Do Video Game Kill

â€Å"Do Video Games Kill? † Since the released of a video game called Doom in 1993, certainly one of the most popular first-games shooters games. It is like a double-edged sword, because it does not help video gaming grow into a multibillion dollar industry, but is would teach kids how to kill. In â€Å"Do Video Games Kill? † sociology professor Karen Sternheimer talked about that the â€Å"video game explanation† for kids violence has become more pervasive. In this article, the author talked about politicians and 199 newspaper articles think that the video games teach young people how to kill and are the culprit.They blame video games. However, the author dose not think the video games are negative products. Because she thinks that guns, poverty, families, and the organization of schools may also influence youth violence. When we want to understand why young people, particular in middle-class or otherwise stable environments, become homicidal, we need to look a t what the games they play. â€Å"While all forms of media merit critical analysis, so do the supposedly ‘good’ neighborhoods and families that occasionally produce young killers†(244).Politicians and other moral crusaders created a name for video game, called â€Å"contemporary folk devils†, because they seem to pose a threat to children. Newspaper articles proposed that the video games are constructing culpability, and they are the culprit. But in author’s mind, she does not think the video games are not only way to teach young children how to kill. This is the biggest problem with media-effects research that â€Å"Poverty, neighborhood instability, unemployment, and even family violence fall by the wayside in most of these studies.Ironically, even mental illness tends to be overlooked in this psychologically oriented research† (16). For instance, African-American young people are involved more than twice as often as white in the juvenile j ustice system. So the author thinks poor males of color be killers easier than others. For example, many people now can not find job, so they just feel sad and lost their mind. They think it is unfair, so decided to kill others. So the video games are not only ways to teach killed. On the other hand, the author thinks playing video games can improves spatial skills and reaction time.When we play the video game, we need to improve our attention, and to decided some decision immediately, so playing the video games actually can improve our intelligence. She found evidence about the video games do not increase aggression. She uses some reports quotation to contract and then points out video games does not increase aggression. For example, â€Å" The Boston Herald quoted a clinical psychologist who said, ‘ Studies have already shown that watching television shows with aggressive or violent content makes children more aggressive’’(15). So the media effects are clear, consistent and conclusive.But the author thinks that news reports do not use academic sources to do the media effects research. In conclusion, the video games are not only ways to teach youth how to kill. They killed maybe because of poverty or families, because of unemployment or neighborhood. There are many other facilities to lead youth people kill. And the video games also have some positive sides, like it can improve the spatial skills. So it is not just like politicians and news articles thinking, the video games are not folk devils and are not culprit. ———————– 1

Status Of Women

What is gender? What is sex in biological terms? Are gender and sex the same thing? Explain why or why not? The state of being male or female, typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. Gender refers to the personal sexual identity of an individual regardlessnof the persons bological and outward sex. How people define masculinity and femininity can vary based on the ndividuals background and surrounding culture. Our biological sex is how we are defined as female and male or intersex.It describes our internal and external bodies including our sexual and reproductive anatomy, our genetic make-up and our hormones. The distinction between sex and gender differentiates sex, the biological make-up of an individuals reproductive anatomy or secondary sex characteristics, from gender, an individuals lifestyle or personal identity of ones own gender. Sex and gender are often used interchangeably. How do gender and sex contribute to the concept s and constructions of masculinity and femininity? Genedr and sex contribute to the concepts and construction of masculinity and femininity in many ways.Gender and sex concepts and construction of masculinity and femininity of being able to tell the difference between the two. They show them as being completely different like males being the protector and ladies being caring and emotional. Do our concepts of gender and sex contribute to the ways we embrace gender and sex in diversity? Yes, I do feel that our concepts of gender and sex contributr to the way we embrace gender and sex in diversity. I feel that we look at males in one light and females in another, we all at some point expect men to the ones that are tough and brave and look at women as being emotional.When it could be the other way around. Do our concepts of gender and sex contribute to our understanding of sexual orientation? Explain. Yes, I feel that our concepts of gender and sex contribute to our understanding of se xual orientation in mnay ways. We have a understanding of what each gender is and what they provide, causing us to make a desision on who we want to be with in life. Wether we are heterosexual: attracted to an individual of the opposite sex, bisexual: attracted to both sexes, or homosexual: attracted to members of the same sex.

