Surveillance technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Surveillance technology - Essay Example That respect warrants this essay a critical outlook into the evolution, merits, and demerits of spy cameras as type of surveillance technology. Additionally, this paper will also seek to give a recommendation on the way future of this subject. The evolution of spy cameras and its incorporated technologies is an important topic that examines the state of surveillance technology and its impacts on the modern society. The tumultuous history of technologies associated with spy cameras has its origin rooted in the 16th century and stretches all the way to the present generation whereby it shifted from facto disciplinary practice to a real time practice revolving around security and conveniences it offers to its participants. Spy cameras evolved in three basic stages namely, daguerreotype, film, and digital photographic spy cameras. Daguerreotype was a truly successful stage of spy cameras since photographers used copper plates coated with iodine whereby it used this combination to produce silver iodide upon sensing light. Daguerreotype photography entered the United States during the time of Civil War whereby technical fighters used it as an investigative tool. (Heir and Greenberg, 2007:217). Even though the Federal Bureau of investigation did not exist during the time of President Lincoln, documented evidence shows that, security officers used daguerreotype as a form of surveillance technology in crime scene investigation. With spy cameras came in telephone calls which aided in taking surveillance technology into the following stage. Surveillance technology shows, the introduction of telephone accounts for a big margin in this subject as it led to wire-tapping where one could listen to a telephone conversation between other people. Year 1945 witnessed a major shift as wire and tape recorders became available (Tavani,

Individual and the community Essay Example for Free

Individual and the community Essay There tends to be quite a large use of extended metaphors within the play referring to the individual and the community frequently. Translations is said by many to be an intelligent and enlightening metaphor for the situation in Northern Ireland. This statement can be backed up and the reader can see many representations throughout the play. The most obvious example is that of the situation between Maire and Yolland on page 62. A significant part of this scene is when Maire says that leap across the ditch nearly killed me, as she is really symbolising the change the Irish people must undergo. Therefore, individuals are used to represent different views and cultures, as well as having their own. Characters are used mainly as a metaphor for Irelands position with the English. This is evidence of a particularly good playwright. Friel uses Sarah as a symbol to represent Baile Beags loss of language as the English arrive to anglicise the Irish counties. We know from historical references that the English did anglicise much of Ireland, resulting in a loss of language, as shown with Sarahs particularly similar situation. As the play progresses in the beginning, Sarahs speech begins to improve, but when the English come, Sarahs speech is lost again, which symbolises the English power over Ireland and how they are able to make change to the language with Sarah individually and the whole of Ireland nationally. Other scenes such as in act two scene one, we see stage directions create a bond between brothers and indicate a distance between cultures; as Manus moves beside OWEN, we begin to realise the general stance of the British and the Irish divide The mythology Jimmy Jack studies once again acts as a metaphor for the situation Baile Beag have created for themselves the community are locked in time as the play states it can happen that a civilisation can be imprisoned in a linguistic contour that no longer matches the landscape of fact. Words in the beginning paragraph such as disused and remains imply that this is a hedge school of a traditional heritage, which represents Ireland and its Irish culture at the present time. There are also many issues based around identity within the play, and this is reflected with peoples actions and the way that they change from the beginning of the play to the end. Many characters manage to find themselves and realise what their direction in life is. Translations seems to revolve around the subject of names the most obvious being the Name Book and the individual identity. As each character enters a scene, Friel gives a detailed description of them, providing the reader with an immediate image. The character then progresses and adopts their own personality and identity. In the case of Sarah, she is described as being waiflike and unintelligible. As the play progresses, Sarahs identity changes as she learns to speak. Later, Friel uses Sarahs identity to represent the more timid people of Ireland as she becomes incoherent. Another example is the character of Maire. Maire is described as a strong-minded and strong-bodied woman at the start of the play, but, by the end, seems to have become distant as if shed been washed away by her contact with the English, and, more importantly, with Yolland. Therefore, individual identity can alter when situations change. Friel created Jimmy Jack as an eccentric, an infant prodigy. He acts as a symbol of an attachment to the past, and cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality. This takes both a political and social stand towards Baile Beag. Is it so bad that Jimmy Jack has to resort to living in a fantasy world? This relates to the flaws within Baile Beag, which, in turn, make up most of the community. Those who live there are trapped in a linguistic contour, speaking dead languages, whilst those who are of a greater education such as Hugh, Jimmy Jack and Owen have many more faults than those less educated; Hugh has a severe drinking problem, Jimmy Jack fixed in his fantasy world and Owens rejection from his father as a translator. Jimmy Jacks poor dress sense and almost tramp like appearance acts as a metaphor for Ireland itself, proving although they live on an old island, with an old language and culture, there are still things to be cherished, that are rich and should be preserved. This is a rich community full well of educated people such as Hugh and Jimmy Jack, which is being understated. Throughout the play, many individuals are mentioned who are not characters in the play. The first is Daniel OConnell who is referred to by Maire on page 24, and who Hugh calls that little Kerry politician. Daniel OConnell was, in fact, known as the liberator who fought for political rights for Irish Roman Catholics. He was obviously a very powerful individual as he is one of the only real people mentioned in the play. Historically, Daniel OConnell, was also known as the uncrowned leader of Ireland acts a symbol of Hughs position within Baile Beag. He encouraged the use of English in National schools, which is essentially what Hugh did when he applied to the National School near Baile Beag. Yolland and Hugh talk about the second famous individual; William Wordsworth, on page 49. He was an English romantic poet, and because of this, Hugh dismisses him and states that he is not familiar with his literature. Throughout the play, Friel tries to include as many well known events and characters as possible to add a sense of realism. Therefore, certain famous individuals, and the mention of them, boost the readers interest and increase the level of validity. The community is presented to us as being close, but with the English trying to anglicise, we realise that this is far from the true realisation. For example Maire and Manus; once engaged, but with the Anglicisation, Maire realises she wants better things from life, and proceeds to find these in Yolland, the Englishman. Language also this splits this pair apart too, as we see Yolland disappear towards the end of the play, with the suspicion that he has been killed by the Donnelly brothers for breaking up the community. Overall, Friel shows the audience that the individual and the community are intertwined and are similar in their symbolism and characteristics. As language is integrated within society, the community is forced to separate. Individuals are described and portrayed as the powerful essence of a community, whilst the community itself symbolises the much-needed unity in order to preserve the culture and the individual identity of Ireland.

