Joe Gransden Jazz Jam Essay

In the recent course of music, it is evident that changes and development are present. The variety of genres had expanded which led to the arrival of brand new breed of artist that is able to represent various entities and cultures. Moreover one of the genres which are developing is Jazz. For many years, different jazz musicians are present. In the current state of music, it is clear that music is flowing. Due to such realization it is needed as a researcher to see a jazz performer to fully see the development of music as well as the instrumentation of the band. More so, the researcher shall provide details to which different kinds of observation during the performance of Joe Gransden Quartet Jazz Jam. The Joe Gransden Quartet Jazz Jam is a group which is composed of different individuals who are actively performing different types of instrumentations. The most important instrument is the trumpet which is usually utilized in every song of the band. The band is greatly utilizing instruments rather than a vocal instrument. There is a satisfying sound of the base and drums and the cello which highlighted by the shallow sound by different instruments with a lighter sound. More so, the whole set which was played by the band were all complete with different instruments which add drama and emotions with the songs. Definitely the whole band is very great for they are able to present their craft and attain a response from the audience. For the band is jazz, the audience is calm and very appreciative of the music. Due to the excellence o the band, it is inevitable that the audience will be entertained and amused on how individuals could utilize music as a form of emotional and artistic perspective. On the other hand, attending such concert is similar to drinking a cold glass of water. Such kind of band is refreshing to the ears and to the soul. The music of the band and their musicality is unquestionable. Moreover, the excellence of each member in their instruments does not need any improvement. The association of each instrument is in line with each other. Upon this, the researcher sees that the Joe Gransden Quartet Jazz Jam is a unique band which does not present that jazz is a genre which is unlike any other. The presentation is highly classical in the perspective of the researcher. The instruments and the notes are learning to the classical music which is usually done in operas. More so, the instrument was playing a huge role in its own unique way. All the instruments were complementing each other. Therefore, the instruments are all highlighted in their own way. Looking at the perspective of the solo acts, it is slightly evident that each of the musicians has their own flare in providing a different style in playing the instrument. In addition to this, the lead of the band –Joe Gransden is an important player in the band. For he leads the whole group towards his visions, he is allowed the most pristine individual in the group. Although most of the musicians in the group is great in their on instruments, it is through the vision and knowledge of Joe Gransden that the group have gone to the levels and acknowledgement of the press and the audience. Moreover, the whole band was a breath of fresh air for the audiences who are interested

The Plea for the Chimpanzees

In the story â€Å"The Plea for the Chimpanzees† by Jane Goodall, Jane writes of a personal experience on her visit to a testing center where they use various primates to test products, one being chimpanzees. She was very upset with what she had seen during her visit. Chimpanzees were being treated horribly during and after being tested. Their living conditions were not what she would have thought them to be. They were quite worse. They had very little a social life with other chimpanzees or even humans.I think if we are going to use chimps to test products or inject them with our major diseases, then the least we can do is give back a little bit of freedom to run and play in a closed, safe environment and offer some compassion and love to these animals who are helping us find cures for the serious diseases we are fighting every day. It is proven that if the chimpanzees were in the presence of trusted caregivers, who are understanding of animal behavior, and dedicated, they wo uld react to treatments without being uncomfortable. At the Stanford Primate Center in California, a number of chimpanzees were taught to extend their arms for the drawing of blood. In return they were given a food reward. † (Page 369) We should provide loving and carrying staff to the chimpanzees.If the staff were more caring, then it will make their job so much better and easier to test the chimps. If the tested Chimpanzees were introduced to loving caregiver to interact with or even a chimp who was injected with the same disease, it would help with the major problem of chimpanzees going insane by isolation. A youngster, for example, can be treated when in the presence of a trusted human friend. Experiments have shown that young chimps react with high levels of distress if subjected to mild electric shocks when alone, but show almost no fear or pain when held by a sympathetic caretaker. † (Page 369) Along with caring staff, the chimps should be given the opportunity to have a sanitary and safe play room. The chimps should be provided with sanitary and safe playing equipment. A variety of simple toys and objects and be provided with little cost. It wouldn’t cost a lot of money to provide happiness to the animals that have no freedom.They also should be provided with some kind of toy that could help them feel comfortable, such as a small blanket or stuffed animal that can be cleaned easily. Offering these objects can help chimpanzees with depression, and also help if one chimp has to be isolated from any interaction from humans or other primates. In my opinion, I feel it is very wrong to be treating these animals this way. But, I know if we don’t than it would be very hard to find cures to our major diseases. But, if we are going to take away these animals’ rights and freedom, the least we can do is provide them with care and love while being tested on.It is very upsetting to hear how these animals are isolated in cages that ar e too small for them to spread out to stretch, or at least be given some affection. How can their caretakers just sit back and watch the animals in so much distress or hear their cries, and not care? These animals need the loving support while being poked and prodded and taking away their health. If these animals were shown some love, bigger cages and play time, it will greatly change the way the animal react to treatment and help the caretakers with making their job easier.

Discussion Topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Discussion Topic - Essay Example If you havent already memorized them, they are: Objective, Offensive, and Mass, Economy of Force, Maneuver, Unity of Command, Security, Surprise and Simplicity. To what extent, if any, do Chinese views follow or depart from the modern principles, and why?   Your opinions are welcome, but back them up with evidence. Sun-Tzu was talking about strategy as contained in his book The Art of War. The writing that says â€Å"the army is established by deceit, moves for advantage, and changes through segmenting and reuniting† must not be taken literally. Sun-Tzu was talking metaphorically. By deceit, he meant the confidentiality and secrecy character of a military organization. A military organization’s objective is to win war wars not to be honest. Divulging one’s military capability blunts its capacity for offensive. One must not be â€Å"truthful† or â€Å"candid† about the status of its military otherwise the enemy would plan against it and could easily defeat it. By â€Å"moves for advantage, and changes through segmenting and reuniting† just meant that a military organization adapts to a situation or its maneuverability by regrouping and when he mentioned â€Å"its speed is like the wind, its slowness like the forest; its invasion and plundering like a f ire; unmoving it is like the mountains. It is as difficult to know as the darkness; in movement it is like thunder", Sun-Tzu merely described the offensive capability of a military organization through a unified command. These Chinese views about military tactics and strategies may sound ancient but is still actually present in today’s military tactics. Sun-Tzu just talked the language of his day but he actually talked about â€Å"classified nature of the military†, regrouping, organization, timing of attack and speedy response of military action. Much of military strategy and tactics today   are derived from the principles of Sun-Tzu

Responsibility and Accountability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Responsibility and Accountability - Essay Example This means that one can be relied upon to oversee and implement their duties. Accountability, on the other hand, involves the assumption and acknowledgment of the consequences of actions, policies and decisions in governance and administration. It also encompasses the obligation to report, elaborate and be answerable for the consequences resulting from the decisions. Being accountable entails assuming the results for a particular action. In the community, it is important to identify who is responsible for certain actions and the one accountable for the consequences of these actions. Currently, there is an ongoing debate regarding the application of responsibility and accountability in the governing bodies. The roles that public relations practitioners take imply the responsibility to undertake certain functions. In business, the term can be used to describe the obligations or duties that have been assigned to a person with respect to the person’s function or position. Therefore, responsibility can be viewed as a collection of obligations that are associated with a function or a job. Therefore, a responsible actor can be viewed as a person whose job entails a set of obligations. These obligations are usually predetermined. The obligations must be met for the accomplishment of the job. Responsibility also includes moral obligations. These moral obligations are usually related to functional obligations. Henceforth, a certain level of maturity in terms of morals is required for an individual to be termed as responsible. Responsibility also encompasses the need for a person’s ability to reason in a moral and mature way. Ability to reason is the awareness of consequences and action that might follow ones action. Accountability is when a person is credited or blamed for his/her actions. These actions are usually associated with an established responsibility. Here, the difference between the two terms can be noted. A

To what extent is Wordsworth a typical romantic Essay

To what extent is Wordsworth a typical romantic - Essay Example The Romantic Period’s exact origin could not be exactly identified by Lomard, but she averred that it ended in 1837, only 13 years before Wordsworth died. It can be clearly deduced that Wordsworth was a literary poet during the Romantic period: â€Å"a movement that championed imagination and emotions as more powerful than reason and systematic thinking† (Cummings, 2008).  The topics for his poetry were diverse, but the Poet Hunter site (n.d.) described the universal appeal of Wordsworth’s peoms through the poet’s own words of what the role of poetry was to him: â€Å"what he called "the most philosophical of all writing" whose object is "truth...carried alive into the heart by passion" (Poet Hunter, par. 5).  Through his own perception and the value by which he defined poetry, Wordsworth was a true romantic. Technically, a romantic is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as â€Å"marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealize† (par.   4). All the characteristics and traits depicted in the definition are manifested by Wordsworth.In the poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, the poet expressed admiration for the beauty and radiant colors of daffodils, especially from afar. The simplicity and effective description of Wordsworth using imagination, metaphors and other figures of speech were eminent. There was also the element of alliteration when Wordsworth wrote: â€Å"Beside the lake, beneath the trees† (Literature Network: I Wandered, par. 1).... There was simile as the narrator compared his solitary stance to a cloud – far and distant but overseeing. There was personification as the narrator depicted the cloud’s similarity to a human being (through the title of the poem); and the daffodils were compared to a crowd: â€Å"When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils† (Literature Network: I Wandered, par. 1). There was also the element of alliteration when Wordsworth wrote: â€Å"Beside the lake, beneath the trees† (Literature Network: I Wandered, par. 1). There was a formed pattern and structure: four stanzas of six lines each; and rhyme: the first line rhymes with the third and the second with the fourth. As interpreted by Cummings (2008), â€Å"Wordsworth unifies the content of the poem by focusing the first three stanzas on the experience at the lake and the last stanza on the memory of that experience† (par. 13). The profound themes focused on the beauty of nature through flowers that grow in multitude, radiant by the sea side. Further, in one’s solitude, one gets the chance to reflect on the beauty that abounds in the natural environment. Sometimes, it takes being alone to truly appreciate the beauty around us. This poem truly manifests Wordsworth as a romantic in expressing his imagination and emotions through the beauty of nature. There is the sense of romantic appeal in expressing delight and adoration for natural beauty in simple things that people could normally forget to truly appreciate. The poem Anecdote for Fathers, Wordsworth clearly manifested his being a romantic through the bonding shared between father and son. The poem shows a defined structure with 15 stanzas and four lines each. Syllabication