A Game of Thrones Chapter Forty-eight

Jon Jon was breaking his fast on applecakes and blood sausage when Samwell Tarly plopped himself down on the bench. â€Å"I've been summoned to the sept,† Sam said in an excited whisper. â€Å"They're passing me out of training. I'm to be made a brother with the rest of you. Can you believe it?† â€Å"No, truly?† â€Å"Truly. I'm to assist Maester Aemon with the library and the birds. He needs someone who can read and write letters.† â€Å"You'll do well at that,† Jon said, smiling. Sam glanced about anxiously. â€Å"Is it time to go? I shouldn't be late, they might change their minds.† He was fairly bouncing as they crossed the weed-strewn courtyard. The day was warm and sunny. Rivulets of water trickled down the sides of the Wall, so the ice seemed to sparkle and shine. Inside the sept, the great crystal caught the morning light as it streamed through the south-facing window and spread it in a rainbow on the altar. Pyp's mouth dropped open when he caught sight of Sam, and Toad poked Grenn in the ribs, but no one dared say a word. Septon Celladar was swinging a censer, filling the air with fragrant incense that reminded Jon of Lady Stark's little sept in Winterfell. For once the septon seemed sober. The high officers arrived in a body; Maester Aemon leaning on Clydas, Ser Alliser cold-eyed and grim, Lord Commander Mormont resplendent in a black wool doublet with silvered bearclaw fastenings. Behind them came the senior members of the three orders: red-faced Bowen Marsh the Lord Steward, First Builder Othell Yarwyck, and Ser Jaremy Rykker, who commanded the rangers in the absence of Benjen Stark. Mormont stood before the altar, the rainbow shining on his broad bald head. â€Å"You came to us outlaws,† he began, â€Å"poachers, rapers, debtors, killers, and thieves. You came to us children. You came to us alone, in chains, with neither friends nor honor. You came to us rich, and you came to us poor. Some of you bear the names of proud houses. Others have only bastards' names, or no names at all. It makes no matter. All that is past now. On the Wall, we are all one house. â€Å"At evenfall, as the sun sets and we face the gathering night, you shall take your vows. From that moment, you will be a Sworn Brother of the Night's Watch. Your crimes will be washed away, your debts forgiven. So too you must wash away your former loyalties, put aside your grudges, forget old wrongs and old loves alike. Here you begin anew. â€Å"A man of the Night's Watch lives his life for the realm. Not for a king, nor a lord, nor the honor of this house or that house, neither for gold nor glory nor a woman's love, but for the realm, and all the people in it. A man of the Night's Watch takes no wife and fathers no sons. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honor. And you are the only sons we shall ever know. â€Å"You have learned the words of the vow. Think carefully before you say them, for once you have taken the black, there is no turning back. The penalty for desertion is death.† The Old Bear paused for a moment before he said, â€Å"Are there any among you who wish to leave our company? If so, go now, and no one shall think the less of you.† No one moved. â€Å"Well and good,† said Mormont. â€Å"You may take your vows here at evenfall, before Septon Celladar and the first of your order. Do any of you keep to the old gods?† Jon stood. â€Å"I do, my lord.† â€Å"I expect you will want to say your words before a heart tree, as your uncle did,† Mormont said. â€Å"Yes, my lord,† Jon said. The gods of the sept had nothing to do with him; the blood of the First Men flowed in the veins of the Starks. He heard Grenn whispering behind him. â€Å"There's no godswood here. Is there? I never saw a godswood.† â€Å"You wouldn't see a herd of aurochs until they trampled you into the snow,† Pyp whispered back. â€Å"I would so,† Grenn insisted. â€Å"I'd see them a long way off.† Mormont himself confirmed Grenn's doubts. â€Å"Castle Black has no need of a godswood. Beyond the Wall the haunted forest stands as it stood in the Dawn Age, long before the Andals brought the Seven across the narrow sea. You will find a grove of weirwoods half a league from this spot, and mayhap your gods as well.† â€Å"My lord.† The voice made Jon glance back in surprise. Samwell Tarly was on his feet. The fat boy wiped his sweaty palms against his tunic. â€Å"Might I . . . might I go as well? To say my words at this heart tree?† â€Å"Does House Tarly keep the old gods too?† Mormont asked. â€Å"No, my lord,† Sam replied in a thin, nervous voice. The high officers frightened him, Jon knew, the Old Bear most of all. â€Å"I was named in the light of the Seven at the sept on Horn Hill, as my father was, and his father, and all the Tarlys for a thousand years.† â€Å"Why would you forsake the gods of your father and your House?† wondered Ser Jaremy Rykker. â€Å"The Night's Watch is my House now,† Sam said. â€Å"The Seven have never answered my prayers. Perhaps the old gods will.† â€Å"As you wish, boy,† Mormont said. Sam took his seat again, as did Jon. â€Å"We have placed each of you in an order, as befits our need and your own strengths and skills.† Bowen Marsh stepped forward and handed him a paper. The Lord Commander unrolled it and began to read. â€Å"Haider, to the builders,† he began. Haider gave a stiff nod of approval. â€Å"Grenn, to the rangers. Albett, to the builders. Pypar, to the rangers.† Pyp looked over at Jon and wiggled his ears. â€Å"Samwell, to the stewards.† Sam sagged with relief, mopping at his brow with,a scrap of silk. â€Å"Matthar, to the rangers. Dareon, to the stewards. Todder, to the rangers. Jon, to the stewards.† The stewards? For a moment Jon could not believe what he had heard. Mormont must have read it wrong. He started to rise, to open his mouth, to tell them there had been a mistake . . . and then he saw Ser Alliser studying him, eyes shiny as two flakes of obsidian, and he knew. The Old Bear rolled up the paper. â€Å"Your firsts will instruct you in your duties. May all the gods preserve you, brothers.† The Lord Commander favored them with a half bow, and took his leave. Ser Alliser went with him, a thin smile on his face. Jon had never seen the master-at-arms took quite so happy. â€Å"Rangers with me,† Ser Jaremy Rykker called when they were gone. Pyp was staring at Jon as he got slowly to his feet. His ears were red. Grenn, grinning broadly, did not seem to realize that anything was amiss. Matt and Toad fell in beside them, and they followed Ser Jaremy from the sept. â€Å"Builders,† announced lantern-jawed Othell Yarwyck. Haider and Albett trailed out after him. Jon looked around him in sick disbelief. Maester Aemon's blind eyes were raised toward the light he could not see. The septon was arranging crystals on the altar. Only Sam and Darcon remained on the benches; a fat boy, a singer . . . and him. Lord Steward Bowen Marsh rubbed his plump hands together. â€Å"Samwell, you will assist Maester Aemon in the rookery and library. Chett is going to the kennels, to help with the hounds. You shall have his cell, so as to be close to the maester night and day. I trust you will take good care of him. He is very old and very precious to us. â€Å"Dareon, I am told that you sang at many a high lord's table and shared their meat and mead. We are sending you to Eastwatch. It may be your palate will be some help to Cotter Pyke when merchant galleys come trading. We are paying too dear for salt beef and pickled fish, and the quality of the olive oil we're getting has been frightful, Present yourself to Borcas when you arrive, he will keep you busy between ships.† Marsh turned his smile on Jon. â€Å"Lord Commander Mormont has requested you for his personal steward, Jon. You'll sleep in a cell beneath his chambers, in the Lord Commander's tower.† â€Å"And what will my duties be?† Jon asked sharply. â€Å"Will I serve the Lord Commander's meals, help him fasten his clothes, fetch hot water for his bath?† â€Å"Certainly.† Marsh frowned at Jon's tone. â€Å"And you will run his messages, keep a fire burning in his chambers, change his sheets and blankets daily, and do all else that the Lord Commander might require of you.† â€Å"Do you take me for a servant?† â€Å"No,† Maester Aemon said, from the back of the sept. Clydas helped him stand. â€Å"We took you for a man of the Night's Watch . . . but perhaps we were wrong in that.† It was all Jon could do to stop himself from walking out. Was he supposed to churn butter and sew doublets like a girl for the rest of his days? â€Å"May I go?† he asked stiffly. â€Å"As you wish,† Bowen Marsh responded. Dareon and Sam left with him. They descended to the yard in silence. Outside, Jon looked up at the Wall shining in the sun, the melting ice creeping down its side in a hundred thin fingers. Jon's rage was such that he would have smashed it all in an instant, and the world be damned. â€Å"Jon,† Samwell Tarly said excitedly. â€Å"Wait. Don't you see what they're doing?† Jon turned on him in a fury. â€Å"I see Ser Alliser's bloody hand, that's all I see. He wanted to shame me, and he has.† Dareon gave him a look. â€Å"The stewards are fine for the likes of you and me, Sam, but not for Lord Snow.† â€Å"I'm a better swordsman and a better rider than any of you,† Jon blazed back. â€Å"It's not fair!† â€Å"Fair?† Dareon sneered. â€Å"The girl was waiting for me, naked as the day she was born. She pulled me through the window, and you talk to me of fair?† He walked off. â€Å"There is no shame in being a steward,† Sam said. â€Å"Do you think I want to spend the rest of my life washing an old man's smallclothes?† â€Å"The old man is Lord Commander of the Night's Watch,† Sam reminded him. â€Å"You'll be with him day and night. Yes, you'll pour his wine and see that his bed linen is fresh, but you'll also take his letters, attend him at meetings, squire for him in battle. You'll be as close to him as his shadow. You'll know everything, be a part of everything . . . and the Lord Steward said Mormont asked for you himself! â€Å"When I was little, my father used to insist that I attend him in the audience chamber whenever he held court. When he rode to Highgarden to bend his knee to Lord Tyrell, he made me come. Later, though, he started to take Dickon and leave me at home, and he no longer cared whether I sat through his audiences, so long as Dickon was there. He wanted his heir at his side, don't you see? To watch and listen and learn from all he did. I'll wager that's why Lord Mormont requested you, Jon. What else could it be? He wants to groom you for command!† Jon was taken aback. It was true, Lord Eddard had often made Robb part of his councils back at Winterfell. Could Sam be right? Even a bastard could rise high in the Night's Watch, they said. â€Å"I never asked for this,† he said stubbornly. â€Å"None of us are here for asking,† Sam reminded him. And suddenly Jon Snow was ashamed. Craven or not, Samwell Tarly had found the courage to accept his fate like a man. On the Wall, a man gets only what he earns, Benjen Stark had said the last night Jon had seen him alive. You're no ranger, Jon, only a green boy with the smell of summer still on you. He'd heard it said that bastards grow up faster than other children; on the Wall, you grew up or you died. Jon let out a deep sigh. â€Å"You have the right of it. I was acting the boy.† â€Å"Then you'll stay and say your words with me?† â€Å"The old gods will be expecting us.† He made himself smile. They set out late that afternoon. The Wall had no gates as such, neither here at Castle Black nor anywhere along its three hundred miles. They led their horses down a narrow tunnel cut through the ice, cold dark walls pressing in around them as the passage twisted and turned. Three times their way was blocked by iron bars, and they had to stop while Bowen Marsh drew out his keys and unlocked the massive chains that secured them. Jon could sense the vast weight pressing down on him as he waited behind the Lord Steward. The air was colder than a tomb, and more still. He felt a strange relief when they reemerged into the afternoon light on the north side of the Wall. Sam blinked at the sudden glare and looked around apprehensively. â€Å"The wildlings . . . they wouldn't . . . they'd never dare come this close to the Wall. Would they?† â€Å"They never have.† Jon climbed into his saddle. When Bowen Marsh and their ranger escort had mounted, Jon put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. Ghost came loping out of the tunnel. The Lord Steward's garron whickered and backed away from the direwolf. â€Å"Do you mean to take that beast?† â€Å"Yes, my lord,† Jon said. Ghost's head lifted. He seemed to taste the air. In the blink of an eye he was off, racing across the broad, weed-choked field to vanish in the trees. Once they had entered the forest, they were in a different world. Jon had often hunted with his father and Jory and his brother Robb. He knew the wolfswood around Winterfell as well as any man. The haunted forest was much the same, and yet the feel of it was very different. Perhaps it was all in the knowing. They had ridden past the end of the world; somehow that changed everything. Every shadow seemed darker, every sound more ominous. The trees pressed close and shut out the light of the setting sun. A thin crust of snow cracked beneath the hooves of their horses, with a sound like breaking bones. When the wind set the leaves to rustling, it was like a chilly finger tracing a path up Jon's spine. The Wall was at their backs, and only the gods knew what lay ahead. The sun was sinking below the trees when they reached their destination, a small clearing in the deep of the wood where nine weirwoods grew in a rough circle. Jon drew in a breath, and he saw Sam Tarly staring. Even in the wolfswood, you never found more than two or three of the white trees growing together; a grove of nine was unheard of. The forest floor was carpeted with fallen leaves, bloodred on top, black rot beneath. The wide smooth trunks were bone pale, and nine faces stared inward. The dried sap that crusted in the eyes was red and hard as ruby. Bowen Marsh commanded them to leave their horses outside the circle. â€Å"This is a sacred place, we will not defile it.† When they entered the grove, Samwell Tarly turned slowly looking at each face in turn. No two were quite alike. â€Å"They're watching us,† he whispered. â€Å"The old gods.† â€Å"Yes.† Jon knelt, and Sam knelt beside him. They said the words together, as the last light faded in the west and grey day became black night. â€Å"Hear my words, and bear witness to my vow,† they recited, their voices filling the twilit grove. â€Å"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.† The woods fell silent. â€Å"You knelt as boys,† Bowen Marsh intoned solemnly. â€Å"Rise now as men of the Night's Watch.† Jon held out a hand to pull Sam back to his feet. The rangers gathered round to offer smiles and congratulations, all but the gnarled old forester Dywen. â€Å"Best we be starting back, m'lord,† he said to Bowen Marsh. â€Å"Dark's falling, and there's something in the smell o' the night that I mislike.† And suddenly Ghost was back, stalking softly between two weirwoods. White fur and red eyes, Jon realized, disquieted. Like the trees . . . The wolf had something in his jaws. Something black. â€Å"What's he got there?† asked Bowen Marsh, frowning. â€Å"To me, Ghost.† Jon knelt. â€Å"Bring it here.† The direwolf trotted to him. Jon heard Samwell Tarly's sharp intake of breath. â€Å"Gods be good,† Dywen muttered. â€Å"That's a hand.†

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Canda Health Care System Vs. United States Health Care system Research Paper

