Human societies Essay

In understanding human beings and human societies, no subject is more important than social stratification and its relationship with wages. A system of social stratification helps shape how people live, their opportunities for a better life, their mental health and how long they will live. Generally it is a system of social stratification has an important influence on events like wages, unemployment and inflation. Most people know that some people are rich and some are poor, but people in general are usually not aware of the systematic social forces that create the outcome of where they are placed on the ladder or why they are paid what they are. Most believe they take what they get. This type of belief is strong among the nonpoor and white of the United States and in recent times with immigration. Employers of immigrants will pay less, even less than minimum wages because of that person is illegal. Most people are unaware of the fact that some individuals have more influence than others that can shape the general social welfare. Those people usually are the least aware of how a system of stratification forms the basis for these influences and this is a possible factor in why wages follows social stratification differences. To begin we need to define the difference between social differential and social stratification. Social differential is a necessary precondition for social stratification. Social differential is the distinct individual qualities and social roles. This is very important when looking at reasons for unequal pay in American Society. People are differentiated by biological characteristics such as sex, size, strength, and agility. In every society they are differentiated by social roles, work tasks, or occupations. Some people do the hunting others chop wood and others care for children or gather plants. As societies become more complex technologically, the division of labor increases the number of tasks, occupations, and roles will grow too. An increased division of labor means more differentiation. Several arguments for unequal pay include the differences between men and women as reasons. It stated that women live longer than men so they should be paid less to balance this out. Another said that women were more likely to have tardiness and absences which added to labor cost and in order to balance this out women are paid less. Health care and medical insurance costs needs to become more balanced because women live longer and can become pregnant life (Barber, 1957). Social inequality is the condition that people have unequal access to valued resources, services and positions in the society. Such inequality can come in terms of wages and how individuals or groups are themselves ranked and evaluated by others most importantly; social inequality in wages is related to differing positions in a social structure. Social inequality often rises from social differentiation for two reasons. First because of the human capacity to apply meaning to events and things and to develop judgment of what is good or bad, social evaluation is often applied to differences. This could explain why the wages are unequal across the board. Individual characteristics and different positions or roles may be valued unequally or ranked from superior to inferior that is why social inequality is looked at in terms of prestige or honor for more pay. Inequality may rise from social differentiation because of some roles or social positions place some people in a position to acquire a greater share of valued goods, services and pay (Giddins & Held, 1982). Two of the most important types of inequality are inequalities of income and wealth. These two are of major importance because it is income and wealth that bring other valued goods and services, not to mention the basic necessities of life. Income and wealth are generalized commodities that depending upon the quantity and how they are used by bring power and influence. By income I mean money, wages and payments that are timely made and received as returns from a job or investment. Income is usually the means by which most Americans obtain the necessities and simple luxuries of life. A wage or salary, rather than investments, is what sustains the vast majority of people in this country. Wealth is accumulated assets in the form of various types of valued goods. Wealth is anything of economic value that is bought and sold. Most Americans have little or no wealth, whatever they have gotten in the form of wages and salaries cannot be saved because it must be used for immediate necessities. Income is distributed in a highly unequal manner in this country, but wealth is distributed even more unevenly (Liao, 2006). The majority of people in this country must depend upon some type of employment for their income and the occupational structure is of primary importance in creating this unequal distribution of income. Part of the inequity between men and women is due to simple sexism. The standard of living and real income of people in the United States have generally increased over the years. But the distribution of total income has remained stable since the middle 1940’s. There is data showing that income inequality was reduced somewhat during the 1930’s and early 1940’s due to Depression reforms and full employment during World War II. Among noncommunist industrial nations the United States can generally be ranked about midway in terms of income inequality. France is the highest amount of income inequality(Barber, 1957). The most commonly recognized class inequality is income. The usual assumption is that working class people receive below average incomes, the middle class receives average incomes, and the upper middle class professionals and managers receive above average to high incomes. The more traditional assumptions about class income inequalities are much closer to the truth. This is the belief that working class people have made substantial income gains relative to the middle class is incorrect because of two facts. That high working class incomes are not your typical income and also that even though some blue collar workers pay is high it is usually because of it being seasonal or insecure (Giddins & Held, 2006). There is no simple explanation between income and class position because of the many variables that help determine income attainment. The first problem has been that in the past occupational status or occupational skill level alone was assumed to indicate class position. There is no argument that much of the income inequality between men and women or whites and minorities can be explained by the historical conditions of racism and sexism in our society. But much of this race and sex discrimination operates through the established class system. Income inequality in general is related to positions within authority structures. So if we find sex and race differences in relation to these other factors affecting income inequality in general we have located other sources of sex and race inequality operating through the class system (Hulme & Toye, 2006). The main point is that race and sex income inequality is explained by class, although racism and sexism do play a part. Race and sex inequality are in large part class issues and operate through class divisions made up of occupational, authority, and property divisions in the overall system of stratification in this country. As with income the condition of work is stratified. Those on top are generally better off, while those in the middle can look down upon those at the bottom with a feeling that their own condition could be worse. Income inequalities, job satisfaction, conditions of work, and different amounts of political and economic power are the most important consequences of class in the United States (Rimashevskaia & Kislitsyna, 2006). A central belief in the conflict perspective of social stratification is that groups with strong common interests will work together to ensure that these common interests are attained and maintained. This is true for groups on the bottom as well as for those on top. But this is only true to the extent that a group with common interests is able to recognize its common interests, and has resources with which to gain it common interest. Those on the top of the stratification system are usually able to have both of what was mentioned. But those that are below the top are usually powerless, passive or non participants in the conflict process of reward distribution in the society (Barber, 1957). The global view of social stratification shows that it is in many ways similar to domestic systems of stratification. There are some differenced between the two types of systems. For one the phenomenon of nationalism can produce less international class unity and more of an overt class conflict between the core and the outside. It is more difficult to maintain the world stratification system through ideological justifications because of cultural differences and communication differences. But it can be seen as a property structure and occupational division of labor that stretches around the globe that isn’t related to bureaucratic authority structures. One should note that it isn’t the differences domestically and globally on social stratification it is the similarities that are surprising (Hulme & Toye, 2006). Works Cited: Barber, Bernard. Social Stratification a Comparative Analysis of Structure and Process, New York: Harcourt, (1957). Giddins, Anthony & Held, David. Classes, Power and Conflict: Classical and Contemporary debates. Berkeley: University of California Press, (1982). Hulme, David, & Toye, John. â€Å"The Case for Cross Disciplinary Social Science Research on Poverty, Inequality and well being. † Journal of Development Studies 42. 7 (October 2006): 1085-1107. Liao, Tim. â€Å"Measuring and Analyzing class Inequality with the Gini Index Informed by Model-Based Clustering. † Sociological Methodology 36. 1 (2006): 201-224. Rimashevskaia, N. M. & Kislitsyna, O. A. â€Å"Income Inequality and Health. † Sociological Research 45. 3 (May/June, 1006): 43-62.

