Crime and Individual Choice Essay

Crime is a common phenomenon. Huge investments of any government go towards the containment and apprehension of crime offenders. The more crime acquires various forms and becomes prevalent, the more studies and theories are brought out to analyze the causes and motivations. A look at Australia in the recent past indicates public outcry over increased incidences of crime, although incidences of organized crime are becoming rare, the same cannot be said of petty thefts. Criminologists have over the years stepped up their efforts in examining the motivations of crime. This is an issue that sparks controversy as some sociologists blame it on the society, pointing out that it is the prevalent circumstances in the society that are behind crime. In the light of this row, this paper maintains that crime is as a result of individual choices rather that the prevalent social circumstances. A study of the possible causes of crime is core to understanding crime, the information generated is crucial as afar as government’s response and approaches to fighting crime is concerned. A dearth of information on such a common problem means that law enforcement agencies spend valuable resources and time on addressing the symptoms rather than the causes. It is this fact that motivates criminologists to dig out the real causes of crime. Economists traditionally have not been involved in the analysis of crime, the issue of causes and prevention was seen as being outside the realm of economics. It was seen as a preserve of sociologists and criminologists. This however changed in the late 1960s when economists brought in an argument that represented a radical paradigm shift from afore recognized sociological and criminological theories. They deviated from the societal foundations of the motivation of crime to a more individualized approach. A good theory of crime according to Becker (1968) has to â€Å"dispense with special theories of anomie, psychological inadequacies or inheritance of special traits and simply extend the economist’s usual analysis of choice. † The economic theory of crime focuses on the aspect of an individual’s rational choice as the key motivation behind crime. This is a theory that is based on the assumption that each and every individual engages in crime in their bid to increase their utility. Crime should be regarded as a venture; it is an enterprise which an individual engages in with an intention of gaining something just like in business. This hence means that any one can become a criminal, there is no particular group that is inherently criminal, it is just that people tend to move in and out of crime when there is an opportunity and there are ample conditions for a crime. Just like in business ventures, a potential criminal takes time to plan his activities and also makes decision in regard to the amount of time to be appropriated in each activity so as to maximize the gains. In making a decision of whether or not to engage in crime, an individual takes into account all the possible benefits and also the likely costs. People engage in criminal activities not because they have some natural or psychological motivations but because they have amply taken into consideration the perceived benefits and costs. This means that a certain crime will not be committed if the costs exceed the benefits. In such a case hence it is possible to see a particular crime being the most preferred in comparison to another due to the net benefits associated with that crime. Indeed crime is driven by the resultant benefits and decreased if the punishment meted out is harsh in comparison to the crime. According to the economic theory, â€Å"an increase in the probability and/or severity of punishment (representing costs of criminal behavior) will reduce the potential criminal’s participation in illegitimate activities. † (Philip & Cameron) This is what motivates the deterrence theory. It is important to point out that the issue of costs and benefits must be carefully analyzed, the cost does not only revolve around the aspect of incarceration but also encompasses the social cost, this applies even to the perceived benefits. A rational individual wishing to engage in crime hence puts into consideration all these factors and weighs his options, his decision and choice is influenced by the resultant weight, either towards the benefits or towards the costs. If the costs outweigh the benefits, the individuals is unlikely to engage in the crime; the vice versa is also true (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990). The Rational Choice Theory, on which the economics theory is founded, is derived from the utilitarian belief that indeed human beings are rational; their decisions are independently influenced by the factors of costs and benefits. In the propagation of this theory, several assumptions are made. There is the assumption that people are driven by utility; they are motivated by the urge to increase their happiness which mostly is in terms of wealth. they also are supposed to have goals and they pick the choice that enables them to accomplish such goals. The theory of rational choice can be traced to the early works of Cesare Beccaria who set out to explain crime using the enlightment ideas. According to Cessare, â€Å"people want to experience pleasure and avoid pain, and while criminal acts can bring pleasure of various sorts, possible punishment can bring pain. † (Laura, 2007, 231) This is a theory that has immensely been used in the justice system; it is based on the thinking that for crime to be prevented, punishment must outweigh the benefits of the crime. This is because if the pain is less than the benefits, then there is no motivation to quit crime. Bentham also was in agreement over the aspect of crime boiling down to individual choice, and influenced by the perceived benefits. He noted that â€Å"the profit of the crime is the force which urges a man to delinquency. The pain of the punishment is the force employed to restrain him from it. If the first of these forces is greater, the crime will be committed; if the second, the crime will not be committed. † (Cited in Maurice, 1993, 311) An important aspect that has to be looked at is why some people or groups show a higher prevalence to crime. Indeed, people can not have a similar response to crime. This is so as people have individual differences that affect their preferences. There are those that may prefer honesty, have a higher income and hence value their reputation. The perceived gains and costs are also regarded differently. The prospects of experiencing a certain level of pain might be motivating enough to some people to avoid crime. The decision to engage in one sort of crime and avoid others also follows a similar pattern. It is influenced by opportunity, available information, costs and benefits (Loftin, & McDowell, 1982). The view that crime is influenced by rational individual choices has most often than not been put into disrepute by a flurry of other available studies done on the subject. A majority of the existing studies are influenced by the social conditions and environment rather than the individual choice. One of the existing schools of thought that points at the relationship between social factors and crime is the positivist school of thought. According to this thinking, crime and criminality is influence by internal and external factors that are beyond the control of an individual. The answer to criminality lies in the biological, psychological and social foundations. Those that propagate the thinking that crime can be explained by physiological factors do it on the basis that those individuals that have a higher affinity towards crime tend to have some specific physiological traits. This thinking influenced the thought that crime is a natural trait and hence cannot be individually controlled. Some individuals are born criminals and they cannot change this. It is this argument of inherent criminality that was used to fuel the arguments behind the abolishment of capital punishment, on the basis that criminals were being punished for things they had no control on. There is also the thinking that crime can be closely linked to neuroticism and psychotism. In this, crime is seen as a mental disease where the criminal develops a psychotic compulsion to engage in crime. The prevalent theory that challenges the aspect of individual choice in crime is the sociological positivism. This is a theory that traces crime to societal factors such as poverty, subcultures and lack of education. The social disorganization theory for example has been able to establish a positive link between the collapse of important social institutions and crime. The society is held together by institutions such as religion and also the justice system. The collapse of these core institutions contributes to an increase in crime. Poverty and lack of economic development fuels an increase in crime. As the theory claims, places that are characterized by neighborhoods with high population and failed social structure record high instances of crime compared to others. Poverty leads to social disorder and is characterized by physical evidences of collapsed buildings and deteriorating neighborhoods. This leads to what has been referred to as the deterioration concentration effects. Such neighborhoods attract crime (Maurice, 1993). It is important to observe that social factors can indeed fuel crime. There exist immense studies that have focused on crime and ethnicity and have come to conclude that there are certain social conditions that influence such communities to commit crime. Poverty has been pointed out as one of the leading factor, where people resort to crime as a means of acquiring wealth and prosperity. This however does not mean that the role of an individual in making such a choice diminishes. People are influenced by their own rational choice to engage in crime, in consideration of the existing benefits and costs of such a crime, should the cost override the benefits; then crime is reduced. References Maurice P. F. (1993) The psychology of crime: a social science textbook. Cambridge University Press. Laura L. F. (2007) Encyclopedia of juvenile violence. Greenwood Publishing Group. Brantingham, P. J. & Brantingham, P. L. (1991). Environmental criminology. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Gottfredson, M. , T. Hirschi (1990). A General Theory of Crime. Stanford University Press. Becker, G. S. (1968) Crime and punishment: an economic approach. Journal of Political Economy, Loftin, C. and McDowell, D. (1982) The police, crime and economic theory. American. Sociological Review Philip M. B & Cameron M. Crime, punishment and deterrence in Australia: A further empirical investigation. International Journal of Social Economics retrieved on April 28, 2009 from http://www. uq. edu. au/~ecpbodma/ijse. pdf.

