The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE: FROM TRAGEDY CAME CHANGE Donna Baker MG 420 14 February 2011 In the early 20th century, immigrants from Europe flooded Ellis Island in droves in search of â€Å"streets paved with gold† which they believed to be found in the United States. The majority of these immigrants settled in New York City to live in tenement housing and find work in the â€Å"30,000 factory floors and sweatshops that were located in Lower Manhattan. Each year, 612,000 workers, mostly immigrants were turning out one-tenth of the industrial output of the United States.A quarter of a million men, women and children labored without any regulations. †3 â€Å"The majority of garment workers were made up of Southern Italian and Eastern European Jewish immigrant women. They ranged in age from 15 to 23 and many spoke little English. †2 Their days were long. On average, workers put in â€Å"eleven hours, but most often they were sixteen to twenty hours, six da ys a week for which they were paid about $6 per week. †1 The women were subjected to intolerable, brutal working conditions where if you were sick, you came to work sick for fear of being fired.While on the job, it was common practice to be locked into your work space unable to go anywhere at-will. The nightmarish conditions were likened to working in a slave factory. â€Å"The doors were locked to keep out union organizers, to keep the women focused on their jobs, and to prevent the workers from stealing material. †2 â€Å"The hissing of the machines and the yelling of the foremen made it unbearable. Paychecks were docked or the workers were fired for humming or talking on the job. †3 The bathrooms were located outside and the workers were made to ask to be dismissed to use them.The shirtwaist makers were paid by the piece produced and speed was everything. The quality, however, was not important. â€Å"In some cases, they were required to use their own needles , thread, irons and occasionally their own sewing machines which they carried on their backs. †1 The â€Å"shirtwaist†, which is another name for a woman’s blouse, had a high neck, puffed long sleeves and was tightly fitted at the waist. It was â€Å"one of the country’s first fashion statements that crossed class lines. The booming ready-made clothing industry made the stylish shirtwaist affordable even for working women.Worn with an ankle-length skirt, the shirtwaist was appropriate for any occasion – from work to play – and was more comfortable and practical than fashion that preceeded it, like corsets and hoops. †1 The garment workers had the beginnings of representation to address implorable conditions, as basic as it was, when on â€Å"June 3, 1900 the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was founded in New York City by representatives from seven local East Coast unions. The union represented both male and female w orkers who produced women’s clothing.Though affiliated with the more conservative American Federation of Labor for most of its history, the ILGWU was unusual in representing both semi-skilled and unskilled (automated) workers. †8 Although the ILGWU was formed, it did little to impact the working conditions at the factories. So, on â€Å"November 22, 1909 the ILGWU called a meeting in the Cooper Union Hall to consult its membership and map out a strategy. †8 The hall was packed full and there were many speakers who spoke endlessly. They promised their support but feared retaliation by the employers in the form of firings and physical harm. Clara Lemlich, a seamstress and union member who was 19 and already badly beaten for her part in union involvement, came forward and took the stage. She called for an immediate strike of all the garment workers and her motion was resoundingly endorsed. †1 This was to become known as â€Å"the largest strike of women in th e history of the United States. †1 Within days, â€Å"more than 20,000 shirtwaist makers, from 500 factories, walked out and joined the picket line at Union Square. This was called the â€Å"Uprising of the 20,000†. More than 70 of the smaller factories agreed to the union’s demands within the first 48 hours.However, the fiercely anti-union owners of the Triangle factory met with owners of the 20 largest factories to form a manufacturing association. †1 â€Å"A month into the strike, most of the small and mid-sized factories settled with the strikers. †1 The garment workers went back to work. The factories making up the manufacturing association realized that the public opinion was not on their side and agreed to negotiate. The garment workers rejected their proposal because it prevented the workers from having a closed shop. Due to dwindling resources, this first union strike fell short.By â€Å"February 1910, the strike was finally settled and re sulted in a â€Å"protocol of peace† between the women’s clothing industry and labor. †7 â€Å"The few remaining factories rehired the strikers, agreed to higher wages and shorter hours and recognized the union in name only, resisting a closed shop. †1 The Triangle workers went back to work without a union agreement. There were still no regulations of the working conditions. Management never addressed their demands, including unlocked doors in the factory and fire escapes that were functional. This will prove to be an extremely costly error within the following 13 months period of time.The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was located in the Asch Building, occupying the top three floors of the ten-floor building in the heart of Manhattan’s Garment District. The company employed â€Å"over 500 men and women with the majority of them Jewish and Italian women ranging in age from 13-23. †3 Their work was primarily sewing shirtwaist blouses. The 8th flo or was where the cutting room was situated. The 9th floor was where the sewers worked, lined machine to machine in many long rows, hunched over sewing machines that were operated by foot pedals. The finished shirtwaists hung on lines above the worker’s heads and bundles of material, trimmings, and scraps of fabric were piled high in the cramped aisle between the machines. †2 The 10th floor housed the company offices. On Saturday, March 25, 1911, at around 4:45pm, with 15 minutes left in the work day, a fire grew quickly out of control on the 8th floor cutters area. It is believed to have been caused by a cigarette or match which was discarded either on the floor covered with sewing machine oil or in one of the cloth scrap containers, or possibly from a spark put off from the overheating of an electric cutters machine. Fed by thousands of pounds of flammable fabric†6 fire engulfed the area and spread to the floors above in record speed. Most of the workers on the 8 th floor were able to make their way to safety by using the stairs or elevator. The workers on the 10th floor â€Å"received a phone call about the fire and were able to climb to the roof of the building and made their way to the adjoining New York University building and were rescued. †6 The unfortunate workers on the 9th floor, however, didn’t stand a chance.Their fates were sealed because â€Å"the only safety measure available for them were 27 buckets of water, a fire escape that would collapse when people tried to use it, and 2 exit doors which were locked or only opened inward and were effectively held shut by the onrush of workers escaping the fire. †5 About 200 women were trapped on the 9th floor with no means of escape. â€Å"Twenty women made it out on the fire escape before it crumpled to the street, killing a number of women who were on it. Some attempted to slide down the elevator cables only to lose their grip and fall to their deaths. 2 The despe rate women didn’t know what else to do, so they began breaking out the windows and climbing out on the narrow ledge from which they jumped from the 9th floor to the street below. Some were on fire and burning as they fell. â€Å"For the fire department, the horror story that unfolded was compounded by the fact that although their equipment was the most sophisticated of its day, the ladders only reached up to the 6th floor. †6 Firemen watched helplessly as workers died before their very eyes. The water pressure in the hoses failed. And the life nets broke when the desperate women jumped in groups of three and four. In less than 30 minutes, the fire had spent itself. In its wake it left 146 dead. †3 â€Å"Of the 146 who died, 141 died at the scene and 5 died at the hospital. Six of these victims were never identified. Most died of burns, asphyxiation, blunt impact injuries or a combination of the three. †2 It is often thought that most or all of the dead wer e women but, in reality, â€Å"almost thirty of the victims were men. †4 The Triangle fire became known as â€Å"the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U. S. history. 4 Three months after the fire, the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were â€Å"indicted for manslaughter and acquitted of all charges. †6 It was believed that they broke no laws. â€Å"Three years after the fire, a court ordered the owners to pay $75. 00 to each of the twenty-three families who had sued for the loss of family members. †3 â€Å"From the ashes of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire came the greatest political transformation in American history to bring about social welfare legislation. †4 â€Å"The horrors of the bodies and the number of dead was the key to change. 2 The Triangle fire brought everyone together emotionally and spiritually to want change. â€Å"The resulting reform became an epic event. It took four grueling years of factory investigations by the Factory Investigating Commission to investigate fire safety as well as other conditions affecting the health and welfare of factory workers. †2 â€Å"Among the results of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire are that the New York State Assembly enacted legislation that required installation of automatic sprinkler systems in buildings over seven stories high that had more than 20 people employed above the 7th floor.Legislation also provided for fire drills and the installation of fire alarm systems in factory buildings over two stories high that employed 25 persons or more above the ground floor. Additional laws mandated that factory waste should not be permitted on factory floors but instead should be deposited in fireproof receptacles. Because of bodies found in the open elevator shafts of the Asch Building, legislation was enacted that required all elevator shafts to be enclosed. †9 WORKS CITED