Collaborative Practice in Health Care Essay

Collaborative practice in health care occurs when a member of the health care team consults with another member to provide patient care. Collaboration most often occurs between doctors and nurses. â€Å"Collaboration is defined as a relationship of interdependence; the ability to work together involves trust and respect not only of each other but of the work and perspectives each contributes to the care of the patient† (Phipps and Schaag, 1995, p. 19). Effective collaborative practice amongst all health care team members leads to continuity of care, professional interdependence, quality care and patient satisfaction and decreased costs. Ongoing collaboration between health care members results in mutual respect, trust and an appreciation of what each individual brings to the overall goal in rendering care to the client. The following vignette will provide the foundation for the discussion of collaborative care, differentiating between nursing diagnosis and collaborative proble ms, and potential barriers to successful collaboration. JG is a 74 year old married Hispanic male diagnosed with colon cancer. He had a history of prosthesis placement of his left lower leg; he is ambulatory. He is a diabetic on oral medications. He worked as a farm laborer. He lives with his wife she does not speak English she is a homemaker. He has a son who lives nearby and a nephew who periodically visits him. JG can understand some English. He does have some difficulty expressing his health concerns to the staff because of his limited vocabulary. His son or nephew brings JG to his clinic appointments. He receives weekly chemotherapy at the outpatient oncology clinic. The day I cared for JG he arrived at the clinic accompanied by his nephew. This was week seven of his treatment. His clothing was dirty, he smelled of stool, his fingernails were dirty, hair uncombed, he appeared to be dehydrated. He reported bowel movements of eight stools per day with complaints of occasional abdominal cramping. He denied nausea or loss of appetite. He stated that he was very tired and was not able to do much at home. His main concern was the frequency of his bowel movements. He reports having to go to the bathroom two to three times during the night and has episodes of soiling the bed. He reports that sometimes he does not feel the  urge to go. JG was wearing adult diapers. He expressed concern that it was getting expensive for him to purchase. The nephew confirmed that JG toileting has created a problem in the home. His nephew verbalized that JG had medication for diarrhea but ran out of it and he did not have the money to purchase the medication. When questioned why he was using a wheelchair he stated that his foot hurt to walk the distance from the lobby to the treatment room. He mentioned that it was probably due to an ingrown toe nail. He also asked how he could obtain a wheel chair for his personal use at home. Physical assessment revealed that he had a necrotic area on the ball of his left foot with surrounding redness, lost 12 pounds in six weeks, poor skin turgor, hyperactive bowel sou nds, and his blood pressure was slightly lower than baseline. In the ambulatory chemotherapy setting, the clients do not always see their physician every time they receive treatment. The nurse must ascertain when to collaborate with the physician on issues regarding the patients status, response to treatment, or toxicities that may be life threatening. It is essential that the nurse is capable to communicate effectively her-(Be careful with gender bias, nurses come in both genders.) observations to the physician. Collaborative problems are detected from the nurse’s assessment of the patient. The nurse’s monitoring of the patient status is to evaluate physiological complications that may threaten the patient’s integrity. Management of collaborative problems will include implementing physician prescribed and nurse prescribed actions to curtail escalation of the problem and preventing patient harm. From the nurse’s assessment, she also formulates a nursing diagnosis. The nursing diagnoses are stated in the form of the problem, the etiology and the symptoms that the nurse observes. Nursing diagnosis can include a current or potential problem, an at risk problem, or a wellness diagnosis. Nursing diagnosis provides the framework from which the nurse begins to devise a plan of care and nursing interventions. In the case of JG, there were two collaborative problems identified. Two  problems I collaborated with physician, these were: 1. JG is experiencing toxicity from the chemotherapy. There is potential for electrolyte imbalance, circulatory collapse. 2. The necrotic area on his foot was a new development in his condition. There is potential complication for infection The collaborative problems discussed with JG physician and nurse quickly resolved. JG did not receive his chemotherapy. He was given an injection of sandostatin LR to help minimize his diarrhea; a stat basic metabolic panel was obtained; and he was given intravenous hydration with potassium. The doctor made a referral to JG podiatrist for the next day to assess the integrity of his left foot. Listed are four, but not all, possible nursing diagnosis obtained from my assessment. 1. Diarrhea related to chemotherapy manifested by hyperactive bowel sounds and eight loose stools. 2. Bowel incontinence related to loss of rectal sphincter control and chemotherapy manifested by fecal odor, fecal staining of clothing, urgency. 3. Altered Nutrition related to colon cancer manifested by diarrhea, abdominal cramping. 4.Ineffective management of therapeutic regimen related to JG lack of knowledge of his disease manifested by his inability and unwillingness to manage his symptoms. Considering JG comments regarding his finances, his overall physical appearance and the comments from his nephew, I decided to consult with the social worker. I felt that a home visit or a thorough investigation of JG home situation was warranted. The social worker was able to arrange for in home support, and helping the patient with insurance issues so he could obtain the needed supplies. I did not think to enlist the participation of the dietician. In retrospect, the dietician would have been a valuable resource to assess JG caloric intake and recommendations for optimal nutrition. I felt that the above incident demonstrated collaboration amongst health care providers. The physician in this case was receptive to the nurse’s observations with respect to her capabilities of accurate assessment of the patient’s condition and potential complications. This is not always the case, barriers to collaboration are also inherent in the health care industry. Barriers occur in patient situations where the physician is not sympathetic or does not trust the nurse’s evaluation of patient condition. The nurse may have feelings of inferiority, lack of confidence and does not appropriately collaborate with the physician correct information. Conflicts in the goals desired for the patient is often cited as a barrier to collaboration. I recall an incident of a male patient diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. His appearance was that of an individual who had been in a Nazi concentration camp. The nurse wondered why the physician was treating this man aggressively. In her mind, this patient was not an appropriate candidate to receive the particular treatment that was ordered. She feared the patient would not tolerate such an aggressive schedule and that it was pointless to put this poor man through treatment. The patient was diagnosed two years ago. He is still receiving treatments, he has gained weight and in October of last year he hiked to the summit of Mt. Whitney. Role conflict is another major barrier to collaboration. To deliver cost effective care, many institutions utilize nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Role conflict arises when practitioners have opposing views or expectations (Blais, Hayes, Kozier, & Erb, 2002). Role conflict and can lead to litigation. According to Resnick, physicians hesitate to collaborate informally with Nurse Practitioners for fear of being held liable for the actions of the Nurse Practitioner (Resnick, 2004). Clear definition of roles  for practitioners is essential to prevent misunderstanding. In conclusion, collaborative practice is the gold standard that health care practioners should strive towards. The nurse is central in determining the patient issues that warrant collaboration and she must be able to effectively communicate her observations. Collaborative practice minimizes complications that could lead to tragic outcomes. The ultimate goal of collaborative practice is to provide the quality service that each patient under our care deserves. References Blais, K.K., Hayes, J. S., Kozier, B. & Erb, G. (2002). Professional nursing practice: Concepts and perspectives (4th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Phillps, W.J., & Schaag, H.A. (1995). Persepctives for health and illness. In Phipps, W.J, Cassmeyer, V.L., Sands, J. E., Lehman, M.K(Eds.), Medical surgical nursing concepts and clinical practice, p. 19. St. Luis, MO: Mosby. Resnick, B. (2004). Limiting litigation risk through collaborative practice. Geriatric Times, 5(4), 33. Retrieved March 21, 2004 from EBSCOhost database.

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Finial Paper Worksite Development Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

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Statistics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

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Definition of Design Thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Price Elasticity to Identify a Brands Competitors Essay Example for Free

Price Elasticity to Identify a Brands Competitors Essay Firms today are in their perspective industries to maximize consumer satisfaction, increase revenue, and shareholders profits. These tasks require attention to detail when pricing their products. There are always competitors lurking and waiting by the wayside to gain market share and a competitive advantage. When identifying brands competitors, price elasticity is a major determinant. Demand for a product or service constitutes what the company’s price will be and whether the price will be higher or lower than the competitor’s price. In terms of the elasticity, price increases may decrease demand and price decreases may increase demand. However, according to Kotler, The introduction or change of any price may initiate a response (favorable or unfavorable) from customers and competitors† (Kotler, P. and Keller, K., 2012) Ultimately, the concept of price elasticity can identify a brand’s competitors along with marketing research to identify consumer needs, wants, and desires, as well as current industry and competitor’s going- rate pricing. Reference Kotler, P. and Keller, K. (2012). Marketing Management 14E. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc. How might marketers use conjoint analysis to improve pricing strategies? When determining pricing strategies marketers must perform research that allows the consumer to voice their opinions in reference to what they need and how important the product or service is to their well-being. One method of doing so is through conjoint analysis. â€Å"Kotler defines this method as a  means to ask customers to rank their preferences for alternative market offerings or concepts, then they use statistic analysis to estimate the implicit value placed on each attribute† (Kotler, P. and Keller, K., 2012). Marketers have their work cut out for them when a firm or pricing department requests their assistance to establish a competitive advantage for their product or service. In order for a firm to know and understand what value or benefits the customer expects when utilizing their products and services the use value propositions is of the essence. According to the strategy and performance coaching company Edborrows,† items that firms need to consider when applying customer value propositions are as follows: †¢ All Benefits †¢ Favorable Points of Differentiation †¢ Resonating Focus †¢ Resonating focus highlights one or two critical differences between the firm’s offerings †¢ Generic Value Propositions †¢ Operational Excellence †¢ Customer Intimacy †¢ Product/Service Innovation (Barrows, 2010) Price elasticity of demand is a way to determine marginal revenue. Optimal revenue and, more importantly, optimal profit will occur to the point when marginal revenue = marginal cost, or the price elasticity of demand The proportion of the total sales of a product secured by one particular company or brand

Primary Theoretical Frameworks For Discussing Intimate Partner Violence Criminology Essay