Education in the age of globalisation

Education in the age of globalisation Introduction What does education have to do with globalisation? The answer is simple: everything. The most recent wave of globalisation, which began in the 1980s, is being driven by the knowledge economy and, in turn, this knowledge economy is being facilitated by globalisation. Without education, the knowledge economy collapses. So anyone talking about globalisation is also talking about the knowledge economy and education. First, globalisation. Sometimes the concept seems like a many-headed dragon (Giddens, 2000). To some, the phenomenon is as old as the world itself just think of the great kingdoms of antiquity, the voyages of discovery, the great waves of migration in the 19th century, etc.. After the world wars, international institutions were created which were supposed to lead to global governance, a type of world government which would establish a new world order. However, the most recent wave of globalisation has swept over this like a deluge. As a result of increasing internationalisation in production and distribution networks, sovereign states are suddenly being downgraded to water-carriers of international big business. The laws of the free market are imposed upon them, for fear of being ignored by investors. Some institutions that were supposed to guarantee the creation of the new world order are themselves preaching deregulation and worldwide competition. In other words, in debates about globalisation, we are not usually talking about the globalisation trend in its generic sense (the increasing trend towards worldwide interdependence, driven by telecommunications). The model of globalisation that is so controversial that it has become the target of fierce demonstrations, is one that is coloured by neo-liberal ideology. It is the globalisation of the free market, driven by competition and the quest for profit. Both heads of the monster also refer to the knowledge society. In the first definition, the Internet and the media play a key role: ideas move at the speed of light around the world and ensure that every innovation that catches on also takes on worldwide proportions. This means that anyone who can master the Internet and the media is at the source and acquires power. In the second definition, the establishment of the global neo-liberal market economy, knowledge, IT and information play just as important a role. A great many services that do not require physical proximity (such as information processing, accounting, financial services, translation, etc.) can indeed be produced anywhere in the world and delivered to the other side of the globe. Moreover, markets are connected across the world so that information about production, prices, innovations, etc., is distributed over the Internet in the blink of an eye. This significantly increases the transparency of the markets and boosts co mpetition. Our leaders have also understood that our competitive advantage in the global market economy no longer rests on the possession of raw materials or manpower, but on our grey matter: knowledge. The Lisbon Strategy: knowledge as both competitive weapon and social cement? During the 2000 spring summit in Lisbon, EU leaders elevated the knowledge economy to the ultimate goal of the decade: making the EU into the largest and most dynamic knowledge economy in the world, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. The exegesis of this text is a fascinating activity. At first sight, one sentence contains the most obvious contradictions: on the one hand, the desire to be a winner in the global competitive struggle is clear while, on the other hand, we find the desire to counteract the social and regional polarisation that results from the neo-liberal market economy, using the same investments in knowledge. It seems to be a typically political sample compromise between heads of state on right and left, all wanting to put their eggs in the EU basket without checking whether their agendas are in any way reconcilable. The fact is that the Lisbon agenda can be taken in many different ways. For the marketeers, it is first and foremost about playing out comparative advantages on world markets. According to the Heckscher-Ohlin theorems of international trade theory, free trade will spontaneously cause trading partners to specialise in producing those goods and services in which they have a comparative advantage. Where necessary, the government may lend a helping hand. If we assume that Europe is relatively poor in raw materials and labour, but rich in brain power, then investing in education, research and development is indeed the recipe for success. Investment in RD has to be increased, up to 3% of gross domestic product. The innovative climate has to be nurtured, including by establishing innovation platforms, incubation centres, public investment in eco-technology, etc.. Information and communication technologies are key areas of economic development. The number of scientifically and technically educated people at secondary and higher levels must be dramatically increa sed. The connection between education and the labour market must be improved. The flow of unqualified school-leavers must be cut by half. Participation in life-long learning must be increased and every adult must have access to basic IT skills. By specialising in knowledge-intensive sectors according to the forecasts of neo-classical trade theory the European economy will grow further and the Third World will also benefit as a result because the flipside of the coin is that labour-intensive activities will be outsourced to low-wage countries. Both sides, North and South, can only benefit as a result. The World Bank looked and saw that it was good: according to the Bank, the new globalisers a group of 23 developing countries that have opened up their borders (China, India, Brazil and others) saw average economic growth in the 1990s (per head of population) of 5% per year. In the rich countries, where globalisation was promoted, this growth was 2% per year, while the stragglers, countries that sealed themselves off, experienced negative average growth (World Bank, 2002). At the same time, the OECD and the EU learned from research that the knowledge economy was once again to set them on the path of sustainable growth. Temple (2001) found that every additional year of education by the working population increases national income by about 10%. This effect can be broken down into a level effect and a growth effect: the former means that the working population is more productive and therefore generates more income. The growth effect can be attributed to the fact that the more highly e ducated have also learned to learn: even after leaving the classroom they continue to behave creatively and flexibly under changing circumstances, producing a snowball effect as a result. As far as investment in research and development is concerned, the figures are just as telling: Sakurai et al. (1996) estimate the average rate of return from RD activities at 15%, with exceptions up to 40-50% in some countries and sectors. In other words, every euro a company or government invests in RD is fully recovered in an average of 7 years. The observation that few investments are as profitable as investments in education and research is perhaps one of the most important findings to come out of social sciences in the past decade. The European Commission has also received this message loud and clear (de la Fuente Ciccone, 2002). So much for the good news. However, the way in which globalisation and the knowledge economy can be reconciled with social cohesion within the EU is not specified anywhere. Even the built-in pattern, that the global free market actually undermines social cohesion within Europe, is not discussed anywhere in EU documents. Indeed, the associated specialisation in knowledge-intensive sectors boosts the demand for highly specialised scientists and technically educated labour. The increasing shortages in these labour market segments will exert upward pressure on the wages of these workers. On the other hand, the outsourcing of low-skilled, labour-intensive production processes leads to reduced demand and a structural surplus of unskilled labour, which means that the wages and working conditions of these groups are also gradually undermined (Wood, 1994). Whether this polarisation on the labour market is caused by globalisation itself or by technological evolution or the tertiarisation of th e economy is more like a discussion of the gender of the angels: the three trends are after all dimensions of the same knowledge economy. Inequality in Europe, even in the whole of the rich North, has been systematically increasing since the mid-1980s (Fà ¶rster, 2000). According to Pontusson et al. (2002), some countries are still managing to curb inequality by a strong trade union movement and/or public employment, but these counteracting forces are coming under increasing pressure. The Lisbon strategy therefore seems like trying to square the circle. The more the member states encourage it, the less social cohesion there is. The EU does have structural funds available to promote social cohesion (both between regions and between the highly skilled and unskilled). Since the enlargement of the EU, however (itself also a stage in globalisation), these structural funds themselves have lost some of their influence because they have not grown in proportion to the size of the Union, certainly not in proportion to the drastically wider gap within the EU28. In our opinion, the only way to reconcile the knowledge economy with the objective of greater social cohesion and is through mass investment in education. The difference between this approach and the previous is that investment in education influences the supply side of the labour market, while globalisation and intensification of the knowledge-intensive production sectors influence the demand side. This difference is essential: perhaps it requires some explanation. RD investment and specialisation in knowledge-intensive trade (IT, financial services, pharmaceuticals, eco-technology, etc.), as we have said, boost the demand for highly skilled workers, while the outsourcing of unskilled production sectors causes a decline in the demand for unskilled workers. All other things being equal, this shift in the demand for labour causes a reverse redistribution of employment and income, from unqualified to highly qualified. Rather than stimulating this (spontaneous) trend, policy must be geared towards bringing about similar shifts on the supply side of the labour market. Education and vocational training are actually geared towards converting unskilled workers into more highly skilled workers: if this process can (at least) keep pace with the shifts on the demand side, inequality can be kept in check, or even reduced. It is a race against time and, if we claim that large-scale investment in education is needed, the distribution of this investment itsel f among the various sections of the population is also of great importance. The deeply ingrained Matthew effect in education and life-long learning actually threatens to undermine the effectiveness of this strategy. From a social perspective, the first priority in education policy is to eliminate the flow of unqualified school-leavers from education; the second priority is the literacy plan and the third is to increase the supply of engineers and those with scientific and technical skills. Not everyone will agree with this ranking. It is a question of social choice. The Lisbon strategy does not actually contradict this approach but nor does it lead automatically to the desired result. As we wrote in the introduction to this section, it seems like a sample compromise between diverging national priorities. Anything is possible with such compromises. We can characterise the contrasting policy alternatives described above as knowledge-intensive versus knowledge-extensive. The knowledge-intensive path, which gives priority to the development of advanced technology, will boost economic growth in the short term, but gradually become bogged down on the labour market, further dualisation of society and social unrest. The knowledge-extensive path, which gives preference to a raft of basic skills for as many people as possible, will perhaps deliver less visible results in the short term but, in the longer term, lead to more sustainable growth. The debate surrounding the correct mix has, to our knowledge, not yet been explicitly pursued. Free movement of education services The education sector is not only an involved party in the globalisation process; it is itself also partly the subject of it. In the 1990s, the WTO (World Trade Organization) launched an offensive (in the Uruguay round and again in 2001 in the Doha round) to involve a number of subsidised services in the negotiations about trade liberalisation as well. In principle, every service over which the government does not have a genuine monopoly can be discussed at the negotiating table. Education services are included here as soon as private organisers of education are admitted, even if they are 100% subsidised by the state. This is certainly the case in Belgium, given that the free education network alone is larger than the two official networks combined. International trade in education services can take various forms: from distance learning across national borders, international student or lecturer mobility, to the establishment of campuses abroad (Knight, 2002). Of course, it is up to the members themselves to decide, through free negotiations, whether they want to open up their education sectors to international competition. The EU commissioner for trade, who acts during the GATS negotiations on behalf of all EU member states, had given undertakings during the Uruguay round for privately financed education (in other words the commercial or at least unsubsidised education circuit). All compulsory education and most higher education therefore fall de facto outside the scope of GATS. Only entirely private schools and commercial initiatives in adult education were liberalised. What does this mean in practice? We are not used to talking about trade in educational services, even less about their liberalisation. After all, import tariffs are never charged Trade barriers do not, however, consist solely of import tariffs, but also of what are known as non-tariff obstacles (e.g. quota restrictions, quality standards, recognition procedures for fore ign qualifications, etc.). Once a party has opened up its borders, it must at least apply the general principles of GATS in this respect. Market access means that no quantitative barriers may be imposed, such as a ceiling of x foreign students or y branches of foreign schools. The most-favoured clause means that no privileges can be denied to one member if they are committed to another member of the WHO.  [1]  The principle of national treatment implies that, when there is free access to foreign service providers, no different standards or subsidy rules can be imposed on provisions of domestic or foreign origin. Furthermore, undertakings are irrevocable and WHO members hand over jurisdiction over any conflicts to a panel of international trade experts. The GATS initiative was not exactly welcomed with great enthusiasm. Its intentions were good: to increase prosperity by bringing burgeoning service sectors out of their national cocoons and to allow matching between demand and supply to take place across national borders. Liberalisation means diversification, greater freedom of choice, more efficiency and quality incentives and perhaps also less of a burden on the government budget. On the international stage, the major Anglo-Saxon countries were clearly in favour of the initiative. After all, they have had a strong comparative advantage right from the start because the working language of their education systems is the most important world language. E-courses, whether or not supported by specialist call centres, are very attractive as an export product because they are associated with huge economies of scale. However, the reception of foreign students can also be a lucrative business. For example, Australia is making big bucks with the tens of thousands of Asians attending university there. Even if this export education is partially subsidised, return effects can still be gained from other spending by foreign students and, if the best brains can then be retained in the host country, the picture is even more favourable. As importers, some major developing countries, led by China, can also make money from liberalisation. Thanks to the meteoric growth of its economy, the Chinese government cannot satisfy the increased demand for higher education. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese students begin their studies abroad every year, possibly with a grant from their government. Most of them come back with Western qualifications and join the countrys scientific and technological elite. The Chinese government saves on higher education because most migrants pay for their studies abroad themselves. In some cases, multinationals investing in China establish their own colleges to train suitable executives. By contrast, in the European education sector, liberalisation and commercialisation meet with great reticence, not entirely without justification (OKeeffe, 2003; Hanley and Frederiksson, 2003). Not for nothing do governments curb market effects in education because of the risk of market failure. A free, competitive market also requires homogenous goods (a nursing qualification in country A should have the same value as in country B); at the same time, all those involved must be well-informed about the quality and cost price of the goods. Power concentrations (e.g. of large universities or associations) are out of the question, etc.. None of these conditions for healthy competition is truly fulfilled. Education is a very complex, opaque market. If all this applies to domestic provisions, how much more then to foreign provisions? Will liberalisation not lead automatically to privatisation and price increases? Does globalisation of the education sector not open the door to the suppressi on of national culture? It is not actually clear to what extent all these objections are founded. It is a fact that the EU pursues a somewhat ambiguous strategy in this area. It portrays itself to the outside world as the defender of a regulated, protected education sector but, internally, despite its subsidiary role regarding education, it promotes liberalisation by all means available. The Bologna process and the Copenhagen process should create a European educational space for higher and vocational education respectively, in which supply and demand can move freely. Harmonisation of structures, recognition of qualifications obtained elsewhere and the development of a uniform, transparent European Qualification Framework should help to enable EU citizens to brush up or refine their skills in other member states. Erasmus grants should boost student mobility and, last but not least, the EU services directive (the infamous Bolkestein directive) has led to the free movement of educational services within the E U, which that same EU is fighting at the GATS negotiating table. So what effects should we expect? To begin with, remember that compulsory education is also not subject to the services directive or the GATS rules, so that a great deal of movement should not be expected at this level. Secondly, higher education will also remain largely subsidised in the future. Free movement in this sector will perhaps lead to a downwards levelling off of subsidies (or an upwards levelling off of registration fees). After all, in an open educational space, a member state cannot allow itself to offer cheaper education than its neighbouring countries for very long. In the long term, thousands of students from other member states could benefit from this transnational generosity. After all, different prices cannot be charged to EU students and to domestic students. In higher and adult education, an increased registration fee is not actually undemocratic: it counteracts the misplaced redistribution currently ravaging these segments because the better-off make disproport ionately more use of education which is partly funded by less well-off taxpayers. The democratisation of higher and adult education is not threatened if increased registration fees are coupled with higher study grants. The creation of a more transparent, uniform European educational space can, we believe, only be regarded as a positive phenomenon. It is the task of the government, where the market fails, to ensure that the educational supply is more transparent. This allows the user to choose more freely. The competition between provisions is also heightened as a result, which should lead to better quality and/or lower cost price. Nonetheless, the impending commercialisation of higher education may also have detrimental effects: in this context, education is gradually reduced to its most utilitarian dimension. As the student himself finances a larger share of the cost of education, he will also be more likely to choose the more lucrative studies. In particular, humanities and cultural sciences could come under pressure as a result. If society attaches importance to an adequate balance between courses of study, it will also have to build in the required incentives for this (e.g. by differentiated registration fees). Another risk the intensification of the brain drain is covered in the final section of our paper. Last but not least, at international level, the risks of any forms of market forces in education are of course present, specifically increasing polarisation in quality and prestige among educational establishments. The Cambridges, Paris VIs, Munichs and Stockholms are undoubtedly becoming even more of a major draw within a unified European higher education space. It will not be long before they increase their registration fees and tighten up their entry conditions in order to cream off the European elite. Regional colleges, by contrast, will see a weakening of the target audience as a result of the same mechanisms. If access to higher education (and, even more so, adult education) is to remain democratic, European directives will also have to be enacted, as was also necessary for the liberalisation of other public welfare services. For example, Flemish higher education is already feeling the consequences of entry restrictions in the Netherlands. The question is whether this will be s ustainable in a context where international student mobility is on the increase. On the whole, the free movement of educational services does not look as scary as many make it out to be. It is important that a distinction be made between compulsory education, on the one hand, which belongs to the field of basic social rights, and further education and training on the other hand. In these latter segments, partial commercialisation should not automatically lead to social breakdown. It can even contribute to a more balanced financing mix, which is necessary to cope with the growing participation trend in the future. EU legislation will still have to ensure the required limit conditions to prevent negative social side effects. Education and Third World development In the above sections, we have largely confined ourselves to the European perspective. What do education and the knowledge society mean for the Third World? Curiously enough, the theory regarding the social role of education in the development literature is much richer and more subtle than in Western education literature. Whereas the Chicago economist Becker (1964) labelled education as an individual investment in human capital, with a financial return in terms of future income, the Bengali Sen (Sen, 1999) teaches us that education can also be regarded more broadly as an investment in capabilities which subsequently enable higher levels of functioning to be attained at the levels of health, family life, social participation, etc.. Empirical research underpins this position and demonstrates that a higher level of education also leads to better nutrition, health (e.g. AIDS prevention), housing, sex education, etc. (MacMahon, 1999; Saito, 2003). Moreover, investment in education generates many spill-over effects on the wider society. People learn from one another. Education also has a positive influence on security (prevention of high-risk and delinquent behaviour), social commitment, civil responsibility and the quality of democratic decisions. Research increasingly points to the role of education in the development of social capital (de la Fuente and Ciccone, 2002). These positive social effects are most clear in the context of gender-specific anti-poverty programmes. For instance, more education for women is associated with better family planning and better nutrition, health and training for children (for a summary of the results, see Behrman, 1997). In order to break through the vicious circle of poverty and disease, education and training programmes for girls and women are essential. In this context, UNICEF talks correctly of the multiplier effect of education for girls (UNICEF, 2004). These positive external effects ar e an additional reason for government intervention in education and training. Sufficient evidence exists that educational investment in developing countries produces a higher return than in developed countries (Psacharopoulos and Patrinos, 2004). This difference is a direct indication of the need for education in the acquisition of basic skills. In addition, Behrman (1997) points out that, as far as subsequent educational investments in their children are concerned, basic education or basic literacy for women is more important than achieving higher levels of education. Sen (2002) also emphasises the role of basic education and the role which this plays in increasing the required human security and further human and social development. Cost-benefit analyses have demonstrated that investments in pre-school education and basic education have a higher rate of return than spending on secondary and higher education particularly in developing countries (Psacharopoulos and Patrinos, 2004; Cunha et al., 2006). In multilateral development cooperation, these findings have been well received. At the World Conference in Jomtien (Thailand), in 1990, the Education For All (EFA) initiative was launched under the auspices of UNESCO. All parties agreed with the position that universal, compulsory, free, public and good-quality basic education is the cornerstone of an education strategy which also includes secondary, further, vocational and adult education. During the international Education Conference in Dakar (2000), the importance of education for all was again underlined and 6 objectives were formulated, two of which were later adopted as millennium objectives (completion of basic education by all young people and equal educational opportunities for girls and boys at all levels by 2015). The key target groups of the EFA campaign are the 80 million children who have never been to school and the 800 million illiterate adults in the world. Every developing country participating in EFA draws up a na tional education action plan that fits in with the national poverty reduction strategy (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper) and gives priority to basic education. This action plan is tested on all relevant social actors. A set of indicators is envisaged which can be used to test effective implementation. Monitoring and evaluation are entrusted to one single financier by the international community, per receiving country. In an attempt to accelerate the EFA train further, in 2002 the Fast Track Initiative (FTI) was launched, encouraged by the World Bank, which both international financial backers and receiving countries can join on a voluntary basis. In addition to endorsing the EFA principles, donors are asked for an additional commitment to long-term financing and receiving governments are asked to commit to transparent evaluation. The least that can be said about EFA and FTI is that they have the wind in their sails. Participation and invested resources are rising phenomenally. Since 2000, official development help for education worldwide has more than doubled. Nonetheless, the challenges are still considerable: the major enemies of education are poverty (and, associated with this, child labour), war, the debt burden, migration, mismanagement and disease. In crisis regions, education simply grinds to a halt. In some countries, the ravages of AIDS on teaching staff are so severe that it is barely possible to replace sick and deceased teachersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. In addition, it has to be said that the interests of financial backers and receiving countries, even if both groups have noble objectives, do not always coincide. The governments of developing countries are happy to make use of international support so that they can spend some of their own budgets on other priorities. On the other hand, the leading role of the World Bank in the FTI is not totally altruistic. One of the conditions for support, specifically, is that the national EFA action plans be linked to poverty reduction plans (PRSP): the latter are the World Banks key aid instruments. This means that multilateral educational aid serves as a lever to reinforce the influence of the World Bank on its customers. It is known that this external pressure is not always popular. Along with development aid, pro-globalist, liberal policy ideas are also dished out to receiving countries. In the past, for example, they were often obliged to reduce their import tariffs or food subsidies, which hit farmers and consumers particularly hard. Brain drain One of the reasons why the return on higher education in developing countries is relatively low has to do with the brain drain from developing countries to the rich North a phenomenon that does not exactly mesh with the predictions of international trade theory. In the first section of our paper, we referred to the theory of comparative advantages: every country will specialise in exporting goods and services for which the production factors are present in relative excess. Robert Mundell (1957) demonstrated that the international mobility of production factors can be regarded as a substitute for trade in goods, and with the same effect. In specific terms, this would mean that if developing countries have a surplus of unskilled labour and rich countries relatively large numbers of highly skilled people, we would expect a South-North migration of unskilled workers and a North-South migration of highly skilled workers. In both cases, migrants are attracted by the fact that, in the host country, they are relatively better paid than in their own countries because they are relatively scarcer there. In reality, the dominant pattern is a South-North migration of both unskilled and highly skilled workers. In 2005, around 4 million legal migrants (and an unknown number of illegals) flooded into the rich OECD countries (OECD, 2007). These figures do not include temporary migration. Upon closer inspection, the contradiction between theory and practice can be explained by a series of factors, of which we highlight only the most important. Firstly, the rich North dominates the world economy to such an extent that it also depresses demand for highly skilled people in the Third World. Secondly, governments in the North do not pursue a liberal policy when it comes to immigration. When push comes to shove, they place restraints on the laws of neo-classical trade theory, erect barriers to unskilled immigrants and are even actively recruiting the more highly skilled workers to fill existing bo