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The theme of death in selected works of Edgar Allan Poe - Term Paper Example Some of the romanticism that has surrounded the history of Poe has created a mythology that is not fully supported by history. However, his stories do reflect the prevalence of death within his life, his construction of the dialogue about the subject placing it in a position of darkness and shadow. Poe wrote about death in such a way to express the theme through universal concepts that touched upon the fears of all human beings about the inevitable encounter they would have with death. Death The theme that will be discussed in this essay is death. Poe uses death as a central theme to most of his works as he relates stories that end in death, ponder death, or speak about crossing the boundaries that separate life from death. Poe has been analyzed for the psychological foundation for the themes from which he creates his work. Peeples states that â€Å"Theorists and critics quickly recognized the opportunities that Poe presented for psychoanalytical study, given his fiction’s em phasis on hidden motives and detection, altered states of consciousness, sadism, and obsession, as well as the self-destructive tendencies he exhibited in his own life† (Peeples 30). ... It may never be fully clear the extent to which his work is devised through literary intent and how much is reflective of a dark soul developed from the difficult events in his life. Poe is remembered as a morose drunk, lost in the laments of the loss of his wife, but he was not merely a gothic figure up in a darkened room penning out his tales of horror. Poe was actively seeking a literary career and intended to become a known author of his time. This can be understood by the activities he engaged in towards getting published. His work, â€Å"The Raven†, was his first published work which appeared in 1845 before he lost his wife in 1947 to tuberculosis (Bloom 46). It is a myth of literary history that it was written after she died and that he wrote it in his despair, maddened by alcohol and grief. It is a romantic notion, but it does not reflect the facts. When exploring the possible foundations for the work that Poe has created, some of the themes begin to emerge as reflecti ve of his personal experience. While the myth has taken aspects of his life and connected them in a way that has created an image of the man, his reality did provide a pool of resources from which to explore the theme of death and the many horrific connective themes from which his work was drawn. He approaches death through terror and horror, his stories built upon the predication that death has a connection to darkness. There is beauty in his horror, but little beauty in his death, his concepts built upon a romanticism that defines the experience of death as literary tragedy, a result of shadowed intent. In this exploration, one might surmise that the writer may

Compare between the new and the old enforcement arbitration law of Research Paper

Compare between the new and the old enforcement arbitration law of Saudi Arabia and the legal effects on the international agree - Research Paper Example 15). After this law, the previous law was referred to as the old law, which pledged to modernize the nation’s arbitration regime in a number of ways. Most significantly, this new law restrains the nation’s court intervening power with regards to arbitration through acknowledging the parties’ autonomy to deal with the arbitration process (Rawlings et al. 16). The new Saudi Arabian law addresses a vital concern under the old law, which is the power to the nation’s courts to reopen, as well as effectively re-litigate awards on their principles (Jones Day 1). Even though, the new law is an acknowledged enhancement, which promises considerable changes in Saudi Arabia, the event of change in practice remains unclear to date. Much will rely on the text of the executing principles and where the country’s courts stand with regards to the new law (Rawlings et al. 16). Many critics consider that this law slightly killed the independence of the Saudi Arabian co urt system while others argue that the law works to develop the nation, unlike the old law. This paper will take into consideration these arguments and bring out which law is better. It will also discuss the international effects of the legislation of either of the laws in order to note the significance of each. Provision of the Two Laws The New Law Encouraged by the UN Commission of International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on International/Foreign Commercial Arbitration, which has been endorsed by a number of regimes, Saudi Arabia’s new law acknowledges parties’ independence to concur on significant aspects of their arbitration process (Rawlings et al. 44). Most importantly, the law respects the right of groups to arbitrate under a governed set of arbitration principles. This is a significant development, which tackles a region of uncertainty, which was present during the old law days. This new law acknowledges parties’ option of governing language, law and arbitrators provided that the sole arbitrator is a qualified lawyer (Rawlings et al. 44). This law also bestows with the entry under the old law for groups to file their agreements with courts for validation prior to commencing arbitration (Jones Day 1). The new law further respects that an agreement between parties can be published in a correspondence among them. The law dictates that arbitrators should have an encouraging obligation to keep groups updated with circumstances, which might lead to a conflict of interest (Rawlings et al. 45). This new law dictates straight procedure for resolving disputes by the arbitral tribunal, such as time restrictions for complaining groups to lodge doubts in the applicable court (Jones Day 1). This eliminates the capacity of groups to oppose to the execution of arbitral awards on such grounds when they did not raise it earlier within the time limit (Rawlings et al. 45). When the groups have not concurred on specific arbitration regulations such as the ICC, the law dictates a detailed arbitration course, which applies by default to all (Jones Day 1). The arbitral award should be granted within a year from the date, which arbitration started depending on the arbitral tribunal's authority to prolong this by an extra 6 months and the groups’ ability to concur with longer extensions. This grants the arbitral board a much more practical timeframe to resolve key commercial disputes, which

Written report on Macdonalds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Written report on Macdonalds - Essay Example From a strategic perspective, McDonald’s is currently perusing an aggressive sales based strategy in new and emergent markets such as China, India, Russia and parts of South America. While McDonald’s traditional markets such as the UK and US may be seen as saturated, the company has still managed to increase sales through organic growth with sales in 2010 increasing by 3.9% in the US and 4.4% in Europe compared to 6% figure seen in new and emergent markets for the company (McDonald’s, 2010). In generating continued growth over the past eight years, the annual report (McDonald’s, 2010) highlights the fact that a clear strategy has been set in the adaptation of a globalised marketing mix template to meet the needs of localised customer groups (Brassington and Pettit, 2006, Kottler et al, 2009). As such, for McDonald’s this results in a business model with limited complexity and the associated costs of complexity, yet the ability to benefit from a localised marketing strategy. In addition the business has in recent years developed a clear model of communication in which three key stakeholders are included so as to ensure success of the businesses strategy at the aggregate level. Here the annual report (McDonald’s, 2010) highlights franchisees, suppliers and employees as the key stakeholders of the business in carrying out the overall strategy of the business. A standard tool for analysing the key factors within the general level or macro environment is to use a PESTLE analysis (Jones and George, 2010, Johnson et al, 2008). The PESTLE analysis considers six key factors within the external macro level environment which may have an impact upon how a business later seeks to create a competitive advantage. Political factors in recent decades may be seen as aiding the McDonald’s business model for large international expansion. Key political reforms

Cross cultural awareness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Cross cultural awareness - Essay Example Stereotypes are simplified and standardized conceptions about groups of people or individuals (Hurst, 2007). These stereotypes are used as mental shortcuts by people when they are dealing with people about whom they know little personally (Hurst, 2007). For example, there are stereotypes about Blacks, Latinos, Older Workers, Female Workers, Arabs and Asians among scores of others. When interacting with a person from any of these stereotypical groups, it becomes easier to think of them as having the specific characteristics that are associated with the group. For example, two African persons – though they may be coming from countries as diverse as America and Egypt, might be considered to be both aggressive, good in sports and bad in academics etc. as these attributes come with the stereotype of ‘Black’ person. Stereotypes are not all bad as they may actually help you in making quicker decisions as they provide an easy way to understand behaviors (Ewen and Ewen, 2006). For example, in the case of Germany, the people can be expected to desire more efficiency in overall hotel operations while in the case of Japan, the hotel guests may require more expression of courtesy from the staff. Having this knowledge from the typical stereotypes, the hotel can tailor its package accordingly to provide the best service delivery as desired by different people. Stereotypes can also help in understanding the differences in a non-complex manner and thus enable better decision making (Ewen and Ewen, 2006). For example, in the hotel context, stereotypes can help in serving the people belonging to different groups better. It may be useful to know what people from different regions prefer in terms of dà ©cor, food or service, and this knowledge can be derived from stereotypes. Next benefit of stereotyping is that it provides us with a mental file or a mental background in the context of which we can make sense of

