Wednesday, October 2, 2019
The Axis Powers :: World War II History
The Axis Powers Almost everyone knows of The Axis Powers. They were enemies of The Allied Powers in World War II. They are synonymous with The Holocaust because Adolf Hitler was the man who started The Holocaust and he ws the dictator of Germany. The Axis Powers originally was the alliance between Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy. Italy did not do much during the war though. The goals of The Axis Powers clearly emerged in the Italo-Germany Pact. It was a pact that was signed in May of 1939 in which Italy and Germany promised to help each other in the time of war. Germany also signed another pact because Hitler believed that Germany had lost World War I due to the fact that Germany had to fight on two sides. The pact was a ten-year, non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany. The pact was later abolished when the USSR began to help the Allied Powers fight Germany. Hitler wasn't well known during World War I. As a matter of fact, Hitler was a private during the war and ended up gaining power because he appealed to a large number of German people. He appealed to them by a combination of an effective and well-practiced style of speaking with what looked like undoubtable sincerity and determination. This helped Hitler find a large audience for his program of national revival, racial pride in Germanic values, hatred for France and of the Jewish and other un-German races, and despise for the Weimer Republic. With the way he spoke, Hitler convinced the people of Germany to believe that a dictatorship was the only thing that could save Germany from the problems it was having. Hitler's views only changed a little in the years to follow; yet he still managed to draw an increasing number of people to his speeches. On September 30, 1938, France and Great Britain agreed to let Nazi Germany have a piece of Czechoslovakia. Hitler told the British and French that it would be his last demand for territory in Europe. Hitler ended up breaking this pact when he took over Prague. During that same year, Germany attacked Poland and defeated them in one month. Poland was then split into two parts with Hitler's Nazi Germany taking part and Stalin's Communist USSR taking the other part. The invasion was what started World War II.
Analysis of Donahues Sister from Thom Gunn’s The Passages of Joy Essay
   Thom Gunn, an English poet who has spent most of his life living in the United States, is a member of what has come to be called the "Movement". Members of the Movement "rejected what seemed to them the Romantic excesses of the New Apocalypse (whose most prominent member was Dylan Thomas), and. . .were equally dissatisfied with the modernist revolution led by [Ezra] Pound and [T.S.] Eliot" (Ellmann and O’Clair 1335). Gunn has criticized modernists for "strengthen[ing] the images [in their poetry] while...banishing [the] concepts" (Qtd. in Ellmann and O’Clair 1335). Members of the Movement "sought greater concreteness and a less high-flown diction for poetry" (Ellmann and O’Clair 1335).    Thom Gunn is known for writing poems that are not only concrete, but that can also be thought of as quite risky. Gunn has never been a cautious poet (Ellmann and O’Clair 1335), instead choosing to deal with subjects that are very "real," and in some cases very controversial. Gunn confronts the issue of alcoholism and its effects, not only on the alcoholics, but also on those who care about them, in his poem "Donahue’s Sister," which was published in 1982 as part of a book of poems entitled The Passages of Joy.    "Donahue’s Sister" begins with the two characters, a man and a woman (presumably Donahue and his sister), encountering each other at the head of the stairs. The first two lines read, "She comes level with him at / the head of the stairs," and indicate a sense of competition and tension between the two people. Immediately, it is apparent that there is a power struggle going on between the man and the woman. At this point, the reader has not been told the source of the competition between the characters, but there is a sense ... ...poetry is not intellectual... rather, it explores concrete reality in a sensuous manner" (Parini 138). Gunn paints a colorful and all-too-believable picture of the effects of alcoholism. He does not attempt to pass judgment, though. He does not condemn the alcoholic, or glorify the man who tries to help her. He simply shows us an honest depiction of alcoholism, and allows us as readers to make our own moral judgments. Works Cited Ellmann, Richard and Robert O’Clair, eds. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988. Giles, Paul. â€Å"Landscapes of repetition: the self-parodic nature of Thom Gunn’s later poetry.† Critical Quarterly 29.2 (1987): 85-99. Parini, Jay. â€Å"Rule and Energy: The Poetry of Thom Gunn.† The Massachusetts Review 23 (1982): 134-151. Sanborn, Patricia F. Existentialism. New York: Pegasus, 1968.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Police Discretion Essay
Discretion was defined to be the selection among possible path of actions. It was rampant and has great importance in the criminal justice. Discretion can be looked at different perspectives such as discretion-as-judgment, discretion-as-choice, discretion-as-discernment, discretion-as-liberty and discretion-as-license. In the discretion-as-judgment, discretion is perceived as the converse of routine or habitual practices. In line with this, discretion gives anyone knowledge, ideas, abilities and insights unexpectedly. Police are not soldiers that are commanded with orders. Police must be more objective and prudent in applying and materializing rules and must follow what the rule is all about. As discretion-as-choice, discretion includes forming of personal attachments, contribution, judgment calls and intellectual decisions. It is all about the ability of making own decisions and following your conscience and modification of superior’s decision if necessary.            On the other hand, discretion-as-discernment looked at discretion as not only making decisions or choices but also making good and virtuous decisions. Discernment is prudence, foresight tactfulness, tolerance, empathy and being discreet. In discretion-as-liberty, discretion is the authorization of being free to act and using this permission to broaden the rights and duties, which aim of vision of liberty and inalienable rights. Lastly, the discretion-as-license sees discretion as the contrary of standard prospect. It gives anybody the privilege to break the rules, defy your immediate superior, and be less than perfect all the time however maintaining good relationship with your superior or the common public. Furthermore, discretion not just like doing what you like what you want and what you prefer. Discretion is restricted by several norms of the society. Police discretion was a forbidden theme of conversation until 1956 when American Bar Foundation released a study about it. Even the study had showed such discretion, still nobody would admit it occurred or existed. The attitude of police toward legality of actions is that any variation from accepted flow of actions was considered extralegal and noted as somewhat source of corruption. When it was unveiled to public, people and other institutions like the American Friends Service Committee (1971) have called for its immediate abolishment and thus police authorities required a clampdown on the issue of discretion. Now, it is perceived as bad or good if used properly. The exercise of discretion was mainly not the problem however; there are cases that police discretion was abused.            