Nicholas Lezard’s Quote on Atonement Essay

â€Å"†¦the novel is itself the act of atonement that Briony Tallis needs to perform; yet we are very much in the land of the unreliable narrator, where evasion and mendacity both shadow and undermine the story that is told† (Nicholas Lezard). Discuss this criticism of Atonement. When one reaches atonement, it means that they feel forgiven, regardless whether they are actually absolved for an offence or not. In Atonement, a novel of drama, war and romance, the author Ian McEwan characterizes the main character, Briony, as a very self-centered person. McEwan’s novel is self-referential when it is implied that the novel is one Briony wrote in order to reach atonement. Nicholas Lezard, critic for the Guardian, says that Briony’s atonement and ‘the truth’ of her story is weakened by Ian McEwan’s characterization of her as an unreliable person. However, some may argue that the novel Briony wrote was a good way to atone for her crime. In the end of the McEwan’s novel, Briony shows that she believes she had done the best she could have to reach atonement. When talking about the final draft of her novel she says â€Å"I’ve regarded it as my duty to disguise nothing – the names, the places, the exact circumstances – I put it all there as a matter of a historical record† (McEwan 349). This makes the reader believe she is being entirely honest. In addition to this, Briony, being a well-known published writer at the age of 77, decides to use her passion, her talent, to become part of her atonement. Although Briony can’t publish her novel until after the death of Lola and Paul Marshall because of her fear of litigation as well as the power and wealth the couple have and will use to protect their names. â€Å"The Marshalls have been active about the courts since the late forties, defending their good names with a most expensive ferocity† (McEwan 349). Her inability to do anything more at this stage of her life makes readers feel sympathy for Briony and want to believe everything that she claims to be true. For these reasons many readers may well believe that Briony had done respectably the best she could have to reach atonement. On the other hand many may agree with Lezard and feel that Briony’s fictional happy ending to her story is a final attempt to evade the guilt she feels. Briony’s medical condition and the fact that she is dying, as a result draws attention away from her desperation to relieve her guilt. â€Å"It is only in this last version that my lovers end well, standing side by side on a South London pavement as I walk away. All the preceding drafts were pitiless† (McEwan 350). This makes the reader question how much more of what actually happened was changed in Briony’s story. Briony even calls herself an â€Å"unreliable witness† (McEwan 338) of the events that occurred which she then wrote about. This also puts the reader in a position to not want to trust anything Briony says. She also says that she likes to think that Robbie and Cecilia’s happy ending wasn’t â€Å"weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness† (McEwan 351), which contradicts to her claim of having the novel published as a historical record, enforcing to the reader her untrustworthiness. These are a few of the reasons for which Briony can be seen as an unreliable person. Aside from her desperation and lies as a result of her coming closer to death, there are other ways in which McEwan characterizes Briony to be unreliable and wanting to partially avoid blame for her committed crime. Briony, the protagonist, wrote her entire novel with an omniscient 3rd person narrator, which as a result distances Briony from the reader and draws some attention away from her offence. Another effect that this has is that it suggests to the reader that the events that occurred happened exactly as they are described, when that is not the case. Should the novel have been written in 1st person from Briony’s point of view, the reader would have seen Briony as an arrogant and not believed her story so easily. Briony on page 350 then clearly states that she made of part of her story when she says â€Å"When I am dead, and the Marshalls are dead, and the novel is finally published, we will only exist through my inventions† (McEwan). McEwan’s characterization of her as a self-centered and unreliable person is consistent from when Briony is 13 years old up to when she is 77. On page 336, Briony says â€Å"However withered, I still feel myself to be exactly the same person I’ve always been† (McEwan), which to the reader signifies that Briony has not matured as a person and still may think like she did when she was a child, making the same mistakes without realizing them. A clear example of the same mistakes Briony makes as an adult, is how she is jealous of her older cousin at the age of 77, the same feeling she had as a child. On page 341, Briony also says, â€Å"I’ve always been good at not thinking about the things that are really troubling me† (McEwan), which has the same effect of characterizing her as unreliable. Briony tries to do good by trying to atone with the novel she wrote, although on page 340, she says, â€Å"If I really cared so much about the facts, I should have written a different kind of book. But my work was done. There would be no further drafts† (McEwan 340), which then makes it very clear to the reader that Briony’s story cannot be trusted. The entire novel is damaged and cannot be believed as a result of Briony’s unreliability. Although Briony’s attempt to atone may seem justifiable to some, it is more reasonable to say that McEwan’s novel of Atonement is reduced from the story of a girl committing a crime and separating two lovers, down to the fantasy world of Briony Tallis blended in with some facts of events she witnessed. The novel being self-referential when it is revealed that Briony wrote it in order to reach atonement, leaves the reader with a very strong impression of Briony as a very unreliable, self-centered person, which then undermines the entire story.

Killing the Bear

Judith Minty’s story, â€Å"Killing the Bear,† is the about a woman who commits murder against her sexual self. Although, she wants to move on with life, she realizes that she must kill this bear in order to be a peace with herself. While I was reading, I chose to focus on the two aspects of the psyche, specifically id and the ego. The id, the bestial nature of the bear, in the woman’s life, and the ego, the real world, represented by the woman’s cabin. It is always hot for this woman. The summer heat was an all-consuming, sexual tension inside her. She lives only for the summer, marking each day, but the rest of the year, and even the rest of her life, it means nothing to her. At the end of the summer, she immediately plans for the next summer. Although in denial of her own heat, her sexuality, she seems, at the same time, to live for it. I noticed that during the summer, she lived in an isolated cabin, the woman builds herself a rational world, hammering and painting on her space. This real world is disturbed by the presence of a wild bear. When she first sees the bear, he is distant, frightening, like the awakening of sensuality in a young woman. He scares her a little and â€Å"her hands lift to cover her breasts,† a somewhat sexual response to the bear’s presence, suggesting displacement of her sensual urges on the bear. Downplaying her fear of the bear, she intellectualizes the bear, recounting facts and stories she has heard about bears. However, even during this intellectualization, she reflects on her animal nature and its destruction. Her memory of her mother burning her stuffed bear mirrors, in a roundabout way, her current situation and her ultimate solution to the live bear’s presence. At the end of the stuffed bear story, she observes that her mother misspoke when she said, â€Å"I’m sorry for burning the animal in you.† Although, the mother â€Å"killed† the woman’s childhood beast, the adult woman is facing the same animal, the living beast in herself, again. When I was reading, I could tell that her sexuality, the bear, grows bold and more insistent, threatening her rational world, the woman’s fear grows. She buys a gun for protection, snapping at the flirting clerk that â€Å"she didn’t need a man† as she pays for it. She denies her baser needs and desires, yet at the same time, she wants to seek out and dominate her sensuality, to go â€Å"hunting† for her beast. Ironically, she chooses to use a gun, a violent phallic symbol, to kill her sexuality. â€Å"Killing the Bear† is a great example of how an author can use the real world symbolically to mirror the inner psychological world of human beings. In the story, the natural world which threatens the woman reflects all the baser elements that people usually try to internalize, control, or sometimes reject. However, in the story, the woman’s barriers against her nature, her â€Å"civilization†, are not enough. She can never quite tame the beast within.

Tanzimat

Reform program in the Ottoman Empire from 1839 until 1876. Tanzimat is Turkish for â€Å"reorganization†, and was a program that based itself on the changes started by sultan Mahmud 2. The actual program was started under sultan Abdulmecid 1, and corrupted and destroyed by sultan Abulaziz. The Tanzimat program was one of highest importance to the Ottoman Empire. It was initiated by reformists who understood why the empire was growing weaker while neighbour countries were growing stronger. The situation was clearly illustrated by numerous military defeats.Inside the empire also, there were many dangerous tensions that could lead to conflicts and demands of autonomy. This had already happened in Egypt, when Muhammad Ali achieved autonomy. But high in the empire there were many people with conservative ideas, as well as many who (accurately) feared for their own positions, and who opposed the reform processes. One characteristic of the Tanzimat that made it hard to accept for man y, was that it had been formed upon European ideas and ideals.And Europe was considered the lands of the infidels. The reforms of the Tanzimat was administered under the Grand Vizier. The most known of the Tanzimat viziers was Mustafa Resid Pasha, who served altogether 6 terms. While the Tanzimat program might have saved the Ottoman Empire, or at least prolonged its existence, one may assert that it came too late. But even more grave, it was discontinued by sultan Abdulaziz' abuse of politics and little respect for the reforms.And there was even less hope for the reforms when Abdulhamid 2 ascended the sultan throne in 1876, and as among the first of many despotic acts stopped the Tanzimat. The program The program was defined in a document of 1839 called Hatt-i Serif (Noble Edict of the Rose Chamber). It contained new regulations in several fields: New administration: Provincial representative assemblies (nothing to do with democracy in modern terms, of course) were established, toge ther with state courts that ruled independent of the religiously learned.But more important than that, the local administrations started to function as parts of large state structure. Also, new codes of commercial and criminal law were introduced. Standardized system of taxation: Earlier there had been abuses in many provinces, allowing local rulers to enrich themselves on the locals. The system of taxation also applied to military conscription and training, a system that now was regulated, and involved less pressure on the locals. New conscript system: The Ottoman Empire now introduced a conscript system based upon Prussian patterns.This involved the total end of the devsirme system, from which the Janissaries had been recruited. Rights of the individual: No matter what race or religion a citizen had, his or her security of life, property and honour was guaranteed inside the empire. In return, the state demanded that all citizens were loyal to the sultan and the Ottoman administrat ion. Secular school system: Earlier, Islam had been the foundation for schooling. Now, modern ideals were introduced instead.

