Marx Philosophy and the End of History

Karl Marx is, without a doubt one of the most influential thinkers to emerge in the nineteenth century, and the theories he proposed, have influenced various regimes in different parts of the world. His success is the result of the flexibility present in his theories to adapt themselves to the times. In his mid twenties Marx, turned away from philosophy and concentrated his attention more towards the economic and political aspects of the society. It was in the light of economics that he viewed the problems in society and sought to provide a remedy to it. He viewed society not as an independent entity. Contrarily, he saw, society as a reflection of the progress made by History. The progress made by history always left behind a legacy in its trail. This legacy had a profound impact in the shaping of society. The validity of this statement can be proven, by citing the example of the poverty in the Africa Americans as the legacy of their history as slave labourers. However the direction of History was uncertain and could not be predicted. It was dictated by the economic factors present in society. The only certainty was that an, ‘end of history’ was inevitable. In his theory on Historical Materialism, Marx carefully analyses the various factors influencing the different stages in the growth of society from slavery to modern day capitalism. Thus the views of Marx can be summed up under, four basic principles. Firstly, he believed that society followed a straight law of motion and underwent various phases in order to get to the final stage of Communism. Secondly, the laws governing the society were purely economic in nature, for the only thing that shapes society are the ‘material tools of production. Thirdly, he believed that these laws would continue to be in force until the end of History. Fourthly, the classes and the State would perish with the end of History. However this end would be brought about by a bitter struggle of one class against another. It must be mentioned in this context, that Marx borrowed the concept of a dialectical history, with a cognate beginning, middle and end from Hegel. Marx’s main concern was the ‘State’, which he viewed as the main tool of exploitation. It is the State and its various institutions that are utilised by the dominant class to wield their power. He advocated that the State was the most powerful tool of exploitation, whose sole purpose was to represent the interests of the ruling class. He chose to study the State through the annals of History. To him only ‘History’, could reveal the secrets at work behind the evolution of the state and determine its future shape. However, Marx did not consider History to be an open-ended process. Instead he saw a definite ‘end in history’. This end would result in the downfall of Capitalism and ensue the coming of a new era of Communism. An end in History did not signify an end to human life, it simply meant that there would no longer be any changes in the underlying principles or institutions for all the major problems had been solved and man’s major needs fulfilled. Before we can elaborate on the ‘end of history’, as predicted by Marx, it is essential that we know what history is all about. Marx claims that History has not progressed in a straight line. The coherent development of human societies through the ages has been a result of the various regimes that it has undergone. Marx thus traces the evolutionary process from, tribal based societies which were dependant on slavery and agriculture for subsistence, to theocracies, monarchies, feudal aristocracies, modern liberal democracies and finally to the technologically driven Capitalism. In his study Marx points out that the fundamental element present in all these different societies is the ‘class’ system and the ‘means of production,’ which determined which class would be dominant in the society. The ‘Class’ and the subsequent ‘class struggle’ were the sine qua non of Marx’s theory. History showed that the class who controlled the means of production was the dominant class in society. It is the tools of ruthless dominance and exploitation used by the dominant class to maintain their authority that would one day turn against them and spearhead the inevitable revolutions. History has shown that every revolution brought about a change in the social structure. This change did not bring about an egalitarian order it simply replaced the old dominant class with a new one. The unequal social structure continued to exist. Every revolution just changed the composition of the oppressor and the oppressed. The day that the society became classless would be the day that History came to an end. This end was possible with the rise of Communalism. While proclaiming the advent of Communalism, Marx refused to give a cognate shape to his ideal society. He claimed that the final shape of Communism would be the result of the different historical processes that society underwent. It was not a realisation of a predetermined moral idea. When it came to classes, Marx outlined two major segments into which society was divided. They were the oppressed or the ‘Proletariat’ as he called them and the oppressor or the ‘Bourgeoisie’. When the levels of oppression reached its penultimate point the oppressed class rose in rebellion and the outcome of this rebellion was a new society. Thus Marx stated, â€Å"The history of all hitherto existing societies has been the history of class struggle.† The day history ceases to exist; classes shall also cease to exist. Marx in his theories always stressed on the Historical aspect and asserted that every society contained within itself the forces of contradiction, known as the ‘Thesis’ and ‘Anti Thesis’. When these two contradictory forces clashed against one another, a class struggle emerged that sought to change the shape of society and replace the existing dominant class with a new one. This change was not permanent but would cease with the end of history, and there would finally emerge a classless society where each person enjoyed the fruits of his own labour. In his theory on History Marx, points out that in a divided society the tools of production are owned by the dominant section of society who exploit the weaker classes in order to amass more wealth and gain strength. But, there would come a time, when the levels of consciousness would rise among the oppressed class and they would unite in a struggle against the oppressors. History is replete with such examples. The slave society was replaced by the feudal society and the feudal society by the Industrialists or the Bourgeoisie. The coming of the Industrialist Revolution brought a boom in the industry and a new class emerged as the dominant section. They were the Capitalist class who owned the means of production. Like its predecessors the Capitalist society also contained within itself the seeds of dissent. The Capitalists became the dominant class who usurped the means of production and relentlessly exploited the working class or the proletariat. It resulted in the alienation of the worker. The working class was denied of the fruits of its labour and while the rich grew richer the poor grew poorer. The chasm continued to widen with the increase in wealth in the hands of the Capitalists. Despite the contradictions in the Capitalist regime, the ‘Communist Manifesto’ begins by praising the Capitalist system. It says that the Capitalist system has played a revolutionary role in History. It has shown what man’s endeavours can achieve. It has accomplished wonders, which surpasses the wonders of the world. It has conducted exoduses, which have overshadowed all past crusades in the world. Having praised the Capitalist system they go on to say that Capitalism by nature is based on ‘competition’ and the ‘market’. The same dynamics that propel capitalism will also be the reason of its downfall. When there are no more markets left to explore and exploit, the entire buying and selling cycle would collapse. Capitalism would  Ã‚   suffer from the phenomenon of ‘overproduction’ and   would be brought down to its knees. Harping on the ills of Capitalism, the Marxian philosophy, states that the Capitalist system would soon displace the smaller and individual producers. Marx went to the extent of saying that History would witness the replacement of indigenous farming with industrial and mechanised farming. Once this level of exploitation was reached the end of history would not be far away. This exploitation would unleash an era of unemployment and misery among the working class. When living under such miserable conditions became unbearable, history would witness a revolution spearheaded by the working class. Thus what Capitalism produces above all is its own ‘gravediggers’. It is the working class that would lead the final revolution to successfully remove the yoke of Capitalism. But the end of History or Communism as Marx viewed it was not to be achieved easily. The intermediate stage between Capitalism and Communism was the ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’. It was in this stage that the proletariat had complete control over the means of production as well as over the various institutions. The downfall of Capitalism, Marx claimed, would bring about the end of History. The phrase ‘end of history’ indicates a society based on Communism. It is a classless and egalitarian society where every man has full right over the fruits of his labour. From the ‘end of history’ there would emerge the final shape of the society. It would no longer undergo any more transformations, since all the major ills plaguing its predecessors had been removed. It was a society where man attained true economic freedom. Keeping in mind the fact that Marxism has a great deal of supporters it cannot be overlooked that the society Marx depicted in the end was more of a utopia rather than a reality. Though Marx’s philosophy has stood the test of times his views on the ‘end of History’ is yet to materialise. If we study the history of the world carefully we can see instances when the Marxian theory has borne fruit, but there have also been instances when the theory failed miserably. The theory of Marx was put to the test with the Russian Revolution. The theory defended itself by proclaiming that Russian society had not passed through the necessary stages in order to qualify as a successful communist society. Though the country was growing rapidly the society was predominantly feudal in nature. It had not been through the phase of Capitalism. The Soviet Union that was the glowing example of the success of Communism also faced failure. The downfall of the Soviet Union exposed the inherent corruption, inefficiency and irrationality present in the society. This picture of a communist society seemed to be absolutely contradictory to the egalitarian and classless society in a Communist Regime envisaged by Marx. The most important fact is that the ‘end of history’ is yet to manifest itself. With the ongoing scenario in the world Capitalism seems to have gained an even stronger foothold. Rather than an impending doom, capitalism is on a rise. The State that was supposed to wither away with the end of history is a far cry away. The State seems to be playing an even more important role today. It is far more intervening in the ways of man than predicted by man. Instead of being a tool of oppression the State has helped in maintaining stability, law and order in society. The end of history as envisaged by Marx is not easy to implement in practice. While envisaging an equal society Marx placed complete faith on the just and truthful nature of man. But man is by nature greedy. His wants keep increasing and to meet these wants he needs to amass resources. Thus, to think that man would be happy in his own little share would be a folly. It is inevitable that a man or a group of men would want to take over the reigns of power. Such a situation would lead to nothing but anarchy and chaos. It is because of the above reasons that the end of history seems such a far-fetched thought. The Marxian theory was not about right or wrong it was simply a theory of history. It followed the trends that had occurred in the past and on the basis of those sought to predict the future trends that would ensue. In so far that the theory acknowledged the presence of exploitation and domination in history it stands fully justified. It is only when it comes to predicting an end to Capitalism that the theory seems to falter. It seeks to attain the unattainable. In view of the above mentioned arguments, and in the light of the real world scenario, we can safely say, that, even though the political, economic and social institutions proposed By Marx are dead or dying away, his theory and influence on the world continue to exist. Works Cited Marx, . Karl,   Fredrick   Engels   and   David   Mclellan   ed,   The   Communist   Manifesto,   Oxford   World's   Classics   1848

