The Last Juror :: essays research papers

The Last Juror by John Grisham 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"From day one she was intimidated by me because I was from Memphis and had gone to school up North for five years. I was careful not to wear my Ivy Leagueness on my shoulder, but at the same time I wanted these rural Mississippians to know that I had been superbly educated. (page 10)† There are two literary elements that could be categorized in this excerpt. I think that John Grisham highlights his use of satire very vividly early on in the book. He is placing a reasonable amount of underestimation upon a southerner’s overall intelligence. Simply because he was educated â€Å"up North† he feels he is worthy of a higher ranking. Although the character says he does not want to â€Å"wear† his Ivy League education for all to adore, he most certainly wants it known that his education was among the best one could buy. The second literary element is setting. Although it does not give descriptive geographical characteristics, we can get a sense of the Mississippi vibe. Depending on whether a reader is from the North or the South, some type of connection to their homeland can be made. We have a northerner experiencing, and reminiscing rather keenly, the way in which he first experienced his own dose of southern comfort. The object that I chose to corr elate with this particular excerpt was an Ivy League diploma. Although our main character, William Traynor, is geographically located in the south, mentally he still feels connected to the North and the education he received from it. This diploma would be brought with him as a constant reminder of who he is as an individual and the prideful attitude he possesses. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I marveled once again at the backwardness of Mississippi. ‘Still fightin’ the War,’ was a slogan I’d heard several times in Ford County (page 47).† Although there a numerous literary terms that could be applied to this excerpt, followed by extensive reflection on the true backwardness of the state of Mississippi at this time, I would like to focus mainly on the theme represented here. Looking deep into the story many themes regarding the will to succeed, morals, and racism all arise yet an overall theme that can be collected stems all the way back to the Civil War. The major theme that is constantly radiated from the pages of John Grisham’s story is the diversity between the North and the South.

Psychology as a Science Essay

According to Russell & Jarvis(2003: 469) â€Å"the word ‘science’ comes from the Latin word ‘scire’, meaning ‘to know'†; thus it is the knowledge of specific study. Psychology was defined by Atkinson et al. (2000: 3, cited by Mestre. et al. 2002: 811) as the â€Å"scientific study of behaviour and mental processes†. Psychology has been universally recognised as a science since the late 1800’s when James (1890, cited by Gross 1999: 3) stated that ‘Psychology is the Science of Mental Life†. Though many praise the study of psychology for it’s findings and achievements there will always be those who are sceptical of these findings and whether or not they can be seen as ‘solid’. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) is widely seen as the ‘founding father’ of ‘new psychology’, in which we mean psychology as a separate scientific discipline, rather than it had been previously; a part of philosophy. Wundt created ‘structuralism’, this is the study of the mind by breaking all chains of thought down in to such things as images, feelings and sensations, for example, if one were to think of chocolate, one may picture the bar, have a feeling of desire for the bar which may produce the sensation of hunger. By studying the conscious mind using introspection he would record the results of his studies, these would be performed under controlled conditions, by which we mean no outside interferences or influences. However, his methods were heavily criticised as it only studied conscious processes, he was also very select in whom he selected for these tests, children and the mentally disturbed for example, were not considered for his studies as he believed they could not use introspection to a successful degree. Thus, introspection cannot be considered a scientific study as it does not aim to discover the mental processes for all humans; it does not allow for generalisation as not all possible subjects have been tested. There are many arguments for and against psychology as a science, let us focus on the arguments for psychology first. Classical and operant conditioning are still widely used on various different subjects, classical (or ‘Pavlovian’) conditioning is the method of teaching a response when a conditional stimulus is in place, for example the study of Pavlov’s dog – the dog was trained to salivate at the sound of a bell, this study was performed under lab conditions and therefore in a controlled environment in which and influences could be eradicated, this was fully testable and as proposed by Popper(1969, cited by Russell & Jarvis 2003: 469) â€Å"a theory or hypothesis needs to be fully testable to be scientific†. This method of conditioning is used in every day society, for example, though when young, one is never told that during ‘play time’ if a teacher or someone of authority blows a whistle one is meant immediately to stop what he or she is doing, it is a natural reaction to pay attention to the person whom commanded the attention and, in a case of a teacher/student situation, follow their instructions. Operant conditioning also follows the proposal that Popper suggested as it is used every day, when teaching an animal or human, whether they be an adult or a child. For example, operant conditioning is used when teaching a pet a new trick such as sitting down or shaking hands, the pet is initially guided in what it is supposed to do by it’s owner, then treated after the act as been performed, over time the pet will ‘learn’ that if it obeys the command of â€Å"sit† then it will be rewarded, though it is no longer necessary to reward the animal after every completion of the command, instead rewarding it every now and then. This was also found in Skinner’s box, in which the rat learnt to press a lever in order to receive a food pellet, psychologists would therefore argue that both of these methods of conditioning are considered objective studies which provide clear findings. Popper also argued that in order for a hypothesis or theory to be considered scientific it must be falsifiable, in practise this means that for the study to be valid there must also be subjects which prove the study to be false. For example, to say that â€Å"all lions are mammals† would not be falsifiable, as it would be impossible to conduct the amount of study necessary to disprove this theory, however, to say â€Å"all lions have yellow fur†, it would only be necessary to find one lion with brown fur in order to prove this falsifiable, Popper(1959, cited by Hill 2009: 19) argued that â€Å"science advances through refutation rather than support†. Psychology, namely the biological approach, has been helped through the advancements