Monday, December 30, 2019

URBAN GEOGRAPHY Free Essay Example, 2500 words

In the United States, periodic assessments of racial segregation and income segregation have been done to understand the level of segregation. According to Glaeser and Vigdor (2012), the dissimilarity index for the black community has been reducing consistently each year - in 1980, it was 72.7, 1990 it was 67.8 and in 2000, it further reduced to 64.0 (Glaeser and Vigdor, 2012). Among all the communities, the black community is the one which is segregated the most and the segregation is most dominant in metropolitan cities such as Chicago, New York, Detroit, Washington D. C and Los Angeles (Glaeser and Vigdor, 2012). This is followed by the Hispanic population, which had a dissimilarity index of 50.9 in 2000 (Glaeser and Vigdor, 2012). On one hand, the segregation due to race reduced when compared to the earlier years, the segregation due to income increased between the rich and poor form 0.29 to 0.43 (Glaeser and Vigdor, 2012; Iceland et al, 2002). When statistics related to both ra cial and income segregation were combined, it revealed that more than half of the people who belonged to the racial community had lower income levels and thus, they lived in segregated communities and did not live in a neighborhood where the population consisted of a majority of white people. We will write a custom essay sample on URBAN GEOGRAPHY or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The United States has a long history of segregation because of laws and legislations which were enacted before the Civil Rights movement where races were kept apart in public places, educational institutions, prohibition of interracial marriages and lack of voting rights for the black. As per the Fair Housing Act of 1968, there should not be any discrimination in housing based on factors such as race, color, ethnic origin, religion and sexual orientation (Schwartz, 2008). However, according to Schwartz, redlining (providing services at increased costs based on race, gender or ethnic origin) and mortgage discrimination exists even now. The strongest impact of segregation is seen on three avenues - education, health and crime (Schwartz, 2008). Living in a segregated set-up reduces the number of opportunities that the minority have in getting access to good education as the quality of education often depends on the geographic location because funding of many educational institutions ha ppen through the income/revenue that are gained from property taxes (Simpson, 2007). Similar impact is also seen in the health care sector as low income communities often see minimal facilities and overcrowding.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Exploration, Transformation, and Metamorphosis in The...

Analysis, Theory and Application The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 Nicole Weaver English 162 Professor Mark Justice 29 January 2012 Exploration, Transformation, and Metamorphosis in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, a sequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre released in 1974, is a 1986 film directed by Tobe Hooper. This sequel is set 13 years after the events that transpired in the first film and follows Lieutenant Lefty Enright, played by Dennis Hopper, on his quest to find and destroy the Sawyer family the Sawyer clan did to his niece, Sally Hardesty, and his nephew, Franklin, in the first film of the franchise. Historically, horror films developed out of the tradition of Gothic novels from Europe by way of Mary Shelley or Bram Stoker (Dirks 788). Like these Gothic novels, horror cinema highlights the battle between good and evil whether it is between two separate individuals or entities, or a battle within the self. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2s narrative and description of the fight between good and evil allows for the analysis of theories such as isolation, exploration, transformation, and metamorphosis. Stanley J. Solomon argues horror cinema has the capacity of providing the viewer with protected access to a nightmare world otherwise shunted outside of civilization (794). Solomon continues to argue that it is through cinema that the audiences abstract fears are made a fictional reality and through the

Friday, December 13, 2019

Personal Recounts- a Day in the Life of Superman Free Essays

A day in the life of Superman I nearly died today . I could not help but toss and turn in bed and think about how horrible my day had been . what would have happened if the Atomic Skull had hit me on my head. We will write a custom essay sample on Personal Recounts- a Day in the Life of Superman or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"Someone help me! † old . Auntie Mary was lost in the jungle. She could not find her way out and was shouting frantically for help. The sun was setting. Auntie Mary was shouting for help because she had now been captured by the notorious Atomic Skull. He was notorious because of his habit of abducting little children and the elderly. Ha ha, now nobody can save you,† laughed the Atomic Skull but he was wrong and I had heard Auntie Mary. The Atomic Skull’s teeth were a disgusting sight to look at and his face was bigger than his body. â€Å" Superman to the rescue,† I was on my way to the spot where Auntie Mary was since he was already near the jungle. I was just flying past the jungle at that time. The jungle was eerie and gloomy and had a lot of trees. No longer than a minute had passed when I arrived at the spot where Auntie Mary was. There was one problem, she and the Atomic Skull were not there anymore. The Atomic Skull had brought her somewhere. I started to look for Auntie Mary. She was nowhere in sight. Then, I heard the rustling of leaves. I turned around and saw that there was a pile of leaves nearby which could have been used to hide behind. I then had an idea. I crept the other way round the tree to the back of the pile of leaves. That was when I saw the creepy Atomic Skull. The Atomic Skull saw me and we began to fight. There was a lot of action as well as blood. The Atomic Skull could feel a punch on his cheek and felt his hand raising up to hit me. He had a scythe in the other hand and had the mean thought of hitting me with it. Auntie Mary could not bear this sight so she turned around. I was wise and had known that earlier so I kicked the scythe out of the Atomic Skulls hand. The Atomic Skull was helpless now he was powerless and could not do anything but ask for forgiveness or so I thought so. Just as I turned around with Auntie Mary, the Atomic Skull, being very nasty, crept towards his scythe and picked it up, aimed it at me. Just as he was about to throw it, I turned around saw what the Atomic Skull was up to. I ducked just in time and gave the Atomic Skull one last kick of mine which was one of the famous style of kicks. The Atomic Skull lay there, groaning in pain as if he had fallen from a tree which was very high and broke a bone or two. â€Å"Better luck next time, Atomic Skull. Always remember that where there is evil ,there is good and where there is you , there is me! Ha ha! † I was smiling to myself because I had just realised that I had spent two hours thinking of what had happened instead of sleeping. â€Å" How silly of me! † he said before he started to snore. How to cite Personal Recounts- a Day in the Life of Superman, Essay examples

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Dodsons dilemma Essay Example For Students

Dodsons dilemma Essay Owen Dodson never got his big break. An exceptionally talented writer and director, Dodson hobnobbed with the movers and shakers of the black intelligentsia from W.E.B. du Bois to James Baldwin and inspired younger generations of black poets and artists. Yet Dodson, a professor of drama at Howard University for 25 years, never became a celebrated man of the theatre himself. His story is captured in Sorrow Is the Only Faithful One: The Life of Owen Dodson by City College professor James V. Hatch. The vividly written biography is based on extensive interviews with Dodson, taped a couple of years before his death, as well as conversations with numerous friends and colleagues. Dodson, born in 1914, grew up in what was then the ethnically mixed neighborhood of East New York in Brooklyn. Born to a middle-class family who valued literature and education, Dodsons gift for the written word flourished during his student days at Bates College in Lewiston, Me., where a stream of literary successes at the undergraduate level landed him an invitation to the Yale School of Drama. There he witnessed successful productions of his highly poetic dramas Divine Comedy, about the Great Depression preacher cure con-artist, Father Divine, and Garden of Time, a reworking of the Medea story transplanted to the postbellum South. Upon graduating in 1939, Dodson accepted a teaching and directing job at Spelman, Atlantas prestigious black womens college. a decision which launched him on an extraordinary teaching career but effectively ended his higher aspirations as a real artist. In Atlanta, Dodson was introduced to the eccentrics and iconoclasts of the black literati. During Dodsons 1940-42 stint in the Navy, he managed to convince superiors to develop a department of drama, for which he wrote and directed a series of morale-building plays and pageants honoring naval heroes and great Negro leaders. His epic pageant New World A-Coming, featured as part of the Negro Freedom Rally in June of 1944, was staged at Madison Square Garden. The event, organized by the indefatigable Harlem congressman Adam Clayton Powell and his Negro Labor Victory Committee, was a huge triumph for Dodson. A multiracial audience of 25,000 crammed into the arena to view the spectacle, which was praised by New York mayor Fiorella H. LaGuardia. Dodson began his Howard career in 1947, joining Anne Cookes newly created drama department, which stressed professionalismnot commercialism and total theatre. Dodson directed Arthur Millers All My Sons in 1948 and for the first time white critics came to Howard to review. He worked with the gifted but fickle James Baldwin on his 1954 play The Amen Corner (Baldwin promised Dodson he could direct Blues for Mr. Charlie on Broadway, but later changed his mind and hired a white director) and helped to prepare exceptional actors such as Earl Hyman for the professional stage. But perhaps his most widely publicized triumph at Howard was a first-of-its-kind cultural collaboration between Scandinavia and the U.S. in 1949. Twenty-four members of the Howard drama department spent 10 weeks in the land of Swedes and fjords, presenting all-black productions of The Wild Duck, directed by Anne Cooke, and Mambas Daughters, an American play directed by Dodson. Hatch notes that the tour inspired the U.S. State Department to request legislation that would enable the United States Information Service to bring American dance, film, art, music and theatre to the world. Dodsons later years were not easy. He suffered hip and knee problems and was forced to undergo several operations. A drinking problem which began in the 1950s exacerbated by unresolved anxieties about his homosexuality steadily worsened as the years progressed. After a forced early retirement from Howard in 1967, Dodson continued to write, lecture, direct occasionally and socialize with the bohemian elite until his death in 1983. .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 , .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 .postImageUrl , .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 , .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0:hover , .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0:visited , .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0:active { border:0!important; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0:active , .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0 .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ue1e3333fd18b9daeea9f5dec083bd9b0:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: A critic in every port: O brave new France EssayHis close friend Gordon Heath wrote about Dodson to a mutual friend in 1963: He has lusted after Broadway and the professional world of writing and the theatre incessantly, but he has been inexact, unspecific and wooly-minded intellectually, he has coasted on his adolescent images of life and art and his promise as one of the new Negroes. He has not decided what his job is and limited himself to it. Devoting so much of his time to fulfilling the dreams of his students, Dodson ultimately neglected to fulfill dreams of his own.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

