Chapter 4 of ‘The Turn of the Screw’ Essay

How does Chapter 4 of ‘The Turn of the Screw’ establish the character’s/narrator’s point of view? How does it encourage the reader to judge the character/narrator? Use evidence of diction, tone and symbolism to substantiate your reading. Chapter 4 of the novel begins after the governess has apparently seen for the first time, a strange man standing on the rooftop of Bly. She has described the figure in great detail, leading us to lend at least some small credence to her belief that it is a real person; how could she have described him in such detail if she hadn’t actually seen something? The chapter, however, begins with the governess in a state of paranoia about the incident and her situation. The governess compares her situation to two very popular gothic romances, which is the first instance in which we as readers begin to question her sanity. Was there a ‘secret’ at Bly – a mystery of Udolpho†¦? Udolpho, Radcliffe’s novel, she does directly, however she also mirrors the plot of Jane Eyre in her wishing to marry her master. Likening her world to the worlds of two pieces of fiction, rather than add clarity to her situation, instead have the opposite effect in leading us to question her perception of the lines between reality and fantasy. Ironically she mentions an â€Å"insane relative† and â€Å"confinement† when in fact she is the one starting to become ‘insane’ and is indeed the one confined to this large country house, away from the man that she loves, the one man she cannot get to. Further to this view of the governess’ fascination with the master bringing up questions of her sanity, the very vision of Quint himself could help us to understand this. With no outlet for her feelings for the master, it can be said that the vision of the man she sees is indeed a manifestation of her feelings for the master. She experiences â€Å"curiosity† and â€Å"dread† at the vision, she finds Quint attractive yet also aggressive and terrifying, as handsome as the master yet different as in the manifestation of a dream. It can be said that she has created for herself a sexual substitute onto which she projects her fears and her desires, she fears his sexuality. Small turns of phrase used by the governess also lead us, at least subconsciously to doubt the account of the governess. She â€Å"can’t say how long† she remained rooted to the spot after the vision, in a dream-like daze perhaps? She is writing this account well after the events after all, meaning that her own views of events and time are distorted. There is a vagueness and ambiguity to the whole account and of course her personal feelings could have coloured her view of actual events; it is incredibly difficult to remember something so long after with total recall. She finds herself â€Å"hesitate to mention† the events to Mrs Grose. Why is this? Could she doubt her own ideas already or is she as she says trying to â€Å"spare† her companion? What is this â€Å"inward revolution† that she experiences? This idea of the governess seeing herself as a hero and saviour is prevalent throughout the chapter and the novel. The innocence of the children is possibly the central theme of the novel and perhaps this manifestation of Quint happens because she feels threatened. Indeed the apparitions always seem to take place after a happy session with the children. Whether Quint is a ghost or not, the idea of evil approaching innocence is important to consider as a symbol. James has taken great pains to highlight the innocence of the children and the governess gives us her own views on the evilness of this character. Every scene and action seems to further illuminate the question to us of the children’s innocence. The governess sees Miles as â€Å"quite unpunishable† and sees his actions as a â€Å"direct disproof† to his guilt, but we as readers know that Miles has been expelled from many schools. The governess freely admits that she is â€Å"under the spell† of the children of whom she has only known for a relatively short time. She becomes incredibly critical of the headmaster and school, â€Å"little horrid unclean school-world† and â€Å"stupid sordid headmasters† show us that she is becoming very defensive, almost irrationally so, of this one thing – the children – that is almost keeping her going. There is an altogether unwholesome purity to Miles and Flora, as if they are ‘too’ innocent and it creates ideas in our own heads about how they could be playing with the governess. Could Quint be the manifestation of a sense of her feeling that this happiness with the children is threatened? The governess’ own ideas about Quint also lead us to question her because they are entirely subjective views and they get more and more subjective throughout the novel. Originally there was some credibility to her account as she described the physical aspects of the ‘ghost’. We don’t know that it’s Quint, just a man, and this makes her account seem more trustworthy. On the second occasion she gives her thoughts and the account begins to unravel a little. How can she possibly know that he was looking for the children? She can not possibly. She makes claims that can’t be proven such as the â€Å"monstrous liberty† that this ‘traveller’ has taken by coming into the grounds and taking a look form the tower. She speaks of her â€Å"duty and courage†, again referencing herself as the hero. She is beginning to fit her ideas around the vision and more and more doubt is being cast upon her all the time. The fact that she sees him a second time disproves her original view of him being a wayfarer. The fact that it appears to be the same handsome man could be a mistake, and this in fact could be a stranger who exists in reality outside of her fantasies. She mentions the children as being an â€Å"antidote to any pain.† Could she be speaking of the master here as well as her problems at home? She recognises the man â€Å"one step into the room†¦instantaneous† as though she’s almost expecting it. It is very difficult to recognise someone you have seen only once from very far away immediately. The â€Å"forward stride† he has taken is symbolic of her approaching madness perhaps? She has â€Å"known him always†, is he a part of her, some part of her mind? We also have the symbolism, â€Å"the darkness had quite closed in†, of madness fairly early in the chapter. Many people recall insanity or madness to be like a great cloud or darkness, and of course this is echoed in the greyness of the day and poor weather, which incidentally is very evocative of the gothic mood leading us to reconsider the possibility of a supernatural event actually taking place as well I believe. Both times that she sees the man, she spends days wandering about, losing track of time and this could be a reaction of intense shock to seeing a ghost, but she doesn’t yet know that this is a ghost. â€Å"There were hours, from day to day†¦when I had to shut myself up to think† She is almost obsessing over the vision. He has to decide whether or not she has been â€Å"made the object of any game,† another instance of her paranoia. She â€Å"repeatedly dipped into† her room again and again by her own admission and we are beginning to wonder now at the state of her mind and the nature of the shock she had undergone. After the first time she describes her reaction as â€Å"the shock I had suffered.†, and all of these wanderings, loss of time and bouts of shock lead me personally to believe she has had a bout of hysteria and could possibly be imagining the whole thing. â€Å"The good thing after all, was that we should surely see no more of him.† – although she is trying to convince the reader and herself, she doesn’t seem very sure, although we again have to remember that she is writing this after the events. She is withholding information from us deliberately, and when we find out that she does see him again, it affects our trust of her once more. She even loses all sense of â€Å"duration† again. She speaks of losing him and outside being â€Å"empty with a great emptiness†, sounding almost disappointed at not finding the man, or manifestation of the master. She has feelings for her absent master, similar in appearance to this vision, sexual desires, and this on top of the bad news that she has been receiving from home and the paranoia she has been experiencing builds up and up until it manifests itself on a dark night/grey day and she thinks that she sees something. On both occasions she has even been the instigator of her placement; she decides to go for a walk and she was the one who left the gloves where she had on the second occasion. Was it mere coincidence that the apparitions happened on both of these occasions? We are left, as usual in the novel, unsure by the ambiguity and to decide for ourselves. Ironically at the end of the chapter, the governess is juxtaposed with the position of the stranger, and she becomes the source of terror for everybody else rather than the heroine as she presses herself against the window and Mrs Grose enters the room.

Gerry Conway – American Entrepreneur

Gerry Conway was the classic American entrepreneur – visionary, charismatic, driven, impatient, and impending. Born in Cleveland in 1931, Conway was the ninth of 13 children. His love of the retail environment, his strong interdependence, and his deep appreciation of people appreciation of people stemmed from his childhood experience: claiming that he has been in retail for over 60 years, working at some of his fathers 200 food stores. After college, Conway and his wife, Marty, returned to Cleveland. He began working for an industrial firm and quickly learned that, while sales attracted him, working in a large corporation did not.After working at some small firms, Conway decided to found his own company, Gerald A. Conway & Associates, being display-printing broker. One day, a colleague suggested that he sell the plastic parts that retailers used to display signs as part of his printing broker business. The advantage of selling accessories was that he could sell the same produc t to many companies simultaneously, which was not possible in display printing, for which each printing job was customized. An early product idea was the Arrowhead fastener, which was designed to hold coupons and signs on store shelves.It was a best seller from the start. During this time though, Conway had struggles with alcohol, stating that it was a problem, but through a self-help program he chose sobriety and regained focus in his life. The following year, his first year sober, his income shot up by about 35 percent-a direct correlation. He celebrated the event saying that was a significant event in the business and for his family. In the mid 1970s, now sober, Gerald Conway and Associates was renamed Fasteners for Retail (FFr) to acknowledge its exclusive focus on display accessories and fasteners within the point-of-purchase industry.The P-O-P product includes signs, displays, devices, and structures that are used to merchandise services or products in retail stores. The acces sory hardware segment was highly fragmented. No single supplier had more than 10 percent of the sub supplier market, and many competed in only a few product categories. FFr was the largest company in this niche, with a market share of approximately 7. 5 percent. The company distinguished itself from its competitors in several important ways. It offered a broad and innovative product line, free samples, quick turnaround on orders, and a liberal sales return policy.The willingness to emphasize new products also became a defining characteristic for the business. While the company’s early expansion began with imported Swedish design accessories, the product line grew because of Conway’s creativity and dissatisfaction with status quo. Two products in particular, the Shipflat literature holder and SuperGrip sign holders, were critical to FFr’s success in the early 1980’s. In the 1980s, FFr grew consistently and at a steady pace, having five employees and sales of $3 million. As stated above, business began to boom as a result of a expanding product line and larger sales force.The company grew steadily, adding employees in accounting, customer service, product design, and marketing. Its opportunistic philosophy supported the company’s growth. The business was always profitable, there was no debt, and the company never got tied up in long-term commitments. Production and most warehousing were subcontracted, and office space was leased. The company made quick decisions, and arrangements with vendors were frequently based on handshakes. The flipside of FFr’s opportunism and speed was that it lacked a business plan and strategic discipline.To keep the company growing, Conway realized that he needed to hire a president with managerial expertise. Although he understood the value of management, he was an entrepreneur, not a traditional manager. The company went through several presidents. FFr, for a time, was a company with an organ izational chart but not a lot of organization. That changed in the late 1990’s. In the early 1990’s, Conway and his wife, Marty, joined Case Western Reserve University’s Partnership for Family Business. This led to Conway realizing the importance for such things as an advisory board, which was made up of four independent current and former company CEOs.It also led Conway to begin thinking of the furture of the company, and the possibility of passing it down to one of his sons. Family involvement in the company began in the 1970s, when the Conway children earned extra money by putting adhesive on the back of Arrowhead fasteners. They had all done odd jobs for FFr, but of the seven children only three worked in the business as adults. Kevin, the eldest, joined in the early 1980s and became an outstanding salesman, Paul, the youngest, eventually became the international sales manager, and Neil, the fourth son, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in college and found w ork in the warehouse.Out of the three sons, Paul was seen as the most serious contender, but after some time in the company and deliberation, he decided that being CEO was not for him and went on to become a teacher. Now Gerry was left with a huge predicament. Kevin was out of the picture, his son Stuart had, long ago; decided that he didn’t want the responsibility. None of the kids were interested. Gerry’s problem was not only his lack of succession planning, but also his lack of retirement planning. He had done some retirement planning but the demands of running a business didn’t leave him time to establish an actual plan.So where does this leave Gerry, his company, and his family’s future? (Source: Poza PG 141-155) My first step of advice for Mr. Conway would be to take step a back. Even though he is experiencing a very rough time right now with his succession planning, it is very important to note what he has done for the company and his family. He ha s managed to start up a successful business in which his family is involved and with net sales in the millions. He also made sure that he set up certain things like an advisory board for the company, which was made up of his son, brother, and two independent CEO owners.He and his wife also made family meetings a regular event for everyone to gather at. They even went so far to go over their estate plan to make sure that their children gained a substantial amount of value from FFr over their lifetime. These are all great things that Gerry and Marty did for the family business and they should be recognized. After taking some time to admire their contributions to the company, its time to move on to the next step and tackle the problems head on. Gerry needs someone to take over the company, and his kids were not an option.After reading the case several times though, I determined that there was someone that Gerry could entrust with the company, his chief advisor and wife Marty. Marty pla yed a very pivotal role in the company, being a person who signed the checks and overlooked the company’s finances. She also had a public role at company functions and was a people booster. She played a more significant role behind the scenes, supporting Gerry as he considered important business changes, such as handling over administrative reins or making personal changes.Both family members and outsiders described Marty as the glue that worked behind the scenes to hold the family together through the predictable challenges that families who work together faced. (Source Poza PG 154) Marty seems more than qualified to take control of business, which would also give Gerry time to iron out his retirement plan. This would also give Gerry the opportunity to have another talk with his son Paul about running the company. The text states that Gerry was a loner in the way that he ran his business.Paul may not have realized that he could do the job differently- probably in a more dece ntralized and collaborative way. (Source: Poza PG 154) I feel that it is crucial that Gerry makes Paul realize that if he decided to be CEO he can take a different approach to running the company, his own. He could run the company and instill the values that he thinks is important into it. After realizing this and the possible opportunity that he his passing up, not only for himself but also his future family, he will have to at least reconsider his father’s offer and most likely come back to work for the company.If this still does not work, Gerry is left with the option of finding someone else in the family to run the company, find a trusted family friend to run the company, or sell it all together. In conclusion, Gerry Conway has managed to take his company Fasteners for Retail and turn it into a huge family company. He had been with so much with the company and realized that it was coming to the time to pass it on. He tried passing it on to his children, but he failed in a ll his attempts. Now left with little time and money, Gerry needed someone to run his company. I felt that the answer came in his wife, Marty.She was his chief advisor at the company and new how to read all the financial data associated with it. Family members and outsiders alike referred to her as the glue that held the company together. With her running the company, it would allow for Gerry to manage all his retirement issues and give his talk with son Paul another shot. After making Paul realize the opportunities that he is passing up, I am sure he will come back to the company and began work. References Poza, Ernesto J. , 2007. Famly Business Third Edition. South Western Cengage Learning 5191 Natorp Boulevard. Mason, Ohio 45040, USA.