Extended School Year in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvannia Research Paper

Extended School Year in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvannia - Research Paper Example Perhaps the greatest finding of the commission’s report was the fact that students present in other democratic countries (especially industrialized nations) were expected to take up to two times as much instructions in core academic areas during the course of a high school year than students being taught in high schools across the United States. (NECTL, 1994) 2. Relating Time and Learning Investigations into time and learning reveal that the amount of time spent on learning and the total learning acquired are directly related. Learning is affected consistently in a powerful manner based on the time allocated to learning. Moreover it has been found that schools that devote greater student time to learning tend to produce students with greater test scores in comparison to schools where student’s time is used up in other activities. (Walberg, Extended Learning Time, 1991) (Walberg, 1988) On the other hand there is no clear relationship between the amount of time allocated for instructing students in a school and the amount of time that students are engaged in various kinds of learning activities. Research carried out on the issue of time spent by students in school reveals that time is just one constituent that is required to ensure learning for students. This also indicates that merely increasing the time spent in schools is unlikely to produce any major changes in the amount of learning of students. The relationship between the amount of time spent and achievement does not present a strong case. Hence it is apparent that by only increasing the amount of time spent in schools will not produce large gains in learning by students. Therefore policy makers cannot expect to increase the amount of time spent in instructing students either in school days or school years in order to justify tremendous increases in learning. Another aspect often brought to light by most researchers is that the utilization of time is far more important than simple increases i n the time spent in school by students. As mentioned before mere mechanical increases in time are not likely to produce any major changes in the amount of learning or in academic achievement. However even then certain states are adding more and more time to their class times with some states adopting the school day approach while others adopt the school year approach. Based on these arguments it is pertinent to realize that time spent in the classroom should be optimized further in order to maximize learning in the classroom. This in turn leads to the question: How do aspects of learning and academic achievement get affected as time in the classroom is increased due to extended school year periods? Moreover should such a system be enforced in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania? 3. Findings 3.1. Academic Achievement The effects of prescribing an extended day or year program for classrooms was only the subject of a very few studies that were reviewed. However the few pertinent stud ies reviewed indicated that some issues were worth noting. A study conducted on 181 kindergarten students was structured that one half received conventional schooling while the other half received extended year programs at school. The study examined the effect of additional school days on the children’

Mesoamerican culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mesoamerican culture - Essay Example Over countless years, the Mesoamericans designed their beliefs and customs of life. This accumulation of millennia of proficiencies could be what permits Mesoamerican concepts to live on today. This paper will explain the aspects of Mesoamerica still manifest in present say Mexico Culture. One of the major aspects of the Mesoamerican culture that has been retained is the calendrical system. Some of the different types of the calendars that have been maintained is 260-day cycle, 360 and 365 days cycles of the year. Names that are given to different months, and years emanates from animals, flowers or even heavenly bodies. In addition, another aspect of Mesoamerican culture that exists up-to-date is Mesoamerican script. These include logosyllabic which is the combination of logograms and syllabary. The scripts are referred to as hieroglyphic. People can learn about the environment via Mesoamerican language. The observable fact of ethnic blend and de-Indianization is not happening homoge neously all over Mexico and the communal organization has permitted Indian personalities to keep art in particular zones, and has resulted in preservation of culture. Hence, the continuance of biological indigenous qualities permits for continuance of Mesoamerican tradition and culture through language (Coe 16). Mexico does not bear an assorted mode of life. Diverse regions have dissimilar values, and much further, cultures in any area cannot be oversimplified; Indians still subsist and some have been chased out of Mexico. Non-Indian communities are not standardized either. Â  Country peasant communities are in existence and bear an Indian culture, however they lost the distinctiveness that runs with it. Farming ideas, philosophies about the ecological realm and Indian systems of eating and designing they still manifest in Mexico. Nevertheless, communal association in the farming world is somewhat altered. The farmers still execute matters in the Indian manner; nevertheless, they n o longer see themselves as Indians Coe 46). The essence of community inside the Oaxacan hamlet of San Andres is incredibly striking. The community functions together in countless distinct ways. A structure of titled 'tequio' runs as a consolidating body. Every family in the community has a responsibility to aid work and give a fee to the tequio. The tequio convenes monthly to perform stated developments that help the village or a commune member. It strengthens unity and functions as the community authority. Due to reliance on one another, the Chicahuaxtla community remains strong. Additional activity that fortifies the commune goes down annually- the entire community marches around the frontiers of the village. This aids to evade conflicts with neighboring communities by commencing peaceful relations. The Tequio structure, annual feasts and collective dances, ceremonies all add to and refurbish the distinctiveness of the communal. Various affiliates of the communal might not be cons cious of the implication of their everyday actions in the culture conservation. Actions are simply understood as rewarding a pledge or entertainment (Dierhl 45). Conclusively, most Mexicans are pondered believed to be Catholic however, in Mexico Catholicism assumes a distinctive custom different from the

1920s represents the transition of the United States Assignment

1920s represents the transition of the United States - Assignment Example The decade’s three Republican Presidents – Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover only partially addressed these issues. The economic growth of the 1920’s did not extend to the agricultural sector and the rural areas. While ‘Big Business’ flourished, farmers income declined. The federal government extended strong support to big business. ‘The American Way’ came to represent weak government regulation of business and less support for labor unions. High tariff policies for foreign goods, repeal of excess profit taxes, cutbacks in the Federal Trade Commission, and government encouragement of price-fixing were responses of the government to support business. This attitude is summed up in President Harding’s request for â€Å"less government in business and more business in government† (Schultz, 1999). Despite farmers campaigning for farm relief legislation, Coolidge vetoed the McNary-Haugen bills. The 1920’s witnessed an upsurge in racism and ‘nativism’: intolerance of African-Americans and immigrants. ‘The Red Scare,’ fear of the Bolshevik menace, cultural fundamentalism, and a revival of public support for the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrated this trend. In response to perceived popular sentiment, the federal government passed the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, and the stricter Immigration Act of 1924, which drastically limited the flow of immigrants from Europe and stopped those from Asia. (Dorn, n.d.) However, although these problems persisted, it cannot be denied that the 1920’s remained a decade of prosperity between World War I and the Great

How did the two World Wars affect Africa and Africans Essay Example for Free

How did the two World Wars affect Africa and Africans Essay There were different implications and effects that were caused by the World War I and II to African and Africans as well. Many lives were lost and many were rendered useless. Though there are a lot of things that were achieved during this period, there are others that brought about great problems to people. In 1940, German armies were motivated to believe that Africans were in deed their enemies and there was a need to address the issue. With engaging in war with France, and France had several blacks in their army, they were the main target and they were being killed more than their white counterparts. German was fighting people who were below the Nazi, or who Nazi believed they were mutilating their colleagues (Raffael, 596). The effects of the war brought both the positive and negative effects to Africans and Africa as well. Nazi hierarchy had already begun to kill those who they thought were below their Aryan. This was a great suffering for Africans because they were being killed mercilessly. Even they are among their French counterparts, there was no African who was captured and imprisoned but instead they were killed. The other problem was that the Geneva regulations were not applicable to Africans. This was because, the Nazi rule and theory was that the rules were only applicable to the whites but not Africans, thus raising another effect to the African as they were killed without any word or anyone to defend them. Though there were some of the German militaries who were supporting Africans and defending them, those who were Nazified had not respect to Africans. This helped the African soldiers show their heroism as they were trying to defend themselves and in most cases being placed in the front line in the battle, they had to try their best and defend their combat. They believed that African culture believed that whenever an African gets his enemy, he would use coupe-coupe, which was believed was a deadly weapon compared to other short range weapons. They also believed that Africans were already on the attack positions and they would not hesitate attacking their rivals. They used this as a justification of killing Africans (Raffael, 600). In Africa, Africans had already learnt that there is nothing special with the whites and there is nothing whites can do blacks cant do. Africans developed resistant powers and they were now defending their land against occupation by whites. Africans were fighting for freedom and independence. This was not going well with whites in Europe as the information they were getting is that Africans are mutilating their people, raping their women and killing others. This brought about the justification of the Germans illegal activities of killing blacks and mutilating them ‘This charge became an ob- session of some German officers and soldiers and helped to justify the killings of black soldiers and the no-quarters policy in some battles with the’ (Raffael, 600). Most of the African Countries, though they had already suffered a lot, they had already started fighting whites and they managed to get their independence and have their own governments without of the colonial rules.

