The Loss Of A President Essays - CubaUnited States Relations

The Loss Of A President November 22, 1963: The Loss of A President On November 22, 1963 at 12:30 P.M., the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was shot and killed while riding through the streets of Dallas, Texas in an open limousine with wife Jackie Kennedy, and Governor John Connally. This single event in history has created more controversy than any other. Still today, more than 27 years after the shooting, there is still speculation as to who killed John F. Kennedy. Today, so many possible theories remain, it is hard to determine what actually happened. Today many people believe that it was Lee Harvey Oswald that killed JFK. They believe that he was just a lone nut acting out of his own feelings, and he was not influenced by anyone else. Many others believe there was a conspiracy set up by the CIA to kill President Kennedy, and others believe that it was Communist Russians. In my paper I will try to explain some of the theories as clear as possible, and let you decide for yourself what you believe happened November 22, 1963. If Lee Harvey Oswald was not the assassin as thought, who else would possibly want the president dead? The Mafia Anti-Castro Cubans The CIA Communist Russians. When John F. Kennedy became president, he had many great ambitions. He wanted to pull more troops out of Vietnam and lessen the war effort, cut back on organized crime, end the Cuban Missile Crisis, and limit the power of the CIA. With these ambitions it is no surprise he made so many new enemies, some even being in the US government itself. Many of these new enemies he had found were very powerful, and would stop at nothing to see his new ways come to an end, even if it meant killing him. Shortly after the incident, the government founded the Warren Commission, and a government investigation began on the assassination. The Warren Commission was a group made of outstanding citizens to ascertain, evaluate and report upon the facts relating to the assassination ... and the subsequent violent death of the man charged with the assassination Lee Harvey Oswald. The Commission was instructed by the government to examine evidence brought forth to them by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), or and any other organization or person. With the examination of the evidence, the Commission was then to make a decision on exactly what occurred that day. In under a week the Commission was able to come to the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswold was the lone assassin of the president. His actions were based on his personal instincts, and he was not working in anyway for any person or organization, whether it being a government agency or personnel. It was determined by the Commission that Oswold fired three shots at President Kennedy from the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository. The three shots were fired in a time period of 5.6 seconds, using a bolt-action 6.5 Italian Carbine rifle. The first shot Oswald fired was the magic bullet. The bullet was fired from Oswalds gun downward at a 17 degree angle, and hit Kennedy about halfway down his back. The bullet then moved upward where it exits through Kennedys throat, and then turns right and hits Connally behind his right armpit. It then moves downward, breaking and fragmenting part of his fifth rib, and then exits his chest from the right side. Then the bullet enters Connallys wrist and severs the Ulna nerve, exits his wrist and then gets lodged in Connallys thigh. All together the magic bullet made 7 wounds on President Kennedy and Governor Connally. The second shot fired missed Kennedy completely and hit an unsuspecting bystander, badly wounding him in the cheek. The third shot taken hit Kennedy in the back of the head, fatally wounding him. Many people believe this theory to be true, but still others are skeptical, and for good reason. On November 23, the paraffin test performed on Oswald came out negative for his right cheek but positive for his hands. The results of this test show that it is highly unlikely that Oswald had recently fired a gun. Also, no one had seen Oswald on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository after 11:55 A.M. At roughly 12:31, 90 seconds after the shooting had taken place, Oswald was seen on the second floor of the building. This means that in under 90 seconds, Oswald would have

Marriage and Wilfred Owens War Essay

Marriage and Wilfred Owens War Essay Marriage and Wilfred Owens War Essay Explore the ways in which writers present disturbed minds in a selection of Wilfred Owen’s war poems and William Shakespeare’s â€Å"Hamlet† Throughout both Hamlet and Wilfred Owen’s war poems they both show the uncertainty of the nature of death and the afterlife which are triggered through deep contemplations which creates disturbance. However in Hamlet he is not merely disturbed by death, he is also disturbed by the marriage of his uncle and mother. In Wilfred Owen he is disturbed by the violence and destructive nature of war in which affects him mentally and physically. In one of Wilfred Owens war poems â€Å"Mental Cases† he presents the tortured minds of the soldiers in which are completely trapped in the war. Wilfred compares the soldiers to skulls when saying ‘Baring teeth that leer like skulls’ teeth wicked?’ this is because they are like the living dead with fixed smiles on their skulls as they have to put on a brave face. The word ‘wicked’ shows an evil image that mankind should not be faced too as there youth has been taken away from them. He describes the eyes of the soldiers as ‘fretted sockets’ which gives an image of black dark circles around the eyes as they have nightmares of the war and can’t sleep. Owen has had these experiences when being shellshock therefore he is one of the mental cases which creates a disturbed mind as he has already experienced this and it is happening to other people. In the second stanza Wilfred capitalizes ‘Dead’ to emphasis death in whi ch is personified through the poem. Death being personified means that it is a disturbing thing as the war is hopeless and is creating a loss of those close to him(like Hamlet losing his father). The ‘memory fingers in their hair of murders’ shows that the soldiers are having to live with bad memories as they have murdered people, although they do not like to see it as that as it is an act of duty. However they can’t get away from all the bad memories as it is stuck in there head hanging in the back of their mind. Also Wilfred describes how the air that created the chuckle and laughter is now gone which is an disturbing