asdfasf essays

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Monday, November 25, 2019

Stirring Quotes From All Quiet on the Western Front

Stirring Quotes From 'All Quiet on the Western Front' All Quiet on the Western Front is a literary classic, and this roundup of the books best quotes reveal why. Published in 1929, author  Erich Maria Remarque used  the novel as a means to deal with World War I. Several parts of the book are autobiographical. The books frankness about wartime led to it being censored in countries such as Germany. Get a better sense of the groundbreaking novel  with the following selections. Quotes From Chapter 1 The leader of our group, shrewd, cunning, and hard-bitten, forty years of age, with a face of the soil, blue eyes, bent shoulders, and a remarkable nose for dirty weather, good food, and soft jobs. The soldier is on friendlier terms than other men with his stomach and intestines. Three-quarters of his vocabulary is derived from these regions, and they give an intimate flavour to expressions of his greatest joy as well as of his deepest indignation. It is impossible to express oneself in any other way so clearly and pithily. Our families and our teachers will be shocked when we go home, but here it is the universal language. One could sit like this forever. The wisest were just the poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and should have been able to see more clearly what the consequences would be, were beside themselves with joy. Katczinsky said that was a result of their upbringing. It made them stupid. And what Kat said, he had thought about. Yes, thats the way they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron Youth! Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? That is long ago. We are old folk. Highlights From Chapters 2 to 4 We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important to us. And good boots are hard to come by.(Ch. 2) That is Kat. If for one hour in a year something eatable were to be had in some one place only, within that hour, as if moved by a vision, he would put on his cap, go out and walk directly there, as though following a compass, and find it.(Ch. 3) You take it from me, we are losing the war because we can salute too well.(Ch. 3) Give em all the same grub and all the same pay/And the war would be over and done in a day.(Ch. 3) To me the front is a mysterious whirlpool. Though I am in still water far away from its centre, I feel the whirl of the vortex sucking me slowly, irresistibly, inescapably into itself.(Ch. 4) Excerpts From Chapters 5 to 7 The war has ruined us for everything.(Ch. 5) We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.(Ch. 5) We lie under the network of arching shells and live in a suspense of uncertainty. If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all; we neither know nor can determine where it will fall.(Ch. 6) Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades - words, words, words, but they hold the horror of the world.(Ch. 6) There is a distance, a veil between us.(Ch. 7) Selections From Chapters 9 to 11 But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony - Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?(Ch. 9) I will come back again! I will come back again!(Ch. 10) I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.(Ch. 10) Our thoughts are clay, they are moulded with the changes of the days; - when we are resting they are good; under fire, they are dead. Fields of craters within and without.(Ch. 11) Trenches, hospitals, the common grave - there are no other possibilities.(Ch. 11) Do I walk? Have I feet still? I raise my eyes, I let them move round, and turn myself with them, one circle, one circle, and I stand in the midst. All is as usual. Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died. Then I know nothing more.(Ch. 11) Selections From Chapter 12 Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear. The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me.(Ch. 12) He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.(Ch. 12)

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Hart-Devlin Debate Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Hart-Devlin Debate - Term Paper Example They often defined right or wrong in the society, and people often stand to those principles. The law is not enacted when one is not moral or does not act in a certain moral way. The reparations of not being moral are often individual. Morality and laws often contradict in their formation and implementation. Moralities develop after a while, are not easy to alter, and are often a mindset that people have. Laws on the other hand, are easily amended and do not require a lot of time. The well-known debate between hart and Devlin addressed the relationship between law and principles. The debate sought to address several issues in criminal law. The issues at hand are mainly how homosexuality was a part of criminal law (Curzon pg 36). Laws and morality have been debated on for many years. The line between the two is often thin, and some morals turn out to be ethical issues. Laws are often enforced by the administration of a country. Morals on the other hand, are often supported by the admi nistration but by the society at large. In 1957, the Wolfenden commission met to discuss a few issues. The committee aimed at decriminalization homosexual activities of men who acted in private. The debate questioned the relations that existed between morality and the law. The commission members questioned the extent to which criminal law was limited immensely. They did not understand how morality and criminal law intertwined. The commission had an extremely weighty argument that formed the basis of the debate to date (Lee pg 160). Devlin’s view The commission felt that if the actions of an individual did not harm the society then the offence was not significant. They felt the law would be justified to allow liberty of preferences even though the actions were considered immoral by the society. According to the committee, the role of the legal system consisted of defending the members of the society. The court was to protect the rights of the public from unpleasant and harmful acts. The court has no right to enforce any form of moral decision on an individual (Lee pg 161).What an individual does is purely personal, and no one has the right to interfere. There are various categories of harm in the society. It is not a criminal offence to hurt a person’s feeling. Devlin did not agree with this report and published an article to disclaim this. He argued that the law was not only meant for persons but for the public at large. The society has a lot of people, and it needs protection. The needs of an individual are less than society’s. The society morals cannot be compromised because of the rights of one individual in society. He argued that morality should come on its own. Devlin asserted that principles ought to stem from a sober mind what should be done to improve the society at large (Curzon pg 43). The society has the biggest role to play in the governing of the country. One individual’s actions affect the society at large. The action s of such individuals should therefore, be taken into account and in protecting the rights of one individual, lawmakers risk tarnishing the reputation of the society. In Devlin’s view, lawmakers have to consider a person’s liberty. They also have to take into account the fact that the society is constantly changing. The way the public views social customs and the liberty of an individual to act in private is also changing. Not everyone accepted the thought that Devlin had and one person in particular sought to challenge the thought. The man who challenged this thought went by the name Hart. He did not agree with what Devlin had said and responded through a radio broadcasting. He later published an article in the magazine in contradiction to Devlin’

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The First Amendment and the Supreme Court Essay

The First Amendment and the Supreme Court - Essay Example As phrases can mean different things to different people, the Supreme Court has interpreted this small yet significant passage over the decades in order to specifically define the rights of the citizenry protected by the First Amendment. During World War I, an activist named Schenck composed and mailed thousands of circulars to draftees urging them to peacefully resist conscription. This was interpreted as violating the Espionage Act of 1917, in particular the 'interfering with military or naval operations' provisions.1 Schenck and his supporters believed this was a violation of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech (especially as he did not advocate violence), while the United States government held that he endeavored to cause insubordination in the armed forces during wartime and to hinder recruitment.2 Eventually the case made its way to the Supreme Court. In Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919), decided on 3 March 1919, the court unanimously decided against Schenck. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. stated famously in the decision that 'the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. It does not even protect a man from an injunction against uttering words that may have all the effect of force'.3 In other words, the First Amendment did not guarantee absolute freedom of speech. Words are not just utterances; they can have great power and cause immense turmoil. According the Court, when he encouraged draftees to subvert the law, Schenck entered the realm of destructive language that was not protected by the First Amendment. There is another interesting concept in this decision, that of relativity, 'a question of proximity and degree'. 4 This is the clear and present danger precedent, and this case established it as a method of analyzing such cases.5 As the United States was at war, the potential for danger was higher-these pamphlets were far more inflammatory at this period than they would have been when the country was at peace. With Americans entrenched in the war effort, the elasticity of what was acceptable and safeguarded by this amendment was not as great as it has been in other times. Naturally, this opinion has been modified and the freedom of speech expanded since 1919, but this relatively early case is an important development in the definition of what is meant by this amendment. Freedom of Press Towards the end of the conflict in Vietnam (never declared an official war by any administration), there was a great deal of criticism concerning American involvement in both the press and populace. In 1971, the New York Times received a copy of the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg, a disillusioned Defense Department economist who secretly copied major sections.6 These classified documents were a 'top-secret history of the United States government's decision-making process regarding the war in Vietnam'.7 After careful consideration, the newspaper began publishing the unappealing details. Quickly, the Attorney General filed an injunction to stop further articles and within two weeks the case was before the Supreme Court. Essentially, the government was seeking prior restraint, to block an action before it took place. Because of

Monday, November 18, 2019

Advertising PowerPoint Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Advertising - PowerPoint Presentation Example Total investment in advertising media has been forecasted to be USD 558.4 billion by the year 2016 (Neoadvertising, 2011). There are several challenges that the advertisers face when marketing their products. Advertising is a costly affair and thus it increases the cost of the product. It at times misleads the public and also creates dissatisfaction among them (The Guardian, 2012). Junk food can be referred as an informal expression that is used for food. It does not have much nutritional values. It has been observed that junk foods have negative impacts upon the health of the people (Nawathe & et. al., 2007). Government has stated that the junk food marketers must not advertise their products to the kids because such advertisements may attract the kids and may create harm to their health. Although several efforts are being made to reduce such marketing towards the children, there has been rise in the fast food advertisement aimed towards 2-to-18 years’ old children (Noguchi, 2012). The main marketers that tend to advertise their products to the teens are McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, Domino’s, Taco Bell, Burger King and Dunkin’s Donut. These companies target the teens because they are heavy users of social networking sites, cell phone messages as well as games. Therefore, targeting them becomes easier (Melnick, 2010). The main objective of the advertising done by the fast food marketers is to stimulate brand affinity that begins at early age. Most of the marketers advertise targeting at parents as well with the perception that greater exposure held by parents will lead to more routine fast food dining (Melnick, 2010) It has been noted that in the year 2002, a group of over-weight children filed a complaint against McDonald’s from New York. They stated that certain food products of the company lead to several diseases such as over-weight,

