Film Review Baraka by Ron Fricke (1992)

Film Review Baraka by Ron Fricke (1992) Baraka directed by Ron Fricke (1992)The title is a Sufi word that means 'blessing' and this is very appropriate as there are many images of people from all walks of life who pray and reveal their spirituality in one form or another. The images of nature at the film's beginning of snow-capped mountains and wheeling birds are backed by spiritual music which includes a flute. The snow monkey soaking itself in a hot spring appears to be meditating, then tribes of natives in prayer somewhere in Asia, Aborigines in Australia, and the Israelis at the Wailing Wall,. and so on. Many of these images are shown later, revealing a change in perspective, for example the Israeli soldier with gun in hand, wearing prayer shawl, praying at the Wall, thus creating meaning for the audience, that life is a paradox. Another way of presenting a change in perspective is through the use of juxataposition.English: Wailing Wall from the TankizyyaWe see skyscraper buildings of New York and an aerial view of the traffic and pedestrians. The camera is sped up and the people racing in all directions suggests that we're going nowhere fast, symbolising a rat race; this is reinforced by the next frame of people who are filling the pews in a church, and once again the camera is sped up to show the church emptying fastthus suggesting that people haven't the time for religion or spirituality. A change in perspective through the various ways of living, all over the globe is interspersed with magnificent views of naturesome being peaceful, such as the moon, stars, sun, waterfall and others, dangerous, such as icy mountain tops and volcanic craters. Shots of homeless families on city streets and unsmiling people posing for the camera create a mournful tone. Factory workers are also shown, for example...

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Attempting to bring an earlier end to World War II, U.S. President Harry Truman made the fateful decision to drop a massive atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, this atomic bomb, known as Little Boy, flattened the city, killing at least 70,000 people that day and tens of thousands more from radiation poisoning. While Japan  was still trying to comprehend this devastation, the United States dropped another atomic bomb. This bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people immediately and another 20,000 to 40,000 in the months following the explosion. On August 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced an unconditional surrender, ending World War II. The Enola Gay Heads to Hiroshima At 2:45 a.m. on Monday, August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber  took off from Tinian, a North Pacific island in the Marianas, 1,500 miles south of Japan. The 12-man crew  was on board to make sure this secret mission went smoothly. Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot, nicknamed the B-29 the Enola Gay after his mother. Just before take-off, the planes nickname was painted on its side. The Enola Gay was a B-29 Superfortress  (aircraft 44-86292), part of the 509th Composite Group. In order to carry such a heavy load as an atomic bomb, the Enola Gay was modified: new propellers, stronger engines, and faster opening bomb bay doors. (Only 15 B-29s underwent this modification.) Even though it had been modified, the plane still had to use the full runway to gain the necessary speed, thus it did not lift off until very near the waters edge.1 The Enola Gay was escorted by two other bombers that carried cameras and a variety of measuring devices. Three other planes had left earlier in order to ascertain the weather conditions over the possible targets. The Atomic Bomb Known as Little Boy Is on Board On a hook in the ceiling of the plane, hung the ten-foot atomic bomb, Little Boy. Navy Captain William S. Parsons (Deak), chief of the Ordnance Division in the Manhattan Project, was the Enola Gays weaponeer. Since Parsons had been instrumental in the development of the bomb, he was now responsible for arming the bomb while in-flight. Approximately 15 minutes into the flight (3:00 a.m.), Parsons began to arm the atomic bomb; it took him 15 minutes. Parsons thought while arming Little Boy: I knew the Japs were in for it, but I felt no particular emotion about it.2 Little Boy was created using uranium-235, a radioactive isotope of uranium. This uranium-235 atomic bomb, a product of $2 billion of research, had never been tested. Nor had any atomic bomb yet been dropped from a plane. Some scientists and politicians pushed for not warning Japan of the bombing in order to save face in case the bomb malfunctioned. Clear Weather Over Hiroshima There had been four cities chosen as possible targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki, and Niigata (Kyoto was the first choice until it was removed from the list by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson). The cities were chosen because they had been relatively untouched during the war. The Target Committee wanted the first bomb to be sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognized when publicity on it was released.3 On August 6, 1945, the first choice target, Hiroshima, was having clear weather. At 8:15 a.m. (local time), the Enola Gays door sprang open and dropped Little Boy. The bomb exploded 1,900 feet above the city and only missed the target, the Aioi Bridge, by approximately 800 feet. The Explosion at Hiroshima Staff Sergeant George Caron, the tail gunner, described what he saw: The mushroom cloud itself was a spectacular sight, a bubbling mass of purple-gray smoke and you could see it had a red core in it and everything was burning inside. . . . It looked like lava or molasses covering a whole city. . . .4 The cloud is estimated to have reached a height of 40,000 feet. Captain Robert Lewis, the co-pilot, stated, Where we had seen a clear city two minutes before, we could no longer see the city. We could see smoke and fires creeping up the sides of the mountains.5 Two-thirds of Hiroshima was destroyed. Within three miles of the explosion, 60,000 of the 90,000 buildings were demolished. Clay roof tiles had melted together. Shadows had imprinted on buildings and other hard surfaces. Metal and stone had melted. Unlike other bombing raids, the goal for this raid had not been a military installation but rather an entire city. The atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima killed civilian women and children in addition to soldiers. Hiroshimas population has been estimated at 350,000; approximately 70,000 died immediately from the explosion and another 70,000 died from radiation within five years. A survivor described the damage to people: The appearance of people was . . . well, they all had skin blackened by burns. . . . They had no hair because their hair was burned, and at a glance you couldnt tell whether you were looking at them from in front or in back. . . . They held their arms bent [forward] like this . . . and their skin - not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies too - hung down. . . . If there had been only one or two such people . . . perhaps I would not have had such a strong impression. But wherever I walked I met these people. . . . Many of them died along the road - I can still picture them in my mind like walking ghosts. 6 The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki While the people of Japan tried to comprehend the devastation in Hiroshima, the United States was preparing a second bombing mission. The second run was not delayed in order to give Japan  time to surrender but was waiting only for a sufficient amount of plutonium-239 for the atomic bomb. On August 9, 1945, only three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, another B-29, Bocks Car, left Tinian at 3:49 a.m. The first choice target for this bombing run had been Kokura. Since the haze over Kokura prevented the sighting of the bombing target, Bocks Car continued on to its second target. At 11:02 a.m., the atomic bomb, Fat Man, was dropped over Nagasaki. The atomic bomb exploded 1,650 feet above the city. Fujie Urata Matsumoto, a survivor, shares one scene: The pumpkin field in front of the house was blown clean. Nothing was left of the whole thick crop, except that in place of the pumpkins there was a womans head. I looked at the face to see if I knew her. It was a woman of about forty. She must have been from another part of town I had never seen her around here. A gold tooth gleamed in the wide-open mouth. A handful of singed hair hung down from the left temple over her cheek, dangling in her mouth. Her eyelids were drawn up, showing black holes where the eyes had been burned out. . . . She had probably looked square into the flash and gotten her eyeballs burned. Approximately 40 percent of Nagasaki was destroyed. Luckily for many civilians  living in Nagasaki,  though this atomic bomb was considered much stronger than the one exploded over Hiroshima, the terrain of Nagasaki prevented the bomb from doing as much damage. The decimation, however, was still great. With a population of 270,000, approximately 40,000 people died immediately and another 30,000 by the end of the year. I saw the atom bomb. I was four then. I remember the cicadas chirping. The atom bomb was the last thing that happened in the war and no more bad things have happened since then, but I dont have my Mummy any more. So even if it isnt bad any more, Im not happy.- Kayano Nagai, survivor 8 Sources Notes 1. Dan Kurzman,  Day of the Bomb: Countdown to Hiroshima  (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986) 410.2. William S. Parsons as quoted in Ronald Takaki, Hiroshima:  Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb  (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995) 43.3. Kurzman,  Day of the Bomb  394.4. George Caron as quoted in Takaki,  Hiroshima  44.5. Robert Lewis as quoted in Takaki,  Hiroshima  43.6. A survivor quoted in Robert Jay Lifton,  Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima  (New York: Random House, 1967) 27.7. Fujie Urata Matsumoto as quoted in Takashi  Nagai, We of Nagasaki: The Story of Survivors in an Atomic Wasteland  (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1964) 42.8. Kayano Nagai as quoted in  Nagai, We of Nagasaki  6. Bibliography Hersey, John.  Hiroshima. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985. Kurzman, Dan.  Day of the Bomb: Countdown to Hiroshima. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986. Liebow, Averill A.  Encounter With Disaster: A Medical Diary of Hiroshima, 1945. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1970. Lifton, Robert Jay.  Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima. New York: Random House, 1967. Nagai, Takashi.  We of Nagasaki: The Story of Survivors in an Atomic Wasteland. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1964. Takaki, Ronald.  Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995.