Metaphor Of The Dream State Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Metaphor Of The Dream State - Essay Example This way, art would become beautiful and wide enough to accommodate every thought provided it is well conceived and has an absence of reality by borrowing certain concepts from the real life. Introduced for the first time in film making by Director Luis Banuel and artist Salvador Dali in their debut Un Chien Andalou , the concept in the film misses reality in the plot in relation to the conventional world. This therefore gives the developers the authority to stretch the truth but still obtain some relevance among their target audience. Discrete charm of the Bourgeoisie is yet another film that borrows the concept and develops a plot that has a minimal semblance with reality. The sequence of ideas in the film is unrealistic and can only occur in either a dream or a film in which the developer directs the ideas and the series of events, as he deems necessary. Otherwise, the plot of the film is unrealistic and cannot claim relevance in the real society. The director develops a systematic yet illusionary plot that addresses a number of themes most of which are real. Just as any other work of art, films must always represent the societies in which they exist. The directors and scriptwriters exist in the society. Furthermore, they target the society to provide an audience to their creations. To earn effectiveness of representation, they must therefore ensure that the write scripts and develop films that address familiar social issues. Such therefore earn their creations a degree of relevance with their audience thereby a ppreciation. Following this understanding, the directors and developers of the film address familiar themes but they attempt to create a society in which the events flow oblivious of the normal social provisions. The film has several linked thematic areas that it addresses in an exciting twist of events. The first part of the film is more realistic and immediately earns relevance among any audience group. This early part of the film addresses the five gatherings of friends who try to find a meal but face a number of challenges all of which succeed in obstructing their meals. The latter parts of the film on the other hand take the audience from reality by introducing the dreams of the characters into play. It is unrealistic that the dreams and illusions of the characters influence their actions in real life as the director tries to portray it. The film uses the middle class thereby obliterating the lower classes in the society. This is the first illusion that the developer deliberately ignores. B y ignoring other social classes, the developers of the film create an illusionary society only achievable in a dream state. The societies consist of different social classes, each of such class face different issues and solve their problems differently. The social status is an important determinant of the social structure. An ideal society must therefore have the poor, the middle class and the rich. The development of this film deliberately ignores the other classes thereby creating a conflict. By doing this, they address issues that affect the specific class thereby ignoring other social and economic issues affecting other classes a feature that results in bias. Throughout the film, the groups of friends share ideas that are only familiar to their social class obviously ignoring other issues affecting the other economic classes. When the director later introduces the bishop, they treat him with conspicuous contempt owing to their lack of understanding of other social classes. The f irst theme that comes out naturally is friendship and relationships. There are different forms of relationship that the director develops in the film. The

Business Planning-The Twist Kettle Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Planning-The Twist Kettle - Assignment Example Twist Kettle was basically designed to address these problems and introduce in the mainstream market a more improved kettle. The product is designed along the lines of eco products; preventing energy waste while at the same time is distinguished by the ease of use. According to Blackwell, pricing is normally a very vital aspect of any product.T he market price of the twist kettle makes it affordable for the average household, thus providing adding value. The project is extremely competitive and the commercialization process is expected to gain significant market share. This was after intensive market research was conducted investigating consumer attitudes to sustainable products with the intention of knowing what exactly consumers had in mind in regard to a sustainable kettle that could appeal to the wider market rather than just environmentalists. An aspect that Rogers recommended greatly in his written works about innovations. Before venturing into any business, in one's plan, ther e must be a rationale to as why they have decided to venture to that said business. The group sat down and came up with a design that embodied sustainable features but within a conventional kettle form which the content of this report is about. Â  Here is a brief summary of some of the key elements in this Twist Kettle business plan devised by our group. It largely talks about our product which is the kettle and of what importance and benefits it has over what has been on the market. The whole concept of marketing it and the concerned team and not forgetting other closely related aspects like the financing.

