Twelve Minor Prophets - An Overview Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Twelve Minor Prophets - An Overview - Assignment Example He tells about Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome --- the four kingdoms that would rule over the Jews. It also says here that the future of the nation would be filled with hardships if they continue to fall short in their obedience to God’s commandments. Joel is also known for his account of the final assembly of the exiles at the time of the last redemption. Amos. Amos’ prophecy is mainly directed at the Ten Tribes --- who were eventually lost due to their actions. Amos also says that the Jews have a significant mission in the world, and are given immense power to accomplish this task. With these, he gives warnings to all those in the northern and southern kingdoms of Jerusalem. Amos informs them that a greater punishment, compared to others, awaits the Jews if they do not do their job. â€Å"The bigger they are the harder they fall.† Obadiah. Obadiah supports 100 prophets during the dreadful reign of King Ahab and hides them to safety. He is also famous for his prophecy that is directed at the Jews’ neighbouring nation of Edom. Per Obadiah, these people are also fated to be brought to justice to all their deeds. The Roman Empire is usually associated with Edom. Jonah (Yonah). He is most probably the most well-known of all the minor prophets. Jonah’s book is read in the synagogues on the afternoon of the Yom Kippur war in 1973. Jonah is ordered by God to go to Nineveh, a city located in modern northern Iraq, near the Turkish border. He is to convince the non-Jews to turn away from their ways and repent to God. Jonah tries to avoid the mission that almost costs him his life. He is afraid that the people of Nineveh would pay attention to his reproach and do better, which would definitely create a bad image of the Jews. Jonah tries to avoid the mission by riding on a boat going in the opposite direction. He deals with a violent storm that makes him throw himself overboard to save the other people on the boat. Once in the waters, he is swallowed by a fish, is spat out, then swallowed again by another.  Ã‚  