A Beach

Wisps of warm tropical air brushed gently against my face as the soft white sand caressed my feet. A warm sheet of humidity enveloped me as my eyes gazed along the long beach that reminded me of a long carpet. Occasional tourists dotted the tranquil beach enjoying the magical sunset while sipping a tropical cocktail. A low rumble followed by a sharp crackle was heard as a Jet Ski raced along the pellucid water like a shark chasing its prey. Smoke trailed from its outboard motor as it continued its rapid advancement along the beach towards the Jetty that stuck out of he shore.I slowly turned back up the road and nonchalantly headed towards the teeming town. Nestled in a quiet street near the heart of the town I decided to try a small cafe that had misty white walls and affable staff. Slowly the day was breaking too close as the sun began to retreat behind the clouds far off in the distance where the sparkling ocean met an empty white abyss. The hustle and bustle of night activity beca me evident as dusk set. Vendors pushed their rattling trolleys along the long walkways that were cramped with tourists setting if on their dally stroll exploring the large network of alleyways. Enjoyed the intricate architecture that so delicately defined the rich culture. The architects here do not design buildings; they merely interpret the traditional rules. As I wandered the town my eyes were drawn to the baroque detail that was infused into the traditional buildings that dotted the streets. I noticed the countless statues of gods that lined the streets, I wondered why this was unheard of from where I came from. The people here played out their peaceful lives, innocent of the litany of excess and lenience that plagued the world around It.However, I was soon to find out that this wasn't going to last for long. Slamming on my hotel room door woke me up hastily the next morning. I peered out of the small hole and was alarmed to see a petrified looking hotel staff. Immediately, I op ened my door and that was when he spilled the dreadful news to me. A tsunami was In bound and was estimated to hit the imperiled coast in less than an hour. A sense of panic inhibited me as I turned around and threw my bag on the bed and began to shove all my clothes In It.For the first time, I was fearful as I knew that the calm waves had stirred from its deep sleep and was coming to shatter the peace and halcyon that seemed to be intertwined into this serene island. Without further distractions I managed to turn on the television and flicked to the first news channel there was. I stared at the screen silently as my body was consumed in shock. The tsunami was going to hit the shore at 300 kilometers an hour in 5 minutes. I fought the panic that had engulfed me and picked up my day pack with all my essentials before running towards the hotel exit.A lonely tear trickled down my red cheeks as I continued running out onto a crowded street. Consternation had seized the whole population as people hastened towards the mall road that led out of town. 1 OFF the top floors and praying for the best. As I looked at my watch I realized that it had been 5 minutes already. A wicked trepidation had paralyses me as I began to picture myself dying. I heard a low rumble similar to that of a Jet ski. However, this was a rumble that brought fear into the eyes of the brave and made the whole island fall silent.I peered out to sea as I dad my way back to the hotel. I stopped walking. My body was glued to the floor. It was an overflowing perpetual of water. A monster. The waves came crashing on to the shore about a mile from where I stood. By the time it had struck I was safely on the sixth floor and was watching its dark blue opaque claws tear up everything in its path. It annihilated the low lying buildings that have stood majestically for years. I was enveloped in a dark blanket that dampened my sense and left me in a bubble.I heard screams for help as the waves surged through th e island demolishing everything like a bulldozer. It was an army that could not be defeated powered by the temperamental mother nature. Silence fell as the waves retreated back to the shore. It dragged with it the roofs of the ancient pagodas and the tangled metal frames of motor vehicles. I stared solemnly as I saw the occasional body floating; lifeless. Cessation hung in the air. This beautiful island had met its watery grave. There were no screams. There was no time. The nebulous ocean had spoken. There was an overhanging silence. A lapse in time.

Controlling as the Vital Function of Management Essay

Controlling as the Vital Function of Management - Essay Example Controlling functions and techniques are exercised in all functional areas of management such as finance, marketing, human resource, production, etc. The process of control is very much associated with planning, the primary function of management. Both these functions are complementary to each other in the sense that either of these has no meaning unless the other is performed. In simple terms, controlling is the process of ensuring that all activities are in conformity with what has been planned already. It is the act of identifying any deviation from the standard performance by comparing it with the actual performance. Controlling function is not complete once the deviations are identified. Correcting the deviation, if any, is also under the purview of controlling process. It is a four-step process of establishing performance standards based on the firm's objectives, measuring and reporting of actual performance, comparing the two, and taking corrective or preventive actions, if necessary. Henry Fayol defines controlling as " in an undertaking, control consists in verifying whether everything occurs in conformity with the plan adopted, the instructions issued, and principles established, It has for an object to point out weaknesses and errors in order to rectify them and prevent recurrence. It operates on everything-things, people actions." Performance standards are ... Corrective action is warranted only when actual performance is below standards to ensure that the problem will not recur. On the other hand, if the performance is greater than or equal to standards, the behavior or system because of which it happened will be reinforced. Characteristics of Controlling Process Controlling is a never-ending process. Organisations which strive for improved performance will keep on controlling the activities of all areas. The exercise of controlling process is cyclical in nature which permanently observes the discrepancies of actual performance and corrects such deviations. Controlling is inseparably associated with planning function as the former cannot be exercised without the latter. In other words, planning is pointless unless it is accompanied by controlling. Because, mere establishment of standards alone will not bring success in business, rather, it must be compared with the actual continuously. Controlling is both anticipatory and retrospective. It expects problems and takes preventive action. With corrective actions, the process also follows up on problems. It employs a number of techniques based on the nature and area of problems. Controlling process ensures successful and efficient performance from executors who are held responsible for discrepanci es. However, employees are reluctant to have a control mechanism in the organization as it constantly evaluates their performance in terms of what is needed by the organization.

Implementing Software Development Project Management Best Practices Essay

Implementing Software Development Project Management Best Practices - Essay Example Somerville [1996 - Page 7] explains that successful software development, deployment, testing, deployment and maintenance are all built around four basic precepts : software specification, software development, software validation and software evolution. The obvious way of streamlining the software development process is to make these discrete stages flow into one another in a seamless end-to-end process. This requires, in practice, that the specific methods adopted for Rapid Application Development (RAD) (see (2) below) must be adopted, in order to avoid the hold-ups that always occur when discrete documents have to be updated to take account of changes in user requirements, for example. The greatest obstacle to software development, in practice, is the ‘big bang’ approach, where all the functionality is supposed to be introduced at once(!). The consensus of the available literature is that this may be charitably described as a recipe for disaster! The best, and therefore most streamlined approach is the incremental one, where software development is carried out in a series of relatively small steps. It is therefore vital that this principle is incorporated within the contract with the client (for a bespoke development) or the vendor’s marketing and sales departments (for a market-led project) 1. The Waterfall approach. This is where the requirements specification, design specification, test specification, implementation plan and maintenance plan are all produced in sequence as individual work products, and each is approved by the key stakeholders before the next is produced. 2. Evolutionary Development. Here, the specification, development and testing stages are interleaved, beginning with the very rapid development of a prototype system from a very basic specification. This is what us usually meant by Rapid Application Development (RAD). This prototype is then progressively defined with the aid of input from the intended users to produce

Discuss the extent to which regulatory reform, prompted by the failure Essay

Discuss the extent to which regulatory reform, prompted by the failure of Enron, has been successful by reference to the financial crisis and more recent developments - Essay Example According to the Federal securities law, the financial statement of any listed company should be certified by an auditor. In case of Enron, it gave much attention the outside audits. The independent auditor of Enron was Arthur Andersen who was taken into justice charges due to the destruction of documents activities. Enron collapsed not due to it was a big organization but the main reason was that it was shown as much bigger than it really was. Publicly traded companies need to publish the information related to their financial statement but in case o9f Enro9n, some imaginary transactions were shown between the parent company and its subsidiaries that covered the true financial position of the firm (Jickling, 2002). It was the fault of the board of directors to oversee the issues in corporate management to protect the stakeholders’ interest. In the year 1999, the board of directors ignored a conflict of interest to permit the CFO in creating private partnerships. But the transactions that were involved in the partnerships included losses and debts which had a bad impact on the reported profit of Enron. The collapse of the company raises the concern about the capability of directors and bill was passed to question any unauthorized dealings done by the corporate managers (Gudikunst, 2003). The core business of Enron was energy and it was involved in trading of derivative contracts which were based on the prices of gas, oil and electricity. These types of contracts allowed the buyers to hedge the risk that was caused by increase or decrease in energy prices. As the market in which the company traded were highly unstable thus there were very little information available about the actual financial condition of Enron other than which was in the financial statement. Thus the buyers were influenced by the financial statement without knowing the actual fact and traded speculatively which was a high risky activity for Enron (Rantanen, 2007). The main reason behind the

Problem with zoo animal welfare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Problem with zoo animal welfare - Essay Example Isolating the two smaller male animals is not the solution for avoiding the others from getting the coughing and weight loss. The veterinarian enclosed the animals in the four-hectare forested area with the intentions of saving the other animals from getting the disease. At the time the two animals spent in the forested enclosure, the animals felt comfortable, out of fear and panic. This change of environment and comfort gain resulted to the increased weight and fast recovery for the animals. Consequently, the veterinarian had the misconceptions that she solved the problem and took the animals back to the display pen. Little did she know that the root cause of the coughing and weight loss was the environment by which the animals were exposed. Fear aggression refers to a famous and common class of animal feline aggression. A high percentage of llamas inherit the shy gene, which resulted to their aggression once they face frightening environments. For instance, poor socialization can result in a fear aggression where punishing the animals make the situation worse. Llamas might develop a fear of individuals, odors, certain noises, other animals, places, and end up reacting with aggression. There are several solutions for solving panic and fear in llamas. The veterinarian can check the reactive distance and the tolerance level of the llamas. For instance, the animals might be comfortable in any environment as long as the scary/frightening animal or people stay some six feet away while on the contrary reacts with panic and fear at five feet. ... Concern 2 Isolating the two smaller male animals is not the solution for avoiding the others from getting the coughing and weight loss (Tolin, 2012). The veterinarian enclosed the animals in the four-hectare forested area with the intentions of saving the other animals from getting the disease. At the time the two animals spent in the forested enclosure, the animals felt comfortable, out of fear and panic. This change of environment and comfort gain resulted to the increased weight and fast recovery for the animals (McEwan, 2006). Consequently, the veterinarian had the misconceptions that she solved the problem and took the animals back to the display pen. Little did she know that the root cause of the coughing and weight loss was the environment by which the animals were exposed. Now, what should the veterinarian do to solve the problem of panicky and fearful behavior? Fear aggression refers to a famous and common class of animal feline aggression. A high percentage of llamas inheri t the shy gene, which resulted to their aggression once they face frightening environments (Tolin, 2012). For instance, poor socialization can result to fear aggression where punishing the animals make the situation worse. Llamas might develop fear of individuals, odors, certain noises, other animals, places, and end up reacting with aggression. There are several solutions for solving panic and fear in llamas. The veterinarian can check the reactive distance and the tolerance level of the llamas. For instance, the animals might be comfortable in any environment as long as the scary/frightening animal or people stay some six feet away while on the contrary reacts with panic and fear at five feet (McEwan,

