Free Essays on Short Term Choices, Long Term Repercussions

Most people can pinpoint one or two times in their lives when the choices they made had long term repercussions. Such is the case for Briony Tallis in Ian McEwan’s book, Atonement. In the book, the concept of maturity is treated masterfully by the shift of a character’s perceptions, belief systems and social realities. Bryony Tallis is the younger sister whose literary skills are often belittled by her older sister Celia. As the book opens, she creates a play for her cousins and herself to perform. The family’s dynamics are at once set as the reader finds the mother remote and as distant as the father, who seems to spend most of his nights in London, rather then at home. As the evening’s events unwind, the small details and insignificant happenings of the day are spoken about, but the undercurrent of tension is building. Later, one of the cousins is assaulted on the grounds of the house and Briony, still stinging from an insult earlier, tells the authoriti es that it was Robbie, their childhood friend and Cecilia’s boyfriend. Briony witnesses her sister strip down to her undergarments and dive into a family fountain with Robbie looking on. Not comprehending what was going on between the two, she goes down to the fountain after the two have left. It is at this point that she begins to glimpse a bit of her future, and cleverly, McEwen foretells the tale. Briony had her first, weak intimation that for her now, it can no longer be fairy-tale castles and princesses, but the strangeness of the here and now, of what passed between the people that she knew. Though she does not understand what has happened, her imagination fills in what she supposes to be the gaps. It is this assumption that leads to the terrible culmination of events which destroys them all. Briony decides she has witnessed a scene that is sinister; that Robbie has somehow forced her sister to get naked. In this first section of the book, the reader is treated to the s ... Free Essays on Short Term Choices, Long Term Repercussions Free Essays on Short Term Choices, Long Term Repercussions Most people can pinpoint one or two times in their lives when the choices they made had long term repercussions. Such is the case for Briony Tallis in Ian McEwan’s book, Atonement. In the book, the concept of maturity is treated masterfully by the shift of a character’s perceptions, belief systems and social realities. Bryony Tallis is the younger sister whose literary skills are often belittled by her older sister Celia. As the book opens, she creates a play for her cousins and herself to perform. The family’s dynamics are at once set as the reader finds the mother remote and as distant as the father, who seems to spend most of his nights in London, rather then at home. As the evening’s events unwind, the small details and insignificant happenings of the day are spoken about, but the undercurrent of tension is building. Later, one of the cousins is assaulted on the grounds of the house and Briony, still stinging from an insult earlier, tells the authoriti es that it was Robbie, their childhood friend and Cecilia’s boyfriend. Briony witnesses her sister strip down to her undergarments and dive into a family fountain with Robbie looking on. Not comprehending what was going on between the two, she goes down to the fountain after the two have left. It is at this point that she begins to glimpse a bit of her future, and cleverly, McEwen foretells the tale. Briony had her first, weak intimation that for her now, it can no longer be fairy-tale castles and princesses, but the strangeness of the here and now, of what passed between the people that she knew. Though she does not understand what has happened, her imagination fills in what she supposes to be the gaps. It is this assumption that leads to the terrible culmination of events which destroys them all. Briony decides she has witnessed a scene that is sinister; that Robbie has somehow forced her sister to get naked. In this first section of the book, the reader is treated to the s ...

How to Setup and Use SSH on a Raspberry PI

How to Setup and Use SSH on a Raspberry PI SSH is a secure method of logging onto a remote computer. If your Pi is networked, then this can be a handy way of operating it from another computer or just copying files to or from it. First, you have to install the SSH service. This is done by this command: sudo apt-get install ssh After a couple of minutes, this will be complete. You can start the daemon (Unix name for a service) with this command from the terminal: sudo /etc/init.d/ssh start This init.d is used to start other daemons. For example, if you have Apache, MySQL, Samba etc. You can also stop the service with stop or restart it with restart. Have It Start at Bootup To set it up so the ssh server starts every time the Pi boots up, run this command once: sudo update-rc.d ssh defaults You can check that it worked by forcing your Pi to reboot with the reboot command: sudo reboot Then after rebooting try to connect to it using Putty or WinSCP (details below). Powering Down and Rebooting Its possible to corrupt your SD card with power offs before it halts. The result: reinstall everything. Only power down once you have fully shut down your Pi. Given its low power usage and little heat given off, you could probably leave it running 24x7. If you want to shut it down, use the shutdown command: sudo shutdown -h now Change -h to -r and it does the same as sudo reboot. Putty and WinSCP If youre accessing your Pi from the command line of a Windows/Linux or Mac PC then use Putty or the commercial (but free for private use) Tunnelier. Both are great for general browsing around your Pis folders and copying files to or from a Windows PC. Download them from these URLs: Putty Download PageWinSCP Download PageTunnelier: Powerful free to use Windows SFTP etc. Your Pi needs to be connected to your network before you use Putty or WinSCP and you need to know its IP address. On my network, my Pi is on 192.168.1.69. You can find yours by typing in /sbin/ifconfig and on the 2nd line of the output, youll see inet addr: followed by your IP address. For Putty, its easiest to download putty.exe or the zip file of all the exes and put them in a folder. When you run putty it pops up a configuration Window. Enter your IP address in the input field where it says Host Name (or IP address) and enter pi or any name there. Now click the save button then the open button at the bottom. Youll have to login into your pi but now you can use it as if you were actually there. This can be quite useful, as its far easier to cut and paste long text strings in via a putty terminal. Try running this command: ps ax That shows a list of processes running on your pi. These include ssh (the two sshd) and Samba (nmbd and smbd) and many others. PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND858 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd866 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/nmbd -D887 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D1092 ? Ss 0:00 sshd: pi [priv] WinSCP We find it most useful to set it up in two screen mode rather than in explorer mode but its easily changed in the Preferences. Also in preferences under Integration/Applications change the path to the putty.exe so you can easily jump into putty. When you connect to the pi, it starts at your home directory which is /home/pi. Click on the two .. to view the folder above and do it once more to get to the root. You can see all of the 20 Linux folders. After youve used a terminal for a while youll see a hidden file .bash_history (not that well hidden!). This is a text file of your command history with all the commands youve used before so copy it, edit out the stuff you dont want and keep the useful commands somewhere safe.