Primary Theoretical Frameworks For Discussing Intimate Partner Violence Criminology Essay Select (highlight) this text and then begin typing your abstract, which should be limited to one paragraph of not more than 120 words Discuss the primary theoretical frameworks-feminist, psychological (including biological hypotheses), or sociological-for understanding intimate partner violence and how each perspective might influence the development of intervention with perpetrators, or counseling with victims? Use examples from the readings to demonstrate the relationship between theory and practice. AND TYPE HEADING] Intimate partner violence is a multi-causal, multifaceted phenomenon and no single theoretical approach has proven sufficient in adequately explaining it. Fortunately, the field of intimate partner violence research has evolved to a point where now the interactive nature of the various relevant factors may be considered. Studies have identified possible determinants of intimate partner violence. Several of these possible causes are salient across diverse cultural and social contexts. Still theories to give reasons for intimate partner violence remain relatively limited. This regrettable lack of a theoretical perspective could possibly limit efforts to better understand intimate partner violence and to develop an effective and sustainable intervention with the perpetrators. This lack of perspective is particularly disconcerting at the level of primary prevention. This writer will examine the principal theoretical frameworks that constitute intimate partner violence. Feminist theories of violence against women tend to place much emphasis on the societal structures of gender-based inequality. The feminist framework argues that as the predominant social class, men have differential access to material and symbolic resources. Women, conversely are devalued as secondary and inferior (Bograd, 1988). As a consequence, womens experiences are often defined as inferior as a result of male domination, a trait that femininist argue influences all aspects of life. The violence, rather than being an individual psychological problem, is instead an expression of male domination of females. Violence against women, in the feminist view, includes a variety of control tactics meant to control women. Much feminist research is based on the premise that gender inequality is the source of violence against women, and that the social institutions of marriage and family are special contexts that may promote, maintain, and even support mens use of physical force against women.   Researchers in this tradition tend to rely heavily on qualitative interviews for data; and most of them have reached the conclusion that violent men are more likely to adhere to an ideology of familial patriarchy (Dobash and Dobash 1979). Gender analysis tackles the belief system that convinces male perpetrators that they have a right to control women in intimate relationships. Failure to address this belief system means that men may simply switch from physical to emotional abuse, and women and children will continue to live in fear. The contributions of psychology to violence in the intimate relationship have received much attention. The majority of research on the topic of intimate partner violence centers on personality disorders and early experiences that will increase the risk of future violent behavior (Buzawa, 2003). Although psychologists have long investigated the factors that predispose one to violence, an individual personality trait has not been found that influences someone to domestic partner violence. perpetrators do not share a set of personality characteristics or a psychiatric diagnosis that distinguishes them from people who are not abusive (Buzawa, 2003). There are some perpetrators who suffer from psychiatric problems, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, or psychopathology. Yet, most do not have psychiatric illnesses, and caution is advised in attributing mental illness as a root cause of domestic violence.   On the contrary, there exists a complicated combination of factors that predispose an individual to violent behavior (Buzawa, 2003). The psychological framework extends these factors onto the influence of children growing up within a combination of these external forces.   Usually, men who batter are seeking a sense of power and control over their partners or their own lives, or because they are tremendously dependent on the woman and are threatened by any moves on her part towards independence. Some men batter because thats the only way they know how to be close to or relate to a partner. Some men grew up in violent households, where they watched their mothers abused by their fathers and where they themselves were abused. Some men become violent under the influence of drugs or alcohol, although the substances themselves do not cause the violence. Many psychological approaches view violence as a learned behavior that can be unlearned as apposed to a consequence of individual pathology, stress, or alcohol abuse. In order to institute an effective intervention, individuals must be able to confront their anger without resulting to violent interactions. According to Buzawa Buzawa (2003), a major conflict is that batterers have yet to develop alternative strategies to control their anger. They contend that batterers generally are less capable or adapt to at argumentative self expression (p.34). One compelling premise is that violence in men is not only natural, but an essential trait that was developed through an evolutionary process. As argued by Dobash Dobash (1998), Men have a greater propensity for violence than women. They further maintain that violence is embedded in male physicality, culture and experience (Dobash, 1998). To further extend this argument, Buzawa Buzawa (2003) contend that, It has been empirically established that although both genders commit acts of domestic violence, men commit far more serious violence than do women(p.39). Research on the historical and biochemical links to aggression has considered other pathways, one of which is evolutionary. Daly Wilson (1998) maintain that, violent capabilities and inclinations arose in our male ancestors in response to the demands of male on male competition (Dabash,p.200). Further, Newborn Stanko (1994) maintain that young men learn to do violence and within some cultural expressions it plays an important role in their social place and personal identity (p.165). The question arises, if there is in fact an inherent basis for violence, can there also be a biochemical basis for violence toward women? Domestic violence was found to be all-pervasive among all women but varying in volume and frequency across class, age and education level. As stated by Jewkes, (2002), Womens susceptibility to intimate partner violence has been shown to be greatest in societies where the use of violence in many situations is a socially accepted norm (p.359). Thus family violence will take place more often in violent societies.   With this in mind, it is not uncommon to see more cases of domestic violence reported in communities plagued with violence such as underprivileged inner cities. As stated by Buzawa Buzawa (2003), although domestic violence is present in all social strata and ethnic groups, it is disproportionately concentrated in population subgroups that are stressed with poverty (p.40). Some subcultures develop norms that permit the use of physical violence to a greater degree than the dominant culture. For instance, if a particular community has a significantly high violent crime rate, than it is to be expected that violence will in some way manifest in the home. Often, people in these economically depraved communities develop peer relationships that promote male dominance in the community as well as the use of violence to support a culture of violence against women. Ultimately, domestic violence is a complicated interplay of social, genetic, and environmental factors. Male violence against women in intimate relationships is a social problem condoned and supported by the customs and traditions of a particular society.

Personal Narrative - Tae Kwon Do Essay -- Personal Narratives

Tae Kwon Do Once upon a time, I qualified for the Tae Kwon Do State Championships, to go to the Tae Kwon Do Junior Olympics in Orlando, Florida. It was my second year at the Jr. Olympics, and I was competing in two events. Sparring and forms. Forms has always been my favorite, partly because I was pretty good at doing them. Sparring was okay. I guess. So we get to the arena on the day I had to compete, and I’ve got all these little butterflies and whatnot flittering around in my stomach. Forms came first, and guess what! I screwed up. So there goes my chance at the event I’m any good at. So if I can’t even place in something that I am good at, how am I going to place in something that I’m not that great at? So I got to the holding area to get put into my division (they split us up according to rank, age, and weight). And what do they do? Put me in a group of only four. And how many places do they give out, you ask? Three. Yep, three. Now I’m really worried. All I can think is, "Omigod, I’m gonna be the only one not to place. Omigod, omigod, omigod†¦" Finally, after w...

The Guggenheim Museum Essay -- Personal Narrative Art Essays

The Guggenheim Museum I first visited the Guggenheim Museum two weeks ago with Claus, my friend from Germany. We had the MOMA in mind but I guess talking, talking we must have passed it by. Half an hour from the MOMA we found ourselves in front of the Guggenheim, the astonishing white building that was Frank Lloyd Wright's last project. Why not? We said to ourselves. And so we walked right in. According to the pamphlet: "The Guggenheim Museum is an embodiment of Wright's attempts to render the inherent plasticity of organic forms in architecture. His inverted ziggurat (a stepped or winding pyramidal temple of Babylonian origin) dispenses with the conventional approach to museum design, leading visitors through a series of interconnected rooms and forcing them to retrace their steps when exiting. The galleries are divided like the membranes in citrus fruit, with self-contained yet interdependent sections. The open rotunda affords viewers the unique possibility of seeing several bays of work on different levels simultaneously. The spiral design recalls a nautilus shell, with continuous spaces flowing freely one into another." At the coat check, I suddenly remembered my pen. (Afterwards, Claus because old school would jump ship, for the Guggenheim mostly contained non-objective, therefore abstract art. This thing called art, this thing called art. Is this thing called art because it resists apprehension? Only what is at stake, Claus? If art forsakes literal representation, it is merely to get at the subconscious, at things that cannot otherwise be expressed - surely there is something to be said for that! Still, he said and we let it go.) Shoulder rub, ticket stub: we were in! Avant-Garde Art is Borne .. ...r je veux pas le juger, I write on the napkin. This time I want a goodbye. At least a goodbye. I am thinking back to the day before. I am thinking back to a conversation both of us had right after our visit to the Guggenheim. In this conversation, we are parting ways because I am meeting someone for an appointment I am too civil to turn down. In this conversation Claus is saying he'll go back and rest, maybe talk to Yoshi. He's like me, I'm thinking, so goddamn civil. Everyone's going to end up doing things he doesn't want to do. Everyone's going to have his hands full of social acquaintances he doesn't care for. So I say, "You don't have to talk to Yoshi if you don't want to, you know?" I don't remember how or where we are standing anymore. The only thing I remember: his gaze towards me is oblique. "I'm just making conversation." He is saying.

