The Scarlet Pimpernel

orth As A The Scarlet Pimpernel: Sir Percy’s Worth as A Hero In the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel, written by Baroness Orczy, Sir Percy Blankley is able to deceive those he loves in order to save the lives of those he barely knows. Leading a double life, he acts as a fool of an English lord in order hide the fact that he is really a cunning, elusive man who goes by the name â€Å"The Scarlet Pimpernel. † When using this name to do his good deeds, Sir Percy risks his life in order to rescue French aristocracy.Everyone regards The Scarlet Pimpernel as a hero– he has all the characteristics of a hero about him, and they are very strong in his personality. Sir Percy is also very good at disguising his hero’s true identity, although he did have rather oblivious people around him. He was a hero who did what he needed to do proficiently and did so without unnecessary violence. During the 1790s, The French Revolution was tearing apart France. Commoners killed the ve ry people they were to look to for leadership. Those aristocrats had been irresponsible and had spent taxes frivolously and now the commoners wanted justice.In England at that time, things were much different. The people were at peace and society was moving forward. The stark difference between these places provides excellent settings for the book, helping the reader realize the cruelty of the French peoples’ endless killing, as opposed to the serenity and peacefulness of England. Sir Percy could be described as many things. One of these characteristics is selflessness. It is shown how even the people around him could easily tell of how he would gladly sacrifice his life for theirs– â€Å"She looked at Sir Andrew with eager curiosity.The young man’s face had become almost transfigured. His eyes shone with enthusiasm; hero-worship, love, admiration for his leader seemed literally to glow upon his face. ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel, Mademoiselle,’ he said at last, ‘is the name of a humble English wayside flower; but I also the name chosen to hide the identity of the best and bravest man in all the world, so that he may better succeed in accomplishing the noble task he has set himself to do. ’ † (Orczy 34). Another fine example of this characteristic is from the perspective of one whom he rescues ¬Ã¢â‚¬â€œ â€Å"But the Comtesse shook her head, still incredulously.To her it seemed preposterous that these young men and their great leader, all of them rich, probably wellborn, and young, should for no other motive than sport, run the terrible risks, which she knew they were constantly doing. Their nationality, once they had set foot in France, would be no safeguard to them. Anyone found harbouring or assisting suspected royalists would be ruthlessly condemned and summarily executed, whatever his nationality might be. † (Orczy 35). Comtesse finds it so uncanny that a rich Englishman would waste his time and ris k his life for people with whom he has no relationship.This kind of rare selflessness is easily comparable to that of the classic Marvel superhero Captain America– each of them would willingly give up his life if it meant another might live. The Scarlet Pimpernel demonstrates his bravery very well. He is willing to got to France in order to save his wife’s brother– â€Å" ‘You are not going to the North, I feel convinced†¦ There is some mystery†¦ and †¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ ‘Nay, there is no mystery, Madame,’ he replied, with a slight tone of impatience. ‘My business has to do with Armand†¦ there! Now, have I your leave to depart? ‘With Armand? †¦ But you will run no danger? ’ â€Å"Danger? I? †¦ Nay, Madame, your solicitude does me honour. As you say, I have some influence; my intention is to exert it before it be too late’ † (Orczy 136). He is unafraid to go to Armand’s aid, which the reader can find as extraordinary, seeing as how he would have to go up against the deadly French agent M. Chauvelin. He also sees the fact that his wife needs him to take action as an honor, and he carries out her requests with pride– â€Å" ‘You will come back? ’ she said tenderly. Very soon! ’ he replied, looking longingly into her blue eyes. ‘And†¦ you will remember? †¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ she asked as her eyes, in response to his look, game him an infinity of promise. ‘I will always remember, Madame, that you have honoured me by commanding my services’ † (Orczy 138). His valor and fearlessness is uncommon, and can be respected. Such honor and bravery resembles that of Steve Jobs. He had a predetermined goal and a strong will to accomplish this task, daring to do what others thought was impossible and would not dare to do.A beautiful portrayal is of Sir Percy’s passion is when he is torn between the one he loves and doing his duty as the Scarlet Pimpernel– â€Å" ‘I pray you, Madame,’ he said, whilst his voice shook almost as much as hers, ‘in what way can I serve you? ’ † (Orczy 128). He knew he must return to France to help the Comte de Tournay, but yet such love and passion for his wife cannot be hidden. Because he cannot reveal the fact that he is the Scarlet Pimpernel to his beloved wife, he must act as a fool who does not have much feeling towards her [his wife], but when he has the chance, he shows affection in hat little was he can– â€Å"He was but a man madly, blindly, passionately in love, and as soon as her light footsteps had died away within the house, he knelt down upon the terrace steps, and in the very madness of his love he kissed one by one the places where her small foot had trodden, and the stone balustrade there, where her tiny hand had rested last. † (Orczy 131). Such enthusiasm for something is very similar to Walt Disneyà ¢â‚¬â„¢s passion to create a ‘perfect society’ for adults and children. He went above and beyond the duty he put before himself, just as Sir Percy did.The â€Å"elusive [Scarlet] Pimpernel† (Orczy 97) is surely a great hero. Having all of the ‘requirements’ and characteristics of a hero, he is able to spring into action– ready to save the day! He is not recognized by his enemies and is able to fulfill all of the tasks he puts before him. He is diligent at what he does and only uses force when necessary. With his 19 assistants by his side, he is able to save the lives of the French aristocracy and bring them to safety. Sir Percy Blankley, a. k. a. The Scarlet Pimpernel, is a hero– no doubt about it.

Epic Hero and the Values of the Society Essay

The hero of an epic is characterized by their extraordinary abilities and strength which helped them to meet all the challenges they need to face along their journey. They are the main subjects of these long narrative epic poems. The epic hero is separated from the rest of the people. They are being admired by others for their ability to do what ordinary man would not attempt to do. The birth of these heroes was taken account into. These men are destined to play an important role in their society. They also became the reflection of the values of their society. Epic heroes are mythical characters taken from the ancient times. These heroes are larger-than-life because of their impressive and heroic deeds that can surpass what ordinary man can do. More specifically an epic hero must posses certain qualities to recognize him as a real epic hero. They must possess great physical strength. They are more clever and cunning than the ordinary. They are adventurous and brave. They are not easily intimidated or frightened by the challenges ahead of them. They have goals and are highly determined to attain their quest for something they believed is of great value for him and to his people. They are victorious most of the time with the battles they encounter. Their success gave them recognition. Their society may choose him to be their rightful leader or ruler because of the marvelous thing they proved they can do. After learning this things about an epic hero one can observed among epic poems this pattern of the heroes characteristic. They seem to be similar in many ways. Along with other epic heroes of all times are the names like Beowulf, Gilgamesh and Odysseus. Looking at how each of the heroes had transformed themselves through the various test and preparation they undertake before they are recognize as heroic leaders. They come from different backgrounds and culture which they typically embodies. Beowulf: the Old English Epic Who is Beowulf? What was his exploits? What values where important in his society? These are the questions that will guide us to discover more about the epic hero Beowulf. This epic poem had been written in England though the setting of the story could have been in Scandinavia. Beowulf as many knew is one of the most important surviving Anglo-Saxon classic literatures. This epic was believed to have been written between the 8th and 11th centuries. (Foster, 2003) Beowulf was recognized as a Geat. He was known by others as a super human. One of his greatest achievements was when he defeated Grendel in an encounter. Beowulf fought one-on-one with Grendel which was known as a monster an enemy of the people of that time. Beowulf came to rescue the people of that kingdom from Grendel. To show his successful defeat of Grendel he brought home Grendel’s head. During the struggle, he won because of the help of a magical giant sword. Beowulf then also battle with Grendel’s mother who was plunge deep into the earth. He faced alone the monster found in the underworld. After he won in this adventure he didn’t become immediately the new king. He fought for the throne along with King Hygelac. King Hygelac died during a raid and was then offered the throne but he refused and let the king’s son inherit the throne. Because of his many heroic acts the Danes were please. The Danes and the Geats are then united. The people now anticipated Beowulf to be their new king. He must face other more dangers to prove himself worthy to be called the King of the Geats. His last battle involved a fight with a dragon. By that time he was in old age and has been ruling the Geats when the dragon came and threatened his kingdom. He needs to defeat this dragon to save his people from danger. He must risk his own life to achieve his goal of saving the kingdom. In this battle he successfully killed the dragon but it left him seriously wounded. He then had to face his death. Odysseus: The Greek Mythical Hero After Beowulf is another famous epic hero by the name of Odysseus. Odysseus also with Latin name Ulysses was the reigning ruler of the island kingdom of Ithaca. (Hunter, 1997) unlike Beowulf this man was already enthroned as a king. In the Trojan War he was the key heroic figure meaning he was among the well known leaders of the Trojan War. Odysseus was actually reluctant to join the expedition. Even if he doesn’t want to join the battle he still fought heroically in the Trojan War. He even led the dangerous nocturnal raid together with Diomedes. It was believed that Odysseus was one of the originators of the Trojan horse which were used by the Greeks to finally take over the city of Troy. His journey was specially guided by divine intervention. After the Trojan War Odysseus next quest is to successfully return home with his family. Now returning back on his family was his main goal but the journey is very difficult and there are many things he needed to pass through. He also needs to face the underworld just like Beowulf who fought in the world of the dead. The difference with Odysseus is that he didn’t fight but rather talk and ask some questions. In this journey he came to the point that he need to choose between mortality and immortality. He chose mortality because he wants his home together with his wife Penelope. Going back home he encountered various tragedies like when his ship was destroyed by a thunderbolt and a storm and when he was trapped in island of the Nymph Calypso. Many things have happened after the war and on the way home. When Odysseus came at last he found that there were problems in Ithaca also. It took about twenty years before he successfully returned to his home. He found out that his wife Penelope had remained faithful to him all through those years even though there are pressures for her to get married again. He arrived at the palace and found the suitors of his wife. He pretended to be a beggar and destroyed all of them afterwards.

Altar Is a Sign of Religious People Essay

Filipinos have forever been said to be religious people – in fact, too religious, if one might say. It is one characteristic of Filipinos that describes their identity. Try entering houses of Filipinos you know, you would notice there would always be a special place for their altars. They always reserve a certain part in their houses not always necessarily as a â€Å"place of worship† but sometimes just for the traditional way of being religious. Altars are first introduced in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial times. They mostly consist of saints in different carvings, either with the use of wood or ivory. Eventually, having an altar inside the house grew as a Filipino tradition that until now is observed. In an altar, the primary attraction is either the figure of Jesus or the Virgin Mary, perfectly crafted and painted. When the figure does not include carved garments, rich ornate robes of satin were fashioned. Beads of gold and silver accentuate their clothing. Altars in different homes may vary depending on their size, location or adornments. There are altars exaggeratedly huge and elegant, adorned with different statues of angels and saints in a rock formation backdrop. Sometimes, altars and gardens are combined as one, producing a beautiful scenery. These kind are those seen outside their houses, located in their backyard. Such altar may contain of a small pond surrounded by flowers of different colors and plants of different sizes with the statue of the Virgin Mary centered inside. There are also the simple and ordinary altars inside their houses. It is usually easily seen upon entrance inside a house of a Filipino. The reason for this is because when they enter and leave the house, they touch or kiss the forehead of the figure. Mostly, the important components of such altars are candles, rosary, the Bible, a crucifix and of course, the figure of the Virgin Mary and/or Jesus. Ornamentation are only added optionally. Plastic plants/flowers may be used or sometimes the better, fresh flowers. Specifically, Filipinos most often prefer sampaguita. Aside from the fact that it has a unique sweet smell, it is cheap. Sampaguitas are hung like a lei on the body of the figure. Not only are altars found in a Filipino’s home. Even schools hear in our country have small altars located inside their classrooms. Most commonly, they are located on one corner of the classroom. Usually, a small table covered in clean white cloth serves as the base of the altar. The usual things are placed on top of the table, only that they are in a much smaller version. Pictures of the Holy Family are also sometimes posted on the wall. Altars symbolize the devotion of the Filipinos to their Catholic religion. It had been an important part of their tradition. Hopefully, as years go by, they may not be forgotten.

