Team Development (SLP) Module 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Team Development (SLP) Module 2 - Essay Example As in traditional teams people communicate with each other directly. They work at the same place. On the other hand, in diverse teams people work in different locations. However, it has become necessary as it allows organizations to have access to top personnel throughout the world (Casey & Richardson, 2006; Gould, 2006). In addition, diverse work teams can be based on a multicultural collaboration framework. In this scenario, multicultural work team consists of organizations or groups, each team comprising members from different cultural orientations and backgrounds such as Native American Indian, Latino or white. In some cases with specific missions or goals oriented to populations with differing cultures such as Asian-American or African-American. In this scenario, the cultural differences can vary from team to team which can be related to values, ethnic heritage, traditions, history, languages, and sense of self and racial attitudes. Though, any of these cultural attributes can turn out to be a challenge to working together. If not they turn out to be an element of the association, the cooperation and collaboration will almost certainly be challenged (Brownlee, Schultz, & Rabinowitz, 2013). Moreover, a diverse team is normally composed of team members who work from home or any other location however this is not for all time the case since diverse team associates can work in offices also. There are a number of reasons why I prefer to have a diverse team in my unit. In this scenario, the basic reason is the reality that we live in the information age, as different to the industrial age. In view of the fact that the information travels at the speed of light, and those who have access to the most modern and fastest communication and collaboration technologies are capable to send data quickly. The capability to transmit data and information at fast speeds, combined with the power of the web, has caused the formation of "diverse teams." However,

It Is Hard to Possess a Sense of Belonging When We Are Unsure of Our Own Identity Essay Example for Free

It Is Hard to Possess a Sense of Belonging When We Are Unsure of Our Own Identity Essay The journey in finding our identity and belonging can often be a struggle, since we ask ourselves, ‘who am I’ vs. whom do others want me to be? And where do I belong? This point in our live is subjective, because we want to feel accepted in society we deny ourselves of what we really are. It’s hard to have a sense of belonging when we ourselves are unsure of our own identity. There comes a time where our opinions and beliefs are differentiated from those around us, during this time some people may discover where they belong, where as many others do not. We are all different in our own ways no one is born equally some may take their differences as an advantage and some take it as a disadvantage and tries to hide this imperfection in order to fit in. Although we all live in the same world we are all different be it the shape of our eyes, the colour of our skin, the country we were born or the accent that we speak in and to others their sexuality. These are all the traits that come together and create our identity, however this differences are sometimes not accepted in the society that we live in, and the sad part is that even if we know what we really are deep inside, our society tells us otherwise. Shuffling through the book Growing up Asian in Australia, I read a lot of stories that made me feel nostalgic, having flashbacks in my head when I first step in Australia and the feeling of deja vu overwhelms me with emotions, while flipping through the stories I read something that caught my attention ‘My First Kiss’ by Lian Low. Her story is not something I would say that I could relate to completely, She grew up in country where ‘homosexuality is a criminal offence’, and deep inside she knew she was different but her surrounding kept her from being true to herself, â€Å"becoming more ‘womanly,’ I suddenly lost foot of my tomboy world† she denied herself in order for her to blend in. She wanted to be equal with the people around her but the difference can’t hide what she is â€Å"I felt a foreigner whenever I open my mouth. Whenever I spoke my accent betrayed my origins† â€Å"My attempt to blend in failed me as soon as I opened my mouth†. The reason why we are all unique is because we ultimately choose what does or does not impact us in a crucial or unimportant way, we have the choice to accept or deny our uniqueness but whichever we choses influences our form of distinctiveness. Everything and everyone can influence a person’s identity, while some influences can be minor, some can have a major effect on our lives just like Lian Low’s story after concealing and denying her sexuality she finally learned to accept her difference after her first kiss with a girl. She erudite in writing that once became her source of comfort and used to bury herself with, â€Å"Writing and performance have been outlets, `they have let me be myself, express myself and explore my multiple identities: Asian, woman, queer, migrant, Chinese-Malaysian-Australian. † It is not solely one stage of our lives when we are confronted with an identity crisis, but a continuous challenge throughout our lives as we encounter new experience that will alter our thoughts, emotions and perspective on ourselves. We have to learn to love and accept our individuality, In order for us to feel welcomed and accepted by someone or something In fact as suggested by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a psychology theory cantered on human’s innate desire of fulfilment, belonging is a need that we naturally seek in order to feel loved. Whether it’s belonging with your friends’ family or surrounding, we need to embrace our individuality to know what we want, what we are, and what we’re not.

Essay --

Jeffrey Chhim Professor Garth Hall Results Both studies utilized microdialysis probes on rats to obtain dialysates, these were further analyzed through liquid chromatography (LC) and/or mass spectrometry (MS) for the presence of tryptamine derivatives (5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT or serotonin) and melatonin (study 1), Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and other molecules (study 2)) in the pineal gland. In the first study, the surgical implantation of microdialysis probe operation was performed on 142 rats with 10% of which deceased during or shortly following surgery before any data can be attained. Of the rats that endured the surgical implantation, another 10% were considered not meet for the study due to the incorrect position of the probes. The second study did not include information about how many rats were utilized and if any had perished during the experimentation process. LC (Study 1) Source [2] Figure 1: Daily summaries of 5-HT (red) and melatonin (yellow) secretion in four categories of rats. In each, the first night represents 24 hours after the probe placement, and each data point represents the extent of recuperation throughout a 10-min interval. Class I (panel A), class II (panel B), class III (panel C), and class IV (panel D), and one representative rat is shown for each class. Horizontal axes signify time of day, and the vertical axes signify the quantity of secretion for every injection. The darken regions signify 01:00–11:00 hours in each panel. Microdialysates of rats were organized into four unique classes based on stable recovery (Panels A-D) refer to Figure 1, each peak height represents the 5-HT secretion during early night as well as the normal daytime secretion with little or no day-to-day variation. Class I (... ...0732/ 161.10735 amu), IAA (176.07061/176.07057 amu), HIAA (192.06552/ 192.06511 amu), TRP (205.09715/205.09711 amu) and HNATA (219.11280/219.11296 amu) identified. Analysis of samples for DMT by precise mass gave 189.13860 amu associated with the calculated exact mass of 189.13866 amu obtained for a DMT reference. DMT was not found in all samples like that of melatonin and HTA. Sources 1. Barker S A, Borjiginm J, Lomnicka I, Straussman R. (2013). Biomedical Chromatography. â€Å"LC/MS/MS analysis of the endogenous dimethyltryptamine hallucinogens, their precursors, and major metabolites in rat pineal gland microdialysate.† DOI 10.1002. 2. Sun X, Liu T, Deng J, Borjigin J. Long-term in vivo pineal microdialysis. Journal Of Pineal Research. [online]. September 2003;35:118-124. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 25, 2014.

Good Will Hunting Essay

Sometimes our past can cause pain that doesn’t allow us to trust others. People we trust can cause us to put up a wall and look to other things for comfort. In the movie, Will Hunting found his comfort in books. Will Hunting needed a real friendship to help him open up his mind in order to discover that there is more to life than living through the books he reads. In the movie, there are four main characters, each different in many ways, that form individual friendships in the movie. One of the characters, Will Hunting works as a janitor at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a foster child and is living life through his experience in books and lacks real life knowledge. This is holding him back from becoming intimate with anyone. While working there he sometimes writes on the school’s math department blackboard and is soon discovered as a genius. Will gets caught fighting and is arrested and in leau of incarceration is put under the supervision of Gera ld Lambeau, who attended and is now a professor at MIT. Under his supervision, per court order he must see a therapist and stay out of any trouble. Sean Maguire is a professor at a local community college and also grew up in the same town as Will and went to MIT. He is Will’s therapist and in the sessions challenges him to open up and stop living life through a book. A friendship develops and Sean tries to guide him to break his fear of intimacy. Chuckie Sullivan is a character in the movie that Will refers to as his brother. Chuckie is a nice guy with an aggressive attitude from being brought up in the rough side of Southie, Boston. Then there is a girl named Skylar, cute with a British accent and goes to Harvard University. She gets involved with Will Hunting and soon asks him to move with her to California where she will be attending at Stanford’s medical school program. Unfortunately, fear of intimacy prevents him from forming a relationship with her and breaks this friendship apart. Eventually, Will starts to see his true friendships with Chuckie, Sean and Skylar and starts to open up. He begins to trust others and takes a risk at experiencing life first hand outside the covers of a book. Will Hunting came from poverty, raised as a foster child in Southie. He didn’t trust people because he always looked at every angle of the relationship and assumed that in the end they wouldn’t be there for him. Professor Gerald Lambeau, who took pride in himself because of a Field Medals award which granted him public status, comes around to try to build a friendship with Will. Will soon realizes that Gerald is using him to gain social status, public recognition and to solve his difficult math problems. He then ends his relationship with Gerald because of his intensions. Then Sean, seeing what his former classmate, Gerald, was up to, soon becomes more than just Will’s therapist. Sean becomes a friend and tries to prevent Will from taking the same path as Gerald by only wanting social recognition. As Will’s Friend, Sean didn’t want him to fail. He wanted Will to succeed in life and take a chance and not just live it through a book. The doctor-patient relationship soon becomes a very close friendship. Towards the end of the movie Will leaves a note for Sean, â€Å"I had to see about a girl,† this was a quote from Sean’s story of his courtship with his wife. This lets Sean know he had decided to take a chance on life and to attempt to form a lasting relationship with someone he could trust. Will’s â€Å"brother† Chuckie, who is really Will’s best friend, also wanted him to succeed in life. He tries to encourage Will to take a chance in living a real life and tells Will, â€Å"You know what the best part of my day is? It’s for about ten seconds when I pull up to the curb to when I get to your door. Because I think maybe I’ll get up there and I’ll knock on the door and you won’t be there. No goodbye, no see you later, no nothing. Just left. I don’t know much, but I know that.† Will then sees that Chuckie might have a point and takes his friend’s advice. A few people come into Will’s life, some for real friendships and some just to gain public status. After discovering his true friendships, Will begins to enjoy their company and wants them in his life. He begins to build relationships he can count on. He is willing to take a chance and succeed in life and relationships, no longer needing books to fulfill this for him. He finally decides to trust and to look at the positive things life has to offer. On his 21st birthday, with the car, Chuckie and his other friends gave him, he packs up to head to California to pursue life. In the end, Will finds true friendships and decides to live his life outside of just a book.