The Pentagon Papers Essay Example for Free

The Pentagon Papers Essay Introduction Publication of the Pentagon Papers by leading newspapers in June 1971 was an important incident in modern American history. The inside of the papers fueled the fires of antiwar movements at home and overseas; the release of the papers aggravated an extraordinary criminal prosecution of two American citizens; plus the reaction of the administration of President Richard M. Nixon to publication of the papers led eventually to the Watergate scandal as well as the first resignation of a president in American history. Frequently overlooked, though, is the fact that the trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo for photocopying the Pentagon Papers exposed the imperial and unruly side of the Nixon Administration, and this brought into sharp relief the quandary of government secrecy in a democratic polity. Never before had citizens been charged with a crime for disclosing apparently Top Secret information to the general public through the American press. Heretofore, with the exception of narrow fields of secrecy legislatively sanctioned by the Congress for instance certain atomic energy information, the keeping of secrets had been implicit to be an executive prerogative however not a statutorily vested authority. Once the cat was out of the bag, the press was free to make use of information. Nevertheless, the leaking of classified information had been, and still is, a very common practice. The principal restraint on the press was the capability of the president to influence the press not to publish information. Not like Britains prime minister and most other heads of state, who can protect secrets under an Official Secrets Act, the president possesses no statutory authority to obstruct press publication of classified information. Before the trial of Ellsberg and Russo, also, it was not usually alleged that the president could legally prosecute citizens for leaking classified information to the American press. Certainly, the threat pretense by such authority to informed debate in a democracy and to disclosures of governmental malfeasance made such executive authority almost improbable. In passing the Espionage Act of 1917, for instance, the Congress denied President Woodrow Wilsons requests for broad authority to control war information. Members of Congress intentionally restricted the scope of the law in order that it could not be used as an instrument for presidential censorship of the press. Over the years, the Congress has constantly refused to permit the executive branch to draw a statutory veil of secrecy around itself. The Nixon Administrations prosecution of Ellsberg and Russo, consequently, was a daring effort by an imperial executive branch to secure from the judicial branch a broad measure of power and authority long denied it by the legislative branch. However, the Congress sat by although the administration ingeniously fashioned extraordinary criminal charges out of novel interpretations of existing statutes covering conspiracy, theft, and intelligence. While the administration failed in its attempt to imprison Ellsberg and Russo, the unwillingness of the court to nullify the prosecution at the outset basically changed the regulations of executive secrecy in the United States by converting what had been a political game of hide-and-seek between presidents and the press into a potentially criminal game of cat-and-mouse. Therefore, the long-standing importance of the Pentagon Papersand the basic clash between secrecy and democracylay not so much in the unauthorized publication of the documents, however in the abuse of the Rule of Law by the administrationan abuse that has had the effect of hanging a judicial sword of Damocles above the heads of citizens who would reveal classified information to the public. Principal Events On Sunday, June 13, 1971, The New York Times started to publish excerpts from a U.S. Defense Department study marked Top Secret and entitled History of U.S. Decision-Making Processes on Vietnam Policy, widely recognized as the Pentagon Papers. The collection of documents had been assembled during Lyndon B. Johnsons administration at the request of then-Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara at first; President Nixon was not particularly disturbed by the publication of the papers. Their contents, after all, managed policy-making before his administration and were, consequently, probable to be embarrassing to the Democrats just before an election year. Though, the presidents national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, succeeded on the president to do something regarding this huge hemorrhage of state secrets. (Peter Schrag, 1974) On the evening of June 14, after two days of publication and after various White House consultations, Attorney General John Mitchell asked The New York Times to cease publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers. Mitchell stated that publication of the documents dishonored the Espionage Act. The Times refused to act in accordance with, saying, It is in the interest of the people of this country to be informed of the material contained in this series of articles. The U.S. Department of Justice got a temporary preventive order against The Times. The newspaper pleads to the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24. (David Rudenstine, 1996) At the same time as The Times was restrained from publishing excerpts from the Pentagon Papers, The Washington Post started to publish portions of the study. The Post distributed extracts to some 345 client publications through the Washington Post Los Angeles Times News Service. The Department of Justice got a temporary restraining order against The Post, and after that appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that The Post had a constitutional right to issue the material. Extracts from the Pentagon Papers were as well published by The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Christian Science Monitor, plus a number of further newspapers during June 22-29. The Department of Justice got a restraining order against The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on June 26. (Sanford Ungar, 1972) On that day, the U.S. Supreme Court heard public oral arguments from Solicitor General Erwin Griswold for the United States, Alexander Bickel for The Times, as well as William Glendon for The Post. In a swift and extraordinary thrive of activity, the Court rendered a 6-3 decision on June 30, and issued a short per curiam opinion for the Court, with justices Warren Burger, John Harlan, and Harry Blackmun rebellious. The decision was accompanied by nine opinions. The per curiam opinion held that the United States had not conquer the heavy constitutional presumption against prior restraint on the press. Justices Hugo Black and William Douglas took a virtually absolute view of a First Amendment prohibition of prior restraint on newspapers. Justices William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, Potter Stewart, and Byron White recognized that there could be circumstances that would validate a prior restraint on press publication of national security information, however that such conditions were not present in this case. Chief Justice Burger objected to the unseemly haste with which the Court handled the cases. Justices Harlan and Blackmun as well objected to the frenzied train of events [that] took place in the name of the presumption against restraints created by the First Amendment. The dissenting justices thought that publication of the Pentagon Papers must have been delayed until an assessment could have been made of the papers potential consequence on national defense and security. (Peter Schrag, 1974) The New York Times and The Washington Post hailed the ruling as a conquest for freedom of the press, and resumed publication of excerpts of the Pentagon Papers on July 1. Even though the Nixon Administration had succeeded in temporarily imposing the first U.S. government prior restraint on newspapers in American history, an event that outdone even the Sedition Act of 1798, the effort to control leaks by judicially restraining the press did not stick. In the view of the administration, something else had to be done to defend executive prerogatives over the dissemination of information. The setback at the Supreme Court did not discourage the Nixon Administration from following criminal charges against Daniel Ellsberg. The White House had recognized Ellsberg as the person accountable for the Pentagon Papers leak almost instantly after publication of the documents. (Peter Schrag, 1974) Ellsberg was first accused on June 25, 1971. He surrendered to U.S. authorities in Boston on June 28. Not completely content with the strength of its case, though, the administration continued to look for incriminating proof, both legally and illegally, and to look at its prosecutorial options. Throughout the Labor Day holiday, members of the White House Plumbers unit burglarized the office of Ellsbergs psychiatrist in an effort to get information that may be used to damage Ellsbergs trustworthiness and cast doubt on his motives. (Daniel Ellsberg, 2002) On June 19, the FBI questioned Anthony J. Russo regarding his role in the release of the Pentagon Papers. Russo refused to answer FBI questions. On June 23, he was subpoenaed to give evidence before a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. In spite of a grant of immunity, Russo declined to testify unless his testimony could be made public. On August 16, he started serving a 47 day jail term for contempt of court. On October 1, U.S. District Court Judge Warren J. Ferguson released Russo from prison and ordered the government to offer Russo with a record of any testimony he might be needed to give to the grand jury. Assistant U.S. Attorney David R. Nissen held the order to be unlawful and refused to obey it. Russo once more declined to testify before the grand jury. On December 29, 1971, the grand jury issued a new, secret indictment in the Pentagon Papers case; one that added new charges aligned with Ellsberg and as well included criminal charges against Russo. (John Prados and Margaret Pratt Porter (eds.), 2004) The defendants were charged with 15 counts of criminal conduct, together with conspiracy, espionage, as well as conversion of government property (theft) for photocopying in 1969 substantial portions of the Pentagon Papers. In contradiction of a common belief, Ellsberg and Russo were not accused for giving the Pentagon Papers to any newspapers or for making the documents public by any means. They were accused for temporarily removing the Pentagon Papers from the premises of the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, plus for photocopying the documents at an advertising agency owned by Russos friend, Lynda Sinay. Listed as unindicted coconspirators were Lynda Sinay and Vu Van Thai, a former South Vietnamese ambassador to the United States. Thai had clearly been present at one of the photocopying sessions. The charges against Ellsberg carried utmost penalties of 115 years imprisonment plus $120,000 in fines. Those against Russo carried maximum penalties of 35 years imprisonment and $40,000 in fines. Throughout the trial, though, U.S. District Court Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr., directed an acquittal on one espionage count each against Ellsberg and Russo. (Daniel Ellsberg, 2002) There are numerous reasons for thinking that the trial of Ellsberg and Russo-popularly recognized as the Pentagon Papers Trialwas a case of selective prosecution undertaken for political reasons. For one, Ellsberg and Russo were the first citizens in American history to be criminally prosecuted for activities related with a leak of classified information to the public. Second, the leaking of classified information by public officials from the president to low-level subordinates had been, as it carries on to be, a common practice. Political warfare may not be the suitable term in this case; however even so, political warfare is a common motivation for leaking secrets, whether it is by presidents, national security advisers, or persons outside an administration. In addition, a full compilation of available documents was soon published by Beacon Press with the assistance of Senator Mike Gravel. (David Rudenstine, 1996) Third, no members of the press, who in fact published the documents, were accused by the government. Certainly, the condemnation of Ellsberg and Russo steered obvious of any probable collision with the press by limiting the supposed criminal behavior to the period of March 1969 to September 1970, a time period that ended more than nine months before the publication of the Pentagon Papers. Fourth, no effort was made to impeach other private citizens formerly associated with the Lyndon Johnson Administration who possessed copies of the Pentagon Papers, or portions thereof, and who debatably drew on those documents, directly or indirectly, for books, articles, and speeches. The accessible records of White House discussions of how to proceed against Ellsberg propose that the decision to prosecute was a political approach intended to make an instance of him. The administration wished to stem what it viewed as a rising tide of sensitive leaks by indirectly intimidating others who might consider disclosing information to the press. The main problem facing the administration was one of finding a statutory foundation for prosecution. To do so, the U.S. Department of Justice had to bring to bear on the case considerable creativity. All charges involved novel interpretations of standing statutes. The Pentagon Papers Trial started in Los Angeles on July 10, 1972, with selection of the jury. On July 24, Judge Byrne exposed that the government had filed a wiretap transcript of a conversation by a member of the defense staff, however ruled that the contents need not be disclosed for the reason that they did not bear on the case. The defense appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The trial was stayed until November 13, when the Supreme Court upheld the judges ruling. Instantly afterward, the trial was again stayed when the defense appealed for and got dismissal of the jury. Selection of a new jury started on January 8, 1973. (John Prados and Margaret Pratt Porter (eds.), 2004) On May 11, 1973, though, near the close of testimony, Judge Byrne dismissed all charges against Ellsberg and Russo, and affirmed a mistrial due to improper government conduct which affronted a sense of justice. Among other things, the White House Plumbers had burglarized the office of Ellsbergs psychiatrist in 1971; FBI wiretap transcripts of telephone conversations by Ellsberg in 1969-1970 had disappeared; on numerous occasions the government had failed to make a timely disclosure of exculpatory evidence; and presidential assistant John Ehrlichman had flown to Los Angeles in April to offer Judge Byrne the directorship of the FBI. A poll of the jurors after the mistrial indicated that most would likely have voted for acquittal if they had had the opportunity to decide the case. Conclusion The Pentagon Papers trial was a political trial in the classic sense. It was as well a prosecutorial attempt that conformed to the Nixon Administrations often extraordinary constitutional asserts to power and its offhand disregard for the Rule of Law. The decision to prosecute was a high-level one made by the president, plus the charges brought against Ellsberg and Russo symbolized a creative political construction of statutes intended to make a noncrime into a crime. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. The concern of the Nixon Administration with leaks was so great that, besides the Pentagon Papers trial, it required to attain the same ends in its proposals to the Congress to reform the federal criminal code. All the legal issues rose in the Pentagon Papers trial and the creative constructions of statutes used to prosecute Ellsberg and Russo were contained in the administrations criminal code reform proposals. Those proposals, if passed, would have provided a firm base in criminal law for prosecuting persons for disclosing classified information to the public, and would have banned defendants from raising such questions as ownership of information and the propriety of any government classification of documents. Improper classification would have been no defense against criminal charges. The Congress rejected the presidents proposals, Nixon resigned from office, the imperial presidency came to an end, and the Vietnam War as well came to an shameful end two years later, however the issues raised in the Pentagon Papers trial have continued to haunt public life, affecting every administration since Nixon. For the reason that Judge Byrne elected to defer rulings on the substantive legal and constitutional issues until the end of the trial, the mistrial left all the issues judicially unresolved. Therefore, the possibility of prosecution continues to stand as a probable threat to citizens who disclose classified information to the general public, though any decision to prosecute, and the foundation for doing so in cases similar to the Pentagon Papers case, carries on to remain in the realm of politics rather than statutory law. The state of the law, as it now stands, neither permits nor prohibits a president from prosecuting persons who leak classified information to the American press. A key question for Americans, then, is whether the issues raised by the Pentagon Papers trial can be resolved legislatively or judicially. Even though it is usually recognized, as John Jay argued in The Federalist nearly 200 years ago, that executive secrecy is sometimes essential for the conduct of effective foreign policies, it is hard to reconcile in any precise way the practice of secrecy with the openness required for democratic policy-making. Legislative and judicial solutions would necessarily be flawed, and conceivably dangerous to democracy, since one cannot say in advance and thoroughly what sorts of information must be kept secret. Even authentically sensitive national security secrets might occasionally have to be exposed so as to root out malfeasance or otherwise protect the public good. Given that officials already err on the side of secrecy when they can get away with it, any further encouragement via legislation or judicial support may intensify the problem. The capability of presidents and their agents to protect secrets that are genuinely fundamental to the security of a democratic nation can easily be expanded to protect secrets that are very important merely to the power and interests of public officeholders. Therefore unless there is to be no secrecy, reconciliation of the need for secrecy with the prerequisites of democracy requires, in the final analysis, public-spirited officials who are capable and keen to exercise sound judgment footed on honest assessments of the national interest as determined by democratic processes. Such was not the case in 1971. References: Daniel Ellsberg. Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers; Viking Adult (October 10, 2002) David Rudenstine, The Day the Presses Stopped: A History of the Pentagon Papers Case. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1996 John Prados and Margaret Pratt Porter (eds.). INSIDE THE PENTAGON PAPERS, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. Peter Schrag. Test of Loyalty: Daniel Ellsberg and The Rituals of Secret Government. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1974. Sanford Ungar, The Papers and the Papers (New York: Dutton, 1972).