Suggested Central Bank for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Assignment

Suggested Central Bank for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Assignment Example The similar nature of their economic structure implies that they have common sources of strengths and weakness in their financial systems. They are heavily dependent on their natural resources which are in the process of being depleted. Hence the GCC nations have made diversification of their economic activities as a long-term policy objective. Their financial sector has a central role to play in this strategy of economic diversification. The financial sector is like an intermediary contributing to the economic development of the GCC countries through creation of profits and employment. It also helps in efficient allocation of the financial resources. Hence to tap this potential, the GCC countries have decided to develop a central bank known as Central Bank for Gulf Cooperation Council to help in the domestic regulatory and supervisory framework by participating in the financial institutions and through grants and subsidies. The GCC economies are facing a lot of political turmoil and this can have negative consequences in the financial markets and in the foreign direct investment in these countries. In this report we will analyses the role to be played by the proposed Central Bank for Gulf Cooperation Council towards the economy in these countries. Discussion The real GDP of the economies of GCC grew at a yearly average rate of 4.7% between 2000 and 2010. Compare to this the OECD have only attained an annual growth rate of 1.5%. But it is less than the average growth rate of the BRIC countries which is 8% year-on-year. Figure 1: Real GDP Growth Rate Source: World Bank WDI, IMF projection The Central Bank of GCC has to protect their financial structure form global financial crisis. The Central Bank needs to capitalize their banks so that they can meet the minimum capital adequacy ratio and a comfortable leverage ratio as per the international standard. Still there exists a risk of a possible worsening of the asset quality of the banks due to a worsening of balan ce sheets. Such risk gets increased for economies which have high credit growth rates just prior to any crisis (Strom, Rasmussen and Robinson, 2011). The GCC banks have indicated some weakness in regard with the operational aspects of the GCC banks and hence the Central bank needs to frame policy which removes this weakness. It was seen that a few GCC countries have witnessed a rapid growth in the credit during the oil boom period just prior to the financial crisis. This showed that this rise in the available bank liquidity and increase in the lending rates was associated with higher oil prices (Accenture, 2011). This gave rise to the risk and high liquidity volatility in their banks. It has been seen in the international market that the rapid growth in credit in times of high growth rate results in degrading the asset quality as the situation worsens. Here it was seen that with sharp fall in the oil prices have led to slowdown in the growth rate and also have degraded the asset qua lity of the banks and in turn puts a strain in the liquidity position of the banks. Hence the Central bank of GCC needs to evaluate their policy measures so that the effect of oil prices doesn’t have significant impact on their financial sector. The Central Bank of GCC also needs to take into account the bank’

Police Brutality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Police Brutality - Essay Example For some police officers, this indiscriminate use of power comes in the form of police brutality. The notion of police brutality captivates and terrifies the public. Police officers assume a position of high power in society in many ways. They are trusted to use their skill and judgment to subdue dangerous criminals, but not to harm them any more than is necessary to get them into the subdued state. It is a tremendous challenge for any human to regulate their emotions and actions in such volatile circumstances, but that is what police are asked to do. When they fail, the result is often a crossing of the line and the use of brutal conduct toward citizens. How does our own thinking affect police brutality? Do the notions held by police and the public shape or influence the forms police brutality takes? A review of criminal justice literature suggests that researchers are much concerned with these questions. My review focused on police brutality and group bias, the effect of police brutality on public opinion, and the code of silence used by many officers to protect others who have committed acts of brutality. Ultimately, these three topics are highly connected with each other and with notions of appropriate conduct by those in authority. Do police officers show up at certain neighborhoods with a greater willingness to use force? Lersch, Bazley, Mieczkowski, and Childs (2008) worked to identify links between the use of police force and specific neighborhood characteristics. Their research question attempted to link specific characteristics of different residential areas with a likelihood of police use of force. The researchers examined a municipal police department in the American South for a full year. They used the department’s own Use of Force reports to gather data. They also used crime tract and census data to study factors such as race and ethnicity, composition of family,