Social Media and the Importance of Good Media Relations Essay

Social Media and the Importance of Good Media Relations - Essay Example This paper approves that the information can be uploaded in the form of articles, bookmarked links, photos, videos or music. The connections made over the social networking sites are interlinked to one another and extend to the greater circle of connections. Due to this, the relations maintained in the social media tools should be carefully moderated. The effects of mass media can be felt on the political processes existing â€Å"in the contemporary advanced democracies†. The news generated by the media and reported on the social media tools are capable enough to create consciousness in the political sphere. For larger institutions, their operations overseas are powerful enough to have a say in the political scenario prevailing worldwide. The lifestyle of the people is also influenced by the social dictums that are reflected in the social media. The political feelings of the people are modified to a great extent through the images reported by the media. This essay makes a conclusion that the term social media has arrived from the concept of â€Å"aggregation of individuals into groups†. The connection between the different users leads to sharing of values along with the ideas and information. This makes the companies to think in more serious terms about the utilization of social media in their business processes. The companies sometimes dismiss the smaller social networking sites in favor of the bigger ones. But these sites in most cases create â€Å"greater amount of noise†. Hence from the above discussion one would agree with Parker’s statement: â€Å"In a social media driven world, the fundamentals of good media relations practice – relevance, authority, engagement and relationship – are more important than ever†.... The various social media platforms are reachable from any place and any time by anyone through the access of internet via a smart phone or a computer. The implications of such a vast reach of social media are reflected on the domains of â€Å"public relations and communications† (CIPR, n. d.). Journalists use social media for collection of news. These social media are a big ‘source’ of news. Thus on the other side of the coin, social media plays a big role in the process of determination of business performance as well as its promotion such as brand recognition. It creates an authority upon the performance of the businesses as is indicated by Parker. Campaigning and advertisement are done on a large scale over the official websites of the different organizations. It helps the company to reach out to a greater number of people and also make an account of the reviews of the existing customers as well as the responses of the potential customers. The organizations nee d to â€Å"deal with the media† (Giancontieri, 2008, p. 1) and make interactions with the reporters in their own interest in order to promote their business. Establishment and maintenance of â€Å"mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance and cooperation between an organization and its publics† (Tench & Yeomans, 2006, p. 4) is achieved through a very good public relations management strategy. Public relations are a feature of management function in an organization that entails the social media to a large extent. The foundation of public relations as a profession was on the usage of â€Å"mass media and media relations† (Duhe, 2007, p. 99). In the wake of the twentieth century the communication environment was dominated by â€Å"a limited number of mass media with

Natural Hazards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Natural Hazards - Essay Example The natural hazards highlight how man has been able to study the different technological inventions which have been done and how it has fallen short of the remaining expectations which are needed to correct things within the discussion of natural hazards. This means that natural hazards are something that has to be properly forecasted before they could be studied and hence research basis is being drafted all over the world. The role of the meteorological department is of importance here because it points out how these natural hazards are going to be tackled and what efforts need to be made in order to make sure that the people living in close proximity of a natural hazard are dealt with, the sooner the better. This paper discusses natural hazards and the solutions to these problems. It is important to define what a natural hazard is. This is one event or activity which has a very negative effect on the people or the environment under which these people live. Research has proven that many natural hazards are related with one another, and occur on a frequent basis, one after the other. Earthquakes can lead to tsunamis and drought can produce famines. The difference between a natural hazard and a disaster is that a natural hazard is a calamity that is caused due to nature while a disaster is because of the changes that man has brought about on the face of the earth upon which natural hazard has been struck, and which has led to a lot of destruction. What is most important to know is the fact that natural hazards usually produce deaths, loss of property, migration of the people from the place where the natural hazard has struck, and a number of other consequences. Before moving ahead further, it is significant to understand what natural hazards really are (Wisner 2003). The avalanches are natural hazards which come under the geophysical hazards. These avalanches consist of a slide of a large snow rock down from a mountainside which is caused due to a buildup of sno w when it released from a slope. This usually happens within winters when mountains become very dangerous for the inhabitants living on them as well as the climbers who are trekking on them. On the other hand, an earthquake is a natural hazard which is a phenomenon that comes about due to quick release of stored energy and which radiates seismic waves. Earthquakes shake and thus displace grounds which lead into tsunamis. Most of these earthquakes happen every day, where only few of them are big enough to cause serious damage. Lahars are natural hazards which are very closely tied in with volcanic eruptions and result in the emission of mud, rock, ash and other materials to slide down the volcano at a swift speed. These lahars can destroy entire cities and kill thousands of people within a matter of seconds. The sinkholes are localized depressions within the surface topography which happen due to the collapse of a subterranean structure which might include a cave (Smith 2004). Sinkho les are rare though the large sinkholes can develop at a fast pace in areas where there is a lot of population and can result in the collapse of buildings as well as structures which are strongly built. Volcanic eruptions do arise when a volcano is active and is able to release its power. This is apparent through the different forms of eruptions which can come about in the form of lava

Provinces of the Philippines and Kara David Essay Example for Free

Provinces of the Philippines and Kara David Essay Ang Huling Prinsesa† (The Last Princess) is a documentary from Kara David shown in I-Witness back in 2004. It is a challenging feat for anyone who wants to see and explore a mysterious tradition preserved for decades among some of the mountains isolated communities. I-Witness travels to the Tapaz Mountain, considered the farthest in Capiz, located in the central Philippines island of Panay. Reporter Kara David reaches the community of Rizal Sur, a village that looks just like any other isolated community, where the people living in traditional huts and survive on whatever nature provides them. In the midst of this community, she meets one of the last remaining binukots, 73-year-old Lola (grandmother). This old woman lives in an old hut, just like everybody else in the community. However, she has stayed inside a room in the house ever since she was five years old, living in isolation as the family chosen binukot. Since being chosen the binukot of her tribe, the old woman has worn a veil so that no one can see her face. She is lifted onto a hammock every day so her feet never touch the ground. She is bathed, combed and served only the best food like an ancient princess. Her work is to learn the traditional dances and memorize the tribe’s hours-long epics. Only the binukots learn the epics, which are taught to them orally. Thus, they are also the only ones who may pass the long stories of their ancestors to the next generation. Personal insight Stories of princess were part of our childhood memories. We dream of becoming one during those times. But in Tumandok tribe in Tapaz, Capiz, Philippines, there were women, who were treated like a princess. They are known to be the binukot.