Attending a Speech by Ira Berlin on Slavery -- Slavery Race

â€Å"Rethinking Slavery† – A Retrospect I recently attended the lecture of renowned historian Ira Berlin. Professor Berlin is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. He has also been the recipient of many awards and acknowledgements over the last decade. In 2002, President Clinton appointed Professor Berlin to the advisory committee of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Berlin was visiting the campus as a result of his recent appointment as a Mellon Distinguished Senior Fellow for the spring semester at the University of Illinois. He hosted an invitation-only conference at the Illini Union entitled â€Å"Transforming Slavery† on the day following his lecture. Usually when I am on my way to see a lecture, I am not exactly â€Å"anxious† to get there. I was, however, anticipating Professor Berlin’s lecture very much. I had a strong feeling that Professor Berlin was very well established and respected in his field. However, I became disappointed before the lecture even began. According to various sources I had seen around the University, Professor Berlin’s lecture was supposed to begin at 2:30. My plan was to have a conference at 12:30 with Professor Rogers, eat some lunch, and then head to the lecture at about 2:15. Luckily for me, during my 2 conference, I was informed that the lecture began at 3:30. After returning to my dorm, I researched the sources again. I found two sources that had the starting time of the lecture as 2:30, and two sources that had the starting time of the lecture as 3:30. So, needless to say, I was confused. ... ...of the audience to Professor Berlin’s lecture, I can only say that the reaction was mixed. I noticed that the scholars and professors on hand were captivated by Berlin’s presence and were very attentive. I even noticed that a professor in front of me literally tried to write every word Berlin spoke. As for the attitude of the rest in attendance, it was rather dull. It seemed that there were some people that seemed moderately interested in the speech, while others teetered on slumber. I must admit that I was one of the latter (even dosing off occasionally). It just seemed that, overall, the audience, I included, was slightly disappointed in the content and context of Professor Berlin’s lecture. Although there was a definite feeling that Professor Berlin was a very honored person, he failed to captivate most the audience, which was disappointing to say the least.

Thermodynamics of the Dissolution Borax

Thermodynamics of the Dissolution of Borax Lina Jawadi Objectives: * Study a system of salt and water solution. * Determining a variety of important thermodynamics quantities from the solubility information at various temperatures. Background: The salt and water solution in this experiment has relatively simple solubility equilibrium of borax in water. Na2B4O7 . 10 H2O 2Na + + B4O5(OH)42- + 8H2O This reaction is an equilibrium process and 8 water molecules from the hydrated salt are lost to the reaction medium. The equilibrium constant expression for this reaction is:K = [Na+]2 [B4O5(OH)42-] [H2O]8 [Na2B4O7 . 10 H2O] In this experiment we will always make sure there is some solid borax remaining in the sample mixture before removing some of it to analyze it. Therefore, we can assume that the concentration of solid borax is constant. In addition, the water molecules which were originally part of the borax’s crystalline matrix is lost to the sample mixture; however, it doesnâ₠¬â„¢t significantly affect the concentration of the water. The equilibrium constant expression can now be simplified to become: K = [Na+]2 [B4O5(OH)42-]The first equilibrium expression and the balanced solubility equilibrium reaction allow us to express either borate ion or sodium ion in terms of the other. So, it is possible to determine the constant in terms of either ion. After substituting borax ion in place of the sodium ion, ([Na+] = 2 [B4O5(OH)42-] , K = (2 [B4O5(OH)42-] )2 * [B4O5(OH)42-] ) we get: K = 4 [B4O5(OH)42-]3 . Finding the concentration of borate ion in any sample at any given temperature gives us the solubility product at that temperature. Equipment: * 5mL pipet * Test tubes * Marker * Hot plate * 250 mL beaker * Flask Electric balance Procedure: 1. Using the pipet add 5mL of distilled water to 10 test tubes. 2. Mark the level with the marker and pour the water out. Mark the test tube with the assigned temperature. 3. Weigh 30-32g of solid sodium borate decahydrat e (borax) in a 250 mL beaker and then add 150 mL of water. 4. Place the mixture on a hot plate, but don’t allow its temperature to exceed 50oC. 5. After all the borax dissolves, add more and let the temperature reach 45oC. 6. Once it starts slightly exceeding 45oC, remove it from the hot plate and place instead a beaker filled with 150 mL of distilled water. . Continue stirring the mixture until it reaches the desired temperature. 8. Quickly pour 5 mL of the mixture in two test tube without transferring any solid borax. (record the temperature before and after the transfer. ) 9. When the water bath reaches 45oC, place the test tube in it until precipitation of borax has dissolved. 10. In a flask with 50-75 mL of water and 10 drops of bromocresol green indicator, add 125 mL of the borax solution. 11. Before titrating the borax with acid make sure that it has a blue color.Using buret filled with 50 mL oh HCl, add the acid to the borax until it reaches the endpoint, which is whe n the solution turns from a blue color to a yellow. Record the initial and final volume. (For calculations: find the moles of borax using the volume of HCl and its molarity. Then find the solubility product constant and plot the ksp vs. (1/t) graph and from it obtain the values of ? H and ? S. Make sure the temperature is in kelvin when doing the calculations. Finally, find the value of ? G using both equations and plot the ? G vs. time graph. )