Banning texting while driving Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Banning texting while driving - Research Paper Example According to researchers any type of mobile use while driving that includes talking over phone, texting and that even through hands-free technology is dangerous and deadly. According to David Strayer who is a Professor of Psychology at University of Utah a mere 2% of the population is capable of multitasking with absolute safety. This finding clearly portrays the high-risk exposure of the remaining 98% of the population if they resort to texting while driving. Strayer has also found that cell phones â€Å"make you blind to your own bad driving."(Cruz & Oloffson, 2009) This happens as a driver using the cell phone for texting or to attend a call is bereft of any peripheral vision and mostly looks straight. That way he goes into oblivion regarding his surroundings and that can be immensely harmful in terms of safe driving. Another interesting point is that hands-free texting is of no use regarding safe driving. Hands-free technology rather poses a problem for safe driving. This has be en proven through a simulation test where half the driver failed to stop at the right position while using the hands-free technology. This is bound to happen since driving requires special skills and concentration and even using hands-free technology the brain gets divided between two simultaneous works both of them requiring precision. Support for this argument can be found in writings of the eminent scholars of these disciplines. According to Steven Yantis, the division of brain between vision and hearing is responsible for the aforementioned result. The argument against banning texting while driving gains momentum considering the fact that drivers indulged in such activities have fared poor in a simulated driving environment than even those drivers who were with 0.08% of Blood Alcohol Content. (BAC) (Cruz & Oloffson, 2009) A driver is considered intoxicated if his blood alcohol content is of aforementioned percentage; this refers to the fact that a drunken driver is a better performer than one who is fidgeting with his mobile. Though many holds an equal type of abhorrence on hands free and hand indulging technology while using mobile phones by a driver and therefore speaks equally against them. However, learned scientists at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute hold even grimmer view for texting in respect to

Comparative governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Comparative governance - Essay Example In slide three it has been discussed that the participation in electoral processes is a broader concept and it is not just about voting. There are various roles in political participation such as the ability to speak out freely, assuming an important role in the management of public affairs, opportunity to register as a candidate, conducting campaigns and to get elected and hold office at various departments of government (Andrew and Tremblay, 1998, p. 249). The role that women play in politics is considered to be very crucial. It is also considered as an important factor for women in determining their political empowerment (Tremblay, 2005, pp.50-55). Slide four mainly discusses the legal point of view with respect to female participation in politics. There are no legal hurdles that exist in the system to restrict woman to participate in the political process. In practicality the situation is quite different though. The field of politics has been mainly dominated by men. Under such c ircumstances it is really very difficult for women to get an entry in this field. Unless a woman has a close acquaintance with a male politician, it is really very difficult for her to enter into the field of politics. In countries such as UK, women find it very difficult to get accepted as potential candidates by the political parties. If they also find a seat in this regard, it is considered to be less winnable as compared to those for which men are selected (Childs and Krook, 2010, pp. 215-221). Among the 28 member states of EU, the UK is said to have a proportion of women MPs which is considered fifteenth. The fifth slide discusses the role of governments in this regard. Governments should effectively formulate and administer the affairs of public policy. The government is considered as that agency in society which holds monopoly over the use of legal coercion. It should exercise its

Comparison of Plato and Confusius and Their Contemporary Relevance Essay

Comparison of Plato and Confusius and Their Contemporary Relevance - Essay Example This opposition is important as they can be contrasted to see the differences in the worldviews that were held in these civilizations at that point of time. Both these philosophers offered different viewpoints to the existing ones and they served to challenge the existing hierarchies in certain ways. They were however, used later on, to enforce the hierarchies that were practised by the state. Thus, even though they are separated by a great geographical and cultural distance the two works do exhibit certain similarities that place them together as two of the most important philosophical treatises to have come out of the ancient world. This paper shall seek to compare and contrast the works of both these philosophers and analyse their contemporary relevance. The paper shall also seek to analyse the different emphases of the two authors and how the ideas that the two philosophers talk of is relevant even for the people of today. This, the paper shall argue is the main reason for the ti meless appeal that is a characteristic of both the works of philosophy. The paper shall look at the Apology, Crito and Gorgias by Plato and the Analects of Confucius for a discussion of the views of the two philosophers. Plato placed great emphasis on the life of the human being as an individual. He sought the development of the individual. He did not propose the development of the individual at the expense of the state. He however, did propose a certain degree of independence as far as mental activity is concerned when it came to the individual and the state. This can be seen in his mockery of the apparatus of the state when it came to his trial. These events are talked of at great length in Plato’s Apology. In this tract, he laments the lack of individual freedom that is provided by the state to its citizens. Such a lack of freedom would result in the intellectual stagnation of the people. This is what had happened to people of Athens, according to Socrates. They had become used to the ways of Athenian society and were reluctant to change themselves. The people had forgotten to question traditions. Such questioning was what would lead to a better society and better individuals, according to Socrates. This is what he seeks to covey to the court when he talks of how it would be futile to look for men who are more knowledgeable than him since he was one of the few people who had accepted the fact that he was not wise. By this he seeks to make it clear that what he knew was not sufficient but only a beginning. His attempt is to make clear the infinite nature of knowledge and expose the hollow claims of knowledge that were made by his contemporaries. He thus, seeks to say that knowledge should bring in people a recognition not of their worth but of their worthlessness. This, according to him would be a true lesson in humility. He explains this in this passage, where he describes his encounter with a person who was considered to be very wise- So I left him, saying to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is - for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him. Then I went to another, who had still higher philosophical pretensions, and my conclusion was exactly the same. I made another enemy of him, and of many others besides him (Plato).

Employees would like to improve the value of their work using the 7 Essay

Employees would like to improve the value of their work using the 7 stage Checkland Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) - Essay Example In the end, the conclusion summarizes the findings and their applicability in the real world. Soft Systems Methodology was developed by Peter Checkland and is a seven step methodolgy to construe models to solve organizational problem situations. It provides a comparison of the current world with certain focused models that can solve ‘soft’ problems. The approach is deemed to be participative and can be carried out by organization members with the support of a facilitator who is familiar with the methodology. It is of most use for people who work and involves drawing rich pictures to expand on different models and systems (Hersh & Hamburg, 2006). The problem under consideration is how can employees improve the value of their work. There are many factors that can accrue to overall improvement in work performance. More importantly, factors that are impeding improvement strategies from being implemented need to be addressed. The value of work done by employees depends partly on the working environment and partly on the employer. Therefore, in order to bring about de finitive change, the employer’s support and cooperation is of great importance. This paper identifies the problems faced by employees in order to improve the value of their work. The first part of the SSM inquiry deals with identification of the problem. The later part deals with root definitions of the systems and the development of potential models; the last steps expound on the efficacy of the proposed recommendations in the real world. For a business organization to function successfully, the value of work of the employees plays a very critical role. It is as much the responsibility of the employees as it is the duty of the line manager to ensure that optimum employee performance is achieved. However, due to any reason, if the employees are not able to put in their best performance, the value of their work is

Patterns of Subsistence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Patterns of Subsistence - Essay Example g, collecting or hunting for food, pastoralists acquire food from domesticated animals, horticulture is the method of plant cultivation which is non-industrial, agriculture is the production of food on a certain location for a long period of time, and industrialism is for societies that are not involved in processes of food production. Foraging is the oldest of all the human subsistence patterns. It dates back to 10,000 years ago when all the human societies depended upon hunting wild animals and searching for wild plants to survive upon. Till the 20th century, this had been a pattern of subsistence in some societies especially in areas such as tropical forests and deserts which were environmentally marginal areas. Foragers always depend on the environment for their resources. They don’t plant or domesticate animals and depend on their own manpower to carry out their subsistence tasks. The labor is done by families or friends in small groups. These societies don’t have an occupational choice and it is definite that the man would be the animal hunter and the woman would be the gatherer of plants (Prins, 2010). Pastoralism is a pattern of subsistence where people domesticate large herds of animals to make their living. Pastoralists would tend to domesticate different species and types of animals according to the region in which they are living. Most of these animals are herbivores that eat grasses. Horses are common specie for pastoralists in Central Asia while in East Africa, cattle is the common specie. In southwest Asia the animals are sheep and goats and in lowland areas of East Africa and Southwest Asia, camels are the common specie (Prins, 2010). Pastoralists usually depend upon the temperatures and conditions of the atmosphere according to which they change their system. Horticulture is the pattern of subsistence where low intensity and small scale farming takes place. This strategy involves planting and domesticating small animals that are raised for

Debate Between the Needs of Homeland Security and Individual-Privacy Term Paper

Debate Between the Needs of Homeland Security and Individual-Privacy Expectations - Term Paper Example More specifically, the paper will examine the arguments concerning how needs of homeland security conflict with individual privacy expectations. Discussion According to Haulley (2005), the devastating September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks significantly impacted on nations around the world. Following the attacks, the United States government made the safety of the public and nation’s security a top priority. Consequently, the government passed legislation that allowed the police and security forces to have more surveillance powers. Linden (2007) asserts that this saw the introduction of new controls on the verification of identity and physical movements, which monitored movements along borders and airports. For instance, biometrics technology came into being; the introduction of such technology has given rise to debates concerning the need to balance individual liberties and protect the nation against threats from terrorists. As the department of homeland security works hard to ensure that it maintains security within the United States, it faces challenges in addressing issues of privacy. The department has not succeeded in ensuring that the issues concerning privacy are addressed comprehensively and assessed when making programmatic changes (Sauter & Carafano, 2005). Federal agencies working under the department of homeland security have engaged in data mining, which entails analyzing a lot of data to make known hidden relationships. The issue of data mining has faced uncertainty and controversy as it interferes with individual privacy. Department of homeland security does not assess the privacy risks posed by the tools used in data mining (Rabkin, 2005). According to Rabkin (2005), with the inception of the department of homeland security, issues of national security and privacy have become core in the war against terror. Whenever privacy comes in during a debate for national security, issues of whether one should keep their information private and be sa fe from attacks dominate the debate. As such, antiterrorism has set up an unreasonable equation, where people have to choose between the need for security and keep their personal information private. Both issues can be regarded as crucial as the constitution protects against the interference with personal privacy. Therefore, the government should determine the value of privacy and how it ought to be protected. In its efforts to preserve national security, the department of homeland security should not undermine the rights of individuals to keep personal information private. Debates ensue over the privacy challenges, which the department of homeland security faces, especially in reassessing the risks of privacy when changes came into being in developing a prescreening program in airlines (Sauter & Carafano, 2005). The computer-assisted system for prescreening of passengers, also known as Secure Flight, aims at assessing passengers before they board airlines in domestic flights. In su ch an instance, homeland security does not fully disclose how it will use private information. This is contrary to the privacy act of 1974, which states that the use of private information should be fully disclosed (Thaler, 2005). The Department of Homeland Security also faces the issue of making sure that considerations on privacy remain confidential in an environment where the sharing of information has become a norm. The enactment of the Intelligence