Computer Hackers Essay

The sub culture group of hackers has been around since the 1960s. The underground sub culture of hacking has evolved into a mainstream open community. Some famous hackers like Eric Corlery, Gordon Lyon, Gary McKinnon, and Kevin Mitnick have done their fair share of infiltrating network bases all over the United States. These people have a unique mindset that allows them to crack these codes set up by government officials. Eric Raymond tries to classify this group of people as crackers because they crack codes of computers but the community wanted to keep the name hackers. Regardless of the name the community of people is smart and can break down your computer at anytime. A hacker is a person who finds a weakness in a system and exploits it. Some motivation for hackers can be money, challenge, or pure adrenaline rush. There is a difference between a cracker and a hacker. Crackers are normally considered when people are involved with computers. There are several types of hackers all over the world. White hat hackers breach security for no reason at all. The term white hat means ethical hacker. A black hat hacker breaks into secure networks to destroy data or to make the networks not useable for those who are allowed to use it. Black hat hackers have a process called pre hacking to help them determine which network to hack. The hacker first looks for an open port to gain access to. After that is done the hacker will find ways to get vital information about the network to get into the system. Hackers will even go above and beyond to engage activities like dumpster diving. Dumpster diving is when people actually dive into a dumpster to get information like documents that can help them breakdown the network. A grey hat hacker is a combination of white hat hacker and black hat hacker. A grey hat hacker will surf the internet just to crack the network and charge the administrator to set up a firewall. Basically the hacker sets up the administrator without letting them know that they broke into their system. A social status among hackers is the elite hacker. These hackers are the most skilled in their field. Script kiddie hacker is the hacker that attempts to hack with pre packaged software. A neophyte is a non experienced hacker who really does not know what they are doing. They are new to the whole sub culture of hacking. A blue hat hacker is one who is outside of the security consulting firm who looks for places that have been exploited to patch up the weakness. Some attacks a hacker use are network enumeration, vulnerability analysis, and exploitation. There are techniques like vulnerability scanners, password cracking, and packet sniffer, spoofing attack, and rooting attack. A vulnerability scanner is a tool used to quickly check computers on a network for known weaknesses. Hackers also commonly use port scanners. These check to see which ports on a specified computer are open or available to access the computer, and sometimes will detect what program or service is listening on that port, and its version number. Password cracking is in essence guessing what the password could be to the administrator server. A packet sniffer uses data packets to catch the store data in the computer. Also hackers used techniques like intimidation, helpfulness, and name dropping to get people within a company to give out information regarding the servers so they may be able to attain the network information. At times these hackers come out successful. With so many worms and viruses like the Trojan horse a hacker can infiltrate your server and get all your information. There have been programs like Norton and MacAfee to help cut down on hacking. This sub culture like the thrill of breaking down walls and seeing what they are not suppose to see. Between people not being smart about certain things they do online and the hacker for setting them up, this issue of hacking can be a big problem. Not everything that is hacked is bad because government plans have risen to show what bad things they have created to ruin America. At the end of the day make sure you log out your account and get antivirus software to keep your account, your  account.