How White People Became White Essay Example for Free

How White People Became White Essay The story of how white people became white in the United States goes as far back as the 15th and 16th century. People born white in this country were born with great privilege. It was an honor to be classified as a white man, or woman because white people had the pleasure of enjoying the many benefits that other cultures could not. If a person was classified as anything other than white, they were called minorities. Being a minority meant that one had no rights. People of all cultures set out to prove that that they belonged to the white heritage, and that’s how the story of How White people Became White began. â€Å"Whiteness does not stand alone. It draws part of its meaning from what it means to be nonwhite†. (Phillip C. Wanderer, 2009). â€Å"The roots of racial classification emerge from the naturalistic science of the 18th and 19th centuries†. (Phillip C. Wanderer, 2009, p. 30) â€Å"During this time, scientific studies extended the classifications of humankind developed by zoologists and physical anthropologists by systematically measuring and describing differences in hair texture, skin color, average height, and cranial capacity in various races†. (Phillip C. Wanderer, 2009, p.30). Racial classification was a way of being able to separate the whites from the nonwhites. For European immigrants, racial identity was not always clear. â€Å"The process of becoming white and becoming â€Å"American† involved a whole range of evidence, laws, court cases, formal racial ideology, social conventions, and popular culture in the form of slang, songs, films, cartoons, ethnic jokes, and popular theater suggested that the native born and older immigrants often placed the new immigrants not only above African, and Asian Americans, but also below white people†. (Roediger, 2009, p. 36). Because of this immigrant workers wound up in between races. The literal in between’s of new immigrants suggests what popular speech affirms: The state of whiteness was approached gradually and controversially. (Roediger, 2009) Some of the changes set in motion during the war on fascism, lead to a more inclusive version of whiteness. Anti-Semitism and anti-European racism lost respectability. Instead of dirty and dangerous races who would destroy U. S. democracy, immigrants became ethnic groups whose children had successfully assimilated into the mainstream, and had risen to the middle class (Brodkin, 2009). Although changing views on who was white made it easier for Euro ethnics to become middle class, it was also the case that economic prosperity played a very powerful role in the whitening process. (Brodkin, 2009) In 1980, the U. S. Bureau of the census created two new ethnic categories of Whites: â€Å"Hispanic, and â€Å"non-Hispanic†. The Hispanic category an ethnic rather than racial label compromised Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Panamanians, and other ethnic groups of Latin America descent. (Foley, 2009, p.55). Creating a separate ethnic category within the racial category of White seemed to solve the problem of how to count Hispanics without racializing them as nonwhites. (Foley, 2009, p. 55). Mexican Americans began insisting on their status as Whites in order to overcome the worst features of Jim Crow’s segregation, restrictive housing covenants, employment discrimination, and the social stigma of being â€Å"Mexican†, a label that in the eyes of Anglos designated race rather than one’s citizenship status. (Foley, 2009, p. 56). Mexican Americans supported strict segregation of Whites, and Blacks in the school and public facilities. (Foley, 2009) The basis for their claim for social equality was that they were also white. (Foley, 2009). A group of Mexican Americans founded their own organization in 1929 called the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC members sought to set the racial record straight. Mexican Americans did not want to be associated with blacks because being associated with Blacks or other colored race was considered an insult. (Foley, 2009, p. 56). Mexican Americans first challenged school segregation in 1930 the same year they achieved segregated status in the census. Mexican American plaintiffs of Del Rio, Texas sought to prove that the actions taken by school officials were designed to accomplish the complete segregation of the school children of Mexican, and Spanish decent from the school children of all other white races in the same grade. This clever wording recognized that Mexicans were not white in the sense that Anglos were, but that they belonged to a parallel universe of whiteness. (Foley, 2009)Mexican Americans then learned that the courts ended officially sanctioned segregations of Mexicans only when they insisted on their status as Whites. (Foley, 2009) Growing numbers of middle class Mexican Americans made Faustian bargains that offered them inclusion within whiteness provided they subsumed their ethnic identities under their newly acquired White racial identity and its core value of White supremacy. (Foley, 2009) In the war on who was white, and who wasn’t, it’s safe to say that most people of white heritage were born into their whiteness. Those who were not born into it had to fight for their whiteness, and their rights as American Citizens. Not every culture became white or was recognized as white in the same ways. Some had to fight harder than others†¦ Works Cited Brodkin, K. (2009). How Jews Became White Folks. In P. S. Rothenberg, White Privilege. Worth Publishers. Foley, N. (2009). Becoming Hispanic: Mexican Americans and Whiteness. In P. S. Rothenberg, White Privilege. Worth Publishers. Phillip C. Wanderer, J. N. (2009). The Roots of Racial Classification. Worth Publishers. Roediger, J. E. (2009). White Privilege Third Edition. In P. S. Rothenberg, White Privilege. New York: Worth Publishers. Rothenberg, P. S. (2009). White Privilege. New York: Worth Publishers.