Higher education Essay Example for Free

Higher education Essay Ancient philosopher Confucius, who was considered the first professional teacher in China, opened an old-style private school in his hometown. The school enrolled more 3,000 students, and those students just paid a symbolic tuition fee as some crops and meat. The old-style private school has been followed for more than 2000 years. Therefore, the simplest and best way to disseminate knowledge is free education. China had a nine years’ compulsory education but it is not advance with the times now. China should extend years for the compulsory education that free education to senior high school students. With high school free education, students will have equal opportunities to be educated, focus on learning and improving, and improve the standard of living. Let’s look at those benefits of high school free education. Provide equal opportunities Free education of senior high school can also provide equal opportunities as the normal kid to the poor. In the past time, only wealthy people had chance to receive education, but some poor people could not. Now, everyone has right to get knowledge. Free education is a key to open the doors of hope for some smart and poor teenagers. They can have the equal opportunity as the riches to be educated. In the article, â€Å"Free education provides equal opportunities† reported that the government of China had released a newly plan of education that providing equal opportunities in education. The government will expend more power to resolve ingrained problems as extend free education. In many Chinese parents’ mind, if their children have a good and equal beginning in education, it will have a lot of means and benefits for a child’s future (Zhang Jingya, 2010). We can assure that some intelligent and poor students can gain the equal chances through free education. Free education provides some advantages to those people who deserve it and cherish it. In today’ society, everybody wants to have a brighter future, so it is not humanized to lose the better future because of the economic problem. Everyone has the chance to have a comfortable life and the only way to make it come true is to have enough knowledge. If the society can provide an equal chance for the teen that do not have the condition to be educated, they will offer society a better tomorrow. Focus on learning and Improving Free education of senior high school will help the teenagers focus on learning and improving. China promulgated the law on compulsory education in 1986. The government should provide a nine years compulsory education that school should be free of tuition fees and other expenses for all young people. If China extends years for the compulsory education to high school students, it will help some students without worry about the payment of tuition fees and other expenses. They should focus on learning and receiving more knowledge. For example, in the article â€Å"China pledges elimination of rural compulsory education charges in two years†, author says that in some places that particularly in the impoverished rural regions, the law of compulsory education didn’t executed because local government couldn’t cost. Many schools are forcing for continue to collect expenses and charge various miscellaneous fees on their students as voluntary donations, fund-raising for school construction, and after-school tutoring fees (March 5, 2006). Free high school education will help students to pay more attention to learning not the economic hardship of their family. Furthermore, teenagers in senior high school age are about the puberty. That means they are not mature enough in their body and mind. They can’t distinguish the right or wrong in a very advisable way like the adult. As the reason of that, if they give up attending high school because of the economic problem and entering society too early they may lose their way. It is so easy that they make a mistake which will influence their entire life, like involved in a crime. The free education of high school can change this situation. It is better to keep the teenagers in school so they can learn more knowledge and mature their outlook on life. Improve the standard of living Free education of senior high school can improve the standard of living. Francis Bacon said â€Å"Knowledge is Power†. This kind of power should make people’s life more wonderful and colorful because knowledge can produce many things. Free high school education would help more people have higher education. In the article, â€Å"Knowledge Changes Fate†, the author said that knowledge becomes the most significant content of human’s life. It contributes a lot in the economic, welfare and culture of the society. The foundation that supports the movie â€Å"Knowledge Changes Fate† wants to express the theme that the only way to change your fate is to be educated and get more knowledge (Li kasheng, 1999). When people are high educated, they would have more chances to achieve their dreams and plans. Obviously, higher education can help people to win the fierce competition and earns more money. They can live the life better by being successful. When people have higher education, people will think about to improve their personal cultivation after eliminate the struggle for basic needs. As they feel satisfied about their own life, they will do some society works and volunteering and concern more issues which like the society problems and environment problems. Therefore, more free education would have positive and upward influences for the overall quality and minding in the society. Conclusion As all of the content of the essay states, free education of senior high school can advantage our society by many different ways. It can provide an equal opportunity to the teen that cannot bear the cost of education, help the teen to focus on learning and improving, and improve the whole living standard of the society. Although China is a powerful and prosperous country today, our education system still has many leaks need to improve and the most urgent is the free education. If the expectation of free education comes true, China will step in a brand new future. The ancient philosopher Confucius enrolled almost 3000 students and he only charged the tuition fee of some crops and meat as the free education. How the ancient can do this kind of free education, but we cannot? The knowledge is invaluable because it help people to change their whole life. On another hand, senior high school education should be free in China. References China pledges elimination of rural compulsory education charges in two years. (2006). Retrieved March 5, 2006, from http://english. peopledaily. com. cn/200603/05/print20060305_248042. html Jingya, Z. (2010). Free education provides equal opportunities. Retrieved August 6, 2010, from http://english. cntv. cn/program/china24/20100806/100804. shtml Kashing, L. (1999). Knowledge changes fate. Retrieved from http://www. lksf. org/en/project/education/knowledge/main01.

