Thursday, December 26, 2019

Graduation Speech High School - 1491 Words

dad had been hired at a company nearby, and Saline was said to be one of the best school districts in the state. At Saline, I grew in my love of reading and most everything else (expect for math), and the classes offered there challenged me to work hard. In high school, I enrolled in all the honors courses I could, taking math a year above the majority of my class and studying hard. My school offered many AP classes, and because of the classes I took there, I entered IUS in my first year as a sophomore according to my credits. No matter what, I know education is important to me and that I will continue in my education for many years. I’m good at school, though sometimes I worry that it’s not so much that I am intelligent than it is that I know how to give people what they want. I cannot remember a time when I didn’t expect to go to college. Though I never had any specific plans, I always knew that my education would take me to college. Considering my family, I ch oose to believe this mindset makes sense. My dad received his PhD (although belatedly), and my mom is currently pursuing her MSW. My dad’s side of the family has been going to college for at least three generations, but my mom was actually the first generation of college students on her side. In a recent interview with her dad, she found out that one of his greatest regrets was not moving on to college (after being the first to go to high school in his family, he joined the military right after graduation). ThatShow MoreRelatedGraduation Speech : High School934 Words   |  4 Pageslife would be graduation. For many people, graduating from high school is an objective. It takes a lot of time, effort, and determination to accomplish that goal. For others graduation is the end of high school, and the beginning of a new chapter in life. When graduated people feel as if adulthood has begun. In the long run, graduating opens a lot of opportunities for people to thrive. I can almost reminisce the day as if it was yesterday. I was sitting in bed like any other school day. It seemedRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School852 Words   |  4 PagesAccording to a report from Thomas Nelson Community College website, 15.7 percent is the graduation rate in 2010. 84 percent of students failed to receive their degree. That’s beyond sad. College can be difficulty especially with everyday life is getting harder to main family life work and financials. Because college is challenging, I know that I have issues that I must overcome. I told myself the more patient s I have the better success I will have. Although college will be difficult my goal isRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Essay2254 Words   |  10 Pages The day I graduated from high school The High school graduation day is a life full of journeys for everyone, high school life is a memorable time for most people, for me as well. High school can be filled with lots of good memories for some people and it could be filled with bad memories, for me it was both I had good times and I had bad times. The High school Graduation day should definitely be the best day of your life because that means no more high school, no more having to wake up at 6Read MoreGraduation Speech : High School Graduation854 Words   |  4 Pagesfail High School graduation can be an exciting time in a student’s life. It is a time in their lives where they begin to experience the kind of freedom that comes along with growing up. This freedom allows students to choose the type of college or University they would like to attend. It is necessary that they understand how responsible they need to be with the freedom that is being offered to them. When choosing what college or university to attend it may be tempting to want to go to a school thatRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Graduation1507 Words   |  7 PagesForest English 1010 9/9/2014 Graduation During our lives, most of us have hated getting up early. Whether we as humans enjoy mornings or not, we’re always looking forward to that unforgettable day. That special is high school graduation for me. Graduation is a ceremony that recognizes students that have excelled through school. Graduation was one of the best days of my life, perhaps even better than the day that I started college. There is no other day like graduation where there comes this feelingRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Graduation933 Words   |  4 PagesHigh School Graduation With regards to high school graduation, Balfanz, Herzog, and Iver (2007) followed 12,972 Philadelphia students enrolled in traditional middle schools from six grade (1996-1997) until 1 year beyond their expected graduation from high school (2003-2004) in order to understand what indicators would affect their projected graduation date. Unlike many of the early K-8 schools, the population Balfanz et al followed consisted of 64% African American, 19% White, 12% Hispanic,Read MoreGraduation Speech On High School Graduation851 Words   |  4 PagesThere Is No Success Without The Opportunity to Fail High School graduation can be an exciting time in a student’s life. It is a time when they begin to experience the kind of freedom that comes along with growing up. This freedom allows students to choose the type of college or University they would like to attend. It is necessary that they understand how responsible they need to be with the freedom that is being offered to them. When choosing what college or university they would like toRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School997 Words   |  4 Pagesup, I loved going to school and dreamed of one day attending college. Attending school every day and receiving good grades had become my top priority from K-12. I excelled from K-8th grade, but entering into high school was completely different than primary school. The atmosphere and environment was new to me, I was free to roam the halls or walk back out the door without any repercussions. This began my downward spiral in high school. My freshman year was by far the best school year for me becauseRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School897 Words   |  4 PagesHigh school was one of the most challenging moments in my life. Not only did I have to deal with the academic pressures and social issues from my peers I had external factors that were heavily impacting me as well. During my junior year my mom separated from her husband and me and my three little brothe rs ended up staying house to house with close relatives. Shortly after that time at the beginning of my senior year, my mom was sent to prison. In the midst of dealing with all of the demands thatRead MoreGraduation Speech : High School Essay1434 Words   |  6 PagesWhen I was in high school I had one goal, I would graduate top of my class and go to the University of Florida for pre-medicine, then onto their medical school. I never considered that I would want anything else, so I went to a specialty high school that would allow me to specialize in Biomedical sciences(STEM) and never even thought about the possibility of a life other than the one I had so precisely planned out for myself. When my nephews were born my sophomore year all of my priorities changed

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Essay about Lord of the Flies Literary Analysis - 1283 Words

Symbolism is a very important factor in many books. The use of symbolism in William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies is the most essential aspect to the function of the story. At first glance you may not think the symbols are very important, but with some in-depth thought you can see how it is necessary to explain the microcosm of an island. The conch shell is the opening symbol in the novel and lasts roughly to the very end of the story. The conch is found by Ralph and Piggy, which they use to summon the boys together after the crash. â€Å"We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us— (Golding 16). The conch represents civilization and order on the island. In the start the conch is given to a boy†¦show more content†¦When the fire is maintained, the boys want to be rescued. However, when the fire burns low or goes out it symbolizes how the boys have lost sight of their desire to be saved, and how they have ac cepted savagery into their lives. The signal fire also symbolizes the measurement of the strength of the civilized instinct and hope remaining on the island. He tried to remember. â€Å"Smoke,† he said, â€Å"we want smoke.† He turned on the twins fiercely. â€Å"I said ‘Smoke’! We’ve got to have smoke.† There was silence, except for the multitudinous murmur of the bees. At last piggy spoke, kindly. â€Å"’Course we have. ’Cos the smokes a signal and we can’t be rescued if we don’t have smoke.† â€Å"I knew that!† shouted Ralph. He pulled his arm away from Piggy. â€Å"Are you suggesting—?† â€Å"I’m just saying what you always say,† said Piggy hastily. â€Å"I’d thought for a moment—† â€Å"I hadn’t,† said Ralph loudly. â€Å"I knew it all the time. I hadn’t forgotten.†; (Golding 173) This passage is a demonstration of loss of hope and the strength of civilized instinct. Ralph’s hope has decreased when there is no one beside him but a few biguns and a few littluns, his strength of civilized instinct diminishes causing him to forget why there needed to be a signal fire in the first place, until Piggy reminds him of the fact. He proclaims he did not forget even though he did, however he does not own up to it. The beast that frightens the boysShow MoreRelatedLord Of The Flies Literary Analysis1534 Words   |  7 Pagesthe most scrutinous detail to his plethoric of symbolism seen throughout the novel, it is clear that he is an experienced writer. From his other books like The Inheritors and The Scorpion God it can still be seen that one of his earlier books, Lord of the Flies, is truly one of his greatest masterpieces. That book would also be the topic of this essay, and from the very beginning was obviously a piece of literature that has aged well despite its year of publish. From the stranding on the island to theRead MoreLord Of The Flies Literary Analysis1546 Words   |  7 Pagesoverruns them and evil starts to lurk over the island.The fictional story of the group of British schoolboys stranded on an island and the decisions they make, relates back to our society and the decisions we might make in a difficult situation. Lord of The Flies is Golding’s attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The use of symbols in the novel to represent the flaws of human nature, helps create this theme. The conch is one of the main objects the boys use and hasRead MoreLord of the Flies Literary Analysis853 Words   |  4 PagesLord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, reflects upon the very core of human beings. Golding described human beings as innately evil. He also showed readers that all it takes to bring humans’ true nature out is by being in an unknown environment that is free of laws. Being surrounded by mysterious creatures in an unknown land, the stranded boys are left for dead. In the small world without adults, the boys slowly corrupt in to follow their instinct to satisfy their immediate desires. Read MoreLord Of The Flies Literary Analysis1406 Words   |  6 PagesGolding’s Lord of the Flies, the book is rich with symbolism and subtext. The story starts with British school boys being stranded on an island after escaping a threat of nuclear war. The boys elect fair-haired Ralph as their leader, but Jack, a fiery choirmaster of some of the boys, is jealous and the story quickly goes downhill from there, leading to aggression, mayhem, and murder. Throughout the novel, there is also a mysterious and imaginary beast that haunts the minds of the younger boys. Lord of theRead MoreLord Of The Flies Literary Analysis1465 Words   |  6 Pagesonce wrote, Every life is a march from innocence, through temptations, to virtue or vice (Abbott 7). This march, as Abbott puts it, is maturation. Inevitably, everyone must experience these phases, ending either in, good or evil. The novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, examines these very steps towards maturity. More specifically, Golding displays through the character Ralph; the phases of psychological maturity. Ralph throughout his experiences on the island will progress and regress inRead MoreLord Of The Flies Literary Analysis1191 Words   |  5 Pages â€Å"Lord of the Flies† written by William Golding and published in 1954 is an allegory and social commentary that takes place on a deserted tropical island. An island that becomes populated when a plane crashes and leaves British schoolboys stranded. The group of boys attempt to recreate the civilization they came from, by choosing a leader: Ralph but, Jack wants to lead also, which causes the boys to little by little leave civility and form into savages. The microcosm Golding creates exploresRead MoreLord Of The Flies Literary Analysis1101 Words   |  5 PagesIrony is a literary technique utilized by writers in an attempt to convey a message different than its literal meaning. For this reason, this technique used often in satirical writing, such as Lord of The Flies by William Golding. Irony is an important element in literature as it provides writers with a vehicle to communicate a deeper, more meaningful message. In his literary critique, How To Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster emphasizes the significance of irony in literature, statingRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of Lord Of The Flies2183 Words   |  9 PagesThe title Lord of the flies is noteworthy with respect to the novel. First, the word Devil is a Hebrew translation of the novel’s title Lord of the Flies in which the Devil represents the dark and evil of the underworld. This concept of darkness and evil is perceived throughout the novel as we obs erve the boys use their survival skills. An example of this is when we first meet the boys they appear to be well behaved British boys, but as their need for survival strengths we realize these boys mayRead MoreLord Of The Flies Literary Analysis2085 Words   |  9 Pages The Lord of the Flies demonstrates survival, cooperation, and friendship, and how hard those things are to achieve. It was written in 1954 by William Golding. There are several kids who are involved in a plane crash, and land on an uninhabited island, so they must use their resources to survive as a group. There are many boys, Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Simon, and many others, with no girls. Fights, challenges, and jealousy takes them over and their civilization they created starts to shake. The conflictsRead MoreLord Of The Flies Literary Analysis Essay1657 Words   |  7 Pagesnovel, Lord of the Flies, is a tale like no other. It’s a story of perseverance, determination, survival, and emotion. Golding does a superb job displaying these traits and so many more throughout this story of fighting, not for your life, but to the death. The authors style is one unlike any other I’ve read. I love emotion. I’m not sure if it’s the way it makes me feel or how it can help me relate to the reading, but for some reason I love it. That’s why my favorite style displayed in Lord of the

Monday, December 9, 2019

The Design and Construction Contracts Samples for Students .