European imperialism Essay Example for Free

European imperialism Essay Mortimer Chambers et al define imperialism as a European states intervention in and continuing domination over a non-European territory. During the Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century, the most powerful European nations desired to conquer, dominate and exploit African colonies with the hope of building an empire. According to Derrick Murphy, in 1875 only ten percent of Africa was occupied by European states. Twenty years later only ten percent remained unoccupied. There were several factors which attracted European imperialists to Africa. There were opportunities for profitable investment and trade. Raw materials, which Africa possessed in abundance, were also desired. A cheap source of labour was required as it would result in higher profits. In addition, there was international rivalry among European nations. Domestic political interests and social Darwinism may also be blamed for attracting European imperialism to Africa. European imperialists were lured to Africa by the potential economic benefits she possessed. Industrialization caused a mass productivity and there became an artificial need for foreign markets to invest in. According to Brian Levack et al, with the onset of economic decline in 1873 industrialists were faced with a declining demand for their products in Europe. Imperial expansion, it was thought, would provide a solution with annexed territories seen as captive markets. It was believed that the unfavorable balance of trade that Britain and other industrial countries were experiencing could be counterbalanced by the income from overseas investments. Also, surplus capital could be profitably invested in Africa where cheap labour and limited competition would result in higher profits. Prominent European imperialists decided to use the public resources of their country to find lucrative means of using their capital. The English radical economist J.A. Hobson, argues that the intention was to level out inequalities of wealth to increase domestic consumption. Local merchants, traders and bankers were optimistic towards the idea of imperial expansion and capital investments outside of Europe became an increasingly vital sector of its economy. There was an increasing demand for raw materials in Europe in the late nineteenth century. According to Brian Levack, the new technologies characteristic of the industrial revolution meant that industrial Europe  became increasingly dependent on raw materials. European nations felt the urge to control lands that possessed great quantities of raw materials. Africa was rich with raw materials as well as many treasure reserves. As a result, many major industrial companies attempted to gain a monopoly of raw materials in Africa. Stuart Miller believes that specific trade links were important to particular industries. Some raw materials in Africa were of great importance; the vegetable oil of the Niger was vital for lubricating industrial machinery and the rubber of the Congo was not only essential for the tires on the new automobiles but also for insulating the electrical and telegraph wires now encircling the globe. The plentiful elephant herds could be slaughtered to provide the ivory for many of the new consumer goods such as piano keys, billiard balls and knife handles. In Togoland, Germans were able to cultivate plantations where they grew cocoa and rubber. Other raw materials included peanuts, cotton and tea. There were also many important minerals and South Africa possessed gold and diamonds. International rivalry among European nations contributed greatly to imperialist ventures in Africa. Britains rivalry with France and Germany accounted for a large part of the colonization. The British government wished to maintain its dominance in the colonial regions. Other European powers desired to expand their colonial spheres as well and Britain responded by seizing colonies. Certain territories were important for their location. The Suez Canal was key waterway between East and West Africa. The immense interior between the gold and diamond rich Southern Africa and Egypt had a strategic value as domination of this region was important to secure the flow of overseas trade. The British wanted to link their possessions in Southern Africa with their territories in East Africa, and these two areas with the Nile basin. Obtaining the Sudan was vital to the fulfillment of these ambitions especially since Egypt was already under British control. This red-line through Africa was made famous by Cecil Rhodes and Lord Milner who advocated for a Cape to Cairo empire linking by rail the Suez Canal to the Southern part which possessed many minerals. According to Brian Levack, there was also a certain level of nationalist competition. The unification of Germany upset the balance of power in Europe. In this climate of tension, governments looked towards enforcing national strength. The  newly formed nations of Italy and Germany now sought empires outside Europe as a means of gaining power and prestige within Europe. In the nineteenth century, a German historian Henrich con Treitschke stated All great nations in the fullness of their strength have desired to set their mark on barbarian lands and those who fail to participate in this great rivalry will pay a pitiable role in time to come. Under the leadership of Bismarck, Germany soon embarked on a quest of expansionism. Bismarcks distrust of England under Gladstone was one of the reasons he decided to do this. Germany became engaged in an arms race with Great Britain and it desired as many military and naval bases as it could obtain. France needed to restore its damaged national pride after its defeat by Germany in the Franco-Prussian war and therefore embarked upon expansionism. Their aim was to have an uninterrupted link between the Niger River and the Nile, thus controlling all trade to and from the Sahel region, by virtue of their existing control over the Caravan routes through the Sahara. Domestic political interests also contributed to European Imperialism in Africa. As stated by Brain Levack, in the age of mass politics, political leaders needed to find issues that would both appeal to new voters and strengthen the status quo. Imperialism led the ordinary European people to believe that they were part of a superior, conquering people. Bismarck used imperial issues to help him find political allies in Germany and once remarked all this colonial business is a sham but we need it for the elections. According to Lawrence James, in the 1890s witnessed a rapid expansion of newspaper readership with the appearance of a new type of daily designed to attract the working and lower middle class. Social Darwinism and missionary intentions are two excuses that are used to justify European imperialism in Africa. Rudyard Kipling characterized the Africans as sullen, new caught peoples, half devil and half child. The Europeans believed it to be their duty to civilize the wild savage Africans. Liberalism, which may be defined as a dedication to self-improvement and the belief that there were discoverable rules of general conduct that everyone could follow, contributed to the paternal manner in which Europe acted and arguments of racial and cultural superiority that pushed Europeans into  Africa to civilize the local populations. Lawrence James states that nations who had now reached the highest stage of civilization were taking control over those which had lagged behind, or races, like the Asante, who were not seen as fit to control their own affairs. In an issue of the Dublin Review in the late nineteenth century it was stated that The future of Africa under any form of Europea n tutelage must be better than the dark and evil nightmare of the past. These Social Darwinists were able to persuade the natives that what was being done was to their ultimate benefit. According to Derrick Murphy et al, there existed the idea that imperialism was a moral duty as a means of spreading Western civilization and Christian values. Many Europeans bought this excuse while others did not. Africans were forced to adopt the Christian religion. In some cases they were killed for continuing to practice their own faiths. Some historians believe that the whole motive for Christian evangelism in Africa was simply to disrupt and destroy and that it was always politically motivated. First, missionaries were brought to the continent. Secondly, after some natives were converted and there was a considerable amount of confusion among them, the troops were sent to exploit them. Their main intention was to divide to control. According to an African chieftain The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.Various factors attracted European imperialism to Africa in the later nineteenth century. Europe was changing and their colonial empires were associated with the ideas of national greatness and the survival of the fittest. This caused a massive drive for empires. There was a yearning for raw materials, national power and prestige. Each nation which possessed a colonial territory also possessed a sense of superiority. Bibliography 1.) Chambers Mortimer, Hanawalt Barbara, Rabb Theodore, Woloch Isser, Grew Raymond, The Western Experience, 1999, The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., United States of America2.) James Lawrence, The White Mans Burden? Imperial Wars in the 1890s Spielvogel Jackson, Western Civilization, Mc Graw Hill, Connecticut, 1999(pgs 100-105)3.) Levack Brian, Muir Edward, Maas Michael, Veldman Meredith, The West, Encounters and Transformations, 2004, Pearson Education Inc., United States of America4.) Miller Stuart, Mastering Modern European History, 1997, Palgrave, United Kingdom, Hampshire5.) Murphy Derrick, Morris Terry, Europe 1870-1991, 2000, Harper Collins Publishers LTD, United Kingdom, England6.) The Church as a Tool of Imperialism

Building Luxury Apartments In Colombo Construction Essay

Building Luxury Apartments In Colombo Construction Essay It is proposed to set up a BOI registered joint-venture company to build luxury apartments in Colombo. The entire project can be done in three phases while this proposal will primarily address Phase I. This involves the purchase of 83 perches of pre-identified land. The subsequent phases will involve the purchase of 85 perches and 100 perches of land respectively. (Survey Plan Appendix part D) The number of units to be constructed for Phase I will be 123 units in a 30-storey tower and will be aimed at the mainly local buyers in the middle to upper income brackets, as well as Sri Lankan expatriates. The preliminary works for Phase I will take about 12 months, including pre-sales of apartments and collection of deposits. The construction period is expected to be 30 months. Phase II will involve 177 units in a 35-storey tower and Phase III will involve 263 units in a 45-storey tower. Phase I of the project is based on an average construction cost of Rs9,030 per sq.ft while the average selling price is expected to be Rs25,800 per sq.ft. The construction will only commence upon reaching secured sales through deposits amounting to 50% of the construction cost by sales value. The capital required for Phase I is Rs650mn (Rs235 mn being in cash and Rs415 mn being land value) where the cash is sufficient to cover consultants fees, marketing expenses and CMC fees during the first 12 months, up to push-button. The project is expected to generate a profit of Rs777.8 mn for Phase I. If the same capital is retained in the company, Phase II can generate Rs1,850.3mn and Phase III of Rs3,325.8 mn. Background This proposal aims to capitalize on the buoyant market for affordable, yet luxury, condominiums within the Colombo city limits. In this regard, it is proposed to set up a joint-venture company for the purpose of raising equity capital to acquire land and develop a luxury condominium project. This project in to be located in the heart of downtown Colombo and is to be developed in three phases, with the land to be acquired already been identified. This proposal addresses the development of Phase I of this project, while the remaining Phases can be developed along similar lines. The project will be developed and promoted by experienced professionals with a proven track record in the property development market. Project Plan Pre-project Planning Approval of project Collect relevant market information and trends, analyze best fit for available land base / land that may become available in future, supervise the preparation of preliminary project evaluation document for presentation at Board of Management (BoM), get approval for sending out Architects brief, Guide the team in preparing architects brief; study and modify preliminary design provided by architect in line with market trends; make a presentation to BoM on the project in order to get the required approvals for commencement of pre-sales and necessary funding for this purpose MEASUREMENT CRITERIA Quantitative/Qualitative Total time taken from project conceptualization through project feasibility through project evaluation to presentation; Number of project presentations made to BoM; success rate of presentations Pre-Sales of Project and Approval to Commence Construction Supervise the preparation of legal documentation / collateral / show flat / advertising and promotional plans; Selection of Consultant / Project Manager Firm; Initiate work with the local consultants, including Project Manager towards obtaining building approvals in order to meet push button threshold and necessary statutory building approvals. MEASUREMENT CRITERIA -Quantitative/Qualitative Actual Sales against Target Project Construction Implementation On achieving required sales threshold, make presentation to BoM for approval of project construction phase, monitor project progress weekly, authorize project payments, variations, extensions of time, negotiate with contractors on modifications in order to ensure quality and timely completion of project within approved budget. MEASUREMENT CRITERIA -Quantitative/Qualitative Project as per Specifications; Cost Overrun; Time Overrun Sales and Collections Review achievement of sales targets; if required, initiate necessary actions to meet targets; monitor timely remittances of customers payment tranches in order to ensure planned revenue recognition. MEASUREMENT CRITERIA -Quantitative/Qualitative Actual Receipts against Target Project Closure Obtain necessary statutory approvals and execute all necessary legal documentation in time, full-fill customer expectations in order to deliver customer satisfaction, and enhance company reputation. MEASUREMENT CRITERIA -Quantitative/Qualitative Customer Feedback; Repeat Business from existing customers Construction Strategy Design Considerations The project will aim to maximize the plot coverage to ensure efficient use of the land. Given the site size, location, road frontage and road width, the maximum permitted plot coverage as per existing regulations of 50% will be utilized. The design will be based on a fixed mix of apartments (i.e. not a modular design) as this will bring in design efficiencies and cost savings. The design will be essentially a reinforced concrete structure with locally procured materials (such as granite, tiles etc) while more expensive imported fitments and fittings will be procured in keeping with the market positioning of the condominiums. The design will also involve cost savings through efficient ME design (such as split-type air conditioning as opposed to central air conditioning) as well as other means to contain costs. Careful attention will be paid to ensure smooth operational considerations from car parking arrangements to easy maintenance of the building. Efficient energy and water usage will also be important given the high cost of electricity while pipe-borne potable water is in short supply. Further, it is proposed to have the car parking above ground at podium level as this will avoid the need for expensive basement construction. Costing This project will be on a BOI duty free basis and will be subject to 15% VAT. The target overall construction cost for Phase I of this development is expected to be about Rs9,030 per sq.ft. (which excludes land costs, consultancy fees and contingencies). Timeline It is estimated that the finalization of designs will take 8 months while obtaining all the regulatory approvals will take an additional 4 months. Sales will run concurrently while waiting for regulatory approval. As such, it is estimated that push-button will be about 12 months from the inception of this project. It is estimated that it will take 30 months for completing construction of Phase I from the time of push-button. Risk Factors and Mitigating Measures Demand / Pricing Risk Supply and demand of luxury apartments in the market will determine pricing. The supply of apartments within Colombo city is growing, but is also constrained to some extent due to lack of availability of suitable tracts of land. Meanwhile, the demand for apartments continues to grow from the Sri Lankan middle and upper middle class as they migrate to the city to be closer to their work place due to increasing traffic congestion and poor infrastructure. Sri Lankan families also wish to be closer to childrens schools, hospitals and other services. Given that the infrastructure is failing to keep up with the growth in the urban population, demand for condominiums in the heart of the city will continue to grow. This should help to underpin prices. However, there is the risk that if the local economy slows down, it will adversely affect apartment sales. Further, a poor investment climate and falling tourism will curtail purchases from overseas buyers as well. In situations such as this, an over supply of apartments can lead to price cutting by developers to sell their inventory of apartments. To mitigate the risk from over supply and price cutting, this project has two mitigating measures. The first is to ensure that the pre-determined sales target has been secured before push-button. The second is to phase out the development into three, thereby limiting the risk to one phase at a time. Cost Risk Costs on a project such as this will be affected by domestic inflation and the exchange rate of the SL Rupee. As both of these factors cannot be directly controlled, it is proposed that this project be worked on a fixed-price contract for the construction. This will effectively pass on the risk of cost increases to the contractor. Further, as this development will be done in phases, it has the benefit of having a shorter timeframe for each phase and thus being able to limit the fixed price premium. Duration Risk The risk that the project construction gets delayed is very real. This could arise due to a number of reasons, including poor management/cash-flow by the contractor, unavailability of skilled labour, shortage of materials (such as bricks etc.) amongst others. To mitigate this risk that arises from any delay, only short-listed contractors with good reputations will be invited to tender for this project, preferably with their own directly employed labour. In addition, professional project managers will be hired to manage the project on behalf of the developer. Interest Rate Risk Interest rates have been rising and this will affect the ability of potential apartment buyers to finance a purchase through a mortgage. Although this risk cannot be directly avoided, as this project will be focusing on the affordable segment of the market, it should still enable customers to buy an apartment. Further, the payments will be staggered through the construction of the project. Indeed, this project has the advantage that as the land will be acquired through the equity infusion, the need for a large deposits/tranches from buyers at the start can be avoided as a further incentive to buy. Company Structure Capital Requirement It is proposed to raise equity capital to cover the cost of the land acquisition for Phase I, the cost of Consultancy , Marketing costs and CMC fees over the first 12 months of the project upto push-button. The required capital is thus Rs650 mn, of which Rs235 mn being in cash, the rest being value of the land. A breakdown of these costs is given below. Rs (mn) Consultancy Costs 62 Marketing Costs 33 Pre-Contract works 29 CMC Fees 111 235 Land cost 415 650 The project will not rely on long-term borrowings to raise capital. However, short-term cash shortfalls are to be met through bank overdrafts. Equity Structure It is proposed to set up a BOI registered joint-venture company for the purpose of this development. The required capital is to be raised through a private placement. The promoters of this project will be entitled to 2% of the equity. The final structure of the company will be as follows. Equity Investors 98.0% Promoters 2.0% 100.0% Key Assumptions Land cost of Rs5 mn per perch Exchange rate at start of development of Rs110 Phase I Phase II Phase III Land Extent (perches) 83 86 100 No. of Units 123 177 263 Parking Amenities levels 5 6 7 Apartment levels 25 30 38 Total No. of Storeys 30 36 45 Average Cost of construction Rs 9,030 psf Rs9,800 psf Rs10,635 psf Time for construction 30 months 36 months 45 months Aver. selling price (inc. VAT) Rs25,806 psf Rs27,703 psf Rs30,921 psf Period to sell out units 25 months 30 months 38 months