Proposing an Hris System Essay Example for Free

Proposing an Hris System Essay Planning the future of the organization will require training, and mentoring from key employees. The current Human Resource Information System does not support the information that is required to complete the project. Management is proposing to implement a new Human Resource Information System. Human Resource Information System is a computerized system designed to bring together information for strategic planning, operational, and, administrative. The most time spent in Human Resource is administrative management. Human Resource Information System is designed to improve efficiency and assist with streamlining paperwork. There are five major categories in a business that the Human Resource Information System supports. Labor relations in the HRIS will support Union negotiation, employee information, and auditing records. Human Resource Planning and Analysis supports organizational charts, attendance analysis, job description tracking, staffing, recruiting, and turnover analysis. Compensation and benefits, wages, benefits, vacation, and pay structures. Compliance regulations are also supported by HRIS; Equal Opportunity Employment, workforce utilization, and applicant tracking. Safety and training development are also supported by the HRIS software. HRIS software is available by many different software companies; the following are just a few HRIS software that are available. Bamboo Human Resource Software, Employee Connect Software, Human Resources Microsystems, J. D. Edwards Enterprise One, and Employee Connect. The software must be compatible with the organizations current job-costing system and will require the reports to coincide. This will need to be a customized feature and will require a tailored software. The software listed above is available to as is and will not support our job cost software. Management would like to implement a new Human Resource Information System before the new fiscal year. The new fiscal year begins in April 2013. The first process will be posting a Request for pricing from multiple pre-qualified Human Resource Information System Software companies. The schedule will only allow a maximum of one month to select a final vendor to begin the process of tailoring the software. The concerns that management have are some of the organizational factors, such as labor force, company budgets, bad planning, and competition. Labor force is down due to budget cuts and the transition to new software will require overtime and possibly hiring temporary help for data entry. The current company budget does not have the profit to support a substantial increase in additional labor. The planning schedule for a new Human Resource Information System will need to be monitored closely. Management is concerned about the possibility of going over schedule and increasing the labor cost more than more than what is in the budget. Management has come up with a budget of forty-five thousand dollars. This budget includes the cost of software, labor force, and new equipment to support the new Human Resource Information System. The return on investment for the new software and equipment that management hopes for will be worth more than the cost. The benefits of having a Human Resource Information System that produces reports for compensation, time off, and labor needs. The new Human Resource Information System will also give our organization the ability to be competitive in capturing labor trends and needs. Planning for the future of the organization will also be a huge benefit factor. The time and cost that will be saved over time will pay for the upgrade in less than two years. When the system is up and running management foresees that four full-time positions will need to be eliminated due to the efficiency and lack of work for the four workers. References Chauhan, A. , Sharma, S. , amp; Tyagi, T. (2011). Role of HRIS in Improving Modern HR Operations. Review Of Management, 1(2), 58-70.

Some Statistic About Playing Online Games In Vietnam Media Essay

Some Statistic About Playing Online Games In Vietnam Media Essay 1. Introduction The development of technology in the 21st century has been bringing to us many advantages. One of these is online games-a popular kind of game among teenagers. Online games can be simply defined as games which can be played online over the internet. Online games also can be played against different users in different locations. The trend of playing online games is getting more popular due to the different advantages they offer. Playing online games has a lot of benefits because it helps us to relax and entertain. However at the same time, online games also have disadvantages if we play too much and people should be careful. Therefore, there are many different views about online gaming. This paper, with the purpose of helping stop game addiction, will discuss the questions of what impacts do online games can bring and what should we do to avoid gaming addiction. 2. Discussion of findings 2.1 Some statistic about playing online games in Vietnam A survey done by Education and Training Department in 2010 in 1121 schools in Hanoi had shown that there were 12.724 students playing online games more than ten times a week and there were 626 students spending ten hours playing online games each time. Especially, 2920 students said that spent at least 20 VND each time. To get the money for playing, 121.365/370.387 students asked from parents, 65336 students asked sisters and brothers, and 35615 asked friends. Others sources were from their money for breakfast and tuition. That means teens were dependent on adults and they could not afford to play games. There are many kinds of online games in Vietnam market. At 2010, there were 69 approved online games; however; there were actually 102 games already circulating for sale. Many games likes Vo Lam Truyen Ky, Chinh Do involve virtual fighting, destruction, killing, dying and many images of knifes, swords and some kind of weapons like that. Most gamers have a desire to become the strongest. Therefore, they pays lots of money and effort to purchase weapons, spend plenty of time playing online games to increase their level and participate in individual or group no matter night or day. 2.2 The advantages and disadvantages of playing online games 2.2.1 The advantages of playing online games The first benefit we can see is that online games are much more convenient than traditional games (Jim 2009). After a busy day from school, children can go home or go to the Internet shop to play games. Just by few clicks, they can play a lot of different games. Everything is done on computers so it is also easier for children. Moreover, the cost of online games is cheaper than other ones, so online players can enjoy free games and just need pay from five to ten VND to the shop (gamek.vn 2011). According to some researches on the Internet, playing online games allows players to be more flexibility and variety, and can stimulate the players, even make the players become more resourceful and clever. As the network game, there are many and varied tasks or fight for gold to carry out, so it can train that players thinking and adaptability. When playing games, teens can make friends through the Internet and learn how to deal with relations and mutual respect. In addition, although the virtual world is a fictional world, the friends are still real so they can feel the friendship between players. By playing online games, teens can learn the spirit of unity, cooperation and teamwork such as how teams work together to deal with evil powerful enemies and do team tasks. When teens with their team join in the war, they need to find many ways to help and to save each other, so that they can beat the rivals and finish the game (itemah.com 2011). 2.2.2 The disadvantages of playing online games Of course along with the advantages, there are a few disadvantages of playing online games but only if teenagers have no control over their actions. Online games can be very addictive, and the addiction can seriously have a negative influence on the younger in term of physical and mental health. Online game is an indoor and sedentary activity. Therefore, spending a lot of time playing games can lead to some health problem like headache, short-sightedness, stress, absent-mindedness and many more. The article Online games ruin gamers lives (Saigon-gp.com.vn 2009) has given an example of a gaming addict-a young girl who stayed at the shop for one week and barely left her computer for one minute or a boy played online games continuously for six days-smelt very bad and looked exhausted. This example indicates that teens now can spend most of their time sitting in front of the computer screens from early morning until midnight without eating anything or doing something else. Moreover, this can lead to lack of physical activities among teens and they will lose or gain weight quickly, become lazier, less active and communicative. Troubles with work, psychological and breakdowns in personal relationships are some consequences too. They also do not care about everything around or talk with no one else (John 2012). Furthermore, online games addiction was found to be associated with lower grade point average and school performance (Daria and Mark, 2012, p.10, cited in Chan and Rabinowitz, 2006; Gen-tile, 2009; Choo et al., 2010; Gen-tile et al., 2011) Another obvious consequence of online game addiction is violence or crime. Tauqueer H (2011) stated: This will not only harm individuals and families but it will also have an extreme negative impact on the society. Most of the disasters that happen in families start from online gambling activities that encourage the players to attack their family members or steal their assets besides committing other offences. Also having the similar opinion, Prof Bushman also said: Those who played violent online games always looked at the world through the aggressive eyes and that the world is a place of aggression and hostility. He concluded: Gaming is not the only cause of aggression but it is a very important factor affecting to teens behavior which grows over time. (C.Nguyen 2012). They emphasized the fact that violent can seriously affect children through online game and this can not be dismissed if we do not want bad things happen to our children. 2.3 Solutions It is has been suggested in the article Toa thuoc nao khi con nghien game (baomoi.com 2009) that there are four ways to prevent gaming addiction. The first way is letting teens play if his grade is good. That means if he did well at school like pass the exam with high scores or his grade is better than before, being allowed to play games can be considered as a reward. The second step is letting the child use computer if you sit next to him/her. Of course he can be uncomfortable but that is the only way you can watch him and tell him when to stop playing. The third important solution is encouraging teens to participate in outdoor activities like playing sports, camping, shopping. This action can help them more active, flexible and help them to forget about playing online games all day. However, if teenagers have been addicted for playing online games for a long time, you may have to delete the software associated with the game or block the related websites. People can also go to the psychologists to ask for advices. 3. Conclusion: From the findings above, it is clear that game online addiction in Vietnam is still a big issue. The number of teenager playing online games is increasing and adults somehow can not control their children. However, there are also reasons to believe addiction in online games will decrease in the following years if we know how to take advantages of online games and the solution to avoid addiction. Then, hopefully, no one will have to worry about letting their children play online games. (Word count: 1334 words)

Tim O’Brien’s How to tell a True War Story Essay -- Tim O’Brien How to

Tim O’Brien’s â€Å"How to tell a True War Story†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to the author Tim O’Brien, people tend to readily accept the ‘facts’ presented of what happened during a war. People do not consider the existence of fallacies regarding the actual stories of what happens in wars, few consider that the ‘facts’ of an incident often change through people’s words. The film ‘Saving the Private Ryan’ by Steven Spielberg features both facts and seemingness part of the war story. Since it is so difficult to fully describe a war using human language, Spielberg ended up revising his stories to make sense out of it. Spielberg included parts that did not occur or exclude parts that did occur in order to make their stories seem more credible. According to Tim O’Brien’s text â€Å"How to tell a True War Story,† he suggests that people must break out of listening to traditional war stories and scrutinize unbelievable and contradictory aspects of war stories, whi ch is a more accurate way to obtain the truth about a war. Spielberg in his movie follows some of his path but also choose not to follow his path on some of the parts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to Tim O’Brien, the narrator must talk about unbelievable aspects of war that contradicts many traditional features in telling a war story and Spielberg is no exception. When the ships arrive at Normandy beach, German soldiers kill many American soldiers. Spielberg starts out with showing pan shots of the battlefield so the reader can gain the knowledge of...