My Hero, My Grandfather Essay example -- Personal Narrative

My Hero, My Grandfather My grandfather was a very loving man, he loved his family more than anything he had known. The only thing that could compare to his love for his family, was his love for his country. In his life he would have to make many sacrifices for his country, and the second would be supporting his wife and kids. He took on hardships with ease, he always had a certain calmness to him, this is something I idolize about him, I would like to learn how to act this way. He’s my hero because he was special, not like anyone else I have ever met, he knew he was special, but he never he never flaunted it. In this essay I will try to paint a picture of my hero, and give examples of why my grandfather is my hero. In January of 1933, my grandfather was born in the small Pennsylvania town of McKees Rocks. The second of five children, an older sister Joan, and three little brothers Terrance, John, and Jerome, all to their parents Robert W. Hileman and Katheryn Conolly Hileman. My grandfathers’ childhood was difficult, because it was part of this depression. When he was a kid his food was rationed, his family was only allowed so much of certain items sugar, meat, butter, and other certain things. When he was twelve years old, he got a job at a deli slicing meat, he did this to help his family out, this demonstrates that even at a young age he was willing to do whatever it took to help out what with he called â€Å"the cause†, or his family. His parents were very hard workers, his father was an air brake mechanic, at the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, he would put in long hard hours, to support his family. His mother was forced to work during World War II, she worked at a mill doing riveting work, later she worked at Bell Telephone. They were a very loving family, but work came first, this left very little time for their kids. My grandfather being the oldest son, was expected to help out more, one time when he was about twelve years old, his mom told him â€Å"Bobby, go to the store, and get me some bread† he said â€Å"OK.† Even though he did not want to go get it, he did it anyway, but as he went to get the bread, he became angry that he had to go get it, so when he got back to the house he had thrown the bread onto the roof of the house. This story has great meaning to me, because it was very rare that he would act out this extreme, espec... ...al use, instead of saving it for the soldiers who needed it. He would also tell me stories about how he and his friends would acquire food, by eating dog, tree bark, and broken up watermelon. He told me a story about when he was hungry, and he went into a territory occupied by the enemy to steal pieces of watermelon for himself and his friends. This is another example of him making sacrifices. he told me â€Å"I signed up to find adventure, like John Wayne, and boy did I get it.† Sometimes I think this was a dumb reason, but I respect that he was honest, and told me one reason he wanted to go to war, he also said he thought it would have been better than what he had at home. When he retired, he and my grandmother would go on many vacations, many would be to patriotic sites like Gettysburg, Washington DC, Virginia, and even some historic sites in Canada. By doing this he showed his love for his country, and history itself, he would do everything to the fullest. He raised his family to the best of his ability, he was a good family man, and a hard worker that endured whatever confronted him. This is why he is my hero, because of his strength and his will to make sacrifices.

Chapter 25 the Grapes of Wrath

THE SPRING IS BEAUTIFUL in California. Valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea. Then the first tendrils of the grapes swelling from the old gnarled vines, cascade down to cover the trunks. The full green hills are round and soft as breasts. And on the level vegetable lands are the mile-long rows of pale green lettuce and the spindly little cauliflowers, the gray-green unearthly artichoke plants. And then the leaves break out on the trees, and the petals drop from the fruit trees and carpet the earth with pink and white.The centers of the blossoms swell and grow and color: cherries and apples, peaches and pears, figs which close the flower in the fruit. All California quickens with produce, and the fruit grows heavy, and the limbs bend gradually under the fruit so that little crutches must be placed under them to support the weight. Behind the fruitfulness are men of understanding and knowledge, and skill, men who experiment with seed, e ndlessly developing the techniques for greater crops of plants whose roots will resist the million enemies of the earth: the molds, the insects, the rusts, the blights.These men work carefully and endlessly to perfect the seed, theroots. And there are the men of chemistry who spray the trees against pests, who sulphur the grapes, who cut out disease and rots, mildews and sicknesses. Doctors of preventive medicine, men at the borders who look for fruit flies, for Japanese beetle, men who quarantine the sick trees and root them out and burn them, men of knowledge.The men who graft the young trees, the little vines, are the cleverest of all, for theirs is a surgeon's job, as tender and delicate; and these men must have surgeons' hands and surgeons' hearts to slit the bark, to place the grafts, to bind the wounds and cover them from the air. These are great men. Along the rows, the cultivators move, tearing the spring grass and turning it under to make a fertile earth, breaking the grou nd to hold the water up near the surface, ridging the ground in little pools for the irrigation, destroying the weed roots that may drink the water away from the trees.And all the time the fruit swells and the flowers break out in long clusters on the vines. And in the growing year the warmth grows and the leaves turn dark green. The prunes lengthen like little green bird's eggs, and the limbs sag down against the crutches under the weight. And the hard little pears take shape, and the beginning of the fuzz comes out on the peaches. Grape blossoms shed their tiny petals and the hard little beads become green buttons, and the buttons grow heavy. The men who work in the fields, the owners of the little orchards, watch and calculate.The year is heavy with produce. And the men are proud, for of their knowledge they can make the year heavy. They have transformed the world with their knowledge. The short, lean wheat has been made big and productive. Little sour apples have grown large and sweet, and that old grape that grew among the trees and fed the birds its tiny fruit has mothered a thousand varieties, red and black, green and pale pink, purple and yellow; and each variety with its own flavor. The men who work in the experimental farms have made new fruits: nectarines and forty kinds of plums, walnuts with paper shells.And always they work, selecting, grafting, changing, driving themselves, driving the earth to produce. And first the cherries ripen. Cent and a half a pound. Hell, we can't pick 'em for that. Black cherries and red cherries, full and sweet, and the birds eat half of each cherry and the yellowjackets buzz into the holes the birds made. And on the ground the seeds drop and dry with black shreds hanging from them. The purple prunes soften and sweeten. My God, we can't pick them and dry and sulphur them. We can't pay wages, no matter what wages. And the purple prunes carpet the ground.And first the skins wrinkle a little and swarms of flies come to fe ast, and the valley is filled with the odor of sweet decay. The meat turns dark and the crop shrivels on the ground. And the pears grow yellow and soft. Five dollars a ton. Five dollars for forty fiftypound boxes; trees pruned and sprayed, orchards cultivated—pick the fruit, put it in boxes, load the trucks, deliver the fruit to the cannery—forty boxes for five dollars. We can't do it. And the yellow fruit falls heavily to the ground and splashes on the ground. The yellowjackets dig into the soft meat, and there is a smell of ferment and rot.Then the grapes—we can't make good wine. People can't buy good wine. Rip the grapes from the vines, good grapes, rotten grapes, wasp-stung grapes. Press stems, press dirt and rot. But there's mildew and formic acid in the vats. Add sulphur and tannic acid. The smell from the ferment is not the rich odor of wine, but the smell of decay and chemicals. Oh, well. It has alcohol in it, anyway. They can get drunk. The little farme rs watched debt creep up on them like the tide. They sprayed the trees and sold no crop, they pruned and grafted and could not pick the crop.And the men of knowledge have worked, have considered, and the fruit is rotting on the ground, and the decaying mash in the wine vat is poisoning the air. And taste the wine—no grape flavor at all, just sulphur and tannic acid and alcohol. This little orchard will be a part of a great holding next year, for the debt will have choked the owner. This vineyard will belong to the bank. Only the great owners can survive, for they own the canneries, too. And four pears peeled and cut in half, cooked and canned, still cost fifteen cents. And the canned pears do not spoil.They will last for years. The decay spreads over the State, and the sweet smell is a great sorrow on the land. Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce. Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow. The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground.The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit—and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out.Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into th e earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate—died of malnutrition—because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath a re filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. Chapter 25 the Grapes of Wrath THE SPRING IS BEAUTIFUL in California. Valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea. Then the first tendrils of the grapes swelling from the old gnarled vines, cascade down to cover the trunks. The full green hills are round and soft as breasts. And on the level vegetable lands are the mile-long rows of pale green lettuce and the spindly little cauliflowers, the gray-green unearthly artichoke plants. And then the leaves break out on the trees, and the petals drop from the fruit trees and carpet the earth with pink and white.The centers of the blossoms swell and grow and color: cherries and apples, peaches and pears, figs which close the flower in the fruit. All California quickens with produce, and the fruit grows heavy, and the limbs bend gradually under the fruit so that little crutches must be placed under them to support the weight. Behind the fruitfulness are men of understanding and knowledge, and skill, men who experiment with seed, e ndlessly developing the techniques for greater crops of plants whose roots will resist the million enemies of the earth: the molds, the insects, the rusts, the blights.These men work carefully and endlessly to perfect the seed, theroots. And there are the men of chemistry who spray the trees against pests, who sulphur the grapes, who cut out disease and rots, mildews and sicknesses. Doctors of preventive medicine, men at the borders who look for fruit flies, for Japanese beetle, men who quarantine the sick trees and root them out and burn them, men of knowledge.The men who graft the young trees, the little vines, are the cleverest of all, for theirs is a surgeon's job, as tender and delicate; and these men must have surgeons' hands and surgeons' hearts to slit the bark, to place the grafts, to bind the wounds and cover them from the air. These are great men. Along the rows, the cultivators move, tearing the spring grass and turning it under to make a fertile earth, breaking the grou nd to hold the water up near the surface, ridging the ground in little pools for the irrigation, destroying the weed roots that may drink the water away from the trees.And all the time the fruit swells and the flowers break out in long clusters on the vines. And in the growing year the warmth grows and the leaves turn dark green. The prunes lengthen like little green bird's eggs, and the limbs sag down against the crutches under the weight. And the hard little pears take shape, and the beginning of the fuzz comes out on the peaches. Grape blossoms shed their tiny petals and the hard little beads become green buttons, and the buttons grow heavy. The men who work in the fields, the owners of the little orchards, watch and calculate.The year is heavy with produce. And the men are proud, for of their knowledge they can make the year heavy. They have transformed the world with their knowledge. The short, lean wheat has been made big and productive. Little sour apples have grown large and sweet, and that old grape that grew among the trees and fed the birds its tiny fruit has mothered a thousand varieties, red and black, green and pale pink, purple and yellow; and each variety with its own flavor. The men who work in the experimental farms have made new fruits: nectarines and forty kinds of plums, walnuts with paper shells.And always they work, selecting, grafting, changing, driving themselves, driving the earth to produce. And first the cherries ripen. Cent and a half a pound. Hell, we can't pick 'em for that. Black cherries and red cherries, full and sweet, and the birds eat half of each cherry and the yellowjackets buzz into the holes the birds made. And on the ground the seeds drop and dry with black shreds hanging from them. The purple prunes soften and sweeten. My God, we can't pick them and dry and sulphur them. We can't pay wages, no matter what wages. And the purple prunes carpet the ground.And first the skins wrinkle a little and swarms of flies come to fe ast, and the valley is filled with the odor of sweet decay. The meat turns dark and the crop shrivels on the ground. And the pears grow yellow and soft. Five dollars a ton. Five dollars for forty fiftypound boxes; trees pruned and sprayed, orchards cultivated—pick the fruit, put it in boxes, load the trucks, deliver the fruit to the cannery—forty boxes for five dollars. We can't do it. And the yellow fruit falls heavily to the ground and splashes on the ground. The yellowjackets dig into the soft meat, and there is a smell of ferment and rot.Then the grapes—we can't make good wine. People can't buy good wine. Rip the grapes from the vines, good grapes, rotten grapes, wasp-stung grapes. Press stems, press dirt and rot. But there's mildew and formic acid in the vats. Add sulphur and tannic acid. The smell from the ferment is not the rich odor of wine, but the smell of decay and chemicals. Oh, well. It has alcohol in it, anyway. They can get drunk. The little farme rs watched debt creep up on them like the tide. They sprayed the trees and sold no crop, they pruned and grafted and could not pick the crop.And the men of knowledge have worked, have considered, and the fruit is rotting on the ground, and the decaying mash in the wine vat is poisoning the air. And taste the wine—no grape flavor at all, just sulphur and tannic acid and alcohol. This little orchard will be a part of a great holding next year, for the debt will have choked the owner. This vineyard will belong to the bank. Only the great owners can survive, for they own the canneries, too. And four pears peeled and cut in half, cooked and canned, still cost fifteen cents. And the canned pears do not spoil.They will last for years. The decay spreads over the State, and the sweet smell is a great sorrow on the land. Men who can graft the trees and make the seed fertile and big can find no way to let the hungry people eat their produce. Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten. And the failure hangs over the State like a great sorrow. The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground.The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit—and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out.Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into th e earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate—died of malnutrition—because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath a re filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