Role of the US President

Role of the US President Who Wants This Job? Government 2305: Professor: John Sutter Student: Cathy Lynch Date: March 18, 2015 Who Wants This Job? Would you want to be President of the United States of America, Why? We hear and read political news from the television, radio, internet, special interest blogs, news papers and magazines, for those who still read hard copy printed material, and of course Barbra-shop gossip. After listening to what sounded like tongue and cheek, total organized chaos, back-biting, mudslinging, political undermining pitting party against party issues against issues, dealing with millions of other people’s lives in totality for generations to come †¦etc, the proverbial question seem fitting to ponder, Who wants this job and why? This essay sets out to investigate by reviewing articles, books, video commentaries and documentaries of individuals who may consider being president of the United States of America. First let’s look into the prerequisites in order to become president of the United States. According to our Constitution, Article II, Section 1, which place minimal requirements seem like the best place to start. The U.S.Constitutionâ€Å"Article II Section 1 Clause 5 expresses â€Å"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of thisConstitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. (Roland 2008) A little fun fact, on who was the youngest and eldest president to service USA: Theodore Roosevelt (42 years, 10 months, 18 days) Ronald Reagan (69 years, 11 months, 14 days) (Rosenberg n.d.) Only native-born U.S. citizens (or those born abroad, but only to parents at least one of whom was a U.S. citizen at the time) may serve president of the United States. Of course, like many things there are from time to time requirements are called into question, such as most recent current event the potential 2016 presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R – Texas).† (Trethan n.d.) One of his parents is from another country Cuba, the other is a native-born U. S. Citizen, and yet they resided in Canada where Ted Cruz was born making him to posses multiple citizenships [Canadian, American and Cuban].Would this be a hindrance or an asset to American if he were to be elected as President? Actually the reality is our Constitution indicates native born. However, Ted Cruz, isn’t the first, nor the last to have their citizenship questioned. For an example Obama, Kenya or Hawaii? Term limit amendment according to US Constitution, Amendment XXII, Section 1 ratified February 27, 1951 states, No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. (Hickok n.d.) But there are much more for a potential president nominee to be considered. We Americans are very demanding. We want what we want, and we want it NOW; if we don’t get it, we won’t stand behind the leader of the band, [the President]. A good example is when Ben laud in was captured; all praise was given, but then a few months down the road, we turned our backs on the President because we didn’t like what he did on another issue. After all, the President is a mouth piece for our country, the leader of the executive branch of the federal government of our grand country, the head of state, head of government, the commander-in-chief of our military armed forces. He makes laws, has the power to veto them, a leader of a vast economy and nuclear arsenal responsibilities to know when to hold and when to fold, as they sing in the country and western song the Gambler. He sometimes has to gamble with people’s lives too. Would you consider the position of presidency as the most powerful held position a person could hold in the world? This job requires one in power to execute of federal law, appoint other political executive, and judicial officers. The president comprises therein treaties with foreign powers with the help of the Senate, which may or may not be of his own party. He’s also the person that takes the heat when separate powers don’t want to play ball due to special interest group contributions, and other enticements. He must be well connected in order for fundraising for campaigning, to get elected, re-elected and other expenditures. He must possess the power of persuasion, have thick skin. Hey the political arena can be brutal and strip one to the bone and hang them out to dry without a blink of an eye. Who would and why would someone put them self and family through such torture? For the good of the nation or is there more too it? What does the President get in return for four year term of service? From the very beginning of our great nation’s first constitution to now most leaders are already wealthy and set well in life and business. So becoming a federal leader for the pay isn’t much of a motivator being the president currently collects the amount of $200.000 $500.000 annually for services rendered, depending on the president, of course. Thanks to Clinton who signed legislature to provide the presidency their first pay-raise since 1969 from $100.000 to $200.000. (Howstuffworks 2000). That seems like a lot to us average income earners doesn’t it? But if you think about their expenses, and all they are required to do, even with an expense account of $50,000.00, that amount doesn’t go very far. Actually they make more than that in their private lives of business. So what’s the motivation to become President? There’s free housing in the grandest best well kept house in the nation, the white house; unlimited access to Camp David, Travel and meet with very important, influential people and other nation leaders. But also keep in mind, they are putting their lives on the line every time, in spite of body guards around the clock and everywhere they go. They live under a microscope too; also one can never please everyone. There is always something brewing, scheming and always a problem to fix and improvements to be made if they can get the opposing party to comprise. They have the weight of the World, Our Nation, Congress, Constituents, not to mention their own personal family upon their shoulders. When the president decides to retire they receive some lifetime and some time restricted benefits. However, they do have an option to relinquish these benefits and services. Post presidency, what is it like? Life after being a president has its reward system well in place. The United States have had eight presidents meet their demise while in office. Four of those were assassinated, (Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John Kennedy). One president resigned (Richard Nixon), and two presidents were impeached, (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton), though not convicted. (2000Josh Clark). As a rule most presidents serve one to two – four year terms; then either get re-elected, defeated or retire. Living in such intensity under a microscope some retire out of the public lime light. Other’s profit from their published and distributed memoirs, some get involved in speech circuit, and some utilize their distinction toward business improvement, as Jimmy Carter is known for being the most successful post president. However, not all post presidents get out from public eye, instead they may continue to move forward by being nominated into the House of Representatives or Supreme Courts. As in the early times, the departing presidents would merely pat upon the back, given an Atta boy; when the Former President Act (federal law) was expedited by Congress back in 1958 this act was to provide an annual pension of $25,000. Of recent, according to an article posted on the About News website post president’s pay and compensation consist of the receipt of several lifetime benefits which entitle them to: Annual pension An annual pension of $400,000 which is equal to the executive head level I. In addition to their spouse who also receives an annual pension of $20,000., providing they do not accept additional benefits. This benefit start immediately upon the vacating their presidential position. Staff and office expenses – Transitional fund, are labeled for expenditures of vacating the office available up to seven months (It covers office space, staff compensation, communications services, and printing and postage associated with the transition). However in addition to the transitional fund, there is also revenue provided for the departing president’s private staff and office thanks to the Administrator of General Services Administration. Medical care or health insurance Post presidential is entitled to medical treatment in Veteran’s hospitals thanks to Management and Budget Office charges are discounted by interagency rates. Two-term presidents have an option to purchase medical insurance provided by the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program Secret Service protection—Post presidential and their family members use to be entitled to a lifetime of secret service protection. Then when Clinton was post president the SSP were only for ten years. However, current president Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime protectionin 2013 for him and other post presidential. (Longley 2014) We have covered a lot about why anyone would want to be president, but we hadn’t mentioned anything about their political aspects, admirations and goals to further our country into all its glory, an improved nation. Nor have we mentioned anything about We the people being considered or being the main focus. Though, we are certain being these men and women of today’s political world have many fires to start and to put out being the great successful leaders that they are have us in mind, have our country in mind. After all, it’s their country too and they live in it too. They are not above the law even though they may receive extra perks here and there†¦ It merely proves these intelligent leaders, know what they want earlier on in their life, because politics is a lifelong commitment; as simple as step 1, 2 3; to get your foot in the door, to follow, to rule, to lead, and to succeed as an individual as well as a country. Would you want this job? Why or Why not is something amazing to ponder? It’s not the kind of job a lazy person, that is uneducated, lack morals, and integrity to embark upon. It is a position of distinction, reverence and money, keen communication skills, the ability to persuade and work well with others, know the law, and how to select their supporters to help manage the Oval Office and foreign affairs, an innovative thinking and producer of excellence. This is why everyone should vote in all elections local, state as well as governmental levels. Obama stated this morning on telecast news on channel 8, if Everyone would vote the results would outnumber the money. It is crucial to arm one’s knowledge banks regarding worldwide politics, voice ones opinion by voting. It is our right, and a privilege we may not have in the future, if not exercised now and every time there is an election. References Hickok, Eugene. Amendment XXII . http://constitutioncenter.org/constitution/the-amendments/amendment-22-presidential-term-limits (accessed March 13, 2015). Howstuffworks. August 21, 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. http://money.howstuffworks.com/question449.htm> (accessed March 17, 2015). Longley, Robert. Presidential pay and Compensation. April 22, 2014. http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/presidentialpay.htm?utm_term=Benefits of Being Presidentutm_content=p1-main-4-titleutm_medium=sem-relutm_source=msnutm_campaign=adid-928de88a-d94c-40b9-b35c-49ea4f7fca65-0-ab_msb_ocode-28810 (accessed March 15, 2015). Roland, Jon. Presidential Eligibility. April 13, 2008. http://www.constitution.org/abus/pres_elig.htm (accessed March 17, 2015). Rosenberg, Jemmofer. About Education 20th Century History Expert. http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldleaders/a/youngpresidents.htm (accessed March 17, 2015). Trethan, Phaedra. Requirements to Service as President of the United States Now accepting Applications. Edited by Phaedra Trethan. Camden Courier-Post. http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/presrequire.htm (accessed March 14, 2015).

