Malcolm X, Black Nationalist and Civil Rights Activist

Malcolm X, Black Nationalist and Civil Rights Activist Malcolm X (May 19, 1925–February 21, 1965) was a prominent figure during the Civil Rights era. Offering an alternative view to the mainstream Civil Rights movement, Malcolm X advocated for both the establishment of a separate black community (rather than integration) and the use of violence in self-defense (rather than non-violence). His forceful, uncompromising belief in the evils of the white man frightened the white community. After Malcolm X left the black Muslim Nation of Islam organization, for which he had been both a spokesperson and a leader, his views toward white people softened, but his core message of black pride endured. After Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, his autobiography continued to spread his thoughts and passion. Fast Facts: Malcolm X Known For: Major figure in the African American Civil Rights movementAlso Known As: el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, Malcolm LittleBorn: May 19, 1925 in Omaha, NebraskaParents: Rev. Earl Little, Louise LittleDied: February 21, 1965 in New York, New YorkEducation: Through grade eightPublished Works: The Autobiography of Malcolm  XAwards and Honors:  Multiple historic markers and plaques; streets and schools named in his honor; stamp produced with his likenessSpouse: Betty SandersChildren: Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah, Malikah, MalaaknNotable Quote: â€Å"The white man is afraid of truth†¦ I’m the only black man they’ve ever been close to who they know speaks the truth to them. Its their guilt that upsets them, not me.† Early Life of Malcolm X Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska to Earl and Louise Little (neà © Norton). Earl was a Baptist minister and also worked for Marcus Garveys Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), a pan-African movement in the 1920s. Louise, who had grown up in Grenada, was Earls second wife. Malcolm was the fourth of the six children Louise and Earl shared. (Earl also had three children from his first marriage.) As a kid, Malcolm would often attend UNIA meetings with his father, who was president of the Omaha chapter at one point, absorbing Garveys argument that the African-American community had the tools and resources to blossom without dependence on the white man. Earl Little challenged the social standards of the time. When he began to attract the attention of the Ku Klux Klan, he moved his family to a white neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan. Neighbors protested. On November 8, 1929, a group of white supremacists known as the Black Legion set fire to the Littles home with Malcolm and his family inside. Luckily, the Littles managed to escape but then watched their house burn to the ground while firemen did nothing to put out the flames. Despite the seriousness of the threats against him, Earl did not let intimidation silence his beliefs- and this almost certainly cost him his life. Malcolm X’s Father Is Murdered While the details of his death remain uncertain, what is known is that Earl was murdered on September 28, 1931 (Malcolm was only 6 years old). Earl had been savagely beaten and then left on trolley tracks, where he was run over by a trolley. Although those responsible were never found, the Littles always believed the Black Legion was responsible. Realizing he was likely to meet a violent end, Earl had purchased life insurance; however, the life insurance company ruled his death a suicide and refused to pay. These events plunged Malcolms family into poverty. Louise tried to work, but this was during the Great Depression and there weren’t many jobs for the widow of a black activist. Welfare was available, but Louise didn’t want to take charity. Things were tough in the Little home. There were six children and very little money or food. The strain of taking care of everyone by herself started to take its toll on Louise and by 1937, she was showing signs of becoming mentally ill. In January 1939, Louise was committed to the State Mental Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Malcolm and his siblings were divided up. Malcolm was one of the first to go, even before his mother was institutionalized. In October 1938, 13-year-old Malcolm was sent to a foster home, which was soon followed by a detention home. Despite his unstable home life, Malcolm was a success at school. Unlike the other kids at the detention home who were sent to a reform school, Malcolm was allowed to attend Mason Junior High School, the only regular junior high in town. While at junior high, Malcolm earned top grades even against his white classmates. However, when a white teacher told Malcolm that he couldn’t become a lawyer but should instead consider becoming a carpenter, Malcolm was so disturbed by the comment that he began withdrawing from those around him. When Malcolm met his half-sister Ella for the first time, he was ready for a change. Drugs and Crime Ella was a confident, successful young woman living in Boston at the time. When Malcolm asked to go live with her, she agreed. In 1941, having just finished the eighth grade, Malcolm moved from Lansing to Boston. While exploring the city, he befriended a hustler named â€Å"Shorty† Jarvis, who also happened to come from Lansing. Shorty got Malcolm a job shining shoes at the Roseland Ballroom, where top bands of the day played. Malcolm soon learned that his customers also hoped he could supply them with marijuana. It wasn’t long before Malcolm was selling drugs as well as shining shoes. He also personally started to smoke cigarettes, drink liquor, gamble, and do drugs. Dressing in zoot suits and â€Å"conking† (straightening) his hair, Malcolm loved the fast life. He then moved to Harlem in New York and began getting involved in petty crimes and selling drugs. Soon, Malcolm himself developed a drug habit (cocaine) and his criminal behavior escalated. After several run-ins with the law, Malcolm was arrested in February 1946 for burglary and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was sent to the Charlestown State Prison in Boston. Prison Time and the Nation of Islam In late 1948, Malcolm was transferred to the Norfolk, Massachusetts Prison Colony. It was there that Malcolms brother Reginald introduced him to the Nation of Islam (NOI). Originally founded in 1930 by Wallace D. Fard, the Nation of Islam was a black Muslim organization that believed blacks were inherently superior to whites and predicted the destruction of the white race. After Fard mysteriously disappeared in 1934, Elijah Muhammad took over the organization, calling himself the â€Å"Messenger of Allah.† Malcolm believed in what his brother Reginald told him. Through personal visits and many letters from Malcolm’s siblings, Malcolm began to learn more about the NOI. Using Norfolk Prison Colony’s extensive library, Malcolm rediscovered education and began reading extensively. With his ever increasing knowledge, Malcolm began writing to Elijah Muhammad daily. By 1949, Malcolm had converted to the NOI, which required purity of body- eliminating Malcolms drug habit. In 1952, Malcolm emerged from prison a devoted follower of the NOI and a proficient writer, two essential factors in changing his life. Becoming an Activist Once out of prison, Malcolm moved to Detroit and began recruiting for the NOI. Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the NOI, became Malcolms mentor and hero, filling the void Earls death had left. In 1953, Malcolm adopted the NOI’s tradition of replacing one’s last name (which was thought to have been forced upon an ancestor by their white slave-owner) with the letter X, a reference to the unknown heritage complicating African-American identity. Charismatic and passionate, Malcolm X rose quickly in the NOI, becoming the minister of the groups Temple Seven in Harlem in June 1954. Malcolm X simultaneously was becoming an accomplished journalist; he wrote for several publications before he founded the NOIs newspaper, Muhammad Speaks. While working as the minister of Temple Seven, Malcolm X noticed that a young nurse named Betty Sanders had started attending his lectures. Without ever having gone on an individual date, Malcolm and Betty got married on January 14, 1958. The couple went on to have six daughters; the last two were twins who were born after Malcolm X’s assassination. America Encounters Malcolm X Malcolm X soon became a visible figure in the NOI, but it was the wonder of television that brought him national attention. When CBS aired the documentary Nation of Islam: The Hate That Hate Produced, in July of 1959, Malcolm Xs dynamic speech and obvious charm reached a national audience. Malcolm Xs radical claims of black superiority and refusal to accept non-violent strategies got him interviews across the social spectrum. Malcolm X had become a national figure and the de facto face of the NOI. While Malcolm X became well-known, he was not necessarily liked. His views unsettled much of America. Many in the white community feared that Malcolm Xs doctrine would incite mass violence against whites. Many in the black community were concerned that Malcolm X’s militancy would destroy the growing effectiveness of the non-violent, mainstream Civil Rights Movement. Malcolm X’s newfound fame also attracted the attention of the FBI, which soon began tapping his phone over concerns that some kind of racially based revolution was brewing. Malcolm Xs meetings with Cuban Communist leader Fidel Castro did little to alleviate these fears. Trouble Within the NOI By 1961, Malcolm Xs meteoric rise within the organization as well as his new celebrity status had become a problem within the NOI. Simply stated, other ministers and members of the NOI had become jealous. Many began insinuating that Malcolm X was financially profiting from his position and that he intended to take over the NOI from Muhammad. This jealousy and envy bothered Malcolm X, but he tried to put it out of his mind. In 1962, rumors about improprieties by Muhammad began to reach Malcolm X. To Malcolm X, Muhammad was not only a spiritual leader but also a moral example for all to follow. It was this moral example that had helped Malcolm X escape his drug addiction and keep him abstinent for 12 years (from the time of his prison sentence to his marriage). Thus, when it became obvious that Muhammad had engaged in immoral behavior, including fathering four illegitimate children, Malcolm X was devastated by his mentors deception. Things Get Worse After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, Malcolm X, never one to shy away from conflict, publicly interpreted the event as the chickens coming home to roost. Malcolm X claimed that he meant the feelings of hate within America were so great that they had spilled over from the conflict between black and white and ended up causing the killing of the president. However, his comments were interpreted as support for the death of the  beloved Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts. Muhammad, who had specifically ordered all his ministers to remain silent regarding Kennedy’s assassination, was very unhappy over the negative publicity. As punishment, Muhammad ordered Malcolm X to be â€Å"silenced† for 90 days. Malcolm X accepted this punishment, but he soon discovered that Muhammad intended to push him out of the NOI. In March 1964, the internal and external pressure became too much and Malcolm X announced that he was leaving the Nation of Islam, an organization he had worked so hard to grow. Returning to Islam After leaving the NOI in 1964, Malcolm decided to found his own religious organization, Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI), which catered to former NOI members. Malcolm X turned to traditional Islam to inform his path. In April 1964, he began a pilgrimage (or hajj) to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. While in the Middle East, Malcolm X was amazed by the diversity of complexions represented there. Even before returning home, he began to rethink his earlier divisive positions and decided to prioritize faith over skin color. Malcolm X symbolized this shift by changing his name once again, becoming El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Malcolm X then toured Africa, where the early influence of Marcus Garvey reemerged. In May 1964, Malcolm X began his own pan-African movement with the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), a secular organization that advocated for human rights for all those of African descent. As head of the OAAU, Malcolm X met with world leaders to forward this mission, generating a far more diverse following than the NOI. Whereas once he had shunned all of white society, he now encouraged interested whites to teach about oppression. Running both the MMI and the OAAU exhausted Malcolm, but both spoke to passions that defined him- faith and advocacy. Death Malcolm Xs philosophies had changed dramatically, bringing him more in line with the mainstream Civil Rights movement. However, he still had enemies. Many in the NOI felt he had betrayed the movement when he publicly discussed Muhammads adultery. On February 14, 1965, Malcolm Xs New York home was firebombed. He believed the NOI was responsible. Still ever defiant, Malcolm X did not let this attack interrupt his schedule. He traveled to Selma, Alabama and returned to New York for a speaking engagement at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on February 21, 1965. This was Malcolm Xs last speech. Once Malcolm was at the podium, a commotion in the middle of the crowd drew attention. While everyone was focused on the commotion, Talmadge Hayer and two other NOI members stood up and shot Malcolm X. Fifteen bullets hit their target, killing Malcolm X. He was dead before he reached the hospital. The chaos that broke out at the scene spilled into the streets of Harlem as mob violence and the firebombing of a Black Muslim mosque followed. Malcolms critics, including Elijah Muhammad, maintained that he died by the very violence he defended in his early career. Talmadge Hayer was arrested at the scene and two other men were taken into custody shortly after. All three would be convicted of the murder; however, many believe the other two men were not guilty. Many questions remain about the assassination; specifically, who really carried out the shooting and who ordered the assassination in the first place? Legacy In the month prior to his death, Malcolm X had been dictating his biography to noted African-American author Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, just months after Malcolm Xs murder. Through his autobiography, Malcolm X’s powerful voice continued to inspire the black community to advocate for their rights. The Black Panthers, for example, used Malcolm X’s teachings to found their own organization in 1966. Today, Malcolm X remains one of the more controversial figures of the Civil Rights era. He is generally respected for his passionate demand for change in one of historys most trying (and deadly) times for black leaders. Sources The Autobiography of Malcolm  X. With the assistance of Alex Haley. New York: Grove Press, 1965. Mamiya, Lawrence. XMalcom. Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, 1 February 2019. Remnick, David. â€Å"This American Life: The making and remaking of Malcolm X.† The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 June 2017.