Website Redesign Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Website Redesign - Assignment Example From this study it is clear that as a professional Information Communication Technologist, the reporter would like to inform you that he needs to redesign the website’s ‘About Us’ and ‘Salon Team’ sections. As part of his responsibility, the reporter would like to urge your office to consider my suggestion to redesign the website so as to make it more appealing to the visitors.This paper discusses that in the author's opinion, might be disastrous for the company. Therefore, he kindly requests you to allow him to redesign these sections by using appropriate and large fonts and spacing, change the coloring and use more clear and conspicuous photos. He also suggests that these sections should be changed because they have a lot of grammar mistakes that if left as they are, can damage the reputation of the company. Therefore, he suggests that all the grammar mistakes should be corrected. Moreover, the sections are so wordy.meg a lot of unnecessary words we re used when it was being designed. For this reason, the reporter proposes that the wording structure need to be corrected. Any unnecessary words should be removed so as to make the website precise, readable, attractive and comprehendible. This, in the reporter's opinion, is the only way through which the website would be eye-catching and appealing to the target audience who is known for loving attractive things.  Ã‚  

Work life balance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Work life balance - Essay Example Subsequently the essay provides an analysis on the country with the healthiest work-life balance. In conclusion, the essay provides an outline of some remedies aimed at improving the work life balance. The aim of this essay is to compare the work-life balance between the UK and Denmark. Work-life ‘balance’ is a priority policy in the EU, but there are substantial differences in the manner and extent national governments provide support for their workers. These laws and support from the government determine the work-life balance among employees. In countries with flexible labor market policies, workers find ease in sustaining a balanced life. In Denmark, for example, workers enjoy a strong job rights and there is an extensive childcare support for working mothers. Such laws encourage both men and women to engage in gainful employment. The Danish government provides a flexible and secure labor market for its employees, and this positively influences the lifestyle of the workers. It is noteworthy that Denmark has the lowest poverty rates especially among families with children and has a high employment rate for women. According to Crompton and Lyonette, this situation places the employees at a good position and ensures that the welfare of these workers, a s well as that of their children, is taken into consideration. In contrast to the UK situation, it is imperative that Denmark is more considerate to the welfare of its employees. Moreover, the Danish employees who work overtime often receive compensated financially or provided time off to compensate for the overtime worked. On the other hand, the UK has a weak statutory framework of employment, and this tends to imbalance the life of workers. The workers work according to these regulations, and as such, their welfare is not comprehensively covered. According OECD the country has the longest average full time working hours compared to other countries in the European region. Additionally the UK provides

What Is Globalization Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

What Is Globalization - Research Proposal Example    Another word for globalization is an exchange. For the most part, the recent form and development of the world can be attributed to globalization because the technological advancement has happened as a result of the very exchange of resources and services among countries. While there are several features of globalization related to different aspects including economic, social, and political, yet â€Å"where it has had a most telling impact is in major and dramatic increases in global trade and exchanges in an open, integrated and borderless international environment† (Pere). Globalization has particularly increased as a result of the advent of the Internet. The Internet has allowed people to socialize with one another, make friends, and exchange ideas and opinions without being limited by the geographic boundaries. Globalization has played a very important role in the exchange of talent across the nations. These days, the Internet is used to recruit talented people from all over the world. â€Å"Globalization has changed us into a company that searches the world, not just to sell or to the source, but to find intellectual capital - the worlds best talents and greatest ideas† (Welch cited in Kulkarni). Employers use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to learn more about the candidates they are considering hiring. Positive effects of globalization include increased knowledge of world cultures; increased understanding of the norms and values, trends and traditions of different people; economic strengthening and development of the underdeveloped countries.

Education online system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Education online system - Essay Example Instead, this mode of study allows one to have the flexibility of time. The students can choose the time that they will be online within 24 hours without interfering with their daily activities. As Rovai, (2003) points out, there are a number of studies there are different measures taken by the instructors to ensure that there is earning similar to those students that are attending face to face classes. Students in this category have to spend much more time with the instructors having to employ some more commitment in setting evaluation questions administering them , marking and guiding the students on the areas of weakness. At the same time, students who are working in groups in different institutions are likely to learn much faster and better than those attending online classes are. Thus, the study establishes that the online studies are of much importance to already established students in various field of specialization. Which, therefore, calls for increased used of the mode of study in offering most of the postgraduate and les of the undergraduate courses. This is so because most graduate students, they can be able to contrite and at the se time comprehend concepts muc h faster because they have some knowledge in the areas of study. Unlike for the other students it will be much difficult to understand new concepts for the first time though an online forum. Hence, this might jeopardize the quality of education in case of poor commitment of instructors while attending to their online students more so the undergraduate students. However, there are number of different student with different preferences. Identifying the unique features of students is key to nearing that the system worked for all the students. For instance, to begin with, one has to identify the student’s ability to comprehend concepts in his or her own. Some students must need an instructor to provide face-to-face educational session to

The Case of Sarver Elementary School Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The of Sarver Elementary School - Case Study Example At the final decision, Caine went against his commitment and voted for closing Sarver while Davis and Ebel adhered to their commitments and supported the Committee. The votes were in the 3-2 ratio, supporting the decision of closing Sarver. Amelia Stone, Committee’s member alleged the board for several issues such as rejection of Committee’s report without any consideration, violation of Sunshine Law and bypassing contractual commitment of Caine in support of Sarver Elementary School. After noticing all the situation and issues, it is quite clear that both sides conducted studies for coming up on a conclusion regarding the closing of Sarver Elementary School. However, it is quite clear that the whole board is not ready to close the school. The Committee is interested in closing Miller School because this school can be converted into a business setup while Sarver Elementary School has chances of future growth. There were professionals on both sides for considering the issue of closing Sarver School. Caine has promised in black and white to support the Committee’s decision by voting against closing Sarver Elementary School but he has not fulfilled his promise and has voted against his consent. Therefore, the vote placed by Caine should be ignored. After this, the voting will be in a ratio of 2-2. Looking at this situation, it is quite clear that Citizen’s Task Force and â€Å"Save Sarver† Committee have to reconsider their decisions. They should sit with another in order to come to a solution. The voting process should be there again in order to know about the new situation. Dr. Connie Kniving has just seen one side of the situation and has rejected all the efforts of â€Å"Save Sarver† Committee preferring the decision of Citizen’s Task Force. He has to keep proper attention to both the reports submitted by the Task Force and the Committee in order to come to a conclusion regarding the closing of Sarver Elementary School.

Nutrition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Nutrition - Essay Example The overall effect of these factors is however, cell impairment that inhibits the function of insulin to stimulate absorption of sugar into cells. When this resistance occurs, sugar cannot be efficiently absorbed and its levels rise above optimum. One of the major causes of type 2 diabetes is genetics. The disease is hereditary, which means that a parent with the disease before a child’s birth is likely to transfer the complication to his or her child. Similarly, diagnosis of the disease in a sibling is an indicator that a person is likely to be a victim. This is however a reflection of the genetic transfer from a parent (Diabetes, 1). A person’s origin has also been identified as a factor to developing diabetes. This is because some races have shown significantly higher susceptibility to the type II diabetes than others have. An example is the American Indian race. As a result, being an American Indian increases a person’s chances of contracting the disease. â€Å"High blood pressure,† as high as â€Å"140/90† and above is another factor that causes type II diabetes (Diabetes, 1). The basis of the disease, inability to experience efficient absorption of blood sugar into cells, explains the role of blood pressure in causing the disease. This is because transfer of molecules through cell membrane, whether facilitated by insulin or not, is a factor of pressure hence unfavorably high levels of pressure hinders the sugar molecules’ flow into cells. High levels of cholesterol also affect sugar absorption into cells causing type II diabetes. Higher levels such as above â€Å"35mg/dLâ €  have for example been identified to cause the disease (Diabetes, 1). Similarly, factors such as being overweight or being physically inactive also cause the disease and can be associated with effects of excessive accumulation of fats in the body (Diabetes, 1). People with type two diabetes exhibits specific complications that have been