Women on Death Row - Rosie Alfaro

Women on Death Row - Rosie Alfaro Marà ­a del Rosio Alfaro, also known as Rosie Alfaro, is a convicted murderer currently on death row in California for the June 15, 1990, murder of Autumn Wallace, age 9, in Anaheim, California. The Crime In June 1990, Rosie Alfaro was 18 years old, a drug addict and the mother of two and pregnant with twins. She was living in a home in Anaheim with a relative of the father of the twins, which was three blocks from the Wallace home. Alfaro was a high school friend of Autumns older sister April and had stayed with the Wallace family during her second pregnancy. However, in 1989, April began to distance herself from Alfaro, other than to occasionally give her a ride when asked. On June 15, 1990, Autumn was home from school early. The school was having early day and recessed at 2:35 p.m. Autumns mother, Linda Wallace, and April were at work and were not expected home until around 5 p.m. Autumn entertained herself by cutting out paper dolls. On the same day, Rosie Alfaro was busy buying cocaine and heroin and getting high. Her first score was around 11 a.m. and by 2 p.m. she was again out of money and drugs. A friend, Antonio Reynoso, who had been released from prison the previous day, agreed to share his drugs with her if she would agree to share her needle. When his drugs ran out, Alfaro decided that she would rob the Wallaces home to get money for more drugs. Alfaro told Reynoso that she used to live with the Wallace family and that she had left a video cassette recorder at the home and would sell it to him in exchange for drugs. Alfaro, Reynoso, an unidentified man, and Alfaros youngest baby went to the Wallace home. The men and the child waited by the car while Alfaro headed to the house. Autumn answered the door and recognized Alfaro as a friend of her sisters. Alfaro asked if she could use the restroom and Autumn let her come inside. Alfaro then managed to take a knife from the kitchen drawer and then coaxed Autumn into the bathroom. There she stabbed Autumn over 50 times in the back, chest, and head. With Autumn out the way, she went about robbing the house of various electronics, appliances, and clothing. Alfaro later admitted that she knew Autumn would be home alone and she was also aware that Autumn could identify her to the police. The Investigation April Wallace returned home at around 5:15 p.m. and found the door to the house unlocked. When she entered the home she saw that the house was a mess and that there were several items missing. She called out to Autumn, but there was no answer, so she left and went across the street to a neighbors house to wait for her mother to come home. Linda Wallace arrived home around 5:40 p.m. and was told that the house had been burglarized and that Autumn was missing. She went inside the house to search for Autumn and found her dead in the back bathroom. Neighbors told police that they saw a brownish Monte Carlo parked at the Wallace home and that two men, one holding a small child, were standing outside of the car. Police investigators were able to obtain a fingerprint from the Wallace home which matched to Alfaro. Alfaro was brought in for questioning and denied any involvement in the murder. More Evidence Sometime after the murder, Alfaro asked a friend if she could leave a bag of clothing at her house. Alfaro contacted the friend later, asking that she leave the bag outside of her home because she was heading to Mexico early the next day, but she never showed up.Investigators found out about the bag and on inspection found a pair of Aprils boots that had been reported as being stolen and a pair of Alfaros tennis shoes. A warrant for Alfaros arrest was issued and she was brought in for questioning again. Confession In a videotaped session that lasted more than four hours, Alfaro confessed that she alone murdered Autumn and then burglarizing the home. Alfaro was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and burglary. Trial In March 1992 a jury found Rosie Alfaro guilty for the murder of Autumn Wallace. The trial lasted two weeks. Sentencing - The First Penalty Phase During the first penalty phase of the trial childhood friends of Alfaro testified that she grew up in a violent home and that her father was a drunk who abused her mother. They also testified that Alfaro was using drugs as early as the sixth grade and dropped out of school in the seventh grade, at which time she began injecting daily as many as 50 speed balls (a mixture of heroin and cocaine.) Alfaros mother, Sylvia Alfaro, testified that her husband was an alcoholic who often hit both herself and Rosie in front of the other children in the family, and threw the family out of the home during drunken rages. She spoke about her daughters early drug use and her inability to quit. She said that at the age of 14, Rosie was pregnant with her first child. During that same time Rosies father abandoned the family. Who is Beto? Rosie Alfaro also took the stand and testified about her unhappy childhood, her violent father, racial prejudice she suffered at school and about her inability to get off of drugs. She expressed her remorse over the murder of Autumn Wallace, stating that we took your innocent life. With the reference of we the court ruled that she had opened the door to cross-examination regarding what went on during the crime since Alfaro had always insisted that she acted alone. During the cross-examination, Alfaro testified that she did murder Autumn, but did so under pressure from the second unidentified man that had come with her and Reynoso. She referred to the man as Beto but refused to offer any information as to his identity. She also testified that she was high on drugs and out of her head shortly before going to the Wallace home. This time she said that she did not know Autumn would be home and had never planned to harm her. She said that when Beto, who was also high on drugs, saw that Autumn was in the house he became angry and put a knife to Alfaros back and threatened to kill her and her child if she did not stab Autumn. She said she stabbed Autumn a few times, but claimed Beto must have inflicted the remainder of the stab wounds. Alfaro  said that once she came down from her high, she could not believe that Autumn was dead. The prosecutor questioned Alfaro about information regarding the identity of Beto that she had told to a mental health expert that examined her at the request of her lawyers. She testified that she initially told the doctor that the unidentified man was her fathers friend and that his name was Miguel. She then told him that the mans name was Beto and identified him in a photograph and said he had a womans name tattooed on his neck. During questioning of Alfaro and Reynoso the defense suggested that the real identity of Beto was Robert Frias Gonzales, whose nickname is Beto. However, in rebuttal the prosecution questioned Robert Gonzales who denied having anything to do with the murder of Autumn Wallace and who also did not look at all like the man that Alfaro had identified in the picture as being Beto. Unable to identify who Beto was, the jury at the first penalty phase trial was unable to agree on a sentence and the trial court was declared a mistrial. Second Penalty Phase Trial The penalty retrial was held in April 1992 before a new jury. Most of the same witnesses who testified during the first penalty trial, testified again, although this time Rosie Alfaro remained silent. In addition to the original testimony, the defense called an expert criminalist, Marc Taylor, who testified that after examining much of the evidence, that shoe prints found inside and outside the house did not match Alfaros shoes. A deputy sheriff at the Orange County jail testified for the defense about a person he saw who resembled the picture that Alfaro had identified as being Beto getting into a blue Camaro parked across the street from the main jail. Dr. Consuelo Edwards who was the mental health expert that Alfaro had first told about Beto forcing her to murder Autumn also testified for the defense. He said that Alfaros intellectual functioning was borderline, and that she had an IQ of 78 and learning disabilities that were made worse by her traumatic childhood. He described her as a follower. In rebuttal, the prosecutor had several Orange County jail employees testify about Alfaros poor behavior in jail and quoted comments that they had overheard her saying to another inmate. They testified hearing her say, Im a frustrated person who takes things out on people, and have to learn to live with that, and Im not going to be able to do this again. Im no actor. Im going to be cold this time. I just want to get this over with. Orange County investigator Robert Harper testified that Robert Frias Gonzales, who the defense claimed was Beto and the second man with Alfaro on the day of the murder, had a butterfly tattoo on his neck and not a womans name, which is what Alfaro had described. On July 14, 1992, the second penalty phase jury sentenced Rosie Alfaro to death. In August 2007, the Supreme Court of California denied Rosie Alfaros request for a stay of execution. Marà ­a del Rosio Alfaro is the first woman ever sentenced to death in Orange County.