The Emancipation Of Serfs

The Emancipation Of Serfs From the mid-nineteenth century the pace of change in Russia rapidly accelerated. The decade following the Crimean warrior saw the most dramatic social and institutional upheaval that the empire had ever undergone. Central to the so-called Great Reforms of the period was the abolition of serfdom. The statute of 1861 set the 22 million serfs owned by private landlords free from personal bondage. The fundamental relationship upon which the economic, social and politic structure of the empire had been based was to be dismantled. In 1861 serfdom, the system, which tied the Russian peasants irrevocably to their landlords, was abolished at the Tsars imperial command. Four years later, slavery in the USA was similarly declared unlawful by presidential order. Tsar Alexander II (1855-81) shared with his father, Nicholas I, a conviction that American slavery was inhumane. This is not as hypocritical as it might first appear. The serfdom that had operated in Russia since the middle of the seventeenth century was technically not slavery. The landowner did not own the serf. This contrasted with the system in the USA where the Negro slaves were chattels; that is, they were regarded in law as the disposable property of their masters. In Russia the traditional relationship between lord and serf was based on land. It was because he lived on his land that the serf was bound to the lord. The Russian system dated back to 1649 and the introduction of a legal code, which had granted total authority to the landowner to control the life and work of the peasant serfs who lived on his land. Since this included the power to deny the serf the right to move elsewhere, the difference between slavery and serfdom in practice was so fine as to be indistinguishable. The purpose behind the granting of such powers to the Russian dvoriane (nobility of landowners) in 1649 had been to make the nobles dependent on, and therefore loyal to, the tsar. They were to express that loyalty in practical form by serving the tsar as military officers or public officials. In this way the Romanov emperors built up Russias civil bureaucracy and the armed services as bodies of public servants who had a vested interest in maintaining the tsarist state. The serfs made up just over a third of the population and formed half of the peasantry. They were most heavily concentrated in the central and western provinces of Russia. Reasons for The Emancipation Edict of 1861 In a number of respects serfdom was not dissimilar to the feudalism that had operated in many parts of pre-modern Europe. However, long before the 19th century, the feudal system had been abandoned in Western Europe as it moved into the commercial and industrial age. Imperial Russia underwent no such transition. It remained economically and socially backward. Nearly all Russians acknowledged this. Some, known as slavophiles, rejoiced, claiming that holy Russia was a unique God-inspired nation that had nothing to learn from the corrupt nations to the west. But many Russians, of all ranks and classes, had come to accept that reform of some kind was unavoidable if their nation was to progress. It became convenient to use serfdom to explain all Russias current weaknesses: it was responsible for military incompetence, food shortages, over population, civil disorder, and industrial backwardness. These were oversimplified explanations but theyre some truth in all of them: serfdom was symptomatic of the underlying difficulties that held Russia back from progress. It was, therefore, a particularly easy target for the intelligentsia, those intellectuals who in their writings argued for the liberalizing of Russian society, beginning with the emancipation of the exploited peasants. Nikolai Miliutin, who participated in bringing about the reform, believed that it was necessary to end serfdom to increase agricultural productivity and thereby increase the capital required for industrialization. His friend the legal historian and westernizer Constantine Kavelin, who had good connections with reform-minded relatives of the tsar, maintained that serfdom was the chief cause of poverty in Russia. Although historians have debated to what extent serfdom retarded economic development, what is crucial is that Alexander II and other important figures such as Samarin, Nikolai Miliutin, and Kavelin believed that ending serfdom would strengthen the Russian economy and thereby the country as a whole. As often happened in Russian history, it was war that forced the issue. The Russian state had entered the Crimean War in 1854 with high hopes of victory. Two years later it suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the Allied armies of France, Britain and Turkey. The shock to Russia was profound. The nation had always prided itself on its martial strength. Now it had been humiliated. In 1856, the Slavophile Yuri Samarin wrote: We were defeated (in the Crimean war) not by external forces of the western alliance but by our own internal weaknessà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Now, when Europe welcomes peace and rest desired for so long we must deal with what we have neglectedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦At the head of the contemporary domestic questions which must be dealt with, the problem of serfdom stands as a threat to the future and an obstacle in the present to significant improvement in any way  [1]   Defeat in the Crimean war was a profound shock to Russians, and one, which compelled a complete reappraisal of the empire and of its place in the world. It revealed what many had long suspected, that profound disorder was undermining the empires capacity to sustain its role as a European great power. It demonstrated that the army, reputedly the strongest in Europe, could not defend a fortified base in its homeland against troops dispatched from thousands of miles away. It is said that Nicholas I on his deathbed acknowledged the tacit condemnation of his system, enjoying his son to take action to remedy the disorder in the command. The shortcomings of Russias military performance were due not least to the backward stare of her industry and communications and the precarious condition of her finances. She was unable either to manufacture new rifles to match those her adversaries possessed or to purchase them abroad. Much of what was available, including food and weapons, never reached the battlefield over the muddy tracks and dusty post-roads, which connected the southern extremity with the heartlands of the empire. The Emancipation Of Serfs Alexander II was the tsar liberator, the ruler who finally freed the serfs in 1861. He also instituted other important reforms, especially in local government, the judiciary, and the military. Mindful of Russian weakness displayed during the Crimean war and faced with serious economic problems, he hoped the reforms would strengthen Russia without weakening autocracy. Fulfilling such a combined goal however was an almost impossible task, even if Alexander II had been a stronger and more visionary leader than he was. Although the reforms helped modernize Russia, the climate that bred them also fostered discontentment and discord. Reactionaries, conservatives, liberals, radicals, and government officials battled against each other and among themselves. The keystone of the reforms was the emancipation of the serfs, which, by releasing roughly half the peasants from personal bondage while guaranteeing them land, cleared the way in principle for them to become small property owners and full citizens, able to participate without handicap in political life and in the market economy. In practice the emancipation edict stopped well short of doing that. We have seen that the provisions regarding land disappointed most peasants, leaving them with an abiding grievance. Furthermore, though no longer enserfed, they remained segregated in so-called village societies, usually the old village commune, which contained only peasants as members; priests, schoolteachers, medical orderlies and other people who happened to live in the village were excluded from membership. Peasants were bound to these village societies, which held their pass books, until they had paid in full for the land that they were allocated, in a redemption operation scheduled to take forty-nine years; during that time they could not mobilize their resources by selling their allotments or using them as a collateral to raise loans. They were subject to a legal system distinct from that introduced for the rest of the population, they were tried in segregated volost courts, and they were still liable to corporal punishment and to mutual responsibility. The volosti or cantons, the higher-level administrative unit encompassing several villages and perhaps a small town, likewise admitted peasants only to its assembly and its courts. Nikolai Miliutin, who participated in bringing about the reform, believed that it was necessary to end serfdom to increase agricultural productivity and thereby increase the capital required for industrialization. His friend the legal historian and westernizer Constantine Kavelin, who had good connections with reform-minded relatives of the tsar, maintained that serfdom was the chief cause of poverty in Russia. Although historians have debated to what extent serfdom retarded economic development, what is crucial is that Alexander II and other important figures such as Samarin, Nikolai Miliutin, and Kavelin believed that ending serfdom would strengthen the Russian economy and thereby the country as a whole. 2On February 19, 1861, Alexander II signed the legislation into law. The new law was a political compromise between the interests of the nobles and those of the peasants and their supporters, and the government was unsure of the response of either side. The nearly 400 pages of statutes and annexes that made up the new law were terribly complex, but the emancipation provisions can be summed up as follows: The right of bondage over serfs was abolished forever (except in some outlying areas of the empire such as the Caucasus, where separate emancipation legislation came later. New arrangements regarding gentry-peasant relations and landholding were to be worked out in stages during the next few decades. Peasants who had previously farmed gentry land, as opposed to household serfs, were eventually to receive land, the exact amount to be determined by combinations of negotiation, government maximum and minimum norms for each province and the use of mediators. Most of this new land was to go to peasant communes, not directly to individual peasants. Landowners were to be compensated for their loss of lands by a combination of government notes and peasant payments. Peasants, unless they chose a free and miniscule beggars allotment, were obliged to repay the government with annual redemption payments spread over a 49 year period. Significance of The Emancipation Edict of 1861 Emancipation proved the first in a series of measures that Alexander produced as a part of a programme that included legal and administrative reform and the extension of press and university freedoms. But behind all these reforms lay an ulterior motive. Alexander II was not being liberal for its own sake. According to official records kept by the Ministry of the Interior (equivalent to the Home Office in Britain) there had been 712 peasant uprisings in Russia between 1826 and 1854. By granting some of the measures that the intelligentsia had called for, while in fact tightening control over the peasants, Alexander intended to lessen the social and political threat to the established system that those figures frighteningly represented. Above all, he hoped that an emancipated peasantry, thankful for the gifts that a bountiful tsar had given them, would provide physically fitter and morally worthier recruits for Russias armies, the symbol and guarantee of Russias greatness as a nation. There is a sense in which the details of Emancipation were less significant than the fact of the reform itself. Whatever its shortcomings, emancipation was the prelude to the most sustained programme of reform that imperial Russia had yet experienced (see the Timeline). There is also the irony that such a sweeping move could not have been introduced except by a ruler with absolute powers; it could not have been done in a democracy. The only comparable social change of such magnitude was President Lincolns freeing of the Negro slaves in 1865. But, as a modern Russian historian (Alexander Chubarov, The Fragile Empire, New York, 1999, p.75) has provocatively pointed out: the [Russian] emancipation was carried out on an infinitely larger scale, and was achieved without civil war and without devastation or armed coercion. Yet when that achievement has been duly noted and credited, hindsight suggests that emancipation was essentially a failure. It raised expectations and dashed them. Russia gave promise of entering a new dawn but then retreated into darkness. This tends to suggest that Alexander II and his government deliberately set out to betray the peasants. This was certainly the argument used by radical critics of the regime. It is important to consider, however, that land reform always takes time to work. It can never be a quick fix. Alexanders prime motive in introducing emancipation was undoubtedly the desire to produce results that were beneficial to his regime. But this is not to suggest that he was insincere in his wish to elevate the condition of the peasants. Where he can be faulted is in his failure to push reform far enough. The fact is that Alexander II suffered from the besetting dilemma that afflicted all the reforming tsars from Peter the Great onwards how to achieve reform without damaging the interests of the privileged classes that made up imperial Russia. It was a question that was never satisfactorily answered because it was never properly faced. Whenever their plans did not work out or became difficult to achieve, the Romanovs abandoned reform and resorted to coercion and repression. Emancipation was intended to give Russia economic and social stability and thus prepare the way for its industrial and commercial growth. But it ended in failure. It both frightened the privileged classes and disappointed the progressives. It went too far for those slavophiles in the court who wanted Russia to cling to its old ways and avoid the corruption that came with western modernity. It did not go far enough for those progressives who believed that a major social transformation was needed in Russia. There is a larger historical perspective. It is suggested by many historians that, for at least a century before its collapse in the Revolution of 1917, imperial Russia had been in institutional crisis; the tsarist system had been unable to find workable solutions to the problems that faced it. If it was to modernize itself, that is to say if it was to develop its agriculture and industry to the point where it could sustain its growing population and compete on equal terms with its European and Asian neighbors and international competitors, it would need to modify its existing institutions. This it proved unable or unwilling to do. Therein lies the tragedy of Emancipation. It is an outstanding example of tsarist ineptitude. Its introduction held out the possibility that Russia could build on this fundamentally progressive measure and modify its agricultural economy in such a manner as to cater for its vast population, which doubled to 125 million during the second half of the 19th century. But the chance was lost. So reduced was the peasant as an agricultural worker by 1900 that only half of his meagre income came from farming. He had to sustain himself by laboring. So much for Alexander IIs claim that he viewed the task of improving the condition of the peasants as a sacred inheritance to which he was honor bound. Immediate impact of The Emancipation Edict of 1861 The immediate impact of the statute was much less dramatic than this longer-term picture might suggest, not least because of the economic terms and administrative arrangements under which the peasants were set free. These terms preserved, if in milder form, many of the obstacles to economic growth and social change characteristic of the pre-reform era. The principle of the statute was that the serfs would be emancipated with their household plots and an allotment of land, but that they should pay for this land. The amount of land made available to them to purchase should be approximately equivalent to the allotments they had been allowed to till for their own subsistence under serfdom. The government would compensate the nobility immediately and the peasantry would repay the government would compensate the nobility immediately and the peasantry would repay the government with redemption dues spread over a period of forty-nine years. In practice the peasantry allotments were significa ntly smaller than those they had used before emancipation; the cut offs withheld by landlords were particularly large in the fertile black-earth regions and were a source of intense and lasting bitterness. The price the peasants paid was artificially inflated to compensate the nobility for the dues in labor and cash, which they were losing. However unattractive the peasants found the terms of land redemption, they were compelled to transfer from the initial status of temporarily obligated tenants to outrights purchasers if their landlords insisted. On the other hand, where it suited the nobility to retain landownership, they could, until 1881, refuse to embark upon redemption at all. Negative Impacts on the serfs As was to be expected, the reaction to the emancipation manifesto was mixed. Many of the emancipated serfs were confused about the complex new statutes and disbelieving or disappointed when told they would have to make payments (for half a century) for land they received. Many peasants believed that the fault with evil officials and nobles who were frustrating the tsars real intentions. They thought that as soon as he overcame these troublemakers, new, more favorable, legislation would be forthcoming. Before the year was over, nobles reported more than 1000 disturbances, most of which required to quell. In the summer of 1861, alexander felt it necessary to admonish a delegation of peasants: There will be no emancipation expect the one I have granted you. Obey the law and statutes! Work and toil! Obey the authorities and noble landowners! The following selection is from the first edition of the Englishmans first-hand observations and reflections. 3It might be reasonably supposed that the serfs received with boundless gratitude and delight the manifestoà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦in reality the manifesto created among the peasantry a feeling of disappointment rather than delight. To understand this strange fact we must endeavor to place ourselves at the peasants point of view. In the first place it must be remarked that all vague rhetorical phrases about free labor, human dignity, national progress, and the like, which may be readily produce among educated men a certain amount of temporary enthusiasm, fall on the ears of the Russian peasant like drops of rain on a granite mark. Collectively the former serfs received less land than their pre-emancipation allotments. More than one-fourth of them received allotments insufficient to maintain their households-former serfs of polish landowners, especially after polish rebellion of 1863, and imperial and state peasants came off better. Overall the noble serf owners kept roughly two-fifth of their lands, whereas the ex-serfs, greatly outnumbering them, received the rest. And the peasants eventually paid more for their land than it was worth and received land less suitable than that retained by the owners. The economic impact on the peasantry of the settlement and the powers entrusted to the post-emancipation commune is, as we shall see, a matter of fierce controversy. Clearly, the phasing out of traditional dues removed the spectre of increased production being creamed off by the landlord, while peasant security was increased by the opportunity to buy the land. Peasants on crown lands and state peasants, liberated by the statutes of 1863 and 1866 on broadly similar terms to those of private serfs, were able to buy rather more land on better terms. Yet the peasantry as a whole remained in a position of extreme economic and political weakness. Advantaged households might briefly establish a privileged position within their own commune and rent land from the nobility on their behalf. But the containing practice of periodic communal redistribution of land, the heavy impositions of state, the vulnerability of even the most successful household to the vagaries of the climate-all provided major obstacles to the emergence of study yeomen. Most significant was the process by which peasants continued to divide the land of large households to set up new families in their own homes and merged plots which old age and death had rendered unviable. The overwhelming majority of peasants remained middle peasants who, despite gradual integration into the market and a slow rise in literacy, remained in large measure set apart form and subordinate to the world outside. The other Great Reforms of 1860s, affecting the judicial system, the press, and the universities, had little effect on the peasantry. They did gain a minority voice on the new local government bodies (zemstva) set up in 1864, but they tended to view them as an additional burden rather that as a vehicle for pursuit of their own interests. For the most part, their political leverage was still restricted to local instances of illegal resistance and spectre of mass disturbances. Amidst the dislocation of Crimean war and the uncertainty, which followed it, rural unrest had made a significant impact on government policy. Peasant protest had reached a level, which led Soviet historians to identify the period as Russian first revolutionary situation. Acute disappointments at being made to pay for the land they considered their own sparked widespread-an in places violent- protest between March and May 1861. But swift and drastic actions by the government succeeded in crushing resistance. Although below the surface tension remained high in the countryside at once refle cted in and fed by repeated rumors of an imminent real Emancipation the number of disturbances trailed off. Yet in the midst of these economic and cultural changes, the peasants gained no new outlets for their political aspirations. Other hand the Zemstvos (which had limited functions and powers), they had no institutions through which they could express their grievances and seek solutions to them. Even as they were beginning from below to bridge the gap between themselves and the empires elites, there was no sign of a civic nation, which they could join. For such a system to work, however, the peasants would have needed a sufficient amount of land or unrestricted opportunities to make money in non-agricultural employment. Neither desideratum was attained. While maximum and minimum norms were established for different zones, they were not always realized or adequate in all cases even when they were realized. The peasants often lost land, particularly in black earth region- in sartov and Samara more than 40 per cent of what they had previously worked. In such provinces, they were often forced by economic circumstances if not by law to continue working for their masters (otrabotka replacing barshchina in technical terms). In less fertile regions near the center and in the north, it is true, they often gained land, but here the obrok form of payment had long been more profitable for the landlords than labor services, and therefore land was not as important to the erstwhile masters as cash. Alternative View on The Emancipation Edict of 1861 The following selection is from the memoirs of Prince Peter Kropotkin, a student in the corps of pages in 1861 when a statute abolishing serfdom was enacted. I was in Nikolskoye in August 1861, and again in the summer of 1862, and I was struck with the quiet, intelligent way in which the peasants had accepted the new conditions. They knew perfectly well how difficult it would be to pay the redemption tax for the land, which was in reality an indemnity to the nobles in lieu of the obligations of serfdom. But they so much valued the abolition of their personal enslavement that they accepted the ruinous charges not without murmuring, but as a hard necessity the moment that personal freedom was obtainedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ When I saw our Nikolskoye peasants, fifteen months after liberation, I could not but admire them. Their inborn good nature and softness remained with them, but all traces of servility had disappeared. They talked to their masters as equals talk to equals, as if they never had stood in different relations. Besides, such men came out from among them as could make a stand for their rights