Perspectives on conflicts and disputes Essay Example for Free

Perspectives on conflicts and disputes Essay Legal positivists postulate that individuals are intrinsically greedy, which is the main root of conflicts among them. Thomas Hobbes posits that beings are doomed to dispute because of their primeval nature, which is deduced to selfishness that causes them to struggle to maintain their social status. In this milieu, Charles Darwin furthered this stance by conjecturing that species’ selfish ways are embedded to their genes because life is nothing but a struggle for survival. To curtail this selfishness, law is of necessity because only it provides rules and restrictions to protect the interest and upholds the rights of each individual. The advancement on the epistemological aspect of conflict starts at the ontogenetic condition of the specie and continues in its phylogenetic condition. Ontogenetic state means that the being develops from the conception of its genes up to the end of its life cycle. Conversely, phylogenetic event transpires in between of the beings conception and death, meaning the individual develops throughout the time it exists. Therefore, Homo sapiens understanding of conflict’s anatomy begins at phylogenetic level and its full comprehension happens when Homo sapiens reaches the end of ontogenetic level. The epistemic acquisition of conflicts thrives in human playground or to events and settings that necessitates human actions and interactions. Conflicts undergo a succession that perpetually exists within the life-world of beings such as their surroundings, environment, politics, business, science, etc. Having drawn this conclusion, we can infer that in existing innumerable of conflicts there is a myriad of ways of resolving it. Conflict is impossible to annihilate because of the following reasons: first, it thrives at the very heart of human volition, which is the source of human selfishness, and second, it has been part of human psyche to transfer it from one generation to the other, which resulted to a vicious cycle within the epistemic system of conflict. And throughout history, individuals have learned the art of conflict, and some even mastered the usage of conflict in their everyday lives. Handling conflict is very vital to human existence because it can totally change the landscape of one’s own existence. The coming of twentieth century proved that beings are becoming more and more aware of how to comprehend the nitty-gritty details of conflict, and what are the effective means of handling conflicts. There is no panacea that will medicate continuous existence of conflict, but humans strive to find a better solution to satisfy the needs of a prominent conflict because they are challenged by the difficulty it embodies. It must be noted that conflict is getting more complicated as time passes by, which means that better solution must be concocted to counter-attack more severe problem. The vastness of the universe implies a far more serious condition because the contingency of the world can necessitate an unknown conflict, which greatly needs a novel constructs or to put it simply, man has to go out of the box to resolve a new or unknown prevailing issue. This kind of conflict serves a greater challenge to human reason because it is something that our very reason has not yet encountered. The enigmatic characteristic of such new issues demands transcendence in our rationality. Using Karl Marx philosophical stance, we can infer that conflict has a crisis-response blueprint or a thesis-antithesis pattern. Multiplicity of conflicts has evolved into a more complex manner within the continuum of time, as well as the individual effort to manage and to elucidate it. In order for a human specie to understand the mechanism of conflict, he/she must know its intrinsic values, and in doing so, he/she can decipher appropriate solution for different conflicts. The epicentre of conflict lies on the innate nature of man and its solution lies on the rules that have been drawn to curb the natural operation of human volition. Development is the life-source of conflict, ironically speaking, the more we formulate means to make life easier the more we recognize new conflicts. In the primeval condition of humanity the only existing problem is the source of food, and then it further develops into the issue of territory, and finally when men resolved these issues another conflict sprouted when they realized the significance of property. The birth of science and technology intensified the man’s struggle to annihilate conflicts. Science and technology successfully medicated the prevailing conflicts of our society but it also paved for the birth of novel conflicts, and in some condition aggravated an existing issue. As of this modern day period, science and technology provides a myriad of solutions in human crises in the field of poverty, education and medicine. But it also exacerbates war between nations because technology brings forth weaponry of mass destruction. Man by Nature is Selfish According to Richard Dawkins introduction in his book The Selfish Gene, man’s attitude is greatly affected and designed by our genetic composition. Our genes made us. We animals exist for their preservation and are nothing more than their throwaway survival machines. The world of the selfish gene is one of savage competition, ruthless exploitation, and deceit. But what of the acts of apparent altruism found in nature the bees who commit suicide when they sting to protect the hive, or the birds who warn the flock of an approaching hawk? Do they contravene the fundamental law of gene selfishness? At the onset of Dawkins book, he clearly stipulated that all species either man or animals are machines fashioned by their genetic design. As mentioned earlier, Hobbes believes that men are naturally born selfish, and it is the same in Dawkins case. According to him, the selfishness of man is deeply embedded in our genes, and due to this we must learn the virtue of generosity and altruism because if we failed to do so, men will perpetually live on catastrophic state. Dawkins stance must not be misconstrued as an ethical justification of human behaviour or a moral treatise that must be followed since his insight is loud and clear; that men are selfish because of their genes, no more, no less. Having said this, it is a challenge for us to control it if not exterminate it because we are the only species who can desired to do it. In the furtherance of man’s selfish genes, Dawkins incorporated Darwin’s biological conjecture that man is doomed for the battle of its own survival. However, the former believes that survival is not controlled by man; rather man is machinated by genes to strive for its own survival. The genes are the building blocks of human existence, it is the one that created us, and these genes even dictates how we should reason out. Men are innately selfish for the sole reason of life preservation or prolongation. They are willing to do everything just to ensure that their interests are satisfied. Satisfaction of interest is tantamount to the validation of one existence. This is the embodiment of human existence, chaotic and full of struggle. The machination of individual is further elucidated by Dawkins through his explanation of gene mechanism. Dawkins adopted G. C. Williams’ definition of genes, which stated that gene any portion of chromosomal material that potentially last for enough generations to serve as a unit of natural selection . The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of man thrives within our body. It must be noted that DNA is not contained in a particular body parts rather it is widely disseminated within our cells. Approximately speaking, a human body is made of a thousand million cells, and each of these cells contains an exact blueprint of all DNA in our body. The significance of the ontogenetic control of genes is its capability of self-continuation and self-propagation, meaning, genes can preserve itself under the condition of numerous struggles. The survival of genes lies on the efficiency and power of our corporeal body, which they inhabit for its own development. The existence of each human species is not everlasting, it is ephemeral. Dawkins uses an analogy wherein each card in a deck represents the genes. According to him, when a deck of card are being shuffled they undergo a process of survival. And this process of survival is exactly the mechanism of genes wherein every time they are shuffled a gene only assumes the position of another gene, instead of being destroyed, and after the shuffling process genes are still genes that continue to march on. Dawkins draws a conclusion from this analogy, which stated that genes are basically the replicators and we are their machinery for survival. And when we have fulfilled our function we are automatically became useless, but gene will perpetuate its existence because it is a denizen of geological time . In view of that, Dawkins also posits that gene is the basic unit of survival because it competes for its own preservation against their alleles for a slot in the chromosome. With this picture, we can infer that genes struggle for survival of future generation in the gene pool in the expense of its own alleles. Therefore, selfishness is indeed the fundamental foundation of selfishness. The genes are the master programmers, and they are programming for their lives. They are judged according to the success of their programs in copying with all the hazards that life throws at their survival machines, and the judge is the ruthless judge of the court of survival . This phrase only strengthened Dawkins claims that man is nothing but a machinery of genes for its own survival. As pointed earlier, man is different from other specie because a human being has a will power and reason, meaning man can go against the dictate of its gene i. e. a person can choose not to reproduce. In addition, reason has its own domain wherein it has the capability to manipulate habitual operation of gene machine, to envisage what lies beyond its own future, and most significantly, to act according to its own course of nature. Because of rationality, gene machinery is able to be in command of outlining what direction individuals must follow. Rationality can curtail the dictate of gene, meaning, a person can transcend his/her selfishness and reach the condition of being generous and altruistic. The emancipation of man from his selfish nature is only possible if and only if he succumb himself to an agreement. Being established that human beings to be innately selfish also indicate that they are self-regulating. But generosity and altruism can only be actualized if the self-regulating beings surrender their self-regulating prowess. Selfishness is the anti-thesis of the said virtues but because of rationality human beings will submit to an agreement to satisfy the insufficiency of self-regulation. The universal antidote for this insufficiency is the construction of law through its rules. In the vein of Hobbes social contract theory, man must give in to an agreement to restrain his natural tendencies, but he must only surrender to a contract if and only if others will surrender to it in equal footing. But in the provision of rules it is a prerequisite to understand the intricate schema of conflict. The Role of Rules In Using Conflict Theory, Otomar Bartos and Paul Wehr claim that in the wide range of epistemic knowledge regarding conflicts there are two guiding principles that must be comprehended: one, to concentrate on general theories, and second, to carry out these theories on a simplified fashion. The former necessitate an application of theories to innumerable types of conflicts. While the latter focuses on the specific arguments or application of the former. One good example of general theories is elucidation of poverty in the third world countries using the framework of dialectical materialism by Marx. If we convert this general theory into a simplified manner, one must look at the specific causes of poverty such as shortage of natural resources, lack of capital, misallocation of funds, graft and corruption, and the likes. If one is successful in outlining the appropriate general theories in an existing conflict, then he/she translates these theories in its simplified form. And if this will be the case, then concoction of rules will be easier. Rules must embody the principle of the entire society and it must cater to the needs of its citizenry. Rules can be perceived in two ways: Kantian or Utilitarian. Immanuel Kant posits that rules must be made in the context of universal imperative, meaning it must not be used as means of advancing one’s interest rather it must be created for its own sake and for the goodness and betterment of humanity. In lieu to this, Utilitarian advocates such as J. S. Mill argues that rules must be conceptualized in the essence of achieving the goodness of the majority and resulting to the production of best consequences. Kant postulates that a rule must be encompassing and must not reside on the band wagon of majority votes because it contradicts the reason of man, and because number of votes does not imply truth. For example, killing another being is morally unjustified is a universal rule because it affirms the importance of life, which is true to all beings. Conversely, J. S. Mill believes that rules are justified if and only if the â€Å"greatest happiness for the greatest number of people† is reached. But it must be noted that utilitarian theory also entails a qualitative measurement through the intensity and duration of happiness, meaning, it must have greater impact to the society and its intensity must last for the longest time if not forever. For example, death penalty can be either permissible or impermissible depending on the context of society, but the point is, morally justifiability of death penalty lies on majority votes since it can serve the interest of more people. There are voluminous conflicting issues regarding these theories because both of them are in extreme opposition. Kant rejects utilitarianism because it does not uphold a consensual quest for universal truth and it only served the interests of the majority of population in a given social context. On the other hand, utilitarian advocates refute the Kantian theories because of its impossibility or tedious system in knowing the universal truth. But in the modern day period, utilitarian theories are more adopted than Kantian theory because it is more feasible in creating rules for present conflicts and for future conflicts. In most cases, before a rule can be ratified it must undergo an election and must meet certain number of votes to quantify its validity i. e. three-fourths of the voting population or majority votes. But it must be noted that most rules fashioned in utilitarian perspective must follow a universal precept so that it will not contradict the constitution of a specific nation. For example, murder is universally not accepted, which one of the reason why death penalty is not easy to endorse because it contradicts a universal precept, though some countries provided an reasonable exemption on the matter, killing will still be universal precept that they must consider. Rules main goal is to promote the interest of every individual as possible as it can, and to restrict the selfish ways of human beings, in order to maintain an ordered society. Because of this guideline, law has delineated the scope of public and private sphere to guarantee the possibility of generosity and altruism. Public sphere is far more superior to the private sphere because the former promotes national interest and the welfare of the entire populace. Law provides countless rules to reinforce the supremacy of public sphere, which is the apparent implication on the significance of reason. Rules are the product of our reason to rebel against the dictate of our selfish genes. In the furtherance of rules, justice must be encapsulated in its formulation to ensure an effective implementation of it.