Accounts Report for JT Engineering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Accounts Report for JT Engineering - Essay Example Net profit margin, on the other hand analyzes the profitability of the company before deducting the taxation and finance charges from the earningsThe statement of financial position tells the shareholder above the financial outlook of a company and the status of the assets and liabilities. Statement of financial position is usually divided into three parts, Assets, Liabilities and Shareholder equity. Assets are further divided into non-current assets and current assets whereas liabilities are divided in to non-current and current as well. Usually a company which has higher assets base and positive equity portrays stronger and better financial outlook. From shareholder’s perspective, the statement of financial position is very important as it guides them to take important decision pertaining to the investment in the shares of the company.Non-current assets are those which are held by entity for a longer period of time and maturity or the useful life of these assets are usually more than one year. Example of non-current assets would be Property, Plant and Equipment, Deferred acquisition cost and loans and advances given

Norms are Informal Rules in Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Norms are Informal Rules in Society - Essay Example The first example is where an individual of high status quo decides to use his bicycle to travel to work despite having a vehicle and the availability of public means of transport, the individual will have behaved against the norms of the society as depicted by the roles and code of behavior associated with his rank and status in the society. The sanctions that the society will impose on such an individual will include the decline in respect and status attached to the individual by his work mates and society. His workmates who have lower prestige jobs in the work place may doubt the individuals capability to be in such a position and this might lead to the loss of the job by the individual because the individual does not act according to the roles attached to him and also he does behave according to the societies norms to maintain his status and prestige according to the role he or she plays in the society. The other example is when an individual may decide to wear two different types or make of shoes, one make on the left foot and the other on the right, those who notice may decide that this is a mere joke but the society may decide to sanction you because of breaking the social norms associated with wearing shoes by trying to embarrass yo

Criminal Minds Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Criminal Minds - Research Paper Example There is no surety for a person being a non offender. As humans are circled around their emotions anyone can become an offender. It is said that it is the circumstances that make a person commit crimes. There is an offender in each and every one but the true sense of a person keeps away from crime and related incidents. A crime can be defined as â€Å"Crime is the violation of societal rules of behaviour as interpreted by and expressed by a criminal legal code created by people holding social and political power. Individuals who violate these rules are subject to sanctions by state authority, social stigma, and loss of status† (Siegel, 2008, p.18). The crimes are against social, political and economic behaviour of human beings. If a person does a crime he gets separated from these three agencies. Along with the physical setbacks as mentioned above, a major conflict comes in the mind of the criminal whether the thing that he or she did was right or wrong in accordance with his or her conscience. Now days the level of conscience is deteriorating and so the rate of crimes are increasing to an intimidating level. Samples of famous crimes: In analysing the history of crimes a person can see great number of them. In reading the life of Donald â€Å"Pee wee† Gaskins, the most prolific serial killer in South Carolina, it takes a person to embarrassment that the background of a person has much to do in shaping his or her life. Gaskins’ childhood was troublesome and was often neglected by all his surroundings including mother. He felt himself as abandoned by all and this changed his mind to stubborn and cruel. Later in his life he has passed through all sorts of crime and to the surprise was not at all guilty for it. He considered himself equal to God in taking others life (Montaldo, 2011). The temperament of the people is changing day by day. No one is ready to make any adjustment. The availability of the deadly weapons and curving for money make people do any sort of crime. The mass killing at Virginia Polytechnic institute and State University by Seung-Hui Cho, a senior English major at the institution, cau sed the death of 32 people and then including him on April 16 2007. In analysing the reason for the incident it was made clear that the student was having anxiety disorder. â€Å"The day after massacre, thousands attended a tearful assembly in the university’s coliseum, where U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged the nation’s sorrow and grief† (Flemming, 2008, p.288). The destruction of World Trade Centre is the epitome of political crime. It happened on 11th September 2001, nearly killing 3000 people and 19 hijackers. In consulting these attacks a question can be raised, â€Å"Why is Osama bin Laden (widely regarded as the brains behind the atrocities of 11 September 2001, the destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York) targeted as a ‘terrorist’ and not as a ‘criminal’?† (Soothill , Peelo &Taylor, 2002. p.143). If any political cause is involved with the crime it can be termed as terrorist acts and in other cases cri minal activities. But all things are in one way or other are harmful to the life of the innocent people. Whatever be the cause, it is not at all right to take the lives of other people. The religious notion of ‘preserving life’ has to be upheld for the common goodness of the people. What causes a criminal mind? Many reasons are there before each and every crime. Some may be personal and others may be political

Decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Decision making - Essay Example But my co-worker has other ideas and he has strongly protested against hiring the Hispanic woman interviewed by us. I would like to persuade my co-worker to recruit that woman and for that purpose I need to find out the possible reasons and solutions for my co-worker’s protest. The first reason for my co worker’s protest may be because of his belief that only young blood will be capable of bringing new ideas to the organization. He might have thought that experienced people will never take any risk in their profession and they were not keen in testing new ideas. But is should be remembered that practice makes a person perfect and the experience of Hispanic woman could not be avoided purely on the basis of the above belief. Fresh candidates can bring new idea, but at the same time they may not have the backup of experience which will definitely a disadvantage. The second reason for my co-worker’s protest, which I assume is about the Hispanic origin of the woman we interviewed. My friend might have thought that an American will be a better option in the marketing manager post because of the authority and contexting power compared to a Hispanic person. The above argument also seems to be meaningless since the woman we interviewed has already proved her abilities and her 20 year service is definitely an indication of her abilities and success in this profession. My co-worker’s arguments against the woman we interviewed may raise serious legal and ethical problems for our company. The American law provides equality in employment opportunities to all irrespective of their gender or origin. In other words, it is not possible to deny the employment to the woman by citing her gender and origin. We must remember that, at present a person of black origin is the president of America and if a black person can become the

Deontological Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Deontological Ethics - Essay Example This project aims to shed more light on deontology and virtue ethics, which are some of the principles on which philosophy is founded. The term deontology is derived from two Greek words: Deon, which means duty and logos, meaning study. Contrary to aretaic theories that normally focus on the character and personality that is instilled within us, deontology is based on the deontic theories which normally guide and asses some of the decisions that we make in our day-to-day activities. In making such decisions; nevertheless, we are expected to take into consideration the aspects of the society that are morally required, morally forbidden and are morally permitted. Concisely, we can refer to deontology as the moral aspects of our life that guides some of the decisions that we make. Deontological theories can be classified into several categories, which range from agent-centred, patent-centred, contractarian, as well as deontological theories based on Kant. The agent-centred theories hold the belief that decisions should normally be made based on objective reasoning (Burnor and Raley 426). The patent centred theories, on the other hand, argue that decisions should normally be based on the rights of various people within the society. In as much as some aspects of these theories are different, they share the ideology that choices cannot always be justified by their effects. This is to imply that no matter the moral outcome of some decisions, they should not be carried out. Unlike consequentialism, which does not take into consideration some of the aspects of society, the deontological theories have largely been appreciated. It is because they provide those who are involved in the decision-making process to consider various aspects within the society including friends, family members as well as some of the projects that are being undertaken by the community. Similarly, scholars have often argued that the deontological theories are not too demanding. This is

Enhancement drug Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Enhancement drug - Essay Example It is from this use of memory and performance boosters that sharp debates emerge as to how positive or negative they might have on the society if their prescription is accepted. This study will discuss the reasons as to why cognitive enhancement drugs should not be made available to those in society who do not have cognitive deficiencies. This tough debate attracts the opinions of many with no single agreement on which side of the motion to take up to today, and this is debate never complete without the mention of two people: Edmund Higgins and one Henry Greely. These two make strong arguments in the debate, with Henry supports for the prescription of cognitive enhancement drugs claiming that they will significantly benefit the user and society if they have rules controlling their use. On his part, Higgins says that long-term use of these drugs might have hidden risks that will harm, rather than do the society any good. So who between Higgins and Greely supports the real cause for th e good of the society? To support the reason why I am against making ADHD available to those who do not have cognitive deficiency, I will state the reasons. The first reason is that the use of these drugs for purposes other than medical has a risk of addiction. According to research, some ADHD drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall lead to severe addiction and withdrawal, meaning it has an abuse potential. This is because once the user relies on the drugs for doing particular tasks, then it gets to a point where they cannot function nor do the tasks without the use of ADHD drugs. In a research carried out by Nora Volkow, there was evidence that injecting oneself with methylphenidate caused an effect like that of cocaine. On another note, these drugs give an unfair advantage to people who do not have cognitive deficiencies when they use them in competitive areas. For example if an athlete takes performance boosters and runs the same race with others who do not use them gives the user an unfair advantage. That is socially unacceptable because it means that instead of attending training like the other athletes, then the one using drugs to enhance their performance is being unfair because he uses a cheating method to win the race. In relation to the issue of unfair competition, it is possible that once people realize that others use enhancers to have an advantage over them, then they will also start using them so that they match them, or make the competition. This is not acceptable because it means they use the drugs not because they want to, but because they have to make the competition equal, which is a bad effect to the society. Another popular consequence of using these enhancing drugs as put by Higgins (2009), is an alteration of mood. The normal people taking enhancers without prescription display negative changes in their moods and they display excess emotion such as anger, or become abnormally silent. Research has found that stimulants affect the brain’ s reward pathways that control moods under normal condition therefore altering their normal functioning. This conclusion was made after a study conducted by Leandro F. Vendruscolo on rats where he was injecting them with methylphenidate for 16 days showed that they were anxious than those not injected with the drug. Greely is aware those brain enhancement mechanisms pose

All forms of government welfare should be abolished Essay - 3

All forms of government welfare should be abolished - Essay Example Social services herein refer to healthcare, education, social welfare programs, care for elderly or aged, and, provision of necessary infrastructures to make government effective in their relation with people (Tanner, 2012). The abolition of this government welfare means relinquishing its role and allowing private entities to offer services that can respond to peoples needs. The recent trend and dominion of private enterprise and services in our society is an attempt to exculpate or exonerate government’s role in delivering quality services as its mandate to fully realize its functions in realizing the social contract with the people it ought to serve. The abolition of social services therefor means that the government, as a bureaucracy, will relinquish its functions to accord social services and welfare to its constituents. Why spend $14,848 for every poor man (Tanner, 2012)? But on the other hand, why pay for taxes if government intends to negate the foundation of its very existence? A famous social philosopher once said that a government is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Its object and subject of being are its constituents. It is for this reason that electorates during election wanted to nominate leaders who can uphold democracy to ensure peoples participation in decision-making and those who can reform the government structure to guarantee that delivery of services are given more importance than their selfish interests as bureaucrats. People wanted to see a government that is effectively translating its goal to have a peaceful, developed and prosperous nation. Both candidates and electorates wanted to pursue an agenda where children’s education are prioritized; quality health services are delivered in remote villages and in state-owned hospitals; people’s poverty are supplemented with social programs that can help eradicate poverty; and, social

Three Days of Christmas Essay Example for Free

Three Days of Christmas Essay Mum asked me what I want for Christmas this year. A typical 15 year old girl like me would say new phone, clothes, money but no. You know what I want? I want a nice normal Christmas dinner at home with my dad, mum and two brothers. Like the American white Christmas’ you see on TV instead of the 4 days of Christmas down under. Christmas morning always goes to plan. We all wake up, the boys Tom and Max, especially early. The video camera comes out and dad automatically turns into a director. Smile for the camera† â€Å"No, the photo cannot happen there, the lightning is all wrong. † Tom, Max and Dad end up outside like usual testing out the new sports equipment. Mum and I sit at the kitchen window, sipping our coffee and making bets on how long the equipment will be used until thrown into the shed with all the other forgotten Christmas presents. Lunch is usually at Aunty Sue and Uncle Keith’s place with our overly peppy cousins. They live in Uncle Keith’s childhood house and so it’s dated back to the 1940’s. Their house is ancient. No air conditioner or heating and on a 39 degree Christmas day with a turkey cooking in the oven is equivalent to sitting in a sauna for 3 hours. Tea is at home with the people from lunch and some more other friends and relatives. Tea is a lot more fun and relaxed. I’m not sure if it’s because of the fact that I’m in my own house or that we get to go for a swim to cool off. It’s normally a late now with a lot of champagne bottles and hangovers the next morning. Boxing Day for my family is not about cleaning up the wrapping paper and empty packing but opening up more presents. Boxing Day is designated for my Dad’s side of the family and that’s where the family feuds usually start. My Uncle Sid and Nanna don’t get along too well. Both are strongly opinionated and both hate being wrong. First it starts with the food and then the Boxing Day Test and after that it is just anything and everything that they argue about. When the swear words start to come out, Uncle Sid’s wife Aunt Nelly, moves all the kids outside to the BBQ area. The next day we’re up early to take a lovely hour and a half drive to visit my great aunty and uncle, Kay and Frank. They never had kids so they lots of money saved up. They have just built a new house and it is absolutely beautiful with marble benches, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 lounge rooms and a study. I love going to their house, not only to see it but because they spoil us rotten. Actually now that I think back on it, my 3 days of Christmas isn’t all that bad. As much as bouncing around from place to place annoys me, there are some pretty good advantages to it all. Even though I may gain 15 kilos after the 3 days but the food is mouth-watering and I don’t have the will power to stop myself. Of course 3 days of non-stop presents is nothing to complain about and being surrounded by my gorgeous family, my smile never leaves my lips. I might go change my wish list because who knows how long I have left with these wonderful people. I shouldn’t be taking the Christmas holidays for granted because I may be jealous of other families traditional Christmas’s but they may be jealous of my weird yet amazing 3 days of Christmas.