The Lost Symbol Chapter 117-118

CHAPTER 117 Langdon felt his stomach drop as the CIA helicopter leaped off the lawn, banked hard, and accelerated faster than he ever imagined a helicopter could move. Katherine had stayed behind to recuperate with Bellamy while one of the CIA agents searched the mansion and waited for a backup team. Before Langdon left, she had kissed him on the cheek and whispered, â€Å"Be safe, Robert.† Now Langdon was holding on for dear life as the military helicopter finally leveled out and raced toward the House of the Temple. Seated beside him, Sato was yelling up to the pilot. â€Å"Head for Dupont Circle!† she shouted over the deafening noise. â€Å"We'll set down there!† Startled, Langdon turned to her. â€Å"Dupont?! That's blocks from the House of the Temple! We can land in the Temple parking lot!† Sato shook her head. â€Å"We need to enter the building quietly. If our target hears us coming–â€Å" â€Å"We don't have time!† Langdon argued. â€Å"This lunatic is about to murder Peter! Maybe the sound of the helicopter will scare him and make him stop!† Sato stared at him with ice-cold eyes. â€Å"As I have told you, Peter Solomon's safety is not my primary objective. I believe I've made that clear.† Langdon was in no mood for another national-security lecture. â€Å"Look, I'm the only one on board who knows his way through that building–â€Å" â€Å"Careful, Professor,† the director warned. â€Å"You are here as a member of my team, and I will have your complete cooperation.† She paused a moment and then added, â€Å"In fact, it might be wise if I now apprised you fully of the severity of our crisis tonight.† Sato reached under her seat and pulled out a sleek titanium briefcase, which she opened to reveal an unusually complicated-looking computer. When she turned it on, a CIA logo materialized along with a log-in prompt. As Sato logged in, she asked, â€Å"Professor, do you remember the blond hairpiece we found in the man's home?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Well, hidden within that wig was a tiny fiber-optic camera . . . concealed in the bangs.† â€Å"A hidden camera? I don't understand.† Sato looked grim. â€Å"You will.† She launched a file on the laptop. ONE MOMENT PLEASE . . . DECRYPTING FILE . . . A video window popped up, filling the entire screen. Sato lifted the briefcase and set it on Langdon's thighs, giving him a front-row seat. An unusual image materialized on the screen. Langdon recoiled in surprise. What the hell?! Murky and dark, the video was of a blindfolded man. He was dressed in the garb of a medieval heretic being led to the gallows–noose around his neck, left pant leg rolled up to the knee, right sleeve rolled up to the elbow, and his shirt gaping open to reveal his bare chest. Langdon stared in disbelief. He had read enough about Masonic rituals to recognize exactly what he was looking at. A Masonic initiate . . . preparing to enter the first degree. The man was very muscular and tall, with a familiar blond hairpiece and deeply tanned skin. Langdon recognized his features at once. The man's tattoos had obviously been concealed beneath bronzing makeup. He was standing before a full-length mirror videotaping his reflection through the camera concealed in his wig. But . . . why? The screen faded to black. New footage appeared. A small, dimly lit, rectangular chamber. A dramatic chessboard floor of black-and-white tile. A low wooden altar, flanked on three sides by pillars, atop which burned flickering candles. Langdon felt a sudden apprehension. Oh my God. Filming in the erratic style of an amateur home video, the camera now panned up to the periphery of the room to reveal a small group of men observing the initiate. The men were dressed in ritual Masonic regalia. In the darkness, Langdon could not make out their faces, but he had no doubt where this ritual was taking place. The traditional layout of this Lodge Room could have been anywhere in the world, but the powder-blue triangular pediment above the master's chair revealed it as the oldest Masonic lodge in D.C.–Potomac Lodge No. 5–home of George Washington and the Masonic forefathers who laid the cornerstone for the White House and the Capitol Building. The lodge was still active today. Peter Solomon, in addition to overseeing the House of the Temple, was the master of his local lodge. And it was at lodges like this one that a Masonic initiate's journey always began . . . where he underwent the first three degrees of Freemasonry. â€Å"Brethren,† Peter's familiar voice declared, â€Å"in the name of the Great Architect of the Universe, I open this lodge for the practice of Masonry in the first degree!† A gavel rapped loudly. Langdon watched in utter disbelief as the video progressed through a quick series of dissolves featuring Peter Solomon performing some of the ritual's starker moments. Pressing a shining dagger to the initiate's bare chest . . . threatening impalement should the initiate â€Å"inappropriately reveal the Mysteries of Masonry† . . . describing the black-and-white floor as representing â€Å"the living and the dead† . . . outlining punishments that included â€Å"having one's throat cut across, one's tongue torn out by its roots, and one's body buried in the rough sands of the sea . . .† Langdon stared. Am I really witnessing this? Masonic initiation rites had remained shrouded in secrecy for centuries. The only descriptions that had ever been leaked were written by a handful of estranged brothers. Langdon had read those accounts, of course, and yet to see an initiation with his own eyes . . . this was a much different story. Especially edited this way. Langdon could already tell that the video was an unfair piece of propaganda, omitting all the noblest aspects of the initiation and highlighting only the most disconcerting. If this video were released, Langdon knew it would become an Internet sensation over night. The anti-Masonic conspiracy theorists would feed on this like sharks. The Masonic organization, and especially Peter Solomon, would find themselves embroiled in a firestorm of controversy and a desperate effort at damage control . . . even though the ritual was innocuous and purely symbolic. Eerily, the video included a biblical reference to human sacrifice . . . â€Å"the submission of Abraham to the Supreme Being by proffering Isaac, his firstborn son.† Langdon thought of Peter and willed the helicopter to fly faster. The video footage shifted now. Same room. Different night. A larger group of Masons looking on. Peter Solomon was observing from the master's chair. This was the second degree. More intense now. Kneeling at the altar . . . vowing to â€Å"forever conceal the enigmas existing within Freemasonry† . . . consenting to the penalty of â€Å"having one's chest cavity ripped open and pulsing heart cast upon the surface of the earth as offal for the ravenous beasts† . . . Langdon's own heart was pulsing wildly now as the video shifted yet again. Another night. A much larger crowd. A coffin-shaped â€Å"tracing board† on the floor. The third degree. This was the death ritual–the most rigorous of all the degrees–the moment in which the initiate was forced â€Å"to face the final challenge of personal extinction.† This grueling interrogation was in fact the source of the common phrase to give someone the third degree. And although Langdon was very familiar with academic accounts of it, he was in no way prepared for what he now saw. The murder. In violent, rapid intercuts, the video displayed a chilling, victim's point-of-view account of the initiate's brutal murder. There were simulated blows to his head, including one with a Mason's stone maul. All the while, a deacon mournfully told the story of â€Å"the widow's son†Ã¢â‚¬â€œHiram Abiff–the master Architect of King Solomon's temple, who chose to die rather than reveal the secret wisdom he possessed. The attack was mimed, of course, and yet its effect on camera was bloodcurdling. After the deathblow, the initiate–now â€Å"dead to his former self†Ã¢â‚¬â€œwas lowered into his symbolic coffin, where his eyes were shut and his arms were crossed like those of a corpse. The Masonic brothers rose and mournfully circled his dead body while a pipe organ played a march of the dead. The macabre scene was deeply disturbing. And it only got worse. As the men gathered around their slain brother, the hidden camera clearly displayed their faces. Langdon now realized that Solomon was not the only famous man in the room. One of the men peering down at the initiate in his coffin was on television almost daily. A prominent U.S. senator. Oh God . . . The scene changed yet again. Outside now . . . nighttime . . . the same jumpy video footage . . . the man was walking down a city street . . . strands of blond hair blowing in front of the camera . . . turning a corner . . .the camera angle lowering to something in the man's hand . . . a dollar bill . . . a close-up focusing on the Great Seal . . . the all-seeing eye . . . the unfinished pyramid . . . and then, abruptly, pulling away to reveal a similar shape in the distance . . . a massive pyramidical building . . . with sloping sides rising to a truncated top. The House of the Temple. A soul-deep dread swelled within him. The video kept moving . . . the man hurrying toward the building now . . . up the multitiered staircase . . . toward the giant bronze doors . . . between the two seventeen-ton sphinx guardians. A neophyte entering the pyramid of initiation. Darkness now. A powerful pipe organ played in the distance . . . and a new image materialized. The Temple Room. Langdon swallowed hard. On-screen, the cavernous space was alive with electricity. Beneath the oculus, the black marble altar shone in the moonlight. Assembled around it, seated on hand-tooled pigskin chairs, awaited a somber council of distinguished thirty-third-degree Masons, present to bear witness. The video now panned across their faces with slow and deliberate intention. Langdon stared in horror. Although he had not seen this coming, what he was looking at made perfect sense. A gathering of the most decorated and accomplished Masons in the most powerful city on earth would logically include many influential and well-known individuals. Sure enough, seated around the altar, adorned in their long silk gloves, Masonic aprons, and glistening jewels, were some of the country's most powerful men. Two Supreme Court justices . . . The secretary of defense . . . The speaker of the House . . . Langdon felt ill as the video continued panning across the faces of those in attendance. Three prominent senators . . . including the majority leader . . . The secretary of homeland security . . . And . . . The director of the CIA . . . Langdon wanted only to look away, but he could not. The scene was utterly mesmerizing, alarming even to him. In an instant, he had come to understand the source of Sato's anxiety and concern. Now, on-screen, the shot dissolved into a single shocking image. A human skull . . . filled with dark crimson liquid. The famed caput mortuum was being offered forth to the initiate by the slender hands of Peter Solomon, whose gold Masonic ring glinted in the candlelight. The red liquid was wine . . . and yet it shimmered like blood. The visual effect was frightful. The Fifth Libation, Langdon realized, having read firsthand accounts of this sacrament in John Quincy Adams's Letters on the Masonic Institution. Even so, to see it happen . . . to see it calmly witnessed by America's most powerful men . . . this was as arresting an image as any Langdon had ever seen. The initiate took the skull in his hands . . . his face reflected in the calm surface of the wine. â€Å"May this wine I now drink become a deadly poison to me,† he declared, â€Å"should I ever knowingly or willfully violate my oath.