Narmers Palette :: essays research papers

As Egypt grew and flourished to a powerful and rich nation, it left behind for today's historians, clues and artifacts of a once distinctive, well established and structured society. Proof of this is clearly depicted in king Narmer's Palette. This Palette shows historians the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, which signified the beginnings of a civilized era centred around the Nile. The unification of Egypt occurred around 3100 B.C., under the First Dynasty of Menes(3100-2850 B.C.). This age is commonly know as the Protodynastic era, which is known for the establishment of a firm political structure of the land which was unified in the hands of the king. The glorification of Lower and Upper Egypt uniting was portrayed in Narmer's Palette, which was found in the ancient southern capital of Hierakonpolis. The general function of Narmer's Palette was to commemorate a victory over his human foes. With Narmer's victory, the Palette also depicts his successful claim and conquest of all of Egypt, thus establishing unification of Lower and Upper Egypt under his rule. The dominant them however, is the victory of the god incarnate over the forces of evil and chaos. The Narmer Palette, while depicting several social aspects and tendencies of the Egyptian society, also reveals and emphasizes their structured positions within a hierarchy of command. Both sides of the Palette reveal, at the top, the name of king Narmer, which first documents, in the written history of Egypt, that we now are dealing with a civilized state. When the scribes wanted to write king Narmer's name, they placed a small fish called a 'nar' over a chisel, pronounced 'mer'. This combination of the words gave them 'Narmer'. The Palette also depicts king Narmer(probably the legendary Menes) wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and the White Crown of Aphroditopolis, which represented Upper Egypt. Since Narmer had claimed victory over the northern king, thus becoming the first Pharaoh, the unification of Egypt was completed. The reverse of the Palette portrays Narmer clubbing a foeman. Narmer is then followed by his foot-washer, which should be noted is shown on a smaller scale and standing on a separate register line, as suited to his relative rank and position in Egypt's hierarchy. Narmer stands before the supreme sky-god Horus, of whom Narmer is also an incarnation, represented as a falcon with a human arm holding a papyrus thicket. On the obverse of this palette, Narmer inspects a battlefield near Buto, with several decapitated bodies of his foemen. Narmer is then preceded by his four standard-bearers and his priest. The middle register of this highly organized recording shows two long-