Kitchen Conversations in Russia :: Russia Soviet Union Politics Essays

Kitchen Conversations in Russia Russians say, â€Å"Russia is a country of kitchen conversations.† From time to time people get together in the kitchen and hold long conversations. Using very ordinary attributes, Russian people created a unique custom that can tell a lot about Russian character, perhaps more than volumes of history books. Over the course of last century, â€Å"kitchen conversations† affected Russian society at all levels and became a symbol of freedom from communist thought control and Russian people’s dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in their country. A Russian proverb says: â€Å"we don’t value what we have and cry when we lose it.† Russian people recklessly lost their freedom when they gave the power to communists in 1917. Among the great many consequences of this upheaval was a major economic crisis, part of which was a massive housing shortage. As a result, millions of people were cramped into what was called â€Å"communal apartments.† Generally, those were large apartments with a long corridor that led to a kitchen, a bathroom and several bedrooms where different families used to live. Since they had to share a kitchen and a bathroom, they basically had to share their lives. Everything that happened in society and neighbors’ lives was discussed in the kitchen. Moreover, neighbors actively meddled in other neighbors’ lives, often without any permission. Malicious tricks and helping hands, peaceful coexistence and furious quarrels, ridiculous misunderstandings and deep compassion transformed the kitchen in a theater-like place where tragedy and comedy intertwined into farce and the audience shared heroes’ drama. Most people used to live like this for more than thirty years (some still live like this today) when the government decided to build more housing in the 1950s and families in communal apartments were gradually resettled into single-family apartments. New apartments had a small kitchen and no dining room, but people gathered in the kitchen anyway. First of all, people thought about the kitchen as a common area where it was convenient to spend their free time. Secondly, people got used to talking about important events in their life in the kitchen. Lastly, small kitchen space made people physically closer to each other, which created informal and sincere atmosphere and gave them freedom to speak openly without regard to communist authority. Kitchen Conversations in Russia :: Russia Soviet Union Politics Essays Kitchen Conversations in Russia Russians say, â€Å"Russia is a country of kitchen conversations.† From time to time people get together in the kitchen and hold long conversations. Using very ordinary attributes, Russian people created a unique custom that can tell a lot about Russian character, perhaps more than volumes of history books. Over the course of last century, â€Å"kitchen conversations† affected Russian society at all levels and became a symbol of freedom from communist thought control and Russian people’s dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in their country. A Russian proverb says: â€Å"we don’t value what we have and cry when we lose it.† Russian people recklessly lost their freedom when they gave the power to communists in 1917. Among the great many consequences of this upheaval was a major economic crisis, part of which was a massive housing shortage. As a result, millions of people were cramped into what was called â€Å"communal apartments.† Generally, those were large apartments with a long corridor that led to a kitchen, a bathroom and several bedrooms where different families used to live. Since they had to share a kitchen and a bathroom, they basically had to share their lives. Everything that happened in society and neighbors’ lives was discussed in the kitchen. Moreover, neighbors actively meddled in other neighbors’ lives, often without any permission. Malicious tricks and helping hands, peaceful coexistence and furious quarrels, ridiculous misunderstandings and deep compassion transformed the kitchen in a theater-like place where tragedy and comedy intertwined into farce and the audience shared heroes’ drama. Most people used to live like this for more than thirty years (some still live like this today) when the government decided to build more housing in the 1950s and families in communal apartments were gradually resettled into single-family apartments. New apartments had a small kitchen and no dining room, but people gathered in the kitchen anyway. First of all, people thought about the kitchen as a common area where it was convenient to spend their free time. Secondly, people got used to talking about important events in their life in the kitchen. Lastly, small kitchen space made people physically closer to each other, which created informal and sincere atmosphere and gave them freedom to speak openly without regard to communist authority.

Cross-Listing :: Business, Stock Exchange

Cross-listing can be defined as the listing of a company’s shares in a stock exchange beyond its home country boundaries. It can also be termed as a secondary listing for firms those which are already listed in their home country. Typically, when companies grow bigger and diversify business, they opt for cross-listing to raise capital from larger and more liquid foreign markets. In 2009, nearly 3100 firms cross listed their equity on major overseas stock exchanges globally (World Federation of Exchanges, 2010, list provided in appendix) . It is not only pursued by companies from developed countries but companies from emerging countries are also actively participating. Some major global cross-listing destinations are – New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and so on. The key focus of this paper will be on examining the stock price reaction and the patterns of returns before and after listing date for a diverse sample of firms from different countries specifically in the case of London Stock Exchange (LSE). Existing literature has enough evidence that cross-listings on US exchanges are associated with considerable positive stock market reactions (Foerster and Karolyi, 1999; Miller, 1999). However, there has been limited research on the impact of cross-listing on non US exchanges. This serves as a primary motivation for my interest to explore and gain understanding on a stock’s return in its home market as result of cross-listing on LSE. The rest of this paper is structured in the following manner. Section 2 provides a literature review, while section 3 outlines the data, sample and research methodology. Section 4 presents the empirical results and its discussions. Finally, in section 5 I draw a conclusion. In this section, I present an overview of the existing literature that has been reviewed as a part of gaining an understanding on the extent of work that has already been done on the topic of cross-listing and its impact on stock returns. Moreover, literature review was also essential for understanding the statistical methodologies and approaches that I can apply in this paper for testing my hypothesis. Cross listing has been a topic of immense interest among researchers for a long time. There has been lot of developments as well as debate in the cross-listing literature on its different aspects such as motivation for companies to cross-list, whether cross-listing creates value, its impact on risk and return, its financial and economic impacts so on and so forth.