Environment ethic Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Environment ethic - Research Paper Example â€Å"Ethics has something meaningful to do with the environment. It questions humanity's relationship to the environment, its understanding of and responsibility to nature, and its obligations to leave some of nature's resources to prosperity† (Pojman, 1997). These ethical questions are dealt as environmental ethics, a sub-discipline of philosophical science.† Environmental ethics is concerned with the moral relations that hold between humans and the natural world† (Taylor, 2011) and the ethical principles lays down the principles which direct human activities, responsibilities and other obligations to the natural around. Should we destroy invasive species? Should we destroy forest lands to build roads and medical centers? Should we exterminate wild plants to grow food for humans? These questions give us a good understanding as to what ethics are. To answer each of them appropriately it is essential to have knowledge about ethical theories. Traditionally, most eth ical perspectives were anthropocentric in nature i.e. the value of human beings were of great importance while the role of other living things as well as nonliving ones were purely instrumental in nature, this makes up the Value theory. However, with the emergence and popularity of environmental ethics, the traditionally anthropocentric perspective has been met with criticism. Questions have been raised about the purpose of the assumed supremacy of the human race over all other living beings. The sole purpose of environmental ethics, â€Å"is to provide moral grounds for social policies aimed at protecting the earth’s environment and remedying environmental degradation† (Brennan & Lo, 2008). In spite of being a philosophy sub-discipline, environmental ethics is multi-disciplinary in nature and requires specific knowledge in biology, physics, law, psychology and philosophy. In the 21st century, environmental ethics has new perspective that is not human-centric at all an d is known as Ecologism. Axiology of Environmental Ethics The Axiology approach is also known as the Value theory. Philosophers and environmentalists have long argued on the values to be assigned to the components of the biosphere. The axiological perspective comprises of three kinds – Anthropocentrism, Sentientism and Ecologism. The issue faced in the 21st century is the confusion whether or not to assign equal intrinsic values to humans, nonhuman living things and non-living things. The Anthropocentrism perspective puts humans’ above all living things as well as non-living things. If there is a pollution problem today, then according to this approach, the problem of pollution will only be identified as an ethical issue if it affects humans in any way. Sentientism approach is based on the measurement of pleasure and pain, but the perspective lacks in the sense that it is obviously not possible to judge the extent of either of the feelings in non-human living things. A ccording to Ecologism, all living creatures as well as non-living entities such as mountains, rivers, seas etc should be assigned intrinsic value. Thus, the entire biosphere has high intrinsic value. Thus, any action for example destruction of forests is considered an ethical issue because even if the forests are destroyed for human advancement, it affects the habitats of wildlife. The intrinsic values of both humans and wildlife being at par, makes forest

Social responsibility of business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social responsibility of business - Essay Example Given the traits of a sentient being, while dismissive of any moral or ethical responsibility, the state of the corporation is placed in a space between responsibilities. The responsibility of the corporation to its owners relieving it of any responsibility to society, the shareholders are relieved of blame because they are largely unaware of the day to day decision making, while the CEO is relieved of blame because he is making decisions that support the interests of the owners. As Friedman makes his argument, he is discussing the concept of corporation in the framework of the shareholder model of corporate governance, which is the more popular form of governance in the United States. UK corporations also uses this model as the foundation of its principles of governance, but Japan, Germany, and most of the other European states use the stakeholder model of corporate governance (Barker 2010: 33-35). Friedman states that â€Å"In a free enterprise, private property system, a corporat e executive is an employee of the owners of the business... (His) responsibility is to conduct the business in accordance with their desires†. ... According to what Friedman (1970) is presenting, his belief supports the idea that businesses should rise and fail according to the ability to scramble to the top or get lost in the battle towards that end. The current issues that dairy farmers are faced with are an example of why this belief system is not conducive to sustainability. Food growth and nurturing is one of the more important industries for all human societies. Dairy farmers have had an increasingly difficult time in the UK and have been disappearing as a consequence. Evidence of the difficulties of dairy farms is that there were 300 dairy farms on the Isle of Wight during the 1960s, but only 15 remain (Findon 2010). Supermarkets are unwilling to pay a decent price to the farms and in the end they are forced to close their doors. Although those that are still left have been hoping that the price of dairy would rebound, it has stayed at a steady low, creating a business dynamic through which the costs of keeping their doo rs open is more than the benefit of maintaining their business (Findon 2010). In the case of the dairy farms, the stakeholder model of corporate governance must be put into place in order to create sustainability. Dairy products are necessary in the public domain, but high prices on dairy products do not do anything good for anyone. At the same time, dairy farms need to be able to sustain their position or they are only spinning their wheels and falling towards the inevitability of failure, which might cause a natural correction in prices due to scarcity of the product, but is not in the best interests of anyone. Darwinian thinking about businesses creates a dynamic

Health Promotion Essay Example for Free

Health Promotion Essay In today’s society, individuals do not recognize that every phase of their life is influenced by their health. People cannot accomplish their goals in society to their full advantage when they are unhealthy. In order to help the population improve their overall health, health promotion is essential. Health promotion and its objective will be discussed in this paper. In addition, it will further examine what our responsibilities are as nurses in the structure of health promotion. Furthermore, health promotion is separated into three levels: primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention, all benefitting the individual. The U.S. Public Health Service identifies health promotion as â€Å"the process of advocating health in order to enhance the probability that personal, private, and public support of positive health practices will become a societal norm† (Edelman Mandle, 2010, p. 14). In addition to offering information to patients regarding their health, health promotion incorporates supporting patients to enhance their general well-being and recognize their individual health potential (Skybo Polivka, 2007). Health promotion provides patients with the understanding of the different elements that can alter their health and inspires them to obtain control of it (Bennett, Perry, Lawrence, 2009). As well as enhancing patient outcomes, health promotion assists in reducing costs, which are consistently rising in health care (Edelman Mandle, 2010). According to Edelman Mandel, health promotion can be used on a public level, community level, or personal level (2010). For instance, on the public level, health promotion could include granting assistance or low-income housing programs by the government. The community level might incorporate Habitat for Humanity, which is a great advantage for that particular population. Lastly, the personal level would include individuals who vote to favor programs that assist the community (Hoyle, Bartee, Allensworth, 2010). Health promotion, a frequently used phrase, is especially critical to the nursing career. It encompasses many concepts that nurses encounter daily. Because education is crucial to succeed, nurses are an essential part in health promotion. Every day, nurses provide education to their patients. To assist them in maintaining and enhancing their well-being, nursing interventions benefit individuals by expanding their resources (Edelman Mandle, 2010). Since there are various settings in nursing, this is the ideal opportunity to educate individuals. With the help of nurses, healthy communities, homes, and schools can exist with proper education. Regardless of the specialty, all nurses need to educate patients on how to remain fit so they can live a longer, healthier life. Currently, collaboration occurs with an interdisciplinary team, which all assist in improving patients’ lives. Team members may include physicians, therapists, social workers, and dietitians. By working together to create a diverse educational background, this team helps patients overcome their illnesses or helps them manage the disease affecting their life (Bennett et al., 2009). Since health promotion is employed entirely across nursing, nurses are accountable for facilitating the best outcome for each individual patient. Health promotion includes three levels; primary, secondary and tertiary (Edelman Mandle, 2010). Primary prevention includes delivering strategies and education to help patients avoid illnesses (Edelman Mandle, 2010). For example, when a nurse delivers an immunization to a patient, she educates them about the potential risks of the disease and how the immunization will help prevent them from contracting the disease. In addition to the community, primary education is also applied in schools as an informative tool, to educate students about harmful diseases such as those taught in sex education classes. This offers support to students, enabling them to make informed decisions about protecting their health from such diseases. Secondary prevention is the next level of health promotion. This includes timely diagnosis of an illness and immediate therapy (Edelman Mandle, 2010). This level aids in reducing occurrences of illness and inhibiting development between patients (Bennett et al., 2009). By offering community screenings for diabetes or hypertension, nurses are applying secondary prevention. Public health screenings allow nurses to identify potential diseases at an early stage, as well as provide the patient with beneficial information to slow the progression of the illness. Lastly, the tertiary level consists of helping the patient with rehabilitation and recovery (Edelman Mandle, 2010). This stage identifies the disease and makes the patient cognizant of their health challenges. The nurse’s role in this level is to deliver education to help reduce complications. If a patient is admitted to the hospital with a stroke, physical and occupational rehabilitation may be initiated to retain the maximum stage of function and to avoid another stroke from transpiring (Skybo Polivka, 2007). The three levels of health promotion are utilized every day and positively assist patients with improving themselves. Nursing will continually incorporate health promotion and the prevention of illnesses. To help support the best outcome for all patients, it is essential that nurses adapt to change. Primary, secondary, and tertiary are the principle levels of health promotion in the nursing profession. These three levels will contribute to patients living longer, healthier lives. References Bennett, C., Perry, J., Lawrence, Z. (2009). Promoting health in primary care. Nursing Standard, 23(47), 48-56. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=truedb=rzhAN=2010367201site=ehost-livescope=site Edelman, C., Mandle, C. L. (2010). Health promotions throughout the life span (7th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby. Hoyle, T., Bartee, R., Allensworth, D. (2010). Applying the process of health promotion in schools: A commentary. Journal Of School Health, 80(4), 163-166. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2009.00483.x. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=truedb=rzhAN=2010582507site=ehost-livescope=site Skybo, T., Polivka, B. (2007). Health promotion model for childhood violence prevention and exposure. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 16(1), 38-45. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2006.01621.x. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct =truedb=rzhAN=2009481108site=ehost-livescope=site