in technology, for example, now it is possible to use medical equipments to see the functions of the brain via electrical pulses, though obviously this does not give us an image of what someone is thinking it does provide us with information as to which different triggers the varying reactions which until recently we have not been able to understand, obviously, this provides us with clear findings. Until the 1950s, Behaviourism dominated psychological experimentation as psychologists such as John Watson believed that only observable behaviour should be investigated if psychology wished to be considered an objective science. Thus, though psychology may not have directly effected the advances in technology the benefit it has seen from these advances are clear, it is now possible for psychologists to view the workings of the brain through the advances in other areas of science, therefore this can only inflate psychology’s status as a separate scientific discipline. Despite the arguments for psychology to be considered a science there are, of course, those that believe it should not. Those who are against the idea of psychology as a science believe there are many issues surrounding areas of psychology and the methods of investigation it carries out, one area of concern is that of sampling; random, stratified, opportunity, self-selecting/volunteer. The first in the above list, random sampling, is very rarely used, or at least it is very rare that it can be considered ‘true’; â€Å"true random sampling only occurs when every member of a target population has an equal chance of being selected† (Hill, 2009: 35), this is rarely the case as in a large target audience, in order for everyone to have an equal chance there would be a severe drain on the available resources so that the list could be compiled; many studies do not have the funding or resources available to them to waste on said list, so a truly random list of subjects is rarely achieved. Stratified sampling provides the same constraints on resources as random sampling; it is very time consuming and costly, this is due to the method that is used in order to perform stratified sampling – dividing the target population in to various subcategories then selecting members of these subcategories in to the proportion necessary to conduct the relevant research. Opportunity and self-selecting methods of sampling both provide problems in terms of bias, though from different perspectives. In terms of opportunity sampling not only does it give unrepresentative samples it is often biased on the part of the researcher, whom may pick people to take part in their study whom they believe will be more ‘helpful’ to his or her hypothesis.

The concept of hegemony - Politics Dissertations - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 13 Words: 4029 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? The concept of hegemony is notoriously difficult to quantify both in concrete political terms and in a less tangible philosophical manner. Moreover, in a world increasingly divided upon religious as opposed to ideological lines, the concept of hegemony has suffered from a certain crisis of relevance whereby it would seem that the preponderance of resources has indeed become the central precept for the paradigm per se; whereby, furthermore, economic and cultural imperialism have united to ensure the dominance of one geo political system within the international order in the vacuum created by the dissolution of ideology and the triumph of multi national capitalism. Yet all is not quite as it seems in the modern international sphere. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The concept of hegemony Politics Dissertations" essay for you Create order Current events have a distinctly repetitive feel but, at the same time, the international relations landscape is changing and re configuring its boundaries with such rapidity and vigour that definitions and sweeping statements are deemed, correctly, to be out of place concerning any particular sphere of international relations. Certainly, the broader subject of hegemony and inter state communication is of utmost importance in the comprehension of the new world order, though keeping track of new theories is an essentially difficult, contradictory experience, particularly at the dawn of the twenty first century. As Benno Teschke (2003:1) explains in the opening chapter of his book, The Myth of 1648, the entire subject of contemporary international relations theory is in a constant state of flux, inspired by the death of the nation state and the advent of post modernity. The classical Westphalian system, rooted in the primacy of the modern, territorially bounded sovereign state, is being replaced by a post territorial, post modern global order. The old logic of geopolitical security is being subordinated to geo economics, multi level global governance, or the demands of a multi actor international civil society. A fundamental transformation in the structure of the international system and its rules of conflict and co operation is unfolding before our eyes. For the purposes of the essay, it will be necessary to analyse the concept of hegemony from its origins to see how it has evolved over time and where its relevance might lie within todays post structuralist society, taking a chronological view so as to see how its conceptual meaning has altered along the way. It will likewise be necessary to examine international economic realities and histories as well as political instances of hegemony to highlight the essential duality between continuity and change in other words, how the past might help us to better understand the present and the future, yet also how the current world order presents unique problems that were of no relevance in the past, which necessarily makes an overall academic judgement more problematic. First a definition of hegemony must be attempted. Within the context of this essay, it is extremely important to comprehend the inherently different strands of hegemony: political, military, economic and cultural. Even more noteworthy is the general interchange that is apparent between the above factors politics merges with economics and military helps to define any given national culture, which, in turn, means that hegemony is very difficult to quantify in the essentially narrow conceptual terms of simply a preponderance of resources. It will be shown that, throughout recorded history, nations and states have used a combination of factors to control other states, all designed to increase the security of the region and underwrite the strength of the dominant geo political power. Each nation and state that has enjoyed a period of relative dominance has chosen, either through external circumstances that have been thrust upon the rulers or via a conscious, calculated ideological choice , to use one of the above themes of hegemony to perpetuate its power base. When a group of people takes control over the fate of another it is never via only one of the above strands political, military, economic or cultural. Rather, there always exists a concoction of more than one of the dominant conceptual themes