† Obviously, this initiate had intended to violate his oath beyond all imagination. Langdon could barely get his mind around what would happen if this video were made public. No one would understand. The government would be thrown into upheaval. The airwaves would be filled with the voices of anti-Masonic groups, fundamentalists, and conspiracy theorists spewing hatred and fear, launching a Puritan witch hunt all over again. The truth will be twisted, Langdon knew. As it always is with the Masons. The truth was that the brotherhood's focus on death was in fact a bold celebration of life. Masonic ritual was designed to awaken the slumbering man inside, lifting him from his dark coffin of ignorance, raising him into the light, and giving him eyes to see. Only through the death experience could man fully understand his life experience. Only through the realization that his days on earth were finite could he grasp the importance of living those days with honor, integrity, and service to his fellow man. Masonic initiations were startling because they were meant to be transformative. Masonic vows were unforgiving because they were meant to be reminders that man's honor and his â€Å"word† were all he could take from this world. Masonic teachings were arcane because they were meant to be universal . . . taught through a common language of symbols and metaphors that transcended religions, cultures, and races . . . creating a unified â€Å"worldwide consciousness† of brotherly love. For a brief instant, Langdon felt a glimmer of hope. He tried to assure himself that if this video were to leak out, the public would be open-minded and tolerant, realizing that all spiritual rituals included aspects that would seem frightening if taken out of context–crucifixion reenactments, Jewish circumcision rites, Mormon baptisms of the dead, Catholic exorcisms, Islamic niqab, shamanic trance healing, the Jewish Kaparot ceremony, even the eating of the figurative body and blood of Christ. I'm dreaming, Langdon knew. This video will create chaos. He could imagine what would happen if the prominent leaders of Russia or the Islamic world were seen in a video, pressing knives to bare chests, swearing violent oaths, performing mock murders, lying in symbolic coffins, and drinking wine from a human skull. The global outcry would be instantaneous and overwhelming. God help us . . . On-screen now, the initiate was raising the skull to his lips. He tipped it backward . . . draining the blood-red wine . . . sealing his oath. Then he lowered the skull and gazed out at the assembly around him. America's most powerful and trusted men gave contented nods of acceptance. â€Å"Welcome, brother,† Peter Solomon said. As the image faded to black, Langdon realized he had stopped breathing. Without a word, Sato reached over, closed the briefcase, and lifted it off his lap. Langdon turned to her trying to speak, but he could find no words. It didn't matter. Understanding was written all over his face. Sato was right. Tonight was a national-security crisis . . . of unimaginable proportions. CHAPTER 118 Dressed in his loincloth, Mal'akh padded back and forth in front of Peter Solomon's wheelchair. â€Å"Peter,† he whispered, enjoying every moment of his captive's horror, â€Å"you forgot you have a second family . . . your Masonic brothers. And I will destroy them, too . . . unless you help me.† Solomon looked almost catatonic in the glow of the laptop sitting atop his thighs. â€Å"Please,† he finally stammered, glancing up. â€Å"If this video gets out . . .† â€Å"If?† Mal'akh laughed. â€Å"If it gets out?† He motioned to the small cellular modem plugged into the side of his laptop. â€Å"I'm connected to the world.† â€Å"You wouldn't . . .† I will, Mal'akh thought, enjoying Solomon's horror. â€Å"You have the power to stop me,† he said. â€Å"And to save your sister. But you have to tell me what I want to know. The Lost Word is hidden somewhere, Peter, and I know this grid reveals exactly where to find it.† Peter glanced at the grid of symbols again, his eyes revealing nothing. â€Å"Perhaps this will help to inspire you.† Mal'akh reached over Peter's shoulders and hit a few keys on the laptop. An e-mail program launched on the screen, and Peter stiffened visibly. The screen now displayed an e-mail that Mal'akh had cued earlier tonight–a video file addressed to a long list of major media networks. Mal'akh smiled. â€Å"I think it's time we share, don't you?† â€Å"Don't!† Mal'akh reached down and clicked the send button on the program. Peter jerked against his bonds, trying unsuccessfully to knock the laptop to the floor. â€Å"Relax, Peter,† Mal'akh whispered. â€Å"It's a massive file. It will take a few minutes to go out.† He pointed to the progress bar: SENDING MESSAGE: 2% COMPLETE â€Å"If you tell me what I want to know, I'll stop the e-mail, and nobody will ever see this.† Peter was ashen as the task bar inched forward. SENDING MESSAGE: 4% COMPLETE Mal'akh now lifted the computer from Peter's lap and set it on one of the nearby pigskin chairs, turning the screen so the other man could watch the progress. Then he returned to Peter's side and laid the page of symbols in his lap. â€Å"The legends say the Masonic Pyramid will unveil the Lost Word. This is the pyramid's final code. I believe you know how to read it.† Mal'akh glanced over at the laptop. SENDING MESSAGE: 8% COMPLETE Mal'akh returned his eyes to Peter. Solomon was staring at him, his gray eyes blazing now with hatred. Hate me, Mal'akh thought. The greater the emotion, the more potent the energy that will be released when the ritual is completed. At Langley, Nola Kaye pressed the phone to her ear, barely able to hear Sato over the noise of the helicopter. â€Å"They said it's impossible to stop the file transfer!† Nola shouted. â€Å"To shut down local ISPs would take at least an hour, and if he's got access to a wireless provider, killing the ground-based Internet won't stop him from sending it anyway.† Nowadays, stopping the flow of digital information had become nearly impossible. There were too many access routes to the Internet. Between hard lines, Wi-Fi hot spots, cellular modems, SAT phones, superphones, and e-mail-equipped PDAs, the only way to isolate a potential data leak was by destroying the source machine. â€Å"I pulled the spec sheet on the UH-60 you're flying,† Nola said, â€Å"and it looks like you're equipped with EMP.† Electromagnetic-pulse or EMP guns were now commonplace among law enforcement agencies, which used them primarily to stop car chases from a safe distance. By firing a highly concentrated pulse of electromagnetic radiation, an EMP gun could effectively fry the electronics of any device it targeted–cars, cell phones, computers. According to Nola's spec sheet, the UH- 60 had a chassis-mounted, laser-sighted, six-gigahertz magnetron with a fifty-dB-gain horn that yielded a ten-gigawatt pulse. Discharged directly at a laptop, the pulse would fry the computer's motherboard and instantly erase the hard drive. â€Å"EMP will be useless,† Sato yelled back. â€Å"Target is inside a stone building. No sight lines and thick EM shielding. Do you have any indication yet if the video has gone out?† Nola glanced at a second monitor, which was running a continuous search for breaking news stories about the Masons. â€Å"Not yet, ma'am. But if it goes public, we'll know within seconds.† â€Å"Keep me posted.† Sato signed off. Langdon held his breath as the helicopter dropped from the sky toward Dupont Circle. A handful of pedestrians scattered as the aircraft descended through an opening in the trees and landed hard on the lawn just south of the famous two-tiered fountain designed by the same two men who created the Lincoln Memorial. Thirty seconds later, Langdon was riding shotgun in a commandeered Lexus SUV, tearing up New Hampshire Avenue toward the House of the Temple. Peter Solomon was desperately trying to figure out what to do. All he could see in his mind were the images of Katherine bleeding in the basement . . . and of the video he had just witnessed. He turned his head slowly toward the laptop on the pigskin chair several yards away. The progress bar was almost a third of the way filled. SENDING MESSAGE: 29% COMPLETE The tattooed man was now walking slow circles around the square altar, swinging a lit censer and chanting to himself. Thick puffs of white smoke swirled up toward the skylight. The man's eyes were wide now, and he seemed to be in a demonic trance. Peter turned his gaze to the ancient knife that sat waiting on the white silk cloth spread across the altar. Peter Solomon had no doubt that he would die in this temple tonight. The question was how to die. Would he find a way to save his sister and his brotherhood . . . or would his death be entirely in vain? He glanced down at the grid of symbols. When he had first laid eyes on the grid, the shock of the moment had blinded him . . . preventing his vision from piercing the veil of chaos . . . to glimpse the startling truth. Now, however, the real significance of these symbols had become crystal clear to him. He had seen the grid in an entirely new light. Peter Solomon knew exactly what he needed to do. Taking a deep breath, he gazed up at the moon through the oculus above. Then he began to speak. All great truths are simple. Mal'akh had learned that long ago. The solution that Peter Solomon was now explaining was so graceful and pure that Mal'akh was sure that it could only be true. Incredibly, the solution to the pyramid's final code was far simpler than he had ever imagined. The Lost Word was right before my eyes. In an instant, a bright ray of light pierced the murkiness of the history and myth surrounding the Lost Word. As promised, the Lost Word was indeed written in an ancient language and bore mystical power in every philosophy, religion, and science ever known to man. Alchemy, astrology, Kabbalah, Christianity, Buddhism, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, astronomy, physics, Noetics . . . Standing now in this initiation chamber atop the great pyramid of Heredom, Mal'akh gazed upon the treasure he had sought all these years, and he knew he could not have prepared himself more perfectly. Soon I am complete. The Lost Word is found. In Kalorama Heights, a lone CIA agent stood amid a sea of garbage that he had dumped out of the trash bins that had been found in the garage. â€Å"Ms. Kaye?† he said, speaking to Sato's analyst on the phone. â€Å"Good thinking to search his garbage. I think I just found something.† Inside the house, Katherine Solomon was feeling stronger with every passing moment. The infusion of lactated Ringer's solution had successfully raised her blood pressure and quelled her throbbing headache. She was resting now, seated in the dining room, with explicit instructions to remain still. Her nerves felt frayed, and she was increasingly anxious for news about her brother. Where is everybody? The CIA's forensics team had not yet arrived, and the agent who had stayed behind was still off searching the premises. Bellamy had been sitting with her in the dining room, still wrapped in a foil blanket, but he, too, had wandered off to look for any information that might help the CIA save Peter. Unable to sit idly, Katherine pulled herself to her feet, teetered, and then inched slowly toward the living room. She found Bellamy in the study. The Architect was standing at an open drawer, his back to her, apparently too engrossed in its contents to hear her enter. She walked up behind him. â€Å"Warren?† The old man lurched and turned, quickly shutting the drawer with his hip. His face was lined with shock and grief, his cheeks streaked with tears. â€Å"What's wrong?!† She glanced down at the drawer. â€Å"What is it?† Bellamy seemed unable to speak. He had the look of a man who had just seen something he deeply wished he had not. â€Å"What's in the drawer?† she demanded. Bellamy's tear-filled eyes held hers for a long, sorrowful moment. Finally he spoke. â€Å"You and I wondered why . . . why this man seemed to hate your family.† Katherine's brow furrowed. â€Å"Yes?† â€Å"Well . . .† Bellamy's voice caught. â€Å"I just found the answer.†