The Mexican narcotrafficking problem Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Mexican narcotrafficking problem - Case Study Example The cartel has grown so big that Sinaloa’s infamous leader Joaquin â€Å"El Chapo† Guzman has assumed a mythical proportion as an outlaw indicating that government’s approach to tackle the cartel and drug issue is not suitable. To make any strategy and state intervention initiative effective, the state needs to understand first how NTO’s became so large and wealthy and to understand their strategies how they develop their markets and fight their competitors. Knee jerk approach such as former president Enrique Calderon’s military solution is not suitable to solve the issue. In understanding the business models of NTO, they also need to identify its weaknesses and vulnerabilities. One of which was already identify which it cannot operate without the huge income from trafficking which was needed to fund arms procurement and increased personnel numbers. Having this understanding of how NTOs and cartels work and their business model, the state can appropriately formulate their own strategy that is effective and durable. This understanding will also allow them to act preemptively in the future making it more suitable to tackle Mexico’s drug, cartel and violence problem. Suitable counter-NTO strategies should be acceptable to all stakeholders and it is imperative that the state has the appropriate capabilities. The desired approach must be suitable to the problem with the direct effect of curbing if not stopping NTOs. Present reality indicates that the previous approach in solving the NTO problem is not suitable. Mexican President Enrique Peà ±a Nieto has only limited years in tenure to deliver visible results in tackling the NTO and violence problem in Mexico if he is to be reelected. His adviser already knows that military solution alone will not solve the problem. The paper also mentioned the law enforcement

Teams and Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Teams and Leadership - Essay Example Ideally, a leader is capable of creating a vision for the organization and has the ability to inspire the people around him. However, these important traits are usually not present in leaders at a very high level. Most leaders in practice in most practice are working at a demanding operational level that requires a specific set of knowledge and skills—and therefore the virtuous traits are often ruled out. It will be very helpful of to consider leadership in management. It will serve in the best interest of the organization (Trent 2004). Forming the right team is crucial in attaining success in the performance of tasks because research shows that the composition of a team and the complexity of the tasks are directly related to performance. This was of particular concern the study of Higgs, Plewnia, and Ploch (2005). The authors used the Belbin Team Role model to operationalize team diversity and used questionnaires to assess task complexity and performance. The results of the study demonstrated that there is a clear relationship between team compositions (which is related to diversity), complexity of task and team performance. Complex tasks are positively related to a diversified team. However, it is negatively related for straightforward tasks. This implies that it will be beneficial to consider the complexity of the task when forming a cohesive team. The mix of the individuals is important because the talents of a diversified group are more likely to cover wider tasks. The degree of complexity will give clues on w hat will comprise the mix of individuals to be included in the team in terms of diversity of personal traits. These insights will provide a helpful framework in establishing high performance teams. There is also correlation between team constraint and team performance. Constraint is defined as the quantitative measure that pertains to the pattern of connections between contacts in

The Nature of the Bureaucracy Essay Example for Free

The Nature of the Bureaucracy Essay Many Americans today have a negative perception of the federal bureaucracy. They consider it a huge, immovable object that hinders progress and intrudes on their lives. Most Americans believe the federal bureaucracy has grown in the last few decades to an enormous size. This is a misperception. Since the 1960s, the size of the federal bureaucracy has been very stable. By contrast, however, state and local bureaucracies have grown steadily since World War II, reflecting the increasing extent to which federal programs are administered by the states. Most Americans also feel that the federal bureaucracy is very wasteful. Whistle-blowers and reports of abuses fuel this perception of waste, which does sometimes occur. The late Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin was famous for his Golden Fleece awards given to departments and individuals for wasteful spending he found in the bureaucracy. Senator Proxmires focus on spending abuses helped end many wasteful and unwise practices. Writing in the first decades of the twentieth century, the German sociologist Max Weber theorized on governments, institutions, and bureaucracies. Weber believed that bureaucracies function to implement the policies of elected government in a rational, efficient, non-partisan manner. He felt that workers in bureaucracies develop specific expertise and technical knowledge that could not be acquired in the relatively short tenure of elected or appointed policy makers. He also felt that they possess critical knowledge about the history and practice of their agency within the larger framework of government and society and that they provide continuity from one administration to the next, which is essential for an orderly transfer of power under rule of law. Leadership may change, but the engine of government does not falter on account of having a new driver in a government that possesses a strong bureaucracy. Weber identified the structure of a bureaucracy as a hierarchical pyramid with levels of rank and power and a single director at the top. He said bureaucratic jobs tend to require specialized knowledge, such as accounting, statistics, economics, or health care. Obtaining a position within a bureaucracy is ideally based on merit for performing the job rather than on other factors, such as being a friend or relative of someone with pull or being owed a political or financial favor. Modern theorists feel that while Weber made some good observations about bureaucracies, he did not sufficiently address the manner in which bureaucracies function in government. Bureaucracies tend to resist change because change uses resources and introduces unknown elements into the system. For this reason, a bureaucracy is often at odds with elected officials and their appointees, who by contrast often get elected or appointed on a promise to implement change. To minimize the effects of leaders who come and go, a bureaucracy will tend to seek power of its own and uses its power, for the most part, to maintain the status quo. When asked to change, bureaucracies often respond with a request for more people and resources rather than with a plan to restructure or become more efficient. In this way, bureaucracies can become large, cumbersome, and complex if they are not required to account for their own practices. Bureaucracies tend to be monopolistic because it makes little sense to have more than one government agency performing the same function. Complaints about bureaucratic monopolies are generally the same as for corporate monopolies—without competition or some strict means of regulation, a monopoly becomes inefficient at best and tyrannical at worst. Government bureaucratic monopolies can have competition from private sources. The U.S. Post Office, Amtrak, and NASA are all government monopolies. Until recent decades, the U.S. Post Office was by law the only carrier of mail and parcels. Private companies that felt they could deliver packages at a profit lobbied for a change in the law to allow pr ivate carriers. Now there are several parcel delivery companies that are very successful and profitable.

