Kierkegaard and Nietzsche

There are a number of misconceptions many have regarding the philosophy of existentialism. Probably the most common misconception is the notion that it is a nihilistic, dark philosophy with a miserable outlook. This is a horribly inaccurate assessment as existentialism is really a philosophy of looking at life through a realistic lens. Of course, different people see things differently and this is why even famous, leading existentialist philosophers such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche have diverse teaching methodologies for presenting existentialism. In order to clearly understand existentialism, one must look at some of these differences between these two existentialist philosophers.Both of these two philosophers understand that it is often perception that gets in the way of reality. That is, people will look at life their own biases and perspectives as opposed to looking at reality. Both Kierkegaard and Nietzsche understand that this inherent flaw is common among all humans and they stress that improvement of the individual can overcome this problem. Their approaches to the problem, however, lack much in terms of similarity.Probably the main difference between the two would be the notion of inward understanding vs. outward expression. For Kierkegaard, there is much internalization. That is, the individual needs to look at his or her own flaws and come to an anagnoris of that is somewhat akin to enlightenment and personal spirituality. For Nietzsche, the approach is far more humanist as the process for self improvement is found in how the person acts. That is to say, enlightenment does not come from a quasi sense of spirituality as much as it comes in personal achievement in realized goals. In a way, Nietzsche's â€Å"superman† displays who he is through his actions. For Kierkegaard, there is internal philosophizing that creates a different perspective. This, too, can change the person but without the external displays.Individualism is a very important po int for both of these philosophers. Often, existentialism is the philosophy of the self and is not concerned with collectivism. (This is one of the reasons why the philosophy is erroneously referred to as being pure narcissism) Kierkegaard, while very negative towards the notion of group think and groups, stresses that there are certain gains that can be made from within the group.This is provided, of course, that the man does not allow the group to take over his thinking. For Nietzsche it would seem there is more anger and bitterness towards the group. He has little use for collective pursuits of any kind and would prefer to shun it as opposed to Kierkegaard plays the collective for individual benefit. That is, use the flaws of the group as a guiding principle for self enlightenment.If there was any confusion present it would center on the notion that one could be self enlightened or a superman within a vacuum. That is, if you are the loner who feels â€Å"above it all† what value can that be worth if the group collective does not honor you achievements. Perhaps Kierkegaard and Nietzsche would state that whatever the group believes is worthless but most people do hope to gain value from the collective's envy. Then again, perhaps this confusion derives from rejecting some of the isolationist tendencies of existentialism. If you are not willing to completely reject â€Å"the group† then much of existentialism will prove unappealing.Once again, while the teachings of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche in regards to promoting existentialism seek the same goal, their approaches have a number of differences. Some are overt and some are subtle. Then, some are merely a matter of perception.HeideggerBut what really is the human being? While there are physical, biological and even spiritual aspects that comprise the human being most people can not put the sums together and provide a finite, conclusive answer to that very important question. Yet, it has been a ques tion posed by many existential philosophers for many years. One existentialist who sought to provide a very unique and definitive insight to what is a human being was Heidegger/ The attempts to do so are seen in his examination of Dasein. Dasein is essentially a way of looking at the individual's place in the world. As such, if you understand the person's place in the world then you will understand the person. In a way, this is because a being and a being's environment are inseparable. After all, does not environment shape the being?The interesting point that Heidegger puts forth is that throughout human history there is an unfortunate tendency by society to ignore the question of being. This is because the being is taken for granted. That is, individualism is somewhat discarded due to benign neglect. This is the result of putting far too much emphasis on society towards looking at the being on overly psychoanalytical of not overly metaphysical means. In other words, the collective has too much of a complicated definition for the being. This is often because society does not look at the being from the perspective of extreme simplicity: a human is a thinking organism prone to emotion. When a school of thought or an institution ignores this fact the ability to truly understand the being is lost.In a way, it would seem that Heidegger would hope that the being – the individual – would ignore society as it generally ignores him. That does not mean one should be dismissive or insubordinate to the rule of law. It simply means one should seek his or her own individual path and try to avoid the collective mentality and the influences it pedals.In a similar vein, there are a number of strong opinions surrounding Heidegger's philosophy vs. Wittgenstein's Logical Positivism. On a baseline level, Logical Positivism is a rebuke of mysticism and seeks to establish a more secular, logic based outlook on life. In a way, it is much like traditional existentialism although its approach can be somewhat more biting. What makes the comparison between Heidegger's theories and Logical Positivism is the fact that followers of Logical Positivism often accuse Heidegger's theories of being overly based in mysticism!This is a bizarre notion because it would infer that Heidegger's outlook on the concept of the being was not based on humanism, Instead, it would be inferred that the being centered on mysticism. Perhaps this is because those who prescribe to Logical Positivism see concepts of â€Å"the being† as being psychoanalytical variants of mysticism and spirituality. Obviously, this was not Heidegger's intention and such an inference would infer confusion.Perhaps this is because the Logical Positives followers would assume that there is far too much speculation inherent to answering questions regarding who or what is the being. Again, this brings us to the antagonistic attitudes certain realists may have regarding anything psychoanalytical. P erhaps to these individuals looking inward to answer questions of being might walk to close of a line towards spirituality. (Again, this is not Heidegger's intent but this is how some critics may have defined it.) Notion of spirituality walk too closely to mysticism for followers of Logical Positivism and that is why they may very well reject Heidegger.On a basic level, however, Heidegger's theories of the being are sound. Of course, there will be critics and that is expected, but to outright dismiss the benefits of Heidegger's work upon cursory examination would not be the wisest path to take.

Nature or Nurture for children’s language development Essay

To answer the question about if a child develops language through biological preprogramming or through environmental stimulation. Many linguists and scholars debate from the nature-inspired and nurture-inspired perspectives. Both nature and environmental factors interact to help children develop language. It is reasonable that every child has a genetic basis to develop language abilities. However, the environmental stimulation, or nurture-inspired perspective will play a more important role than the nature approach does, given a special case of Genie and the experience factor in language acquisition. The best example of why nature alone cannot develop language in a child is the special case of Genie shown in the video â€Å"Secret of the Wild Child†. Genie was completely isolated when she was a child, so no one interacted with her or taught her to speak. She did not have a way to learn how to speak on her own either. When she was finally removed from isolation, she missed the critical learning period and had trouble communicating like an adult. Even though she did not learn to speak properly, she could still express some ideas after the scientists nurtured her. If she had been around with her family and friends from the beginning of her life, she may have communicated better at an earlier age. According to the article â€Å"Nature vs. Nurture Debate in Language Acquisition†1, written by Professor Shanawaz, the adults usually speak to children in a structured and repetitive way. The children imitate the language and their languages formulate a same cultural belief an d value system. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory also states that the built-in biases from those â€Å"experience† and â€Å"culture† factors lead to constraints in those children’s language development process. Read more:  Influences that affect children’s development essay