Teens Decreasing Morality Essay Example for Free

Teens Decreasing Morality Essay Some aspects of moral values among university students in three societies: Poland, Australia and the Philippines J.J. Smolicz, D.M. Hudson and M.J. Secombe1 Graduate School of Education, Adelaide University The paper reports the findings from a comparative study of moral values undertaken among university students from five universities in the Philippines, Poland and Australia. The aim of the study was to compare the way students brought up in different cultural traditions, but subjected to the homogenizing trends of globalization, evaluated what they deemed as the most appropriate solutions to some of the basic life dilemmas facing individuals today. The respondents were senior undergraduate and postgraduate students drawn from education and social science faculties in two independent Catholic and three secular state universities. A total of 448 students participated in the study, with 80 to 100 students originating from each university. This paper presents a detailed analysis of one example from each of three categories of moral dilemmas, in which students were asked to state their position in relation to twelve issues including abortion, extramarital affairs and stealing. In addition to providing concrete data on themselves, students indicated whether they believed the actions listed were wrong, acceptable or dependent on circumstances. The students’ responses to the issues showed a generally consistent position for each university along a value orientation continuum ranging from Traditional Christian to ‘Post-modern Individualist’. The degree of support for Traditional Christian values varied, however, from issue to issue according to the university and country under investigation. moral values; abortion; infidelity; stealing; tertiary students; international. INTRODUCTION As a result of global secular influences, it could be expected that responses to moral dilemmas would have become more uniform across different cultural and ethnic and religious groups. In order to ascertain any possible modification to or rejection of traditional moral values crossculturally, the study sought the views of young people who were university students in three different countries and in institutions with different ideological profiles. The researchers had access to the collection of comparable data in Poland, the Philippines and Australia countries very different in their regions, cultures and histories. It should be stressed that the study did not aim to take the form of a statistical analysis of variables to test a pre-established hypothesis which could lead to any predictions for a wider population. This comparative study was not funded by any organisation, but was the result of co-operative efforts among colleagues in the three countries concerned. The authors, in particular, would like to express their gratitude to Ms Monika Koniecko, Professor Elzbieta Halas, Dr Illuminado Nical, Ms Susana Manzon and Mr Robert de la Serna for the contribution they have made to the data collection and analysis of this paper. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the humanistic sociological conceptualization of Znaniecki, in which the term ‘moral values’ refers to the meanings which group members are expected to accept as a guide to right and proper conduct and the way in which they should act in their daily life. Znaniecki (1963: 267-70) draws an important theoretical distinction between the ideological attitudes which individuals profess in terms of the religious and moral values of their group, and the tendencies to action which these same individuals reveal in the specific contexts of daily life. UNIVERSITY PROFILES Data were gathered from a total of 448 respondents, drawn from five different universities. The number in each institution ranged from 80 to 109 (80 in Leyte and Adelaide; 89 in Warsaw; 90 in UAP and 109 in KUL). In Poland, the student respondents were drawn from two universities. One of these can be regarded as firmly set within the Catholic tradition. In 1918 the Catholic Church established the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) as a privately funded institution in a provincial centre in the east-central part of Poland. Over the period of Communist rule, it functioned as the bastion of Catholic religious and moral values in Poland. Today it is a medium-sized university with faculties reflecting its religious base: Theology, Canon and Civil Law, Christian Philosophy, Humanities, and Social Sciences as well as specialised institutes in Polish Church History, Higher Religious Education and Migration. Many of its students have gone to the priesthood and a variety of leadership positions in the Church and society at large. The second Polish university which provided respondents for this study was Warsaw. A state institution, originally founded in the early nineteenth century, Warsaw is a very large university, with a full range of humanities, social science and natural science faculties. Its position in the heart of a capital city, renowned for its high culture in music, art, literature