both use the female perspective to depicted the woman and the female’s life. Therefore from the representation of Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot’s work; in most of their painting, they use â€Å"dining rooms, drawing rooms, bedrooms, balconies/verandas, private gardens† to portray the female’s leisure life. From this painting, we are evidently seeing the limitation of the space and location in the female’s life. From the female impressionist artist, the space and location that allowed them to make art are mostly in the domestic space and private area. They do not have the equality as the male artists, the females we re having the lower social status compare to male. Specially in the art practice therefore their home and their private area are immediately becoming the location and the subject matter of the domestic social life from their genre painting. From the later discussion in the article, the appearance of women participated in the public activity. Such as the female’s appear in the theater scene, we are seeing the females are often being sat in the backstage, they do not have the chance to view it in a close distance which same as the male. Therefore in here the issue of the female and male’s unequalled social status still occurred, there are still the difference between female and male in the social class.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Second, the author states that â€Å"femininity is not the natural condition of female persons.† 4 Women are represented as a sign or a confection of fantasies that â€Å"they are positioned as the object of the flaneurà ¢â‚¬â„¢s gaze.†The freedom of the male by looking, they have the freedom by looking at women in any space and any location. For example in the western tradition art, the male artist traditionally use female nudity subject in their painting, to satisfy male’s taste, and gives pleasure to the viewers. The artists use female images to highlight the role of female identity in the assessment of male superiority.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Third, The inequality right for women’s lower social class. There were not protection for women, therefore the dangerous concern of women enter in the public space â€Å"such as the masked ball or the cafe-concert constituted a serious threat to a bourgeois woman’s reputation,etc.† The dangerous position and the lower social class of female in the society, therefore the male is free to do anything they want, to satisfy themselves, where the female’s bodies can be exchange, etc. Here strongly pres ents the lower position of the female and the power of masculine in the society.Also Griselda Pollock argues that â€Å"femininity in its class-specific forms is maintained by the polarity virgin/whore which is mystifying representation of the economic exchanges in the patriarchal kinship system.†5 Therefore the money and property influence human relations, especially marriage relations. As a result, it is necessary to assess femininity as the ideology of female sexuality.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lastly, the author states that the spaces of femininity have a strong impact on women’s lives as they reflect the roles of women, their status and the effects of their sexuality.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Eva Gonzeles’s paintingâ€Å" A Box at the Italian Theatre†, we are seeing the depiction of a woman sitting in the centre accompanies by a man standing next to her. In this painting, it did not clearly showed the difference and inequality of female and male due to the argument in space from the reading. In here, the woman is being depicted in a public area, in the Italian Theatre; therefore the difference between the women’s domestic life from the reading has been changed. From the viewer’s perspective the female and male are staging in the same space, therefore there are not the inequality of the women between men that they were being placed in the backstage to view the show. This two figures are being depicted in the same horizontal line, but their gaze is different. The female figure are looking straightly at the viewer, but the male is turning his body and looking at the different way. With the provided information in the painting, we notice that the woman is straightly looking at the show but the man is totally looking at other things. In here, the painting clearly examine the â€Å"splitting of private and public with its double freedom for men in the public space, and the preeminence of a detached observing gaze, etc.â⠂¬  With the contrast between the two figure’s facial expression, there are no much facial expression in the female figure, she seems very concentrate by looking at the stage. But with the male figure’s pose, he lays back and his elbow are resting on the velvet. He seems very relaxing by looking at some other things, the difference between women and men in crowd are distinctly presenting in here. The freedom of men in any space, any location and the freedom of male’s gaze. They have the right to look at any things at any time in any space. Unlike the women, â€Å"they were never positioned as the normal occupants of the public realm.† Therefore in this painting, although the female and male figures are being placed in the same position but the existence of unfairly and the inequality’s social status between men and women still occurred in this painting.  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Pollock’s article of Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity and the E va Gonzales’s painting, both clearly present the unequal treatment, social inequality and the social discrimination between men and women in the 19th century society.

Hamlet Essay

Hamlet Essay Hamlet Essay Many hundreds of years ago, William Shakespeare wrote what he thought to be a great fictional tragedy. He was right in one aspect, Hamlet did become on of his most successful plays ever written, it wasn't however as fictional as he might have believed. Many of the topics and ideas in this play reappear in our lives today.Hamlet likes to express his intense hatred towards his mother's new husband who is also his uncle. He makes it very clear that he thinks she made a horrible decision. This scenario reoccurs many times in today's society. Now that divorce is so prominent, the rate of second marriages has also increased. There are many times that the children involved don't like their new mother or father. Many times the parents take into consideration the thoughts of their children but in some cases, like that of Hamlet, the children aren't even thought of.English: 16th century illustration of The Spanish ...This caused a lot of anger towards the situation. He felt that h is mother was betraying his father by marrying his uncle. He was so upset about losing his father that he would have probably hated anyone his mother had married.One would think something that bothered Hamlet this much would eventually drive him mad but did it really? Hamlet was thought to have gone insane by Claudius and his fellow former schoolmates but was he actually as mad as he was perceived to be? It seems he had many reasons to be insane such as the death of his father, his mother marrying his uncle, the death of Ophelia, the fact that he had seen the ghost of his father and his constant need for revenge. His insanity was just a cover to hide what was really the problem, that he was burdened with extreme...

5 Cases of Extraneous Hyphenation

5 Cases of Extraneous Hyphenation 5 Cases of Extraneous Hyphenation 5 Cases of Extraneous Hyphenation By Mark Nichol Hyphens are used primarily to organize two or more words into phrases to aid in reading comprehension. Although errors in the use of hyphens are usually errors of omission, erroneous overuse is also common. Beware of superfluous use of hyphens in sentences such as the ones shown below. 1. The answer is to find a silver-bullet that will wean us from fossil fuels. Hyphenated compound nouns used to be common, but most have become closed compounds. Some exceptions persist or have been coined relatively recently (dry-cleaning, go-getter, light-year, well-being), but â€Å"silver bullet,† meaning â€Å"a simple solution to a complicated problem,† is not one of them: â€Å"The answer is to find a silver bullet that will wean us from fossil fuels.† 2. She found herself routinely all-but-ignoring such comments. Here, all and but modify the verb ignoring, and the phrase needs no hyphenation: â€Å"She found herself routinely all but ignoring such comments.† 3. The company reported a $10-million deficit. Hyphens are not necessary in a phrasal adjective consisting of a numeral and a term for an order of magnitude such as million: â€Å"The company reported a $10 million deficit.† (However, when a number is spelled out and combined with million or a similar term, do hyphenate the phrasal adjective: â€Å"The company reported a ten-million-dollar deficit.†) 4. Hard work must be balanced with a feeling of fun, fellowship, and esprit-de-corps. Native and adopted noun phrases (with rare exceptions such as pick-me-up and tà ªtetà ªte) do not require hyphens: â€Å"Hard work must be balanced with a feeling of fun, fellowship, and esprit de corps.† 5. Roughly two-dozen students stood up at the meeting of the school board to protest the decision. Do not link a spelled-out number with dozen to describe a multiple of twelve: â€Å"Roughly two dozen students stood up at the meeting of the school board to protest the decision.† (However, when using a spelled-out number with score to mean â€Å"a multiple of twenty,† treat the term as a closed compound, as with fourscore.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Dialogue Dos and Don'tsThe Possessive ApostropheUses of the Past Participle

Business Capstone Video Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Capstone Video - Assignment Example CSC Australia Pvt. Ltd. is a company that provides business solutions that are driven by technology. The company mainly caters to the public and private sector in Australia. While balancing the operations and interests of the stakeholders, the company has to face various issues. Michael Horton who works for CSC Australia is one of the key personnel of the company. He manages various accounts f natural resources clients. The government clients are also looked after by him. In an interview, he described the issues being faced by the company. He stated that one of the primary issues of the company is related to liability capping which is negotiated at the start of any contract. Liability capping comes in the form of an agreement which restricts the amount of money that has to be paid by CSC in case the clients sue it during the breach of any contract or negligent of conditions set by a contract. This is an essential tool that helps the company to manage. Liability contracts can be very useful if they are properly evaluated and implemented. The exclusion of liability capping has some implications which can be evaluated. It is essential to understand the primary obligations mentioned in a contract. This can be related to the service that CSC would provide to his clients within the specified deadline. CSC also evaluates the losses that the government has to borne in case if the company fails to deliver the services mentioned in the contract. The magnitude of loss has to be determined. Then, it is the government’s responsibility to mitigate the effects of the loss. In case losses occur, CSC is liable to compensate its clients so that all direct and consequential losses suffered are recovered in the process.