Culture and Public Relations: Links and Implications

Culture and Public Relations: Links and Implications Public relations can be described as an industry which builds bridges and maintain relationships with an organization and its intended public. At its very core, public relations it about connecting people, making it a very human oriented industry. Because it is so human oriented, it results in a PR person having to interact with many people, who may come from several different cultures. Culture, as explained by Thwaites, is the ensemble of social processes by which meanings are produced, circulated, exchanged (Thwaites, Davis, Mules, 1994). In short, it is simply the production of meanings by people. It is especially important for PR activity in terms of its role in the meaning-making process. Culture is multi-discursive and can be contested. It is also dynamic and historical. This means that culture is not stagnant and can evolve over time. This essay seeks to explore the relationship between culture and public relations in depth, especially the importance of intercultural competence in relation to a PR practitioner’s work. In order for a PR practitioner to properly carry out their work, cultural research is essential. To do so, they can adopt the use of anthropology and ethnography. According to the American Anthropological Association (n.d.), anthropology is the study of humans, whether past or present. Sociocultural anthropology explores the social patterns and practices across different cultures, especially how people live, organize, govern and create meaning. Traditionally, the anthropology approach treats culture as predictive, static and a casual variable (Bardhan Weaver, 2010). However, it is still useful to examine cultures in different contexts as they offer alternative ways of thinking about public relations. On the other hand, ethnography can help PR practitioners understand public relations and its effects in different ways. As one come across research from the 1990s and 2000s, they will realize that many of these researches drew on Hofstede’s extensive studies, mapping four dimensions of national culture. These four dimensions of national cultures are: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity versus feminity and individualist versus collective. Although extensive, Hofstede’s studies show only a static understand of culture, and is focused on understanding the culture of others in order to perform business functions more effectively. In spite of that, public relations should focus more on building and maintaining multicultural relationships and communities. In this increasingly globalized world, PR practitioners are crossing borders more, whether online or offline. Effectively, PR practitioners can be said as culture workers. Because of this, PR practitioners need to have more understanding of different cultures and the cultural differences. By developing an understanding for cultural differences, they may come to realize that one approach may not work across all cultures. As such, intercultural competence is very important for a PR practitioner. Developing intercultural competence will allow for a PR practitioner to come up with better approaches when working with different cultures. One example will be the difference between PR in America and China. Using Hofstede’s dimensions, one will find that the Chinese culture is very different from the American culture. The Chinese society in China firmly believes that a wide power distance is acceptable and that inequalities are acceptable; whereas the Americans are more open and there is a very narrow power distance between the higher and lower ranking members of an organization. PR in Singapore is also vastly different to practices in China. To the Chinese, because China is such a relationship-rooted society, networking and PR activities are expected to include gifting, as well as having to â€Å"wine and dine† a client before discussing official business. In Singapore, this is not widely-practiced, and doing so may seem like one is accepting favours or bribes. Such are examples of how difference in culture may affect a PR practitioner’s approach. Cultures may also be split into three areas, namely: occupational, organizational and education and research. In occupational cultures, research has to be done as cultural concepts are key to understanding public relations â€Å"as an occupational culture as well as a form of culture-worker† (Edwards Hodges, 2011). The various roles of public relations in culture highlights many different practices, which can be applied to many aspects of client handling. PR in occupational cultures can also be said to comprise of more than one culture such as â€Å"consultancy culture† and â€Å"in-house culture†. These cultural constraints, if understood, can help explain the relationship between PR and society. On top of that, it can also shine light on how cultural and societal conventions influence the industry in different contexts, and shape expectations and generate stereotypes or caricatures (Edwards Hodges, 2011). On the other hand, PR in organizational culture approaches research very differently and for different purposes. Anthropological concepts can be used to decipher the role of public relations in order to establish dichotomy of a manager-technician (Edwards Hodges, 2011). Because the nature of a PR practitioner’s work is necessarily cultural, research is instrumental to show that they are doing more outside of what is commonly perceived of them. In educational and research cultures, PR research can be useful to provide insights into â€Å"the existence and origin of resistances and negotiation over the curriculum† (Edwards Hodges, 2011). Ethnographical research can also be used to look into the cultures of professionals and those who are involved in the education industry. Because of the diversity of cultures, a PR practitioner has to develop a set of intercultural skills which are crucial to their work. Some examples of such skills will include knowledge of the different cultures, having an open mind as well as having empathy. Intercultural skills are important to a PR practitioner simply because of the number of different cultures that they will interact with in the span of their career. More often than not, a PR practitioner will find that a single approach will not work across all cultures, that â€Å"one shoe does not fit all†. As such, honing their intercultural skills is a must in order for them to come up with cultural-appropriate approaches. Intercultural competence involves both intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. Intrapersonal competencies mostly involve cognitive skills, which is altering one’s perspective to see from another person’s perspective. It also involves self-reflection, problem solving, as well as culture-detection (Stier, 2006). In addition, it also deals with understanding why people feel certain ways as well as the implications of these feelings and how people cope with them, which may be triggered by unknown cultural settings (Stier, 2006). Interpersonal competencies, however, involves interactive skills. Skills such as being able to â€Å"detect and interpret non-verbal cues, subtle signals and emotional responses† (Steir, 2006), as well as how to respond to them fittingly. The most important aspect of intercultural competence that a PR person has to possess is arguably empathy. Empathy, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is the act of understanding and being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts and experiences of another. Being a â€Å"culture worker†, a PR person’s work spans many cultures. One have to understand that imposing their own thoughts and culture on another will not go down well, and that the right approach is to instead take the time to first understand how the culture functions and produce meaning. Culture plays a very big part in a PR person’s work. It is closely related to the way a PR practitioner is able to carry out their work, and PR practitioners have to do adequate research in order to prep themselves for the different cultures they will come across. Common research methods include the anthropological and ethnographical methods. Other than research, intercultural competence is also very important to a PR person. Because we live in an increasingly globalized community, it is inevitable that we will interact with many different cultures. Understanding of these cultures and one’s own will help one to understand the differences in each other’s cultures, so as to come up with better approaches when working with them. In conclusion, PR work requires cultural competence as it negotiates cultures, crossing boundaries online and off. Practitioners have to be flexible and understand the cultural values which are the foundations of the industry, as well as understand their cultural heritage. PR work also requires global and local knowledge, so as to facilitate to different cultures. Most of all, PR people should focus on building positive multicultural relationships and communities, as well as maintaining them. References What is Anthropology? (n.d.). Retrieved May 26, 2015, from http://www.aaanet.org/about/whatisanthropology.cfm Bardhan, N., Weaver, C. (2010). Public relations in global cultural contexts (p. 298). London, Abingdon, Ox: Routledge. Definition of â€Å"Empathy†. (n.d.). Retrieved May 27, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empathy Edwards, L., Hodges, C. (2011). Public relations, society culture: Theoretical and empirical explorations (1st ed.). New York, New York: Routledge. Stier, J. (2006). Internationalisation, intercultural communication and intercultural competence. Journal of Intercultural Communication, (11). Retrieved May 27, 2015, from http://www.immi.se/intercultural/nr11/stier.pdf Thwaites, T., Davis, L., Mules, W. (1994). Tools for cultural studies: An introduction (1st ed.). South Melbourne, Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia.