and the theatre, yet traditionally strongly linked to the Polish Catholic Church, has had an important influence on its ethos in providing access to moral values based in the Catholic tradition, as well as its more atheistic, anti-clerical counter-tradition. Two other groups of respondents were drawn from universities in the Philippines. One set was provided by the University of Asia and the Pacific (UAP), which is a private university in Manila, established by the Opus Dei order of the Catholic Church. Its ethos reflects the Opus Dei dedication to Catholic spirituality and emphasis on intellectual, political. educational and business leadership. It is best known for its high profile research specialisations in economics, political economy and business management, as well as its undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences. Its fee-paying structure and high entrance standards make it an à ©lite institution, both socially and academically, and its total enrolment of around two thousand students is still relatively small. The second Philippines institution from which respondents were drawn was the provincial state university at Tacloban on the island of Leyte in the eastern Visayas. The Leyte Institute of Technology (LIT) sees its role as providing for the practical educational needs of the surrounding community which has maintained a strong commitment to Catholic values reflecting the local community. It offers degrees in vocational disciplines, applied science and technology and teacher education, with a particular emphasis on post-graduate studies in education. At present time there are around seven thousand students enrolled at the Leyte Institute. The two universities in the Philippines were chosen to provide contrasting communities within the overall Catholic ethos of the country. UAP could be regarded as an intellectual centre closest to the teachings of the magisterium of the Church. Opus Dei is rightly regarded as a bastion of traditional Catholic teaching because it has scrupulously upheld the full and undiluted doctrine of the church. LIT, in contrast, is a comparatively small regional university, chosen because it had no metropolitan glitter about it, was state-run and attracted a technically oriented clientele from financially and socially modest homes, in one of the poorest provinces of the country. The strong Catholic orientation of the Philippines was very apparent, however, in that seminars were normally begun with a prayer and Catholic feast days were regularly observed, even though it was a state university. For the Australian section of the study, respondents were drawn from Adelaide University, which was established as a public institution in the late nineteenth century, the third oldest university in Australia. Situated in the capital city of the state of South Australia, it offers a wide range of degrees across the disciplines of science, agriculture, engineering, the professions, economics, music, humanities and social sciences. The student body currently numbers close to thirteen and a half thousand. Like most government-funded educational institutions in Australia, Adelaide University is strongly secular in ethos and has traditionally regarded religion and theology as sectarian pursuits, inappropriate for university students, while its philosophy department has been openly atheistic (Duncan and Leonard, 1974). The students participating in the study came from the Graduate School of Education. Poland and the Philippines, the two predominantly Catholic countries investigated in this study, both inherited a strong Catholic tradition anchored in the post-Tridentum spirit. The respondents from the four Polish and Filipino universities who claimed to be Catholic (over 80%) would formally be expected to uphold the religious and moral values prescribed by their church and know that any deviation would be regarded as a sin. Evidence on which values were being rejected or regarded more relativistically and how frequently constitutes valuable information on changes taking place in moral values in countries which have long been regarded as strongholds of Catholicism. METHOD Student participants from the five universities were asked to complete a questionnaire on their religious and moral beliefs. For students in the Philippines and Australia the questionnaire was in English, but a Polish version was used for the respondents from Poland. Some questions were designed to gather concrete data concerning the respondents’ background: gender, age, language use, level of parental education and religious affiliation. There was also a series of questions to gather cultural data i.e. these were concerned with the students’ beliefs and moral perceptions and other attitudes in relation to the moral/religious convictions among them. Responses to Specific Moral Issues When presented with moral issues which epitomized contemporary moral dilemmas, participants were asked to indicate whether they agreed that action concerned was wrong: whether its moral status depended on the situation; or whether they considered the action not wrong. The range of responses