Caribbean Political Philosophy Essay

Western Political Philosophy in the opinion of this essay is a concerted attempt to project and impose on a hapless people a foundation for immediate, continued domination and exploitation, we, therefore as a united Caribbean people, cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them. This paper identifies and discusses the central themes (thinking) of Gordon Lewis’ Main Currents in Caribbean Thought, Paget Henrys’ Calibans Reason, Rex Nettlefords’ â€Å"The Battle for Space† and Charles W. Mills’ Blackness Visible. This identification and discussion (generally) is achieved by tracing the evolution of Caribbean Political thought through an examination of race/class, explanations of underdevelopment, perspectives on dependency and the anti colonial movement inter alia. The paper goes on to explain (specifically) the manner in which these works assist in understanding the characteristic features, concerns and content of Caribbean political thought. The final section briefly examines where the Caribbean is at currently by isolating the present set of circumstances engaging the islands. In doing so the paper hopes to make a contribution to the understanding and progress of Caribbean political thought. INTRODUCTION The Caribbean has been described as an area of European colonisation and exploitation through slavery and the plantation system according to Dennis Benn (1987), it has also been described in terms of the product of these conjoined variables, the product of a racial mixture of African, European and Asian referred to as Creole. Nigel Bolland (2004) describes Creole as locally born persons of non-native origin, which, in the Americas, generally means people of either African or European ancestry. This essay goes further and defines this groups’ contribution to this space, diverse in cultural, ethnic and religious inputs, in terms of the new demands to be made on the state from the product of the aforementioned conjoining. Contribution is achieved by way of a clearly articulated political philosophy moderating the competing interest. It is this articulation that is the purview of this essay. To this end an effort will be made to identify and critically discuss the central themes of Gordon Lewis’ â€Å"Main Currents in Caribbean Thought†, Paget Henrys’ â€Å"Caliban’s Reason†, Rex Nettlefords’ â€Å"The Battle for Space† and Charles W. Mills’ â€Å"Blackness Visible†. To achieve the necessary coverage of the issues the essay will proceed as follows: an analysis of the characteristic features, concerns and content of Caribbean political thought. Comparisons will be made to typically distinctive aspects of African and European political philosophy (characteristic features), democracy, representation, institutional arrangement and authority (concerns), equality, social justice, welfare (content). It is by this comparison to the assumed standard that a location of Caribbean political thought could be made and understanding of its existence assessed. Finally the understanding sought will be put to use in locating the Caribbean in this global milieu. It is hoped that a contribution however small will contribute to the ongoing development of Caribbean Political Thought. CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES The assumption that philosophy is held as a European monopoly is grounded in an intellectual tradition whose history consists of the evolution of men’s thoughts about political problems over time according to Sabine and Thorson (1973). Thankfully, there is balance to the discussion accorded by nuanced analysis describing the aforementioned assertion as a false assumption given that these phenomena as known to the Greek were but artefacts of thought George Belle (1996). The question must, therefore, be asked to what extent the character of Caribbean political philosophy shown a level of independence from western political philosophy and by extention an enlightened path that reflects its African/European/Asian origin and coalescence of its peoples (Creole). This coalescence is described, to a large extent, by C W Mills (1998) as â€Å"the coexistence of parallel but incompatible institutional arrangements within a recognised political state† speaks clearly to the many complex issues engaging the multitude of interest acting within this Caribbean. Significantly and more importantly, is the anti-colonial struggle that is fought at the level of the psyche through cultural and spiritual expressions Paget Henry (1997). This essay will examine both examples and place them into context. Henry argues that religion has undergone systematic alienation within the Caribbean theatre by way of a â€Å"lowering of its register or importance to thought. † His observations show an embrace of Eurocentric Christianity used by the former colonials as a tool of control and subordination culminating in a radical disenfranchising of traditional African religions pertaining to inherited Afro-Caribbean Christianity (voodoo and shango). He explained: â€Å"A deployment of binaries (negative assertions) led to European/Christian denials of the existence of an African religious philosophy, significantly and more importantly, is the anti-colonial struggle that is fought at the level of the psyche through cultural and spiritual expressions. † What is noted by Henry is the idea that stagnation has been allowed to take root in the philosophy allowing gaps for re-colonisation. These gaps are identified by Mills (1998) as he draws on the efforts of David T Wellman (1993) who made clear: â€Å"It has been argued that the historic source of white racism lies in a combination of religious intolerance and cultural predispositions to see non-whites as alien. The medieval battles against Islam are then the precursors of the racism that was to accompany European expansionism into the world. African religions were seen as devil worship, black culture and customs viewed as â€Å"mumbo jumbo,† paradigmatically bizarre. † Henry and Mills collectively recognised the Eurocentric imposition that has come to be known as Christianity and its use as a tool to negatively impact race relations dividing and colonising a people. The expectation would be a Caribbean response in defense and ownership of that cosmology which was African. Instead, according to Belle (1996), an intellectual stasis was the result complementing the concept of negative binaries. Belle went on to intimate: â€Å"Haitian political actors culturally trivialised and ridiculed voodum. The role of voodum, a spiritual expression, in the Haitian experience was central for them in their supernatural and cultural expressions within an anti colonial context. † Recall Mills (1998) â€Å"incompatible institutional arrangement† alluded to earlier; consider that Henry was able to capture the Haitian dynamic beautifully, this also in the context that Haiti holds the distinction of being the first independent black state of the new world. He expressed it as â€Å"A series of extended debates between the major competing racial groups of the: Euro-Caribbean, Amerindians, Indo-Caribbean and Afro-Caribbean over projects of colonial domination. The philosophical productions of the Euro-Caribbean were aimed at effecting European political and social hegemony (recall Belle (1996)). While, in contrast, the philosophical undertakings of the Indo-Caribbean and Afro-Caribbean were aimed at destroying European hegemony by destroying the legitimacy of their colonial projects. † It is clear from these attempts to define the character of Caribbean political philosophy emphasis has been placed on its utility as an anti colonial tool for overcoming and overturning projects of European hegemony according to Henry (1995). At the heart of these projects are attempts to minimise the effort to develop an alternative to Christianity, reconnection to an African cosmology that bore witness to the imposition of European dogma and through the condemnation of Islam. This essay accepts that any attempt to build out a project must at the same time have a level of self assessment attempted by Mills and Henry in this instance. What are of concern to this essay are efforts from within to compromise the character of the project. It is left to be determined if concerns (to be discussed) will suffer the same fate. CONCERNS The classic argument in favour of western political thought is found in social-contract theories, first proposed by seventeenth-century philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Social-contract theory, in fact, constitutes the basis for concerns in modern political thought according to Andrew Heywood (2004). The argument is referenced to society without government, a so-called ‘state of nature’. Hobbes poignantly describes this state of nature as being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’ reinforcing that without government to restrain selfish impulses, order and stability would be impossible. To what extent has this argument been a part of the contribution concerning Caribbean political philosophers or has there been a redefining of Hobbes’ position? Paget Henry (2000) identifies a situation of what came natural to the African and the colonial intrusion of a self appointed hegemonic force. In an attempt to locate the discussion within the confines of the state Henry draws on Kwameh Nkrumah (1965) to establish a modern ideology unlike the European articulation of Hobbes state of nature. The African assessment is one of diametric opposition, Nkrumah explains: â€Å"The traditional face of Africa includes an attitude toward man which can only be described, in its social manifestation, as being socialist. This arises from the fact that man is regarded in Africa as primarily a spiritual being, a being endowed originally with certain inward dignity, integrity and value. † This rationality of the African locates him apart from his European counterpart. Henry showed the widespread existence of one-party states in Africa was not due to one particular outlook he opined it pointed to the persistence of a traditional political culture that included a â€Å"grammar† of chiefly or kingly political behaviour. The argument is not without reason given the application by Plato to the philosopher kings and much later the Divine Right of Kings show a use of African political structure in an attempt to order a European society. The Caribbean, however, has shown no such inclination having been to a large extent â€Å"trapped in and shaped by social rivalries, ethnic animosities, weak personal/social identity and political fragmentation caused by the twin epiphenomena of slavery and colonialism† according to Gordon Lewis (1983). This is not by accident Lewis argued that the inability of Caribbean people to come to grips with this reality, that was not imagined but was real, left them open to continued exploitation. He went on to explain quite accurately that: â€Å"Slavery was also a powerful ideological deterrent, for it generated a scale of values in the top, dominant groups of the colonies, in which fear of the black masses stifled aspiration for national independence. At every turn in the story, these groups opted for selfish treason rather than for popular revolt. † Lewis contribution established the consequence of the native bourgeoisie’s economic dependence upon the colonial bourgeoisie. It has never been the intent of the former coloniser to give more for less on the contrary the intent was one of taking more for less. Observe how the power struggle ostensibly between colonised and coloniser gets displaced by power relations within the colonised body politic itself. Remember the argument is one of government structure based on self interest (Hobbes and Locke) against one based on consensus (Paget Henry). Seemingly self-serving political and economic ambitions knows no boundary and does not seek to serve the interests of the newly independent proletariat. Frantz Fanon (1963) suggests the ways in which intellectual leaders often betray the national working-class: â€Å"Before independence, the leader generally embodies the aspirations of the people for independence, political liberty, and national dignity. But as soon as independence is declared, far from embodying in concrete form the needs of the people in what touches bread, land, and the restoration of the country to the sacred hands of the people, the leader will reveal his inner purpose: to become the general president of that company of profiteers impatient for their returns which constitutes the national bourgeoisie. † Fanons assessment is encapsulated by a more specific argument against the existence of a Caribbean Philosophy, it is the perception of the absence of an intellectual tradition, and