History of the Middle East

CW43: The Middle East and Arab-Israeli Conflict, c1900–2001 Jewish settlement in Palestine, 1900–45 Conflict |Causes of conflict |Presence and influence of other actors and |Changing Arab-Israeli relationships |Proposed solutions | | | |international events | | | |World War One |Misperceptions |Actors: Ottoman Empire |Jewish settlements |Paris Peace Conference | |Britain and Arabs ally against the Ottoman|Unaware of the details of the Sykes-Picot |Until 1917, retention of Arab customs in |Lovers of Zion; Rishon-le-Zion; more than 40 |Arabs should have the right to national | |Empire; expectation from the Arabs that |Agreement and the Balfour Declaration; Britain’s|Palestine |Zionist settlements in Palestine by 1914; Jewish|self-determination; need for a major power| |they would get Palestine in return; |support for both them and Zionism | |population doubled between |to help them run their new country; | |Hussein-McMahon letters | |Actors: Britain |1922–29 |Britain received the mandate to look after| | |Arab disagreement with various proposals: |Balfour Declaration; given a mandate over | |Palestine, also confirmed that the terms | |Political conflict |verdict of Paris Peace Conference |Palestine by the Paris Peace Conference; helped |Reasons for migration |of the Balfour Declaration should apply to| |Emir Feisal becomes king of an Arab state |Decision to include the Balfour Declaration in |the Jews build up their military forces such as |Influence of Rothschild; Herzl and the Zionist |the new country | |consisting of Palestine, Lebanon, |the way n which Palestine was to be governed; |the Hagannah and the Irgun Zvai Leumi |Congress in 1897; Jewish National Fund | | |Transjordan and Syria; publicly opposes |Peel Report – proposed a Jewish state and an | | |Peel Report | |Zionist migration; Arab parties unite to |Arab state |Actors: King-Crane Commission |Wartime immigration |Palestine should be divided into a Jewish | |form th e Arab Higher Committee; Ben | |Concluded that the case for a Zionist presence |Jews smuggled in by ship: the Struma |state and an Arab state; Britain to keep | |Gurion’s conference at the Biltmore Hotel |Rate of settlement |should be dropped; findings ignored by Paris | |control of the area around Jerusalem | |calls for the immediate creation of a |Herbert Samuel’s influence; Jewish population |Peace Conference | | | |Jewish state in Palestine |doubled between 1922–29 | | |1939 White Paper | | | |Actors: France | |Jewish immigration to be limited to 75,000| |Civil disobedience |Extreme Zionism |King Feisal started attacking the French; French| |over the next five years; no more | |1936 general strike |Vladimir Jabotinsky, demonstration near the |removed him from Syria and Lebanon | |immigration without Arab consent | | |Mosque of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem | | | | |Arab-Israeli violence | |Actors:Herbert Samuel | |1942 Biltmore Programme | |Protest again st Samuel’s decision; 1929 |Jewish dissatisfaction |British Jew, High Commissioner of Palestine; | |Calls for the immediate creation of a | |massacre; Irgun planted bombs and shot |Anger at the 1939 White Paper in light of the |16,500 Jews to be allowed to settle in Palestine| |Jewish state in Palestine | |Arabs in response to the White Paper |Nazi threat |in 1920 | | | | | | | | | |Arab-British violence | |Events: First World War; Paris Peace Conference | | | |1937–39 rebellion | | | | | | | | | | | |Jewish-British violence | | | | | |Lehi, Abraham Stern, Lord Moyne, Irgun | | | | | |violence | | | | | | | | | | |World War Two | | | | | |30,000 Jews in Palestine joined the | | | | | |British army | | | | | The creation of the state of Israel and its impact Conflict |Causes of conflict |Presence and influence of other actors and |Changing Arab-Israeli relationships |Proposed solutions | | | |international events | | | |Irgun and Lehi |British immigration limits |Presi dent Truman |Propaganda – Ben Gurion and the Jewish Agency |UN voted in November 1947 to partition | |From 1946, the Irgun and the Lehi began a |Despite President Truman’s declaration that |Demanded that 100,000 Jews be allowed into |continued to try to smuggle Jews into Palestine |Palestine six months from that date; | |large-scale campaign of violence against |100,000 Jews should be allowed into Palestine, |Palestine at once | |Jerusalem should be an international zone | |the British, including the blowing up of |the British fixed the limit at 1500 a month. | |Political change |under UN control; Jewish and Arab states | |the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, |This was the last straw for the Lehi and the |United Nations |On 15 May 1948, the British mandate ended and |should be linked in an economic union to | |headquarters of the British government in |Irgun; Exodus Asked to take back the mandate from Britain and |the Arab and Jewish states came into being; the |help eac h other’s trade | |Palestine, which killed 91 people | |decide the future of the country; UN Special |Jews named their state Israel and formed a | | | |UNSCOP Plan |Committee on Palestine; truce arranged on |government led by David Ben Gurion | | |Death toll |Jewish state would be larger than the Arab |11 June 1948 which allowed the Israelis to | | | |212 killings in Palestine |state; vote for partition was followed by |reorganise their army and transport the Czech |Effects of the violence | | | |violent Arab protests which soon turned into |weapons they had bought earlier in the year from|Nearly a million Palestinians left or were | | |Civil War |killings and counter-killings between Jews and |Europe; second truce lasted until October 15 |forced to leave their homes; most went to Jordan| | |Operation Dalet, Deir Yassin capture of |Arabs | |and the Gaza Strip, many went to Syria and | | |Tiberias, Haifa and Jaffa; Hagganah | |Arab League |Lebanon; Arab state of Palestine ceas ed to | | |occupied most of the Arab areas of West |Purchasing of arms |Palestine turned to it for help; however, it had|exist; Palestinians became a minority people in | | |Jerusalem |Hagannah leaders went to Skoda arms firm in |only been created recently and its members were |the new state of Israel | | | |Czechoslovakia and bought a huge quantity of |divided on many issues | | |War of Liberation |armaments | |Reasons for Palestinian migration | | |The civil war of 1948 was about to turn | | |Massacre at Deir Yassin, Israeli military | | |into an international war, the first of a |Arab League assistance | |victory; Arab leaders encouraged them to leave | | |series of Arab-Israeli conflicts that has |Arab League in December 1947 declared partition | |during the conflict | | |rocked the Middle East since 1948.On 15 |illegal and gave the Palestinians 10,000 rifles;| | | | |May 1948, armies from Egypt, Lebanon, |early in 1948 it formed an Arab Liberation Army | | | | |Transjordan, Ira q and Syria entered |of 3000 volunteers to fight in partition | | | | |Palestine with the aim of helping the | | | | | |Palestinian Arabs fight the Jewish state |Formation of Ben Gurion government | | | | |of Israel which had been created that day;|Five neighbouring Arab countries sent armies to | | | | |Arab Legion of Transjordan had taken back |make war on Israel | | | |control of the Old City of Jerusalem; | | | | | |Israelis seized western Galilee; drove the| | | | | |Lebanese back north; Israel was left in | | | | | |control of 80% of the land | | | | | Reasons for, and outcomes of, Arab-Israeli conflicts to 1973 War of 1948 |War of 1956 |War of 1967 |War of 1973 | |Description: |Description: |Description: |Description: | |On 15 May 1948, armies from Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan, |Lasted for 10 days; invasion began on |5 June 1967; Israeli initial air strike (bombed Egyptian |6 October; the Day of Atonement; Arab initial success: | |Iraq and Syria entered Palestine with the aim of helping |29 October; advanced deep into Sinai; involvement of |airfields and launched similar attacks against the other |smashed Israel’s Suez Canal defences; 80,000 Egyptians | |the Palestinian Arabs fight the Jewish state of Israel |Britain and France; Egypt refused to evacuate Suez Canal |Arab air forces); land war (drove Egyptians out of the |crossed the canal; destroyed Israeli tanks; Syria | |which had been created that day |zone and were bombed by the British and French; UN voted |Gaza strip and Sinai; defeated Jordan within two days, |advanced into the Golan Heights and drove the Israelis | | for a ceasefire; Arab countries stopped supplying Britain|capturing the Old City of Jerusalem and the ‘West Bank’; |back into Galilee; Israel fought back: US weapons sent to| |Causes: |with oil; USA refused to support the invasion; Eden |attacked the Syrian army in the Golan Heights and this |Israel; 254,000 reservists mobilised; 14 October tank | |Establishme nt of Ben Gurion government; unhappiness with |forced to agree to a ceasefire just 24 hours after the |was over by June 10); United Nations ordered a ceasefire |battle against the Egyptians; Israel crossed into the | |the UN Partition Plan; British mandate expiring; both |first British troops had landed in Egypt; UN Emergency |which the Arab nations had to accept |Suez Canal; international pressure – USSR wanted it ended| |sides rearmed |Force moved in to police the border between Egypt and | |(feared that the Egyptians would lose); USA wanted it | | |Israel |Causes: |ended (did not want to provoke the Soviets into giving | |Effects: | |- Syria became violently anti-Israel (General Jedid’s |even more weapons to Egypt and Syria); joint ceasefire | |- Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria signed armistices |Causes: |takeover, attacks by Fatah guerrillas from Syria |proposed came into force on 22 October | |with Israel but no peace treaty; many Arabs have refused|- Nasser wan ted to avenge Egypt’s defeat in the 1948 war|increased) | | |to recognise Israel and have talked about destroying it;|against Israel and to return Palestine to the Arabs; |- Land dispute – Israeli tractor ploughed up some |Causes: | |many Jews arrived in Israel from existing refugee camps |increased wealth and armed strength; his reputation in |Arab-owned land close to the border and met Syrian fire. |- Sadat replaced Nasser in 1970 and he wanted to reverse| |and communities from Eastern Europe |the Arab world increased; he aimed to unite the Arabs |Israel responded by bombing Syrian guns.Israel warned |the Arab defeat of 1967 | |- Israel’s first law in 1950 was the Law of Return; |under Egyptian leadership |that it would strike back if Syria did not stop |- Egypt was more ready – asked the USSR for assistance; | |anti-Jewish riots; in Iraq, Zionism was punishable by |- 1955 arms agreement with Czechoslovakia gave Egypt |- USSR intervention (incorrectly a rgued that Israel was |plans were made for an invasion of Sinai across the Suez| |death; Arab protest at Israeli diversion of the waters |many Soviet weapons |ready to invade Syria at short notice); King Feisal of |Canal; Syria would also attack from the Golan Heights | |of River Jordan |- Support for Algerian rebels angered France – supported|Saudi Arabia and King Hussein of Jordan promised to help| | |- Need for $65 million of international aid to cope with|Arab rebels who were fighting the French in their colony|Syria |Effects: | |new humanitarian needs; change of leadership in Arab |of Algeria |- Nasser ordered UN Emergency Force to leave Egyptian |- Israeli victory: 12,000 Arabs had been killed compared| |governments: assassination of Egyptian prime minister in|- Nationalisation of Aswan Dam angered Britain – it had |territory; UN was ordered to withdraw; barred the Gulf |to 2000 Israelis | |1948; a series of military takeovers in 1949; in 1950: |been owned lar gely by British and French shareholders; |of Aqaba to Israeli ships; military pacts (Jordan and |- Oil as a weapon: OAPEC increased the price of Arab oil| |assassination of Lebanese prime minister; murder of |Nasser did this after Britain and the USA cancelled the|Egypt formed a defence pact; eight Arab states were |until Israel withdrew from Egypt and Syria | |King Abdullah of Jordan; coup in Egypt which gave |loans they had promised |poised to attack); Moshe Dayan (appointed Minister of |- USA tried to appease the Arabs | |Colonel Nasser power; Arab leaders blamed their defeat |- Increase of Fedayeen ttacks angered Israel – |Defence) decided to use attack as a form of defence |- Britain stopped supplying Israel with weapons | |on Britain and the USA and concentrated on improving |continuance of cross-border attacks; closing of the | |- EEC expressed sympathy for the Palestinians | |their economies |entrance of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli ships | |- Kissinger’s propo sal: disengagement of | | | | |Israeli and Egyptian forces should happen in 1974; they | | | | |should withdraw to pre-ceasefire positions; UN army | | | | |should control the gap between them; Israel should | | | | |withdraw from Sinai and in return get American aid | Reasons for, and outcomes of, Arab-Israeli conflicts to 1973 (cont) |War of 1948 |War of 1956 |War of 1967 |War of 1973 | | – Some of the new leaders hoped for a union of the Arab|Effects: |Effects: | | |countries; very little action taken on Palestinian |- Egypt’s military power reduced – 1000 casualties; |- Israel improved its strength and security – kept | | |refugees among all Arab countries, except Jordan; |Israel accepted as a permanent member of the |Sinai, Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights, and doubled| | |Fedayeen established – secret guerrilla attacks on |international community |the size of the country | | |Israeli targets; each year from 1949 to 1955, some 250 |- B ritain and France humiliated – their influence in the|- Disaster for the Arabs – 15,000 men killed; 800 tanks | | |Israelis were killed or wounded in such attacks.This |Middle East declined; had to leave Egypt empty-handed; |captured or destroyed; suffering for the Palestinians – | | |prompted Israeli attacks in retaliation, including an |failed to overthrow Nasser; failed to keep the Suez |those who had been living in the West Bank and the Gaza | | |attack on the village of Qibya in Jordan in 1953 and in |Canal open; had to introduce petrol rationing |Strip were now in occupied territories and faced heavy | | |1955 the Israelis mounted a raid on the Gaza strip after|- Israel gained security against Fedayeen attacks – |restrictions on their lives | | |a series of Fedayeen attacks on their territory; Arab |destroyed their bases; UN took over Sharm el-Sheikh and |- Strength of Fatah – Turned to Fatah rather than other | | |boycott of Israeli trade â €“ Israeli ships could not use |Gaza; emergence of Palestine Liberation Organisation |Arab states – Fatah increased their weapons; Battle of | | |the Suez Canal; confiscation of cargo from Israeli |- Nasser’s reputation in the Arab world increased – |Karameh; Arafat became leader; continual fighting | | |ships which called at Arab ports; Israel was in a |pro-western governments in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq |between Egypt and Israel; support from USSR; 1970 | | |permanent state of tension |turned against France and Britain; hopes for United Arab|ceasefire; Guerrilla warfare (PFLP, Dawson’s Field | | | |League were soon dashed hijackings), Black September Organisation assassinated | | | | |the Prime Minister of Jordan, kidnapped and later | | | | |murdered eleven Israeli athletes taking part in the | | | | |Munich Olympic Games; failed diplomatic effort – UN | | | | |Resolution 242 | |Arab nationalism in the 1980s and 1990s, and divisions in the A rab world |Divisions in the Arab world |Conflict | |President Sadat |Direct conflict between Israel and Lebanon | |Sadat’s initiative: recognised Israel’s existence; Camp David Agreement of 1978; Washington Treaty 1979; caused |26,000 Israeli troops invaded Lebanon in response to a bus hijack; PLO continued their attacks undeterred by the UN| |fury in the Arab world; President Sadat was murdered by angry Egyptian soldiers |or the Christian militia leader, Major Haddad; June 1982 – 172,000 Israeli soldiers invaded Lebanon; UN let them | | |pass; forced the PLO out of Beirut; PLO went to Algeria and Iraq. Defeat for Israel – assassination of pro-Israeli | |Lebanon |Maronite President Gemayel of Lebanon; Sabra-Chatila massacre turned public opinion in Israel against the war; | |Sunnis, Shi’ites, Druzes; Christians-Maronites, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics; conflict between Maronites and |Defence Minister Ariel Sharon resigned; Israel had to withdra w from Beirut; met with suicide bombs from fanatical | |SunniMuslims; refugee problem |Shi’ites | | | | |PLO in Lebanon |PLO attacks | |Muslims in Lebanese government supported the PLO whilst the Maronites condemned them; full-scale civil war between |By 1986, PLO guerrillas were back in south Lebanon and making cross-border attacks on Israel; splinter groups came | |Phalangist Militia and Tiger Militia and Shi’ite and Druze Muslims; Syria invaded Lebanon on the side of the |into being; Palestine Liberal Front hijacked a cruise ship and the Abu Nidal group hijacked an Egyptian airliner | |Christians and then killed Christians | | | |Internationalisation of conflict | |Civil war between terrorist groups in Lebanon |Terror campaign was spread in places like Britain and France; in 1986 an American soldier was killed by a terrorist| |Islamic Jihad Organisation; Hezbollah; Arab Red Knights; Black Brigades; civil war involved taking of hostages |bomb in West Berlin; US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi | | | | |Rise of Hamas from Fatah |Political dissension within Israel | |Following on from this, Hamas and other militant organisations rose to power and shook the foundations of the |Peres – talks in Morocco and Egypt; Taba; Yitzchak Shamir – no negotiation with the Arabs over the West Bank; | |authority which Fatah under Arafat had established. However, Arafat remained in his position until a month before |Jewish settlers continued to build new settlements there; Likud talked of extreme solutions such as the nnexation | |his death in 2004 |of the occupied territories | | | | | |Intifada | | |On 9 December 1987 an Israeli army patrol shot two attackers; uprising soon followed; strikes and economic | | |boycotts; refused to work for Israeli employers; Israel’s response – ‘iron fist’ | | | | | |Arafat’s change of tactics | | |Renounced terrorism; proclamation of independent state of Palestine; soug ht to negotiate a settlement with Israel; | | |USA entered into talks with the PLO; the Oslo Accords of 1993, agreed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and | | |PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, granted the Palestinians the right to self-government in the Gaza Strip and the city of| | |Jericho in the West Bank, through the creation of the Palestinian Authority. The PLO had used negotiating tools to | | |get as close to their stated aims as was realistically possible, but this by no means marked the end of the | | |conflict, as the Second Intifada, with repeated suicide bombings, took place in 2000–04 | Sources |Lowe, N. Mastering Modern World History (3rd edition, Macmillan Masters, 997) | |BBC series, Cold War, written by Jeremy Isaac and Taylor Downing, published by Transworld in 1998 | |Hunter, R. E. The Six Day War (Purnell’s History of the 20th century, Vol. 6, Chapter 94, BBC, 1969) | |Kyle, K. Suez: Britain’s End of Empire in the Middle East (I. B. Taur is, 2003) | |Mandle, B. Conflict in the Promised Land (Heinemann, 1976) | |Mansfield, P. A History of the Middle East (Penguin, 2003) | |Perkins, S. J.The Arab-Israeli Conflict (Nelson Thornes, 1991) | |Regan, G. Israel and the Arabs (Cambridge University Press, 1993) | |Scott-Baumann, M. Conflict in the Middle East: Israel and the Arabs (Hodder Murray, 2007) | Processes (Part A) |Assess the impact of British intervention 1914–21 on the growth of Arab nationalism in the ensuing decade. | |Assess the impact of Britain, Egypt and Suez 1945–56 on the growth of Arab nationalism in the ensuing decade. | |Assess the impact of the Cold War 1956–73 on the growth of Arab nationalism in the ensuing decade. |Assess the impact of the United Nations and the Gulf War 1990–91 on the growth of Arab nationalism in the ensuing decade. | The role of individuals (Part A) |What was the short-term significance of David Ben Gurion? | |What was the short-term significance of C olonel Abdel Nasser? | |What was the short-term significance of Yasser Arafat? | |What was the short-term significance of Saddam Hussein? | Key events (Part A) |What was the short-term significance of the creation of the state of Israel, 1948? | |What was the short-term significance of the war of Yom Kippur, 1973? | |What was the short-term significance of the Iranian Revolution, 1979? | |What was the short-term significance of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, 1995? | Processes (Part B) How significant was the presence of foreign powers as an influence on the nature and growth of Arab nationalism in the years 1900–2001? | |How significant was the existence of Israeli-Arab wars as an influence on the nature and growth of Arab nationalism in the years 1900–2001? | |How significant was the promotion of proposed solutions as an influence on the nature and growth of Arab nationalism in the years 1900–2001? | |How significant was Israeli migration as an influence o n the nature and growth of Arab nationalism in the years 1900–2001? | The role of individuals (Part B) |Assess the significance of the role of individuals in affecting Israeli-Arab relations in the years 1900–2001. | Key events (Part B) To what extent do you consider the Balfour Declaration to be a key turning point in the political development of the Middle East during the 20th century? | |To what extent do you consider the 1948 Civil War in Palestine to be a key turning point in the political development of the Middle East during the 20th century? | |To what extent do you consider the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organisation to be a key turning point in the political development of the Middle East during the 20th century? | |To what extent do you consider the death of President Nasser to be a key turning point in the political development of the Middle East during the 20th century? |