Investigation into customer service at Safeway Willerby Essay

On Monday the 17th of February my Business group went to the Safeway Superstore in Willerby to interview the customer services manager, Andy Bostock. This was good customer service for us as it is a busy store and he gave up time for us, and with also been customers it was good that he acknowledged us. While we was at the store we were going to carry out an overt and covert investigation (see appendix 1) which means that we was to ask Andy Bostock some questions and we where going to carry out several observations throughout the store. This is where Safeway, Willerby is located: The Safeway store tries to ensure that all customers wants and needs are catered for and they have such things as: * Toilets * Florists * Photo processing * Cafe * Home entertainment department- which sells such things as CDs and TVs * Kosher food * In store banking * Bakery * Meat * Fish * Fruit and Veg * The deli * Chilled * Italian * Beers, wine and spirits * Frozen Food * Health and beauty * Lottery * Organic food * Passport photos booth The importance of customer service to Safeway is that with the store dealing with 20-23 thousand people on a weekly basis it is important that they deal with each customers needs and expectations. If this does not happen it will mean that customers may go else where to a rival store. When new recruits start at Safeway they are given and induction talk which covers every aspects of the job description. They are given work books to fill in and the management will check them to make sure that they understand everything what is asked from them. They do not have off the job training as everything they need to know is within the store so there is no need for them to go anywhere else. The only off the job training is for managers and they may need training in a new aspect of customer service or need re-training for example. They do not re-train their staff which means that they may not gain as much knowledge as they may need. This could be that they do not want to spend any money on retrain ing them, which in the long run is bad because it will mean that employees will not know what they are doing and when customers have a problem may find it difficult to deal with them on the spot. Their training is from 12-16 weeks and they cover every aspect on what department that are going to work on. They only let their employees work on one department because it means that they know the department really well and can deal with every problem, which comes up. This is a good point because all of their staff will know everything about the department and will work hard on it and make sure that all the work is done correctly. The bad point of doing this is that if a customer comes up to a member of staff who does not know anything about the department which the customer wants information on it may annoy the customer cost they will want the problem dealt with quickly. Read more:  Customer Service Investigation Safeway deal with any problems quickly as the always make sure that their is a spare employee to deal with the problem. Also if a customers comes up and asks them where something is within the store, they are trained to ask the customer whether they want them to take them or tell them. This is because the customer may want to make some other purchases before they go to the item what they are looking for, and the thing what they are asking for may be at the other side of the store and it may annoy the customer if they are taken their before making other purchases because they will have to go back on them self’s. When customers pay for their goods they get a receipt and this has information which is relevant to their purchases, but on the Safeway receipt it has the following information: * The store opening times- this means that customer will be able to see the next time the store is open. * Who the customer services manager is- this means that if the customer has a problem they can contact Andy Bostock as quickly as possible. * Who the till operator is- if you have a problem with something then you can report to the customer services manager and they can then deal with the person or give them more training if needed. * Advertising the Safeway magazine- it is making customers aware of the magazine so that they can pick it up. It also has the date, time, address and telephone number at the bottom of the receipt. This is so customers know when they made the purchase and if their is a problem they can contact the store my mail or telephone. (See appendix 2). This related to customer service because if the service what they get is bad, the customer services manager will know who did this and if they have done this before they will be able to discipline them. The information what the customer gets on the receipt is important to only to them but to the customer service manager. If the machine breaks down it will mean that it will effect the customer-employee relations. The methods of payments what Safeway have are cash, card and cheque. So this means what ever the customer wishes to pay with Safeway can deal with it. So this is good because if they only expect cash for example it will mean that if Safeway are not catering for all customers they will start to go elsewhere. Safeway do not offer a home delivery whether it will be by people doing it through the phone or via the Internet. This is because Safeway have never been interested in it and would rather spend their money on investing in other things which will be more beneficial to the employees and customers. With other competing companies such as Sainsburys offering this service it may be wise if they did look into it and if they did not get many customers then stop doing it. It would make it easier for older people to order online or via the phone, this would also be beneficial for people that are in a wheelchair as it means that they do not have to leave their home. Safeway do not have any members of staff who are trained in dealing with foreign customers, as they do not usually get a lot of them. If Safeway did decide to train someone in this it will mean that it will give them a good reputation will foreign people for understanding their needs. When a disabled customer comes into the store, Safeway make sure that they have all the assistance they need. They ask them if they would like a member of staff to help them shop, which is like a personal shopper this is because for example if a wheelchair customer comes in and the can not reach the top shelf for an item the personal shopper will be along side them to get the item. The cater for disabled customers by offering: 1. 6 Disabled parking spaces at the front of the car park so it doesn’t mean that they have to travel far to get their. 2. Have wide isles so that it is comfortable for wheelchairs to get through. 3. They have special trolleys which are trolleys that can just fit into an electric wheelchair so it means that they can carry on shopping easily. They also offer smaller trolleys for their customer who have a disability. 4. They have a disabled toilet at the front of the store. Safeway have realized that a lot of disabled people do come into the store, so they have made it easier for them to shop by offering these types of services for the disabled customers to use. Safeway decided to no longer have the crà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½che and make way for the home entertainment department this is because the home entertainment department will effect everyone as the crà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½che will only effect people who are bringing in small children. The crà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½che also lost its popularity with customers and Safeway where losing money on it and it seemed the right place to put it because customers have to walk through the whole store to get to the department. At the tills at the front of the store each one has a change draw and this is easy for the staff to use as if they need change quickly they have access to it and it means that customers will not get distressed. Safeway make sure that they have adequate staffing levels at all times and they do this by knowing what they sold the same time last week and giving the employees the hours on the tills. For example on a Saturday morning they may take à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10,000 so they will need more people on the tills to cater for all the customers, but on a Monday morning they may only take à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1000 so they will not need to have all the tills on, they may only need about 4. When it was Christmas they gave their customers who where waiting in the cue free mince pies which meant that they where offering a good customer service to all of their customers. Every department in the store has its own employees so if they is a promotion on alcohol for example it will mean that they will need more staff to get all the alcohol out onto the shop floor. They also have a night shift who work 10-7 which means that they get all of the stock from the stock room out for the morning and to make room for the delivery the next morning. This is good for the customers as they are getting the freshest products at any given time because as soon as it arrives it will be put out. When we looked at the stock room it was untidy which meant that it might be difficult for everyone to know where everything goes. They did not have a stock room manager, which for a store of that size is a bad thing, as not every member of staff is doing their job correctly. If a stock room manager was introduced it will improve the amount of damaged goods as well as improving the quality of the stock room. With their being no stock room manager it will be made easier for the staff to steal products and whilst we was their he said that there were a lot of unsolved theft and that they lose a lot of money in the Willerby store, and this could be the reason for this. They have eight cameras in the store and one main one on the alcohol department this is because this is the most common theft. This means that it is giving the customers a lot of security and makes them feel more save when they are their and they also have a security guard who works six days a week. When they call code 50 over the tannoy all male members of staff go to the front of the store to stop the thief, this is because if their is more than one the security guard will not be able to deal with them. This is done to make the customers feel more safe when they are shopping at the store. Their health and safety procedures are gone through on the day they get their training. It is important that all staff know the health and safety procedure incase of an emergency such as a fire. When it was the firefighter strike they where given extra training which consisted of videos and leaflets what Safeway came up with to make sure that they where aware of everything what was going on. They also put posters up in the staff room and in the stock room to always keep them aware of the dangers. They made sure that everything was double-checked to cover their backs. This was excellent customer service as they knew that fire fighters may not be able to get to the store incase of a fire, so they make sure that everything is checked for the safety of the customers. When the fire alarm goes off they can detect where about it is in the store and they will then go and see if it was set of deliberately or it was just a prank, and if it was deliberately they will then evacuate the store. Safeway’s buildings are not insured so this means that with the money what they save they can invest into other things what will benefit the company. But if their is a fire within a store and it gets burnt down they will lose a lot of money and last year two stores went down with fire and it meant that they got no money. So they have to take money from elsewhere. They also have a hazard book which employees fill in if they think there is a problem and this is checked everyday. It means that if there is a problem the management can deal with them quickly to benefit the customers and keep them safe. They have 1st aiders in the store all the time which means that if a problem does arise with a customer been injured they can deal with it quickly and correctly. The 1st aid facilities what are in the store are mainly for the employees not the customers. Safeway communicate with their customers by having the following things: * Tannoys- if a child is lost for example they could tannoy the child’s parent or guardian to come and pick them up * Leaflets advertising their special offers- making the customers aware of what they have to offer. These usually come through the post box with the free supplement newspaper what residents get. (see appendix 3) * Walkie-talkies between employees- they can contact each other if a problem comes up and can be easily dealt with. * Notice board- this informs the customers of any events coming up and what they are for. The ways in which Safeway assess and monitor the quality of customer service are that they used to have an ABC card and this could recognize how much money a certain customer spends in Safeway over a period of time. It was a point scheme where if you spent over a amount of money you would get points which in the long run would mean that you will get offers and free things depending on how much money you have spent. They stopped doing this when a new board of director came in and said that it was a waste of money and that money could be spent elsewhere. When we asked Andy on what he thought of it he said the same, and the money what would be saved in producing the cards could be spent on more productive things, but why does store cards work for other supermarkets such as Sainsburys and Tesco? ABC Card: Safeway used to have mystery shoppers but then that stopped because a mystery shopper was not a true reflection on the store as they have two mystery shoppers a month and the Willerby store gets 20-23 thousand customers a week. So the stopped doing this because they started to realize that it was not working. Safeway carried out a survey to get some feed back on what the customers though on the store and what the good and bad points. (see appendix 4) They survey was done by 60 people on Friday 5th April to Sunday 7th April. The survey covers the following things: 1. Hygiene 2. Staff 3. Checkouts 4. Solutions to improving staff service 5. Best in fresh 6. Items which where of a poor quality 7. Product and price 8. Availability 9. Who the shoppers are 10. Where else they shop 11. Suggestions for improvement The survey is then analyzed by head office and the management team of the Willerby store and they will talk about the results and what they are going to do with them and how to make improvements. This is very good customer service because it is giving the customers a chance to express any opinions they may have of the store whether it is good or bad. Also if they do make a suggestion or say what they think and the next time they go in it is dealt with it will make the customers feel as if they have say on what goes on within the store. The customer services desk is at the front of the store as soon as you walk in, which means that it saves the customer walking through the store and hopefully the problem can be dealt with by the people at the customer services desk. Customer complaints are dealt with by either phone, letter of face to face. They do not offer an email service where they can directly email the store with any problems which may need looking at as email is one of the most common ways of communicating. If a customer does complain Any Bostock (customer services manager) will personally deal with the complaint this is because this time he will know that it is dealt with correctly and the other point is why has the customer complaint and what can be done for this customer complaint to come about again. If its a face to face problem he will go to the customer services desk and try and ask the customer what the situation is and come to some compromise. If its on the phone, the customer services desk will try and deal with it then but if its a major problem Andy will take the call and deal with it appropriately. Then finally he will reply to any letter, which is sent to him regarding a customer complaint. The most common complaint is that customers are cueing to long at the tills. They try and deal with this by having enough staff to cover if there is a rush on and this is worked out by using the week before figures. If all tills are on and customers are still complaining the only way you can deal with them is by apologizing to them because their is nothing more you can do at that moment in time. They also had a suggestion box where customers could put in any suggestions or how the felt it would work better, but they had to stop doing this because it turned into a customer complaint box and they did not want this. Safeway need to come up with a new suggestion scheme as it is important for Safeway to understand what the customer wants and the best way is through suggestion schemes because it is easy to do and cheap to operate. Whilst I was at the store I carried out my own observations and I came up with the following results. The car park was shared with Iceland, Focus, Poundstretcher, Jonathan James, Francios and wickes. This meant that by having the store on a retail park it meant that customers could do other types of shopping if they needed to. Safeway did have its owns trolley parks that where scattered around the car park, which meant that customers did not have to walk back with their trolley where ever they are parked because it if they are old, they will not want to be walking back to Safeway with their trolley if they are parked at the other side of the car park. Other benefits what the car park had where: * 16 Child and parent parking spaces- these where directly outside the store so it a parent comes with a small child, the child is not running around the car park, they can just go straight into the store * 6 disabled parking spaces- These where next to the child and parent parking which are directly outside the store. Disabled people may find it had to walk across a big car park but with these parking spaces been their it is making it easier for them to cope. I personally feel 6 spaces is not enough, this is because quite a lot of retired people may be classed as disabled and they have the most free time as they do not have to go to work, so with expanding the parking spaces for the disabled they may create a new customer segment. * 2 Zebra crossings- These where going towards the front of the store where the entrances where. This is good customer service because if their is a lot of traffic and you can not make it across the road with the zebra crossings been their, it will make it easier for the customer. Safeway provide a variety of different trolleys for every type of customer. This is because if they have different types of trolleys it means that if customers only want a small shop their is small trolleys. The advantage of Safeway trolleys are that you do not have to put a pound in, this is good because a customer may not have a pound coin in change and if they dint they would have to go and get it changed before they even started the shopping. With the trolleys not having a pound put in them it means that they could get stolen and this would mean a loss in profits for the company because each trolley costs about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50 to make. Also around the surrounding area there is always trolleys just dumped because they is no need to return them back to Safeway. All the trolleys are kept under a shelter which means if it does rain the trolleys are still dry so the customers do not have to dry them down. Types of trolleys: * Large trolleys * Medium trolleys * Small trolleys * One seat baby trolleys * Two seat baby trolleys * One seat child trolleys * Two seat child trolleys * Wheelchair trolleys * Baskets They also have a post box which is outside the store with a stamp machine inside the store (which was out of order), but the customer can also buy stamps from the confectionery desk which is next to the customer service desk. With Safeway selling stamps it means that if a customer wished to send somebody a birthday card they could get the stamp and post it all within the store. The post box is emptied several times a day to make sure that the post is delivered on time. Along with stamp machine they where a phone card machine and a savings stamp machine. The phone card machine only sold BT Cellnet cards which meant that if customers wanted to get a different one they would have to go to the confectionery desk because they do not sell the cards at each till. This is bad customer service because they may just want to do all their shopping at once and if they have to go somewhere else in the store it may distress them. With the savings stamps this is a booklet what customers can get and they can collect them over a period of time, usually up to Christmas so when it comes to do their Christmas shopping they will have an amount of money what they will spend. A savings booklet is a good idea because if a customer is buying a stamp a week, you know that they are going to come back at Christmas and spend it and hopefully more to do their Christmas shopping. The toilets what Safeway have are: 1. Ladies 2. Men’s 3. Disabled 4. Baby Change The toilets are at the front of the store which means that you can go to toilets before you start your shopping or after it, but if you go after shopping it will mean that you will have to leave you shopping unattended because their is no secure place where you can leave your shopping. When I went into the toilets I was not impressed with the standard of them, this is because as soon as I walked into them their was a smell which was very of putting and meant that I wanted to be as quick as possible. This is bad customer service because their was nothing done about it, if their was some sort of air conditioning in their it would make it easier. The floor was also very dirty and their was water all over the floor underneath the sink, which meant that the toilets are very rarely checked by the employees because in some toilets there is a sheet up to say when it was last checked and if there where any damages. If the toilets are not checked regularly it may stop customers from using them because of the standard of them. When I went into the toilets their where a lot of damages like holes in the wall and their where no bins so people where just dropping their rubbish on the floor. This gave the toilets and overall tacky feel to it and I personally would not use them again. If the toilets are not improved it may put customers of from using the store all together. The music of the store was aimed at the more older people, this is because this is their main target audience because you hardly get children or teenagers shopping in supermarkets. The music is controlled my head office which means that Safeway Willerby have no control which if the majority of customers are different from other stores they may wish to change the music slightly to make them come back. The music what they do play is very upbeat music, this is so that customers are feeling happy when they are shopping their. Whilst we where we was looking in the Entertainment department and we across and adult video which was on the second to bottom shelf which is easy for a small child to get hold of it. On the back of it had sexual images on it which meant that the child would be seeing them. This is very bad customer service because it is of adult content and its easy for the child to get hold of. On Safeway’s Website, the opening page is filled with information regarding a certain thing what is happening so for example the thing what is happening this month is Mothers day, so the opening is filled with information regarding Mothers day. (see appendix 5). They also have special offers what is making the customers aware of, so that they can purchase them. This can be food related or just other items such as dry cleaning and photo processing. They also have a recipe of the week, which is described in great detail as well as all their other recipes what you can look at online. Their Website is excellent customer because it is giving potential customers a chance to see what is happening within Safeway, and it is offering advice on the recipes that the customers may wish to make. Their Website also includes: * Store guide- this shows you where the nearest store is and how many miles away it is from your house. * Everything what is included in their stores from their specialized food to their service, which is not food related. * Company information- from the history of the company to the activities at the moment. * Drinks guide- this covers all the drinks from fizzy drinks to alcohol and expert advice is given. Overall Safeway’s Website is excellent because it covers all the information what you will need. Analysis of customer service: I am now going to analyze what the advantage and disadvantages are of Safeway Willerby in terms of customer service: Advantages Disadvantages With Safeway doing a survey it means that they are getting customer feedback which in the long run will benefit the company because with the results of the survey will they can improve the things what has gone wrong. There is no incentive of doing this and it is quite time consuming so the customers may rush it just to get through it, so if an incentive was launched they may be able to get more accurate results. The majority of their staff where of a mature age which meant that they had more experience with customers so they would know what they want. Also with employing older people it means that the management team will know that they are not coming into work with a hangover and they know that they are going to work well and not let them down, with the experience they have with customers. The toilets where a major disadvantage to Safeway Willerby this is because of the overall standard of them was poor. This gives the impression that Safeway Willerby are unhygienic and care very little about the standard of their customer service. If an employee checked the toilets every morning and afternoon, it could improve the standard a bit and it would reassure the customers that something is been done about them. With the security guard working 6 days a week, customers will start to pick up on when he is not their and they might try and get away with things such as theft. With him also working 6 days he will start to get tired and may not do his job properly. If another security guard was introduced it will mean that their is always a security guard in the store, this will assure the customers that they are safe with these security guards in operation.