Discretion is granted on police authorities for the purpose of serving the needs of the community and giving them the sense of protection they need. There are different types of police; legalistic, watchman or service style but the main point is how they structured and controlled discretion.             There are various causes of police discretion. One is an offender variable in which police accept seriously complaints made by mature individual than complaints made by youth. African Americans are more prone for arrest and force of police authorities. There are also cases that people who show good attitude to police is most likely to be treated mildly. People who are rich and influential and located at the upper class obtained special treatment from the police authorities. Mental status and gender is another factor that affects police on how to deal with different incident encountered. Another cause is situation variables in which police gave more importance serious crimes than minor ones. Usually, handling of deadly weapons or manifesting police resistance made police officers more reactive to situation. In addition, the essentiality of property involved in crime scene determines the efficiency of police response and investigatory actions towards it. Police rarely acts upon complaints of citizen; they prioritize activities commenced by police administration. Bureaucracy of police is more manifested with the presence of witnesses, media and the public.           Police also has a tendency of becoming lenient when justice system was clogged and become stern when they need money. Size and structure of the department are directly proportional to the intensity of police discretion. Communities that have many resources and give more services to public tend police to employ no arrest system.            Moreover police has a belief that legislature have no aspiration of total enforcement, however what they believed is that politicians were making more appearances on the crime scenes portraying a good and sincere image to the public.            Domestic violence, drunk driving, laziness, lack of faith in utility of arrest, hate crime, mental illness, vice crime and use of force are the different areas of discretion.            Domestic violence is one area where police abused. Instead of prosecuting husbands who battered their wives, police officers do nothing. Some police dealt more with mediation, counseling and social service referral. The reasons of such attitude of police are; they see domestic violence as a private matter, victims were usually uncooperative, apprehension of breadwinner would be a burden to the family and because male police favored male assailant. To avoid the burdens of court dates and paper works they used and abused the power of discretion.            The use of force is another area where we can see how discretion maws structured and controlled. The force used by the police are only limited and reasonable for any situation. The use of force must be in total control in order to protect them from civil liability.            Police discretion is a double-edge sword that can be used for good or bad intentions or purposes.            Even if we say that the relics of racial discrimination in law enforcement in the past is gone, we cannot take the fact that attempts to control police discretion do not guaranteed that there is no abuse of police discretion in the part of the enforcer. There were visible historic impetuses for controlling police discretion concerning racial discrimination but still do not assured of the objectivity of the police. We all know that discretion is some sort of making choices hence there would be a salient point that there is someone who would be the loser in the selection. In many cases, racial minorities, immigrants, young people and people who have different cultural and political views from majority group were always the losers. At the very first, the problem in granting police discretion and judicial control of discretion only gives law enforcement permission to target the least likely heard and sound complaints. This was truly manifested in heterogeneous communities and even in the homogeneous society. The next big question is that, â€Å"Are US police biased?†.  There are findings that police and justice system in the United States were not biased when it comes to race. For someone to be prisoner, there are four things that must first have to occur. Before a police arrest somebody, charges must be filed first, plead guilty, found him guilty of the crime, and sentenced him to prison. Definitely and certainly, racial discrimination cannot be observed in this situation. Blacks have certainly high chance of being arrested than any other race. In the statistics presented by the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), black share a large percentage (about 27 percent) of apprehension cases which is quite amusing because they were only 13 percent of the total population of the United States. On the other hand white and Hispanics are accounted for the 71 percent of arrest cases but constitute 81 percent of the total population of America. If all crimes of various types were summed up, the chance of being arrested of a Blackman is twice of that of both white and Hispanics. They have a larger chance of being arrested for violent crimes and even much larger for robbery. Many people believed that Blacks are arrested so frequent because police are biased in targeting crime committers. They think police arrest them with no objective and legal reasons. Several laws have passed in order to correct what they think as abuse of authority. Conversely, police strongly say that they arrest a huge number of Blacks because they themselves commit a great number of criminals. The most objective way of looking the presence of police bias is to have a comparison between the proportion of Black criminals and the proportion of arrested Black suspects. If in case equal, it is a positive indication that police are fair in exercising their authority. The UCR and  the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) have recorded