Jack Black :: essays research papers

I. INTRO Me and my brother Kyle, we were walking down this long and lonesome road, when all of a sudden there shined a shiny teacher, in the middle of the road, and she said, write the best speech in the world, or I’ll eat your soul. If you haven’t figured it out already I chose to do my speech on the great Thomas Black or better known as Jack Black. Actor, comedian, singer songwriter, and lead vocalist for tenacious D. How many people really know anything bout Jack Black, other than he has been in some movies, played some so-so parts, and seems to make an ass of himself? Well then let me fill you in. II. BODY A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thomas Black, born august 28th, 1969 in Hermosa Beach, California a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  mother and father satellite engineers and jack Only child together, b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  always battling for their attention. At this point young Jack went to Hebrew school, were even then he was hailed as the class clown. B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  His parents divorced when he was 10 and a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  moved 8 bedroom house mom near MGM studios. b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  rented out rooms Jack came to know a music loving journalist C.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At this time jack became a troubled student only interested in music, arts, and theatre a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  age 8, played the wizard in a summer camp production of wizard of oz, b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   muscled his way into every show he could. D.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  age of thirteen first TV ad for the activision game Pitfall, a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  not a sign that that jacks acting career moving upwards. b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   15 jack got into cocaine, c.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  stolen money from his mom sent school for difficult teens, d.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  on campus therapists helped him greatly. E.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was at a specialist arts and science school that he rediscovered At UCLA member of Tim Robbins acting troupe and it was now that Black Kyle Gass. a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   comic possibilities of stadium Rock. F.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  two chunky guys bashing on acoustic guitars, tribute to the greatest one a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  biggest cult bands of the late 90’s and 2000’s. G.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The D’s act showcased blacks theatrical abilities, amazing vocals, and gass’s support on the guitar a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  smoking pot, their musical and sexual powers, and subjects right out of dungeons and dragons. H.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The duo began playing together in 1994, Al’s Bar, playing just one number a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  the afore mentioned homage to the greatest song, â€Å"Tribute.† I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  film debut in 1996’s Bio-Dome. hit it big, a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Beck, Pearl Jam, and the Foo Fighters. J.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2001 critical mass second nation wide tour selling out shows K.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  successfully maintaining band comedic star a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  High Fidelity, with Jon Cusack Tim Robbins Jack Black :: essays research papers I. INTRO Me and my brother Kyle, we were walking down this long and lonesome road, when all of a sudden there shined a shiny teacher, in the middle of the road, and she said, write the best speech in the world, or I’ll eat your soul. If you haven’t figured it out already I chose to do my speech on the great Thomas Black or better known as Jack Black. Actor, comedian, singer songwriter, and lead vocalist for tenacious D. How many people really know anything bout Jack Black, other than he has been in some movies, played some so-so parts, and seems to make an ass of himself? Well then let me fill you in. II. BODY A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thomas Black, born august 28th, 1969 in Hermosa Beach, California a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  mother and father satellite engineers and jack Only child together, b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  always battling for their attention. At this point young Jack went to Hebrew school, were even then he was hailed as the class clown. B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  His parents divorced when he was 10 and a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  moved 8 bedroom house mom near MGM studios. b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  rented out rooms Jack came to know a music loving journalist C.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At this time jack became a troubled student only interested in music, arts, and theatre a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  age 8, played the wizard in a summer camp production of wizard of oz, b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   muscled his way into every show he could. D.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  age of thirteen first TV ad for the activision game Pitfall, a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  not a sign that that jacks acting career moving upwards. b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   15 jack got into cocaine, c.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  stolen money from his mom sent school for difficult teens, d.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  on campus therapists helped him greatly. E.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was at a specialist arts and science school that he rediscovered At UCLA member of Tim Robbins acting troupe and it was now that Black Kyle Gass. a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   comic possibilities of stadium Rock. F.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  two chunky guys bashing on acoustic guitars, tribute to the greatest one a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  biggest cult bands of the late 90’s and 2000’s. G.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The D’s act showcased blacks theatrical abilities, amazing vocals, and gass’s support on the guitar a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  smoking pot, their musical and sexual powers, and subjects right out of dungeons and dragons. H.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The duo began playing together in 1994, Al’s Bar, playing just one number a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  the afore mentioned homage to the greatest song, â€Å"Tribute.† I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  film debut in 1996’s Bio-Dome. hit it big, a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Beck, Pearl Jam, and the Foo Fighters. J.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2001 critical mass second nation wide tour selling out shows K.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  successfully maintaining band comedic star a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  High Fidelity, with Jon Cusack Tim Robbins