available was: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Considered Wrong Situation dependent Not wrong No opinion The questions and responses were thus deliberately framed in terms of the maintenance of traditional moral values. Data were initially summarized in frequency distributions for each university. Of the twelve situations presented to the respondents, one example from each category of issues will be discussed. viz. Abortion classified as a ‘Life and Death issue’: Abortion: A Life and Death Issue This issue proved important in the analysis because of the polarisation of data. There was a clear distinction between the percentage of responses which considered abortion to be wrong from the three Catholic oriented universities, including LIT, and the two more secular ones. Traditional moral values on abortion were strongly maintained on this issue especially at the three Catholic oriented universities: UAP (93%), KUL( 80%) and LIT (74%) while in Warsaw (49%) only half gave evidence of supporting these values. Even lower, the Adelaide figure of 25% who considered abortion to be wrong, could be seen to reflect a society where abortion is legally available, virtually ‘on demand’. In the case of responses rejecting traditional values, Adelaide respondents (44%) stood out as having the highest percentage of rejectors of traditional values. Warsaw (12%) is aligned with LIT on 15% in this response an indication of much lower rejection among students who lived in predominantly Catholic societies, than the secular society of Adelaide which largely accepted abortion. Abortion was an issue of debate, depending on the situation, for students from Adelaide (30%) and Warsaw (34%) rather than for the three Catholic-oriented universities LIT (4%), UAP (6%) and KUL (14%). These students were upholding the traditional Catholic teachings. The situational response indicated that some students considered an issue was neither right nor wrong in itself. If they had doubts about it, they could choose this option to record individual responses . Extra-Marital Affairs: A Sex and Marriage Issue There was a marked convergence of responses in relation to this issue. The majority of students from all five universities agreed in maintaining traditional opposition to such actions: UAP were unanimous on 99%. Warsaw(70%) and Adelaide (69%) showed a similar stance in opposing this issue. In this regard, Warsaw and Adelaide respondents almost matched the frequency levels from LIT at 73% and KUL at 85%. The ‘ranking’ of the university responses is similar to the previous issue, abortion, but there is general consensus. The responses on the upholding of traditional moral values had their mirror image in the data showing rejection of such values. There was strong evidence of less acceptance for ‘extramarital affairs’ at Warsaw (1%) and Adelaide (5%) where responses to this option were at a very low level, comparable to UAP(1%) and KUL (1%). The respondents at LIT (14%) showed some approval of the issue but the number was relatively small. The third response option, reflecting a more situational approach, was valuable in highlighting issues where there was a high degree of ambiguity or uncertainty. Low scores, in contrast, suggested that the respondents in the group concerned had made up their minds to be either upholders or rejectors of traditional morality. The relativistic view was comparatively high and shared by as many as 26% from Warsaw and 23% from Adelaide indicating the doubts some students expressed depending on the situation. STEALING: A Human Relations Issue The issue of ‘stealing’ was also striking in the way a large degree of consensus was displayed among students from all universities but the pattern of response differed markedly from those shown for the other two issues. ‘Stealing’ elicited the highest response of moral rectitude with over 70% of students in all universities and over 80% in three of them considering stealing as ‘wrong’. ‘Stealing’ was also the issue which elicited the highest level of support for any traditional value among Warsaw students (87%). With a corresponding figure of 82% at KUL, stealing seems to evoke a particularly strong sense of ‘wrong’ among Polish students. It is interesting to note that UAP students, who were the highest upholders of moral values on virtually all other issues, were below Warsaw at 81% in the case of ‘stealing’. Adelaide students with their dual Protestant and secularist orientations, also demonstrated greater acknowledgment of ‘stealing’ as ‘wrong, than for any other issue (74%). At Adelaide 41% of respondents indicated that they belonged to one of the Protestant denominations whilst 30% claimed that they had no religion a response which did not occur at all in any of the other groups of participants. The remarkable unanimity of responses for this issue from students at all universities was also seen in the complementary rejection of traditional values, in that only very few claimed outright that ‘stealing’ was not wrong. Only LIT showed a relatively high proportion of those rejecting traditional values, amounting to 14%. In