the most current data regarding the different crimes done to victims and the number of arrest of those various crimes. However, the data do not represent the actual occurrence of crimes; instead, a smaller number of arrests were recorded. NCVS conducted data extrapolation and showed the estimation of the actual number of crimes in the United States annually. From 2001 to 2003, approximately 1.8 robberies have occurred. Similarly, UCR reported that police arrested about 229,000 for robbery. Before a police makes an arrest, one must tell them of the crime hence the most applicable manner of to assess whether there exist biasness in law enforcement by the police is really the comparison between the proportion of Black criminals and the proportion of arrested Black suspects. The data showed that 55 percent of the offenders in robbery cases were all black and 55.4 percent of the robbers were reported to the police were black. In line with this, 54.1 percent of the robbers subjected for apprehension were black. Actually, police arrests fewer blacks than what is expected. In other crimes such as burglary, 45 percent of black crime committers were reported however, only 28 percent of arrested suspects were actually black. When all the crimes are collected, blacks have a 26 percent less chance of being arrested than any other races.  These facts do not support the charges against them instead it imply the opposite; the police are more rigorous in non-black apprehension.            Victims are asked to give description of their perpetrators and sometimes victims do not identify Hispanic suspects correctly. They somehow categorized them as either Asian or Indian.            Victims are most likely to call the attention of the enforcer if the crime committer has gun or any weapon at hand. Usually, blacks handled guns and knives more frequently than any race did, thus more crimes were associated with blacks. Moreover, even on the same crime category, blacks are committing serious offenses; therefore, even though they constitute only thirteen percent of the total population of the United States, they commit a large number of crimes than anybody else (based on data gathered by NCVS).            Blacks have a higher possibility of stealing cars. The National Incident-Based System (NIBRS) is a database wherein you can use it to make clear comparisons between race of offenders reported and number of each race arrested. Four thousand seven hundred twenty six police departments in 23 states have detailed all crimes known to them including information about the race of the criminal involved and the race of arrested criminals. The data presented represent less than 20 percent of American population and a 15 percent of total crimes occurred in all the states in America.            Furthermore, violent interracial crimes involved 85 percent of blacks while whites only contribute 15 percent of the crime. Blacks commit more interracial crimes and hate crimes against white (about 45 percent) than blacks do. A very shocking and striking statistics showed that blacks are 39 times more possibly to be involved in crimes on white than whites committing crimes against black. Blacks commit robbery above a hundred times. Clearly, from these arguments we can conclude that police was not really biased when enforcing law and authority towards race. Still there are many believed that there exist racial discrimination in exercising police discretion. Racial separation and discrimination are still visible in the United States. It seemed that African American and other colored people are not truly accepted in the American community. Racial discrimination (not only with blacks) is deeply seen in the enforcement of laws and judicial process. Muslims felt this kind of unfairness since the September 11 bombings and attacks. Associated Press has reported cases of Muslim discrimination in United States. In November 2006, 6 Muslims who came from a conference have removed from the airport, handcuffed and interrogated by airlines enforcers because of a false alarm from a passenger. Investigation was conducted and found out that the airlines had unlawfully taken out the six Muslims. Another instance is the Latino and African-American motorist in Los Angeles were most likely to be questioned and subjected for vehicle inspections than whites. Racial discrimination was manifested in judicial processes and procedures in the United States. In fact, blacks usually received a more severe and harsh punishment than whites. Based on statistics taken by the National Urban League, male blacks were sentenced longer than any white man was. Forty percent of male black prisoners condemned to more than a single year of imprisonment while 20 percent were Latin Americans. The number of black prisoners was about 7 times that of white inmates and the number Latin Americans were 2.5 times higher than that of white. In addition, it showed that blacks have the higher probability of being imprisoned or jailed than whites. This racial bias has resulted to hate crimes. A relatively high increase of the racist and neo-Nazi groups has occurred for five years and hate crimes continuously stretching within America. Study showed that crime committers were mainly motivated by racial bias.            Human rights violation by law enforcement and judicial system is also a frequent and widespread situation in several parts of the United States. The enforcer seriously abuses police discretion. Reports from Human Rights Watch told that since September 11 attacks, more than 70 men were put in prison without any criminal charges. Moreover, reports from the Washington Post said that complaints against New York Police Department have augmented by 60 percent in the span of four years. A study conducted by Professor Craig Futterman of the University of Chicago stated that 662 out of 13,500 Chicago police enforcer have received each more than ten complaints. In line with this, four police were arrested for false arrest. Two former inmates of Cook County Jail complained of physical injuries got from jail guards. Michael Mejia was handcuffed by guards and banged his face on the wall. Guards also received complaints from allegation of kicking and stomping of prisoners. Nevertheless, officials of the jail’s internal affairs division did not act on those complaints.            Judicial injustice in the United States is quite alarming. There are cases reported that offenders were put to prison without proving guilty of the crime or even conducted house arrests without formal proceedings.            Faulty cases and frame-up were observed in the United States. Investigations and reviews showed that 328 criminal cases were all frame-up and thus implied that a relatively high number of prisoners were innocent of the allegation. A man who was alleged and jailed for rape asked for a DNA test but police declined his request. After the September 11 attacks, 6,472 individuals were subjected to prosecution on terrorism-related cases. Many arrested individuals prior to terrorism charges have freed from charges because of insufficient evidences.  