Euripides Paper Essay

Of the plays that survived the Hellenistic Era of Greece, few survive out of the thousands that were written in celebration of the Festival Of Dionysus. This festival was in honor of the great god of wine, a relatively new Olympian borne of Zeus and a mortal woman, Semele (Rachel Gross, Dale Grote, 1997). He was celebrated as not only the god of wine but also of nature, fertility and later, the stage.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Bacchae by Euripides is the most famous account of the Dionysian cult, and through its disturbing tale of destruction and horrific method of worship it paints a picture of extremism unlike other tales. It is possible that Euripides, during his stay in the court of the king of Macedon, saw a sect of the cult whose ritual practices were extremist or it could be that Euripides was attempting to make a statement about the danger of cultist thinking.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dionysus was the only Olympian to have been born twice, once when Zeus killed his mother with a thunderbolt then rescued the unborn child, inserted him into his own thigh for the rest of his gestation, and gave birth to him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One theme that runs through the Dionysian cult is rejection; the Dionysus stories repeatedly tell of Dionysus entering a city, being rejected as a god and bringing destruction to his opponents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It does appear that the authors of the classical plays in the Hellenistic Era either wished to encourage worshippers to remain loyal to their gods or they wished to instill fear in the public regarding the vengeful nature of the gods if they are not obeyed. An example of this is Euripides’ tale of Dionysus’ revenge on Pentheus, king of Thebes. As patient and devious as only a god could be, Dionysus lets himself be captured after driving local women (including Pentheus’ mother) into divine madness. Dionysus, disguised, is believed to be behind the women suddenly running into the forest from the city. Dionysus cannot be restrained, as he amply shows his captor Pentheus. Eventually Dionysis leads Pentheus (dressed as a woman) to his death by the hands of his own mother, who does not recognize him in her state of madness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The choir sings the praises of Dionysus, who is later able to show himself to Thebes for who he really is.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A recurrent theme in The Bacchae is justice, disguise, revenge, and the balance of power, all centered on a god and his followers opposing a mortal and the non-believers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Along the same lines and also reflecting the religion of the time as well as portraying the continual battles that were waged between city-states that vied for dominion, were plays written by Sophocles, Aeschylus, and later Aristophanes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Politics were mixed in with religious rites and rituals, as is written in all of the plays examined. Similarity exists in stories of son against father, brother against sister, and a god dictating the actions of all the major players with the oracles being the messengers delivering prophecies and directions to the mere mortals. A marvelous intertwining of emotions, decisions, protocols, ethics and treachery are exhibited by both mortals and gods in these works, but the gods tend to influence the mortals to turn on each other rather than directly intervene.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus exposes the revenge of gods upon a god, as opposed to Dionysus’ revenge on Thebes for rejecting him. Still, the theme of suffering is woven and fear is stricken into the audience as a great god who had created the mortals done so much for them is ruthlessly punished by Zeus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prometheus Bound is the second play of a trilogy, and uses no stage. In that, it is unique; the entire play takes place in the balconies (ed. Alfred Bates, 1906, p.73). This adds to the feeling that a battle is being waged in the heavens, a common theme reflected in the mythology of the Greek pantheon.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prometheus brought fire to mankind out of sympathy for their ignorance and darkness. At first Zeus was angry, but when he smelled the aroma of the rich sacrifices cooking over the fires he decided to bide his time to see what would happen next. As in The Bacchae, Zeus is alternately portrayed as a benevolent yet very vengeful god.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prometheus Bound illustrates the suffering of torture for a god who cannot die because he is immortal; this would give pause to any Hellenistic person who might wish to become a god. At least humans can be freed from the pains of mortality through death, even if brought about by an angry god.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One passage in particular reflects how rejection is a theme that repeats itself in Hellenistic plays, wrenching emotion from the audience and expressed in such a way as to be all too common in tragedy; Prometheus, chained to the mountainside where a bird of prey arrives daily to eat his liver, cries out, â€Å"The foe of Zeus, and held In hatred by all gods Who tread the courts of Zeus; And this for my great love, Too great, for mortal man† (Bates, p. 76).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Along comes Hermes, in a powerful scene, bids Prometheus to reveal the marriage that will produce the undoing of Zeus’ position. Prometheus adamantly refuses to reveal such a thing unless he is unbound.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Interestingly enough, Zeus had already had a warning regarding a child who would overthrow him; after his liaison with the Titan Metis, Zeus was told that the unborn child would bring about his undoing. He turned Metis into a fly and swallowed her; the child gestated inside of Zeus’ head and later emerged as the goddess Athena. Once again we find Zeus hatching a child within his own body, as Dionysus was.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Even in his suffering, Prometheus is adamant about justice. He had created mortals under Zeus’ orders, he had taught them everything. When Zeus saw the mortals becoming too powerful, able to reason and think for themselves, he saw his own position threatened. This theme is also reflected in different ways and with different scenarios in the plays of the period. Essentially this is a political attitude, which seems to be misplaced among all-powerful and perfect gods, but as humans had godlike qualities, the gods also had very human qualities. Such was the relationship between the Greek Olympians and the Greek people, a mutual relationship of favors granted, sacrifices made and honors given or withdrawn. What we know of this relationship is mostly from writers such as Homer and Plato as well as the playwrights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Prometheus trilogy elaborated on the creation of man, the wrath of Zeus, intervention by Prometheus, the advancement of mankind and the gift of Prometheus (the return of fire). This was followed by the punishment of Prometheus and the ill will of the Olympians toward him. Loyalty to Zeus and the recognition that the gods were only as powerful as their mortal worshippers are reflective of politicians and celebrities of today; a stat is only as stellar as the public allows it to be.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Finally Prometheus is freed and is reconciled amongst the Olympians, but for all he did for mortals, it appears that he was not worshipped, nor was he a patron god of any polis or temple. Apparently his fallibility made him unworthy of mortal worship. Unlike Dionysus, however, Prometheus did not exact revenge on those who did not recognize him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Turning to more complicated matters, we shall now look at the Oedipus plays by Sophocles. This series reveals the role of fate and the irrevocable will of the gods, this time involving Apollo.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Running along common Greek themes of deplorable situations (such as Zeus killing Dionysus’ mother and realizing with horror that she carried his unborn child, Prometheus being horribly tortured for loving his creations so much that he defied Zeus, and the horror of bedding one’s own mother and bearing children by her), Oedipus the King by Sophocles brings about the role played by fate and the unquestionable role of destiny that mortals cannot escape even if forewarned and taking all precautions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Oracles and prophets relayed messages from the gods to mortals, and those whom had a shadow cast over their lives had no choice play out their lives in the manner decreed by the gods.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Oedipus was one of those people, sent away by his mother to be murdered since it was predicted that he would kill his father; a kindly Shepard took Oedipus to be raised in the court of the king and queen of Corinth. Oedipus was not aware of his true parentage.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As a young prince, Oedipus overhears a conversation announcing that he was not the true son of the king and queen, so he sought the advice of the Oracle of Delphi. This is where he learned of his destiny, which had been revealed to his mother years before. Another common theme of the Hellenistic Era is the accuracy of the Oracle of Delphi, who can see into the plans of the gods and will advise mortals as she sees fit.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Oedipus was horrified to hear his fate and, still believing that he was the son of the king and queen of Corinth, he sought to escape the horrible prophecy by leaving the palace. This is another case in point where it was believed that a mortal could not escape what the gods had decreed for their future, and it wasn’t until philosophy took a strong stance in Greek society that the gods were questioned as omniscient beings that controlled the destiny of every person. In the case of Oedipus, had he kept his head and stayed in the palace at Corinth, the story would have been much different but even the reader of the plays will doubt that he could have changed his fate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Oedipus traveled to Thebes, fell in love with and married Jocasta, Queen of Thebes. Jocasta was the widow of Kind Laius, who had been killed in a skirmish with a band of thieves just prior to Oedipus’ arrival.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Oedipus and Jocasta had four children; two daughters (Antigone and Ismeme) and two sons (Polynices and Eteocles). While the offspring of Oedipus and Jocasta do not appear significantly in Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex), their existence is significant for the act that Antigone will later commit in a state of unbending intent, without regard for any punishment from gods or humans.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Eventually a plague strikes Thebes and the citizenry asks Oedipus for help. Oedipus replies that he has already sent the Queen’s brother (Creon) to the Oracle at Delphi for advise. Once again, great faith in the gods and the Oracle is demonstrated, and the Oracle is consulted in order to consult with the gods themselves; such incidents as natural disasters and plagues were undoubtedly initiated by one of the gods whom has been displeased, and only the Oracle had the authority to dispense with the remedy for the situation. Also, Thebes reasserts itself as a city of major importance, politically, being the very city that rejected Dionysus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Chreon returns to report that the Oracle at Delphi says that when the murderer of Laius is captured and expelled, the plague will end.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Oedipus sets out immediately to discover who murdered the King of Thebes, and imagine his horror when he finds out from a local prophet that it was he who had slain the king at the crossroads where the attack had occurred. The only survivor of the attack, a Shepard, is then interrogated; Oedipus still wants to deny that he himself was King Laius’ murderer and Jocasta supports him by ridiculing prophecy and such fanciful thought.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The climax of the play occurs when the Shepard reveals that long ago he had taken a baby from the King and Queen of Thebes and passed it on to a Shepard of Corinth; the baby’s mother had wanted it murdered because of a prophecy that it would kill its parents. The coin drops for Oedipus:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Ah me! ah me! all brought to pass, all true! O light, may I behold thee nevermore! I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed, A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed!† (trans. F. Storr, 1912).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Oedipus later finds Jocasta inside the palace, dead from hanging herself. Oedipus immediately blinds himself and begs to be exiled. Once again we have Thebes expelling a man of prominence, but this time by the man’s request. Where Dionysus had been twice born, Oedipus had been twice expelled from Thebes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The plays depicted above are three great tragedies and hopefully it is clear that the myths and religious overtones occupying the minds and hearts of the Hellenistic Greeks have been demonstrated here to have a recurring theme.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We will now turn to a play of comedy that also has its own flavor yet displays the loyalty to the gods and abides by the principles of Greek society. As a departure from the woes of rejected gods and men, Arisophanes provides the audience with laughter as he resurrects Euripides and Aeschylus, thus acknowledging their greatness and praising Dionysus at the same time as the god of theater.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Binding together the power of Dionysus while poking fun at the god of wine and revelry, Aristophanes writes a slapstick style play in The Frogs. This play has it all; gods, arguments, parody and politics, plus it contains references to the mythological hero Heracles, Charon (the ferryman at the river Styx), and a few Olympians plus the Nine Muses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Even today, this play is extremely funny for those who are familiar with Greek mythology and would be enjoyed even by those who are not, if acted well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In The Frogs, Dionysus is tired of the absence of the absence of meaty dramas in theater and feels that this is a reflection on his honor. He decides to travel to Hades to fetch Euripides and bring him back to Earth. His servant Xanthias accompanies Dionysus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In order to â€Å"blend in† in the underworld, Dionysus dresses as Heracles and consults Heracles for advice and directions before setting off. Once in the underworld, Dionysus is assaulted by the inhabitants seeking revenge for things Heracles had done during one of his journeys to Hades, and Dionysus begs Xanthias to change costumes. No sooner is this done, Persephone (daughter of Demeter and Queen of Hades) invites Heracles to a banquet. Dionysus insists on donning the lion skins again in order that he may attend the banquet, but as soon as he changes, angry people assault him once again. He is finally so afraid he reveals who he really is (reminiscent of revealing himself to Thebes in The Bacchae).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Once it is known throughout Hades that Dionysus is present there, an argument breaks out between Euripides and Aeschylus over who is the better playwright. Insults are traded as thus:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   EURIPIDES Don’t talk to me; I won’t give up the chair, I say I am better in the art than he. DIONYSUS You hear him, Aeschylus: why don’t you speak? EURIPIDES He’ll do the grand at first, the juggling trick He used to play in all his tragedies. DIONYSUS Come, my fine fellow, pray don’t talk to big. EURIPIDES I know the man, I’ve scanned him through and   through, A savage-creating stubborn-pulling fellow, Uncurbed, unfettered, uncontrolled of speech, Unperiphrastic, bombastiloquent. AESCHYLUS Hah! sayest thou so, child of the garden   quean And this to me, thou chattery-babble-collector, Thou pauper-creating rags-and-patches-stitcher? Thou shalt abye it dearly! DIONYSUS Pray, be still; Nor heat thy soul to fury, Aeschylus. AESCHYLUS Not till I’ve made you see the sort of man This cripple-maker is who crows so loudly. DIONYSUS Bring out a ewe, a black-fleeced ewe, my boys: Here’s a typhoon about to burst upon us. AESCHYLUS Thou picker-up of Cretan monodies, Foisting thy tales of incest on the stage- (Internet Classics Archives, 1994 – 2000).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the end, a trial is conducted to see who the King Of Tragedy really is; it is decided to weigh the writings to see whose was heaviest. Aeschylus turned out to have the meatier scripts, so Dionysus took him to Earth instead of Euripides, even though in truth Euripides was regarded the better of the two at the time (Alice Fort, Herbert Kates, 1935).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In both comedy and tragedy, the ties to the gods and the themes of conflict, murder, revenge and long-suffering are present in Hellenistic plays. The ancient Greek society was rich in imagination and devout in its worship of the gods; eventually the Greek culture would spread throughout the Persian Empire and rule until the Roman conquest.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion and to display a part of the beauty of devotion to the gods, an excerpt from Callimachus’ Hymn to Artemis, which expresses the reverence typical of the Greek attitude toward their gods:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Lady, may my true friends and I be among those, Queen, and may I always care about song. I will sing Leto’s wedlock, Apollo, and always Artemis: your labors, dogs, archery, and chariot that lifts you lightly-behold-on your way to Zeus’s heavenly abode† (Callimachus, Jean Alvares 1998). References Aristophanes. â€Å"The Frogs.† The Internet Classics Archives, MIT. 1994 – 2000, 18 December 2005. http://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/frogs.html Bates, Alfred (ed.). â€Å"PROMETHEUS BOUND: A summary and analysis of the play by Aeschylus.† The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol. 1. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 70-78. Callimachus. â€Å"Hymn III: To Aretemis.† Montclair State University, Jean Alvares. 1998 – 2003, 18 December 2005. http://www.chss.montclair.edu/classics/HYMNART.HTML Gross ,Rachel and Grote ,Dale. â€Å"Dionysus.† Encyclopedia Mythica. 1995 – 2004, 16 December 2002. http://www.pantheon.org/articles/d/dionysus.html Storr, F (trans.). â€Å"Oedipus the King.† Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd, London. 1912, 17 December 2005. http://www.online-literature.com/view.php/oedipus/1?term=king%20oedipus