Christian spirituality Essay Example for Free

Christian spirituality Essay People in this realm have diverse attention to different facet of their lives. Some of which believes in a certain perception contrary to the views of the other and it all boils down to a premise that we in this universe have enormous preferences which truly makes us unique. Similarly, it has the same wavelength when we put into account the very imperative issue of faith and strong adherence to believing in God. Donald Miller in his masterpiece Blue like Jazz, he exemplifies the avenues of spirituality and how it is possible to enlighten the views of the readers as they go through the work of art. Uplifting the souls is the focal element of the author and parallel to this, the central aspiration of this paper is also to epitomize the intriguing views of the author and at the same time squeeze out the necessary lessons in life that will ultimately open the minds of the readers. By having the views of the book by means of its meaningful experiences of the author, we could have a brilliant grasp to what really is life in a spiritual way. Any occurrences that have been demonstrated in the book will truly it will shed light to our naked eye. The personal reflections of the author contribute to our understanding to the nature of God and how to respond to this indulgent. The ingredients in Donald Miller’s Blue like Jazz are driven by the perceptions towards sex, love, community, family and God. It absolutely speaks on what it feels to have an in depth connection with God and how to examine our inner self on what we truly believed in despite the challenges of our malicious environment. The point of view as regards to searching for spirituality and believers who wanted to have a strong relationship with God was the intentions of this masterpiece. It is intended in the latter part of the paper to expound in a Christian approach the impressions and attitudes in relation to the concept of Miller. Indeed, it is expected that at the end of this paper, the readers should have a strong attachment in relation to the subject matter of spirituality and the things that it entails. Donald Miller tackles the life’s spices which includes sex. The question of does love can be truly be proven by sex is at hand. It has been said that you can love with all your heart but you cannot scientifically examine it. Accordingly, it is an intense feeling which flows inside that makes your personality fortify. The feeling surely brightens our outlook even though it does not undergo several test because what proves it is our own selves per se, â€Å"love for example is a true emotion but it is not rational, what I mean is people actually feel it, I have been in love, plenty of people have been in love yet love cannot be proved scientifically† (Miller, 2003). The author makes use of the penguins as case in point in elaborating how making love can truly transform into something essential in our lives. It says the instances wherein penguins have their own way of showing their love to their partners and at the same time giving value to their siblings. The intensity of emotions in relation to their responsibilities was intact in this scenario. The male penguins take hold of the responsibility of looking after the eggs and in due time the eggs will mature. It has been demonstrated how the female penguins goes back after sometime to witness their little penguin. This was a good elaboration of a strong connection with our loved ones. We sense the right time when it is necessary for us to be there. Similarly, Miller take hold of this picture to emphasize the essentiality of faith that without even seeing it, we know that the love of God is there for us. The timing that the penguins epitomize truly connotes a strong feeling of union that is so unique in our being rational. Being a Christian entails a lot of faith to be able to have a strong grip on what we believed in. Indeed, it signify us the right usage of our intellect and free will as we chooses to have a relationship with our God. â€Å"I don’t think you can explain how Christian faith works. It is a mystery and I love this about Christian spirituality. It cannot be explained and yet it is beautiful and true. It is something you feel and it comes from the soul† ( Miller, 2003), on a brilliant concept, the secret ingredient of a happy life is no other than the healthy bond with God hand in hand with the faith that we have in our lives. In relation to the love that has been showed to us by the instances in the lives of the penguins, we can perceive how essential it is to feel the love and give it back as well. As we all knew, love is a huge topic but at the same time the most interesting subject matter of all time. It is the one wherein we could all take part into. Furthermore, it is the area where varieties of people of all ages can adapt which makes it more interesting for that matter. The reflection of Christ love for the church can emulate in the event of marriage where two souls binds together to be one. The acceptance of differences as well as giving back the love that they received towards the other are the things that makes a real and unconditional relationship. The vocation of marriage enlightens us and ultimately gives joy to our everyday lives. Giving ourselves completely to others has a very deep meaning because it entails acceptance of other person in our life and submission of our inner self. In the circumstance that Miller shares to its readers when he had a conversation with Paul, his friend who is very happy in his married life, he got the realization how incredible it is to be in love and to be loved. Given that some of his friends give him a feedback of a wrong approach of dealing with women, upon talking to Paul he realized that marriage encompass to love your self as well. In order to protect your relationship it is essential to have a factor that will compromise the both parties. In the case of Paul and his wife, they find time to have their own privacy, in that way they’d be able to respect each other which also gives mystery to the relationship that they have, â€Å" I’m saying there are stuff I can’t tell her not because I don’t want to but because there aren’t words. It’s like we are separate people and there is no getting inside each other to read each other’s thoughts, each other’s beings† ( Miller, 2003). In accordance with this, marriage is not all about the two people that has been bind together, it is also about who is the center of their relationship which truly binds them together, â€Å"I am glad I married Danielle and I will be with her forever but there are places in our lives that only God can go† ( Miller, 2003). It is imperative to have God as the center of our relationship. He brings out the best in us when He guides us. As we consistently ask for His love and guidance, the relationship that we have will ultimately be filled with joys and abundance of love, â€Å"I mean that to be in a relationship with God is to be loved purely and furiously† ( Miller, 2003). The best exemplification of what we have learned from the undying love of God to its people was our strength to do the same with our loved one and to other people that surrounds us. As we go back to the essentiality of grace, the application of such is a contributing element in making a successful family life surrounded by blessings and guidance of our almighty. Does the connection we have with God extend a deep relationship with the people that surround us? This is an uncertainty that some of us having a hard time finding the real answer because we are in one way or the other uncertain to what we really wanted to build as relationship with the people we rarely know. Parallel to this, at some in our lives we find it hard to accept a person beyond our wavelength. We set criteria of who we are apt to build rapport to the point that sometimes neglect the importance of a person basing on his or her individuality and not in his/her spirituality. How the community that you belong really changes your outlook in life and your relationship with God? At some point in our lives, we got used to living in our own way far from other people. We live and spend our time alone that we miss the part of our lives that we get along with other people in our community, â€Å"I didn’t know what to think about living in community at first. I had lived on my own for about six years and the idea of moving in with a bunch of slobs didn’t appeal to me† ( Miller, 2003). In lieu of which the exchange of ideas that we get from other people is also essential in our existence in this realm and we could only get this by means of interacting with other people. Like that of what the author showed to us, the interaction with other people was lacking in a sense that became self centered. Some of the people that surround us might misinterpret that gestures that we convey simply because we are not used to living with other people. The lessons of life can simply be available if we look at life in a different manner – and that is to intermingle with the people in our community. On top of this, it is good to apprehend that God enlightens our perspectives in life. He usually guides us in whatever decision we come up to and in this case, God makes him realize the importance to dealing with other people and appreciate their existence, â€Å"God brought me to Graceland to rid me of this deception, to scrub it out of the gray matter of my mind† ( Miller, 2003). The capabilities that the community has could contribute to the knowledge that we have and in this manner, we can help each other grow in our own little way. Family is one of the focal points of our lives. This is where we get the strength and inspiration that we need to continue with our life. We can never deny the fact that this aspect of our life has a huge impact in our personality as well as with the attitude that we project to the people that surrounds us. It is absolutely the time of our life that we think of other people more than our selves because we prioritize our family more than anything else, â€Å"If you don’t love somebody, it gets annoying when they tell you what to do or what to feel. When you love them you get pleasure from their pleasure and it makes it easy to serve† (Miller, 2003). This instance does not necessarily mean that you wouldn’t love and serve God because you don’t love Him; you don’t love Him because you did not see Him. Ultimately, this is not the case when we talk about our faith and love for God. Our strong belief in the love of God for us and for humanity was undeniably great. We adhere to His principles and we follow His teachings which make us a better person. God’s love for this human race was irrevocably unconditional that he continuously accepts us despite our shortcomings in life. Enormously, God did a magical thing in our lives as he consistently touches our souls and guides our ways. As we scrutinize the importance of the author’s portrayal of what magic truly is, we might get fascinated with the allure of the thought of magic alone. It is true that when we were younger, our attention was easily derailed with the magical world but in fact everything is just a trick. In fact, there is a loop hole in every magic that has been showed to us it’s just that we are too young to recognize it. As a kid, we just focus on the elements that will satisfy our fascination neglecting the truth that magic is just a form of entertainment. â€Å"I got frustrated because everything that was magic was only a trick, meaning it wasn’t really magic, it was an illusion† (Miller, 2003), same with our lives, the figment of our imagination lies on what our naked eyes can reach but we miss the part that the reality of life is always at hand. God provides us with wonderful environment where we could exhaust all our efforts to achieve what is really beautiful beyond the temporary magic that we acquire for a moment. â€Å"Everybody wants to be fancy and new. Nobody wants to be themselves but they want to be different† (Miller, 2003), it is extremely important to pause for a while and contemplate on what we really needed in our lives. We project a gesture that we are different but what is more important is to have a closer look of what magical feeling God is providing us. Indeed, where we lived at a moment is the result of the brilliant love of God for us. What we are in this universe is the output of God’s goodness to this humanity. There are instances in our lives that at some point we have to be rigid with our faith and by doing so, one has to be profoundly knowledgeable on what really comprises his persona and what he truly believes. Having a strong faith is undeniably one of the greatest discoveries in our lives. The very essence of our trust in God is to know the principles of His words, in lieu of which we are apt to follow His commands that are very important in the foundation of our dogmatic belief in God. It is ultimately important for the people to know God and His wonderful deeds. It is beyond doubt that behind God’s creation lays an astonishing message of building ourselves completely. God is all knowing that He provides all the things that we need in continuing the path of our lives. We obey God, we follow His will and we become a better person is what truly matters in this masterpiece. In view of the great knowledge that has been embarked on us making available the work of art of Donald Miller, it gives us the enlightenment that we seek as we go along with the pages of this book. The manner in which the author presents his perception was incontestably comprehensible. It gives his reader the time to contemplate and grasp what he really wanted to go halves. Giving examples as well in the context of his elaboration of his insights truly adds to the substance of his subject matter. It really doles out the purpose of the author to stretch the faith of his readers. The values that we got from Blue like Jazz truly define the voice of God. Beneath the pages of this work of art lies the realization that life is full of magical thought, it is just in our hands to explore these things to make it visible. Our capacity to look at things in a different way is beneficial as we continue to battle with the challenges of life, like that of the book, its mysterious titles expounds what it really wanted to convey in its readers and this is what God wanted to happen, we define our selves in a manner that is reachable and at the same time life worth turning the pages.