Friday, November 15, 2019

Construction Practices in China

Construction Practices in China Construction practices in China Abstract Chinese economy has experienced rapid growth since the adoption of the open door policy in the past over 20 years. Real estate and construction, which act as a core industry in mainland china, developed quickly as well. Quality professional services in the area of real estate development and construction is one of four main industries in Hong Kong which is internationally renowned. Since the Central Government of China has continually introduced policies like the signing of CEPA to stimulate economic growth, the real estate market will booming in the coming decades. The Hong Kong professionals in the field of real estate and construction industry should take these opportunities to explore mainland China market to give full play to their advantage of the ability to combine economic and financial principles with project management and construction technology. The objective of this paper is to estimate the market opportunities for Hong Kong professionals in the areas of real estate, building and construction consultation in Mainland China. This paper will analysis the market environment using SWOT method and give some suggestions to the clients while they are making strategic management plan. Introduction China, the worlds second largest economy, enlarge their demands for professional consultancy services in the field of real estate and construction market which including real estate, surveying, planning, project finance, development, building and construction after access World Trade Organization (WTO). In the meantime, the competition patterns of Chinas construction industry have been formally changed since China became a member of WTO. These changes comprise three perspectives. The first one is the growing foreign competitions in the Chinese construction industry. Secondly is the increasing participants of native construction firms in the worldwide construction market. The third one is changes of construction market environment by envisaging Chinas WTO commitments. The implementation of the WTO framework raised the level of legal enforcement in the construction industry which means a quick response to the changes is essential for Chinese contractors in developing their competitive advantage. This increase the numbers of professionals and consultants who are intend to expend their business in mainland China with their unique insight and professional advantages. Hong Kong professionals and consultants are familiar with western laws as well as both eastern and western culture, they c an take their advantages in this particular chance. Moreover, Hong Kong real estate and construction industry is a developed and competitive field, explore mainland market can release some competitive pressure during process of talent output . Market environment in Mainland China The demand on the construction industry is closely related to the national fixed capital construction investment scale, which has been increasing rapidly along with the country’ s economic growth. The growth can be seen in the chart below and we can conclude that the fixed asset investment will increase continually in the coming years as china still define construction as a pillar industry. Although China accepts open-door policy and some economic innovation to develop the country, mainland China market still hold its unique characteristic as uses Centrally controlled system. The hierarchy in China is too complicated that the Joint Ventures have difficulties in developing business in China (Walker, 1991). Chinas Background Information Nature of work Qualification Human resources Management skills Technical / Financing ability Organisation structure Social influence (CSR)China-related factors Qualification in China Business coverage Public relation There are many types of Joint Ventures in China Mainland, namely, equity joint ventures, co-operative ventures, compensation trade and wholly foreign owned ventures. China uses this way to develop for many reasons: 1) The investors bring the professionals and advanced equipments which contributing to rapid development 2) China can save a lot of money of the construction development 3) The modern construction methods have been brought into China To sum up, China welcomes international and competitive investors like the developers of Hong Kong to have business in China Mainland and if the company does not know too much about China or it has no qualification of construction work in China, it should co-operate with local government or local companies and this is main part of the paper. Identification of business objective As a Hong Kong developer needs to start business in mainland China, first of all, the objectives must be confirmed in the initial stage: Objectives: 1) Qualification of construction in China Mainland Since the company does not have any qualifications of construction work in China, it must co-operated with the government or some local firms, the best strategy is to have long term partnership with one company which possesses relevant qualifications, so when there is a new construction project, less time is needed for getting government’s approvals. 2) Expend the reputation in mainland China 3) Business extension The company is still in the developing stage and intends to occupies part of the market in main cities of China. SWOT assessment for the business development SW (Strengths and Weaknesses) Good project management skills Hong Kong developers are equipped with mature project management internet system. Project workshop like project process management, risk management are increase their management ability in a large extent. Better information management facility Hong Kong has new information and technology and these become the advantages when developing business in China Mainland, e.g., the cyclical and sustainable system are widely applied to different fields of construction work in Hong Kong (Lam, et al., 2010). Moreover, the communication systems including project management system and business administration system make sure the process and linkup between different parties proceed effectively and smoothly. The use of building information modeling (BIM) also improve effectiveness of construction practices. Advanced machinery and equipment t Higher labour productivity In general, labour productivity growth increases the capacity of the economy as more outputs could be generated from any given amount of labour inputs, thereby enabling the economy to expand at a faster pace. In the case of Hong Kong, a city with limited natural resources as well as modest population growth, the continued enhancement in labour productivity is particularly vital for rendering growth impetus to support a sustainable and healthy economic development. Moreover, Hong Kong labour own a good reputation in high productivity as they are keen on improving their living standards continually. Good finance-raising ability Compared with local developers, Hong Kong developers own more comprehensive finance raising method which including RIETS, foreign loan and bonds, securities or even raise the money from their parent companies. Base on the statistic annual book of China, for the native developers, there are over 80 percents of funds for property development only comes from direct and indirect bank loans. This factors also illustrate that Hong Kong developers are easier to diversified their invest risk through combining different sources of investment amount. Good cost control ability the utilize of modern information facilities ensure Hong Kong developers control project cost better than local companies. The cost control system generate a higher profit and monitor the construction cost during project life cycle. Attraction to good human resources Hong Kong government pays great attention to the quality of the construction worker and managers, take the Construction Industry Training Authority (CITA) which was established in September 1975 with an amendment in 1991 (Rowlinson and Walker, 1995) as a example, CITA offers trainings and helps to the ones who are in the construction field or will enter in the near future and it level up the quality of the staff, furthermore, numerous professional from western world come to Hong Kong which is also contributes to the high quality construction design and build. Higher production costs Increasing production costs on the Chinese mainland will eating into thin profit margins for Hong Kong developers definitely. Demographic dividend in China is reduce day by day and developers are facing manpower shortage as well. Limited channels for market information Although the internet smaller the world and it seems that all the information can be found from it, actually, in China Mainland some real information of the market will be to some degree blocked by the government, so some depression parts cannot be clearly found and there would be more risks when having construction projects in China. Lower businesses qualification, Nothing can be done if the developer of Hong Kong has no qualifications of having construction work in China Mainland, such as safety qualification, construction qualification and some land acquisition problems. Every place has its own guideline of design and build, and the developer who wants to have business in China should learn relevant law and regulation, if something is done over China’s law and regulation, the project cannot get the stamp from the authority department even though the project is in the final stage. Limited businesses relationship One of the most important things of having business in China is the relationship with China’s government, it is very common for China’s government to assign projects to the companies they have good relationship with, even in the tendering, both reputation of a company and the relation with government are important, in short, without government’s help, the project cannot be approved in the initial step. Leung, Chan and Chong (2010) also mentioned that relations meant a lot in China, people in the construction industry should have good relations with friends in the society, especially the ones within construction organizations. Zhang (2011) also illustrated that in China, prior to the commencement of construction work, the company must apply to the Planning Bureau and obtain a Construction Planning Permit, so to build up good relations with the local Planning Bureau is very important. OT (Opportunities and Threats) Improved policy environment for foreign business The policies published by China government stated that they would continue to improve economy environment to attract foreign businesses such as the accession to the WTO and signing of CEPA. Government promotion of construction The 12th Five-Year Plan which begins in the year 2011 set the mission that the whole social fixed assets investment on construction industry must grow more than 15% every year. This is a strong evidence that Chinese government want to cement the pillar industry status of construction industry which also strengthen confidence of Hong Kong developers to explore their business in mainland China. establishment of credit system China will promote the establishment of a nationwide social credit system comprehensively in the next five years, or the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015). The Chinas State Council stated that the country will accelerate legislation and regulation improvement concerning the credit system and push forward the construction of credit systems within industries and government departments, and at local levels. The government will also give their mind to make sure the credit system be shared in the nationwide, develop credit rating agencies and promote use of credit products in an orderly way. Meanwhile, the government should enhance its own credibility by increasing transparency, and strengthen education on social honesty. development of understanding of international practice certain restrictions on foreign investment China uses law to restrict the foreign investors in China, e.g. China welcomes the investors who hold advanced technology and can improve the living environment of China, can provide international level products, etc., so China’s government would spend a lot of time to assess whether the investor is suitable or not. increasing intense competition The open door policy creates opportunities for many foreign companies to enter China’s huge market which increase the competition among companies. the risk of breaching contracts. Reassessment of the feasibility After the SWOT analysis, it is necessary to reassess based on the advantages and the disadvantages. References Ganesan, S., Hall, G. and Chiang, Y. H. (1996). Construction in Hong Kong. England. Lam, P. T. I., et al. (2010). A sustainable framework of â€Å"green† specification for construction in Hong Kong. Journal of Facilities Management, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 16-33. Leung, M. Y., Chan, Y. S. and Chong, A. M. L. (2010). Chinese Values and Stressors of Construction Professionals in Hong Kong. Journal of construction engineering and management. Shen, L. Y., Leung, B. Y. P. and Hao, J. J. L. (2010). Construction and real estate practice in China. Department of build and real estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Hong Kong. Walker, A. (1991). Land, property and construction in the People’s Republic of China. Hong Kong. Zhang, X. L. (2011). Social risks for international players in the construction market: A China study. Habitat international, 35, pp. 514-519. Chan, J. H. (2012). A hybrid knowledge-sharing model for corporate foreign investment in China’s construction market. Expert Systems with Applications, 39, pp.7585-7590. Shen, L. Y. and Tam, V. W. Y. (2002). Implementation of environmental management in the Hong Kong construction industry. International Journal of Project Management, 20, pp. 535-543. Zou, P. S. W., Zhang, G. M. and Wang, J. Y. (2007). Understanding the key risks in construction projects in China. International Journal of Project Management, 25, pp.601-614.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Man and Nature after the Fall in John Miltons Paradise Lost Essay

