African Americans : the Role of Race Essay

Abstract The Following Essay defines and integrates the role race plays on the African American culture in their family values and politics in comparison to the Anglo American Culture. The United States has become increasingly diverse in the last century. While African American families share many features with other U. S. families, the African American family has some distinctive features relating to the timing and approaches to marriage and family formation, gender roles, parenting styles, and strategies for coping with adversity. African cultures, slavery, slave rebellions, and the civil rights movements(circa 1800s-160s)have shaped African American religious, familial, political and economic behaviors. The imprint of Africa is evident in myriad ways, in politics, economics, language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion and worldview, and food preparation methods. In the United States, the very legislation that was designed to strip slaves of culture and deny them education served in many ways to strengthen it. In turn, African American culture has had a pervasive, transformative impact on myriad elements of mainstream American culture, among them language, music, dance, religion, cuisine, and agriculture. This process of mutual creative exchange is called creolization. Over time, the culture of African slaves and their descendants has been ubiquitous in its impact on not only the dominant American culture, but on world culture as well. The Role of Race According to the U. S. Census Bureau 13. 6 percent, 42 million, of the total U.S population was made of people who identified themselves as black. This is a 15. 4% increase from 2000 to 2010 (Rastogi, Johnson, Hoeffel & Drewery, 2011). Is it becoming increasingly difficult to describe the American black population, though the majority of American blacks trace their heritage to slavery, an increasing minority are voluntary immigrants or their descendants. More Africans have entered the United States since 1990 as voluntary immigrants than entered as slaves before slave trafficking was outlawed in the early nineteenth century ( Marger 2012 p. 178). Never before and in no other country have as many varied ethnic groups congregated and combined as they have in the United States. With such reputation, here is exactly where the famous term â€Å"melting pot† arises. This conception has traditionally been perceived as the best expression to describe the multi-ethnicity of America. Its basic idea presents the whole nation as one large pot. Anyone who enters the United States is automatically thrown into this â€Å"pot† where, for the following years, a process of assimilation into the American belief systems is taken place. Assimilation is all the cultural aspects that one brings into are blended together, or melted, to form a new culture. The outcome of this massive procedure is the â€Å"melted† version of a culture, which is described as characteristically â€Å"American. † It is notable that in this assimilation, the identities of each original culture are extinguished to bring out a complete new mixture Slavery Part of the control mechanism of slavery was to strip African Americans of identity, language, and culture of their homeland. This was done by undermining and replacing family structures with temporary ones built around identity as slaves. This undermining was not however entirely successful as many slaves organized themselves into family structures very similar to nuclear families. Family Formation Within African American families, the formation of a household often begins not with marriage, but with birth of a child. 56% of African American children are born into families where the mother is not married to the biological father. Single women head 54% of African American households. African American women are taught to be strong and independent, to prepare for careers rather than rely on marriage for economic security. Marriage According to the 2010 census only 40% of black households were married couples. While 40% of African American men and 35% of African American women over 18 had ever been married. Experts attribute this decrease to factors including a shortage of marriageable African American men and to structural, social, and economic factors. Black males have a 32 percent chance of serving time in prison, as compared to 6 percent of white males. Nearly one in three African American men in their twenties is in prison, on parole, or on probation. Blacks account for 28% of arrests even though they represent only 13% of the nations population. These realities decrease an African American woman’s chances of finding a marriageable mate. Conflict Theory suggests that Higher arrest rate is not surprising for a group that is disproportionately poor and therefore much less able to afford private attorneys, who might prevent formal arrests from taking place Parenting and Discipline African American families tend to be more strict, to hold demanding behavioral standards, and to use physical discipline. This is however, balanced within a context of strong support and affection. Physical punishment among African American families usually doesn’t result in the same negative outcomes as it does for white children. Income and wealth In 2005 Median income of Black families was $37,500 compared with $64,663 for White non-Hispanic households. Black income today resembles that of Whites more than 10 years ago. African American unemployment is 11. 2 percent, which is more than double that of whites. Factors explaining official unemployment rate of young African American males * Many live in depressed economy of central cities. * Immigrants and illegal aliens present increased competition * White middle-class women entered the labor force * Illegal activities at which youth find they can make more money have become more prevalent One in four African Americans are poor, compared to one in twelve whites Politics President Kennedy, in a 1961 executive order, was the first president to call for affirmative action by prohibiting discrimination against minorities by contractors who receive federal funds. The order also told them to hire and promote minorities. Supporters of affirmative action sought not just equality of opportunity but equality of results. The fact that millions of Americans, both black and white, hoped that retired General Colin Powell, an African American, would run for president in 1996 was a milestone. The color of a person’s skin was no longer a barrier to seeking the nation’s highest office. By 2004, there were 39 African Americans in the House of Representatives and more than 9,101 others in elective offices throughout the nation. Three African Americans served in the cabinet, and another sat on the Supreme Court. * Four hundred forty-five African Americans were mayors of major cities. * A federal holiday is now observed for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. * Retired General Colin Powell held the highest military post * On January 20, 2009 Barrack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the Unites States. His inauguration was attended by an estimated 1. 8 million people on the Washington National Mall, the Capital grounds, and the parade route. Hundreds of millions in the country and around the world watched the historical event on television. Stressing unity, responsibility, change, and action. Obama declared,† Starting today we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again, the work of remaking America. † Slavery Part of the control mechanism of slavery was to strip African Americans of identity, language, and culture of their homeland. This was done by undermining and replacing family structures with temporary ones built around identity as slaves. This undermining was not however entirely successful as many slaves organized themselves into family structures very similar to nuclear families. n). Baltimore, Maryland Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: African American Families. (2001). Retrieved on July 11, 2005 from p2001. health. org/cit04/res7. htm Webb, Nancy Boyd. (2001). Culturally Diverse Parent-Child and Family Relationships. New York: Columbia University Press. Woods, L. & Jagers, R. (2003). Are Cultural Values Predictors of Moral Reasoning in African American Adolescents? Journal of Black Psychology, 29, 102-118. Marger, M. N. (2012). Race and ethnic relations: American and global perspectives, ninth edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Rastogi, S. , Johnson, T. D. , Hoeffel, E. M. , & Drewery, J. (2011, September). Retrieved from http://www. census. gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-06. pdf Live text Upload * Courses Main Page > * SOC 240 HY 20 – CLTR SSCI > * SOC 240 HY 20 – CLTR SSCI Assignments.