to achieve the sum of hegemony and though much has changed throughout the course of history, this central precept remains difficult to ignore. The key player in any discussion pertaining to hegemony and the preponderance of resources has to be the state. Certainly, as far as G. John Ikenberry (1986:53) is concerned, the interaction between any given domestic and international political economy has always been at the epicentre of international relations theory and the comprehension of the rule of empire and state elites lies in understanding the ultimate power that the state has always possessed. As administrative and coercive organisations, states are embedded in complex political and economic environments and have a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Although they vary considerably, they have several elements in common. All states make exclusive claims to the coercive and juridical control of particular territories, and they also make special claims to the definition and representation of broad national interests. In conceptual terms, hegemony is best understood as the expression of societys ruling classes over the majority of the nation or state over whom they propose to rule. Gramsci (1971:328), the interwar international relations academic and political prisoner who spent his final years behind bars in Mussolinis Italy, describes hegemony as, a conception of the world that is implicitly manifest in art, in law, in economic activity and in all manifestations of individual and collective life. Gramsci here describes cultural hegemony, which was of particular relevance when he was writing in the 1930s, in a world that was dominated by ideological concerns. This type of hegemony and cultural control is a constant political reality that has been a feature of culture and society since the first recorded migrations of man. Never has hegemony as an ideal simply been confined to the realms of natural resources and economic might; it has always been an intangible equation of political power expressed through the elite of any particular nation, state or empire. The much celebrated Athenians, for example, made hegemony an everyday feature of the ancient world, whereby people were defined via their status within the broader Greek political and cultural hierarchy. The Greeks underscored their cultural ideal of hegemony with language and politics, especially the concept of citizenship, which remains a key feature in the study of political and cultural hegemony today. The United States today uses its visa system, for example, to differentiate between alien visitors from within the wider plates of the hegemony that it has created. In the ancient world, Plato and Aristotle grouped the various bands of hegemony together to form what they saw as civilisation. Therefore, to be an Athenian Greek was to be a civilised member of the hegemony of the nascent nation state; to be a barbarian was to be an uncivilised member of the outposts of society, the parts where hegemony had hitherto failed to penetrate as a paradigm and as a cultural and economic force. This phenomenon has since been mirrored in the twenty first century with President Bushs with us or against us stance to global terrorism, where hegemony is once again used as the primary force in the perpetuation of the dominant military, political and economic power of the epoch. Ancient cultures used the acquisition of foreign resources to underline their superior military and cultural power, although it should be noted that the technology and logistics did not then exist to ensure the movement of goods and services across inter state borders so that the preponderance of resources could not become the only outlet of hegemony as a concept. The Middle East trade route, for instance, remained a largely autonomous cultural, political and economic region in spite of the combined power of the Greek and Roman Empires, curtailing efforts at building an Empire from the sole premise of a sound economic base. Therefore, in the ancient world, hegemony meant much more than a preponderance of resources. It implied tangible political and citizenry rights and access to a pre defined status quo that was welded by the elite members of the state and continually updated and re defined by the men and women who had access to power within the machinations of the state. Indeed, the central role of the human actors within the state system remain as relevant today as they were in the ancient world and to dismiss their relevance as secondary to the preponderance of resources would be to misinterpret the dynamics of inter state governance. Individual diplomats, ministers, parties and politics will always have a bearing on the future of both international relations as well as the concept of hegemony where economic resources are only one factor in a much larger pyramid of political and economic concerns. It thus becomes apparent that hegemony must co exist with the broader notion of empire, which is itself constructed upon the solid foundations of economic dynamism garnered through the procurement of resources. The notion of empire altered irrevocably during the dawn of modern history where industrialisation proved to be the catalyst for the significant, seismic shift in the view of hegemony as cultural, economic and political benchmark. The nineteenth century was indeed a watershed in terms of the re drawing of the conceptual parameters of hegemony. The Victorian era saw the traditional European empires of France, Belgium, Britain and Germany use their vast military and economic superiority to carve up the undeveloped world amongst each other with the procurement of raw materials and economic resources utilised as the main motivation for extra territorial action. Without doubt, it is at this juncture in world history that the preponderance of resources becomes the pre eminent factor in the power of hegemony and cultural imperialism. The Scramble for Africa, for instance, constituted a devouring of the worlds finest natural resources and raw materials; resources that were unavailable in Europe were discovered in seemingly endless abundance in Africa and the poor political and social infrastructure of the indigenous tribes meant that, militarily, it was a case of simply buying off the key local decision makers and men of influence to ensure European preponderance of locally based economic wealth. Furthermore, unlike the false promise of El Dorado that hampered the conquistadores in Latin America, the lure of previously unimaginable wealth in Africa was the determining factor behind the unprecedented and swift carving up of the African continent. The impulse for hegemony, in this instance, was therefore the possibility of individual accumulation of economic empire as well as the broader national acquisition of another nations indigenous wealth. Charles Tilly (1985:172) explains how the extraction of resources from local producers and traders in Africa was the most important development for the edification of European hegemony in the undeveloped world and for the structure of the contemporary world order today. The quest inevitably involved them in establishing regular