What Is Meant By The Age Of Enlightenment Criminology Essay

What Is Meant By The Age Of Enlightenment Criminology Essay John Howard- was a county squire, social activist, and sheriff of Bedfordshire. He had great influence in improving sanitary conditions and securing humane treatment in prisons throughout Europe. He was responsible for persuading the House of Commons to enact a set of penal reform acts. Along with others, Howard drafted the Penitentiary Act of 1779, which called for the creation of houses of hard labor where people convicted of crimes that would otherwise have earned them a sentence of transportation would be imprisoned for up to 2 years. Prisoners were to be confined in solitary cells at night but were to labor silently in common rooms during the day. The twofold purpose of the penitentiary was to punish and to reform offenders through solitary confinement between intervals of work, the inculcation of good habits, and religious instruction so that inmates could reflect on their moral duties. 4 principles Secure and sanitary structure Systematic inspection Abolition of fees Reformatory regimen New penal institution should be a place not merely y o f industry but also of contrition and penance All these influences created a major change in the practice of the penal system. Penal codes were rewritten to emphasize adaption of punishment to the offender. Correctional practices moved away from inflicting pain to the body towards methods that would set eh individual on a path of honesty and right living. Conclusively, a penitentiary was developed where criminals could be secluded from the enticements of society, think about their crimes, and therefore be rehabilitated. The end result of the Enlightment era was that prisoners were tortured less but forced to suffer longer, more psychologically tormenting, stays of imprisonment. 4. Discuss the concept of crime as a moral disease. What is meant by this? What are the implications? How did this affect the idea of imprisonment and prison? Morality is a set of principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. Crime as a moral disease means that crime happens because of a choice based on bad values by the offender. In other words it could be described as a disease of the mind. Crime is the result of your surroundings and values that make you choose to do what you do. Criminals were viewed as the victims of social disorder. It came about during the age of the penitentiary in the 19th century America. While alcohol was one of the biggest social problems, psychic disorder, opium addictions and general public and moral disorder offenses started to become increasingly common. Crimes of violence, property offenses (theft and burglary) were increasing. (Bloomberg Lucken) Crime was additionally attached to social factors. Four reformers during this time gave their ideas: Gresham Powers claimed that the causes of crime can be found in the rapid growth of wealth, population size, immigration and commerce and manufacturing (Bloomberg Lucken). Edward Livingston claimed that crime was product of intemperance, laziness, ignorance, irreligion and poverty (Bloomberg Lucken). John Griscom found crime to be in the context of bad parenting and that parents allow children to do what they want without restraints and limits (Bloomberg Lucken). Lastly, Thomas Eddy claimed that crime could be traced to excessive passions like lust, greed or violence. These passions overpower the qualities of reason and rationality. (Bloomberg Lucken) Each one of these reformers suggested various reasons as to why crime was existing using social factors like the community and attitudes of those communities and upbringings as the causes. The many assertions of what the causes of crime basically implicated three different foundations: broken family, intemperance and a general bad environment: (Bloomberg Lucken). Therefore, when you put all three of these sources together, the crimes that occurred during this time period held that a tainted community filled with temptation and evil promoted morally weak surroundings which contributed to morally weak people who cant resist the social evils. In the mid 1800s society was in decline. (Bloomberg Lucken) Things were not going good around this time. As a result, when you have a broken family and you live in a bad environment, people do not know right from wrong. The morality of the environment you live in mixed with temptations will make someone steal or burglarize a home. The morality of what is inherently good and bad was never instilled so the morality of the person is weak. Therefore, these offenders behaviors are seen as a moral disease. The cure for moral disease was a moral science. This concept affected the idea of imprisonment and prison because it was presumed that scientific advancement that treat physical disorders could be employed to treat evil. Dr. Benjamin Rush was a famous physician at the time and believed crime as an infectious disease. Rush along with other doctors medicalized pretty much all behaviors. He taught that disease was a habit of wrong action and habits that cause harm are diseases. Crime can ultimately be cured and the injection against evils and crime first need strong discipline and the shutting down of any establishments of bad character. Any influences that can corrupt the mind need to be removed in order for one to get better (Bloomberg Lucken). As a result, Rush suggested the idea of a House of repentance. Imprisonment and prisons took on the The House of repentance which helped the prisoner meditate on their crimes, experience remorse, and undertake rehabilitation. These ideas turne d into the Pennsylvania System and later led to a penitentiary in hopes to create a repentant facility with solitary confinement. Prison basically became a place to think about what you have done day in and day out and ask forgiveness for your evil acts of crime. American Penology: A history of Control (Enlarged Second Edition), Bloomberg, Thomas Lucken, Karol 6. What is the medical model of penology? What was its approach? How did this translate into real world applications? Did it work- why or why not? Prisons in our society have gone through many transformations and modifications. When one design does not work we change it for a new one in hopes of better outcomes. Our prison systems have shifted their focus from punishment to rehabilitation then from reentry and reintegration back to incarceration. Along the way, the demands of the criminal justice system changed and prison models were developed to help crime rates diminish. In 1929, the idea to have institutions that target rehabilitation as its main goal was introduced. Prisons were to convert into something similar to a mental hospital that would rehabilitate and assess the offender for readiness to go back into. Therefore, in the 1950s the medical model started to become widespread regarding this idea. The medical model is the model of corrections based on the belief that criminal behavior is caused by social, psychological, or biological defects that require treatment. Crime was seen as a moral disease and viewed criminals as victims of social disorder. This model was the first genuine effort to apply medical strategies that aimed directly at scientifically classifying, treating, and rehabilitating criminal offenders. The offenders in this model were dealt with on an individual basis to establish the cause or causes of their criminal behavior. The approach this model took was to figure out why a person committed their crime and what could be done to fix it. The individual treatment was based on what the science of penology decided was needed. Prisons and jails were the ones diagnosing the causes of crime (drug abuse, alcohol abuse, etc). They were also the ones recommending programs and procedures to cure the illnesses. Many of the programs applied by the model: home confinement, halfway houses, pre-release centers, parole, mandatory release and work programs. Additionally, the new penology procedures included: psychotherapy, shock therapy, behavior modification, counseling and group therapy. The offenders criminal history, personality and their unique needs were taken into account to figure out how to fix their illness. Furthermore, the medical model of corrections was designed and aimed to treat criminals illnesses with expectations that when they are released, the offender is cured and will not recidivate. The applicable programs and procedures of the medical model had an admirable goal of helping offenders find solutions to what caused them to commit crimes and apply them. Unfortunately, the model was unsuccessful and it came to an end. One reason the model did not work was because of budget problems. Many states adopted the medical model but only in name. Even when the model was at its highest point, most states didnt assign any more than five percent of the budget towards rehabilitation. The medical model was also said to be forced and encouraging dishonesty. The participation of the model was all mandatory instead of voluntary. Offenders had to take their medications and treatments whether they wanted to or not. As a result, the inmates knew what to do if they wanted to get out of prison or jail. They knew if they displayed good behavior and did the treatments and therapies needed, they would be released. Dishonesty amongst the inmates seemed to be seen as encouraged because of this. 7. What accounts for the growth of prisons in the U.S.? Give at least 3 explanations along with specific examples. Are these valid explanations- why/why not? There are many things that account for the growth of prisons in the U.S. Three things in particular are the new penal policies that happened in the get-tough era, inequality of poor, disadvantaged men and recidivism and violations of probation and parole. In 2009, three are 2,429,299 people in federal, state, and local prisons and jails which is the highest incarceration rate in the world (http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics ). One reason is the get-tough-on-crime laws that boosted an increase in prisons. The laws include mandatory sentencing, three strikes, truth-in-sentencing and more that result in longer and harsher penalties. So why would this be a reason for prison growth? Well the aggressive policing in minor crimes like shoplifting, drug possession or other minor offenses traps people in the three-strikes-laws for repeat offenders. The three-strike laws establish mandatory twenty-five years imprisonment which mandates longer sentences for repeat offenders. Another example is the mandatory minimum sentences from 1986 that are basically fixed sentences to those convicted of a crime, regardless of culpability or other mitigating factors. Mandatory minimums were used to catch drug distributions and most people in a mandatory sentence are low-level drug offenses. If caught on drug possession charged you are going away for a minimum of fifteen years no questions or arguments. This is valid because accordi ng to the Drug Policy Alliance, more than 80 percent of the increase in the federal prison population from 1985 to 1995 was because of drug convictions (http://www.civilrights.org/publications/justice-on-trial/sentencing.html). Additionally, the three-strike laws are also non-violent repeat offenders. As a result, prisons are constantly trying to make room for all these non-violent offenders and releasing violent felons because these laws say that minor offenses must be tough and the offender must serve their time in prison rather than rehabilitation. The reason for these laws was to stop violent criminals, but the opposite is taking place and minor offenses by offenders are sent to prison longer than those who commit violent acts. Mandatory minimum sentencing and the three-strike laws were very hard mostly on drug offenses. The War on Drugs was brought to stop the selling, manufacturing and importing of illegal drugs. The two sentencing types led to the increase of drug offenders to fill the prison systems. The Number of people arrested in 2011 in the U.S. on nonviolent drug charges: 1.53 million (http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics ). A second reason for the growth of prisons in the U.S is due to the inequality of poor, disadvantaged men. According to Punishment and Inequality in America by Bruce Weston says that unemployment, family instability, and neighborhood disorder combine to produce especially high rates of violence among young black men. Poverty Poverty cycles create prisoners. Entire demographic groups which are categorized as living at or below the poverty level in most studies reflect an individual from that generational group going to prison or jail. During the past 25 years, there has been a widening gap in America between the haves and have nots. Once a person has been jailed or incarcerated, they are categorized by most employers as third class citizens, which limits their opportunities to climb out of a cycle of poverty years after their release. The cultural group impacted the most is African-Americans. A third reason is recidivism and technical violations of probation and parole. There are so many people out on probation and parole that parole and probation violations increases which makes them go back into prison. Serious technical violation like the repeated failure to report, violent crime a pattern of misbehavior can land a person on probation or parole back in in prison. As we know, there are not many rehabilitation programs that help the offenders reintegrate back into society. Therefore, when prisoners are released back into society they just recidivate and end up back in prison. This causes a growth of prisons in the U.S. There are two specific statistical examples to show the rates of recidivism: Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 states in 1994, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime. (http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tptid=17 ) Released prisoners with the highest re-arrest rates were robbers (70.2%), burglars (74.0%), larcenists (74.6%), motor vehicle thieves (78.8%), those in prison for possessing or selling stolen property (77.4%), and those in prison for possessing, using, or selling illegal weapons (70.2%). (http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tptid=17 ) This argument is valid because these statistics plus many more show how offenders are cycling in and out of the criminal justice system. Not only do we have new offenders but now old offenders who cannot cycle out of the system.

A Review on the Works of James Baldwin Essay -- Literature

Introduction The works of James Baldwin are directly related to the issues of racism, religion and personal conflicts, and sexuality and masculinity during Baldwin's years.James Baldwin's works, both fiction and nonfiction were in some instance a direct reflection his life. Through close interpretation you can combine his work to give a "detailed" look into his actual life. However since most writings made by him are all considered true works of literature we can't consider them to be of autobiographical nature. Religion Personal Life Baldwin reflected his own life in various forms. These include autobiographical essays to fiction and drama. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and play, The Amen Corner, mirror his childhood experiences in the storefront churches of Harlem where James and his stepfather, David Baldwin, preached. The "Autobiographical Notes" section of Notes of a Native Son and the "Down at the Cross" section of The Fire Next Time provide a seemingly realistic view into Baldwin's childhood and his growing involvement with the civil rights movement. Filled with a number of autobiographical passages in Nobody Knows My Name, No Name in the Street and The Devil Finds Word join together to provide a general, somewhat realistic, autobiography. One interest in particular is Baldwin's view on his relationships with Richard Wright ("Alas, Poor Richard") and Norman Mailer ("The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy"), both of which are included in Nobody Knows My Name .(Werner, Craig 45-48) When Baldwin was three years of age his mother married David Baldwin, a Southerner who had made the journey to New York as part of the large stream of black migration north during the times following the First World War. James, t... ...aesthetic: James Baldwin's primer of black American masculinity." African American Review 32.2 (1998): 247. MasterFILE Premier Werner, Craig. "JAMES BALDWIN." Research Guide to Biography & Criticism 1.(1985): 45-48. Book Collection: Nonfiction. Baldwin, James Preservation of Innocence." Zero 1.2 (Summer 1949). Rpt. in Out/Look 6 (Fall 1989), 40-41 Powers, Peter Kerry. "The Treacherous Body: Isolation, Confession, and Community in James Baldwin." 787-813. Duke University Press, 2005. Academic Search Premier. de Romanet, Jerome. "Revisiting Madeleine and `The Outing': James Baldwin's revision of Gide's sexual politics." MELUS 22.1 (1997): 3. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. Robert E. Morsberger. "James Baldwin." Magill Book Reviews. Salem Press, 1998. eNotes.com. 2006. 4 Dec, 2010 james-baldwin-0080505824

Social Security and Corporate Welfare Essays -- Papers Clinton Medicar

Social Security and Corporate Welfare 'Social Security—the nation's largest, costliest, and most successful domestic program has reached a critical juncture in its development. As its creators anticipated, nearly every wage earner now pays taxes into the system. In principle, all citizens may be eligible for "entitlements" at some point in their lives. Yet...senior citizens worry that their benefits will be cut; younger Americans are skeptical—if not cynical—about their own benefits upon retirement.' — W. Andrew Achenbaum This summation of the state of Social Security was written more than a twenty years ago. Looking back, it seems as though the Social Security system frequently reaches a state of crisis in which predictions of its end arise. Since it was enacted in 1935, Social Security has been amended often, most recently in 1983, when Congress imposed a tax on the benefits of high-income retirees, raised the retirement age, and revised the tax-rate schedule. Today, the future of Social Security is in the news again. The reason Social Security is of such concern is that the extremely large group of citizens born in the post-World War II period—the much-discussed baby-boom generation—is retiring. The generation that will take its place in the workforce is far smaller in proportion to the number of retirees, raising fears about the sustainability of Social Security. In the past, proposed solutions to the various problems facing Social Security aroused great debate. Each time, however, the arguments were stilled, repairs were made, and the system continued to fulfill its mandate. That uncertainty about the future has resulted in suggestions for change that range from minor adjustments to complete privatization of the ... ...6. Fisher Center for Information Technology & Management, University of California in Berkeley. June 1995 3. Mark E. Nissen. Commerce Model & the Intelligent Hub. CommerceNet CALS Working Group Presentation. November 1995 4. Michael Bloch, Yves Pigneur. The extended enterprise, a descriptive framework, some enabling technologies and case studies in the Lotus Notes environment. Ecole des HEC INFORGE, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. 1995. Jun. Report No.: TR-YP-91. 5.Don Tapscott. The digital economy. McGraw Hill, 1995 6.Brian A. Johnson, John H. Ott, Jack M. Stephenson, Paal K. Weberg. Banking on multimedia. The McKinsey Quarterly 1995. 7.Gregory Wester, Stephen Franco. The Internet Shakeout 1996. Interactive Commerce Research Bulletin. the Yankee Group, Boston, MA. December 1995 8. http://www.emarketer.com/eStats/welcome.html

The Birthmark Essay: The Theme -- Birthmark Essays

â€Å"The Birthmark† – The Theme  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, â€Å"The Birthmark,† the dominant theme is love conquering self, though there is also present the theme of alienation resulting from the evil within mankind. This essay intends to explore, exemplify and develop this topic.    Hyatt Waggoner in â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne† states:    Alienation is perhaps the theme he handles with greatest power. â€Å"Insulation,† he sometimes called it – which suggests not only isolation but imperviousness. It is the opposite of that â€Å"osmosis of being† that Warren has written of, that ability to respond and relate to others and the world. . . . it puts one outside the ‘magic circle’ or the ‘magnetic chain’ of humanity, where there is neither love nor reality (54).    Waggoner’s theme of alienation does play a part in the tale, but the theme which dominates is that of love conquering self as exemplified in Georgiana’s growing love for Aylmer. Her love transforms her very soul. â€Å"Everything he has to say is related, finally, to ‘that inward sphere’† (McPherson 68-69). â€Å"When he desired to build the kingdom of God, he looked for the pattern of it, not in history nor in the fortunes of those about him, but in his own heart (Erskine 180).    In the opening paragraph of â€Å"The Birthmark† the narrator introduces Aylmer as a scientist who â€Å"had made experience of a spiritual affinity more attractive than any chemical one.† Hawthorne’s description of the scientist’s love for Georgiana is apt, for love is just that – spiritual. And the theme of this tale is a spiritual one. Through the course of the story Aylmer declines spiritually, while Georgiana advances spiritually.    Even after Aylmer has â€Å"persuaded a be... ...John. â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† In Leading American Novelists. New York: Books For Libraries Press, 1968.    Hawthorne, Nathaniel. â€Å"The Birthmark† Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawBirt.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1    McPherson, Hugo. â€Å"Hawthorne’s Use of Mythology.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    Waggoner, Hyatt. â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† In Six American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Richard Foster. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968.    Williams, Stanley T. â€Å"Hawthorne’s Puritan Mind.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.         