Question: Requires Evidence of the Understanding of the Court Crocess, Risk Involved and Preparation use of Witnesses and The Role of Expert Witnesses in the Court Process ? Answer: Introduction Most of the contracts that people form are partly oral and partly written primarily in construction and building industry. Parties may agree in writing at first, but due to the demands of the structure or other circumstances, they decide to change some of the terms to cover the arising situations. Such contracts are sometimes efficient, and they provide a quick solution when modes of writing cannot be available at the moment. However, at times they can turn to a game for between a Principal and an Agent, something that raises a question to the validity of the contract. This paper will study a construction contract that was in writing at first between the builder and the architect, and the later the parties amended the contract to suit the drawings of the architect. Formation of a Contract between Agro Builders engages Ego Architects In deciding whether there is a contract between the parties or not, this paper shall analyze the elements of the contract as put by the law of contract, and it will then compare with the elements in these parties' contract. Before the rise of the dispute, the parties had a written agreement. Some of the terms of the agreement were that Ego Architects would prepare the drawing, and Agro builders were to pay for the drawings in 3-stages. The law of contract recognizes the existence of an enforceable agreement if these three elements exist. For one, the offeror should intentionally offer the offeree an offer, and then the offeree must willfully accept the offer.[1] Also, an offer should have no considerations.[2] Besides, the rules of acceptance state that the acceptance must be communicated to the offeror, and it should not have its conditions.[3] According to the information above, this paper concludes that there was a valid agreement for the formation of the contract. After the formation of the contract, contract law states that the parties must perform according to their obligations. If one party acts contrary to the terms that were agreed, then the innocent party has the right to rescind the contract. This means that Agro builders had all the right to refuse to pay Ego architects if it found for sure that the drawings were defective, and could no longer be bound by the duty to act in good faith which was an implied term of their contract.[4] By doing this, it could retain the payments until the defects were made. But still, rather than rescinding the agreement, the parties to the contract can waive the strict reliance on defective drawings or mutually agree to vary the work and use them.[5] In case such happens, the older contract becomes non-existence, and the terms of the new agreement predominate. So when Agro Builders and Ego architects decided to modify the contract so that it can accommodate the defective drawings, the drawings became admissible and therefore it's deemed that Ego architects performed its obligations. So with that, Agro Builders cannot go back to the old contract. Furthermore, the law of contracts acknowledges that acceptance of a contract can happen through the conducts of the parties.[6] So when Agro Builders used the drawings in the constructions, it impliedly accepted them in the construction, meaning that they were valid. This is sometimes called acceptance by conduct, and Agro builders were supposed to act in good faith as they had demonstrated while accepting the drawings. If there is anything like defects, its argued that the builder certifier should examine the structure carefully.[7] So it seems that Agro looked careful and impliedly accepted them though its conducts. For example, the Court of Appeal held that the contract to the deal demo' was binding to the parties even though they had not signed the agreement as per the requirements of the terms. The contract provided that the agreement won't be binding unless the parties append their signatures, but the court dismissed that clause by stating that the conduct of the parties implie d that they had accepted the contract.[8] Similarly, Agro Builders used the drawing with the new terms, and therefore could not go back to the old contract. Modification of a Written Contract by a Subsequent Oral Agreement The contract law recognizes two types of contracts. That is an oral contract and a written contract. The dominant contract is always the last one that was made before the parties acted. For example, in a case between Tekdata Limited v Amphenol, the court held that Amphenol was the last one to issue its terms, and then the parties started performing their obligation. With this, it then implied that Amphenol's declarations ruled the contract.[9] These kind assumptions are more prevalent in cases where one party commences work before the understanding of the terms, and it applies to both oral and written contracts. So in the case of Agro Builders and Ego Architects, it's true that there was a contract that dismissed the defective drawings. But after that, the parties went back to change that contract to accommodate the defective drawing, so the new contract would govern future conducts of the parties. The general terms in a construction contract is that after the parties have accepted the terms the contract, both parties have a duty to act fairly and in good.[10] Nevertheless, there is always a battle between oral agreement and written agreement. In most cases, the battle is a question on whether an oral contract can dismiss or modify a written contract. Courts have always enforced oral modifications under different circumstances. For an instance, in one case the court held that "An oral modification may be enforced if there is partial performance by one of the parties[11] So for Agro Builders and Ego Architect, there is a performance as they both started the construction with the amended contract. Additionally, Angro had rejected the drawings, but it can be assumed that it later it called Ego to amend the contract. Where one party induces the other to oral amendments, the court stated that "Once a party to a written agreement has induced another's significant and substantial reliance upon an oral modification, the first party may be estopped from invoking the statute to bar proof of that oral modification.[12] These facts were also explained in by Chew that inducing the other to carry out a task, and that parties performs with reliance upon that assurances, or representation the other party would be obligated to perform as it had promised.[13] Furthermore, the court allows parties to a contract to alter a written contract even where it contains clauses sheltering it from oral modifications. A useful example is in a case where the Court of Appeal nullified the decision of the High Court's after discovering that the High Court ruling didnt look at the expressions of the agreemen t. The Court of Appeal found no weight on a clause that rejected any future oral amendment made orally to the written contract.[14] However, the integration of modifications into the initial contract depends on some factors, comprising of the existence 'shield clause' and whether there was enough authority amounting to the amendment.[15] So since there was enough ground which was modifying the contract to create a room for the new drawings, Agro Builders should understand that even though the alterations were oral; they had the same effects as a written contract. The only thing that weighs here is whether both parties consented to the modification. With that, Agro retaining the money would destroy the sole purpose of the principals retaining the money. It is well clear that money cannot be retained again after there has been completion.[16] Legal Principles Applicable with the Hierarchy of Contract Documentation Constructions work always involves a heap of documents, and the vast number sometimes is always a problem when it comes to dispute resolutions. Byrne J stated that construction disputes "involve consideration of an enormous number of documents and due to the availability of modern computerized techniques for document management means that there is now no incentive to limit the number of these documents deployed at trial.[17] Above all, these documents are part and parcel of a construction contract, and a successful project depends on the use of each document.[18] On the other hand, these documents sometimes become a problem at sometimes of the construction process. The challenges arise from the enormous volume of these papers since they are all part of the contract, and the more they are, the higher the chances of discrepancies of the data. The main problem arises when a solution to an individual problem relies on the provision of one document, causing a need to have one document rul ing the others when all the papers provide different information.[19] Considerably, big projects hold numerous of these contract papers. The project manager arranges all of the papers hierarchically in order, and their layout simply signifies the order that any person using them should follow. In most cases, the filing starts with the construction contract, then it's followed by the specification document, and the drawings follows as third. Lastly, the bills of quantities or scheduled rates are attached at the bottom of these documents, and any other document following after this may call follow the same order.[20] Regarding future disputes, its very common that the contracts will have a clause designating how the parties would refer a conflict arising from these references to these documents. About this, the most common approach gives more authority to the contract among other papers.[21] Apart from the provisions of the contract for handling document discrepancies, there are other methods that project managers can consult. Among these are the principles of common law. For instance, the common law suggests that the users can resolve the confliction data by interpreting the document in a reasonable person's thinking when given all the background that the parties have.[22] Another suggestion from the common law is that parties can try analyzing the ambiguities to find a solution.[23] Also, the management can find a solution by looking at the contract document as a whole. And finally, the management can try to remove any literal application if its the one leading to the errors or mistakes. Parties can reflect on the application of these common law principles to see whether they can eliminate the ambiguity arising from the reference to the hierarchy. Egal Effect of stamping the specifications approved on any future contractual position Stamping specifications or authorizing any action in a construction falls under the duties of the engineer or architect. These duties also bestow on the engineer all the liabilities that may come due to defects or negligence that falls within its authority. In most of the constructions, the engineer is responsible for both contractual and legal professional duties owed to the owner. Not only that, but it also owes professional legal duties to the contractors. Generally, the supervising authority gives the Architect a professional control and management. Plus it also vests all the liabilities including those that may arise from their negligence. For instance, a poor interpretation of misconception of the figures can lead to defective construction, and all these liabilities would fall on the engineer. Likewise, the engineer cannot blame the contractor or the owner over any figure that's found on the construction documents. To some extent, the liability of the architect is not limited within his/her expressed terms; sometimes it can go outside the stipulated duties. For instance, an engineer would be held liable of authorizing defective drawing that the contractor or owner brings to the site. For example, the court held that the engineer was liable for damages that occurred out of his failure to inform the owner of the errors made by the contractors.[24] Also, whenever an architect stamps the construction specifications, it implies that he/she accepts all damages that may arise as an outcome of his/her authorization. In simple, stamping documents gives the architect an obligation to review the plans and eliminate all errors that may cause some damages. The court made the same remarks as "the responsibility of an architect may be similar to that of a lawyer or a physician: the law requires the exercise of ordinary skill and care common to the profession."[25] Additionally, the responsibilities of the architect for reviewing construction documents can arise even after completion of the construction. For example, a judge ruled against the architect after a boy fell from the diving platform out of Architects recommendations. In the in the ruling, the judge stated that architect owes a duty to any person who lawfully resides within the premises.[26] Furthermore, the architects' overall authorization doesnt bequeath them the authority to shift the burden to the owner. For example, sometimes an engineer may follow his/her own conscious and modify the contract adding more burden to the owner or the contractor. If such a thing happens, the court will always overturn such decision and award damages to the afflicted party.[27] In general, project documents such as plans and specifications work together to define the end results of the construction. The drawings graphically illustrate the work results expected. If an engineer missed any of these, the entire construction would have some defects, and such may cause accidents in future. All these will heavily come down to the architect. Formulated Procedures for Avoiding Amendment Problems In the course of Construction Ariation Management The contract documents for a typical construction project consist of the Agreement itself, the General Conditions, Technical Specifications, and numerous Drawings. Additionally, some provisions are covered by reference to another document. Unfortunately, contract documents often fail to adequately describe, define, or delineate the work to be performed. This generates some of the so-called scope-of-work disputes. Such disputes center on the nature and extent of the performance obligation. The most frequent cause of such disputes is the lack of detail in drawings or lack of specifics in specifications. The problem with drawings is most common on small projects where design costs, and therefore the number of drawings, are held to a minimum. If the drawings lack sufficient detail, the contractor will have to rely on what it understands is expected. This may or may not coincide with the intentions or expectations of the owner or designer. Specifications problems usually result from lack of attention during the specification process. The widespread use of canned or off-the-shelf specifications and manufacturers specifications is another large contributor to the number of disputes occurring. Errors of omission or ambiguity are frequent and, unfortunately for the owner, are generally interpreted in favor of the contractor. Specifications and drawings, as well as construction documents, should be correct, complete, clear, and concise. Problems also occur when specifiers resort to broad, subjective generalities (e.g., in accordance with highest industry standards) rather than describing the work objectively and in detail. Avoiding Scope-of-Work Problems The best but most difficult way to avoid scope-of-work problems is outlined in the following guidelines: 1. Provide adequate budget for drafting specifications. 