Operation Management Essay Example for Free

Operation Management Essay 1.Operation Management For the success of an organization, the management crew plays a major role. An organizational structure is based on different operational parameters and in order to perform all the operations, it is mandatory to scrutinize every major aspect related to the organizational strategy. Keeping the significance of operation management under consideration, different authors have developed different concepts and hence promulgated all of them in order to indicate all the major aspects that can define what the operation management is and how it helps an organization in achieving high level of success. This paper is basically about how proper operation management helps an organization in performing different tasks strategically. For this purpose, the analysis is done from different perspectives. The first part of the paper gives an overview of what is operation management and for this purpose; different definitions promulgated by different authors have been cited as evidence. The second part of the paper throws light upon the role of an operational manager and what strategic efforts enables him to perform his duty effectively. The third part of the paper identifies the relationship of operation management with other core functions and for this purpose, the case studies of Heathrow International Airport and Nestlà © UK Chocolate Factory have been elaborated. Hence, the entire paper indicates how effective operation management affects the progress graph of the company in one way or other. However, before elaborating how the manager performs  his job, it is mandatory to throw 1.1.Definition of operation management Operation management can be considered as one of the most significant factors responsible for any country’s economic growth. As service sector has observed mass development and changes, the very concept of operation management emerged with a focus on economic efficacy in manufacturing. The traditional concept of manufacturing was otherwise limited to concept of production management only. The manufacturing capabilities have been advanced through innovative procedures and techniques, new materials and facilities as numerous challenges and opportunities have been posed by rapid development in technology sector. It thus gave rise to development and management of a service system which could effectively resolve major challenges for global competitive environment (Heizer, Jay H. and Render, Barry, 2008). Around the world, operation management has now been considered as major business procedure for productivity and improvement. Organisations have become more vigilant in acquiring operation management procedures and techniques to achieve their objectives with minimum resources and efforts. (R. Pannerselvam, 2004) defined operation management as a system which an organisation employs within its framework to transform a wide range of inputs into the desired outputs (services) by achieving its requisite level of quality. Operation management transforms by combining several resources which are being used in organisation’s operation subsystem into value added products and services. Undoubtedly this has to be a controlled process and it should follow the policies of organisation, therefore the whole concept of operation management works as integrated and interrelated management activities. These management activities are sometimes limited to manufacturing of certain products which is called production management, but when the same idea is extended to effective service management, then resultant sum of manag ement procedures is called as operation management. Resources, transformation, systems and value addition activities are some key factors which represents a broader picture of operation management within an organisation. Resources are material, capital and human inputs to the process of production. Material resources include materials and physical facilities such as inventories, supplies and plant equipment etc. capital resources include bonds, stock and/or taxes which can  be used to regulate flow of associated resources. Human resource is sum of intellectual capabilities of managers, technical and non-technical staff and is considered as most vital asset of the organisation. Transformation is basically the process of combining resources for obtaining higher value goods and services than original inputs under controlled conditions. Systems depict an arrangement of multiple components developed to obtain require objectives of the plan. Business systems contain personal, finance, engineering and operation, functioning altogether for integrity of organisation. Value addition activities ensure to increase organisations’ productivity ratio and give more value to the products (Waters, C. D. J. (1991). After reviewing different definitions promulgated by different experts, the next part of the paper will analyze the role of an operational manager in an organization. 1.2.The role of Operation Manager Operation managers of any organisation are concerned with planning, systemizing and controlling the action which impact human behaviour with the help of models. Planning helps in establishing action plan for the organisation and provide future-decision making. It is thus duty of operation manager to define the objectives and goals for the operations and it’s subsystems of the organisation. They need to design procedures and policies in order to achieve those objectives. This stage embraces the clarification of role and focus of certain operations into organisation’s overall strategy. Product and services planning conversion process and facility designing are also included in the planning. The establishment of authority and tasks and other related activities fall under the head of organizing. The flow of information and structure of roles are being established by the operation managers within operation subsystems. It is their responsibility to determine the attributes es sential for goals achievement and they need to assign the responsibility and authority to carry them out (Joseph, G. Monks, 2004). Other prime responsibilities of operation managers include transforming inputs into the outputs. To devise an effective production plan, say, which employs capacity, knowledge of production facility and materials is prime responsibility of an operation manager. They are supposed to schedule and control the system demands in order to retain require services and/or produce desired goods. They need to  evaluate quality inventory levels, cost etc. to maintain the quality associated with goods and services. They are obliged to regulation of systems and resources within the organisation thus maintaining transformation and effective value addition activities. Operation managers are required to observe parameters which may affect the human behaviors. They need to evaluate models and frameworks of an effective operation management within an organisation (Slack et al). As operation management is primarily concerned with the accomplishment of both resource utilization and satisfactory customer services, operation managers are supposed to maximize both and maintain an overall satisfactory performance of the organisation. Sometimes there is improvement in customer satisfaction while deterioration in resource utilization. To overcome any such activity, operation managers are trained to tackle such conflicts and they need to find and implement a balance for the organisation in order to achieve its basic objectives. The principle customer service objective is strongly dependent upon services of an en enthusiastic and able operation manager (S. Anil Kumar, N. Suresh, 2008). The next part of the paper will discuss the relationship of operation management with the core functionalities of the organization. 1.3.Relationship of operation management with other core functions One of the most significant functions that operation management plays in an organisation that it defines the ways for strategic planning of an organisation. As strategic planning is concerned with organisation’s decisions and remedies for certain environmental and business conditions, operation management provides road map for strategic planning for the organisation and eases the way with help of fundamental concepts. The scope of operation management is not limited to transformation of inputs into the outputs by utilising physical resources thus achieving successful customer satisfaction along with efficiency, development and adoptability for the organisation, but it is deeply associated with other core functions of an organisation such as marketing, finance, personnel etc. It also include product design, quality control, maintenance management, location of  facilities, materials management, planning and product control, process design and many other core and support functions. The modern concept of operation management is very dynamic and promising and it evidently brings outstanding results for an organisation working under controlled environment (Dilworth, James B., 1999). 2.Case Studies Following are two cases studies that indicate how proper operation management strategy helps the organization in achieving its ultimate objectives. In this regard, the Heathrow International Airport and Nestle UK Chocolate Factory have been taken a evidence. 2.1.Heathrow International Airport Heathrow International Airport is the UK’s only hub airport. Around 5,500 people have been employed by the BAA at Heathrow of which 25% employees perform operational, customer service and maintenance roles. Other 75% are in security and head office functions. In addition, BAA has some 65% interest and it operates the Naples Airport. These figures show the need and significance of operation management within framework of Heathrow International Airport. An insight into Heathrow’s planning and preparation and its outstanding level of services and commitment will explain operation management practices being observed by the organisation. For example, winter resilience enquiry recently examined and implemented by operation management ensures its ability to provide excellent services and support given to passengers and employees during severe weather conditions, (Heathrow, 2011). The winter resilience initiative was carried out by operation management teams through expert peer review and extensive quality assurance. Teams studied and learned from Dallas Fort Worth, Madrid and Minneapolis-St. Paul airports which possess strong reputation for passenger welfare, airport operations and the clearance of snow. The devised plan for Heathrow was being examined and peer reviews helped it to carry out one of the most effective operation management tasks. For this, Heathrow had invested marvelously in acquiring innovative equipment which could effectively clear the airfield in reduced time. The equipment included taxiways, airside roads, runways, stands etc. and were used for the disposal of collected ice  and snow. This one task brought the Heathrow airport to fully operational status. It in fact appointed a full-time operations manager for winter that is responsible for Airport’s winter readiness controlled. The regular refinement and review of organisationâ €™s plans distinguishes it from other leading airports all over the world, (Heathrow, 2011). 2.2.Nestlà © UK Chocolate Factory Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s brand and product portfolio ranges from local favorites to global icons. The products are supported by vigorous research and development facility, focused driving renovation and innovation, and with clear priorities which is attractive and relevant for consumers. Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s desire in becoming a leader of renovation and innovation, whether of systems, processes or products define the role of governing operation management body which gives its product an entire new and refreshing aspect. From brand effectiveness to effective supply chain, from farm to the fork, nestle UK chocolate factory ensured best production and operation management. Best raw materials are being used in the preparation of chocolate and other products. For operations needs, nestle has set four pillars for effective operation management which include; increasing effectiveness and efficiency, operational efficiency, improved quality and elimination of waste. For continuous excellence and to make most innovative and appreciated products in most efficient way, nestle has implemented these four pillars into its operational management structure. The product and operational excellence has been given utmost importance all because Nestle ensures to provide its consumers with delightful products whenever and wherever they need them. Customer satisfaction is undoubtedly complimentary in consumer product market and Nestle has significantly earned it through continuous planning and operational excellence besides giving its products the desired and unmatched taste and nutrition, (Nestle, 2011). 3.Major Understandings of the study Major understandings of the study suggest that operation management is, by far, one of the most significant aspects of any organisation’s development and economic growth. It provides enormous value to the resources of the organisation and adds value to them. The resources and investments of any  organisation need to be utilized in more effective way for on-going progress. Furthermore, strategic planning division works hand-in-hand with operation management as it provides sustainable grounds for effective and efficacious planning and preparation. Indeed no organisation can survive without future plans and policies that define its objectives and goals and its overall competitive market value. Operation management thus promises sustainable future for the organisations and procures enormous economic growth under controlled conditions (Everett, E. Adam, Jr.Ronald J.Ebert, 1994). Another great aspect of operation management is its ability of giving added value to products and services of the organisation. It is aimed at increasing the efficiency of the products and services by minimizing the circumstances that may prevent organisations to achieve great market value for their products and services. As it is clear as crystal that today’s competitive environment demands higher level of excellence and efficiency from manufacturers and service providers, organisations should concentrate more and more on improving their standards. This can only be done through sustainable operation management plans and procedures. Furthermore, operation management not only serves as great tool in improving standards and adding value to goods and services, it has been proved as cost reduction tool within the framework of organisations. Great amount of capital and resources could be saved by implementing a resourceful and sustainable operation management plan which will ultimately turn the organisation into leading brand. To earn a competitive advantage in business sector, one needs to overlook every aspect that could affect it either positively or negatively. Only then unmatched products and excellent services can be manufactured and being provided (Hill, Terry, 1993). 4.Conclusions Operation management works in combination to several support and core functions of the organisation. It also increases the potential and performance of those areas where strategic and effective operation handling is essential. The scope of operation management is never dying and it embraces internal and external factors associated with business of any organisation. From manufacturing to supply, from marketing to customer satisfaction, from financing to human resource, operation management has its deep roots in the organisation’s framework (S. Anil Kumar, N. Suresh, 2008). Two case studies helped in understanding the role of operation management and how it can be utilized in improving overall performance of the organisations. Heathrow Airport is among world’s leading organisations that provide its customers with excellent services and it managed to sustain that position through years by effective operation management procedures. It has assigned one fourth of its employees to operational tasks which ensures greatest level of quality service. On the other hand, Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ employed a tremendous operation management task force to maintain its brand value. It is evident of the fact why nestle consumers prefer its products over other brands. It has successfully achieved a competitive advantage over other foods and beverage companies operating all over the world through systemic and devoted operation management and planning. Concluding, the most significant role operation management plays is ensuring greater levels of customer satisfaction for the organisations for their brands, products and services. Customer satisfaction is utmost objective of any organisation and it will require that organisation to develop, implement and manage a sustainable operation management plan that could work in vicinity of other necessary activities and operations. Operation managers at organisations have the utmost responsibility in promising desired levels of satisfaction among consumers and customers thus fulfilling requirements for achieving basic objectives for the organisation. Their role in economic development is as essential as organisation’s survival in the competitive environment (Chambers et al, 2007) References †¢Chambers, Stuart, Johnston, Robert and Slack, Nigel (2007) Operations management (5th ed) †¢Dilworth, James B. (1999) Operations management : providing value in goods and services. (3rd ed) †¢Everett, E. Adam, Jr.Ronald J.Ebert, 1994. â€Å"Production and Operations Management†, Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, 5th Edition †¢Heathrow, 2011. â€Å"Heathrow Winter Resilience Programme†, [online] Available at: [Accessed: 03rd December 2012] †¢Heizer, Jay H. and Render, Barry (2008) Operations management (9th ed) †¢Hill, Terry (1993) The essence of operations management †¢Joseph, G. Monks, 2004. â€Å"Theory and Problems of Operations Management†, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, 2nd Edition †¢Joseph, G. Monks, â€Å"Operations Management†, McGraw-Hill International Edition, 3rd Edition. †¢Nestle, 2011, â€Å"Annual Report 2011†, [Online] Available at: [Accessed: 03rd December 2012] †¢R. Pannerselvam, 2004, â€Å"Production and Operations Management†, Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, 9th print †¢S. Anil Kumar, N. Suresh, 2008, â€Å"Production and Operations Management, New Age International (P) Limited Publishers, 2nd Edition †¢Slack et al, Operations Management 4th Edition online version †¢Slack et al, Operations Management 6th edition online version †¢Waters, C. D. J. (1991) An introduction to operations management