Social Norm Paper

Erika Lamberson Mrs. DeRoussell Psychology April 9, 2013 Social Norms P1. To be accepted by society people have to follow the norm. When you step outside of the mainstream you are considered â€Å"different† no matter how right you are. That’s why when someone starts a movement people are against him, until enough people start do it his way and â€Å"it becomes the norm†. It is also called trying to fit in because if you do something out of the norm, you are pretty much an outsider. People get others to do things out of the norm every day, it just goes unnoticed.Most of the time people don’t do it in public because it isn’t something they want to draw attention to. I am choosing to violate the social norm of going through a drive-thru forwards in a vehicle. I am doing this to find out what kind of reactions I get when I do something out of the ‘social norm’. Going through the drive-thru backwards, whether it is at a fast food place or a bank is not said to be normal. Normally, people pull up to the window with their vehicle facing forward. When I do this social norm violation, I expect to get a lot of responses.This experiment will be very hard for me to do considering I will have to drive my vehicle in reverse. I predict that the responses will be to get weird looks or possibly laughed at. People don’t normally see someone coming through a drive-thru with their car faced backwards. Not only is it not normal, it can also be dangerous and embarrassing. My only concerns about completing this experiment are that I get it done safely without hurting myself, my vehicle, or anyone else for that matter. Since I will have to go through the drive-thru backwards, this is going to be a challenge.I will have to watch out of every mirror I have and also pay attention to the people behind me. P2. My plan to complete this social norm experiment is to go through the drive-thru at two different restaurants. The first one wi ll be at a place called Taco Bell. The second will be at Burger King. This will be difficult because I have never gone through a drive-thru in reverse. I will order at the ordering station, and then pull up to the window, pay for my food, receive my food, all while driving in reverse. I will be observing the way the employees and customers act.Depending on how good this experiment goes, they will all understand why I am doing this. P3. The first thing I did when I pulled into Taco Bell was drive to the back of the restaurant and park my truck. I did this so I could make sure that there weren’t going to be a lot of people going through the drive-thru. The time of night is around 9 at this point, so there weren’t a lot of people out. I started to back up and go to the ordering station. The first curve to the ordering station is a little sharp so of course I had trouble while trying to drive in reverse.I had my boyfriend with me so he could help observe and order for me. After I got to the ordering station a car pulled up next in line. I couldn’t really see the look on their faces because their headlights were shining right in my eyes. The employee takes our order and we proceed to drive to the window. When we get to the window, the look on the girls face was priceless. When we received our food, we continued to drive backwards like nothing was wrong. Then came the hardest part of the experiment at Taco Bell, pulling back out onto the main road in reverse.My boyfriend and I made sure that no one was coming from either way just to keep from causing a wreck. I had to quickly pull out onto the main road and turn around as fast as possible. The second restaurant I did the social norms experiment at was Burger King. This place is never very busy so I decided I would go around lunch time. I also had my boyfriend do this one with me. It was around 1 PM on a rainy Saturday. The drive-thru of Burger King was way easier than Taco Bell because it is a l ot wider and doesn’t have a sharp turn. I came to the ordering station and my boyfriend began to order our food.By the time we got to the window to pay for our food, there were 3 people standing there wondering what in the world we were doing. I explained to them why I was driving backwards, and they agreed that they thought it was a fun idea. After we got our food, they laughed and started talking about how they had always seen on the internet someone driving through a drive-thru backwards but hadn’t ever seen it in person. P4. The responses I got were very different at both places. I am not sure if it was because of the employees working or if it was just the time of the day that I went.The people at Taco Bell didn’t really have that much of a reaction. I got the hint that they just thought I was a stupid teenager that was trying to be cool. I did see one person in the back cooking that laughed and gave me a thumbs up. At Burger King they were so much more int erested in what I was doing than anything else. They all gathered at the window and were laughing and carrying on and asking me all sorts of questions. I think I had very different reactions because it was late at night for Taco Bell and all the employees just wanted to go home. P5.The experience of violating a social norm was definitely thrilling. I don’t think I would have ever thought to do something like this without the realization of how important ‘social norms’ are. The experiment left me with more knowledge about how important social norms are to people. To go against a social norm is looked down on most of the time. I was really great to go out and do the opposite and see what the reactions were. Even though you don’t get a good reaction, another place may laugh with you. You should never be too embarrassed to try something out of the norm.

My dad is my hero Essay

A father is a person that everybody in the world should love. I love my father because he has taken care of me since I was born and not only did he took care of me but he also loved me, protected me when I was little. And has helped me in everything I had needed. Therefore my father is m hero. I cannot remember a person in my life that had a more significant influence on me than my father. My father has been the driving force behind my academic achievement. Everything I have been able to accomplish with regards to school, I have him to thank for. Throughout my life, my father has been responsible, caring, strict in his guidelines, and yet understanding of the difficulty of being a teen. This behavior has, throughout my academic history, allowed me to grow and expand my future possibilities. There are times when I speak to my father, and he simply dazzles me with his knowledge when I was just simply asking an easy question. But I like it what way because with that he shows me a lot more I didn’t know about the question. And he also is a very good role model for any children and he has been my role model since the day I was born. My father is a respected father and loved husband. My father also has given me all the right directions to believe in God. And therefore everything I have said is why I love ,respect, and why he is very special for me.

Education System in Desperate need of Change Essay

Sir William Haley once said, â€Å"Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don’t know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it†. If students were guaranteed to leave school with knowing of what they don’t know and the desire to continue learning, the method of learning will be correct. Today’s education system does not give students the opportunity to enjoy what they are learning. The banking method, where students are empty vessels which educators must deposit knowledge into, deprives them of creativity and the desire to learn. No child is given the chance to shine and be unique. Students today are simply being placed on a conveyer belt, sorted, and then labeled according to their so called intelligence. We need an education system that provides a slower learning method, a method where you focus on what is being learned instead of zipping through it, and the freedom to make mistakes as this will electrify and stimulate students to fulfill their potential. We must recognize students as individuals and keep in mind their diverse backgrounds. In â€Å"Lives on the Boundary,† Rose states, â€Å"The canon has intended to push to the margins much of the literature of our nation: from American Indian songs and chants to immigrant fiction to working-class narratives† (100). The messages that are received from the text are crucial. The students need to be able to relate to what they have before them. One of the problems with today’s education system is we are given material to read, memorize, and expected to repeat it back at the snap of a finger. But without the ability to relate and connect with the material, the learning doesn’t take place. Everything that is read or being said is just going through one ear and out the other. By adding relatable texts, you add life to learning. In â€Å"Learning in the Key of Life,† Jon Spayde states, â€Å"people cannot learn what they do not love† (69). When students are reading or learning about a subject they love, they are inspired and motivated to learn more. This alone can benefit the learning process for students. It becomes much easier to grasp concepts learned in class. Today’s education system does not allow all students to thrive in their own way. It is fast paced with limited space for creativeness. We are given large amounts of information at a time and attempt to move as quickly as possible through all that we can. There is never â€Å"time† to stay longer on a topic. The instructors try their hardest to keep the pace, but this way of teaching does not benefit any student. In â€Å"Learning in the Key of Life†, Jon Spayde states, â€Å"†¦we are focusing far too much of our energy and resources on fast knowledge, ignoring all the richness and meaning slow knowledge adds to our lives† (68). When the focus is on just getting through the material, we are skipping over the value and richness of slow knowledge. Instead of zipping through a lesson because it needs to be done by a certain day to move onto the next, the focus needs to be on what is being learned than making a time requirement. Spayde also states, â€Å"You can figure out what you can do pretty quickly, but the ethical understanding of what you ought to do comes slowly†. We need to adopt the slow learning method, without it we are missing out on more than we think. There is so much more to learning than getting through the material, the purpose of it is to benefit and gain from it. With slow knowledge we will achieve this. One of the most important changes that needs to be done is the view on mistakes. In the article, â€Å"How to Make Mistakes,† Dennett states, â€Å"Mistakes are not just golden opportunities for learning; they are, in an important sense, the only opportunity for learning something truly new†. When fear is being put into a student to never make a mistake, their education is stunted. They lose the ability to explore and take the chance of being wrong because they are repeatedly punished for being incorrect. When a mistake is made, students will learn where they went wrong and will then grow from it. The key to progress is making mistakes. The reason we are in school is to learn, but with this opportunity taken away from students their ability to learn is ripped from their grasp. Daniel C. Dennett also states, â€Å"You should seek out opportunities to make grand mistakes, just so you can then recover from them†. Instead of using all of their energy to attempt to be perfect and run from being inaccurate, every student should look for every opportunity to be wrong. Without errors, the students can not accomplish much. If you look at Todays’ education system is in desperate need of change. No student is given the opportunity to show what they are fully capable of. Instead they are told what they can do. They are simply labeled and placed where they â€Å"should be†. But when students begin to pursue their mistakes and soak in the richness of slow knowledge, they will begin to truly learn. Maria Montessori once said, â€Å"If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man’s future. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual’s total development lags behind? †. If many students are having difficulty learning in the method we have created ages ago, why not change it? The time is now and there is no time to waste. We must refocus this outdated system to insure that the students will have a secure future and keep the standard of living that we have today.

The beneficial effects of nutrition on exercise performance Essay

Over the past 20 old ages. research has clearly documented the good effects of nutrition on exercising public presentation. There is no uncertainty that what an athlete chows and drinks can impact wellness. organic structure weight and composing. substrate handiness during exercising. recovery clip after exercising. and. finally. exercising public presentation. Carbohydrates are of import to keep blood-glucose degrees during exercising and to replace musculus animal starch. Recommendations for jocks range from 6 to 10 g/kg organic structure weight per twenty-four hours. The sum required depends upon the athlete’s entire day-to-day energy outgo. type of athletics performed. sex of the jock. and environmental conditions. Protein demands are somewhat increased in extremely active people. Protein recommendations for endurance jocks are 1. 2 to 1. 4 g/kg organic structure weight per twenty-four hours. whereas those for opposition and strength-trained jocks may be every bit high as 1. 6 to 1. 7 g/kg organic structure weight per twenty-four hours. Fat is of import in the diets of jocks as it provides energy. fat-soluble vitamins. and indispensable fatty acids. Dehydration decreases exercising public presentation ; therefore. equal fluid before. during. and after exercising is necessary for wellness and optimum public presentation. Athletes should imbibe adequate fluid to equilibrate their fluid losingss. Two hours before exercising 400 to 600 milliliter ( 14 to 22 oz ) of fluid should be consumed. and during exercising 150 to 350 milliliter ( 6 to 12 oz ) of fluid should be consumed every 15 to 20 min depending on tolerance. Before exercising. a repast or bite should supply sufficient fluid to keep hydration. be comparatively low in fat and fibre to ease stomachic emptying and minimise GI hurt. be comparatively high in saccharide to maximise care of blood glucose. be moderate in protein. and be composed of nutrients familiar and good tolerated by the jock. Eating before exercising. as opposed to exerting in the fasting province. has been shown to better public presentation. The size and timing of the pre-exercise repast are interrelated. Because most jocks do non like to vie on a full tummy. smaller repasts should be consumed in closer propinquity to the event to let for stomachic voidance. whereas larger repasts can be consumed if more clip is available earlier exercising or competition. Sums of saccharide used in surveies in which public presentation was enhanced have ranged from about 200 to 300 g saccharide for repasts consumed 3 to 4 H before exercising. Current informations are assorted refering whether the glycemic index of saccharide in the preexercise repast affects public presentation. The saccharide consumed should give chiefly glucose ; fructose entirely is non as effectual and may take to diarrhea. although mixtures of glucose and fructose seem to be effectual. If the same entire sum of saccharide and fluid is ingested. the signifier of saccharide does non look to matter—some jocks may prefer to utilize a athletics drink whereas others may prefer to eat a solid or gel and consume H2O. Presently. the usage and recommendation of ergogenic AIDSs to jocks is controversial. Some wellness attention professionals discourage the usage of all ergogenic AIDSs. though others suggest they be used with cautiousness and merely after careful scrutiny of the merchandise for safety. efficaciousness. authority. and legality. Athletes should non utilize nutritionary ergogenic AIDSs until they have carefully evaluated the merchandise. as indicated above. and discussed the usage of the merchandise with a qualified nutrition or wellness professional.