The Adventures if Sherlock Holmes Essay Example

The Adventures if Sherlock Holmes Essay Example The Adventures if Sherlock Holmes Essay The Adventures if Sherlock Holmes Essay The language used by Conan Doyle is quite specific. He uses a lot of similes to describe his villains such as his description of Dr Roylott gave him the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey on page 185. How he describes all of the villains in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are very detailed and, I think, quite similar because for all of them he describes their clothes as much as their physical appearances. The language used is for the purpose of really getting the villains character across to the audience, to make them understand why the people in the book fear them or respect them. This is to make it so that when it comes to the end of the story with Holmess conclusion the audience arent confused as to how he got from one point to another. The physical appearances of the characters are very different as they vary from a scary old doctor to a young assistant. The appearances of the villains arent really stereotypes but do all contain a certain typical aspect of a villain. Dr Roylott in particular seems very sinister just because of how he is described, as marked with every evil passion on page 185. The way they behave is very different in each story, they are all very different characters but all have reasons to make you doubt them. Vincent Spaulding for instance is an obliging youth (page 33) and seems too good to be true and not overly suspicious; Colonel Lysander Stark and his insistence in not telling anyone anything and Dr Roylott who seems to be a bully and a bit strange and menacing. The language the villains use suit them perfectly, for example, Colonel Lysander Stark is a very suspicious person who has something of a German accent (page 206). The fact that he is from a different country just, in the readers eyes, makes him even more suspicious, whereas Vincent Spaulding is a very clever and obliging person who doesnt say very much but when he does speak, he is quite polite which draws attention away from him. Their personalities show us that, in their own different ways, they shouldnt be trusted, as they are all suspicious, even if it is only very slightly like in Vincent Spauldings case. The only suspicious thing he does is Then diving down into the cellar like a rabbit on page 33. Colonel Lysander Stark is very suspicious because he is very insistent on keeping everything a secret as he keeps telling Victor Hatherly on page 207 absolute secrecy is quite essential absolute secrecy All these stories and the villains in them are typical of the detective genre because they both keep the reader guessing until almost the very end at which time it keeps you guessing at how Holmes figured everything out. Another thing that keeps the reader interested is that they arent easy to figure out because of all the clues and all of the red herrings. There are a lot of these false leads in the stories such as in The Red Headed League the red herring is that the Red Headed League doesnt exist. Although they are typical of the detective genre, the stories and characters are still very different from each other which helps to hide the suspect when it comes to reading one story after another so that it is a surprise to find out who did it every time. The thing that is most typical of this genre is that nearly all of the characters in these stories, have a sidekick or and accomplice. The way the villains are described is designed to make the audience feel scared or fearful of the character as if they are an actual person you are meeting, not just a character out of a book. For instance the fact that one of the characters is foreign, makes the audience immediately feel wary and suspicious and they immediately mistrust him, which is how they are meant to feel towards that character. Some of the developments on the characters are there to trick the audience into believing something, for example, the audience are lead to believe that Vincent Spaulding is a smart assistant (page 33) whereas he is really called John Clay and is a murderer, thief, smasher and forger (Page 48). I think that Conan Doyles style of writing is very effective, as his stories were popular when they were first released and still are today. His style of writing is very clever in the way he has described his villains and how he has made the plot unfold. This style of writing is particularly good because he has written it from a different perspective, so that the reader wont work things out with Holmes like in most detective books. He has made his villains unfold very well, especially, I think, with Vincent Spaulding as he was the hardest to work out as he seemed to be a very quiet and helpful person, but this is all unravelled by Holmes in the end. I think using a different narrator to the main character was effective because the reader is looking at this through Dr Watsons eyes, the mystery remains right up until the very end at which point everything is explained to us. Not looking at things through Holmess eyes also makes it so that the audience also falls for all the red herrings Conan Doyle liberally places throughout his stories. This makes the story more exciting as the reader can keep guessing at who did it and it wont be spoilt by the narrator keep saying whats going to happen next. I think that if any of the stories were too long they would be less interesting and wouldnt hold the readers attention for very long. As the stories are short they constantly have something new or exciting happening because all the clues and things dont have to be drawn out to last longer. There is a lot of tension in these stories that is only supposed to last a little while as the story comes to an end and the reader finds out how Holmes figured it out. I think that if the stories were much longer than they are now then the tension wouldnt really be noticed and after a while which would make the end a lot less spectacular. By the end of the stories the villains are always found out and they are usually caught. I think that the moral of the story is that the villains in the stories always get their comeuppance. For example, in The Engineers Thumb Colonel Lysander Stark gets away, but the person hes working with looses his house and they have to move to a different country where no-one will recognise them. Also in The Speckled Band Dr Roylott kills someone with a swamp adder which then turns on him and he died within ten seconds of being bitten. This shows that criminals never get away with it and the heros of the story always find them out. I think that Victorians enjoyed Conan Doyles detective stories so much because, I imagine, it made them feel safer as in those times there were people like Jack the Ripper on the loose and the fact that the criminals were, more often than not, caught in these stories, it helped Victorians believe that there was justice after all, because, lets face it, the police werent very good at their jobs and so couldnt give people the security they needed. The fact that the crimes in these books were common ones only made them even better as it showed that there are ways of solving crimes. I think that these were also fairly popular because there couldnt have been very many detective stories around at that time.