The Internet Essay -- Computers Technology Papers

The Internet Many years ago, I use to think that people who chatted online were losers. Actually, many of my friends have said that too. We laughed and joked about the computer geeks and online chatters, and I even remember hearing myself say that I would never become a computer geek. Now, eight years later, I can't help to laugh at myself because I became the one person that I didn't want to become and that was a computer geek. But as I think about it, it is not so bad because when I look around me everything is becoming technological, and with learning more and more about the computer daily is just helping me keep up with the up rise in technology. I admire those who I called computer geeks back then and I am proud to say that I have been an America Online user for six years now. America Online is a place where people from all around the country, even some foreign countries, can come together and chat about certain topics or to just socialize in places called chat rooms. There are well over a thousand of these chat rooms on America Online, each one pertaining to someone's interest. And if not, they can always make their own public chat room. When I first started using America Online, I became addicted to talking to people around the country because it was just fascinating to me. I use to be this really shy kid around school and I wouldn't talk much unless I had something important to say and if not, I would just walk around with my friends and just listen to what they have to say to other people and so on. In these chat rooms, I was anything I wanted to be. No one could see me and therefore no one could judge me based on my looks and appearance, but only by how the conversation was going. I like using America Online. ... ...better sites that I have viewed. At the get go, it tells you all about what the site is, and on the left hand side there is a list of directives that will guide you through the site. This group has been around since 1993 and it seems to be going strong still. When you sign up with them, they offer to put you with new group members and from there, you and your group will come up with a story line or adventure. The other alternative is that you can join and existing adventure and go from there. This site also offers many links to other RPG sites, so that could come in handy if you ever become bored of this site. All cost are free to, so you can sign up with them and just check out what goes on. The only requirement is that you must be able to send and receive email. I would say that this site would be a more ideal starting point than the other Web sites listed above.

Mary Shelley present Frankenstein Essay

‘Frankenstein’ was written in 1812 by a woman called Mary Shelley, at the age of 19, this shows that she is very intelligent because to write such a novel with so much understanding at a very young age shows that she was a dedicated female author who studied very hard. At first when I heard of the novel ‘Frankenstein’ I straight away thought without any doubt that it was a man who wrote this novel, because firstly it was a horror story so that instantly clicked in my mind to think that it was a man but I was very shocked to find out that the author of the novel was actually a women. This seemed very unusual to me because firstly at that time female authors were less well thought of than male authors and also even if female writers wrote books you would expect them to be all flowery and cosy type but for a women to write a novel with such imagination, creativity and devilish thoughts seemed very unusual with the basic fact that she was a women. This again showed that she was very intelligent. She also didn’t put her name on the book for 13 years, this was because of the fact that mentioned earlier about female writers being less thought of than male writers. I believe that she done this because during that time there might have been a lot of sexism and she believed that if she put her name on the book than a lot of people may not have bought it because she was a female and when she did put her name on the book I am sure that a lot of people were shocked to hear that it was written by a women. She probably played a vital part in raising the confidence of female writers and broke the deadlock for all female authors. The novel was about a young ambitious scientist who is keen to prove that he can create life. The scientists name is Victor Frankenstein. He accomplished his mission but all his dreams about this being were crushed when he realised what a monster he had created. Frankenstein ran away from the monster and left it to a life of loneliness. The monster learned how to talk and read and soon tracked down Victor Frankenstein. After being treated badly by humans the monster had one thing on his mind which was revenge. The novel starts with a letter from Robert Walton an explorer, to his sister. He is preparing to go on his way to his desired destination the North Pole. He is a very ambitious man and he wants to go on this expedition because no man has ever set foot there. Walton writes: â€Å"Never before imprinted by the foot of man† Walton also wants to be the man who discovers the route to the North Pole because at that time there was no route to this area of the world. This shows how desperate he was to go there and his ambitiousness. He trained his body for the expedition and Walton tells us: ‘I voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst and of want of sleep’ This proves his determination and how serious he was about his venture.