Platos Concept Of Justice Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Plato's Concept Of Justice ABSTRACT: In his philosophy Plato gives a prominent place to the idea of justice. Plato was highly dissatisfied with the prevailing degenerating conditions in Athens. The Athenian democracy was on the verge of ruin and was ultimately responsible for Socrates's death. The amateur meddlesomeness and excessive individualism became main targets of Plato's attack. This attack came in the form of the construction of an ideal society in which justice reigned supreme, since Plato believed justice to be the remedy for curing these evils. After criticizing the conventional theories of justice presented differently by Cephalus, Polymarchus, Thrasymachus and Glaucon, Plato gives us his own theory of justice according to which, individually, justice is a 'human virtue' that makes a person self-consistent and good; socially, justice is a social consciousness that makes a society internally harmonious and good. According to Plato, justice is a sort of specialization. Plato in his philosophy gives very important place to the idea of justice. He used the Greek word "Dikaisyne" for justice which comes very near to the work 'morality' or 'righteousness', it properly includes within it the whole duty of man. It also covers the whole field of the individual's conduct in so far as it affects others. Plato contended that justice is the quality of soul, in virtue of which men set aside the irrational desire to taste every pleasure and to get a selfish satisfaction out of every object and accommodated themselves to the discharge of a single function for the general benefit. Plato was highly dissatisfied with the prevailing degenerating conditions in Athens. The Athenian democracy was on the verge of ruin and was ulti... ...refore, be like that harmony of relationship where the Planets are held together in the orderly movement. Plato was convinced that a society which is so organized is fit for survival. Where man are out of their natural places, there the co-ordination of parts is destroyed, the society disintegrates and dissolves. Justice, therefore, is the citizen sense of duties. Justice is, for Plato, at once a part of human virtue and the bond, which joins man together in society. It is the identical quality that makes good and social . Justice is an order and duty of the parts of the soul, it is to the soul as health is to the body. Plato says that justice is not mere strength, but it is a harmonious strength. Justice is not the right of the stronger but the effective harmony of the whole. All moral conceptions revolve about the good of the whole-individual as well as social.

Web Advertising :: essays research papers

These days, you can’t sell a product or service without marketing it to the masses. And there’s no better place to start than on the web. Internet advertising is a gold mine with virtually every company in America represented. But with so many online competitors, advertisers must use special techniques and technologies to get the word out. The key to beating your competitors is by maximizing cost efficiency. The way to achieve this is by utilizing all the web has to offer for little or no money before spending on expensive technology. The first, probably the least expensive and most effective way to market your company online is by setting up enormous amounts of links to your site. For example, the Prairie State Bank in Marengo, Illinois is it’s local park district, the chamber of commerce, the state of Illinois, as well as weather sites, map sites, and online auto dealerships. So a man interested in buying a car online could click on the link to the bank to figure out the finances. (Dysart) Second, you must get listed on search engines. Many web surfers use Yahoo, Alta Vista and Excite every day to find specific information quickly. Because these engines have the incredible power to direct thousands of surfers, online companies are paying an arm and a leg to have their link be among the first links listed by the search engines. (Dysart) Third, you have to market kids who will eventually be potential customers. Many online companies directed toward adults offer children’s games and other services. The First National Bank of Milton, Illinois offers kids a homework helper and has links to toy stores and video game sites. (Dysart) Fourth, you can easily assure your credibility to prospective customers by creating a newsletter. In most cases the reader would sign up for a monthly e-mail from the company about any new business. This makes the reader feel like they’re important customers and boosts sales. (Dysart) Fifth, you must offer coupons. This technique works just as well off the net as it does on and should not be overlooked. They can be given to the customer via e-mail and printed out from their home or office computers. This makes the customer more likely to go to your site before checking out the competition. (Dysart) Sixth, nothing is more valuable than word-of-mouth. Your company’s web site isn’t complete without a â€Å"recommend this site to a friend† button.

The City and Its Workers

Chapter 19 The city and its workers (1870-1900) Jump Start: March 14, 2011 As the 19th century closes and the 20th century begins, different technologies help spur the many changes taking place. What symbolism can we take from the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge? It is a marker of time periods (separates this time period from that time period) March 16,2011Why did some immigrant groups decide to stay in the United States after arriving, while other groups only stayed long enough to make some money? March 17, 2011 What were Jim Crow Laws? Give an example of how they were applied. March 18, 2011 Who was Jacob Riis? What did he produce? Why was it important? March 21,2011 Explain the new emerging class systems, which were based upon occupation. White collar blue collar- largely unskilled( jobs require more physical than intellectual) United states emerged as a major industrial power by the end of the 19th century * Large scale immigration, urbanization, and technological innovation help out great promise for future, even as these dramatic changes led to social dislocation, urban squalor, labor strife, and death. * Constructed between 1869-1883, the Brooklyn bridge stood as a testament to the wonders and horrors of America at the close of the nineteenth and opening of the twentieth century * Its construction cost the lives of wenty men and it was considered both a work of art and an engineering marvel upon completion The rise of the city * By the end of the nineteenth century, the emergence of the modern city represented the most dramatic demographic development in the united states * From New york to Chicago to Los Angeles, cities exploded in size, fed in part by the rapid pace of global migrations, especially from southern and eastern Europe * BEFORE 1880 immigrants came from the northern and western Europe * AFTER 1880 immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe.Racism and the cry for Immigration Restriction * Workers often found themselves pitted again st one another, with ethnic rivalry dividing the skilled northern European workers and the unskilled southern and eastern European workers. * Even among educated people of the nineteenth century, the ethnic and religious differences of immigrants were perceived as racial characteristics. * The idea of social Darwinism further supported â€Å"white† society’s claim to racial superiority. African Americans in the North African Americans began their migration north in search of equality * In an effort to leave behind the segregation and Jim Crow Laws of the south, they found jobs on the bottoms rung of the occupational ladder. Asian Americans * Asians= scapegoats of the changing economy A new king of racism * Many Americans saw newcomers as impossible to assimilate * Trade Unions and old-stock aristocrats criticized America’s Immigration policies * A literacy test for new European immigrants passed through Congress but was vetoed by President Grover Cleveland.Jacob Riis * His How the Other Half Lives (1890) graphically showed the poverty of the ghettos * The nouveaux riches (new rich) provided the grandeur and splendor of the age with their magnificent mansions and ostentatious costume parties. * With 1% of the populations owning more than half of the property in America. Plessy v. Fergoson -Separate but equal is ok Brown v. Board of education Topeka, Kansas * Separate but equal is unconstitutional With industrialization and urbanization came both great poverty and great wealth within the cities. * In the outer circles of the cites, people had more money, lived in single family homes, and commuted to work on streetcars. What types of workers were there? * Workers in American industry in the late nineteenth century worked in a variety of settings , ranging from: * Skilled occupations in factories * Piecework that was contracted within the home * construction White-collar office work. * Backbone of the American labor force were the common labor ers. * These â€Å"human machines† stood at the bottom of the country’s economic ladder and generally am recent groups * At the opposite end of the labor spectrum were skilled craftsmen * Employers attempted to end the control that skilled works had ove their. work by bearjng slmalled oarts andtrokcadin the skiled workers with the unskilled * Women typically earned less money than their male counterparts, many oung worjubg men sought hear in dance halls, social clubs, and amusement park after exhausting. America’s diverse workers * Although such efficiencies meant that a greater variety of goods at lower * Boys who lived in the cites some as young as 6 years old, plied their trades as bootblacks and newsboys; Many of the boys were homeless, orphaned or cast off by their families The family economy : women and children * In new york city, the children’s aid societiey tried to better the situation of these, the city’s youngest works=er