History Of Media In Kenya Media Essay

History Of Media In Kenya Media Essay Radio was first developed in 1920 and it was strictly used by the military. David sternoff had an idea of selling radio sets to consumers and RCA was the first to set up radio station all over the country in United States. Mass media means reaching a large number of audiences, the term mass media was coined in 1920, with the introduction of many nationwide radio networks; it was improved by the circulation of many newspapers and magazines. Mass media include internet, media like video sharing, message boards, podcasts and blogs. Marshal McLuhan brought up the idea that the the medium is the message. In the past drama were the first mass media in the ancient world and it was used by numerous cultures. Diamond Sutra was the first printed book and it was printed in china in 868D. Many books were then printed in ancient times. In 1041 in China, movable clay type was invented; the first printed mass- medium was European popular prints that were printed from about 1400. Johannes Gutenberg printed his book in 1453 on a printing press using movable clay type. Newspapers were developed from about 1612, with the first example in English in 1620. During the 20th century mass medium, has really improved due to advanced technology, for example; printing, film duplication and record pressing. History of Media in Kenya. The media in Kenya is a diverse and vibrant growing industry, which has been facing and is still facing an uncertain future. The political transmission from British colony to independent country was mirrored by many changes in mass media in Kenya. In 1963 when Kenya become independent, the vast majority of Kenya owned television and radio stations were British and American programmes. Kenya culture was promoted vie the mass media under the late president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta and more programmes were broadcasted in Swahili. The press really suffered during the governance of the former president Daniel Moi and his one party state, which was written into the constitution in 1982, more journalists were arrested and imprisoned, because the state was worried with the media people challenging the government. The scene of oppression changed and the press expanded with the birth of multi- party politics in 1992, this was a response to pressure of activists and with the help of the international communities. Daily newspapers increased to four, the person daily was set up, and the gutter also emerged. Harsh criticisms of the state by the press went with the emergency of opposition politics. Journalist were still oppressed, intimidated and imprisoned by the government. A new unpopular was passed in May 2002 and it required publishers to purchase a bond for one million Kenya shillings, before publishing it. This move scared publishers because it was expensive for them to publish any magazine. There are four major daily newspapers published in Kenya and this are: The daily Nation- it was established in 1960 and it is published by the Nation media group. The first paper was seen as the champion during the governance of the former president Daniel Moi. Nation media owns Nation T.V and the East African which is a regional weekly paper with its core market in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It is the largest media house in central and East Africa. The standard formerly known as the East African standard was established in 1902. Nowadays the standard is the critic of the government policies, it is owned by the group of businessmen associated with the former president Daniel Moi. Kenya times was established in 1983 by the KANU party. A person daily was established in 1992, it is owned by Kenneth Matiba. Broadcast. The first broadcast targeted white settlers who monitored news from their home country and other parts of the world. The first radio broadcast targeting Africans was started in 1953; it was called African Broadcasting services and carried programmes in Kiswahili, dholuo, kikuyu, Nandi, kamba and Arabic. The Kenya broadcasting services was established in 1954, and the regional stations were set up in Mombasa [Sauti ya Mvita] and Kisumu [lake station] in 1961. There are more than 63 FM stations in Kenya that has been licensed. Radio stations mainly operate in Nairobi and its surrounding areas. The broadcasts of most commercial radio stations are made up of entertainment, phone ins programmes, talk shows and interviews. Television Television was introduced in Kenya in 1962 and the first transmitting station was in Limuru transmitting over only a radius of 15 miles. On 1st July, 1964 through an act of parliament Kenya broadcasting corporation was nationalized and renamed the voice of Kenya. In 1970 V.O.K opened a new television station in Mombasa to relay programmes and produce local dramas, music, culture and other programmes. In 1989, the Kenya parliament gave autonomy to V.O.K and changed the name to K.B.C. K.B.C known as channel one, pay television channel 2 and metro television channel 31, which is usually an Entertainment television. K.T.N, {Kenya television network] become the first private television station in Kenya. It started broadcasting in 1989 and it is owned by a group of businessmen. Citizen T.V is owned by a businessman Samuel Macharia. Press law. Kenya does not have a press law; the press law is a carryover of what was since the colonial government. What passes for media law in Kenya is a general section 79 of the constitution that states; Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom hold opinions without interference. Freedom to receive ideas and information without interference and freedom to communicate ideas. There is nothing in the constitution that refers explicit to the media. Media censorship. There is freedom of expression that is stated in the constitution of Kenya ARTICLE 33; it states that every person has the right to seek, receive or impart information or ideas, freedom of artistic creativity and academic freedom and freedom of scientific research. Censorship is merely to help journalist perform their work well, they should be able to report news or write stories which have correct facts and figures. Media censorship is mainly for checking; vulgarity, violence and racism media censorship sees to it that the media is not used as a tool to attack, discriminate and humiliate people. The government that come into power n 2002 with the leader of president Mwai Kibaki has failed to fulfill its promise for the reform of media legislation. The former information minister Mutahi Kagwe, in August 2007 introduced the Media Bill to parliament which would establish a media regulatory board and media advisory board, which will replace the independent media council in Kenya. This bill allows the information minister to appoint chairman and the members of the new government funded body. The new body will register all journalists and the government license media, so that they can exert authority over them. The media bill provokes hostility among the media practioneers and owners especially in the case of the editors to reveal their sources, if there reports become the subject of court cases. Media owners, civil society groups and the law society opposed the bill because it was putting many pressure and it was totally against the freedom of expression. Late August 2007, the bill was passed but later rejected by the president on the round that the bill limited the confidentiality of sources and therefore it was a threat to press freedom. The Communications Commission of Kenya [CCK] is the independent regulatory body that gives license register journalists and regulates television, radio, telecommunication and postal services. CCK is overseen by the Ministry of information, so that its independence is limited. There are non- state media regulatory bodies, like the media council of Kenya which was set up in 2004 and its a key campaigner for a self regulatory system. Kenya Union of Journalist, editors guild and Kenya correspondents association have set up media industry steering committee. Conclusion Media is not static it is dynamic. With the introduction of new technology, media has really improved. The Kenya constitution should allow media practionerers to do their work without any limitations so that they can be able to collect their information well without revealing their sources. The introduction of many FM stations helps the media industry to advance and reach many people especially those in rural areas. Media will be and continue reaching the mass media through radio, television, internet and cable networking.

An Examination of Standardized Testing Essay -- Standardized Testing Es

Do standardized tests really improve the quality of public education? For years they have been used to judge schools' academic performance and assess the needs of students. No longer can illiterates be graduated from high school. No longer can teachers pass a student from one grade to another without having taught that student anything (Spellings). While these advances are beneficial, standardized exams often hurt already disadvantaged schools, promote states to lower their standards of education, and cause schools to focus more on the exams themselves rather than on their students' actual learning (Karp). One of the major foundations of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, a national law requiring public schools to distribute standardized tests at least once a year, is that schools may be sanctioned by the federal government as a result of poor test grades. Obviously, this threat places an extraordinary amount of stress on schools to do well on their exams and holds teachers and administrators more accountable. However, it also causes teachers to teach the test rather than their curriculum, allowing students to perform better on exams without actually understanding the tested material (Karp). Test-teaching has become so common that students may actually take classes helping them to improve test scores, and whole days of public school are spent teaching kids better and faster ways to eliminate wrong answers (Gallagher). Such usage of classroom time and faculty effort is by no means useful to any child?s education, and its pervasiveness is unacceptable. Indeed, the pervasiveness of test-teaching is now remarkable. Former president of the National Urban League Hugh Price urges parents to ??make certain your children can pass?a... ...on Gale. Cedar Park High School Lib., Cedar Park, TX. 11 December 2007 . Spellings, Margaret. ?Is Standardized Testing the Correct Answer? YES.? ED.gov. 14 October 2005. U.S. Department of Education. 9 December 2007 . Path: Press Room, Fact Sheets, Op-Eds, Op-Eds & Letters to the Editor, "Is Standardized Testing the Correct Answer? YES" appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ?Standardized Tests.? PVCC Assessment Initiative. 20 October 2003. Maricopa Community Colleges. 9 December 2007 . Path: Employees, Assessment Initiative, General Assessment Resources, Standardized/National Exams. Whitaker, Mark. ?Byline.? Newsweek 2 June 2003: 6. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thompson Gale. Cedar Park High School Lib., Cedar Park, TX. 6 December 2007 .

Nuclear Energy: Uranium Fission :: essays research papers

Nuclear Energy: Uranium Fission Thousands of years ago human beings learned to make fire. By collecting and burning wood they were able to warm themselves, cook food, and manufacture primitive tools. Later, the Egyptians discovered the principal of the sail. Even more recent was the invention of the water wheel. All of these activities utilize various forms of energy-biological, chemical, solar, and hydraulic. Energy, the ability to do work, is essential for meeting basic human needs, extending the life expectancy, and providing a rising living standard. This is where the need for nuclear power comes in. Uranium fission is about a million times more efficient than the common practice of burning coal or oil. For comparison, coal combustion produces about 20-30 MJ/kg of heat energy while uranium, in a fast breeder reactor, produces more than 24,000,000 MJ/kg (Energy 27). Those numbers alone are astounding. Uranium is also abundant, thanks to recent discoveries of large reserves. At present, uranium is only being mined and separated from ore. However, a huge untapped source is our oceans. Sea water contains 3.3x10^(-9) (3.3 parts per billion) of uranium, so the 1.4x10^18 tons of sea water contains 4.6x10^9 tons of uranium. All the world's electricity usage, 650GWe could therefore be supplied by the uranium in sea water for 7 million years(Energy 25). This is a only a theoretical number because it is not possible to get all of the uranium out of our vast oceans. Also, it does not include the fact that in that many years, half of the uranium will no longer exist due to radioactive decay. So, at worst, we would get about 2 million years of power from it. Thorium is another element than can be used in nuclear reactors. Thorium is approximately four times more abundant than uranium. It is obvious that we are in no danger of exhausting these sources of energy. We need to exploit these resources an d use them to our advantage. God has given us the knowledge to use uranium for power, so why shouldn't use it? There are many benefits to using nuclear generated power over our other common sources. A big advantage of nuclear power plants is that they do not burn anything, they are non-polluting, and they are kind to the environment. Unlike coal-, gas-, and oil-fired power plants, nuclear power plants do not emit carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is not to say that no waste is produced in a nuclear reaction. An average size nuclear reactor produces 1000 MWe and leaves behind about 25 tons of spent fuel.

Samuel Coleridges Poem Kubla Khan Essay -- Poem Poet Coleridge Kubla

Samuel Coleridge's Poem Kubla Khan In the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Coleridge, language is used to convey images from Coleridge’s imagination. This is done with the use of vocabulary, imagery, structure, use of contrasts, rhythm and sound devices such as alliteration and assonance. By conveying his imagination by using language, the vocabulary used by coleridge is of great importance. The five lines of the poem Kubla Khan sound like a chant or incantation, and help suggest mystery and supernatural themes of the poem. Another important theme of the poem is that of good versus evil. The vocabulary used throughout the poem helps convey these themes in images to the reader. In the first two lines, Coleridge describes the ‘pleasure dome’ in Xanadu. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree Kubla Khan did not merely order, but decree that a ‘stately pleasure dome’ be built. This dome is evidence of how unnatural the place of Xanadu is, it has a ruler who ignores the unpleasantness that can be found in life. The use of vocabulary challenges and teases the imagination into seeing what he, Coleridge saw in his dream. In Xanadu, there are not small streams, but ‘sinuous rills’ and wall and towers do not enclose the gardens but are ‘girdled round’. Coleridge’s use of language and vocabulary helps to convey the extent of his imagination. In the poem Kubla Khan, imagery is also important for Coleridge to convey his imagination to the reader. There are images of paradise throughout the poem that are combined with references to darker, more evil places. On example of this is the ‘demon lover’ that has bewitched the woman. Coleridge’s image of the ‘dome of pleasure’ is mystical, contradicting the restrictions of realism. Xanadu is also a savage and ancient place where pure good and pure evil are much more apparent than in the monotony of everyday living. By using images, Coleridge conveys the extent of his imagination to readers. The structure of Kubla Khan is really in two parts. The first, which contains three stanzas, describes Xanadu as if Coleridge is actually there, experiencing the place first hand. The second part of the poem is filled with longing to be in Xanadu, but Coleridge is unable to capture the experience again. The first stanza has a definite rhythm and beat and describes the beauty and sacredness of Xanadu with rich,... ...tant threat of destruction. ‘Ancestral voices prophesying war’ could be likened to God’s warning to go near the tree, as Eve fell for the snake’s treacherous charm. Coleridge describes the river as ‘sacred’ on numerous occasions throughout the poem, and to Xanadu as ‘holy and enchanted’. This is yet another contrast, how can something holy be enchanted at the same time? Coleridge talks too of ‘miracles’ but mingled with the holiness, Coleridge refers to hell with his choice of language to depict what is outside the pleasure dome. The demons described are closely related to witchcraft and the closing lines of Kubla Khan describe pagan rituals that attempt to protect not only the reader, but also Coleridge himself from the forces of evil and the extent of his imagination. Coleridge, having ‘drunk the milk of paradise’ desired and sought after the beautiful image of Xanadu and Utopia and his final stanza is his way to describe to the reader how badly he wants to go back there. By using his wide vocabulary to depict images and contrasts with the help of some literary techniques such as imagery and contrasts, Coleridge easily conveys to the reader the extent of his imagination.