Scutellosaurus - Facts and Figures

Scutellosaurus - Facts and Figures Name: Scutellosaurus (Greek for little shield lizard); pronounced SKOO-tell-oh-SORE-us Habitat: Woodlands of southern North America Historical Period: Early Jurassic (200-195 million years ago) Size and Weight: About four feet long and 25 pounds Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Small size; long tail; bony studs on back About Scutellosaurus One of the persistent themes of evolution is that large, imposing creatures descend from small, mouselike progenitors. Although no one would think of comparing Scutellosaurus to a mouse (it weighed about 25 pounds, for instance, and was covered with bony spikes), this dinosaur was certainly rodent-sized compared to its multi-ton armored descendants of the late Cretaceous period, such as Ankylosaurus and Euoplocephalus. Although its hind limbs were longer than its forelimbs, paleontologists believe Scutellosaurus was ambidextrous, posture-wise: it probably stayed on all fours while eating, but was capable of breaking into a two-legged gait when escaping predators. Like other early dinosaurs, Scutellosaurus was anatomically very similar to the prosauropods and small theropods that roamed the earth during the late Triassic and early Jurassic periods.

FOUNDATIONS FOR RESEARCH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

FOUNDATIONS FOR RESEARCH - Essay Example To amend this gap in knowledge about mood disorders in adolescents, it has been claimed that theoretical perspectives should develop from adolescents’ understanding and experiences (Griez 2005: 47). If not, the theorising process will continue to be removed from the perspectives of individuals who have really experienced mood disorders (Wolfe & Mash 2008: 83). The objective of the aforementioned study was to generate a theoretical perspective that essentially represented the perceptions of adolescents who had experienced mood disorders. Lewis (1995:372) investigated, employing qualitative methods, how participants personally experienced mood disorders, how they reached and perceived the label of mood disorder, and how they understood their experiences. In addition, Karp (1996: 91), in Speaking of Sadness, explained the identity-changing process that participants experienced as they eventually viewed themselves as depressed and carried on theorising about their own selves and h ow they acquired their mood disorders. In this paper, a thorough discussion on the different features of the grounded theory method will be provided by presenting an original research article, Meadus’s (2007) study, which contains the grounded theory method. The Application of Grounded Theory in Mood Disorder Research The grounded theory method, according to Straus & Corbin (1990), the goal of which is to form a theory that is closely related to the reality of the adolescents studied was used in the study of Meadus (2007). Through the grounded theory method, theory arises from evaluating the actual statements given by the participants, and is hence genuinely ‘grounded’ in them (Strauss & Corbin 1990: 17). However, the problem in using an inductive research method for mood disorder research, according to Griez (2005: 72), is that it inevitably results in analyses that go beyond the statements given by the participants. Stiles (1993) suggests that participants give relevant information to the researcher, but that the researcher should analyse that data to form a reflective theory. Meanwhile, reflexivity obliges the researcher to thoroughly think about the research process, which involves probing how strongly the interpretations of the researcher fit with the perspectives of the participants (Rennie, Phillips, & Quartaro 1988: 143). The grounded theory method was employed in the study of Meadus (2007) because it allowed a methodical analysis that enabled the creation of a theoretical perspective that was strongly connected to, otherwise ideally representative of, the explanations of the participants. According to Merriam (2009: 30), data analysis in grounded theory is performed using the constant-comparative method in which bits and pieces of data are compared in terms of their similarities and differences. Merriam (2009: 31-32) furthers that part of the data analysis is the identification of a core category. The core category is the central c oncept where all data revolves around and this is used to develop the substantive theory. Emphasis is given on the importance of identifying categories, hypotheses, and theories from the patterns seen among the relationships formed from the data gathered. To better understand the features of a grounded theory, the research of

Financial crisis 2008 for corporate governance & ethics course Case Study

Financial crisis 2008 for corporate governance & ethics course - Case Study Example Moral hazard occurs when a party to a contract understanding that the consequences of their actions will be borne by a different party puts themselves under more risks. This paper aims at analyzing the characteristics that make the 2008 financial crisis an ethics and specifically moral hazard situation and the measures taken for effectively eradicating the recession. Reasons for the 2008 financial crisis include massive nationwide residential housing bubble, financial sector overleveraging, unregulated subprime lending growth at a large rate, and lack of transparency in new, complex, and more popular mortgage based funds. The other reasons for the global financial crisis in 2008 was resultant inability to measure risk, screening of borrowers and bank lending of precarious loans and lack of concern on ability to pay with main aim being origination of loans (Dowd, 143). These factors that resulted in the financial crisis shows the blatant disregard by the financial institutions of the needs of the stakeholders through taking on precarious loans depicting an example of the lack of ethics or moral hazard situation. Securitization and subprime mortgage origination rose until 2006 when household debt was 100% of US GDP, causing rising interest rates making refinancing difficult and drop of housing prices and 1.3 million housing projects were on forecl osure in 2007, the crash had began. The proceeding days would be so tough for banks and other financial institutions owing to bank runs and collapse including certain governments that depended so much on foreign market loans. The crisis could have been prevented through a reduction in the bailouts or the expectation of bailouts by firms since set precedence for firms to invest in risky activities. This is because when these activities are successful; the investors benefit, but in case of failure, there are bailout by the government. Having a law holding each person responsible for the risky actions that led to the