2. Work with a set of carefully prepared, carefully coordinated front-end documents. 3. Place control of each set of project specifications in the hands of a sin gle, qualified specifications engineer or require that all specifications be subject to his or her review and editorial control. 4. Do not mark up previous job specifications to create another set of job specifications; always work from the same set of master specification documents for every job. 5. Update the master specification at least annually to keep current with industry standards, codes, and laws affecting construction. 6. Use the same set of front-end documents on all projects to minimize contract administration problems and to ensure that there has been no contractual variation in the owners risk posture. 7. Front-end documents should not be edited by project engineers. All changes to front-end documents should be subject to review of both legal and construction management personnel with specific experience in construction contracts management. While the foregoing will go a long way toward improving the specifications product, it is important that every office either esta blish a specifications department or at the very least designate a Specifications Engineer to control specification standards and policies. Use of Experts Expert determination is a resolution method where the third party with expertise in a particular field brings the disputing parties to an amicable decision.[28] In engineering or construction projects, disputing parties may use an expert determination to issue a valuation or of work completed. The expert may assess the quality of work delivered, or a determine other facts or legal issues in dispute. For example, a contract administrator can act as a third party, in verifying the value of work completed by the contractor. In that case, such an administrator would be acting in the capacity of offering expert determination. When an expert determination is used to solve disputes, it's usually perceived as holding grand benefits over both litigation, and arbitration.[29] So in our concerned case, the parties can also call the help an expert to help Agro and Ego settle their case. Substantiating the Claim Over Incomplete Specifications For any party looking to acquire a relief from a breach of contract, that party must substitute their claim. In reality, the weight of the case matters with how individuals substantiated their evidence. In other words, the party that brings most reliable documentation to the court always gets the expected winning. The problem comes when the innocent party doesn't know or have the necessary files. In such cases, the court may either dismiss the case or rely on the little evidence provided. For Agro to get the most out of its case, it must provide the court with documents such as the correspondence files. Bringing these files to the court will help the judge to understand how the dispute unfolded starting from the time when there was no project. In other words, the judge will first need to look at the contract since it's the one that brought the parties together. Also, within the correspondence files, it would be good to have daily reports of what was happening during the development of the agreement. Such a report would help in understanding the lineup of events, progress, and costs of the project. Other documents that can also support the case are the payroll records or the delivery Receipts. Also, it would be good to bring the project schedules to show the execution plans. Lastly, pictures of the development would be good to help the judge to understand the situation practically. To some situations, the parties may need to bring in the evidence from the expert witness. However, judges value different factors when deciding on the admissibility of the expert evidence. In determining whether the evidence would be acceptable or not, the judge may first check whether it's possible to test its technicality. Simply, this checks whether the techniques used in acquiring the evidence were prone to realistic errors and whether the technique had a reasonable rate of mistakes.[30] If there are present, the court would also look to see whether there are principles applicable for limiting such technical errors. Also, in claims trials, expert evidence is admissible only if it brings the judge a picture of the problem or helping the jury understand the errors. Comparatively, if the evidence is not coming from a satisfactory foundation, it is no doubt that the court will reject it. On the same token, the court will dismiss any expert testimony if the expert relied on speculations, or if the expert used his or her assumptions that had unsatisfactory factual grounds. For example, the court dismissed evidence that failed to show all the variables comportment on the practical facts.[31] Other than those reasons for dismissing expert witness, there are some instances where such evidence becomes a problem rather than a help. For example, when experts involve themselves too much in the project, they might develop some interest leading to biased evidence. Coupled with that, an expert witness can sometimes become too expensive.[32] Bringing a Claim a Claim within the Scheme of the Building Industry Security of payment Act (Victoria). The 'Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act (SOP)' helps people to secure their payments made in a construction job or people who supply goods and services to a building contest. In making a successful claim, this acts illustrates some standards that every claim should follow. For example, the law set that each payment claim must be served on the respondent. The claim should have the earliest date. That is the date when the claim was made.[33] And, it should have both reference date and the latest date that the claim can be served. While making a claim, the claimant should claim for the unpaid amount by the reference date, and the amount should reflect the price agreed in the contract. If the contract doesn't mention the price, the claimant can do a valuation of the completed work and claim the calculated price. The act illustrates various types of dates. In particular, there is the periodic progress payment, final payment or a single payment. Parties to a contract are free to specify the reference date and the latest date. When it comes to a periodic progress, the should wait for three months after the reference date. Also, a periodic progress payment allows the lapse of not less than three months and one day before serving a payment claim. After making an application for a final payment, there should be no further claims. While making periodic progress claims, it's good for the claimant to understand that contract providing for a single payment would be exempted from this application. The rest contracts allow periodic claims as the contract proceeds. At the same time, the contract can set dates for making periodic claims. If no such provision, the claimant can make a claim after 20 business days counting from the date the work commenced. For a final payment claim, the Act allows the parties to a contract to prescribe the dates for making a claim. If no date, then the contract should provide for a final certificate, with the earliest date being the date following the final claim. Progress payments also cover single or one-off time payment claim. In most cases, this type of payment works on short job contracts which have specified sum. Also, it includes instances where the claimant should receive the payments before work the job is carried out. Conclusion Construction disputes are very popular despite the many documents. The only thing to understand is that whatever the number of documents they parties, have, the court will always give the contract more priority. The court recognizes that the contract gave birth to all the other documents, and hence it should rule them in the times of disputes. References Brudner A, The Unity Of The Common Law (2nd edn, OUP Oxford 2013) McKendrick E, Contract Law (11th edn, Palgrave Macmillan 2015) Andrew C, 'Alliancing In Delivery Of Major Infrastructure Projects And Outsourcing Services In Australia - An Overview Of Legal Issues.' (2004) 21 The International Construction Law Review https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/90365263 accessed 11 May 2017 Jenkins J, The American Courts (11th edn, Jones and Bartlett Publishers LLC 2011) Stone R, The Modern Law Of Contract (11th edn, Routledge 2015) Ulbrick D, Tradies And The Trade Practices Act ( 2009) 25 BCL 8 Byrne D, The Future of Litigation of Construction Law Disputes, Speech delivered at the Reception to Announce His Honours Appointment as the Patrol of the Construction Law Program (University of Melbourne, 5 September 2007) Klinger M, and Susong M, The Construction Project (3rd edn, Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, American Bar Association 2006).. Davison R and Mullen J, Evaluating Contract Claims (2nd edn, Wiley-Blackwell 2009) Pickavance K, Construction Law And Management (1st edn, Taylor and Francis 2013) William J Chambliss, Courts, Law, And Justice ( Sage 2011). Cases Adelaide City Corp v Altermann (1987) 46 SASR 186 Ambassador Baptist Church v. Seabreeze Heating and Cooling Co., 184 N.W.2d 568, 28 Mich. App. 424 (Ct. App. 1970). CJP Builders Limited v William Verry [2008] EWHC 2025 (TCC). Fenice Investments Inc v Jerram Falkus Construction Ltd [2009] EWHC 3272 (TCC) Francisco v. Manson, Jackson Kane, Inc., 377 N.W.2d 313, 145 Mich. App. 255 (Ct. App. 1985). Globe Motors and RW Lucas Varity Electric Steering Ltd. [2016] EWCA Civ 396 Green v. Millman Brothers, Inc., 151 N.W.2d 860, 7 Mich. App. 450 (Ct. App. 1967) Heart Research Institute Ltd v Psiron Ltd [2002] NSWSC 646 Hyundai Motor Company, Ltd. v. Duncan, [2015] 766 S.E.2d 893, 289 Va. 147 Jones V. City Of Albertville, Civil Action No. Cv-12-S-96-NE (N.D. Ala. Oct. 28, 2014). Keane Telecom Consulting, Llc V. Manhattan Telecom. Corp., 2013 N.Y. Slip Op 32261 (Sup. Ct. 2013). Kerry, Inc. v. Angus Young Assocs., Inc., (Wis. Ct. App. 2005) 694 N.W.2d 407 Lewis Construction (Engineering) Pty Ltd v Southern Electric Authority of Queensland [1976] 50 ALJR 769 Maggbury Pty Ltd v Hafele Australia Pty Ltd [2001] HCA 70 210 CLR 181. Reveille Independent LLC v Anotech International (UK) Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 443 Scientific Elec. Co., Inc. v. ADG Park Constr. Group, LLC, 2013 N.Y. Slip Op 31251 (Sup. Ct. 2013). Tekdata Interconnections Ltd v Amphenol Ltd [2009] EWCA Civ 1209 Pratt Contractors Ltd v. Transit New Zealand (New Zealand) [2003] UKPC 83 Legislations Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Victoria) [1] Alan Brudner, The Unity Of The Common Law (2nd edn, OUP Oxford 2013). [2] Ewan McKendrick, Contract Law (11th edn, Palgrave Macmillan 2015). [3] Jeffrey A Jenkins, The American Courts (11th edn, Jones and Bartlett Publishers LLC 2011). [4] Chew Andrew, 'Alliancing In Delivery Of Major Infrastructure Projects And Outsourcing Services In Australia - An Overview Of Legal Issues.' (2004) 21 The International Construction Law Review https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/90365263 accessed 11 May 2017. [5] Lines MacFarlane Marshall Pty Ltd v Fletcher Construction Australia Ltd (2000) VSC 358 [6] Richard Stone, The Modern Law Of Contract (11th edn, Routledge 2015). [7] David Ulbrick, Tradies And The Trade Practices Act ( 2009) 25 BCL 8 [8] Reveille Independent LLC v Anotech International (UK) Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 443 [9] Tekdata Interconnections Ltd v Amphenol Ltd [2009] EWCA Civ 1209 [10] Pratt Contractors Ltd v. Transit New Zealand (New Zealand) [2003] UKPC 83 [11] Scientific Elec. Co., Inc. v. ADG Park Constr. Group, LLC, 2013 N.Y. Slip Op 31251 (Sup. Ct. 2013). [12] Keane Telecom Consulting, Llc V. Manhattan Telecom. Corp., 2013 N.Y. Slip Op 32261 (Sup. Ct. 2013). [13] Andrew C, 'Alliancing In Delivery Of Major Infrastructure Projects And Outsourcing Services In Australia - An Overview Of Legal Issues.' (2004) 21 The International Construction Law Review https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/90365263 accessed 11 May 2017 [14] Globe Motors and RW Lucas Varity Electric Steering Ltd. [2016] EWCA Civ 396 [15] Green v. Millman Brothers, Inc., 151 N.W.2d 860, 7 Mich. App. 450 (Ct. App. 1967). [16] David Ulbrick, Tradies And The Trade Practices Act ( 2009) 25 BCL 8; Retention moneys and Part IVA of the TPA [17] David Byrne, The Future of Litigation of Construction Law Disputes, Speech delivered at the Reception to Announce His Honours Appointment as the Patrol of the Construction Law Program (University of Melbourne, 5 September 2007) [18] Marilyn Klinger and Marianne Susong, The Construction Project (3rd edn, Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, American Bar Association 2006). [19] Fenice Investments Inc v Jerram Falkus Construction Ltd [2009] EWHC 3272 (TCC) [20] R. Peter Davison and John Mullen, Evaluating Contract Claims (2nd edn, Wiley-Blackwell 2009). [21] CJP Builders Limited v William Verry [2008] EWHC 2025 (TCC). [22] Maggbury Pty Ltd v Hafele Australia Pty Ltd [2001] HCA 70 210 CLR 181. [23] Lewis Construction (Engineering) Pty Ltd v Southern Electric Authority of Queensland [1976] 50 ALJR 769 [24] Kerry, Inc. v. Angus Young Assocs., Inc., (Wis. Ct. App. 2005) 694 N.W.2d 407 [25] Ambassador Baptist Church v. Seabreeze Heating and Cooling Co., 184 N.W.2d 568, 28 Mich. App. 424 (Ct. App. 1970). [26] Francisco v. Manson, Jackson Kane, Inc., 377 N.W.2d 313, 145 Mich. App. 255 (Ct. App. 1985). [27] Tomlinson v Ashland County (1919) 173 NW 300, 170 Wis 58. [28] Keith Pickavance, Construction Law And Management (1st edn, Taylor and Francis 2013) [29] Heart Research Institute Ltd v Psiron Ltd [2002] NSWSC 646 [30] Jones V. City Of Albertville, Civil Action No. Cv-12-S-96-NE (N.D. Ala. Oct. 28, 2014). [31] Hyundai Motor Company, Ltd. v. Duncan, [2015] 766 S.E.2d 893, 289 Va. 147 [32] William J Chambliss, Courts, Law, And Justice ( Sage 2011). [33] Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Victoria)