Man and Nature after the Fall in Paradise Lost      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Paradise Lost, the consequences of the fall and the change in relations between man and nature can best be discussed when we look at Milton's pre-fall descriptions of Eden and its inhabitants. Believing that fallen humans could never fully understand what life was like in Eden and the relationships purely innocent beings shared, Milton begins his depiction of Paradise and Adam and Eve through the fallen eyes of Satan:    So little knows Any, but God alone, to value right The good before him, but perverts best things To worse abuse, or to thir meanest use. Beneath him with new wonder now he views To all delight of human sense expos'd In narrow room Nature's whole wealth, yea more, A Heaven on Earth: for blissful Paradise Of God the Garden was, by him in the East Of Eden planted... (IV, 201-210)    Milton presents a symbolic landscape, a garden that certainly was created by a divine power. Eden is fertile, and"All Trees of noblest kind for sight, smell taste" (IV, 217) grow in abundance blooming with fruit. There are, mountains, hills, groves, a river, and other earthly delights. Adam and Eve live in this paradise and their job is to tend to the garden: "They sat them down, and after no more toil/ Of thir sweet Gard'ning labor then suffic'd" (IV, 27-28).    Although Eden works harmoniously with Adam and Eve, allowing them to partake of its abundance, it also lives and thrives on its own. Eden has a mind and is a living being, it is excessive and therefore dangerous because it has the potential to choke itself, to smother everything in its path. When Milton first describes Adam and Eve, they are one with the Garden... ...strust and breach Disloyal on the part of Man, revolt, And disobedience: on the part of Heav'n Now alienated, distance and distaste... (PL. IX, 1-9)    Works Cited and Consulted: Elledge, Scott, ed. Paradise Lost: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism. New York: Norton, 1975. Fox, Robert C. "The Allegory of Sin and Death in Paradise Lost." Modern Language Quarterly 24 (1963): 354-64. Lewis, C. S. A Preface to Paradise Lost. Rpt. New York: Oxford UP, 1979. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. In John Milton: Complete Poems and Major Prose. Ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. Indianapolis: 1980. O'Keeffe, Timothy J. "An Analogue to Milton's 'Sin' and More on the Tradition." Milton Quarterly 5 (1971): 74-77. Patrick, John M. "Milton, Phineas Fletcher, Spenser, and Ovid--Sin at Hell's Gates." Notes and Queries Sept. 1956: 384-86.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Employment Relations Essay

â€Å"Parliament, in the last 100 years or so, has a lot to say about conditions of work and the relationship between employers and their employees† (Deeks & Rasmussen, 2006). There have been many industrial disputes regarding the arbitration system between 1894 and 1991 which has influenced changes to New Zealand Employment Relations. One of the many industrial disputes was the waterfront industrial dispute 1951. This dispute in New Zealand’s labour history is the biggest industrial dispute that has influenced changes to Employment Relations legislation. Although it was not as violent as the great strike of 1913, it lasted longer-151 days, from February 15th to July 15, and involved more workers (Scott, 2001). The 1951 dispute pitted the government and public against the Watersiders after they decided to work to rule in protest at their employers’ refusal to award them a 15 per cent pay rise (Kay, 2008). At its peak, 22000 waterside workers (wharfies) and other unionists were off the job out of the population of just under two million (Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Today in History, 2007). This essay will discuss the effects, outcomes and influences of the 1951 waterfront industrial dispute thus how it turned the New Zealand Employment Relations around in order to avoid disputes as such from happening and also create a better relationship between the employers and the employees today. The historical events regarding New Zealand employment relations are really quite wide spread. Many events such as strikes and lockouts have happened regards to compulsory arbitration. In 1894 Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act (IC ;A Act 1894) was designed to replace industrial action with conciliation ; arbitration. This was implemented to bring negotiation and disputing sides together to solve industrial conflicts. ‘Unions registering under the act effectively got exclusive organising and bargaining rights’, (Rasmussen ; Deeks, 2006, pg 52). Unions played important interest groups during this time. They helped to promote employee interests to satisfy work goals such as better wages thus they became the legally recognised voice of the workers in a particular industry.

Friday, November 8, 2019

A Myth of a Pure Political System.

A Myth of a Pure Political System. Contents-1. Introduction- What is a pure political system2. Society, Religion and Politics3. History of Political Systems4. Conclusion5. BibliographyIntroductionWhat is a pure Political System? In this essay my intentions are to give an idea of what is a pure political system. Then move on to find out if there is already a pure political system or has there ever been one in history. If so what happened to it? Is it possible for it to exist in every society? Does society have an effect on political systems? Is the way structure of politics decided by the value of each society's culture and tradition? If there isn't a current flawless political system, can it ever be made to exist? Even if a pure political system exists, can it ever be immune to corruption? By comparing societies in different regions and looking back in history to find evidence of a Pure Political System in these societies, it could be possible to find out just how much the socie ties and the head of these societies affects their politics.Only major geo-political systems will be looked at since every political system in history had developed in different geographical locations depending on the needs of the people, the economical resources available and religion. An important thing to always understand is how all these are linked in each society.-Society, Religion and PoliticsIn the 21st Century we are all taught to believe that the right political systems are those that exist in countries like America, Britain and other parts Europe. We are taught this in the reading of books and the watching of television programmes from the west. All of these sources have influenced and changed the way the rest of the world thinks.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Dangerous Household Chemicals in Common Products

Dangerous Household Chemicals in Common Products Many common household chemicals are dangerous. They may be reasonably safe when used as directed, yet contain toxic chemicals or degrade over time into a more dangerous chemical.   Dangerous Household Chemicals Heres a list of some of the most dangerous household chemicals, including the ingredients to watch for and the nature of the risk. Air Fresheners.  Air fresheners may contain any of a number of dangerous chemicals. Formaldehyde irritates the lungs and mucous membranes and may cause cancer. Petroleum distillates are flammable, irritate the eyes, skin, and lungs, and may cause fatal pulmonary edema in sensitive individuals. Some air fresheners contain p-dichlorobenzene, which is a toxic irritant. The aerosol propellants used in some products may be flammable and may cause nervous system damage if inhaled.Ammonia.  Ammonia is a volatile compound that can irritate the respiratory system and mucous membranes if inhaled, can cause a chemical burn if it is spilled on skin, and will react with chlorinated products (e.g., bleach) to produce deadly chloramine gas.Antifreeze.  Antifreeze is ethylene glycol, a chemical which is poisonous if swallowed. Breathing it can cause dizziness. Drinking antifreeze can cause serious brain, heart, kidney, and other internal organ damage. Ethylene glycol has a sweet flavor, so it is attractive to kids and pets. Antifreeze typically contains a chemical to make it taste bad, but the flavor is not always a sufficient deterrent. The sweet smell is enough to lure pets. Bleach.  Household bleach contains sodium hypochlorite, a chemical that can cause irritation and damage to the skin and respiratory system if inhaled or spilled on the skin. Never mix bleach with ammonia or with toilet bowl cleaners or drain cleaners, as dangerous and possibly deadly fumes may be produced.Drain Cleaners.  Drain cleaners typically contain lye (sodium hydroxide) or sulfuric acid. Either chemical is capable of causing an extremely serious chemical burn if splashed on the skin. They are toxic to drink. Splashing drain cleaner in the eyes may cause blindness.Laundry Detergent.  Laundry detergents contain a variety of chemicals. Ingestion of cationic agents may cause nausea, vomiting, convulsion, and coma. Non-ionic detergents are irritants. Many people experience chemical sensitivity to dyes and perfumes present in some detergents.Mothballs.  Mothballs are either p-dichlorobenzene or naphthalene. Both chemicals are toxic and known to cause dizziness, headaches, an d irritation to the eyes, skin, and respiratory system. Prolonged exposure can lead to liver damage and cataract formation. Motor Oil.  Exposure to the hydrocarbons in motor oil can cause cancer. Many people are unaware that motor oil contains heavy metals, which can damage the nervous system and other organ systems.Oven Cleaner.  The danger from oven cleaner depends on its composition. Some oven cleaners contain sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, which are extremely corrosive strong bases. These chemicals can be deadly if swallowed. They can cause chemical burns on the skin or in the lungs if the fumes are inhaled.Rat Poison.  Rat poisons (rodenticides) are less lethal than they used to be, but remain poisonous to people and pets. Most rodenticides contain warfarin, a chemical which causes internal bleeding if ingested.Windshield Wiper Fluid.  Wiper fluid is toxic if you drink it, plus some of the poisonous chemicals are absorbed through the  skin, so it is toxic to touch. Swallowing ethylene glycol can cause brain, heart, and kidney damage, and possibly death. Inhalation can cause dizzin ess. The methanol in wiper fluid can be absorbed through the skin, inhaled, or ingested. Methanol damages brain, liver, and kidneys and can cause blindness. The isopropyl alcohol acts as a central nervous system depressant, causing drowsiness, unconsciousness, and potentially death.​