Asian students perform better academically than US students

Asian students perform better academically than U.S. students throughout the entire school year. In order to prove that Asian students do perform better, Harold W. Stevenson and his colleagues proposed a series of large cross-national studies, beginning 1980. Stevenson discussed his studies in the article â€Å"Learning from Asian Schools†. The studies compared Chinese, Japanese, and American children who sampled from first grade and fifth grade classrooms in elementary schools in Minneapolis, Chicago, Sendai, Beijing, and Taipei. The studies found that in mathematics average scores of the Asian first and fifth graders were higher than the American averages. When compared the scores from different grades, the studies found decline in American schools as well as improvement in Taiwan and steady high performance in Japan. In addition, the studies found that in reading the Asian students caught up by the fifth grade following the increased demands in Asian languages, although American first graders tended towards the top on these tests. The test results undoubtedly confirmed the truth about the superior performance of Asian students over American students. According to the studies, Stevenson found that there were three main reasons associated with Asian children†s success: cultural differences, educational system and teacher performance. Asian mothers considered the most important thing in their children†s life is to do well in school; education is equivalent to the children†s future. Therefore, Asian mothers hold high standards for their children†s academic performance, believing that the road to success is through effort, having positive attitudes about achievement, and studying diligently. In contrast, American mothers had very high satisfaction with their children†s academic performance because they lacked measurement standards for performance, and believed their children†s success came from being born with intelligence and being diligent. American mothers also placed a lesser emphasis on academic achievement because they believed their children†s childhood shouldn†t solely focus on school. Asian mothers† attitudes caused their children to work harder to improve their performance. In addition to the cultural difference mentioned above, the different education system also formed a barrier for American students through the road of success. In school daily life, American students spent most of their time in the classroom. Dissimilarly, Asian schools had frequent recesses and a longer lunch period that in turn maintained the students attention to the teachers. The after school activities and clubs in Asian schools made the school an enjoyable place, therefore, students appeared well behaved and well adjusted, which could be proven by fewer complains in school and better attendance by Asian students. Due to the clear academic goal, the more demanding curriculum for Asian students actually did not cause extraordinary stress. Asian teachers† performance also contributed to the students† academic achievements. Compared to American teachers† individual work and self-adjusted schedule, Asian teachers usually consult each other, worked as a group to design teaching techniques in following the national curriculum, hence provided the best understanding from the students. Asian teachers only spent part of their school time teaching and prepared the classes in the teacher†s room for rest of the working time; this allowed them to prepare their classes well. Asian teachers followed preplanned materials and assigned a â€Å"brief period of seatwork throughout the class period†(Stevenson 236), which provide a series of productive interaction and discussions for students. In contrast, American teachers had to cover all elementary school subjects and spent most of their time at school teaching, so they didn†t have enough time to prepare classes. In addition, American teachers explained concept first and gave seatwork later during class, thus reducing the students† attention. Even the Asian teachers† education background was not as high as American teachers, the â€Å"in-service training under the supervision of skilled models†(Stevenson, 236) used by Asian schools gave the teachers the skills to gain students attention, which included giving feedback to students, using more materials that can be manipulated and relating the subjects to the students† daily life. In conclusion, the U.S. had to create a cultural emphasis on academic success and education, which is not merely increase the length of school days but had to change the way of American teachers† jobs performance. Stevenson considered the culture difference might cause some biased results, so he proposed his studies by using wide range of scientific data to gain the precise statistics. According to Stevenson†s studies, Asian students perform better academically is a truism. Nevertheless, American schools will not achieve the same level of success if they completely imitate Asian schools. In addition, Stevenson merely compared the children†s scores might ignore their practice abilities. Although theories dominate practices, the good performance on test paper does not equal to the strong practice abilities. Undoubtedly, the great academic performance achieved by Asian schools is worth praise, however, it is very difficult to compare success factors between different cultures. Therefore, the ways to improve American schools† performance should be adjusted to fit in the need and want of American schools. In other words, merely introducing higher standards, longer school days, and new education systems cannot improve the performance of American schools. Simultaneously, it is very important for American schools to discard the dross and select the essential from Asian schools† academic experiences in order to establish a series of countermeasures. Once American schools recognize their shortcomings and build a new academic culture base on their advantage, American academic achievement will rise to world standards. When I was a third grader of elementary school in China, my Chinese teacher not only impressed me through her outstanding teaching performance but also evoked my interest in writing composition. In Chinese education standards, third grade of elementary school is the time to learn how to write a short narrative composition. I had no idea how to describe an affair†s process. On the first day of class for composition, I felt really nervous because I did not know what I was going to face. I thought the teacher would give us something to write, but what surprised me was that she started the class by telling us a tale of the fisherman and goldfish. I was immersed by the interesting story and felt completely relaxed. After the teacher finished the story, she distributed a copy of it to us and started a discussion about the story. Following a series of â€Å"what if, how and why† questions about the story under the teacher†s instruction, we reached an alliance that the writer†s abundant imagination and remarkable writing skills let readers fall into the story. The teacher did not ask us to write anything after the class; I had already readied to start my first composition in my mind, because I had understood how a good story could bring happiness to people. For the rest of my years in elementary school, I wrote compositions to entertain myself and finally could not live without it. The compositions that I wrote in the third grade were really ridiculous, but I always remembered and appreciated the teacher†s aspiration and encouragement. Without her positive feedback, I would never have benefited from writing Chinese composition. From my personal experience, I believe that Asian students do not gain the remarkable academic achievements by sheer good luck. In other words, the academic success of Asian schools is worthy of praise.

Managing a Brand and its Brand Community Assignment

Managing a Brand and its Brand Community - Assignment Example When they will be stopping along the way, people will be interested to come and see the motorcycle brand and have a closer look at them. Others will be interested to know how the motorcycles work and get direct feedback from those who ride them. Some of them who know how to ride the motorcycle will even want a test ride of the product. This will be one of the biggest ways of marketing the brand, thus becoming a benefit to the Harley Davidson motorcycle brand. Promotion; Through the Horsley Owners Group going through the streets with motorcycles, this will play a major role in the promotion of Harley Davidson motorcycle brand. Because people in the street will be watching and knowing the brand of the motorcycle that are used, thus becoming a benefit to Harley Davidson. Product advertisement; the products of Harley Davidson motorcycle brand will be advertised to people who will be looking for the ride and also in the videos they will be watching. And this will be one way of advertising the products because people will be aware of the products, thus benefiting Harley Davidson motorcycle brand. The advertisement will be reaching many people at a time. Harley Davidson will also benefit from the HOG group through their products they are selling to their customers during the riding events. The HOG riders also make the awareness of the Harley Davidson product to many people. 3. Basing on what I saw in the videos, the single biggest thing I think Harley Davidson should is to improve their relationship with the customers in the host cities by making the HOG riders to be ready to have a direct link and interaction with the customers and none riders to have a good look of the products. And also to advertise the event through the social media like television and internet, as this will be directly targeting the audience. One indirect source of revenue the host city will collect before

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Identify and critically evaluate the most significant suitability issues affecting Events or the events industry. What are the prospects for the future - Essay Example There may also be less financial objectives correlated with the thoughts and the feelings during and after the event, of those who are attending it (Raj & Et. Al., 2008). In the paper, a particular event industry will be studied in relation to its sustainable development along with the principles of sustainable operations within the industry. Various facets comprising their financial factors, environmental influence, environmental ethics, various sustainability issues along with their benefits, threats and risks, corporate social responsibilities toward the consumers, environmental audit, marketing procedures and public relations, change of climate and its implications along with carbon footprints and budgets will be taken into the consideration in the discussion of this paper. The paper has been focused particularly on sport events and sport event industry. According to Jones, sustainable development is regarded as the capacity to make sustainable development and also provides a surety that it can comply with the needs of the current situation without considering the capability of future expectations (Jones, 2010). From the ecological or environmental point of view, a sustainable system relating with the environment maintains a constant supply of resources along with avoiding overuse of renewable resources or harmful environmental functions and ultimately diminishes non-renewable resources to a certain extent (Harris, 2000) From the economic point of view, a sustainable development focuses mainly on performing various actions in order to create a better future for the people. Also, it identifies the situations where market prices of the economy do not properly match with the external costs (Harris, 2000). From the social perspective, a sustainable system should perform various functions like proper allocation of equity; maintain the requisites of social services like healthiness,

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Karama's Pizza & Samosa(resutrent) - Assignment Example This essay will analyze the challenges facing business by using an example of Karam’s Pizza and Samoa restaurant. Karama’s Pizza and Samoa restaurant has been in operation for 3 years. The Pizza and Samosa restaurant are still running smoothly. This is because the menu is unusual. The management has introduced an Indian and Italian meal and the food is of high quality. For one to run a restaurant, creativity is inevitable (89). Karam shows his uniqueness by introducing an Indian and Italian meal in his men. Seemingly, the restaurants on northern and northeastern side of Karam’s restaurant do not make the Italian and Indian food because most customers flow from those areas. If an area does not offer a particular service, people move long distances to get the certain product. Contrary, Karam has some weaknesses in running of his business. After doing the research, he does not find out why people from the other directions do not come to his restaurant. Secondly, after learning that most of the customers were those who had free access to his delivery, Karam did not take any action to access more customers. Again, he only deals with cash and credit card consumers. Karam he has a lower percentage of credit sales in his business. These challenges can lead to break down of his business (121). He does not seem to make efforts to overcome the challenges. The best way in business to solve problems is to identify the problem and then attempt means to meet them. After carrying out his research, Karam would look for means to draw many customers from other areas. After discussing the issue with his wife and friends, Karim should apply these ideas to improve his business. It is advisable for one to take responsibility in business and immediate action in order to run the business successfully (215). Again, after his business exhibits success for three years, karam has to try other sources of income to improve it. These events would be a success in his

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Genetic testing for overall population health - Assignment Example On the downside, genetic testing could further complicate people’s lives in regards to their health status. It is likely that genetic tests will lead to the realization of genetic conditions that leave patients worried over their health. Such an observation negates the prospects of genetic testing. On the same note, genetic conditions and/or disorders that previously received no serious attention, or those that are not necessarily threatening, could now become the new focus of healthcare practitioners. This could translate to increased costs of healthcare, medical research, and development. Moreover, an ethical concern in this matter relates to possible interference with an individual’s natural and biological genome. For a nurse, it is important to create awareness and promote legal and ethical practices as far as genetic testing is concerned. In essence, nursing plays an important role in promoting overall population health (DeNisco & Barker, 2013). In this respect, a nurse with advanced knowledge is a key driver of the prospects of genetic testing. The idea is to ensure that nurses work under mutual grounds with their patients to ensure proper genetic testing and improved population