Boston Lyric Opera Essay Example for Free

Boston Lyric Opera Essay 1. BLO’s eight customer objectives The first objective is to gain generous contributions. The amount per donator, ration between new donators and new contacts (collection rate) and the total amount of the donators and contributions are ways to measure how this aspect is doing. Incentives for the staff should also be incorporated into these objectives, especially ones that steer the process towards multi-year support programs. To measure the board involvement and recruitment, it is important that the reputation of the new board member is blameless and since operating in Boston, a local person with strong ties to the community would be better. To measure involvement the easiest way is to look the member’s activity, how many times they’ve been in meetings and how they’ve acted to build strategy. For example number of new initiatives. Also hours spent educating the board members about strategy and vision could be one measurement. Building an artistic reputation is hard and so is measuring it. Reviews on papers give a sight how the opera is doing, but the best way to know is to make a consumer survey for example once a month. Also comparing the growth in visitors between BLO and other operas gives an idea. Rating different aspects is another way to measure the artistic view. Giving value for example to the lead singer or the orchestra will help to understand how the opera is doing on its main field. These measures aren’t very proactive though, but helpful anyway. One objective is to launch a residency program. Its success can be measured by the amount of acceptances to invites and by comparing the audience amounts to normal. Like when measuring artistic reputation, the best way to measure how exciting and diverse opera’s repertories are is to see reviews and audience amounts. The grading system works when the given grades are compared to the rivals’ same grades and the shows are compared. These are of course not proactive measures. BLO wants to collaborate with other major artistic institutions like museums and theatres. Also other operas and specially talents working in them are important. One way to measure collaboration is the amount of tickets to opera that our associates sell. How many per cent of the total amount of sold tickets is it and have these collaborations brought new visitors to BLO. Community support and focus on community programs can be measured with the amount of local donators and specially the amount of new supporters. Has the PR-campaign been affective? Have local companies supported the opera? This can be measured with the amount of companies. Measurements that measure processes in line with the strategy are not always easy to find and it usually takes a lot of time to find the right ways to use them. Often they need to be adjusted or reset to fit the strategy. The main challenge is to find measures that are pro-active and directive instead of controlling. 2. Boston Lyric Opera had not really measured their organizational performance before. This had ultimately caused lack of focus and limited accountability. Boston Lyric Opera was mainly led by qualitative values as quantitative measures and financials were not the topmost factors in decision making. The new general director Janice Del Sesto and BLO’s board acknowledged that there was a history of expensive opera productions and large losses in Boston’s opera scene and they had to adapt a new business philosophy in order to operate fiscally. Non-profit organizations often have a lack of focus and their strategy concentrates to too many things at the same time. Ken Freed, a BLO board member, acknowledged that a more formal strategic planning process was essential for BLO in order to avoid mistakes that several arts organizations had made in the past. They decided to adapt the Balanced Scorecard to focus their strategic planning process. Using the Balanced Scorecard, BLO and its employees could see their day-to-day activities within a bigger and more strategic context. They started the change by defining BLO’s mission, strategy, competitive advantages, and distinguishing characteristics that would make it unique. The biggest change here was BLO reshaping its strategy. They acknowledged that their most important â€Å"customers† in this situation are the people who resourced their organization. BLO received nearly 70 percent of their operating budget from sources other than ticket sales, mostly from donors and supporters. BLO decided to place donors and supporters as their main interest group in the Balanced Scorecard. They were the body that enabled BLO to carry out their mission and strategy. Even though Boston Lyric Opera is a non-profit organization and its output is intangible, its organizational performance can be measured by quantitative measures. The Balanced Scorecard would bring quantitative measures alongside the qualitative measures. The Balanced Scorecard required BLO to quantify their activities. BLO acknowledged that and they for example created a database where they linked quantifiable donor data to qualitative information about donor meetings etc. Basically, the Balanced Scorecard required BLO to be managed like a business. 3. Lyric Opera had a new question ahead of them. They had to figure out what they wanted to become. BLO’s existing strategy was not valid anymore as their operating expenses rose and revenues from ticket sales were limited. BLO decided to adapt the Balance Scorecard in order to set new strategic objectives and measure their performance against those objectives in order to overcome to challenges they were facing. Adapting the Balanced Scorecard, BLO was able to compose a clear and precise strategy. Actually, the strategy itself was quite complex and multidimensional but the Balanced Scorecard gave it a framework that presented the new strategy clearly. BLO set three strategic themes that they felt were important in reaching their goals and they had objectives and measures of success for all of the themes. Using the Balanced Scorecard and the strategy map, BLO was also able to communicate the new strategy clearly to their staff, stakeholders, and other associates. The fact that BLO now had sufficient information of their organization and operations, it could draw new donors to them. By using the Balanced Scorecard, BLO recognized their key success drivers and they started to focus on the activities that had the greatest impact on their goals. They all had a clear common goal and BLO’s staff worked cross-departmentally, motivationally to reach the goal of providing unique, uality opera in Boston. However Jessica Del Sesto and Sue Dahling-Sullivan faced some difficult challenges and barriers to capture the above-mentioned benefits. There was some opposition from a few board-members of changing the organization’s governance structure, adapting the Balance Scorecard and managing an art organization by quantitative measures. These â€Å"old school† members did not under stand that BLO could not compete with the great opera houses and they could not standout from the crow without differentiating in some way. Del Sesto and Dahling-Sullivan were still able to carry out the new strategy and capture the benefits to make BLO a highly successful arts organization. One of the most crucial parts of the adapting a new strategy was to communicate the strategy clearly to their staff, board members and other stakeholders. It is an unconditional requirement that people understand the new strategy and its benefits in order it to succeed. Del Sesto and Dahling-Sullivan used the strategy map in communicating the new strategy and it clearly presented the reasons and benefits of the new strategy and it lighten opposition substantially. . The departmental managers and the employees of BLO are more empowered after the BSC but the artistic leaders are less. The managers are now more empowered because every department now gets to plan its own scorecard, and describe the ways how the department would meet the high level strategic goals. The employees are with the scorecard more empowered, as they can see the w ork in a more strategic context and therefore set priorities more effectively themselves. However the artistic leaders felt that the scorecard and specially the repertory planning template could limit their opportunities in designing productions. . Del Sesto uses the BSC as a managerial system. The BSC purely concentrates on the big picture; everything is based to support strategy. Del Sesto believes that the BSC helps her to steer board members’ attention to proper tasks. Also, she thanks BSC for helping employees to think more strategically, and with greater clarity towards their objectives. All in all, Del Sesto is clearly more interested on the management aspect of the BSC. One explanation to this is that BLO is a nonprofit organization. Its reason to exist is not to make profit to its owners but to offer culture to the community. All the objectives connected to the three main points are easier to measure with controlling measurements. 6. Kaplan and Norton have studied the success of BSC implementations in different organizations. They have concluded five principals that contribute greatly to the success. These principals can also be found on BLO’s BSC implementation. The process started with planning. Group consisting members from all functions thought in several meeting how the BSC should be made and what BLO is now and what it wants to be. All possible views were brought to conversations and the members were challenged to use their imagination. As a result the group made three strategic themes which determined the main points to BLO’s future strategy. These three big themes were divided to smaller parts and brought to a form that is clear to everyone in the organization. This is similar to Kaplan’s and Norton’s principal 1, where the strategy is translated in to operational terms. The BSC was completed by determining the actions to be made so that the strategy can be fulfilled. After this all parts of the organization got to make scorecards of their own and were so committed to the strategy. The whole organization was aligned to meet the strategy (Principle 2). The project succeeded because BLO was able to find the crucial processes and finish them through. The personnel were part of the developing strongly. During the process of creating the BSC, the role of the entire staff in overall success was emphasized. This made them easier to adapt the new way of doing things and easier to understand the strategy and how it can be fulfilled (Principle 3). Often when BSC implementation fails it is because the scorecard is considered to be only management’s project, just a top-level adjustment. As always with large scale organizational changes, also this project faced some resistance. Some board members and artistic staff were unsure about the motives for changing the old customs. This problem however was solved, as the need for change was successfully communicated through various levels of the organization (Principle 5). Other crucial point which was done well was the targeting. The mission was announced clearly and the goals were easy to understand. The three major themes were chosen wisely and chopped in to smaller pieces well.

lighthod A Dark Heart in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness :: Heart Darkness essays

The Heart of Darkness The Heart of Darkness has two storytellers: Joseph Conrad, the author, and the other being Marlow the story's narrator. The narration that takes place is conceived mostly from Conrad's opinions. Conrad is using Marlow as the embodiment of all the goodness that he represents. "But Marlow was not typical...His remark did not seem at all surprising. It was just like Marlow. It was accepted in silence" (p. 68). "Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and with his arms dropped, the palms of his outwards, resembled an idol" (p. 66). By doing this not only is Conrad implicates (or accuses) society of its terrible actions but he is also excluding himself. Throughout Marlow's narrative there is no place where he ponders whether or not he has the right idea or even if his opinion is biased to his own liking. There is no way that any that we can verify the validity of his story but yet Marlow assumes his listeners and readers will believe his account. Strangely enough, after such a tale on the shameful acts of society, Marlow (or Conrad) expects us to believe his tale and maybe even attempt to change our actions. Ironically, we can assume Marlow's listeners and readers have been touched by this account. The story and it's teller seem sincere but yet there is more than that. Marlow in this way has become like Kurtz, a voice that craves to be heard by its listeners. It is in this way that Kurtz and Marlow are both mouth pieces for Conrad's voice. Conrad is questioning society for its flaws but while doing so he must also question himself. After all the crimes he's accusing society for he must prove himself a worthy judge. Society nurtures the recognition of these crimes but it does not encourage the correction of these problems. Both in Africa and in London, Marlow sees corruption and the paths to chaos but yet it is so much easier for him to condem the events that take place in both places than to hold someone accountable for the injustices. There is no way to finish reading The Heart of Darkness and not wonder why Marlow did not tell his tale to the owner's of the company.