Billy Budd 2 Essay Research Paper To

Billy Budd 2 Essay, Research Paper To organize merely one sentiment or demo simply one facet of this narrative is naif, ill-mannered, and closed minded. How may one stick to one food shop mea, moral inquiring, or out-look on a book that jumps from such instances like toads on lily pads? Merely as Melville has done, I shall try to set up my perceptual experience of Billy Budd, in a similar manner. That is, through an irregular pattern ( that is ; leaping from platinum. to point ) , of composing an essay I shall invariably alter and waies and ends of what it is I wish to province. One may comprehend the book s construction to be loose and rather flexible ; one finds that the tantrums and starts, and the shifting of lengths between chapters are the best manner to convey the feelings/ significances of Billy s narrative. Possibly the storyteller believes that Billy is true on a deeper sense ; in other words, it corresponds to existent experience. Don T you, yourself find that when you are seeking to do a major determination, or populating through some important event your head supports switching from one thing to another, sometimes rapidly and dramatically, sometimes contriving conjectural state of affairss to utilize as comparings or differences? This is similar to the instance as seen in Billy Budd. The Book doesn T work in a rigorous and orderly manner but starts out to depict at length different characters, so moves to fast actions, slows down once more to a really argued trail, so draws quickly to a stopping point with Billy s hanging. Even after that event, ( the hanging ) , the book lingers on with a remark of it and ties up all loose terminals ( Captain Vere deceasing etc ) . Though this narrative lacks Orthodox format, it coheres in a profound and traveling manner. The manner and point of position of Billy Budd can be dealt with together b/c of the strong narrative voice determines both. The storyteller of the narrative is clearly a extremely educated individual with a great cognition of mythology. Though the voice of the narrative is consistent in this novel, the point of position is invariably altering. Sometimes we are put inside the caputs of the characters ( he tells us Claggart s secret ideas about Billy, and makes us experience the anguish Captain Vere is sing in doing his difficult determination. Then once more there are other times were he removes both of us ( storyteller, and reader ) , from a scene, ( Best illustration being, when Vere goes to state Billy that he must hang- and avoids doing judgements ) . The switching position and non including judgements forces one to do their ain feelings and values to the events in the book. It s these displacements that make the book of all time more true, existent, and complex in the different state of affairss. The storyteller invariably makes allusions to the Bible and to Greek mythology, and this has the consequence of promoting Billy s narrative into a symbolic play. The storyteller besides has the wont of straying, and he confesses that this failing is a literary wickedness. One might happen these Acts of the Apostless to be deflecting, but in fact when you stop to believe why the storyteller included them it sheds a certain visible radiation. Not merely does the storyteller maintain altering his point of position, but he keeps altering his gait every bit good. Background on history ( the war ) , a long analysis of characters, which are followed by intense dramatic action ( i.e. ; Billy being approached in fall ining a mutiny, and subsequently killing Claggart ) . Through such an attack the storyteller evokes the ambiance of the narrative. Many different subjects arise in this narrative. First, one most note that Billy was given 3 chief monikers ; Baby Budd, he was seen as a signifier of Christ, and as Adam from the Garden of Paradise. When seeing all three in the same sentence it brings one to compare and contrast. What do all three basically hold? Innocence. Furthermore, such a quality International Relations and Security Network T lost through yourself but through the actions of others. A Baby doesn T turn up until his eyes are opened and he is stripped of his pureness. Jesus was all good until he was hanged a rood by those who opposed his beliefs- once more another stripped of his goodness. Last but non least, the comparing of Billy to Adam. Adam was a adult male, G-d first creative activity, and hence is seen as one of the highest degrees of hollies. He did non cognize evil, for he was the first, but what brought about his autumn was the enticement of the serpent. To stretch farther into the thoughts of Billy and his relation to each description, one must see them in context. Baby ; who bestowed Billy with such a rubric? Though Billy has many friends among the crew of the Indomitable, the Dansker is the lone one whose character Melville fills out wholly. Wrinkled, misanthropic, tight-lipped, and wise in the crooked ways of the universe, the Dansker offers rather a contrast to the fine-looking immature crewman whom he dubs Baby Budd. Furthermore, Melville compares the old Dansker to the prophet at Delphi, a sort of spiritual fortune-teller whom the antediluvian Greeks would confer with for advise about the hereafter. Like this prophet, the Dansker likes doing short, deep dictums, and one time he speaks, he refuses to explicate what he s said. Billy, for one, can t understand half of his vocalizations, and what he understands he refuses to believe. You might acquire frustrated with him because, while he cares for Billy, he refuses to take a base and talk up for him. In add-on, after this short history of who the Dansker is, one can see vividly why he was named Baby Budd. On a physical degree Billy contrasted the Dansker rather vividly. On a deeper degree, thought still easy to hold on, one sees that the Dansker is wise in the crooked ways, nevertheless ; Billy is yet a babe. Sing Billy as a signifier of Christ ; In order to visualize Billy as a Christ, one must first attack Jesus for what he was. Christ was a simple adult male ( shepherd ) , and sacrificed himself so as others wouldn t be hurt. He excessively was betrayed by person he felt he could swear. ( Judas ) . Similarly, Billy was merely ( the book neer gave us ground to believe that Billy was greatly educated or such ) . Second, after Billy s unwilled wickedness, his surrender to his destiny nowadayss Billy as Christ like in his willingness to accept the forfeit of his ain life in order to keep societal order. Furthermore, I believe that because Billy was approached to fall in a mutiny, decided non to, and still didn t describe the work forces he was approached by, the people saw him as an above type of individual. Billy like Christ was besides betrayed by person he thought he could swear. Don T be misunderstood ; I am non mentioning to Captain Vere, but Claggart. For illustration ; in the incide nt of the spilling of the soup, Claggart did non respond in a roseola mode, hence, Billy put down all guards from him. This cogent evidence is most noticeable, in the scene in which Billy is hanged and the gallows in which Billy is hung upon is seen as a kind of Crucifix and Billy himself as a Christ-like figure. Billy is closely associated with Adam before the Fall. Claggart is like the serpent Satan who wormed his manner into Eden and tricked mankind out of a province of pureness, artlessness, and felicity. Billy Budd reenacts this antique struggle between good and evil symbolically and in the workings of the secret plan. However, I think this parable merely goes every bit far as the instance with Billy killing Claggart. Even beyond that simple apprehension, the autumn of adult male can be looked at in different ways. Sociologically, when pureness and artlessness is stripped off by the act of killing Claggart. Simplicity, to jurisprudence and justice. Another manner to construe Billy s autumn, is that of adult male to industry. ( Although this thought is more stressed in Bartleby ) . Yes, Billy reenacts the Fall of Man, but it goes a measure farther to demo the forgiveness and credence that follows. The important scene in this book is the meeting between Captain Vere and Billy after the trail ( the scene from which we re significantly excluded ) , when the justice embraces the condemned slayer like a male parent to a boy. The father-son motive is a sub-theme within this general reading. The key in the book is Billy s echoing approval: â€Å"God Bless Captain Vere! † ( Chapter 21 ) In Billy Budd, the function of the justice and leader is played by the Honorable Edward Fairfax Vere, the commanding officer of the Indomitable. Vere is a member of the English nobility. A unmarried man about 40 old ages old, Vere is a brave but non foolhardy captain, who has distinguished himself in several conflicts and lift to his rank through dedicate service and because he treats his crew good. He is an rational, which is something rare in the armed forces. He loves to read, particularly history and doctrine Books that reinforce his strong conservative sentiments of the universe. Though he is a decisive leader, he besides has a touch of languor in his character and on juncture has been seen gazing into the sea. Because it is understood that Vere and Billy were close it brings to oppugn why Vere wouldn T have pardoned Billy? Very Far was he from encompassing chances for monopolising to himself the hazards of moral duty. ( chapter 21 ) Captain Vere can be looked upon in at least three different visible radiations. Vere as a austere but merely justice, Vere as inhuman coward, and as a all-around adult male in a tough topographic point. Each give ground to why Billy stated, G-d bless Captain Vere. And through each it is easy to plus why in each it would do sense. Vere as austere but merely justice ; No one likes the fact that Billy bents for killing Claggart, but many feel that Vere made the lone determination possible. As the Captain of the Indomitable, he must look out for the public assistance of the whole ship, non merely the destiny of one adult male, and his determination to put to death Billy takes this precedence into history. It is evident to us, as readers that Vere suffers because the more he sees of Billy the more he loves him. By the terminal, he feels about like Billy s male parent. He knows Billy is guiltless before God ( chapter 21 ) in the ultimate sense, but his responsibility concerns the here and now. The jurisprudence demands that Billy must hang, and Vere knows he must continue the jurisprudence. Furthermore, to implement this degree of concluding with the phrase God Bless Captain Vere, one may construe it to intend ; hapless Captain Vere, may you bless him for it is the mistake of society non this adult male. In add-on, cognizing that Vere is brave, individual at 40 and all together devoted to his work, his true hurting for Billy Becomes known when he dies in the preceding conflict. His last words uttered were Billy ; Billy s last words were Captain Vere. As Vere takes leave of Bill, the senior lieutenant notices a expression of torment on his face ( chapter 22 ) Through another window one can see Vere to be a inhuman coward. Vere argued himself into the decease punishment for Billy out of cowardliness and bare fright. He might easy hold pardoned Billy, but he convinces himself that to make so would do the crew to mutiny, and he uses this feeble statement to convert the other Judgess to travel along with him. It s the typical second-guessing of a nervous coward. Vere might read a batch of books, but all they do is indurate his already settled sentiments. Like so many intellectuals, he wholly separates his feelings from his ideas, and assumes that his intestine reaction is incorrect, because it comes from his intestine! In this regard ; the phrase God Bless Captain Vere, takes on a new significance. Now it can stand to intend, God bless this adult male for he is lost. Yet another manner to look at Captain Vere is excessively merely soggiest that Vere is a all-around adult male in a tough topographic point. He s a leader and a mind, a adult male of deep feelings but besides a stickler for inside informations, a adult male with strong personal sentiments but an even stronger sense of responsibility. There is no simple reply to this instance. Furthermore, if you look at Billy ; Billy didn t study the mutiny, and followed his bosom making what he felt was moral. If you observe Captain Vere ; The Captain decides to hang Billy, he did what the jurisprudence directed him to make. If you look at the result of each individual so you will detect something in congruity, they both died. Possibly this is to state us that in a universe of such complexness, peoples will endure the same destiny regardless of the way of society ( jurisprudence ) , or personal decision ( that is moral ) . In this one can construe the phrase, God bless Captain Vere to intend, God bl ess this adult male for he was left with a fork in the route in which both results were similar. This is the cardinal nature of Vere s nature and everyone agrees one these basic facts. When Vere has to cover with the highly hard state of affairs on board the ship caused by Claggart s accusal, and Billy s striking out at him, his character is thrown into a whole new visible radiation. His ultimate determination, nevertheless, is up to endless argument. The manner one feels about his determination will turn out to be the anchor of one s reading of the book. I personally agree with the pick that Captain Vere made. What is Claggart s job? This is a inquiry you can believe about infinitely and still non reply to your satisfaction. Claggart is fundamentally the force of immorality in Billy Budd. He is Billy s face-to-face in merely about every manner. This will give you a good grip on how to speak about Claggart but it doesn t get to the underside of him. As Melville makes so clear in this book, immorality is a enigma that can neer be adequately explained. Bing Claggart is the incarnation of immorality, contains this enigma at the really centre of his character. Claggart is at the other terminal of the rope ( good v. immorality ) ; it is astonishing to see how they both steam from a similar steam. To look at him you might non believe he is so bad. Thirty-five old ages old, tall, dark haired, and reasonably fine-looking, there are merely two truly unusual things in his appearance- a dead-white skin color and an excessively big mentum. It is interesting to see a dead white skin color as a description for person with dead characteristic. To state he is dead you can link him to the really symbol of Satan or snake that he is thought out to be. He is dead in the sense of missing heart/ feelings. As for an overly big mentum, this is normally a similar physical characteristic seen with many evil characters, i.e. , Cruealla Deville, and other dark animals leering in the shadows. Both Claggart are instead fine-looking ( except for the difference stated about Claggart to see Billy s visual aspect see chapter 1 ) . Both had no existent background, all w e know of Billy is that he utilize to work on the Great adult male and now moved to the never-say-die as a consequence of war. As for Claggart he seems to be rather intelligent, and no 1 can calculate out how h got to the naval forces. Rumor has it that Claggart as a little clip condemnable in England, and he was drafted straight from prison. But no 1 knows for certain. About his intelligence, merely like the serpent used his intelligence to flim-flam Mankind, Claggart excessively uses his intelligence to flim-flam Billy. Thus the autumn of either s Garden. Upon this reappraisal, one can inquire such a inquiry of, does every Eden have to hold its serpent? The presence of John Claggart in Billy Budd suggest that immorality is portion of our universe, and it will ever attach itself to innocence and seek to pervert it. Billy Budd focuses on the interior life of a individual ship. Life aboard the Indomitable is a scaly down theoretical account of life itself, yet it is evident of the strength and about claustrophic this scene can be as the narrative returns and everything is heightened. Thought the wide-open sea is all about, it merely isolates the work forces from the remainder of the universe. If you ve of all time been momently separated on a encampment trip, per-say, so you know how rapidly one can acquire on another s nervousnesss. This narrative captures that strength. One must besides retrieve that Billy is set in a clip of war and mutiny, and theses factors have a major impact on the narrative and everyone s determinations.