the belief the Caribbean is a cultural desert. The widely held view of the Caribbean as a region of the three S’s: sea, sand and sex. – A notion upon which the tourism industry has been constructed by and to this day exploited by a select few (national bourgeoisie). The writers, to a large extent, have highlighted the threats to democracy, representation, institutional arrangement and authority by way of concerns. A social contract theory promulgated by the former colonial has been answered by an African option structured on consensus. A timely observation of the constraints to growth based on petty rivalries is a reminder of the island state vulnerability to external influence. This essay suggests that betrayal of the political elite fairly represents the intellectual dilemma the Caribbean is now facing if Fanon (1963) is accepted. This essay argues that if these concerns were addressed maybe the stability of the natural African heritage would have offered up a leader and a type of governance sensitive to the masses and diversification needed. This essay understands the contribution of Henry and Lewis in attempting to show there was an intellectual tradition drawing attention to democracy, institutional arrangement and authority to address the myriad of concerns. CONTENT Issues that, historically and today, have most concerned political philosophers begin with a set of questions about equality, justice and welfare. These could be thought of as an enquiry into the best form of state according to David Miller (1998). It is a fact that for most of our history human beings have not been governed by states hence the free roaming tribes of Africa, Taino and Kalilingo of the Caribbean and not to be left out the marauding barbarians of Europe. From the inception this essay has identified a specific group as central to the continued existence of the Caribbean. Rex Nettleford (1993) and Charles Mills (2007) confirm that centrality by, in the first instance, identifying the group as one of three broad elements shaping the society in the second instance, through a specific schema that embodies a racial polity both starting at diverging points but eventually reaching a mutually understood location. Nettleford has been innovative using the concept of space to draw attention to social injustice; he describes maronnage or â€Å"the retreat into safe psychic sanctums calling on inner reserves beyond the reach of external violators. † This retreat came about with the use of language to communicate, plan and execute rebellion in a tongue foreign to the invaders bringing some equality to a struggle that was always almost dictated by the colonial. He explained â€Å"†¦.. Creole, in the proper sense of native-born, native-bred and not in the sense of an aberration of a dialect to the norm of a standard tongue. The very code switching , so normal to Caribbean people in the liberal use of Creole for appropriate circumstances transformed to the lingua franca as the occasion demands (sometimes in one sentence), is a sign of the capacity to master the flow between inner and outer space on one level. † The code switching to which he refers is an attempt to push back an institution not sympathetic to the Creole. To organise and communicate meant the mastery of a tongue foreign to the colonial because the institutions to which he had a monopoly were unequal, lacked social justice and had no welfare. This was identified by an economic relationship that marginalised tray merchants placing the Caribbean person on the periphery of existence according to Nettleford (1993). The exclusion from the vicinity of â€Å"formal commercial enterprises† driving the trader underground to the informal economy away from the formal economy clearly establishes a prima facie case for the judicial, executive and legislative institutions to answer with regard to the adopted precepts of western political thought. Mills wasted no time highlighting the fact that race has been essentially reduced to a minimal debate, glossed over, and otherwise left out of the majority of the multiculturalism literature Mills (1998). His evaluation was logical and nuanced, he argued that: â€Å"Tracing the evolution of the concepts of race and ethnicity race began as a biological and therefore immutable aspect of the human condition, while ethnicity was and is seen as a consequence of culture. Racism and ethnocentrism were differentiated by their essential characterisations: Race is a consequence of biology and therefore racism presumes a biological hierarchy; ethnicity is a consequence of culture and therefore ethnocentrism requires a surrender of cultural distinction and assimilation. † Given the consensus within the scientific community that biological race and thus biological hierarchy do not exist, what pertains in the Caribbean, therefore, in the form of Creole ethnicity and ethnocentrism are seen as relatively more logical and reasoned according to Mills (2007). There is confirmation of this assessment by Lewis (1983). He articulated a position that the Caribbean’s single greatest contribution to political thought is its open exploration of the question concerning race. This exploration, as Lewis puts it, possibly offers a counter to a Eurocentric fetish with its misplaced presumption of superiority on the subject, a sober Caribbean response. The content of Caribbean thought being characterised as overly concerned with the use of race converges to the concept of Creole recall the alignment sought earlier by Nettleford (1993) and Mills (2007) it is no wonder, therefore, that ethnicity as articulated by Mills (2007) is seen as a more politically palatable category to discuss and philosophically legitimate engaging the polity at all levels. As a people are we therefore satisfied with the aforementioned argument in its attempt to reconcile what is a contentiously debated topic? This essay suggest that the attempt at convergence is likely due to the challenge of the (particularism) of Caribbean Political thought essentially a question of authenticity which can be defined as of undisputed origin, genuine, reliable and trustworthy. It is a question of who constitutes the Caribbean person, in this case the African or Asian or European or is it the Creole or maybe none of the previously mentioned. Since it is suggested by some that the attempt at convergence is unlikely must the debate be reduced to one or the other in an attempt to secure an answer? This essay further suggests a complexity that cannot be determined by way of who has the right to speak on behalf of the Caribbean and a claim of superiority. To attempt this would in the opinion of this essay reduce the debate to that which western political thought is – insecure in its biological existence. This is where maturity and understanding is paramount in the construction of a worthwhile paradigm independent of western political dogma. UNDERSTANDING CARIBBEAN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY The term â€Å"political philosophy† often refers to a view, specific political belief or attitude about politics that does not necessarily belong to the technical discipline of philosophy. In short, political philosophy is the activity, as with all philosophy, whereby the conceptual apparatus behind such concepts as aforementioned are analysed, in their history, intent, evolution and the like according to Jean Hampton (1997). Tim Hector questioned, â€Å"Where is our philosophy?† as if to imply that the aforementioned concepts are yet to be found or worst not understood and overlooked. His ask is reasonable given the time our people have occupied this space with the accompanying accoutrements of independence and must be answered against a background of accepted criteria as to what a political philosophy is Hampton (1997). Right or wrong the confluence, convergence, divergence, lack of application that has become synonymous with these islands gives what they have to say a genuine uniqueness. Since independence, for all the limitations, they have not found the need to go on crusades slaughtering millions in the name of God, use an intellectually convenient ideology to foist on the rest of the world a self serving expansionist ideology under developing Africa and the Caribbean in the name of capitalism, murder its own in two world wars and as this essay concludes present globalisation as the new destabilising force. It is the position of this essay that the writers have been able to establish a prima facie case toward a political philosophy; there is history, intent and evolution however more needs to be done if only to say Caribbean political philosophy is not what western political philosophy is. As long as the peoples resist the urge to lean toward their own understanding Caribbean Political Philosophy has a chance to become a global solution to its Western Political nemesis. CONCLUSION It is clear that an understanding of Caribbean political philosophy is an understanding of the post colonial project and the need for the Caribbean to extricate itself from the political dogma that is Eurocentric in construction and delivery. In summary this characterisation of Caribbean thought places a high value on overturning projects of European hegemony Nettleford (1995). So important is this aspect of the project that an epistemology, ontology perspective was developed to give structure and ground the thinking given the purported monopoly expressed by the European. Henry (2000) highlights the key thematic lines along which Caribbean political thought has thus far been expressed. This, however, has not been without controversy the claim that the Caribbean’s single greatest contribution to global thought is its exploration of the question of race Lewis (1983) has triggered the characterisation as overly concerned with the utilisation of race as an analytical category. Mills (2007) answers the characterisation with a nuanced alternative articulating that biological race and thus biological hierarchy do not exist, what pertains in the Caribbean in a form of Creole ethnicity and ethnocentrism. If exclusively defined by the Western Political standards the Caribbean would be hard pressed to identify a political philosophy, the debate is thus confined to what is important to the people occupying the space. The fundamental difference is with application of what needs to be done given that the Caribbean is young relative to its European counterpart then there is more to be accomplished. This essay understands the confluence, convergence, divergence, dialectic that has become synonymous to these balkanised geographical dispersed islands. This essay accepts that understanding of a situation comes not with a presumption of right or wrong but openness to arguments, that, if placed on a balance of probabilities could become the reality of the reader. BIBLIOGRAPHY Belle, George. 1996 Against Colonialism: Political Theory and Re-Colonisation in the Caribbean. Paper presented at the Conference on Caribbean Culture: Mona Jamaica UWI. Benn, Dennis. 1987 Ideology and Political Development: the Growth and Development of Political Ideas in the Caribbean 1774-1983. Jamaica: ISER, Mona. Bolland, Nigel. 2004 The Birth of Caribbean civilization: A century of ideas about culture and identity, nation and society Kingston: Ian Randle Fanon, Frantz. 1963 The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press. Hampton, Jean. 1997. Political Philosophies and Political Ideologies, Montreal: Westview Press. Heywood, Andrew. 2004 Political Ideologies, 3rd Edition: An Introduction, USA: Palgrave McMillan Henry, Paget. 2000. Calibans Reason: Introducing Afro Caribbean Philosophy, London: Routledge, Lewis, Gordon. 1983. Main Currents in Caribbean Thought: The Historical Evolution of Caribbean Society in Its Ideological Aspects, 1492-1900, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Miller, David. 1998. Political philosophy in E. Craig (Ed. ), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, London: Routledge. Mills, Charles. 1998 Blackness Visible: Essays on Philosophy and Race, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Mills, Charles. 2007 â€Å"Multiculturalism as/and/or Anti-Racism?† in Multiculturalism and Political Theory Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Nkrumah, Kwameh. 1965 Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd. Nettleford, Rex. 1993 Inward Stretch, Outward Reach: A voice from the Caribbean Basingstoke: MacMillan. Sabine, George Holland, Thomas Landon Thorson. 1973. A history of political theory. Hinsdale, Ill: Dryden Press. Wellman, David T. 1977 Portraits of White Racism, 2d ed, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Comparison Essay on “Dead Souls” and “Taras Bulba”