Monday, November 4, 2019

Ethical Problem Solution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethical Problem Solution - Essay Example Here, I want to mention that the wife of the therapist was pregnant and she was admitted in a hospital waiting for her delivery in a day or two. Coming back to the situation, the therapist was busy arranging patients’ records when the receptionist entered the room and told him about a telephone call waiting for him. The call was from his mother in law who told him about his wife’s critical condition in the delivery room. The news made the therapist panic and he wanted to leave the clinic in order to see his wife who was in the hospital. The therapist was just about to leave the clinic when a man came to the clinic along with his son who had severe pain in his right leg caused due to an injury. The man requested the therapist to check his son and prescribe a proper treatment plan. The situation became very critical for the therapist because on one side there was his wife who was in serious condition in the delivery room while, on the other side, there was a child who had severe pain in his leg. So, it became very difficult for the therapist to decide whether he should rush towards the hospital or not. How is this An Ethical Problem? This is really an ethical problem because, as a physical therapist, it is the duty of the therapist to check the patient and provide him with proper treatment no matter how serious the situation is. But one thing to be considered is that a person should also consider his or her state of mind before taking any decision. The mental state of a person can lead a person take different decisions. In our case, the condition of the therapist’s wife would not have let him concentrate on his job properly. Being a professional, the therapist should have helped the patient restore his physical mobility before leaving for the hospital. Ways to Handle This Problem There are two ways for a person to deal with this kind of situation. First way is to check the patient first and then leave for the hospital whereas the second way i s to leave for the hospital asking the patient to come some other time. The consequences of the first solution can be the improper treatment of the patient because of the disturbed state of mind of the therapist whereas the consequences of the second solution can be the poor reputation of the therapist. A therapist needs to concentrate more towards his job responsibilities as compared to other matters of life. How the Problem Could Have Been Avoided?

Friday, November 1, 2019

UK Law-Succession Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

UK Law-Succession - Coursework Example However, circumstances exist whereby the requirement of a grant can be waivered. In the first place, where the value of the estate is worth  ?5,000 or less, secondly, where the value of the estate is greater than ?5,000 but has neither a house, shares nor any bank account, with more than ?5,000. Further, a grant of representation will not be necessary where all houses, bank accounts and other assets had been under joint tenancy. The estate in question in this case is one that is above the value of 5000 and an asset in form of a bank account worth ?7800 thus making a grant necessary and not susceptible to the first two exceptions. It should however be noted that part of the deceased estate viz a house worth ?400,000 was jointly co-owned with the surviving spouse Andrea, broaching out a significant legal implication. Thus the issue is whether or not a grant of representation necessary in this case. W Swadling, ‘Property: General Principles’ poses that where two co-owners of a property, if they co-owned a house under joint tenancy then the surviving co-owner shall take ownership of the deceased share automatically through jus accrescendi regardless of any will or rule of intestacy. As such the property co-owned may not be subject to any grant of representation. ... The question that arises therefore in relation to the rest of the estate is what type of grant is accruable to whom and what share of the estate ought to be provided for the representatives. There exist three types of grants viz, grant of probate, grant of letters of representation and grant of letters of representation with Will annexed. A grant of probate only applies when the deceased has left a valid will appointing one or more executors to perform duties regarding the estate as provided by the will. Only the appointed have the right to ‘prove’ the Will. In the current case, Peter died without a Will and therefore no appointed executors and thus no one among the persons with interest to the estate can apply for a grant of representation to probate. Similarly, a grant of representation annexed with a Will, requires first that the deceased ought to have died with a valid Will, having appointed an executor but that the executor is unable or unwilling to apply for the gr ant then an applicant may be granted. Thus the type of grant that is applicable in this case is that called ‘grant of letters of administration’. This is because the deceased died intestate. The persons (or would be administrators) entitled to this grant are commonly one or more of nearest relatives alive. It is important to note that any of these types of grants could be classified as either general or limited grants. There exist two extensive procedures on how to apply for probate or administration. First is by way of employing a solicitor to undertake the process on the person’s behalf. Secondly is by applying on one’s self via the Personal Applicants Section of the Probate Office, or one of the District Probate Registries. One can

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

The Purpose of the Higher Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Purpose of the Higher Education - Essay Example In most cases, the ideas of students are rarely considered when higher learning institutions are developing the curriculum. Due to the fact that we are living in a dynamic environment that is characterized by changes, it is imperative for students to be involved in the curriculum development since they may have some enterprising ideas that can help to improve the whole education system. This idea is supported by Kelly Sousa (http://whichwaync.com/2012/07/18/a-job-offer-a-skill-set-a-higher-tolerance-what-does-college-provide/, July 18, 2012) who posts to the effect that technical skills are gaining more priority as a result of the fact that the world has significantly industrialized. Various courses that are offered at higher learning institutions are theoretical in terms of their design. Students are taught various theories related to a particular area of study and in most cases, this kind of study is mainly academic in nature. However, after graduating from different tertiary insti tutions, many people rarely apply the theoretical knowledge they are taught at universities. Instead, they often encounter different problems that may require experience in that particular area. This experience is often gained through constant practice. It can be noted that some people are offered training at their work which may be costly to the companies since they will have to retrain the newly employed people. Some studies have shown that knowledge is more important since it is regarded as a stepping stone to a career by different people. Higher education is mainly designed to develop people better so that they can be in a position to find solutions to problems they may encounter in their lives. in workplaces, people are expected to make decisions and they should try to find solutions to problems they come across in their work. This is the reason why students should also put their input in the development of the curriculum. The problem with the current curriculum is that it is s kewed in favor of generating theoretical knowledge rather than developing the skills of the students so that they can be in a better position to deal with various technical problems they may encounter in their work. Therefore, it is recommended that people who are pursuing studies in areas that are technical in nature should be exposed to more practice in the actual field of their specialty so that they gain the much-needed knowledge. These students should be attached to different companies for longer periods as part of their learning since this will help them to gain different skills that are required for them to carry out various tasks. Theory and practice should be balanced in order for the students to gain the knowledge that can be transformed in order for them to deal with different problems they may face in their work. Various people seek education for monetary reasons since they believe that they will get better job opportunities that are characterized by high salaries. The c urriculum offered at tertiary institutions is designed in such a way that it helps people with higher qualifications to get high positions in different organizations. For instance, managers, as well as other people with influential positions, are highly qualified and they are paid lucrative salaries as a result of the high qualifications they have.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Impact of the Russian revolution - Ideology matters Essay Example for Free