Esther: From Rags to Riches Essay

It is the dream of every little girl and the theme of at least half of all box office movies. It is the story of an ordinary girl who grows up to marry a king and live in a castle. In this case Esther was raised by a cousin, because her own parents had died. She was not a child of wealth or status, but a simple Jewish girl, who had the gift of beauty. She not only became a queen, but had the rare opportunity to save many of her people from certain death. The story of Esther plays out like an exciting and at times frightening fairy tale, in which the poor little orphan grows up to marry the king and live in a fabulous castle. The story would make an excellent Disney movie because it follows the fairy tale formula exactly, complete with an evil villain and the required happy ending. Anyone who hears or reads the story might be tempted to think it sounds like a common story and lose interest. What people will discover when they dig a little more deeply into the story find that it is far from ordinary. Esther was a very unique individual as was her story. The most unique aspect of the story is that it is a true story. Although virtually all young girls grow up dreaming about the handsome prince or king that will arrive and take them away from their boring or humble life, those same little girls grow up to discover that fairy tales do not happen in real life. The exception is the case of Esther. It is a fascinating story to read and even better when people realize the impact Esther had in the lives of her people. Through her faith in God and her quiet courage, the Jewish people in the country of Persia were saved from certain death. Besides the story itself, Esther showed uniqueness through her unyielding faith in God, her obedience to both God and her cousin Mordecai, her natural beauty and quiet disposition. Her actions in the face of fear demonstrated her uniqueness as did her well timed actions. She became a heroine in a time in which women were rarely considered significant for anything other than procreation simply by having faith and following through on it. Some of the most unique aspects of Esther’s story happen at the beginning of it. She was the daughter of a man named Abihail, of the tribe of Benjamin. He and Esther’s mother both died when Esther was very young. She was taken in by her cousin Mordecai, who was the son of Abihail’s brother (Konig, 2008). There was no mention of a woman or wife of Mordecai being involved in raising Esther. In modern society Esther would have been considered an under priviliged child with minimal hope of future success. She would have been labeled as one of the children at risk of â€Å"slipping through the cracks and being forgotten†. Esther was a quiet, unassuming young lady, who did not ask for special treatment or privileges. She accepted her position in life and did what her uncle asked her to do. The exciting changes in her life began in the palace of King Ahasuerus, who at the time was the ruler of 127 provinces (Henry,). He was having a feast for all of the princes and officials in the kingdom. During this time his queen, Vashti held a banquet of her own for the women. After drinking wine, the king decided to summon Queen Vashti to show her beauty to the other men (Bible, New American Standard). The queen refused to go to the banquet when requested. The king asked the advice of his advisors on how to deal with her disobedience. They told him that if she was allowed to get away with being disobedient to him, other men’s wives would rebel against them as well. For this reason, they encouraged him to banish her. The king took their advice in order to send a message to the wives of the kingdom to obey their husbands. Once Queen Vashti was banished, the king needed to find a new queen. At this point he sent messengers out around the kingdom in search of virgins to be brought to the palace. These virgins were to be in the care of the king’s eunich Hegai. This is the point in the story where Esther and King Ahasuerus’ lives meet. Esther was one of the virgins who was sent to the palace from which the new queen would be selected. Esther did not go by her choice, but because she was told to go. Since Esther was a young woman of faith, she went as she was told. Esther would spend the next twelve months among many other young women at the palace, where she would undergo beauty treatments and preparation to be sent before the king. Most of the young women were there because they chose to be. They all hoped to be the next queen. Esther had no expectations along these lines, because the only reason she had gone was obedience. Many of the other girls whom Esther spent the year with had probably come from wealthy homes in which beauty treatments were normal rituals during growing up. Esther had undergone none of these things as a child. She still somehow with her quiet obedient manner and natural beauty, managed to capture the attention of everyone she met. Hegai favored her to the extent that he provided her with seven of her own maids and moved her to a place at the head of the harom (Bible, New American Standard Version). The competition was like the ultimate beauty contest or one of the new reality television shows in which the best girl wins the heart of the king. Since Kings usually chose their brides from one of the seven most important families in Persia, it was unique that in this case the king chose to select his new bride from the available virgins in the country (Bryce, 2006). When the time came for the girls to be presented to the King, each girl could take whatever she wanted with her. Esther chose to take only what was recommended for her to take by Hegai (Bible, New American Standard version). Each girl would be presented to the king for one night. The next morning she would be taken to a second harem for the concubines (Bible, New American Standard Version). The only way a girl would return to the king again was if he asked for her by name. When Esther was presented, the king was taken by her physical beauty and her quiet obedient nature. He chose her as his new queen. ). By winning the beauty contest that all the other girls dreamed of, she was placed in the perfect position at exactly the right time to have the opportunity to spare the lives of the Jewish people. She did this in the same calm obedient manner in which she had conducted her entire life, making her a true heroine. Her cousin Mordechai worked outside of the palace gates in a lowly position. At one time he heard two of the palace guards plotting to assassinate the king. Out of concern for the king, he passed this information on to Esther. Esther notified the king with the information in Mordecai’s name and it was documented that Mordecai was the person who was responsible for saving the king. The report was investigated resulting in the death of the conspirators and the appreciation of the king towards Esther and Mordechai. Later in the story, the King appoints a man named Hamon as his chief advisor and second in the country. He was a man who was very proud of himself and wanted a great deal of attention paid to him (Stewart, 2007). Hamon treated the king as a â€Å"person stroking a cat† (Kajer, 2007) which means he knew the one way to boost his ego and make sure the king would listen to him. He would make suggestions that would often appear to be the kings ideas. Because of this, Haman had a great deal of power and influence in the king’s decision making. He convinced the king to require everyone who saw Haman to bow before him. Mordechai refused to bow to Haman, because he was devoted to God and refused to bow to anyone except God. Some of the castle guards noticed that Mordechai did not bow as Hamon walked past. They asked him why and he said the reason was because he was a Jew (Bible, New American Standard Version). The castle guards reported to Haman that Mordechai was refusing to bow to him. This made Hamon very angry. Haman developed a strong dislike for Mordechai and decided to punish all of the Jewish people, because he did not want it to look like he was making a decision based solely on his dislike for one man. He proposed a plan to the king to execute all of the Jews on a specific chosen day, based on the information that the Jewish people had customs that went against the Persian customs. Haman went so far as to offer to deposit a large amount of his own money in the treasury to help pay for the army. The king showing little interest either way gave Haman his signet ring (Bible, New American Standard Version) and told him to keep his money and to do as he pleased with the Jews. Haman had the king’s scribes help him develop an edict stating that on a certain day all of the Jews young and old would be killed. Mordechai and the other Jews go into mourning at this time. Mordechai dressed in sackcloth and went to the palace gate. It was reported to Esther that Mordechai was at the gate dressed in sackcloth. She sent him clothes, but her refused them. He then sent a message back to her explaining the situation and asked her to talk to the king about the and tell him about haman’s evil reasons for wanting to kill the Jews. He told her to reveal her true identity as a Jew herself. Esther expresses her concern for her people, but explains to him that by going to the king she would be putting her life in danger as well. At that time there was a law stating that no one was allowed to go in to the king unless they were summoned by him. Anyone who broke this law and went into him could be put to death (Bible, New American Standard Version). The only exception to this rule was if the King raised his golden scepter to the person to allow them to approach and address him. Mordechai sent back another message saying that maybe the reason God had put her in the position of queen was to save her people. Because of her obedience to her cousin and her faith she was able to overcome her fear. She told him to have all the Jews fast and pray for three days and then she would go in to the king to see what happened. After the three days of fasting and prayer, Esther went before the king, he did not have her put to death, but instead promised her anything she wanted up to half of the kingdom. She could have asked at this point to have her people spared, but Esther knew the time was not right to reveal Haman’s plot. She simply asked for the king and Haman to join her for a dinner the following night. During the dinner, she invited both to a dinner again the next night. By that time Haman believed he had won Ester’s favor as well as the king’s. He went home quite happily and told his family about the two dinners he had been the only person besides the king Esther had invited. He felt good enough he decided to propose to the king that Mordechai be executed the next day. He was confident in enough in his power over the king that he had gallows built to hang Mordechai on as an example to the Jews. Ironically that same night, the king was unable to sleep and had the scribes come to read to him from the records. One of the things read during this time was the incident in which Mordechai had warned the king of the assassination plot against him (Bible, New American Standard). The king asked what had been done to thank Mordechai for saving him. The answer was that nothing had been done. At that time Hamon entered with the intention to tell the king of his plan to kill Mordechai. The king asked him what should be done for the person the king wanted to honor. Haman in his excessive arrogance (Stewart, 2008) thought that he must be the person that the king wanted to honor. He told the king to put the robes on him and have him ride through the town. The king told him to do that for Mordechai. This is a truly unique twist in this story as Haman must honor the man he wanted to kill. At the second dinner, Esther finally revealed that someone had plotted to kill her people and she would like for them to be spared. When the king asked who was plotting against her people, she explained it was Haman, The king was upset to the point that he had to leave the room. Haman then fell to the floor at Esther’s feet and begged for mercy. When the king returned to the room, he saw Haman with Esther and thought he was attacking her. At this point he demanded that Haman be executed. Haman was executed on the gallows he had built to execute Mordechai on. The King was unable to completely withdraw the decree he had sent out about attacking the Jews, because once a decree was signed and sent out, it could not be changed. He instead sent out another decree allowing the Jewish people to defend themselves by whatever means they needed. This resulted in fewer people attacking them and many of those who did were killed. It was extended into a second day and the Jews killed many of the people who hated them. Esther was the perfect person for God to choose for this job. She began life very humbly and was raised by a man who was her cousin with no mention of a maternal figure. In those days women were considered insignificant except for the purpose of procreation, therefore the very fact that a woman would carry out the task of saving the Jewish people from certain death was amazing. Esther was not an outspoken person or any kind of rebel. She was the kind of person who would be least likely to stand out in a crowd except for the Bible’s description of her obvious physical beauty. She was portrayed in the Bible as a young woman who followed authority with little question. Whatever Morechai asked of her she did, even if she would have preferred not to. This was evidenced by her hiding her Jewish heritage at the request of Mordecai (Bible, NIV) and entering the king’s throne room at the risk of her own life. She additionally was obviously a person who followed God’s wishes and who showed great faith in spite of the difficult youth she had endured. God used Esther through her faith to be an instrument for saving his people. Esther was raised to be an obedient faithful person who through that faith became one of the most influential women in the Bible. She did nothing outstanding nor was she a great fighter, but she showed a great amount of bravery in the face of possible death. She simply acted on obedient faith and allowed herself to be the instrument for God to use to save the Jewish people from a death caused by an angry bitter man. Her belief in God and her obedience made her the person to save her people. Only God could have designed a plan in which a young Jewish woman could end up married to a Persian king at the tight time to save an entire race (Platz, 2007). It is amazing how God works through people who have done nothing outstanding and whose only amazing trait was her incredible natural beauty.

I'm Daniel, Emily's father Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

I'm Daniel, Emily's father - Essay Example Emily is my favorite child and I would not imagine her being pregnant at her age. We established a plan for her academic and career lives before she could settle down in marriage and she agreed to it. The plan would see her excel to be one of the country’s top executives and she would be our source of pride. This is particularly because she has been the most promising, of my children, in academics. I would therefore not imagine the plan being ruined or even getting delayed because of the many uncertainties that would be hindrances. Even with the realization of her pregnancy when it appears to be at an advanced stage, I would request her and her mother to go for confirmatory pregnancy test to confirm truth of the suspicion. I would still find it hard to believe her pregnancy, even with the confirmatory tests. In struggling to accept the truth about her pregnancy, I would be disappointed in her and in myself for our responsibilities in allowing such a thing to happen. By engaging in risky sexual behavior, at her adolescent age, she has engaged in immorality and brought shame on herself and the entire family. This is because our immediate community values sexual dignity and expect people to engage in sex only in marriage. Her pregnancy would therefore be evidence that she engaged in premarital sex and some conservative families would shun our family and even restrict relationships among their children with ours. I would also be disappointed in Emily because her condition threatens the plans and expectations that we had developed about her. I would however be disappointed in myself for failing to take necessary measures for protecting her from environments and associations that led to her pregnancy. I would feel that we failed to create an environment in which she could have informed us of her relationship with a sex partner because such a discussion could have helped in counseling her, ourselves or through a professional counselor, to