Marine Finance and Insurance - Coursework 3 Essay

Marine Finance and Insurance - Coursework 3 - Essay Example In this particular case, no tax rate is given. 7Capital investment appraisal or capital budgeting is primarily concerned with incremental cash flows therefore depreciation should be added back to arrive at the projected cash flow from operations, because there is no actual cash outflow for depreciation (Brigham, et al, 1999). 3The discounted cash flows are the resulting cash flows after applying the cost of capital which is 14% or , projected cash flow during the year/ (1.14)t, where t represents the time or nth year, 1 is constant, and .14 or 14% is Tower’s cost of capital. To illustrate: Discounted Cash Flow for the first year is computed as: 2,890,000.00/ (1.14)1. For the second year, it is, 6,370,000.00/ (1.14)2, and so on until the sixth year. We will use the discounted cash flows in calculating the discounted payback period and the profitability index or PI (Gapenski, et al, 1999). Regular Payback Method. This method of appraising investment tells the number of operating years needed to recover the initial investment or cash outlay. It is the number of years required until the accumulated cash inflows will equal to the amount of the initial investment. The exact payback period is computed using the formula: Payback = Year before full recovery + (Unrecovered Cost at the start of Year/Cash Flow during the Year). If the capital is recovered within the shortest possible time, then this is good for the company (Brigham et al 1999). If the payback period is less than the companys required payback period for the investment, the proposal is accepted, otherwise it is rejected. However, this method does not consider significant cash flows or profit after the payback period. Therefore, this could not be a sound basis for deciding on the profitability of the investment (Bucklery 1996). For Towers, it will take 3 years before full recovery of proposed investment, total accumulated inflows

Marketing Planning Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marketing Planning - Coursework Example Innocent SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Innocent is the leading smoothie brand in the United Kingdom. The company currently owns 77.5 percent of the smoothie market. Innocent’s premium retails prices are relatively high and this indicates there will be a market segment reluctant to buy their products in favor Innocent’s competitor. Increase in the market share. Innocent operates in a market characterized by continuous growth. The consumers are developing a trend in which they are cautious of the consequences of processed goods. This is a big opportunity for Innocent to take control of the market. The consumer tastes are changing. This is because most of the product variety/range is becoming repetitive. Innocent produces quality products. Each smoothie is prepared from natural fruits supplied by regulated suppliers. This makes sure that the products produced are of premium quality. The company has a low customer base. The consumer base is relati vely small and largely confined in the United Kingdom (HomeInsights 2010, p1). The global market is expanding due to the growth of the emerging markets. Innocent’s success has been largely attributed to language. Cultural differences may create an obstacle to success when the company seeks to expand to other continents. Innocent has been consistently growing since its inception in 1999. Increase in the range of products such as dairy, whole grain, and vegetable products. Brand vulnerability – as Innocent grows, its brand value will be subject to scrutiny based its actions, for instance, its attempts to collaborate with Coca-Cola and McDonalds (HomeInsights 2010, p1). The scale of its sales is high. Each week, the company sells approximately two million smoothies (Tryhorn and Sweney 2009, p1). It also operates in several European nations. It can engage in eco-friendly promotions with organizations such as National Trust (HomeInsights 2010, p1). The distribution channel is huge; over ten thousand retail outlets and supermarket chains stock Innocent. Ethics - The company uses bottles (100 percent recycled) and paper (25 percent recycled) for the labels (Turner 2008, p1). It is also creating better working conditions and increasing resource efficiency in countries it sources the fruits. The premium prices for Innocent’s product make it favourable to the retailers because they are more profitable. Health benefits are actively sponsored by the government and other organizations (HomeInsights 2010, p1). Innocent Competitors and Competitive Advantage The current competitors in the market include Tropicana (PepsiCo), Happy Monkey, Lucozade Sport, Red Bull, Seven Seas (Multibionta), Kellogg’s Cornflakes, Young’s Pink Salmon (HomeInsights 2010, p1), Ella’s Kitchen, Naked, and Odwalla (Cummings 2011, p2). Innocent’s main competitor is Tropicana; Pepsi Company owns Tropicana and it holds 29.3 percent of the market share in t he United Kingdom. Tropicana has vast experience in venturing into new markets, a strong brand image and it is dedicated to offering exemplary fruit selection and excellent blends (Cummings 2011, p2). Tropicana has used marketing strategies such as focusing on the health benefits of the products, attractive artwork on the packaging and strong ethical values just like that of Innocent. Tropicana’s focus in the market segment is the kid’

Bottled water is safer than tap water Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Bottled water is safer than tap water - Essay Example Mineral water accumulates various minerals as it flows over rocks before it is collected while spring water emanates from the ground, having no chance to collect minerals. Tap water is treated with chemicals before distribution to consumers. The major chemicals used for tap water treatment are Chlorine and fluorine. It is normally treated to eradicate any pathogens that might be present in the water, and which may cause diseases. This is water that is packaged directly from the source. It is significant due to the fact that it is taken in its natural state, without chemicals. Mineral water contains important elements such as calcium and magnesium that are needed in the body. They are acquired from water that flows along a course composed of rocks that are rich in minerals. Bottled water has established a market in the word population due to the standards that have been set by many governments in order to protect the consumers. It is advantageous because once packed, the water has a long shelf life. Bottled water can also be used for emergency supplies in cases of water shortage. Travelers can conveniently carry bottled water with them when they travel over long journeys. However, there has been a rise in the level of pollution in the environment, causing pollution in the natural water sources. Land fills and incinerators are a major source of pollutants. It is progressively becoming un-advisable for people t o drink bottled water because of the associated levels of pollution. According to Feldman (2003, p.27), â€Å"The quantity of plastic waste generate every year are predictable at half a million tons.† These are mainly disposed in land fills and incinerators. They end up polluting surface water bodies During the rainy seasons, soil erosion causes fertilizers and other pollutants emanating from land to be transported to the rivers, springs and wells, which are the major source of bottled water. Nutrients from the soil are leached in to the ground

Justinian and Theodora Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Justinian and Theodora - Research Paper Example ies), Monophysitism (Christ has a single essence—a combined human and divine one), and Arianism (the conviction that Christ was not of one essence with the Lord) also gained imperial approval for a certain period of time.vi The religious guidelines of Justinian manifested the imperial belief that the unity and strength of the empire was absolutely tantamount to unity of faith. People of a deviant faith had to understand that the measures which imperial policymaking had initiated since Constantius II would actively carry on. Current sources reveal harsh persecutions, even those of high political standing.vii Possibly the most striking occurrence took place in 529 when Plato’s teaching Academy was subjected to the authority of the state by the directive of Justinian, successfully choking this education institution for Hellenism. At the initial phase of his rule, Justinian, a follower of Chalcedonian Christianity, thought it appropriate to disseminate by edict his belief i n the Incarnation and the Trinity; and to terrorize all dissenters with the punishments; while he afterward proclaimed that he aimed to deny all opponents of orthodoxy of the chance to such violation by legal due process.viii Earlier scholars had viewed Justinian a despotic, but our point of view has transformed. Justinian and Theodora are now understood within their own perspective. Late Antiquity was not a time of unavoidable collapse, and what was most astonishing about the Roman empire of Eastern Europe and its succeeding state was their capacity to endure a chain of seemingly insurmountable problems while a series of migrations from the developing countries of Asia drove against the imperial borders. Within the imperial borders as well, the period of Justinian witnessed earthquakes, pestilence... This research aims to present Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora of the Byzantine Empire. Flavius Anicius Justinianus or more widely known as Justinian I was born of a Slavonic peasant parents at Tauresium in Illyria, perhaps on the 11th of May, 483. Justinian received his formal education at Constantinople. He was excellently educated Roman history, theology, and jurisprudence. His career in the military showed quick progress, and a grand prospect presented itself to him when he became emperor in 518. Generally regarded as one of the major emperors of Late Antiquity, Justinian is widely known for his amendment of the law through the Tribonian commission, and the military growth of imperial empire that was accomplished throughout his rule, mainly through Belisarius’s—Byzantine Empire’s general-- actions. Aside from law, religion supported Justinian’s attempt to consolidate the administrative center of the imperial domain. Theodora, aside from being the wife of emperor Justinian, is regarded as one of the icons of the history of the Byzantine civilization. Certainly, the stories narrated by Procopius of Theodora’s deeds within and outside the hippodrome before her marriage belittle tales of more contemporary royal disgraces. Yet, more astonishing than the fact the contemporary likings for lustful rumors strongly resemble those of the previous eras is the understanding that the stories of Procopius was not wholly unfounded.