Is Corruption free India Possible? Essay

Even after 62 years of India’s independence, the plight of common man has worsened. Corrupt public servants, corrupt judges, corrupt police, etc are proving to be parasites leading 5-star lifestyles at taxpayer’s expense. They in their greed for money, bribe are aiding & abetting terrorists, separatists, naxalites, underworld mafia, etc covertly & overtly, backstabbing our motherland. These corrupt public servants are crueler than Jalianwallah Bagh butcher General Dyer of British army. If Mahatma Gandhi was alive today, he would have been disgusted with the present way of democratic government, functioning of public servants & would have died heart broken. If our freedom martyrs like sri.Bhagath Singh or Sri. Madan Lal Dingra or Sri.Subhash Chandra Bose would have been alive; they would have given a befitting reply to this corrupt police, corrupt judges, and public servants. Whenever, a common man raises his voice for justice, he is silenced in various ways by the criminal nexus. The said criminal nexus has previously tried to silence me in many ways including attempts to murder, closure of newspaper etc. We can when we develop our roads n infrastructure we can control lot. On the other hand we should have eye old vehicles which are polluting lot n share autos too. I dont think so becuase it requires a lot of political will to impose anti pollution laws. And this political will is what is absent. Mere laws wouldnt suffice in a country with an overflowing population as ours, what we need is strict†¦ I THINK COPPUPTION IS BIG PROBLEM IN GROWING COUNTRY I THINK WE ALL RESPONCEBLE FOR THIS BECAUSE WE ALL USE A SHORTCUT FOR OUR WORK WE KNOW IS THIS A WRONG WAY BUT WE CLOSE OUR EYES & AFTER WE ARE PART OF COPPUPTION PLEASE FRIENDS STOP THIS & SOPPERT SELF FOR A MADE OF BATTER INDIA, THANKS FRIENDS FOR SOPPURT INDIA (NAMASKAR) Essay Improper and usually unlawful conduct intended to secure a benefit for oneself or another. Its forms include bribery, extortion, and the misuse of inside information. It exists where there is community indifference or a  lack of enforcement policies. In societies with a culture of ritualized gift giving, the line between acceptable and unacceptable gifts is often hard to draw. The last two decades of the existence of independence, India has seen a steep upward trend in the graph of existing corruption. The media, the public, the variety of forums for discussions and debates for the higher intelligentsia are all neck deep buried in highlighting the rampant corruption in every sphere. In this debate the rural folk are also not far behind. These days they are also very well aware of the malpractices in the highest of levels of all places. So much so that now, the average Indian has reached the highest level of disgust and disappointment at the way things are moving in this country. Let us first of all understand what is meant by corruption and corrupt practices. In brief, anything that is below all standard norms of morality in a country, is called or defined as corruption and corrupt practices. These norms are a fixed standard in any given society, and when these are broken we say that, a society is getting corrupted. This corruption as we see it today is not a development that has come overnight, it has been a continuous process for the last several decades and, to – day it has seeped into the very blood stream of the system. What we have to study next is, why and how this monster of corruption has taken such a firm hold on India so much so that, the country of the legendary Harischandra, the honest has reached the position of one of the top ten or so of corrupt countries of the world. This is no mean achievement, and has taken a few decades to fructify. It is not that, corruption did not exist earlier, it is not that to – day there are no honest people, then why do we all yes, I say all feel that, corruption is rampant everywhere and all the time. This is because of the simple reason that this malady has spread through the entire length and breadth of our social fabric and gone down to the deepest levels. How has this come to be? Would be quite a pertinent question. The corrupt practices have now become our lifestyle to such an extent that, we do not seem to feel that there is anything wrong in what all we are doing., and that things should not be as they are. We, on the contrary are inclined to justify all wrong saying that, without doing wrong we cannot exist or be functional. When we start thinking that corruption is a must, then I feel that the situation has reached a point of no correction. This present apathy shows how far the degradation of  our values have reached, and how low the system has dipped. When we start justifying all the wrongs we do, it is the beginning of the end., as, we are not only doing wrong, we are at the same time thinking that it is correct, then where can the scope be for correction? It would be rather interesting to note and specify as to how this process of continuous degeneration started, for it is the root that grows into a magnum tree. It is thus of great value to know who put the seed that grew into this poisonous tree. In this connection, it is understand that, this degeneration started from the top echelons of society, and then percolated downwards, without a hurdle. Who is at the top or the apex of our society? It is the set of people who have all the power that is invested in them by, us the people. Now, it is for the goodwill of this top layer of society to give the country’s society the trend it deems fit. Now, this layer at the top has been the politician who rules the country, and to say that the seeds of India’s corruption were sown by this class of our society, which has been at the helm of affairs of the country and today they have brought us to this point of no return as far as corruption is concerned. Where are politicians like Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, and above all, the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi? It appears that India has stopped producing men and women of such integrity. Perhapse the breed of such politicians and other men have stopped taking birth. Where is that erstwhile political party, the Indian National Congress, that loyally fought for the freedom of the country, where is the discipline to follow the clarion call of Mahatma Gandhi? All it seems to have been lost, and the same Congress that fought against foreign rule and ousted the foreigners is now all set to install a foreigner as the head of Independent India. What has all this come to, what can be the implications of a foreigner as the head of the state seem to be lost to this Congress which worked to oust the foreigners – what a degradation of values. Have we Indians lost all self respect that we ourselves invite a foreigner to rule us? I dareasay we have become so immune to all finer feelings that we do not mind doing anything as long as we meet our ends. All this is the ugliest face of the corruption in India. All our ethics, our self respect and love for our motherland is lost somewhere in the last fifty years. Today we are standing at the threshold of a new millennium with, the eerstwhile Indian National Congress and many other parties without a single leader of stature. What does this show that, in the span of more than century, Congress has failed to produce a single leader, leave alone a leader of the stature of Sardar Patel and the like. Today the sets of politicians of all political parties are just money spinning actors just working to establish estates for their seven generations. The vision of a great India in the yes of the freedom fighters has been lost somewhere in our move in the last fifty years. When the oldest political party, the Congress presents such a dismal picture of honesty loyalty and service, what can be said or expected from the other much younger political parties. They are all bound to follow the footsteps of this erstwhile conglomerate of greedy money spinning politicians. Today, all the new political parties are following the path tread by the elder brother, the Congress, resulting in a mushroom growth of political parties all of the set pattern with no goals, no ethics, no ideals and no ideologies. This level being the highest level of our society is seen to have become most corrupt in the last two decades and the public is very well aware of the multi-scam decades of the eighties and nineties. Now, the scenario at the very top, can hardly allow for any space for any honesty to persist in any other layer of society. So, from this topmost layer, corruption has percolated to all levels and in all spheres of activities, and all this sure enough because it suits the politician. The politician has encouraged the bureaucrat to be corrupt, and in turn the bureaucrat has enjoyed the protection of the politician, in all his nefarious activities. From the senior bureaucrat the virus of corruption has slowly and steadily seemed down to the lowest levels of functionaries. This has become a totally corrupt and incorrigible institution. The Indian society in all its entirety is corrupt to the core, and now corruption is like a drug, without which the addict finds it difficult to survive. With this slow and steady and continuous spread of the fangs of corruption, today the situation is such that, there is no place or activity which is bereft of the fruits of corruption. Now, corruption has become our way of life and to uproot it is a Herculean task. The tentacles of corruption can be dealt with only with an iron hand, and above all, must start cleaning from the top echelons of society. However, as we have seen umpteen times, this does not happen. Our experience shows that, as soon as a big name is involved in any corruption case, there is a lot of hullabulloo for some time, and it all dies down with  the passage of time and the corruption continues unabated. How does this happen? This is very obvious for all those who have to be at the clearing end are bought, so, no damage can ever come to the so called high ups. This is the main reason why there is never any breakthrough in any scam. In this situation it will be a wonder if anything tangible can really be achieved for, the high ups cannot be touched, and the lower formations need not be touched – so we remain where we were at the beginning of any case. The scams which have come to light in last one decade have amounted to multi – crores, they are being dealt with but, it is so shocking that no politician has yet been punished for siphoning off so much of wealth of a poor country, what can be expected in a country when its protectors themselves become criminals. When the senior can not be punished how can there be any cleaning at the bottom. It would not even be fair to punish the lower rungs of the ladder when the higher rungs continue to bask in the sunshine of their riches. The way in which these cases are being dealt with clearly indicate that no one will be hurt as, all those, yes all those who matter are involved in corruption. So, at present, the situation is of â€Å"who will bell the cat?† Everyone knows who the corrupt are but, the irony of our system is such that no one can be touched. If this situation remains any longer, it is a wonder if there could be any light at the end of the tunnel. India is reaping what it has sown, and the seed of corruption has grown up into a full size magnum tree which perhapse cannot be changed, replaced or cut. It appears thus that for the time being at least, we have to bear with it. Only God can do some magic. Irrespective of the status of the wrong doer everyone, big or small, high or low, must be dealt with an iron hand, and that also at a fast speed. What is the use of just a show of dealings against corruption, while in reality all cases are just quietly shelved banking on the fact that, public memory is very short. All these cases are just a farce into which now, the Indian public an not be very easily fooled. At present there is no remedy for this tragic situation we are in, except pray to God that, HE gives unto us a dictator who is capable enough to deal with this ogre of corruption with a strong hand or else it appears that we are doomed to drown in the deepest depths of corruption and that, we will soon find it impossible to come out of the labarynth knit around us by our own men – yes our own men. Corruption in India From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Political corruption in India is a major concern.[1] A 2005 study done by Transparency International (TI) in India found that more than 50% of the people had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office.[1] Taxes and bribes are common between state borders; Transparency International estimates that truckers pay annually US$5 billion in bribes.[2] For 2010, India was ranked 87th of 178th countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, which was a huge setback from the preceding year. Criminalization of Indian politics is a problem.[3][4] In July 2008 The Washington Post reported that nearly a fourth of the 540 Indian Parliament members faced criminal charges, â€Å"including human trafficking, immigration rackets, embezzlement, rape and even murder†.