Sixty four percent of them were proven innocent and an added 9 percent of were dismissed by prosecutors.            United States has recorded a highest number of prisoners in the world. There are actually 2.2 million of prisoners in the municipal jails. The US correctional have recorded 7 million prisoners both men and women.            Abuse and mistreatment is common to US jails. In fact, the United States is the only nation in the world that used dogs to punish and scare inmates in the prison. They used these dogs aggressively and uncompromisingly to attack and assault prisoners to take out prisoners in the cell. The Human Rights Watch reported that Connecticut prisons were subjected of using dogs twenty times just to remove prisoners in cell. There are also reported cases of abuse of illegal immigrant in US. Those immigrants that were mistreated by police and suffered from hunger and eventually committed suicide. Another abuse case is improper housing of prisoners in different jails. The United States have 60 prisons, which houses a couple of thousand inmates. The inmates were jailed in a very small area, which is not well ventilated. Due to this situation, inmates become eventually insane and mentally ill.            Some primary rights of prisoners were removed from them. For instance, their right to vote was deprived from them.            Disease and crimes were rampant in many jails in the United States. Based on records from the United States Department of Justice, 50 percent of the total prisoners in the United States have suffered from mental illness such as melancholia, mania and hallucination. Over a million prisoners that are released annually have a very contagious and infectious disease. In line with this, a rate of 7000 prisoners per annum died in US prisons. Majority of the deaths recorded were caused by mental illness, which was untreated and left undetected. Aside from this, prisoners also suffered from basic ailments like colds and other virus-infected diseases. In the 2004 survey, the number of AIDS infected prisoners in federal jails increased by almost a thousand, which is relatively higher than the rate in US population.            In connection to AIDS problem, sexual assaults were rampant in various prisons in the United States. Thirteen percent prisoners in US prisons experienced sexual abuse from police enforcer. Approximately 200,000 inmates were abused sexually and has a tendency of becoming victims of sexual assaults.            Here manifestation of racial discrimination, religion discrimination and human rights violation were observed. Blacks were often discriminated when it comes to law enforcement and policing in the United States.            Two sides of police discretion were presented. One is that police are not biased and they just do their intended job. The other side is the abuse of police authority and power that is reflected by the complaints of different assaults and racial discrimination. Nevertheless, whichever is correct is not the idea but the real point here is that how effective the enforcement of law and justice in the United States.            We see that police enforcement was not so effective in dealing with criminal acts. Many criminals were not really punished by law instead the innocent one suffered from it. In the past until the present, law enforcement is still weak in giving justice to anybody and now is the right time of altering the judicial system in United States.            Discretion is not doing anything that you want. Discretion is delimited by norms of the society in which police must conform. Police discretion is somehow good if used in good intension. Police discretion became evil only if abuse by cruel authorities.            Police discretion enforces law to have a harmonious society with no trace of criminal acts but if not used properly this would bring more chaos to the community. Work Cited  Feng, Cheng. Full Text: The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2006, On Human Rights Violations by Law Enforcement and Judicial Departments.Gov cn. 8 March 2007. 10 December 2007 < http://www.gov.cn/misc/2007-03/08/content_545466_2.htm>. Feng, Cheng. Full Text: The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2006, Racial Discrimination.Gov cn. 8 March 2007. 10 December 2007 < http://www.gov.cn/misc/2007-03/08/content_545466_5.htm >. Free M. D.Racial Issues in Criminal Justice: The Case of African Americans. Monsey, New York: Criminal Justice Press. March 2005. 10 December 2007 . Injustice in America. Jeremiah Project. 10 December 2007 < http://www.jeremiahproject. com/prophecy/justice02.html>. â€Å"Police Discretion†. Syllabus for JUS 205MegaLinks in Criminal Justice.  6 January 2004. 10 December 2007 < http://faculty.ncwc.edu/TOConnor/205/205lect09.htm>.  The Color of Crime: Race, Crime and Violence in America. New Century Foundation. 1999. 10 December 2007 < http://www.nc-f.org/colorcrime99.pdf>. Â
Monday, September 30, 2019
Movie: Crash / Movie Review
Crash is a movie which tackles racial and social conflicts in Los Angeles, California. It was directed by Paul Haggis and it was released in the international market by the year of 2005. Haggis was inspired by a true to life event wherein his own car was carjacked in 1991. The story shows how human beings were born inherently good, yet as they grow older, people tends to have their own prejudices in life. Crash is a movie which depicts prejudice, racism, and racial norms. The location of the film was good in that Los Angeles is home to different people, of different culture and different beliefs.Crash begin when a number of people are engaged in a multi-car mishap. From then on, the audiences were brought to the day before the crash happened. It allowed the audiences to see the lives of the characters of the story, as well as the problems and the dilemmas they came across on that fateful day. An LADP cop was featured while he was attempting to get medical assistance for his sire. How ever, he encountered a problem with a black HMO clerk who would not allow in giving his sire consent to see a different doctor.This led to him turning his annoyance out on a black couple in the course of a traffic stop. Sandra Bullock, a rich girl, along with a District Lawyer (Brandon Fraser) was then on showed being carjacked by 2 black juveniles. In turn, Sandra released her fury on a Mexican locksmith who, at that point in time, was innocently working on the door locks of their house. Later on, the Mexican locksmith was once more deprived of hid own dignity by a Persian store-proprietor. The story depicts how each character shows their good side, only for the movie to later on show their negative