Bottled water is safer than tap water Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Bottled water is safer than tap water - Essay Example Mineral water accumulates various minerals as it flows over rocks before it is collected while spring water emanates from the ground, having no chance to collect minerals. Tap water is treated with chemicals before distribution to consumers. The major chemicals used for tap water treatment are Chlorine and fluorine. It is normally treated to eradicate any pathogens that might be present in the water, and which may cause diseases. This is water that is packaged directly from the source. It is significant due to the fact that it is taken in its natural state, without chemicals. Mineral water contains important elements such as calcium and magnesium that are needed in the body. They are acquired from water that flows along a course composed of rocks that are rich in minerals. Bottled water has established a market in the word population due to the standards that have been set by many governments in order to protect the consumers. It is advantageous because once packed, the water has a long shelf life. Bottled water can also be used for emergency supplies in cases of water shortage. Travelers can conveniently carry bottled water with them when they travel over long journeys. However, there has been a rise in the level of pollution in the environment, causing pollution in the natural water sources. Land fills and incinerators are a major source of pollutants. It is progressively becoming un-advisable for people t o drink bottled water because of the associated levels of pollution. According to Feldman (2003, p.27), â€Å"The quantity of plastic waste generate every year are predictable at half a million tons.† These are mainly disposed in land fills and incinerators. They end up polluting surface water bodies During the rainy seasons, soil erosion causes fertilizers and other pollutants emanating from land to be transported to the rivers, springs and wells, which are the major source of bottled water. Nutrients from the soil are leached in to the ground

Social Problems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Social Problems - Research Paper Example It is estimated that more than 70000 women die each year due to post abortion complications, deaths which can be controlled through effective monitoring (Heary, 2009). Abortion occurs under two major scenarios i.e. Therapeutic abortion, which is when it is necessitated by the need to save the mother from harm, usually prescribed by a qualified medical practitioner as well as elective abortion, which is when a pregnant woman decides on her own to request for the procedure (Baumgardner, 2008). This paper is a critical evaluation of abortion as a societal dilemma. Abortion Abortion is a process, which can be dated back to more than 1000 years ago, as it is believed that the first case was documented approximately 1550 BC (Baumgardner, 2008). During this time, the practice was viewed as a normal way of birth control and even the church had not at that time deemed it as totally ungodly as it is in the present. In fact, the only restriction the church and the authorities at that time had w as only if quickening could be felt then abortion was considered as unacceptable. Quickening is a term that refers to the movements of the fetus in the uterus and which can be felt by the pregnant woman. In this context, a woman was not permitted to abort a child if quickening had already taken place. In the early US history, it was considered a normal practice to advertise abortion, before quickening, services. It may be important to note that during this time, industrial revolution had not taken place and therefore, the field of medicine had not developed enough to facilitate surgical operations. As a result, abortion was achieved through primitive means such as administration of strong herbs, performing strenuous activities such as weight lifting as well as other vigorous activities, applying pressure on the abdomen for example by lying on a hot coconut shell among others (Baumgardner, 2008). It was not until late 19th century that the legality of abortion in various states began to receive opposition from medical practitioners, civil societies, and the church among other influential groups in the society. According to Baumgardner (2008), some of these groups were motivated by the assumption that the indigenous populations would be dominated by immigrants, whose rate of child bearing was becoming higher than that of the locals. To avoid this, laws were put in place to control and reduce birth control through abortion, in order to maintain and increase their numbers. Similarly, legal health professionals wanted to drive native doctors out of business so as to protect their own business interests. Consequently, they championed for a legislation to outlaw abortion with the exception of therapeutic abortion, which requires the intervention of a qualified health practitioner. Apparently, traditional doctors and midwives were not considered to be qualified and therefore had to close down or work from the underground. It is after these developments that the issue of abortion became contentious, with women rights activists demanding the withdrawal of these legislations while others demanded the opposite (Heary, 2009). Unlike abortion in the ancient times where there was a societal consensus on its legality, the modern society is divided along numerous issues for example its morality. Ancient societies may be forgiven for they may be considered to have been living in a primitive society, which had no basic structures strong

Home Is Where the Heart Is Essay Example for Free

Home Is Where the Heart Is Essay Some say â€Å"home is where the heart is. † Home can be everything to some. Home is their safe comfort place they have in life. Home determines a sense of one’s identity. One poem called â€Å"The Youngest Daughter† by Cathy Song involves characters experiencing conflicting situations between the demands of their home and identity. One might think that this poem is simply about mothers versus daughters; however, this poem evokes a broader sense meaning that daughters are torn between either pulling away or pulling closer to home. In one sense, the daughter in this poem is frustrated with her current situation and aspires to do more with her life, rather than devote her time doing what her mother thinks she should be doing. Despite this feeling, she knows she should be caring for her sick mother. The role she has in her home has conflicting messages. Using the elements of tone, narrative poem, and word choice, the poem can be explicated to show how it creates and resolves the meaning of conflict between mothers and daughters. â€Å"The Youngest Daughter† utilizes the narrative type poem, which helps create and resolve the conflict in the poem. The main conflict in this poem is that the daughter has to choose between obligations and desires, while finding her own role in her home. A narrative poem tells a story, and this poem tells a story about a daughter taking care of her elderly mother. The poem is about what the daughter’s daily life is like. This shows the â€Å"obligations† part of her life. The first sentence of the poem is â€Å"the sky has been dark for many years. † This implies that everything that has been going on with her taking care of her mother has been going on for many years. Since her mother became ill, it has been the daughter’s obligation to take care of her. This obligation is based on cultural expectations. In many cultures, children are expected to take care of their parents once they age. The poem is organized into stanzas that are associated with a certain part of the story. One stanza describes what has been going on lately. Another is about â€Å"this morning. † The last stanza is about what goes on â€Å"in the afternoons. † Through the narrative type poem, the daughter is able to express the feeling that her identity is basically taking care of her mother. This identity is also her role in the family. This role limits her own self-identity. Because she is busy caring for her mother, she is unable to develop a sense of self. She is torn between two things: growing away from her mother, and pulling closer to her mother. She knows she has to take care of her, so that aspect makes her seem to pull closer to her mother. Contrary to that, this daughter is a grown woman, and she has a very limited and conflicted life. Her life is devoted to the mother. This is seen by the story of the poem. She wants to grow apart from her mother and do things in her life that interest her. The reader can see that the daughter wants to escape this whole situation because towards the end of the poem it says â€Å"She knows I am not to be trusted / even now planning my escape. † The readers learn here that the mother doesn’t trust the daughter, for reasons unknown. The second line of the above quote shows the readers that this is what the daughter is currently doing to make her mother not trust her. The daughter also desires that her mother’s health improve, because in the poem is says â€Å"As I toast to her health. Love and pity toward her aging mother clash with the feelings of resentment and entrapment of herself. â€Å"The Youngest Daughter† uses word choice to show the conflict of mothers versus daughters, and the daughter’s internal conflict of obligations and desires. The daughter uses middle diction to show her emotions. Like noted in a previous paragraph, the first sentence of the poem is â€Å"the sky has been dark for many years. † This shows that the daughter has been dealing with her mother’s illness for quite some time, and she hasn’t been able to see the sun. She hasn’t been able to do what she wants to do because she has been so overwhelmed with taking care of the mother and fulfilling her obligations. When describing the mother, the daughter says â€Å"her breathing was graveled / her voice gruff with affection. † The word choice of graveled and gruff is interesting. This demonstrates the effort required to breathe and be affectionate. It’s almost as if the writer of the poem wanted the readers to hear what her breathing and voice sounded like by including those two words in there. This implies in a way that the mother has an opinion with the situation too. These two words make these two lines more effective. The daughter says â€Å"I was almost tender / when I came to the blue bruises. † This shows that the daughter feels sorry for what the mother has to go through. Tender is another interesting word choice. The poem also says â€Å"I soaped her slowly,† meaning that the daughter takes her time when washing her mother, because her life has been accustomed to nothing. Another aspect of obligations is that the daughter says â€Å"I scrubbed them with a sour taste in my mouth. The daughter obviously doesn’t want to scrub the mother, but it is obligation, her duty, so she must. Using the sentence â€Å"We eat in the familiar silence† shows that there is tension between them, because if there was no tension, they would be talking when they are eating. Despite this tension, this still occurs each day, and they continue to follow the same routine. If this line just had said â€Å"We eat in silence,† it would have a much lesser effect on the poem as a whole. By adding the word â€Å"familiar,† it allows the reader to understand that eating that way is a commonality and part of a consistent routine. The words â€Å"familiar silence† contrast each other. Familiar is something that has occurred so often that it becomes accustomed. And what is familiar in this poem? Silence. Silence, though it means quiet, is essentially nothing. Quietness, or nothing, has occurred so much that it is accustomed. The word choice is contrasting obligations with desires. The daughter is obligated to care for her mother. This is evident throughout the entire poem when the daughter describes everything she does for her mother. Despite this, she desires to do something different than just solely care for her mother. This desire is evident when the poem says â€Å"She know I am not to be trusted / even now planning my escape. † The daughter wants to escape, and the mother is aware of it. This contrast between obligations and desires makes the reader of the poem feel that this is an either/or situation. The daughter can either take care of the mother, or she can go off on her own. The last two lines of the poem are very meaningful: â€Å"A thousand cranes curtain the window / fly up in a sudden breeze. These word choices are effective because the words allow the readers to see an ending image. It seems like the cranes flying away is associated with the daughter being set free and escaping her life. It’s ironic how the first line of the poem uses words that talk about the sky, and in the last few lines of the poem the cranes fly into the sky. This line is used as a way for the author of the poem to show that the resolution has occurred. By the end of the poem, the conflict of obligations versus desires is resolved. One of the last lines of the poem says â€Å"As I toast to her health. This shows that the daughter finally realizes that caring for her mother is what’s best for her at this moment. By toasting for her health, she reveals that even though she is sick of caring for her mother, she would rather care for her mother than have her mother be dead. The daughter realizes that there will eventually be a time when the mother dies, and at that time the daughter will be able to do whatever she desires, but right now, her focus needs to be on her mother. The cranes flying into the sky reiterates this fact. When this time comes, even though the daughter will be able to do what she wants, she will be without a mother. She will have no obligations, which in a sense is good for her, because she will be able to do what she wants, yet a part of her life will be missing. Death is always hard to deal with, and even though in the poem she talks about how she wants to escape, in reality she really would miss her mother. The tone is this poem is bittersweet and affectionate; children should care for their aging parents, yet children need to live their own lives. In a way, the tone is also both happy and sad. The way the tone changes correlated with both of the conflicting sides of the poem. It’s happy in the way that the poet shows that there is affection and love between mothers and daughters, yet it is sad in the way that it shows that sometimes conflicts arise between mothers and daughters. This also explains how it is bittersweet. The tone shows that there are moral ties between children and their parents. These moral ties tie in with the obligational part of the conflict. Morally, the daughter feels obliged to care for her mother. The speaker is the youngest daughter of a family, and her duty is to take care of her aging parent. As one can see, looking at a poem through elements can help a reader understand the meaning of it. In â€Å"The Youngest Daughter,† the poem creates the meaning of conflict between mothers and daughters related to the daughter either pulling closer or pulling away from family and having to choose between obligations and desires. The elements of tone, word choice, and narrative poem together effectively create this meaning. In this poem, the home determines one’s identity. The daughter is conflicted between either pulling closer to her home life and her mother, or pulling away from it all and going after her own aspirations. Readers can relate to this poem because many people go through the same predicament in life: taking care of an aging parent. People do it because they love their family. Even though this daughter is having conflicting feelings about taking care of her mother, she does it anyways because family always comes first.