Sports in America

Sports in America In his essay Sports in America, James Michener argues that the role of sports in contemporary society has often been misconstrued by mass media and that there is very little understanding of the goals that sports should attain. This is the main thesis that the writer advances.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Sports in America specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In particular, he believes that reporters often overestimate the importance of athletic activities for the formation of a person’s character. Moreover, they should not assume that they can always help a person escape the dangers of a ghetto life. These are some of the main points that he makes. The main purpose of this essay is to make policy-makers, teachers, and parents to re-evaluate their views on sports. In order to elaborate his opinions, the author creates a very elaborate structure of the essay. First of all, he identifies the main objective of spo rts such as the promotion of healthy lifestyles and entertainment of individuals and the public. Secondly, the author identifies a set of stereotypes about sports and attempts to debunk them. For example, the writer focuses on the idea that athletic activities can develop the leadership skills of an individual. In the author’s opinion, good leadership of these people can be explained primarily by their self-discipline and intelligence (Michener 1031). Additionally, James Michener discusses various books that can give readers a better idea about the role of sports. Finally, the writer identifies the main problems that are associated with sports nowadays (Michener 1033). Overall, this structure helps the author to elaborate his ideas. It should be taken into consideration that James Michener does not directly identify the main readers of his essay. As it has been said before, this work is primarily intended for policy-makers, parents, educators and administrators of colleges or universities who may consider the ideas of the author. First of all, the writer uses a balanced and tentative tone that can appeal to these people. Moreover, the issues discussed by James Michener are related to the investment in sports and recreational infrastructure such as stadiums, the education of students, and the policies of the state. Thus, this essay is supposed to change the opinions of people take important decisions regarding the education of children or adolescents. It is also important to speak about the style and tone of this paper. One can say that the writer avoids the use of categorical statements. Instead, he attempts to create well-constructed arguments that are based on certain evidence or at least logical reasoning. Secondly, James Michener uses bullet points in order to better identify the main points of his essay (Michener 1033).Advertising Looking for essay on rhetoric? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn Mo re The author uses different types of sentences that include approximately fifteen or seventeen words. On the whole, one can say that his style, tone and word choice are quite clear. This is the main strength of his essay. Overall, this essay can be viewed as a great example of formal writing when the author has to put a well-developed argument. Moreover, this work shows how the writer can make a claim that may not necessarily appeal to the readers. To some extent, the author’s reasoning appears to be quite convincing. However, one should take into account that James Michener does not refer to any empirical studies that confirm his arguments. This is the main limitation of this essay. Nevertheless, it should be considered by policy-makers and educators. Michener, James. â€Å"Sports in America.† Literature for Composition: Essays, Stories,  Poems, and Plays. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Pearson Education, 2010. 1028-1034. Print.

About Byzantine Architecture and the Rise of Christianity

About Byzantine Architecture and the Rise of Christianity Byzantine architecture is a style of building that flourished under the rule of Roman Emperor Justinian between A.D. 527 and 565. In addition to extensive use of interior mosaics, its defining characteristic is a heightened dome, the result of the latest sixth-century engineering techniques. Byzantine architecture dominated the eastern half of the Roman Empire during the reign of Justinian the Great, but the influences spanned centuries, from 330 until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and on into todays church architecture. Much of what we call Byzantine architecture today is ecclesiastical, meaning church-related. Christianity began to flourish after the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313 when Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337) announced his own Christianity, which legitimized the new religion; Christians would no longer be routinely persecuted. With religious freedom, Christians could worship openly and without threat, and the young religion spread rapidly. The need for places of worship expanded as did the need for new approaches to building design. Hagia Irene (also known as Haghia Eirene or Aya Ä °rini Kilisesi) in Istanbul, Turkey is the  site of the first Christian church ordered built by Constantine in the 4th Century. Many of these early churches were destroyed but rebuilt atop their rubble by Emperor Justinian. Hagia Irene or Aya Ä °rini Kilisesi in Istanbul, Turkey. Salvator Barki/Getty Images (cropped) Characteristics of Byzantine Architecture Original Byzantine churches are square-shaped with a central floor plan. They were designed after the Greek cross or crux immissa quadrata instead of the Latin crux ordinaria of Gothic cathedrals. Early Byzantine churches might have one, dominant center dome of great height, rising from a square base on half-dome pillars or pendentives. Byzantine architecture blended Western and Middle Eastern architectural details and ways of doing things. Builders renounced the Classical Order in favor of columns with decorative impost blocks inspired by Middle Eastern designs. Mosaic decorations and narratives were common. For example, the mosaic image of Justinian in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy honors the Roman Christian Emporer. The early Middle Ages was also a time of experimentation with building methods and materials. Clerestory windows became a popular way for natural light and ventilation to enter an otherwise dark and smokey building. Mosaic of the Roman Christian Emporer Justinian I Flanked by Military and Clergy. CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images Construction and Engineering Techniques How do you put a huge, round dome onto a square-shaped room? Byzantine builders experimented with different methods of construction; when ceilings fell in, they tried something else. Art historian Hans Buchwald writes that: Sophisticated methods for assuring structural solidity were developed, such as well-built deep foundations, wooden tie-rod systems in vaults, walls and foundations, and metal chains placed horizontally inside masonry. Byzantine engineers turned to the structural use of pendentives to elevate domes to new heights. With this technique, a dome can rise from the top of a vertical cylinder, like a silo, giving height to the dome. Like the Hagia Irene, the exterior of the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy is characterized by the silo-like pendentive construction. A good example of pendentives seen from the inside is the interior of the ​Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) in Istanbul, one of the most famous Byzantine structures in the world. Inside the Hagia Sophia. Frà ©dà ©ric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images Why This Style Is Called Byzantine In the year 330, Emperor Constantine relocated the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to a part of Turkey known as Byzantium (present-day Istanbul). Constantine renamed Byzantium to be called Constantinople after himself. What we call the Byzantine Empire is really the Eastern Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was divided into East and West. While the Eastern Empire was centered in Byzantium, the Western Roman Empire was centered in Ravenna, in northeast Italy, which is why Ravenna is a well-known tourist destination for Byzantine architecture. The Western Roman Empire in Ravenna fell in 476 but was recaptured in 540 by Justinian. Justinians Byzantine influence is still felt in Ravenna. Byzantine Architecture, East and West The Roman Emperor Flavius Justinianus was not born in Rome, but in Tauresium, Macedonia in Eastern Europe in about 482. His place of birth is a major factor why the reign of the Christian Emperor changed the shape of architecture between 527 and 565. Justinian was a ruler of Rome, but he grew up with the people of the Eastern world. He was a Christian leader uniting two worlds; construction methods and architectural details were passed back and forth. Buildings that previously had been built similar to those in Rome took on more local, Eastern influences. Justinian reconquered the Western Roman Empire, which had been taken over by barbarians, and Eastern architectural traditions were introduced to the West. A mosaic image of Justinian from the Basilica of San Vitale, in Ravenna, Italy is a testament to the Byzantine influence on the Ravenna area, which remains a great center of Italian Byzantine architecture. Byzantine Architecture Influences Architects and builders learned from each of their projects and from each other. Churches built in the East influenced the construction and design of sacred architecture built in many places. For example, the Byzantine Church of the Saints Sergius and Bacchus, a small Istanbul experiment from the year 530, influenced the final design of the most famous Byzantine Church, the grand Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya), which itself inspired the creation of Blue Mosque of Constantinople in 1616. The Eastern Roman Empire profoundly influenced early Islamic architecture, including the Umayyad Great Mosque of Damascus and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. In Orthodox countries such as Russia and Romania, Eastern Byzantine architecture persisted, as shown by the 15th century Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. Byzantine architecture in the Western Roman Empire, including in Italian towns such as Ravenna, more quickly gave way to Romanesque and Gothic architecture, and the towering spire replaced the high domes of early Christian architecture. Architectural periods have no borders, especially during what is known as the Middle Ages. The period of Medieval architecture from roughly 500 to 1500 is sometimes called Middle and Late Byzantine. Ultimately, names are less important than influence, and architecture has always been subject to the next great idea. The impact of Justinians rule was felt long after his death in A.D. 565. Source Buchwald, Hans. The Dictionary of Art, Volume 9. Jane Turner, ed. Macmillan, 1996, p. 524