There is no room for individual identity in South African literature Essays

There is no room for individual identity in South African literature Essays There is no room for individual identity in South African literature Essay There is no room for individual identity in South African literature Essay Essay Topic: Rudyard Kipling Poems Literature has often been used as tool to capture a sense of the self in society. The issue has clearly had pertinence in South Africa since the introduction of apartheid policies. Apartheid was the system of legal racial segregation imposed by the National Party government of South Africa between 1948 and 19931. Under apartheid whites were given a political-racial identity which was synonymous with superiority. The coloured characters in Athol Fugards play Boesman and Lena were left helpless by the racism, as Lenas song illustrates when she sings about how Boesman is not merely a name, it is also a label and an identification of ones culture. The sense of individuality appears to have been superseded by the need to conform in a malicious, segregated society. The thought of being exposed to such a hostile land is discussed in poems such as Landscape of Violence, where Currey uses a simile to liken the politics of South Africa at the time to hailstorms, showing just how crippling the results of prejudice can be. Indeed, those caught outside the comfortable life of the elite are depicted as having only a horse to shelter them from the hail. Racial prejudices are by far the most obvious restriction on personal identity; the characters I have studied are defined first and foremost by the colour of their skin. Though Afrikanerdom saw itself as culturally distinct from the English-speaking South Africans, both groups exercised apartheid policies to persecute black or coloured Africans, forcing them into subservience. The fact that Fugards Boesman and Lena begins with A coloured man uggests that everything from that moment forward has been as result of his skin colour. Fugard goes further to show that Lena is highly disadvantaged as a result of being coloured; her dreams of reinventing herself are met by Boesmans What do you think you are? A white madam? highlighting that there are distinct limits to her possibilities. Outa is ever only referred to by Boesman as a kaffir, disregarding any personality the character might have and basing his prejudice purely on his social status. In Landscapes of Violence, Currey endorses Fugards view that apartheid catalyses the loss of identity when he writes that racial attitudes, [are] like snakes And every brown and white child wakes/Beside a sloughed-off love one day, the simile here suggests danger; racial attitudes will creep up, and just like the bite of a snake infiltrates your blood bit by bit, they will infiltrate ideology. The metaphor of the shed snake skin suggests the racial hatred in South Africa is a manufactured phenomenon which has stolen innocence from the previously integrated society. The dehumanising and depersonalising effects of apartheid are shown yet even more clearly in Unto Dust, where Oom Schalk Lourens likens black people to animals. He states his horror that white people may be laid to rest just anyhow, along with a dead wild cat, maybe, or a Bushman. Even the seemingly accepting Lena, in a fit of frustration tells Outa to stop that baboon language, implying that she sees him as a being incapable of human speech, and therefore perhaps incapable of feeling human emotion. However, writers such as (Mbuyiseni Mtshali) in An Abandoned Bundle have chosen not to explicitly describe people in terms of their race, and it could be argued this is due to the lack of need; the reader will be able to assume race from the conditions described. Yet, providing a more likely alternative, explanation also is found in the Suppression of Communism Act (1950) which is was in effect the legal gagging of opposition to the apartheid government2. Others such as Herman Bosman, who, in the words of Christopher Heywood possesses a light touch even when dealing with heavy issues3, address the injustices of racial attitudes in a more subtle way. In Makapans Caves Lourens appears to have genocidal racism4 when collating black people with a cattle-destroying plague (I could never understand why [the Almighty] made the kaffir and the rinderpest). It should perhaps be noted here that the use of the word kaffir, although totally unacceptable in todays society, would not necessarily have raised even the most liberal eyebrows in 1930. Nevertheless, Lourens is considered racist because despite defying expectation placed on him by caring for Hendrik, Nongaas is fatally wounded because Lourens automatically assumes him to be the enemy due to his race. Though these images of racism have made Bosmans stories unpopular to a modern readership, I feel that to take this view is to fundamentally misunderstand the narrative distance between Bosman and Lourens. In the vast majority of Bosmans stories, explicit authorial intervention is limited exclusively to the Oom Schalk Lourens said which punctuates each storys prefatory statement. This authorial marker is a vital tool because it immediately establishes a separation between author and storyteller. Apartheid has caused divisions further than a simple black/white divide though, seeping into groups of similar ethnicity. Marico Scandal presents a white man chased from his home by the villagers scandalous story. The sibilance of the narration emphasises the malicious nature of the remarks made by the Marico farmers. The drastic action taken by Koos Deventer to stop Gawie getting involved with Francina causes Gawie to leave Drogevlei and the Groot Marico for ever. This shows the gravity of the accusation of being mixed race and the social stigma attached to such a label. Tragically, his paramour Francina is left alone and pregnant something considered shocking due to the highly Christian outlook in South Africa explaining Francinas stern, purposefully monosyllabic assertions that Gawie is white He is as white as I am. Similarly, in Fugards play, despite Lenas compassionate attempts to sympathise with Outa, Boesman reinforces the distinction between the coloured status and the old mans inferior social standing; hes not brown people, hes black people. To Boesman Outa is worthless and should have been a burden to his own class, Go die in your own world! It is often forgotten, however, that the Whitemans identity is also predefined, and he too is unable to change it. Whilst Fugard was watching a black woman walk like a somnambulist beside the Swartkops river just north of the city one bitterly cold July in 1968, he realised that to her, he and his companions were merely white men5. Fugard, who was a poor white man himself, manages to get his own identity across by writing in a uniquely South African idiom, which reflects both the uncertainty and the potential of his culture by mingling English, Afrikaans and sometimes African speech. An ear for dialect is one of Fugards strengths, and we are reminded of class markers in his own speech that locate him in the underprivileged communities6. While whites do not appear to suffer to the extent of coloured and black people in Fugards depiction, with the exception of baas Robbie, they are prohibited the luxury of identity. This may reflect the lack of interaction whites had with Boesman or Lena (who as coloured people were not even allowed to possess land in a white area), however I feel it is more likely to be intentional irony, twisting the employment of stereotypes used by whites onto them. The absence of names was a feature of the literature which struck me as poignant. The poem To a Small Boy who Died at Diepkloof Reformatory describes a small child, with the alliteration oh lost and lonely one emphasising the childs helplessness and isolation. Yet despite the poem being written as a direct elegy to him, the boy is never given a name. This appears to be a reflection by Alan Paton on the distant, cold-hearted nature of the South African justice system. The description of judges, magistrates lice, and sociologists, / Kept moving and alive by your delinquency suggests self-serving, corrupt officials fail the mistreated young boy. Undoubtedly the use of the indefinite a in the title was intended, and could imply that this tragedy is by no means isolated (likewise with the title of the poem An Abandoned Bundle). The identical here is the preceding both the document of birth and certificate of Death demonstrate the brevity and insignificance of the boys life in the eyes of the impersonal clerks. Paton appears to lament the lack of emotion conveyed in the document of birth while for the needs of society the simple where and when may suffice, the poet realises that these facts ignore the unique aspects of the childs life and identity, viewing it as more important whether he felt joy or sorrow. Gender is another issue which has weight with regards to identity. All racial and ethnic groups in South Africa have long-standing beliefs concerning gender roles, and most are based on the premise that women are less important and subordinate men. As Albert Wetheim remarks, Lena is doubly marginalised for she is as a coloured, victimized by whites as a woman, victimized by a male and the assault of his fists7 furthermore Lena has been unable to fulfil her role as a woman, that of the child bearer. A life of hardship and dissipation has arguably stripped Lena of genuinely positive emotion and when later talking to Outa she laments once youve put your life on your head and walked you never get light again. There are a number of parallels between Lena and the mother depicted in the final stanza of An Abandoned Bundle. Both are forced to continue living in a world which does not recognise the terrible tragedies of their past; the image of the abandoned bundles mother melting into the rays of the rising sun seemed to be presented through the eyes of the child, who would have been looking up at its mothers face as she drew away. However, melt may also suggest her fading away again into a crowd, an innocent face concealing her terrible secret. Comparably, Lena is not allowed to remember her lost child properly, due to Boesmans inability to discuss it with her on a personal level. Parallels may also be drawn against Sally (from Casey Motsisis The Efficacy of Prayer) who, like Lena, dreams of breaking free from the restrictions placed on her by society. Her dream to be just like Dan the Drunk comes true with the irony that the best Sally could become was something Dan the Drunk already was and whilst he was underachieving for a white man, this was the best a black girl may hope for. Athol Fugard is quoted as saying of Boesman and Lena, Its an examination of a relationship between a man and a woman in which the man is a bully. . . . I think my wife has been on the receiving end of a lot of that sort of greed and selfishness. 8 Yet despite the guilt the author carries abuse is almost commonplace in South Africa. One in every three women in South Africa is in an abusive relationship, a woman is killed by her partner every six days and there is a rape every 35 seconds9. Lenas arrival on stage immediately sets up their relationship and their identities. As she follows Boesman onto the stage and asks Here? both the action and the question are a deferral of power to him. In questioning Boesman she gives him the authority to decide her history and identity, and he is happy to occupy the seat of power in this relationship because he does not have to reflect on his oppressed life. Instead, he has become the oppressor, white man reincarnated. Lena is both bitter and ironic when she says He walks in front. It used to be side by side. Yet, although she is conscious of Boesmans faults, Lena remains inextricably tied to him, for she believes he holds the key to her past, and so her identity, for if she can be hit and bruised, then she exists. Lena in particular evokes sympathy in a modern western audience as Boesmans cruelty becomes clear this is despite Fugards intention to avoid the basic issue that it is not as simple as Lena being the victim and Boesman the oppressor10. Roy Campbells The Zulu Girl describes a place when in the sun the hot red acres smoulder, / Down where the sweating gang its labour plies. These depictions of a life ruled by labour are common, and Campbell hints that many women simply accept the sullen dignity of their defeat; although this certainly could not be said of Lena (I want my life. Wheres it? ). In an interview in 1992, Fugard acknowledged that his life has been sustained by women, the first of whom was his mother, a woman of such moral probity11. Fugards respect for women is reflected in Lenas strong character and desire that her life be witnessed, to go beyond resignation and despair in the secular world to which they are condemned. Her escape through memory contrasts Boesmans deep-rooted shame the power in their relationship begins to shift as Boesman discredits himself through violence and cruelty towards Lena and Outa. Though Bosmans stories rarely feature a central female character, possibly because whilst his stories tended to centre around the representation of society, women were considered to have little to no say on the African culture and were considerably marginalised. However, when he does cast a lead female role they tend to be tough, assertive girls. For instance, Minnie from Ox-Wagons on Trek manages to dream beyond her role as a farmers daughter and gained enough authority to refuse to marry Frans du Toit. The satisfaction Minnie gains from such liberation is shown through the use of light-hearted language such as romped and splashed. South Africas turbulent past has seen many a war, particularly between competing colonial powers trying to control it. Bosmans Mafeking Road is set during this the Second Boer War (1899-1902), concerning a son killed for wanting to defect from the Boer to the British army. Though Bosmans likely intention is to suggest the value of life is worth more than the shame Floris van Barnevelt would have felt, you cannot deny the sense of pride from being a Boer which comes through. Similarly, in his The Affair at Ysterpruit (also set during this time, without a narrator) he says he does not care whether a Boer commander is cunning or competent, for it was enough for [him] that [they] had fought. Stellenbosh by Rudyard Kipling indicates this is true for British colonies too the emphasis and repetition of the word might signifies the disappointment felt by the soldier that his General would not allow them to answer Brother Boers attack. Kiplings own son died in battle during the First World War after being continually encouraged by his father to fight for his country. South Africa has been home to various tribes since its birth, and the idea that you can take a sense of identity from your ethnic background is one which runs through all three texts. Despite being ashamed of who and what he is, even Fugards Boesman can attribute some of his identity to his ethnic background his use of sun to identify his bearings is something his forefathers would have done for centuries. However more imperative, as Stanley Kauffman astutely observed of the 1970 New York production of Boesman and Lena, is that this is a play in which the ground is important, On this mud, out of which we all come, Boesman and Lena make their camp12. All they have ever known is to use the earth, and whilst this is certainly more significant in Fugards plays, Bosman also gives credit to the African soil. Bosman unapologetically uses terms like krantz, withaak and the like without translation. We may speculate that it is this attempt to render the veld as foreign as possible, in contrast to the tameness of English country meadows which filled popular literature at the time, yet there also appears to be a certain love for the land ingrained the in African soul. Bosman wanted something more primitive to write about than the too civilised Marico, with its tractors and roads. Similarly, Mrs. A. C. Dube seeks to demonstrate patriotism at its utmost in her poem Africa: My Native Land by denying it will ever cause despair. Africa is, to her, the dearest Land ever known, and worth fighting for Till every drop of blood within my veins / Shall dry upon my troubled bones. The lack of rhyme scheme gives the poem a sense of roughness, imitating the land it is describing. This physical description demonstrates how embedded Dubes patriotism is, and this level of devotion to ones country becomes even more moving in the context of struggle. Lenas struggle always brings her back to the land, Boesman and Lena with the sky for a roof again, as in her first monologue, delivered with urgent passion, she seeks to bring meaning to her life through location. Her hard mother is something shared with every character, story or poem referring to South Africa; a binding point, a basis for a collective South African identity. Athol Fugard was labelled a political playwright against his will, stifling his own sense of identity. It is thus interesting that his text provides the least hope for those whom society stereotypes. Whilst it could be considered that the use of coloured people an artistically exacting touch as people of mixed blood Boesman and Lena are of indeterminate race, neither black nor white enabling the characters to represent all races Lena does not manage to break from the oppression and impoverishment, suggesting a cyclic existence. Nevertheless, the 2000 film version of Boesman and Lena contains flashback scenes where the couple are happy, and in one transcendent moment Lena starts singing, shuffling out a few dance steps at the same time before she laughs triumphantly. However, Elegiac poem For Richard Turner is to me the clearest example of the power of the individual, proving it is possible to make your voice heard within South Africa. Whilst its style is extremely personal, the presence of a name gives an extra poignancy. The way Turner is banned; neither to be published/ nor quoted in any form and forbidden to teach, represents a persistent attempt by the state to prevent his influence on others. While the line a gunman called you to the door shows the juxtaposition of politics and a domestic setting, the state imposing its views on the lives of others, even in the face of death, Turner is the more powerful figure. Even if, in reality, Turner did not choose the circumstances of his death, he did choose to resist oppression, in spite of knowing the risks. Similarly Dhlomos belligerent harangue Because Im Black aggressively explains that diversity means not disunion, and speaks out against those who harbour childish [delusions]. As individuals we find ourselves caught up in greater events, and must choose whether to look on passively, and thrust (our cold hands) into/ our ultimately private pockets, or to stand up for what we believe in. As a country it is important to rely upon each other, rather than the state, for validation. Yet in a country with as rich and polarised a political history as South Africa, its literature find will it difficult to survive without ever really avoid focussing on the social contexts which have played such an integral part in the shaping of the country it is today.