Signs of Harm and Abuses Social Work Codes of Practice

Signs of Harm and Abuses Social Work Codes of Practice Allan Cochrane Introduction In this essay I will be looking at signs of harm and abuse, ways in which the individual may become vulnerable to abuse, legislation in relation to safeguarding and codes of practice in which we as social care workers must adhere to in order to safeguard an individual. Harm and abuse is something that unfortunately happens, but there are ways in which we can recognise the signs of children who are victim to this. Physical abuse can lead to neurological damage, injury, disfigurement, disability and in the most severe cases death. The possible signs of physical abuse could see someone with injuries that arent consistent with an explanation given for how they received them, injuries to the body in places which are not normally exposed to falls or rough play, injuries that have not received medical attention, bites, bruises, burns and fractures that do not have an accidental explanation, reluctance to change for or take part in, games and sports activities. The effects of sexual abuse could include behaviours such as self-harm, inappropriate sexual behaviour, depression, sadness, and a severe loss of self-esteem. The impact of this is believed to increase the longer the abuse continues. The possible signs of sexual abuse could be eating disorders such as bulimia or anorexia, sexual activity through words or drawings, repeated urinary infections and stomach aches, severe sleep disturbances, allegations concerning sexual abuse, preoccupation of sexual matters and knowledge of adult sexual behaviour or engages in sexual play inappropriate for the childs age, the child is provocative or seductive towards adults. Neglect of a child can have an impact on health, social functioning, education, growth and development, relationships and more severely death. The possible signs of neglect could be hunger, tiredness, dirty clothes, clothes too big or too small or inappropriate for weather conditions, left to fend for themselves or left unsupervised, unkempt, dirty hair, dirty skin, bad odour, untreated illness, infected cuts (www.kirkleessafeguardingchildren.co.uk) There are many ways in which children can be vulnerable to abuse such as parental substance abuse, the child has poor communication skills, absence of supportive/structed living environment, family is isolated, family dysfunction, history of abuse in the family, family refuse professional help, witness to abuse or domestic violence, child has no support/rejected by parents or carers, family live in poverty, poor housing conditions, family have an unhealthy social network, parent/s suffer from depression/stress, parent/s unable to supervise child. In recent years, we have seen a rise in children being targeted online, in a report by the Herald, it is estimated that the number of indecent communications recorded under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 between adults and children under the age of 13 rose from 103 in 2013/14 to 165 in 2014/15. In 2010 when the legislation first came into force there were only 15 offences recorded by Police Scotland, under the legislation it is an o ffence for a person to send sexual written and verbal communication to a child. (www.heraldscotland.com/news/14569603.Rise_in_the_of_Scottish_sexual_predators_targeting_children_online/) The Children and Young Peoples (Scotland) Act 2014 is a current piece of legislation designed to safeguard our children and young people, the act focuses on the rights of the children and young people in Scotland-encourages Scottish ministers and public bodies to think about these rights and how they relate to their work, the wellbeing and getting it right for every child (GIRFEC)-by improving the way services work to support children, young people and families, early learning and childcare-to strengthen the role of early years support the childrens and families lives, getting it right for looked after children-to ensure better permanence planning for looked after children. The act will also strengthen existing legislation that effects children and young people by creating a new right to appeal a local authority decision to place a child in secure accommodation, and by making procedural changes in the areas childrens hearings support arrangements and school closures. (www.gov.scot/To pics/People/Young-People/legislation/proposed-bill) The SSSC is the regulator of the social service workforce in Scotland, their role is to protect the public by registering social service workers, setting standards for their work practice, conduct, training and education and by supporting their professional development. Where social service workers fall below these standards of practice and conduct, they will investigate and take action. Some of the duties and responsibilities set out by the SSSC to safeguard individuals are 3.3 follow practices and procedures designed to keep me and other people safe from violent and behaviour at work, 3.9 enable people who use services and carers to make complaints. Take complaints seriously and either respond to them or pass them to the appropriate person. Take appropriate action when there is an allegation of harm, 4.3 take necessary steps to the reduce the risks of people who use services harming themselves or other people (Scottish Social Services Council, codes of practice for social service w orkers) Conclusion My research has shown me the various ways in which harm and abuse is perpetrated on an individual and the signs that we can look for to prevent further abuse or harm taking place. It has also shown me government legislation in protecting individuals and codes of practice that social services worker must work to, to safeguard individuals in our care. Word count:Â  883 References http://www.kirkleessafeguardingchildren.co.uk accessed 12.02.17 http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14569603.Rise_in_the_of_Scottish_sexual_predators_targeting_children_online/ accessed 12.02.17 http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/legislation/proposed-bill accessed 14.02.17 http://www.cyps.org.uk/policy/children-young-people-scotland-act# accessed 14.02.17 Scottish Social Services Council, codes of practice for social service workers