contrast, while on most moral issues Warsaw and Adelaide displayed a high degree of permissiveness, Adelaide showed no more than 4% of respondents, and Warsaw had no-one who condoned stealing. The figures for KUL and UAP were minimal 3 and 2%. Overall stealing was not acceptable as an issue. The minimal number of students at Warsaw and KUL, UAP and Adelaide who openly condoned stealing has to be considered alongside the proportion who expressed relativistic attitudes by indication that their judgement of whether stealing was ‘wrong’ or ‘not wrong’ would depend on the circumstances. Respondents from Adelaide (21%) and UAP (17%) expressed some doubt in relation to stealing which was somewhat higher than Warsaw (12%) and KUL (16%). The figure for LIT was as low as 6% which reflects the pattern for all universities as seeing stealing as ‘wrong’. These findings suggest that moral issues in social relationships are not necessarily seen to be tied directly to Christian beliefs, despite their specific prohibition in the Ten Commandments. Findings raise questions such as : Is stealing related to established ‘legal’ rather than ‘moral’ codes? For some Protestants, what constitutes sin and restitution for sin becomes very much more a matter for the individual conscience and there is a greater tendency to adopt relativistic attitudes where what constitutes right and wrong depends on personal judgement of the situation. CONCLUSIONS The various responses to these three issues provide valuable information on the relative ‘holding power’ of Christian (mainly Catholic) beliefs in Poland and the Philippines when compared with mainly Protestant (or religiously indifferent) Australia. The responses also throw light on differences among the various moral values examined, in the extent of their support or rejection. In the three predominantly Catholic universities (UAP, LIT and KUL), traditional Christian values continued to be upheld for ‘abortion’ in the life and death issue. In the two universities where there has been a tradition of secularist values, there is a much greater rejection of traditional moral values, together with a substantial number of those with a relativistic orientation expressing an essentially ambiguous stance. One issue on which Warsaw and Adelaide join forces with the Catholic oriented University is on the issue of ‘extra-marital affairs’, a ‘Sex and Marriage Issue’, with about two third of responses upholding a traditional negative view of such practices. This particular value appears to hold no relationship to Christian religious belief or non-belief, assuming a virtually universalistic dimension. The same situation apprears to hold for the ‘social relationship’ issue stealing. Responses from students in all five universities favour the upholding of traditional moral values for this issue which is considered more frequently ‘wrong’ by Warsaw students than by respondents from all other universities. There is a minimal rejection of the traditional norms that condemn ‘stealing’. It is the rejection of certain moral propositions when the respondents openly admit that certain actions which are contrary to traditional morality are no longer ‘wrong’ which put them in conflict with the religious authority to which they officially subscribe. What is clear is that some of the traditional values are changing within the orbit of particular Christian denominations. The results suggest that believers display a spirit of selectivity among moral values showing traditional disapproval for certain actions, while revealing a proclivity for greater permissiveness in relation to others. The issue of abortion shows that in the Catholic oriented universities, there is little evidence of collapse of traditional values and that globalization trends have not seriously undermined other traditional values. The other two moral issues discussed, extra-marital affairs and stealing, where there is a greater convergence of responses, can be viewed as highlighting more univer salistic values which appear to go beyond the confines of any particular religious belief. REFERENCES Andres, T. D. (1980) Understanding Values. Quezon City: New Day Publishers. Blumer, H. (1939) Critiques of Research in the Social Sciences I: Appraisal of Thomas and Znaniecki’s ‘The Polish Peasant in Europe and America’. New York: Social Science Research Council. Duncan, W.G.K. and Leonard, R.A. (1974) The University of Adelaide. Adelaide: Rigby. Ossowska, M. (1985) Normy Moralne: Proba Systematyzacji. P.W.N. Warszawa. Smolicz, J.J. (1997) In Search of a Multicultural Nation, in R. J. Watts and J.J.Smolicz (eds), Cultural Democracy and Ethnic Pluralism: Multicultural and Multilingual Policies in Education. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Smolicz, J.J. (1999) On Education and Culture. (M.J. Secombe and J. Zajda, eds) Melbourne: James Nicholas Publishers. Smolicz, J.J., Secombe, M.J. and Hudson, D.M., (2001) Family Collectivism and Minority Languages as Core Values of Culture among Ethnic Groups in Australia, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, vo l. 22:2. Znaniecki, F. (1963) Cultural Sciences: Their Origin and Development. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Znaniecki, F. (1969) On Humanistic Sociology: Selected Papers (Bierstedt, R. ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Znaniecki, F. (1998) Education and Social Change. (Halas, E. ed) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Julius Caesar Essay: Decision Making in Julius Caesar -- Julius Caesar