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Enviromental issue - Research Paper Example The severity of air pollution in China and the extent it creates serious health hazards are evident from alarm that its people are warned are warned to stay indoor in order save their breath from contaminated air. This piece of paper considers three articles that talk about air pollution and its effects on human environment and sums up major emphasizes from those articles. This paper is to analyze how media, based on these articles, played its role in spreading about this severe environmental issue and what solutions have been recommended by them to make people aware of its severity. Air Pollution: a superpower in to a ‘worst-land’? (defining the issue) BBC in August 2006 reported, in an article titled ‘China hit by raising air pollution’ that China has become world’s largest sulphur dioxide polluter, due to that it has emitted 26 million tons of the gas in 2005, showing a 27% increase from the figure of 2000. This excesses emissions of sulfur dioxide has been causing acid rains in different part of China and other parts of the world. As Kahn and Yardley noted in their article- ‘As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes’, published in New York Times (2007), China’s air pollution itself is a cancer leading to a large number of deaths. Costs yield benefits. Its economically true and naturally very evident, especially from China’s case. This fact has been highlighted in their article. China, being unparalleled in the history, emerged as a major industrial power, but created a legacy of environmental issue, air pollution that may negate all the credits its economic growth has conferred. The article has defined and described the issue in detail. Pubic health is extremely affected by air pollution as it alone causes hundreds of thousands deaths every year. One of the most critical and perhaps more dangerous effects of this pollution is that around 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water . Both cities and rural areas have been turned to be toxic areas where only around one percent of air is considered quite safe. In industrial cities, people more often are not able to see sun, not due to raining or sky being cloudy, but due to the pollution that made the air and sky dry. The atmosphere has largely been contaminated. On one side, the economy gains ever-recorded growth and large multinationals still attempting to grab the slice of this international marketing pie, whereas on the other side, people die for bad breath due to air pollution. As this article emphasized, China’s pollution is not only China’s problem. It is adverse effects have widened to other countries. Dangerous chemical elements like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are spewed from China’s coal plants caused acid rains in Seoul, South Korea, Tokyo etc. Tatchell in 2008 wrote in their article titled ‘The Pollution Marathon’, published in the Guardian, about the iss ue of China’s air pollution and its drastic impacts on every one’s life in the Guardian newspaper. This article starts with Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie’s decision not to participate in 2008 Olympics held in China. He was highly concerned about the extremely hazardous air pollution in China and its impacts on his health if he stays few days

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Change Readiness, Resistance, and Success Term Paper

Change Readiness, Resistance, and Success - Term Paper Example Some organizations implement the theory of community of practice to drive all the employees towards a common organizational goal, where each individual acts as vital equipment in the organizational machinery (Bach and Kessler, 2012). The creation of a community allows the company to develop a team or group with a common interest that works in favor of the organizational goals (Price, 2011). This paper is focused on the use of community of practice in the four frame model. The community of practice is a group of people who are engaged in the pursuit of a common goal or objective. This group of people usually shares a common issue or concern and they work together to meet both the individual and group’s objectives. Creating a community of practice helps a firm to develop new knowledge base and generate new ideas. The key feature of the community of practice is the high level of communication among the members. The constant interaction allows them to share individual knowledge and narrow down on a particular set of activities that needs to be performed in order to meet the desired goals (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002). Community of practice helps the firm to strengthen its human resource base by improving their overall efficiency level. This is achieved by connecting the people together, thereby facilitating a seamless communication within the group and also with the higher management. The vertical communication enables the employees to receive proper guidance and direction from the managers, whereas the horizontal communication helps them to learn about each other’s strength and weakness. Depending on this, the manager can make proper allocation of different roles and responsibilities (Delanty, 2003). The formation of community also helps the employees to work as a team where all the individuals are doing their part to achieve the desired organizational goals. It also provides a shared context of organizational knowledge and information, as the

Dimensions in Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Dimensions in Art - Essay Example Initially, this was considered inelegant and greatly criticized. However, by the time he painted The Stonebreakers, opinions on the realist style were changing. In painting The Stonebreakers, Courbet sought to depict the harsh lives that peasants went through as evidenced by the painting’s revealing illustration of trying conditions faced by the miners (Riat 101). The painting includes a peasant man and a peasant boy using mallets to break up boulders, while dressed in torn clothes. One is immediately drawn to the sharpness and depth of the canvas and the rigid details of the painting, which has no drama or romanticism. This trait is uniquely realist. One also notices the monotony of color used, reflecting the painting’s languid tone as the man and boy break up the boulders. This is especially important for Courbet as it allows him to draw attention to the peasants’ efforts. In addition, Courbet also seems to be drawing attention to the ages of the boy and man si nce the man seems to old and the boy too young to be breaking boulders (Riat 101). The painting also reveals the industrial era and the poverty that existed alongside it. Unfortunately, peasants were the most disadvantaged people during the industrial revolutions, especially in the mines and factories (Riat 102). Most of the peasants, with increased mechanization of farm work, were forced into the mines, while young boys were exploited for their labor as they could be underpaid. The Stonebreakers is reflective of the unease that Courbet felt for the abuse of the vulnerable by an increasingly capitalist society, as well as the agony and anguish they suffered in the mines with the hard work. This was a main theme in the realist era and Courbet uses mellow colors and unexaggerated style to draw attention towards the peasants’ plight (Riat 102). This work, alongside other works by Courbet, was an inspiration for future modernists and impressionists with its focus on contemporary society and events. This was suggestive of the improved innovation in art that finally led to the surrealist era. The Bullfight’s artist Joan Miro was born in Barcelona in 1893 and was a ceramist, a sculptor, and painter. As a painter, he evolved greatly throughout the early to mid-20th century with his work earning wide international acclaim throughout the same period (Brodskaia 56). While The Bullfight can be interpreted as surrealist art, Miro himself refused to ascribe his work to this art style and simply referred to his paintings during this era as semi-abstract. While surrealism stood out during this period, The Bullfight was more had a greater degree of abstraction as compared to other major surrealist artists at the time like Pablo Picasso. In The Bullfight, Miro seeks to represent his Catalan heritage of bull fighting in an abstract way, most likely due to the persecution he suffered under Dictator and anti-Catalan leader General Franco (Brodskaia 56). Miro had alwa ys been critical of contemporary painting styles, claiming that it was in support of the bourgeois, and The Bullfight was one of his ways to â€Å"assassinate painting† through an upset of established elements of painting (Brodskaia 150). The painting shows a raging bull being outmaneuvered by a skillful el-matador, although one has to look closely to actually make out the el-matador’s figure. Miro also exaggerates some of the bull’