Rhetorical Analysis Essays

Rhetorical Analysis Essays Rhetorical Analysis Essay Rhetorical Analysis Essay Dana Trimmer Rhetorical Analysis In Michael T. Klare’s â€Å"The Coming Era of Energy Disasters,† he seems to focus on the major risks off shore drilling the causes and the effect on the environment. The overall argument conveys that unless the oil industry and the consumer take an alternative route to dangerous oil drilling â€Å"more such calamities are destined to occur† (Klare 1). Klare is very vocal in criticizing of the BP executives concerning the Deepwater Horizon disaster. He proceeds to state the fact the chief executives of BP chose to call the accident and oversight â€Å"a fallacious, if not outright lie† (Klare 1). Klare’s article offers four scenarios that point to the escalating chances of major disasters if oil companies continue to pursue deep sea drilling. Klare contends that to continue to use the energy sources at the rate we currently use it will â€Å"guarantee the equivalent of two, three, four or more Gulf oil-spill-style disasters in our energy future† (Klare 1). In reference to Michael T. Klare’s background, he is a (PAWSS) Professor and affiliated with the Peace and World Security Studies and the School of Critical Social Inquiry. In addition, Klare is also the author of numerous books, and example, â€Å"Blood and Oil† (2004). Klare has written a number of articles in magazines such as Arms Control Today, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Current History, Foreign Affairs, Harper’s, The Nation, Scientific American and Technology Review (get Abstract). Most of the books and articles Klare has written in some way relate to the state of world affairs with most of them concerning the negative state of world affairs. Given Klare’s lifework and field of study, this creates creditability and a perfect environment with critical knowledge for the core reading Klare has chose to write about. Klare Trimmer 2 continues to argue that â€Å"drilling in unsafe areas and not pursuing alternative energy sources for the future, more such catastrophes’ are coming no matter how much the technology has advanced† (Klare 1). Setting the stage for his scenarios, Klare begins with the question â€Å"What will the next Deepwater Horizon disaster look like† (Klare 2)? Klare attempts to engage not only the public, those that have been somewhat exposed to the media, but the corporate and collegiate community as well. Klare having his articles posted on very liberal and technical news websites, such as Technology Review and The Nation, tend to reach more of an audience with higher levels of education and technical knowledge than the public in general. Klare’s writing style uses a sense of urgency, his strong use of words some even underlined to stress his point creates a sense of conviction for the topic he chose. Klare uses scenarios (real and fictional) to persuade his readers to believe there will be future energy disasters. He uses history to build his case on some of the scenarios he imposes on his readers. An example of this is in scenario number one. Klare describes the Hibernia platform off of Newfoundland. He goes to the extent of stating the cost, what the platform is made of and how many crewmembers are aboard the Hibernia. Klare chose to mention that the Hibernia platform owners insist the platform is capable to â€Å"withstand a blow from even the largest iceberg† (Klare 2). Klare seems to ignore or chooses not to explore the possibility that advanced technology and new regulations would make the Hibernia platform safer. He chose instead to discredit the owners and the extra safeguards used, Klare purposed to create a vision of impending doom or an oil catastrophe. Klare is trying to accomplish an awareness of supposed Trimmer 3 hortfalls in the oil industry that will ultimately lead to â€Å"future nightmares† (Klare 7). Klare transitions between real history and fictional, which makes the reading hard to believe it is creditable. An example of this is in scenario one. Klare writes first of the Hibernia owners then quickly moves into an imaginary scenario of â€Å"global warning advances and Green- land glaciers melting sending massive chunks of ice floating into the North Atlantic on a path past Hibernia† (Klare 2). While this is very plausible it has not appened to the Hibernia at the present time. Klare’s persuasive appeal tends to lean more on the readers emotions. His scenarios tend to try to spark anger by the reader. Klare uses scenario number two to raise the awareness that Nigerians are already impoverished and are being used by the government unfairly. Klare in one hand has his audience feeling poorly for the Nigerian workers and in the other suggests, do to â€Å"the pipeline vandalism, kidnappings and militant takeovers of oil facilities† (Klare 3) that America has reason to aid the military. Klare has his audience upset and emotionally unsure that simulates his imaginary scenario. Klare escalates the insurgence of the Niger Delta region, placing the Nigerian oil output down to a third of its capacity† (Klare 3). Klare angers his readers by having them believe they will be â€Å"paying $5 per gallon of gasoline in the United States and convincing them the economy is headed for another deep recession† (Klare 3). This is Klare’s strategy for all of his scenarios. It is interesting that throughout the article Klare is very anti-oil drilling and uses very harsh examples and words, but finishes his article on a softer note with a disclaimer. Klare reminds his intended audience that â€Å"while none of these specific calamities are guaranteed to happen something like them surely will † (Klare 7). He goes on to remind his readers to â€Å"take action to not depend on fossil fuel and speed up transition to a post carbon world† (Klare 7). After a short softer note, Klare reminds his audience to beware Trimmer 4 in addition, watch out for more calamities to come. After all, of the effort Klare used to expose the wrongs of the major oil companies, it would have been appropriate for Klare to offer some suggestions of alternative energy sources. get Abstract compressed knowledge, n. d. Web. 07 Oct. 2011. http://getabstract. com/en/summary/economics-and-politics/rising-powers-shrinking-planet/10141/ Klare, Michael T. â€Å"The Coming Era of Energy Disasters†. The