Prevention Postoperative Vision Loss Study Health And Social Care Essay

Postoperative ocular loss ( POVL ) after non-ocular surgery is a rare, but lay waste toing complication that has been associated legion types of surgeries and patient hazard factors. Stoelting and Miller ( 2007 ) estimate the incidence of POVL from 1 in 60,965 to 1 in 125,234 for patients undergoing noncardiac, nonocular surgeries, from 0.06 % to 0.113 % in cardiac surgery patients with cardiorespiratory beltway and 0.09 % of prone spinal column surgeries. The demand to understand the causes of POVL and the preventive steps that can be taken to decrease the likeliness of vision loss happening are deductions for anaesthesia suppliers and patients likewise. Consequences of POVL non merely affect the enfeebling impact on the patient ‘s quality of life, but besides the legion medical and legal branchings for the anaesthesia suppliers. Although POVL is considered a comparatively uncommon complication, the demand to understand the frequence of POVL and related hazards and causes are of import issues. In 1999, the American Society of Anesthesiologists ‘ ( ASA ) Committee on Professional Liability established the ASA Postoperative Visual Loss Registry to better understand the job ( Stoelting & A ; Miller ) . Reports of loss of vision have occurred after assorted non-ocular related surgical processs. Some illustrations of these are cardiorespiratory beltway, spinal surgery, hip arthroplasty, abdominal processs, craniotomies and processs of the caput and cervix ( Morgan, Mikhail & A ; Murray, 2006 ) . The three recognized causes of postoperative ocular loss are ischaemic ocular neuropathy ( ION ) either anterior ( AION ) or posterior ( PION ) , cardinal retinal arteria occlusion ( CRAO ) , cardinal retinal vena occlusion ( CRVO ) and cortical sightlessness. Ischemic ocular neuropathy is the most often cited cause of postoperative ocular loss following general anaesthesia with cardinal retinal arteria occlusion from direct retinal force per unit area as a lesser cause. ( Stoelting & A ; Miller, 2007 ) . Factors that have been identified as possible perioperative factors for ION include drawn-out hypotension, extended continuance of surgery, prone placement, inordinate blood loss, unneeded crystalloid usage, anaemia, and increased intraocular force per unit area from prone placement. Patient related hazard factors associated with ION include diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, morbid fleshiness, coronary artery disease, and smoke. ( Stoelting & A ; Miller, 2007 ) . Literature Review Several retrospective surveies have examined the natural history of POVL after nonocular surgery in an effort to place patients at hazard for POVL and cut down surgical hazard factors. The first, from 1996, Roth, Thisted, Erickson, Black, and Schreider reviewed oculus hurts in 60,985 patients undergoing anaesthesia between 1988 and 1992. The overall incidence of oculus hurt in this survey was 0.56 % . Duration of anaesthesia was found to be an independent hazard factor for oculus hurt. The hazard was further increased with general anaesthesia and endotracheal cannulation and in patients undergoing surgery of the caput or cervix. The bulk of the patients with oculus hurts had corneal scratchs or pinkeye. Merely one patient was found to hold POVL as a consequence of ION. This patient underwent lumbar spinal merger and the writers noted that calculated hypotension and hemodilution were used. In 1997, Stevens, Glazer, Kelley, Lietman and Bradford focused on ophthalmic complications specifically after spinal surgery. Of 3450 spinal column surgeries that the writers reviewed, seven ( 0.2 % ) instances of ocular loss were identified. Four ( 57 % ) of the seven patients suffered ION of which three had PION. Two of the seven patients had occipital infarcts, both of which were embolic. The 7th patient had a CRVO without associated periorbital hydrops or force per unit area mortification. The surgical times ranged from 3-8 hours in these patients. The estimated blood loss ranged from minimum to 8.5 litres. A 3rd survey, besides conducted in 1997, by Myers, Hamilton, Bogoosia, Smith and Wagner, collected patients by beging studies from the Scoliosis Research Study of POVL after spinal surgery every bit good as 10 good documented instances from the spinal literature. They found that longer surgical times and important blood loss were positively correlated with POVL. However, the haematocrit and blood force per unit area degrees were no different than in age matched controls without POVL. Twenty-three of the 37 ( 62.2 % ) patients had ION, 9 ( 24.3 % ) had CRAO, 3 ( 8.1 % ) had occipital infarcts and the staying three did non hold clear diagnosings. The writers concluded that reduced blood force per unit area is by and large good tolerated by patients, but that consideration should be given to set uping a minimal systolic blood force per unit area for each patient. In add-on, the writers recommended presenting long processs and protecting oculus place. More late the American Society of Anesthesiologists POVL register analyzed 93 instances of POVL happening after spinal surgery. The instances were collected via voluntary entry from1999 through June 2005. Eighty three ( 89.2 % ) of the patients had ION and the staying 10 ( 10.8 % ) patients had CRAO. All of the patients were placed prone. Surgical clip exceeded 6 hours in 94 % of the instances. In 34 % of instances the average arterial force per unit area or systolic blood force per unit area ( SBP ) was reduced to 40 % or more below baseline. The average haematocrit was 26 % with 82 % of patients losing one or more litres of blood. All of the patients with CRAO used head restraints alternatively of Mayfield pins and were somewhat younger than the ION patients ( 46 vs. 50 old ages ) . In add-on, 66 % of the ION patients had bilateral ocular loss and none of the CRAO patients did. Ipsilateral periocular injury was more often seen in the CRAO patients ( 70 % vs. 1 % ) than in ION patie nts. They once more identified the hazard of prone placement, blood loss and long surgical times. However, they were unable to definitively delegate a function to hypotension in POVL ( Lee, Roth, Posner, Cheney & A ; Caplan, 2006 ) . Another survey examined the published instance studies of ION after spinal surgery in the prone place. The writers found that PION was more often reported than AION ( n = 17 vs. n = 5 ) .3 In the bulk of the instances, some degree of hypotension and anaemia was reported. However, the writers note that the degree of blood force per unit area and anaemia sustained by these patients would be considered acceptable in most anesthesia patterns. Furthermore, the writers observed that average surgical clip was over 7.5 hours. Strategies the writers suggested to avoid postoperative ION included careful usage of deliberate hypotension tailored to the patient ‘s hazard degree and theatrical production of long, complex processs ( Ho, Newman, Song, Ksiazek & A ; Roth, 2005 ) . Case Study A 62 twelvemonth old male was scheduled for a three degree lumbosacral laminectomy and diskectomy ( L2 through L4 ) . He had a history of high blood pressure, fleshiness, stomachic reflux disease, myocardial infarction 5 old ages antecedently with two stents placed in the LAD, and a 50-pack-year smoke history. The patient had a surgical history of bilateral carpal tunnel release and ventral hernia fix with mesh. No old anaesthetic complications were noted. Current medicines included omeprazole, and Lopressor. He had no known drug allergic reactions. The patient ‘s physical scrutiny revealed an afebrile patient, pulse 67, respirations 16, blood force per unit area 162/92, SpO2 of 95 % on room air. The patient ‘s general visual aspect was a reasonably corpulent adult male in no evident hurt. Airway appraisal revealed a category 2 Malampatti, natural teething and normal cervix scope of gesture. Laboratory findings were hemoglobin 14.4 and hematocrit 40 % . All other haematol ogy, curdling profiles were normal. EKG was normal sinus beat and Chest X ray was normal. The patient underwent a criterions initiation and cannulation. He was turned prone, appendages were good padded and airing and critical marks were satisfactory. The process lasted for 3 hours and during a period of moderate blood loss, the patient had a period of hypotension enduring for about seven proceedingss. His blood force per unit area averaged 95/55 for about 30 proceedingss and for five proceedingss blood force per unit area averaged 80/45. Fluid resuscitation totaled 3 litres of crystalloid. Estimated blood loss was 550ml with a postoperative haematocrit of 29 % . On waking up, the patient did non exhibit any marks of orbital hydrops or POVL. The patient stated that vision was present in both eyes and his neurologic scrutiny was normal. Schemes for bar of POVL ION is the most common cause of POVL and may be designated as anterior ( AION ) or posterior ( PION ) depending on the location of the ocular nervus lesion. Ocular loss of AION is due to infarction at watershed zones within the ciliary arterias of the choroid bed of the ocular disc which flows into the choriocapillaris. The choriocapillaris is an end-arterial circulation with small transverse circulation and may be prone to ischemia. The posterior ocular nervus is served by subdivisions of the ocular arteria and the cardinal retinal arteria ; blood flow to the posterior ocular nervus is significantly less than the anterior ocular nervus ( Lee, et Al, 2006 ) . Many interventions have been attempted to change by reversal POVL, including anticoagulation, antiplatelet therapy, retrobulbar steroid injections, norepinepherine extracts ( to better perfusion force per unit area ) , diphenylhydantoin, osmotic water pills, blood replacing, carbonaceous anhydrase inhibitors, steroids and ocular nervus decompression. The most common forecast of POVL is small return of ocular map ( Lee, et al 2006 ) . ION should be suspected if a patient complains of painless ocular loss during the first postoperative hebdomad and may be noticed foremost on rousing from slumber, when intraocular force per unit area is highest. Pressing opthamologic audience should be sought to analyze the patient comprehensively, set up the diagnosing, and urge farther rating and therapy. Even though forecast tends to be hapless, prompt intervention may be the lone opportunity at retrieving vision ( Ho, Newman, Song, Ksiazek, & A ; Roth, 2005 ) . Obvious turning away of force per unit area on the oculus is a primary scheme to avoid ION. However, POVL has been noted in patients besides in the supine place. Current anaesthesia supplier instruction refering turning away of compaction of a patient ‘s eyes has made it a rare intraoperative event. Possibly nore good is keeping acceptable blood force per unit area and haematocrit, particularly in patients with multiple hazard factors. More than one-half of the patients entered in the ASA POVL database were positioned prone and were noted as holding important facial puffiness. When associated with systemic hypotension, optic perfusion force per unit area is diminished. Decreased haematocrit in the presence of other hazard factors seems to patients at hazard for ocular loss. Induced hypotension and hemodilution during prone spinal column instances should be avoided when patients have risk factors for POVL ( Lee, et Al, 2006 ) .