Media Role in the Presidential Election Essay -- Politics Government

Analyzing elections The Medias rules of an election change the face of the election itself. They are, if you may, the gatekeepers of information, in a time where the information we get will form the issues of the election. If the news tells us tomorrow that the stock market dropped 410 points today but did not tell us that the U.S. embassy in Iraq was bombed then what do you think we will care about the most. Each channel of media has its own biased. Fox news is leaning toward the right and CNN is leaning toward the left. Its near impossible today to hear a news story or coverage without any spin. Old papa bear (Bill O'reily) says that his show is the no spin zone but is it really, even after he pretty much cussed out Barack and the king (Larry King) does the same to McCain. The media has so much power in society that they could pretty much could decide who will be the next president. Not only do they directly influence the opinion of voters but they also can decide on who to give the resources to or basically who they think is more likely to win. The media can be hostile to the candidate like they were to Howard Dean in 2004 or they can boost them like they did to Reagan. Obama has seemed to play this media like Babe Ruth plays Baseball, and McCain, well, he played them like Shaq plays soccer. Obama hit the hearts of many Americans as well as the media by tapping into their hearts and pulling out that desire to change. McCain preached this too but not till later in his campaign and he stayed in his parties guidelines when he did it. Obama went out of his parties guidelines in some ways and the media saw him as a nonpartisan contender (when he really was not). He gave many inspirational speeches in which the pu... ... of people did not see that McCain played the sex card but rather they were just happy to see a Woman in the white house. We do not really know who our candidates are and what they stand because the media is fixated on polls, controversy and spin instead of the issues. There were more stories about what Palin did today with her kids than what she wanted to do with foreign policy. One might say that media might have rigged this election for Obama because they always displayed his inspirational speeches while emphasizing on McCains bad side. However if you really look into it, the media actually never even talked about McCain and the Keating 5 scandal which could have ruined him. I don't really think the media rigged the election although they did influence many people. The media needs to stop focusing on controversy and entertainment and talk about the issues.

Analysis Of Sonnets 64 And 73 Essay

William Shakespeare is one of the greatest playwrights of all time. It is also important, however, to remember and to study his sonnets. The sonnets are separated into two groups, 1-126 and 127-54. All of them are love poems of some sort, whether addressed to a young man or the infamous â€Å"Dark Lady.† It is important to compare and analyze the sonnets, and to see the similarities between them. The purpose of this essay is to compare sonnets 64 and 73, and show that although it is easy to come to the conclusion that they are sorrowful in tone and negative in orientation, they are truly positive and life affirming. These two have been chosen because they are similar in this and other respects. Before discussing the similarities, however, it is necessary to briefly describe what each sonnet is about. Sonnet 64 is a cry against the inevitable arrival of all that wears down even the most firm powers that exist in the world. The speaker stresses that even the most sturdy monuments are bound to the ravages of time: â€Å"When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced/ The rich, proud cost of outworn buried age,/ When sometime lofty towers I see down-raz’d/ and brass eternal slave to mortal rage;† and so on. It is clear that the speaker finds time an enemy, capable of eroding any efforts to persevere. Time is also the enemy to the desire to be with a loved one forever. In this sonnet, the speaker finds himself at the mercy of his opponent, without any means of facing Time with any success. He almost abandons the love that he feels because he knows that it will eventually fall victim to time. There is no difference between the love that is felt by the speaker and the other durable things in the world, such as the â€Å"kingdom of the shore†, and the â€Å"firm soil.† But even these things will erode over time. The only option the speaker has is to mourn what he will one day lose. The seventy-third sonnet is also about the response of the speaker to the fact that Time detracts from the endurance of man and his response to the things that make him feel loved. Shakespeare starts with a discussion of the process by which the things that surround man first start to erode and fall as a result of the passing of time. The speaker is equating himself to  autumn and the twilight of day. He finds himself lying on the ashes of his youth, and a victim to the passage of time. He cannot sustain the love that he feels, and is consumed by both time and love, as they once sustained him. The speaker is arguing that the fate of man is to be consumed by the very things that are his life-blood: love and time. â€Å"In me thou seest the glowing of such fire/ That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,/ As the deathbed whereupon it must expire/ Consumed with that which it was nourished by. The similarities between these two poems are evident. Basically, they are both about the speaker’s sense of helplessness and loss in the face of the passage of time. The theme of loss, and the recurrent theme of impotence when faced with passing time and its effects, is evident in both poems. However, these are not necessarily sad or defeatist poems. The speaker does not submit to the passage of time by saying that he will not be able to feel or love or even live anymore. He is not depressed to the point of being unable to do anything. Rather, the speaker feels that man must continue to love, and to live, despite the fact that life will end, and love will eventually subside as time takes over the human spirit. Although â€Å"Time will come and take my love away,† the speaker is not saying that man must simply not love at all. He is saying that man must eventually give in to the effects of time, but that in the time that does exist for man, it is possible to love, and to sustain oneself with that love. These poems, which sound sad or even lacking in spirit, are actually affirmative of the desire toward love and life: â€Å"This thou perceivest, which makes my love more strong,/ to love that well, which thou must leave ere long.† Both of these sonnets can be interpreted as encouraging the reader to grasp the fact that love can be sweeter and more enduring if the individual realizes that time will eventually take that love away. It is even possible to claim that, because all love will end, man should state his love early, and live that love to the fullest extent possible. In this sense, each of these poems can be understood to be positive, and life affirming. At first reading, it is easy to come to the conclusion that the poems are  sorrowful in tone and negative. However, after closer analysis, it is obvious that the speaker is ultimately celebrating life, and urging the embrace of all aspects of it, whether they result in suffering or pleasure. The tone is sorrowful when the speaker comes face to face with the inevitable, but the fact remains that the inevitable outcome, which is loss, and the passage of time, is part of what makes the intensity of love, and the quality of life, so memorable and so pleasurable.