Critical evaluate the Outokumpu's practices in supply chain management Assignment

Critical evaluate the Outokumpu's practices in supply chain management and provide the Outokumpu with your recommendation - Assignment Example 20% of it is used to manufacture internal components and industrial products. These features allow the company to develop sustainable competitive advantage and prospective growth in the near future (Outokumpu, 2011). This paper is focused on Outokumpu’s approach to global supply chain, the advantages and disadvantages faced by them, and the detailed study of their supply chain process. The supply chain management is one of the vital parts of the operations management of a company. The operations strategy of Outokumpu looks at a long term prospective of the company. It underpins the organizational vision regarding the operational activities.The operations management in the other hand encompasses the entire production process including procurement of raw materials, processing them into final goods, taking care of logistics, managing the supply chain and meeting the demands of the customers in minimum possible lead time.It is mostly short term in nature and deals with the daily activities that helps the organization to reach its goals. The supply chain management of Outokumpu is overseen by the group level. The company constantly monitors the market to make accurate demand forecasts and it modifies its operational activities based on the market scenario and current demand level in the industry. Every business unit is operated by its own supply chain management system , which is overseen by the group level (Outokumpu, 2011). The supply chain management of Outokumpu ensures that it follows the five business imperatives which are, cost, opportunity, flexibility, quality and speed. The company specializes in producing at lower cost, by resource optimization thereby increasing profitability and offering a lower price. The company also ensures that its supply chain process is efficient enough to be dependable and flexible enough to respond to the sudden changes in the market demand by

Willa Cather's short story Paul's Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Willa Cather's short story Paul's Case - Essay Example His work as an usher takes him away from his drab surroundings and into another world where the music reveals the "potent spirit within him". Paul's world is built upon untruths. Paul does not care to join in the world of music and drama; he is satisfied just to live vicariously through its proximity. Paul feasts off the efforts of others. For Paul the whole world is all lies, and the theater is one more of Paul's illusions. For Paul it was easy and necessary for overcoming the difficult task of effort. The theater is not only his escape from school, but also from Cordelia Street. Cordelia Street is the symbol of the "colorless mass of everyday existence". Paul can not subscribe to the middle class and could never be a clerk. He would never become one of the "rivets in the machine" that his father had. Paul wanted to be at the top "though he had no mind for the cash-boy stage". Paul needs more. Paul immerses himself in the drama of the theater with fanatical tales of his exaggerated importance. Fearing that Paul had wandered too far from the center of normality, his father demands that he be put to work. Alienated from school by the strict teachers, from home by his father's dismal existence and banished from the theater Paul creates a new illusion.

Biochemistry lab report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Biochemistry - Lab Report Example Paper chromatography is mainly used for separation of molecules and consists of cellulose with hydrophilic characteristics. The rate of movement of biomolecules depends on the affinity of the molecule and the solvent with hydrophobic molecules moving faster than the hydrophilic due to the little attraction of the molecule to the hydrophilic paper. Paper chromatography helps in the characterization of amino acids due to the different rates of movement of the amino acids on the chromatographic paper. Additionally, the different amino acids move at different rates on the chromatographic paper due to the differences in the size of the side chains. The rate at which a biomolecule moves on the chromatographic paper is expressed as its relative mobility (Rf). A mobile phase for use in the chromatography was prepared by mixing 60cm3 of ethanenitrile (acetonitrile) with 40cm3 of 0.1M ammonium ethanoate. Drops of concentrated ethanoic acid were used to adjust the pH value to 7.2 after which 30cm3 of this mixture was placed in a tall form beaker and cover it with a watch-glass. Small amounts of trypsin, leucine, valine, proline, glutamic acid, glycine and lysine amino acid solutions were prepared in water and each amino acid labelled. A faint line was drawn using a pencil on the lantern-type chromatography paper making sure that the line was above the level of the solvent in the beaker. Using a clean capillary tube each time, one small spot of each amino acid solution was put on the chromatography paper and each spot identifies and marked. An unknown sample was also spot on the paper and marked. The spots were dried using a warm air blower. The chromatographic paper was then bent around the cylinder and fixed in this shape using a paperclip. The chromatographic paper was then placed inside the beaker so that it stood on the edge without touching the sides and the chromatogram run until the solvent front moved three quarter way in the

Expert Systems Applied to Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Expert Systems Applied to - Essay Example Expert systems consist of a number of components such as the knowledge base, the inference engine and the user interface. The knowledge base contains all the data and information collected from the domain whereas the inference engine manipulates this information in looking to find a recommended course of action. The User interface provides the platform through which the system user can interact with the program. The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine primarily focuses on developing programs that can carry out diagnostic functions and suggest therapeutic recommendations. They are based on representative models of ailment entities in relation to factors such as their clinical manifestation and their ramifications on patient factors. Knowledge based systems are commonly used in clinical situations since they can withhold a vast knowledge base especially with regards to a particularly defined task. For this reason, the use of expert systems in the medical field applies in various functions within a hospital. For instance, expert systems can be used for generating reminders and alerts in real-time scenarios where they are attached to monitors as indicators used in monitoring changes in the condition of patients. In relatively acute cases, they can be used to scan lab test outcomes or medication prescriptions and generate reminders and alerts through e-mail or text message systems. Expert systems can also be used for diagnostic aid where the patient data can be checked against a system’s knowledge base to try and come up with accurate diagnosis in cases where the case of a patient is complex or unique or the diagnostician is relatively inexperienced (Wai et al. par. 63). An example of one such system is DXplain; a clinical decision support mechanism used to aid in diagnosis by looking at a set of symptoms, signs and laboratory results and generating a ranked list of possible diagnoses while at the same

Democracy and Commodification Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Democracy and Commodification - Essay Example In the context of commodification, services that would be normally under the control of the state came under the control of the private sector, a fact that leads to the increase of cost involved (Giddens and Griffiths 367). Thus, the access to these services becomes more difficult and even, impossible, for a high majority of the population. From this point of view, commodification leads to the limitation of democracy, a political system that is based on equality and fairness in terms of law (Giddens and Griffiths 367). The potential limitation of democracy through commodification can be made understood by referring primarily to the cases of welfare regimes that are based on commodification and those that are not commodified. These cases would show how modern political systems could be related to commodification. Then examples could be provided for showing the relationship between democracy and commodification in practice. Giddens and Griffiths (2006) explain how political systems can be related to commodification: a) the social democratic regime promotes the provision of welfare services for all citizens with no exception, at a universal level (Giddens and Griffiths 367). Scandinavian states, that have this type of regime, are examples of states supporting the non-commodified political system; b) in ‘conservative/ corporatist states, such as France and Germany’ (Giddens and Griffiths 367), welfare services are non-commodified but they are not fully independent from the capital. Indeed, in the above states, the potential of each citizen to access the welfare services is differentiated according to his social status (Giddens and Griffiths 367); c) there is also the case of the liberal states, like United States, where ‘welfare services are fully commodified’ (Giddens and Griffith 367). It should be noted that the use of specific practices, in regard to the management of an economy, does not, necessarily, indicate the commodification of t he local political system (Williams 157). In democracy also, a similar issue would exist. At this point the potential influence of commodification on democracy should be explained using relevant examples. In all states where democratic regimes exist media is commonly used for the promotion of specific political messages. Reference can be made, as an example, to the use of media for supporting a particular legislative text or for persuading the public that a specific political decision, for example the establishment of an area of entertainment, is fully justified in terms of public interest. In regard to this issue, emphasis should be given to the following fact: in most states, media is used for influencing public opinion