access to capitalists who could supply and arrange credit, and to imposing one form of regular taxation or another on the people and activities within their sphere of control. Industrialisation was therefore the central difference between nineteenth century views of imperial hegemony and that which was witnessed in the ancient and medieval worlds. Resources became, for the first time, the main concern of empire builders. This period in world history is also important for what it implies about the motives of the European leaders and rulers who embarked upon their scramble for Africas resources. What is immediately noticeable when reading the primary sources of these explorers was the way in which they attempted to hide their true (economic) motive from view. The first British travellers to the dark continent promulgated the view that the Europeans were on a civilising mission to save the Africans from a life of pagan sin. Moreover, they said, their religious and missionary zeal would inevitably rub off on the political and economic mood of the continent so that, in effect, the Africans would wish to copy their European partners in order to better help thems elves in the long term; politically, economically and socially. To achieve this end, the Europeans thus tied the notion of political territorial acquisition to the preponderance of resources by controlling the mechanisms of the fledgling states as well as the production of raw materials and natural resources. The nineteenth century partition of the undeveloped world by the most powerful industrial states of the age thus left a legacy that is of the utmost relevance for the topic of hegemony in todays twenty first century society. As economic resources become increasingly scarce in the contemporary world, the major Western powers must find ways of securing the holding of resources while covering up the raw economic reasons for doing so. One can see, as Chomsky and Vidal attest, a certain similarity between the contemporary US symptom of national security and the war on terror and the Victorian ideal of a missionary zeal. Significantly, both propaganda spins fail to recognise that the preponderance of resources is the real reason why these states have found themselves fighting foreign wars and stationing troops so very far from their own national borders in the recent past. Of added significance was the fact that the Victorian experimentation with imperialism showed, for the first time, how a state might achieve supreme power with resources and capital based outside of the national territorial borders. Susan Strange (1988:2) sees this as the most important step in the development of true imperial hegemony in the West; the point where a modern nation has the ability to dictate key economic policy far beyond its own national, geo political borders. The location of productive capacity is far less important than the location of the people who maker the decisions on what is to be produced, where and how, and who design, direct and manage to sell successfully on a world market. At this point it makes sense to shift the focus of our investigation from a broader viewpoint of historical instances of hegemony to a dissection of the most important contemporary topic within the confines of the essay title. The key contemporary actor within the study, without a doubt, must be the United States, the source of the preponderance of twenty first century economic resources and the still the most potent post modern military force on the planet. As the eminent British historian, E.H. Carr (1992:292), writing on the eve of the Second World War, testified, hegemony is a by product of realism; an essentially Darwinist view of politics that suggests a discernibly detectable survival of the fittest in international affairs. The unassailable American hegemony of the post modern age is best understood within this wholly realist context. To attempt to ignore power as a decisive factor in every political situation is purely utopian. It is scarcely less utopian to imagine an international order built on a coalition of states, each striving to defend and assert its own interests. Since 1945 the USA has built its empire upon the twin pillars of the military and its insatiable consumer economy, even going so far as to re model the state to the tune of the desires of the political economy. The National Security Act (1947), for example, which oversaw the formation of the CIA, was the first in a long history of decrees and acts designed to ensure the longevity of the republican model and the destruction of all of its ideological enemies in the process. Gore Vidal (2004:95 96) explains the dynamic nature of American national security policy, post 1945, a policy that deemed aggression as the best form of political and economic defence. When Japan surrendered, the United States was faced with a choice: either disarm, as we had done in the past and enjoy the prosperity that comes from releasing so much wealth and energy into the private sector, or maintain ourselves on a fully military basis, which would mean a tight control over our allies and such conquered provinces as West Germany, Italy and Japan. It is important to understand that Washington wishes its control of the globe not to be limited to its dominance of world economic resources; rather, hegemony, as it is understood in 2005, is a varied political, economic and cultural phenomenon that wishes to export the very ethos of the United States as well as importing the wealth generated by the nations pre eminent economic position. To date, the United States has used language, technology and the military to acquire its vast array of economic resources and likewise uses its dynamic corporate ethic to underpin the strategies of the imperial national government. Therefore, to see the preponderance of resources as the only specific aim of American hegemony in the twenty first century is to miss the point entirely. As previously outlined, the American government understands the essential interplay between the various features of hegemony. Certainly, the USA has used economics as its basis for the extension of power witnessed since 1 945 but the ideology of the most awesome capitalist country on the planet has been held in place via the spread of its symbolic features to every corner of the globe (except, of course, for large swathes of the Middle East, which is a source of much of the antagonism between the two diametrically opposed sections of the new global economy). Various international relations commentators have noted the way in which imperial America uses brand names such as MacDonalds and Nike to increase the economic and cultural hegemony of the US Empire, leaving fast food restaurants and designer clothes chains as castles by proxy. As Chomsky (2003:13) succinctly puts it: The goal of the imperial grand strategy is to prevent any challenge to the power, position and prestige of the United States. Theories have abounded concerning the so called decline of American hegemony, largely circulating since the oil crisis in the 1970s, which first highlighted the fragility of the preponderance of key natural resources in