A Brief History of the Palestine Israeli Conflict

Palestine sits upon the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt, Syria, and Arabia; the land has switched hands many times over the past few thousands of years. Being a holy land for all three Abrahamic religions has led to a brutal conflict between them since their formation. The current conflict in Palestine has been raging for about three quarters of a century, but before it can be addressed some history must be known.For four centuries the land had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and as it began to collapse in the late 19th century ethnic Jews worldwide started a semi secular nationalist movement called Zionism which called for a return to their homeland of Israel which was promised to them by g-d in the Torah. In the First World War the Ottomans were on the losing side, and in 1917, with the Zionist movement growing, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Arthur Belfour declared that Britain backed the idea of establishing Palestine as a â€Å"national home for the Jewish people. †At the end of the First World War Britain was gifted the newly formed Mandate for Palestine which in its creation carried Belfour’s promise. Not a state, not the sole national home like Zionists wanted, but a place where any Jews who wanted to could go without fear of the persecution that had hounded them for millennia. A few years later the revolt of the Arab people against the imperialist occupation of Great Britain began. Many innocents were killed on both sides, but Britain’s response was incredibly brutal leading to the death, maiming or exile of a tenth of the adult male population.In response The British attempted some reconciliation with the Arab community by creating policies to limit Jewish immigration and property purchase. After the Second World War this limitation on immigration kept nearly a hundred thousand displaced Jews from coming into the country. After a series of uprisings by the Jews in Palestine, and general international disapproval on t he continued immigration policy, Britain decided to end their occupation and leave the question of Palestine to the U. N. Shortly thereafter the U. N. oted in favour of the creation of two separate nations of Israel, for the Jews, and Palestine, for the Arabs. The plan was rejected by the Arabs, and soon thereafter a 5 month civil war between the Jews, Arabs, and the British began. In Mid 1948 the United Kingdom withdrew the last of its troops and the new Jewish state declared its independence which signaled the start of the first Arab-Israeli War. A day after independence was declared Iraq, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Egypt declared war on the newly formed state of Israel.Although outnumbered the better organized and better armed Israelis eventually won the war capturing half of the territory that had been mandated to the nation of Palestine. The rest of the country was split between Jordan and Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, more than three quarters of the Muslim population, were forced out of their country in a day now known to the Muslim world as al-Nakba. In response to this there were a series of pogroms against Jewish people in Arab states leading to close to a million Jews fleeing their homes and nearly 700,000 of them settling in place of the displaced Palestinians.More and more displaced Jews found their way into Israel in the succeeding years and tensions rose higher and higher between Israel and the Arabs. Palestinians given some autonomy from Egypt in the Gaza Strip launched frequent attacks against the occupying forces. In the early 60s relations reached a new low; the Arab world refused to recognize Israel as a state, and in 1967 the Holy Land was once again preparing for war. On June 5th 1967 Israel launched preemptive strikes against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan crippling their air forces.With air superiority assured the western equipped Israeli army slaughtered the Arabs and suffered less than a thousand deaths. Israel captured the Gaza strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. This is when settlers started popping up in the occupied territory. Jews from around the world began to set up housing in the former Arab land; a form of colonialism which lasts to this day. Around this time the Palestine Liberation Organization formed.The PLO is a political and paramilitary representative of the Palestinian people comprised of a number of different political parties. The largest of which are Fatah, a left wing nationalist party then led by Yasser Arafat, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. PLO members in the surrounding Arab countries, especially Jordan, attacked Israelis in a number of rocket attacks, bombings, etc. ; this prompted a series of bombings and assassinations perpetrated by the Israeli army and Mossad aimed towards thinning the ranks of the PLO.After Israel attacked Jordan to flush the PLO out Jordan withdrew all support fr om the Palestinians and most of the PLO fled towards Lebanon where they were granted an autonomous region in the south. After six years of failed â€Å"diplomatic† efforts following the six days war another war began during the Muslim month of Ramadan on the most important Jewish holy day Yom Kippur. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan attacked Israel who received support from the U. S. After only 19 days of fighting Israel once again won, but it no longer was the invincible bastion against the Arab world that it once thought it was; they had been shaken.On the other hand the Arabs, which had had early success in the war, now felt like they had more of a chance. This combination of events led to the Camp David Accords in 1978 between Egypt and Israel; this was the first peace agreement between an Arab state and Israel. Egypt got the Sinai Peninsula back and in return recognized Israel. . In 1982, in an effort to stamp out the PLO and aid the Christian government, Israel invaded So uthern Lebanon. After eleven months Israel achieved victory against the PLO and their allies, and the PLO subsequently fled to Libya.The PLO continued to represent Palestine in exile much to the chagrin of Israel; a few years later they would bomb their headquarters in Libya completely destroying it and killing hundreds of people. In December of 1987 The First Intifada, a collective uprising of the Palestinian people against the occupiers, began. An increasing series of incidents between Palestinians and Israelis in the occupied territories lead to isolated rioting that soon evolved into a large scale conflict. The PLO and its associates at home quickly assumed control and began guiding the fighting as best they could.The PLO had always been widely secular, and during the Intifada more and more Islamist Palestinian groups began gaining power including Fatah’s main rival Hamas; who, much like the Taliban, received funding and support from Israel to foster discord among Palesti nians. Palestine suffered greatly during the uprising, suffering many times the losses of Israel, but it had some results that seemed promising. The most important was the Oslo Accords; the first true face to face attempt at finding an agreement between Israel and the PLO.The Oslo Accords, on condition of the PLO renouncing terrorism and disarming, established the creation of an interim government for Palestine called the Palestinian National Authority, recognition of Israel by Palestine and vice versa, withdrawing the IDF from what they deemed occupied territories, and set a date five years in the future to finish negotiations and set up a permanent government in Palestine. The PFLP and other hardliners in the PLO rejected the Oslo Accords, refused to disarm, and continue to boycott the PLO to this day.Settlers continued to move into the West Bank and Gaza Strip, atrocities continued on both sides, and the five year deadline quickly sailed by. Late in 2000 a very different Intifada happened; instead of the stone it had become the gun and the suicide bomb. The Oslo Accords had been broken and open warfare began. During the four year conflict thousands were killed on both sides; however, once again Palestinian deaths outnumbered Israeli almost three to one. Towards the end of the conflict Yasser Arafat passed leadership of Fatah over to Mahmoud Abbas and in late 2004 died from polonium poisoning.In 2005 the conflict was declared officially over; later in the year Israel withdrew all their settlers from the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the West bank. The Gaza strip was in hands of the Palestinians for the first time in half a century. In the 2006 elections Hamas and Fatah won forming a coalition government, and in 2007 this broke down into armed conflict when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. This week open warfare between Palestinian extremist groups, both secular and Islamist, and Israel in the Gaza Strip began again.For the first time in 21 years air raid sirens are going off in Tel Aviv. Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah still control what little of the West Bank that isn’t occupied. He is going to the U. N at the end of the month in an effort to get recognized as a non-member observer state and make his point for returning to the borders before the six day war; they have the majority needed for state hood, and because they aren’t going for full member status again the Security Council can’t veto. What solution can be found to such a deep rooted conflict? The most widely accepted solution is one of two separate states.A poll taken in Palestine in 2011 showed 34% of Palestinians accepting the two state solutions, but it has much more support in moderate circles in Israel. There are some serious issues that need to be addressed for something like this to happen. What borders would they choose? More than likely would be a return to the pre-1967 borders, only 22% of historic Palestine. What happens to the five million P alestinian refugees around the world when they can’t return to their homes inside de facto Israel? What happens to the Arabs left inside of Israel’s borders? To Palestinians a two state solution is looking less and less likely.The same poll showed 66% support for this solution but as of now support is growing. In this solution, which I will be advocating, a single nation of â€Å"Israstine† would exist upon the historic Palestinian borders. Arabs and Jews would be equal citizens coexisting and both taking part in the government. Israel does not like this plan; Palestinians would swiftly outnumber them and remove their identity as the sole Jewish majority. Unlike the two state solution the problem of getting caught in the wrong borders and having to uproot yourself doesn’t exist. Palestinians in exile could return to their homeland freely.There are of course hard liners on both sides that advocate other solutions: hardliners in Israel that just want to gob ble up the rest of Palestine; hardliners in Palestine that want to completely destroy Israel. Although these will have to be addressed the main focus has to be on the two state vs. binational solution. As I write this rockets are killing civilians; cease fires are being broken; crimes against humanity are being committed. If an agreement can’t be found soon it isn’t going to end well for anyone. A fraction of my Sources Farsakh, Leila. â€Å"The One-State Solution And The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Palestinian Challenges AndProspects. † Middle East Journal 65. 1 (2011): 55-71. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2012. Hoffman, Gil. â€Å"6 in 10 Palestinians Reject 2-state Solution, Survey Finds. † Www. JPost. com. N. p. , 15 July 2011. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. . Kattan, Victor. From Coexistence To Conquest : International Law And The Origins Of The Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1891-1949. n. p. : Pluto Press, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 14 Nov. 201 2. Morris, Benny. One State, Two States : Resolving The Israel/Palestine Conflict. n. p. : Yale Univ. Press, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 12 Nov. 2012.