The Philosophy of Epicurus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Philosophy of Epicurus - Essay Example The essay "The Philosophy of Epicurus" discusses the Epicurus's thoughts regarding the capability of everyone for seeking wisdom, the happiness to be the ultimate objective of studying philosophy and concerning religion. At the beginning of the first paragraph of his â€Å"†Letter to Menoeceus†, Epicurus says that everyone either young or old should study philosophy because â€Å"it is never too early nor too late to care for the well-being of the soul†. According to him, philosophy can bring happiness to the soul. One should study it for the happiness of mind. Again Epicurus says that the young people â€Å"can retain the happiness of youth in his pleasant memories of the past† when the old can enjoy the fearlessness of the youth even in their old age: â€Å"although he is old he may at the same time be young by virtue of his fearlessness of the future.† Again at the end of the paragraph, he comments that the ultimate objective of studying philosophy is â€Å"securing happiness†, and therefore â€Å"we do everything in order to gain it†. We can infer that Epicurus believed that happiness is the ultimate objective of studying philosophy. According to Epicurus, our â€Å"common sense† or â€Å"popular opinion† tells us that gods must be immortal and blessed. Indeed this â€Å"common sense† is man’s capability of reasoning or proving something by something by logic. The commonality of man’s perception of himself or others lies at the heart of these â€Å"reasons† or â€Å"common sense†.... Thus we can infer that Epicurus believed that happiness is the ultimate objective of studying philosophy. The Gods 3. Epicurus supposes that we know the gods to be immortal and blessed. Why does he suppose this? According to Epicurus, our â€Å"common sense† or â€Å"popular opinion† tells us that gods must be immortal and blessed. Indeed this â€Å"common sense† is man’s capability of reasoning or proving something by something by logic. In the first place, we must accept that man’s capability of reasoning or devising logic is very subjective. That is, the commonality of man’s perception about himself or others lies at the heart of these â€Å"reasons† or â€Å"common sense†. Man commonly perceives himself as a subject to ephemera and to death: â€Å"while we exist death is not present and when death is present we no longer exist† (Epicurus). Man reasons that gods exist even while â€Å"we no longer exist†. But si nce people popularly believe that gods send blessings and evils to men (though Epicurus assumes these popular beliefs, about gods to have concerns for men, as something wrong) ages after ages, man reasons that they must be immortal and blessed; otherwise, they would not be able to do so. Thus Epicurus supposes that â€Å"commonsense† provokes men to popularly accept that the gods are immortal and blessed. Again once Epicurus says that â€Å"Most men do not retain the picture of the gods that they first receive† (Epicurus 2). This sentence may refer to Epicurus’s belief that man’s knowledge about gods is inborn. This innate or inborn idea about gods’ immortality and blessedness provokes everyone to form a popular opinion that gods must be immortal and blessed. 4. Epicurus infers from the fact that the gods are the immortal and

Legal Education Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legal Education - Personal Statement Example I intend to join for a master's degree in law, to further expand my knowledge base on the subject. Law is comparatively a new discipline in the university and an emerging interest is being shown in this field recently. In the post globalization era, with its advancements in various fields, age old concepts are becoming obsolete and there is a rising awareness of human rights, as well as the rights to a fair trial and defense, are becoming highly significant in nations across the world, including Saudi Arabia. Hence I expect that at this juncture if I pursue my higher studies in law, I will not only be able to attain a good job but also will be able to contribute greatly to my nation and my people.I understand that imparting justice to everybody irrespective of race, religion, gender, and nationality is a noble duty. Every human deserves to receive justice and I will make sure that I can intervene whenever I see injustice in the society and protect the rights of my fellow citizens. By pursuing a master’s degree in law, I will be able to gain adequate knowledge and skills in this subject, which I can use for practical application when I take up law as a profession. Besides, I will also be able to teach the coming generation who will be interested in studying this subject.My final ambition is to attain a Ph.D. in law in the long run. Once I obtain a post graduate degree, I will be able to get a good job in this field, where I can gain the practical experience which will broaden my skills.

Cirque Du Soleil Assignment Essay Example for Free

Cirque Du Soleil Assignment Essay 1. What are Cirque’s product and strategy? The cirque product is a circ show without animals, the main features of this show are: clowns, acrobats and gymnasts. The difference between Cirque du soleil and other circs is that the first one tries to make the show unforgettable by adding music specially composed for each show and also an elaborated â€Å"attrezzo† (lights and scenario). The Strategy that Cirque used is a blue ocean strategy, this strategy consist in creating a new industry from an existing one, so they reinvented the circus so we can say that they create a new industry. 2. How has Cirque structured and supported its casts to deliver superior performance? The Cirque tried to support each member of the cast when talking about habits and culture of each member. They tried to make it easier to each member to be in the road in every tour. Also, the management tries to give what artist asks, for example in the case there is a clown that explains that the clown section wanted a specific professor and the cirque hired him to teach the section of the clowns. With children they try to be as careful as possible, and they try to make a good environment to them. 3. What is the role of marketing? Since the Cirque du soleil is defined as a â€Å"luxury good†, definition that the same company states, the marketing role here is to sustain this category. What marketing has to do is to follow the same strategy that has followed in the entire Cirque’s history, promote the Cirque as a unique and astonishing show and make customers show fans. The marketing strategy objective should be that each customer that goes to see a Cirque du Soleil show return to the next show every three years, even if the ticket is expensive. 4. Regarding innovation and creativity, what are the important ideas that emerge from this case? Name them and develop them. We can say that Cirque du Soleil has been innovative and that its creativity has no limits, since every new show is different than the one before. Each customer can go several times in his or her life to see Cirque’s shows and it will find different things in every new one. So we can say that Cirque du soleil has creativity and innovation. 5. What are the challenges to Cirque’s continued growth and/or diversification? The challenges are to diversify in other types of products, also that the industry is turning more a business than an artistic industry and the owners do not want this to happen. Another challenge is that competition in this market is growing, and this means that Cirque du Soleil needs to be more creative than ever in order to maintain its customers.

The Importance Of Being Earnest Essay Example for Free

The Importance Of Being Earnest Essay Rather than respecting the society of the situation, Oscar Wilde mocks Victorian attitudes towards death within Act 2. How far do you agree with this view? In this coursework I will be focusing on act 2 of the play an importance of being earnest. The play consists of a mixture of several themes, one of them being death. During act 2 there are many different situations were Oscar Wide mocks Victorian attitudes towards death. This is shown in several of ways which I will discus thought this coursework. From the start of Act 2 we are able to judge the traits of the characters in much more detail and see what their character is like. During the very first conversation in the play (between Algernon and Jack) we are able to realise that the characters in the play are careless in their actions and views. This theme continues throughout the entire play, evident in the ridiculously comical and odd comments made by the characters, their odd and reserved mannerisms and their general air. The Importance of Being Earnest may seem to the audience to be a play that’s pretty much meaningless and trivialities. To follow this, the author himself described the play to be ‘a trivial comedy for several people’. More the less the comedy does contain satire which is delicate enough that most of the audience fail to recognise them. This could be seen as a weakness of the play as satire is a way that writers tend to use in order to bring a change whether in life or society. Death is acknowledged on several of occasions throughout the complete play. It is one of the main themes of the play. The way in which death is continuously presented by the characters is by their dismissive comments and spontaneous joke. The initial thought that could develop in the audience whilst realising the occurrence of death being mentioned in the play is to give it dimension as well as some dark humour encouraging death which could be considered offensive and shocking to the readers. However none the less the play also highlights and compliments the light-hearted and jokey theme that is apparent during the whole play. Bunbury is a character created by Algernon. This allows Algernon to escape social engagement. Bunbury as a whole is a person who provokes most conversations about ‘death’. This is the fictional character of Bunbury, a sickly, invalid friend. It creates conflicts between Algernon and Lady Bracknell conversations as, she seems rather offended by the fact that he keeps living, even with an illness and seems, convinced he should die out of courtesy to others. This is clearly vivid at one point when Algernon rejects to a dinner invitation in a polite manner in order to visit unwell Bunbury. During this act Lady Bracknell states, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd (Act 1, part 2). This is rather comical as most of the characters discuss death being something an individual has control over, not seeing that death is a final decision which has no coming back neither any sort of control. This is proven by the quote stated above said by Lady Bracknell. Subsequently the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest do not act in a manner that is appropriate or socially acceptable in modern time. The reason being is that their view on death as a group is extremely unsympathetic. The characters see death as an insignificant matter and they often misuse it in the play to avoid on the spot situations mainly involving interrogations. To the characters in the play death is shown less serious than other issues for example the consumption of cucumber sandwiches versus buttered bread which represented the theme homosexuality. They fail to see that death is a situation to show sorrow and sympathy for those who have happened to pass on, it is treated as no more importance and is given no value compared to the other themes in the play. There are numerous occasions where Oscar Wilde shows death being a mockery by the disvaluing attitudes of the characters. Another instance during the play which relates back to death is when Jack is asking Lady Bracknell for Gwendolens hand in marriage and she interrogates him on his past and certain aspects of his personality, this is when she asks him who his parents are and he describes to her that he was an orphan, found in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station. On hearing this statement Lady Bracknell gets very offended that a person who doesn’t know of his parents and has no clear background has come to ask her for her daughters hand in marriage. Lady Bracknell states ‘to lose both (parents) looks like carelessness, (Act one, part 2) blaming Jack himself for having been abandoned. This shows that Lady Bracknell doesn’t sympathize with the fact that he has late parents and is an orphan however is more offended due to the fact that he has come to ask for her daughter’s without a having any background status or knowledge. Overall thought the importance of Being Earnest, I believe that Oscar Wilde mainly emphasises on the act of dying being a comical theme. He clearly indicates the Victorian attitudes being very unsympathetic and mocking upon death rather than respecting the values and sobriety of the situation. The main message shown in this comedy is that people who are ill are better out of the way, and those who are orphaned are unfortunate but probably deserved it. There is no need for grieving or memorials, for those who have passed on and in fact hold no importance. This as a whole indicates that such immoral behaviour shown by someone is considered to be mentally unstable therefore it reflects on the mentalities of the characters of the play. Oscar Wilde shows a group of individuals view to be very cold and light hearted as they portray ‘death’ being just a black comedy, whereas in actual fact death is one of the most heart breaking life events.