Billy Budd Essay: Comparing Christ to Billy -- Billy Budd Essays

Comparing Christ to Billy of Billy Budd      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "I stand for the heart. To the dogs with the head!" wrote Herman Melville in his June 1851 letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne (Davis and Gilman 3). Yet, by the time he began writing Billy Budd, Sailor in 1888, Melville must have tempered this view, for Billy Budd depicts the inevitable destruction of a man who is all heart but who utterly lacks insight. Melville no doubt intends for his reader to connect this tale with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Billy Budd endures a persecution similar to Christ's; he is executed for like reasons, and he eventually ascends, taking "the full rose of the dawn" (BB 376). Yet, in creating Billy Budd, Melville forms a character who is but a half-Christ, more like the Child than the Man. Indeed, a number of characteristics and circumstances sharply distinguish Billy Budd from the complete Christ. These differences ultimately work to support Melville's (now refined) philosophy that innocence, unaccompanied by wisdom, must inevitably meet wi th destruction and that only when a man balances the "spontaneous impulses of [his] 'heart'" against the experiential "wisdom of [his] 'head'" (Howard 328) can he prevail in a fallen world.    Critics often connect Billy Budd with the Christ Child. Richard Chase, for instance, writes that Billy Budd is the realization of Melville's "fresh commitment to the infantile Christ" (267), and Milton Stern claims that Billy's behavior represents an "ideal Christliness" because he accepts "everything with animal insightlessness and the childlike faith of innocence" (216). Christ taught that to enter heaven, one must become like a little child (Matt. 18:2-3). Many have inferred from this that, from a Christian perspective, ... ...W.H. Gilman, eds. The Letters of Herman Melville. New Haven: Yale UP, 1960. Online. Internet. 29 July 1998. Available HTTP: www.melville.org Howard, Leon. Herman Melville: A Biography. Berkley: U of California P, 1951. Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories. Ed. Frederick Busch. New York: Penguin, 1986. - - -. Moby Dick. Ed. Charles Child Walcutt. New York: Bantam, 1981. Richards, Lawrence O. The Bible Reader's Companion. Wheaton: SP Publications, Inc., 1991. Sten, Christopher W. "Vere's Use of the 'Forms': Means and Ends in 'Billy Budd.'" On Melville: The Best from American Literature. Ed. Louis J. Budd and Edwin H. Cady. Durham: Duke UP, 1988. 188-202. Stern, Milton R. The Fine Hammered Steel of Herman Melville. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1968. The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Dallas: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1979.

A Comparison of the Writing Styles of Mary Austin and Willia Cather Essay

Steve rayburn! ! !Every author has his or her own style of writing in the works he or she produces. Two female British authors, Mary Austin and Willia Cather, both have similar but distinct styles of writing.! !Mary Austin wrote a novel called â€Å"Land of Little Rain† that depicts death valley and the surrounding desert. The landscape of the story is no doubt a desert; sand dunes, small shrubs, will grass, blistering heat, scavengers and very little water. Although the desert can be easily described, Austin goes to great lengths to show the relationships between the subtle changes in  the landscape, behavioral patterns of animals, and even the way plant life grows around the landscape. For example, she describes and almost personi? es the way that the dunes are blown up on themselves that eventually form a shield that protect the grasses and shrubs that grow behind the dunes. Austin takes a blunt picture of the landscape and shapes and sharpens it into a ? uid ecosystem. She shows the vibrance of life that exists in the so-called death valley.! !Willia Cather is the author of the novel called â€Å"My Antonia† that follows the path of a boy,  Jim Burden, who moves west and befriends a bohemian family that settles close to his. Jim is a thoughtful, self-aware individual that is very introverted; wandering through the woods and pasture on his horse, his thoughts wandering like he is. Like Austin, Cather uses the landscape to springboard themes and motifs throughout the book, often the scenery being an outward expression of the thoughts and feelings of the characters. For example, the rugged, untamed, potentially dangerous landscape foreshadows the imminent suicide of his friend’s father. The death is also very dangerous because he was the main breadwinner of the family, and without him the family could potentially be trapped in the winds and chill of the landscape themselves. Cather pulls from the scenery but uses it as a garnish rather than the main focus of Austin’s work.! !Although both writers use the landscape to build their stories, they use it very differently. Austin’s story is the landscape, while Cather uses the landscape as an element. The style of both authors have similarities but have distinct differences.