MEG WHITMAN AT EBAY CASE QUESTIONS Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MEG WHITMAN AT EBAY QUESTIONS - Case Study Example Ensuring success in the strategic partnership so undertaken is another challenge faced by E-bay. E-bay strives following a relatively unique culture in the context of the global existence of the multinational corporations in the modern times. The culture has been termed as open and reflective of engaging the individuals into positive activities. The culture of e-bay suits the multi ethnic and diverse presence of individuals. it facilitates and accommodates the individuals who may have ethic, racial, cultural differences between them. It provides them with a platform that enables bringing their abilities out and making most of them. E-bay’s history reveals that the focus of their attention has been more about the people who are accommodative and flexible towards other cultures, other individuals and overall surroundings that make for the best company and brand supported by the organizational excellence in the performance and delivery of high end products to the customers. The challenges faced in the domain of culture are that of the cross cultural existence and global working. The fact that E-bay incorporates an environment and surroundings supported by the individuals hailing from different backgrounds makes it necessary to interpret the cultural context in a positive manner. for example it not only employees individuals from the native land of United States of America, rather it also incorporates the services and performance valuation of the people who may have shifted to United states. E-Bay recruits international employees and this automatically brings about diverse cultural interaction. The fact that the global operations are held through the means of communication and this entails interacting with people beyond the borders and beyond the continents, this entails the demand for a broader cultural strategy which will enable the function of smooth operations and effective performance altogether. Whitman has so far brought about a

BHM 443 Legal Aspects of Health Care (Module 2CBT) Essay

BHM 443 Legal Aspects of Health Care (Module 2CBT) - Essay Example Care should be taken to review the details like filling time period, exclusivity, retaining medical records for defined period of time, and similar clauses. This section includes details of the period of the contract. Generally, the managed care contracts lock the parties for multiple years with consistent increase of charges each year. However, other terms and termination clauses may also be recorded in the managed care contract. Other details like address of health care provider, laws and regulations to be used in case of arbitration, rights of both parties in case of legal proceeding, etc. are documented in general provision section. It may also state other clauses like severability clause. This phase include gathering information about the plan, its scope, general market sentiments, and its applicability in provider's area. This assists in deciding if the provider wants to enter into a relationship with health plan; and also assist in contract formulation stage where bargaining power can increase if the parties have sufficient information about each other. This flows from information gathering phase. It is always good to know one's strengths and weaknesses. For example, if a health plan is new to an area, the provider can leverage this information to negotiate a better deal; as oppose to negotiating the same prices if the health plan is widely known and popular in the locality. Alternatively, if the health plan is in existence for years, the health provider may find it difficult to get any negotiating power while dealing with the health plan. The balance would thus be shifted towards health plan. Finances This is a sensitive area and warrants careful analysis before locking oneself up in a contract. This includes an assessment of health plan's fee schedule, capitation and other items that require both parties to jointly manage the risk. Some of the concern areas include capitation as per age, gender, employer specific capitation, financial incentives, etc. Financial evaluation may be termed as one of the most critical factors during contract negotiation stage and may be the showstopper if not carried out carefully. Contract A contract is the underlying legal document that defines the responsibilities, rights and obligations, termination clauses, etc. The final stage of contract negotiation is signing the contract. Care should be taken while reviewing contractual terms for both parties to determine if the contract is skewed towards one party. Additionally, all legally unenforceable clauses should be removed prior to signing the contract. What if a contract contains provisions for performing illegal activities If a contract contains provisions to allow illegal activities, then this contract is not enforceable by law. Thus, neither of the party is bound to do as obligated by the contract.

Nursing research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 56

Nursing research - Essay Example In this regard, this process of dissemination will include submission of an abstract to the members of the audience three days prior to the presentation in order to give them an opportunity to scrutinize the contents of the presentation before the actual presentation. In effect, providing the audience with an overview of the presentation will be effective in providing them with an opportunity to ask questions following the presentation. My workplace setting relies on the process of a combination of publications and posters to disseminate a solution. I find these two processes ineffective since they fail to provide the target audience with an opportunity to scrutinize the solution and ask questions regarding the solution’s effectiveness in the workplace. On the other hand, it is evident that these two processes are not interpersonal in nature. In this regard, the two processes only inform an individual about a solution without providing the individual with the opportunity to scrutinize the solution, which makes the two processes

Extraordinary rendition Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Extraordinary rendition - Research Paper Example This was after a terrorist attack in the country during the reign of President Bill Clinton. The CIA agency went to the height of detaining and interrogating foreign suspects without bringing them to the United States or charging them with any crimes they committed (â€Å"Extraordinary Rendition, Extraterritorial Detention and Treatment of Detainees† Web). The solution was to move a suspect to another country which sometimes meant the detention of the suspect to the CIA’s secret prisons in places such as Romania or Thailand. From there, CIA would interrogate him or her. The suspect will either be detained or interrogated by the U.S (Katja 34-8). personnel at the detention facilities outside the sovereign territory of the country or, on the other hand, dispensed over to the custody of foreign agents who will then interrogate him or her. The foreign suspects are subjected to torture and brutal interrogation methods that are illegal under international or federal law, applied so as obtain information from the suspects. The use of extraordinary rendition has proved success in the fight against terrorism. Arrest and detention of terror suspects have helped the Government to dig into the roots of the terrorists’ plans and strategies from the terrorist suspect put under interrogation (Murray 9-11). However, administration officials, in collaboration with the Department of Justice legal memoranda criticized this act. A forum was held in 1992 that was ratified by the U.S (The United Nations Convention against Torture and other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment) (Murray 20). The congress made it clear that, it is the policy of the U.S not to:   Ã¢â‚¬Å"expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United State†

Article response about a movie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Article response about a movie - Essay Example The star in the film was the robot that was an unknown and thus did not command star power. This was done to prevent the star from distracting the viewers from the original story. In the article been discussed, the author puts forward a theory that the film, Metropolis represents the US and German relationship. The author proposes that the film is both inspired by the movie and also aims to show the exploitation of the masses at the hands of American film culture. The movie’s two father figures are represented likened to Germany and America. One representing the genius who made all technological advancement possible but he set back by his traditional views. The other is one that holds a superior position for his way of commanding and accepting the technology at his disposal. The article discusses how the film is inspired by American films created during the same era. It depends on technology and high budget much like that of American contemporary films of that era. However, one recurrent element in American films was also star power and sexuality. Here the film challenges these notions of American films but casting a robot in the role of the star. This is meant to prevent the star from distracting from the plot of the movie. Also the movie brings down love to mere sexuality by casting the female in the role of a robot. The robot is programmed to follow the commands of the master. 20. Most Interesting Passage (single quotation of 100-300 words, plus page citation—or series of up to three shorter quotations, same aggregate word-count, plus page citation) plus a brief comment as to why this passage(s) is interesting to you: ‘The star is its mechanism of identficiation, its means of consoling the masses, of feeding the appetite for consolation and its own appetitie for industrial efficiency and profit. Thus the American entertainment industry’s most insidious and dangerous application of technology is captured in an

Australian business law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Australian business law - Essay Example The law of contract is perhaps one of the most important dimensions of the whole legal systems of any country. In Australia, a contract of Law, as in other countries, is concerned with the regulation of agreements, especially in relation to the exchange of goods and services for money or other considerations like goods or services. The law of contract, an important branch of Common Law, plays vital role in vesting legally enforceable rights in each party against the other party. The law of contract also states about the corresponding liabilities of both the parties and its impacts on both parties’ legal rights as well. This piece of paper presents a law-case analysis in relation to the main elements of contract including offer, acceptance and breach of contract. This paper analyzes whether a person, who entered in to contract and unknowingly breached the contents, will be legally rightful to claim and the other party will be legally liable for it. Anthony kept his laptop value d $3000 in a cloak room while he visited a casino. When he gave it to the cloak room, he was given a document. He signed on the bottom half of the document and top half has been given to him. He noticed that the bottom half of it has writing below the area identified for his signature, but he didn’t read it. He placed the top half of the document in his pocket and was lost while walking around the casino. When he claimed his laptop from the cloak room, he was told that his laptop has already been taken by somebody else. The writing, which he hasn’t read while signing, was stating that â€Å"The casino takes no responsibility for any loss incurred by the person(s) depositing goods into this cloak room whether by any act or omission of the casino, its employees or agents†. There has been a valid contract between Anthony and cloak room, including offer and acceptance. Anthony has accepted that cloak room is not responsible for any loss due to his mistake. While bot h these parties entered in to the contract, Clock room offering the safe-custody service and Anthony accepting it, clock room put a condition and Anthony signed on it, without carefully noticing what in it. The legal perspectives of this case will be detailed below: Case Analysis The elements of the law of contract The contract usually consists of basic three elements, offer and acceptance, consideration and intention to enter in to the legal relation between the parties1. There is no valid contract unless there are agreements between two or more persons. Offer and acceptance between two or more parties make a legal contract. Consideration is that each party in the contract has agreed to do some thing on behalf of the other. Normally speaking, it is the price one pays or agrees to pay to the other for the bargain. As its third element, the contract would be valid only if both the parties have intended to enter in to the contract while they entered2. When it comes to the case of Anth ony and Cloak room, it can be found that there has been a valid contract between both the parties. Cloak room has agreed that they will keep his Laptop valued $3000 until he demands. There were offer and acceptance between them too. Cloak room offered their service of keeping things in safe custody and Anthony accepted it for a certain consideration. Both the parties were in true intention to enter in to this legal contract as well. The contract between Anthony and Cloak room was therefore merely legally valid and genuine. According to the contract, Anthony must get back his laptop on his request. But, he didn’t get it back due to that he missed the document and that has been used by some one else to collect his laptop. During the contract being made, cloak room has put a condition that he must bring the document back to claim his belongings and he signed on the contract. His signature was legally an acceptance of the contract as well as the