Monday, December 2, 2019

The Effects of the Second World War on US

Americans believed that the Second World War was a legitimate war. The war provided Americans with an opportunity to take control of the world and stamp authority in regions that belonged to other world powers.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Effects of the Second World War on US specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More After the war, veterans claimed that Americans had enough reasons to join it. It is clear that there was a genuine reason for American soldiers to participate in the Second World War. Some states set a mission to conquer other nations and impose oppressive laws. America had to save the world by sending its troops to restore democracy. The war transformed the American society in a number of ways. This transformation affected all aspects of life. These changes had both positive and negative impacts. The war caused psychological traumas and persistent mental problems to various Americans. Single families were in the rise because household heads were killed in the war. Despite of all these problems, Americans endured the effects of the war. This shows that the war was a genuine because every American was willing to sacrifice. Very many nations did not withstand the impacts of the war because they ended up disintegrating. Such states include Germany, which disintegrated into East and West Germany. Americans lost their lives for a genuine reason. Veterans and survivors returned home with distressing memories and psychological problems. However, there was fear because African-Americans did not achieve their objectives. Blacks thought that the war would liberate them from the house of bondage. They had hoped that white masters would appreciate their efforts in the war. Asked whether it was a legitimate war, many veterans observed that it was indeed an superb war. Economically, Americans benefited because the war gave them a chance to supply weapons and foodstuff to other parts of the wo rld. The war provided women with an opportunity to eliminate discrimination. However, the law never allowed women to participate as combatants. Women seized an opportunity to serve in the military industries. This boosted their economic abilities because they could utilize the salaries to expand their businesses. However, allowing women to work in industries had nothing to do with political idealism. The end of the war presented new challenges to Americans. For instance, the Second World War generated conflicts that further led to the Cold War.Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The Cold War strengthened the American spirit because policy makers had come up with policies to counter communism. The Second World War united Americans because people fought with passion regardless of racial backgrounds. The themes of patriotism and victory were strengthened as well. In fact, the themes are honor ed in society. These values became dominant and were upheld even during the Vietnam War. Anticommunism was part of the American ideals, which reinforced the military industry. The Second World War was different from the First World War in a number of ways. The role of America in the First World War was peripheral as opposed to the Second World War whereby America took a central role. The artillery used in the Second World War was superior to the ones used in the First World War. This was because of continued technological advancements. Politically, it appeared that Americans appreciated their role in the First World War. However, there were disagreements in the senate before America engaged in the Second World War. The effects of the Second World War were positive to Americans as opposed to the effects of the First World War, which were destructive. One of the benefits of the Second World War was that America emerged the world super power. This essay on The Effects of the Second World War on US was written and submitted by user Isabell Solomon to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

The Bible and Archaeology

The Bible and Archaeology An important step forward in scientific archaeological research, and a 19th-century outgrowth of the previous centurys Enlightenment  was the search for the truth of the events written about in the ancient historical accounts of the past. The main truth of the Bible, Torah, Koran, and the Buddhist sacred texts among many others is (of course) not a scientific one but a truth of faith and religion. The roots of the scientific study of archaeology are deeply planted in the establishment of the boundaries of that truth. Is the Bible Fact or Fiction? This is one of the most common questions I get asked as an archaeologist and it is one for which I have yet to find a good answer. And yet the question is at the absolute heart of archaeology, central to the growth and development of archaeology, and it is the one that gets more archaeologists into trouble than any other. And, more to the point, it brings us back to the history of archaeology. Many if not most citizens of the world are naturally curious about ancient texts. After all, they form the basis of all human culture, philosophy, and religion. As discussed in the earlier parts of this series, at the end of the Enlightenment, many archaeologists began actively searching for the cities and cultures described in the available ancient texts and histories, such as Homer and the Bible, Gilgamesh, Confucian texts, and the Vedic manuscripts. Schliemann sought Homers Troy, Botta sought Nineveh, Kathleen Kenyon sought Jericho, Li Chi sought An-Yang, Arthur Evans at Mycenae, Koldewey at Babylon, and Woolley at Ur of the Chaldees. All of these scholars and more sought archaeological events in the ancient texts. Ancient Texts and Archaeological Studies But using ancient texts as the basis for historical investigation was- and still is- fraught with peril in any culture: and not just because the truth is hard to parse out. Governments and religious leaders have vested interests in seeing that religious texts and nationalistic myths remain unchanged and unchallenged- other parties might learn to see the ancient ruins as blasphemous. Nationalistic mythologies demand that there is a special state of grace for a particular culture, that the ancient texts are received wisdom, that their specific country and people are the center of the creative world. No Planet-Wide Floods When early geological investigations proved without a doubt that there was no planet-wide flood as described in the Old Testament of the Bible, there was a great cry of outrage. Early archaeologists fought against and lost battles of this sort time and again. The results of David Randal-McIvers excavations at Great Zimbabwe, an important trading site in southeastern Africa, were suppressed by the local colonial governments who wanted to believe that the site was Phoenician in derivation and not African. The beautiful effigy mounds found throughout North America by Euroamerican settlers were wrongly attributed to either the mound builders or a lost tribe of Israel. The fact of the matter is that ancient texts are renditions of ancient culture which may be partly reflected in the archaeological record and partly will not be- not fiction nor fact, but culture. Better Questions So, lets not ask if the Bible is true or false. Instead, lets ask a series of different questions: Did the places and cultures that are mentioned in the Bible and the other ancient texts exist? Yes, in many cases, they did. Archaeologists have found evidence for many of the locations and cultures mentioned in the ancient texts.Did the events that are described in these texts happen? Some of them did; archaeological evidence in the form of physical evidence or supporting documents from other sources can be found for some of the battles, the political struggles, and the building and collapse of cities.Did the mystical things that are described in the texts occur? Its not my area of expertise, but if I were to hazard a guess, if there were miracles that occurred, they wouldnt leave archaeological evidence.Since the places and the cultures and some of the events that are described in these texts happened, shouldnt we just assume that the mysterious parts also happened? No. Not any more than since Atlanta burned, Scarlett OHara really was dumped by Rhett Butler. There are so many ancient texts and stories about how the world began and many are at variance with one another. From a global human standpoint, why should one ancient text be more accepted than any other? The mysteries of the Bible and other ancient texts are just that: mysteries. It is not, and never has been, within the archaeological purview to prove or disprove their reality. That is a question of faith, not science.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Saying No in French