Community Policing Corruption Essay Example for Free

Community Policing Corruption Essay In today’s society, the amount of crime that occurs can be quite difficult to deal with and responsibility ends up falling on police to curtail it. Unfortunately, the infectious nature of crime often drags these assigned â€Å"stoppers† into the same mud that they are trying to prevent others from falling into. When officers abuse their legally sanctioned position of authority, it is known as police corruption. It is a persistent problem that is more significant in a criminal sense than the average person committing a crime because it is happening by a representative/protector of the law. Since police are not judiciaries, they do not determine who is guilty and thus undermine the law system when they do these crimes. Also, it is important to note that police corruption is not the same as an ordinary instance of crime. To elaborate, â€Å"Police corruption is an illegal use of organizational power for personal gain. The personal nature of the gain distinguishes corruption from brutality, perjury, illegal search, or any other law violations committed in the pursuit of such legitimate organizational goals as fighting crime. The organizational nature of the power used illegally excludes many crimes committed by policemen, such as burglary committed by a city police officer in his suburban town of residence in which he has no contact with the local police. That particular burglary would be merely a crime. A burglary committed by a police officer in his own police jurisdiction, under the protection of his colleagues or aided by his organizational knowledge of his colleagues’ practices, would be both a crime and an act of police corruption.† (Sherman, 31). As one can see, police corruption is a serious problem as it is almost always involves an associated act of crime. There is no room for this behaviour in fair environments and it cannot occur if society wishes to advance. Ultimately, police corruption cannot coexist with the concept of community policing because it is unethical and morally wrong, it is contrary to Robert Peel’s nine principles of policing and undermines effectiveness, and it offers no sense of accountability to the government and to the public. There is no logical way to justify corrupt actions by the police. Any time it occurs, it involves the â€Å"abuse of a legally sanctioned position of authority—in other words, the status of the police officer makes the crime possible. It is this abuse of a ‘sanctioned and sacred’ social position that makes police corruption so dangerous. It is the ultimate social inversion—the cops become criminals. (Police Corruption)† Instead of helping to fight crime, they end up contributing to the problem through means that are only available to them because of their sworn duties as protectors of the community. When corruption is revealed to the public, the police lose the confidence and trust that allows them to function and be legitimate. Corrupt acts are completely immoral as they are motivated by personal gain which demonstrates selfishness and a disregard of the well-being of society. The detrimental aspects of police misconduct cannot be overstated as they immediately threaten the possibility of effective police-community relationships. â€Å"In terms of public trust for law enforcement, recent polls show that only 56 percent of people rated the police as having a high or very high ethical standard as compared with 84 percent for nurses. Over the past few decades, great strides have occurred in the law enforcement profession. To begin with, many police agencies have avoided hiring candidates who have low ethical standards and have identified those onboard employees early in their careers who might compromise the departments integrity. In addition, research has discovered new methods of testing candidates for their psychological propensity to act ethically. However, unethical conduct by the nations police officers continues to occur in departments large and small. (Martin). Clearly, society has made some strides toward ensuring ethical and rational behaviour in the police force but it is impossible to root it out all the way to the individual level. For community policing to be effective, a high percentage of officers must be able to see the difference between right and wrong and take appropriate action. Recent studies offer some understanding of the phenomenon in the hope of rooting out this behavior that serves to undermine the overall legitimacy of law enforcement. Theories on the role of society in law enforcement, the negative influence of an officers department, and a persons own natural tendency to engage in unethical behavior have been offered as potential explanations. While some may argue that the â€Å"rotten apple† theory is the best explanation for this problem, the vast amount of evidence to the contrary is overwhel ming. Deviance rarely persists in an isolated environment but it thrives when it is adopted by an entity such as a department. To explain, â€Å"If we scan these activities then it must be plain that we are no longer dealing with individuals seeking solely personal gain but with group behaviour rooted in established arrangements. Police officers have to be initiated into these practises, rationalisations have to be produced to accept them, supervisors have to collude or turn a blind eye, justifications have to be sought to continue them, and organizations have either in some way to condone or encourage these activities or else fail to tackle them. This is social behaviour, conducted in groups within organizations, that is powerful enough to override the officer’s oath of office, personal conscience, departmental regulations and criminal laws (European Committee, 68).† For all of these events to occur, it is evident that a multitude of people inside the organization must collaborate and therefore it is rarely an isolated case of corruption. Corruption is highly contagious and this is illustrated well through theories such as the â€Å"slippery slope† and â€Å"grass vs meat eaters† This also explains why corruption is usually concentrated in certain precincts or areas instead of being dispersed. Sir Robert Peel was credited with the concept that the police depend on citizen cooperation in providing services in a democratic society. â€Å"Peel envisioned a strong connection between the police and the community (Police Corruption)†. Unfortunately, the existence of police corruption is contrary to all nine of his principles. The police’s basic mission is to prevent crime and disorder, which they only contribute to if they are corrupt. They rely on the public approval of their actions, which cannot happen in a just society (â€Å"community tolerance, or even support, for police corruption can facilitate a department’s becoming corrupt [Sherman, 32]). Corrupt police officers do not cooperate with the public; they avoid contact as they do not want to reveal their illicit nature. Since corrupt officers are aware of their actions, they might have improper judgement and use physical force. They fail to demonstrate absolutely impartial service by attempting to manipulate public opinion, do not become â€Å"one† with the public, they usurp the power of the judiciary, and sacrifice efficiency for personal gain by not devoting all of their effort to reducing crime and disorder. These corrupt officers also undermine effectiveness as they do not use their time as well as they should be, show only self-concern and indifference to the morality of the situation, and abuse resources. â€Å"The legal authority of police departments and the nature of law violations in their jurisdiction provide organizational resources that can be exploited for personal gain. The nature of these resources varies greatly among and within police departments according to the nature of police tasks performed and the social characteristics of the police task environment. A police department that is a corrupt organization can exploit the resources for internal profit. In all cases, exploitation of these resources for personal gain is an inversion of the formal goals of the organization. (Sherman, 38). Depending on exactly what type of resources the organization deals with, they may or may not be suitable for exploitation. Federal drug enforcement entities constantly deal with opportunities to make a lot of illicit profit whereas Secret Services almost never has chances to make illicit gains at all. In many situations, police may lose some or all of their accountability to the public or government if they do not act with the appropriate intentions. Accountability is a vital element of not just community policing but policing in general. If the police are to achieve their goal which should be lawfulness and legitimacy, they require effective accountability procedures. â€Å"Lawfulness and legitimacy, in turn, are essential if the police are to achieve their goals of reducing crime and disorder, enhancing the quality of neighborhood life, and serving community needs. A lack of legitimacy inhibits the development of working partnerships that are an essential ingredient in community policing and problem oriented policing. Contrary to the popular view that effective crime control and respect for constitutional principles are competing values in policing, experts today increasingly recognize that lawful conduct and accountability are essential for crime-fighting. (Walker, 1). While it is apparent that lawfulness and legitimacy must be upheld in order to serve the community, a fundamental principal of a democratic society that the police should be held accountable for their actions. This includes choosing what actions they take and how they perform. This is especially true in post-conflict environments where police forces are viewed as brutal, corrupt, and unfair. In order to maintain a healthy relationship, a â€Å"liberal society must be maintained, complaints about the police must be addressed, and police themselves must be protected by disgruntled acts by the community† (Accountability and Police). At the same time, police must keep a healthy distance to avoid excessive personal interaction which leads to preferential treatment, discretion, and favouritism. Furthermore, it is important to note that, â€Å"The accountability of police to the public is undermined when charges are often dropped while officers under investigation are usually suspended with pay. In other words, there is no real certainty of punishment and this de-legitimizes any notion of public accountability and respect for the law (Police Corruption). In the eyes of the public, it is already bad enough that the officer are taking advantage of their position of authority but to have them face virtually no consequences is beyond demoralizing. In order for community policing to exist, the public must be confident in the fact that the police are not taking advantage of their position and are accountable in and out of service. In conclusion, because police corruption is unethical and morally wrong, violates all of Robert Peel’s principles, and shows a complete disregard of the notion of accountability, it is impossible to coincide with effective community policing. Police corruption is the illegal use of organizational power for personal gain and unfortunately a still a common occurrence in modern society. It is crucial for the police, as protectors of society, to not allow themselves to stoop so low. The community has to be able to know that no matter what police might have to deal with, they will remain pure and free of corruption in order to begin forming positive relationships. Methods of containing corruption include abolishing existing precedures that encourage corruption, letting go of any member that demonstrates corrupt tendencies, requiring a certain level of accountability, and many other steps. Organizations such as the Special Investigations Unit have made strides in reducing corruption however it is not nearly enough. If corruption is controlled to a point where it no longer has a detrimental impact to society, community policing can have enough room to develop. â€Å"Preventing corruption completely is a tall order. However, steps can be taken to reduce it significantly. There are a few fundamental ideas that can be implemented that can, by their very nature, curb corruption. The three areas that need attention are the officer training, personal characters, and the incentives program. The first step is to hire police officers of good character. Stricter screening methods need to be implemented to decrease the chance that a potential hire will become corrupt. Once an officer is hired, the department should do all it can to promote ethics on the job. The department must understand that the citizens trust the police to be ethical, and a breach of that trust is unjust. Further, it is not practical to act unethically. People eye the police and their behavior constantly. Corruption in the force makes it easier for a citizen to rationalize acting unlawfully, which just creates more work for the police. If a police officer, who is allegedly the pillar of the law, can defy it, why cannot the citizens who pay for the police services? (White) A corrupt police officer cannot very well express effectively why citizens should obey the law, for he has no consistency and thus no credibility. Works Cited Sherman, Lawrence W. Scandal and Reform: Controlling Police Corruption. N.p.: University of California, 1978. Print. Police Powers and Accountability in a Democratic Society. N.p.: 2000. Google Books. Web. http://books.google.ca/books?id=cVAOfvU1o-wC. Walker, Samuel. Police Accountability: Current Issues and Research Needs. National Institute of Justice Police Planning (2006): 1-35. National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. http:/https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/218583.pdf. White, Stuart A. Controlling Police Corruption. Stanford University. N.p., 4 June 1994. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/paradox/hwhite.html. Martin, Rich M.S. Police Corruption: An Analytical Look Into Police Ethics. FBI. N.p., May 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/may_2011/law_enforcement_professionalism.