Discrimination in Housing in 1950’s Essay

â€Å"Minorities experienced racism in suburbia in the 1950’s. †(Kruse) Through the postwar, government started developing on highways, housing, and others so on. FHA (Federal Housing Administration) started to build big, nice houses in outside of the city area. Which is now called â€Å"Suburbia†. The main idea of suburbia was having bigger house without lots of money, better social community and nice neighborhood. â€Å"Better housing and jobs, cheap consumer credit, safe and healthy neighborhoods, and good public services and schools. †(Kruse) This idea boomed and Suburbia became popular and got rushed by people. For selling more houses and to make profits their business with big companies, FHA made loaning program. Thru people could be able to buy a house without having money. But meanwhile, FHA had discrimination. They only loan the money to the white. â€Å"Federal government denied most racial minorities access not only to suburbia but also to the many benefits of homeownership. Their goal was to make exclusivity for white. Almost exclusively for white people. †(Kruse) They did not sell the houses to any other minorities even some of them had enough money to buy. To build highways, and houses, in somewhere had to be destroyed for developments. Of course the targets were places where minorities were living in. While suburbia and outside of city were getting developed, the urban area was quickly getting decayed. All minorities were stuck and living in dirty poverty in city. Since that was the government’s act, minorities did not have really anything to do. All they did was protesting, but nothing really influenced changing. But somehow, federal governments felt guilty and removed the discrimination act officially, but there was still segregation going on in individual person’s inside. By the fact, federal governments decided to rebuild urban area. And minorities were able to live in much better conditions. Suburbia mostly started to develop in 1950’s. After world war2, a lot of immigrants kept coming to America and cities were getting packed. People wanted to have better life, better society, and better community. People were sick and tired of city living. A lot of dirty areas in everywhere, small living condition, high taxes crowded by cars, people and danger living. â€Å"People were seeking to remove themselves from the heavy concentration of new immigrant population in the central cities. (Palen) People wanted to get out of the city but not too far away, not to the farms, countryside. Therefore government started to consider and develop some places for them. Suburbia was created to solve this problem, and to satisfy people with their Living. â€Å"It processes something both of the countryside and of the city† (Edwards). For an example, Levitt town was created by Abraham Levitt. Federal government and big businesses cooperated each other to built this big project. Federal government spend a lot of efforts and money as you see â€Å"The modern American suburb is heavily indebted to the federal government. For decades writers have chronicled this debt, documenting how state policy fueled the rapid suburban growth that has so decisively shaped U. S. politics and culture since world war2. Federal Spending priorities, mortgage programs, tax incentives, urban renewal, and a host of other public initiatives fundamentally reshaped the metropolis. †(Kruse) The first new suburbia in United State was Levittown . It is located in Long island, New York. â€Å"Levittown gets its name from its builder, the firm of Levitt & Sons, Inc. , which built it as a planned community between 1947 and 1951. Levittown was the first truly mass-produced suburb and is widely regarded as the archetype for postwar suburbs throughout the country. Levitt and Sons built the community with an eye towards speed, efficiency and cost-effective construction, which methods led to a production rate of 30 houses a day by July of 1948. The planned 2,000 home rental community was quickly successful, with New York Herald Tribune reporting that half of the properties had been rented within two days of the community being announced on May 7, 1947. As demand continued, exceeding availability, the Levitts expanded their project with 4,000 more homes as well as community services, including schools and postal delivery. After thousands of thousands houses built up, federal housing association (FHA) created mortgage program for sell houses. And FHA started loan the money to people. It decisively helped sell all the houses. FHA standardized the long-term, low-interest home mortgage and facilitated its use nationwide. †(Kruse) Thru people who do not have enough money to buy a house, they were still able to buy a house. Also most houses in suburb was not expensive and was worth it comparing to small, dirty, dangerous condition houses in the city. After built houses, and sold houses, government and big businesses started build highways which connect from city to suburbia. And started build public convenient such as high schools, libraries, YMCA for better society and community. With valuable price, bigger house condition, better community, and loaning mortgage program by FHA, suburbia houses got boomed. When people got out of the city and moved to suburbia, most of them were white. The reason why they moved out to suburbia was that not only they wanted have bigger house, fresh areas but also they wanted to have better society and community. Which represents that they wanted have their own ethnic society. Indeed, most of people who moved out to suburbia were white. They have felt dangerous in the city because there was a lot mixed ethnic groups in the city. Therefore they loathed city life. Since they moved out to suburbia, they did not want any other ethnic groups or people come and live in suburbia. They only wanted white neighborhood. Thru suburbia became exclusive living area only for white. By becoming exclusive area, FHA helped a lot to make this happening. Thru it accentuated the nations racial and class inequalities. For example, FHA denied most racial minorities’ access to suburbia and also to the many benefits of homeownership, loaning money to minorities, and even did not sell the house to minorities who had enough money to buy a house in suburbia. FHA operation systematically discriminated by race. FHA agency endorsed the use of race-restrictive covenants until 1950. And they followed the appraisal guideline outlined in the FHA’s underwriting Manual, which prohibited realtors(and by extension, lenders, and builders) from introducing â€Å"incompatible† racial groups into white residential enslaves. If a neighborhood is to retain stability. †(Kruse). Therefore meanwhile suburbia was growing up and up, city was going to downhill. Because all city polices also moved out to suburbia followed to white people. Federal government neglected urban area. After world war 2, federal, state, and local governments abandoned flexible and sensible urban planning and replaced it with restrictive, isolating, community-destructive zoning. † (Morris). Finally urban areas became ghetto; some parts of neighborhoods became very dangerous. People lose their job since the city is getting decayed. By not making money, people gets poorer and moved to compact place such as public housing. People start dealing drug in small area, it causes crimes, and the government neglected it. As an example of apartment residents by high percentage of black people is â€Å"Robert Taylor Homes†. It is located in Bronzeville, south side of Chicago. â€Å"It is largest public housing in Chicago and the nation with 4,415 apartments. † (Lindstrom). Over 96% of residents are African American, and at one point 95% of residents were unemployed. â€Å"Bronzeville’s public housing is extremely dilapidated and controlled by gangs. Entering public housing means stepping into the middle of the drug trade. Gang members monitor the outside of the buildings and sell illicit substances, calling out drug code phrases like â€Å"ghost face† and â€Å"dog face† from first-floor hallways. The unlawful activity makes public housing quite intimidating and dangerous, especially when turf wars, which often involve gunfire, break out. † (Hyra) All minorities’ communities converged into city. Some minorities got really racial attacked by a big business company’s project. As an example, when Walker O’ Malley constructed dodger stadium nearly by highway in Los Angeles, he bulldozed out all the houses, village which were at the ground before stadium constructed. And of course all residents who lived at there were Mexicans. The highway engineer did not hesitate to lay waste to woods, streams, parks, and human neighborhoods† (Morris) â€Å"-L. A. city council decided in 1949 that the area was â€Å"blighted† infected with poverty and dismal living condition three years old neighborhood could be called â€Å" ancient † Mexican villages. It is the side of Tonga Indian ruins and homes built on homes for thousands of years. Mostly Hispanic, cattle ranches gardens, farms that fed everyone who live in the area, hospital, school. It was a community in every sense of the word. Vet little U. S. /California involvement- people were left alone. Most American cities were attempting to glamorize their appearances such as large shining buildings, sports complex, and collect the poor into public housing. Federal housing and urban development gave L. A. money to buy the land and build Elysian Heights. Chavez gives up the land L. A. starts buying pieces for $10,000 at first, then offer less and less as time passes. 1952- 80% of 1100 homes have been bulldozed. In 1952, Maylor Poulson of L. A. declares public housing is communism committee against social housing C. A. S. H. + Maylor cancelled projects. â€Å"Imminent domain† public use, land can be taken by the government. Law used to remove residents of Chavez residents were paid with promise of placement in Elysion Heights. Manvel Arichega(1954)- last resident forcibly removed from his house in L. R. at gunpoint and bloodied family with home. L. A. times was present + reporting therefore no guns were fired. It would have been the final bad move by the L. A. city council paid $10,500. â€Å"Death of Baseball† in America. † (Blizzard) Fig. 2. Anonymous, photographer, Los Angeles Times, Chavez Ravine property owners examine bulldozed ruins (Los Angeles, May 1959). After all those things went through, there were minorities’ reactions against discrimination. But since it was against big government, not an individual personal problem, it was very hard to change it and fix the problem. However, minorities have been protesting, and screaming civil rights, and local state. But nothing was really seems to be changed and fixed until federal government felt guilty themselves. Eventually at some point, federal government felt guilty about segregation, discrimination. They officially removed the law that FHA can able to loan to only white, and changed law that any minorities also can buy a house in suburbia. Also tried to protect minorities from racism. For an example, â€Å"little rock nine† â€Å"When the federal court ordered Gov. Faubus to stop interfering with the court’s order, Faubus removed the guardsmen from in front of the school. On September 23, the Nine entered the school for the first time. Calling the mob’s actions â€Å"disgraceful,† Eisenhower called out 1,200 members of the U. S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division—the â€Å"Screaming Eagles† of Fort Campbell, Kentucky—and placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal orders. On September 25, 1957, under federal troop escort, the Nine were escorted back into Central for their first full day of classes. After the Nine suffered repeated harassment—such as kicking, shoving, and name calling—the military assigned guards to escort them to classes. Fig. 3. Photo by Will Counts ; courtesy of the Arkansas history Commission. National Guardsman prevents four black students from entering little rock central high school; September 4, 1957. (http://www. encyclopediaofarkansas. net/encyclopedia/media- detail. aspx? mediaID=7784). But however, federal government has changed the law and outlawed discrimination, still There was racism going on in suburbia in individual people’s inside through the cultural experiences. When black family tries to buy a house, after outlawed discrimination, the real happening was that the town improvement association representative comes to the family house, and mostly convince not moving into the town for keeping good neighborhood and community and they discouraged people(minority) who tries to buy a house. As it said â€Å"at the moment the overwhelming majority of our people out there feel that people get along better, take more of a common interest in the life of the community, when they share a common background. I want you to believe me when I tell you that race prejudice simply doesn’t enter into it†. (Littell) Or they just told them that they will not sell houses to them face to face. â€Å"Others were straightforward: â€Å"You’re colored, aren’t you? I can’t do anything for you,† said one. † (Kruse) Even federal government has been trying hard to not have discrimination, it did not work out well. Instead of keep trying on this side, they created a new project and went into it. The idea was rebuilding urban area. Black people also liked more the idea of rebuilding urban area. The black middle class wants to â€Å"restore† communities, and housing to safe, prosperous, and tranquil places. † (Hyra) While suburbia was developing very quickly, the urban area was decaying very quickly. A lot of areas in the city have broken houses and some factories for industry. So it can create jobs for minorities. To make better community, and society, federal government spent more money for school education, and condition than they used to spend before. So minorities could be satisfied even a little living in urban city. Governments tried hard to reduce the gap of living quality between city and suburbia since white majority people didn’t really want any minorities in their neighborhood. And also federal government ordered to build much more houses in between city area and suburb so there would be plenty of houses for everyone. Plenty of empty houses were owned by the federal government. Thru minorities could able to buy a house easily. This made much easier to buy a house than from owned by white people. After post war, people wanted have better society, community and get out of the city. Thru government and big businesses cooperated each other and started to build suburbia which is located in near outside of the city. FHA built tons of houses and highways. While building new houses and highways, the places where minorities were living in, got bulldozed up their houses by government’s power. They didn’t get a new house after all built up to new houses or highway and didn’t get anything back for compensation. And then FHA started loan to people whoever wants to move in suburbia for selling houses and making profits their business. But it was exclusive. Only white could able to buy and move to suburbia. Any of minorities could not able to buy houses because of FHA didn’t loan to any minorities. Even who has enough money to buy a house, they didn’t sell it to minorities. Eventually federal government felt guilty and outlawed discrimination. But it has been culture deeply on people’s mind. Therefore even government outlawed, people didn’t really turned around. They didn’t want any minorities in their neighborhood. They didn’t sell the house to minorities. Finally federal government created a new project instead of keep trying to work one way. Government started renewal dwelling area in urban city. They started rebuild the houses And factories in the city. They cleaned up the slums and ghetto areas first. Factories, industries created new jobs for minorities. Also government put more money for school, and public systems to make satisfy minorities with their living condition. Then government started builds more houses in between city and suburbia to have plenty of empty houses owned by governments. Therefore it would be easier to buy a house for minorities than buying a house from white person.