Knowledge and Understanding of the Confessions of Jeremiah Essay

Outline your knowledge and understanding of the Confessions of Jeremiah Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, and a member of a priestly family. He was a native of Judah and came from Anathoth, a small village in the north east of Jerusalem. His prophetic ministry lasted from approximately 626 to 580BC, and is one of the longest of all the writing prophets. The prophet Jeremiah began his long prophetic career in 626BC; â€Å"in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign† He was still a very young man at this time. The narrative of his call is in a dialogue between Jeremiah and Yahweh. From this we can see straight away that Jeremiah had a very intimate relationship with God from the outset. Unlike other prophets, Jeremiah seems to have been chosen to be a prophet before he was even born. â€Å"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I consecrated you, I appointed you a prophet to the nations.† It seemed it was the destiny of Jeremiah to be a prophet. According to Kidner, Jeremiah was â€Å"handmade for the task.† Similarly to Moses and Amos, at first Jeremiah was reluctant to consent to his mission, saying â€Å"Ah Lord God behold I do not know how to speak for I am only a youth†, but his faith in Yahweh gave him faith in himself, and he accepted the role God asked of him. Perhaps this teaches us the meaning of rising to face personal challenges. Yahweh said to Jeremiah â€Å"Be not afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you.† This is very much the faith of believers today, that in times of trouble, God is constant in our lives. In Jeremiahs call, Yahweh outlines the purpose of his ministry. He says â€Å"I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.† This summarizes the two main aspects of Jeremiahs mission. It was to be a twofold mission, having both a positive and negative mission, and promising reconstruction after destruction. Yahweh intended to punish the people for their sins and injustice, yet it would be this destruction that would create a new and holy people. In this aspect, we can see a similarity between Hosea and Jeremiah, in that Hosea also believed in Redemptive Judgement. Following the dialogue of Jeremiah’s call, there were two visions. The first of these visions is the vision of the almond rod, and the second vision is one of the boiling pot facing away from the north. These visions both contained a message of judgement. The mouth of the put is facing towards the south, away from the north, which implies that the danger that Judah will face will come from the north, and that these forces will destroy Judah. Yahweh says here â€Å"And I will utter my judgements against them, for all their wickedness in forsaking me; they have made their offerings to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.† In his visions, God speaks very frankly of judgement, expressing that it is going to happen soon, and that the destruction is going to come from the North. After this, Yahweh encourages Jeremiah again with the divine power of his task. He is made aware that being young and experienced, he would be resisted and persecuted by many, but that he would be upheld and strengthened by God. Jeremiah understood â€Å"sin† in terms of the betrayal of love, and accused the people of being guilty of embracing pagan gods, and flirting with heathen empires. They succumbed to the corrupting influences of the nature cults. Jeremiah found their behaviour incredible, and failed to understand why after Yahweh had been so good to the people during the time of exodus, they would desert him. He accused the people of forsaking Yahweh saying â€Å"They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.† In other words, they had deserted Yahweh for gods which were useless to them. Jeremiah also outlined the futility of foreign alliances, and said that in times of political emergency, he left their true protector. They lost faith in Yahweh, and this led to Assyria losing their religion independence. Jeremiah felt this was stupidity on their part, and appealed to the people to return to the covenant, but they paid him no heed. The call from Jeremiah is a call for repentance. Kidner said â€Å"Judah had seen it all and followed suit, sinning with her eyes open. To make it worse she had put on a sanctimonious show of repentance and reform.† Jeremiah says that the Jews were guilty of syncretism and apostasy, but that they were so religiously complacent that they were ignorant of their own sin. There was evidence of paganism and the people of Judah were confused. The nation had sunk to a dangerously low level of religious impurity. They had become hardened, and unfeeling in relation to their conscience. Jeremiahs confessions are autobiographical. The book of Jeremiah is split into six different passages The passages in jeremiahs confessions have three things in common, they are in first person, they are directly addressed to God and not to the people or its rulers, and they express the deep suffering felt by the prophet in exercising his mission. These passages are what made Jeremiah unique amongst the Hebrew prophets. He is the only prophet to reveal the personal impact his role had on him. In the confessional passages we see a real, human being, whose frailty we can identify with and whose trauma we can understand. Rarely did other prophets give us a glimpse into their lives, but in the passages Jeremiah wrote, he revealed his soul. Throughout his ministry, Jeremiah was often in conflict with his own contemporaries. This conflict was not his choosing. We are reminded of Hosea, in the sense that Jeremiah was a man of intense sympathy and tenderness of the heart, and all he wanted was to feel the love and companionship of others. He despised the conflict that deprived him of warmth and conflict that he craved, and so he became a depressed and hostile man. Yahweh said to Jeremiah â€Å"You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons and daughters in this place.† This was due to the impending crisis. In the ancient near east, sterility was considered to be a terrible curse, so we know from this that Jeremiahs celibacy would not have been down to personal choice. This shows how Jeremiah endured personal suffering, as a result of the nation’s wickedness. The first two passages in Jeremiahs confessions reveal a plot against his life, instigated by immediate family and acquaintances. The people saw Jeremiah, son of a priest, as a traitor. He reacted fiercely to this plot, and asked for the death of these men. The incident caused Jeremiah to reflect on his mission, and on the very meaning of human existence. As Jeremiah asked for no more than justice, God upheld his fierce reaction saying â€Å"I am going to punish them†¦For I will bring disaster upon the people of Anathoth.