African American Culture Essay

Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Africans in America to practice their cultural traditions, many practices, values and beliefs survived and over time have incorporated elements of European American culture. There are even certain facets of African American culture that were brought into being or made more prominent as a result of slavery; an example of this is how drumming became used as a means of communication and establishing a community identity during that time. The result is a dynamic, creative culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on mainstream American culture and on world culture as well. After Emancipation, these uniquely African American traditions continued to grow. They developed into distinctive traditions in music, art, literature, religion, food, holidays, amongst others. While for some time sociologists, such as Gunnar Myrdal and Patrick Moynihan, believed that African Americans had lost most cultural ties with Africa, anthropological field research by Melville Hersovits and others demonstrated that there is a continuum of African traditions among Africans in the New World from the West Indies to the United States. The greatest influence of African cultural practices on European cultures is found below the Mason-Dixon in the southeastern United States, especially in the Carolinas among the Gullah people and in Louisiana. African American culture often developed separately from mainstream American culture because of African Americans’ desire to practice their own traditions, as well as the persistence of racial segregation in America. Consequently African American culture has become a significant part of American culture and yet, at the same time, remains a distinct culture apart from it. History From the earliest days of slavery, slave owners sought to exercise control over their slaves by attempting to strip them of their African culture. The physical isolation and societal marginalization of African slaves and, later, of their free progeny, however, actually facilitated the retention of significant elements of traditional culture among Africans in the New World generally, and in the U. S. in particular. Slave owners deliberately tried to repress political organization in order to deal with the many slave rebellions that took place in the southern United States, Brazil, Haiti, and the Dutch Guyanas. African cultures,slavery,slave rebellions,and the civil rights movements(circa 1800s-160s)have shaped African American religious, familial, political and economic behaviors. The imprint of Africa is evident in myriad ways, in politics, economics, language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion and worldview, and food preparation methods. In the United States, the very legislation that was designed to strip slaves of culture and deny them education served in many ways to strengthen it. In turn, African American culture has had a pervasive, transformative impact on myriad elements of mainstream American culture, among them language, music, dance, religion, cuisine, and agriculture. This process of mutual creative exchange is called creolization. Over time, the culture of African slaves and their descendants has been ubiquitous in its impact on not only the dominant American culture, but on world culture as well. Oral tradition Slaveholders limited or prohibited education of enslaved African Americans because they believed it might lead to revolts or escape plans. Hence, African-based oral traditions became the primary means of preserving history, morals, and other cultural information among the people. This was consistent with the griot practices of oral history in many African and other cultures that did not rely on the written word. Many of these cultural elements have been passed from generation to generation through storytelling. The folktales provided African Americans the opportunity to inspire and educate one another. Examples of African American folktales include trickster tales of Br’er Rabbit and heroic tales such as that of John Henry. The Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris helped to bring African American folk tales into mainstream adoption. Harris did not appreciate the complexity of the stories nor their potential for a lasting impact on society. Characteristics of the African American oral tradition present themselves in a number of forms. African American preachers tend to perform rather than simply speak. The emotion of the subject is carried through the speaker’s tone, volume, and movement, which tend to mirror the rising action, climax, and descending action of the sermon. Often song, dance, verse and structured pauses are placed throughout the sermon. Techniques such as call-and-response are used to bring the audience into the presentation. In direct contrast to recent tradition in other American and Western cultures, it is an acceptable and common audience reaction to interrupt and affirm the speaker. Spoken word is another example of how the African American oral tradition influences modern American popular culture. Spoken word artists employ the same techniques as African American preachers including movement, rhythm, and audience participation. Rap music from the 1980’s and beyond has been seen as an extension of oral culture. Harlem Renaissance [pic] Zora Neale Hurston was a prominent literary figure during the Harlem Renaissance. Main article: Harlem Renaissance The first major public recognition of African American culture occurred during the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1920s and 1930s, African American music, literature, and art gained wide notice. Authors such as Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen and poets such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen wrote works describing the African American experience. Jazz, swing, blues and other musical forms entered American popular music. African American artists such as William H. Johnson and Palmer Hayden created unique works of art featuring African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance was also a time of increased political involvement for African Americans. Among the notable African American political movements founded in the early 20th century are the United Negro Improvement Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The Nation of Islam, a notable Islamic religious movement, also began in the early 1930s. African American cultural movement The Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s followed in the wake of the non-violent American Civil Rights Movement. The movement promoted racial pride and ethnic cohesion in contrast to the focus on integration of the Civil Rights Movement, and adopted a more militant posture in the face of racism. It also inspired a new renaissance in African American literary and artistic expression generally referred to as the African American or â€Å"Black Arts Movement. The works of popular recording artists such as Nina Simone (Young, Gifted and Black) and The Impressions (Keep On Pushin’), as well as the poetry, fine arts and literature of the time, shaped and reflected the growing racial and political consciousness. Among the most prominent writers of the African American Arts Movement were poet Nikki Giovanni; poet and publisher Don L. Lee, who later becam e known as Haki Madhubuti; poet and playwright Leroi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka; and Sonia Sanchez. Other influential writers were Ed Bullins, Dudley Randall, Mari Evans, June Jordan, Larry Neal and Ahmos Zu-Bolton. Another major aspect of the African American Arts Movement was the infusion of the African aesthetic, a return to a collective cultural sensibility and ethnic pride that was much in evidence during the Harlem Renaissance and in the celebration of Negritude among the artistic and literary circles in the U. S. , Caribbean and the African continent nearly four decades earlier: the idea that â€Å"black is beautiful. † During this time, there was a resurgence of interest in, and an embrace of, elements of African culture within African American culture that had been suppressed or devalued to conform to Eurocentric America. Natural hairstyles, such as the afro, and African clothing, such as the dashiki, gained popularity. More importantly, the African American aesthetic encouraged personal pride and political awareness among African Americans. Music [pic] Men playing the djembe, a traditional West African drum adopted into African American and American culture. The bags and the clothing of the man on the right are printed with traditional kente cloth patterns. African American music is rooted in the typically polyrhythmic music of the ethnic groups of Africa, specifically those in the Western, Sahelean, and Sub-Saharan regions. African oral traditions, nurtured in slavery, encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and relay messages. The African pedigree of African American music is evident in some common elements: call and response, syncopation, percussion, improvisation, swung notes, blue notes, the use of falsetto, melisma, and complex multi-part harmony. During slavery, Africans in America blended traditional European hymns with African elements to create spirituals. Many African Americans sing Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing in addition to the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, or in lieu of it. Written by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson in 1900 to be performed for the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the song was, and continues to be, a popular way for African Americans to recall past struggles and express ethnic solidarity, faith and hope for the future. The song was adopted as the â€Å"Negro National Anthem† by the NAACP in 1919. African American children are taught the song at school, church or by their families. Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing traditionally is sung immediately following, or instead of, The Star-Spangled Banner at events hosted by African American churches, schools, and other organizations. In the 1800s, as the result of the blackface minstrel show, African American music entered mainstream American society. By the early twentieth century, several musical forms with origins in the African American community had transformed American popular music. Aided by the technological innovations of radio and phonograph records, ragtime, jazz, blues, and swing also became popular overseas, and the 1920s became known as the Jazz Age. The early 20th century also saw the creation of the first African American Broadway shows, films such as King Vidor’s Hallelujah! and operas such as George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Rock and roll, doo wop, soul, and R;B developed in the mid 20th century. These genres became very popular in white audiences and were influences for other genres such as surf. The dozens, an urban African American tradition of using rhyming slang to put down your enemies (or friends) developed through the smart-ass street jive of the early Seventies into a new form of music. In the South Bronx, the half speaking, half singing rhythmic street talk of ‘rapping’ grew into the hugely successful cultural force known as Hip Hop. Hip Hop would become a multicultural movement. However, it is still important to many African Americans. The African American Cultural Movement of the 1960s and 1970s also fueled the growth of funk and later hip-hop forms such as rap, hip house, new jack swing and go go. African American music has experienced far more widespread acceptance in American popular music in the 21st century than ever before. In addition to continuing to develop newer musical forms, modern artists have also started a rebirth of older genres in the form of genres such as neo soul and modern funk-inspired groups. Dance [pic] The Cakewalk was the first African American dance to gain widespread popularity in the United States. [pic] African American dance, like other aspects of African American culture, finds its earliest roots in the dances of the hundreds of African ethnic groups that made up African slaves in the Americas as well as influences from European sources in the United States. Dance in the African tradition, and thus in the tradition of slaves, was a part of both every day life and special occasions. Many of these traditions such as get down, ring shouts, and other elements of African body language survive as elements of modern dance. In the 1800s, African American dance began to appear in minstrel shows. These shows often presented African Americans as caricatures for ridicule to large audiences. The first African American dance to become popular with White dancers was the cakewalk in 1891. Later dances to follow in this tradition include the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, and the Jitterbug. During the Harlem Renaissance, all African American Broadway shows such as Shuffle Along helped to establish and legitimize African American dancers. African American dance forms such as tap, a combination of African and European influences, gained widespread popularity thanks to dancers such as Bill Robinson and were used by leading White choreographers who often hired African American dancers. Contemporary African American dance is descended from these earlier forms and also draws influence from African and Caribbean dance forms. Groups such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have continued to contribute to the growth of this form. Modern popular dance in America is also greatly influenced by African American dance. American popular dance has also drawn many influences from African American dance most notably in the hip hop genre. Art [pic] Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City by Henry Ossawa Tanner 1859-1937 From its early origins in slave communities, through the end of the twentieth century, African-American art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States. During the period between the 1600s and the early 1800s, art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa. In contrast, African American artisans like the New England–based engraver Scipio Moorhead and the Baltimore portrait painter Joshua Johnson created art that was conceived in a thoroughly western European fashion. During the 1800s, Harriet Powers made quilts in rural Georgia, United States that are now considered among the finest examples of nineteenth-century Southern quilting. Later in the 20th century, the women of Gee’s Bend developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional African American quilts with a geometric simplicity that developed separately but was like that of Amish quilts and modern art. After the American Civil War, museums and galleries began more frequently to display the work of African American artists. Cultural expression in mainstream venues was still limited by the dominant European aesthetic and by racial prejudice. To increase the visibility of their work, many African American artists traveled to Europe where they had greater freedom. It was not until the Harlem Renaissance that more whites began to pay attention to African American art in America. [pic] Kara Walker, Cut, Cut paper and adhesive on wall, Brent Sikkema NYC. During the 1920s, artists such as Raymond Barthe, Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage, and photographer James Van Der Zee became well known for their work. During the Great Depression, new opportunities arose for these and other African American artists under the WPA. In later years, other programs and institutions, such as the New York City-based Harmon Foundation, helped to foster African American artistic talent. Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and others exhibited in museums and juried art shows, and built reputations and followings for themselves. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were very few widely accepted African American artists. Despite this, The Highwaymen, a loose association of 27 African American artists from Ft. Pierce, Florida, created idyllic, quickly realized images of the Florida landscape and peddled some 50,000 of them from the trunks of their cars. They sold their art directly to the public rather than through galleries and art agents, thus receiving the name â€Å"The Highwaymen†. Rediscovered in the mid-1990s, today they are recognized as an important part of American folk history. Their artwork is widely collected by enthusiasts and original pieces can easily fetch thousands of dollars in auctions and sales. The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s was another period of resurgent interest in African American art. During this period, several African-American artists gained national prominence, among them Lou Stovall, Ed Love, Charles White, and Jeff Donaldson. Donaldson and a group of African-American artists formed the Afrocentric collective AFRICOBRA, which remains in existence today. The sculptor Martin Puryear, whose work has been acclaimed for years, is being honored with a 30-year retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York starting November 2007. Notable contemporary African American artists include David Hammons, Eugene J. Martin, Charles Tolliver, and Kara Walker. Literature [pic] Langston Hughes, a notable African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance. African American literature has its roots in the oral traditions of African slaves in America. The slaves used stories and fables in much the same way as they used music. These stories influenced the earliest African American writers and poets in the 18thcentury such as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano. These authors reached early high points by telling slave narratives. During the early 20th century Harlem Renaissance, numerous authors and poets, such as Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington, grappled with how to respond to discrimination in America. Authors during the Civil Rights era, such as Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation, oppression and other aspects of African American life. This tradition continues today with authors who have been accepted as an integral part of American literature, with works such as Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and Beloved by Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison, and series by Octavia Butler and Walter Mosley that have achieved both best-selling and/or award-winning status. Museums The African American Museum Movement emerged during the 1950s and 1960s to preserve the heritage of the African American experience and to ensure its proper interpretation in American history. Museums devoted to African American history are found in many African American neighborhoods. Institutions such as the African American Museum and Library at Oakland and The African American Museum in Cleveland were created by African Americans to teach and investigate cultural history that, until recent decades was primarily preserved trough oral traditions. Language Generations of hardships imposed on the African American community created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners often intentionally mixed people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English. This, combined with prohibitions against education, led to the development of pidgins, simplified mixtures of two or more languages that speakers of different languages could use to communicate. Examples of pidgins that became fully developed languages include Creole, common to Haiti,and Gullah, common to the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. African American Vernacular English is a type variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of the American English language closely associated with the speech of but not exclusive to African Americans. While AAVE is academically considered a legitimate dialect because of its logical structure, some of both Caucasians and African Americans consider it slang or the result of a poor command of Standard American English. Inner city African American children who are isolated by speaking only AAVE have more difficulty with standardized testing and, after school, moving to the mainstream world for work. It is common for many speakers of AAVE to code switch between AAVE and Standard American English depending on the setting. Fashion and aesthetics [pic] A man weaving kente cloth in Ghana. Attire The cultural explosion of the 1960s saw the incorporation of surviving cultural dress with elements from modern fashion and West African traditional clothing to create a uniquely African American traditional style. Kente cloth is the best known African textile. These festive woven patterns, which exist in numerous varieties, were originally made by the Ashanti and Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo. Kente fabric also appears in a number of Western style fashions ranging from casual t-shirts to formal bow ties and cummerbunds. Kente strips are often sewn into liturgical and cademic robes or worn as stoles. Since the Black Arts Movement, traditional African clothing has been popular amongst African Americans for both formal and informal occasions. Another common aspect of fashion in African American culture involves the appropriate dress for worship in the Black church. It is expected in most churches that an individual should present their best appearance for worship. African Americ an women in particular are known for wearing vibrant dresses and suits. An interpretation of a passage from the Christian Bible, â€Å"†¦ very woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head†¦ â€Å", has led to the tradition of wearing elaborate Sunday hats, sometimes known as â€Å"crowns. † Hair Hair styling in African American culture is greatly varied. African American hair is typically composed of tightly coiled curls. The predominant styles for women involve the straightening of the hair through the application of heat or chemical processes. These treatments form the base for the most commonly socially acceptable hairstyles in the United States. Alternatively, the predominant and most socially acceptable practice for men is to leave one’s hair natural. Often, as men age and begin to lose their hair, the hair is either closely cropped, or the head is shaved completely free of hair. However, since the 1960s, natural hairstyles, such as the afro, braids, and dreadlocks, have been growing in popularity. Although the association with radical political movements and their vast difference from mainstream Western hairstyles, the styles have not yet attained widespread social acceptance. Maintaining facial hair is more prevalent among African American men than in other male populations in the U. S. In fact, the soul patch is so named because African American men, particularly jazz musicians, popularized the style. The preference for facial hair among African American men is due partly to personal taste, but because they are more prone than other ethnic groups to develop a condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae, commonly referred to as razor bumps, many prefer not to shave. Body image The European aesthetic and attendant mainstream concepts of beauty are often at odds with the African body form. Because of this, African American women often find themselves under pressure to conform to European standards of beauty. Still, there are individuals and groups who are working towards raising the standing of the African aesthetic among African Americans and internationally as well. This includes efforts toward promoting as models those with clearly defined African features; the mainstreaming of natural hairstyles; and, in women, fuller, more voluptuous body types. Religion While African Americans practice a number of religions, Protestant Christianity is by far the most popular. Additionally, 14% of Muslims in the United States and Canada are African American. Christianity [pic] A river baptism in New Bern, North Carolina near the turn of the 20th century. The religious institutions of African American Christians commonly are referred tocollectively as the black church. During slavery, many slaves were stripped of their African belief systems and typically denied free religious practice. Slaves managed, however, to hang on to some practices by integrating them into Christian worship in secret meetings. These practices, including dance, shouts, African rhythms, and enthusiastic singing, remain a large part of worship in the African American church. African American churches taught that all people were equal in God’s eyes and viewed the doctrine of obedience to one’s master taught in white churches as hypocritical. Instead the African American church focused on the message of equality and hopes for a better future. Before and after emancipation, racial segregation in America prompted the development of organized African American denominations. The first of these was the AME Church founded by Richard Allen in 1787. An African American church is not necessarily a separate denomination. Several predominantly African American churches exist as members of predominantly white denominations. African American churches have served to provide African American people with leadership positions and opportunities to organize that were denied in mainstream American society. Because of this, African American pastors became the bridge between the African American and European American communities and thus played a crucial role in the American Civil Rights Movement. Like many Christians, African American Christians sometimes participate in or attend a Christmas play. Black Nativity by Langston Hughes is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with gospel music. Productions can be found a African American theaters and churches all over the country. Islam [pic] A member of the Nation of Islam selling merchandise on a city street corner. Despite the popular assumption that the Nation represents all or most African American Muslims, less than 2% are members. Generations before the advent of the Atlantic slave trade, Islam was a thriving religion in West Africa due to its peaceful introduction via the lucrative trans-Saharan trade between prominent tribes in the southern Sahara and the Berbers to the North. In his attesting to this fact the West African scholar Cheikh Anta Diop explained: â€Å"The primary reason for the success of Islam in Black Africa†¦ onsequently stems from the fact that it was propagated peacefully at first by solitary Arabo-Berber travelers to certain Black kings and notables, who then spread it about them to those under their jurisdiction† Many first-generation slaves were often able to retain their Muslim identity, their descendants were not. Slaves were either forcibly converted to Christianity as was the case in the Catholic lands or were besieged with gross inconviences to their religious practice such as in the case of the Protestant American mainland. In the decades after slavery and particularly during the depression era, Islam reemerged in the form of highly visible and sometimes controversial heterodox movements in the African American community. The first of these of note was the Moorish Science Temple of America, founded by Noble Drew Ali. Ali had a profound influence on Wallace Fard, who later founded the Black nationalist Nation of Islam in 1930. Elijah Muhammad became head of the organization in 1934. Much like Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam in 1964, many African American Muslims now follow traditional Islam. A survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations shows that 30% of Sunni Mosque attendees are African Americans. African American orthodox Muslims are often the victims of stereotypes, most notably the assumption that an African American Muslim is a member of the Nation of Islam. They are often viewed by the uneducated African-American community in general as less authentic than Muslims from the Middle East or South Asia while credibility is less of an issue with immigrant Muslims and Muslim world in general. Other religions Aside from Christianity and Islam, there are also African Americans who follow Judaism, Buddhism, and a number of other religions. The Black Hebrew Israelites are a collection of African American Jewish religious organizations. Among their varied teachings, they often include that African Americans are descended from the Biblical Hebrews (sometimes with the paradoxical claim that the Jewish people are not). There is a small but growing number of African Americans who participate in African traditional religions, such as Vodou and Santeria or Ifa and diasporic traditions like Rastafarianism. Many of them are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean and South America, where these are practiced. Because of religious practices, such as animal sacrifice, which are no longer common among American religions and are often legally prohibited, these groups may be viewed negatively and are sometimes the victims of harassment. Life events For most African Americans, the observance of life events follows the pattern of mainstream