General Rule for Nationals of Member States Case Study

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The Grapes of Wrath Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

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Social Networking Sites Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Social Networking Sites - Essay Example Some people disagree, arguing that individuals should not use social networking sites as a forum of airing their opinions as these sites are not safe and have landed people in legal and personal problems. While these arguments are valid, people’s convictions should not be suppressed as voicing them out has created awareness on political subjects, thus revolutionizing politics. Social networking sites have been criticized as being ineffective in conducting political change as political activists form or join like-minded groups. They do not foster any action. Critics have also added that people join advocacy groups in sites like Facebook and ignore every message these groups send to them (Delany). However, these like-minded groups have taken things a step further. Levi Russell, a communications director of the Tea Party Express, said, â€Å"Facebook allows us to promote and organize events in a whole new way [...] it is one of the most targeted and flexible tools we use. Our su pporters are able to really take ownership of events in their area by sharing, discussing and inviting their friends in a very visual and tangible format (Unze o3a).† Furthermore, through social networking sites, protests have been arranged that have led parliaments to be dissolved and dictatorial leaderships to step down. One of the cyber organizers of the recent Egyptian protest, Wael Ghonim, said, â€Å"I am talking on behalf of Egypt [...] this revolution started online [...] this revolution started on Facebook (Smith).† Wael Ghonim demonstrated how instrumental social networking sites are in transforming politics. It has also been claimed that the state has a powerful means of monitoring or interdicting the tools on social networking sites, rendering them inactive as a tool of change in the political scenery and as such strengthening authoritarian regimes. These authoritarian regimes, apart from scrutinizing social networking sites, have also had them shut down (Sh irky 28-41). Notwithstanding, this does not stop individuals from stating their opinions about pertinent issues with their leadership. In fact, by the government shutting down these websites, the end effect achieved is that everyone is alerted to what is going on in the state, causing the news to spread faster. Also, internet shutdown allows people to be creative and use social networking sites to send coded messages, therefore still creating political awareness and enforcing political change in the long run (Feith 5). Furthermore, social networking sites like Twitter have an open API that allows other web service providers to insert a stream of tweets. This makes Twitter versatile even when there is an internet shutdown. For example, in Iran after the government shut down all internet sources people were still able to access Twitter. One tweet read â€Å"all internet & mobile networks are cut. We ask everyone in Tehran to go onto their rooftops and shout alaho akbar in protest #Ir an Election (Suvillan).† This characteristic of Twitter has ensured continued expression of political opinions. Many have argued that social networking sites have led to individuals being maimed, killed or even imprisoned by dictatorial governments for expressing their opinion (Leynne). However, without sacrificial lambs that are willing to voice their opinions, politics would be nonexistent. In fact, states that embrace freedom of speech were first formed by people speaking out. The opposition also argues that social networking sites have led people to be sued by posting defamatory and indecent messages on their status updates. Therefore, these social

Football & Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Football & Finance - Essay Example The spending on salaries and players was 43 percent up over the previous five years. European clubs assessment is a requirement of Uefa’s financial fair play policies, which focuses on reducing debt and stopping teams from spending above their capability. According to Uefa’s rule of financial fair play, teams that fail to meet the requirements of the union’s policies face sanctions or suspension from participating in the continent’s major competitions. According to 2009, 2010 and 2010 financial reports, many clubs participating at both clubs and European competition levels exhibited significant amount of losses in relation to the Uefa’s minimum low of â‚ ¬5 million. Many European football clubs including top flight clubs have recently shown numerous financial drawbacks adding to recent increase in the total loss experience in the European football industry. There have been public outcries from some clubs regarding financial fair play by some of t he continent’s top division clubs. A considerable number of clubs have undergone liquidation while many more face the threat of possible bans from taking part in Uefa Champions League and Europa League, which are the continent’s most prestigious football competitions. Liquidation is the worst experience any club would ever wish to undergo. Apparently, cost control has been one of the most challenging tasks for European football clubs. Many clubs, including the most famous clubs in the recent history of football, have failed maintain low and sustainable expenditure levels, which calls for robust research into the issue of finance and football. There Owing to the increasing margins of losses incurred by European football clubs and many reported cases of possible liquidations of clubs, there is clear need for information supply for football club managers and committees on sustainable cost management approaches, which this project intends to establish through review of lit erature on some of the main causes of financial dismay for many football clubs. Preliminary Review of Literature The strong economic growth that football industry exhibited during late periods of 1990s prompted academicians and researchers to shift their attention towards issues that relate to the administration of performance of football clubs

Christianity in the Middle East Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Christianity in the Middle East - Assignment Example Secondly, from the interview with the leader of Christian Peoples Alliance highlights two issues of importance. The first is that Christian girls are being hijacked in Egypt and forced to marry Muslim men so that they can be converted to Islam. In Syria and Jordan, Christians are being treated to incredible persecution because they are not supporting the uprising in the Arab world. These two issues are of great importance to any Christian, not just in the Middle East but also in the rest of the world as cases of kidnapping may happen anywhere in the world. To a large extent, this is reducing the number of Christians in the Middle East. Thirdly, the whole video is information to the entire world as the reported cases of migration to other parts of the world is not a case of light importance. This calls for caution on all the Christians wherever they are and contribution to these people who are suffering. Background Information The persecution of Christians in the east is not a direct issue. As stated earlier, there is a desire by the Muslims to be supported in the spring. However, there is a feeling that the Christians are not doing anything to support them. They feel that the country belongs to all of them yet the fight for freedom is being done by the Muslims only. Therefore, to force Christians to join the Muslims, there is a direct attack especially on the girls who are being kidnapped and forcefully converted to Islam. This is strong because, from a basic perspective, it can be seen that the number of Christians will continue dwindling. Starting as the political issue in northern Africa in a bid to topple the ruling regimes, the revolution turned into a bloody war that has claimed the lives of so many people all over the region. The Middle East regions of Syria and Jordan have witnessed a high level of hijackings to foreigners especially from the western nations who have been on the ground to offer humanitarian services. The other background reason is the s ocial strife between the Muslim world and the western world. That is why there is a high-level anxiety in London that the spring would later turn into a Christian winter. This is because they are likely to be most affected by that given their position on neighboring Israel that has also been a source of hatred from the Muslims. Lessons from the Video There are several lessons that can be learned from the Arab spring in the east. One of the lessons is that there is persecution of Christians and this persecution is intentional. There is a high possibility that there is a plot to wipe out the Christian faithful from the east. This is seen by the statement given by the leader of the Christian peoples’ alliance in which he states that Christian girls are being hijacked and forced to marry Muslim men in a bid to convert them to Islam. To this effect, there is the need for action to be taken to avoid this trend. The same lesson is supported by the fact that all the Christians are fo rced to live an unstable life in which they are forced to migrate to other relatively peaceful places all over the world. The forced migration is an indication of the strength of the persecution and lack of peace that is exhibited in the region.

Ikea Case Study Analysis Essay Example for Free

Ikea Case Study Analysis Essay Symptoms IKEA has a strong international brand recognition built upon a unique philosophy and low product prices, combined with solid sales performance. IKEA’ s famous vision is â€Å"to create a better everyday life for many people†. The company maintains total control of its design, pricing and supply of product ranges globally, and thus has a product portfolio that caters for most consumer lifestyles and budgets. IKEA is very much reliant on Europe, with 82% of stores located in this region, European market can be regarded as saturated and in times of economical downturn sales in coming years will are unlikely to be something more than just â€Å"modest†. Problem definition Whether to continue IKEA expansion to new markets, e.g. Asian market? And how to secure IKEA’s competitive advantage in the future? Alternatives First alternative: In order to keep good quality standards of IKEA products, no further extension to new markets in the nearest future + It will give an opportunity to preserve well-known global brand and its strong position at European and American market The company will lose market share The sales will reduce Second alternative: Continue expansion into non-Western markets, including China + Sales increase by gaining the market -The image of IKEA may be weakened as in China it may be very hard to keep with quality standards at the same time offering products for extremely low price Recommendations I would recommend to focus more on markets, where IKEA is currently doing its business. Expansion to China’s market with very tough conditions (in terms of price) may change the IKEA forever and even destroy the company, it will be another very cheap and not very qualitative retailer from China, but not IKEA anymore. Having chances for gaining Asian market, IKEA may have big threat to loose European and American market. I believe there is always room for improvement, IKEA could enhance services, for example develop of e-commerce, consumers may find Internet shopping preferable, as the Ikea reputation means that they are already assured of the quality and craftsmanship of Ikea products, which is opposed to the present belief of Ikea that customers should be able to feel and check the quality of products before purchase.

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant Essay Example for Free

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant Essay In The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, the main character, Mathilde, fails to realise that happiness comes from within. Mathilde borrows a necklace from her friend in order to go to a fancy ball with her husband. She manages to lose her necklace, with disastrous consequences. Mathilde needed to appreciate what she had and learn that people are charmed by personality. In order to be happy, people have to learn to appreciate what they have. Madame Loisel had a good life. She had a loving husband and a servant to help her run the house. However she was not happy. She yearned for a privileged life. It was only when she lost everything and came to know the life of abject poverty, did she realise, how little is needed to ruin or save. People arent necessarily impressed by appearance or possessions, but rather personality. When her husband gave her the invite to the ball, Mathilde upset. She had no clothes or jewels to wear to such an affair. She thought that the guests at the ball would not be charmed by her ordinary clothes. However, when she reached the ball all of the guests were enchanted by her happiness! She was the prettiest woman at present, graceful, smiling and quite above herself with happiness. Remembering and celebrating happy memories is all you need to be happy. When Mathilde came home from the ball, she was upset, disappointed and sad. It was over. She would never see such riches again. What Mathilde forgot to do though, was to celebrate those happy memories she held from that spectacular night, but sadly it ended to soon for Mathilde, and sadly they walked up to their own apartment. It was the end, for her. Later in her life when she was reduced to a life of poverty, Mathilde realised and cherished the importance of happy memories, shethought of that evening long ago Mathilde had a loving husband, a comfortable home and a wonderful servant to help her. Yet all she was interested in was possessions. This had the effect of not appreciating what she had, forgetting to celebrate good times and not focussing on what is important, your inner self.