Language and Violence

The Abstract: This paper will be dealing with the use of Violence and its legitimization through manipulation of language by the state in dealing with â€Å"the other†. In an attempt to investigate the role played by the state, which monopolizes the use of violence for the sake of civilizing its people, inspired by a documentary titled â€Å"where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? †, this paper tries to go beyond spoken and written words to reach a better understanding of this role. It starts by defining the concept of â€Å"violence† and drawing a clear distinction between its meaning and that of other related, but not similar concepts, and specifying the agents of violence, mainly focusing on the state, for the entire paper focuses on its use of violence. Thinking in terms of methodological nationalism, this paper tries to find an answer to how we define ourselves and why do we define anyone outside this â€Å"we† circle as â€Å"the other† and how, as a result, violence became the means of dealing with â€Å"the other†. It then moves to justifying this â€Å"legitimate† use of violence by the state against the other and highlights the important role that language plays in this process. Finally, there is an attempt to understand the usefulness of violence advocated by some against that of the mainstream thinkers and philosophers, accompanied by exploring the role the civil and the global civil society can, and do, play in finding new means of communication and dealing with one another. It comes to the following conclusion: violence as used by individuals before the formation of the state resembles violence as used by the state apparatus, Civility is a myth. The only difference is in the agents, the targets, the interests and the domain where violence is practiced. And for that, an informed, aware and active role should be pursued by the civil society, to curb the use of violence either by the state or by any other actor. The outline: I. Introduction II. Body: Defining violence: What does the concept of violence mean? Making a clear distinction of violence vis a` vis other related concepts Recognizing the agents of violence Defining the â€Å"we† and the â€Å"other†: The constituents of identity The way we perceive ourselves The way we perceive â€Å"the other† Dealing with the â€Å"other†: The psychological mindset The use of violence as a means of dealing with the other The role of language in legitimizing the use of violence: The manipulation of language The reasons behind the manipulation of language Providing a moral cause Avoiding opposition The means by which language is manipulated Dehumanization of violence Replacement of direct descriptors by * euphemistic equivalence The areas where language can be manipulated In the public sphere In the battle field An assessment of the usefulness of violence The role of global and civil society in curbing violence III. Conclusion IV. List of References I. Introduction: â€Å"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. †Ã‚  Mahatma Gandhi In an interesting movie called â€Å"where in the world is Osama Bin Laden†? A newly father-to be, fearing that his son comes out to life in such a violent world, decides to set on a mission to track down and kill Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaida, and the world will thus seize to know violence and will be a fit place for him to raise his son in. He visits Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Palestinian territories, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. He goes around and talks to people there asking them questions like: where is Bin Laden? What do they think of the Americans? How do they view terrorism and the war on it? What do they want in life? And questions of that sort. He didn’t find Bin laden, however what he found was that the people in the countries he visited are ordinary people just like himself and the audience. They are not â€Å"the barbarians† he once thought them to be, they have no desire or interest in using violence against the United States and its citizens, and their goals in life is for them to secure good living conditions for their children, just as the goals of the American newly father to be. This movie inspired me to raise a question, to which I sough of an answer through writing this paper. The question is: Why and how does the state monopolize and legitimize, through manipulation of language that enables it to portray such a barbaric and violent image of the other, its use of Violence against them? I raised this question because of a simple fact: the state was created to â€Å"civilize† people and tame their use of violence, but now I found that this was nothing but a change in the agents of violence, its targets, and the space where it is practiced. I started exploring different ideas, different opinions, and different studies, that were all concerned with violence, language, manipulation, identity, and other concepts related to my topic. Stances and views varied, but I decided on adopting the following position concerning the topic at hand: The state manipulates the use of violence because we’ve willingly subordinated this right to the state; however our consent depends on the manner by which violence is used, for if its illegitimate and goes against our consent, we ill no longer continue to support the state apparatus in its actions; that is why, via the manipulation of language, the state creates an exclusive identity to its people, portrays the other as a threat to this identity, demonize him, and thus legitimizes its use of violence when it’s used by posing it as an act in response to defend the â€Å"we† against the â€Å"other†. If that is so, this led me to raise other questions related to the usefulness of violence, and our role, as active members in a civil society, be it domestic or global, when it comes to violence. To these questions, and to other ones, I try to find answers as follows. II. Body: A. Defining violence: In this section my aim is to clarify what the concept of Violence means, and who has the right to practice it, before I further investigate why we resort to violence in dealing with others and how states and their apparatuses make use of such thing. 1. What does the concept of violence mean? Violence is an extremely wide and complex phenomenon. Defining it is not an exact science but a matter of judgment. Notions of what is acceptable and unacceptable in terms of behavior and what constitutes harm, are culturally influenced and constantly under review as values and social norms evolve, domestically and internationally. Besides, there are many possible ways to define violence, depending on who is defining it, for what purpose, and depending on one’s political orientations and ideological beliefs. Generally speaking, the World Health Organization defines violence as: â€Å"The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation. † In this sense, we could distinguish between so many kinds of violence; †¦accumulated violence, cultured violence, self-protective violence, the violence of aggression, the violence of competition, the violence of trying to be somebody, the violence of trying to discipline oneself according to a pattern, trying to become somebody, trying to suppress and bully oneself, brutalize oneself, in order to be non-violent†¦ † 2. Making a clear distin ction of violence vis a` vis other related concepts: It is very important, though, to make a clear distinction between violence and other related concepts to be able to apprehend what violence means. Such keywords include power, strength, force and authority. According to how Hannah Arendt puts it, power is related to the â€Å"ability† to act â€Å"in consent†, thus its existence depends on the group providing such consent, in other words, it depends on legitimacy; Strength is a natural endowment and an inherent property; Force indicates the energy itself that later manifests physically through an act of violence; And authority entails recognition either to a person or to an office; it requires neither coercion nor persuasion. Violence on the other hand is distinguished by its â€Å"instrumental† character; it denotes the physical manifestation itself. . Recognizing the agents of violence: There are many agents of violence; formal and informal, institutionalized and un-institutionalized, state, and non-state agents. However, our only concern in this paper shall be the state and the state apparatus institutionalizing, legitimizing and practicing violence. Typically described in normative terms as a vital necessity of modern life, the nation-state has employed violence to accomplish questionable ends. Its apparatus is charged with committing unprecedented barbarism. Examples of disasters brought about by the nation-state are the extermination of indigenous peoples in colonized territories by â€Å"civilizing† nations, the Nazi genocidal â€Å"holocaust† of Jews, and most recently the â€Å"ethnic cleansing† in the former Yugoslavia, Ruwanda, and so on. Thus from postcolonial perspective, the nation-state and its ideology of nationalism are alleged to have become the chief source of violence and conflict since the French Revolution. In the same vein, Marx regarded the state as an instrument of violence at the command of the ruling class; but the actual power of the ruling class did not consist of, nor rely on violence. It was defined by the role the ruling class played in society, or more exactly, by its role in the process of production. B. Defining the â€Å"we† and the â€Å"other†: In this section I try exploring how identity defragments, divides and thus paves the road for violence to occur. 1. Identity and its constituents: In pre-modern societies, identity was mainly related to affiliations, both in the private and in the public space. Identity depended on the place attributed to each individual by his birth, his lineage or his group. Later on it involved the Legal recognition. However a person was not only a legal or civic entity, but also a moral being with an individual soul. That is why under the influence of postmodernism and debates over multiculturalism, the late 1980s and 1990s found historians, anthropologists, and most of all humanities scholars relying heavily on â€Å"identity† as they explored the cultural politics of race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, citizenship, and other social categories. â€Å"Identity† is presently used in two linked senses, which may be termed â€Å"social† and personal†. In the former sense, an â€Å"identity† refers simply to a social category, a set of persons marked by a label and distinguished by rules deciding membership and characteristic features or attributes. In the second sense of personal identity, an identity is some distinguishing characteristic (or characteristics) that a person takes a special pride in or views as socially consequential but more-or-less unchangeable. It is the social sense of identity that would be of use in this paper; namely the national identity, that denotes the depiction of a country as a whole, encompassing its culture, traditions, language, and politics. It must be noted here that a sense of conflicting identities may result from the presence of multiple identities for the same individual, but the issue of concern here is the â€Å"inter-conflicting identities† rather than the internal conflicts related to identity. 2. The way we perceive ourselves: Since identities are necessarily the product of the society in which we live and our relationship with others, there is therefore a desire and a need to identify with a nation or group; to take up a â€Å"collective identity†, an example of which would be the â€Å"national Identity†, that is described by some as a†self-aware† ethnicity. This way, identity provides a link between individuals and the world in which they live i. e. their state. 3. The way we perceive â€Å"the other†: The individual defines himself, but he also needs â€Å"significant others† to acknowledge this definition. This is the base of the ethic of â€Å"authenticity. † Identity, however, implies definition by negation, inclusion based on exclusion for a â€Å"we† to be present, there has to be an â€Å"other† outside this â€Å"we† circle. Identity, mainly national identity in this case, has been constantly charged of being racist and exclusive, and sometimes even demonizing the other. That is why governments in boosting nationhood and asserting the Nation’s identity are, whether they recognize it or not, advocating more exclusion and hostility in perceiving the other. C. Dealing with the â€Å"other†: What gives rise to violence? Are identities really to be blamed? Or does the problem lie in their manipulation which results in violence being deployed when we deal with different identities? 