Decision Making in Julius Caesar Making the right decisions is an ongoing struggle for man, because making decisions is never easy, and the wrong decision can lead to endless perils. Decisions must be made when dealing with power, loyalty, and trust. Yet, unlike other decisions, ones that are about these three fields are the most important, due to the risk involved, and because of the consequences that might follow. Power- power is the complete domination of others, and since all men want to dominate those around them, power is valued as one of the most important possessions. Power is highly sought after, thus the correct decisions must be made to obtain it, and this is clearly proven by Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". Power is obtained much easier than it is kept. "Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!" The conspirators celebrate the death of Caesar, because they believe that they make the right decision in killing him, and so far they have, but the decision to spare Mark Antony is one that will haunt them in the end. Power is not always beneficial, it can be a very dangerous possession. "You shall not stir out of your house today." Calphurnia makes the decision to persuade Caesar to stay home, and not go to the Senate meeting. When one has power, there are those who want it, like Brutus and the other conspirators. Calphurnia makes the right decision, yet Caesar makes the wrong one by deciding ... ...imminent. In the course of man's life he will have to make many decisions, and some will decide his future. Power, loyalty, and trust, are essential, yet obtaining them is only the beginning, managing them is a much harder task. For one to succeed he must realize how much power is beneficial and how much is dangerous. Loyalty helps one's cause immensely, yet one must not take the loyalty of his followers to the extreme. Trust is one of the most important assets a man can have, he must be careful, and not take it for granted. Man must always be prepared for these times when a decision must be made, because, as seen in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", one irrational decision can be man's last.

Learn a new skill Essay

Work experience is important because it gives you insight into life of the ‘outside’ world. It gives the opportunity of working in a line that can be chosen as a career for future, giving the idea of the qualifications and steps needed to chase for the career you want to adopt. The pleasant news of doing a work experience in year eleven was revealed to me in early spring in 2003. It didn’t really come as a shock to me because my brother had also done a work experience in year eleven and seemed to have enjoyed it and ‘had a time of his life’. In that sense I was eager about work experience and couldn’t wait to plan it. Many people I knew panicked when they heard about doing a work experience. They didn’t have a clue what they wanted to do in future. I, on the other hand, had no problem with that. I had decided when I was seven that I wanted to be a doctor who treats children. It was only recently I found out that this type of a doctor is called a paediatrician. My next step was to hunt some suitable place which was appropriate for the career line I had chosen. I started off by phoning in hospitals. But I couldn’t get hold of the right person so I tried a different route by writing letters but a huge disappointment came over me when I didn’t hear anything from the hospitals. I went to see the work experience co-ordinator and he satisfied me by saying he’ll try and sort something out for me. However, another disturbed news left me nowhere, when I found from my GP that I was under 16 and could not do my work experience in an hospital. I was very shocked and dismayed by this news and suddenly the topic work experience sounded unexciting and old. I didn’t want to talk or discuss about it. I felt a plunge of jealousy in me when I saw that all my friends had got the place they wanted with no problem. They all seemed in high spirits and were all planning what they were going to wear and what buses they were going to catch. I was horrified to see them planning their clothes when work experience seemed months away. But time was ticking on and every minute of the day, I would feel guilt building up inside me for not sorting something out. It was early July and summer was in its full shift. I was bored to death by friends jittering about their work placement that I went to the library where I saw some placements. I couldn’t help noticing that there were many places available in primary schools. I thought well primary schools have children so at least I will have some experience with children. The next minute I find myself writing