To be free or not to be

To be free or not to be; is that a question? Imagine your loved one who was once full of life and spirit and now due to an horrific accident or a terrible disease can now only move thanks to a wheelchair or breathe thanks to an oxygen tank. Imagine someone you love in pain and imagine them knowing that as well. In todays society we are faced with many everyday decisions. One of the last decisions that we would want to make is whether to live or to die. Making it a law that people dont have the right to choose takes away their ultimate rights. Euthanasia is the idea of voluntary suicide for a person or persons. By taking away the right whether to die this way or not, is just the same as taking away the right of freedom or the right to choose ones religion. What is the difference between euthanasia and when a doctor kills a baby in the fetus due to deformities? When discussing euthanasia there are many things to keep in mind. There is the emotions of the family, the money it is costing to keep this ill patient alive, and the patients feelings. A bog thing today is money. On average a family or families will spend eight to twelve thousand dollars a year on medicine for someone with euthanasia (nrlc dept. of med ethics). Is this any type of money to be paying for someone who isnt going to survive no matter what? I t could go towards food or shelter or even a car. With that said, imagine what kind of emotions would fly around in the family of the patient. I mean at first I am sure they wouldnt understand it, then would go on to blame them selves for what is happening top there loved one. If they have a kid how do they explain to them that their mother or father is dying? This could lead to depression, which causes more money to be spent on doctors. This could also leave to a break. Which then leads to the person leaving work and having no money. The emotion will take a big part of the life of the fami...