Science, Philosophy and Society

Subject: Science, Philosophy and Society Question: Do you know you are not in the Matrix, and does it matter? From my understanding, I am not live in a real life, I live in some kind of system such as Matrix Philosophers and physicists were discussed a lot about the matrix that we live in, so and they gave much more ideas about the computer simulation and a real life. From my point of view, we are absolutely live in the matrix, and the life is not real that we live. I think the world is somehow like a system and everything depends on one another. And I have enough clear reasons and examples to prove that. So if we think carefully and logically, we can admit that the life we live in is not real. Why?Let's think logically, about on the planet Earth that we live in. If the moon was just a little bit further or closer away from our planet how that would affect and change everything and if we were further closer to the sun how that would affect and change everything and how our body has these complex functions process oxygen and sunlight what it produces and we it's so complicated. And how we create, so we have been created right everything that we create in our society starts with a thought by our brain. The world we live in feels normal and ordinary. It feels like this is just how humans exist and always existed. But its not. According to my understanding, our planet is going round its axis, and we can not live on the planet than from the planet Earth. We are protected by the layers of the sky, and we are given air and water for our lives, and we will do other important things for survive by ourselves. For example; we are creating different types of physical and intelligent techniques to make things physically easer, and we are contrive different kind of products to use; we cultivate different kinds of plans to eat. If we do not do these things, we can not possibly imagine our lives. So from my understanding, it's just like a perfectly structured program, and we've got this perfectly structured program, we have to play for alive and we have programmed into this planet Earth. Maybe my ideas are wrong, but think carefully, that our brain and body is such a perfectly structured system. For example; if we smell, hear, eat, touch, or see anything, we can not say it's all real because everything we fell that automatically will send signals to our basic system which is brain. So we can easily say it is somehow like a system. If we do not have a brain we can not feel at all. Take an example of the stomach, and this is very complex such as other organisms is works like a system. So single cell of the 10000 trillions cells in our body actually has its own intelligence, yes is it incredible but when we zoom it, we can see it like a universe.Furthermore, how do we know that anything is exists how do we know there's a world outside my mind I look around there a world of cars and tables and trees and buildings how do really that any of it is real I think none of them is real, so why? Because, many things that we see and the physical objects is not to show us the truth it is to hide the truth so that we do not have to deal with all that complexity and we have a little eye candy for our species that let us do what we need to do to stay alive. So we can see only outsides and we cannot see inside that things and as will as any kind of very little things. We can only see things simpler, but it will look totally different when we look at it with microscopic, closely-distinct, and distant proximity devices. For example, we cannot see bacteria floating in the air, so millions of different kinds of bacteria fly in the air we breathe. We cannot afford to see very small insects and neither plants. So I admire that everything that we see is not real. We see and feel this truth, but that does not mean we live in real life. We only see tenth of what we see around us, this mean we only see falsehood but not real.I believe that all people are created by Allah and live in a real life. And I want to say an example of a book created by God, the book is called Quran. If we take Islam from a religious point of view, if we see the Quran which is 1400yrs old, still mentions many facts which is we are not live in real life, for example we cannot see and feel any kind of the soul and the snouts, and this cannot be seen by human eyes, but animals can see it and also they can be seen on the camera images we are just living in a system that God has created, but we can see real life after we die. Some people may claim that the Quran was changed as new scientific facts were discovered. But this cannot be the case, because it is a historically documented fact that the Quran is preserved in it is original language. A Quran was written down and memorised by people during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad.Thank you for your time.

Cultural Feminism Essay

Feminism is a movement that is constituted of social, political and cultural perspective. Feminism per se has several forms in various disciplines that changed the facade of women in the western hemisphere, and the entire planet. Feminism roots to the oppression of women in different aspects of humanity. Basically the Feminist cause fights for equality of genders. Feminism Activists began to concern themselves in resolving social and domestic issues and throughout history, as society provided women with opportunities, it it broadened its scope and now tackles a variety of issues which includes gender matters , thus, Cultural Feminism was coined . Rationale Cultural Feminism, sometimes noted as Differential Feminism, is an orientation in Feminist Discipline whose aim is to address on women’s issues that were swept under the rug. This form of Feminism praises the positive qualities which a woman possess. The term Cultural Feminism tackles on the general and specific distinctions between man and woman, the theory also covers differences in the biological view (Balbert, 1989). Cultural Feminism’s intentions is to associate the application of women’s point of view in a world of male supremacy, which would likely lessen brutality in every sense. The core theoretics of Cultural Feminism is attributed to gendered Essentialism. Cultural Feminists tend to apply a non-progressive and Victorian approach, this disturbing take on issues urge the development between genders through the implications of a woman’s nature, tying up to the belief that the women’s methods are more efficient (Moore, 1952). In addition, Cultural Feminism claims that the world is obese of brute male power and needs diet via injection female perspectives. Cultural Feminism 2 Origin Cultural Feminism Jane Addams and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were credited as two of the earliest theorists in the dimensions of cultural Feminism. The two women are prominent to have Cultural Feminism in their literary works. These women suggested that state governance, cooperation, compassion and non-violence as a means to settle social disputes. They also insisted that women’s virtues were the beacon of hope in a divided society. Jane Addams, in her article â€Å"Cultural Feminism†, often utilized women as a source of her ideas and subject of her analysis. She altered the foundations of values and other moral principles of society in attempt to increase the diversity of womanly activities. Driven by the goal to generalize her approach, Addams examined prostitutes, market vendors, corporate women and the principles of non-violence. On the other hand, Charlotte Perkins Gilman voiced out her Cultural Feminist intentions in her book Herland. Gilman’s book contains fictitious approach to Cultural Feminism. The book expresses her ambition of a society of strong women under the guidance of pacifism and cooperation(Ritzer, 2006). Journalist, Critic and activist Margaret Fuller is also a major contributor of Cultural Feminism. Her article Woman in the 19th Century pioneered the Cultural Feminist Movement. Fuller contended that women should be independent and that inequalities in gender are uncalled for in societies of her time. Woman stressed the emotional, spontaneous side of knowledge and insinuated a person to person perspective on the aspects of life and the world which is in contrast with the progressive sense of men during that time. Cultural Feminism 3 Modern Cultural Feminism Modern Cultural Feminists believe that the conventional nature of a woman is concrete among humans and their views of the world in general. A nature that is capable of making changes if not amendments to demoralizing male orientation that consume the whole world. These women explain that the sexist matters of modern society lies in the manner of how men view women. On that statement, the term men is defined as a group of males, and the whole statement claims that how women are perceived by men who have varying opinion on women, which also incorporates fear and anguish towards women. The innovation of passive methods for conflict resolutions is still an on-going trend. Contemporary Cultural Feminists raise the argument on caring and attention become catalysts of woman’s consciousness and how it is based as a standard of ethical judgment. Modern conformists of Cultural Feminism also indict the idea of a woman’s grounds for various achievement motivation patterns, communication forms, the reception capacity to emotional concerns, sexuality and intimacy, less aggressive approaches and their principles of peaceful co-existence. All aspects are given convulsive approaches by their male counterparts. Modern Cultural Feminism is also concerned on the undying result of male dominance. Because of the masculine rule, the characteristics of woman and their femininity have been tinged and depreciated. According to them, the only effective way to correct this problem is the conveying a definition of the essence of a woman in a more legitimate, feminist way (Alcoff, 1988). This new definition that modern Cultural Feminism Conformists imply is a re-incarnation of a woman’s peacefulness through non-violence, their emotional nature as their means to foster, ability to assert herself well through subjectiveness. Furthermore, they contend that they did not re-invent the meaning of a woman and her essence, they are just teaching men the non-biased definition. Cultural Feminism 4 Cultural Criticism Modern Cultural Feminists are patiently making advancements in a gradual manner because of their knowledge that a huge metamorphosis on cultural inclination does not happen overnight. These modern conformist of the female advocation deny the claims that the difference between man and woman are merely biological. However, groups that adhere to men’s rights address Cultural Feminism as a propaganda and a political advocacy. These men’s rights’ sects claim that the woman’s way is as competent as a man’s. The male detractors state that the basis of Cultural Feminism is placed on an essentialist view of differences between genders and promotes independence and institutionalizing The masculine group adds that these Cultural Feminists’ fighting spirit have deteriorated since their political agenda is now a lifestyle. Other critics even integrate that Cultural Feminism is nothing than a twisted form of Radical Feminism(Autumn, 1993). There are certain social, cultural or historical events that surrounds Cultural Feminism, these essential differences between men and women are generated through the years. One great example is when dealing culturally about the views on women in the society. At some pint, gender issues are touched because at certain circumstances,Ridicule from older boys causes boys around the age of five to stop using woman talk and adopt a masculine language. While girls stick to the old language and are discourage from using masculine language. Because if we refuse to do such thing and does not want to speak and ladylike, we are ridiculed to the extent. Therefore the over all effect of woman’s talk is to submerge a woman’s personal identity and her ideas and to deny her access to positions of power. In some culture, understanding the communication between men and women is complicated. Crossing cultures in addition to communicating gender lines makes understanding each other correctly even more difficult, Hence making socialization more difficult. Some historical Cultural Feminism 5 events makes cultural feminism a hot topic because at some point women is set really different from men when it comes to leadership. Female species are always doubted in terms of leadership and hard work. Sexism and gender issues is really rampant throughout the history of the acculturation process of feminism. Talking about businesses and personal relationships, problem occurs when a woman grows old and still inclined socially with other people. Because here there’s a different phase talking about the manner of speaking. If they refuse to talk like ladies, they are ridiculed for being masculine, but they are also ridiculed when they use feminine language because they are seen as unable to speak forcefully. Male dominance in the society is there since childhood by using strong expressions while women have had to adapt depending on the environment whether it’s for business or personal. Women have little or no power in our society and that their language reflects their status in the society. The counterargument claims that women are group oriented and supportive of others. Their language reflects the values and attitudes of their culture and therefore is powerful and cooperative. The issue is not whether the language forms themselves are good or bad but whether we attach good or bad social values to them Historically speaking, unmasked assumptions that a history is determined by great wars and great men whereas feminists have demonstrated the extent to which male bias has determined the normative assumptions of the social, natural and behavioral sciences. In the arts, literary and artistic canons are no loner restricted to the work of men which allows females to excel and develop culturally. Cultural Feminism 6 Cultural Feminism Feminism’s relation to political liberation has always been an element of its self understanding, feminism through the years has been increasingly exposed as beholden to a pernicious set of assumptions about class,race, sexuality, ethnicity and nationality. Whatever its fragmentation, within those arenas where it has a relatively secure footing, feminism can be credited with effecting profound changes in the ideological construction of womanhood, not only in the US and Europe, but more globally. The issue of women’s autonomy in relation to reproduction and to work, and the issue of women’s health more generally, have found themselves on the global political and cultural stage. Feminism continues in its struggle to establish itself as the ground for women’s political, economic, and cultural ascendancy in the face of its own internal debates about the significance of differences among women. References Balbert, P. (1989). Lawrence and the Phallic Imagination. Hong Kong: The Macmillan P. Humm, M. (1990). The Dictionary of Feminist Theory. Great Britain: Ohio State UP. Ritzer, G. (2007). Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots. McGraw-Hill: New York Wilson, E. (1977)Margaret Fuller: Bluestocking, romantic, revolutionary. Farrah, Strauss and Giroux: New York