the post modern world. Susan Strange disagrees fundamentally with international relations commentators such as Nye, who see Americas decline as an inevitable by product of the notion of both hegemony and Empire, essentially dictating that from Rome to Byzantium to Britain any attempt to secure global pre eminence must end in the destruction of that political and economic model. She argues that the USA is a unique case that shows no signs of the fragmentation that beset its historical precedents. Essentially, this means that US notions of hegemony are not solely tied to economic factors pertaining to the preponderance of resources; its survival and indeed growth rests upon the fact that the USA ideal of hegemony is far more flexible than many critics give it credit f or. As Cox (2005:21) underscores, the issue of American hegemony entails far more than a swelling of the national treasury at the expense of extra territorial economic resources. One of the more obvious objections to the idea of a specific American empire is that, unlike the real empires in the past, the United States has not acquired, and does not seek to acquire the territory of others. This in turn has been allied to another obvious objection: that the United States has often championed the cause of political freedom in the world. How then can one talk of empire when one of the United States obvious impulses abroad has been to advance the cause of national democracy and self determination? The issue of hegemony in contemporary times is further hampered by the ambiguity and uncertainty that surrounds the ultra contentious geo political and economic topic of globalisation. Not only have scholars found globalisation extremely difficult to define but it also poses unique problems of conceptual bracketing. It is supposedly an economic question (intrinsically tied to the preponderance of resources) yet in practice, globalisation appears to be little more than an extension of American political hegemony, namely the spread of democracy to every reach of the globe as the initial platform on which to launch a visionary global hegemony. Whereas the nineteenth century European empires formulated the concept of the preponderance of natural resources as the most vital step on the way to the establishment of their brand of hegemony, the Americans in the twenty first century have used technology, particularly their corporate dominance of new media and the Internet to strengthen their dominant position in the world economy. Globalisation therefore is tantamount to Westernisation, which is itself a direct descendent of Americanisation. According to Sinclair et al (2004:297), world patterns of communication flow, both in density and direction, mirror the system of domination in the economic and political order, and in this way it can be shown how US hegemony is built upon sterner raw materials than the mere preponderance of economic resources. Indeed, logic dictates that if the USAs global hegemony was only standing upon the prevalence of resources, then its position would be nothing like as contentious as it is in the broa der world order, constituting the front line of the new global disorder, as Robert Harvey describes it. Indeed, Harvey (2003:455) already views the concept of global hegemony as outdated, requiring five separate but interconnecting strands of economic and politic pro action to keep the status quo alive in the future. These then are the five great areas of change necessary to avoid a state of global political economic anarchy: the establishment of superpower policing to combat terrorism and to prevent conflicts breaking out all over the world, through an efficient system of regional alliances and deterrents, backed up by the threat of major superpower intervention; the widening and deepening of global democracy; the regulation of the global economy through co operation between the three economic super states of the next few decades America, Europe and Japan in co operation with regional groupings of the rest of the world; a gigantic government primed stimulus for demand and development in the three quarters of the developing world untouched by globalisation; and reform from within of the capitalist corporation. Conclusion The analysis of hegemony and power bases throughout history shows that the prevalence of resources is but one factor in a multi faceted chain of command that requires a strong military and political infrastructure as well as a flourishing economic base to prevail. The upsurge in interest that the topic of hegemony has generated in recent years has been due to the power of the worlds one remaining superpower alone. Hegemony has become synonymous with Americas quest for global dominance and various commentators have cited the contemporary war on terror as nothing but a smokescreen for the increasing garnering of resources, particularly oil in the Middle East. Indeed, Vidal (2004:7) compares the war on terror to a war on dandruff; such is his confusion over what the notion actually means. There is no doubt that it is this perceived neo imperialism that is at the heart of the current negativity surrounding the concept of hegemony and its continued association with solely (Western) economic motives. However, it should be noted that a significant change in the global order is currently under way, one in which the Americans will have to broker what Strange (1988:17) refers to as a series of New Deals with autonomous international states in order to remain a leading economic force. The advent of China, in particular, as the twenty first centurys most potent consumer and industrial society will undoubtedly challenge the very ideal of American and Western hegemony and will necessarily require a re drafting of the USAs preponderance of resources. Hegemony must, in effect, adapt to a discernible duality and spirit of inter state co operation that the concept has not known in the past. The concept of hegemony therefore has value far beyond the preponderance of resources as the evolving concept of globalisation is in the process of emphasising. As globalisation begins to take hold as an economic, cultural and political reality, the effects of hegemony will be felt in all areas of the world that wish to be part of the dissolution of the concept of the nation state and the embracement of a new political and economic world order.

Biography of Mohandas Gandhi, Indian Freedom Leader