Representation Of Women In Mainstream Film Studies Essay

Representation Of Women In Mainstream Film Studies Essay According to Laura Mulvey women stand in patriarchal culture as signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies and obsessions through linguistic command by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place as bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning. This argument can be seen in countless movies across generations and cultures. Mainstream Hindi film industry churned out countless movies where women represented as bearer rather than maker of meaning. However, the film No One Killed Jessica seems to be a departure from this trend. The film is based on the true murder story of Jessica Lal. In a crowded nightclub, Jessica Lal, a model working as a celebrity bartender, refused to serve Manu Sharma and two of his friends. Incensed, Manu Sharma pulls out a gun intending just to give Jessica a scare shoots her dead. More than 300 people were witnessed the event at the exclusive nightclub when Jessica was killed, but nobody came forward to tell the truth in court. The family of Jessica Lal fought legal battle against the rich and powerful for more than a decade and finally got justice. The film, No One Killed Jessica was purposively chosen keeping in view of its commercial success and audience acceptability. Its successful run at the box office implies most of the audience identifies with the films representation of society and individuals. As per general perception through various news media, it had a strong impact on the society regarding the changing image of women. The film can be clearly established on a syntagmatic level; the director (Raj Kumar Gupta), the script (amalgamations of fiction and reality), the directors relationship with his earlier film Aamir (2008). In addition to that, there were snapshots of today in the film in the form of models, fashion, glamour, journalism, sting operations, even stereotypes. All in all the film was a total explosive concoction. The most integral aspect was successful completion of process of making a film as a paradigm in itself.   No One Killed Jessica perhaps one of the rare films where the male gaze is absent, largely because there are no male protagonists, no song and dance sequences, and no overt sexualisation. The female lead is represented in a very masculine form. The film paved the way for newer films to represent women and their everyday issues in a positive light by breaking the existing stereotypes. Bollywood, considered to be among the top three film industries across the world, has time and again successfully adapted to new dimensions to understand and reflect the relatively quick changes in the evolving culture of Indian society. It also reaches Middle East, South Asia, Africa and among South Asian diasporas, world over. This further marks the study of mainstream commercial Hindi film as essential. The study can be taken as a critical base and can be re-examined for upcoming films. Theoretical Framework In mass media, representation is often perceived as the construction of reality in a virtual medium. Such a notion of representation is analogous to the mistaken assumption of a one-to-one correspondence of every word with its referent a language-world isomorphism (Saussure, 1983). Representation in cinema begins with building up of concepts of reality that include human beings, objects, places, cultural identities, and events and extends to the establishment of abstract concepts. In classical aesthetics, Plato identified representation as mimesis i.e. imitation without narration, somewhere close to theatre and differentiated it with the concept of diegesis i.e narration without imitation. Aristotle went further in his seminal work Poetics and suggested that mimesis can never reach the truth because on one hand the audiences are required to feel distant from it so that they can experience catharsis and on the other hand it has to strive hard to imitate reality as close as possible. In fact, Aristotle exclaimed that, Mimesis involves a framing of reality that announces that what is contained within the frame is simply not real. Thus the more real the imitation the more fraudulent it becomes. (Gebauer and Wulf, 1992) The modern aestheticist M. C. Beardsley (1958) proposed a classification of Representation as Depiction (i.e. representation of a type of object), Portrayal (i.e. representation of an individual), and Symbolizing (i.e. representation through a suggested or non-literal meaning). Incorporating all these typifications, representation can be approached from two standpoints. Towing the line of Aristotles interpretation of mimesis, Constructivists tend to believe that cinema is a construction of reality, where reality as an object can be perceived, consumed and witnessed in still as well as moving images and texts but with a catch this perception will always be plagued by cinematic alteration and manipulation and therefore, will always be distinct from reality itself. In other words, our perception of a film will be dependent on our body of knowledge i.e. epistemology, especially our knowledge that this is a film and therefore cannot be real. Thus, Myra Karn is able to portray Jessica Lal because the spectators have agreed to a suspension of disbelief about this fact. However, once this agreement is reached, it immediately leads to a subconscious apprehension that ultimately this is not the complete truth. On the other hand, Realists take an almost opposite viewpoint, best described by Bazins notion that film as a medium is subject to reality by the very incorporation of this capacity of capturing reality in the film-making process itself (Bazin, 1967; pp 21). Bazin went on to establish that there is a style of filmmaking which may be termed as realist which he ascribed to the likes of Jean Renoir, Orson Welles and Italian neorealist Roberto Rossellini all following techniques which render the projected image as close to reality as possible. With time constructivism went on to incorporate structuralism, Barthesian textual analysis, Marxist ideological analysis, Lacanian psychoanalysis, etc. leading to the foundation of cine-semiotics. This led to the birth of feminist film theory which incorporated feminist ideological criticism, cultural studies, psychoanalysis etc. According to Feminist Film Theories, cinema has been an important path on which debates, culture and identity is talked about and even challenged. There have been major theoretical developments and frequent discussions on woman as an object of desire, female spectatorship and cinematic pleasure. Many theorists have contributed to this school of thought. Mulvey in her essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1973, printed in 1975), highlights the concept of women as passive role players in films. According to her it baselines the concept of film as visual pleasure. She further stressed that such roles make women as tools of erotic visual effect for male v oyeurism. Mulvey points that in Cinema a womans representation is being a carrier of the meaning rather than making the meaning. Molly Haskell in From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of women in Movies (1974), analyzes how women are portrayed in films, the stereotypes depicted, the extent to which women are projected as passive or active. She also comments upon the amount of screen time given to women. Doane (1987), searches for the type of women representation in the women-oriented films. She insists that women refer to signifier of modernity, rebellious sexuality. According to her, woman as object is single terminology in systems of positioning. Linda Williams (1988) tells us that understanding of spectatorship is a result of representation through three-sided meeting historical and physical subjectivity; contradictory meanings; positions and pleasures. Julia Kristeva (1982) uses the term abject in direct contrast to Lacans object petit a (object of desire) to refer to the spect ators reaction of horror towards a possibly endangered deconstruction in the meaning caused due to the loss of power. Post-structuralist feminist philosopher Judith Butler theorized that gender is different from sex and while the later is biological, gender is actually performative and this performance is driven by rules put in place by strong patriarchal hegemonic structures (Butler, 1999). However, Feminist film theory has also met with strong criticism from various detractors, prominent being Christine Gledhill, who argues for a realist epistemology to underline contemporary feminist film theory (Gledhill, 1984). This follows from the premise that if a feminist film theorist asks the question whether a particular representation in a film is true to womens condition and nature, she has automatically assumed that there is a reality of womens condition and nature (Casebier, 1991; pp 121). In this paper, we attempt to provide a subtextual realism to applied feminist film theory principles using relevant phenomenological theories for example, Benjamins Angel of History and Heideggers Poiesis. Inspired by French Revolutions in 1789, 1830, 1848 and the Paris Commune of 1870, Walter Benjamin interpreted Paul Klees painting, Angelus Novus (1920) in his seminal work, On the Concept of History (1940). The Angel of History, as Benjamin dubbed it, has its face turned towards its past and sees a single catastrophe of revolutionary events, a pile of rubble on its feet even as it is caught up in a storm that drives him towards the future. Benjamin labeled this storm as progress. Further [1973 (1935)], he argued in favor of death of ritual with the birth of camera and mechanical images. Heidegger, M. [(1977) 1954], in The Question Concerning Technology, insisted that the essence of technology is not technological He used the term poiesis to find out forms of authentic production, one where every aspect of production process right from the creator to created is dependent and entangled with each other. As a result, there is a loss of being, individuality and freedom. It brings humanity to a position of servitude. Due to this a person speaks something but thinks absolutely differently. Heidegger takes the example of a fast and free-flowing river The Rhine when the river is controlled by a dam, which is built by humans, leads to curtailment of the rivers freedom. However, it also results in servitude of humanity because now they have to manage the dam as an additional work bound to their lives. Gender representation and Hindi cinema As discussed earlier, construction of reality presupposes the establishment of reality. The basic premise of cinematic suspension of disbelief is the realization that all that appears real on screen is actually a construction of reality. Similarly, to take up the subject of representation of women in Hindi cinema, first we must try to comprehend the existing reality of women, their status in India. Numerous Indian mythologies have given great respect to women, to the extent of calling them Mother Goddess. The contextual reality though is quite different. Unlike many nations, India has a larger male population as compared to females. One of the major reasons is women die even before they can reach adulthood. A large number of them are murdered in their mothers womb. The other important fatal imbalance is the mistreatment of these women. They do not have enough decision-making power and economic independence, face violence in and out of their families, face atrocities like murder, mole station, rape and every possible kind of sexual molestation to the extent that India stands at a miserable 56 rank out of 86 nations in the Social Institutions and Gender Index (OECD SIGI, 2012). This reality of Indian women has found its way straight into the silver screen. Since beginning, women in popular Hindi Cinema have their set roles somebodys daughter, wife, sister or mother. A modern woman has been portrayed to possess a loose character. She can be bar dancer or a college student, who is not at all interested in her career. Rare are the cases when lead female characters are depicted as strong individuals. We hardly witness them to be lawyers, journalists, business magnets, doctors etc. Even if they are portraying these, they are supposed to be holy, cultured, catering to males need and wishes. Even the song and dance sequences demand them to be voluptuous and good dancers. Their maximum achievement in life looks to be a shift from song and dance in discs and pubs to escape in Hindi cinema and do the same around trees. Woman as a maker of meaning: Gender representation in No One Killed Jessica An important precursor to the analysis of No One Killed Jessica is the actual Jessica Lal murder case. Jessica was a professional model who happened to volunteer as a bartender at a socialite gathering and was shot dead by a politicians son for refusing to serve him liquor at 2 am in the night. The case shocked Indian youth and generated a public outcry when the perpetrators were acquitted in a lower court. Subsequently, the media took up the case rigorously and managed to pressurize the higher courts to reopen the case and finally the guilty were put behind bars. No One Killed Jessica starts in a format of a hard-hitting documentary. Later the glamour quotient seeps in reminding us of watching a mainstream commercial Hindi cinema. Still throughout, the film showed touches of serious cinema as well. This movie boasts of two main characters Sabrina Lal (Vidya Balan) and Meera Gaity (Rani Mukherjee). Sabrina is shown to be simple, calm, nerdy, and docile and appears to be contended in her own space. She takes a back-seat in all the aspects of life as compared to her sister (Jessica Lal) and many other female counterparts. She is media shy and far from the glamorous personality of Jessica and Meera. Her usual attire is dull colored loose shirts and straight fit jeans and doesnt use make-up, establishing her as a person who tones down her sexuality. Meera is a fictional character, loosely symbolizing sensational but powerful Indian electronic media of the new millennium. The character is built around the famous journalist from NDTV Barkha Dutt, who had handled the case and is also the inspiration for the coverage of Kargil war and Kandahar hijack episode. Unfortunately, the film completely ignores print media journalists, who were among the first ones to uncover the truth and in fact, the sting operation was done by Harinder Baweja from Tehelka. In the movies credits, there is a caption congratulating Tehelka for their efforts but going by the general Indian film viewing standard, people do not sit back and watch credits. Ramani (2011) implored that the movie goes so far to accommodate the case for electronic media that it excludes and almost totally ignores contribution of main heroes of the story, i.e. the print media. Meera is established from the beginning of her film, first through her voice which delivers a monologue on Delhis inherent complexity and its fascination with power and then her credentials are established through her coverage of important but difficult news assignments like Kargil war and Kandahar hijack incident. From the very beginning, Meeras character is celebrated as a woman of substance, but subliminally, it is established as a transgendered male performance, as if the lines and the role was written for a male character but the sex was changed at the last moment. Thus Meera goes to great lengths to establish her gender performativity as male using tropes like frequent verbal abuse; dominant and emotionally detached frequent physical relationships; absence of family issues etc. Her stance of sitting and drinking tea in the office, her behavior with her colleagues and her maid furthers this establishment. The contrast lies in, the real women journalists who actually went to grea t lengths to solve this case and is comfortable in their gender, e.g. Harinder Baweja frequently wears Saris and flaunts her femininity without any reservations, and is quite humble in her interviews. Professionally, Meera comes out as a hard-hitting reporter. Her character is smart, dynamic, selfish, bitchy, successful, and manipulative. In fact, it seems as if the director of the film has a deliberate intention of creating such contrasting characters on the same platform. The downside of such a contrast is that, when played with the mise-en-scà ¨ne and sequence of events, the film impresses upon the audience that, a successful woman tends to have man-like attributes; at least her perfomative gender should be male. Otherwise she will absolutely fade away in the harsh realities of life. In an establishing scene, while returning from the Kargil war zone, she hurls expletives at a fellow male passenger something that is employed to make her representation adhere to the stereotypes of cool and bitch, as there appears no visible reason for such an outburst. However, we must give due respect to the makers of the film that they have not aimed at creating perfect heroines, although all these characters are seen to reflect certain exciting stereotypes. Jessica Lal, the omnipresent character throughout the film, even after her death, is the actual anchor of the story. Her character evolves as a young model free-spirited and modern an individual who is not scared to pick a fight while protecting her sister (Sabrina) against harassment. However, the stereotyping does not leave her ever. In the scene where she fights the street harassers, one can observe a multitude of gender and class representations. The harassers are on a cheap bicycle and apparently symbolize members of the lower economic class. Whether or not this scene is fictional, it reeks of class irony she was shot dead by a higher economic class male while these fellows were projected to be weak in front of her rage and verbal abuses. Another irony is that the verbal abuses that s he used are themselves misogynist. Further on in the film, her modernity is objectified in pure Kristevan (1982) sense by establishing her vulnerability as a vilified girl who likes to have a nice time, parties hard, drinks heavily and stays out till late. So in the film there are a number of scenes where Jessicas character develops against Sabrina in a contrast of bad vs. good. In one frame, Jessica invites Sabrina to a party which symbolically implies the one where she was shot dead and she is wearing a mini-skirt while Sabrina is in desexualized jeans and an oversized shirt. At the sequence leading to Jessicas murder, there is frequent jump cut between Sabrina sleeping in her bed while Jessica is serving drinks in the party. The dance sequence reeks of voyeuristic male pleasure with head to toe camera movements amplifying a mini-skirt clad female figure montage with extreme close-up shots of drunken men trying to get too close to her the sub-text is clearly pointing out that thi s image of a girl dancing in a short dress is easily approachable. The paradigm in the series of shots and the delicate imagery tend to establish a dangerous line of thought those who try to move away from the patriarchal hegemonies in place will have to face the brunt one day the audience is prepared to see Jessica get the bullet! This moment is the very mimetic driver that will lead the audience to witness the fight for justice and the road to catharsis, the final judgment in favor of justice. But the montage and the mise-en-scene establishing this mimesis subliminally also feed the stereotype of the vulnerability of the female gender. The conflict scene between Jessica and Manu is a more serious effort and focuses on her mid, close-up and extreme close-up shots as well as a good performance by Myra to highlight Jessicas strong personality. The audience senses the danger even more closely as the first gunshot goes off and yet another Jessica is hit in the head. Her fall in slow motion takes its time to ensure that the moment is mimetically established and mourned in the subconscious of the viewers. Phenomenologically, this moment is akin to Benjamins Angel of History where the angel is looking at the past and has no hope for the future. The storm from paradise has ensured that all progress lies in the rubble of history. As with Benjamins catastrophe of the Holocaust, the audience is forced to have a full gaze at the tragedy that unfolds on-screen. Although Meera Gaity operates on similar thoughts of rebellion and modernity, she is shown to have a different end a victorious one! Her male performative attributes have been discussed earlier as well. She uses the f word like her second skin and is abusive in speech just like any of her male colleague journalists. She does not pay any heed to the so-called moral police of the society sleeps out of wedlock, smokes frequently and is at top of her career by climbing certain manipulative ladders. In order to come out in the top league, she is not afraid to pull the right strings and take help of the crooks themselves. Her frequent use of abusive language and behaving very manly recreates the stereotype of women can be successful only when and if she behaves like a man. Her dialogues like when she says screw ethics confirms her revolting personality. She is shown to be rude both to her colleagues (she often call her colleagues bitch), and even to her maid at home. Further Meera confir ms her male performance by saying sentences like, this is the time to give back to those sons of bitches; lets nail the bastard; that bastard should be in jail and not at the next happening party; I think I deserve a much bigger and better story and many more. Despite all this, throughout the film Meera is no less than a hero. In contrast, Sabrinas character is deliberately underplayed. She could have easily been made the hero of the story. However she was shown to be easily dominated first by her sister, then by witnesses, culprit, media and Meera. Perhaps this was done to signify, that the good has to lean on the bad to fight and win over the ugly. That is, after she has literally broken down in her fight for justice for Jessica, Sabrina grabs the hand of Meera to fine the justice against the evil doers. As mentioned in the review of literature, psychologists Yassour Borochowitz, Dalit Buchbinder, Eli (2010) discovered a couple of aspects that explains a female weakness to violence. They said that language is not the base to create a meaning; in fact, it is the crux to create concept of whole world. For example, the language of Sabrina is measured, slow, and subtle; revealing her desexualized personality. Her not going to her sisters parties, her avoidance of drinks, her even stopping Jessica from fight ing against goons who tease her, shying away from media and trusting the witness in vein. All these hint at her contrasting personality and the course of events in the film. Despite these stereotypes, the characters of Meera and Sabrina are very important, especially for Hindi Cinema. Apart from the male mannerisms and extremities of the characters; both of them shown to be strong in their own right (Sabrina to start the battle of justice and Meera to finish it). In fact, Meera is projected to ultimately possess a conscience and in following that she leaves no stone unturned to get justice for Jessicas murder case. There have been very few movies that show women in such revolutionary light. Also it is noteworthy that this movie again shows two female leads and males as supporting cast. It is a breather that we could see Vidya Balan in what she does best (no-glamorously glamorous avatar) after a long time. What was more like a water-drop in the desert is Rani Mukherjees fire-crackling role. Moreover women in this movie are shown to be focused on their respective goals and not just running around the bush to chase for their prince charming and night in the shining armor. No One Killed Jessica is perfect example of globalization, digitization and repercussions. The mixed language used, slang, abusive words, are in a way helper for general audience to relate with the movie and the reality of the story. Moreover, it was Jessica that helped find her wings of freedom. However it was the same globalization and development that made her life so cheap so as to make her loose it just over one drink. This is where her rubble of progress carries her from her past of hope to the future of loss in the effects and counter effects of Justice for Jessica, just like Benjamins concept of Angel of History. Similarly, Heideggers digitization has its own weight in studying the film. The whole movie screams of inter-mixing of technology and perceptions. For example the March for Justice at India Gate could be possible because of mass interconnectivity owing to the SMS/MMS revolution. It brought about the adoption of hacktivism in the movie. The positive side of this technological paradigm is seen as a march of change after people watch and get inspired by the movie Rang De Basanti in a theatre. In a true Heideggerian irony, the movie subtly carries the negativity of Gestell or enframing as well. Over glamorization of digitization resulted in ignoring the essential facts. Print media was ignored and deprived of its due credit. (Ramani, 2011) The movie was biased in its promotion of sting operations and did not care to highlight the negative aspects of such acts. The overt projection of globalization made the urban city image as digital hurdle. Above all, the woman in the film has been given an out of the box characteristics, making them look league apart from the rest. However, the reality is there stereotypes of images have been created and recreated consciously or unconsciously by the makers. The audience perception of the film is of applause, yet they in a way identify their stereotypical perceptions with the created reality in No One Killed Jessica. Conclusion To conclude, there is an obvious difference between the reality and representation. However, presence of stereotypes weakens the boundary of this differences and the line thins further to an extent of creating almost a complete identification with each other. The film commendably made an effort to break the gender stereotypes by projecting the image of women as a maker rather than a bearer of meaning in the mainstream commercial Hindi Cinema. However, many major instances prove that this change is not frequent enough. These efforts may be genuine, yet are not enough to overcome stereotypes. Hence the change is not strong enough to bring about a change in thoughts, outlook, perception, projection as well as representation. What we need is more frequency and refinement in order to break the existing stereotypes that even No One Killed Jessica could not break in totality. Representation is there for sure. A bright future lies ahead for Bollywood an opportunity to resist the natural ins tinct of creating and adhering to negative gender stereotypes with conviction and courage.