American culture. There are some traditions which are unique to African Americans. Some African Americans have created new rites of passage that are linked to African traditions. Pre-teen and teenage boys and girls take classes to prepare them for adulthood. They are typically taught spirituality, responsibility, and leadership. Most of these programs are modeled after traditional African ceremonies, with the focus largely on embracing African ideologies rather than specific rituals. To this day, some African American couples choose to â€Å"jump the broom† as a part of their wedding ceremony. Although the practice, which can be traced back to Ghana, fell out of favor in the African American community after the end of slavery, it has experienced a slight resurgence in recent years as some couples seek to reaffirm their African heritage. Funeral traditions tend to vary based on a number of factors, including religion and location, but there are a number of commonalities. Probably the most important part of death and dying in the African American culture is the gathering of family and friends. Either in the last days before death or shortly after death, typically any friends and family members that can be reached are notified. This gathering helps to provide spiritual and emotional support, as well as assistance in making decisions and accomplishing everyday tasks. The spirituality of death is very important in African American culture. A member of the clergy or members of the religious community, or both, are typically present with the family through the entire process. Death is often viewed as transitory rather than final. Many services are called homegoings, instead of funerals, based on the belief that the person is going home to the afterlife. The entire end of life process is generally treated as a celebration of life rather than a mourning of loss. This is most notably demonstrated in the New Orleans Jazz Funeral tradition where upbeat music, dancing, and food encourage those gathered to be happy and celebrate the homegoing of a beloved friend. Cuisine [pic] A traditional soul food dinner consisting of fried chicken, candied yams, collard greens, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the United States, such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, grits, watermelon, indigo dyes, and cotton, can be traced to African influences. African American foods reflect creative esponses to racial and economic oppression and poverty. Under slavery, African Americans were not allowed to eat better cuts of meat, and after emancipation many often were too poor to afford them. Soul food, a hearty cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South (but also common to African Americans nationwide), makes creative use of inexpensive products procured through farming and subsistence hunting and fishing. Pig intestines are boiled and sometimes battered and fried to make chitterlings, also known as â€Å"chitlins. Ham hocks and neck bones provide seasoning to soups, beans and boiled greens (turnip greens, collard greens, and mustard greens). Other common foods, such as fried chicken and fish, macaroni and cheese, cornbread and hoppin’ john (black-eyed peas and rice) are prepared simply. When the African American population was considerably more rural than it generally is today, rabbit, possum, squirrel, and waterfowl were important additions to the diet. Many of these food traditions are especially predominant in many parts of the rural South. Traditionally prepared soul food is often high in fat, sodium and starch. Highly suited to the physically demanding lives of laborers, farmhands and rural lifestyles generally, it is now a contributing factor to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in a population that has become increasingly more urban and sedentary. As a result, more health-conscious African-Americans are using alternative methods of preparation, eschewing trans fats in favor of natural vegetable oils and substituting smoked turkey for fatback and other, cured pork products; limiting the amount of refined sugar in desserts; and emphasizing the consumption of more fruits and vegetables than animal protein. There is some resistance to such changes, however, as they involve deviating from long culinary tradition. Holidays and observances [pic] A woman wearing traditional West African clothing lighting the candles on a kinara for a Kwanzaa celebration. As with other American racial and ethnic groups, African Americans observe ethnic holidays alongside traditional American holidays. Holidays observed in African American culture are not only observed by African Americans. The birthday of noted American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr has been observed nationally since 1983. It is one of three federal holidays named for an individual. Black History Month is another example of another African American observance that has been adopted nationally. Black History Month is an attempt to focus attention on previously neglected aspects of the African American experience. It is observed during the month of February to coincide with the founding of the NAACP and the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, a prominent African American abolitionist, and Abraham Lincoln, the United States president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Less widely observed outside of the African American community is Emancipation Day. The nature and timing of the celebration vary regionally. It is most widely observed as Juneteenth, in recognition of the official reading of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865 in Texas. Another holiday not widely observed outside of the African American community is the birthday of Malcolm X. The day is observed on May 19 in American cities with a significant African American population, including Washington, D. C.. One of the most noted African American holidays is Kwanzaa. Like Emancipation Day, it is not widely observed outside of the African American community, although it is growing in popularity within the community. African American scholar and activist â€Å"Maulana† Ron Karenga invented the festival of Kwanzaa in 1966, as an alternative to the increasing commercialization of Christmas. Derived from the harvest rituals of Africans, Kwanzaa is observed each year from December 26 through January 1. Participants in Kwanzaa celebrations affirm their African heritage and the importance of family and community by drinking from a unity cup; lighting red, black, and green candles; exchanging heritage symbols, such as African art; and recounting the lives of people who struggled for African and African American freedom. Names African American names are often drawn from the same language groups as other popular names found in the United States. The practice of adopting neo-African or Islamic names did not gain popularity until the late Civil Rights era. Efforts to recover African heritage inspired selection of names with deeper cultural significance. Prior to this, using African names was not practical for two reasons. First, many African Americans were several generations removed from the last ancestor to have an African name since slaves were often given European names. Second, a traditional American name helps an individual fit into American society. Another African American naming practice that predates the use of African names is the use of â€Å"made-up† names. In an attempt to create their own identity, growing numbers of African American parents, starting in the post-World War II era, began creating new names based on sounds they found pleasing such as Marquon, DaShawn, LaTasha, or Shandra. Family When slavery was practiced in the United States, it was common for families to be separated through sale. Even during slavery, however, African American families managed to maintain strong familial bonds. Free, African men and women, who managed to buy their own freedom by being hired out, who were emancipated, or who had escaped their masters, often worked long and hard to buy the members of their families who remained in bondage and send for them. Others, separated from blood kin, formed close bonds comprised of fictive kin; play relations, play aunts, cousins and the like. This practice, perhaps a holdover from African tradition, survived Emancipation, with non-blood family friends commonly accorded the status and titles of blood relations. This broader, more African concept of what constitutes family and community, and the deeply rooted respect for elders that is part of African traditional societies may be the genesis of the common use of the terms like â€Å"aunt†, â€Å"uncle†, â€Å"brother,† â€Å"sister†, â€Å"Mother† and â€Å"Mama† when addressing other African American people, some of whom may be complete strangers. Or, it could have arisen in the Christian church as a way of greeting fellow congregants and believers. Immediately after slavery, African American families struggled to reunite and rebuild what had been taken. As late as 1960, 78% of African American families were headed by married couples. This number steadily declined over the latter half of the 20th century. A number of factors, including attitudes towards education, gender roles, and poverty have created a situation where, for the first time since slavery, a majority of African American children live in a household with only one parent, typically the mother. These figures appear to indicate a weak African American nuclear family structure, especially within a large patriarchal society. This apparent weakness is balanced by mutual aid systems established by extended family members to provide emotional and economic support. Older family members pass on social and cultural traditions such as religion and manners to younger family members. In turn, the older family members are cared for by younger family members when they are unable to care for themselves. These relationships exist at all economic levels in the African American community, providing strength and support both to the African American family and the community. Politics and social issues Since the passing of the Voting Rights Act, African Americans are voting and being elected to public office in increasing numbers. As of January 2001 there were 9,101 African American elected officials in America. African Americans are overwhelmingly Democratic. Only 11% of African Americans voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 Presidential Election. Social issues such as racial profiling, the racial disparity in sentencing, higher rates of poverty, institutional racism, and lower access to health care are important to the African American community. While the divide on racial and fiscal issues has remained consistently wide for decades, seemingly indicating a wide social divide, African Americans tend to hold the same optimism and concern for America as Whites. In the case of many moral issues such as religion, and family values, African Americans tend to be more conservative than Whites. Another area where African Americans outstrip Whites in their conservatism is on the issue of homosexuality. Prominent leaders in the Black church have demonstrated against gay rights issues such as gay marriage. There are those within the community who take a more inclusive position most notably, the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and the Reverend Al Sharpton, who, when asked in 2003 whether he supported gay marriage, replied that he might as well have been asked if he supported black marriage or white marriage. Neighborhoods African American neighborhoods are types of ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. The formation of African American neighborhoods is closely linked to the history of segregation in the United States, either through formal laws, or as a product of social norms. Despite this, African American neighborhoods have played an important role in the development of nearly all aspects of both African American culture and broader American culture. Due to segregated conditions and widespread poverty some African American neighborhoods in the United States have been called â€Å"ghettos. † The use of this term is controversial and, depending on the context, potentially offensive. Despite mainstream America’s use of the term â€Å"ghetto† to signify a poor urban area populated by ethnic minorities, those living in the area often used it to signify something positive. The African American ghettos did not always contain dilapidated houses and deteriorating projects, nor were all of its residents poverty-stricken. For many African Americans, the ghetto was â€Å"home† a place representing authentic blackness and a feeling, passion, or emotion derived from the rising above the struggle and suffering of being of African descent in America. Langston Hughes relays in the â€Å"Negro Ghetto† (1931) and â€Å"The Heart of Harlem† (1945): â€Å"The buildings in Harlem are brick and stone/And the streets are long and wide,/But Harlem’s much more than these alone,/Harlem is what’s inside. Playwright August Wilson used the term â€Å"ghetto† in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) and Fences (1987), both of which draw upon the author’s experience growing up in the Hill district of Pittsburgh, an African American ghetto. Although African American neighborhoods may suffer from civic disinvestment, with lower q uality schools, less effective policing and fire protection. There are institutions such as churches and museums and political organizations that help to improve the physical and social capital of African American neighborhoods. In African American neighborhoods the churches may be important sources of social cohesion. For some African Americans the kind spirituality learned through these churches works as a protective factor against the corrosive forces of racism. Museums devoted to African American history are also found in many African American neighborhoods. Many African American neighborhoods are located in inner cities, These are the mostly residential neighborhoods located closest to the central business district. The built environment is often row houses or brownstones, mixed with older single family homes that may be converted to multi family homes. In some areas there are larger apartment buildings. Shotgun houses are an important part of the built environment of some southern African American neighborhoods. The houses consist of three to five rooms in a row with no hallways. This African American house design is found in both rural and urban southern areas, mainly in African-American communities and neighborhoods.