Assumption Paper

Rio Salazar Professor Kampa English composition 122 August 15, 2012 Assumption Paper Music history is the easiest way to appreciate the craft no matter genre, instrument, sound, or origin. It also gives one a chance to get an understanding of what life is like in a different country by the way they dance to their music, or how they react when their music comes on. One thing that should be learned in music history is the appreciation of music.The second thing that should be learned is how music influences people all over the world no matter the language, whether it is an instrumental or acapella, all people will react different. The last thing that should be learned is the different time periods of all music to see how it has changed over the years. Clearly you can understand that these are the main points of music history. Music appreciation is an important aspect because it allows one to gain knowledge about many genres of music. It teaches the origins of different types of music. I t shows one how to expand their range of music.Music appreciation also allows one to find out the origins of the genres. In many ways music appreciation allows people to expand their taste in music. Music history will teach people how music influences people all over the world. It will help people understand how the music people listen to makes them feel in everyday life, and how it influences the way they dance to the music they hear. Lastly how the different regions influences the music and its style. All in all this is how it would teach the music’s influences on people in their everyday lives.The different styles that have been developed over the years would be the next thing taught in music history. First off there would be so many different styles of music as the years go on because, things tend to expand, and music expanded quickly. Also as the years went by music expanded and so did the use of different instruments. Lastly this is how music has changed due to new styl es developing over the years, and the use and construction of new instruments. Music is the sauce of life and without it would be bland and very boring with nearly nothing for entertainment.

Movements fighting for gay marriages Essay

The gay marriage debate has been persistent all over the world. It is a divisive political issue that brings out a lot of conflict. In USA for instance, movements fighting for gay marriages and their rights started as early as 1970’s. In the 1990’s it was a great political issue. The US federal government has not legalized gay marriages although some states like Massachusetts allow civil unions. Gay couples in US do not share same rights as straight couples since their marriages are not considered legitimate. Without marriage laws to protect their rights and benefits such couples face turmoil’s in their relationships. For instance automatic inheritance with death of a partner and making important decision for instance signing for emergency medical operations is not allowed. USA should follow Denmark, Netherlands and Canada and legalize gay marriages as a step forward to reducing hate crimes in society and thus promoting social order. Again, since most people who oppose it desires it do so on the basis of religious values the secular values and desires of the people are not considered. It should draw the line between the state and the church so that it accommodates all people in the society. Legalizing gay marriages will see the decline of HIV-AIDS transmission, as gay couples will increase their sense of responsibility for each other. Gay couples should not be denied significant rights like access to partners insurance or medical decision making, workers and compensation benefits. Benefits under annuity and retirement plans all which are important (http://marriageequity. com/facts/index. htm) By not legalizing gay marriage the law discriminates on the basis of sex since one’s ability to marriage depends on one’s sex. Cuba has recently started to involve and respect gay couples by redefining marriage to accommodate all people in society, as socialism should be all inclusive. (http://asp. usatoday. com/community/utils/idmap/13917955. story) Discrimination against gay couples will be abolished and their unions or marriages will be legalized It is ironic that US the world’s leading countries in democracy restricts gay marriages while it should be advocating and fighting for equality of all marriages. Gay marriages should be legalized and couples should be entitled to social security benefits and protection under federal pension laws. This would reduce instances where on death of a partner one cannot access the partner’s benefits. In case the family had children such benefits would be of great importance in maintaining the children’s welfare. Without legal protection gay couples face economic hardships that would have been eradicated had their marriage been legalized. South Africa and Belgium have also embraced it and marriages between same sex couples receive blessings. Today, most children are born out of wedlock to single parents; marriages end divorce and the family as a unit that provides the appropriate atmosphere for children to grow is loosing the grip. Children are still being brought up successfully outside the conceived perfect environment of the ‘family’. Gay marriages should be legalized so as allow partners make important decisions like medical based decisions. It will allow one make important decision that would save the partners life. Arguments in support of gay marriages The government’s purpose is to ensure that people’s rights are respected and that equality is maintained. It is therefore fair that gay marriages be legalized. If gay marriages are recognized gay couples would take the advantage of automatic inheritance in case of death of one partner. Without such gay couples inherit nothing of what they have worked hard for with their partner. Both straight and gay couples should have equal rights. (http://angelfire. com/home /leah/index. html) It is argued that gay relationships are not biologically natural as they cannot produce children of their own naturally. Culturally marriage is the institution that forms and upholds societal and social values and norms. Marriages ensure the continuity of society through procreation. It is therefore argued that society would suffer if gay marriages were to be legalized, as the continuam would be interrupted. Gay marriages should be legalized and efforts by the church t use religious values and imposing them on all people in society are uncalled for. There should be a clear distinction between the church and the state so that the state operates independently to accommodate all its citizens including the secular minded. (Snyder, 2006) Legalizing gay marriages will help create order and stability in society. When legalized the ‘main society’ will change their rigid perception that gay marriage is illegal and they will fit well with them. This will reduce gay-based hate crimes. The whole society will have social unity and discrimination against gay people will reduce. Unions to guide gay couple on how to raise their children can only be effective if gay marriages were legalized. This would counter the argument that gay couples are not good in bring up children. The unions can help create good parenthood through training. Arguments against gay marriages It is argued that legalizing gay marriages will be a step towards welcoming anti-social behaviour. Just as gay couple seek for attention and protection of their rights so would other absurd groups. Moral decadency is likely to occur in society. It would pave way for polygamy, incest and beastiality legalization all of which are not good for society. Traditionally marriage is between a man and a woman and not same sex parties. Gay marriages are therefore against the traditional perception of marriage and should be discouraged. Naturally marriage should be between two people of different sexes. Attraction between two people of same sex is considered unnatural gay marriages should therefore come to a halt. Marriage should be an institution between a man and a woman. And those gay marriages are immoral. God created a woman for the man and not a man for a man or woman for another. Gay couples choose to be gay and should not seek attention for the choices they have made in life. (Hohengarten, 1994) Parents pose as role models to their children. Gay parents are likely to bring up gay children and this will not be good for society. Supporters of this viewpoint argue that children need heterosexual parents to develop. This would be lacking in the gay families and consequently poor child development. The above reasons face much criticism. For instance linking procreation strongly with marriage undermines the other purposes of marriage. Procreation is not the only reason why people marry. Those who support gay marriages consider this point of view incompetent on the basis that there are sterile or barren couples or women at their post menopausal age who marry. The question posed is whether such marriages ought to be considered null since they won’t bear children. Again marriage could be for sexual satisfaction companionship and moral expression. (Strasser, 2002) Another problem with the argument that gay marriage is immoral is that who defines marriage and what is moral or immoral calls for another debate altogether. People have different perception about what is moral or immoral. Using religious values to support eradication of gay marriages by quoting the bible is inappropriate especially to a country that accommodates diverse religions. This is an insufficient approach as freedom of religion will be compromised. Why install your religious aspects to life on people who are for a secular approach to life? (http://atheism. about. com/6/9/007160. html) The argument that children need heterosexual parents to grow and develop is quite shallow. There are cases where their development is jeopardized despite them having heterosexual parents. Children need good nurturing, tender care and love from their parent’s to develop. Again gay parents are more likely to bring up straight children to spare them the pain of discrimination they have through. (Ross, 2002) Some gay people are not gay by choice but by birth. Argument that gay couples are naturally attracted to same sex partners outdoes the argument that gay marriages are unnatural. Nature should take its course and they should be allowed to marry those they are attracted to regardless of their sex. (Pierson et al, 2005) Arguments raised against legalizing gay marriages on the basis of their instability are uncalled for since the straight marriages have proved to be 7% more instable compared to gay marriages. In the USA only two states legalize gay marriages that are Massachusetts and Lowa though they call them civil unions. The federal government under the defense of Marriage Act of 1996 leaves the states to decide on which approach to handle its issues. Gay couples want their marriages to be legalized. This will eradicate the discrimination they face, as society is not comfortable with them and view them as ‘outcast’ with legalization gay couples can gain recognition. (Mello, 2004) The church is used by politicians for their own interests. Politicians are careful in discussing critical issues like whether to legalize or not legalize gay marriages. They are cautious not to offend the people who will determine their stay in government through voting. Conclusion. Gay couples have their rights to be happy. Happiness in marriage would be with the person one is attracted to and willing to be intimate with. Denying gay couples that happiness and trying to impose the person they should marry in terms of gender would be depriving them their rights. The government should ensure that the rights of all citizens are preserved. If gay marriages were legalized the HIV-AIDS prevalence would decline. This is because gay couples would increase their commitment towards their marriages. Forcing people to marry those they are not attracted to is a major reason for increased divorce rates. References: Austin Cline. 2007. Gay Marriage and church/state separation. Retrieved on 16th October 2007 from http://atheism. about. com/6/9/007160. html Leah Moore. 2001. Points in defense of gay marriages. Retrieved on 16th October 2007 from http://angelfire. com/home /leah/index. html USA Today. 2007. When it comes to gay rights, Is Cuba ahead of USA? Retrieved on 16th October 2007 from http://asp. usatoday. com/community/utils/idmap/13917955. story Mello, Michael. 2004. Legalizing gay marriages. University Press. Pierceson, Jason, Courts: 2005. Liberalism and Rights: Gay Law and Politics in the