side in the story.Crash, by Higgins portrays the way we tackle every facet in our daily lives which could be linked to the world’s class and racism. Each plot processions were constructed in such a way that tackles racism and class in the center. The movie itself allows the audie nce to relate to a variety of emotions. Higgins is exceptional by making supplementing each act with certain turn of fates which leaves the audiences in certain thoughts even after the movie was already over.Each characters of the story leads a complex life and though we were allowed a brief view of what their lives were, we were still unable to fully comprehend the intricacies of each character. The movie was constructed in such a way that it allows us the opportunity to relate ourselves with that of the characters. The film was successful in tackling the problems and hazards of stereotyping and racism in today’s society.They were able to accomplish this goal by inspecting personal apprehensions of other cultures, biases, marginalization, and racism from the numerous standpoints of the characters in the film. In a way, Crash dares its viewers to question the beliefs and biases they held within themselves. In the end, the movie was able to make a statement that each and every one of us has our own set of prejudices which at times leads us to making a wrong move or decision.In the short period of two days, the protagonists in the movie look as though they are interwoven with each other. The characters appear to be caught up with their personal encounters with racism. A good example of this would be the couple, Christine Thayer and Rick Cabot. When they arrived home after being carjacked, Christine was both frantic and disturb, she claimed to know better and believed that there is little chance of the same thing ever happening again.She even went as far as giving those two Black juveniles the benefit of the doubt. People tends to act the same way Christine did, after we experience something bad or traumatic we prefer to forget about the incident and move on. At times we even try to think why people do certain things. We would certainly feel better if we know that what they stole from us was used for good reason such as feeding their family than to think th at they did something terrible simply because they think that doing that thing is fun or the like.Another scene in the story which specifically points towards the issue of racism is when Matt Dillon pulled over a black couple for no apparent reason at all. If we were one of the couples surely we would be shocked to be pulled over when we know very well that we did not commit any crime. The couple does not have any inkling whatsoever that the only reason they were pulled over were linked with racism and Dillon’s anger towards the Black man who refused to allow his father to see another doctor.The movie was able to make us realize that we face the same instances on our daily lives. Although slavery was already abolished the long ago rift between the Blacks and the Whites still exists. This is all true to every people of different color all around the world. We are then faced with the issue of color. Is color that important for other race to be so racist with the other culture? Personally I believe that color is only skin deep and that is why I find it hard to fathom why people tends to go racist over that of people of other color or ancestry.However the movie made me realize that although I long ago believed that color is of no importance and that I went to great measure to be sure that I treat each people I come across as fairly as I can, I realized that I was not really all that fair with my dealings with other people. Sometimes, although we are unaware of it, we tend to get racist. In the film we were shown an episode wherein Sandra Bullock let out her anger on the Mexican locksmith fixing her door.This particular incident made me realize the fact that we actually tends to do things that way. We usually let out our frustration on other people especially if we believe that our rank is far superior to them. As I have mentioned before, though unaware, we sometimes commit racism towards other culture. Maybe it is all due to that hidden feeling lying somewh ere there for all of us. It maybe that belief or the inherent wish for our culture to be the best, it may have stemmed up from our inherent belief that our race is far superior to that of another. In reality, we are thrown into a world full of hostility and violence. In a way, I commend the ability of the movie to make its audiences question their own biases in life.For one, I never really thought that I am capable of racism until I started questioning myself if I could truly tell myself that I have never in my life, been racist. Although the movie centered most of its theme on racism, and although it made its audiences aware of some reality in life, the movie in itself did not give any ways nor did they explained how are we going to fight racism. The fact that the movie gave us a sense of awareness may be enough and in a way it is good that it did not give us any tips regarding the matter. Personally I believe that we alone could judge or determine the proper ways to fight raci sm. The truth of the matter is racism still exists; it is still there although we refuse to acknowledge it. Racism is prevalent in every society that even the most open minded of people is caught in the act of doing it.The movie showed in detail our all fight against our personal demons. It was clearly portrayed that no matter what race you are you are guilty of the crime of racism. This is evident by the way Cjristine realized later on the movie that her problem did not arise from the Mexican locksmith and maid. Rather, the problem lies within her self. In fact, the maid proved to be a great friend in the end. The inherent goodness of mankind is evident all throughout the movie. In the end, human beings were just that-humans, capable of mistake yet also capable of compassion and understanding.This is highly apparent as each character changed some of their attitudes. For one, the very cop who insulted the woman in front of her husband was the one who saved her own life. Another inst ance was when one of the black juveniles who stole Bullock’s car liberated an illegal Asian immigrant which remained concealed in the van There was also an instance when people of different races and color were seen in the screen (each one of them have certain problem towards that of another). Certain offensive phrases were thrown towards each other, covert biases were disclosed, and political rightness was thrown.This is one of the things I admired in the movie, it is indeed invigorating to be able to hear and feel all of those emotions on a widescreen. However, although I could say that the film is good in its own right there are still certain things to which, I believe the film failed. Although the film gave us a chance to reflect, I still believe that the way it was made was all so typical. For one, the irony of the film is that the so-called racist cop ended saving the day of the woman he earlier insulted wherein the supposedly good cop ended up killing an innocent black man. It was all there, it was already expected that this particular twist of event was already foreseen and lost its surprise in the process.Another factor is that Haggis gave us a brief glance on each character in the story but that alone was not enough. It made the story more complicated since there are so many stories you need to link together to be able to decipher the story as a whole. The brief glance we have of the other characters been too short for us to fully gauge what kind of stuff they are really made of. Due to Haggis intense hope to link each story of the characters with each other (which produce too much coincidences and luck) he failed to ignite some interest in the characters individual lives.