The mystic drum

Lyrics† (2011). African Studies Faculty Publication Series. Paper 12. Http://schoolwork. Numb. Deed/African_faculty_pubs/1 2 This Article Is brought to you for free and open access by the African Studies at Schoolwork at Amass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in African Studies Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of Schoolwork at Amass Boston. For more information, please contact library. [email  protected] Deed. ‘The Mystic Drum': Critical Commentary on Gabriel Okra's Love Lyrics: Checksum Ozone, PhD Professor of African & African Diaspora LiteraturesIntroduction In the course of reading a chapter entitled â€Å"Empty and Marvelous† In Alan Watts fascinating book, The Way of Zen (1 957), a serendipitous key was provided, by the following statement from the teachings of Chinese Zen master,l Aching Yuan Weighing (1067-1120), to the structure and meaning of the experience traumatized in Gabriel Okra's most famous love poem, â€Å"Th e Mystic Drum†: 2 Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains and waters as waters.When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw the mountains are not at rest. For it's Just now that I see mountains once again as mountains and waters once again as waters. What is so readily striking to anyone who has read â€Å"The Mystic Drum† is the near perfect dynamic equivalence between the words of Aching Yen and the phraseology of Okra's lyric.In line with Aching Yuan's statement, the lyric falls into three clearly defined parts?an initial phase of â€Å"conventional knowledge,† when men are men and fishes are fishes (lines 1-15); a median phase of â€Å"more intimate knowledge,† when men are no longer men and fishes are no longer fishes (lines 16-26); and a final hash of â€Å"substantial knowledge,† when men are once again men and fishes are once again fishes, with the difference that at this phase, the beloved lady of the lyric is depicted as â€Å"standing behind a tree† with â€Å"her lips parted in her smile,† now â€Å"turned cavity belching darkness† (lines 27-41).The significance of this closing phrase will be discussed in the appropriate slot in the final section of the paper, below. But because of the complexity of the imagery and symbolism by means of which progression of the lover's understanding of the nature of reality is developed, it seems necessary to visit the lyric in its entirety before proceeding to a phase-bypass analysis of its structure: The mystic drum beat in my inside and fishes danced in the rivers and men and women danced on land to the rhythm of my drum But standing behind a tree with leaves around her waist she only smiled with a shake of her head. One of the major schools of Buddhism that originated in 12th-century China with current strongholds in India and Japan, Zen strongly emphasizes enlightenment through meditation and vehemently denies the value of conventional thinking in favor of an attempt to understand the paradoxes of reality by â€Å"direct pointing† unfettered by what it sees as arbitrary customary compartmentalizing of phenomena.Since the middle of the twentieth-century, the exciting and fresh insights provided by Zen masters have been a source of inspiration for many non- Asian writers, artists and intellectuals throughout the world, especially in North America. 2 The present commentary is a revised and updated version of a paper originally entitled â€Å"Zen in African Poetry: Gabriel Okra's ‘The Mystic Drum† and shared privately with several of my students and academic colleagues at Abidjan, Lagos and Nausea (Nigeria) and Boston (Massachusetts), USA.Checksum Ozone / The Mystic Drum: Critical Commentary angora's Love Poetry: 2 rippling the air with quickened tempo compelling the quick and the dead to dance and sing with their shadows? Then the drum beat with the rhyt hm of the things of the ground and invoked the eye of the sky the sun and the moon and the river gods and the trees began to dance, the fishes turned men and men turned fishes and things stopped to grow? 10 15 20 25 And then the mystic drum in my inside stopped to beat? and men became men, fishes became fishes and trees, the sun and the moon found their places, and the dead .NET to the ground and things began to grow.And behind the tree she stood with roots sprouting from her feet and leaves growing on her head and smoke issuing from her nose and her lips parted in her smile Then, then I packed my mystic drum and turned away; never to beat so loud any more. 35 Aching Yuan's Zen experience is epistemological?pertaining to a step-by-step initiation of the passionate lover into an understanding of the nature of reality, in particular â€Å"the foundations, scope, and validity of knowledge† (Online Enchant).It can thus be surmised that â€Å"The Mystic Drum† is not Just a conventional amatory lyric, revoked by the storm and stress of Okra's passionate love for his adored and adorable second wife (an African-American with Caribbean roots, Diamond Carmichael, who died in Port Harcourt in 1983). 3 It is more decidedly a philosophical poem in which the dynamics, directions and management of â€Å"the mystic drum† of passion that beats in the poet's â€Å"inside† are dramatically reenacted, in a tripartite ritual and initiatory pattern reminiscent of Aching Yen.From a conventional phase, at which the lover's understanding 3 Okra's first wife, a fellow ‘Jog from the Niger Delta and the mother of his son, Dry. Ebb Okra?a clinical psychologist in Randolph, Massachusetts, who lives in Canton, Massachusetts?was divorced when Ebb was only two years old. There is hardly an reference to her in either Okra's lyrics or interviews. Nor do we have any information about the cause of her separation from Okra. Of the nature of knowledge conforms to s ocially accepted customs of behavior or style (lines 1-15), the lover's progresses through a more intimate phase, at which this knowledge matures from a close, thoroughgoing, personal relationship (lines 16-26), to an ultimate substantial phase, situated in the optimum zone of epistemological perception, at which what the lover has come know about the nature of reality is not only solidly built but considerable in amount or importance (lines 27-41), culminating in the lover's self-imposed decision not to allow his â€Å"mystic drum† ever â€Å"to beat so loud so loud any more† (line 41).The poem concludes, in other words, with a firm decision by the lover to put strong reins on the unbridled flights of his amatory imagination, having become wizened by the knowledge and experience he has acquired. Because the tropes (â€Å"mystic,† â€Å"drum,† and â€Å"inside†), two of which appear in he title of the present paper, are recurrent in all of Okra's l ove lyrics (â€Å"Diamond,† â€Å"To Pave,† and â€Å"The Mystic Drum†), it seems necessary to pause awhile to reflect on their meaning and significance.For Okra, the word â€Å"mystic† is indeed connotative of the spiritual, the numinous, the magical, the supernatural, and the shamanistic. But it is more meaningful as a poetic code for the supervisory powers that enable the human personality to tap into hidden strengths buried in the innermost recesses of the psyche. In addition to any other signification carried over by the poet from his he theories of Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical Psychology, Carl Gustavo Jung (1875-1961), as comprising the collective unconscious?the innermost recesses of the psyche, populated by archaic or primordial images which Jung calls archetypes and which, as he posits, are shared in common by all humankind. See Ozone (1981), for a more detailed discussion of the collective unconscious and its archetypes, with ref erence to the poetry of Okra's transnational, modernist, contemporary, Christopher Skibob (193()-1967).This innermost level of the psyche is operated from the outermost level?the conscious mind (the seat of our everyday thoughts and emotions) ?by the personal unconscious (the seat of repressed traumatic personal experiences or complexes which may be re-lived by the individual if and whenever memories of the original trauma that gave birth to the complex are awakened by new trauma of the same kind). In its relation to â€Å"mystic† and â€Å"inside,† the word â€Å"drum,† in Okra, generally refers to the vibes felt by an individual when there is an intense surge of subconscious promptings from any of the two levels of his â€Å"inside. Further research is needed to ascertain the consistency f all these with the idea of â€Å"the inside† in Okra's native ‘Jog language and traditional system of thought. In â€Å"The Mystic Drum† as well as in à ¢â‚¬Å"Diamond† (a lyric also provoked by Okra's love for Ms. Carmichael) and in â€Å"To Pave† (a lyric provoked by the â€Å"fire† and â€Å"flame† of an unrequited love for a mysterious paramour about whom Okra is most reticent to say anything in interviews with him), the intensity of these subconscious psychic pulsations often reaches fever pitch.The three lyrics are thus not only of enormous interest as conventional love lyrics, fusing the commonalities of oral-wide traditions of love poetry and the peculiarities of indigenous African love songs performed as part of moonlight dances; they are also worthy of critical analysis as a windows into Okra's struggle for rapprochement with the presiding lady of his poetic inspiration, his muse.The muse has been described as the source of inspiration that stimulates the art of a poet. In postcolonial discourse, it has been studied as an archetypal female figure (watermark, great mother, earth goddess, water godd ess, and dancer) embodying cultural nationalist affections and idealizations of the colonized earth of the poet's Malden (see Thomas, 1968, and Ozone, in Nonnumeric, 2011).As I have stated in the later citation, 4 For the purposes of the present paper, I retain my earlier understanding of psyche (Ozone, 1981 : 30) as â€Å"the totality of the non-physical components of the human personality' (extrapolated from Jung, 1959). 5 In this paper, I use the terms traumatic and trauma to refer to â€Å"emotional shock† or â€Å"an extremely distressing experience that causes severe emotional shock and may have long-lasting psychological effects† (online Enchant). Jung defines complexes as â€Å"psychic entities that have escaped from the control of unconsciousness and split from it, to lead a separate existence in the dark sphere of the psyche, whence they may at any time hinder or help the conscious performance† (see 7 see Ozone (2006 and 2011). 