Rumiqolqa - Primary Source of Incan Masonry

Rumiqolqa - Primary Source of Incan Masonry Rumiqolqa (spelled variously Rumiqullqa, Rumi Qullqa or Rumicolca) is the name of the major stone quarry used by the Inca Empire to construct its buildings, roads, plazas and towers. Located approximately 35 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of the Inca capital of Cusco in the Rio Huatanay valley of Peru, the quarry is on the left bank of the river Vilcanota, off the Inca road leading from Cusco to Qollasuyu. Its elevation is 3,330 meters (11,000 feet), which is slightly below Cusco, at 3,400 m (11,200 ft). Many of the buildings in the royal district of Cusco were constructed of finely cut ashlar stone from Rumiqolqa. The name Rumiqolqa means stone storehouse in the Quechua language, and it was used as a quarry in highland Peru perhaps beginning in the Wari period (~550-900 AD) and up through the latter part of the 20th century. The Inca period Rumiqolqa operation probably spanned an area of between 100 and 200 hectares (250-500 acres). The main stone at Rumiqolqa is bedrock, a dark grey horneblende andesite, made up of plagioclase feldspar, basaltic horneblende and biotite. The rock is flow-banded and sometimes glassy, and it sometimes exhibits conchoidal fractures. Rumiqolqa is the most important of the many quarries used by the Inca for constructing administrative and religious buildings, and they sometimes transported building material thousands of kilometers from the point of origin. Multiple quarries were used for many of the buildings: typically Inca stonemasons would use the closest quarry for a given structure but transport in stone from other, more distant quarries as minor but important pieces. Rumiqolqa Site Features The site of Rumiqolqa is primarily a quarry, and features within its boundaries include access roads, ramps and staircases leading to the different quarrying areas, as well as an impressive gate complex restricting access to the mines. In addition, the site has the ruins of what were likely residences for the quarry workers and, according to local lore, the supervisors or administrators of those workers. One Inca-era quarry at Rumiqolqa was nicknamed the Llama Pit by researcher Jean-Pierre Protzen, who noted two rock art petrogylphs of llamas on the adjacent rock face. This pit measured about 100 m (328 ft) long, 60 m (200 ft) wide and 15-20 m (50-65 ft) deep, and at the time Protzen visited in the 1980s, there were 250 cut stones finished and ready to be shipped still in place. Protzen reported that these stones were hewn and dressed on five of the six sides. At the Llama Pit, Protzen identified 68 simple river cobbles of various sizes which had been used as hammerstones to cut the surfaces and draft and finish the edges. He also conducted experiments and was able to replicate results of the Inca stonemasons using similar river cobbles. Rumiqolqa and Cusco Thousands of andesite ashlars quarried at Rumicolca were used in the construction of palaces and temples in the royal district of Cusco, including the temple of Qoricancha, the Aqllawasi (house of the chosen women) and Pachacutis palace called the Cassana. Massive blocks, some of which weighed over 100 metric tons (about 440,000 pounds), were used in construction at Ollantaytambo and Sacsaywaman, both relatively closer to the quarry than Cusco proper. Guaman Poma de Ayala, a 16th century Quechua chronicler, described a historic legend surrounding the building of the Qoriqancha by Inka Pachacuti [ruled 1438-1471], including the process of bringing extracted and partially worked stones up into Cusco via a series of ramps. Other Sites Dennis Ogburn (2004), a scholar who has dedicated some decades to investigating Inca quarry sites, discovered that carved ashlars of stone from Rumiqolqa were conveyed all the way to Saraguro, Ecuador, some 1,700 km (~1,000 mi) along the Inca Road from the quarry. According to Spanish records, in the final days of the Inca Empire, the Inka Huayna Capac [ruled 1493-1527] was establishing a capital at the center of Tomebamba, close to the modern town of Cuenca, Ecuador, using stone from Rumiqolqa. This claim was upheld by Ogburn, who found that a minimum of 450 cut ashlar stones are currently in Ecuador, although they were removed from Huayna Capacs structures in the 20th century and reused to build a church in Paquishapa. Ogborn reports that the stones are well-shaped parallelepipeds, dressed on five or six sides, each with an estimated mass of between 200-700 kilograms (450-1500 pounds). Their origin from Rumiqolqa was established by comparing the results of XRF geochemical analysis on uncleaned exposed building surfaces to fresh quarry samples (see Ogburn and others 2013). Ogburn cites the Inca-Quechua chronicler Garcilaso de la Vega who noted that by building important structures from the Rumiqolqa quarry in his temples in Tomebamba, Huayna Capac was in effect transferring the power of Cusco to Cuenca, a strong psychological application of Incan propaganda. Sources This article is a part of the About.com guide to Quarry Sites, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Hunt PN. 1990. Inca volcanic stone provenance in the Cuzco province, Peru. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 1(24-36). Ogburn DE. 2004. Evidence for Long-Distance Transportation of Building Stones in the Inka Empire, from Cuzco, Peru to Saraguro, Ecuador. Latin American Antiquity 15(4):419-439. Ogburn DE. 2004a. Dynamic Display, Propaganda, and the Reinforcement of Provincial Power in the Inca Empire. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 14(1):225-239. Ogburn DE. 2013. Variation in Inca Building Stone Quarry Operations in Peru and Ecuador. In: Tripcevich N, and Vaughn KJ, editors. Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes: Springer New York. p 45-64. Ogburn DE, Sillar B, and Sierra JC. 2013. Evaluating effects of chemical weathering and surface contamination on the in situ provenance analysis of building stones in the Cuzco region of Peru with portable XRF. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(4):1823-1837. Pigeon G. 2011. Inca architecture : the function of a building in relation to its form. La Crosse, WI: University of Wisconsin La Crosse. Protzen J-P. 1985. Inca Quarrying and Stonecutting. The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 44(2):161-182.

Writing a blog for Lecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Writing a blog for Lecture - Essay Example From the lecture, one was made to reflect on experiences during shopping in a mall, where various products offered were designed in different packages and brands that aim to entice consumers in buying them. The discussions on visual illusions that influence one’s perception and contribute to decision making were highly illuminating. These touched on the Muller-Lyer illusion (Muller-Lyer Illusion n.d.), Ponzo’s illusion (Ponzo Illusion n.d.), Ebbinghaus illustion (Vishton and Fabre 2003), and Lepper’s ambiguous lady illusion (Perceptual Ambiguity 1997). Depending on the need or demand, one’s perception is significantly influenced and therefore buying behavior is swayed by which need is most pressing. For instance, there is a need to purchase a laptop to be used for academic presentations. Manufacturers design different strategies to cater to different consumers. I could be enticed to buy a particular brand based on functionality and design and also the pric e of the product, since as a student, I do not have enough income to purchase the more advanced and technically sophisticated products, despite the intricate packaging or promotions being applied. I therefore learned that my consumer buying behavior could have been influenced by diverse internal and external factors. One’s perceptual process is assisted by external factors to aid in decision making. There could be changes to be made in future buying behavior depending on significant changes in one’s income level or serving more intricate needs that only specifically designed products could satisfy. "Perceptual Ambiguity." Illusion Works. 1997. Available at: http://psylux.psych.tu-dresden.de/i1/kaw/diverses%20Material/www.illusionworks.com/html/perceptual_ambiguity.html (Accessed October 19, 2012). Skaalid, B. 1999. "Gestalt Principles of Perception." College of Education, University of Saskatchewan. Available at:

Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Research Paper Example This decision of making the truth known to the public is based on the ethical principle of transparency, which is an important part of communication â€Å"...based on the notion of an honest exchange† (Plaisance 44). It was mentioned in the commentary that despite Wilson’s transparency and honesty in verifying that Niger was not actually capable of exporting uranium ores due to stringent measures in the whole process, the Bush Administration decided to keep the public blind to this truth, and even dismissed Wilson’s report. This lack of transparency in reporting about the status of the uranium imports of Iraq from Africa abused the trusting nature of the public and kept them away from the issues that Wilson actually experienced first-hand, and this prompted him to air out his concerns regarding the misconception of most people with the real issues in Iraq and Saddam Hussein. The act of transparency is also rooted in the belief that people have a right to know abo ut the truth, and that the distortions of information could cause not just misinformation in the audience but also unprecedented troubles such as panic and disorder (Plaisance 47). Wilson chose not to keep quiet about how the information he knows got dismissed for the sake of the public, and he wrote it out in his commentary under the ethical principle of transparency. Question 2: Place yourself in Wilson’s position. What kinds of decisions/choices would you make if you were in the same situation? Would you have written the piece? Which philosopher and/or ethical philosophy help guide your decisions? The act of being transparent in communication is not just involved with some issues like whether or not there are hidden motives for transparency, but also the trust of the people involved in these communications is also at stake. Wilson banked on this ethical guideline in giving the public true information in creating his commentary on how his report regarding the true status of the Iraq-Niger uranium connection was silenced by the administration, which consequently perpetuated the fears within people about the potential danger that Iraq poses. His defiance of the information dispersed by the government was shown in his commentary, and while it might have cost him his life, it was worth knowing that at least somehow he did not simply stand and keep his silence. If I was in the same position as Wilson was, I would have done the same and have written a similar piece, maybe add additional and credible information for the reading public. Since this is important information that the public has a right to know but the government keeps from them, I feel that as a public servant I have a duty to the people of delivering them the truth. I would also do the same thing that Wilson did, by writing his own account of what really happened, and letting the people decide on the authenticity of my work. If I put myself in Wilson’s place on writing the commentary abo ut the reality of Niger not really having the ability to bring uranium ore illegally to Iraq, I would have chosen to be transparent with what I know, not just to regain the public’s trust on some members of the government, but also to assure them that not all threats are real, and that

There Is No Such Thing as Rest Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

There Is No Such Thing as Rest - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that the history of slavery in America goes back to the times of its discovery by Christopher Columbus in the early 16th century. The discovery was followed by the invasion led by Spanish, British and French rulers who wanted to exploit the vast wealth of new world. They also brought the shipload of African slaves so that could have free labor to work in the fields and do other menial work. African tribal were initially captured from the west coast of Africa and later traded as slaves in the European market. They were skilled farmers and were also known for their artwork on metal and wood. Europeans exploited them by making them slaves and using their skilled labor for free. Hence, when they were short of farm laborers in America, African slaves were brought to America, thereby starting the tradition of slavery in America. For centuries, whites have been enjoying the free labor of slaves and have become used to treating the blacks as second-c lass citizens. Slavery was made into a full-fledged tradition with Africans and nonwhites becoming slaves for life. They were deprived of their rights to live in dignity vis-Ã  -vis fair living condition, food, and education. When native population or American Indians as they were known as started to rebel, control over blacks became the major concern for the Whites. The conflict escalated into the famous 7 years war which finally concluded into American Revolution. Mantis asserts that American Revolution became the catalyst for the abolition of slavery. American Revolution was significant because it laid the foundation for free democratic America, which promoted empowerment of the people.