† This punishment however is not for vengeance, it is for reform. It is here that Jeremiah shows us a different side of him. He exaggerates the gloom, and welcomes the thought of retribution. Yahweh tells him that he has to keep his faith and courage during his sufferings, because they are little compared to what is to come. God knows only too well the pain of ingratitude; desertion from a spouse; defiance of a son, a daughter. A parallel is evident between the family’s rejection of Jeremiah, and the nation’s rejection of Yahweh. In the third passage, we see a new outburst and pleading by Jeremiah as he describes the â€Å"inner crisis† he is facing. He believed that everything he did seemed to bring him into conflict with his fellow men. It is here that Jeremiah laments on his mother, saying â€Å"woe is me, my mother that you ever bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land.† As Jeremiah’s call predates his birth, to curse the day of his birth would mean a rejection of his mission. His persecution arises from the message he has to deliver. Jeremiah was depressed by his work and often wondered about its purpose. In his eyes, all it caused was contention with his fellow Jews, and made him considered a troublemaker. The reaction the people of Judah gave him meant he became bitter, and saw himself condemned to a life of loneliness. The people reacted in such a hostile way to Jeremiah because he told them what they didn’t want to hear. He foretold disaster and the people remained sceptical of what he was saying, which only caused Jeremiah to fall even further into depression. As a result of the personal persecution and enforced loneliness, Jeremiah became vindictive and actually prayed for vengeance on those who treated him so poorly. This desire for vengeance only further reveals the humanity of Jeremiah. The third confession also indicates that Jeremiah faced an inward struggle with Yahweh, as well as an outward struggle with men. He was torn between obligation and inclination. He felt obliged to work as a prophet, and continue to live the sort of life that would lead to conflict with others, but due to the stress his prophetic work caused him, he felt inclined to avoid it. In the beginning, the words of Yahweh brought Jeremiah joy. â€Å"Your words were found, and I ate them and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart†, but this has all changed now. Jeremiah has been left an object of ridicule, and God’s words no longer gave him joy. He felt God used him as instrument to announce pain and destruction on people he felt love for, and at times he was almost blasphemous, accusing Yahweh of overpowering and misleading him. â€Å"Oh Lord though hast deceived me, and I was deceived, thou art stronger than I and thou hast prevailed. Yahweh’s reply renews and confirms he prophet’s mission, using the very words from his call. â€Å"And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze.† It is made clear h owever, that this will only happen when Jeremiah has converted, and regained confidence within his mission. In the last of the confessional passages, Jeremiah tells us of his most dramatic inner crisis, firmly believing that Yahweh has tricked him. â€Å"Oh Lord you have enticed me and I was enticed; you have over powered me and you have prevailed.† He fears being classed as a false prophet, which would have been devastating because he is one of the biggest critics of them. These false prophets were Jeremiahs greatest competition, and promised a shortcut to divine restoration. They spoke of peace, and attempted to â€Å"heal the wound of the people lightly†, but their remedies failed to touch even the root of the problem. Jeremiah says the complete opposite to these false prophets. Jeremiah believed that Yahweh would intervene in human history to punish, where as the false prophets proclaimed that God was uninterested in human affairs, and therefore that he wouldn’t intervene in them. Jeremiah believes that they feed the Jews with false hope, whenever doom is inevitable, and without the destruction they cannot be rebuilt. According to Bright, these prophets are â€Å"nothing but wind.† The role of a true prophet was often to act as a contestant to the status quo. The people of Judah did not like the challenge that Jeremiah was presenting them with. Jeremiah remained insistent however, that in light of Judah’s perversity, she would be punished. Although here he is clearly presented as a Prophet of Doom, this is only one aspect to his mission, and like other prophets, he does have a message of hope. Similarly to Amos, Jeremiah is warning the people what is to come if they do not repent, he is giving them warning so change is a possibility. It is for this reason he is also known as the â€Å"Prophet of Repentance.† He feels doubtful in relation to his message, and feels he is crying wolf in regard to his mission, by proclaiming a message of judgement which has not yet come to pass. Once again we are reminded of the conflict with Jeremiah in relation to obligation and inclination. Here Jeremiah describes his obligation to speak in a prophetic voice as a fire burning within him, forcing him to go on with his prophetic work despite the feeling that his inclination was to stop. Jeremiah speaks of his struggle saying â€Å"If I saw I will not mention him, or speak anymore in his name, the n within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in and I cannot.† When Jeremiah says â€Å"But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble†, he seems to have come to realise that within him there was the potential to move forwards and cope with what he thought was impossible. He finally realised that he was not alone, and that God would always be with him. Although Jeremiah at times curses the day he was born, the one thing that lifted him out of his depression was the deep conviction that Yahweh would always be there for him. Kidner says on Jeremiah â€Å"He goes on to his worst ordeals with never a hesitation or a word of doubt.† In conclusions, the outpourings from Jeremiahs heart that we witness in his confessions could be said to reveal imperfections about his human character, such as vindictiveness towards his fellow men and irrelevance towards God. However as Jeremiah was aware of his own perfections, by repenting Yahweh would help him overcome all of his human imperfections. If only the Jews had have realised the need to repent, then Yahweh could have help them overcome their imperfections through prayer and dialogue.