4 The idea of the muse is often invoked in the scholarship on modern Nigerian literature; but it is often shrouded with a mystique that tends to reduce it to something abstract or far-fetched, or, at any rate, to a kind of African imitation of the classical muses of Garage-Roman antiquity.But our renascent muse was not only concrete and manifest in our postcolonial practical engagement with our indigenous ultras; she was also an embodiment of the highest cultural ideals of our ancestral traditions as we perceived them in the heyday of colonialism. She appeared to each and every one of us in multifarious guises. But whatever her emanation was, she was unmistakably a personification of the earth of our ancestors?the earth goddess, Ala, the supreme light (chi) that nurtures all creation, an embodiment of the eternal bond that unites the living and the dead.When our early devotional poems to this great spirit and those of our predecessors and successors are collected and published, traders will be better able to understand the ramifications of the power of this great goddess who appeared to us, as to our predecessors in the early sass's (Skibob, Window, And, Egged, Insanely, Majoring, Okapi, Kook, etc), as a dancer, spirit maiden, water maid, and other exciting feminine figures?in all cases as embodiments of our communal and individual apperception of the superiority of our indigenous cultural heritage to every single superimposition of the postcolonial order.Like Skibob and other members of the Nausea school of modern Nigerian poetry (see Thomas, 1968 and 1972; Cherub, in Landforms, 1973 and 1974; and Modulator, 1980), Okra is a votary of the watermark or mermaid, whose inspirational â€Å"songs† we hear in â€Å"The Fisherman's Invocation† (Part II and Ill) as the voice of a presiding lady (or ladies) of poesy whose presence and participation are repeatedly invoked to mediate the claims of the what is passing (the Back), is passing (the Present) and to come (the Front).I n Part II (The Invocation), the â€Å"water song† of an â€Å"assembly of mermaid† in linked with the â€Å"midwifes† that would officiate in the delivery of the Child-Front the brave new world beyond colonialism)?rubbing â€Å"gently down/the back† of the great mother past (â€Å"Back), symbolizing age-old traditions: O midwifes rub gently down the back of your Back while the sun play his play and the Back dance its dance and assembly of mermaids sing their bubbling water song beneath the river waves.And in Part Ill (The Child-Front), â€Å"the mermaids† are invoked to participate in the shaping of the future as cleansing agencies that must â€Å"carry†¦ On their songs† and embarrassing negatives of the pre-colonial past) rearing up its ugly head from a anatomically cherished past, in a situational irony reminiscent of Whole Saying's early ritual drama, Dance of the Forests (1960): Where are your Gods now Gods of the Back that have br ought forth this monster? Throw it away, throw it into the river and let the mermaids carry it on their songs.Throw it away to the Back and let the Back swallow it in its abyss And let the Gods remember their lives are in my hands In these lines, the â€Å"Gods of the Back (past) that have/brought forth this monster† (embarrassing negatives of Africans pre-colonial history) are reminded on he ‘Jog custom known as uremia, in which?as traumatized in â€Å"The Revolt of the Gods†?the fate of the gods, which are traditional in the hands of their worshippers, must be determined by humans in accordance with their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their providential conduct.In concluding, in Part IV (Birth Dance of the Child Front), the â€Å"songs of mermaids† are 5 given pride of place in finale of â€Å"our dance/ of the Front† (of the future), again stressing the primacy of the muse as an agency for shaping the future of a troubled land: Let's leave n our dance of the Front with rhythms of the Back and strengthen he fragile songs of the new with songs of mermaids Much later, in his mature post-war, political poetry set at the heart of the future envisioned in â€Å"The Fisherman's Invocation† and collected under the title The Dreamer, His Vision (2006), the mermaid reappears in â€Å"Mamma Water and Me† as the presiding lady of the poet's anguished cry for succor in the midst of the triumph of disorder (â€Å"embers.. Moldering†, â€Å"in memoriam ashes†, â€Å"flames I cannot temper†, â€Å"whirling vortex, helpless†) in post-civil war Nigeria: The embers are smoldering?once again? They've refused to die into in memoriam ashes. And have burst into flames I cannot temper. They draw into their whirling vortex, helpless? Mamma-water & me. There we stand, hand in hand, Like Starch and company, the faithful, Calmly waiting for the redeeming flames Then we shall step out with solemn steps To silence offended eyebrows and daggered tongues and walk on calm waters?still, serene?Free! Clinched by the refrain (â€Å"Mamma-water and me†), the poet expresses strong optimism that, by keeping faith (standing â€Å"hand in hand†) with his muse, â€Å"redeeming flames† that would effect â€Å"the cleansing† and â€Å"free us of earthly dross† would surely mom in the end.By contrast to â€Å"Mamma-water† (a supernatural being under whose divine shadow the poet appears helpless to offer anything but total devotion), Diamond and Pave are human objects of love to whom Okra, in his love lyrics, projects the archetype of the muse in an unconscious recognition of their place in his â€Å"inside† as his soul mates or psychic alter egos (representing, from the Jungian psychological perspective, his anima). The anima, for Jung, is one of the most powerful archetypes of the collective unconscious that participates in the all-important process of individuation. As med up in my essay on Skibob and Jung (Ozone, 1981: 37), â€Å"the anima is the primordial image of woman in a man, a counterpart of the animus, the primordial image of man engraved on the mind of a woman. The anima appears in dreams, visions and fantasies as in literature and myth in the form of a mother, a loved one, a goddess, a siren, a prostitute and an enchantress, or a femme fetal.The impact of these latent images of woman can be as destructive to the psychic health of the man who projects them as they can be beneficent. They often give rise to an obsessive pursuit of the elusive and the intractable. Because of their appearance in the mind of the poet in forms consistent with the well-established characteristics of the archetype of the anima, Diamond and Pave tend to feature in Okra's lyrics in patterns of relationships reminiscent of the kinds of poet-muse relationships described by Robert Graves in The White Goddess (1959) and exemplified in the life and poetry of Okra's contemporary, Christopher Skibob (1930-1967).As Skibob learned from his reading of Graves, and as parsed by Among (1972), â€Å"one phase in the relationship between the muse-poet and his goddess-woman is that in which the toe becomes more consciously aware of cruelty. † This lesson, also learnt by Okra and 6 embodied in the myth's of â€Å"The Mystic Drum,† â€Å"Diamond,† and â€Å"To Pave,† is writ large in the imagery and symbolism of Skibobs second sequence, Limits, especially Limits IV in which the beloved female figure metamorphoses into a ferocious lioness that gores the over-excited lover to death or, at any rate, tranquilizer him into an unconscious state from which he would awake to complete the writing of the poem at hand with a mature mind truly informed by experience: An image insists From flag pole of the heart;Her image distracts Oblong-headed lioness? No shield is proof against her? Wound me, O sea-weed Face, blinded like a strong-room? Distances of her armpit-fragrance Turn chloroform enough for my patience? When you have finished & done up my stitches, Wake me near the altar, & this poem will be finished†¦ (Limits ‘V, lines 71-84) Thus, as stated in The White Goddess, â€Å"Being in love does not and should not, blind the poet to the cruel side of woman's nature?and many muse-poems are written in helpless attestation of this by men whose love is not longer returned† (Graves, 1959: 91). As stated above, this archetypal pattern is amply reenacted in Okra's â€Å"To Pave,† â€Å"Diamond†, and â€Å"The Mystic Drum. In â€Å"To Pave,† the â€Å"fire† and â€Å"flames† of passion reduce everything between the lover and the beloved into â€Å"ashes†: And as before the fire smolders in water, continually smoldering beneath the ashes with things I dare not tell erupting from the hackneyed lore of the beginning. For they die in the telling. S o let them be. Let them smolder. Let them smolder in the living fire beneath the ashes. Through the infusion of the myth's of â€Å"the hackneyed lore / of the ginning† (evoking the sexual overtones of the relationship between Adam and Eve in â€Å"Den's farm,† as subtly recreated by Michael Cherub in his early lyric, â€Å"Sophia† (see Ozone, 2011) his personal story, Okra's â€Å"To Pave† is transformed into an archetypal tale of poet-muse relationship as predicted in Graves theory of poetry.Not surprisingly, in â€Å"Diamond,† the poet-spouse-and-lover presents itself as one in which the artist is possessed by the divine afflatus, theorized in his treatise, On the Sublime, as the primary source of inspiration for poets, by the Greek teacher f rhetoric and literary critic, Longings (ca. 1st or 3rd century AD). Akin to the notion of â€Å"spirit arrest,† in transatlantic African communities in the Caribbean and the Americas, the idea of the divine afflatus is common among the ‘Jog and elsewhere in Africa where artistic and professional creativity is often attributed to possession by a deity of madness and creativity such as Gaga (the patron of medicine-men), among the Gobo (See Mum, 2009).The speaker in â€Å"Diamond† is not only maddened by his love but clearly possessed by the ‘Jog congener of the Gobo deity of creative madness, Gaga: eke it's said a madman hears; I hear trees talking like it's said a medicine man hears. Like ABA, the hero of Herman Melville Mobs Dick, he is not Just maddened by his monomaniac complex (or neurotic fixation of on a single passion), he is indeed â€Å"madness maddened. † But Okra's wifeless is imbued with the kind of tortuous coyness that has provoked, in global amatory poetry, some of the most sublime evocations of the â€Å"cruelty of the rose† (in other words, the cruelty of the alluring object of love, as depicted in Skibobs Limits ‘V, quoted above). She is singularly unyielding: And I raised my hand? y trembling hand, gripping my heart as handkerchief and waved and waved-and waved but she turned her eyes away.The reader who turns to â€Å"The Mystic Drum† from â€Å"Diamond† and â€Å"To Pave† will immediately recognize the reification of the tension between the lover and the beloved as an extended metaphor for the exploration of something that lies in the pits of epistemology, already defined above as the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, in particular its foundations, scope, and validity. Far beyond the realms of the tremulous stirrings of the love-struck heart, the lyric takes us into he highest cerebral realms of abstruse philosophy. As the poet's muse, the beloved is not only the presiding lady of the poet's art but his link to the ultimate source all knowledge of reality?his link to the world beyond the quotidian, the wellspring of true knowledge of the essence of rea lity.From a deep structure analysis of the meaning of the poem, it seems evident that the epistemological underpinnings of â€Å"The Mystic Drum† go well beyond the culture wars of African postcolonial nationalist search for identity through such ideologies as Negritude, Pan Africans, the search or the African Personality, the African Renascent Movement, and the like. The deft modernist deployment of tropes in the poem is one that cuts across cultural and national boundaries, inviting comparison with systems of thought which Okra himself may not have ever even contemplated, including the statement from the Zen philosopher Aching Yen, with which the present commentary begins. There is, of course, no intention here to suggest that Okra was directly influenced by the oriental philosophy of Zen or that he was schooled under any Zen master.Although I have enjoyed close personal friendship with Okra since 1967 and have elsewhere remarked on the Zen mode of apperception in his poetr y (Ozone, 1991), it never occurred to me to ask him about any contact he may have had with Zen philosophy as I did not think that it was necessarily of any value to establish any such a contact, until my most recent interview with him at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (August, 2011). After listening attentively to my reading of Zen master. Aching Yuan's statement with which the present article begins, Okra readily agreed that it applies very well to his intention and the structure of the experience of the