The Wembley National Stadium Construction Essay

The Wembley National Stadium Construction Essay It was built to be the new home of football; to be one of the largest and magnificent stadiums in the world and designed to be state-of-the-art with a seating capacity of 90,000. Designed by the World Stadium Team led by Mott MacDonald, the Wembley Stadium now stands as the most expensive stadium ever built, the longest single-span roof structure in the world (315m), second largest stadium in Europe and the tallest in the world (133m) with every seat under roof cover. The concept was to build a state-of-the-art stadium, with none that can compare anywhere else in the world. The new stadium has a partly retractable roof which can be adjusted to allow sunlight to reach all parts of the pitch. During bad weather, the roof can be retracted in about 15 minutes to cover every seat (http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/wembley/).  £120 million from the Lottery Fund was invested into the stadium with an additional loan of  £426 million through West Deutsche Landesbank. A fixed price contract was reached between the client and contractors. This made provision for a building cost of  £352 million and total project costs of  £757 million (Public Accounts Committee, 2004). However, like most iconic construction projects of national interest, the Wembley project was not spared its own share of controversies, accusations, rumours, anxieties and fascination. The Football Association (FA) must have imagined a spectacular 2006 FA Cup grand finale, the biggest UK soccer championship at Wembley National Stadium. Unfortunately, this important event had to be moved all the way to Wales! What was wrong? Wembley Stadiums extraordinarily ambitious re-development was utterly behind schedule.  The project later opened in March 2007, almost a year behind schedule and  £70million over budget and has since then kept some of the finest construction lawyers in constant employment. The Wembley Stadium concept was definitely ambitious and the product stands now impressively. Even more breathe taking is the 133m arch which when lit up at night shinning gloriously, and can even be seen across London. Wembley has indeed become Englands new icon of football. The client for the project was the Football Association (FA) working through its subsidiary the Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL). The main contractor was Multiplex Constructions with Mott MacDonald being the Lead Designers. The project used two project advisors; Tropus at the initial stages (1997-2001) and Capita Symonds (2001-2006). The initial steel contractor was Cleveland Bridge 2.0 Problems during the project A litany of problems can be identified that bedevilled the construction of the Wembley Stadium mainly adversarial contracts, unreasonable risk allocation, cash-flow problems, design changes, poor performance, poor site management and litigations. These are presented in details below: Delays and indecisiveness even before the project begun: Plans for a new stadium were beset with delays, management problems and increasing costs since December 1996. The designs were revealed in 1999 and the stadium should have been completed in 2003 but the work itself started only in September 2002 due to many political and financial problems. The project was finally rescheduled to complete in May 2006 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2119413.stm). Design Problems: Multiplex argued that Mott MacDonald`s design for the Wembley steel work was not fit for purpose and that the initial designs were not correct, constructible, co-ordinated and consistent. It further stated that Mott MacDonalds deficient design, failure to warn and/or take action is shown in many thousands of individual acts or omissions (Technology and Construction Court (TCC), 2006). Scope Creep: The initial scope was to accommodate athletics, rugby and football in the same stadium. This later became very controversial and resulted in the removal of athletics from the scheme in 1999, because of the technical and commercial challenges of accommodating the three sports within the same stadium. In December 2001, the scope was further changed with the removal of a hotel from the project, the expansion of hospitality suites and considerable changes to the north side of the stadium bowl. This took the Mott Consortium 7-8 months to redesign. These changes increased the cost of the project especially in steel works (TCC, 2006). Procurement Issues: In the conclusions of Public Accounts Committee (Eighth Report of Session 2003-04), it stated that Best procurement practice has not been followed on what is a high profile project Organisations responsible for managing projects should be expected to set out a formal procurement process, which treats all bidders equally to avoid giving any one a potential advantage over the others. It further criticised Wembley National Stadium Limited for failing to follow a detailed and overt formal procurement process and having dialogue with Multiplex prior to starting the procurement process. A report by former Wembley project manager Tropus, said the appointment was made with undue speed. The James Report also concluded that there had been serious flaws in the procurement policies.'(James Report, 2002) Poor Communication: Apart from the major changes in the scope of the works, Multiplex  lamented not given access to vital design information which made them underprice the steelwork. Mott on the other hand thought Multiplex was aware of the state of design, having managed the design process and having been intimately involved in the design work. (Wembley Stadium into Injury Time, 2002) Poor Planning and organisation: A lot of decisions seem to have been made hastily. No wonder several changes had to be made at later stages. When it became a prime objective to finish the project in time for the FA Cup finale in May 2006, efficiency and cost effectiveness became secondary issues. In my opinion, a lot of problems could have been avoided if Multiplex did not have to rush the job to meet unrealistic deadlines. Multiplex claims that it has sustained significant losses as a result of a multitude of breaches of contract and/or acts of negligence by the consultant, which had far-reaching effects for Wembley (TCC, 2006; Baloch, 2008). Disputes and disagreements: Cleveland Bridge (CB), the steel contractor terminated their contract in 2004 because they did not believe they would be paid for materials and that there were seemingly insurmountable difficulties between them and Multiplex. A sustained input from a steelwork subcontractor could have greatly influenced the timely completion of the project but eventually CB had to be replaced with all attending problems of a new project team member. Health and Safety problems: In March 2006, a temporary roof support fell by over half resulting in the evacuation of all construction workers and delay of work. Another accident occurred January 2004 resulting in the death of one construction worker and the injury of another when a platform collapsed without warning, trapping the men underneath (http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/wembley/) Poor Performance by Cleveland Bridge: Delays were caused by CB as not all the steel sent to China could be fabricated in time to comply with the programme. So the steel sent to China was often shipped back to England with most not fabricated. Furthermore the steel sent to site was often missing crucial pieces (meaning it could not be erected) or else was untagged with the consequence that site staff could not identify the relevant pieces of steel (TCC, 2006). Poor Supervision by Sports England: The Government was less than happy with the level of supervision offered by Sport England. It stated that Sport Englands performance in monitoring the progress of the project has been lack, slovenly and supine. This ultimately resulted in supply team missing the focal point of the project right from the beginning and before long, a lot was out of hand (Wembley Stadium into Injury Time, 2002). Poor Stakeholder management: In a statement by The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sports Committee, it blamed some of the problems encountered on the project on poor stakeholder management. It said, the project had been undermined by the fundamental failure to include all representatives at the outset in planning the redevelopment (www.publications.parliament.uk). The resignation of Ken Bates in 2001 as chairman of WNSL gives a further hint. He cited a lack of support from the board and that he had been undermined by senior figures within both the government and the FA. He remarkably said, Even Jesus Christ only had one Pontius Pilate I had a whole team of them. (www.forbes.com). 3.0 The Problems Encountered: The Role of Project Management Project Management (PM) is the . . . application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to achieve project requirements. (PMBoK, 2004). This same theme runs through other standards for PM including BS6079 and ISO 10006. Suffice it for now to say that PM is the managerial responsibility and actions involved in completing a project on time, in budget and to the specified quality standards, in accordance with the traditional performance criteria. The role of PM in the Wembley project will now be appraised under some of the key knowledge areas identified in the PMBoK. 3.1 Project Scope Management This involves developing a scope statement that will define the boundaries of the project and verify the amount of work to be done. PM uses such tools as brainstorming, fast diagrams, Value Management workshops to define the project. This is because if you have the wrong definition, you may come up with the right solution-to the wrong problem!(Lewis, 2007). If scope definition is not holistically carried out, major changes such as those experienced on Wembley may occur later and cause delays, cost variations leading to claims and litigations. This, I believe, was the akiles heel of this iconic project. Where change becomes inevitable, PM should manage them to protect the project from the effects of scope creep. Wembley failed in this area resulting in the considerable cost and time overruns. Lewis (2007) rightly said, I have become convinced that projects seldom fail at the end. Rather, they fail at the definition stage. 3.2 Project Time Management PM adorns itself with yet another accolade of being able to effectively estimate time frame for projects realistically and defining work packages and milestone to achieve this target. It employs one of its popular tools of Critical Path Method and scheduling in this respect. Many softwares including Primavera and MS Project have also been developed to helped in the management of time. Kaming (1997), Elinwa (2001) and Aibini (2006) however reveal that the occurrence of time overruns is high and that overruns can occur of projects irrespective of its size. Wembley was no exception. Some of the disputes, changes, cash flow problems, design problems etc. that caused resulted in the project being delivered in 10 months late and the subsequent changing of the FA Cup finals to Wales could have been avoided through effective project time management. PM should have helped to come out with a realistic duration for the project. 3.3 Project Cost Management This involves estimating the cost of all resources and such things as travel and other support details. After this is done, costs are budgeted and tracked to keep the project within that budget (Rad, 2002). This is very important in PM as the first question most clients ask is how much will it cost? It is the duty of the PM to realistically determine what it will cost to achieve a particular scope. The tough question then arises. Was Wembleys initial cost of  £445million realistic? Why did cost rise astronomically to  £757million at completion? The project even had to be stalled into injury time just to seek additional funding. Why couldnt PM prevent this? Much of the blame lies squarely on PMs failure to realistically estimate cost at conception. 3.4 Project Communications Management This is the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage, and disposition of project information. (PMBoK, 2004). Multiplex  claims it was not given access to vital design information and that this led to increased steelwork costs. Mott MacDonald on the other hand dismisses this saying, Multiplex was aware of the state of design, having managed the design process and having been intimately involved in the design work (TCC, 2006). PM is supposed to create a smooth communication interface between all parties to forestall these misunderstandings. 3.5 Project Procurement Management This helps in selecting the most appropriate contractors and suppliers, administers the contract as well as form the best working relationships between all parties to achieve project goals. The Public Accounts Committee (2003-04), stated that Best procurement practice has not been followed on what is a high profile project PM should have also salvaged the problem between Mott, Cleveland and Multiplex before it got out of hand, resulting in Cleveland walking away from the project with its attending problems. More also, it is known that competitive tendering and cost as a selection criteria has produced poor results in construction over the years and PM should have helped in designing the best procurement approach to prevent the problems (Egan, 1998). The contract used for the project was fixed cost method in which the client cleverly shirks risk to the contractor. This form of contract invariably results in creating an adversarial environment with where each party involved focuses their attentions on the needs and risks of their businesses as opposed to those of the project (Morriss, P. and Hollis, A., 2005).This may well be another area that grossly affected the results on Wembley and effective PM should have prevented this. 3.6 Stakeholder Management: Freeman and McVea (2001) describe this function as looking out from the firm or project and identifying, and investing in all the relationships that will ensure long-term success. At concept stage, this is used to collect views of all interested parties, especially those of end users who usually hold vital information that may be critical to the design, function and success of a project. If this was effectively done, it would have prevented the acrimony that grew between some of the contractors and would have saved the project from unnecessary delays and increased cost of replacing Cleveland Bridge. It would have helped to produce the best fitting design as well as sort out the fact that athletics, football and rugby in the same venue would present a lot of technical and functional difficulties at the design stage saving the project from about 8 months of redesign. 3.7 Site Management: Chan (1997) showed that out of 8 group factors that caused delays in construction projects, poor site management and supervision was amongst the top five. The accusations and counter-accusations during the hearing at the Technology and Construction Court between Multiplex and Cleveland Bridge gives us yet another glimpse into an area of failure of PM on Wembley. The site was poorly managed as it was littered with random pieces of steel that had been delivered in the wrong order and a significant quantity of steel was sitting on trailers adjacent to the site or around the perimeter. This had the potential of disrupting flow of activities and even causing accidents (TCC, 2006). 4.0 The Actions and MeasureS that should have been taken The influential Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) reports called for new approaches to construction- one in which client leadership is key and where there is greater collaborative working between firms within the construction supply chain. Egan summarised five key drivers of change namely committed leadership; a focus on the customer; integrated processes and teams; a quality driven agenda; and a commitment to people. Some of the necessary actions and measures that should have been taken is now presented below: 4.1 Key Client Leadership: The new Terminal Five at Heathrow is a widely acclaimed example of current construction best practice. The approach was unique and tailored to the very needs of the project i.e. the client took a level of ownership of project thus creating a clear vision for how it wanted the project delivered and also staying close enough to the project from inception to completion (Brady, 2008). Latham (1994) recommended that the client should be at the core of the construction process because clients [essentially] drive best practice. Egan (1998). The Client in the Wembley Stadium project was the Football Association and thus should have: stayed close enough to the project, monitoring it and to make sure things dont go out of hand; ensured that major changes to the scope of works was frozen at a particular point on the project or avoided altogether. These changes often result in dispute, delays and extra expense; made sure that adequate funding was secured for the project before it even begun and that the estimation of both time and cost were realistically carried out; come out with clear, concise, realistic and unambiguous objectives at the conception of the project involving all necessary stakeholders so that major changes, such as those that were experienced, could be avoided; shared in risk of development/construction rather than cleverly shoving it to contractors. 4.2 The Heathrow Method: Terminal 5 was an audacious development project that involved more than 60 contractors and 16 major projects. British Airways Authority (BAA) adopted a unique approach to the project to make sure it is completed both on time and within budget. It used an innovative form of cost-reimbursable contract the T5 Agreement under which BAA holds all the risks associated with the project rather than transferring the risks to external suppliers and guarantees a level of pro ¬Ã‚ t for suppliers. (Brady, 2008). The Agreement included an incentive payment for contractors that achieved a certain level of performance. It decided to reimburse the costs of delivery and to reward exceptional performance and punish mediocre and poor performance only in terms of pro ¬Ã‚ tability. This created some sort of win-win environment for all parties and motivated the contractors to focus their attention on the needs of the project and collectively solve problems rather than concen trate on their own business risks and interests. These are the fundamental reasons why T5 achieved the laudable success of staying within budget and cost at completion. Cleveland would not have walked out of the job if it was given firm assurance of re-imbursement of cost incurred. The contracts should have been designed with an approach that offered incentives to all, for improvement in cost, time or quality and not in an adversarial environment associated with fixed cost contracts. 4.3 Integrating the Supply chain: Both Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) underscored the importance of using integrated teams to realise project goals. The T5 approach used by BAA combined two main principles: the client always bears the risk; and partners are worth more than suppliers. It provides an appropriate environment for integrated team working [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] to enable suppliers to work effectively and focus on meeting the projects objectives not only in relation to the traditional time, budget, and quality measures but also in relation to safety and environmental targets (Brady, 2008). By doing that you take away negativity, allow space for innovation and create any opportunity for people to perform at levels they havent been allowed to before (Mylius, 2005). 4.4 Involvement of end users: End users often hold vital information as they are usually in a better position to comment on the detailed requirements for a building than senior management who may not even be the occupants of the building when it is completed. After all, the users have first hand experience of what makes a building successful or otherwise (Menches, 2008). By the use of such methods as focus groups, value management workshops and major surveys, the issue of athletics, rugby and football in the same venue could have been resolved even before any detailed design and thus eliminating the extensive delays and cost implications it had on the project (Barrett, P., and Stanley, C., 1999). 4.5 Use of a Project bank: In an attempt to integrate project teams in an atmosphere of trust, collaboration and openness, the National Audit Office (NAO) of the UK suggested the use of a project bank account. To ensure better construction, it said, suppliers [require] greater certainty that they will be paid on time to re-enforce the trust that should exist between all parties for collaborative working to operate effectively. This was endorsed by the Specialist Contractors who indicated that payments for the project delivery team should be protected and secure, which would, in turn, significantly reduce disputes and, more importantly, will encourage closer working relationships between all parties. (Parliamentary Newsletter, Issue 3, Spring/Summer 2006). 4.6 Best Project Management Practice: At the execution level, much of the problems that occurred on the project could have been avoided or its impact attenuated if best project management practice was adopted by all especially Multiplex and Cleveland Bridge. Problems of poor site management practice, poor or incorrect fabrication of steel, design change management and communication could have been arrested with proper planning, organisation and control. 4.7 Careful Monitoring: Projects rarely stay on track in terms of time and cost. the more likely occurrence is that projects will be behind schedule yet over budget at any point in time. Good project management carefully and critically appraises all factors that a likely to push a project off schedule (Office of Government Commerce, 2005). Monitoring progress carefully and instigating timely corrective actions by both WNSL, Multiplex as well as the FA, would have helped identify the likely impact of any problems so that action can be taken to get the project back on track. 5.0 Conclusion Experience is a great asset to professionals practicing in any discipline, whether that experience comes from success or failure and whoever fails to learn from his mistakes is doomed to repeat them. Some of the key lessons on Wembley Stadium is thus now summarised below: Adequate time and effort needs to be invested in the strategic planning phase of every project to come out with clear, realistic, and unambiguous project objectives; Project team must engage effectively with users and other external stakeholders especially at the concept stage of any scheme to save the project from major changes with its attending problems; Construction procurement must move away from competitive tendering and cost as the selection criteria and develop procedures that use performance and team partnering and capability; Contracts must be designed to provide incentive to all for cost and time improvement and also forge a win-win environment between clients and supply chain members; Enough resources have to be made available for the project based on realistic estimates; Clients must assume central roles in projects for they essentially drive best practice; Continual change in project requirements and scope can be very detrimental for the project; Dysfunctional relationships and fragmentation can turn a perfect project scheme into a complete chaos and thus project teams must operate as a cohesive unit, with clear allocation of roles and responsibilities. Finally, it is evident, at least from the Wembley Stadium project that a poor knowledge and a lack awareness of the fundamental project management skills by the client can lead to failure as clients essentially drive best practice. An effective and successful outcome of project management on any project in most cases will only be achieved if both the client and the contractor or project management organisations are effective in the skills of project management. A poor client organisation, in terms of project management, may well drive a good project manager and his team into poor performance. Agreeably, it may not be a panacea due to many circumstances and occurrences that may well be out of its control. However, Project Management stands the chance of producing laudable results if the construction industry stopped treating it casually and unprofessionally but rigorously apply the great worth of knowledge and experience its gathered over the past years, through both its success and failure stories.