Dolutegravir Drug for Virologic Suppression

Dolutegravir Drug for Virologic Suppression Graphical abstract: Dolutigravir, second generation integrase inhibitor: A new hope for HIV patients Geeta Yadav Mesra, Ranchi Abstract: Undeterred efforts have been made and will be made in future to make it possible for HIV-infected individuals to achieve the goals of virologic suppression and one more result of this rigrous exercise is dolutegravir drug. It is the recent integrase inhibitor approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the treatment-naà ¯ve, treatment-experienced, HIV-infected adults who have previously taken HIV therapy and also for children ages 12 years and older weighing at least 40 kilograms (kg) who are treatment-naà ¯ve or treatment-experienced but have not previously taken other integrase strand transfer inhibitors. This article has reviewed all the aspects of drug including the structural and functional analyses, in vitro activity, pharmacokinetics, drug-drug interactions, MOA, metabolism, excretion, dosing/ adverse effects and resistance profile of dolutegravir. Dolutegravir is a potent and generally well tolerated antiretroviral agent that may play an impor tant role in the treatment of patients harboring resistance to other antiretrovirals.Some new combinations of drug with other antiretrovirals are also in pipeline which may hope to increase the immunologic response of the HIV patients. Key words:Dolutegravir,  antiretroviral,  integrase inhibitor,  HIV Introduction With the use of antiretrovirals with improved potency, tolerability, and resistance profiles, people with HIV are living longer and receiving longer-term care but even after so much advancement in therapy, they are struggling with an unknown fear of death [1, 2]. So, the need for new antiretroviral agents still continues to be substantial even after more than 20 years into the era of antiretroviral therapy, which have better tolerability, higher barriers to resistance, distinct resistance profiles, and fewer drug–drug interactions. These features of desiring drug have been inspiring the scientist all over the world to develop new agents that are not only focused on traditional targets but also on new novel therapeutic targets. The development of drugs targeting on critical steps in the life cycle of HIV-1 are drug classes that include HIV-1 reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (both nucleoside analogues and non-nucleoside inhibitors), HIV-1 protease inhibitors, and HIV-1 entry inh ibitors (fusion inhibitors and CCR5 antagonists). The newest class of drugs in HIV treatment is the integrase inhibitor (INI) class. Retroviral DNA Integration with the host DNA is an essential step in the life cycle of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [3], as shown in figure 1. This integration process is facilitated by the viral integrase (IN) enzyme which catalyzes the insertion of the viral DNA into the host genome in a multistep process. The process of HIV-1 integration occurs through 3 essential steps: formation of the preintegration viral DNA complex, 3’ processing and strand transfer [4]. HIV IN recognizes and binds specific sequences in the long terminal repeats (LTRs) of the viral retrotranscribed DNA in the cytoplasm. After DNA binding, IN cleaves GT dinucleotides from the 3’ termini of the linear cDNA in a process called 3’ processing .The processed viral DNA, as part of the preintegration complex, is then translocated into the nucleus, where IN inserts the viral DNA into the host chromosome by a process called strand transfer [4-6]. Figure 1 Schematic representation of HIV integration Abbreviations: LTRs, long-term repeats; PIC, preintegration complex. Integrase inhibitors (INIs) represent a class of drugs for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals, blocking HIV genome transfer and integration into the host cell DNA [7]. In this category, first drug which got FDA approval was raltegravir (RAL) which have been found to be highly effective for the treatment of antiretroviral- naive and antiretroviral-experienced subjects and one more recent drug is elvitegravir (EVG) [8-12]. However, these first-generation INIs share common resistance pathways. During clinical studies of RAL, subjects with virologic failure and reduced RAL susceptibility typically are found to have virus with 1 of 3 signature mutational pathways (ie, N155H, Q148H/K/R, or Y143C/H/R) in the integrase gene [13]. So, continuing RAL treatment in these circumstances may lead to the addition of secondary mutations or pathways and N155H may evolve to Y143 or Q148 pathways [10]. In addition to this, EVG does not appear to have activity agains t RAL-resistant isolates and same case is with RAL [14-16]. Therefore, there is a need for an INI with a high barrier to resistance and activity in subjects with human immunodeficiency virus type. So, recent addition included in this category is Dolutegravir (DTG). This review article aims to covers all the aspects related to the dolutegravir which will help the scientists, academicians and common men to statisfy their knowledge pangs, like in vitro activity, pharmacokinetics, drug-drug interactions, MOA, metabolism, excretion, dosing/ adverse effects and resistance profile of dolutegravir as shown in figure 2, which exemplify methodology and evaluation of dolutegravir with the help of different information sources Dolutegravir (DTG) discovered by a Shionogi and GlaxoSmithKline research collaboration, is a second generation novel HIV-1 integrase strand transfer inhibitor having activity against INI resistant viruses. In addition to it, also have favorable pharmacokinetic properties [17, 18]. It is indicated for use in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 in adults and children aged 12 years and older weighing at least 40 kg. It is available as a small, yellow, 50-mg tablet. Moreover, it can be taken with or without food and at any time of the day. Structural and functional analyses of Dolutegravir (DTG) Dolutegravir (DTG, S/GSK1349572) effectively inhibits HIV-1 IN variants which are resistant to the first-generation INIs. The structural basis for the increased potency of DTG resistant INIs is that it occupies almost the same physical space within the IN active site and make contacts with the ÃŽ ²4-ÃŽ ±2 loop of the catalytic core domain. Dolutegravir molecule has been divided into three main structural parts like tricyclic metal-chelating core, difluorophenyl ring and linker group which play a significant role in its binding to the protein as shown in figure 3. Tricyclic metal-chelating core binds to the intasome active site with the three coplanar oxygen atoms coordinated to Mg2+ cations The extended linker region connecting the metal chelating core and the halobenzyl group of DTG allows it to enter farther deeper into the pocket vacated by the displaced viral DNA base and to make more intimate contacts with viral DNA [19]. Figure 3 Structural and functional analysis of Dolutegravir IN VITRO ACTIVITY Dolutegravir has shown potent in vitro activity against both wild-type HIV and many INI-resistant mutants. It has potential for a higher genetic barrier to resistance. Dolutegravir has shown potent in vitro activity against HIV-1, with mean EC50 values of 0.5 nM (0.21 ng/mL) to 2.1 nM (0.85 ng/mL), IC50 of 2.7 nM and an IC90 of 2.0 nM in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and MT-4 cells. It also shows activity against HIV-2 virus with EC50 of 0.09 nM to 0.61 nM in PBMC assays. Cellular toxicity is also in the micromolar range for a variety of cell types, indicating that the observed antiviral effect of S/GSK1349572 are not due to cytotoxicity. S/GSK1349572 shows potency against all integrase- resistant single mutants with an FC as high as 3.6-fold. In the presence of S/GSK1349572 no virus with high resistance to S/GSK1349572 was observed with 32 nM or higher concentrations of S/GSK1349572 in the culture medium. In vitro experimental studies reported that dolutegravir does not cause toxicity when used in combination, but had a synergistic effect with nevirapine, efavirenz, abacavir, stavudine, lopinavir, amprenavir, and enfuvirtide, as well as an additive effect when only used in combination with maraviroc. Efficacy of dolutegravir is also not affected on exposure to the adefovir and ribavirin [20]. Pharmacokinetics Dolutegravir has a favourable pharmacokinetic profile without requirement of boosters and its terminal half-life is approximately 13–15 h [21, 22]. AUC0–24h and Cmax values are slightly less than the dose in the range of 2–50mg following single and multiple doses. One noteable change is the nonlinearness in Cmax and AUC with the increase in dose, So, a twice-daily 50mg regimen has been evaluated in the phase 3 ARV-experienced clinical trial rather than a once-daily 100mg dose [22-24]. The geometric mean steady-state concentration at the end of the dosing interval (Ctau) for a 50 mg dose was reported to be 1.6 ÃŽ ¼g/mL, which was approximately 25-fold higher than the protein-adjusted IC90 (0.064 ÃŽ ¼g/mL). A monotherapy study of, 10 days of dolutegravir 50mg daily dose in integrase inhibitor naà ¯ve HIV-1-infected adults demonstrated a 2.48 mean log10 reduction in HIV-1 RNA. This reduction was sustained for 4 days after discontinuation of dolutegravir only becoz of plasma concentrations which remained above the protein adjusted IC90. Overall, variability in exposure was minimal: 50 mg dosing to steady-state conditions achieved a geometric mean Cmax of 3.34 mg/ml (16% coefficient of variation), an AUC0–24h of 43.4 mg_h/ml (20% coefficient of variation), a t1/2 of 12.0 h (22% coefficient of variation) and a C24h of 0.83 mg/ml (26% coefficient of variation) [22]. A pediatric granule formulation of dolutegravir is currently in development. Preliminary data investigation reported that granules mixed in purified water have increased exposure compared with the tablet formulation with a geometric least-squares mean ratio (90% CI) for AUC0-inf of 1.57 (1.45–1.69) [23]. Drug–drug interactions Dolutegravir pharmacokinetics has been evaluated in a single-dose crossover study for the effect of food and found that its absorption is modestly increased with food according to fat content [24]. Fat content affects the absorption of dolutegravir as noticed by the increased median Tmax from 2h to 3, 4, and 5h for low-fat, moderate-fat, and high-fat meals, respectively. Whereas dolutegravir AUC increased from 33 to 66% when administered with low-fat (300 kcal, 7% fat), moderate fat (600 kcal, 30% fat) and high fat food (870 kcal, 53% fat), respectively. [22, 24]. But these changes are not expected to affect safety or efficacy, So, dolutegravir can be dosed without regard to food. Dolutegravir causes drug-drug interactions with integrase inhibitors and some other drugs which is shown in Table 2. Table 2. Dolutegravir (DTG) drug interaction with integrase inhibitors and other category drugs S.No Interacting drug class Interacting drug Effect on dolutegravir 1 Antiretrovirals NRTIs Tenofovir No significant effect observed[25] 2 Antiretrovirals NNRTIs Efavirenz DTG AUC, Cmax, and Cmin decreased 57, 39, and 75% [26] Etravirine DTG AUC, Cmax, and Cmin decreased 70.6, 51.6, and 87.9%. [27] ETR/DRV/r administration results in 25, 11.8, and37.1% decreases in DTG AUC, Cmax, and Cmin ETR/LPV/r administration results in 11, 7, and 28% increases in DTG AUC, Cmax, and Cmin [27] 3 Antiretrovirals PIs Darunavir/r DTG AUC, Cmax, and Cmin decreased 22, 11, and 38% [28] Atazanavir DTG AUC, Cmax, and Cmin increased 91, 50, and 180% [29] Lopinavir/r No significant effect observed [28] Fosamprenavir DTG AUC, Cmax, and Cmin decreased 35, 24, and 49% [30] Tipranavir DTG AUC, Cmax, and Cmin decreased 59, 46, and 76% [26] 4 Antituberculosis drugs Rifampin DTG AUC and Cmin increased 33 and 22% with DTG 50mg b.i.d.+ rifampin 600mg q.d. compared with DTG 50mg daily [31] Rifabutin DTG AUC and Cmin decreased 5 and 30%, Cmax increased 15 % [32] 5 Acid-reducing agents- PPIs/H2 RA Omeprazole No significant effect observed [33] Antacids DTG AUC, Cmax, and Cmin decreased 73.6, 72.4, and 74.4% [33] DTG, Dolutegravir; ETR, Etravirine; EVG, Elvitegravir; LPV, Lopinavir; NNRTI, Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor; NRTI, Nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor; PI, Protease Inhibitor; PPI, Proton pump inhibitor; r, Ritonavir; RAL, Raltegravir. Mechanism of Action Dolutegravir inhibits HIV integrase by binding to the integrase active site and blocking the strand transfer step of retroviral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) integration which is essential for the HIV replication cycle as demonstrated in Figure 4. In this process, the integrase inhibitor chelate with the two Mg2+ ions in the integrase catalytic active site, unable the integrase enzyme to complete the strand transfer [21]. Inhibition of the integrase strand transfer reaction by DTG has been confirmed in studies with live virus, which demonstrated an accumulation of 2- long terminal repeat (2-LTR) circles in treated cells at DTG concentrations Figure 4. Mechanism of action of DTG Metabolism/Excretion Dolutegravir metabolism occurs through CYP3A4 (UGT1A1 glucuronidation) a major pathway while UGT1A3 and UGT1A9 are only minor pathways, which is catalysed by UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) 1A1 enzyme. In vitro studies reported that it is not a cytochrome P450 (CYP) inducer and neither an inhibitor. However, dolutegravir is an OCT2 inhibitor [21, 36]. Dolutegravir is also a substrate of UGT1A3, UGT1A9, BCRP, and P-gp in vitro [37]. It is the predominant circulating compound in plasma and the renal elimination of unchanged drug is extremely low ( Figure 5. Metabolic pathway of dolutegravir Dose/Adverse effects Dolutegravir tablets are usually taken unboosted, orally and without regard to food [39]. Different dose combination studies with other drugs are reported to be performed to find the best combination with high resistance barrier as shown in table1. The most common adverse effects reported to be associated with dolutegravir Phase III SPRING-2 trial were nausea, headache, nasophryngitis, diarrhea and also a slight increase in creatinine level due to inhibition of creatinine secretion; however, dolutegravir had no effect on glomerular filtration rate [47, 48]. Some common drug -related adverse events were also notified during Phase III VIKING-3 trial in treatment-experienced subjects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache [49]. S.No Phase study Patients Dolutegravir vs other drug combinatons 1 Phase III SPRING-2 Study Treatment naà ¯ve Dolutegravir 50 mg once daily versus raltegravir 400 mg twice daily, each in combination with either tenofovir DF/emtricitabine (Truvada) or abacavir/lamivudine (Epzicom) 40 2 Phase III SINGLE Study Treatment naà ¯ve Dolutegravir 50 mg in combination with abacavir/lamivudine (Epzicom) once daily versus tenofovir DF/emtricitabine/ efavirenz (Atripla) once daily41 3 Phase III SAILING Study Treatment experienced, integrase inhibitor-naà ¯ve Dolutegravir 50 mg once daily versus raltegravir 400 mg twice daily, each in combination with background therapy42 4 Phase III VIKING-3 Study Treatment-experienced with previous or current failure on raltegravir or elvitegravir Open-label dolutegravir 50 mg twice daily with current failing background regimen for 7 days, then with an optimized background regimen43 5 Phase III VIKING-4 Study Treatment-experienced with virus resistant to raltegravir and/ or elvitegravir at screening Dolutegravir 50 mg twice daily versus placebo , each in combination with current failing background regimen for 7 days, then with open-label dolutegravir 50 mg twice daily in combination with an optimized background regimen for both arms44 6 Combination under study A fixed-dose combination (FDC) tablet (dolutegravir 50 mg abacavir 600 mg/lamivudine 300 mg) and a dolutegravir pediatric granule45,46 Resistance Dolutegravir (DTG) have been found to have a higher genetic barrier to resistance than raltegravir and elvitegravir [50]. Primary integrase resistance mutations associated with dolutegravir have not yet been identified. But viruses containing G140S, E138K, R148H, R263K, and G140S/Q148HRK mutations may show some level of resistance to dolutegravir. [50,39]. Raltegravir-resistant virus carrying a mutation at position Q148 had more reduced susceptibility to dolutegravir than isolates with other raltegravir mutations [51]. In vitro selection studies reported R263K mutation which commonly emerges in integrase in the presence of dolutegravir. R263K confers low-level resistance against dolutegravir and diminishes HIV DNA integration and viral fitness and no secondary mutation H51Y and E138K has been shown to compensate for the defects associated with the R263K primary resistance mutation against dolutegravir. All secondary mutations have a modest effect on resistance against this drug [52, 53]. Future of dolutegravir ViiV Healthcare has requested US regulatory for the approval of a new single-tablet regimen (STR) containing dolutegravir, abacavir and lamivudine. A European regulatory application has also been submitted, according to the company. This combination, taken as separate pills, worked well in the aforementioned trials. If approved, the new co-formulation will offer the first one-pill, once-daily regimen that does not contain tenofovir/emtricitabine and could be particularly beneficial for people with, or at risk for, kidney disease or osteoporosis. Results from the primary analysis, presented at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) also reported that 90% of people taking dolutegravir and 83% taking darunavir/ritonavir achieved undetectable viral load in a snapshot analysis, with dolutegravir meeting the criteria for statistical superiority. Based on these findings the researchers concluded that dolutegravir provide a potent and well-tolerated new option for first-line HIV treatment [54]. Conclusion HIV-1 integrase is a unique target for antiretroviral therapy. Dolutegravir, a once-daily HIV strand integrase inhibitor currently approved for HIV-1 infected patients, provides at least equivalent antiviral efficacy and better tolerability compared with approved antiretroviral drugs. Efforts are ongoing for the approval of new single-tablet regimen (STR) containing dolutegravir, abacavir and lamivudine and also it would minimize the number of pills required for effective and acceptable antiretroviral treatment. Because of its unique mechanism of action, demonstrated virologic activity, resistance profile and tolerability, it is a significant advancement in HIV-1 therapeutics which will help HIV patients in long run.