â€Å"Crash†indeed is a good title for the movie, since it already says it all – the fact that we crash into different people without realizing that no matter how different we are from that of another, in the end we were all one (unity in diversity). Towards th e end of the movie they played an assortment of extensive music which portrays everyone on the cast looking so touching and emotional while an indie-rock song plays in the background. Basically, this particular scene in the movie was meant for the audiences to have some kind of a self reflection based on the movie we have just watched.The brilliance on the film lies on the way Haggis portrayed racism. He did not went on portraying racism as a white man always abusing that of a Black, rather he went on to show that racism is a natural phenomenon and each and every one of us is capable of being a racist without even realizing it. He did not portray racism as a sin prevalent only to the whites rather he showed us that no matter what race you are in you could still be considered a racist at some point in time. The fact that the movie did not give any explanation or tips on how we are supposed to end racism made some feel rather irritated. However, that particular lack of advice could be viewed as Haggis acknowledgement of the fact that racism is inherent in all of us and as of the moment there is still no cure to solve this particular disease.One thing is for sure though, Haggis was successful in making us realize that we are all at fault in some point in time and thus, we do not have any right to judge other people (or accuse other people of racism for that matter) since we are all guilty of the crime. We certainly could not blame others and mock racism without insulting our very own selves. It is great how Haggis portrayed each character as someone who is annoying and made us feel certain kind of irritation towards them. However, as the film progress we see ourselves reflected on the characters themselves. We then on realize that the characters Haggis made were indeed us – humans who are inherently good yet acts bad depending on the situation which arises. As a whole, the film made me realize my mistakes towards my attitudes when dealing with other peo ple. At times, when we are so down, when we loses hope, we failed to realize that we are exerting our anger towards innocent people and an abuse of power occurs. The film also made me realize that there lays goodness within each and every one of us. The fact that we are all so different yet so alike is a fact we often overlook. What good could too much similarity give to us? If we are all created all similar to each other then certainly there would be a lost in balance in the universe.That is the very reason why we are created alike and yet different from each other. There are things only some group of people can do. Not simply because you are different from me it already means that you are inferior and I am superior from you. The color of one’s skin and the like does not necessitate that we act all mighty and superior towards other races. For peace to prevail, the important thing for us to do is to learn to accept the views and beliefs of other people. By boxing ourselves on our own personal beliefs and cultures we fail to acknowledge the beauty that lies on other people’s culture.Although our beliefs are different from that of another we must still learn to listen and to respect their own beliefs. It does not necessarily follow that by listening and by respecting other people’s beliefs we are already accepting that belief as our own. In the end respecting other people’s view would serve the best of our interest in that we avoided hurting other people’s feelings, we avoided causing commotion and we attained peace.Reference:Crash. 2005. Marina Grasic, Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Enforceable Contracts
Six Essential Elements of an Enforceable Contract In normal everyday life contracts are utilized for various situations and reasons. Some contracts are more binding as compared to others based on the six elements of offer, acceptance, consideration, the parties’ capacity to contract, the parties’ intent to contract and the object of the contract. This paper examines the above mentioned elements using a contract existing between a customer and a phone dealer.The phone dealer dealt with used but clean phones and because the customer could not afford a new phone, he approached the phone dealer who promised to deliver a functional and clean used smart phone at the price of $74 after two days. The payment was to be made after the delivery of the phone but on the condition that the phone would be fully functional and the customer could return the phone within the following week if it developed any problem.On the appointed day, the phone dealer delivered the phone as promised and the customer made the payment as he had promised too. After two days of using the phone the customer started to experience so many complications with the phone and it finally went off completely. When he returned the phone to the phone dealer, the dealer told him that once the phone was sold the customer could not return it. When the customer threatened to sue him for breach of contract, the dealer affirmed that there were no grounds because there was no written contract.The customer however went on with the suit because though the verbal contract between them was initially fulfilled through the delivery of the phone within the appointed time, it was breached when the dealer refused to accept back the phone within the agreed grace period. A breach of contract is defined as any form of violation that occurs on conditions contained in an enforceable contract. To ascertain the breach of contract the first step is affirming that a contract existed between the customer and the phone dealer. This can be done using the six elements of a contract.The phone can