Effect of Surface Area in an Experiment

Effect of Surface Area in an Experiment Title: The effect of surface area in an experiment. Chosen factor: effects of surface area Chosen experiment: Calcium carbonate and Hydrochloric acid (option 2) Questions: Will increasing the surface area of the calcium carbonate slow down the reaction rate? How do you increase the surface are of Calcium Carbonate? Will increasing the surface are of Calcium Carbonate speed up the reaction rate? Will the smaller surface area Calcium carbonate have a faster reaction rate than the larger surface area Calcium carbonate? Background Information: What is a reaction rate? A reaction rate is the rate in which a chemical reaction occurs. (Britannica.com, 2017) The reaction rate can be increased by increasing the surface area (crushed material). For example, in custard powder factories, there is a high rate of the custard powder exploding, because of the larger surface area. This happens because the finer the substance is crushed, more particles are exposed to the other substance in the experiment (BBC,2014) To increase surface area, the material needs to be crushed into a powder. For less surface area, the material needs to stay in a big clump. Diagram sourced off (BBC, 2014) This diagram shows the reaction rate of a greater surface area (blue) is much faster than the smaller surface area (red). The finer a substance is, generally, the faster the reaction rate will be. The larger surface area can also act as a Catalyst. (chemguide,2013) Collision theory is a theory based off particles of elements colliding together, which creates a chemical reaction. Any collisions without enough energy wont produce a reaction. For a reaction to occur, there must be energy within the atom which will cause them to collide together to create a chemical reaction. (BBC,2014) Calcium Carbonate and Hydrochloric acid: In the experiment the Calcium Carbonate will be crushed, then combined with the hydrochloric acid. Alongside the crushed calcium carbonate will be two other different grades of Calcium Carbonate which will have a lower surface area to each other. The different grades reaction times will be compared to each other in 3 different experiments. Experiment formula: calcium carbonate + hydrochloric acid calcium chloride + carbon dioxide + water CaCoÂÂ ³ + 2HCI CaClÂÂ ² + H2O + COÂÂ ² (Chemguide, 2013) Hypothesis: It is hypothesised that when the surface area is increased, the reaction rate will speed up. When the surface area is decreased the reaction, rate will slow down because, the chemical can only react with the outside of the substance and chew away at it until there is none left, but with an increased surface area there is more atoms to react with compared to a small surface area. The independent variable that will be changed is the surface area of the calcium carbonate (small, medium, large). The dependent variable will be the time of the ration rate in each experiment. The controlled variable will be the amount of calcium carbonate and the amount of hydrochloric acid that is in each experiment. Method: Collect all equipment needed for the experiment. Setup experiment, then add 100ml of Hydrochloric acid to each of the beakers. (when adding Hydrochloric acid to the beakers, ensure eyes are at the same level of the beaker to make an accurate measurement. Add all 3 Different grades of Calcium Carbonate to each one of the beakers (make sure Calcium Carbonate is placed in each beaker with care.) Setup should look like this: Start timer and record results in a table as shown below. Surface area: Time: Large (powder) 1:02mins Medium (medium chips) 10mins+ Small (big chips) 10mins When the reaction completely stopped, all chemicals are tipped into the sink and the sink is washed clean of chemicals. All equipment that has been used is cleaned, and packed into the box. Wet and dry wipe table with disinfectant, ensuring all chemicals have been removed off the surface. Aim: The aim of the experiment was to find out if a larger surface are has a faster reaction time than a smaller surface area. Equipment list: Stopwatches (3) Calcium Carbonate: (large chips, 18g) (Small chips, 18g) (powder, 18g) Hydrochloric acid (270ml) 1M Watch glasses (3) Spatula Measuring cylinder Beakers (3) Gloves Apron Goggles Risk assessment: Possible Risk Prevention Glass breakage Carry all beakers with care. Do not try to cool glass down with cold water otherwise it will smash. Chemical spillage To not run with chemicals, and watch what you are doing with your body parts. Chemical contact with skin or cuts Wash out thoroughly Results: 1st experiment: Surface area: Time: Observations: Clarity: Large 1:02 mins Bubbling reaction, slowly dissolving, sizzling noise, long time to dissolve, white bubbles. Clear Medium 10 mins+ Bubbling reaction, makes liquid cloudy, sizzling noise, reaction is slow, little bubbles, slowed at 8 mins. Cloudy Small 10 mins+ Furious reaction in the first 10 seconds, slowed down at 15 seconds, loud sizzling noise finished just over 1 min. Very cloudy 2nd Experiment: Surface area: Time: Observations: Clarity: Large 1:01 mins Medium 10 mins+ Small 10 mins+ 3rd Experiment: Surface area: Time: Observations: Clarity: Large 1:09 mins Medium 10 mins + Small 10 mins + (Made by Mac Ross on excel) (Made by Mac Ross on excel) Discussion: All results were in seconds difference to each other. All experiments had the exact same reaction happen every time. All research that was taken was accurate. The hypothesis which was stated was It is hypothesised that when the surface area is increased, the reaction rate will speed up. When the surface area is decreased the reaction, rate will slow down because, the chemical can only react with the outside of the substance and chew away at it until there is none left, but with an increased surface area there is more atoms to react with compared to a small surface area. This hypothesis was supported, because the smaller the surface area was, the faster the reaction happened. Surface area is used in many different scenarios in the world to this day. One of these is in carburetted engines. When fuel goes though the carburettor the fuel gets made into a mist, which is far more explosive than just a drop of fuel. The graphs both show that all of the experiments were very similar. The lar ge surface area experiment when significantly quicker than the other 2. With an average of 1:04 minutes for reaction rate it smashed the other 2. The reaction mainly happened in the first 15 seconds and then slowed down a lot, but it was still fizzing. The other 2 experiments were fizzing the whole time with no increase or decrease in speed with fizzing. The Medium surface area experiment had a misty fizz to it but it wasnt anywhere near as aggressive as the large surface area experiment. We stopped the experiment at 10 minutes as it was taking too long for the experiment to end, but there was defiantly a decrease in size. The small surface area experiment was a very slow reaction compared to the large surface are reaction. Its bubbles were big and not aggressive at all. We also had to end this experiment at 10 minutes because it was taking too long. Evaluation: The Experiments went according to plan, and there were no mishaps. Having 3 experiments going at once saved us a lot of time, and having all of the calcium carbonated crushed up and ready to go also saved us lots of time, which worked well. Not being able to complete the whole reaction for the small and medium surface area reactions was something that didnt work. Our group went together like peas and carrots. To make the experiment more accurate I would have used a stronger acid, so that we could get a result for each reaction, a bigger working space so that everything wasnt cluttered, to accurate measuring equipment, so we could improve on the accuracy, and I would have taken better photos to put in the write up so that people can see the layout better. If I was to repeat this experiment again I would use less calcium carbonate and a stronger hydrochloric acid, so that we could get a time for each experiment instead of ending the experiment at 10 minutes. This also would have given us a better understanding of how surface area affects the reaction rate. Conclusion: When the surface area is increased between calcium carbonate and hydrochloric acid, the reaction rate is sped up. The hypothesis was supported by the results in the experiment. The results showed that the research and hypothesis were all accurate, and the results were that the larger is surface area is the fast it will react. The small the surface area was, the slower the reaction was, but the experiment did have some mishaps, which can be easily be tweaked to be the perfect experiment. But the experiment was successful in finding the result we were looking for, not only because of chemical reason but because of how our group worked together as well. Reference list: Bbc.co.uk. (2017). BBC GCSE Bitesize: Effect of surface area. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_gateway/chemical_economics/reaction3rev1.shtml [Accessed 14 Mar. 2017]. Chemguide.co.uk. (2017). The effect of surface area on rates of reaction. [online] Available at: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/basicrates/surfacearea.html [Accessed 14 Mar. 2017]. Chemistry LibreTexts. (2017). Collision Theory. [online] Available at: https://chem.libretexts.org/Core/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry/Kinetics/Modeling_Reaction_Kinetics/Collision_Theory [Accessed 14 Mar. 2017].

Leisure Time And Cultural Values Of Biodiversity Environmental Sciences Essay

Leisure Time And Cultural Values Of Biodiversity Environmental Sciences Essay Many people derive value from biodiversity through leisure activities such as hiking, birdwatching or natural history study. Biodiversity has inspired musicians, painters, sculptors, writers and other artists. Many culture groups view themselves as an integral part of the natural world and show respect for other living organisms. Popular activities such as gardening, fishkeeping and specimen collecting strongly depend on biodiversity. The number of species involved in such pursuits is in the tens of thousands, though the majority do not enter mainstream commerce. The relationships between the original natural areas of these often exotic animals and plants and commercial collectors, suppliers, breeders, propagators and those who promote their understanding and enjoyment are complex and poorly understood. It seems clear, however, that the general public responds well to exposure to rare and unusual organisms-they recognize their inherent value at some level. A family outing to the botanical garden or zoo is as much an aesthetic and cultural experience as an educational one. Philosophically it could be argued that biodiversity has intrinsic aesthetic and spiritual value to mankind in and of itself. This idea can be used as a counterweight to the notion that tropical forests and other ecological realms are only worthy of conservation because of the services they provide. Key words:Biodiversity;leisure,aesthetic Introduction Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or on an entire planet. Biodiversity is one measure of the health of biological systems. Life on Earth today consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The year 2010 was declared the International Year of Biodiversity. Biodiversity is not consistent across the Earth. It is consistently rich in the tropics and in specific regions such as the Cape Floristic Province; it is less rich in polar regions where conditions support much less biomass. Rapid environmental changes typically cause extinctions.[1] 99.9Â  percent of species that have existed on Earth are now extinct.[2] Since life began on Earth, five major mass extinctions have led to large and sudden drops in Earthly biodiversity. The Phanerozoic eon (the last 540 million years) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity in the Cambrian explosion-a period during which nearly every phylum of multicellular organisms first appeared. The next 400 million years was distinguished by periodic, massive biodiversity losses classified as mass extinction events. The most recent, the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, occurred 65Â  million years ago, and has attracted more attention than all others because it killed the nonavian dinosaurs.[3] The term was used first by wildlife scientist and conservationist Raymond F. Dasmann in a lay book[4] advocating conservation. The term was widely adopted only after more than a decade, when in the 1980s it came into common usage in science and environmental policy. Use of the term by Thomas Lovejoy, in the foreword to the book Conservation Biology,[5] introduced the term to the scientific community. Until then the term natural diversity was common, including by The Science Division of The Nature Conservancy in an important 1975 study, The Preservation of Natural Diversity. By the early 1980s TNCs Science program and its head, Robert E. Jenkins,[6] Lovejoy and other leading conservation scientists at the time in America advocated the use of biological diversity. The terms contracted form biodiversity may have been coined by W.G. Rosen in 1985 while planning the National Forum on Biological Diversity organized by the National Research Council (NRC) which was to be held in 1986, and first appeared in a publication in 1988 when entomologist E. O. Wilson used it as the title of the proceedings[7] of that forum.[8] Human benefits Biodiversity supports a number of natural ecosystem processes and services.[10] Some ecosystem services that benefit society are air quality,[11] climate (e.g., CO2 sequestration), water purification, pollination, and prevention of erosion.[11] Since the stone age, species loss has accelerated above the prior rate, driven by human activity. The exact rate is uncertain, but it has been estimated that species are now being lost at a rate approximately 100 times as fast as is typical in the fossil record, or perhaps as high as 10,000 times as fast.[12] Land is being transformed from wilderness into agricultural, mining, lumbering and urban areas for humans. Non-material benefits include spiritual and aesthetic values, knowledge systems and the value of education..[9] Human health Biodiversitys relevance to human health is becoming an international political issue, as scientific evidence builds on the global health implications of biodiversity loss.[13][14][15] This issue is closely linked with the issue of climate change,[17] as many of the anticipated health risks of climate change are associated with changes in biodiversity (e.g. changes in populations and distribution of disease vectors, scarcity of fresh water, impacts on agricultural biodiversity and food resources etc.) Some of the health issues influenced by biodiversity include dietary health and nutrition security, infectious diseases, medical science and medicinal resources, social and psychological health.[18] One of the key health issues associated with biodiversity is that of drug discovery and the availability of medicinal resources.[19] A significant proportion of drugs are derived, directly or indirectly, from biological sources; At least 50% of the pharmaceutical compounds on the US market are derived from compounds found in plants, animals, and microorganisms, while about 80% of the world population depends on medicines from nature (used in either modern or traditional medical practice) for primary healthcare.[14] Moreover, only a tiny proportion of the total diversity of wild species has been investigated for medical potential. Through the field of bionics, considerable advancement has occurred which would not have occurred without rich biodiversity. It has been argued, based on evidence from market analysis and biodiversity science, that the decline in output from the pharmaceutical sector since the mid-1980s can be attributed to a move away from natural product exploration (biopr ospecting) in favor of genomics and synthetic chemistry, neither of which have yielded the expected breakthroughs; meanwhile, natural products have a long history of supporting significant economic and health innovation.[20][21] Marine ecosystems are of particular interest in this regard,[22] although inappropriate bioprospecting has the potential to degrade ecosystems and increase biodiversity loss, as well as impacting the rights of the communities and states from which the resources are taken.[23][24][25]. Conservation of biodiversity Conservation biology matured in the mid- 20th century as ecologists, naturalists, and other scientists began to collectively research and address issues pertaining to global declines in biodiversity.[26][27][28] The conservation ethic differs from the preservationist ethic, originally led by John Muir, that seeks protected areas devoid of human exploitation or interference for profit.[27] The conservation ethic advocates management of natural resources for the purpose of sustaining biodiversity in species, ecosystems, the evolutionary process, and human culture and society. [26][28][29][30] Conservation biology is reforming around strategic plans that include principles, guidelines, and tools for the purpose of protecting biodiversity.[26][31][32] Conservation biology is crisis-oriented and multi-disciplinary, including ecology, social organization, education, and other disciplines outside of biology.[26][28] Preserving biodiversity is a global priority in strategic conservation plans that are designed to engage public policy and concerns affecting local, regional and global scales of communities, ecosystems, and cultures.[32] Action plans identify ways of sustaining human well-being, employing natural capital, market capital, and ecosystem services.[33][34] and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Strategies for biodiversity Strategically, focusing on areas of higher potential biodiversity promises greater return on investment than spreading conservation resources evenly or in areas of little diversity but greater interest in the conservation. A second strategy focuses on areas that retain most of their original diversity. These are typically non-urbanized, non-agricultural areas. Tropical areas often fit both sets of criteria, given their natively high diversity and relative lack of development.[35] However, many animal species are migratory, meaning that focusing only on specific locations is insufficient. Wildlife corridors can help support migration, and is considerably cheaper and easier than clearing/preserving entirely new areas. Some habitats may require restoration before standard conservation techniques can be effective. Conclusions Popular activities such as gardening, fishkeeping and specimen collecting strongly depend on biodiversity. The number of species involved in such pursuits is in the tens of thousands, though the majority do not enter mainstream commerce. The relationships between the original natural areas of these often exotic animals and plants and commercial collectors, suppliers, breeders, propagators and those who promote their understanding and enjoyment are complex and poorly understood. It seems clear, however, that the general public responds well to exposure to rare and unusual organisms-they recognize their inherent value at some level. A family outing to the botanical garden or zoo is as much an aesthetic and cultural experience as an educational one. Philosophically it could be argued that biodiversity has intrinsic aesthetic and spiritual value to mankind in and of itself. This idea can be used as a counterweight to the notion that tropical forests and other ecological realms are only worthy of conservation because of the services they provide.