Christian worldview Essay

Theologians from different ages attempted to answer this question by pointing to the primacy of the Bible and the laws of the Church as the foremost guide to Christian living. Thomas Aquinas, for example, noted that a Christian worldview is Christocentric from the very beginning. that is, the creation was a manifestation of the Word of God. Hence, the Christian is obliged to recognize that the word â€Å"creation† is a partial manifestation of Christ (partial, since the mystery of the Trinity is yet to be revealed to humanity). Hence, every human being is expected by the Creator to be stewards of His creation. This role of stewardship should be characterized by respect for creation, responsible leadership, and brotherhood. Thus, for Aquinas, the Christian worldview is tantamount to recognition of the Christocentric origin of creation and its manifestations (the role of stewardship) in the actions of men. The Concept of Worldview: A Background In Creation Regained : Biblical Basics for a Reformation Worldview , Albert Wolters answers the question by pointing that â€Å"living consciously to the teachings of the Bible and understanding its meaning† is grounded on what he calls â€Å"framework. † This framework is equivalent to the term â€Å"worldview† (in German, Weltanschauung). Worldview literally means a framework of beliefs which functions as a guide to life. The author sees that the elements of a Christian worldview were first derived from the Bible and expounded by the Protestant Reformation. Hence, Wolters exposition of a Christian worldview had its roots from Protestant theology, although the basic elements of a Christian worldview are almost identical. In the book, Wolters created a framework for understanding the teaching of the scripture by expounding three concepts: creation, fall, and redemption. The author notes that the creation was formed out of God’s goodness. this goodness flow from the Divine will to the physical world. It can be said that the physical world to which man is located has that share of Divine Essence. Added to that, when God created man, he set forth creation as man’s purpose. God bestowed on man the role of stewards of creation. Creation serves as the means of man to attain his full development. Thus, it can be said that the â€Å"creation was created for man, and man for creation. † This mutual relationship between creation and man can be exhibited in the book of Genesis. The scope of such relationship became, however, limited because of the fall of humanity. However, the incarnation of the Word to this world became the grounding point for the restoration of creation. Hence, Christ’s redemption of humanity served as the climax for that restoration. God’s Grace as Restoration Here we can argue that God’s grace is not a concept far removed from the physical world. It is neither supra-creational nor anti-creational. God’s grace is restorative in value. God intended to restore the original goodness and meaning of creation to which sin has severely damaged. Wolters argues that because of the expansive scope of God’s redeeming work, Christians are invited to participate in his work in all parts of the world. Thus, the author notes that redemption is tantamount to the fulfillment of God’s will in this world. The afterlife serves as the final test of man’s love for God. The term â€Å"redemption† though is only a subset of God’s grace (since God’s grace is the totality of God’s loving actions towards the history of man). Redemption is viewed as the restoration of man’s relationship with God, which had been severely impaired by the fall. This restoration though, cannot be attained if God is viewed by man as a distant entity. God therefore willed that He must be a participant in the redemption of man, because â€Å"He alone is capable of giving grace to man. † This was manifested in the incarnation of the Word. The incarnation serves as God’s medium to communicate his â€Å"grace† to man. Wolters notes that the baptism of Jesus Christ was the first act to which God made clear His intention of reaching the humanity. This â€Å"reaching† though must be viewed as an act of love. undeterred by the dualist distinction of the divine and the physical. Needless to say, it was also a means of God to show that His preeminence is unbounded by time, space, and matter. that although He is distinct from the three dimensions of the physical world, He is Lord. Concepts of Structure and Direction The relationship among the three concepts can be explained using two terms: structure and direction. Structure refers â€Å"to the order of creation† , that is, it is the unchangeable and objective reality established by God. This establishment of objective reality was basically derived from the Divine Essence, yet distinct from God Himself. This method of ascribing the nature of creation to God is stressed in the work of Catholic and Protestant theologians. According to this method, we assume that God’s nature is translated into another nature by virtue of creation. However, we can never equalize God’s nature with that of creation. The reality expressed in God is different from the reality manifested in creation. Thus, God’s preeminence in terms of nature is recognition of the Divine origin of creation. Thus, the â€Å"order of creation† is derived from the will of God, and yet distinct from His nature. Direction, on the other hand, is about the evil in the world and its corresponding cure. The evil was first manifested in the fall of humanity. the cure in the salvific actions of the incarnated Word. Thus, the author argues that structure and direction comprised the â€Å"worldview. † This worldview though differs from philosophy and theology by virtue of being pre-theoretical. This pre-theoretical notion of worldview is compounded on the will of God. Thus, the author notes that the order of creation (structure) is something derived from God which can be utilized for or against the kingdom of God (direction). The Idea of Creation The idea of creation is expounded in the book of Wolters. Wolters defines it as â€Å"the correlation of the sovereign activity of the Creator and the created order. † This created order is governed by God’s acts called â€Å"laws. † Here, Wolters arrives at a definition of law: â€Å"the totality of God’s ordaining acts toward the cosmos. † Law is a translation of God’s will into actions comprehensible by the human mind. Translation is necessary in order for men to obey the will of God and participate in God’s work (stewardship of creation). Added to that, law is also recognition of the subordinate nature of creation to the will of God. This subordination though does not impede the capacity of creation to reach full development. The law serves as the focal point of development of all creatures since the â€Å"history of creation† is guided by the salvific actions of the Most High. The Conception of Divine Law Nonetheless, the law is foremost the recognition of the sovereignty of the Absolute and Perfect God and of the individuality of the creation. Anything beyond the grasp of God’s ordaining acts does not exist. Development separate from the hands of God will not mature. Thus, it can be said that the law serves as the driving force for the maintenance of the â€Å"order of creation† and its corresponding development. Here Wolters makes a distinction between the law ordained by God and the laws established by man. The law ordained by God serves first as a means for humanity to achieve full development. Humanity from the very beginning is special to God. Among the creatures of the earth, God chose man as his representation. When God said, â€Å"Let us create man in our own image†, God bestows on man the authority to shape the world. Thus, when God established the â€Å"Law†, He intends for obedience to become a point of development. that is, development in accordance to the will of God. As what had been argued earlier, development outside the scope of God’s authority does not exist. Second, God’s law functions as a test to humanity. For example, the laws of nature were established in order to test the efficacy of man’s genuine efforts to reach the Almighty. God wants humanity to discover and reach Him through its own efforts. By the laws of nature, man realizes that a Power exists beyond what he perceives. This Power is the manifested in the powers of nature: the capability to create and destroy. Thus, God intended the law to be a salvific force for man’s redemption. Human law, on the other hand, tends to be brutal and blind in scope. For the most, laws in society protect the strong and promote injustice. Rather than catering to the needs of the weak and the poor, these laws maintain the paramount interests of the ruling class. The consequence: the laws established by society become contradictory to the true purpose of the Higher Law. Rather than viewing these â€Å"secular laws† as an extension of the Law of God, it is perceived by the oppressed as an instrument of injustice and evil. Wolters then argues that because of the inclination of the laws of society to dispense evil and injustice, it becomes an â€Å"enemy of God’s ordained purpose. † Secular and Religious Domains of the Law Wolters argues that the world is divided into â€Å"secular† and â€Å"religious† domains (based from the distinction of human and divine law). The religious domain is that which concerns the private approach to scripture removed from the rudiments of â€Å"public† or â€Å"secular† affairs such as politics, science, art, and scholarship. He argues that the â€Å"religious† domain focuses on the