An Exploration of How to Prevent the Effects and Causes of Air Pollution :: essays research papers fc

An Exploration of How to Prevent the Effects and Causes of Air Pollution Air pollution has not always been an area of individual problem but has always been a big major of global problem. In fact, air pollution is not a new issue to us. When I was in high school, I was already interested in doing research about air pollution. I began my search of my issue with the following questions in mind. What causes pollution? What are its effects? What can we do to prevent it, and get rid of it? Can we stop this nightmare altogether? Is it fair to our children of the future to have to suffer the consequences that pollution causes? Why are we not taking care of the problem now? Must factory and business owners have the ability to prevent air pollution? Dr. Laurent Hodges explains some of these issues in her book Environmental Pollution Second Edition. The following summary is from Dr Hodges’ research on the causes of air pollutions. Air pollutions are caused by a number of different types of pollutants. The first type, particulate matter, consists of solid and liquid aerosols suspended in the atmosphere. These arise from the burning of coal and from industrial processes. Atmospheric particles can scatter and absorb sunlight which reduces visibility. The second type is sulfur oxides which come from the burning of coal and industrial processes. Damage to materials, to vegetation, and to the human respiratory system is caused by the acid nature of oxides. Small quantities of sulfur oxides can increase illness and mortality. The third type of pollutant is carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas against which humans have no protection. Carbon monoxide comes from the exhaust of gasoline-powered veh icles and secondarily from industrial processes. Hemoglobin, which is in the blood, combines with carbon monoxide and carries less oxygen to body tissues causing health and heart effects. Some health problems come from the exhaust fumes leaking into the interior of the automobile. The fourth type is hydrocarbons which are chemical compounds containing only carbon and hydrogen. Hydrocarbons also arise from gasoline-powered vehicles and from industrial processes. Hydrocarbons are an important part of the production of photochemical smog. The last type is nitrogen oxides that come from high-temperature combustion, such as that occurring in motor vehicle engines, electric power plants and other fuel usage. Nitrogen oxide contributes to acidity in precipitation and production of photochemical smog.

The Government Census Should NOT Focus on Race :: social issues

The Government Census Should NOT Focus on Race Lets be honest, does it really matter what race you are? I mean does it really matter where you come from? The color of your skin, the culture and value you carry. Unless you are oppressing one race to feel good about yourself, Why should race matter. The fact is, It shouldn’t matter as long as you are honest and is respectful to others. I’m sure that some of us have experienced this to some extent: When you make a friend who is from a different race, do you still classify him or her as black, white, tall or short, Fat or skinny, someone with long hair or short, Or someone with no legs on a wheel chair, Old or young? No! You don’t, although you might think of these every now and than, you don’t constantly think about these things. If someone constantly thinks about them, for me it means that there is something I dislike about it, and in either case I would probably end the relation anyway. It is for this exact reason that I don’t believe that race should not play a huge role, if any, in our society. When the Government Census is surveying Americans, although this is not the intention of the survey, its definitely not doing me the favor of having to categorizing me â€Å"race†. Many assumption and problems can arise from categorizing society by race, such as stereotyping, obstacles to job qualification and disruptions of peace in society. I realize the need for differentiation and diversity; after all it is what makes each and one us very unique and fascinating. However, I’m not suggesting that we should all fall for the â€Å"melting pot† ideology either, But simply to have an open mind and see our selves as an American, and not categorize each other for any reason. For instance, if something is forgotten we wouldn’t think about it right! Discrimination works somewhat the same way; if the issue of race is constantly being raised as factor to everything we do in society, then people will instinctually differentiate or learn to discriminate against one another. Since discrimination is something taught or experienced and not inherited, society can learn to avoid stereotyping and discrimination among each other- by letting go of old ideals and mythology. For instance, when I came to America years ago. I could go anywhere and talk to anyone I pleased in the whole city.