The Experiences of women in Veronica, Looking for a Rain God and Of Mice and Men Essay Example for Free

The Experiences of women in Veronica, Looking for a Rain God and Of Mice and Men Essay The pieces Veronica by Adewale Maja-Pearce, Looking for a Rain God by Bessie Head and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck all involve cultural views based on women. The feelings of the women based within each of the three pieces are very varied and are conveyed in different ways. The short story Veronica is based on a woman who is very limited and has restrictions based around her. After looking into the piece in detail my opinion is that Veronica does not lead a good life. She achieves a standard five from her education but nothing more. Although it becomes obvious to me that her life is poignantly dull and boring, Veronica appears to be fulfilled within herself. She leads a stereotypical life of women for the time and meagre environment. She completes her personal expectations of her life by becoming a part of a family, including a husband and children. After doing this she has led a life in which she has in the past aspired to. An expression made by Veronica which indicates to me that she is fulfilled is; There is nothing left for me in this world As well as showing her feelings this phrase shows that she has completed everything possible to her, this also emphasises the fact that her life is in many ways very formulaic. Looking for a Rain God is another short piece expressing cultural expectations of women. In this piece it becomes obvious to me that women have a very limited role in life. The piece is based on a small tribe of people, which are desperate for water, as they are facing a situation involving drought. Whilst the men of the families are fighting for their familys survival the women sit and wail in an act of desperation within their shambolic lives. The women of the families are usually the last to receive any necessary resources, although without their husbands they would in most cases be unable to survive. Unlike Veronica the women based within this piece are in many ways unhappy and do not feel fulfilled. Set aside from this point they do still follow the basic outline of culturally stereotypical women at this time, which in this case is to stay at home in aid of caring for their families. The roles of women in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck are expressed by the portrayal of one character named as Curleys wife One main factor which firstly expresses a limited role in life for Curleys wife is based within the fact that she hasnt received a name, she is known as a possession to her egocentric and obdurate husband Curley. Curleys wife lives an isolated, lonely, poignant and low-key life in which she is treated as one of Curleys achievements which he can be proud of. Her overall role within the novel is to look after Curley and to uphold his pride. As a result of her isolation she acts as a floozy, either manipulating people of behaving flirtatiously. Curleys wife also follows the broad outline of stereotypical women, as her role is low-key and to act as a possession. In Curleys views she is an achievement which he can be dominant towards, which has not real importance in life. Although Curleys wifes appearance and attitude appears to be a floozy and emphasises that she is manipulative and selfish, this is due to her restrictions in life. The overall outcome of her life is very poignant although her destitute lifestyle expresses the mitigating reason for this. The cultural expectations of women have been expressed through a combination of salient factors within each of the pieces summarised. The stereotypical role involving the caring of families and the pride of husbands is in many ways very poignant, As shown above consequences can involve women being fulfilled as it Veronica or unhappy to involve a decrease in character as in Of Mice and Men Overall after exploring cultural roles of women within Veronica by Adewale Maja-Pearce, Looking for a Rain God by Bessie Head and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck I can see that there is an overall stereotypical role of women throughout. This role gives women limited opportunities in life and causes them to be isolated. Results of this isolation are varied between cultures. Some of the women within the investigated pieces appear to be fulfilled whereas others appear to be very unhappy leading a dull and poignant life. In conclusion this stereotypical role of women is extremely unfair and should be overruled completely to provide all women with equal opportunities.