The Nature of Programming & Software essays

The Nature of Programming & Software essays In the 21st Century, computers have become an inevitable part of our lives. Over the course of the last few decades, it has greatly changed the way business is done. In the stock exchange, for example, buyers and seller can make trades right on their own personal desktop. Large quantities of stocks consisting of thousands of shares can be bought and sold very conveniently thanks to the evolution in computer technology. In general, computers have sped up the pace of life and have truly turned our world into a global village, an idea that was once thought to be strictly impossible. With the establishment of networks, a simple click of a mouse can link you to relatives who live on the other side of the globe. In addition, computers have made water and air travel less frustrating as airplanes and ships can now be monitored electronically via radar. Without the slightest of a doubt, computers have made our world a much better place. However, computer itself is nothing more than a useless piece of rock without all the softwares and programs installed within. What is a computer program? It is simple a set of instructions that tell a computer exactly what to do much like a brain to a body. The instructions might tell the computer to add up a set of numbers, or compare two numbers and make a decision based on the result. Often, programs allow the users to input their commands so the computer can follow the instructions and in the process do something useful for the users like balancing a checkbook or displaying a game on the screen or implementing a word processor. There are two types of programming high level and low level. While high level programming such as C is close to the human language, low-level programming are basically machine codes written in binary or hexadecimal. In order to write a computer program, the computer must be told, step-by-step, exactly what it should do. If this is done correctly, the ...

University of Sioux Falls Admissions

University of Sioux Falls Admissions With an acceptance rate of 92%, the University of Sioux Falls is largely accessible to those who apply each year. Interested students will need to submit an application, which can be found on the schools website. Additional required materials include high school transcripts and scores from either the SAT or the ACT.   Admissions Data (2015) University of Sioux Falls Acceptance Rate: 92%Test Scores 25th / 75th PercentileSAT Scores:SAT Critical Reading: 470 / 550SAT Math: 440 / 540SAT Writing: - / -ACT Scores:ACT Composite: 20  / 25ACT English: 19 / 25ACT Math: 20  / 26 University of Sioux Falls  Description In the early 1880s, a delegation of area Baptist churches chartered an institution of higher learning, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, originally calling it the Dakota College Institute. Throughout the coming years, the school merged with neighboring colleges, lost and regained accreditation, and went through various other changes; the University of Sioux Falls now offers 40 undergraduate degrees and a handful of graduate degrees to its students. Outside of the classroom, students can take part in over 100 student-run clubs and organizations, ranging from the academic to the recreational. On the athletic front, the USF Cougars compete in the NCAA Division II, in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.   Enrollment (2014) Total Enrollment: 1,482 (1,224 undergraduates)Gender Breakdown: 41% Male / 59% Female82% Full-time Costs (2015 - 16) Tuition and Fees: $26,240Textbooks: $950Room and Board: $6,900Other Expenses: $3,510Total Cost: $37,600 University of Sioux Falls  Financial Aid (2014  - 15) Percentage of New Students Receiving Aid: 100%Percentage of New Students Receiving Types of AidGrants: 100%Loans: 77%Average Amount of AidGrants: $16,011Loans: $9,095 Academic Programs Most Popular Majors:  Business Administration, Accounting, Nursing, Elementary Education, Exercise Science, Criminal Justice, Biology Transfer, Graduation and Retention Rates First Year Student Retention (full-time students): 72%4-Year Graduation Rate: 37%6-Year Graduation Rate: 54% Intercollegiate Athletic Programs Mens Sports:  Football, Golf, Basketball, Track, and Field, Cross Country, BaseballWomens Sports:  Basketball, Cross Country, Soccer, Track and Field, Softball, Volleyball, Tennis University of Sioux Falls  Mission Statement The University of Sioux Falls, a Christian University in the liberal arts tradition, educates students in the humanities, sciences, and professions. The traditional motto of the University is  Culture for Service, that is, we seek to foster academic excellence and the development of mature Christian persons for service to God and humankind in the world... USF is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to the integration of biblical faith and learning; it affirms that Christians are called to share their faith with others through lives of service. The University is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches, U.S.A., and welcomes students of any faith or denomination.