Lost Illusions, Bitter Wisdom and Fragile Hope in The Tempest Essay

Lost Illusions, Bitter Wisdom and Fragile Hope in The Tempest   Ã‚   Is Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, a drama of lost illusions, bitter wisdom and fragile hope? Before this question can be considered, one first has to interpret these terms. Perhaps "bitter wisdom" and "fragile hope" are fairly simple concepts to understand, "lost illusions" is somewhat less clear, particularly in the case of The Tempest.    There are three main interpretations of "lost illusions" that could be made. The first is that of a revelation of the mind; the discarding of an 'illusion' to reveal the truth of one's feelings. The second is similar but with a subtle difference; the lifting of an illusion to disclose the truth about something physical (instead of emotional, as in the first case). The last interpretation could not be applied to every use of the word 'illusion,' but suits The Tempest extremely well; this third analysis revolves around magic and the supernatural world.    There are several clear examples from the text to illustrate these various points of view. For the first case we have the character of Prospero who, by the end of the play, has realised that he requires more in his life than his Art of magic. He comes to acknowledge that he needs a change of environment, however much he will miss his old life on the island. For the second interpretation, we have the circumstances surrounding Antonio's usurpation of Prospero's title (told only in flashbacks); the true events that occurred then only come to light at the end of the play, when Prospero reveals the entire story to the assembled characters. The third interpretation, that of magic, is present throughout the play, as Prospero exerts his supernatural talents upon the... ...ased to be a problem, whereas Alonso has the future of his son to contemplate; a future that is by no means certain.    From all this, it is clear that, in a general sense, Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, is a drama of lost illusions, bitter wisdom and fragile hope, as many characters go through that cycle (lost illusions, leading to bitter wisdom and ending with fragile hope), or various parts of it. Also, this description can be used in a more precise manner, when dealing solely with individual characters, particularly Prospero, Miranda, Alonso and Ferdinand.    Works Cited and Consulted Cesaire, Aime. A Tempest. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: UBU, 1992. Kermode, Frank. "Introduction," in The Tempest(Arden Edition), (London: Methuen, 1962), xlvii-xlviii. West, Robert. Shakespeare and the Outer Mystery. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1968.