Unsustainable Tourism Essay

Unsustainable Tourism Essay Tourism Industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Tourism has long been a central component of the economic, social and cultural shift that has left its imprint on the world system of cities in the past two decades (Dumond; 2005 cited in Beben; 2006;1). According to the statistics of World Trade Organization, there was 693 million tourist arrivals across the globe in 2002 (Beben; 2006). Moreover, WTO and the World Tourism and Travel Council announced a possible increase in the number of tourists to close to 1 billion by the end of 2010 (Massound; 2010). Mass tourism is seen as a large number of people participating in tourism as well as inflexible and packaged standardized holidays (Poon; 1993). Starting from the 50s a new tourist demand leaded to a new stage in this evolutionary process. Tourism industry just like other Fordist industries has been supplying mass products, mostly considered under the label of mass tourism (Conti; Perelli; 2004). According to Conti and Perelli (2004;3), Thomas Cook created the tourism packages in the 19th century as the pioneering forms of mass tourism and the opportunity for the definitive shift from the aristocratic forms of vacation to the mass mobility of workers spending their paid holidays travelling. The concept of Cookism was used in a place of Fordism to express the era of mass tourism. Others seen mass tourism as consuming places by the large number of visitors (Urry; 1995). More recently mass tourism consumption experience has been linked to the ideas of a McDonaldization, Disneyfication o r McDisneyfication of societies (Ritzer and Liska; 1997 cited in Conti and Perelli; 2004;3). The impact of those consumption patterns has been considered as the typical Fordist leading to a reduction of the cultural diversity by mean of the demand of a tourist experience that will be more and more reproducing the everyday life patterns of consumption (Contti and Perelli; 2004). Mass tourism is strongly linked to seasonality. The impact of schools closure for the holiday periods as well as companiesÂÂ ´ work programmes and the destination specific weather conditions, all that aspects are gathering great number of tourists at the same time (Shaw and Williams; 1995). Before tourism was a luxury, available mostly for higher class but after the introduction of packaged holidays and development of mobility and technology, travelling became more accessible for everyone. Tourism has aroused on the market as a forceful industry making changes which have both positive and negative economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts. The development of tourism industry is very important for economy of the country especially for less developed countries as it increase foreign exchange earnings and generates employment. According to UNWTO, tourism stands for 8% of employment and 9% of global GDP and by the year 2019 will provide 296 million jobs (UNWTO cited in MercoPress, 2010). Tourism can have a powerful and beneficial direction for both economic and sociio-cultural change but at the same time it can be destroying. Do actual benefits from tourism go to the host community? Is governmentÂÂ ´s priority in development are to provide the needs of the tourists instead of local community? The government blinded by the opportunity of the country to generate the money from the development tourism is forgetting about the negative aspects that the industry ca n bring. Most of the attention has been made to economic aspects of the tourism growth and environmental and socio-cultural issues have been swept out to the second plan. Although to make tourism sustainable it is very important to look at those aspects. As mentioned before tourism enables the development of the destination although, the lack of own capital and a weak economy of some underdeveloped destinations makes foreign investors to build a new hotels that makes tourism being beneficial mostly for the developed countries. The same is with employment. It seems like tourism would give jobs to the local community but in the meantime the investors from developed countries employed the workers with a better education and abilities so the developing country stays with almost nothing. When the development is lower than the position of a country is worse. Leakage is an amount of money that escapes from the local economy (France; 1997). According to Kripperdorf(1982;136), tourism planning is usually in the hands of outside promoters the local population are regarded merely as landowners or as a reserve of labour, not as people entitled to participate in decision making. For example, tour operators owning resorts and sending the customers to the destination which mean that local community wont benefit much from those tourists. They export food for the tourist and employ British stuff. How tourism can be sustainable if itÂÂ ´s breaking the basic rules of it. The tourism control and planning strategy is crucial in developing sustainable tourism but how can it be done if even government is closing their eyes on the unfair practices in the Tourism sector of that region. The uncontrolled tourism in Goa has a strong impact on host community who has to face the food and water shortage (Almeida; 1996). Moreover, Goan has to face with electricity problems, there is a severe water shortage. The water pipeline that was originally meant for the villagers is now being utilised by the hotels. The transport too is insufficient to transport both locals and tourists (Misquita, 1996a cited in Noronha;1999;101). Very fast process of urbanisation has changed Goa into the concrete jungle. Police is closing their eyes on the drug fulfilled parties. Barely 10 % of Goans have benefited from tourism development, moreover, the foreign investors are buying large amounts of lands in the region (Almeida; 1996).All those examples illustrate how unsustainable tourism it is. Moreover, as suggested by Wall and Wright (1977); physical impacts to the tourist destination include alterations to the natural environment, including air, water, soils, vegetation and wildlife as well as changes to the build environment (Mathiesen and Wall; 1999; 38). Mass tourism affects strongly beaches, cliff-side, environment and degraded landscape. In some mass destinations ground water is in an alarmingly low level which is largely consumed by agricultural sector, by the irritation of a great number of gardens constructed due to the development of new summer houses and second homes and golf courses (Molz; 2004;5). Also the beaches have been extended in order to meet tourist demand. The unlimited constructions and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources will lead to the serious environmental problems. Recreational activities organized for tourists have also strong impact. Tourists by touching reefs when diving and snorkeling are damaging them. Also by the great number of boat trips tourist are disturbing marine animals. According to Kripperdorf (1982;135), the mass phenomena of modern tourism have initiated the paradoxial process Tourism destroys tourism. The landscape loses its tourist value through its use, or rather over-use, by th e tourist. Mass tourism is not only a problem of coastal regions but also the winter season is strongly connected to mass tourism. In Alps the number of tourists doubles every 7 years (Dziedzic; 1998). In Tyrol the ski slope is going through the endangered forests. Every year more than 500 hectares of agricultural land is used to make new skiing resorts and slopes (Dziedzic; 1998). Environmental degradation destroys the meaning of existence of tourism itself. The number of tourists is growing every year. According to the World Travel report (cited in Hickman; 2006) by 2020 the natural features of some of the wonders of the world will be damaged by global warming, while other resorts will become seriously overcrowded. The carrying capacity has been described as greatest number of people who can use the place without any damage to the natural resources and without degradation of the environment (Wall and Mathiasen; 1999). The attrition of historical buildings and the saturation of the coasts are one of the problems were carrying capacity has been overtaken. Changes in tourist destinations are inevitable but the concept of carrying capacity has the chance to indicate the amount and the way of change and to assess to which point those changes are acceptable (Mathiesen and Wall; 1999). The socio-cultural impacts are the other aspect of a great importance when looking at the changes in tourism as it strongly changes the way of life of the local communities. Mass tourism is causing displacement of indigenous population by tourists. For example in Hawaii there are about 1 million of indigenous inhabitants, which is a quarter of the whole population (Dziedzic; 1998). In human relationships, the disappearing traditional hospitality is a very important aspect. Especially in the big tourist resorts, these relations were long ago converted into a commodity for sale. Kuhn (2007; cited in Hanna; 2010 HHhhKKKK) argues that sustainable tourism attempts to preserve traditional cultures in a way that the western tourist deems as authentic. If sustainable tourism will lead into that direction it will not be very successful. Tourist resorts also offer its guests a more refined, but a fake version of its folklore and traditions, adapted to the stereotypical images of the visited country. According to Mathieson and Wall (1992; 4) the commercialization of culture, through the marketing and sale of artefacts, may revive traditional art forms or modify them so that they are scarcely recognizable. Which in a long term might create a phony folk culture but at the same moment it can lessen existing unemployment problems and create more jobs. The Tourism authorities are pleased of the fact that tourism is developing in the country but some of the local communities have different opinions on that. According to Ignacio Cembrero in View from Fez (2006), the countrys Islamist party frequently rails against hotel casinos, restaurants that serve alcohol and the growing gay club scene (Ranger; 2006). The tourist must accept the cultural differences of other countries. The most of Moroccans are very religious and tourist has to respect it. Even more tolerate Moroccans can become tired of tourists when seeing nudity on the beaches or tourists wearing t-shirts or short trousers in the churches. It insults their believes and rules. A lack of consideration by tourists for local norms, culture, people or the environment of tourist receiving destinations is leading to unsustainable tourism practices (Poon; 1993 in Wahab and Pigram; 2004;51). This point was also commented by Obrador et al (2009;3) who suggest that local cultures are see n as eroded by a homogenous inauthentic, consumer culture. Moreover, overcrowding and growth of the bad reputation of the destination by breaking ethical rules can be destructive for the destination. There are many places in the world which have been spoiled by mass tourism and after the development of low cost airlines many cities has lost their shine. As most of the products also destinations have a lifecycle. It was clearly presented by Butler (1980) in his model of lifecycle of a tourist destination. He evaluated six stages a destination goes through when tourism development takes place: exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, concluding with either rejuvenation or decline. At this stage the destination is visited by small number of tourists who are keen to explore cultural and natural beauty of the place but the number of visitors is limited due to accessibility difficulties and lack of facilities. Here the attraction of the place yet remains unmodified by tourism. In the next stage of involvement advertising and local initiatives are seen as the element of promotion of the destination which results in increase of the tourist number with the pressure on the public sector to develop infrastructure. Next step in the cycle is development in which further initiatives for development of facilities are made by national and multinational companies. In this stage the control of the public sector is necessary as the popularity of the destination and increasing number of visitors may not only be the reason of success but also cause failure and the destination may suffer a change in quality through problems of over-use and deterioration of facilities (Butler; 198 0;92). The consolidation is the next level of tourism life cycle when tourism becomes a great part of the local community. Next step of stagnation occurs when after reaching peak numbers of visitors the destination is no longer popular and only conservative visitors are still coming back. In this stage the environmental, economical as well as socio-cultural problems can be seen as the reason. The last stage is decline where effort is need to maintain the tourist arrivals by introducing new types of facilities like for example casinos. Prague is only one of the examples of the life cycle destination. The city has become one of the most visited cities in Europe after Czech Republic became a member of EU and after the growth of mobility (Global Travel Industry News; 2010). This beautiful, full of historical monuments city was rejuvenated in the last two decades. The commercialization of the city took place and the old town became surrounded by souvenir vendors, Irish pubs and beer gardens losing its authenticity. Also the prices have gone up and all locals who couldnÂÂ ´t afford been forced to move out of town. Its one of the examples when the way of making quick cash has prevailed over the unspoiled charm of the historic Prague. Mass tourism has led to the development of sustainable tourism in order to reduce negative impacts of tourism growth. Later in time the concept of Post Fordism was seen as the customers seem to acquire more power in determining market tendencies. According to Contti and Perelli (2004;9), this change also tend to meet the new demand for environmental friendly tourism products, being new tourists generally perceived as more educated, interested in local communities culture and in a real interaction with the surrounding environment. Since 1980 the sustainable tourism has began to be an important issue in the tourism industry (Swarbrooke; 1999). By creating a new infrastructure, hotels and businesses the employment is increasing. By travelling people have a chance to experience new cultures and traditions, although not every tourist is keen to do that and some visitors are not interested in it and ignore host communities. Sustainable tourism development is directed especially to create a better understanding of tourism, of how to achieve balance between economic, cultural and environmental aspects of tourism development. It is necessary to encourage people to take responsibility for the environment. Moreover, fair distribution of tourism benefits is necessary and the bigger involvement of local community in the tourism development decisions of their region has to be improved. The sustainable tourism directs to reduce negative impact on environment by introduction of quieter, more fuel efficient aircraft to start from to maximizing economic benefits for the host community rather than the visitors countries. Mass tourism is strongly connected to the high seasonal tourism caused by the great demand of 3s tourism tourists all over the world (Bramwell; 2004). That is why diversification of tourism like development of rural tourism has been developed to minimize saturation of the beaches in the high seasons and to avoid mass tourism. The development of sustainable touris m in very important for the countries where tourism industry is a main element of the local economy because the traditional beach holidays will decline caused by the saturation if the mass tourism will be increasing with that speed (Swarbrooke; 1999). According to Perry (2001), the climate change caused by humans will result in future modification of the climate conditions for example in the Mediterranean area, whereas the northern and western Europe climate will be improved. In 1992 on the conference in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil the first strategy document on sustainable tourism has been announced Agenda 21 as the basic economic model of tourism in XXI century (Hanna; 2010). Although, the Agenda 21 has meet various criticism mostly due to its non-binding treaties allowing most of the recommendations surrounding climate change and various other cultural issues to be ignored by the international community (Hanna; 2010). Nowadays, alternative forms of tourism have been emphasized but taking in account that even small group tours can be damaging the sustainable tourism is hard to accomplish. Latest debate of Tourism Concern came to a conclusion that all-inclusive holidays, arguably the epitome of mass-packaged tourism consumption should be banned (Farrington; 1999 cited in Sharpley and Telfer; 2002; 304). For example Gambias tourism authorities have banned all-inclusive holidays in 1999 (Sharpley and Telfer; 2002). It is an effective contribution to the development of destination. This could be a possible solution of applying sustainable tourism into a real life but it is doubtful if it would work for every country. Another alternative solution suggested by France (1997;89) is the development of holiday complexes which provide artificial ÂÂ ´sun-warm water` environments (e.g. Center Parc villages), located at points of maximum market access which could be an exit for achieving sustainable tourism just if the great number of people would choose it instead of normal holidays. In conclusion, the growth of tourism seems to be inevitably unsustainable. Tourism is giving employment and economic benefits but for example in the Third World countries the division of money is unequal. The powerful developed countries are always going to be stronger than less developed countries if management will not be carefully planned. So even if tourism is bringing money, it is not always bringing it to the right place. Nowadays people blinded by money forgetting about more important things like passing their tradition to the next generation by conserving it. Mass tourism is termed as a neo-colonialism which can be compared to army forces where instead of their invasion we have an invasion of the tourist influx (Dziedzic; 1998). There is no solution to stop people from travelling. The great understanding of negative impacts would lead to better sustainable tourism development but this need a high number of people involved in it which is hard to accomplish as nowadays people donÂÂ ´t think much about the future risk related to the planet because not to go away is like not possessing a car or a nice house. It is a marker of status in modern societies (Urry; 1990;4). There is a lack of sustainable understanding and adequate tourism control to develop sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism will not eliminate negative impacts of tourism but it could be a way to minimize its impact. Because if the growth in mass tourism will continue as fast as it does now the global warming will be arising and some destinations will suffer unbearably hi gh temperatures with an increase in the risk of fire. All those changes will lead tourists to changes in their holiday destinations, which not necessarily means stop of mass tourism. Tourist will continue with transport use even if they will reduce their travels, it will be still environmental damaging. All the facts are coming into conclusion that the best way for sustainable tourism would be staying at home.