Drinking Alcohol Essay example -- Papers

Drinking Alcohol Alcohol can and does kill millions of people. It can effect your brain and make you shake, lose all your senses, and kill off your brain cells. It also can cause your liver to deteriorate and not function properly. Liver transplants are hard to come by and do not happen often, if your liver goes out you do not have many chances of living much longer. You could also choke on your puke and die. Drinking too much alcohol can kill you, but millions of people consume mass amounts daily. College students drink and party a great amount. The average student drinks at least three nights a week and that is the weekend. Most sororities and fraternities encourage drinking. The fraternities make their pledges drink and the kids love it. It makes them loosen up and have a good time meeting new people. Drinking is also a good way for students who do not know anybody to meet new people and feel more comfortable when they go into an unfamiliar place with a lot of strangers around. When someone is drunk they feel more comfortable and able to talk to random people they do not know and have a good time. Once someone becomes familiar with certain people or just being drunk around strangers, it becomes a habit and that is when school work starts to not be important anymore. Students who drink start to stop attending classes because they are hung-over, tired because they did not go to bed, or just do not feel like going because they would like to start drinking again. The! re are those who can drink every night of the week and still go to class, do their homework, and keep their grades up. Those who can do that are very rare and end up eventually stop being able to do it anymore and fail out of school. It is not very hard for... ...time where there was a lot going on and had many opportunities to drink. I am going to settle down for a while and become a book worm. I have on midterm this week on two next tuesday so it is time to focus on my work. Alcohol is something that many people consume. Some can handle it, and others do not know how to control it and it controls them. I know that I drink, but I know that it will not become a habit and I have it under control. I feel bad for people who are alcoholics and can not control their drinking. The worst is an alcoholic who does not think they have a problem. I just wish those who did drink could sit down have a couple and be happy. A lot of people get drunk and violent. I have friends who have broken many things and hurt a lot of people just because they were drunk and everyone let it go because of it. Alcohol can be fun when it is used wisely.