Mohandas Gandhi (October 2, 1869–January 30, 1948) was the father of the Indian independence movement. While fighting discrimination in South Africa, Gandhi developed satyagraha, a nonviolent way of protesting injustice. Returning to his birthplace of India, Gandhi spent his remaining years working to end British rule of his country and to better the lives of Indias poorest classes. Fast Facts: Mohandas Gandhi Known For: Leader of Indias independence movementAlso Known As: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mahatma (Great Soul), Father of the Nation, Bapu (Father), GandhijiBorn: October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, IndiaParents: Karamchand and Putlibai GandhiDied: January 30, 1948 in New Delhi, IndiaEducation: Law degree, Inner Temple, London, EnglandPublished Works: Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Freedoms BattleSpouse: Kasturba KapadiaChildren: Harilal Gandhi, Manilal Gandhi, Ramdas Gandhi, Devdas GandhiNotable Quote: The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members. Early Life Mohandas Gandhi was born October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India, the last child of his father Karamchand Gandhi and his fourth wife Putlibai. Young Gandhi was a shy, mediocre student. At age 13, he married Kasturba Kapadia  as part of an arranged marriage. She bore four sons and supported Gandhis endeavors until her 1944 death. In September 1888 at age 18, Gandhi left India alone to study law in London. He attempted to become an English gentleman, buying suits, fine-tuning his English accent, learning French, and taking music lessons. Deciding that was a waste of time and money, he spent the rest of his three-year stay as a serious student living a simple lifestyle. Gandhi also adopted vegetarianism and joined the London Vegetarian Society, whose intellectual crowd introduced Gandhi to authors Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy. He also studied the Bhagavad Gita, an epic poem sacred to Hindus. These books concepts set the foundation for his later beliefs. Gandhi passed the bar on June 10, 1891, and returned to India. For two years, he attempted to practice law but lacked the knowledge of Indian law and the self-confidence necessary to be a trial lawyer. Instead, he took on a year-long case in South Africa. South Africa At 23, Gandhi again left his family and set off for the British-governed Natal province in South Africa in May 1893. After a week, Gandhi was asked to go to the Dutch-governed Transvaal province. When Gandhi boarded the train, railroad officials ordered him to move to the third-class car. Gandhi, holding first-class tickets, refused. A policeman threw him off the train. As Gandhi talked to Indians in South Africa, he learned that such experiences were common. Sitting in the cold depot that first night of his trip, Gandhi debated returning to India or fighting the discrimination. He decided that he couldnt ignore these injustices. Gandhi spent 20 years bettering Indians rights in South Africa, becoming a resilient, potent leader against discrimination. He learned about Indian grievances, studied the law, wrote letters to officials, and organized petitions. On May 22, 1894, Gandhi established the Natal Indian Congress (NIC). Although it began as an organization for wealthy Indians, Gandhi expanded it to all classes and castes. He became a leader of South Africas Indian community, his activism covered by newspapers in England and India. Return to India In 1896 after three years in South Africa, Gandhi sailed to India to bring his wife and two sons back with him, returning in November. Gandhis ship was quarantined at the harbor for 23 days, but the real reason for the delay was an angry mob of whites at the dock who believed Gandhi was returning with Indians who would overrun South Africa. Gandhi sent his family to safety, but he was assaulted with bricks, rotten eggs, and fists. Police escorted him away. Gandhi refuted the claims against him but refused to prosecute those involved. The violence stopped, strengthening Gandhis prestige. Influenced by the  Gita, Gandhi wanted to purify his life by following the concepts of aparigraha  (nonpossession) and  samabhava  (equitability). A friend gave him Unto This Last  by  John Ruskin, which inspired Gandhi to establish Phoenix Settlement, a community outside Durban, in June 1904. The settlement focused on eliminating needless possessions and living in full equality. Gandhi moved his family and his newspaper, the  Indian Opinion, to the settlement. In 1906, believing that family life was detracting from his potential as a public advocate, Gandhi took the vow of  brahmacharya  (abstinence from sex). He simplified his vegetarianism to unspiced, usually uncooked foods—mostly fruits and nuts, which he believed would help quiet his urges. Satyagraha Gandhi believed that his vow of  brahmacharya  allowed him the focus to devise the concept of  satyagraha  in late 1906. In the simplest sense,  satyagraha  is passive resistance, but Gandhi described it as truth force, or natural right. He believed exploitation was possible only if the exploited and the exploiter accepted it, so seeing beyond the current situation provided power to change it. In practice,  satyagraha  is nonviolent resistance to injustice. A  person using satyagraha could resist injustice by refusing to follow an unjust law or putting up with physical assaults and/or confiscation of his property without anger. There would be no winners or losers; all would understand the truth and agree to rescind the unjust law. Gandhi first organized satyagraha  against the Asiatic Registration Law, or Black Act, which passed in March 1907. It required all Indians to be fingerprinted and carry registration documents at all times. Indians refused fingerprinting and picketed documentation offices. Protests were organized, miners went on strike, and Indians illegally traveled from Natal to the Transvaal in opposition to the act. Many protesters, including Gandhi, were beaten and arrested. After seven years of protest, the Black Act was repealed. The nonviolent protest had succeeded. Back to India After 20 years in South Africa, Gandhi returned to India. By the time he arrived, press reports of his South African triumphs had made him a national hero. He traveled the country for a year before beginning reforms. Gandhi found that his fame conflicted with observing conditions of the poor, so he wore a loincloth (dhoti) and sandals, the garb of the masses, during this journey. In cold weather, he added a shawl. This became his lifetime wardrobe. Gandhi founded another communal settlement in Ahmadabad called Sabarmati Ashram. For the next 16 years, Gandhi lived there with his family. He was also given the honorary title of Mahatma, or Great Soul. Many credit Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913  Nobel Prize for Literature, for awarding Gandhi this name. Peasants viewed Gandhi as a holy man, but he disliked the title because it implied he was special. He viewed himself as ordinary. After the year ended, Gandhi still felt stifled because of World War I. As part of  satyagraha, Gandhi had vowed never to take advantage of an opponents troubles. With the British in a major conflict, Gandhi couldnt fight them for Indian freedom. Instead, he used satyagraha  to erase inequities among Indians. Gandhi persuaded landlords to stop forcing tenant farmers to pay increased rent by appealing to their morals and fasted to convince mill owners to settle a strike. Because of Gandhis prestige, people didnt want to be responsible for his death from fasting. Confronting British When the war ended, Gandhi focused on the fight for Indian self-rule (swaraj). In 1919, the British handed Gandhi a cause: the Rowlatt Act, which gave the British nearly free rein to detain revolutionary elements without trial. Gandhi organized a hartal (strike), which began on March 30, 1919. Unfortunately, the protest turned violent. Gandhi ended the  hartal  once he heard about the violence, but more than 300 Indians had died and more than 1,100 were injured from British reprisals in the city of Amritsar.  