1. The psychological mindset: To Krishnamurti â€Å"†¦The source of violence is the ‘me’, the ego, the self, which expresses itself in division, in trying to become or be somebody which divides itself as the ‘me’ and the ‘not me’; the ‘me’ that identifies with the family or not with the family, with the community or not with the community and so on.. † . However this doesn’t require that all human beings respond to difference in a violent manner, for it hasn’t been proven that the human nature is in itself violent, and it is believed by many that violence is bred from social interactions. An interesting idea of how violence is a societal creation can be found in the writings of Amartya Sen concerning colonialism. Sen talks about the social memory that colonialism, which is in itself an act of violence, has shaped. General psychological attitude towards the subject people often generated a strong sense of humiliation and imposition of perceived inferiority, one which the subject tries to overcome through hostility and supporting acts of violence against the humiliator. Franz Fanon also subscribes to such a view on colonialism, and sees that it is healthy to use violence to get rid of colonialism, which is again, an act of violence in itself to begin with. 2. The use of violence as a means of dealing with the other: â€Å"†¦ Violence in postcolonial discourse is thus deployed to suppress difference or negate multiple â€Å"others† not subsumed within totalities such as nation, class, gender, etc†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Everything that man has put to another man, belief, dogma, rituals, my country, your country, your god and my god, my opinion, your opinion, my ideal. All those help to divide human beings and therefore breed violence. This is due to our tendency of adopting a spaceless and timeless conception of culture, which is linked either to the identity or to the belief system of the others; a form of stereotyping if you might say. Thus Violence is embedded in the dialectic of identity and Otherness. This is something that governments not only understand, but try to make use of to achieve its interests. D. The role of language in legitimizing the use of violence by the state: 1. The manipulation of language: According to George Orwell, â€Å"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. † Therefore those who are charged with committing violence on behalf of the state will adopt language designed to obscure from themselves or the people, the reality of what violence they do on their behalf. Generally speaking, Language is an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought. However it is an instrument which we shape for our own purposes as well. And as Hegel puts it, when we think, we think in language against language, which implies that selective language will lead to selective ideas formed and advocated. This is why language itself, the very medium of non-violence and of mutual recognition, involves unconditional violence. This manipulation of language involves: â€Å"†¦ enhancing the power, moral superiority and credibility of the speaker(s), and discrediting dissidents, while vilifying the others, the enemy; the use of emotional appeals; and adducing seemingly irrefutable proofs of one’s beliefs and reasons†¦ By manipulating the language, the government wishes to alter the public’s way of thinking. This can be done, psychologists theorize, because the words that are available for the purpose of communicating thought tend to influence the way people think. The linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf was a firm believer in this link between thought and language, and he theorized that â€Å"different language s impose different conceptions of reality†. Habermas also pondered upon the role which language plays in masking political interests with apparently sophisticated terms. This distortion of communication and misuse of concepts, in his opinion, might be the reason that has brought about violence in the first place as a manifestation to such distorted communication. a) The reasons behind the manipulation of language: The reasons why language can and does get manipulated by the apparatus of the state when it comes to violence are many, and they vary according to the situation. But mainly because Violence absorbs power, and lessens authority when it’s used, that is why providing a justification for the use of violence and legitimizing it is important. Here, it might be useful to distinguish between â€Å"justification† and â€Å"legitimization†; (i) Providing a moral cause; Justification: We find the state using terms like â€Å"national security†, â€Å"defensive war†, â€Å"maintaing peace and security†, â€Å"spreading democracy†, etc. But the use of such terms is supported by good reasons and arguments; it is consistent and attempts to place such ideas at the core of its concerns. This way, the state is attempting to â€Å"justify† its use of violence, i. e. roves it has good reasons for using it, which is closely linked to the following reason; (ii) Avoiding opposition; Legitimization: When these moral causes succeed in convincing the public, through its appeal to fundamental values and claims, appeals to the emotions of the masses, and its reliance on ungrounded cultural prejudices and inconsistent doctrines, the state manages to â€Å"legitimizes† as well as â€Å"jus tifies† its use of violence, i. e. the state not only has good reasons why it is using violence, but it managed to convince the masses with these reasons as well. This way the monopoly of the state over the use of violence cant not to be questioned, threatened or shared by others. b) The means by which language is manipulated: (i) Dehumanization of violence: â€Å"Terrorists, Fundamentalist, Extremists, Seditionists, Rebel, Communists†¦Ã¢â‚¬  These and other terms perform the role of the â€Å"distancing of humanity†, but they also are designed for other purposes. These terms have persuasive power to allow the directors of violence to feel comfortable with the human destruction for which they are opting. It suggests that those toward whom the state directs its violence are either irrational (and thus diplomacy or persuasion are impossible) or have objectives (â€Å"the destruction of the people’s way of life†). (ii) Replacement of direct descriptors by â€Å"euphemistic equivalence†: Euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces. So for instance we call it â€Å"collateral damage† when it means unintentional killing or damage; bystander deaths and injuries. But because collateral damage sounds less troubling, and more likely for the people to accept than â€Å"unintentional killing or damage†, it is used by the state to justify sometimes the results of its use of violence and what it has brought about. That is why we find government officials and politicians talking about just wars, liberation, war on terror, national security, and so forth, instead of just explicitly mentioning the truth behind their use of violence against others. c) The areas where language can be manipulated: (i) In the public sphere: The heart of the terms used in the public sphere stress ideological or political otherness, where the use of language is indirect and emotionally distancing. The state apparatus does all it can to deny that the violence of conflict is occurring, suggesting that â€Å"areas† are being secured rather than people killed, that violence is being prevented rather than initiated by its actions and that its ends are always just rather than self-serving. (ii) In the battle field: The heart of the terms used for the â€Å"enemy† on the battlefield arise primarily from the racial, ethnic or personal otherness of the opponent. There is no place for the persuasive or the justificatory on the battlefield; the situation on the battlefield is understood as follows: â€Å"kill or be killed†. The requirement of the manipulation of language at the point of conflict is therefore to reinforce hatred and distance so that violence can be pursued without real threat to the mental health of the soldier, which would be in danger if the humanity of the opponent were fully absorbed. Thus in the field, language will serve to dehumanize the other while in the public sphere the language will be designed to convince us that our violence toward others is justified. That is why the â€Å"National identity† card and related usage of language are used by the state to legitimize its actions within a delimited territory, to insure mobilization and coordination of policy. E. An assessment of the usefulness of violence: I have tried to expose how the state makes use of identity, difference and language to pursue its interests through deploying violence against â€Å"the other†. But does it follow that this process performed by the state is an evil one, or can it be a useful one with good coming out of it? In a series of lectures at the College de France in the 1970s, Michel Foucault put forward the interesting hypothesis that history is actually the history of violence. Foucault’s ideas on history indicate that we do not enjoy democratic privileges due to some divine decree: rather, they are the product of successful wars and civil struggles; the result of â€Å"successful violence†. The pioneers of Post-colonialism like Edward Said, Franz Fanon, among others, concerned themselves with the social and cultural effect of colonization. Fanon looked at violence in positive terms. His engagement with decolonizing violence was a form of a strategic response of subjugated peoples to the inhumane violence of colonial racism and imperial subjugation. Fanon was very clear in his message, the struggle for power in colonized states will be resolved only through violent struggle, because the colonized states were created and are maintained by the use of violence or the threat of violence, it is a necessity that it will take violence to reverse these power relationships. However, according to Edward Said's reading of Fanon’s â€Å"liberationist† critique, nationalism is always a tool of the hegemonic oppressor and holds no socially emancipatory potential. This leads us to the following conclusion, that violence is the mediation that enables state power to prevail, for good or for bad. It cannot be eliminated by counter-violence that simply inverts it. The state's hierarchical structure is made possible because of this institutionalized violence that privileges the hegemony of a bloc of classes over competing blocs and their alternative programs. But hegemony is always underwritten by coercion. Thus as Max Weber puts it, the state monopoly of legitimate violence would be used to defend private property and promote the overseas interests of the domestic business class. An opinion which is also shared by Marx and Engels who defines violence as the accelerator of economic development. These are not only the world of theories, but a truth backed up by evidence. This evidence can be tracked down as far as the nation-state itself wasn’t still created. However since I am interested in investigation the use of violence by the nation state, then if we look at the colonial experience, the two world wars, the cold war and the war on terror, we will know that the state did not used violence as it should have done. I will not use the term â€Å"misused†, but I would rather question the ends to which the state has deployed violence, and I will question the justifications and arguments it gave to legitimize its actions. And if the state is such a questionable agent of violence, and if already its monopoly of it has been breached by informal, outlawed or legitimate non-state actors, this means that we are in a serious need of not only questioning, but reviewing the concept of violence, its use and its agents. For this, scholars like Heba Raouf and Mary Kaldor think that there is a powerful case for questioning the state’s monopoly of â€Å"legitimate† violence, and suggest placing the use of force by the state under greater constraints, not only that, but to take over the â€Å"civilizing role† that the state has failed to achieve. F. The role of global and civil society in curbing violence: The prospects of peace are dependent upon the institutionalization of traditions of dialogue. And it is precisely here that civil society agents can play a vital role by bringing people together and invoking understandings that are common across difference. Basically, humankind has been rendered â€Å"civil† because violence was tamed. And violence was tamed because states had acquired, as Max Weber argued, a monopoly of violence; the modern state replaces violence by order and authority and firmly controlled the production and reproduction of violence. But this has been fundamentally challenged by the pervasive violence that infiltrates all corners of a globalised world; all controls and all norms that prescribe when the use of violence is permitted and for what reasons have been lifted. â€Å".. The employment of violence at any time and at any place sends a powerful message, no one agent howsoever powerful this agent may be, can control the use of violence, or penalize the perpetrator of violence. Violence has escaped all restraints, all monitors, and all notions of where the use of violence is legitimate and where it is illegitimate, where it is sanctioned and where it is not sanctioned. Today there is no recognized owner of violence, the adversary is unrecognizable, the goals are unclear, and the site where violence will be consumed is unknown†¦ † Therefore, civil societies are caught between two kinds of violence; that employed by trans-state