The Beginning of a Never Ending Conflict :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Today, Christianity is filled with different denominations. Each denomination differs in opinion in certain areas. The origin of the differences in Christianity dates back to the Roman Empire when Christianity was developed. The Roman Empire was primarily polytheistic and people in the empire were expected to conform and bow down to all Roman gods. Judaism was the first religion to claim that there was only one God, a strictly monotheistic view. Despite Roman expectations of conformation, Judaism was not seen as a threat to the empire and Jews practiced their religion with minimal persecution. On the other hand, Christianity (also monotheistic) was seen as a threat to the success and continuation of the empire mainly because of Jesus Christ and His teachings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first followers of Christ were Jews. Non-Jewish followers, called Gentiles (Wiesner pg. 67), created an argument of whether or not they should conform to Judaism. A direct result of that argument was the separation of Jews and Gentiles, and the development of Christianity. Christianity was based on the lessons of Jesus, but there was initial diversity in the ideas of the Gentile followers. The Apostle’s transformed initial diversity in Christianity into a definite split between orthodoxy (truth) and heresy (false) by institutionalizing the orthodoxy in the Apostolic Creed, the Church, and the Apostolic Tradition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The orthodoxy of the Creed, written by the Apostles, played a very large role in separating â€Å"true† ideas from heresies because it displayed definite answers to conflicting ideas. Among the conflicting ideas of the era, the Creed addressed four major concepts and declared them as orthodox. Gnostic thinkers such as Saturnius and Marcion declared that God did not create the world; and that Jesus was not the Son of God. Saturnius, affirmed that there was a Father who made seven angels, and â€Å"the world, and all things therein, was made by [those] certain angels...† (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, pg. 78). He also claimed that, â€Å"Jesus was not born of a virgin but was the son of Joseph and Mary, like other men...† (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, pg. 79). Marcion denied God the credit of creating the universe by â€Å"removing the teachings of the Lord wherein he is most manifestly described as acknowledged the maker of this universe to be Hi s Father† in both Luke and the Epistle’s of Paul. The very first sentence of the Creed addresses those two viewpoints. It declared that God created the universe, and that Jesus is the Son of God.

Islam and Gender Equality in Turkey Essay -- Islam

Unlike its other Islamic neighbors, Turkey abolished Sharia law and became a secular nation in the 1920s. As a result, women in Turkey had rights and freedoms not enjoyed by women in any other predominantly Islamic country (Arat 870). The first president of the newly transformed country was named Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who wore western-style clothing. Though Turkey was secular, it was not democratic, as one party ruled (Arat 870). By the 1950s things began to change again as Turkey transitioned to a multi-party system and the Islamists began to campaign more loudly and publicly for the right to practice their faith in public (Arat 871). Turkey has attempted to move toward a two party, more European type of system, or as one article terms it â€Å"Blairism† in reference to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, since the 1990s (CoÅŸar & Ãâ€"zman 234). But its history and predominant Islamist religious tradition is always present as a backdrop, exerting an influence, which has ebbed and flowed over the years. Because of its history and religious background, Turkey, which sits literally, figuratively, and philosophically, like a bridge between Europe and the Middle East, has something of a dual personality. In particular, unlike many of its European neighbors, the voices of women face more of a struggle to be heard in the political cacophony. Turkey is in a unique position of straddling the West and the Middle East, and its cultural pendulum has swung wildly between the two disparate cultures. At any given moment, a significant number of women in Turkey are in the position of feeling as if their rights are being curtailed, whether the country is in a more secular or Islamic phase. As detailed in the articles examined, when Turkey is se... ...other nations with two very divergent cultural traditions in recent years. The gulf between the Republican and Democratic parties in the US or even the different world views of evangelical Christians as opposed to those who practice mainstream or even no religion in the US looks much smaller when compared with the diversity between the two politically dominant cultures in Turkey. â€Æ' Works Cited Arat, Yesim. â€Å"Religion, Politics and Gender Equality in Turkey: implications of a democratic paradox?† Third World Quarterly 31.6 (2010): 869-884. Print. Turam, Berna. â€Å"Turkish Women Divided by Politics.† International Feminist Journal of Politics 10.4 (2008): 475-494. Print. CoÅŸar, Simten, and Aylin Ãâ€"zman. "Representation Problems of Social Democracy in Turkey." Journal of Third World Studies 25.1 (2008): 233-252. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

Business Essay

Convenience Internet marketing enables you to be open for business around the clock without worrying about store opening hours or overtime payments for staff. Offering your products on the Internet is also convenient for customers. They can browse your online store at any time and place orders when it is convenient for them. Reach By marketing on the Internet, you can overcome barriers of distance. You can sell goods in any part of the country without setting up local outlets, widening your target market. You can also build an export business without opening a network of distributors in different countries. However, if you want to sell internationally, you should use localization services to ensure that your products are suitable for local markets and comply with local business regulations. Localization services include translation and product modification to reflect local market differences. Cost Marketing products on the Internet costs less than marketing them through a physical retail outlet. You do not have the recurring costs of property rental and maintenance. You do not have to purchase stock for display in a store. You can order stock in line with demand, keeping your inventory costs low. Personalization Internet marketing enables you to personalize offers to customers by building a profile of their purchasing history and preferences. By tracking the web pages and product information that prospects visit, you can make targeted offers that reflect their interests. The information available from tracking website visits also provides data for planning cross-selling campaigns so that you can increase the value of sales by customer. Relationships The Internet provides an important platform for building relationships with customers and increasing customer retention levels. When a customer has purchased a product from your online store, you can begin the relationship by sending a follow-up email to confirm the transaction and thank the customer. Emailing customers regularly with special, personalized offers helps to maintain the relationship. You can also invite customers to submit product reviews on your website, helping to build a sense of community. Social Internet marketing enables you to take advantage of the growing importance of social media. An article on the Harvard Business School Executive Education website highlighted the link between social networking and online revenue growth. According to the article, a group of consumers that responded most strongly to the influence of social networks generated increased sales of around 5 percent. You can take advantage of this type of influence by incorporating social networking tools in your Internet marketing campaigns.

Family Expecations Essay

I have found that family expectations are both problematic as well as helpful as I have grown and matured.   My family’s expectations revolve around our shared histories and aspirations as well as their perceptions of what I might be successful at or enjoy in life.   On the other hand, my life outside of my family has developed to a point where I gain encouragement and confirmation about my abilities and projections from other sources, such as my peers, my work, and through socializing. My ultimate priorities are up to me and only I can determine whether or not I am meeting my expectations no matter what my family believes.   That being said, pressures and expectations from my family has helped me to identify certain paths that I might prove successful for me in the long term.   My family usually has my best intentions in mind when they discuss their expectations for me and that can be a comforting and confidence inspiring motivation.   Additionally, if I have doubts about meeting my expectations, my family is there to advise me on what they feel I should or should not be doing in a particular situation based on their wisdom and previous experiences. In contrast, I often feel that my family’s expectations for me are based around what they knew of me as a younger adult or child.   Instead of asking me about my current goals and projects, often times they will revert back to telling me what my dreams were as a kid, or even worse, what dreams they had for me when I was a kid.   I understand that they are trying to be optimistic and positive influences on me, but at the same time I have grown up outside of my family and have created new ideas and goals for my future; not the necessarily the future that they always have had envisioned for me. Prioritizing family expectations is a balancing act for me because I want to make my family proud while at the same time living life according to my own principles.   This can be a difficult terrain to traverse, but ultimately it leads to more open and honest discussions about the best way to live life.   In our family, these discussions can at times become heated, but they are always interesting and we come out of them with newfound respect and hopes for the future. I have found that sometimes not living up to family expectations has been the most fruitful decisions I have personally made in my life.   Making my own choices and following my dreams in spite of my family’s expectations has paid off.   My family is proud of me for having the courage and the ambition to follow through on what I believe in.   If that is in fact their ultimate expectation for me, then I have found the balance necessary to surpass those expectations in the face of all obstacles.

Lily’s Fulfillment of the Hero’s Journey Essay

The classic story line of the hero’s journey can be recognized in almost every book, movie, or short story written. Even in some stories that would not be that obvious, such as the historical fiction novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Although not very recognizable two out of the three main stages of the hero’s journey are departure and initiation. These are apparent through out Lily’s journey to find herself and her mother’s history. The third main stage, return, is not as apparent in the novel. Departure, the first stage of the hero’s journey, is portrayed in Kidd’s historical fiction novel. This stage includes meeting the mentor, the call to adventure, and crossing the first threshold. Lily’s mentors through out the story are the bees. She goes back to them as a source of knowledge because she feels they have life figured out. The call to adventure happens when Lily realizes the only way to find answers for her many questions about her mother is to leave and search for them. â€Å"Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open. In a matter of seconds I knew exactly what I had to do- leave†(Kidd 41). Crossing the first threshold occurs after Lily’s realization. When she packs a bag leaving a note for T-Ray, her abusive father, and going to the hospital to get Rosaleen. The second stage, the initiation, takes place through most of the story and explains all of Lily’s trials to find herself and information about her mother. Through out Lily’s journey to find information about her mother, she encounters many hardships that help her mature and find herself. One of the biggest advances of her finding herself and maturing is when she falls in love with Zach. â€Å"Zachary Lincoln Taylor, resting there, along my heart.†(Kidd 231). This quote shows her feelings towards Zach and how much she cares about him. Although some trials created joy others created sorrow. â€Å"I looked away. I knew then. May was dead.†(Kidd 193) These three sentences make what happened really prominent and it enhances dread and sadness. Another example of a hardship Lily has to go through is when T-Ray comes to Tiburon to get Lily back and bring her home. â€Å"How dare you leave me! You need a lesson, is what you need!†(Kidd 294). This quote increases the understanding of T-Rays anger at Lily for leaving him. Lily’s hardships all affected her either positively or negatively. The third and final stage of the hero’s journey, return, is not as visible in this novel as the other stages. The return stage includes the refusal of the return. Although Lily refuses to go back to the peach farm with T-Ray, this is not a refusal to return to her ordinary world. Lily’s ordinary world is at the honey farm with August, June, and Rosaleen. Because Lily’s ordinary world is at the honey farm she doesn’t need to return to Sylvan, South Carolina. The step the master of the two worlds, where the character has become comfortable with themselves and everyone around them, is shown. At the end of the book Lil has come to accept the fact that she killed her mother. Also she has matured and found herself through out all of the trials she has gone through. The story line of the hero’s journey follows Lily Owens through her journey to find herself and information about her mother. The three stages she follows are departure, initiation, and although not as apparent return. After completing the hero’s journey she is now able to go on with her.