I. The great achievement of prose of the XIX century (from the 1840s to the 1890s) was Russian Realism, which is represented by many great Russian writers and Nikolai Gogol is not the last in this list. It is often mentioned that after 1830 Pushkin turned more and more to prose, although being the greatest poet of the time. However, the writer who established really innovating novelistic and narrative tradition in Russian literary culture was Gogol. Gogol's example, combined with the authoritative literary pronouncements of the greatest literary critic of the period, V. G. Belinsky, proved prose to be the literary medium of the future. Later, the great Russian novelist   (and not the worst philosopher of religious thought) Dostoevsky have said, referring to himself and his fellow Realists, â€Å"We have all come out from under Gogol's â€Å"Overcoat†Ã¢â‚¬  (meaning the famous story by Gogol, â€Å"Shynel† or Overcoat).Vladimir Nabokov highly esteemed Gogol as a grea t Russian (in no case Ukrainian, he is sure, in spite of the fact that Nikolaj Gogol-Ianovski originates from Ukraine, Mirgorod, and his world outlook is obviously marked by Ukrainian national tradition) novelist, dramatist, satirist, and founder of the so-called critical realism in Russian literature, best-known for his novel â€Å"Mertvye Dushy† (1842, Dead Souls). Praising the imaginative power and linguistic playfulness of the writer’s latest works (â€Å"Shynel† or Overcoat, â€Å"Mertvye Dushy† etc), Nabokov states that Gogol is everything but the romantic folklore novelist.Actually, there can be defined two main periods in Gogol’s writing: conservative romantic and vernacular idealism of the Ukrainian past (which we find in Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka and Taras Bulba) and the next evolutionary period of modernistic urban life reflection with all its psychological abnormality and deviations. If to believe Nabokov, in the mature age Gogol was ashamed of the playful artificialness of his early works; and as for the famous Russian critic, it is a dreadful nightmare even to imagine Gogol scribbling Ukrainian folkloristic novels volume by volume†¦ Had he chosen this path, the world would have never heard his name. So, let’s compare these two antagonistic periods of Gogol’s writing corresponding to the most vividly representative works of his: â€Å"Taras Bulba† and â€Å"Dead Souls†.II. Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, the book of Ukrainian folklore stories, which appeared in 1831-32, was Gogol's breakthrough work (Gogol had greatly admired Pushkin, and he used in this work the same narrative device as Pushkin did in his Tales of Belkin). It showed his skill in mixing fantastic and demonic ideas of his people with macabre, and at the same time he said something crucial about the Russian and Ukrainian (ignoring Nabokov’s imperialistic snobbism, it is important to mark Gogol’s Ukrainian roots) character.After failure as an assistant lecturer of world history at the University of St. Petersburg (1834-35), Gogol became a full-time writer. Under the title Mirgorod (1835) Gogol published a new collection of his stories, also inspired by Ukrainian vernacular culture, beginning with â€Å"Old-World Landowners†, which described the decay of the old way of life.The book also included the famous historical tale (poem in prose) â€Å"Taras Bulba†, which according to many literary critics showed the influence of W.Scott and L.Stern. However, it is rather ignorant not to take into account the original Ukrainian novelistic tradition, which is widely based on folklore (Gulak-Artemovski, Kvitka-Osnovjanenko and many other writers of Ukrainian romanticism are evidently folkloristic). The protagonist of â€Å"Taras Bulba† is a strong, heroic character, absolutely non-typical for Gogol’s later cavalcade of bureaucrats, lunatics, swindlers, and losers, numerously represented on the pages of â€Å"Dead Souls†.In 1569, dominion over the right-coast Ukraine passed to Poland.   The Polish lords (lyahy) promptly tried stamping out Ukrainian culture by savagely exploiting the peasantry, outlawing the Ukrainian language and imposing Catholicism (Unia) and Papal supremacy on the Orthodox population.   In response, Ukrainian male peasants flocked to join the military groups known as the Cossacks. They founded the Zaporizhian Sitch on the Hortycya Island.The Cossacks, essentially a wild cross between mercenary crusaders and highwaymen,  became the focus of resistance to the Poles, the Turks and the Crimean Tatars. Gogol’s novel tells the story of the old and wise warrior Taras Bulba who, with his sons Ostap and Andrij, sallies forth to join the Sitch. Gogol's incontestably romantic adventure was as much a propaganda piece for his own time as an elegy for a way of life that had passed.   In â€Å"Taras Bulbaâ⠂¬  we meet conservative Gogol, who has just arrived to Petersburg and is not yet sophisticated in the city life. He is shocked by the corruption and moral decay of the city dwellers. He craves for the Golden Age of his people’s history and this age, he thinks, was the glorious times of the Zaporizhian Sitch.â€Å"Taras Bulba† is a remarkable example of the early romantic Gogol (if to call Gogol the writer’s texts). However, this novel works on both levels (historical and pshycological, more typical for the later Gogol’s works) and is surely one of the most exciting masterpieces in world literature.  Set sometime between the mid-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century, Gogol’s epic tale recounts both a bloody Cossack revolt against the Poles (led by the bold Taras Bulba of Ukrainian folk mythology) and the trials of Taras Bulba’s two sons.As Robert Kaplan (translator) writes, â€Å"[Taras Bulba] has a Kiplingesque gusto . . . that makes it a pleasure to read, but central to its theme is an unredemptive, darkly evil violence that is far beyond anything that Kipling ever touched on. We need more works like Taras Bulba to better understand the emotional wellsprings of the threat we face today in places like the Middle East and Central Asia.† (Jane Grayson and Faith Wigzell; p.18). And the critic John Cournos has noted, â€Å"A clue to all Russian realism may be found in a Russian critic’s observation about Gogol: ‘Seldom has nature created a man so romantic in bent, yet so masterly in portraying all that is unromantic in life.’(The Rise of Prose: Nikolai Gogol).But this statement does not cover the whole ground, for it is easy to see in almost all of Gogol’s work his â€Å"free Cossack soul† trying to break through the wall of gloomy and non-heroic ‘today’ like some ancient demon, essentially Dionysian. So, through the years, this novel sounds at once as a reproach , a protest, and a challenge, ever calling for joy, ancient joy, that is no more with us. This wide interpretation lies far beyond previously often-uttered accusation of vernacular populist romanticism.Nikolai Gogol searched for the joy and sadness in the Ukrainian songs he loved so much. Ukrainian was to Gogol the language of the soul, and it was in Ukrainian songs rather than in old chronicles, of which he was not a little contemptuous, that he read the history of his people. So, here in this novel the writer’s intention is not the historical but rather the psychological picture of his people. Hence no one (even Nabokov) has the right to accuse Gogol of Ukrainian culture profanation as if following the modern literary trend of his time.Indeed, so great was his enthusiasm for his own land that after collecting material for many years, the year 1833 finds him at work on a history of ‘poor Ukraine’, a work planned to take up six volumes; and writing to a friend at this time he promises to say much in it that has not been said before him. However, Gogol never wrote either his history of Little Russia (Malorosiya) or his universal history, he didn’t become Ukrainian Balzac but is often called Ukrainian Goffman or Poe.Apart from several brief studies not always reliable, the result of his many years application to his scholarly projects was this brief epic in prose, Homeric in mood (The Rise of Prose: Nikolai Gogol). The sense of intense living, ‘living dangerously† – to cite Nietzsche – the recognition of courage as the greatest virtue, the God in man, inspired Gogol, living in times which tended toward grey monotony, with admiration for his more fortunate forefathers, who lived in a poetic time, when everything was won with the sword, when every one in his turn strove to be an active being and not a spectator. In â€Å"Taras Bulba† we find the people of action, and â€Å"Dead Souls† gives us the gallery of people of things.Russia! Russia! I see you now, from my wondrous, beautiful past I behold you! How wretched, dispersed and uncomfortable everything is about you†¦(Nikolai Gogol)III. Gogol began working on â€Å"Dead Souls† in 1835. The plot and the main idea of the story was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin who seemed to have understood Gogol as a writer quite well. Pushkin felt that the idea of a man travelling all over the Russian Impire buying up the ownership rights to serfs who had died (‘mertvye dushy’) would allow Gogol to make at once the literary success. In fact, it was an opportunity to introduce a multitude of characters, varied settings, mountains of detail, and the scope within which to be able to elaborate the anecdotal story of the work to his heart's content and to reveal all the sins of his contemporary. Gogol had big ideas of becoming a scriptor of his age a sort of Balzac†¦For the next six years, he devoted almost all of his creative energy to â€Å"Dead Souls†. His compulsive craftsmanship is evident in that the entire work was revised at least five times; the author stated that some passages had been rewritten as many as twenty times. He felt that this novel should be his best one.Unfortunately, only the first part of Dead Souls, twelve chapters in all, was completed by Gogol. The second part, as we know it, (some chapters of which are often published with the first part) is a recreation from various sources of what Gogol might have done with the continuation of his work. Influenced by the fanatical priest Father Konstantinovskii, he burned what he actually had already written for the second part of the novel just nine days before his death.The situation from which the novel develops is based upon a scheme which theoretically was possible in Gogol's day. The government had a policy of loaning money to landowners, feeling that this class was its strongest support. Lands owned, however, were meas ured not in acres, but by the number of â€Å"souls† (serfs, or here, mertvye dushy) residing on them. De facto, landowners were serf owners†¦ The government was ready to accept the land (that is, the serfs) of an individual as collateral for a loan. Thus, a method was required by which the holdings of an individual landowner could be established at any given time.This method stated that an individual possessed the number of ‘souls’ recorded as such that belong to him/her in the most recent population census. The census was taken every ten years, which meant that near the end of the ten-year cycle almost every landowner would have some serfs who were not recorded in the preceding census because they had recently been born, and some serfs still recorded even though they had died long ago since the last census. In â€Å"Dead Souls†, the main character, Chichikov, schemes to buy from the serf holders a number of those â€Å"souls† who had died but were still counted as living until the next census.An absurd situation becomes possible: dead souls are sold as being alive people, which ar estil able to work. â€Å"It's cheap at the price. A rogue would cheat you, sell you some worthless rubbish instead of souls, but mine are as juicy as ripe nuts, all picked – they are all either craftsmen or sturdy peasants†, – Sobakievich boasts to his weird buyer (Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich). Once Chichikov had a number of such souls, he would apply to the government bank for a loan, using the â€Å"souls† as his collateral.With this low-interest loan in hand he would then buy and work an actual country estate, eventually paying back the loan and purchasing living souls to work the land. Well, passing the whole plot, it is imporatnt to state Gogol’s idea of small marginal people actually decaying in their small towns and farms. The Russia of small towns is the country of odd and irreversibly narrow-minded p eople. What Gogol proves is that these small landowners are actually dead†¦ They have burried themselves alive in their dirty stinking flea-bitten houses.Contrudicting the wide-sprea yet contested idea of Gogol’s evolution as a writer, it is possible to say that either completing histoical heroic plot or conveying contemporary decayed society, Gogol’s intention stays the same – to show the depth of a human soul and how this soul can be filled with live brightness of heroism or by dead wickedness and miserable oddity. Bibliography Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich. Taras Bulba and Other Tales. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library// http://web.archive.org/web/20080517101149/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/GogTara.htmlNikolay Gogol: Text and Context, ed. by Jane Grayson and Faith Wigzell (1989).N. V. Nabokov: Nicolai Gogol, 1944.The Rise of Prose: Nikolai Gogol// http://lol-russ.umn.edu/hpgary/Russ3421/lesson6.htm