and sub-state agents, and the violence of the state. A way out and a means to counter such violence appears to be in the development of a culture of civility. This happens when members of the civil society address the phenomenon of violence, intolerance and even hate, as the notion of civil society is based upon a peaceful world which is marked by the spirit of dialogue, negotiation, compromise, and coordination. This dialogue means recognizing the â€Å"other† in a conversation, and validating his moral standing. Thus civil society is important because the values of civil society encourage dialogue. But the limits of civil society have to be understood. And one of these limits is institutionalized violence within the state that has led to the breakdown of dialogue, thus making civility and toleration mere dreams. On a wider level, the Global Civil Society would have the mission of recapturing the power of language, regaining its â€Å"civilizing† role, providing a forum for deliberative democracy, re-rooting legitimacy in civil society, and highlighting the importance of the â€Å"politics of presence† rather than the â€Å"politics of representation†. III. Conclusion: A lot of theoretical debates and concepts could lead us to talking about violence and boil down to it, because violence is too wide a subject, too complex and debatable a concept that is intertwined and tangled in our everyday life affairs. The attempt of this paper was to try to investigate and explore the conditions that are responsible, if not single handedly, but to a great extent, for setting the conditions for violence to be practiced. I didn’t involve myself in questions related to human nature, and whether violence is something innate or socially created, I rather tried exploring it from the â€Å"we† and the â€Å"other† point of view, that can and does have both innate and social roots. With such conditions set for violence, it’s only a matter of who practices it. I picked the state as an agent of violence, and tried to highlight why and how it manipulates language when it uses violence to achieve its interests. The conclusion I reached was unfortunately the one I had in mind when I first started thinking about this topic. Violence did not disappear with the rise of the nation-state, it only took different forms, sometimes even more devastating than it used to be before its use was subordinated to the state, and it penetrated different domains and corners in our life. Different situations came to being, different language was used, different arguments and different debates, but the fact remained: violence did not disappear, it was not curbed, and the state did not â€Å"civilize† the people. That is where and why our role comes. Not that I advocate the complete incompetence of the state in achieving its â€Å"civilizing† mission, but I do believe that we, as citizens, as individuals and as human beings, should engage in this process as well, not because we are bound by a social contract to do so, but because we are part of this process, we can stop, alter, change, direct and correct its path when we feel it has gone out of its lane. Our engagement should take different forms and be on different levels. On one level and in one form it can be through monitoring the manipulation of language conducted by the state apparatus, on another one it can protesting against it when it fails in curbing the use of violence, it can be in the form or raising awareness and spreading a culture of negotiation, communication and tolerance, trying to understand one another, instead of dealing with those outside the designated â€Å"acceptable† identities, as the other, and the list can go on and on forever. That is our mission as citizens of the nation-state, and as citizens of the world. Because after all, as Spurlock concluded in his movie â€Å"where in the world is Osama Bin Laden? †, we are not so different after all, and our similarities are more than our differences. We just have to understand and tolerate both. IV. List of References: Books: * Arendt, Hannah. On Violence. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, INC. , 1969. * Edwards, John. Language and identity. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2009. * Gaus, Gerald F. Political Concepts and Political Theories. United States: WestView Press, 2000. * Sen, Amartya. Identity and violence, the illusion of destiny. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. Books online: * Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Constance Farrington. New York: Grove, 1963. http://ls. poly. edu/~jbain/socphil/socphillectures/F. Fanon. pdf (19th of May, 2010) * Krishnamurti, Jiddu. Beyond Violence. India: Krishnamurti Foundation, 2002. http://www. scribd. com/doc/6568712/Beyond-Violence-Violence-Chapter6 (19th of May, 2010) * R. P. Lorin. â€Å"History of violence† in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Bhavioral Sciences. ELscier Science ltd. , 2001. http://www. scribd. com/doc/12497335/Violence-History-Of (19th of May, 2010) Reports: * Ezzat, Heba Raouf, and Mary Klador. â€Å"Not even a tree: delegitimizing violence and the prospects for pre-emptive civility†. Global Civil Society. Reports – Online: * â€Å"World Report on Violence and Health: Summary†, World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, 2002, p. 4, http://www. who. int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/summary_en. pdf (18th of May, 2010) Articles in Journals – Online: * Ashley, Larry. â€Å"The language of violence†. Peace Studies Journal (Vol. 1 Issue 1) Fall 2008. www. peacestudiesjournal. org/archive/Ashley. doc (19th of May, 2010) * Fairchild, Halford H. Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth in Contemporary Perspective†. Journal of Black Studies (Vol. 25, No. 2) December 1994. http://www. jstor. org/pss/2784461 (19th of May, 2010) * Orwell, George. â€Å"Politics and the English language†. The journal Horizon (Vol. 13, Issue 76) (1946): 252-265. http://www. scribd. co m/doc/65590/Politics-English-language (19th of May, 2010) * Zizek, slavoj. â€Å"Language violence and non-violence†. International Journal of Zizek Studies (Vol. 2, Issue 3) http://www. scribd. com/doc/12605279/language-violnce-and-non-violence (18th of May, 2010) Online Publications: Chandhoke, Neera. Is violence constitutive of civil society?. The London school of Economics and Political Science (NGPA) Program, 13th July, 2007. http://www. lse. ac. uk/collections/NGPA/publications/WP_Violence_Civil_Society_Web. pdf (18th of May, 2010) * Fearon, James D. †What is Identity? †. Department of Political Science, Stanford University, November 3rd, 1999. http://www. stanford. edu/~jfearon/papers/iden1v2. pdf (18th of May, 2010) * Juan, E. San Jr. â€Å"Nationalism, the postcolonial state, and violence†, Center for the Humanities, Wesleyan University. http://www. leftcurve. rg/LC26WebPages/Nationalism. html (18th of May, 2010) * Manjula, B. â€Å"Identity and C ulture†. Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, http://www. scribd. com/doc/4119098/Identity-and-Culture (19th of May, 2010) * Van Dijk, Teun A. â€Å"Discourse and manipulation†, Discourse and society, Sage publications, 2006. http://das. sagepub. com/cgi/content/short/17/3/359 (19th of May, 2010) Web Sites: * Berkes, Jem, â€Å"Language as the â€Å"Ultimate Weapon† in Nineteen Eighty-Four†, May 9, 2000, http://www. sysdesign. ca/archive/berkes_1984_language. html (19th of May, 2010) * De Benoist, Alain, â€Å"On Identity†, ttp://www. scribd. com/doc/3323754/On-Identity-Alain-de-Benoist (18th of May, 2010) * â€Å"A History of Violence†, http://www. scribd. com/doc/937601/Foucault-and-Pinker-on-Violence (19th of May, 2010) * â€Å"Questions of identity: What is identity? †, the Open University, http://openlearn. open. ac. uk/mod/resource/view. php? id=176757 (18th of May, 2010) * â€Å"Questions of Identity: who am I? †, the O pen University, http://openlearn. open. ac. uk/mod/resource/view. php? id=176759 (18th of May, 2010) * http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/national+identity (20th of May, 2010) * http://jcomm. uoregon. du/~tbivins/J496/readings/LANGUAGE/euphemism_defandlist. pdf (19th of May, 2010) ——————————————– [ 1 ]. â€Å"World Report on Violence and Health: Summary†, World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, 2002, p. 4, http://www. who. int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/summary_en. pdf (18th of May, 2010) [ 2 ]. ibid. [ 3 ]. Jiddu Krishnamurti, Beyond Violence (India: Krishnamurti Foundation, 2002) , pp. 3-4 http://www. scribd. com/doc/6568712/Beyond-Violence-Violence-Chapter6 (19th of May, 2010) [ 4 ]. Hannah Arendt, On Violence (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, INC. , 1969), pp 43-46. 5 ]. E. San Juan, Jr. , â€Å"Nationalism, the postcolonial state, an d violence†, Center for the Humanities, Wesleyan University, http://www. leftcurve. org/LC26WebPages/Nationalism. html (18th of May, 2010) [ 6 ]. Hannah Arendt, ibid, p. 11, http://www. uc. edu/nationfamilystate/Authors/Hannah%20Arendt/HAOnViolence1. pdf (19th of May, 2010) [ 7 ]. Alain de Benoist, â€Å"On Identity†, pp. 9-10, http://www. scribd. com/doc/3323754/On-Identity-Alain-de-Benoist (18th of May, 2010) [ 8 ]. James D. Fearon ,†What is Identity? †, Department of Political Science, Stanford University, November 3rd, 1999, p. 4, http://www. stanford. du/~jfearon/papers/iden1v2. pdf (18th of May, 2010) [ 9 ]. http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/national+identity (20th of May, 2010) [ 10 ]. â€Å"Questions of identity: What is identity? †, the Open University, http://openlearn. open. ac. uk/mod/resource/view. php? id=176757 (18th of May, 2010) [ 11 ]. â€Å"Questions of Identity: who am I? †, the Open University, http://openlearn. open . ac. uk/mod/resource/view. php? id=176759 (18th of May, 2010) [ 12 ]. John Edwards, Language and identity, (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 162. [ 13 ]. â€Å"Questions of Identity: who am I? †, ibid. [ 14 ]. Alain de Benosit, Ibid, p. 5. [ 15 ]. E. San Juan, Jr. , ibid. [ 16 ]. J. Krishnamurti, ibid, p. 4. [ 17 ]. Sen, Amartya, Identity and violence, the illusion of destiny (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006), pp. 85, 89. [ 18 ]. Fanon, Frantz, The Wretched of the Earth, Trans. Constance Farrington (New York: Grove, 1963), http://ls. poly. edu/~jbain/socphil/socphillectures/F. Fanon. pdf (10th of May, 2010) [ 19 ]. E. San Juan, Jr. , ibid. [ 20 ]. Ibid, p. 12. [ 21 ]. Ezzat, Heba Raouf, and Mary Klador. â€Å"Not Even a Tree: Delegitimizing Violence and the Prospects for Pre-emptive Civility†, Global Civil Society, p. 24 [ 22 ]. E. San Juan, Jr. , ibid. 23 ]. George Orwell, â€Å"Politics and the English language†, The journal Horizo n, Vol. 13, Issue 76, (1946), p. 9, http://www. scribd. com/doc/65590/Politics-English-language (19th of May, 2010) [ 24 ]. Ashley, Larry, â€Å"The Language of Violence†, Peace Studies Journal, Vol. 1 Issue 1, (Fall 2008), p. 84, www. peacestudiesjournal. org/archive/Ashley. doc (19th of May, 2010) [ 25 ]. George Orwell, ibid, p. 9. [ 26 ]. slavoj Zizek, â€Å"Language violence and non-violence†, International Journal of Zizek Studies, Vol. 2, Issue 3, p. 11, http://www. scribd. com/doc/12605279/language-violnce-and-non-violence (19th of May, 2010) [ 27 ]. bid, p. 2 [ 28 ]. Teun A. Van Dijk, â€Å"Discourse and manipulation†, Discourse and society, Sage publications, 2006 ,p. 380, http://das. sagepub. com/cgi/content/short/17/3/359 (19th of May, 2010) [ 29 ]. Jem Berkes, â€Å"Language as the â€Å"Ultimate Weapon† in Nineteen Eighty-Four†, May 9, 2000, http://www. sysdesign. ca/archive/berkes_1984_language. html (19th of May, 2010) [ 30 ]. Heba R aouf Ezzat, and Mary Klador, Ibid, p. 21 [ 31 ]. Hannah Arendt, ibid, p. 46. [ 32 ]. Gerald F. Gaus, Political Concepts and Political Theories, Tulance University, (United States: WestView Press, 2000) , p. 39 [ 33 ]. ibid [ 34 ]. ttp://jcomm. uoregon. edu/~tbivins/J496/readings/LANGUAGE/euphemism_defandlist. pdf (19th of May, 2010), [ 35 ]. Ashley, Larry, ibid, p. 81. [ 36 ]. Ibid, p. 84. [ 37 ]. E. San Juan, Jr. , ibid [ 38 ]. â€Å"A History of Violence†, http://www. scribd. com/doc/937601/Foucault-and-Pinker-on-Violence (19th of May, 2010) [ 39 ]. B. Manjula, â€Å"Identity and Culture†, Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, p. 9, http://www. scribd. com/doc/4119098/Identity-and-Culture (19th of May, 2010) [ 40 ]. Halford H. Fairchild, â€Å"Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth in Contemporary Perspective†, Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2 (December 1994), Sage Publications, p. 192, http://www. jstor. org/pss/2784461 (19th of May, 2010) [ 41 ]. E. San Juan, Jr. , ibid. [ 42 ]. Ibid. [ 43 ]. Hannah Arendt, Ibid, P. 9. [ 44 ]. Heba Raouf, and Mary Lakdour, Ibid, p. 21 [ 45 ]. Neera Chandhoke, â€Å"Is violence constitutive of civil society? †, The London school of Economics and Political Science (NGPA) program, 13th July, 2007, p. 39, http://www. lse. ac. uk/collections/NGPA/publications/WP_Violence_Civil_Society_Web. pdf (19th of May, 2010) [ 46 ]. ibid, p. 40 [ 47 ]. Ibid, p. 41 [ 48 ]. Ibid, pp. 42 [ 49 ]. Heba Raouf, Mary Kaldor, ibid, p. 36