Satyagraha  hadnt been achieved, but the Amritsar Massacre  fueled Indian opinions against the British. The violence showed Gandhi that the Indian people didnt fully believe in satyagraha. He spent much of the 1920s advocating for it  and struggling to keep protests peaceful. Gandhi also began advocating self-reliance as a path to freedom. Since the British established India as a colony, Indians had supplied Britain with raw fiber and then imported the resulting cloth from England. Gandhi advocated that Indians spin their own cloth, popularizing the idea by traveling with a spinning wheel, often spinning yarn while giving a speech. The image of the spinning wheel (charkha) became a symbol for independence. In March 1922, Gandhi was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison for sedition. After two years, he was released following surgery to find his country embroiled in violence between Muslims and Hindus. When Gandhi began a 21-day fast still ill from surgery, many thought he would die, but he rallied. The fast created a temporary peace. Salt March In December 1928, Gandhi and the Indian National Congress (INC) announced a challenge to the British government. If India wasnt granted Commonwealth status by December 31, 1929, they would organize a nationwide protest against British taxes. The deadline passed without change. Gandhi chose to protest the British salt tax because salt was used in everyday cooking, even by the poorest. The Salt March began a nationwide boycott starting March 12,  1930, when Gandhi and 78 followers walked 200 miles from the Sabarmati Ashram to the sea. The group grew along the way, reaching 2,000 to 3,000. When they reached the coastal town of Dandi on April 5, they prayed all night. In the morning, Gandhi made a presentation of picking up a piece of sea salt from the beach. Technically, he had broken the law. Thus began an endeavor for Indians to make salt. Some picked up loose salt on the beaches, while others evaporated saltwater. Indian-made salt soon was sold nationwide. Peaceful picketing and marches were conducted. The British responded with mass arrests. Protesters Beaten When Gandhi announced a march on the government-owned Dharasana Saltworks, the British imprisoned him without trial. Although they hoped Gandhis arrest would stop the march, they underestimated his followers. The poet  Sarojini Naidu  led 2,500 marchers. As they reached the waiting police, the marchers were beaten with clubs. News of the brutal beating of peaceful protesters shocked the world. British viceroy Lord Irwin met with Gandhi and they agreed on the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, which granted limited salt production and freedom for the protesters if Gandhi called off the protests. While many Indians believed that Gandhi hadnt gotten enough from the negotiations, he viewed it as a step toward independence. Independence After the success of the  Salt March, Gandhi conducted another fast that enhanced his image as a holy man or prophet. Dismayed at the adulation, Gandhi retired from politics in 1934 at age 64. He came out of retirement five years later when the British viceroy announced, without consulting Indian leaders, that India would side with England during  World War II. This revitalized the Indian independence movement. Many British parliamentarians realized they were facing mass protests and began discussing an independent India. Although Prime Minister  Winston Churchill  opposed losing India as a colony, the British announced in March 1941 that it would free India after  World War II. Gandhi wanted independence sooner and organized a Quit India campaign in 1942. The British again jailed Gandhi. Hindu-Muslim Conflict When Gandhi was released in 1944, independence seemed near. Huge disagreements, however, arose between Hindus and Muslims. Because the majority of Indians were Hindu, Muslims feared losing political power if India became independent. The Muslims wanted six provinces in northwest India, where Muslims predominated, to become an independent country. Gandhi opposed partitioning India and tried to bring the sides together, but that proved too difficult even for the Mahatma. Violence erupted; entire towns were burned. Gandhi toured India, hoping his presence could curb the violence. Although violence stopped where Gandhi visited, he couldnt be everywhere. Partition The British, seeing India headed for civil war, decided to leave in August 1947. Before leaving, they got the Hindus, against Gandhis wishes, to agree to a  partition plan. On August 15, 1947, Britain granted independence to India and to the newly formed Muslim country of Pakistan. Millions of Muslims marched from India to Pakistan, and millions of Hindus in Pakistan walked to India. Many refugees died from illness, exposure, and dehydration. As 15 million Indians became uprooted from their homes, Hindus and Muslims attacked each other. Gandhi once again went on a fast. He would only eat again, he stated, once he saw clear plans to stop the violence. The fast began on January 13, 1948. Realizing that the frail, aged Gandhi couldnt withstand a long fast, the sides collaborated. On January 18, more than 100 representatives approached Gandhi with a promise for peace, ending his fast. Assassination Not everyone approved of the plan. Some radical Hindu groups believed that India shouldnt have been partitioned, blaming Gandhi. On January 30, 1948, the 78-year-old Gandhi spent his day discussing issues. Just past 5 p.m., Gandhi began the walk, supported by two grandnieces, to the Birla House, where he was staying in New Delhi, for a prayer meeting. A crowd surrounded him. A young Hindu named Nathuram Godse stopped before him and bowed. Gandhi bowed back. Godse shot Gandhi three times. Although Gandhi had survived five other assassination attempts, he fell to the ground, dead. Legacy Gandhis concept of nonviolent protest attracted the organizers of numerous demonstrations and movements. Civil rights leaders, especially Martin Luther King Jr., adopted Gandhis model for their own struggles. Research in the second half of the 20th century established Gandhi as a great mediator and reconciler, resolving conflicts between older moderate politicians and young radicals, political terrorists and parliamentarians, urban intelligentsia and rural masses, Hindus and Muslims, as well as Indians and British. He was the  catalyst,  if not the initiator, of three major revolutions of the 20th century: movements against colonialism, racism, and violence. His deepest strivings were spiritual, but unlike many fellow Indians with such  aspirations, he didnt retire to a Himalayan cave  to meditate. Rather, he took his cave with him everywhere he went. And, he left his thoughts to posterity: His collected writings had reached 100 volumes by the early 21st century. Sources Mahatma Gandhi: Indian Leader. Encyclopaedia Britannica.Mahatma Gandhi. History.com.