personal ascription of an individual to the nature of the Divine. that is, the world outside the grasp of the human mind. The â€Å"secular† domain is the one derived from God and made meaningful by man. â€Å"Meaningful† here does not connote the imperfection of God in establishing an â€Å"order†, rather God gave man the capability of creating an order to which he may achieve his full potential. Components of Worldview Here, Wolters correlates â€Å"worldview† with the cognitive dimension of humanity as the medium to which man may live faithfully in accordance to the Divine Essence. He notes that if man would rearrange his mental structure to embody the teachings of the Bible, then man’s life would reflect the will of the Divine. Needless to say, man’s life would be renewed and somehow â€Å"restored† to its true purpose. Thus, Wolters argues that a one-way subordinate relationship exists between beliefs and practices. Practices are derived from beliefs. Beliefs are derived from God’s revelation to man (which reached its climax in the redemptive act of Jesus Christ). In this dualism, the inner aspect of worldview is equivalent to beliefs. the outer to practices. These two aspects of dualism though are not mutually exclusive. Man’s beliefs influence his actions. His actions, in turn, reinforce those beliefs. Here, Wolters presents a discussion of consecration and sanctification. Sanctification refers `to the renewal from the inside out. † Consecration, on the other hand, refers â€Å"to external and superficial renewal. † The distinction between these two concepts can be grasped from a substantial understanding of the dualist conception of worldview. Before an individual is renewed superficially, there is a need to rearrange his beliefs. The rearrangement should be based from Biblical precepts declared to be essential to man’s future relationship with God. This rearrangement is termed â€Å"internal reorientation. † When beliefs are properly renewed (consequently worldview is changed), this results to a total reorientation of man’s lives and his activities. Because practices constitute man’s life, reforming becomes a way to enrich that life, and to an extent, to give meaning to its true purpose. It should be noted that this â€Å"new life† is Christocentric in orientation. Faith becomes a manifestation of the Divine Will and transforms into actions contributing to its fulfillment. Here, we can assume that an `internal reorientation† of the inner aspect of worldview is a prerequisite in the total reformation of man’s life. Form of Biblical Worldview The form of Biblical Worldview which Wolters presents in his book can be summarized as follows: The form itself is ordained by God after the fall of man. The fall of humanity destroyed the bridge between God and man, and thus made necessary the proliferation of sin in the world. Because the primary purpose of creation is man, and of man is creation, there was a need to establish a structure and direction that would characterize man’s worldview. Direction though is a manifestation that God gave man freewill. that is, the freedom to choose between good and evil. God though continues to guide humanity throughout history as a Force of salvation and grace. God’s establishment of the Divine Law serves as a means for man to attain his true purpose. This true purpose can only be found in the realm of the Divine. Hence, the law as what Jesus Christ said â€Å"is made for man, not man for the law. † And, worldview is made up of two components: consecration and sanctification. Sanctification is a prerequisite for consecration. A reorientation of man’s belief is necessary for a total transformation of his life. This transformation though must be Christocentric and derived from freewill. Only when these requirements are fulfilled that man reaches the mind of the Divine. The will of God then becomes manifested in the actions of man. Man then is restored to his true purpose (which was damaged by the fall). Personal Understanding of Christianity: Changes Personally, the redemption of Christ serves only as the restoration of God’s infinite love to humanity. This is not the case in Wolters’ book. God’s infinite love had been from the very beginning directed to the nature of man. God intended man to be his close associate, greater than the angels, and receiver of His Divine grace. No point in history that God’s love for humanity diminished. God’s love for humanity is perfect and without bound. Even if the physical world ends, God’s love will flow. This is the ultimate fact of Christianity. Nonetheless, the view (personal) that the restoration of man to his true nature is limited by time and space is also contradictory to the thesis of Wolters. He argues that the restoration or the redemption of humanity through Christ is continuous. that is, the Divine grace moves history towards the full attainment of that restoration. Hence, the righteous is called to participate in this redemptive act so that the â€Å"sinners† would be enlightened of the true purpose of God’s reign. Personally, there are only two events in human history which can be described as salient to Christian faith: fall and redemption. This is though not the case in Wolters’ thesis. From the very beginning (creation), God intended man to live with Himself to attain his potentialities. This was damaged by sin: the element that disrupted (and continues to disrupt) man’s true nature. Man became far from God. Although God tried to reach man, man became (and continues to become) ignorant of himself. Man was blinded by the authority given by God over His creation. He became selfish and ignorant of God’s will. Thus, God willed that man be restored to himself. that is, God wants man to be reconciled to his true nature: a nature that recognizes its Divine origin. Bibliography Aquinas, Thomas. Whether temporal goods fall under merit? † in Summa Theologica (Calvin College, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2005). Retrieved on 28 October 2007 from http://www. ccel. org/ccel/aquinas/summa. FS_Q114_A10. html. Luther, Martin. â€Å"The Necessity of Knowing God and His Power† in De Servo Arbitrio (On the Enslaved Will. (Calvin College, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2007). Retrieved on 28 October 2007 from http://www. ccel. org/ccel/luther/bondage. viii. html.

Assessing the Zara brands success worldwide

Assessing the Zara brands success worldwide Zara is one of the most well known brands in the world and is also one of the largest international fashion companies. They are the third largest brand in the garment industry and are a unit of Inditex. It their flagship range of chain stores and are headquartered in Spain. Zara opened its first outlet in Spain in 1975. The headquarters of the company is based in Galicia. There are more than 2600 stores across 73 countries in the world. The Zara clothing line accounts for a huge bulk of its parent group’s revenues. There are other clothing brands owned by Inditex such as Kiddy ´s Class (children’s fashion), Pull and Bear (youth casual clothes), Massimo Dutti (quality and conventional fashion), Bershka (avant-garde clothing), Stradivarius (trendy garments for young woman), Oysho (undergarment chain) and Zara Home (household textiles). Inditex owns all Zara outlets except for places where they are not allowed ownership of stores (that’s where Franchises step in) . Zara is renowned for coming up with products on a short timescale instead of taking forever. They are known for taking around 2 weeks to develop products and have been known to come up with around 10,000 new designs every year (which is an industry record). They have bucked the trend by making productions in Europe instead of shifting their entire production to Third World or Developing countries. However some of their clothes are manufactured in parts of Asia due to the fact that they have a longer shelf life. They make most of their own products inside Spain or other European Countries as they own a large number of factories in both Spain and Portugal. They also don’t have to depend on anyone else as they can get everything done by themselves. Zara is unique in the way that it does not spend money on marketing and instead concentrates on opening new stores instead. Their brave experiments have led them to be labeled as one of the most innovative retailers in the world. Za ra started out with low priced products which were pale imitations of high end fashion products. This move led to Zara being a smashing success and allowed them to expand by opening more stores in Spain. The company management also managed to reduce the time it took to create new designs and came up with the term â€Å"instant fashions† which allowed them to capitalize on new trends really fast. Zara is known to use teams of designers instead of individuals. Zara has to face a lot of competition from H&M, Gap and Bentton internationally. Fortunately Zara is considered to be more fashionable than the rest of the brands despite the fact that its price is less than Benetton and Gap. H&M is still cheaper than Zara but is equally fashionable as Zara. Gap and Benetton are less fashionable and more pricy. SWOT Analysis Strengths Zara’s biggest strength is the fact that it provides cost leadership strategy by aiming at efficiency and cost reduction on products. There is a lot of efficiency merely due to the fact that products are put on fast track and costs are kept really low. They don’t take a long time to come up with new collections. Zara is able to come up with collections really fast (around 2 weeks to get a collection ready).