Hidden Connections

[pic] EMMANUEL KWAME ANTWI ID: UD16761BBU24478 SEMINAR CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT I â€Å"D† THE HIDDEN CONNECTIONS (ESSAY) ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY HONOLULU, HAWAII DECEMBER 17, 2011 INTRODUCTION The Hidden Connections is a book authored by Fritjof Capra. In this book,  Capra relates today’s dynamic and complex human life styles to the symbiotic lives of  different interrelated and interdependent organisms. Specifically, he is trying to apply the ideology of obscurity assumptions to the close scrutiny of the magnitude of the interactions and correlations of mankind. He states in the book that if we are to maintain a future life, we need to learn to respect the rules of nature, the rules and principles that nature has inevitably adapted to advance and sustain what he calls the web of life. This book  explains and clears just how much the hypothetical thoughts and scientific theories which are much ignored by most of the world that operates outside the margins of science can practically be applied to resolving most of the problems that threaten the existence of this planet. This book brings to light the interrelation and interconnections of science in relation to our  societal and social organizations which most of us are not aware. This can be the reason why he titled the book ‘The Hidden Connections’, it is because most of the world’s population is either unaware f this understanding, or may be just negligent of its reality. According to a presentation by Darian Schiffman (academics, AIU) quoting from Capra (2002 p. vvi), the book basically has two goals, which are; to bring forth a new understanding of life through the presentation of a conceptual framework that integrates life’s biological, cognitive as well as social dimensions; and t o offer a clear systematic approach to some pertaining questions we have that negatively and aversively affect our world. This study purposes to critically analyze the message in this book, to look at every aspect of  human life that it addresses, I believe Capra himself being a physicist of prominence and an award winner in the science department, importantly with enough time, examined and fully dissected the theoretical scientific principles in every possible way and in their applicable nature, that in the end saw the connectivity of these scientific articulations to our own social lives today. At the same time, he saw in the most significant way the effect the things that we do as humans are going to later affect us if we do not change the organizational principles that govern and direct our lives today. The   book also   touches   almost   all   the   significant   aspects   of human   life   and   boldly substantiates just how each of these aspects affects the other if not well maintained. Generally, the book brings the world to understanding the extremes of destruction our current principles have on nature, making future life almost unimaginable. In the same vein, the book proposes the possible amicable measures that we can take to preserve our world, especially world leaders and world environmental organizations. For long the world has being striving towards globalization, this book addresses both the challenges and dangers of such a motive, addressing the complications of biotechnology and its nature. The book simply brings together the scientific world and our own social world, and pragmatically defining these worlds’ relationship and probable dependence. THE HIDDEN CONNECTIONS (THE BODY) The Nature of Life: Mostly, this would direct a person to the question â€Å"what s life? † a question which will clearly trigger an outburst of mental assumptions some driven by general thought, and some oriented by experience. An encyclopedic thesaurus Word Web, life is defined as being the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities, or  the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living. This may sound quite simple and brief, but Capra looks at it in quite broader perspective, and defines it in even more detailed way, pin-pointing specific aspects that make up the definition of life. Capra explains in some way that no man or organism is total island, in one way or another  every organism depends on other organisms, no wonder I personally a ‘symbiotic’ kind of  relation where one organism of a different specie cannot live without the other, the interdependence of organisms where each organism benefits from the other. The practical of  such relationship is that of plants and animals, animals basically cannot make their own food so they depend on the photosynthetic process of plants, through which plants make food, at the same time releasing oxygen which animals do need forth the process of respiration. Maturana and Varela (1980) quoted by Capra (2002), in their definition of life came up with the concept of ‘autopoiesis’ which factually mean â€Å"self-making†, this concept particularly amalgamates   two defining characteristics or aspects of cellular life which are the physical boundary and the metabolic network; and in contrast to the surfaces of crystals or large molecules, the boundary of an autopoietic system is chemically distinct from the rest of the system and it participates in metabolic processes by assembling itself and by selectively filtering incoming and outgoing molecules. Therefore, the definition of a living system as an autopoietic network means that the phenomenon of life has to be understood as a property of  the system as a whole, just as much as Pier Luigi (2008) mentions that life cannot be attributed to any single molecular component, not even to the DNA or RNA but only to the entire bounded metabolic network. ‘Autopoiesis provides a clear and powerful criterion for distinguishing between living and nonliving systems. For example, it tells us that viruses re not alive, because they lack their  own metabolism. Outside living cells, viruses are inert molecular structures consisting of  proteins and nucleic acids. A virus is essentially a chemical message that needs the metabolism of a living host cell to produce new virus particles, according to the instructions encoded in its DNA or RNA. The new particles are not built within the boundary of the virus itself, but outside in the host cell,’ Capra (2002). So, the autopoiesis th eory strongly supports and founds the Santiago theory in some way. It explains and provides answers to many other  questions that surround the issue life and its natural defining features and traits, it can as well symbiotic relationships, organizations, and social networks of organisms. During the process of respiration, animals release carbon dioxide which plants need for the process of photosynthesis, so plants need animals for the carbon dioxide, and plants animals need plants for the oxygen. We (animals) primarily need each other to survive. God created a world that nourishes, restores, and preserves itself it were not for human activities that have degraded to total ruin, for example, a livestock farmer lets his/her livestock feed on the pasture, as they graze, they drop dung on the pastures which will in the next rain season dissolve to nourish the soil as fertilizer, promoting an even better outgrowth of  pasture, therefore the soil nourishment depends on the livestock, and the nourishment of the livestock depends on the soil. Capra looks at life as not being solely determined by the inherent design but views it as an evolving process that engages a complete epigenetic network or external factors, making it continuously responding to both physical and chemical constrictions we exert on our environment. There is one common character that all living organisms share and this is unquestionable. They all have cells, be it animals, people, plants, or microorganisms such as bacteria, virus or  fungi, all of them have cells that build up to give a structure. Despite transitions and extreme conditions, the genetic blueprint of organisms has so far stayed intact in most cases, some have succumbed to the inevitability of evolution, but some have been the same for thousands of years and the dependence upon another species of organisms have been carried on and on. In his definition of life, Capra (2002:6) uses the bacterial cell to clearly delineate what life is all about, he states that when a cell is viewed under a microscope one can easily notice that inside it a metabolic processes that uses special macromolecules consisting of elongated chains of atoms, and two of such macromolecules are common in all living cells, and these are proteins and the nucleic acid (the Deoxyribonucleic Acid-DNA and the Ribonucleic Acid-RNA). Basically, there are two kinds of proteins as well; the enzymes act catalysts for most metabolic processes, where as the structural proteins form part of the cell structure. The DNA and the RNA within the cell work hand-in-hand determining that crucial bond defining the cell’s genetic and metabolic features. The Santiago Theory: Maturana and Varela (1980:13) in theoretical definition of the Santiago theory say all living systems are cognitive systems, and that living as a process is itself a process of cognition, and the two further cement that ‘this statement is valid for all organisms in spite of whether such organism got a nervous system or not. Initially in the world of philosophy Rene Descartes (1596-1650) emphasized the Cartesian View which promotes dualism as follows which suggests that the body operates like some kind of  machine, having material properties of extension and motion, that it operates within the doctrines of physics; and further articulates that the mind and soul on the other is kind of none-material, making it a unit without extension and motion, and follows not the rules of physics. Descartes stressed that it is only the human beings that have minds, and that the mind acts together with the body at the pineal gland, a tiny pine-like endocrine gland located close to the central part of the brain which produces melatonin, a hormone responsible for regulating the patterns of sleeping or waking up as well as other seasonal functions. This understanding generally relates that it is the mind that basically and pragmatically controls the entire, and that at the same time the body can as well manipulate the reasoning of the mind, especially in cases where a person acts out of an emotional intuition. This theory looks at cognition as a component quite indispensable in the issues of systems, it practically implies that almost every activity that takes place or transpires in the system processes require cognition, which Capra stipulates as taking place in phases as follows, ‘Cognition, is not a representation of an independently existing world, but rather a continual bringing forth of a world through the process of living. The interactions of a living system with its environment are cognitive interactions, and the process of living itself is a process of  cognition. In the words of Maturana and Varela, â€Å"to live is to know†. As a living organism goes through its individual pathway of structural changes, each of these changes corresponds to a cognitive act, which means that learning and development are merely two sides of the same coin. The first type, known as â€Å"primary consciousness,† arises when cognitive processes are accompanied by basic perceptual, sensory and emotional experience. Primary consciousness is probably experienced by most mammals and perhaps by some birds and other vertebrates. The second type of consciousness, sometimes called â€Å"higher-order consciousness,† involves self-awareness—a concept of self, held by a thinking and reflecting subject. This experience of self-awareness emerged during the evolution of the great apes, or  Ã¢â‚¬Å"hominids,† together with language, conceptual thought and all the other characteristics that fully unfolded in human consciousness. Because of the critical role of reflection in this higher-order conscious experience, I shall call it â€Å"reflective consciousness. Reflective consciousness involves a level of cognitive abstraction that includes the ability to hold mental images, which allows us to formulate values, beliefs, goals and strategies. This evolutionary stage is of central relevance to the main theme of this book—the extension of the new understanding of life to the social domain— because with the evolution of language arose not only the inner world of concepts and ideas, but a lso the social world of organized relationships’ Capra (2002:38-39). According to Capra (2002:34) ‘the central insight of the Santiago Theory is the identification of cognition, the process of knowing, with the process of life. Cognition, according to Maturana and Varela (1980), is the activity involved in the self-generation and self-perpetuation of living networks. In other words, cognition is the very process of life. The organizing activity of living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity. The interactions of   a   living   organism—plant,   animal   or   human—with   its   environment   are   cognitive interactions. Thus, life and cognition are inseparably connected. Mind—or, more accurately, mental activity—is immanent in matter at all levels of life. ’ This to me sounds more prudent and quite rational in comparison to the other perceptions, in opposition to Rene’s theories the Santiago Theory is more clearer and comprehensible even for low class students, it brings to life the real life situation that we all experience everyday, it makes one see the connection and dependability of organisms upon other organisms, taking into perspective, the biotic and abiotic factors on nature. According to the online encyclopedia (Wikipedia, 2010) Descartes believed that this special gland was the ‘seat of the soul’ an understanding he purported with many reasons stated respectively as follows; firstly, he understood that the soul is unitary or one and this to him meant the pineal gland was an entity despite it being proven hemispherical; second to this he discovered that this gland was positioned near the ventricles making him believe the cerebrospinal fluid worked through the nerves to control the body, as well as regulating the processes manipulated by the pineal gland. and finally Descartes despite figuring-out that both human beings and animals had the pineal gland he still resolved that only humans had minds advancing in his mind the idea that animals cannot feel pain or are insensitive to pain. Unfortunately the Cartesian view gets questioned and in the process challenged by the Santiago Theory which takes a totally different stand from the philosophy o f Descartes. The Santiago Theory vehemently recognizes the reality of cognition, normally defined as the ability or the process of knowing, or the activity involved in self-generation and self-perpetuation of living systems, entailing that cognition is actually the life itself, Maturana &Varela (1980). The Santiago theory moves away from Descartes’ view of life and instead studies the mind from a systematic understanding and has so far given to the interdisciplinary field of Cognitive Science; and according to Capra (2002:34), this theory holds the ‘Organizing activity of all living systems at all levels of life, is actually mental activity’. Therefore, the old perception of the mind as a ‘thinking thing’ has progressed into a view of  the mind as being a process where the ‘entire structure of the organism participates’ Capra (2002:37). Many other views have so far been brought forth to oppose Descartes view, but the Santiago Theory has so far been the first scientific hypothesis that has really questioned and practically overcame the Cartesian dissection of mind and matter, and from the optimistic point of view, this theory is believed to have far-reaching implications. Generally, this theory has brought the mind and body/matter together viewed as two harmonizing and complementary aspects defining the phenomenon of life. So far, the theory has already brought substantial knowledge and understanding concerning the beginning with a simple micro cell, the mind, the matter, the process and the structure at all levels which have so far proven to be inseparable and interdependent in one way or another, this unites the mind, matter and life. In the Santiago theory (Capra, 2002:34-36) it is clearly stated that as ‘a living organism responds to environmental influences with structural changes, these changes will in turn alter  its future behavior. In other words, a structurally coupled system is a learning system. Continual structural changes in response to the environment—and consequently continuing adaptation, learning and development—are key characteristics of the behavior of all living beings. Because of its structural coupling, we can call the behavior of an animal intelligent, but would not apply that term to the behavior of a rock. As it keeps interacting with its environment, a living organism will undergo a sequence of structural changes, and over time it will form its own individual pathway of structural coupling. At any point on this pathway, the structure of the organism is a record of previous structural changes. The Santiago theory advances the issue of higher order consciousness or ‘reflective consciousness which involves a level of cognitive abstraction that includes the ability to hold mental images’ Capra (2002:39). This inevitable capability gives human beings the repertoire to create a value system and act cordially. In the simplest of perception, this theory drives us take a person’s subjective and prejudiced experience into some version which has been conventionally ignored by science. The Santiago specifically states that mind is no thing rather a process operating through the brain relating that brain and mind is actually one between process and structure. It is also of some degree of importance to note that this eradicates the idea that the brain is the only compartment involved in the process of  cognition, clearly illustrating the fact that in all vertebrate organisms the immune system is actually a complicated network of unrelenting interconnectedness, just as much as the nervous system serving similarly the vital co-ordination purpose. According   to   the   Wikipedia   (2010)   on   the   Santiago   theory,   cognition   appears   as   a consequence of continual interaction between the system and its environment, delineating that the   continuous   interactions   between   system   and   the   environment   triggers   two-sided disturbances viewed as problems forcing the system to use its functional specialization routine to find solutions to the perturbations. It