Plato :: essays research papers

Plato (circa 428-c. 347 BC) Plato was born to an aristocratic family in Athens. His father, Ariston, was believed to have descended from the early kings of Athens. Perictione, his mother, was distantly related to the 6th- century BC lawmaker Solon. When Plato was a child, his father died, and his mother married Pyrilampes, who was an associate of the statesman Pericles. As a young man Plato had political ambitions, but he became disillusioned by the political leadership in Athens. He eventually became a disciple of Socrates, accepting his basic philosophy and dialectical style of debate: the pursuit of truth through questions, answers, and additional questions. Plato witnessed the death of Socrates at the hands of the Athenian democracy in 399 BC. Perhaps fearing for his own safety, he left Athens temporarily and traveled to Italy, Sicily, and Egypt. In 387 Plato founded the Academy in Athens, the institution often described as the first European university. It provided a comprehensive curriculum, including such subjects as astronomy, biology, mathematics, political theory, and philosophy. Aristotle was the Academy's most prominent student. Pursuing an opportunity to combine philosophy and practical politics, Plato went to Sicily in 367 to tutor the new ruler of Syracuse, Dionysius the Younger, in the art of philosophical rule. The experiment failed. Plato made another trip to Syracuse in 361, but again his engagement in Sicilian affairs met with little success. The concluding years of his life were spent lecturing at the Academy and writing. He died at about the age of 80 in Athens in 348 or 347 BC. Works Plato's writings were in dialogue form; philosophical ideas were advanced, discussed, and criticized in the context of a conversation or debate involving two or more persons. The earliest collection of Plato's work includes 35 dialogues and 13 letters. The authenticity of a few of the dialogues and most of the letters has been disputed. Early Dialogues The dialogues may be divided into early, middle, and later periods of composition. The earliest represent Plato's attempt to communicate the philosophy and dialectical style of Socrates. Several of these dialogues take the same form. Socrates, encountering someone who claims to know much, professes to be ignorant and seeks assistance from the one who knows. As Socrates begins to raise questions, however, it becomes clear that the one reputed to be wise really does not know what he claims to know, and Socrates emerges as the wiser one because he at least knows that he does not know.

Sonnet 50 :: essays research papers

William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 50" ,on first read, is the story of a man on a sad journey, leaving a loved one and riding a horse that seems more reluctant to go than he does. Upon second evaluation one must ask, why would it pain the horse to leave? The answer is that the horse represents the writers heart. The trudging journey in the sonnet is a metaphor for the speakers grief and pain of parting with someone he loves. In stanzas 1-4, the speaker's problem is brought to light. For some unknown reason, the speaker cannot be with his friend any longer and must move on. He says that his journey's end will be when he can say to himself with no pain, "Thus far the miles are measur'd from thy friend!" If he can reach that point, his grief will truly be over. The beast that he rides, which would most likely be a horse, is introduced in stanzas 5-8. The horse "plods" along slowly as if, "by some instinct" it knows that the speaker doesn't really want to leave. The speaker "lov'd not speed, being made from thee." "Thee" refers to the person the speaker is parting with. The horse is, in a sense, the speaker's heart, reluctant to keep moving, although it must bear his grief. The speaker, in stanzas 9-12, frequently gets frustrated and tries to force himself on, as shown by the "bloody spur" which indicates repeated use. The groan that the beast makes from the spurring is "more sharp to me[the speaker] than spurring to his[the beast's] side". The more the speaker tries to force himself along, the worse his pain. Knowing this, in stanzas 13-14, the speaker says, "My grief lies onward, and my joy behind." He is leaving what makes him happy, therefore, he will be sad.

Case Study Analysis Essay -- Business Hospital Management Essays

Case Study Analysis Chris Smith received a promotion to executive assistant to the chief executive officer at Faith Community Hospital. On Chris’s first day as executive assistant his boss, Pat, the CEO of Faith Community Hospital, meets with Chris to discuss, what the hospital does and some of the problems that the hospital is having. At the end of the meeting, Pat asks Chris to prepare a report that covers three areas: what is going on right now, what they can do about it, and what they should do about it. In the beginning of the meeting, Pat gives Chris some background information on the hospital, Pat’s position, and the company’s mission statement. Pat is the CEO of the hospital and reports directly to the Board of Directors of the Faith Foundation, whose diversity provides many different ways of thinking and decision-making. Although the hospital has a mission statement it seems like very few people are following it now a days, everybody has interpreted the mission statement to suit his or her needs. This is where the problems begin to occur. Faith Community is a non-profit organization designed to provide care to people from all lifestyles, but because of a growing number of problems, they have to re-evaluate how the actual running of the hospital and how the patients are being treated. With the diversity in thinking and decision-making, this is no easy task. Pat’s job is to figure out what is going wrong and how they can fix it and report these solutions to the Board of Directors. The first problem that Faith Community Hospital faces is the treatment the patients are receiving or the lack of treatment they are receiving. Because Faith Community is a religious based hospital sometimes individual’s personal beliefs can get in the way. Some medical personnel are refusing to administer certain procedures due to their beliefs, while some patients refuse certain procedures because of their beliefs. Currently the hospital faces the chance of charges being pressed from Child Protective Services, who allege that the hospital failed to provide services to the child. Some of the orders are not being followed or are being ignored because of how certain staff members feel, as well as the family members. The second problem that Faith Community Hospital faces is staff members providing free health care to people who cannot afford it without autho... ...nce their balance and make monthly payments. By financing the balance the hospital can add on interest to the overall balance, which will help pay for the employees needed to create this kind of department. The final issue that needs to be discussed at this meeting is employing people from social services. By having these people onsite they can immediately help uninsured patients apply for Medicaid or Medicare. If the patients qualify than they are covered by the state, and the hospital will be reimbursed for the services that they provide which will help with the hospitals increasing premiums, by taking patients away from using the hospitals insurance. Overall Faith Community Hospital is not in bad shape, a few minor problems need to be solved to get the hospital back on its feet and to help the hospital break even with their costs. By employing these special programs and revising the policies and procedures handbook, Faith Community Hospital can be providing quality health care to more people everyday and still afford to stay in business. These programs have worked well in other hospitals to offset the costs they incur and they can do the same for Faith Community Hospital.