How Does College Athletic Recruiting Work The Complete Process

How Does College Athletic Recruiting Work The Complete Process SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you are a high school athlete who aspires to compete in college sports, you should know about the college athletic recruiting process. Even if you don’t end up getting a scholarship, many intercollegiate athletes who don’t receive aid are still recruited to participate in sports at the collegiate level. The college recruiting process can be confusing. There are tons of recruiting rules that vary by division and the process for each prospective student-athlete can be extremely different. In this article, I’ll explain the various steps of the college recruiting process. I’ll provide important advice for prospective student-athletes so that you’re able to reach your collegiate and athletic goals. The Biggest Steps in the College Recruiting Process Making Contact With Coaches: Generally, for most student-athletes, the process really begins when you have your first conversation with a college coach about possibly playing for him or her. Campus Visits: One of the many benefits of being a recruited athlete is having the opportunity to visit multiple college campuses and have all your questions about athletics and academics answered. There are two types of visits: official and unofficial. On official campus visits, your transportation to the college, meals, and entertainment are paid for by the university. Visits From Coaches:College coaches can visit you at school, practice, a game, or in your home when they're recruiting you. Coaches use these visits to evaluate you and to try to sell their program to you. Scholarship Offers:For most student-athletes, the scholarship offer comes near the end of the recruiting process. Typically, a coach will call you to extend an offer of athletic aid. Depending on the sport you play and the college that is recruiting you, you can be offered a full or partial athletic scholarship. Signing the National Letter of Intent: Signing a letter of intent marks the end of the college athletic recruiting process. The letter is an agreement that you will enroll in a certain school in exchange for athletic aid. At this point, coaches have to stop recruiting you, and if any coaches contact you, you have to let them know you've signed a letter of intent. Now that you have a basic understanding of these steps, I'm going to walk you through the entire college athletic recruiting process. Keep in mind that the process and timeline will be somewhat different for each individual athlete. For example, some recruited student-athletes don't apply to a college until after they have taken an official campus visit. Others have already applied, been accepted, and have received a scholarship offer by the time they go on their official visit. Parts of the Process Can Vary Widely Depending on your sport and how heavily you're being recruited, the college athletic recruiting process can vary widely. Top level recruits, especially in the high profile sports of football and men's basketball, will be sent tons of letters, receive tons of phone calls, and may be offered athletic scholarships before they even enter high school. They won't have to take much initiative in their recruiting process. For recruits who are not as well-known nationally, they will have to be more proactive in the recruiting process, and they'll often have to sell themselves to college coaches to get a scholarship or a guaranteed spot on a team. Additionally, the sport you play also has a huge influence on the process. In some sports, there are literally over a thousand colleges with a team in that sport. If you're being recruited in one of those sports, you want to know what you’re looking for in a school and narrow down your college list early in the process to avoid being overwhelmed. For other sports, your options are already limited based on the number of colleges with that sport. I was a gymnast in college, and currently, there are only 16 NCAA men's gymnastics programs. When I was looking at colleges, there were a few more than that, but I had a much easier time narrowing down my college options than most simply because I knew I wanted to compete for an NCAA gymnastics team. Honestly Assessing Your Abilities and Aspirations By your junior year, if you’re interested in participating in varsity intercollegiate sports, you should start figuring out what type of school you want to attend. What division would best suit your interests and abilities? What are your athletic priorities? Getting a scholarship? Getting playing time? Competing against the best competition? Playing for a certain coach? Fitting in with the other personalities on the team? Having access to the best resources? What are you looking for in a college outside of sports? Once you know what you want, the recruiting process will become much easier. Then, as you start looking at each school individually, you can determine if it matches what you're looking for. Don't be afraid to ask questions to coaches, current team members, academic advisers, and admissions representatives to get the information you need to make your college decision. However, if you're being recruited, especially if you're a top recruit, college representatives may only tell you what they think you want to hear. Do your own research as well. Have Your High School Coach Work For You Talk with your high school coach during your junior year. Ask for his or her honest assessment of your ability to play college-level sports. See what he or she would be willing to do and could do to help with the recruiting process. Many high school coaches have relationships with college coaches and can help start the recruiting process for you. Also, if there are specific schools you're interested in, see if your high school coach can reach out to the coaches at those colleges. How and When College Coaches Can Initiate Contact With You The rules vary by sport and division, but the general rule is that college coaches can’t talk to you before the end of your junior year. However, many schools will send you information via mail as soon as you’re on their radar. If you receive a recruiting questionnaire and you have any interest in that school, make sure you fill it out and send it back. If you’re a priority recruit, the coach will call you in the spring of your junior year or the summer before your senior year. July 1st before your senior year is the date when coaches can initiate contact for most sports for Division I colleges. Once college coaches are permitted to talk to you, the general rule is that they're allowed to contact you once per week. Keep in mind that just because you get mail or a phone call from a coach doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get a scholarship offer. Initiating Contact With Coaches Most student-athletes will have to initiate contact with coaches if they want a scholarship or want to participate in intercollegiate athletics. I highly recommend that you take a proactive approach to your recruiting process. When To Contact Coaches There is no exact right time to contact college coaches, but the general rule is that earlier is better. Typically, prospective athletes will contact coaches during their junior years or the summer before their senior years. Even though there are rules regarding when and how much a coach can contact you, there are no rules stopping you from contacting a coach whenever and however often you deem necessary. Use your discretion, though. If a coach is not responding to you, don’t continue contacting him or her. How to Contact Coaches The most common way to initiate contact with a coach is through e-mail. Your initial e-mail should express your interest in the school along with key information about you: your academic accomplishments, your athletic accomplishments, including awards, stats, and experience, and any attributes that would make you a good fit for that school or team. Additionally, the e-mail should contain a link to a video. The video should be relatively short, only a couple of minutes long. Show highlights from games and possibly practices that demonstrate your athletic abilities and readiness to participate on the collegiate level. If you do a team sport, make sure it’s clear who you are in the video. Also, have a full game tape ready, in case one of the coaches requests it. Feel free to a call a coach to express your interest. Even though it may be hard to get a coach on the phone if you're not already on his or her recruiting radar, you can always try or leave a message. Ask what the coach needs from you to be considered for a scholarship or a spot on the team. Furthermore, you can make a profile on a recruiting website. Examples of recruiting websites include BeRecruited, NCSA, and CaptainU. Some of their services are free and some require you to pay. The recruiting websites make sure you’re sending the right information to coaches, and they can provide you with contact information for college coaches. While these websites can be rather helpful, they’re not essential. Make sure you're contacting college coaches. Camps Some sports and schools offer summer camps that the coaches attend. These camps can provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your athletic abilities to the coaches. Some of these camps are open and some are by invite only. The effectiveness of camps in helping you get recruited varies widely by school and sport. Some camps are just designed to make money and some are actually used by coaches to evaluate prospective student-athletes. Make sure that you research a camp before you or your parents spend money to attend. Applying Generally, the application process is the same for student athletes and non-student athletes. The main difference is that depending on the sport and how heavily you’re being recruited, you may be encouraged to apply early. And, your application may be processed sooner. Often, recruited athletes will learn of admissions decisions before the rest of the admitted students. Also, for recruits, your application may have some identifying marker indicating that you’re a recruited athlete. That’s so the admissions committee knows you're a recruit, and while it helps, it’s no guarantee of admission. Typically, the admissions committee will be alerted to how heavily you’re being recruited as well. During my recruiting process, for a couple of the schools that were recruiting me, I didn’t have to write a personal essay. Back in my high school days, I was rather happy to get out of writing those essays. For Stanford, my alma mater, I had to complete the same application as the rest of the students, though. Now I'm having flashbacks to writing my personal esssays. Good times. Campus Visits Once you get past the mail and the phone calls, the next step is to visit the campus. At this point, you may or may not have already been admitted to the college. There are two types of visits: unofficial visits and official visits. Unofficial Campus Visits An unofficial visit is one that you pay for yourself. What the coach plans for you on your trip often depends on how heavily you’re being recruited. Sometimes the coach will just speak with you briefly and then you’re on your own. For unofficial visits, schools can’t provide money for meals, transportation, or entertainment. However, you can receive up to three free game tickets. That's a pretty nice benefit, especially if you play a sport where game tickets are hard to come by. You can take an unlimited amount of unofficial visits and take them at almost any time, except during so-called â€Å"dead† periods when coaches can’t have contact with prospective student-athletes. Make sure to clear any unofficial visits with coaches before you make them. Feel free to ask a coach about taking an unofficial visit, regardless of how much contact you’ve had with the coach or if the coach has been recruiting you. Official Campus Visits For official campus visits, the trip is paid for by the school. Transportation, meals, and entertainment are covered for the prospective student-athlete. Official visits can last no more than 48 hours. NCAA rules dictate that you’re allowed five official visits and no more than one per school for Division I schools, but you can take an unlimited number of official visits to Division II schools. You can start taking official visits beginning on your first day of classes during your senior year of high school. If you attend junior college or do not enroll in a college after graduation, you can take an additional five Division I official visits starting October 15th following your senior year of high school. Before any official visit, though, you must register with the NCAA Eligibility Center and submit your ACT or SAT test score and high school transcript to the school you plan to visit. Sometimes scholarship offers will be made before official trips, and sometimes they’ll be made after. If you’re offered an official visit, you're definitely a top candidate for a scholarship. Also, even though Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships, they do offer official visits. If you have the opportunity, I strongly recommend that you take official campus visits. On your official visit, you may be given the opportunity to watch practices, attend games, tour the campus, speak to academic advisers, sit in on classes, and hang out with the members of the team. I thoroughly enjoyed my official campus visits. Just to give you an idea of how much campus visits can vary, I'll describe a couple of mine to you. When I went on my recruiting trip to the University of Illinois, I was put up in a hotel suite and taken to a fancy Japanese restaurant. I had a scheduled meeting with an academic adviser and I was taken on a tour of the campus by an official campus tour guide. A few weeks later, I went on a recruiting trip to Temple University. On that trip, I stayed on the couch in one of the team member's apartments and ate cereal for most of my meals while I was there. I got a driving tour of the campus from the coach and there was no meeting with an academic advisor. However, I did get to see the Liberty Bell and eat an authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwich. I enjoyed my Temple trip, but it differed greatly from my Illinois trip. Illinois was just a more well-funded program and had a larger recruiting budget. Unfortunately, Temple dropped its NCAA men's gymnastics team in 2014 and is now continuing as a club sport. I got to experience life as a college student at Temple for 48 hours. Visits From Coaches Sometimes coaches will visit you at your school, in your home, or at one of your practices or games. There are rules that dictate when coaches can visit you. Typically, a coach will visit either to evaluate you or because you’re a top recruit and he or she is trying to sell you and your family on the school. Sometimes it’s a combination of both. If a coach is visiting you, it’s definitely a good sign about your prospects of receiving a scholarship or offer of admission. Scholarship Offers Usually after conversations with coaches and campus visits, a coach will extend a scholarship offer. Scholarships can be full (covering the full cost of attendance) or partial. Remember that you don’t have to accept or decline the offer right away. You should take your time to think about your options; choosing where you go to college is a big decision that you shouldn't make hastily. Also, even if you verbally accept an offer, the verbal agreement isn’t binding. You can change your mind up until you sign your scholarship offer. Additionally, for many sports, you won't receive a scholarship offer until you gain admission to the university. Again, this can vary depending on the sport, school, and how heavily you're being recruited. Typically, the coach will continue to contact you throughout the whole recruiting process and after a scholarship offer is extended. Your recruitment is not done until you have signed your National Letter of Intent. There are early and late signing dates that you have to sign by that vary depending on your sport. National Letter of Intent The National Letter of Intent is a binding agreement that says you will enroll at a specific school for the next academic year in exchange for athletic aid. Normally, you'll have to sign the NLI along with a scholarship offer from the school. If you don’t follow the terms of the agreement and enroll in the school, you’ll generally have to sit out a year of competition if you go to a different school and you’ll lose a year of eligibility. Almost always, the school won't issue you a formal scholarship offer and NLI until after you've been accepted to the university. However, there are instances where a school has to rescind its acceptance if you fail a class or end up not meeting certain requirements of the university. If you don't gain admission to the school, you'll be released from the agreement. Additional Advice for Prospective Student-Athletes Focus on Your Academics Many prospective student-athletes neglect the importance of academics in the recruiting process. Not only do you have to be eligible to compete, but also you still have to gain admission to the school. College coaches often won't recruit students who they don't think are qualified academically for their schools, regardless of these students' athletic skills. If you’re being recruited athletically, you will receive some preferential treatment when your application is processed, but the school still has to determine if your academics are good enough to be accepted. Especially at top academic colleges, your academics should be on par with non-student athletes if you want to have a legitimate shot at admission. The amount of preferential treatment you receive in the admissions process varies depending on the school, your sport, and how heavily you're being recruited. Especially for so-called â€Å"minor† sports (anything other than basketball and football at most schools), being recruited may only give you a minimal boost in the admissions process. Do Everything Earlier For recruited athletes, the timeline for when you should do things to prepare for college is sooner than for other students. You should start studying for your ACT or SAT by your sophomore year. You should have reached your SAT or ACT target score by the end of your junior year. Remember that college coaches won’t want to spend time recruiting you if they don’t think you’ll be admitted. Also, you should be able to show coaches that you’ve taken college prep classes, passed AP tests, and have good standardized test scores before the start of your senior year. Furthermore, you should narrow down your college list by the end of your junior year so you know which coaches to contact. Don’t wait until the second semester of your senior year to start sending out e-mails. It will be too late by then. Colleges will likely have offered their scholarships and filled their open spots by then. Be prepared to complete your college applications early. Depending on your sport and recruit status, you may have to complete multiple college applications in the early part of your senior year, months before many of your peers. Research the Schools You're Considering Regardless of whether you've started the recruiting process or not, you should research the colleges you think you may want to attend. For each of these schools, learn about the campus, the majors offered, the athletics facilities, and any other information that you think may be relevant in making your college decision. Also, most college websites will have information specifically for prospective student-athletes. This information will provide specific rules regarding recruiting and there may be information regarding the recruiting process for that school. Often, you’ll be able to fill out a recruiting questionnaire directly from the website. Make Sure You're Eligible All NCAA athletes have to be certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center . You’ll have to send in your transcript and SAT/ACT scores. What's Next? If you're looking to compete at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics, review the list of NCAA Division I schools. If you want to research colleges, use the best college search websites. Also, I recommend you check out this post on how to get into your top-choice college. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