Essay --

Personal choices are very important in one’s life. The stories that will be compared are, â€Å"The Use of Force†, by William Carlos Williams and â€Å"Lather and Nothing Else†, by Hernando Tellez. It is how the protagonists deal with a situation and how they use their intellectual thinking to deal with the situation. However, personal choices can change the outcome of a conflict, which will either be insightful or pessimistic. People make their own personal choices in everyday life. If the personal choices are not well-made, the conflict can either have a positive conclusion or negative conclusion. People make their own person choices in everyday life. In William Carlos Williams â€Å"The Use of Force† and Hernando Tellez’s â€Å"Lather and Nothing Else†, the protagonists make their own decisions based on the conflict they are confronted with. Williams and Tellez place the protagonists in an occupation in which both protagonists are met with a new customer. In Williams’ story, the doctor approaches a patient and is concerned about the patient’s illness. He uses his professional manner to determine whether or not the child has a sore throat. Similarly, in Tellez’s story, the barber has a customer come in and is responsible for shaving Captain Torres’ beard. The beginning of both stories shows how both of the protagonists are responsible for performing their tasks to the best of their ability. Moving forward, both protagonists come across with a problem. When the doctor attempts an examination, the patient does not respond coopera tively. The attempt at an examination rapidly escalates into a physical battle because the physician is not able to perform his job. In the same way, when Torres takes a seat, the barber realizes, it is his nemesis. Torres ... ...Tellez’s story ended with an exceptional closure because excellent moves were made by the barber. Williams took the protagonist in a negative route and conversely Tellez took the protagonist in a positive route. Personal choices can change the conflict, either leading to an upright ending or depraved ending. To conclude, personal choices are very significant in one’s life. In â€Å"The Use of Force†, by William Carlos Williams and â€Å"Lather and Nothing Else, by Hernando Tellez, both authors showed how people make their own judgments every day in life. However, the stories were different in certain cases because the decisions made by the individual caused the conflict to either end in an optimistic way or undesirable way. Personal choices are important because they help people solve conflicts, but the person must be careful if there personal choice they create is strong.

Surrogate Motherhood Essay -- essays research papers

Surrogate motherhood refers to that condition of a fertile (footnote) woman who has been contracted to become impregnated via reproductive technologies such as donor or artificial insemination. It is that condition wherein that fertile woman also has agreed to transfer her rights on the child to the biological parents after giving birth. This is bounded by a contract that was signed by the contracting parents and the surrogate. The reasons for this generally fall into two categories. Either the contracting couple is unable to produce a child or they would prefer to eliminate or enhance certain genetic traits. My argument would apply to either case. For the purpose of this paper, the motivations are irrelevant and the logic following applies to both. The possibility of surrogacy has gotten people into quite a tizzy with furious debates concerning issues such as the commedification of a woman’s reproductive organs, the physiological & psychological harm, and its social impa cts on a religious definition of marriage. I will defend the claim that surrogacy is an immoral action which places a socially constructed and therefore arbitrary value on the natural phenomenon of human reproduction, the implications of viewing the natural in terms of the artificial can be seen through the increase psychological and health risks of the women that contract. Prior to discussing the ethical issues, I must discuss the scientific process involved. There are actually various types of reproductive technologies women can undergo. These would include, as mentioned earlier, donor or artificial insemination, assisted hatching, in vitro fertilization, gametra fallopian transfer, zygote intrafallopian transfer, intracytoplasmic sperm injection and embryo micromanipulation. These are actually the technologies employed in the process of surrogacy (Hinman, 2001). Surrogacy or surrogate motherhood, like reproductive technologies, can be further classified as gestational surrogacy, traditional surrogacy, and egg donation. Gestational surrogacy, as defined by various references, would refer to the surrogacy condition wherein there in absolutely no genetic link between the child and the carrier. This may be in the form of the following (Canadian Surrogacy Options, Inc.) Traditional surrogacy, on the other hand, would refer to the surrogacy condition wherein ... ...definition of Motherhood†. The Journal of Philosophy, Science and Law. February 2002, vol. 2. Lecture Notes in Business Ethics. 2004 McDowell, Janet Dickey. â€Å"The Procreations Ethics Series: Surrogate Motherhood.† The Journal of Lutheran Ethics. http://www.elca.org./jle/alc_lca.procreation_ethics_surrogate_motherhood.html O'Neill, Terry (ed.). Biomedical Ethics: Opposing Viewpoints. Greenhaven Press, Inc., San Diego CA,  © 1994. pp. 185-196. Ragone, Helen. 1994. Chasing the blood tie: Surrogate mothers, adoptive mothers and fathers. American Ethnologist. Richardson, Herbert. On the Problem of Surrogate Parenthood: Analyzing the Baby M Case. 1987. Squire, Susan. "Whatever Happened to Baby M?" Redbook, January 1994. Whitehead, Mary Beth, with Loretta Schwartz-Nobel. A Mother's Story: The Truth About the Baby M Case. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. Surrogate Motherhood. < http://www.debatabase.org/details.asp?topicID=93 > Surrogate Mothers. Types of Surrogacy. The Canadian Surrogacy Options, Inc. http://www.canadiansurrogacyoptions.com/SurrogacyTypes.asp The Case of Baby M: 1988. Women's Rights on Trial, 1st Ed., Gale, 1997, p.312.

Monarchy/Episcopalianism Government

The advantages of a Monarchy government are it only has one ruler. The government and the state are in high power and in a single person’s hands. These states are called a kingdom or empire. Another advantage is the power of the king or supreme magistrate has limitations by the constitution. It also gives less control to the ruler then despotism but also makes the population happier and more productive. The advantage of an Episcopalianism government is unity of structure, style and doctrine within church government. The disadvantage of a Monarchy is that you have more control over the people in your empire.Therefore, the production capabilities within the cities will be very limited. The disadvantage of Episcopalianism government is authority is given to an office not a person. (Acts 6:36), (Acts 14:23). Republicanism/ Presbyterianism Government The advantages of a Republicanism government are citizens can participate in government and give there opinions. There is no dictator ship; citizens can elect representatives to office. The advantages of a Presbyterianism government it is an ideal system for the maintaining of proper church discipline.It is also based on scripture principles; it is the nearest teachings of the Holy Scriptures on church government. â€Å"Christ is the great head of the church universal. † â€Å"All church government must be subject to him alone† (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18) â€Å"The people have a right to substantive of government of the church†. â€Å"But all things must be done decently and in order†. (1 Corinthians 14:40; Acts 14:23) (Romans 3:1; 1 Timothy 6:3-5) (Galatians 4:21) The disadvantages of a Republicanism government are you cannot maintain martial law in a city under this government.The bad thing about trading is you cannot have prosperity in your empire because the senate approves everything you do. The disadvantage of a Presbyterianism government is it has not totally removed all of the abuse and errors in the churches that have adopted it. It greatly reduces much time and effort in the decision-making, politics, and parties’ attitude. Has little or no accountability to the larger community of believers. Democracy/Congregationalism Government The advantages of a Democracy government are everyone has a voice in the decision-making. Citizens have the same rights and freedoms and all citizens are equal before the law.They also have equal power; it also safeguards the interest of the people. It is known for stability, firmness and efficiency. The advantages of a Congregationalism government are the church appears to be independent in the New Testament, it also recognizes the importance of individual believers. It also accepts the bible as a sufficient rule in matters of faith and practice. The disadvantages of Democracy is it citizens because it does not establish dictatorship of majority. It ignores the minority and the minorities are oppressed if no party gets absolute majority coalition governments are formed.  (Romans 13:1) (Peter 2:13-14)The disadvantages of a congregationalism government are there are too many people foster independent spirits and opinions. It forms easy church splits and can lead to lack of history or past. There is too much authority given to an office competitiveness and lack of unity. (Matthew 18:18-20) In conclusion, I believe all of the forms of government can be of good nature where the government is concerned. It is also elements of all three forms of church governments in the New Testament. They all intertwine as co-existing in the government in many forms and fashions and bring a balance to our government as a whole.

Hsa 305 Week 4

On-line marketing research surveys are becoming more common. What are the pros and cons of using the Web to conduct a focus group? How does the statistical validity and reliability of a quantitative on-line survey compare with the validity and reliability of a telephone survey? Responses are to be shared with the class for discussion. The on-line marketing research surveys are made of respondents with access to personal computer and web browsers based on research specifications. The respondents are predicted to be more open and verbal than in traditional focus groups because they cannot be seen. The clients conducting on-line focus group are able to witness the entire session from their own PC’s. The researchers are able to communicate with one another from different locations as well as with the moderator. The respondents do not see these backroom communications. The problems with on-line focus groups are that the security of these sessions is not tight as with live sessions. The inability to view the respondent’s body language and the inability to quickly and effective show external stimuli in case studies. â€Å"Telephone interviewing is the best method for gathering information quickly. (Kotler & Stevens, 2008, pg. 196) With the on-line survey, you don’t get the opportunity to expand on a question therefore, the answer may be left up to interpretation. Also, with the on-line survey the chance of a person embellishing is greater. Telephone interviewing provides the opportunity to explain and expand on a question. A person’s is less likely to e mbellish while verbally being heard. Reference: Kotler, P. , Shalowitz, J. , & Stevens, R. J. (2008). Strategic marketing for health care organizations: Building a customer-driven health system. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Forensic Toxicology Essay