MCA Museum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

MCA Museum - Essay Example Altmejd’s artwork is way off the normal patterns of creativity. A new dimension of innovation and creativity reflects in the work of Altmejd. Painting 2: Changing Painting by Robert Gober (MCA Denver). Robert Gober’s artwork presents changing images. There can be various approaches to the way above figure can be interpreted. On the left part of the picture, there is the image of a man’s chest with hairs along the mid-line of the chest and around the areola. On the right half of the picture, the chest appears inflamed and there is no hair growth over it. Some viewers conceive the right half as the chest of a woman, while others refer to it as a male’s chest with the condition of gynecomastia, in which the excessive fat accumulation under the areola of males makes their chest look like that of women. In some cases, gynecomastia can appear in both sides of the chest. In other cases, a man may have gynecomastia in one side of the chest, as appears in the pictu re above. However, in regular gynecomastia, breast becomes enlarged but the hair growth remains the same on both sides, unlike the picture above. Overall, the picture is unique in subject and color theme. The picture above is one of the earliest paintings of Robert Gober. The artist transforms the canvas into a capacious and multifaceted platform full of contrasting themes. Painting 3: Butterfly wings (MCA Denver).

Researched Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Researched Report - Essay Example y have been focusing on the international growth, planning, identifying the good location to set up new businesses and formulation of quality enhancements strategies. The company applies three identifiable steps while offering services to customers, which include a focus on giving a warm and sincere greeting to customers, ensuring that the customers’ needs are fulfilled and offering a fond farewell that entails a warm good-bye. Therefore, the organization has been well identified for offering their customers with consistent services throughout their businesses. In fact, they have managed to establish Gold standards for services offered to customers, which contribute to competitive advantage and increased customer loyalty. The organization uses their employees to achieve the objective of offering satisfying services to their customers. In fact, the employees are referred to as the passionate advocates of the organization, whereby they depict personal attributes that are identified by managers during the recruitment and interview of the candidates. In this case, the organization has focused on managing the quality of services to achieve the customer expectations from various dimensions such as use of experience, word of mouth and advertising. The organization has established a culture appeal to increased value to employees working in the organization in a way that facilitates intrinsic sense of distinctiveness and commitment. Therefore, this has been facilitating the sustainability and profitability of the services offered to customers. The organization has also developed a culture of concurring people to be substantial elements in an organization due to articulation to policies, whereby making a substantial contribution to the improvement and sustainability of experiences in the quality of their services. Nevertheless, the paper will focus on assessing the culture of Ritz-Carlton hotel culture. It will offer relevant recommendations on ways that an organization

Policy Memo - Human Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Policy Memo - Human Rights - Essay Example In addition, there is the reality of todays global terrorism where time sensitive information may be able to save thousands of lives. Torture falls under the umbrella of human rights that have had staunch philosophical support from the US government since its inception. The problem that faces the US is being able to stay true to the principles and ideals that the US stands for, while confronting an enemy that does not have the same level of respect for life, dignity, and human rights that the US does. Only by eliminating the use of torture and maintaining our credibility on the world stage, will the US be able to further its agenda of spreading democracy and protecting human rights around the world. Torture dates back to the days of antiquity and has been used regularly in wars to gain information from the enemy. Torture was used in ancient Mesopotamia, the Romans tortured Christ, and Aristotle advocated it as an effective means to extract information (Masci). Since the earliest recorded times torture has been used by churches, militaries, and law enforcement in an effort to get a confession. By the 18th century, enlightened thinking began to question the ethics of torture and humanitarian advocates called for the elimination of torture as a means to get a confession (Masci). Modern views on torture are generally the result of the foundations laid by the American Red Cross and the Geneva Conferences in 1863 and 1864 (Masci). While there has been a movement to reduce torture in the recent centuries, and its practice made more palatable, it still proliferates in many of the civilized countries around the world. Today, law enforcement, intelligence organizations, militaries, and governments in over 100 countries including the United States use torture (Masci). Its use has been banned by international common law, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Geneva Convention

Various Assignments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Various Assignments - Essay Example Democracy typically requires that election systems result in proportional representation in that multi-party elections with a leader will typically mirror the concerns of the entire electorate (Smith, 2010). The US is split down the middle between two parties with precious few independent candidates interspersed at intervals. The US Presidential election itself often results in â€Å"winner takes all† outcome leaving those who did not elect the President feeling largely unrepresented (Smith, 2010, p. 135). This is the highest office in the US with both procedural and substantive defects. The procedural defects not only follow from the poorly administrative workings of the election process at the polls. The procedural defects also follow from the Electoral College. The Electoral College, informed by the popular vote, elects the President. However, by virtue of Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the US Constitution, the Electoral College is not constitutionally obligated to elect a president consistent with the popular vote (US Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 1). Therefore there is always a risk that the College Electorate may go against the popular vote and even if they did, there is no way for the population to know. This may account for the relatively low voter turnout at US Presidential elections as compared to other major government elections in other Western democracies (Smith, 2010). Therefore the US Presidential election process is by far the most flawed in that it does not allow for direct election by the voting public and in essence denies total or full representation. Moreover, the Presidential election campaign system is a long and complex exercise in which candidates engage in campaigns that typically involve â€Å"many twists and turns and seem to hinge on trivial incident and personal foibles† that are essentially meaningless in terms

Business analysis of an artist's career Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Business analysis of an artist's career - Essay Example The Eagles Band has remained active in Music Business for the periods of 1971-1980 and from 1994 to present. They have worked under the Labels of Asylum, Geffen Records, Lost Highway, Universal and collaborated on business ventures with Poco, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Dillard & Clark, James Gang.The band consists of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit.Some of the Band’s former member’s include Don Felder, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon. The American Rock Band is a very successful business venture in terms of strategy and revenues and originates from in California.The Band currently boasts of five Number 1 singles and four Number 1 albums.The band gained immense popularity in the 1970s and its album was rated number 37 on the Rolling Stone list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".The business success of the band also reflects the fact that the band was ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Alb um â€Å"Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975† has been their most profitable business venture to date.Since its break up in the eighties, the band does not make any new albums but tours together often. However this year in 2007 they have released their first album in three decades called the Long Road out of Eden and it is currently on of UK’s top 40 Albums.The first album, Eagles, was one of the Top 40 singles of its era. Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" ranked Eagles at number 374.... History of business ventures: Success and Failure. The first album, Eagles, was one of the Top 40 singles of its era.. Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" ranked Eagles at number 374.The next album , Desperado, an experimental venture in conceptual song writing did not match the success of their former work and the Album only did business in the U.S pop charts ,with only two major hits.The third venture ,On the Border involved Henley and Frey's wish to employ a new business strategy and move towards hard rock. They had a change of producers from Glyn Johns to Bill Szymczyk for this purpose.The venture proved successful and this Album yielded a lot of profits with the Eagles' becoming the first of five chart toppers. The next album (One of These Nights) was a further experiment in hard rock and the business collaboration between Henley/Frey as lyricists was getting stronger as the album received a hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1975.2However this new business strategy ultimately cost the band its unity as the hiring of Don Felder meant that Leadon's role was being underplayed.In 1976 with the release of "Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)"(29 million copies sold),the band prepared for yet another phenomenal success with " Hotel California", which was also an instant hit on the Billboard in 1977.The single " Hotel California" was a major source of profits and royalties for the band in the years to come as since its release it has appeared on several lists of the best albums of all time.This album remains to date their best-selling studio album, with over 16 million copies sold within America..3 The late 70's saw the disintegration of this phenomenal band

A central assumption made in Mean-Variance Analysis and the Capital Assignment - 2

A central assumption made in Mean-Variance Analysis and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is that investors prefer to invest in the most efficient portfolios available - Assignment Example An efficient portfolio is a collection of investments that provide the highest expected return at the given level of risk or portfolio that yield the lowest risk at given expected a return. Expected return is the minimum return expected by investors investing in any given asset. The risk occurs due to deviation from the expected return in either case as explained by Markowitz. According to Markowitz Portfolio Theory, individuals who accept to take high return with high-risk cannon diversify further without acceptance of greater risk. On the other hand, individuals will not agree to reduce their return without reduction of risk. This fact explains why low-risk, low-return and high-risk, high-return portfolios are equivalent when it comes to investing. Markowitz (1952: 77) believes that portfolio choice is dependent on maximum discounted risk venture which will give a high return since the future is uncertain and assurance of money back on investment should be assured. The low-risk, low-return investors motivated by low risk in an asset they are investing in will invest more getting quantifiable income. On the other hand, high risk – high return individuals will tend to invest in minimal assets with high risk, but getting a quantifiable return due to their nature of the high return. As argued by Markowitz (1952, p, 77) investors should not just go for high return high-risk investment rather they should focus on the expected return. An investor may go for high-risk, high return bonds, but in case of failure, the return will be greatly reduced. On the other hand, an investor may go for several low-risk, low-return, but the cumulative expected return will be high (hypothesis of the maxim by Markowitz 1952: 78.). According to maxim hypothesis, both diversified and under-diversified assert will have the same cumulative expected return. In the United States, the under-diversified portfolio is greater among young people,