Essay on SUNFLOWER SEEDS by Chinese artist Ai WeiweiEssay Writing Service

Essay on SUNFLOWER SEEDS by Chinese artist Ai WeiweiEssay Writing Service Essay on SUNFLOWER SEEDS by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei Essay on SUNFLOWER SEEDS by Chinese artist Ai WeiweiSunflower Seeds is an installation of the famous contemporary Chinese conceptualist artist Ai Weiwei (1957) first opened in 2010 in the Turbine Hall of London contemporary art gallery Tate Modern. Through his installation the Chinese dissident artist transmits a variety of meanings to the audience, ideological values and beliefs of different levels. What we see is surely directly affected by what we know and what we believe as Berger (8) reasonably marks, and on a whole, this masterpiece of minimalism truly combines a huge variety of ideas and themes, strategies and tactics of the artist, who manages to be both a traditionalist and an innovator, domestic and cosmopolitan, esthete and politician, individualist and social activist. Being the way to satirize and dramatize over China’s revolutionary past, Sunflower Seeds is also a work to glorify Chinese traditions and Chinese people, as well as think over the contemporaneity and future of global civilization in general.The project is presented in the form of more than 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds strewn over the area of the largest hall of the museum. Porcelain sunflower seeds cover an area of 1000 square meters with a 10 cm layer and weigh about 150 tons. The uniqueness of this exhibit is that each seed is full sized and is hand-made by from china by artisans from Jingdezhen, the homeland of the famous Chinese porcelain. More than half a million Chinese workers worked on the exposition for 2.5 years. Each element was made and painted individually using an old multi-step technology of porcelain processing, which makes the installation even more unique. According to Ai Weiwei, to understand China with its history it is not enough to read books about it, it is necessary to see everything live, to be able to â€Å"touch† the history, therefore in the first days of the display the installation was not fenced, i.e. viewers could go through this â€Å"boundless, gray sea† and form their own ways of seeing.Thus, on the surface is the idea that the porcelain seeds directly symbolize the millions of Chinese people, similar in appearance but different inside. At first glance, the seeds, the amount of which exceeds the population of Beijing five times, seem to be identical as people in the crowd, but each seed was made manually special and therefore none of the seeds is like another. In this way, Ai Weiwei fills minimalism with Chinese features: nowhere else but in China the aesthetics of ordered plurality can have such an obvious social and political meaning. In support of this idea, it should be noted that it is not the first time the artist addresses the myths and realities of Chinese multiplicity. During another of his outstanding exhibitions which took place three years before at the German festival Documenta and was called â€Å"Fairytale† Ai Weiwei declared that he would bring to Kassel 1001 Chinese providin g them with everything from tickets to luggage. The town where the Grimm brothers wrote their famous tales would have made fabulously happy the semiliterate peasants and workers, which simultaneously touched the issue of Western culturalization of ignorant nations, and current Chinese modernization because the current economic growth does not benefit ordinary people, and for them all kinds of Biennale and modernism are like fairy tales. By Sunflower Seeds, the artist also brings the question of the role of the individual, the little man in the modern fast-changing globalized world: there are billions of us, and we all are aimlessly scattered around the world just as these porcelain seeds, where masses suppress individuality and personality mutates into pulp (Weiwei).At the same time, this raises the issue of everyday hard work of millions of Chinese people, the issue of economics and resources of China. In particular, Ai Weiwei demonstrates how the work of many artisans from porcel ain cooperatives forms in a work of art into one unending rustle of porcelain shells. The room full of man-made seeds strikes the imagination, and the viewer leaves the hall realizing that the origins of the Chinese economic wonder lie in the hard work of the Chinese nation. In addition, porcelain (or china), at the time, became the synonym to China and Ai Weiwei used exclusively the traditional method of porcelain production, which historically has been among the most expensive Chinese exports. As Tate Modern review runs, â€Å"Sunflower Seeds† offer us a closer look at the phenomenon of â€Å"Made in China† and the geopolitics of cultural and economic exchange today. In particular, the audience is invited to think on the fact that Tate row for several years fed many anything but wealthy Chinese families. On the one hand, it is an irony about modern art launched on the conveyor and weary from the crisis of overproduction, when any commodity may become a spectacle (Deb ord 118). On the other hand, there is no cynicism towards the collective author, because the master shows an example of non-traditional use of traditional Chinese material. He believes that china could again find many applications in our modern lives, and teaches society to think big and creatively toward finding new meanings for traditional things.Some may compare the visual effect of the installation with late landscapes by Monet when impressionist tried to convey the water surface on canvas. However, most interpreters will probably see not a natural element in â€Å"Sunflower Seeds†, but the human drama. Indeed, at a deeper level, â€Å"Sunflower Seeds† is a reference to the Cultural Revolution in China 1966-76, and the chaos it spawned. At the time, the image of Mao Zedong on propaganda posters was likened to the sun, under which blossomed the people of China (Clunas 119). Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party was also portrayed surrounded by sunflowers with rays coming from Mao as if from the sun. In this regard, Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei associates millions of sunflower seeds with the Chinese people ready to turn their heads after Mao and his legacy, whereas in real life for the people who experienced the agricultural experiments of the Great Leap Forward and the following years a handful of seeds could be salvation from starvation. In addition, for the old Chinese intellectuals the floor covered with spit husk which party activists often left after their meetings became a symbol of the new lumpen proletarian order of the 1960’s. Here the artist, who grew up in communist China, indulges in apprehension of this traumatic experience both in jest and earnest.Thus, Ai Weiwei’s art often formally relies on utopian ambitions of the â€Å"new world† of constructivism. At the same time, the artist creates subtle political works that take a critical stance against radical changes taking place in China. In general, th e works by Ai Weiwei are so simple and so symbolic that people even very far from the problems of contemporary art need no explanations of critics to understand the hidden meaning of his works and versatility of their message.

Aerial, Areal, and Ariel

Aerial, Areal, and Ariel Aerial, Areal, and Ariel Aerial, Areal, and Ariel By Maeve Maddox The word aerial has long been in common usage as an adjective to describe things having to do with the sky and atmosphere. Although documented in English as early as the 1670s, the word areal is fairly new in popular usage. The first time I encountered it, my misspelling detector tingled, but I soon realized that it could have nothing to do with the air because it was being used to describe such things as computer memory and flooding. Aerial has to do with air, but areal has to do with area. aerial: adj. relating to the air or atmosphere. From Latin aerius airy, from Greek aerios of the air. As a noun, an aerial is a wire, rod or other structure by which airborne radio waves are transmitted or received. Aerial View of Oil Leak Shows Size Branching of Aerial Roots in Aranda Orchids Air Power: World War I Aerial Combat areal: adj. of, pertaining to, or of the nature of, an area. Linguistics: of, pertaining, or relating to the comparative study of languages or dialects in terms of geographical distribution and contact rather than historical development. Areal Flood Watch in Force Effects of pulse duration and areal density on ultrathin foil acceleration Evidentials and Areal Typology: A Case Study from Amazonia In computer speak, areal density is defined by PC Magazine as The number of bits per square inch of storage surface. It typically refers to disk drives, where the number of bits per inch (bpi) times the number of tracks per inch (tpi) yields the areal density. In meteorology, areal flooding differs from flash flooding in that it covers a larger area and is of longer duration. Ariel Like aerial, the name Ariel is related to air. An early meaning of the noun aerial was a creature or spirit of the air. The 1800 reference in the OED tells us that some aerials have feathers, like pigeons, and others have wings of skin, like bats. Long before the 1989 Disney movie in which Ariel is the name of a mermaid, writers were using the name for supernatural creatures. The sprite in Shakespeares The Tempest is named Ariel. Milton made his Ariel into an evil angel. Alexander Popes mock epic The Rape of the Lock is narrated by a playful spirit named Ariel. For a very long list of real people, places, and fictional characters all named Ariel, see the Wikipedia article with the title Ariel. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Format a UK Business LetterTaser or Tazer? Tazing or Tasering?

US Immigration History Reading Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

US Immigration History Reading Journal - Essay Example Adams (242) criticizes the exploitation by immigrant parents of their children’s earnings, and extols the role of public schools as Americanizing agencies: school-going daughters educate their immigrant mothers. The third sociologist (244) depicts the patriarchal immigrant family, in which arranged marriages are the norm, and children automatically assume responsibility for their parents. The the three Italian-American males (246), regret the undermining of traditional parental authority and the American-like freedom granted to immigrant women. The accounts of Swedish-Americans (248) demonstrate the economic and personal freedom gained by immigrant women in the USA. The Mexican ballads (249) echo the earlier Italian chauvinistic protest against liberalization of female behavior. The narrative of a Chinese prostitute (250) shows that, in some cases, female exploitation by ethnic groups continues even after immigration. Diner’s essay (252) depicts how low marital rates, late marriages, desertion by husbands and prevalent domestic violence, combined with Irish women’s long stint in the labor force, effectively raises women’s authority and status within the family order. Finally, Ruiz’s (262) essay uses oral testimony from Chicano women to show the tension between expected adherence to traditional culture and the attraction of the American way of life. World War 11 brings new employment opportunities and hastens the Americanization of Chicano immigrants. By the judicious choice and mix of primary sources, the author has succeeded in giving a very vivid picture of the life of women in traditional immigrant families and the changes brought about by contact with American society. It is evident that it is the women who served as the most active agents of change and accelerated the assimilation of immigrants into American