1. What are the three areas covered by forensic toxicology? Toxicology covers post-mortem drug testing, workplace drug testing and investigations into contraband materials. 2. Name six specimen types that are often tested in forensic toxicology. Under what circumstances is each specimen preferred? Blood – When testing for DUI’s, and two samples for every death case. Urine – Preemployment drug testing and is preferred over blood as its eacsy to collect large amounts. Bile and liver fluid – Useful for identifying certain types of drugs Hair – Preemployment testing and is advantageous for looking further back in time Oral fluid – Provides the same benefits of urine without invasion of privacy Breath – Used for preliminary test on highways 3. Name the NIDA 5. Draw a table showing the following characteristics of each drug: structure of a representative molecule, drug group, symptoms of overdose and drug source. National Institute on Drug Abuse 5 cites the following drugs 4. Name several groups of medicinal drugs often involved in fatalities. What characteristics render a drug most likely to be associated with overdose deaths? Sedative hynotics, cardioactive agents, antipsychotic agents, antiepileptic drugs and antidepressants. Miss use, or organ damage leading to failure of metabolism. 5. A 210-pound male consumes three highballs each of which was made with 2 ounces of 80 proof whiskey. What is the expected peak in his blood alcohol concentration? His blood alcohol concentration would raise by less than 0.06% as he is larger than an average male. 6. Name three methods for drug screening describe the advantages and disadvantages of each. Name Advantages Disadvantages Immunoassays High sensitivity Not 100% specific Thin Layer Chromatography Can identify hundreds of compounds in one run and is inexpensive Labour intensive and highly technical Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometry Reliable compound recognition Cannot identify less specific features 7. Contrast gas chromatography with and without a mass spectrometer detector. Describe the advantages of the latter technology. Gas chromatography without a mass spectrometer detector relies solely on retention time however the use of a mass spectrometer detector allows for all components of a mixture to be separated. The advantages of mass spectrometer detectors are that it’s often highly unique and provides a fingerprint of the molecule and therefore one can use both the retention time and unique mass spectrum in order to identify substances. 8. What are three methods of metal analysis? Which is the optimal method and why? Three of the methods of metal analysis are colormetric assays, Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry and neutron activation analysis however inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry is the optimal method as it is the most modern and of very high quality. 9. Describe the process of interpreting drug results in the context of preeemployment drug testing. Why is drug testing for employed individuals more difficult? Preemployment drugs test usually use the person in question’s urine, results are interpreted by comparing the level measured to an acceptable baseline. These baselines are not set at 0 because even second hand exposure can lead to trace amounts being metabolised and shown in the urine. Drug testing employed individuals is more difficult as it is usually in the context of confirming that drug abuse was the cause for erratic behaviour, this involves a blood test rather than urine, and further to this there is no agreed level of drug in a system that can be classed as a  Ã¢â‚¬Å"cause† for behaviour. 10. In a published case, an elderly woman with cancer dies. Three fentanyl patches are found on her body. Discuss the investigation of her death with respect to factors that would be significant to the forensic toxicologist in arriving at the cause and manner of death. The patches would be collected as evidence and tested for how much of the active ingredience was still present in the patches and two post mortem blood tests would be taken, one from the heart and one from an extremity, potentially the sites that the patches were applied to would be examined or swabbed also. The main factor in establishing the cause of death would be blood test results.

Haircuts Case Study Essay

Strategic Business Area to Improve through IT. The most important aspect of the haircutting business model that can be improved in UMUC Haircut situation has to be customers (customer demand). The entire profit model revolves around two truth. The first is that people want to come get haircuts here at UMUC. Second, these customers will be repeat customers at a rate that facilitates profit. In order to meet both of  these goals for profit the use of a comprehensive scheduling tool is needed to both benefit customers and manage employees. A cloud-based open schedule application allows for simple transparency and has a secondary feature of using old scheduling data to form a more profitable business model. Being able to have a constantly evolving schedule provides the perfect amount of flexibility for Myra Morningstar. Specific Solution To best apply information technology to the scheduling problem a robust program will be developed. This programs first major feature is that it will be cloud based. So for a 7 day work week there will be open hourly blocks that can be filled with customer appointments. These blocks are of course able to be filled at the main counter on the central computer in the system but can also be filled via the web. Customers will be able to submit request for blocks which will be approved by management. At the same time, in the same program these blocks will correspond to individual chairs, in the sense that the chair represents an available stylist being able to perform the styling or cut. This program will be real time so that everyone is one the same page. Ultimate control will fall on Myra Morningstar. The program will run through the UMUC Haircut website. IT Infrastructure Requirements Services- Myra and staff will be required to learn and manage this program. Although not overly complicated it will require dedication of use to be successful. It will be tempting to use the paper scheduling method but this will need to be cut out. The initial construction of the program and subsequent upgrades to the program will be the work of a clever programer for hire and should not require constant technical support. Hardware- Any internet connected device will be able to access to the program. It would be a sound investment to have a small command terminal or server inside the store able to handle backing up this data constantly and allows a level of redundancy. (To both handling the data and backing it up) Software- A application will have to be purchased or designed to facilitate this online scheduling. An example of a pre-existing software package would be Appointment-plus, this service already includes customer self-booking. Telecommunications- A high-speed internet connection will be required at all times so that the program can communicate changes back and forth at all times. This need can be handled by fiber-optic or a dsl network from a local provider. Most of the information here will be data. Facilities- The main desk computer station will be the facility for housing the center server. This software, if uniquely designed for UMUC Haircuts will be entirely in-house but if a generic version it is applied it will be managed from that companies facility. How Online Scheduling will Improve the Process. As UMUC Haircut conducts business now there is no single method for managing both employee staffing times and customer appointments. Customers have to come in or use the phone to schedule an appointment or come for a walk in unsure of availability. This new program will allow for the front desk, all the stylist, and customers to access the scheduling tool at all times. This will stream line the process of getting into a chair and cut down on the almost guess method of scheduling employees. Online Scheduling Impact on Generic Strategy. The generic strategy goal that is strived for at every step in this process is Broad Market/High Value-to-Cost Ratio. With an affective online scheduling tool more customers will be able to access appointment opportunities that fit their schedule. This gives them the ability to plan ahead. at the same time the scheduling application also cuts down on the hours that stylist are getting paid even though there are no appointments. Being able to cut down on these wasted hours will make the cost drop which will indirectly rase the Value Ratio. Reaching more people online, at a  cheaper price will be the driving force to adopt an online solution for scheduling. References: Schmidt, M. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.businesscaseanalysis.com/business.html http://www.appointment-plus.com/product/how_it_works.php