Fraud Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Fraud - Essay Example ice actions that must be commenced within three years of the act or omission giving rise to the injury, or within two years of the date discovery, to a maximum of four years following the date of the act or omission. On the other hand, medical malpractice actions for objects that are left inside the body may be commenced within one year of the date of discovery, to a maximum of ten years after the date of the act giving rise to the injury. Another example that North Carolina has is about personal injury in which negligence claims must be filled within three years of the date upon which bodily harm caused by the negligent act is or should have been apparent, whichever occurs first. However, all negligence claims must be commenced within ten years of the act giving rise to the injury, regardless of the date of discovery. Obviously If I have the right to decide, I would like to add the statutory about the medical malpractice from the North Carolina State. I think it is crucial because basically doctors are still human; mistakes might occur – human error does exist. So, that particular statutory would definitely help the citizens to obtain their rights if something unexpected happens within their medical treatments. The citizens will absolutely feel secured to have such kind of statutory. Larson, Aaron (2004). Expert Law. North Carolina Statute of Limitations for Civil and Personal Injury Actions – An Overview.Retrieved from

Personal Criminological Theory Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal Criminological Theory - Term Paper Example To my mind, these factors are of crucial importance. Even if a person does not have in-born factors influencing on his deviant behavior in the future, people around him may reshape his way of life. At this point I would focus my attention on districts, where poor people leave. Another determinant factor, suggested by the Chicago School is appearance of a potential criminal (Garland & Sparks, 2000). Physiology of criminals may be differentiated from physiology of non-criminals. It is claimed further on that the abovementioned factors are relevant both to differentiate criminals from poor people and from a more privileged class. In the modern context it is relevant to analyze behavior of potential criminals among white-collar workers. Still, a growing number of crimes among criminals from poor families cannot be denied. Why people commit crimes? Therefore, I would collect data about potential criminals basing on their environment and their appearance. Under unfavorable social condition s, it is hard for a weak-willed person to stay aside. There are exceptions from this rule, when in the family of alcoholics are good children, but it is a small per cent of such kind of cases. There are two basic assumptions: crime is inherited in the society; the roots of crime are in unfavorable environment and among socially degraded people (Biglan, 1995). Referring to the modern statistical data of a number of crimes, it is relevant to focus on the percentage of criminals, who live in the suburbs. Then, it is possible to choose some of them at random and look at their environment and families. It is also necessary to talk about personal concerns of a criminal, who committed a crime. It is very important to see whether he protected his own interests or acted and followed his closest social group. In case a criminal’s actions are not unintentional, then we can refer to Larry Cohen and Marcus Felson (1979), who suggested that the closest environment of a potential criminal d irects his further actions (Kraska & Neumann, 2008). For some criminals there is no need to work, it is the easiest way to reach a goal if to commit a crime. Having committed numerous crimes, potential criminals develop their inner deviant behavior. Therefore, to my mind, a crime should be considered not as a spontaneous social phenomenon, but as an outcome of social challenges (joblessness, divorce, neighborhood etc). Still, if I had to develop my personal criminological theory in the modern context, I would refer to Routine activity theory. There is a growth of crimes among businessmen, white-collar workers and other â€Å"not-degraded† individuals. It never occurred in earlier years that upper layers of the society had committed so many crimes, as they do now. It is a new form of deviant behavior. Still, I would focus on environmental, biological and psychological concerns in this case as well. A potential criminal form a privileged family, supposedly, found the roots of h is further criminal behavior among his family members or his closest environment (Williams and McShane, 2009). So, I would like to focus on some cases of white-collar crimes and consider environment of a criminal in details. Conclusion The modern globalized world with an overall hazard of potential terroristic attacks makes people more hostile and they neglect morals and laws. Consequently, in spite of different social theories directed on deviant behavior exploration, there are no effective

Huamnities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Huamnities - Essay Example For example, he betrayed his wife by having an illicit affair with Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill. Many themes, motifs and symbols are used in the film: the power of ingenuity over strength, the drawbacks of temptations, disguises, and the wedding bed. All of these film materials subtly imply the common flow of a depiction of classical heroism: the story starts with a conflict, which is followed by a journey, with temptations along the way, and the eventual victory. The Ancient Greeks developed the idea of a hero, a star, or a protagonist. Throughout history, heroism is mostly portrayed through paradox and paradigm. Greek gods can always be observed to be standing in the middle of the beauty of the gods and the susceptibility of humans in battles. Odysseus took a very critical role in the film; he is the leader, and thus, much is expected of him. Being sacrificed to the battle and the claims of personal magnificence and fame, he is destined to although sequestered from the civilization he desires to protect. In his delicate equilibrium between devil-like belligerence and compassion for his victims, classical heroism is raised to prominence but disputed. The inconsistencies of the nature of classical heroism are inculcated in primeval notions by the valour of a woman. Ancient heroines, especially Greek goddesses, arise from the locations of the battles, taken away from the meadows of fight, but still are fully impacted in them the predicaments wherein political allegiances go against each other, and where fierce slaughtering is the lone way for a solution to be achieved. There is an overwhelming consistency in the adaptation of struggle, lost, pain, heartache, temptation, and victory into the way classical heroism is being depicted, not just in film, but in other forms of arts. In the Odyssey, Odysseus had

Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Analysis - Assignment Example Recession affected various industries. Beer, being a luxury product, saw a record breaking drop in sales as the marginal propensity to consume alcohol reduced. This was due to the reduced purchasing power. High cost and low income reduced the amount that people spent on beer consumption. However, after the recession, the customers had more income to spend on luxuries and beer, thus, demand pushed sales up (WSJ; October 2, 2012). Top beer producers gained value after the recession, but their brands could not hold on their share prices, they fell. The biggest players in the industry, Anheuser-Busch Inc. saw record sales of 39.9% in 2011 and 39.7 in 2012. The firm was closely followed by Molson Coors brewing n miller brewing. The chart (iii) in the appendix shows the top beer brands in the industry Despite the competitive conditions in the United States alcoholic beverages and tobacco industry, craft beer has gained value and their brands have higher demand. The craft brewing sub-industry improved and recorded a 15% growth in 2011 and 17% in 2012. In 20122, the craft beer sector had a market share of 10.2%. The craft beer sub-industry is expected to continue with the growth trend if all economic conditions remain constant or improve. Boston beer is the biggest producer of craft beer with over 15.7% market share in the brewing industry. The company competes in both high quality and premium beers and also on low priced beer. The company has a business unit that produces premium beer under the label Sam Adams to compete with established brewing giants. Boston Beer boasts being the largest craft beer brewer in the United States. It is also ranked sixth in the brewing industry in terms of sales. The share price of the SAM as of 11th April 2014 is $234.4 per share that represented small- cap growth. The earnings per share (EPS) stood at $6.80; this implies that every share issued by the company had a return of $6.80 as of April 2014(Yahoo! Finance). This is a

What is the secondary symbolic role of first ladies in western and Essay

What is the secondary symbolic role of first ladies in western and eastern cultures - Essay Example This is as a result of some countries opening up to new possibilities overtime and loosening up some requirements of a first lady. There are also women who are bold and determined to change the old ways of doing things. They did not accept to be controlled and aspired to be greater than second place. Despite the differences in nationality and cultural values, the roles of the first ladies are similar in numerous ways. Several women have gone out of their way to become leaders as first ladies and not as wives to their prominent husbands. In the western countries among the Europeans, one of the first ladies to break the norm was Angela Merkel who was the first woman to become the head of Germany making her husband Joachim Sauer the gentleman of Germany. Merkel was born on July the 17th in 1954. She started out as a trained physicist and joined politics in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall. She joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) political party in 1990. Soon afterwards, Merkel was allotted to Helmut Khol’s cabinet (Ferree, 2006, p. 94). Here, she was made the Minister for Women and Youth. After Khol was defeated in the general elections of 1998, Merkel was appointed Secretary-General of the political party CDU. In the year 2000, she was selected as the leader of the party but lost the candidacy of CDU for chancellor to Edmund Stoiber in the year of 2001. However, this did not shake off her determination to prosper in the male dominated politics. In the year 2005, Merkel run for the seat once more and defeated Chancellor Gerhard Schroder by a whisker. She had won by only three seats. Once the CDU conceded to a coalition pact with the Social Democrats (SPD), Merkel was acknowledged as the first female chancellor of Germany (Crawford, 2013, p. 38). Merkel’s political career gained more media visibility to her husband

Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Analysis - Assignment Example Recession affected various industries. Beer, being a luxury product, saw a record breaking drop in sales as the marginal propensity to consume alcohol reduced. This was due to the reduced purchasing power. High cost and low income reduced the amount that people spent on beer consumption. However, after the recession, the customers had more income to spend on luxuries and beer, thus, demand pushed sales up (WSJ; October 2, 2012). Top beer producers gained value after the recession, but their brands could not hold on their share prices, they fell. The biggest players in the industry, Anheuser-Busch Inc. saw record sales of 39.9% in 2011 and 39.7 in 2012. The firm was closely followed by Molson Coors brewing n miller brewing. The chart (iii) in the appendix shows the top beer brands in the industry Despite the competitive conditions in the United States alcoholic beverages and tobacco industry, craft beer has gained value and their brands have higher demand. The craft brewing sub-industry improved and recorded a 15% growth in 2011 and 17% in 2012. In 20122, the craft beer sector had a market share of 10.2%. The craft beer sub-industry is expected to continue with the growth trend if all economic conditions remain constant or improve. Boston beer is the biggest producer of craft beer with over 15.7% market share in the brewing industry. The company competes in both high quality and premium beers and also on low priced beer. The company has a business unit that produces premium beer under the label Sam Adams to compete with established brewing giants. Boston Beer boasts being the largest craft beer brewer in the United States. It is also ranked sixth in the brewing industry in terms of sales. The share price of the SAM as of 11th April 2014 is $234.4 per share that represented small- cap growth. The earnings per share (EPS) stood at $6.80; this implies that every share issued by the company had a return of $6.80 as of April 2014(Yahoo! Finance). This is a

International Actors in the Middle East Since 2000 Assignment

International Actors in the Middle East Since 2000 - Assignment Example The United States invasion of Iraq is one example serves as an example of the attention that the United States has lavished on the Middle East, despite the fact that the reasons they originally gave for doing so no longer appear to be true. As Stephen Zunes explains, â€Å"WITH THE MAJOR JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE U.S.-LED INVASION OF IRAQ †¦ NOW DISCREDITED, AND CLAIMS OF WANTING TO CREATE A DEMOCRATIC IRAQ HIGHLY DUBIOUS, THIS RAISES THE QUESTION AS TO WHAT ACTUALLY MOTIVATED THE UNTED STATES† . Some theories suggest that economic factors played a role in this invasion, but another strong driving factor was to impose American interests on the country The American occupation is not without its costs. â€Å"OVERALL, THE INSURGENCY VIOLENCE BEGAN AS, AND REMAINS, A REACTION TO THE OCCUPATION† . Such violence can be compared to that during the American Civil War or the Vietnam War, simply speaking; the inhabitants of the country are trying to get the invaders to leave. Some analysts predict that if the United States were to withdraw their troops, the violence within the Middle East would significantly decrease, as motivation against the United States military decreases. Indeed, when the United States pulled out of a similar situation in Vietnam, much of the hatred and violence dissipated . Violence continues in Iraq among the various political factions, most prominent of which are the Sunni and the Shiite. The United States has primarily provided support for the Shiites, however this poses a potential problem as â€Å"THE SOUTHERN SHIITE REGION IS A POTENTIAL POWERFUL ALLY OF IRAN, WITH AT LEAST ONE MILITIA (MAHDI) FUNDED DIRECTLY BY IRAN† . Suggestions for the future outcome for Iraq include a proposal to divide Iraq into three distinct regions, which would function autonomously. However, it appears unlikely that any such decisions will be made soon . As can be seen from the above examination, the allocation of power within the

Political Development Essay Example for Free

Political Development Essay Morocco is located in North Africa at the border of Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea . Onto the south it neighbors Western Sahara and due east with Algeria. Its terrain consists of mountain, desert and coastal plain with only about 21% of total land which is productive . The people in the region basically comprise of the Berber, Arab, African, Spanish and French. Morocco is considered to be one of the most westernized Islamic nations. Its population is close to thirty million with a population growth rate of 2% per annum . Arabic is general spoken language. The Southern parts of Morocco uses French while in the Northern parts, Spanish and French are commonly used languages. English language is a new language which is being introduced in the country. Majority of the population are Muslim affiliates and number of Jewish, while in northern parts especially those who speak Spanish and French, a greater portion belong to catholic religion. Morocco’s economy is that of liberal in nature which follows the dictates of demand and supply. Privatization policy is not a new phenomenon as some of the sectors were handed down to the hand of private sectors. However, its economy is characterized by relatively slow economic growth and inflation rate. Basically, employment largely anchors at agricultural sector which is never reliable due inadequate rains . Unemployment is escalating generally, affecting majority of the youths especially in urban areas . Social evils such as trafficking of young women and girls for prostitution and domestic service and sexual abuse are the characteristic phenomena in Morocco besides high level of illiteracy, and unemployment . Non-Governmental Organizations refers to lawfully constituted organizations that operate independently from the government. There are some Non –Governmental Organizations which acts as donor and or development partners depending on the charter of their mandates. Virtually all of the Non-Governmental Organizations acts on humanitarian grounds focusing on alleviating human suffering by improving the human welfare for quality living. Some Non-Governmental organizations operates on a large scale where they may cover a very large geographical region, while still others operate at national level or in limited areas within a country . International Non-Governmental Organizations cover several geographical regions as their scope of operation while local Non –Governmental Organizations usually operate within the country or in some parts of the country International and Local NGOs in Morocco: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is one of the International Non-Governmental Organizations that has intensified its work in the country of Morocco through an economic program. Since Morocco has a liberal economy, it is governed by the law of supply and demands. In the context of globalization, farmers in the country would have faced cut-throat competition after agricultural tariffs were lowered as result of trade agreement between USA and Morocco. To save the farmers from such agony, USAID works with the farmers to have their crop yields improved and creates alternative jobs in form of industries to avert overdependence on farming as the only way of employment. It assists by linking export business to competitively get into the US market in ways such as by cutting down the numbers of days officially needed to register the business from sixty to eleven. This was actualized when USAID got into the microfinance field in Morocco. It had two prime objectives. One was to start a microfinance institution that would be self sustainable and grow to support the farmers and businessmen’s need. The second one was to foster policy that could favor this establishment of microfinance sector. All of its efforts toward making true these objectives were very successful due to its technical skills it possessed and its full commitment for these projects’ sustainability to serving large number of the poor . This has been witnessed particularly for the last seven year of its operation. Besides improvement of economic growth of Moroccans, it also featured in improving education level by increasing access to quality education and relevant basic education to all. This was because there has been high illiteracy level in the country. To achieve this USAID used ‘school-to-work’ approach by ensuring linkage between training and employments at various levels. Basic education has much attention on achieving high retention rates to ninth grade and possible equipping the learners at this level to adaptable skills for the next level. It lays more emphasis on courses such as information technology and tourism in technical colleges as the country has prominent tourist attraction sites and this is geared to promote tourism industry in the country. Global Rights is an International Non-Governmental Organization that partners for justice through advocacy of human right by collaborating with local activists. They speak to make heard injustices done at global level. It deals with legal and human rights education comprehensively from semiliterate to illiterate women from all walks of life in Morocco. This initiative aims to empower women to know their collective and individual rights so as to be assertive to these right and give them power in decision making in all matters affecting them, be it in household, community, national or at global level. So far the program has reached thousands of women across the country. By so doing the initiative aims at curbing alarming number of young women and girls at risk of human trafficking for prostitution and domestic service in the region. Besides human trafficking in different parts of Morocco, there has been an increase in cases of sexual abuse among young women and girls. Therefore, this necessitated direct service and intensive advocacy . Increased access to information has been deemed to be one of the successful approaches particularly starting with community liaisons, lawyers, teacher, researchers and the at-risk population and entire community would help curb such vices. Food and Agricultural Organization has not been new in Morocco. This country having been relying heavily on the agricultural sector for employment, much is needed to be done to revive the sluggish economic growth of the country . Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is the United Nation’s agency that is involved in collecting, analyzing and interpreting and sharing the information with relevant stakeholders related to agriculture and nutrition. It is barely four months when an outbreak that posed threat to sheep and goats was announced in Morocco. In the month of September peste des petites (PRR) threatened to kill about a million sheep and goats where a hundred and thirty three outbreaks were reported within twenty nine provinces of Morocco. Being a viral causative agent and a very contagious to all ruminants, about 17 and 5 million sheep and goats respectively were at stake . This could be translated to loss of family livelihoods as so many of them depended on this. In response to this, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) took drastic measures after receiving request from the government to beef up the interventions. This made FAO’S Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) to convene a two-day meeting in Tunisia to chart the way forward over the situation. During the two-day summit, it was collectively agreed to help the Morocco government to prepare an emergency plan and see its implementation together with appropriate coordination with veterinary services of Maghreb among others from neighborhood countries. Right now FAO is in the advanced stage of setting up an urgent regional cooperation project. Control measures that were taken necessitated quarantine of suspected or affected farms and institutions and make urgent review of animal disease emergency contingency plans as well as raise awareness on the outbreak of the disease by all stakeholders concerning its risks and clinical signs. This is the latest development that FAO has been able to undertake in Morocco. Besides, livestock production, in the sector of agriculture, F. A. O has been in the forefront to see the country is in the process of achieving the millennium goal number one; that of eradication of extreme poverty and hunger through adoption of new innovations such as high yield, and fast growing crops that are drought tolerance. This will enable the country to attain level of food and nutrition security required. Use of biotechnology which has been witnessed in Nigeria where cassava clones are being propagated as disease free plants for the higher yields, are now incorporated in Morocco. World Food Program is the world’s largest humanitarian body. World Food Program is on a global campaign to ensure undernourished school going children are educated through its school feeding program. During worst time when there is total crop failure in Morocco, it has severally responded by providing relief food to the regions that needs emergency intervention. Community Based Organizations are local non-governmental organizations which are found in Morocco just like in other third world developing countries. Community based organizations collaborate with International Non-Governmental Organization and are the ground players. International Non-Governmental Organization for sustainable development make use of local organizations so that without setting other new parallel programs they can build on the existing system and facilitate on capacity building of the community. Faith Based Organization is a local non-governmental organization that has particular religious group affiliation. For instance, in northern parts of Morocco there is significant number of Christians who have come together to form faith based organizations to cater for the needs of their less fortunate member in time of need. Conclusion Non-governmental organizations primarily have humanitarian affair at their centre of focus. They feature on development transformation of community in which they are operating on. According to the transformational development indicators, the lives of many communities in different parts of the country have really improved. The level of illiteracy has decreased as a result of increased enrollment and retentions in schools . School- to- work approach has created job linkages among youths as a way of fighting unemployment in the country. Through, improving agriculture and easy accessibility to credit facilities, farmers are able to get good returns while others are able to diversify their income. This has seen improvement of living standard of the community. References: Agnaou Fatima, (2004); Gender, Literacy, and Empowerment in Morocco. ISBN 0415947650, 9780415947657, Routledge Davis K. Diana, (2006); Neoliberalism, Environmentalism, and Agricultural Restructuring in Morocco. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 172 Facts about Morocco, (2008). Retrieved on 16th November 2008 from: http://cc. msnscache. com/cache. aspx? q=morocco+factsd=74397575479858mkt=en-USsetlang=en-USw=1d93f448,870bb89e Fisher Julie, (1998); Nongovernments: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World. ISBN 1565490754, 9781565490758, Published by Kumarian Press Kourous George Omolo Dominic, (2008); Outbreak of peste des petits ruminants in Morocco. Retrieved on 16th November 2008 from: http://www. fao. org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000918/index. html USAID/Morocco, (2004); Annual Report. Retrieved on 16th November 2008 from: http://pdf. dec. org/pdf_docs/PDACA063. pdf