Saying No in French Saying no in French is easy. The only problem is choosing from the many synonyms for no in French. Choose with care, because the differences between expressions are nuanced. Learn how to say the equivalents of  no, not a chance, I dont think so, down with, and more. The Many Faces of Non in French non noThis is the basic, standard French word for no. Non, je naime pas skier.   No, I dont like to ski. ah non /  oh non  Ã‚  oh noAh non and oh non express disappointment, as in oh no! or darn it! Ah non ! Ça ne marche pas !   Oh no! It doesnt work! non †¦Ã‚  Ã‚  no to...Non is followed by a noun to mean (say) no to or down with, especially in protests and demonstrations: Non au CPE !   No to the First Job Contract! Other synonyms for non      absolument pas  Ã‚  absolutely not  Ã‚  Ã‚  au contraire   on the contrary  Ã‚  Ã‚  aucun (problà ¨me, argent, etc.)   no (problem, money, etc)  Ã‚  Ã‚  bien sà »r que non  Ã‚  of course not  Ã‚  Ã‚  certainement pas   certainly not  Ã‚  Ã‚  des clous ! (familiar) no way!  Ã‚  Ã‚  du tout   not at all Expressions With Non   Ã‚  Ã‚  je crois que non  Ã‚  I dont think so  Ã‚  Ã‚  je ne dis pas non   I wouldnt say no  Ã‚  Ã‚  mais non   of course not  Ã‚  Ã‚  moi non   not me, I dont  Ã‚  Ã‚  nest-ce pas ?   no? right? isnt it?  Ã‚  Ã‚  niet ! (familiar) no way!  Ã‚  Ã‚  non merci - no thank you  Ã‚  Ã‚  non et non !   absolutely not!  Ã‚  Ã‚  non plus   not (that) either  Ã‚  Ã‚  non que subjunctive   not that †¦Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ... ou non ?   †¦ (are/will/do you verb) or not?  Ã‚  Ã‚  pas de (problà ¨me, temps, pain, etc)   no (problem, time, bread, etc.)  Ã‚  Ã‚  pas du tout   not at all  Ã‚  Ã‚  pas question ! (familiar) no way! not a chance!  Ã‚  Ã‚  pas tout fait   not exactly, not quite  Ã‚  Ã‚  que non !   absolutely not!

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Planning for coordination with federal entities regarding homeland Essay

Planning for coordination with federal entities regarding homeland security - Essay Example The Department of Homeland Security is the central agencies that to provide effective management resource within federal, state and local governments on security issues. Its primary responsibility as a security authority is to anticipate, preempt, detect and deter threats to the homeland and its people from terrorist attacks, natural disasters or any other emergency. Its goal is to coordinate different agencies and programs into a single agency for fast and efficient response to the crisis. Larry Ness states, ‘the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is still consolidating most of the more than 40 federal entities’ (Ness, 2006, p. 49). Its security responsibilities are varied and related to the governmental jurisdictions at federal, state, and local level and acts as a complementary system that connects all levels of government. It is an independent agency reporting to the President and tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disaster. Its role has become all the more important after 9/11 and works with a vision of ‘A Nation Prepared’. It works under FEMA and forms integrated disaster response task forces, comprising of emergency service personnel, equipped with necessary skills, techniques and tools that can be deployed for rescuing victims of structural collapse. Its aim is to protect civilians and prevent the loss of property from natural hazards. It acts as an emergency management to protect lives and property through partnerships with governments at the State and local levels as well as the private sector. It helps to promulgate interior security of the nation and the reduction of crimes and potential threats to federal facilities throughout the nation, and require close coordination and intelligence sharing with the investigative functions within Immigration and custom enforcement (ICE). FPS is a full service agency with a comprehensive HAZMAT, WMD,

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Criminal Procedure Unit 2 Homework Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Criminal Procedure Unit 2 Homework - Article Example The court, however, adjusted prior interpretations of the clauses, unreasonable search and seizure, to include immaterial intrusion via technology as a search. The court conducted two prolong tests, which required the defendant to indicate whether he had subjective imagination. In this regard, such imagination concerned the surrounding where the search was conducted and whether the society accepts such expectation as reasonable. The court ruled that Mr. Katz had a reasonable expectation of privacy within the telephone booth and that police officers had no exigent circumstance. Therefore, it was essential for them to seek for a warranty before undertaking such an action. The term seizure is used to describe any form of interference to a person’s possessory interest in material goods. Unreasonable seizure implies a circumstance where the chattel owner had a reasonable anticipation of privacy in the items seized. A person or property is said to be seized, when law enforcing officers apply force to restrain the person or property. This situation occurs if the chattel or person does not exercise one’s freedom to leave the situation (Amar, 1994). The case of Terry v. Ohio involved Terry and two other men watched by police officers in plain clothes. The officers believed that the men were ‘casing a job, a stick-up’, and for that reason, they proceeded to frisk the three men (Lichtenberg, 2001). The officers recovered illegal weapons held by the two men. The court questioned whether the search and seizure of the men amounted to a breach of the Fourth Amendment. The court decided that the search performed by the police officers was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The court determined that the police officers operated on more than a ‘hunch’ and that a reasonable man would have been tempted to believe that

Sunday, November 17, 2019

African Americans and the Prison System Essay Example for Free

African Americans and the Prison System Essay I. Introduction In the book the Mugging of Black America, Earl Ofari Hutchinson relays an interesting experience by a reporter. The reporter, who spent two and a half hours watching suspects march before Washington, D. C. Superior Court Judge Morton Berg, noted that all but one of these subjects was Black. He stated, ? Â §There is an odd air about the swift afternoon? Xan atmosphere like that of British Africa in colonial times? Xas the procession of tattered, troubled, scowling, poor blacks plead guilty or not guilty to charges of drug possession, drug distribution, assault, armed robbery, theft, breaking in, fraud and arson. According to Hutchinson, the reporter witnessed more than a courtroom scene; he witnessed the legacy of slavery. This paper will attempt expand on Hutchinson? Â ¦s theory. It will do so by first describing slavery and its lasting impact then it will attempt to show how the current criminal justice system mirrors slavery. PART 1: Slavery I. The History of Oppression and African Americans The history of the oppression as it relates to African Americans began in 1619. It was this year in which a Dutch ship brought the first slaves from Africa to North America. Following this arrival of twenty Africans in Virginia, white European-Americans created the institution of slavery. Slavery spread so quickly that by 1860 the original twenty slaves turned into nearly four million. In the beginning the legal status of these Africans was undefined. This absent definition created a lack of certainty which allowed for some slaves to become free after years of service. This only lasted briefly. In the 1660s, however, the colonies began enacting laws that defined and regulated slaves and the institution of slavery. One of the most important of these was the provision that black slaves, and the children of slave women, would serve for life. These ? Â §breeding laws were just the beginning. Soon, slavery in the United States was governed by a body of laws developed from the 1660s to the 1860s. Even though every slave state had its own slave code and case law, it became universal that slavery was a permanent condition. In addition to slavery being a permanent condition, slaves were also, under these laws, considered property. Slaves, being property, could not own property or be a party to a contract. Since marriage is a form of a contract, slave marriages had no legal standing. Most codes also had sections regulating free blacks. Under these codes blacks who were not slaves were still subject to controls on their movements and employment. These laws served not only as a physical limitation, but an ideological one also. In addition to granting slave owners and white people power over slaves and in some cases free blacks, the laws also granted slaveholders and white-Europeans an intangible source of power. Socially, the institution of slavery allowed white slave owners to believe they had not only physical control, but physical and mental superiority over the slaves. With only a few exceptions, all slaves were Africans. This fact placed the label of inferiority on black skin. The actual institution of slavery as it relates to master and slave lasted up in till the Civil war. The American Civil War was fought, in part, over slavery. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which ? Â §freed all slaves. This seemingly, brought the end of slavery throughout the United States, but unfortunately left a lasting impression. From this point on slavery took on a new form as former slaves being associated with the label of inferiority. II. The lasting effects of slavery: continuous oppression Slavery is defined by Webster? Â ¦s dictionary as ? Â §The state of being under the control of another person . Aalthough the actual physical control and violence supposedly ended after the emancipation proclamation, The intangible theory of supremacy derived from the institution of slavery resulted in many lasting effects. These effects in and of themselves are a form of force, a form slavery. a. The lost sense of culture and cultural pride: Feeling of inferiority Slave drivers made great efforts to eliminate African culture. For instance Africans were beaten if they were caught speaking their native languages or carrying out native rituals . Therefore, they were not able to effectively pass the languages, stories and traditions on to their children. This forced suppression resulted in the loss of verbal records and a rich legacy of history. It is no secret that there is pride in culture. Taking away the culture takes away the pride and the motivation and results in feelings of worthlessness. b. no economic foundation Slave drivers not only attempted to deprive the Africans of there culture and pride, but they successfully robbed them economically. Slaves were forced to work without pay for years while padding the pockets of the slave owners. This deficit of economics resulted in an inability to establish an economic foundation in the United States. c. Unleveled playing field Along with the deprivation of financial resources, another significant factor concerning the state of African Americans is arrested development. Slaves were deprived of opportunities to learn and become more competitive in many areas of society. Black people were not allowed to read or learn to read, so they could not take advantage of written text. All these lasting effects placed blacks in a severely disadvantaged state when slavery was abolished, led a socioeconomic structure in which white people generally held the highest ranks and Black people generally held the lowest ranks. III. Maintaining oppression In order to maintain this socioeconomic structure, there always seems to be a new form of oppression set in place to maintain ? Â §slavery. As if the above detrimental effects of slavery were not enough, the White southerners were anxious to maintain more direct power and control over people with black skin, despite there classification as ? Â §free. The White southerners decided to, again, use the law in order crystallize there theory of inferiority and keep black people at the lowest ranks. In 1865, southerners created Black Codes, which served as a way to control and inhibit the freedom of ex-slaves. These historic Codes controlled almost all aspects of life, and prohibited African Americans from almost all the freedoms that had been won during the Civil War. The codes, which were blatantly racist and oppressive, were eventually suspended in June 1866, during the ? Â §reconstruction era. During this time period in America and despite resistance, African-Americans were slowly becoming part of this nations inclusion. By 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution confirmed the long awaited citizenship for Blacks in America. By 1870, the 15th Amendment was added to the Constitution which made it illegal to deny the right to vote based on race. The Reconstruction era, although short-lived, showed the first real attempts of inclusive freedom for African-Americans since the abolition of slavery. Gains were taking place: Citizenship, Voting, Education, and Politics. But, the underlying desire to have power over those in black skin never subsided. Just like the black Codes, this desire to dominate again manifested itself in another form, Jim Crow Laws. These laws promoted discrimination and the denial of equal protection by law. Just like the codes, they too were eventually abolished. Just like the Codes, Jim Crow laws, the desire of our society to suppress those in black skin will soon take another form. Today that form is the Criminal Justice System. PART 2 The New Age Slavery: The Prison System I. The Prison Institution Prisons are big in the United States. During the past 20 years, the United States experienced a massive increase in incarceration. The prison population increased fourfold, from 330,000 in 1980 to nearly 1. 4 million in 1999, and the incarceration rate increased from about 140 to about 476 per 100,000 resident populations. Today there are more than two million Americans behind bars. But even more startling is the fact that more than one-half of these incarcerated Americans have black skin. Although black Americans only make up about 12% of the US population, they account for more then 30% of all arrests, 44% of all prisoners and 40% of prisoners on death row. II. Race and the Prison System These obvious disparities in the criminal justice system can be attributed to many different things ranging from racial profiling to the lack of opportunity and poor education, but most criminal justice observers believe that these disparities have emerged from the underlying assumptions rooted in slavery. The assumption that slaves were inferior has carried over to today. Currently this theory of inferiority and desire to maintain oppression influences one of the major policies in place attacking African Americans today, the ? Â §war on drugs. Most of the shocking disparities in the criminal Justice System as it relates to African Americans in prison can be attributed to the ? Â §war on drugs. According to a study by Human Rights Watch, African-Americans comprise 62 percent of the drug offenders admitted to state prisons. In seven states, blacks constitute between 80 and 90 percent of all people sent to prison on drug charges. According to studies of the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, African-Americans constitute 15 percent of the national drug users, but comprise an amazing one-third of all those arrested on drug charges and 57 percent of those convicted on drug charges. The criminal justice system generally, and contemporary crime and drug policies in particular, serve as a means for White America to control the African Americans like they did in the 1600 . III. The lasting oppression Similarly to the black codes and segregation implemented after the abolition of slavery; restrictions are placed on prisoners after they are released. Once a prisoner is released from prison, parole and the bans on public assistance, public housing restrictions, etc. create barriers and a seemingly doomed cycle of dominance. Since half of the prisoners in prison are African American, these barriers, like the lasting effects of slavery, have a disproportionate effect on our black communities. III. The effects of oppression According to the Department of Justice? Â ¦s Bureau of Justice statistics, the number of adults in prison, jail, or on probation or parole reached almost 7 million during 2004. Since Blacks comprise 30 percent of probationers and 41 percent of prisoners. That means around 4,500,000 African Americans are affected directly by the criminal justice system. Unfortunately those African Americans sent to prison or under parole are not the only people affected. The impact on the black community does not stop at the prison door, conversely it goes far beyond. Even after a prisoner is released there are lasting effects to the prisoner, his or her family and the community as a whole. a. Demise of the Black family One effect of the high rate of incarceration of African American males in particular has been the decreasing number of marriageable men in the African American community. Along with high rates of homicide, AIDS-related deaths and other factors, this has created a substantial imbalance in the male-female ratio among adult African Americans. Whereas gender ratios for African Americans at birth are about 102-103 males for every 100 females, by the age range 40-44, this declines to 86 males per 100 females, whereas white rates are 100:100 for this group. b. Lost political voice The impact of the criminal justice system on the black community goes beyond the declining family structure to issues of political influence as well. As a result of laws that disenfranchise felons and ex-felons in various states, an estimated 1. 4 million African American males, or 13% of the black male adult population, is either currently or permanently disenfranchised as a result of a felony conviction. In fourteen states, a felony conviction can result in lifetime disenfranchisement, and in seven of these states, an estimated one in four black males is permanently disenfranchised. Thus, not only are criminal justice policies contributing to the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans, but imprisonment itself then reduces the collective political ability of African Americans to influence these policies. V. Solutions The constant demise in the structure of the black family, lost political influence and seemingly arrested development are all very familiar results of a history of oppression. Since these effects of slavery and disparities in the criminal justice system seemingly steam from hundreds of years ago there is no quick fix. Ideally the answer would lie in the destruction of all prejudice. But, it is impossible to erase the deep seated legacy and resurfacing effects of slavery. Therefore this problem must be attacked from a variety of different angles. Recommendations for change can be considered in the areas of awareness, legislative change, criminal justice officials? Â ¦ initiatives, and criminal justice/community partnerships. The following are some suggested that will allow for a beginning to a seemingly circular and endless problem. 1. Legislative Actions Legislation should be pushed to Reconsider Mandatory Sentencing Policies and Equalize Penalties for Crack and Powder Cocaine . 2. Criminal Justice Officials? Â ¦ Initiatives ?n Criminal Justice Officials should Expand Drug Policy Options And Expand the Use of Alternative Sentencing 3. Criminal Justice/Community Partnerships. The criminal Justice system and the community should attempt to Increase Community-based Diversion from the Criminal Justice System And Strengthen the Link between Communities and the Justice System VI. Closing Oppression in the form of institutionalization is nothing new to those dressed in black skin; it has been present since 1619. In this year Africans were brought to the United States and forced into the institution of slavery. Even after the abolition of slavery, a series of codes and segregation laws were set in place to maintain the suppression of black people because black skin was stigmatized as inferior. Even though the prejudice and biased codes and laws were eventually abolished themselves, this stigma remains. Because this theory of black inferiority was embedded in the American culture due to slavery, various means of oppression are able to continually resurface in different forms. Today that form is Criminal Justice System, more specifically the drug policies. Practically mirroring the institution of slavery, African Americans are being controlled and dominated by this system. Control by the USCJS includes the probation, parole, imprisonment, lost economic power, struggling communities and lost political voice. In order to end this vicious cycle of oppression, action must be taken. First people must be made aware of the disparities. Next those who are made aware must press for legislative change, criminal justice officials? Â ¦ initiatives, and criminal justice/community partnerships. The challenge for the community at large is to engage in broad discussion of the mix of family, community, and government initiatives that can begin to reverse the cycle that has been set in motion in recent years. Let? Â ¦s do what Abraham attempted o do in 1877, let? Â ¦s end this legacy of slavery.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