Why Did America Withdraw Its Forces

By 1973, after a decade of brutal armed contact and with nearly 60,000 Americans dead, the once proud and mighty USA had been brought to its knees. Feeling isolated the USA decided to abandon its commitment in Vietnam after rising pressure from years of mistakes. America withdrew from Vietnam due to several main reasons; some were long-term e.g. Protests of the American citizens, and others were short-term factors e.g. Morale of American soldiers. In this essay I will discuss the main factors for American withdrawal from Vietnam and try to process the most important ones. I will show how the US media combined with protests in the USA was the most important reason for American withdrawal and ultimately led to the American withdrawal from Vietnam. America’s first mistake regarding the war was the most fundamental. Their tactics. All of America’s tactics were inappropriate, brutal and they were only looking for fast solutions and never the bigger picture. America did the worst thing possible in a war and based all of their tactics on assumptions, which by matter of coincidence were all wrong. The first indication of American tactics being reckless and inappropriate was the infamous â€Å"Operation Rolling Thunder† ordered by LBJ and subjected the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other suspected communist bases in South Vietnam to bombing for 8 weeks. 3  ½ years later more bombs had been dropped on South Vietnam than all the bombs that were dropped in the Second World War, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was still intact and the most casualties inflicted were those on Vietnamese civilians leading America to lose the â€Å"Hearts and Minds† of the Vietnamese. After the very first battle of Vietnam, set in The Ia Drang valley, America set a pattern for their tactics which would remain for the rest of the war; tactics which would question the very competence of the American government. General Westmoreland was convinced that if the communists maintained heavy losses they could not and would not continue the war, and also that the American people would accept the American losses if it meant the communists could be defeated. This lead to America measuring their success in the war by using kill to death ratios. In other words, if communists were losing more soldiers than America, then America was winning, and vice versa. General Westmoreland continued to believe that a use of superior firepower over the communists would lead to victory in any battle combined with the usage of search and destroy missions (for lack of a better word, wandering aimlessly into communist territory and expecting to surprise them). In light of the above it’s not surprising that whilst American tactics were failing, the communist’s guerrilla tactics yielded success over the Americans. After the first battle in The Ia Drang Valley the Vietcong knew they could not win large battles with the US as they had backing artillery and air support. They instead opted to do ‘Hit & Run’ guerrilla raids on unsuspecting American troops during search and destroy missions. This would mean much fewer casualties and also having the element of surprise over the Americans. If they were forced into a large battle the Vietcong would try to stay close to the enemy to stop the Americans from calling artillery and air support (they wouldn’t want to hit their own troops of course). Over 51% of Americans killed in the war were killed by small arms i.e. pistols, machine guns, basic military equipment. The communists never tried to think they could go face to face with the full might of the American army and so devised guerrilla tactics to fight a war the Americans were unfamiliar with and were reluctant to fight. Whilst America was always on the lookout for NVA troops to have a large battle they assumed that the less trained Vietcong guerrilla fighters would be of little threat and left them to the ARVN. Whilst the Americans hopelessly looked for the NVA, the Vietcong would watch on and when they least expected would raid the Americans, and before US troops could call for back-up the Vietcong would be gone with miner losses and the Americans in severe distress. The Vietcong were not only dependent on ‘Hit & Run’ operations but also used booby traps and mines. Booby traps were simple and easy to make and would mainly consist of a trip wire and some sharpened bamboo sticks. Mines were more sophisticated but had the same idea. ‘Bouncing betty’ mines would be triggered when a soldier stepped on them, fly up a metre in front of the man walking behind and go off (they were designed to reach the height of a man’s genitals). Over 11% of men killed in the war were caused by booby traps and mines and left the survivors frustrated that no enemy was seen, no one to shoot at. Guerrilla war success was due to Americas stubbornness over its tactics, reluctant to believe that such simple ways of fighting could defeat all the fire power in the US army, and also how the communists always learnt a lesson from their mistakes until they had a strategy for defeating Americans in combat, and seeing as America didn’t want to think it made a mistake in the first place it’s tactics stuck and a pattern was set for the rest of the war. American soldiers were left frustrated that they could never get a good full on fight with the communists like they were trained for, and with no one else to express their anger on they turned on the civilians. This leads onto my next point that through America’s brutal tactics they inadvertently lost the support of Vietnamese civilians. The Americans knew from an early stage that winning the support of the South Vietnamese peasants was a vital key to the war ( the policy was called winning the â€Å"Hearts & Minds† of the people) but unlike the Vietcong the USA didn’t know how to do it and the South Vietnamese government didn’t want to do it. The main issue was land reform and the Vietcong made sure to take land from the rich landowners and give it to the poor peasants, a decision the South Vietnamese government were unwilling to make. Happy with the communist’s ideas peasants would give food, weapons and intelligence to the Vietcong as well as housing them, making it almost impossible for American soldiers to distinguish between friend and foe. Soldiers were angry they were fighting an enemy that could not be seen and would mercilessly kill them in surprise attacks, and so felt they had no choice but to eliminate all threats from nearby-by villages, always suspecting anyone could be a Vietcong and believing it was better to be safe than sorry. â€Å"Zippo raids† were frequently carried out on villages (which mostly weren’t collaborating with the Vietcong) where soldiers would destroy all supplies in the village including animals and then execute suspected communists. Defoliants would be sprayed on all the food and surrounding forest area so Vietcong wouldn’t be able to find supplies or hide (with the most used defoliant called Agent Orange, which was known to cause cancer, and would be washed into the streams by rain and drunk by soldiers on both sides). Although soldiers were directly told not to harm civilians, most peasants couldn’t be distinguished between innocent and guilty as the Vietcong wore civilian clothes. Soldiers would kill the civilians from anger and mistrust over months of low morale and failure (which would lead onto massacres like My Lai). Innocent civilians would be mutilated, raped or killed without a trial, and when the GI’s would leave only resentment and a lust for revenge would be left behind ironically turning most anti-communist civilians into communists themselves. An account from one GI after completing a raid was â€Å"if they weren't pro- Vietcong before we got there, they sure as hell were by the time we left†. Frustrated with their failure to break the support of the peasants for the Vietcong, America initiated the â€Å"Strategic Hamlet† operation in 1962 where peasants were moved away from areas where the NLF was strong and into guarded hamlets, kilometres away from their homes. The operation was a complete failure. In many cases the NLF would already have supporters inside the villages and all that would have been done is moving communist supporters to a new area to spread their ideas. Those villagers who weren’t already in the NLF often would become supporters because of the way they were treated. GI soldiers were always told to see their enemy as subhuman and before long they would treat civilians as they treated the enemy. In the jungle GI’s couldn’t trust anyone who was not an American, as they had learned from past experiences, and weren’t prepared to spare the life of a peasant who could possibly be conspiring to kill them in a moment without mercy. American soldiers started wondering why they were fighting for a group of civilians that just wanted them dead anyway, and without a just cause many of the soldiers lost belief in the war. The argument that will be put forward here is that combined with the realisation that guerrilla warfare tactics dominated over US tactics and the understanding that they were surrounded by enemies, all alone in a country whose citizens didn’t want their help, US soldiers lost sight of the point of their occupation. The soldier questioned why he should fight and risk his life for someone who just wanted to kill him. Over time the average US soldier lost faith in his mission and morale dropped to new lows. Without the morale of the soldiers, fighting an already superior enemy was hopeless. At the beginning morale wasn’t an issue at all. All the soldiers in the army were career soldiers who believed in whatever cause the US government believed in, but after time more and more of them died, leaving only drafted soldiers who didn’t want to be there nor fight for a cause. A one year tour of duty was thought to keep morale high, but unfortunately this tactic was also a horrible failure. A constant supply of replacements was needed for men who had either died or finished their tour of duty and those who were close to the end of their tour of duty (being ‘short’) were desperate to avoid combat or risks, making them less effective. Replacements or ‘cherries’ as they were nicknamed, were inexperienced and would be put into squads with more seasoned veterans of war, whom would not except the cherries until they had proven themselves in combat. Platoons would be divided in two causing a breakdown in communication between the soldiers, making the unit less effective. ‘Fragging’ also became a major problem in platoons. Relationships between conscripted soldiers and officers would usually be strained. Many officers were career soldiers looking for promotion and so needed a high body count of enemy kills, whereas most GI’s who were conscripted just wanted to stay alive until their DEROS (Date Eligible for Return from Overseas). Hostility towards the officers sometimes led to their men killing them and 3% of all officers who were killed in Vietnam were killed by their own men. During 1970-1971 there were over 700 cases of Fragging alone. Another case of low morale among the GI’s was drug-taking, which further diminished the effectiveness of the US forces in Vietnam. Marijuana was the most popular drug among GI’s in ‘R & R’ (rest and recreation), but cocaine, heroin and amphetamines were also used to get ‘High’. In 1971, 5000 men were treated in hospital for combat wounds and 20,000 were treated for drug abuse. The fact that more troops were treated for drug abuse than combat wounds as well as sometimes Fragging their officers is definitive proof of low morale. More important reasons for low morale occurred during the war also. All soldiers need to know that the cause they are fighting for is a good one as well as knowing that the people back home support them and the cause. If they think that the war isn’t a good one or that the people back home are opposing them then they quickly lose faith in their duty. Between 1966 and 1973 there were 503,000 cases of desertion in the US army in Vietnam (Note – The figures include ‘Draft Dodgers’ and people who deserted multiple times). The truth is drafted soldiers no longer wanted to fight when they were despised by everyone, even their own people at home, and they couldn’t find any good reason left to stay in Vietnam unlike the North Vietnamese who were fighting for their homeland. All the soldiers were broken men and how could the US imagine winning a war if their own troops weren't willing to fight anymore. All of this helps to explain that the war was not just lost for military reasons alone, and that politics played a large part too. At the start of the war the media and people believed the war was the right course of action but as time passed people started questioning the purpose of it all. People began to realize that America wasn’t really at threat from communism and the war wasn't worth the lives of thousands of young soldiers. In 1966 the North Vietnamese finally let a reporter from the New York Times visit north Vietnam. He reported on the destruction of civilian areas and casualties caused by American bombing raids. The US army always denied bombing civilian areas or if there were civilian casualties, they claimed, there weren’t many of them. The reporters’ views widened still the ‘Credibility Gap’ and US citizens began distrusting what the American military was telling them. After the Tet offensive in 1968 the American people were outraged that the North Vietnamese so easily infiltrated South Vietnam with such numbers. For years they had been told that they were on the verge of winning the war but now they seemed further away than ever. Media coverage also helped to portray horrors committed by the American troops towards civilians such as My Lai. The American people were appalled with what they saw and began wondering who the bad guy really was, asking how they could support their own men when they were killing innocent women and children. The war was costing US citizens $20 billion dollars a year which meant that taxes would rise dramatically and LBJ would have to cancel his ‘Great Society’ programme of reform. This was obviously not a popular decision with the Public. President Johnson decided not to stand for re-election in 1968 knowing the war would cost him any chance he had of winning. What finally sparked off the entire nation was when the new president, Nixon ordered the initiation of ‘Operation Menu’. The order included the invasion & bombing of communist bases in neutral Cambodia and Laos. This only appeared as another act of war and a chance of another ‘Vietnam’, which greatly angered the American public. Protests sprang up in universities across the country at the escalation in their country’s role. In one of these protests 4 students were shot and killed by the National Guard at Kent University in Ohio. This Sparked off a further 400 protests in other universities. Other huge protest marches took place in 1969, 1970 and 1971 under the Anti-war movement, and in April 1971 as many as 500,000 people protested in Washington. Two weeks later another demonstration in favour of the war was launched. Only 15,000 took part. It was clear now that the people had spoken and with no other options Nixon began his process of vietnamisation. So after 10 years of hard gruelling war America finally left Vietnam in 1973, accomplishing nothing and leaving behind a corrupt government which would inevitably fall into communist hands. Because of the media it was the first television war and clearly had an effect on their success, lowering the confidence of GI’s and American people in the war. With taxes rising from costs of the war and not knowing if they could trust their own government anymore, the anti-war movement raged in America sparking riots and protests all across the country. The Vietnam War was a huge blow for American foreign policies, showing that communism was a force to be reckoned with if it could beat America. The policy of containment had failed and America’s domino theory was a flop, as the world hadn’t succumbed to communism as America had feared (apart from Laos). A complex chain of cause and effect lead to the dramatic events of 1973, events which still cast a shadow over American policy today.