be identified as the object of the contract because it is legal ascertaining the enforceable nature of the contract. As per the first element the verbal offer of providing the phone within two days at $74 can be recognized as part of the binding contract between the two regardless of the fact that it was written. Under acceptance or genuine assent, the customer engaged in expressed acceptance of the offer within the stipulated conditions set by the dealer. The mutual promise between the customer and the phone dealer to eet their sides of the contract can be equated to consideration. Both the customer and the dealer had the capacity to contract because none was coerced into the agreement. The fact that both agreed to enter into the contract considering all the stipulated conditions, shows their intent to enter into the contract. The above clearly indicates that though no written contract existed between the d ealer and the customer, a verbal contract existed between the two of them and the dealer breached the contract by refusing to honor one of the stipulated conditions in the contract.The major two remedies that could be utilized to counter the breach of contract could be the dealer accepting back the phone and issuing the customer with another phone or refunding back his money as an out of court settlement because a court settlement can prove to be very expensive both on the dealer and the customer or the customer can go ahead and sue with the aim of acquiring a court settlement of the issue now that the dealer was unwilling to accept the first remedy.Though this would be costly on both of them, though the customer has better chances of winning the case because he can easily prove that though a verbal contract existed between them, it could be identified as an enforceable contract using the six essential elements of an enforceable contract. Based on this evidence the court will defini tely find the phone dealer guilty of breach of contract because he did not meet one of the major conditions of the contract between him and the customer.This will culminate into a stiffer punishment for the dealer which would have been avoided if he met all the conditions of the contract initially. In conclusion, though a verbal contract existed between the dealer and the customer, it can still be identified as an enforceable contract using the six essential elements of an enforceable contract and hence the phone dealer is liable for the breach of contract. References: Adamson, J. E. (2012). Law for business and personal use. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Answers to Select End of Chapter Questions Essay Example for Free
Answers to Select End of Chapter Questions Essay 16. Since we have the profits from all three scenarios we just to compare the present values of each scenario. We do not need to subtract anything from the present value since the costs have already been subtracted from profits. We can see that we have the highest present value of $290.87 when we use high advertising intensity. Therefore this is the recommended scenario. Q2. This question deals with margin analysis, we will look at incremental revenues and costs and see whether they are worth it. On the revenue side we have an increase on 9807700, however we also have incremental costs of television airtime, ad development and a loss of $6000000 in another division We can see that when we add up the incremental costs, they exceed the extra revenues by 317100. Therefore I do not recommend that this campaign to be undertaken. Q21. Producer â€â€Producer. The Brazilian and five other producers are competing against the US Southern Shrimp Alliance. Both groups are competing to provide the customers with the best shrimps at the lowest cost. However currently the Brazilian Producers have an advantage with their lower labor, cheap land etc. Government and Market; According to the current scenario, the Brazilian Group would be choice of the market since they can produce it much cheaper. However, the Sourthern Alliance is trying to lobby the Government into imposing tariffs Brazilian Imports. Consumer Producer Rivalry; The American Seafood Distributors, which represent consumers of shrimp farming, are interested in having the lowest cost. They are supporting the Brazilians and can potentially choose not to buy from the US based shrimp farmers. Consumer – Consumer Rivalry; Is pretty low, since they have banded together to form the American Seafood Distributors. Five Forces Analysis: Shrimp Farming Industry Buyers have formed the American Seafood Distributors, which means they can ask negotiate in bulk and choose whether they buy from one firm or not. They apparently have very low switching costs. Since shrimp is still shrimp wherever it came from, the price value combination becomes very important. Possible Government Intervention. The shrimp farmers procure their supply from the sea. And really the shrimps have very little choice in the matter. There is plentiful supply, although it depends upon the weather and climate, therefore geographically specific. Also the fishermen who fish for the shrimp or the people who work in the farms demand lower wages for Brazilians but relatively high for the US based on the labour laws. Differentiation is low and competition is based primarily on price. There seems to be a high degree of concentration amongst the firms competing in the industry. Substitutes; There are various substitutes available within the product class. Instead of shrimps, consumers could go for other seafood such as fish. Or they could also choose to go completely different route and avoid Seafood altogether. Entry; Medium Economics of scale are necessary to harvest shrimps at a lower cost, and since there is bulk buying, network effects are also important. Q23. I would tell the owner that while owner did the right thing by incentivizing the manager, but the structure of the incentive needs to be changed. The owner has incentivized the manager to make sales, but has given no incentives to the manager to sell at a higher price. I would recommend that the owner should either set a minimum price on sales or, offer the incentive out of the profits e.g offer 2% of the profit on the sale which would ask. Q11. In the first case, a drop in price of components represents a change in the factors of production. Therefore this will result in a change in the ‘quantity supplied’. This means that the supply curve will shift to the right. Since there is no change in the demand curve, this means that the price will fall. (exh 1) In the second scenario, we have information that incomes are supposed to grow over the coming two years. Change in income produces a change in the demand curve. This is case; we know that RAM is a normal good, with people having income over $75000 buy nearly 1.3 times more. Therefore we can expect the price to increase. However, whether this final price is