citizen kane Essays -- essays research papers

Citizen Kane   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the movie Citizen Kane , young Charles Foster Kane is very energetic, optimistic and has a very positive outlook on life. At the same time he hates his old and bitter guardian, Mr. Thatcher, who has secluded himself from the everyday man and the only thing he is after is money and stature. Later on in life Charles Kane turns into an exact carbon copy of Mr. Thatcher, even though that is exactly what he wanted to get away from. In this essay I will prove how the used of sound, in the scenes in Thatcher ¡Ã‚ ¦s library and Xanadu, as compared to the earlier scenes in young Kane ¡Ã‚ ¦s newspaper office, help establish this development in Kane ¡Ã‚ ¦s character.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The scene in Thatcher ¡Ã‚ ¦s library starts off with the attendant being on the phone when the reporter walks in to talk to her. The non-diegetic sound is scary and creepy at the same time. It sounds very unwelcoming and gives the impression of Mr.Thatcher as being the bad guy and his library not a good place to be. At first glance we can see that it is a big hall with a huge statue of Mr. Thatcher. The floors are made out of marble and the first impression the audience gets of the room is that, it is very dark, cold and has a gloomy feel to it. The voices of the reporter and the attendant echo in the hall that gives us the impression of the place being very uninhibited and very uninviting, just as the personality of Mr. Thatcher. Once the reporter goes throug...

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Toni Morrison’s Beloved: The Effects of Slavery on Family Bonds

Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved analyzes the effects of slavery on the lives of the African Americans in a very original and profound way. Instead of telling a story about the violence of the white slave masters and about the sufferings of the black people, Morrison reviews the way in which slavery affects the sense of selfhood and identity in the African Americans. The enslaved self cannot relate to the world in the same way as the free self. The master and slave bond is reenacted in the family relationships of the former slaves.Thus, the text investigates the perpetuation of violence and possessiveness after the liberation of the African Americans has taken place. The climax of the novel is indeed an extremely violent moment- Sethe, a runaway slave from the Sweet Home plantation attempts to murder her own children in order to protect them from future slavery. She only has time to kill her baby daughter, Beloved, before the white men stop her. The black slave thus turns the vio lence that was done to her against her own children in two ways: first of all, Sethe kills her daughter because she thinks death would be better her than a life of slavery.However, this violent reaction of the mother has another meaning as well: she acts as if her children were her own possession, as if she were a white master herself. However, motherhood is not the only relationship that is affected by the dark past.Morrison’s novel exemplifies, through a number of relationships, the way in which slavery affects the unity of the traditional African family. In this respect, Beloved traces the reconstruction of African American identity and of the African family as a central structure of society, after the freedom has been obtained.Thus, Toni Morrison’s novel is a different type of slave narrative, told from the point of view of the African Americans, and focusing on the psychological effects of the slavery on selfhood, identity and love. First of all, the bond that is most investigated in the novel is that between the mothers and their children.Through this however, the author points at the destructive force that slavery has on the entire African American community, and especially on the family. Motherhood symbolizes creation and as such, it is the center of any human society.Morrison reveals the violence of white people indirectly, through the murder performed by the mother against her own child, which is obviously a remnant of master and slave relationship. The relationship between Sethe and her daughter Beloved, who haunts her first as a ghost and then as a nineteen old girl, is certainly the central one in the novel and the one that best represents the extent to which slavery can affect the human nature. The master/slave bond is essentially based on dependence, violence, transgression of boundaries.Selfhood for the black people was reduced to the definition of the white men, who took possession of them as if they were objects and not human be ings. The motive that the whites used to justify the slavery of the blacks was always the fact that the latter were savages.Morrison deftly inverses this statement, and points to the fact that the jungle was actually created by the white people, who annihilated the sense of selfhood and humanity in the slaves: â€Å"Whitepeople believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle.Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. . . . But it wasn't the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other place. It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew.It spread†¦. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own. (Morrison, 198-199) The strong bond between Sethe and her children reflects this ownership of the slaves by their masters.The jungle that was planted by the white people in the blacks through slavery is mirrored in the Setheâ₠¬â„¢s violence. The murdering act of Sethe can thus be explained: she does not know herself and mistakes her own identity with the fate of her children.Unable to see herself as an independent person, Sethe clings to her role as a mother and becomes extremely possessive. She mistakes her own identity with her motherhood, and thus, in a way, reenacts the violence of the white masters against her.Sethe feels she has no power over her own self because the white people had crossed all the boundaries and not only taken everything she possessed physically, but everything she had dreamed as well: ‘†Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed,' she said, ‘and broke my heartstrings too.There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks. ‘†(Morrison, 89) It is obvious that the â€Å"whitefolks† are â€Å"bad luck†, that is, for the black slaves they were the instruments of destiny itself, trough the power have over their lives.Thus, when Sethe k ills her infant daughter, she obviously acts, although out of love, as a white master would. As Malmgren remarks, Sethe’s violent act against her own child is actually a perpetuation of the logic of slavery: â€Å"Sethe so identifies her Self with the well-being of her children that she denies their existence as autonomous Others, in so doing unconsciously perpetuating the logic of slavery. †(Malmgren, 103) Morrison’s novel thus reflects the violence of the white race against the black one indirectly, showing how weak the theory that the African American are less than human has proven over time.The white people are actually the ones who took their humanity by treating them as objects or animals. Beloved therefore reviews the manner in which the master/slave bond affects the selfhood of the former slaves, to the point that it is replicated in Sethe’s murder o her own daughter.Motherhood is exemplified in the novel not only in the relationship between Sethe and Beloved, but also in the relationships between Ma’ma and Sethe, or Baby Suggs and her own children. Infanticide seems to have been rather common among the former slaves, as a means of protecting their children.Although Sethe had barely known her mother, she is told that the latter also killed her children, all but herself since she was the only one begotten in love with a black man and not through the rape of a white master: â€Å"She told Sethe that her mother and Nan were together from the sea.Both were taken up many times by the crew. ‘She threw them all away but you. The one from the crew she threw away on the island. The others from more whites she also threw away. Without name she threw them. You she gave the name of the black man. She put her arms around him.The others she did not put her arms around. Never. Never. Telling you. I am telling you, small girl Sethe. ’†(Morrison, 98) As Demetrakopoulos points out, the slavery affected motherhood in such a way that it permitted the excessive and protective love to endeavor guard the child from the cruelty of life itself: â€Å"In this act, Morrison gives us the most searching portrait I know of the paradoxical polarities in motherhood. For Sethe the children are better off dead, their fantasy futures protected from the heinous reality of slavery.It is better, Sethe's act argues, to die in the cradle than to live out one's full life span soul-dead, a zombie/ puppet daily treading the process requirements of someone else's life and needs. The child as the adult's fantasy of the future is obviously central to Sethe's murder of Beloved. †( Demetrakopoulos, 53)In this way, motherhood crosses the normal limits of human love and seems to be reminiscent of the instinctual bonds between the animals and their babies: â€Å"Even her escape from slavery was not really for herself.Her swollen breasts and the baby kicking within pressed her onward to the baby waiting for her milk. B iological necessity made her create a life that would allow her children to grow up. Sethe carries Beloved on her conscience and in her heart. For the mother, the dead child is maternity in potentia, the mother truncated.( Demetrakopoulos, 54)The white domineering culture that enslaved the black is the main cause of this displacement of identity in all the characters in the novel.Although in the text the ghost and then the embodiment of Beloved appear as the main motives for the destabilization and deterioration of all the other family relationships, it is clear that the murdered child represents not only motherhood but also love itself. The possessive and narcissistic love that is exemplified in the relation between Sethe and Beloved replaces the normal emotions for the troubled self. This kind of love that ignores the boundaries of selfhood is obviously the result of the years of slavery and dependence.The liberated self does not know its own substance and limits: â€Å"Beloved/ You are my sister/ You are my daughter/ You are my face; you are me/ I have found you again; you have come back to me/ You are my Beloved/ You are mine/ You are mine/ You are mine. † (Morrison, 216)Paul D fears Sethe's love precisely because he realizes it is extremely powerful and fierce : â€Å"This here new Sethe didn't know where the world stopped and she began . . . more important than what Sethe had done was what she claimed.It scared him†(Morrison, 90) As Barbara Schapiro emphasizes in her study called The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison's Beloved, Morrison constructs in her novel precisely the kind of love that is based on possession, dependence and entrapment to show that the consequences of slavery affect the sense of self in the individuals: â€Å"Toni Morrison Beloved penetrates, perhaps more deeply than any historical or psychological study could, the unconscious emotional and psychic consequences of slavery.The novel reveals how the condition of enslavement in the external world, particularly the denial of one's status as a human subject, has deep repercussions in the individual's internal world. These internal resonances are so profound that even if one is eventually freed from external bondage, the self will still be trapped in an inner world that prevents a genuine experience of freedom. †(Iyasere, 155) Paul D calls this type of love that Sethe manifests for himself and for her children â€Å"too thick†, as if it were undiluted by the sense of identity.This type of love, that Sethe has shown in killing he baby daughter is afterwards perpetuated by her in her relationship with the ghost, with Beloved and with Paul D. Thus, the very opening of the novel plunges into Sethe’s world and briefly exposes the nature of the relationships in her family. The house itself is called â€Å"spiteful†, that is haunted by the dark past in the form of Beloved’s ghost. The two sons of Seth e have left and Baby Suggs is dead, all because of Beloved’s ghost.Slavery thus still haunts the lives of the liberated people, and not only in the form of guilt. The fact that the murdered daughter is named â€Å"Beloved† hints to the way in which emotions have been affected and altered: â€Å"124 was spiteful. Full of baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years, each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughter Denver were its only victims.The grandmother, Baby Suggs, was dead, and the sons, Howard and Buglar, had run away by the time they were thirteen years old — as soon as merely looking in the mirror shattered it (that was the signal for Buglar); as soon as two tiny handprints appeared in the cake (that was it for Howard).Neither boy waited to see more, another kettleful of chick peas smoking in a heap on the floor: soda crackers crumbled and strewn in a line next to the doorsill. Nor did the y wait for one of the relief periods: the weeks, months even, when nothing was disturbed.No. Each one fled at once — the moment the house committed what was for him the one insult not to be borne or witnessed a second time. † (Morrison, 3) Heller showed that Morrison’s novel is an attempt at reconstructing of the family relationships, which had been so much influenced and deteriorated by the slavery system: â€Å"As a study of the connection between the historical and the familial, Beloved is concerned with the healing of the black American family and the â€Å"reconstruction† of kinship structures.These structures had been violated by the cruel fact of family life under the slavery system: as enslaved Africans, women and men had no right to themselves, to one another, or to their children. †(Heller, 108) Love and family relationships are clearly affected by the question of identity.For the former slave identity is still undefined since he had been so long treated as an object which has a certain price but no value as a human being. In some of the plantations, the slaves were not allowed to have their own families, and the black women were often raped by their masters.In these conditions, it is obvious that the people had no sense of self and therefore could not relate to someone else. As Carl Malmgren comments in his study Mixed Genres and the Logic of Slavery, the novel points to the way in which love is affected by the loss of identity: â€Å"The novel thus meditates upon and mediates between the various forms that love takes. In this regard, its dominant theme is the problematic of love, particularly as regards the question of identity. †(Malmgren, 105)Denver, Sethe’s second daughter is also affected by Sethe’s love for her dead child. She intuitively feels that the relationship between Beloved and Sethe is wrong, and she lives with the anxiety that the mother could at any time repeat the murderous act and maybe kill her too: â€Å"All the time, I'm afraid the thing that happened that made it all right for my mother to kill my sister could happen again. I don't know what it is, I don't know who it is, but maybe there is something else terrible enough to make her do it again.I need to know what that thing might be, but I don't want to. Whatever it is, it comes from outside this house, outside the yard, and it can come right on in the yard if it wants to. So I never leave this house and I watch over the yard, so it can't happen again and my mother won't have to kill me too. † (Morrison, 205)Denver is actually the one that saves Sethe by deciding to go out of the house in search of food, and to break thus the mother’s total isolation. She makes therefore the first step to establish a relationship between herself and the outside world.She also evinces a much stronger sense of identity in her desire to listen to stories that only talked about her: â€Å"Denver hated the stories her mother told that did not concern herself, which is why Amy was all she ever asked about. The rest was a gleaming, powerful world made more so by Denver's absence from it.Not being in it, she hated it and wanted Beloved to hate it too, although there was no chance of that at all. â€Å"(Morrison, 62) Teresa N. Washington in The Mother- Daughter Aje Relationship in Toni Morrison’s’ Beloved’ shows that Beloved actually is a symbolic incarnation of the African American consciousness coming back to life:â€Å"But in having equated her best self with her children, making the decision to save that precious self, and summoning the self for a discussion, Sethe comes face to face with her spirit, her embodied conscience, and her own (and all her people’s past. )† (Washington, 184) Thus, it is the white culture that first took possession of the black people’s selves and identities, thus destabilizing the entire African American community: â€Å"Anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you.Dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore†¦The best things she was, was her children.. â€Å"(Morrison, 251) The novel concludes with the hope of Sethe’s regaining of her lost self: â€Å"You your best thing, Sethe. You are. † â€Å"Me? Me? † (Morrison, 273).The master and slave relationship is also based on dependence, and this is why Sethe has no sense of her real, independent self. She does not even dare to â€Å"go ahead and feel† for example: â€Å"Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something? † (Morrison, 38).This re-appropriation of the self is a symbol for the reconstruction of the African American identity and culture, and an example of the way in which the past can be accepted. The sense selfhood and the consolidation of the family bonds repre sent the consolidation of the African American community.Works Cited: Demetrakopoulos, Stephanie A. â€Å"Maternal bonds as devourers of women's individuation in Toni Morrison's Beloved. † African American Review. 1992. Vol. 26(1): 51-60.Heller, Dana. †Reconstructing kin: Family, history, and narrative in Toni Morrison's Beloved. † College Literature. Vol. 21(2). 1994.Horvitz, Deborah. â€Å"Nameless Ghosts: Possession and Dispossession in Beloved,† in Studies in American Fiction, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1989, pp. 157-67.Iyasere, Marla and Solomon Iyasere. Understanding Toni Morrison's Beloved and Sula: Selected Essays and Criticisms of the Works by the Nobel Prize-Winning Author. Troy: Whitston Publishing, 2000.Malmgren, Carl. â€Å"Mixed Genres and the Logic of Slavery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. † Critique. 1995. Vol. 36(2).Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Knopf, 1987. Washington, Teresa. The Mother- Daughter Aje Relationship in Toni Morrisonâ₠¬â„¢s’ Beloved’.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