Impact of the Russian revolution Ideology matters Essay I. BACKDROP: GERMAN IDEALISM AND RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARIES German philosophers in the 19th century were often Idealists, that is to say that they maintained that ideas have a force, power, and reality that is more real than that concrete, reality that so consume us in our daily lives. German idealism dominated the 19th-century Russian revolutionary movement from the Decembrist Revolt of 1825 until long after Lenins successful revolutionary coup that we call the October (or Bolshevik or Communist) Revolution of 1917. While I never want to downplay the central role of raw hypocrisy in human affairs, much of what we in the United States have interpreted as hypocrisy in the Soviet Union-the dissonance between the profound humanism of Marxs ideas and the coarse violence of the Stalinist dictatorship-this hypocrisy can also be seen as the desperate attempt to coerce reality through the power of belief-through the power of the Idea. And one way to interpret the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was that the Soviets had lost their ability to convince themselves that the Leninist/Stalinist Idea had the power to transform reality into a better future. With the collapse of this self-justifying, central Myth that legitimized the Soviet experience, the Soviet Union died not with a bang but rather whimpered into Lev Trotskys dust bin of history. With this introduction, I would now like to offer three examples in the Russian Revolutionary experience where Ideas profoundly affected the future course of events. Only toward the end of the Twentieth Century have these effects begun to run out of steam. II. THREE EXAMPLES A. MODERATE SOCIALISM AND THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION OF 1917 The first example involves the reaction of moderate socialists to the February Revolution in Petrograd in 1917. Moderate Socialists, including the Marxist Mensheviks in contrast to Lenins Bolsheviks, had adopted a position that Russia was not yet ready for a Socialist Revolution; reading Marxs Stages of History quite literally, they understood that the Bourgeois Revolution had to come first and had to take place under the leadership of the bourgeoisie. The working class movement thus had to be satisfied with playing the role of a party of the extreme opposition-the bourgeois revolution must come first and be developed, and the responsibility of the proletariat was to encourage this historical necessity. Real consequences flowed from this belief. When the women, workers, and soldiers of Petrograd spontaneously took to the streets in February 1917, it took only several days for them to overthrow the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty. They then handed power they had won in the streets to their moderate socialist leadership-none of whom were philosophically or psychologically ready to assume the mantle of power. Consistent with their beliefs, the socialists in turn handed power to the bourgeoisie who established the Provisional Government. Not having the complete courage of their convictions, however, the moderate socialists also established the Petrograd Soviet which basically held veto-power over the actions of the bourgeois Provisional Government. This compromise established the period of Dual Power which was inherently unstable. In retrospect, it is amazing that the Provisional Government, amidst the catastrophe of World War I, managed to hold on to power until October of 1917 when Lenins and Trotskys Bolsheviks managed a coup detat to take power. Lenin, like his Menshevik cousins, was a Marxist, but his Marxism focused less on the determinist element of Marxs Stages of History than on the ability of the individual to assert his will on history. For him, there was no need to wait patiently for the bourgeoisie to fulfill their historical duty at their own leisure; Bolshevism could force the pace. Lenins Will to Power and his belief in the power of the Idea to change reality made the difference between his success and the moderate socialists failure. B. LENINS IMPERIALISM, THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM The second example of the power of the Idea concerns Soviet influence on the developing world. Lenin wrote Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism in 1917, during the trials of the First World War and before the Bolshevik Revolution, to explain two crucial contradictions facing Marxists of the day. The first contradiction concerned the delayed outbreak of the promised world revolution. After all, it had already been sixty-nine years since Marx in the Communist Manifesto had proclaimed that A Specter is haunting Europe-the specter of Communism. What had gone wrong? The second failure of the Marxist promise involved the inability of the worlds proletariat to prevent war and its rejection of internationalism for nationalism. It had been a common belief among those of all political stripes from the far right to the far left, that socialist influence on the proletariat had made a major European war impossible. One of the central socialist beliefs was that wars are fought for the benefit of capitalist profits. Now, with the spread of democracy and the entry of powerful socialist parties into Europes parliaments, the capitalists could try to provoke war to their hearts delight but would find it impossible to vote war credits through parliament or to mobilize soldiers who, following their socialist leadership, would refuse to fight. These ideas evoke memories of the anti-Vietnam War poster: What if they gave a war and nobody came? Lenins ingenious answer to both questions came in his book, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. In it he argued that the concentration of production had transformed the capitalism of free competition into monopoly capitalism. The concentration of production also had dramatically increased the socialization of production. Big banks had changed from pure credit institutions into business banks and as such they dominated whole sectors of industry. Together the banks and industry were tied in with government. This coalescence of bank capital with industrial capital with strong government ties had led to the formation of a financial oligarchy that controlled large sections of the national economy. Share issues and state loans had increased the power and amount of surplus capital which flowed beyond political frontiers and extended the financial oligarchys control to other countries. The capital exporting monopolies had divided the world among themselves; international cartels formed the basis for international relations, and the economic division of the world provided the ground for the struggle for colonies, spheres of influence, and world domination. But once the world was divided up, the struggle had become one for the repartitioning of the world. Because the economic development of individual countries is uneven and sporadic, some were left at a disadvantage in this repartitioning. Imperialism represented a special, highest, stage of capitalism. The transition to a capitalism of this higher order was connected with an aggravation of contradictions, frictions, and conflicts. Monopolists assured profits by corrupting the upper stratum of the proletariat in the developed countries. The imperialist ideology permeated the working class. In other words, the burden of bourgeois oppression had been shifted from the shoulders of the domestic proletariat to those of the colonial peoples. In effect, the domestic proletariat had been bribed and they came to see that their material interests were tied up with colonial enterprise. Now, successful war to repartition the world in the favor of a particular nation made fighting war against fellow proletarians in other countries worthwhile. With his theory, Lenin seemingly had explained those two problems with Marx. The revolution had not yet swept the world because the potential revolutionaries, the proletariat, had been bribed by the illusion of short-term, material gains to forget their true, long-term interests. They had rejected their class-based internationalism for nationalism because wars fought to expand colonial holdings appeared to be in their material self-interest. Hence they did not prevent the outbreak of the Great War. This theory held long-term importance because Lenin, unlike Marx and Engels, did not see the revolutionary perspectives as centered uniquely upon advanced capitalist countries. After the Great War, in a period of Capitalist Encirclement the Soviets attacked the weak link in the chain of imperialism, the colonies. Political influence went to where the oppression was-the colonies. In the colonial and post-colonial world after World War II, given the absence of an entrepreneurial bourgeoisie with the will and capacity to transform existing conditions and to overcome the entrenched interests opposed to full-scale development, a gospel of competitive individualism seemed useless for modernization to those in the Third World. What appeared to be needed to get the underdeveloped country moving has been collective effort inspired by a national sense of political purpose. Only governments had sufficient capital, organizational skills, and commitment to make rapid development possible. Ideologically, therefore, the intelligentsia of such countries gravitated to one or another of the various socialist doctrines-something that in general might be described as state capitalism, that is, the state and not private individuals perform the entrepreneurial duties of gathering land, labor, and capital for productive enterprise. Socialist rhetoric disguised this crucial essence . For most of the twentieth century, Soviet Russia provided the model for those in the Third World who wished to rapidly modernize their countries. And rapid modernization was necessary for the sake of national prestige and independence. Russias success seemed obvious when we note that within forty short years Russia had risen from the ashes of World War I to defeat Hitler, to become one of the worlds two superpowers, and to be the first in space. Just as important as was this practical example was the vocabulary provided by Lenin. That Marx himself had had little to say to the underdeveloped world mattered little. I would argue that many Third World leaders, for two contentious examples Ho Chi-Minh and Fidel Castro, who led revolutions to assert national pride, independence, and prosperity, turned to Communism because Lenin had provided a vocabulary with a coherent explanation for colonial degradation and a means for asserting national regeneration. Additionally, of the major powers, the Soviet regime alone more-or-less consistently supported the aspirations of those wishing to throw off the oppression of colonialism and capitalism. Of course, today, the Communist model no longer holds the same allure it once did. C. TWO MARXIST HERESIES: LENINISM/STALINISM AND MUSSOLINIS FASCISM The final example of the power of ideas generated during World War I involves the intimate, kissing cousin-relationship between Stalinist Communism and Mussolinis Fascism. Despite facile assumptions, Fascism and Communism were not antipodes. Although their exact relationship remains difficult to define, there exist commonalties, as one author has pointed out: Fascism was the heir of a long intellectual tradition that found its origins in the ambiguous legacy left to revolutionaries in the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Fascism was, in a clear and significant sense, a Marxist heresy. It was a Marxism creatively developed to respond to the particular and specific needs of an economically retarded national community condemned, as a proletarian nation, to compete with the more advanced plutocracies of its time for space, resources, and international stature. Was this kind of self-awareness present as thinkers and politicians struggled to define these two ideologies as they co-developed earlier in this century? In fact, many did recognize that their common interests held much greater weight than did the Talmudic differences between Fascism and Communism. Arturo Labriolas Avanguardia Socialista of Milan by 1903 had become the forum for Italys Sorelian syndicalist revolutionaries, who were struggling to make Marx relevant and against reformist socialism. Such luminaries as Vilfredo Pareto and Benedetto Croce graced its pages, followed shortly by a second generation of Sorelian theoreticians, who came to dominate Italian radicalism for more than a generation. Together they constructed an alternative socialist orthodoxy, which they believed was the true heir to classical Marxism. Clearly, their ideas were no more heretical to those of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels than was Lenins Marxism. By 1904 Mussolini, then a socialist agitator in Switzerland, had begun his collaboration with Avanguardia Socialista, a relationship he maintained for the next five years. The syndicalist contributors to the journal affected the future Duces intellectual and political development. Radical syndicalists like A. O. Olivetti innovatively argued that, under retarded economic conditions, socialists must appeal to national sentiment if their ideas are to penetrate the masses. For him, both syndicalism and nationalism were dedicated to increasing production dramatically. As long as Italy remained underdeveloped, the bourgeoisie remained necessary to build the economic foundation requisite for a socialist revolution. Olivetti spoke of a national socialism, because in an underdeveloped economy, only the nation could pursue the economic development presupposed by classical Marxism. When Mussolini took over as editor of the socialist paper, Avanti!, in December 1912, he attracted anarchists and even some rigid Marxists like Angelica Balabanoff, whom he took on as his assistant editor. Paolo Orano, who served on the editorial staff of Avanti!, along with other syndicalists like Sergio Panunzio, set the tone of that socialist paper. Mussolini also founded and edited Utopia from November 1913 until December of the following year. This bi-monthly review attracted many of the most important young socialist and syndicalist theoreticians, who helped Mussolini to develop his own ideas. In the final years before the First World War, many independent national syndicalists, including Panunzio and Ottavio Dinale saw war as progressive. Helping to put together the rationale for Fascism, they supported Italys fight with the Ottomans over Libya in 1911, and, along with Mussolini, they called for Italys intervention in the First World War. Many socialists now passed into Mussolinis Fascist ranks, and syndicalists such as Panunzio, Olivetti, and Orano, became its principal ideologues. As early as October 1914, Olivetti in Pagine Libere spoke of an Italian socialism infused with national sentiment, a socialism destined to complete Italys unification, to accelerate production, and to place it among the worlds advanced nations. Over the next three years in LItalia Nostra, Olivetti spoke of the nation as uniting men of all classes in a common pursuit of historical tasks; class membership did not align an individual against the nation, but united him with the nation. Patriotism was fully compatible with the revolutionary tradition of Italian socialism. By the time of Mussolinis accession to power, Fascism had given clear evidence of its commitment to industrialization and modernization of the economy. Not only were the Futurists, Nationalists, and National Syndicalists agreed that maximizing production was the first order of business, but all also advocated urban development, the rationalization of financial institutions, the reorganization of the bureaucracy on the basis of technical competence, the abolition of traditional and nonfunctional agencies, the expansion of road, rail, waterways, and telephonic communications systems, the modernization and secular control of the educational system, and the reduction of illiteracy. What does this mean for Fascisms relationship with Soviet Russia? Mussolini by 1919 was pointing out the absolute decline in economic productivity in Russia as proving its failure to recognize its historic obligations. He suspected that the Bolsheviks ultimately had to commit themselves to national reconstruction and national defense, that is, to some form of developmental national socialism as defined by Fascisms former syndicalists. Speaking of the Bolshevik failure to comprehend their revolutionary necessities, Mussolini presciently predicted that Lenin had to appeal to bourgeois expertise to repair Russias ravaged economy. Bolshevism, he said, must domesticate and mobilize labor to the task of intensive development, something which could have been anticipated, because Marxism had made it quite clear that socialism could be built only upon a mature economic base. Russia, not having yet completed the capitalist stage of economic development, met none of the material preconditions f or a classic Marxist revolution. Russia was no more ripe than was Italy for socialism. Lenin, in the practical working out of his revolutionary government, did run headlong into many of these conundrums predicted by the syndicalists. In the months following his takeover, he had expected that the revolution in Germany would bail Soviet Russia out of its difficulties. Thus, while the first Fascists were organizing for a national revolution, the bolsheviks were still dreaming of an international insurrection. Lenin, changing horses, in 1921 proposed the New Economic Policy to replace the ideologically purer but failed War Communism. Like Fascists, Lenin now spoke of holding the entire fabric of society together with a single iron will, and he began to see the withering away of the state as a long way away: We need the state, we need coercion-certainly a Fascist mantra. After Lenins death in 1924, this logic culminated in 1925 with Stalins creative development of Marxism: Socialism in One Country, a national socialism by any other name. Mussolini suspected that Stalin might be abandoning true Communism. This, it seemed, might provide economic advantages to Italy, and to Mussolini it made sense for his country to build ships and planes for the Soviets in exchange for one-third of Italys oil supplies. For him the even more interesting possibility was that Stalin might be the true heir to the tsars and an imperialist with whom Fascism could see eye-to-eye. In 1923, the Duce predicted, Tomorrow there will not be an imperialism with a socialist mark, but . . . [Russia] will return to the path of its old imperialism with a panslavic mark. Mussolini convinced himself that Russian Communism was proving to be less revolutionary than was Fascism. The Duce and some of his followers considered it possible that the two movements were moving together closely enough as to be no longer easily distinguishable. Even dedicated Fascist party workers such as Dino Grandi, Mussolinis foreign minister from 1928 to 1932, early recognized Fascisms affinities with Lenins Bolshevism. He had taken at least part of his own intellectual inspiration from revolutionary syndicalism, and in 1914 he had talked of the First World War as a class struggle between nations. Six years later, Grandi argued that socialists had failed to understand the simple reality of what was happening in revolutionary Russia. The Bolshevik Revolution had been nothing less than the struggle of an underdeveloped and proletarian nation against the more advanced capitalist states. Not only Fascists made this sort of analysis. Torquato Nanni, a revolutionary Marxist socialist and an early acquaintance of Mussolini, as early as 1922 had anticipated these developments. He analyzed the common economic foundations of Fascism and Bolshevism, which produced the related strategic, tactical, and institutional features of these two mass-mobilizing, developmental revolutions. Both, he wrote, had assumed the bourgeois responsibilities of industrializing backward economies and defending the nation-state, the necessary vehicle for progress. Lev Trotsky, the organizer of the October Revolution, consistently, even mulishly, argued that Fascism was a mass movement growing organically out of the collapse of capitalism. He also rejected all notions of any sort of national Communism. Nonetheless, he too recognized a certain involution. Stalinism and Fascism, he said, in spite of a deep difference in social foundations, are symmetrical phenomena. In many of their features they show a deadly similarity. A victorious revolutionary movement in Europe would immediately shake not only fascism, but Soviet Bonapartism. (that is, Stalinism) He, however, refused to go as far as his sometime ally, Bruno Rizzi, who later argued that the assumption of similar developmental and autarchic responsibilities could only generate social and ideological convergence. He lamented, that which Fascism consciously sought, [the Soviet Union] involuntarily constructed. For him, the governments of Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, and even Roosevelt were lurching toward a global system of bureaucratic collectivism, a new form of class domination. Fascist theoreticians agreed with such convergence notions. By 1925, Panunzio claimed that Fascism and Bolshevism shared crucial similarities. Fascists noted that the Soviets had created an armed, authoritarian, anti-liberal state, which had mobilized and disciplined the masses to the service of intensive internal development. The supreme state generated and allocated resources, articulated and administered interests, and assumed and exercised paramount pedagogical functions. Thus, while the first Fascists were formulating the rationale for a mass-mobilizing, developmental, authoritarian, hierarchical, anti-liberal, and statist program guided by a charismatic leader, events had forced the Bolsheviks along the same course. Both intended to create a modern, autarchic, industrial system, which would insure political and economic independence for what had been an underdeveloped national community. With forced industrialization and state capitalism, the Soviets hoped to bring Russia all the benefits of bourgeois modernization. In the face of required austerity, to mobilize their respective populations, the Communists and Fascists alike supplemented economic incentives with pageantry, ritual, ceremony, and parades. All this, coupled with territorial aggression, completed a compelling picture of systemic symmetry. III. CONCLUSION I have presented three diverse examples of the impact of the Russian Revolution on subsequent history. There are other potential examples. I find it interesting that events so crucial to the twentieth century, now seem to be fading so rapidly in their influence. One real benefit of examining the Communist Revolution within the larger question of how best to develop is that the Revolution loses its sense of seminal criticality. For all the pathos surrounding the effort, it becomes just another interesting attempt at rapid development-a failed attempt at that. While I would happily argue that Marx still has relevance for us today, especially in his critique of capitalism if not particularly in his solutions, clearly Lenin and Stalin no longer do.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Sport, Education, and the Meaning of Victory Essay -- Athletics Greece