The Use Of Child Soldiers In Warfare Criminology Essay

The Use Of Child Soldiers In Warfare Criminology Essay When looked back upon our childhood, memories of playgrounds, games and friends are often remembered, not even in our darkest nightmares would we imagine having to fight in warfare. Instead of playing sports, many children are forced to carry weapons, act as spies, decoys, and assassins. In addition to traditional warfare, children clear minefields, act as suicide bombers, and serve as messengers and sex slaves. Almost 5,000 children are still in military groups within Sierra Leone, and Myanmar, also known as Burma, holds an estimated 50,000 child soldiers. Despite the fact that many humanitarian organizations like UNICEF and CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) have focused on this issue for decades, it is only in the last few years that international media organizations started sending pictures of eight-year-old children carrying AK-47s in the jungle of Sudan to the living rooms of people in the United States and Europe. In the last decade, more than two million children have been killed due to participation in warfare. An astounding forty-one countries in the world have children under the age of 18, and sometimes much younger are used in warfare by rebel groups and even by governments. They are denied basic human rights and are often abused terribly, and the practice of training young children to destroy and kill perpetuates cycles of violence in war-torn countries. The chronic problem occurs when former child soldiers are rehabilitated into society and are unable to socially adapt with other people, for example, shell shock. Despite this sad reality that child soldiers face, it remains very difficult to enforce child soldier laws on an international, national and regional laws. When countries release child soldiers from military service, they often lack the resources to help them through the transition. Trained in war, children are psychologically damaged and need rehabilitation. They are often ost racized by their own families or communities. They will often return to violence unless they receive help. The Problem in Sudan Sudan, the largest country in Africa, with more than 10,000 children serving in military organizations, clearly illustrates all of the issues facing children in warfare. The Juvenile Care Council Sudanese, an official government agency, often takes children into custody directly off the street. Children out running errands or playing are scooped up and quickly forced into military camps. The government does not attempt to notify a childs family, who may not see the child again for several years. If a child manages to escape the clutches of the military, he or she is at risk of being picked up by the other side, Sudans rebel armyà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA). Childrens rights while they are serving as soldiers in Sudan are violated in a number of ways. Beyond the forcible capture, reports indicate that while in government custody children are denied their rights of religious freedom and forced to take a Muslim name and to convert to Islam. On the other side, the SPLA rebel organization often recruits with promises of food and then forces its new recruits to walk hundreds of miles from their homes. The problems in Sudan are deep rooted. The government denies any use of children and instead points to a Sudanese law that prohibits the recruitment of anyone under the age of eighteen into the military. the rebel group SPLA is hidden in the shadows of the country and out of the control of the government, international observers, and aid workers. Forced Recruitment Schools become a source of military manpower, and government forces as well as rebel forces often snatch children right from their desks. Although this kind of abduction is a common tactic, it is rarely documented and therefore difficult to regulate. During their recruitment children often experience extreme brutality, such as being forced to witness or participate in their parents executions, or suffering beatings from their captors. Tragically, in addition to losing their families, many lose their identity as they are forced to forget their names, ages, and the towns or villages they came from. Obedience Once captured, drafted, or volunteered, a child undergoes training that is often incredibly brutal and intended to desensitize him or her to violence and ensure compliance. Reports in Central America found that children are forced to kill animals and drink their blood. They are burned with cigarettes, beaten, verbally abused, and even killed if they resist. Children are also taught to abuse and kill each other for disobedience. Resistance to abide orders and attempts to escape are met with brutality, often losing an ear or limb for their actions. Since a childs home community may associate such injuries with violent rebel groups, the community often rejects the child, these scars in themselves can prevent children from returning home. In addition, child combatants often suffer from post-traumatic stress and may continue their violence outside of war, withdraw from social interactions, and suffer from nightmares and hallucinations. A child who has witnessed violence and brutality may need assistance in healing from guilt, anger, fear, and hatred to lessen the chances that he or she will return to violence. In many cases child soldiers have been written off as a lost generation with no hope of emotional and physical rehabilitation. Debating the Numbers Overall, the lack of agreement on the age of majority poses an obstacle for counting the number of children soldiers and also for establishing international guidelines to prevent child militias. estimates on the numbers of children active in some capacity of war range from 87 countries with close to one million children in combat, to 30 countries with 300,000 children active in war. Why Children? Causes and Consequences Economic Conditions: Economics also play a crucial role in the formation of child soldiers as families with the lowest incomes are most vulnerable to military recruiters and abductors. Lack of education, the inability to pay off the recruiters, being orphaned, the need of the family for income from the military, and many other factors of poverty make a child easy prey to harsh and dangerous military involvement. Children who grow up in poverty without clean water, safe shelter, and education are the most vulnerable. Forced recruitment tends to target poorer children. While poverty-stricken families have few resources and little recourse for finding and retrieving a child taken by a military organization, wealthier families can send their children out of the country for educational purposes, bribe authorities to release their child, or buy out their childs obligation to a military operation. in Sudan, the SPLA provides grand illusions of food and safety, causing parents to relinquish their children freely because they believe their lives may actually be better in a militia. On the other side, children appeal to military groups who are strapped for resources. They tend to be more economical, since they eat less and demand lower wages, if they are even paid. If a child is paid he may earn an important salary and contribute to the well-being and continued existence of an entire family. Political Situations: There are a variety of reasons why children are dragged into this horrific lifestyle and are unable to escape. Many of these reasons are internal conflicts, which may include ethnic conflicts, revenge for murdered family members and even due to propaganda promoting violence. However, the most likely reason is due to a shortage of adult fighters because of many long years of civil wars within war-torn countries. Government publicity actions in times of war can be an additional source of the problem. The use of parades, propaganda, rallies, and even anthems and pledges teach children that war is an honorable activity and that soldiers have exciting and rewarding duties. Good Things Come in Small Packages Unfortunately, the very nature of childrenà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬not being fully grown either physically or emotionallyà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬plays a contributing factor. physical size often contributes to capture; kids are easier to transport than adults. Children are also less likely to attract suspicion and can easily plant bombs and engage in intelligence-gathering operations. If apprehended, children often face less harsh punishments from the law than do their adult counterparts. An additional benefit for a military or rebel group is that adult soldiers of the other side may not fire on child soldiers. The International Arms Trade The international trade in small arms is intricately tied to the issue of children in warfare. Technology has in recent years created smaller guns, plastic explosives, hand grenades, and overall lighter weapons. Children are more able to handle the new instruments of warfare. For example, assault rifles like the Russian-built AK-47 and the American M-16 are easy to carry and to use. These new weapons are also less expensive. The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development found that in some African countries the guns sell for US$6 apiece. Some observers argue that countries that sell these weapons aggravate the problem as they continue their very profitable sale of small arms to governments or groups supported by governments who employ children as combatants. Preventions: Crime without Punishment Despite the fact that popular international attention is only beginning to focus on children in armed conflict, efforts to prevent children from participating in warfare are more than 70 years old. The issues revolve around what rights children have, if these rights compete with the rights of parents, and what rights countries have to form and recruit their own militaries. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibits the forced recruitment of all children under 18, yet still allows a government to accept volunteers at 16. The United States, like most countries, argues that it is its sovereign right to form an army of its choosing. Recent History and the Future The Future of Children in Combat: Good News and Bad Depending on where you look, the future for preventing the involvement of children in warfare is encouraging. In the spring of 2001 the SPLA in Sudan released 3,500 children to UNICEF, and in August 2001 all but 70 returned to their homes. A recent poll of Americans found that 75 percent of people surveyed felt that child survival should be both an American and an international priority. there are hundreds of international organizations and non-governmental organizations working on monitoring the use of children in warfare, negotiating their treatment while in combat, and assisting in their reintroduction to civilian life. Organizations like UNICEF, UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), the International Committee for the Red Cross, the World Food Program, and the International Rescue Committee, as well as private groups like Save the Children and CARE, employ hundreds of doctors, counselors, and researchers to address this problem. Children often prove themselves very adaptable. With medical attention, counseling, and vocational training, many former soldiers return to a normal life. In Sierra Leone, one representative from Amnesty International reports that the majority of them have really improved they are back in schools. Once they are in the right environment, we start to see the change very quickly.