Various Assignments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Various Assignments - Essay Example Democracy typically requires that election systems result in proportional representation in that multi-party elections with a leader will typically mirror the concerns of the entire electorate (Smith, 2010). The US is split down the middle between two parties with precious few independent candidates interspersed at intervals. The US Presidential election itself often results in â€Å"winner takes all† outcome leaving those who did not elect the President feeling largely unrepresented (Smith, 2010, p. 135). This is the highest office in the US with both procedural and substantive defects. The procedural defects not only follow from the poorly administrative workings of the election process at the polls. The procedural defects also follow from the Electoral College. The Electoral College, informed by the popular vote, elects the President. However, by virtue of Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the US Constitution, the Electoral College is not constitutionally obligated to elect a president consistent with the popular vote (US Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 1). Therefore there is always a risk that the College Electorate may go against the popular vote and even if they did, there is no way for the population to know. This may account for the relatively low voter turnout at US Presidential elections as compared to other major government elections in other Western democracies (Smith, 2010). Therefore the US Presidential election process is by far the most flawed in that it does not allow for direct election by the voting public and in essence denies total or full representation. Moreover, the Presidential election campaign system is a long and complex exercise in which candidates engage in campaigns that typically involve â€Å"many twists and turns and seem to hinge on trivial incident and personal foibles† that are essentially meaningless in terms

A central assumption made in Mean-Variance Analysis and the Capital Assignment - 2

A central assumption made in Mean-Variance Analysis and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is that investors prefer to invest in the most efficient portfolios available - Assignment Example An efficient portfolio is a collection of investments that provide the highest expected return at the given level of risk or portfolio that yield the lowest risk at given expected a return. Expected return is the minimum return expected by investors investing in any given asset. The risk occurs due to deviation from the expected return in either case as explained by Markowitz. According to Markowitz Portfolio Theory, individuals who accept to take high return with high-risk cannon diversify further without acceptance of greater risk. On the other hand, individuals will not agree to reduce their return without reduction of risk. This fact explains why low-risk, low-return and high-risk, high-return portfolios are equivalent when it comes to investing. Markowitz (1952: 77) believes that portfolio choice is dependent on maximum discounted risk venture which will give a high return since the future is uncertain and assurance of money back on investment should be assured. The low-risk, low-return investors motivated by low risk in an asset they are investing in will invest more getting quantifiable income. On the other hand, high risk – high return individuals will tend to invest in minimal assets with high risk, but getting a quantifiable return due to their nature of the high return. As argued by Markowitz (1952, p, 77) investors should not just go for high return high-risk investment rather they should focus on the expected return. An investor may go for high-risk, high return bonds, but in case of failure, the return will be greatly reduced. On the other hand, an investor may go for several low-risk, low-return, but the cumulative expected return will be high (hypothesis of the maxim by Markowitz 1952: 78.). According to maxim hypothesis, both diversified and under-diversified assert will have the same cumulative expected return. In the United States, the under-diversified portfolio is greater among young people,

Herr Samsa Is Content Essay Example for Free

Herr Samsa Is Content Essay In Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Gregor Samsa, the main character turns into an insect. Although many would argue that this transformation is literal, I would argue that Kafka uses it as a metaphor or some other form of symbol. If my theory is right, this metaphor is used as a means of portraying the dehumanisation and hence insanity of Gregor Samsa caused by the intense stress and demands of his daily job that he worries about so much. I also believe that Kafka uses the particular case of Gregor to represent a whole generation of workers that all fear the same fate. Herr Samsa, Gregors father, in particular fears this and having seen what he fears most in his son, he becomes violent and aggressive towards him; eventually delivering him a slow, gradual death. To support this argument, we find out that, even before the actual transformation, Gregor behaves strangely with regards to his work; studying train timetables for example. It is for this reason that I have decided to carry on with this idea. With Gregor dying at the end of the novella, I decided to use this metaphor of dehumanisation again and apply it to another one of the workers of the same generation as Gregors his sisters boyfriend that she has found since the Samsa family left their home to start a new life. In order for my adaptation of Kafkas extended metaphor to be successful, I have had to adopt his style of writing, something that is very particular to Kafka. Kafka uses long sentences yet keeps the novella moving at quite a fast pace. This is because he pays great attention to detail and turns each detail into something significant. Despite this, he is not particularly descriptive concerning the settings that he has chosen in Metamorphosis. This has the particular effect of rendering the scenes of Metamorphosis full of action and gripping for the reader. This is what I have tried to apply in my extension of Kafkas fantastic tale. Grete watched her father open the door, pull his feet across the mat, throw his overcoat off his shoulders and drop it on the banister. He took both his daughters shoulders, smiled at her for a moment with an expression that could only be associated with pride and then gently kissed her forehead. He then moved on to the kitchen, Grete in his footsteps. Once there, he placed his hand on his wifes shoulder, squeezed it, asked her what was for supper and, in turn, kissed her. Herr Samsa presently moved to the living room and with a pleasant sigh of relief he settled into an armchair and watched in amusement as Grete gazed fixedly at the clock on the wall counting down the seconds. At precisely five, the doorbell rang and Grete let out a little squeal of delight before glancing sheepishly at her father and rushing off to answer it. The same routine had not changed one bit for the last two months yet Herr Samsa could not complain. He knew that five was the time when he could afford himself the pleasure of watching his daughters face light up, making her even more beautiful; reminding him of the attractive and successful woman she was turning into. He had never been happier. Simple and polite but pleasant conversation came from the kitchen a mixture of questions, exclamations and quiet laughter. Following this, Grete entered with Franz who greeted Herr Samsa with a gentle inclination of his head. Ah! Franz my son! How are you? And how are things at work? asked Herr Samsa. Well, as you know sir, not too well Im afraid. We all have a ridiculous amount of work to get through and I, for one, can hardly cope. The only thing that keeps a smile on my face is the prospect of coming to visit your daughter each evening. Grete looked up at him adoringly and smiled before turning to her father with a face that begged no more talk of work matters. Accepting this, Herr Samsa looked at them both. Very well. Off you go. Thank you, sir replied Franz and he eagerly scuttled behind the beautiful young woman who led him to the parlour. Herr Samsa got up and poured himself a small glass of schnapps and settled back down into the warmth of his armchair. As he let his eyes close, he reflected upon how much better life was now. Even going back to work didnt bother him in the least. He felt healthier and fitter than he had been in a long time and he was now always able to join in with the family walks on Sundays. Franz also came with them. The four of them would walk with their arms linked, talking and laughing with a spring in their step. Thus half an hour passed very happily for Herr Samsa before he was called to join the rest of his family at the dinner table. Grete was rather sullen right throughout the meal. Her usual manner of vigorously attacking her food was not there. Eventually, whilst Gretes mother was in the kitchen, clearing the table, he asked her what the matter was. She dismissed the question with another intense stare at the table so her father thought it best to leave the matter alone. The next evening, the atmosphere at the dinner table was tense once again. Grete insisted on glaring sullenly at her plate. Again, Herr Samsa asked her what the matter was whilst his wife was busy in the kitchen. Once more, she tried to ignore him but this time, her father insisted and she lifted her face, covered in tears, before answering. Hes exhaustedI cant stand it anymorehe puts on a brave facebut with me She desperately tried to control herself but burst into tears. Frau Samsa, who had come back into the room, put her arm round her and encouraged her to go on. Gretes parents watched, bemused and shocked, for this was the first time they had seen her cry since theyd decided to restart their lives. Seeing the discomfort in her parents faces, Grete took a deep breath and started again. He doesnt complain about it but when were alone, he talks about nothing but work, almost as if he doesnt know how to talk about anything else. Just last night, instead of talking to me, he spent two whole hours studying a train timetable! And hes developed a regular twitchspasms every now and then. Hes not reallymy Franzanymore. The following evening, nothing changed. As always, Herr Samsa was met in the hallway by his daughter whom he embraced before making his way to the kitchen, in order to greet his wife. As Grete waited for the clock to approach five, she had the same anxious look on her face. But it faded and was replaced with a frown because as the hands hit five she heard a far-off cry. She glanced at her father but he obviously hadnt heard it and so she continued waiting. She was silently surprised that Franz hadnt turned up yet, despite the fact that it wasnt even a minute past yet. As she continued waiting, now perched on the arm of one of the sofas, she heard another cry, closer this time and it resembled more a scream. Yet again, Herr Samsa had not noticed but he was watching Grete with amusement as she visibly became more and more nervous as the minutes went by. Once again, a scream came from up the road. This time, it was accompanied by the smashing of a window. Grete rushed to the living room window and pressed herself up against the window to see what was going on. The last cry had even managed to reach her father and he too had jumped out of the comfort of his chair to see what was going on. Both wore anxious looks upon their faces and as more shouts of terror approached their house, Frau Samsa joined them from the kitchen, wiping the backs of her hands in her apron as she walked. Wheres Franz? she asked immediately. A look of horror crossed Gretes face as it occurred to her that the angry manifestation outside and Franzs lateness could be linked. She tried desperately to see what was going on through the living room window but the angle wasnt wide enough. A couple of flying stones and an apple came into her field of vision and with that she rushed to the front door with both her parents close behind her. It was as she grabbed the cold brass handle to pull the door open that she realised what this was. She remembered the conversation last night at the table and, sure enough, as she hastily poked her head through the door and looked down the street, she clasped her heart. Franz was there sure enough, scuttling desperately down the street, followed by an angry mob yelling at him in disgust and flinging stones of hatred at him. Before her parents were able to see anything, she ran back in, bolted the door and sunk to the floor. Bibliography à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka, translated by Malcolm Pasley, Penguin, 2000