Explain with examples how the theoretical perspective of the researcher accepts choice of method

The choice of method used to collect data is used by the theory that the given sociologist accepts. Most sociological theories have certain types of data they tend to collect, and certain methods that they choose to adopt. The two techniques used are quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative techniques are used to measure distribution and the extent of a social characteristic. This technique is also useful when comparing two social variables such as social class and educational achievement. The technique provides a percentage or numerical feedback, allowing a statistical approach to sociological research. This type of research relies heavily on secondary data, i.e. research not collected by other parties, such as official statistics and social surveys, especially ones involving a formal interview. The Quantitative research technique is favoured highly by positivists who see measurement and statistics as a crucial element in making sociology more scientific. This technique can easily be duplicated, repeated and classified to achieve the same results, meaning the conclusion can be confirmed as fact. Positivists may also create their own primary material through creating questionnaires or structured interviews. The second research technique is Qualitative. Qualitative research is not based on measurements or statistics, and is useful if the researcher does not require a quantified figure or if the subject that is being studied cant be precisely measured. This style works well with participant observation as the observer may want to simply observe behaviour rather than record it. Interpretivists prefer the Qualitative technique as they employ methods such as in depth interviews, non-participant and participant observation. These methods are not easily repeated and no two observations may be the same, but that are still very valid. Traditionally, those who followed positivism were the Structuralists, the Functionalists and to a certain degree the Marxists. The Structuralists believe that the system of society took greater precedence than the elements within the system, so individuals are directed by society. Functionalists like Durkheim and Parsons believed that the actions of the individuals in society were controlled by the cultural system that they belonged to. Marx tried to apply more generalised historical social laws to his theories to try and predict society's future. However, some positivists have criticised him for not being scientific enough, and claim that his ideas are merely theoretical. The main body of interpretivism is made up of Phenomenologists and ethnomethodoligists. Phenomenologists are concerned with understanding how humans understand their environment and the world around them. The distinction between Phenomenology and positivism is often exaggerated. For example, Durkheim, the founding father of Functionalism did not stick rigidly to his own methodology. He made mental sketches of what it was like to be a Roman Catholic or Protestant. Ethnomethodology looks at how humans categorise the world around them, how people give meaning to their social world. This approach is only concerned with the subjective approach. Some sociologists do not fit directly into a category, interpretivist or positive. Symbolic interactionists such as Becker are commonly described as interpretivists as they understand they must appreciate the point of view of the actor, nevertheless, they still try to maintain a casual relationships. Some develop hypotheses and assess these against further evidence. Another example of a sociologist who crossed the boundaries was Cicourel, and ethnomethodoligist also used statistics to study juvenile justice. In modern times, theoretical commitment is not seen as important as structure and action and a mixed of methods is employed. For example Lea and Young have both used in depth interviews and statistics when analysing crime. Important points to take into consideration are that some techniques are better at analysing phenomenon than others. For example you would have great difficulty using social survey or official statistics to study police brutality or new age travellers. Some methods may be rejected as unethical such as covert participant research. Practical considerations are also noted. Time, money and number of collaborators may be affected if research is funded by a particular body. In conclusion, tradition dictates that there are only two choices of research technique that are adopted by different social theories, but in reality however, many sociologists find that the best way to achieve reliable and valid results is by combining both qualitative and quantitative.

Melani McAlister

Culture and history are interdependent concepts that have always influenced and determined the path of human societies as time progressed.   The power of culture in determining the prevalence of an ideology or a specific society has never been most evident than when the human societies were progressing towards accelerated development in the 19th and 20th centuries. Melani McAlister’s â€Å"Epic Encounters† and Edward Said’s â€Å"Orientalism† demonstrate human societies’ preoccupation in uncovering the ‘truth’ and reality behind the seemingly accelerated progress of ‘developed’ nations over other ‘developing or underdeveloped’ nations.   The two authors expressed particular interest in understanding what set apart Western nations from Middle Eastern or Oriental nations, as conceptualized by McAlister and Said, respectively. In their discussion of the Western society and the ‘otherness’ of Middle Eastern and Oriental nations, the authors conducted researches utilizing different methodologies.   In understanding McAlister’s analyses of the otherness of Middle Eastern nations from the United States, she conducted research based on cultural artifacts, primarily mass media artifacts that chronicle the history of the US-Middle East relationship.   Said, meanwhile, looked into the history of the creation and development of Orientalism based on a meta-analysis of historical and cultural documents that can provide greater understanding and additional perspective in determining the specific point from which Orientalism sprang from. The central focus of this proposal is to provide a comparison of McAlister’s and Said’s respective concepts of â€Å"otherness,† as ascertained by their (1) conceptualization of the societies under study, and (2) methodologies adopted by the researchers (McAlister and Said) in coming up with their generalizations.   In effect, the researcher proposes a meta-analysis by looking closely into the two authors’ conceptualization and operationalization of the concept of â€Å"otherness,† in the context of Middle Eastern, Oriental, and Western societies. The first phase of the proposed study is to uncover how McAlister and Said developed their respective concepts of otherness, applied in the context of Middle Eastern and Oriental cultures, respectively.   The rationale for determining this first step of the meta-analysis study is to first determine whether the authors developed similar criteria in developing the concept, â€Å"otherness.† It is interesting to note that upon closer study of their works, McAlister’s concept of otherness is more culture-based, while Said’s was centered on history.   These differences in perspectives made their analysis radically different, while still maintaining one focus: the theme of Other versus Western society.   However, in the conduct of the meta-analysis of the otherness concept, it is vital to note that both authors subsisted to analyzing cultural products—mass media artifacts for McAlister, and historical documents for Said. A major influence that helped determine â€Å"otherness† in the authors’ works was the methodology they used in analyzing the different societies under study.   Analyses of their methodologies would provide more depth in the research’s interpretation of â€Å"otherness.† In fact, combining a meta-analysis on the concept of â€Å"otherness† and methodologies used to understand â€Å"otherness† provides triangulation in the study, giving the researcher more direction in determining which between McAlister and Said provided a more accurate and objective conceptualization of â€Å"otherness.†Ã‚   The last phase of the proposed study will integrate the findings from the first two phases of the study, giving an overall picture of the authors’ basis for focusing on the concept of otherness as determined by history and culture. References: McAlister, M.   (2001).   Epic Encounters: culture, media, and US interests in the Middle East.   University of California Press. Said, E.   (1979).   Orientalism.   NY: Vintage.

Antz vs Lion King Political

People may just watch Disney movies and walk out of the theater without having any knowledge of the meaning in the movie they just watched. They take their kids to pass the time away and maybe laugh for a few moments. Despite this, these people should know that inside every movie there is a meaning, even if it is an animated Disney movie. In this paper, I will discuss the movie Antz and the movie The Lion King. In the movie Antz, directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson, Z 4195 is a worker ant. Feeling unimportant in this conformity system, he accidentally meets beautiful Princess Bala, who has a similar problem on the other end of the social scale. In order to meet her again, Z switches sides with his soldier friend Weaver. By doing this, he ends up crossing the path of General Mandible (Bala's fiance), who wants to divide the ant society into a superior, strong race (soldiers) and an inferior, soon to be killed race (the workers). But Z and Bala, both oblivious of the dangerous situation, try to leave the cruel system by heading for Insectopia, where there is no such system and all insects coexist in harmony. In the movie The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, a young lion prince is born in Africa, making his uncle Scar the second in line to be king. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, in order to make himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, so Simba leaves the kingdom. After years of exile he returns back to the kingdom to take back what was once his father’s, and now his. After watching both of the films, there seemed to be a political message in both of them. In the movie Antz, it seems as if they are trying to show a totalitarian government. According to the American Heritage dictionary, totalitarian is defined as: being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed (American Heritage). In other words, General Mandible runs a totalitarian government in order to make the army ants superior than the worker ants. He wants to take full control of the ant colony by marrying the princess and trying to kill the queen in order to make himself king. The one ant, Z, tries to promote individualism so it can be the remedy for the totalitarian government General Mandible is trying to run. Individualism is defined as: belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence (American Heritage). He tries to tell the other ants that they don’t have to work if they don’t want to. The work they do is the reason why their society is becoming larger. In the movie The Lion King, it seems as if it shows a dictatorship. Dictatorship is defined as: Absolute or despotic control or power (American Heritage). Despite this, Scar, the inferior brother to King Mufasa, tries to take control over Mufasa and Simba and rule the lands. King Mufasa and the animals of Africa are the protagonists. The antagonists are Scar and the Hyenas, who want to control Africa. Some critics have said that Scar is portrayed as Hitler, who leads the hyenas (Nazis) to overthrow King Mufasa and the rest of the animals (Europe) (IMDB). When Scar does take over, everything starts to deteriorate (such as the Nazis did to Eastern Europe). It seemed as if they were running concentration camps. When Simba returns, everything returns to normal-the trees grow back and the grass turns bright green again, symbolizing the relief ceased (The Nazi fall). In a way, these two films are similar. In each movie, both of the antagonists are depicted as evil and angry. They try to take control of the whole colony or kingdom. When they see an obstacle in the way, they try to eliminate it so they can obtain an easy path to the throne. In the movie Antz, individualism is represented as a great value. Z, the individualistic ant, tries to confront General Mandible for his wrongdoings. He tries to stand up for himself and what he believes in, and soon after the rest of the colony starts to follow his ideas. Seeing that Z has now won over the colony with his beliefs, General Mandible gives out a compelling speech about how the colony needs the workers, and that they have their place in helping build a better colony. He goes on to tell his soldiers, â€Å"Gentlemen, now you can see how dangerous individualism can be. It makes us†¦vulnerable. † (Antz, General Mandible). This is why he wants to destroy the working ants. He knows that if the ants all become individualistic, that he will be overrun and not be able to pursue the superior race that he greatly wants. Later on, Z goes on to tell Princess Bala, â€Å"†¦he just died in my arms. I don’t think that once in his life he made his own choice. † (Antz, Z). Here he is talking about one of the soldiers, who told Z not to follow orders all of his life. This scene depicts the reality of the ant colony; unfortunately, the entire colony, especially the ants, were always following commands and following orders-they had no choice. On the contrary, The Lion King does not depict any degree of unhappiness under the rule of King Mufasa. All the animals are living in harmony, doing as they please; therefore, their individualism is not threatened by King Mufasa’s power. Once Scar comes into rule, he begins to dictate and change everything about the kingdom. He gave the hyenas superior authority over the lions and the other animals. Soon, the rest of the animals start to leave the area and the kingdom becomes infested solely with hyenas. With the dictatorship of Scar, the animals’ freedom and sense of individualism was diminished. The political power in each film is exercised in a similar matter. Both movies contain a monarchy, which contains a queen in the movie Antz, and a king in the movie The Lion King. In the movie Antz, the queen ant has a daughter who is the princess. Soon after the Queen dies, the princess will take her place and so on. In order for General Mandible to take control of the whole colony and become king, he must marry Princess Bala. He takes advantage of the monarchy, and turns it into more of a totalitarian government. On the other hand, The Lion King, has a different approach to its monarchy. King Mufasa expresses to his son that they follow the â€Å"Circle of Life† (Allers, Minkoff). In the â€Å"Circle of Life†, King Mufasa explains that, â€Å"When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life†. (Allers, Minkoff). The kingdom in which they live, is not about exercising a control in one’s power, but rather, it is about respect. King Mufasa does take pride in being king, but he does not command and tell the other animals what to do in every aspect of their lives. Scar was second in line to the throne, being King Mufasa’s brother, but Simba’s birth made him the direct heir to the throne, thus pushing back Scar to third in line. And as the story goes, Scar becomes furious and turns on his own family because he is greedy. He then goes on to kill his brother and he tries to kill Simba but with no success. Simba returns from going away for a while, and goes back to being king and completing the â€Å"Circle of Life†. In each of the films, it shows us what a government should do in a situation where it endangers its people. In Antz, after General Mandible takes the soldier ants out of the colony, and closes in the working ants, the worker ants come together and help each other out. The people (ants) of the government (ant colony), need to stick together and not be against each other. In the end, General Mandible says, â€Å"I am the colony†, and soon after tries to kill Z but ends up killing himself. The colony came together and stood up for what they believed in, and took down the tyrant who was trying to make the colony â€Å"better† by turning it into a totalitarian government. In The Lion King, the government (jungle) does not really put up a fight against Scar. They let him control the lands and do whatever he pleases with the hyenas. Only when Simba comes back, the other lions are motivated to fight. In a point in the movie, Scar is cornered and blames everything on the hyenas and is soon after pushed over the cliff by Simba. Although Scar killed King Mufasa, Simba did not want to kill Scar. Instead justice was served when the hyenas attacked Scar because he had turned his back on them after false promises. You can see that all over the world, there have been dictators, such as Fidel Castro or Hitler, that have fallen. They have fallen not only because of their decisions, but because of the people. Like the aforementioned, there is more to a movie than you think. Before doing this paper, I just thought these movies were just animated films that were made for children. But the truth is that they have a meaning towards the adult viewers also. I believe that in Antz, the ants try to overthrow General Mandible’s totalitarian government in order to achieve a full sense of individualism. In the movie The Lion King, I believe that there is a dictatorship when Scar is in command. He does not rule the lands like King Mufasa, who gave everyone an equal right to live and be happy. Despite the antagonist’s attempts to rule, their justice is served, and in both movies the protagonists get what they want. All in all, always find the true meaning behind a film.