is of importance to note in this theory that the system slowly adapts to its environment positioning itself to face-up to the disturbances or  intrusion in order to sustain survival. This therefore means the resulting complexity  complicatedness of living systems is cognition emanating from the bilateral perturbations in the system/environment outline. The theory is really making the scientific world dig deep into these discoveries, eradicating misunderstandings and doubts, setting up the facts straight from experimental experience and observations. Extending the System Approach: Capra, resorts that the systematic understanding of life practically allows the world to see and comprehend the fundamental unity to life, that different living systems exhibit similar patterns of organization, Capra (2002:81),. This understanding can practically be applied to our communities, and the impact will definitely be significant. The defining blueprint of the systems is quite complicated, but can be understood, Capra (2002:81), when we extend this understanding and nowledge, applying it to the social domain we actually apply our ‘knowledge of life’s basic patterns and delineating principles of  organization, and specifically apply our understanding of living networks to social/societal reality’. The living networks in our social communities work just like the brain in its environment; the two diverse situations easily match and model each other. Capra views his extension of the systems approach to the social domain as exp licitly including the material world, which is quite unusual since traditionally social scientists were not interested in the world of matter. He basically mentions that ‘our academic disciplines have been organized in such a way that the natural sciences deal with social structures, which are perceived to be especially the rules of behavior; stating that in the near future this strict division will no longer be possible since the key challenge of this new century for social scientists, natural scientists and everyone else will be to build ecologically sustainable communities, designed in such a way that their technologies and social institutions, their  material and social structure do not interfere with nature’s hereditary ability to sustain life;†¦the design principles of our future social institutions must be consistent with the principles of  organization that nature has evolved to sustain the web of life. A unified conceptual framework for the understanding of material and social structures will be essential this task’ Capra (2002:19). The Social Network: In every society or community there must be a distinctive social kind of  network and on the issue of this kind of network Capra states that social networks use communication, which normally takes place in multiple feedback loops, as some measure to reproduce itself and its culture, and thus its value and belief. This actually addresses social reality. Capra mentions that wherever there is social organization there is power courtesy of  the inevitable conflicts of interest, and it is in these situations where ‘power plays a central role in the emergence of social structure’ which happens to provide people with rules or  principles of behavior, Capra (2002:90). Normally the ‘social networks generate material structures buildings, roads, technologies, etc, which become structural components of the network; and they also produce material goods and artifacts that are exchanged between the network’s nodes. However, the production of material structures in social networks is quite different from that in biological and ecological networks. ‘The structures are created for a purpose, according to some design, and they embody some meaning; and to understand the activities of social systems, it is crucial to study them from that perspective†¦perspective of meaning includes a multitude of interrelated characteristics that are essential to understanding social reality. Meaning itself is a systemic phenomenon: it always has to do with context. Webster's Dictionary defines meaning as â€Å"an idea conveyed to the mind that requires or allows of interpretation,† and interpretation as â€Å"conceiving in the light of individual belief, judgment, or circumstance. In other words, we interpret something by putting it into a particular context of concepts, values, beliefs, or circumstances. To understand the meaning of anything we need to relate it to other things in its environment , in its past, or in its future. Nothing is meaningful in itself’ Capra (2002:83-84). According to Wenger (2006), organisms in an environment develop a common practice which characterizes the shared manner of how things are executed and relate to each other, a reality that allows such organisms to attain their unifying course, and in most cases after a while such practice turns to be a significant bond within the participants. This book clearly depicts from its author that when we try to extend this new understanding of life to the social domain, we immediately come up against a bewildering multitude of phenomena, rules of behavior, values, intentions, goals, strategies, designs, power relations that play no role in most of then on-human world but are essential to human social life, however though, these different characteristics of social reality all share a basic common feature that provides a natural link to the systems view of life developed in the other chapters of the book, Capra (2002:73). Normally this is how social networks come into being, and such communities have special aspects in common such as; that impeccable looking common understanding, the general involvement of the community members, the regular round of activities that the members become   accustomed   encompassing   the   accepted   rules   of   behavior,   attitude   and comprehension which are normally sustained in due course, Wenger (2008). It such attributes that end up becoming differentiating principles of a community, despite emanating from the ordinary; they primarily become the identifying traits for a specific community. From the most general of perspectives, the social networks of mankind are defined by minor  and major aspects that maintain and sustain the network, and the connectivity in the entire metaphor, the same critically resembles the systems in the human beings and most other  organisms. In any typical social network there are strict outlines that define and regulate behavior and attitudes a practice that results in the creation of ethics and norms that different societies resort to consider for societal order. Capra states that ‘at all scales of nature, we find living systems nesting within other living systems, networks within   networks. Their  boundaries are not boundaries of separation but boundaries of identity. All living systems communicate with one another and share resources across their boundaries’. This clearly shows the possibility of social networks in another living web of networks interacting just as normal. Organization and Change: In most cases where an effort to bring change has been made and proven to be futile due to feeling and assumption that people resisted the intended change, the general conclusion made is the people resisted is refused to buy into the introduced change, be it for their good and benefit. Capra defiles and contradicts this idea and calls it false, stating that people only resist having change if such change is not negotiable meaning if such change is simply imposed on them, normally societies or communities would appreciate and support change if their input on the idea is sort. It makes them feel part of that change, and part of a social community that operates systematically. When we transfer on the metaphor of  an organization from machine to the living systems we actually begin to view organizations as communities with collective identities that share common values. During an interview by Barbara Vogl (2010) with Capra mentioned in answer to he question concerning self-organization in our individual lives and organizations could be useful in helping us see how to get through the anxiety in our period of transition and passing into the  new paradigm thinking, he replied and said ‘Well I think self-organization and the newer  understanding of life and com plexity, when it is applied to the social realm and human organizations, can help people to find their authenticity as human beings The old paradigm model is a mechanistic model where people are seen as parts of a big machine and the machine is designed by experts who either sit at the top of the organization or are brought in from outside as consultants. Then this design of new structures is imposed upon the people who work in the organization and they are pigeon-holed in certain departments with well-defined boundaries. So the underlying model is that of a machine working very smoothly. What self-organization tells you, among many other things, is that creativity is an inherent property of all living systems. All living systems are creative because they have the ability to reach out and create something new. In the last 20-25 years we have begun to understand the dynamics of this creativity, in terms of emergence of new structures and in terms of  instability, bifurcation points, and the spontaneous emergence of order. This is the underlying dynamics of creativity at all levels of life. When people understand this they will realize that human individuals as well as groups of individuals are inherently creative. So when you have an organization and you want to design a new structure and you bring in outside experts and then impose this structure on the organization you have to spend a lot of energy and money to sell the idea to the employees and the manager. Since human beings are inherently creative they will not accept the idea as it is. Since this will deny their humanity. Therefore, you can give them orders and they will nominally adhere to the orders but they will circumvent the orders; they will re-invent the orders and will modify it, either boycott it or embellish it, adding their own interpretation’. This to me implies the fact that for anything to be of some level of importance and value to the people, the people need to understand it first, have some insight on its implications, put on balance the advantages and the disadvantages, enabling them to be able to define the situation in its true context. Organizations or companies with collective identities do exist in sharp contrast to the ‘economical company, whose priorities are determined by the purely economic criteria Capra (2002:105). In further expatiation of this situation Capra states that ‘organizations cannot be controlled through direct interventions, but can be influenced by giving impulses rather than instructions, Capra (2002:112). In most cases interventions end up causing tension and stampedes in communities, but impulses which are normally conditioning can gradually bring about the desired change. Capra continues to point out that it is the meaningful disturbances that normally trigger structural changes within an organization, instead of force Capra(2002:112). The general deduction is that if you intend to bring about change, it is best that you involve the people as the subject of that change, for such change will directly affect them so they should be consulted about the change before it is applied, so if you involve people in the creation of change, then definitely change will be come. Organization in an economy: Organization plays a major role in shaping the economy of  our social communities and the world at large. The Hidden connections discuses the most probing issues in the world today, starting with politics, sociology, education, ethics, philosophy and design, and the book’s main theme is change in these important aspects of our  lives. In an interview with Ecotecture (2002) addressing the issue of economy, Capra states that he calls for change of values, a change of politics, a change of attitudes, with the general goal of building a sustainable society and the future that is sustainable, and believable for our  children, and further explained as an example that ‘in order to change the economy in such away that it becomes sustainable, one needs to understand the world economy, which today is a network of computers, a network of flows of money and information and power that extends globally. So we need to understand how we can introduce a different set of values into the global economy. ’ He extends that ‘in order to do that, we need to understand the relationship between living networks and values and human choices and politics. So it needs certain kind of philosophy and†¦spiritual stance/background, but it also needs the scientific understanding. ‘He clearly stipulates that in addit ion to being living communities, organizations are as ‘social institutions   designed   for   specific   purposes   and   functioning   in   a   specific   economic environment’ Capra (2002:125). Economic Globalization: Global economics has been under promotion for two decades now, all in effort to encourage standardization in the rules that regulate and control international trading. Globalization literary refers to the process of making something gain global and internal recognition and acceptance, a transformational process of turn simple local or  national rule or principle into an international law, or understanding. It is a process by which people of the world are fused together into a distinct society that share a common understanding and work as an entity; it enjoins the economical, technological, and socio-cultural together with the political authorities of this world, Croucher (2004:10). Upon this Jagdish (2004) substantiates further that globalization is quite often used to imply economic globalization which means the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spreading of technology internationally. In chapter seven of the Hidden Connections Capra (2003) further explained and brought more light on the definition of economic globalization in the following statement during the conference; â€Å"During the past three decades, the information technology revolution has given rise to a new type of capitalism that is profoundly different from the one formed during the Industrial Revolution, or the one that emerged after the Second World War. It is characterized by three fundamental features. Its core economic activities are global; the main sources of productivity and competitiveness are innovation, knowledge generation, and information processing; and it is structured largely around networks of financial flows. This new global capitalism is also referred to as â€Å"the new economy,† or simply as â€Å"globalization. †   In the new economy, capital works in real time, moving rapidly through global financial networks. From these networks it is invested in all kinds of economic activity, and most of what is extracted as profit is channeled back into the meta-network of financial flows. Sophisticated information and communication technologies enable financial capital to move rapidly from one option to another in a relentless global search for investment opportunities. The movements of this electronically operated global casino do not follow any market logic. The markets are continually manipulated and transformed by computer-enacted investment strategies, subjective perceptions of influential analysts, political events in any part of the world, and most significantly by unsuspected turbulences caused by the complex interactions of capital flows in this highly nonlinear system†. However, Capra (2002) further extends that in order for the global economic automatization process called ‘automaton’ to properly work it has to be programmed by human actors and institutions giving rise to the new economy comprising of two crucial components, which are values and operational rules. Capra does not hide the fact that these automated global financial network processions do ‘†¦assign specific financial value to every asset in every economy’, he clears that this is no perfect measure though, because ‘it involves economic calculations based on advanced mathematical models, information and opinions provided by market valuation firms, financial gurus, leading central bankers, and other  influential analysts, as well as unregulated information turbulences’; which mean that ‘the tradable financial of any asset subject to continual adjustments is an emergent property of the automaton’s highly nonlinear dynamics. However, underlying all evaluations is the basic principle of unfettered capitalism: that money-making should always be valued higher than democracy, human rights, environmental protection or any other value†¦ in the process entirely changing the principle’. Basically, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was initiated the mid-1990s to watch over and determine economic globalization; so far politicians and business leaders promised that economic globalization would benefit all the people in all countries worldwide through the process of  free trade, but instead of really sticking by this promise the organization has been responsible for a ‘multitude of interconnected fatal consequences’ Capra (2002:129), that are affecting especially developing countries, that are still in their developing stage in most aspects; which brings me to the next question that Capra addresses in this book, and that is the consequences of economic globalization. Every decision one takes despite the level at which the decision is taken there will always be advantages and disadvantages, benefits and consequences and the process of economic globalization has not been an exclusion from this natural phenomenon, in this case most of  the powerful and controlling nations are benefiting the most, and the some nations are really suffering from the entire operation. According to Capra (2003), ‘The impact of the new economy on human well-being has been mostly negative. It has enriched global elite of  financial speculators, entrepreneurs, and high-tech professionals. At the very top, there has been an unprecedented accumulation of wealth, and global capitalism has also benefited some national economies, especially in Asian countries. But overall its social and environmental consequences have been disastrous. The rise of global capitalism has been accompanied by rising social inequality and polarization, both internationally and within countries. In particular, poverty and social inequality have increased through the process of social exclusion, which is a direct consequence of the new economy’s network structure. As the flows