The Death Of Juan By Carlos Juan Essay - 1649 Words

Patient Juan is a twenty-seven-year-old male who lives with his parents. He is an outgoing and fun-loving man. He had been engaged to his fiancà ©, who he had been dating for about 4 years. About three months ago, Juan’s fiancà © was killed, which lead to his life and routines being completely changed. After his fiancà © s death, Juan felt obligated to attempt to go back to work to keep up with his job. This traumatizing incident leads to him quitting his job and shortly after becoming a dependent resident of his parents. Juan had always been an active individual for his hobbies and loved to stay active and play music; he was especially known by his friends and family as a fun-loving and outgoing guy. Juan found his job very convenient; where he could go to the cafà © next to his job and grab an occasional lunch with this fiancà ©. Before the death of his fiancà ©, Juan was a hard working engineer, who worked in an office next to a cafà © shop. Three months ago, he and his fiancà © were supposed to meet at the cafà © to later get lunch. When his fiancà © was walking across the busy intersection to the cafà ©, a drunk driver drove through the stop light and hit Juan’s fiancà ©. Juan saw the whole thing happen and rushed to his fiancà © in the middle of the crosswalk only to hold her closely covered in blood as she later dies in his arms. Juan then attempted to walk back into work to continue his shift, until he found it unbearable to the point he quit his job. HeShow MoreRelatedThe Economy Of Spain And Spain1156 Words   |  5 Pageseconomy became a little bit shaky until after the Civil War when Francisco Franco took over in 1939. Franco ruled Spain from 1939 until his death, in 1975, and appointed Prince Juan Carlos as his successor. Juan Carlos was the grandson of king Alfonso XIII (William D. Phillips, and Carla Rahn Phillips). 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Finance and Investment Business Intractibility and Applications

Question: Describe about the Finance and Investment for Business Intractibility and Applications. Answer: Part 2: Valuation 1. CAPM estimation: Particulars Standard Deviation Singapore DBS Bank 0.055 OCBC Bank 0.047 UOB Bank 0.055 STI Index 0.037 Table 1: Standard deviation of Singapore DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, UOB Bank and STI Index (Source: Yahoo Singapore Finance 2016) Particulars Covariance DBS and STI -0.00167 OCBC and STI -0.00151 UOB and STI -0.00159 Table 2: Covariance of Singapore DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, UOB Bank and STI Index (Source: Yahoo Singapore Finance 2016) Particulars Average Return DBS Bank 0.004975 OCBC Bank -0.000348 UOB Bank 0.001867 STI Index 0.001834 Table 3: Average or expected return of Singapore DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, UOB Bank and STI Index (Source: Yahoo Singapore Finance 2016) Particulars DBS Bank OCBC Bank UOB Bank Beta -1.210949 -1.095129922 -1.150810406 Risk-free rate 2.125% 2.125% 2.125% Expected Market Return 0.001834 0.001834 0.001834 Cost of Equity 4.48% 4.25% 4.36% Table 4: CAPM valuation, cost of equity of Singapore DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, UOB Bank and STI Index (Source: Yahoo Singapore Finance 2016) Reference and Bibliographies: Brown, P. and Walter, T., 2013. The CAPM: theoretical validity, empirical intractability and practical applications.Abacus,49(1), pp.44-50. Da, Z., Guo, R.J. and Jagannathan, R., 2012. CAPM for estimating the cost of equity capital: Interpreting the empirical evidence.Journal of Financial Economics,103(1), pp.204-220. Dempsey, M., 2013. The capital asset pricing model (CAPM): the history of a failed revolutionary idea in finance?.Abacus,49(1), pp.7-23. Johnstone, D.J., 2013. The CAPM debate and the logic and philosophy of finance.Abacus,49(S1), pp.1-6. Yahoo Singapore Finance. (2016).Yahoo Singapore Finance. [online] Available at: https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/ [Accessed 22 Sep. 2016].

A Child Called It Essay Summary Example For Students

A Child Called It Essay Summary A Child Called It1. In the book, the father tries to help the son in the beginning but then throughout the book he stops trying to help and listens to the mother. If I had been in this same situation, I would have helped get the child away from his mother because nobody should have to live like that. The father was tired of having to watch his son get abused so eventually he just left and didnt do anything. David thought that his father would help him but he did not. 2. When David, was stabbed he went to his father for help. His father just told him to go back and to do the dishwasher. Father said that he would not tell Davids mother that he told but he should get back to work. 3. The abuse that I thought was the most difficult was the gas chamber. He had to sit in the bathroom with the ammonia and it was really hard for him to breathe. The only reason he survived was because there was a vent in the bathroom. I think that I could have also survived this because I am good at getting myself out of bad situations. I can think quickly. 4. I think I probably would have given up when the mother stabbed me. I think it would have been too painful for me to care anymore. I would have suffered too much. 5. I think that the difference between 30 years ago and now is that it could be stopped now. David could have been taken from his mother to live somewhere else because she was not a fit parent. He could have lived with his father. 6. I think that his mother just randomly decided to abuse David. Since she was an alcoholic she did not always realize what she was doing to him. She also probably didnt want to do all the things around the house and thought it was too much to do so she had David do all the chores. She punished him by doing dreadful things. 7. When the mother wanted David to lye on the stove and burn, David decided to see if he could trick her. He watched the clock and decided to see how long he could keep her from making him get on the stove until his brothers got home. He succeeded and from then on he decided that he would not give up and he would always try to outsmart his mother. He said that as long as he was alive, he would not give up. 8. I think that a lot of parents are really good at hiding that they abuse. They tell their children that they cannot tell anyone and I think that the child is too scared to say anything to anyone so nobody ever finds out about it and nobody can help the child. 9. If David was sitting next to me in a classroom and I did not know that he was abused but he had cuts and other things I probably would not say anything to him. If I did know that he was abused I would tell someone about it and feel terrible. I would try and be friends with him because he already is having a hard time and its always better to have someone to talk to. 10. If you think that a someone is being abused, you can call the USA National Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD or The Child Abuse Registry at (714)940-1000 or toll free at (800)207-4464. There are also many other Hotlines you can call if you suspect someone being abused. .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b , .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b .postImageUrl , .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b , .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b:hover , .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b:visited , .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b:active { border:0!important; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b:active , .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u17c3b1fc173e5736a8082c7faa3ccb1b:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Science Essay11.It took me about 3 days to read this book. I really liked it because it taught me a lot about child abuse and how some kids really suffer. I was so interested in this book that I just kept on reading. It also made me appreciate how lucky I am. I would like to read the sequel to this book.