Why there are Few Women in Telecommunications Industry in Europe and Middle East

Why there are Few Women in Telecommunications Industry in Europe and Middle East Introduction A decade into the 21st century, women in nearly all progressive countries across the world continue to be disadvantaged in their careers relative to men. Despite sustained efforts by governments and industry to promote gender equality in the workplace, women persist to experience occupational segregation, wage disparities, fewer promotions, and less significant wage increases (Schweitzer et al., 2011).Advertising We will write a custom dissertation sample on Why there are Few Women in Telecommunications Industry in Europe and Middle East specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This view is reinforced by Schreuders et al. (2009), who observes that occupational segregation, particularly in science and engineering fields, has been a matter of concern for governments and scholars worldwide. Available statistics demonstrate that in spite of their talent, ability, and opportunity, women continue to be underrepresented in these critica l sectors of the economy (Schweitzer et al, 2011), with Bhatia Amati (2010) suggesting that the segregation is the direct consequence of social, political, and economic systems that continue to reinforce gender stereotyping and role expectations. On her part, Bystydzienski (2004) posits that it is the lack of encouragement, mentorship, support and appropriate socialization to enter and remain in the sciences, engineering, or technology-related fields that is entirely to blame for the few number of women exhibiting interest in these fields. Although many research studies (e.g., Baron Cobb-Clark, 2010; Coder et al., 2009; Franzway et al., 2009; Morganson et al., 2010) have been initiated in a focused attempt to understand the reasons behind the noted occupational segregation of women in science and engineering fields, only a handful (e.g., Kotsilieri Marshall, 2004) have attempted to evaluate the trajectories of these dynamics from an industry-specific perspective. Furthermore, the se studies do not attempt to place the findings in a broader, historical, and institutional context, not mentioning that they lack the comparators necessary to understand the problem within a wider social and geographical context. It is these gaps in knowledge that provide the impetus to undertake the present study, which aims to understand why there are few women in the telecommunications sector in Europe and the Middle East.Advertising Looking for dissertation on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Background of the Study Schreuders et al. (2009) observe that â€Å"†¦unlike other historically male-dominated occupations that have seen gains in achieving gender equity, many sciences, math, and engineering fields have remained peculiarly unbalanced in terms of gender† (p. 97). Other research studies (e.g., Kusku et al.; 2007; Coder et al., 2009; Kotsilieri Marshall, 2004) demonstrate that underrepresentation of women in engineering and technology-related fields continue to widen as women engineers and technicians find themselves swimming against the tide of prejudice intrinsically reinforced by the social, cultural, psychological and economic realities of life. These assertions are supported by well-documented data. A survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and cited in Coder et al (2009) indicates that while women made up an estimated 43% of the information technology (I.T.) workforce in 1983, the female percentage dropped to a paltry 26 % in 2008 in spite of the fact that the total I.T. workforce had more than doubled for the indicated period. Of course many research studies have been progressed to understand the dynamics involved in this type of occupational segregation, but it still remains unclear exactly why women remain a minority in engineering and technology-related fields (Coder et al, 2009). Indeed, extant literature demonstrates that many women hold the necessary educational background and resources to venture into these technical fields, but end experiencing impediments for reasons not fully under their control (Kotsilieri Marshall, 2004). This notwithstanding, various theoretical orientations have been advanced to explain the perceived lack of gender representation in engineering and technical fields, and what could be done to contain the situation from further deterioration. The present paper will heavily rely on two of such theoretical conceptions, namely the social constructionist theory and the pipeline theory. In considering how women view their abilities and position themselves in relation to their male counterparts, this Research is profoundly influenced by social constructionist doctrines as the experiences and characteristics accredited to women, portrayed by academia and industry as contributing to their current occupational segregation in engineering and technology-related fields, are not timeless and universal b ut are socially, historically, psychologically, and politically located (Kotsilieri Marshall, 2004).Advertising We will write a custom dissertation sample on Why there are Few Women in Telecommunications Industry in Europe and Middle East specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More To deduce that all women judge, think, or relate in distinctive and universal ways when making career choices, particularly in fields traditionally considered as male-dominated, inarguably denies the contextuality that frames behavior (Benson Yukongdi, 2005). Consequently, this study attempts to understand the reasons why there are few women in telecommunication industry by comparing experiences of women in two continents, Europe and the Middle East, with a view to comprehensively cover the differences that may arise from the diverse contextual and geographical backgrounds. The present study will also draw upon the pipeline theory to analyze why women are yet to ac hieve equal representation in engineering and technology-related fields, with specific reference to the telecommunications industry in Europe and the Middle East. As highlighted by Schweitzer et al. (2011), â€Å"†¦the pipeline theory suggests that increasing the number of women in male-dominated fields should lead to more equality in the labor market†¦ This presumes that women and men in the pipeline expect comparable career outcomes† (p. 422). However, as has been demonstrated in a number of research studies concerned with evaluating the reasons behind gender-based underrepresentation in the labor market, the movement of more women into the pipeline has not resulted in enviable treads for women careers, particularly when it comes to engineering and technology-related disciplines (Schweitzer et al, 2011; Coder Rosenbloom, 2009). Much attention will, therefore, be focused on understanding why women are yet to achieve comparable career outcomes with their male count erparts in the telecommunications sector, and the various alternatives that could be implemented to remedy the disparity.Advertising Looking for dissertation on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Issues of meritocracy and social-cultural orientations will be comprehensively discussed and evaluated with a view to synthesizing the obstacles that come into play to hamper more women representation in the telecommunications sector in Europe and the Middle East. Advocates of meritocracy are of the opinion that â€Å"†¦in true meritocratic systems everyone has an equal chance to advance and obtain rewards based on their individual merits and efforts, regardless of their gender, race, class, or other non-merit factors† (Castilla Bernard, 2010 p. 543). Inside organizations, a fundamental strand of this study will concern how organizational policies and strategies affect employees’ opportunities and careers, particularly those policies and strategies designed to reduce discrepancies for women working in technical-oriented disciplines. In equal measure, previous studies have identified aspects of entrenched masculine culture, social-cultural dynamics, and weak copin g mechanisms as major reasons for lower representation of women in technical disciplines such as telecommunications engineering (Kotsilieri