letters to some of he schools. For the next few days I always lingered around the letterbox every morning, hoping to catch any letters that were for me. But again I was hugely disappointed at the fact that nobody replied. I was tearful and gave up on finding a work placement. On a warm and sticky Friday afternoon, I was watching television when my mum told me that there was someone on the phone for me. Now who could that be, I thought to myself. Well, anyway to my surprise it is fro St. Bernadette Catholic School confirming my placement form 3rd November to 14th November. I was so thrilled that I wanted to tell the whole world. Few days after they sent me a letter explaining all the policies, rules and timings. I would be working with year 4 with Miss Bowen and will start from 8:45am and finish at 3:00pm (on Friday finish at 2:00pm). I was also told that I must wear formal clothing. I didn’t worry transport as it was only ten minutes walk from my house. In the summer holidays, I couldn’t wait to get back to my school. My family were hugely surprised because usually I don’t want to go to school especially with exams which I hate. I was counting days off and in what seemed like million years the Sunday night came. The excitement inside me turned to nervousness. My stomach was already churning. Suddenly I didn’t want to do the work experience. I set my alarm to 7:30am and tried to take an early night but my eyes were sleepless. My senses told me that if I go to sleep I’ll be late for tomorrow. The next sound I heard was my alarm banging in my eardrum. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous or anxious anymore. I wanted to do my work experience and felt very mature and grown up. I got dressed and ate my breakfast in no time. I was expected to get to my work placement at 8:30am so I left home at 8:15am. I reached St. Bernadette Catholic School in ten minutes which seemed like ten hours. As I was early the receptionist told me to wait in the waiting room until the supervisor comes. The waiting seemed very elongated. In fact it was a long period. The supervisor came to get me 20 minutes after my arrival by which the school had started. She explained the principles and the policies again to me and another girl from my school who was also on work experience. I was delighted because at least I knew someone who I could talk to. She then took me to my class where I’ll be working for the next two weeks. I felt an abrupt jolt inside me. I prayed to God; please don’t let it be someone awful. God answered my prayers. I realized from the first sight that Miss Bowen was a very pleasant and charming person to work with. She was delightful to have me working with her. She introduced me to the class who seemed very eager to find out my name. In fact the first question that they asked me was my name. Some of them who couldn’t pronounce my name correctly or didn’t know my name, called me ‘Miss’. I felt very awkward because I also called my teachers ‘Miss’ and all of a sudden I turned from a student to a ‘Miss’. I also felt stupid when Miss Bowen told me to call her Laura. It was like as she was my friend. In a way I felt good because they were treating me like adults but the change was so sudden that I couldn’t adopt it. The first thing Laura told me to do was to listen to children read. I was very keen and felt very grown up signing their reading records and telling them what they needed to do for homework. I hadn’t finished listening to children when Laura told me to finish quickly so she could explain my next job to me. I looked up at the clock and was shocked to see that I already have taken fifteen minutes when Laura told me that it will only take few minutes. I realized that in adult life you have to do things in a way so you don’t throw away too much of your time and the jobs are also done efficiently. After finishing with the children, I took down an old display, making sure I don’t upset Laura by ripping any of the display because she needed to use it once more. I had to put up the new display using the staple gun. I was frightened to see that thing. I once used in my home and it was so heavy that I dropped on my foot while I was using it. Since then me and the staple gum have been enemies. I wanted to tell Laura that I didn’t’ want to use the staple gun but a voice in my head reminded me of my mother’s advice; â€Å"you never learn things unless you make mistakes†. Keeping that in my mind I happily invited the challenge. I tried to be confident and starting to put up the display while the children were mesmerised by the sound of the staple gun. When I had finished Laura was satisfied with my work and she wasn’t the only one. Children were content to see their work up and I was pleased to learn a new skill. At break time Laura invited me to the staffroom and told me to help myself to coffee or tea. I didn’t want to disturb my habits and watched the children play like animals; running around each other and little girls playing hopscotch. I couldn’t remember doing any of these things while I was their age or maybe it was the fact that I didn’t want to remember these things.