Sport, Education, and the Meaning of Victory Sport was included in ancient educational systems because it was thought to promote aretà ª or human excellence which could be applied to almost any endeavor in life. The goal of most modern scholastic athletic programs might be better summed up in a word: winning. Is this a sign that we have lost touch with the age-old rationale for including sport in education? I argue that it need not be by showing that we value winning precisely for the virtues associated with it. I then take Plato's traditional parts of aretà ª: piety, sophrosunà ª, courage and justice and show how they are manifest in modern athletic ideals of self-knowledge, discipline, courage and justice. To the extent that scholastic athletic programs develop these virtues, I conclude, their pursuit of winning is not at odds with the institutional mission of educating students. If an athletic program's pursuit of victory allows such character-building to fall by the wayside, however, it deserves no place in our high scho ols, colleges or universities. As in the world of the Ancient Greeks, sport plays an important role in the educational institutions of 20th century America. The reasoning for this in ancient times, as now, is a belief that sport helps to make better people — that it promotes excellence (what the Greeks called aretà ª) in individuals, excellence which can be applied to almost any endeavor in life. That said, it must be acknowledged that most athletes, coaches, and school administrations identify the goal of their athletic programs in one word: winning. Is this a sign that we've lost touch with the age-old rationale for including sport in education? Is the philosophy that "winning is everything," or "the only thing... .... 38-45. Marrou, H. I. 1956. A History of Education in Antiquity, translated by George Lamb. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. Mihalich, Joseph. 1992. Sports and Athletics: Philosophy in Action. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield. Nettleship, R. L. 1935. The Theory of Education in Plato's Republic. London: Oxford University Press. First published in Hellenica in 1880. Plato. 1989. Collected Dialogues. Edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Sansone, David. 1988. Greek Athletics and the Genesis of Sport. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Simon, Robert L. 1984. "Good Competition and Drug-Enhanced Performance." Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, vol. XI. 6-13. Walton, Gary M. 1992. Beyond Winning: The Timeless Wisdom of Great Philosopher Coaches. Champaign, IL: Leisure Press.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Plato and Augustine’s Conceptions of Happiness Essay -- Philosophy Essa

Both Plato and Augustine offer unusual conceptions of what one must acquire to live a truly happy life. While the conventional view of happiness normally pertains to wealth, financial stability, and material possessions, Plato and Augustine suggest that true happiness is rooted in something independent of objects or people. Though dissimilar in their notions of that actual root, each respective philosophy views the attaining of that happiness as a path, a direction. Plato’s philosophy revolves around the attainment of eternal knowledge and achieving a metaphysical balance. Augustine also emphasizes one’s knowing the eternal, though his focus is upon living in humility before God. Both assert that human beings possess a natural desire for true happiness, and it is only through a path to something interminable that they will satisfy this desire. In his several dialogues, Plato contends the importance of the four virtues: wisdom, courage, self-control, and justice. In The Republic, he describes a top-down hierarchy that correlates to the aspects of one’s soul. Wisdom, courage, and temperance preside control over the rational, spirited, and appetitive aspects of the soul. It is when one maintains a balance between these aspects of his soul that he attains peace within himself: â€Å"...And when he has bound together the three principles within him...he proceeds to act...always thinking and calling that which preserves and cooperates with this harmonious condition (Plato 443c).† Wisdom and knowledge consistently remain at the top of his view of happiness. During the apology, Plato is asked what punishment is best suited for him. He sarcastically answers, â€Å"to be fed...(It is) much more suitable than for any one who has won a v... ...ath is led by humility, directing one toward a better understanding of God. Perhaps it is not important, however, which source, if either, is the correct root of happiness, but merely that one’s source stretches beyond the margins of what is temporal. Works Cited: Augustine, Aurelius. Confessions. 400. Trans. Henry Chadwick Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Kant, Immanuel. An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? Online Essays Appropriate to Foucoult. 1997. 3 April 2001. Available URL: http://www.csun/edu/~hfspc002/ fouc.essay.html Plato. Five Dialogues. Trans. G.M.A. Grube Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1981. Plato. The Republic. Exploring Plato’s dialogues 28 March 2001. Available URL: http://trill.cis.fordham.edu /~gsas/philosophy/quotedpassage.htm