Ignorance in the Immigration Debate :: Illegal Immigration, Illegal Immigrants

Ignorance in the Immigration Debate One of the biggest, growing debates today is the issue of immigration into the U.S. I just don’t understand why there’s such a big debate. I compare this issue to the issue of racism in the way that, no matter what you do, "they" are always going to be here, and it is only ignorance that keeps the issue ablaze. The fact that migrants are not mostly white these days, also makes the issue one more of race. As Charles S. Clark puts it in The New Immigrants, "In the 1990’s, Americans who grew up in a historically white, Anglo-Saxon society are having to adjust to a Polish-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, John Shalikashvili; to Spanish-language editions of People magazine on Seven-11 shelves; and to Buddhist temples and Islamic mosques rising in their communities." In the case of immigration, though, the ignorance is apparent in both the immigrant and the non-immigrant. I would like to first address the ignorance and misinterpretations on the part of the non-migrants. First, and most important to me, is the idea that immigrants are all "tired and poor" (Clark). The truth is that, yes, some immigrants are tired and poor. But anyone would be tired and poor if they were subject to the conditions of these people. And many immigrants are not poor at all. Clark also points out, "witness the 12.000 Chinese technicians working in Silicon Valley computer firms or the well-heeled Iranian expatriots so visible in Beverly Hills." It’s also important to realize that many migrants were well off in their own countries, and had to start at the bottom of the ladder once here. Perhaps it is us that make them tired and poor. For example, In Cathy A. Small’s Voyages, the very first paragraph tells about a teacher in Tonga, who will go to the United States to only find work as a maid. Tired and poor is not the same thing as lazy and looking for a free ride . Then there is the language debate/barrier. I’ve heard many times, someone say "If you don’t want to learn the language, then go home" or "They just pretend like they don’t know English so that they can do whatever they want." I’ve even heard phrases like these coming out of the mouths of some of my own family members. Of course there are people who pretend not to understand, or who don’t really try to learn English.

Gang membership, Drug Selling, and Violence in Neighborhood Context Ess

Smiley is a man who was released back into the society on a parole. He was sent back to live in his neighborhood. Shinichi Suzuki, a famous Japanese violinist who invented Suzuki Method, got the right idea of Smiley’s situation when he said â€Å"Man is a child of his environment†. It means that Smiley is a product of his environment. His neighborhood is a no picnic. The neighborhood is a basically a graveyard of American dreams. Like everyone else in America, Smiley values individualism, achievement, money, and family unity highly. However he is in a hostile society where his rough background is rejected and regarded as a stigma. He does not have education or an escape from his neighborhood where people are under a great strain. The reason for the strain is because American culture sets the bar for gold standards of an ideal lifestyle that in the reality that social structures in some groups cannot follow (Shelden, Brown, Miller, & Fitzler, 2008). According to strain theory, Smiley’s neighbors all want same things but they cannot get them legally so they decide to find illegal loopholes. They go in this state that Robert Merton would call anomie (Shelden, Brown, Miller & Fritzler, 2008). According to him, the state is when â€Å"social structures exert a definite pressure upon certain persons in the society to engage in nonconforming rather than conforming conduct† ( p.78). A gang in Smiley’s neighborhood pressures Smiley into practicing norms that are considered unacceptable legally . Smiley’s gang approves stealing, violence, abuse of drugs, and organized crimes. Smiley had to adapt by conforming to the gang’s values, follow ritualism like wearing certain colors and speaking gang jargon, and view the world as us ( gang) against them.... ..., T. (2009). Gang membership, drug selling, and violence in neighborhood context. Justice Quarterly, 26(4), 645-669. Opsal, T. (2009). Women on parole: Understanding the impact of surveillance. Women & Criminal Justice, 19(4), 306-328. Shelden, R.G., Brown, W.B., Miller, K.S., & Fritzler, R.B. (2008). Crime and criminal justice in american society. Long Grove, Illinosis: Waveland Press, INC. Stickels, J. (2007). The game of probation. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 22(1), 33-43. Wilkinson, D.L. (2007). Local Social Ties and Willingness to Intervene: Textured Views Among Violent Urban Youth of Neighborhood Social Control Dynamics and Situations. Justice Quarterly : JQ, 24(2), 185-220. (Document ID: 1295281001). http://ezproxy.rit.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.rit.edu/pqdweb?did=1295281001&Fmt=7&clientId=3589&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Database Slides on Normalization

Chapter 11 Relational Database Design Algorithms and Further Dependencies Chapter Outline ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 0. Designing a Set of Relations 1. Properties of Relational Decompositions 2. Algorithms for Relational Database Schema 3. Multivalued Dependencies and Fourth Normal Form 4. Join Dependencies and Fifth Normal Form 5. Inclusion Dependencies 6. Other Dependencies and Normal Forms DESIGNING A SET OF RELATIONS ? Goals: ? Lossless join property (a must) ? Algorithm 11. 1 tests for general losslessness. Algorithm 11. decomposes a relation into BCNF components by sacrificing the dependency preservation. 4NF (based on multi-valued dependencies) 5NF (based on join dependencies) ? Dependency preservation property ? ? Additional normal forms ? ? 1. Properties of Relational Decompositions ? Relation Decomposition and Insufficiency of Normal Forms: ? Universal Relation Schema: ? A relation schema R = {A1, A2, †¦, An} that includes all the attributes of the database. Every attribute name is unique. ? Universal relation assumption: ? (Cont) ? Decomposition: ? ? Attribute preservation condition: ?The process of decomposing the universal relation schema R into a set of relation schemas D = {R1,R2, †¦, Rm} that will become the relational database schema by using the functional dependencies. Each attribute in R will appear in at least one relation schema Ri in the decomposition so that no attributes are â€Å"lost†. (Cont) ? ? Another goal of decomposition is to have each individual relation Ri in the decomposition D be in BCNF or 3NF. Additional properties of decomposition are needed to prevent from generating spurious tuples (Cont) ? Dependency Preservation Property of a Decomposition: ? Definition: Given a set of dependencies F on R, the projection of F on Ri, denoted by pRi(F) where Ri is a subset of R, is the set of dependencies X > Y in F+ such that the attributes in X U Y are all contained in Ri. Hence, the projection of F on each relation schema Ri in t he decomposition D is the set of functional dependencies in F+, the closure of F, such that all their left- and right-hand-side attributes are in Ri. (Cont. ) ? Dependency Preservation Property of a Decomposition (cont. ): ? Dependency Preservation Property: ? ? A decomposition D = {R1, R2, †¦ Rm} of R is dependency-preserving with respect to F if the union of the projections of F on each Ri in D is equivalent to F; that is ((? R1(F)) U . . . U (? Rm(F)))+ = F+ (See examples in Fig 10. 12a and Fig 10. 11) ? Claim 1: ? It is always possible to find a dependency-preserving decomposition D with respect to F such that each relation Ri in D is in 3NF. Projection of F on Ri Given a set of dependencies F on R, the projection of F on Ri, denoted by ? Ri(F) where Ri is a subset of R, is the set of dependencies X > Y in F+ such that the attributes in X ?Y are all contained in Ri. Dependency Preservation Condition Given R(A, B, C, D) and F = { A > B, B > C, C > D}    Let D1={R1(A,B), R2 (B,C), R3(C,D)} ? R1(F)={A > B} ? R2(F)={B > C} ? R3(F)={C > D} FDs are preserved. (Cont. ) ? Lossless (Non-additive) Join Property of a Decomposition: ? Definition: Lossless join property: a decomposition D = {R1, R2, †¦ , Rm} of R has the lossless (nonadditive) join property with respect to the set of dependencies F on R if, for every relation state r of R that satisfies F, the following holds, where * is the natural join of all the relations in D: (? R1(r), †¦ , ? Rm(r)) = r ? Note: The word loss in lossless refers to loss of information, not to loss of tuples. In fact, for â€Å"loss of information† a better term is â€Å"addition of spurious information† Example S s1 s2 s3 P p1 p2 p1 D d1 d2 d3 = S s1 s2 s3 P p1 p2 p1 * P p1 p2 p1 D d1 d2 d3 Lossless Join Decomposition NO (Cont. ) Lossless (Non-additive) Join Property of a Decomposition (cont. ): Algorithm 11. 1: Testing for Lossless Join Property Input: A universal relation R, a decomposition D = {R1, R2, †¦ , Rm} of R,and a set F of functional dependencies. 1.Create an initial matrix S with one row i for each relation Ri in D, and one column j for each attribute Aj in R. 2. Set S(i,j):=bij for all matrix entries. (/* each bij is a distinct symbol associated with indices (i,j) */). 3. For each row i representing relation schema Ri {for each column j representing attribute Aj {if (relation Ri includes attribute Aj) then set S(i,j):= aj;};}; ? (/* each aj is a distinct symbol associated with index (j) */) ? CONTINUED on NEXT SLIDE (Cont. ) 4. Repeat the following loop until a complete loop execution results in no changes to S {for each functional dependency X >?Y in F {for all rows in S which have the same symbols in the columns corresponding to attributes in X {make the symbols in each column that correspond to an attribute in Y be the same in all these rows as follows: If any of the rows has an â€Å"a† symbol for the column, set the other rows to that same â€Å"aâ €  symbol in the column. If no â€Å"a† symbol exists for the attribute in any of the rows, choose one of the â€Å"b† symbols that appear in one of the rows for the attribute and set the other rows to that same â€Å"b† symbol in the column ;}; }; }; 5.If a row is made up entirely of â€Å"a† symbols, then the decomposition has the lossless join property; otherwise it does not. (Cont. ) Lossless (nonadditive) join test for n-ary decompositions. (a) Case 1: Decomposition of EMP_PROJ into EMP_PROJ1 and EMP_LOCS fails test. (b) A decomposition of EMP_PROJ that has the lossless join property. (Cont. ) Lossless (nonadditive) join test for n-ary decompositions. (c) Case 2: Decomposition of EMP_PROJ into EMP, PROJECT, and WORKS_ON satisfies test. (Cont. ) ? Testing Binary Decompositions for Lossless Join Property ? ?Binary Decomposition: Decomposition of a relation R into two relations. PROPERTY LJ1 (lossless join test for binary decompositions): A decomposi tion D = {R1, R2} of R has the lossless join property with respect to a set of functional dependencies F on R if and only if either ? ? The FD ((R1 ? R2) >? (R1- R2)) is in F+, or The FD ((R1 ? R2) >? (R2 – R1)) is in F+. 2. Algorithms for Relational Database Schema Design Algorithm 11. 3: Relational Decomposition into BCNF with Lossless (non-additive) join property Input: A universal relation R and a set of functional dependencies F on the attributes of R. 1. Set D := {R}; 2.While there is a relation schema Q in D that is not in BCNF do { choose a relation schema Q in D that is not in BCNF; find a functional dependency X > Y in Q that violates BCNF; replace Q in D by two relation schemas (Q – Y) and (X U Y); }; Assumption: No null values are allowed for the join attributes. Algorithms for Relational Database Schema Design Algorithm 11. 4 Relational Synthesis into 3NF with Dependency Preservation and Lossless (Non-Additive) Join Property Input: A universal relation R a nd a set of functional dependencies F on the attributes of R. 1. Find a minimal cover G for F (Use Algorithm 10. ). 2. For each left-hand-side X of a functional dependency that appears in G, create a relation schema in D with attributes {X U {A1} U {A2} †¦ U {Ak}}, where X >? A1, X >? A2, †¦ , X > Ak are the only dependencies in G with X as left-hand-side (X is the key of this relation). 3. If none of the relation schemas in D contains a key of R, then create one more relation schema in D that contains attributes that form a key of R. (Use Algorithm 11. 4a to find the key of R) 4. Eliminate redundant relations from the result. A relation R is considered redundant if R is a projection of another relation SAlgorithms for Relational Database Schema Design Algorithm 11. 4a Finding a Key K for R Given a set F of Functional Dependencies Input: A universal relation R and a set of functional dependencies F on the attributes of R. 1. Set K := R; 2. For each attribute A in K { Compu te (K – A)+ with respect to F; If (K – A)+ contains all the attributes in R, then set K := K – {A}; } (Cont. ) 3. Multivalued Dependencies and Fourth Normal Form (a) The EMP relation with two MVDs: ENAME —>> PNAME and ENAME —>> DNAME. (b) Decomposing the EMP relation into two 4NF relations EMP_PROJECTS and EMP_DEPENDENTS. (Cont. ) c) The relation SUPPLY with no MVDs is in 4NF but not in 5NF if it has the JD(R1, R2, R3). (d) Decomposing the relation SUPPLY into the 5NF relations R1, R2, and R3. (Cont. ) Definition: ? A multivalued dependency (MVD) X —>> Y specified on relation schema R, where X and Y are both subsets of R, specifies the following constraint on any relation state r of R: If two tuples t1 and t2 exist in r such that t1[X] = t2[X], then two tuples t3 and t4 should also exist in r with the following properties, where we use Z to denote (R -(X U Y)): ? t3[X] = t4[X] = t1[X] = t2[X]. t3[Y] = t1[Y] and t4[Y] = t2[Y]. t3[Z] = t2[Z] a nd t4[Z] = t1[Z].An MVD X —>> Y in R is called a trivial MVD if (a) Y is a subset of X, or (b) X U Y = R. ? ? ? Multivalued Dependencies and Fourth Normal Form Definition: ? A relation schema R is in 4NF with respect to a set of dependencies F (that includes functional dependencies and multivalued dependencies) if, for every nontrivial multivalued dependency X —>> Y in F+, X is a superkey for R. ? Informally, whenever 2 tuples that have different Y values but same X values, exists, then if these Y values get repeated in separate tuples with every distinct values of Z {Z = R – (X U Y)} that occurs with the same X value. Cont. ) (Cont. ) Lossless (Non-additive) Join Decomposition into 4NF Relations: ? PROPERTY LJ1’ ? The relation schemas R1 and R2 form a lossless (non-additive) join decomposition of R with respect to a set F of functional and multivalued dependencies if and only if ? (R1 ? R2) —>> (R1 – R2) (R1 ? R2) —>> (R2 – R1 )). ? or ? (Cont. ) Algorithm 11. 5: Relational decomposition into 4NF relations with non-additive join property ? Input: A universal relation R and a set of functional and multivalued dependencies F.Set D := { R }; While there is a relation schema Q in D that is not in 4NF do { choose a relation schema Q in D that is not in 4NF; find a nontrivial MVD X —>> Y in Q that violates 4NF; replace Q in D by two relation schemas (Q – Y) and (X U Y); }; 1. 2. 4. Join Dependencies and Fifth Normal Form Definition: ? A join dependency (JD), denoted by JD(R1, R2, †¦ , Rn), specified on relation schema R, specifies a constraint on the states r of R. ? ? The constraint states that every legal state r of R should have a non-additive join decomposition into R1, R2, †¦ Rn; that is, for every such r we have * (? R1(r), ? R2(r), †¦ , ? Rn(r)) = r (Cont. ) Definition: ? A relation schema R is in fifth normal form (5NF) (or Project-Join Normal Form (PJNF)) with respect to a set F of functional, multivalued, and join dependencies if, ? for every nontrivial join dependency JD(R1, R2, †¦ , Rn) in F+ (that is, implied by F), ? every Ri is a superkey of R. Recap ? ? ? ? ? Designing a Set of Relations Properties of Relational Decompositions Algorithms for Relational Database Schema Multivalued Dependencies and Fourth Normal Form Join Dependencies and Fifth Normal FormTutorial/Quiz 4 Q1) Consider a relation R with 5 attributes ABCDE, You are given the following dependencies: A > B, BC > E, ED > A a) List all the keys, b) Is R in 3 NF c) Is R in BCNF Q2) Consider the following decomposition for the relation schema R = {A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J} and the set of functional dependencies F = { {A, B} > {C}, {A} > {D, E}, {B} > {F}, {F} > {G, H}, {D} -> {I, J} }. Preserves Lossless Join and Dependencies? a) D1 = {R1, R2, R3, R4, R5}, R1={A,B,C} R2={A,D,E}, R3={B,F}, R4 = {F,G,H}, R5 = {D,I,J} b) D2 = {R1, R2, R3} R1 = {A,B,C,D,E} R2 = {B,F,G,H}, R3 = {D,I,J }