Marshall, 2004; Morganson et al., 2010). Indeed, Franzway et al (2009) posit that â€Å"†¦although women are as competent as their male colleagues in the technical dimensions of engineering, the gendered expectations and processes within engineering organizations are an entrenched problem for women’s careers† (p. 91). The rationale of the Research This study arises from the need for organizations and governments to develop policies, plans, and strategies that can be used to inform effective policy-making with regard to inclusion of more women into career fields traditionally considered as male-dominated. The paucity of statistical data on the underrepresentation of women in technical fields in other countries, with the exception of the United States (Blau Kahn, 2007), have often served as a reinforcing agent for ineffective and undirected policies that continue to be developed by organizations and governments in their bid to reverse the gendered disadvantage. Second, the study is informed by the need to develop tangible alternatives that can be used by organizations to not only encourage more women into engineering and technical fields but also to retain them. Extant Research demonstrates that women have unique capabilities and talents that could be used by organizations to attain optimal productivity and competitiveness (Kotsilieri Marshall, 2004). Equally, evidence has been adduced to the fact that more women than men are likely to leave employment in technology field (Franzway et al, 2009), due to a myriad of reasons which will be covered comprehensively in this study. Moreover, the results of this study can be used by educational institutions to develop academic and career paradigms that will encourage more women into the technical disciplines, with the hope that a high uptake of women will transl ate into equal representation in the labor market. Aim Objectives of the Study The general aim of this study is to critically evaluate the reasons why there are few women in the telecommunications industry in Europe and the Middle East. The following forms the specific objectives of the study: To critically analyze how women are impacted negatively as a result of employment discrimination in the telecommunications industry; To critically evaluate the interplay between meritocracy and social-cultural and psychological variables in entrenching occupation discrimination along with gender, and; To analyze and report on probable alternatives that could be used to alleviate gendered occupation discrimination in the telecommunications industry in Europe and the Middle East. Research Questions Based on the above objectives, this study aims to address the following research questions: What are the current practices and polices used by telecommunications firms in Europe and the Middle Eas t to ensure gendered occupation equality in the field? What issues within the meritocratic and social-cultural, psychological, geographical and political contexts could be serving as obstacles to gendered occupation equality for telecommunications firms in Europe and the Middle East? What are the current trends in occupation discrimination in telecommunications organizations in Europe and the Middle East? What are the alternatives being sought by organizations and governments in the two continents towards addressing the women underrepresentation in telecommunications industry? Scope of the Study Although the study makes frequent mention of women in science, engineering and technology-related fields, its analysis excludes all the other women working in the above-mentioned fields apart from those specifically working in telecommunications and information technology (I.T.) fields. The study does not deal with the position of the management of the selected organizations regarding occup ational segregation but focuses attention to understanding the dynamics involved from the female worker’s perspective and the official policies and strategies relating to occupational segregation of women in telecommunications industry within a wider continental context. This implies that the results gravitate more towards attempting to understand why there are few women in the field within a specific social, geographical and political context. Structure of the Dissertation The above forms the introduction section of this study, which has laid the groundwork for the subsequent sections. This section, among other things, have demonstrated the direction that this study takes by discussing the problem, stating the research aim and objectives, and discussing the rationale of the study. The following section will revolve around critically discussing the available literature on occupational segregation of women in science and engineering fields, with particular reference accorded t o Europe and the Middle East. The methodology, the third section, focuses on discussing the study design, population and sample, data collection techniques, and how the data for this study has been analyzed. The results are presented in section four, under findings, analysis and discussion. This study concludes by outlining some conclusions, recommendations and future research areas in section five. Conclusion The present study aims to analyze why there are few women in the telecommunications industry in Europe and the Middle East. Towards this purpose, the study relies on two theoretical conceptions, namely the social constructionist perspective and the pipeline theory, to evaluate the impact of occupational segregation in this critical sector, and the alternatives that could be developed to reverse the trend. Consequently, the deliverables include, but not limited to: understanding how women in the telecommunications sector in Europe and the Middle East view their abilities and p osition themselves in relation to men; understanding why women are yet to achieve equal representation in technology-related fields; understanding how issues of meritocracy and social-cultural, political, psychological, and geographical orientations impacts women representation in these fields, understanding how organizational policies and strategies within the wider continental context could be modified to encourage more women into science, engineering and technical-related fields. List of References Baron, J.D., Cobb-Clark, D.A (2010). Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in Private- and Public-Sector Employment: A Distributional Analysis. Economic Record, 86 (273), pp. 227-246. Benson, J., Yukongdi, V (2005). Asian Women Managers: Participation, Barriers and Future Prospects. Asian Pacific Business Review, 11 (2), pp. 283-291. Bhatia, S., Amati, J (2010). ‘If these Women can do it, I can do it, Too’: Building Women Engineering Leaders through Graduate Peer Mentoring. Leadership Management in Engineering, 10 (4), pp. 174-184. Blau, F.D., Kahn, L.M (2007). The Gender Pay Gap: Have Women gone as Far as they Can? Academy of Management Perspectives, 11 (2), pp. 283-291. Bystydzienski, J.M (2004). (Re)Gendering Science Fields: Transforming Academic Science and Engineering. NWSA Journal, 16 (1), pp. 8-12. Castilla, E.J., Bernard, S (2010). The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55 (4), pp. 543-576. Coder, L., Rosenbloom, J.L., Ash, R.A., DuPont, B.R. (2009). Economic and Business Dimensions: Increasing Gender Diversity in the I.T. Workforce. Communications of the ACM, 52 (5), pp. 25-27. Franzway, S., Sharp, R., Mills, J.E., Gill, J (2009). Engineering Ignorance. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 30 (1), pp. 89-106. Kotsilieri, F., Marshall, J (2004). Hellenic Women Managers in the Telecommunications Sector: Living in Transition. New Technology, Work Employment, 19 (3), pp. 177-191. Mo rganson, V.J., Jones, M.P., Major, D.A (2010). Understanding Women’s Underrepresentation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: The Role of Social Coping. Career Development Quarterly, 59 (2), pp. 169-179. Schreuders, P. D., Mannon, S.E., Rutherford, B (2009). Pipeline or Personal Preference: Women in Engineering. European Journal of Engineering Education, 34 (1), pp. 97-112. Schweitzer, L., Ng, E., Lyons, S., Kuron, L (2011). Exploring the Career Pipeline: Gender Differences in Pre-Career Expectations. Industrial Relations, 66 (3), pp. 422-444.