Week 1 Assignment

Working for a big company, there is always something new to learn and new work that comes our way. There are many different personalities. We were always training and learning new material and tools to use to make our work more effective and productive. We would have meetings that were hours long so everyone can train on the new work and tools we had coming our way. Most of the people were struggling to learn the new tools. I was taking a class in which we were learning about peoples’ different learning styles. I thought all the training we were doing would be a great project for the class I was taking.I brought it to my bosses’ attention that I think that people are not learning because everyone has a different learning style. She was convinced that people were just tired and busy that’s why they could not understand the material. I wanted to test this theory. I suggested if we can give the employees on our team a learning test to see which way they better leane d. The results were exactly what I thought they were. Everyone had different learning styles. It turns out that most of the people on our team learned best Hands-On. Others were visual and the rest learned best by reading the material.This type of research method is best described as Correlation Research (positive correlation) because I was determining if two sets of variables are associated and if the variables increase or decrease. In this case when people used a learning method that fit best for them, they had better results for learning. When they were using a learning method that was not best for them, they were not learning the material. If I could have done anything different it would have been to test peoples’ personalities to determine if certain personalities learned a certain way. This would have gone more in depth as to why people learn the way they do.

Background Screening and the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Recent incidents with domestic and international significance have compelled employers to give more weight and attention to the practice of conducting background checks not only on job applicants but on their current employees as well. Some of these events prodded employers to resort to background screening on their own initiatives while others had been the subject of state and federal requirements. One of the most noteworthy events were the 9/11 terrorist attacks which have made employers more security conscious, leading them to subject the backgrounds of both their prospective and present workers to more rigorous examination.A recorded increase in lawsuits filed against employers involving all sorts of negligence in the hiring of employees, on the other hand, caused employers to stop hiring applicants based solely on their instincts about human nature. Corporate frauds and scandals similar to the Enron case of 2002 had also impelled employers to scrutinize both the private and prof essional lives of the members of their upper management teams such as â€Å"corporate executives, officers, and directors† in efforts aimed at preventing financial losses.Newspaper reports claiming that as high as 40% of job applicants in the country have been submitting fabricated resumes and false information have similarly alerted employers into ascertaining the backgrounds of people approaching them for employment (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse). A heightened interest on background checking also resulted from the observed rise in cases involving abductions and abuse of children, older people, and persons with disabilities.This resulted to majority of the states requiring employers to conduct â€Å"criminal background checks for anyone who works with children, the elderly, or disabled. † In fact the database of the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now accessible to state officials under the authority of the National C hild Protection Act primarily for this purpose (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse). Employers conduct background checks under the authority of the â€Å"Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA),† a federal law.Although background checks are not a requirement under the FCRA, employers nevertheless do so in order to comply with the standards set by the national government concerning screening of employees. These national standards are established by the FCRA. Under the FCRA, external organizations should undertake the investigation into the backgrounds of applicants or employees and include the same in a â€Å"consumer report. † Employers are not allowed to apply the provisions of the FCRA to checks which they themselves have done (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse).Examples of information and/or records that could be obtained or accessed through a background check are: â€Å"criminal convictions, driving records, social security number, property ownership, past employees, vehicle regist ration, character references, personal references, credit records, court records, neighbor interviews, state licensing records, incarceration records, workers’ compensation, drug test records, sex offender lists, educational records, military service records, dental records, and bankruptcies within the preceding ten years.† The following information could likewise be available to a check conducted under the FCRA as long as the investigation should cover only the preceding seven years: â€Å"civil suits, civil judgments, paid tax liens, and accounts placed for collection† (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse). Under the provisions of the FCRA, before an employer could have a background check conducted, the written consent of the applicant should first be obtained.If after reading the report the employer decides to take an â€Å"adverse action† i. e. he/she decides not to hire the applicant, terminate an employee, rescind an offer of a job, or refuse to promote an employee, he/she is required to provide the applicant or employee with a notice or a â€Å"pre-adverse action disclosure† together with a copy of the result of the background check.After undertaking the â€Å"adverse action,† the name and address of the screening entity should be provided to the applicant or employee in an â€Å"adverse action notice† together with an advice that he/she â€Å"has the right to dispute the accuracy or completeness of any of the information in the report† (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse). Reference Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Employment Background Checks: A Jobseeker’s Guide. July 2007. 23 September 2007

Adolesence Psychology Essay

The most critical stage in a life of a person is in the period of adolesence.   It is a specifically turbulent as well as a dynamic period of any person’s life. It is also a period of â€Å"strorm and stress† characterized by moodiness, inner tormoil and rebellion.   This is a period of transision from childhood to adulthood.   This transition involves biological,   social, and psychological changes, though the biological ones are the easiest to measure objectively.†Adolescence† is a modern cultural and social phenomenon and therefore its endpoints are not easily tied to physical milestones . The time is identified with dramatic changes in the body, along with developments in a person’s psychology and academic career. In the onset of adolescence, children usually complete elementary school and enter secondary education, such as middle school or high school. During this period, the young develops to sexual maturity and establishes an identity as an individual.   Their   sense   of identity develops gradually out of the various identification of childhood. The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to others. Ego identity is the accrued confidence that the inner sameness and continuity prepared in the past are matched by the sameness and continuity of one’s meaning for others, as evidenced in the promise of a career. The inability to settle on a school or occupational identity is disturbing. A major task confronting the adolescent is to develop a sense of individual identity, to find answers to the questions â€Å"Who am I† and â€Å"where am I going† .   The process also involves feelings about self-worth and competence.   Although development   of sel-concept starts in early childhood and continues throughout the lifespan. Searching of the unique identity is one of the problems that adolesence often face.   Some, but not all, teenager often challenge the authority or the rules as a way to establish their individuality.   There is also a probability of drugs and alcohol use, or mental health disorder, eating disorders and depression. Historically this stage of development began much later, sometime between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, which allowed the child to mentally and emotionally mature more and brought them closer to the age of consent before reaching this physical and emotionally challenging Physical maturation resulting from puberty leads to an interest in sexual activities  Ã‚   sometimes leading to teenage pregnancy.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since teens may not be emotionally or mentally mature enough or financially able to support children, sexual activity among adolescents is problematic. Given the emotional immaturity of adolescents, many countries consider those under a certain age to be too young to engage in and other sexual activities, even if they are physiologically capable. Family conflict is more common during adolesence than during other period of development.   Puberty appears to play a central role in initiating this conflict.   Adolesence of both sexes have significantly more conflicts with their mothers than with their fathers.   Probably because mothers are more involve in regulating the everyday details of family life.   Parents are often torn between the necessity of maintaining the family system and allowing their child increasing jurisdiction over his or her behavior.   Childhood even with intact families is never troubled free.   The fact that the most important emotionla structure in the childhood’s life is the parents’ marriage.   Ends in failure becomes forever embeded in that child’s history. It can not be denied that fathers are very important in the family.   Without a father there is no family.   The absence of the father maybe associated with some undesirable behavior of the children.   Among wihich are poor school performance,poor relationships with peer, problems with impulse control, rebellious and other adjustment difficulties. It is like the case of a 16 year old girl whose parents are divorce.   She displayed undesirable behavior like rebellious, trouble in school and she desires male attention.   Adolesence are in the process of affirming up their identity.   They need both parents   to affirm them in developing womanliness and how to relate to other people of the opposite sex. Childhood, even with intact families is never troubled-free.   The fact that the most important emotional structure in the child’s life is the parents’ marriage – ends in failure becomes forever embeded in that child’s history.   Being a child of devorce,   there is a need of several therapy.   A joint therapy of parents is also needed to understand the need to work together for the children. In order to pass from childhood to adulthood the adolesence must solve a number of problems.   He must develop heterosexual interest, become free from home supervision, make new emotional and social adjustments to reality.   They should evolve a philosophy of life, achieve economic and intellectual independence and learn how to use their leisure time profitably.   If they fail of these any achievements, he fails to gain full maturity.   Because adolesence are caught between two worlds, one of the dependence, the other of the responsibility.   They would like the power to decide for themselves, but are not certain they want to increased responsibility that accompanies adulthood.