Education For Life Essay

Education For LifeThe basic purpose of a liberal arts education is to liberate the human being to exercise his or her potential to the fullest. Liberal arts plays an important role in developing individuals and the world. When students attend liberal art colleges, they will understand the essence of humanity and will learn to shape and develop personal values. For a person to develop, he needs to understand the essence of humanity. When you attend college, your view on the meaning of life changes. You live for your minds and spirits and not just for the security of material wealth (Urbanek). You start to do things related to your work as this is your interest. This will make you care less about material wealth and you will focus more on the benefit of the world than the benefit of yourself. Liberal arts means arts of freedom. People learn about things that interest them. This makes the experience of learning better. Students will recognize the value of material things for what they are (Urbanek). They will start challenging tasks of design where they would learn how to translate ideas into actions. They will get to know the depth, flexibility and openness of their thinking and will also be able to recognize the importance of their thinking. Taking these ideas into consideration, I can say that liberal arts teaches people global responsibility, social awareness and self development, which is the essence of humanity. Thus, when the essence of humanity is known, then only a person will be able to acquire personal values. The value of liberal arts was appreciated by the students in older times but contemporary students do not share the same sentiment. In 1900, 70 percent of college students in US attended liberal arts colleges but today fewer that 5 percent do. The idea has taken hold by educators that todays youth are more materialistic, less idealistic and more self interested than their predecessors (Richard). In 1997, Yankelovitch survey focused on high school students and their parents, found that 85 percent of the high school students and 74 percent of their parents stated that the goal of college is to get a practical education and to secure a job. Furthermore, only 14 percent of the students and 27percent of their parents were even familiar with what a liberal art education is. Todays students tend to be career oriented, impatient and focused in material rewards (Kahn). People do not know that liberal arts can offer a clearer understanding that work embodies the values of courage, honour and responsibility. Liberal art colleges expose you to a variety of academic disciplines and an excellent background for future work. The education gives you the ability to adapt to a changing environment, communicate effectively, think critically and solve complex problems, which can prove very useful in everyday lives. As you acquire personal values throughout your college years, it is important to learn how to shape these values. I believe that the central purpose of liberal arts education is to shape the values of people. The impact of liberal arts education on student value change is conclusive in determining whether higher education is effective in achieving this central purpose. According to a survey conducted at the University of California at Los Angeles, 8 out of 10 academics said they were spiritual, and 64 percent called themselves religious. More than half of the faculty members said that it was important to enhance undergraduates’ self-understanding and to develop their moral character and values. I think liberal arts is a great way to teach people their spiritual and moral responsibilities towards the community and world itself. Humanitarian values are defined by acceptance of value equivalency between ones own loyalties and those of all other individuals and groups, as well as respecting the rights of others to freely express similar claims and loyalties without infringement (Hollway). Values serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or other social entity and thus, it is important for people to learn how to shape these values. Values are described as serving the interests of some social entity, motivating action, giving direction, and having emotional intensity (Hollway). Therefore, these values are needed for the development of individuals. When individuals possess these values, they will be able to use them in their society. Employers around the world are looking for people who possess these values and have the ability to use them. Hence, liberal arts students will satisfy these employers. These students will also find opportunities to learn more as their primary goal is not material wealth. This will help countries to better their economy. These values will benefit the students themselves as well as the world. Once a person understands the essence of humanity and learns to shape and develop values, he will be able to make changes to the world. Liberal arts students have the skills to become valuable community members. They make decisions, solve problems and communicate the solutions to others. Liberal arts prepares these students to be successful throughout their life. WORKS CITEDUrbanek, Jennifer. The EBSCOhost. 28 Oct. 2007 Kahn, Beverly. Co-opting The Market Place. Journal of Higher Education: p. 19. EBSCOhost. 28 Oct. 2007 Richard, M. The Practical Path, Too, Can Be High-Minded. Chronicle of Higher Education: p. 11. EBSCOhost. 28 Oct. 2007 Hollway, Michael. A Comparison of the Impact of 2 Liberal Arts. Journal of General Education: p. 237. EBSCOhost. 28 Oct. 2007.