of capital and information interlink worldwide networks, they exclude from these networks all populations and territories that are of no value or interest to their search for financial gain. As a result, certain segments of societies, areas of cities, regions, and even entire countries become economically irrelevant. Thus, a new impoverished segment of humanity has emerged around the world as a direct consequence of globalization. It comprises large areas of the globe, including much of Sub-Saharan Africa and rural areas of Asia and Latin America. But the new geography of social exclusion also includes portions of every country and every city in the world’. Capra (2003) further explains that ‘According to the doctrine of economic globalization known   as   Ã¢â‚¬Å"neo-liberalism,†   the   free-trade   agreements   imposed   by   the   World   Trade Organization (WTO) on its member countries will increase global trade; this will create a global economic expansion; and global economic growth will decrease poverty, because its benefits will eventually â€Å"trickle down† to all. This reasoning is fundamentally flawed. Global capitalism does not alleviate poverty and social exclusion; on the contrary, it exacerbates them. Neo-liberalism has been blind to this effect because corporate economists’ have traditionally excluded the social costs of economic activity from their models. Similarly, most conventional economists have ignored the new economy’s environmental cost — the increase and acceleration of global environmental destruction, which is as severe, if not more so, than its social impact. One of the tenets of neo-liberalism is that poor countries should concentrate on producing a few special goods for export in order to obtain foreign exchange, and should import most other commodities. This emphasis on export has led to the rapid depletion of the natural resources required to produce export crops in country after country — diversion of freshwater from vital rice paddies to prawn farms; a focus on water-intensive crops, such as sugar  cane, that result in dried-up river beds; conversion of good agricultural land into cash-crop plantations; and forced migration of large numbers of farmers from their lands. All over the world   there   are   countless   examples   of   how   economic   globalization   is   worsening environmental   destruction;   and since money-making   is the dominant   value of global capitalism, its representatives seek to eliminate environmental regulations under the guise of  Ã¢â‚¬Å"free trade† wherever they can, lest these regulations interfere with profits. Thus, the new economy causes environmental destruction not only by increasing the impact of  its operations on the world’s ecosystems, but also by eliminating national environmental laws in country after country. In other words, environmental destruction is not only a side effect, but is also an integral part of the design of global capitalism’ Capra (2003). One can clearly see that in scientific perspective the world is not really benefiting from the issue of economic globalization considering the number of consequences the whole program brings and foretells for the future in relation to the benefits, personally I see more disadvantages and more consequences accumulated in the entire operation coming in the name of money making and development. The worst part of this whole motion is that its future impact on the natural vegetation of the world is really unpleasant, trees are being cut out in the name of development, and minerals are being extremely extracted at rate that the replenishment process is by many times left behind, fumes and harmful gases from factories and industries are being emitted in the atmosphere, marine resources have been exploited without the really consideration of the impact such activities may have o the world environment in the near future, or the impact on the biodiversity of lives in different habitats on the planet. So far the principles of ecology are not so difficult to comprehend and follow, Capra (2002) simplifies them as follows; Networks: As we have already seen in this essay the unrelenting networking of organisms, networks within networks. We also saw just how living systems communicate with one another and share resources even beyond the margins of their reach. Cycles: This must be gener al knowledge at this time in life, we generally should accept the reality that all living organisms feed on continual flows of matter and energy within their  environment to sustain life, and acknowledge the reality that all organisms produce waste. It is also of greater to note that the ecosystem itself does not produce any waste because one organism’s waste happens to be the next specie’s food, so in the end nothing really goes to waste, almost everything is useful in one way or another making matter cycle continually through the web of life. Solar energy: We all need sunlight, both plants and people. Sunlight is the common source of  vitamin D for animals, and green plants transform sunlight to chemical energy by the process of photosynthesis, making plants the ultimate source of food for both animals and human beings on the entire planet, running the ecological cycle accordingly. Partnership: It is of greater importance to note that the exchanges of energy nd resources in an ecosystem get sustained through pervasive co-operation, stating the verity that life came by co-operation, partnership and networking. Diversity: Under this aspect Capra mentions that ecosystems achieve stability and resilience through th e richness and complexity their ecological webs, and the greater the biodiversity, the more the resilience and buoyancy. These clearly show just how nature adapts and adjusts to its natural environment or any other factors that triggers reactions of the organisms. Dynamic Balance: Ecosystem is no stationery realms; they are actually flexible and ever  fluctuating, and its flexibility come as consequence of multiple feedback loops that keep the system in the state of dynamic balance. Therefore all ecosystem variables fluctuate around their optimal values. If only we stick by these principles, and do everything in careful consideration of the involved dangers we would really be on the right path by now. So far our ignorance and negligence is slowly making us pay through what we choose to call ‘natural catastrophes’ when in reality these are no more natural calamities but rather man-made, our activities are making our world prone to harm. I really wouldn’t say we do this unknowingly considering the level of both the general, social and scientific knowledge of the world at this moment. Everybody is educated today making it quite easier for any transmission of information. The people in the science departments of the world fully understand the consequences of the activities they invent and institute in the name of science and invention. This is what makes Eco-literacy and eco-design subjects of concern to the future-concerned citizens of this planet, for if we get the people to understand this reality the situation may improve towards a positive and conducive future. The Role of NGOs: Everybody that is an inhabitant of this planet is practically and directly involved in either destroying it or restoring it. In one way or another we all contribute to this paradoxical situation, each one of us fall into one of these categories, and this include the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The encyclopedic online dictionary Wikipedia, 2010) defines NGOs as follows, ‘A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a legally constituted organization created by natural or  legal lessons that operates independently from any government and a term usually used b y governments to refer to entities that have no government   status. In   the   cases   in   which   NGOs   are   funded   totally   or   partially   by governments, the NGO maintains its non-governmental status by excluding government representatives from membership in the organization. The term is usually applied only to organizations that pursue some wider  social aim that has political aspects, but that are not overtly political organizations such as political parties. Unlike the term â€Å"inter-governmental organization†, the term â€Å"non-governmental organization† has no generally agreed legal definition. In many jurisdictions, these types of organization are called â€Å"civil society organizations† or referred to by other names’. These   organizations   are   operated   separately   from   governments;   they   are   stand-alone organizations that globally strive for the betterment of the ordinary or common people world-wide. There are so far both local/national and international Non-Governmental Organization in the entire world established for a diversity of activities, as they see fit, sometimes according to local, national, international or even global needs; they can either be charitable orientation; service orientation; participatory orientation; or empowering orientation type, and are always non-profit making organizations. These organizations’ primary aim is to help promote and encourage collaborations, relationships or partnerships between NGOs in all countries throughout the world, so that together and as an entity we can more effectively cohort with the United Nations (UN) and each other so that we are able to create a more peaceful, serene, just, equitable and sustainable world for our generation as well as for the upcoming future generations. According to Capra (2002) ‘At the turn of this century, an impressive global coalition of  nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), many of them led by men and women with deep personal roots in the sixties, formed around the core values of human dignity and ecological sustainability. In 1999, hundreds of these grassroots organizations interlinked electronically for several months to prepare for joint protest actions at the meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle. The â€Å"Seattle Coalition,† as it is now called, was extrem ely successful in derailing the WTO meeting and in making its views known to the world. Its concerted actions have permanently changed the political climate around the issue of  economic globalization’†¦ and furthers that ‘At the second of these meetings, the NGOs proposed a whole set of alternative trade policies, including concrete and radical proposals for  restructuring global financial institutions, which would profoundly change the nature of  globalization’. So far ‘the global justice movement exemplifies a new kind of political movement that is typical of our Information Age. Because of their skillful use of the Internet, the NGOs in the coalition are able to network with each other, share information, and mobilize their members with unprecedented speed. As a result, the new global NGOs have emerged as effective political actors who are independent of traditional national or international institutions. They constitute a new kind of global civil society. This new form of alternative global community, sharing core values and making extensive use of electronic networks in addition to frequent human contacts, is one of the most important legacies of the sixties; and if it succeeds in reshaping economic globalization so as to make it compatible with the values of human dignity and ecological sustainability,’†¦during the sixties the most important and enduring legacy of that the world community developed has been the creation and subsequent flourishing of a global alternative culture that shares a set of core values. Although many of  these values e. g. environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, global justice — were shaped by cultural movements in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, their essential core was first expressed by the sixties' counterculture. Therefore, many of today's senior progressive political activists, writers, and community leaders trace the roots of their original inspiration back to the sixties’ Capra (2002). This is basically the much the NGOs strives to do, to restore the world to its naturally vegetative state, to help the poor and the needy, and hope to help those ravaged by natural catastrophes such as flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, famines and many other calamitous situations. Many countries that struggle economically or affected by any kind of difficulties have benefited from these non-governmental organizations in many ways such as in food relief programs, volunteer teachers from a diversity of developed countries, financially sponsorships, and further educational sponsorships, and many other  ways. Bunge (2002:233) mentions that the rational first step at the moment is to wade towards sustainability, and the second step being the one that involves Eco-design where ‘we need to apply our ecological knowledge to the fundamental redesign of our technologies and social institutions’ and as stated in process bridging the separating opening between the two,(technology and social institution). When we all work towards this idea, the idea of improve and caring for our world we would change a great deal of the happenings around the world; which could practically lead to the quick restoration of our planet before we bring it its total destruction. The reality that we are destroying our vegetation which is our natural source of  food and oxygen, we are actually putting ourselves at risk. Plants need us (animals) just as much as we need them, they depend on us the same way we depend on them. Upon this is part played by non-living objects such as water, air, the soil and all o ther abiotic matters that are vital to our sustenance of life. They form part of ecosystem even if they are non-living, they contribute greatly to self-sustaining abilities of our planet and form part of the web of  life in one way or another, without water plants would wilt, and animals would die of thirst, and without air both plants and animals would suffocate, and with no soil there wouldn’t be plants for us to feed on. So this is life in its real form, all contributing factors are vital to the sustainability of life in the future. Conclusion This essay is quite practically applicable in our real life situation; it fully conveys the primary hypothesis of the Capra’s book â€Å"The Hidden Connections†. It simplifies the complicate and great amount of information he whole book contains, and most of all it is highly educative and reasonable, compromising of almost every component that matters in life on this planet. In this assignment, I learned the importance of understanding the trend of life as well as the flows of ene rgy within the unrelenting interconnecting chains of life. It is simple; I learned that plants need dead organic materials for food, herbivorous animals feed on those plants, and the carnivorous animals feed on those herbivorous animals and later they all die providing manure back into the soil which plants will suck-up once again to grow, simply explaining the theory of producers and consumers. I also learned in this study that despite the efforts made by Rene Descartes to define life and help the world understand there are some facts which would have helped him define it even better if only he paid more attention to important factors that save as the basis of life. The Hidden Connection is a book if taken seriously and put to action can bring back our world to its initial natural state. The book clearly defines just how we have destroyed our natural world. In the development of weaponry, back in 1945 atomic bombs were created with devastating long lasting effects on the environment, and the vegetation alike including all the living organisms within its reach. Wasn’t this supposed to be a scientific breakthrough in the science of war? But in the end this defined the ultimate weapon with which man will completely destroy the whole world. Technology so far came up with many efficient measures of doing things increasing productivity in the process, many cars and machineries that emit harmful gases into the atmosphere have been heavily produced, huge upon tremendous amounts of fossil fuel gases have been gushed out into the atmosphere sucking out the gases important to the maintenance of the ultra-violet ray protective ozone layer and this has resulted in extreme temperature in our world today. Technology once again increased productivity in the agricultural sector so as to sustain the world’s ever growing population, and so they introduced genetically modified products that also have effects on the animals that feed on them including human beings, thus breaking the natural rules of replenishment. This was meant to be a scientific break-through as well but later backfired. Fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and many other  chemicals meant to advance humanity and help prevent the world from starvation have turned out to fatal substances, whereby when washed down the streams during rain and flood seasons they affect the water upon which most wild organisms and animals depend for water, the animals drink such water and get affected, some die from the effects, while some develop resistance to the effects but continue to carry the resulting illness of which people will kill for meat, and eat the infected meat which will clearly cause negative consequences. If we want to save the world for our children, we really have to act now before it gets too late. Preventing our world from getting destroyed by our activities is a better alternative than trying to salvage the remaining patches after destroying. This is why Capra suggested the ecological alternative, repairing the world by us can be difficult, but the good thing is that our world has natural abilit ies to restore itself if given a chance of restoration. At this moment in time, there are millions of totally extinct species that once existed and defined the beauty of our world. We can still save and manage to replenish the remaining species if taken into serious consideration the suggestions made by Capra in his book â€Å"The Hidden Connections†. Bibliography 1. Barbara Vogl, (2010). PATTERNS- Interview with Fritjof Capra. http://www. haven. net/patterns/capra. html (Accessed on 11/14/2011) 2. Bhagwati, Jagdish (2004). In defense of Globalization. Oxford, New York: Oxford University PressCC 3. Capra, Fritjof (2002b). Where Have All the Followers Gone? Reflections on the Spirit and Legacy of the Sixties, December 1, 2002. Mindwalk, http://www. terehesshu/english/capra2. html (Accessed on 11/13/2011) 4. Capra, Fritjof, (2002). 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