Stanislavski- Method Acting and Its Importance

Stanislavski and ‘The Method’ â€Å"To become a successful actor one must erase personal experience and emotions and build their character from nothing. † – Lee Strasburg. Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev was born in Moscow, Russia in 1863. He was first seen on stage at the age of seven and at the age of twenty-one he changed his stage name to Konstantin Stanislavski. He was founder of the first acting â€Å"system†, co-founder of the Moscow Theatre (1897), and a renowned practitioner of the naturalist school of thought. In 1987 he also met Russian playwright, Anton Chekov.Stanislavski’s process of character development, the â€Å"Stanislavski Method†, was the means for method acting. It was, and still is, the most influential acting system on the modern stage and screen. After enrolling at Moscow’s Drama School, he left after three weeks of not being satisfied with the training. Back then, rehearsals were very casual. Actors woul d walk on stage and deliver their lines with the text in front of them. There was no attempt in making the acting a reality. He felt the need to change theatre and thought that it was important that the actor’s skill should involve more than shallow techniques.The acting needs to have genuine feeling. To give the audience feeling we must first create the feeling for ourselves. This is why personal experiences are important as they possess what we have felt in the past, present and future. We can re-collect emotions such as happiness or sadness and use these to act with feeling and convey a message to the audience. Humans have many emotions that they mask at one time. In class, students are shown experiential learning. Methods and activities such as; Emotional recall and Lady Macbeth (Act 1, scene 7) can help actors create appropriate actions, thoughts and emotions for certain characters or scenes.In emotional recall, students were to recall something, where at that moment the ir lives changed or made them feel something they would never forget. Most were sad, but people tried to hold back tears while trying to speak. Most of the time the tears would just eventually flow and this gave students the sense of method acting. Collecting personal experiences helped them act with a sense of feeling and emotion. When creating a character you may need personal experiences although, you must wipe out idiosyncrasies to create an original character.Exercises such as; ‘slaps’ and ‘milling and grooving’ helped students show a part of their idiosyncrasies. ‘Slaps’ required all concentration and this established how a student would react throughout the exercise. ‘Milling and grooving’ was being able to make a connection with the eyes and communicating without speaking a word. These exercises helped maintain control and focus, while showing their idiosyncrasies without realising it. There are many techniques that have be en learnt in the Stanislavski system in relation to Lee Strasburg’s statement. Stanislavski’s method was to encourage actors to become artists in their own right.Stanislavski had to design a method to inspire his three-part System. This is now known as ‘method acting', the mechanisms used to take on a role are varied, but all focus on making an actor put their own experience, imagination and feeling into a role. Strasburg taught Stanislavski’s system, but is famous for the â€Å"Method† that he developed at the Group Theatre (although the term â€Å"method acting† generally refers to the use of Stanislavski’s system in America – â€Å"Method† with a capital M refers specifically to Strasberg’s approach). The ‘Method’ was used to create reality within an actor.Lee Strasberg suggested to the students and theatre film performers to â€Å"try not to act, be yourself, use gesture in a manner that you use i n private life. † Stanislavski wanted acting to feel and be real. Some exercises in class were; ‘Circle of attention’ and ‘beats and thoughts’. Circle of attention was making a connection with the eyes without speaking, where you had to concentrate on a set of eyes and move when the time was right. There was an inner and outer circle. If a student was about to move, the person from the outside circle could tap the student and stop them from moving. This maintained focus. Beats and thoughts’ is a skill where the actor breaks down a scene into â€Å"beats† or â€Å"bits,† short sections that end with each change of objective. Take out all your idiosyncrasies and make characterisation for your role. Break up each line and give it meaning, using pauses where necessary. This will give you the effect you need. We do this, because we must make the piece as convincing as possible and make your audience believe what you are saying, or doin g is real. You must incorporate lights and shades for the dramatic side to take effect. You need to be able to produce a convincing tone so the actions can flow when you act.As a student studying drama this made me feel like I could portray or master any character thrown at me. Beats and thoughts created emotion and characterisation that was needed to create and portray any necessary role. Method acting needs to be portrayed in theatre. Without it, the audience wouldn’t be moved by the performance. The world is better for it. Actors can persuade, make people laugh, cry, surprised, frightened, all by using method acting. Lee Strasburg’s statement is false although to act correctly you must wipe out idiosyncrasies but keep the truth (personal experiences) of emotions.This makes method acting the most influential acting system around the world. Bibliography Copyright 2011 Bradley Bishop and Trevor Jones http://www. kryingsky. com/Stan/Biography/bot. html (Last accessed 14 th March 2012) h2g2 – 2012 http://h2g2. com/dna/h2g2/A5133151 (Last accessed 14th March 2012) 2008, All rights reserved, Jamactors. com http://www. jamactors. com/articles/method_acting. php (Last accessed 14th March 2012) Class Drama Notes 2012 (Last accessed 14th March 2012) Shanelle Fairhall

Bret Harte Essay Example for Free

Bret Harte Essay Choose cite format: APA MLA Harvard Chicago ASA IEEE AMA The United States has some of the best literature that has ever been written. American literature is very well refined and unique from other countries. In the writing world, American literature has not even been around that long. The past 337 years that America has been a country is relatively short compared to the thousands of years that literature has existed. The many great American writers are what make American literature able to overcome its short lifespan and be one of the greatest countries for literature in the world. From Washington Irving to Mark Twain, American authors are responsible for American literature’s current amazing state. One certain author played an especially important role in shaping a specific genre in American literature. Bret Harte is the man responsible for making the Western genre of literature popular. His stories are captivating. Bret Harte was able to contribute to the rise of American literature by shaping the Western genre so that other authors may adapt to his new style of writing, and by writing some of the most memorable stories of all time, such as â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat. † Bret Harte was born in Albany, New York, on August 25, 1836. He was raised as one of his family’s four children. Harte was very ill from ages six to ten, which gave him free time for reading (Franks 829). This time for reading had a great influence on Harte, giving him blocks for him to build on in his writing career. He was especially affected by the writings of British author Charles Dickens (Franks 829). His family was so poor, that they were unable to afford for him to finish school (Franks 829). When his father died in 1845, Harte and his family moved to Brooklyn. When his mother became engaged again, he and his family moved to Oakland, where his mother was married. His family was still very poor though. These times of hardship were also very influential on his writing. He was able to understand difficult struggles, thus making the problems that his characters face in his stories more interesting. He connected with his characters in many ways when they would experience times of hardship. His time in Oakland is what made him such a great â€Å"Western† writer. It made writing about the Wild West natural for him. Harte then moved to Union, California, but was run out of town after publishing a newspaper story about local white men slaughtering Indians. Harte married Anna Griswold, and they had four children together. They lived together in San Francisco, where Harte wrote most of his popular stories and became quite famous. During the height of his popularity, he signed a contract with The Atlantic Monthly for $10,000 for 12 stories a year, the most money then offered to a U. S. writer (â€Å"Hutchinson’s†). His fame led to his stories becoming even more popular, but it would also go to his head. The main genre used in most of Harte’s stories is the â€Å"Western†. According to The New Encyclopedia Britannica, the â€Å"Western† is defined as â€Å"an original genre of novels and short stories, motion pictures, and television and radio shows that are set in the American West, usually in the period from the 1850s to the end of the nineteenth century,† (598). An average Western story was about a cowboy fighting Indians or a sheriff catching a bad guy, but Harte made his special. Of those stories, one of the most popular is â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat. † This story is about a group of people who are kicked out of their town for being â€Å"bad† people. They set up camp together and attempted to work with each other to stay alive. The group experiences many setbacks, including a member betraying them, a long snowstorm, and a shortage of food. While the reader watches the story unfold, he or she starts to see that these people really are not that bad, and perhaps they did not deserve this punishment. This story is very different from the traditional Western stories. In â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat,† Harte is able to make criminals seem like good guys. Usually a â€Å"Western† is about a perfect main character, who stops the bad guys; but in this story, the main characters are some of the worst people in the town. His is also different from traditional â€Å"Westerns† in the way that it does not have any guns. When most people think of a â€Å"Western,† they think of guns, but Harte was able to change that. He wrote a story with no guns at all, and it is able to focus more on the characters and their feelings, rather than action and violence. Harte goes far beyond the ordinary way of writing with this story. In the opening paragraph of â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat,† Harte writes: As Mr. John Oakhurst, gambler, stepped into the main street of Poker Flat on the morning of the twenty-third of November, 1850, he was conscious of a change in its moral atmosphere since the preceding night. Two or three men, conversing earnestly together, ceased as he approached, and exchanged significant glances. There was a Sabbath lull in the air, which, in a settlement unused to Sabbath influences, looked ominous. (â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat†) As is visible in this paragraph, Harte was a very descriptive writer. He was able to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and effectively set his story’s mood. The characters that Harte used in this story were very significant. As said by Abby H. P. Werlock, his characters included â€Å"the stoic gambler, the soft-hearted prostitute, the unthinking drunk, and the vigilante committee driven by personal interests and blinded by the passion of a moment† (Werlcok). All of these characters that Harte used are still seen in many Western stories today. In fact, they are quite typical in modern Western stories, but Harte was the one to come up with them. Shaping the Western genre and writing some of the most memorable stories of all time, such as â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat,† was how Bret Harte was able to contribute to the rise of American literature. After Harte’s era, â€Å"Westerns† became much more popular. He forever changed American literature to be much more Western themed. Harte will always be remembered as one of the best authors of all time, and more specifically, the man who changed the way Western stories are written. Bret Harte. (2016, Sep 06). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Significance of Business Process Modelling in Modern Day Context Essay

Significance of Business Process Modelling in Modern Day Context - Essay Example According to the discussion  a business process is a collection of rationally related business activities that integrate in order to deliver something of value such as products, services, goods and information to the customer. It can be viewed individually as discrete steps in a business cycle or jointly as the collection of activities that assist in the creation of the value chain of an organisation and thus relate that value chain with the needs of the customers.From this study it is clear that  business process modelling’s chief objective is to enhance the performance of the business by optimising the effectiveness of connecting activities in the provision of the products or services. The technique is generally related to mapping and workflow in order to permit understanding, analysis as well as positive change. The chief aim of the essay is to comprehend the significance and the benefits of business process modelling in modern day context. It will begin with the discus sion of the meaning of the business process modelling with certain examples. The essay will further attempt at discussing regarding the uses of business process modelling and the reasons behind the organisations implementing it as well as the benefits they derive out of the implementation of this process. The essay will also endeavour at comprehending the various approaches to business process modelling.  Business process reengineering can be considered as one of the most famous terms since the 1990s.