History of Hull House and Some of Its Famous Residents

History of Hull House and Some of Its Famous Residents Hull House was founded in 1889 and the association ceased operations in 2012. The museum honoring Hull House is still in operation, preserving history and heritage of Hull House and its related Association. Also called: Hull-House Hull House was a settlement house founded by  Jane Addams  and  Ellen Gates Starr  in 1889 in Chicago, Illinois. It was one of the first settlement houses in the United States. The building, originally a home owned by a family named Hull, was being used as a warehouse when Jane Addams and Ellen Starr acquired it. The building is a Chicago landmark as of 1974. Buildings At its height, Hull House was actually a collection of buildings; only two survive today, with the rest being displaced to build the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. It is today the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, part of the College of Architecture and the Arts of that university. When the buildings and land were sold to the university, the Hull House Association dispersed into multiple locations around Chicago. The Hull House Association closed in 2012 due to financial difficulties with a changing economy and federal program requirements; the museum, unconnected to the Association, remains in operation. The Settlement House Project The settlement house was modeled on that of Toynbee Hall in London, where the residents were men; Addams intended it to be a community of women residents, though some men were also residents over the years. The residents were often well-educated women (or men) who would, in their work at the settlement house, advance opportunities for the working class people of the neighborhood. The neighborhood around Hull House was ethnically diverse; a study by the residents of the demographics helped lay the groundwork for scientific sociology. Classes often resonated with the cultural background of the neighbors; John Dewey (the educational philosopher) taught a class on Greek philosophy there to Greek immigrant men, with the aim of what we might call today building self-esteem. Hull House brought theatrical works to the neighborhood, in a theater on the site. Hull House also established a kindergarten for children of working mothers, the first public playground, and first public gymnasium, and worked on many issues of social reform, including juvenile courts, immigrant issues, womens rights, public health and safety, and child labor reform. Hull House Residents Some women who were notable residents of Hull House: Jane Addams: founder and main resident of Hull House from its founding to her death.Ellen Gates Starr: partner in founding Hull House, she was less active as time went on and moved to a convent to care for her after she was paralyzed in 1929.Sophonisba Breckinridge: considered one of the main founders of social work, she was a university professor and administrator at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.Alice Hamilton, a physician who taught at the Women’s Medical School of Northwestern University while living at Hull House. She became an expert on industrial medicine and health.Florence Kelley: head of the National Consumers’ League for 34 years, she worked for protective labor legislation for women and for laws against child labor.Julia Lathrop: an advocate for various social reforms, she headed the U.S. Children’s Bureau from 1912 – 1921.Mary Kenney OSullivan, a labor organizer, built connections between Hull House and the labor movement.  She helped found the Womens Trade Union League. Mary McDowell: she helped found the  Womens Trade Union League  (WTUL), and helped establish a settlement house near Chicago’s stockyards.Frances Perkins: a reformer working on labor issues, she was appointed in 1932 as Secretary of Labor by President Roosevelt, the first woman in a US cabinet position.Edith Abbott: a pioneer in social work and social service administration, she taught and was dean at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.Grace Abbott: younger sister of Edith Abbott, she worked with the Immigrants’ Protective League in Chicago, and served in Washington with the Children’s Bureau, first as head of the Industrial Department enforcing child labor laws and contracts, and then as director (1917 – 1919 and 1921 – 1934).Ethel Percy Andrus: a long-time educator and principal in Los Angeles, where she was known for progressive education ideas, after retirement she founded the National Retired Teachers Association and the American Association of Retired Persons. Neva Boyd: she educated nursery and kindergarten teachers, believing in the importance of play and children’s natural curiosity as the basis of learning.Carmelita Chase Hinton: an educator known especially for her work at Putney School; she organized for peace in the 1950s and 1960s. Others Connected With Hull House Lucy Flower: a supporter of Hull House and connected to many of the women residents, she worked for childrens rights, including the establishment of a juvenile court system, and  founded the first nursing school west of Pennsylvania, the Illinois Training School for Nurses.Ida B. Wells-Barnett worked with Jane Addams and others of Hull House, particularly on racial problems in the Chicago public schools. A Few of the Men Who Were Residents of Hull House for at Least Some Time Robert Morss Lovett: a reformer and English professor at the University of ChicagoWillard Motley: an African American novelistGerard Swope: an engineer who was a top manager at General Electric, and who during the New Deal’s recovery from the Depression was pro-federal programs and pro-unionization. Official Website Hull House Museum

Psychological profile on Hannibal lector and Buffalo Bill Essay

Psychological profile on Hannibal lector and Buffalo Bill - Essay Example Nevertheless, based on first hand information gathered by the authors biographer David Sexton, it is learnt that the character of Hannibal Lecter was based on that of William Coyne, a notorious serial killer who terrorized American society in the 1930s. In this context, one can claim that Lecters profile belongs to the Psychopath category. This assessment also makes sense when one considers the childhood history of Lecter. It should be noted that the novel The Silence of the Lambs does not delve into his childhood history. It is the fourth and fifth books of the sequel, namely Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, that provide greater detail about his early life. Nevertheless, since the underlying theme and the authorship of all these books are the same, one can arrive at the approximate profile of Lecter by cross referencing material from these novels and films. Although the brilliance of his mind was evident from the beginning and something that he was born with, his anti-social tendencies developed as a result of severely traumatic experiences in the past. In his early years in Lithuania, he witnessed the traumatic death and consumption of his sister Mischa, whom he had loved very much. This incident had left profound would on his psyche, which would turn him into a remorseless, cannibalistic psychopath. The adage â€Å"take the help of a thief to catch a thief† fits so aptly in the case of psychopaths as well. In the movie The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice Starling, a rookie FBI trainee, takes the help of Hannibal Lecter, who is in police custody, to identify and track down another serial killer with the name â€Å"Buffalo Bill†. While both Lecter and Buffalo Bill are psychopathic serial killers, the latter seems to be more indiscriminate and brutal in performing his crimes. The other distinction between the two is that Buffalo Bill is not shown to be cannibalistic, but Lecter clearly is. Buffalo Bill, whose real name is Jame