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Development of the Aztec, Akkadian and Hittite Empires

Chris Scarre ( 2013, p.198 ) suggests that the development of imperiums was driven by the desire for security, or for economic addition or by the mere personal aspiration of swayers and elites. To what extent do you hold with this statement? Answer utilizing grounds from, and doing mention to, at least three of the undermentioned imperiums: the Aztec, the Roman, the Chinese, the Akkadian and the Hittite. The purpose of this paper is to find as to whether I agree or disagree with the above statement. In order to find the extent of agreement/disagreement, a scope of goaded forces will be explored environing the imperiums of the Aztecs, the Akkadians and the Hittites. To get down with, the word imperium will be defined to give a unequivocal apprehension and how it fits into the three aforementioned imperiums. Empire is defined as: ‘a group of states or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful crowned head or authorities: normally a district of greater extent than a land, as the former British Empire, Gallic Empire, Russian Empire, Byzantine Empire, or Roman ‘ . ( Oxford Companion to Archaeology, 2012 ) Evidence of suggested forces behind the constitution of imperiums and their possible death will be used to back up any agreement/disagreement. The first imperium to be covered is the Aztecs, which existed during the late Post-Classic period, and located in the dumbly populated basin of Mexico. The Aztecs came to command big countries of Mesoamerica North of the Gulf of Tehuantepec and were the last of the Chichimec folk to go forth their place at Aztlan by drouth or overaˆ?population which my have been the driving force to the constitution of the imperium. The desire for wealth seem to hold progressed when the Aztecs served as soldier of fortunes through which a series of confederations and rebellions formed, ensuing in growing of wealth and metropoliss. To farther confirm the rise of an imperium, the Aztecs took control of an country of 200 000 square kilometers with a public of about 10 million. This demonstrates the push for growing in set uping a powerful imperium. Having exp lored the development affecting the growing of the Aztec imperium. The societal complexness every bit good as the handiness of historical grounds of stuff remains are found amongst the ruins stating the narrative as it unfolded at the clip. To confirm archeological grounds I shall concentrate on the capital, Tenochtitlan ( C. AD 1325 ) , which grew to be the largest and most complex metropolis in the new universe. Archaeological grounds suggests that much of Tenochtitlan was destroyed in 1521 or subsequently demolished by the colonial Spaniards. It was non until the terminal of the fourteenth century that several twelve warring metropolis provinces existed, one in peculiar which demonstrates the desire for wealth is that of Mexica-Tenocha having a portion of testimonial from combined military triumphs. Further grounds of the desire for power and aspiration by the swayers during the twelvemonth 1519 whereby the mature Aztec imperium dominated some 400 antecedently independent civil o rders through bullying, confederation, and outright conquest. Such procedures of military, wealth, confederation and land size is for me a requirement to the formation of an imperium. The Aztec imperium at the clip showed no marks of failing, was extremely organised, hierarchal and warlike. With the rise of an imperium came its autumn from grace as the imperium proved delicate and did non last the reaching of aggressive European incomers who efficaciously disrupted the top degree of the societal hierarchy and so broke the coercive forces that held the imperium together. ‘The Aztec Empire came to an disconnected terminal on 13 August 1521, when Hernan Cortes and his Spanishconquistadorstook the Aztec capital and its emperor Montechzuma ( Montezuma ) II ‘ (The Aztec Empire: Guggenheim Museum, 2012 ) .Having explored factors impacting a scope of driving forces, I am certain that Scarre has provided a grade of simplification and has non omitted any factors that do non back up the development of imperiums. Not limited to the Aztecs, the rise of imperiums occurred on a planetary footing which brings us on to the second of the imperiums to be discussed which is the Akkadians. The Akkadians were initiated by the swayer Sargon, who was driven by pitiless aspiration through the conquering of the metropolis of Sumer, developing into an enlargement into the universe beyond. It can besides be argued that the Akkadians were besides driven by economic addition through the connexions with the lands of Dilmun, Magan, and Meluhha. Within this desire for economic addition it can be a plausible and a simplified procedure of economic growing and security for the people. Although the imperium was established, the capital, Akkad, has non been located archaeologically. The statement made by Scarre relies on driving forces and taking into history the Akkadian imperium, the readings made through archeological surveies seem to carry through the procedures required in the development of an imperium. Sargon a nd his replacements besides conquered the great city state of Elba, to obtain goods and natural stuffs. The cardinal site of Troy where a great trade of activity was seen from seven consecutive metropoliss, Troy I to Troy VII clearly demonstrates to lift and autumn of an imperium through natural to warfare. The wealth of Troy was apparent when a monolithic cache of about 9000 objects that have become known as the Treasure of Priam connoting power and wealth but fell merely as the Akkadian imperium did. ‘Archaeological grounds has shown that the Akkadian civilisation collapsed suddenly near 4170 Â ± 150 calendar year B.P. , possibly associating to a displacement to more waterless conditions ‘ ( Cullen, 2000 ) . Although records detailing this are rare, the alterations in regional fruitlessness are preserved in next ocean basins. There is besides grounds of volcanic ash sherds which may hold held a direct but temporal nexus between Mesopotamian aridification and societal prostration. With this sudden displacement to a more waterless status within the part, this may hold besides been a lending factor to the autumn of the Akkadian Empire. Not merely did the imperium prostration from environmental factors but besides by occupying forces from the E. Although I tend to hold with the procedures of imperiums lifting and the drive force behind them, it is more hard to confidently support factors imputing to their ruin. The Akkadian imperium is known to hold risen through conquer ing and economic addition but with two changing factors of natural and semisynthetic forces, we can non presume that warfare or environmental factors played a remarkable portion in the prostration of that imperium. I am non convinced that warfare brought down the Akkadian imperium and am non convinced that environmental factors played a exclusive portion in their death. A cardinal site which besides reinforces the desire for wealth and power. Small is known about the following imperium, the Hittites who were lost to history. What we do know are found on clay tablets (Explore/World Cultures: Hittities British Museum, 2013 ) . It was during the periods from approximately 1650/1600 to 1200 BC that the male monarchs of Hattusha ruled an imperium that reached across the wide lands of Anatolia, widening at times even into the North of Syria. ‘They conquered Babylon, and Troy was seemingly one of their vasals. Besides Egypt and Assyria/Babylonia, the Hittites were the 3rd world power of the Ancient Near East ‘ ( The Excavations at Hattusha, 2011 ) The Hittites as with any other imperium established the capital Hattusa which comprised beginnings of both written and archeological grounds, nevertheless, research into this part is still ongoing. As small is known, one thing nevertheless does come into light which surrounds the aspiration of the male monarch. It was Hattusili I who at the clip became the first male monarch to establish a run in Northern Syria. Such a run implies that the king knew of the importance environing the desire to hold entree to the sea and for the take-over of trade paths. It was through this run that the male monarch was driven strictly by economic addition through trade and power. Due to little other grounds, there is small to indicate to any concrete informations on the degrees of societal complexness either through archeological findings. From what grounds we have, there is no indicant of any complexness of growing giving the feeling of simpleness in the constitution of the imperium. Although the prostration of the Hittites is non really clear, grounds does demo devastation and forsaking which occurred around 1200-1185 BC at the terminal of the bronze age. One other indicant points to about 1200 BC when the imperium was overwhelmed by encroachers, the individuality of whom is unsure but who were likely portion of the general motions of people in the period of agitation in the Mediterranean at the clip. To reason, I can see no disagreement in Scarres statement and to the full support and agree that imperiums were and are still driven by power, economic addition, security and personal aspiration. If we take into history the procedures involved, I do non believe that there are any complexness. Social and proficient ability does nevertheless find the advancement of a civilisation but as with any other imperium, the leading determines its stableness and length of service. The greater the leader, the greater the imperium. Archaeological grounds exists sing imperiums through the Roman and Greek ruins foregrounding the desire for wealth and the push for power through warfare. I can flatly state that I agree with the statement in that imperiums do lift and fall as evidenced with the Roman imperium, the British imperium in India and the three listed above and that all are driven by one manner or another even to this twenty-four hours. ( 1588 words ) Bibliography Asher, N. ( 2012 )The Oxford Companion to Archaeology( 2nd Ed ) Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //dictionary.reference.com/browse/empire? s=t Accessed: 31 January 2014 Cullen H.M. et Al ( 2000 ) A scholarly article on the prostration of the Akkadian imperium from Geology, April 2000, volume 28, no. 4 ; pp.379–382. Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //leilan.yale.edu/pubs/files/cullen2000.pdf ( Accessed: 1 January 2014 ) Scarre, J. ( Ed. ) ( 2013 )The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societies3rdEdition London: Thames and Hudson, pp. 454, 455, 456, 457 Scarre, J. ( Ed. ) ( 2013 ) The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societies 3rd Edition London: Thames and Hudson, p. 198 The Guggenheim Museum, Exhibitions-The Aztec Empire-Overview Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/aztecs/overview.html. ( Accessed 1 January 2014 ) The British Museum, Explore/World Cultures ( 2013 ) [ Hittites ] Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.britishmuseum.org/explore/cultures.aspx ( Accessed 28 December 2013 )The Excavations at Hattusha – A undertaking of the German ArchaeoIogical Institute ( 2011 ) Available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.hattuscha.de/English/english1.htm ( Accessed 31 January 2014 )1