greater than the initial price (before the changes in supply and demand curve) is unclear and will depend upon how much does the supply curve shifted due to cost drop. Exh1exh2 Blue: Previous SupplyBlue: Previous Supply Red: New Supply Red: New Supply Green: New Demand Q13. First of all, the question misquotes the law of demand. When the prices of cigarettes are raised, the ‘quantity demanded for cigarettes will fall but the ‘demand for cigarettes will not’. The effectiveness of higher pricing will depend upon the cause of the higher pricing. If the price hike is due to a price ceiling by the governmen. then definitely the number of cigarettes demanded will decrease. However, cigarettes are very addicting, which means that the price elasticity if cigarettes is very low. So the drop in quantity demanded is very small. (exh 3). On a theoretical level, it is possible for the equilibrium price to remain the same but with lower number of cigarettes smoked. In this diagram, the red line is demand, while the blue line is supply, we can clearly see that even with a price ceiling, the number of cigarettes smoked as decrease very little. Q14. Well, in order to find out the equilibrium price and quantity I will equate the demand and supply functions. 175 – p = 2P -200. This gives us P = $125. Furthermore, at this price 50 pints of blood will be processed. In order to find the consumer surplus we will need to find the area underneath the demand curve. $175 Price The area of triangle A is the consumer surplus =  ½ * (50) * (175-125) = 1250 The area of triangle B is the producer surplus =  ½ * (50) * (125-100) = 625 Q15. Crude oil is the critical component in the refining process. The price of gasoline will rise dramatically due to the shift in the supply curve. Since the fuel has become more expensive, people will want to buy less of it and therefore will want to buy cars which are more fuel efficient. This will cause the demand curve for fuel efficient cars to shift to the left. Q16. Qs1 = 4P – 110 which gives me coordinates of (0, 27.5) and (-110,0) Qs2 =4.171P – 110 which give me coordinates of (0, 26.37) and (-110,0) Qd= 250 – 5P which give me coordinates of (0, 50) and ( 250,0) First let me find the equilibrium price and quantity by equating Qs1 and Qd. This gives me Pe = 40 Qe= 50 million. Also when I equate Qs2 with Qd I get the new equilibrium Pe2 = 39.25. Each customer saves 75 cents per month. Q10 of the assignment The price of an entry level DVD player is $25.70 on Ebay According to my estimate, the demand curve and supply curve have both shifted to the left. Demand Curve;  As opposed to 2003, in 2012 people have many more option in which to watch their movies. They can carry them on USBs, stream them over the internet, or rent them online from websites such as Netflics. All of these directly contribute to reduce the popularity of DVDs which are complements of Dvd Players. Since there are so many alternate channels to watch movies which offer better price and excellent quality, people will not demand as much of the product. Furthermore, the large amounts of substitutes will directly contribute make the demand much more elastic, so that at the slightest decrease in the price people will switch out Supply Curve; Due to mass production and advancements in technology one could expect that the supply curve should shift outwards. However, due to the number of firms which will pull out of this industry the supply curve will shift towards the left. There is simply not enough demand to sustain all these firms. ii)Besides the change in the number of suppliers, change in technology or a decrease in labour costs could affect the supply similarly Answers to Select End of Chapter Questions. (2017, Jan 07).
Friday, September 27, 2019
Marcel Duchamp Prefigure Walter Benjamin's Thesis Essay
Marcel Duchamp Prefigure Walter Benjamin's Thesis - Essay Example The essay "Marcel Duchamp Prefigure Walter Benjamin's Thesis" explores Walter Benjamin's thesis and Marcel Duchamp. Art has evolved since it was first discovered and the reason behind all these forms of evolution is to ensure that the production of works of art suit the aesthetic needs of the people to whom it is presented. A key point in global art history in terms of evolutionary art is the early 20th century when Benjamin Walter hypothesized and further came out with an essay on art in the age of mechanical reproduction. In this paper, the ways in which the work of Marcel Duchamp prefigures Walter Benjamin’s thesis in his essay shall be analyzed. Marcel Duchamp has been a major contributing icon to the work of art, especially in the 20th century. The 1887 French born had the opportunity of having his first exhibition in 1908 in what was termed Salon d’Automne through the influence of his brother . But since then, Duchamp took a lot of control over what he could do as an artistic personality. It is not for nothing that Perloff notes that Duchamp’s readymades now commands sky-high prices, with people applying for permission to reproduce some of his related images in a scholarly book on modernism paying as much as $200 apiece. This means that Duchamp has continued to remain a very influential figure in art since the 1990s and continues to dominate modern artistic theories. As far as the mechanical reproduction is concerned, a number of great pieces of art works could be attributed to Duchamp., most of which shall be discussed into detail in later sections of the paper. However, it is worth mentioning that the influence of Duchamp on art through the challenging commands of conventional thoughts he had over artistic processes gave so much scheme to what was yet to be born essay of Benjamin Walter3. Though it is said that Duchamp did not succeed in producing as many works of art as some of his predecessors and those that came after him, the fe w he did and some of his subversive actions predicted that he was a revolutionist of art who wanted the old aura to be replaced with a new one, which Walter later came to champion as a thesis in his essay. Overview of Walter Benjamin’s Thesis The major thesis of Walter Benjamin’s essay touches on the conceptualization that the form of technical reproduction of works of art that takes place today are not a modern phenomenon but that modernity has played a contributing factor in ensuring and enhancing much accuracy in the course of mass production4. Throughout the essay, this thesis is elaborate to more or less praise the role of modern artistic discoveries into making what used to be even better. The essay therefore analyses various for m of the development of mechanical visual reproduction including photography, stamping and engraving5. In each of these artistic practices, which in the opinion of Walter are not new but an exhibition of mechanical reproduction that has been with us for long, a new line of
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