“Death Stars” by Paz Marquez Essay

The short story centers on the character of Alfredo Salazar who is the main protagonist of this tale. The protagonist of the story is very vulnerable in realms of love. This is a short story that revolves around the love affair of Alfredo, Julia and Esperanza. Alfredo who is the son of the old man Don Julian, a more than 30 year man and a bachelor, he is in a 4 year long engagement with his fiancà ©e Esperanza but his feelings has been shipped to Julia Salas when he thinks he was instantly fell in love with her when he first met her who is a relative of the judge and started to have deep conversation with her. He experiences an immediate attraction to her, but alas, he is soon to be married with his fiancà ©e. He conservatively flirts with Julia through secret meetings and subtle declarations, but in the end, he lets her go, with her gaining the late knowledge of his impending marriage. He was trap in his own complication in choosing what he wants to do and what he wants to have. B ut society strict rules required him to restrain such unwelcome emotions and so he proceeded to marry Esperanza. But in the very end, he found himself merely infatuated with Julia after he deliberately made a decision by choosing Esperanza. But it is really ashamed that it has taken him far too long, too many years wasted, to realize his feelings for the other woman was just like a death star, a star that sparkles and light radiate from it which he seeks love Julia but only to found out that light of the star no longer exist in the world. If he realize this earlier on by his own error but clouded by lusting for love blinded him to do so, he can be truly happy all those years with Esperanza in their marriage long ago instead of just being not unhappy in his marriage and instead of Esperanza behavior being an out of reach for him which I think that Esperanza know who is the woman that he tries to go after which is tragic that I do feel sorry for her in her situation, obviously taking her for granted in my opinion and her behavior is understandable after what this man have done even though there i s no physical cheating involve but still classifies him in the level of cheating where his emotional detachment to her and a sudden attachment to Julia unfaithfulness which is cheating. Alfredo himself wants what he really wanted and what he really felt. He wanted to live. He wanted to find love. He is clung to that dream of his  through Julia which in reality in the end of the story does not really exist in the first place. He long yearns for his long lost love for Julia is what he been thinking all these years when he visited her at her hometown on his business trip who is still unmarried to which is only to come realize the woman he felt in love with is only a mere fragment of his imagination that wasn’t there in the beginning. Dead stars are celestial bodies in the solar system that have long been extinguished, but can still be seen. What he felt for Julia was long gone that it never exist in the first place just like a pattern of his imagination gone wild. So all these years he had been seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed. In the story, dead stars symbolize a dream for something that is nonexistent, a thing that is only a distant memory even though the person he vastly desired love from before which the person is right next to him standing suddenly feel like it never occur at all but only the mere illusions of the fabric of the dark shadows of reality. I feel sympathy for Alfredo in the story, he was describe physically an ordinary man who probably makes a living as a lawyer or something, engage with his fiancà ©s for years who is very patience in waiting because that this time era, woman have to wait on the man.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Shannon Crockett 1 Essays

Shannon Crockett 1 Essays Shannon Crockett 1 Essay Shannon Crockett 1 Essay and B. Duran) Victims often have some common characteristics which complicate yet streamline awareness during the counseling experience. Statistics show women who are victims of domestic violence often in high percentages in the following categories: Abuse alcohol or other substances. Have been previously abused. Are pregnant. Are poor and have limited support. Have partners who abuse alcohol or other substances. Have left their abuser before. Have requested a restraining order against the abuser. Are members of ethnic minority or immigrant groups. Have traditional beliefs that women should be submissive to men. Do not speak English. While it occurs far less often than men battering women, women sometimes batter their male partners. How often women abuse men is the subject of much debate. â€Å"Studies report that women are victims of domestic violence at least three times more often than men. † (Malcoe, L. , and B. Duran) However, some men’s groups argue that information on battered men is inaccurate. One reason for this, they say, is that some data have probably been kept out of studies because it is ‘politically incorrect’ or ‘embarrassing’. Also, a woman hit by a man is more likely to be seriously injured than a man who is hit by a woman. For this reason, male victims are less likely to seek medical attention or other help. So critics say that statistics based on reports to professionals or reports of hospital treatment doesn’t reflect the true number of male victims. Male advocates also argue that men don’t get equal protection under the domestic violence laws. In South Carolina there are not any DV shelters for men. The courts and police have previously practiced a double standard- when men are injured and report the attack to the police, they are not taken seriously. â€Å"Victimization rates vary among different minority populations. The highest reported rates are for Native American women. † (Malcoe, L. , and B. Duran) Incidentally this male population also has the highest reported alcoholism rate. Relationship of Domestic Violence Victims to Offenders Victim to Offender RelationshipNumberPct. Boyfriend/Girlfriend15,23628. 4 Spouse14,97727. 9 Common law spouse5,3119. 9 Sibling3,7757. 0 Parent3,5366. 6 Other family member3,2576. 1 Child3,0985. 8 Ex-spouse1,2852. 4 In-law1,1552. 1 Stepchild7011. 3 Stepparent5381. 0 Grandparent2310. 4 Child of boy/girlfriend2170. 4 Grandchild1860. 3 Homosexual Relation1170. 2 Stepsibling740. 1 Babysitter310. Source: SCIBRS, SLED Domestic Violence Victims by Race and Sex Race/SexNumberPct. White female20,22237. 7 Non-white female19,98237. 2 White male6,93612. 9 Non-white male6,51712. 1 Note: There were 68 cases in which either race or sex was reported as unknown. Source: SCIBRS, SLED It is important to note that although white domestic violence victims outnumber non-white dome stic violence victims, the white population in South Carolina is approximately twice the size of the non-white population. Ethnicity, defined within SCIBRS as Hispanic or non-Hispanic, was not a significant factor. Only 337 (0. %) victims of domestic violence were reported to be Hispanic. Victims of domestic violence were more often young and middle-aged adults. The single largest age group of domestic violence victims was the age 26 to 34 group which accounts for 30. 4%. Counseling victims of any ethnicity should be done in a manner which does not group or classify victims based on racial predispositions or slang thoughts. Domestic Violence Victims by Age Group AgeNumberPct. 0 to 122,3234. 3 13 to 173,7947. 1 18 to 2411,42921. 4 25 to 3416,25130. 4 35 to 4412,82124. 0 45 to 544,5278. 5 55 to 641,3662. 6 65 and older9191. 7 Note: 295 cases missing age data Source: SCIBRS, SLED The counseling field should be cautious of being more sensitive to a certain age group as being vulnerable even though vulnerability is evident in some groups. Allowing yourself to feel more empathy for one group verses another could easily be perceived as you believing perhaps another group could have somehow prevented the abuse. Audra J. Bowlus Shannon Seitz, 2006. Domestic Violence, Employment, And Divorce, International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 7(4), pages 1113-1149, November. Catalano, S. Intimate Partner Violence in the United States. Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2007, www. ojp. usdoj. gov/bjs/intimate/ipv. htm Hugo Mialon Sue Mialon, 2006. Violence against women, social learning, and deterrence, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 367-382, October. Malcoe, L. , and B. Duran. â€Å"Intimate Partner Violence and Injury in the Lives of Low-Income can Women. † Violence Within the Family, including National Institute of Justice, grant number 5R03-DA/AA11154. Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 2004, NCJ 199703. ncjrs. gov/App/Publications/abstract. aspx? ID=199703 Criminal Offense Definitions Aggravated Assault: An unlawful attack by one person upon another wherein the offender uses a weapon or displays it in a threatening manner, or the victim suffers obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury involving apparent broken bones, loss of teeth, possible internal injury, severe laceration, or loss of consciousness. This also includes assault with disease (as in cases when the offender is aware that he/she is infected with a deadly disease and deliberately attempts to inflict the disease by biting, spitting, etc. ). Forcible Fondling: The touching of the private body parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against that person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. Forcible Sodomy: Oral or anal sexual intercourse with another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. Incest: Non-forcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law. Intimidation: To unlawfully place another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words and/or other conduct, but without displaying a weapon or subjecting the victim to actual physical attack. Murder: The willful (non-negligent) killing of one human being by another. Rape: The carnal knowledge of a person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. This does not include statutory rape. ) Robbery: The taking, or attempting to take, anything of value under confrontational circumstance from the control, custody, or care of another person by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear of immediate harm. Simple Assault: An unlawful physical attack by one person upon another where neither the offender displays a weapon, nor the victim suffers obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury involving apparent broken bones, loss of teeth, possible internal injury, severe laceration, or loss of consciousness. Sexual Assault with an Object: To use an object or instrument to unlawfully penetrate, however slightly, the genital or anal opening of the body of another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her youth or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. Statutory Rape: Non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent. (FBI, 1996) For years victims of domestic violence have been labeled co-dependent. The following is a set of characteristics of a co-dependent as offered by Co-Dependents Anonymous, compared with the reality of a woman who is abused. CO-DEPENDENT: I take responsibility for others feelings and/or behaviors. ABUSED: I am held responsible for my abusers feelings and/or behaviors. CO-DEPENDENT: I feel overly responsible for others feelings and/or behaviors. ABUSED: For my safety, I must be aware of my abusers feelings and/or behaviors. CO-DEPENDENT: I have difficulty expressing my feelings. ABUSED: If I express my feelings, I jeopardize my safety. CO-DEPENDENT: I have difficulty in forming and/or maintaining close relationships. ABUSED: It is dangerous for me to form or maintain close relationships. CO-DEPENDENT: I am afraid of being hurt or rejected. ABUSED: Having been hurt and rejected, I am scared of re-victimization. CO-DEPENDENT: I tend to harshly judge everything I do, think, or say, by someone elses standards. Nothing is done, said or thought good enough. ABUSED: My abuser harshly judges everything I do, think, or say. Nothing I do is good enough. CO-DEPENDENT: I question or ignore my own values to connect with significant others. I value others opinions more than my own. ABUSED: My values and opinions are questioned/ignored by my abuser. For my safety I do not express my own opinions. CO-DEPENDENT: My self-esteem is bolstered by outer/other influences. ABUSED: My self-esteem is systematically destroyed by my abusers tactics. Checklists to help you determine if you are in an abusive relationship. You are probably the victim of emotional abuse if your partner: Repeatedly gives you destructive criticism, verbal threats and browbeating. Always claims to be right. Excludes you from making decisions and claims to be the head of the household. Abuses your trust by lying, hiding important information and papers, cheating or being inappropriately jealous. Minimizes or denies abusive behavior. Constantly shows disrespect, puts you down or embarrasses you in front of others. Harasses you by following you or checking up on you. Prevents you from seeing your relatives or friends or insists on going everywhere with you. Monitors your phone calls. The next list includes signs of physical abuse. You are a victim of physical abuse if your partner: Intimidates you through angry or threatening gestures. Destroys your belongings or household items. Coerces you to have sex or perform sexual acts against your will. Kicks, bites, stabs, pushes, burns or chokes you. Uses weapons to thr eaten or harm you or others you love. If you answered â€Å"yes† to one or more of these questions, or experience these forms of emotional and physical abuse in your relationship, you should seek help. Abuse is not acceptable behavior and is not something you should just learn to live with. Don’t be a victim that keeps this a silent disease. Seek help from relatives, friends, law enforcement or community resources. With their help, you may be able to stop the abuse or, if necessary, leave the relationship. Realize that once the abuse has started, it will nearly always get worse.