Home Depot Employee Benefits Essay

The first case is against an employee Gunderson working at JMI agency owned by Brown Corporation. It is filed by Brown on account of the defendant’s violation of the employee agreement by joining a competing company after working there continuously for seven months and soliciting and servicing Brown’s customers and disclosing confidential information. The summary judgment was made in favor of the defendant because an employment of seven months is not enough under Illinois law to support the limiting agreement. (Findlaw, 2008) The second case is against an employee Robert M. Bono working at Chicago Transit Board who was discharged from his job on account of misconduct by calling a customer while working though his job duties did not require calling any customers. The call was personal and social in nature involving a sexual joke. The court affirmed the decision of Chicago Transit Board as being reasonable and appropriate. (Findlaw, 2008) Issues:Â  The issue being discussed in the first case is the claim by the parent company of breach of contract by the employee. But since the employment period of Gunderson was only seven months so according to Illinois law no charges can be made against him In the second case, the issue discussed is of an employee misbehaving with a customer on telephone and making personal use of the phone though he is not allowed to do so. Therefore, he dismissed by the company. Implications for Home Depot:Â  At Home Depot, each employee should be clearly told of his/her duties and the consequences of not acting accordingly. Secondly, the employee contract at Home Depot should specify clearly all the terms and conditions specially the time period after which he can be accused of the violation of the contract. Conclusion: Through the analysis of the above cases, I learned that minor mistakes by an employee can result into big troubles and court procedures. Therefore, one should remain cautious every time while working on his job.

Information Processing and Learning Disabilities Essay

The body gathers information through five senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. However, in order to use the data or information that has been gathered by these senses one must constantly put the senses into constant use. After the body has collected information through the five senses it is taken to the brain, which in turn recognizes it, interprets it, understands it, responds to it and stores it. This is a continuous process which can be repeated even a thousand times in any given day. Newell (1990)] Information processing is responsible for the coordination and performance of the tasks that we carry out in any given day, from taking a shower to learning in school or participating in a sport. Discussion Within the field of cognitive psychology, information processing is the thinking and reasoning about mental processes, envisioning them, in the same way as a computer software runs on a computer machine. According to Ulric Neisser, who also goes as the father of the term ‘cognitive psychology’ human beings can be compared to dynamic information processing systems with mental operations that are identical to those of computer machines and that can be described in computational terms. [Neisser, 1967] The mind is the software while the brain is the hardware. The human mind processes information through the application of logical rules and strategies, that like a computer, the human mind has got a limited capacity for the amount and even the nature of information it can process, and that just as the computer can be made to process more information through the change or overhaul of its hardware and software, learners can become great thinkers if changes can be made in their brains through the use of authentic rules and strategies of learning. [Hetherington & Parke, 199] According to Atkinson and Shriffin in their ‘stage theory’ model, the human memory processes and stores information in three stages. Information is processed in a serial and discontinuous manner as it transits from one stage to the other. [Atkinson & Shriffin, 1968] Craik and Lockhart in their ‘levels-of-processing’ theory posit that learners make use of various levels of elaboration as they process information. This is achieved through a succession of levels beginning from perception, through attention, to labeling, and lastly meaning. Craik & Lockhart, 1972] Another theory posits that information is processed simultaneously by several different parts of memory system as opposed to sequential processing. [Goleman, 1995] Lastly, Rumelhart and McClelland in their ‘connectionic’ model propose that information is stored in multiple locations in the form of network connections in the brain. It is grounded on the wisdom that the more connected an idea is the more the chances of it to be remembered. Rumelhart & McClelland, 1986; Scientific American, 1999] In a learning situation, the measure of receiving and organizing information, remembering it, and expressing it will obviously differ from one learner to the other. There will always be discrepancies in reading, writing, comprehension, and reasoning among the learners. Those learners who experiences difficulties in organizing, remembering, and expressing information will definitely experience difficulties in reading, writing, comprehension, and reasoning. Such learners are considered as having learning disabilities: they tend to experience difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities. They face difficulties in learning new skills, they have poor memory, and they tend to confuse basic words, experience difficulties in connecting letters and sounds, among other difficulties. Lerner (2000)] Since the process of information gathering occurs through the application of logical rules and strategies learners without disabilities are bound to organize, remember, and express information with great ease than those with disabilities. Learners with disabilities will experience difficulties in making use of various levels of elaboration as Craik and Lockhart reasons. They will experience snags in transferring information from one stage to another. In a nutshell the process of information processing is complex and therefore it requires proper learning strategies to make it a success. It requires the best learning strategies that are tied to the needs and interests of students and that are based on varied types of learning styles to enhance maximum learning. [Ekwensi et al, 2006] For instance, before the process of learning begins, a teacher should always aim at gaining the learners attention by using cues to signal when you are ready to begin and keep moving around the class while using voice variations. Always remember to bring to the mind of the learners prior learned content that is relevant to present content. This can be done through a brief discussion or a brief question and answer session aimed at forming a link with the present lesson content. This should be followed by a brief discussion of the main points of what is about to be learned. Learners may also be provided with handouts to get a deeper glimpse of the content. The teaching/learning process should now progress from what is already known to what is not known, from simple to complex. Bransford et al, 2000] The teacher should present the content in chunks while giving the learners opportunities to connect new information to information already known. In order to enhance maximum retaining of the learned content the teacher should also show the learners coding tips, e. g. , through the use of acronyms, simple songs, construction of silly sentences using the first letter of each word in the list and mental imagery techniq ues such as the keyword method. The teacher should also provide repetitive teaching and learning: by stating important points many times using different methods; this helps to build Short Term Memory (STM). [Miller (1956)] Include item on each day’s lesson from previous lesson or even periodically review previously learned skills for building Long Term Memory (LTM). The teacher should also provide enough opportunities for learning and over-learning of important concepts and skills; methods such as daily drills may be applied for arithmetic facts. Huitt (2003)] The teacher should aim at building both STM and LTM. The STM will help to increase the amount of time the learners pay attention to external stimulus and form some meaning out of it. According to Miller (1956) individuals can process up to 7 plus or negative units at any given time, therefore the teacher should aim at helping the learners to identify the most important information to learn at any given time. This can be achieved through proper organiza tion and repetition. To achieve organization the concept of chunking can be applied whereby information will be presented in bits representing units that can be easily remembered. To achieve repetition, the teacher should try to making the learners repeat what they have learned, especially after some time – few minutes (when forgetting begins). The process of learning should also be made sequential, relevant, and transitional. On the other hand, the LTM helps in the recalling of information learned long time ago particularly when such information is arranged and organized using the declarative, procedural, and imagery structures. The declarative memory will help in storing information about things that are talked about in classroom; [Stillings et al, 1987] the procedural memory will store information that touches on ways of doing things practically while the imagery memory will store information inform of images. This program helps to build ‘higher-order-thinking’ and self esteem. In order to build LTM the teacher should apply the ‘Direct Instruction’ method of teaching that provides constant interaction between the students and the teacher. Nonetheless, teachers should make sure that they teach small amount of material in sequential steps, they should make it possible for the learners to use as many of their senses as it is practically possible and that the content material should seek to build on, and enhance the learners’ prior knowledge. The teacher should also make the instructional language more simple but not the content by reinforcing on the main ideas through paraphrasing, repeating, and the use of stimulating learning aids such as charts, maps, and pictures. If possible, the use of technology should be encouraged as learners have been noted to feel free and productive particularly when they are working independently in front of a computer, rather than in crowded classrooms. [Singleton, & Terrill, 1995/96] Conclusions In order to address information processing problems among learners with disabilities, a teacher should understand the common difficulties that they face so as to be able to employ the appropriate learning strategies. Learners with disabilities they experience the inability to manage their time well, they have spelling problems, they cannot follow if the teacher speaks too fast, they are slow readers, they have difficulties in recalling mathematical symbols, and sometimes they may portray impulsive behavior. This calls for a lot of patience on the part of the teacher when dealing with them. To achieve this, the teacher should watch, listen and talk to the learners to establish their strengths and weaknesses, and to use interest-arousing stimulus in the instructional process because learners are more likely to be attentive when the teacher uses a stimulus