War in Iraq Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

War in Iraq - Essay Example Islam has a great impact on all aspects of culture determining social and political traditions of the state. Democracy contradicts with norms and values of Islam forcing citizens to change their century-old tradition and rituals. In this case, "Republicans, warned that withdrawing U.S. troops before the Iraqi army is fully prepared to defend the country against an intractable insurgency would lead to more violence and possible civil war" (Tate, 2006). Still, the organization of authority on the basis of democracy in Iraq is connected with difficulties: the necessity of the majority of citizens' participation, compulsion of decision-making, etc. The withdrawal of the troops will hurt the USA because the presence of the US Army in this region minimizes terrorists' activities and proliferation of terrorist ideas into other countries. Terrorist raids usually appear to be very well organized, which may account for their relative infrequency. Also, it is commonly asserted that terrorist raiders are able to reduce their chances of being caught by not having individuals go on successive raids. "There is no question that Iraq is an important, if not the most important, theater in terms of the fight against Al Qaeda" (Johnson, 2006).In addition, the main advantage of current democratic processes is that they allow liberalization of trade and political participation, grant women a right to vote and increase freedom of speech. The presence of the US Army in Iraq can be seen as a protective measure against further terror attacks and development of weapons of mass destruction threatened the US population. In sum, the war is over but there are a lot of problems which have not been... The withdrawal of the troops will hurt the USA because the presence of the US Army in this region minimizes terrorists’ activities and proliferation of terrorist ideas into other countries. Terrorist raids usually appear to be very well organized, which may account for their relative infrequency. Also, it is commonly asserted that terrorist raiders are able to reduce their chances of being caught by not having individuals go on successive raids. â€Å"There is no question that Iraq is important, if not the most important, theater in terms of the fight against Al Qaeda†. In addition, the main advantage of current democratic processes is that they allow liberalization of trade and political participation, grant women a right to vote and increase freedom of speech. The presence of the US Army in Iraq can be seen as a protective measure against further terror attacks and development of weapons of mass destruction threatened the US population. In sum, the war is over but there are a lot of problems which have not been solved yet. Iraq needs to look further than the cornerstone of its own tradition, but its government and military are weak enough to resist terrorist tension and protect native citizens from oppression. The presence of the US military in Iraq is crucial. Political changes support democratic changes through complicated international political affairs and the emergence of new ideological challenges, but the Iraqi government is unable to maintain strong political and economic control in the country.