Executive Power Concerning Essay

While the President has power under his right as the Commander- in- Chief, he is still subject to the interpretation of what is legally right based upon the laws of the Constitution. Such laws allow him the right to detain and try prisoners of war/ enemy combatants based upon military statutes and political authorizations. U.S. citizens hold certain civil liberties, one in particular being the right to know the charges brought against them in the event that they are detained for any crime. This civil liberty is commonly known as Habeas Corpus, and is extended to citizens who feel as though they have been wrongfully imprisoned. In times of constant conflict like todays War on Terror, one might wonder of the application of such rights to detained individuals. The title of President of the United States may mean reserved powers both appointed and implied but it does not mean exemption from constitutional separation of powers or complete subordination to the same. The President may hold the right to detain and try these prisoners, but he/she should not be allowed to abuse given powers by implementing means that will withhold the rights of Habeas Corpus whether the accused is a U.S. Citizen or not Habeas Corpus dates back to the early 14th century, debuting with the formalization of the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679. American colonist sought this act as a means to evade wrongful imprisonment by the British government, and due to the common suspension of this right, the early framers ensured that â€Å"The Privilege of the Wirt of Habeas Corpus† was incorporated into the Constitution, to include that such rights should not be suspended except in cases where Rebellion, Invasion or Public Safety requires it (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2012). Since then, habeas corpus writs have evolved in American tradition, dating to the Lincoln and  Roosevelt Presidency and as recent as the George W. Bush Presidency. Many texts even show how these Presidents regard the writ of habeas corpus, with the greater conflict of executive power against this right lying in the actions of President Bush and his stance on detaining captured enemy/suspected enemy combatants. Levin-Waldman (2012) illustrates the actions taken by earlier presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt, suggesting a trend in presidential abuse of power when it comes to suspending habeas corpus writs. During the Civil War, President Lincoln took action against the accused, John Merryman, by having union soldiers stop his petitioned writ from delivery to the federal Marshal. Later on during World War II, President Roosevelt convinced the Supreme Court to defer to his wishes in the case of â€Å"Hirabayashi v. United States in 1943†, under the stance that certain Japanese- Americans who frequently contact family in Japan â€Å"might constitute a security threat† to America during a time of war. Hirabayashi’s violation of the in place military curfew at the time, which was determined by the Supreme Court as a â€Å"legitimate defensive measure during a time of war† landed him in a position where his civil liberty to seek habeas corpus as an American citizen was ove rridden (Ch. 5.7). The trend of Presidential abuse of power concerning suspension of habeas corpus writs continues even to this day. As stated earlier, the ability to petition for habeas corpus is one of Americas basic civil liberties afforded to every citizen, but how does this apply to current situations that involve non-citizens? Take for example the case of Lakhdar Boumediene v. Bush, where the U.S. government classified Boumediene and five other Algerian detainees as enemy combatants in the war on terror (Ozey, 2008). They were subject to indefinite detention at the well-known U. S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. The men petitioned for a Writ of Habeas Corpus, alleging violations of the Constitution’s Due Process Clause which the Courts initially ruled in their favor. But in the end, and thanks to the â€Å"Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA)† spearheaded by President Bush, their petition was revoked and the Courts ruling was overturned because the MCA eliminated the jurisdiction of the federal courts’ to hear habeas applications from detainees who have  been designated as enemy combatants (Ozey, 2008) further illustrating presidential influence in such situations. Classification as an enemy combatant is used continuously to evade allowing detainees access to petitioning for writs of habeas corpus. Calling to question how relevant this writ is to today’s current conflict involving American government and the war on terror. The war on terror is such a broad topic, but one key thing about it that points toward relevancy to habeas corpus rights is that these enemy combatants â€Å"are neither soldiers, as they are not fighting for a nation state† (Levin-Waldman, 2012). Therefore because of the broad scheme of this war, it has the potential to go on indefinitely and because â€Å"enemy proceedings† may be tailored to alleviate their uncommon potential to burden the executive at a time of ongoing military conflict† (Levin-Waldman, 2012), the implementation of habeas corpus would help weed out the innocent detainees from the true enemies of this country if it were allowed and not deterred by the President through acts like the MCA. Overall the interpretation of the Supreme Court regarding who is afforded this basic civil liberty based upon the events of today’s conflict will pay dividends as to how much power the President can exercise in future cases, but that is only if their interpretation is met with open-mindedness rather than be shut down at every turn. Levin-Waldman (2012) tells us that, foreign policy presidents have greater power than domestic policy presidents, and often Congress tends to defer to the President during foreign policy situations. However it is safe to say that the war on terror includes both foreign and domestic considerations, which were affected by the actions of terrorists in the September 11th attacks and numerous other events since then. So what should be done about granting habeas corpus rights to enemy combatants? Looking further into the real situation taking place with detainees at Guantanamo Bay as a result of the MCA, this question is met with much friction. In the Rasul v. Bush case, the Supreme Court interprets the law in a manner that asserted that â€Å"the habeas statute extends to non-citizen detainees at Guantanamo† further relating to Boumediene alleging violation of the Constitutions Due Process Clause (Ozey, 2008). But as  stated earlier, this ruling was overturned by President Bush’s master minded MCA, whose sole purpose is to overrule the opinion of Supreme Court in doing their due diligence to interpret the law. However agitated the situation becomes, one must consider the perspectives involving habeas corpus writs in society as it has evolved from conflicts less complicated than todays. These perspectives include the role of the President as Commander-in-Chief, the Congress in determining when habeas corpus can be suspended, the role of the Supreme Court in protecting these civil liberties and one’s own opinion living in a day and age where the war on terror has made it well into its 13th year. Concerning the Presidents Role, the issue becomes whether he is succeeding his power or not. Ward (1990) tells us that during the Civil War, President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, ignoring the Chief Justices request, by claiming that â€Å"more rogues than honest men find shelter under habeas corpus†. On the contrary, in today’s conflict Foley (2007) begs to differ in that more honest men suffer the suspicion of being affiliated with Al Qeda and other terrorist groups because of the broad scope of the War on Terror, and are detained permanently, rather than the government properly identifying accurate procedures to determine actual terrorist from innocent citizens (p. 1010). This type of dentition gets its justification from an additional measure set in place by President Bush called the â€Å"Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CRST)† (Floey, 2007) which leaves the mind to wonder, how many innocent so called enemy combatants are held at Guantanamo Bay without access to habeas corpus writs? Though it is not clearly stated in the Constitution who can suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and it only states when it can be suspended (Turley, 2012, p. 5), Congresses role in suspending the writ has taken place a whopping three times in American history. Their involvement in determining when to suspend this basic American civil liberty took place in 1871 in South Carolina, in 1905 in the Philippines and during WWII in Hawaii, in varying cases that fell under the constitutional guidelines of rebellion, invasion and public safety (Turley, 2012, p. 6). This lack of participation is attributed to the limitations in the number of challenges a petitioner can  make due to recent statutory changes (Turley, 2012, p. 6), but during the times of involvement, Congress deferred to the President, making way for controversial procedures and increased detention of prisoners accused of affiliation with known American enemies. The Supreme Court on the other hand seems to have had their hands tied concerning the rights of these enemy combatants in relation to petitioning for writs of habeas corpus. Referring to the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case in 2006, the Supreme Court’s ruling in an effort to protect Hamdan’s civil liberty as an American citizen expressed that the â€Å"President’s establishment of military commissions violated the requirements of Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 36(b) and the Geneva Convention’s Common Article 3† (Dealy, 2007, p. 1071). But in doing so, they have been held at bay in their efforts to protect not only detained citizens, but have also been unable to make strides toward ensuring the government applies fair rules in identifying actual enemy combatants due to deferment to the president by congress and implemented rules like the MCA and CRST. With all the facts regarding the rules of habeas corpus and how it has played out in American history, one’s personal opinion of the matter ultimately determines how they view the purpose of protecting basic civil liberties and national security in today’s society. My view of this entire matter is filled with much anger toward the current situation and treatment of detained suspected enemy combatants. I have served on three combat tours while in the Army, and have worked very closely with Kuwaiti and Afghani nationals. I had to learn the hard way that all of these people are not Al Qeda members/ supporters and also that not all of them are out to hurt America and its citizens. My initial bias and clouded judgment based upon what was feed to me through what I though was once a justified approach by my government caused me to enter into an aggressive and fearful correspondence with these people on my first two deployments. It was all about national security and American safety until I learned otherwise, but what truly changed my mind about this vision I owned was the continuous attacks America faced regardless of the constant detention of enemy combatants under the suspicion of being an enemy of America. Foley (2007) put it best when he said that â€Å"not only is there no need to sacrifice civil  liberties for security, but that sacrificing civil liberties actually threatens public safety† (p. 1021). Such is the case in the governments dated approach to granting habeas corpus to enemy combatants and the treatment of these detainees whether they are U. S. citizens or not, hence the continued and progressive battle faced by the country with enemy personnel to this day. The rules that govern this nation are not always clear cut, and the government at times does more good at distorting public views by acting in ways that benefits the points they are trying to make. Every level of government, based upon â€Å"separation of powers and checks and balances† (Levin-Waldman, 2012) has specified jobs regarding protecting American civil liberties and the national security as written in the Constitution. When it comes to protecting these points and its relevancy to habeas corpus, the struggle remains as to how the government will do so as it pertains to the conflicts America is engaged in today. The rights of detainees whether they are American citizens or not, have fallen short of being totally ignored by most citizens, but has had the full attention of executive power for many years concerning how long and for what reasons so called enemy combatants can be detained. Despite the fact that the president’s power to imprison such enemy combatants is justified by the Constitution, it has never and most certainly will never state that there should be a use of abuse of executive powers to justify suspension of habeas corpus rights to these detainees. Regardless of how executive power in regard to habeas corpus writs have evolved over the years, the President should not be able to succeed his/ her power by manipulating the system through implementing a series of well drafted acts to permanently deter from what is written and determined as law in The Constitution of the United States. References Dealy, J. D. (2007). Subordination of Powers: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 126 S. Ct. 2749 (2006). Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, 30(3), 1071. Foley, B. (2007). Guantanamo and Beyond: Dangers of Rigging the Rules. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 97(4), 1010-1021 Levin-Waldman, O. M. (2012). American Government. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Oyez. (2008). Boumediene v. Bush. IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. Retrieved from http://www.oyez.org The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. (2012). Habeas Corpus. Columbia University Press. Retrieved from http://www.infoplease.com Turley, J. (2012). Habeas Corpus. The Heritage Guide to The Constitution. Retrieved from http://www.heritage.org Ward, G. C. (1990). Lincoln Suspends Habeas Corpus [Series episode]. In K. Burns, The Civil War: Episode 1 – The Cause (1861). Retrieved from http://digital.films.com.