How does Shakespeare present love in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’? Essay

Shakespeare uses many different themes to present love; relationships, conflict, magic, dreams and fate. Overall, he presents it as something with the ability to make us act irrationally and foolishly. Within A Midsummer Night’s Dream we see many examples of how being ‘in love’ can cause someone to change their perspective entirely. ‘The path of true love never did run smooth’ is a comment made from one of the main characters, Lysander, which sums up the play’s idea that lovers always face difficult hurdles on the path to happiness and will usually turn them into madmen. Shakespeare presents love through the relationship shared by Hermia and Lysander. This relationship, at the start of the play, is portrayed as the traditional true love; Hermia chooses to become a nun instead of marrying the man her father has chosen for her such as her bond with Lysander and intentions for him, ‘I will tield my virgin patent up Unto his lordship’, and they decide to elope, ‘Through Athens’ gates have we devis’d to steal.’ However, as the play develops our perception of their love differs, after Lysander is mistakenly put under a spell meant for Demetrius he attempts to pursue his new love, Helena, without any regard for Hermia, ‘Not Hermia but Helena I love’, he now treats Hermia as if she had always meant nothing to him, ‘Should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead? Although I hate her, I’ll harm her not so’, the magic potion removes any positive emotions. He also presents love through the dominating relationship through the father-daughter figures shared by Egeus and Hermia within the play. In the time the play was set the father made the decision who his daughter would marry because of the patriarchal society they lived in, ‘As she is mine, I may dispose of her’, however Egeus did not chose Lysander to marry Hermia, he chose Demetrius, ‘all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius’. Despite how they expected Hermia to obey them, she defied her father’s will and fought for the love that she and Lysander shared, this shows how she was unwilling to follow society’s expectations as love empowers people to be independent and go against social norms, however Theseus, the King of Athens, warned her: ‘if you yield not to your father’s choice, you can endure the livery of a nun’, as he must enforce the law as her father’s words are absolute and if Hermia chooses to go against them she will have to face the consequences. Other relationships that represent female power that is suppressed by male authority are the ones shared by Theseus and Hippolyta and Oberon and Titania. These two relationships share many characteristics, they both hold the title of King and Queen; Theseus and Hippolyta being the King and Queen of Athens and Oberon and Titania being the King and Queen of the Fairies but also the male dominance within the relationships. Theseus holds dominance over Hippolyta as he reminds her ‘I wooed thee with my sword’, which could lead the reader to assume that Hippolyta held some sort of authority before she was conquered by the man she is now ‘betrothed’ to. We also see how Oberon holds dominance over Titania by how he questions her ‘am not I thy lord?’ and how he speaks of her after she has denied him what he wants ‘thou shalt not from this grove Till I torment thee for this injury.’ Even though, Titania, unlike Hippolyta, retaliates to enforce her power in the relationship ‘Then I must by thy lady’ and accuses him of ‘versing love to amorous Phillida’, Oberon is very insistent that he remains control of Titania and therefore uses his loyal jester, Puck, to use magic to humiliate her as a punishment for disrespecting him. This shows how he believes that women should obey men and follow their every command; he punishes her by forcing her, by using magic, to fall in love with Bottom who, at the time, was half human, half donkey. He does this to humiliate and shame her to make her realise that she is nothing without him. Because Oberon believes that women are the inferior sex he sympathises with Helena, she is in love with Demetrius and is willing to do anything for him ‘I am your spaniel’ because that is also how she believes relationships should be, he appears to endorse this subservience, therefore he chooses to cause Demetrius to fall madly in love with her. The artificial love given by Titania to Bottom demonstrates how magic can duplicate the realist atmosphere given from true love as both of those involved are unable to recognise that it is false. True love can cloud judgement and Shakespeare shows how artificial love can do the same, Titania is convinced Bottom is beautiful even though he has the head of a donkey ‘Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful’. Bottom responds to the beautiful, magical fairy queen’s devotion as nothing out of the ordinary and that all of the trappings of her affection, including having servants attend him, are his proper due. His unawareness of the fact that his head has been transformed into that of an ass parallels his inability to perceive the absurdity of the idea that Titania could ever truly fall in love with him. However, Shakespeare uses Bottom to draw the audience’s attention to serious themes, such as the relationship between reality and imagination. He is also the most down-to-earth character in the play as he does recognise that Titania’s statements about him aren’t true, when Titania devotes her love to him ‘On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.’, Bottoms responds with ‘Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that’, also when Titania states ‘Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful’ Bottom corrects her with ‘Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn’, showing that he knows love and reason don’t often work at the same level. Shakespeare also uses Bottom to remind the audience of a recurring theme in the play: whether love and reason can relate, and should love be based on reason or fantasy? Shakespeare also presents love through conflict, for example, the friendship shared by Hermia and Helena show how even best friends since youth can be turned against each other when love is involved. Shakespeare wants to show the audience the great friendship they share ‘Is all the counsel that we two have shared, The sisters’ vows, the hours that we have spent’, ‘As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds Had been incorporate. So we grew together,’, this then allows the audience to understand how severe love can be and how their strong friendship quickly disintegrated when they became involved with the two men; their entire childhood together is forgotten in an instant as they both begin to argue, Hermia feeling cheated and thinking Helena was the one to blame ‘O me, you juggler, you canker-blossom,’ and Helena, thinking it is all a cruel trick against her ‘Lo, she is one of this confederacy. Now I perceive they have conjoined all three To fashion this false sport in spite of me. Shakespeare wanted the audience to realise how the magic within the play isn’t all to blame for the conflict as it is not the love potion which has had this effect on the women directly. Their relationship has changed completely, their friendship before the argument contrasts greatly to the hostility afterwards, all caused by a mischievous spirit. Shakespeare presents love through the fairies’ magic which creates the comedic atmosphere given throughout the play. Shakespeare shows how magic distorts true love by how easily Demetrius’ and Lysander’s hearts are manipulated by Puck’s magic potion. At the beginning of the play Shakespeare makes the effort to show the audience the strong and loyal love Hermia and Lysander devote to each other, ‘I am beloved of beauteous Hermia’ is how Lysander speaks of Hermia before the love charm is cast upon him. However after it is cast he expresses his feelings for his new true love, Helena, almost immediately, ‘Not Hermia, but Helena I love!’. When Lysander fights for Helena Shakespeare purposefully makes it almost impossible for the audience to tell the difference between the two men, as he wants them to know that all foolish young lovers are alike.