Organization analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Organization analysis - Assignment Example Along with increasing revenues the company also maintains its responsibilities towards society. The company works towards improving the community’s life and upgrading its technology to meet the requirements of the world (Tata Motors, n.d.). The areas which have been analyzed in the project are the organizational structural and behavioral issues which evolved in Tata Motors due to the acquisition. Firstly a number of cultural barriers emerged in the organization. The merging of two cultures was a challenge confronting the company. The organization required restructuring to align with that of Daewoo. Certain modifications were required to reorganize the divisions, streamlining operations and working on the costs. The organization had to handle the psychological issues of people arising out of their apprehensions about their future in the organization. Human resource issues like the compensation structures and grading systems were also required to be brought to a common platform. The important learning point is that the successful handling of the human resource issues is most critical for the success of an acquisition process. Employees of the acquired company are bound to have apprehensions about their future in the company. They could suffer from low motivation and morale. The acquirer should focus on introducing such strategies which would reduce the cultural barriers and enhance their performance. One way would be implement a fair and justified compensation stricture for all employees. At times the organization might also plan to give extra remuneration to the employees of the acquired company. This would boost their confidence level. The organization should also define the future organization roles of employees. It should be absolutely clear about its future expectation from the employees. If there is any change in the responsibilities and activities of employees then it should be communicated to the employees. Employees should not be

Working in Partnership in Health and Social Care Essay - 2

Working in Partnership in Health and Social Care - Essay Example Analyzing the two crises, the paper relies on various theoretical models of partnerships working with health and social care in order to understand the various factors that caused the lapses and thus draw a viable conclusion. Secondly, the paper draws various recommendations based on the crises of how future problems can be evaded. The recommendations give guidelines on how working partnerships working with health and social care can be explored, developed and implemented in future. The health and social care services provision remains one of the most important sectors in the government. The efficiency with which these services are provided by the various government establishments ensure that people remain healthy and that they play a huge role in the economy of the country. It is crucial for people to access quality and efficient services. However, when these services lack or their provision is poor, there is a lot of failures both in the government and the management of the service s. One of the major factors that can aid efficient and quality delivery of services is forming partnerships working with health and social care. These partnerships play a major role in ensuring that various players that include the services users, professionals and organizations aid one another in a mutual relationship that is beneficial to all. The lack of partnerships working with health and social care is a prerequisite for disasters in health and social care services provision. One of the underlying factors in provision of quality health and social care services is the partnership that patients, professionals and authorities can forge. The Mid Staffs Hospital scandal at the Stafford Hospital and the death of a man with learning difficulties put the spotlight on the type and quality of health and social care given to people in hospitals and at home. Further, the two cases point towards a need to have a working relationship between various organizations and persons that are in nee d.

Organization analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Organization analysis - Assignment Example Along with increasing revenues the company also maintains its responsibilities towards society. The company works towards improving the community’s life and upgrading its technology to meet the requirements of the world (Tata Motors, n.d.). The areas which have been analyzed in the project are the organizational structural and behavioral issues which evolved in Tata Motors due to the acquisition. Firstly a number of cultural barriers emerged in the organization. The merging of two cultures was a challenge confronting the company. The organization required restructuring to align with that of Daewoo. Certain modifications were required to reorganize the divisions, streamlining operations and working on the costs. The organization had to handle the psychological issues of people arising out of their apprehensions about their future in the organization. Human resource issues like the compensation structures and grading systems were also required to be brought to a common platform. The important learning point is that the successful handling of the human resource issues is most critical for the success of an acquisition process. Employees of the acquired company are bound to have apprehensions about their future in the company. They could suffer from low motivation and morale. The acquirer should focus on introducing such strategies which would reduce the cultural barriers and enhance their performance. One way would be implement a fair and justified compensation stricture for all employees. At times the organization might also plan to give extra remuneration to the employees of the acquired company. This would boost their confidence level. The organization should also define the future organization roles of employees. It should be absolutely clear about its future expectation from the employees. If there is any change in the responsibilities and activities of employees then it should be communicated to the employees. Employees should not be

Wk 2 questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Wk 2 questions - Essay Example In macro needs assessments, surveys will probably be required. In contrast, in very micro settings, consultations with the local population and professional judgment can suffice to make a valid need assessment. This is because in very micro-settings, the community people can be convened for headcounts to substitute for surveys or census and professional judgment based on ocular inspection or rapid random sample or 100% physical check-ups on the population can suffice to identify health needs. If resources are limited then a combination of the following can be done to make rapid needs assessment: 1) key informant interviews; 2) focused group discussion; 3) consultations meetings with the community, local authorities, and local professionals; and 4) workshops with community leaders, local authorities, and local professionals. In the key-informant interviews, we focus on the local people or non-residents of the community whom we believe have an intimate of the locality. For instance, community leaders and anthropologists/sociologists who have been studying the community can be classified as â€Å"key informants†. In a focus group discussion, we convene a small group who are usually composed of people whom we can also classify as key informants to discuss needs and make an assessment of the situation or needs of the community under our supervision. In consultations meetings with the community and other stakeholders, we can convene a meeting with them even without maki ng a distinction between key informants and non-key informants and discuss with them community needs. We ask them to identify for us what their community needs are---under our supervision, of course. Workshops are very similar with focused group discussion except that the latter are more democratic and participatory. The unities arrived at workshop are usually stake-holder driven rather than driven by

Care for children Essay Example for Free

Care for children Essay ‘’Child care (or childcare, child minding, daycare,or preschool) is the caring for and supervision of a child or children, usually from newborn to age thirteen. Child care is the action or skill of looking after children by a day-care centre, babysitter, or other providers. Child care is a broad topic covering a wide spectrum of contexts, activities, social and cultural conventions, and institutions. The majority of child care institutions that are available require that child care providers have extensive training in first aid and are CPR certified. In addition, background checks, drug testing, and reference verification are normally a requirement Family child care In home care is known as family child care it typically is provided by nannies, au pairs, or friends and family. The child is watched inside their own home or the caregivers home, reducing exposure to outside children and illnesses. Depending on the number of children in the home, the children utilizing in-home care enjoy the greatest amount of interaction with their caregiver, forming a close bond. There are no required licensing or background checks for in-home care, making parental vigilance essential in choosing an appropriate caregiver. Nanny and au pair services provide certified caregivers and the cost of in-home care is the highest of childcare options per child, though a household with many children may find this the most convenient and affordable option. Many nannies study towards childcare qualifications. This means they are trained to create a safe and stimulating environment for your child to enjoy and thrive in. Typically, au pairs or nannies provide more than routine child care, often assisting with daily household activities, including running errands, shopping, doing laundry, fixing meals, and cleaning house. Centre-based care[edit] Commercial care centres also known as daycares are open for set hours, and provide a standardized and regulated system of care for children. Parents may choose from a commercial care centre close to their work, and some companies offer care at their facilities. Active children may thrive in the educational activities provided by a quality commercial care centre, but according to the National Centre for Early Development and Learning, children from low quality centres may be significantly less advanced in terms of vocabulary and reading skills. [1] Classes are usually largest in this type of care, ratios of children to adult caregivers will vary according to state licensing requirements. Some positives of commercial care are children gain independence, academic achievement and socialization. Informal care[edit] Informal childcare is a variation of childcare that utilizes family members as a childcare system, for example grandparents and siblings. Informal childcare is an especially inexpensive form of childcare, and is utilized typically by those who are considered poor. Parents may need to utilize informal care for a variety of reasons. Typically informal childcare is necessary for families who do not have enough funds to finance placing their children in a more expensive child care facility. Those low income families are also more apt to work longer hours on an irregular and inflexible schedule, which ultimately makes using a childcare facility that has regular business hours unlikely’’ Taken from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Child_care#Family_child_care ‘’Childminders are Ofsted registered professional daycarers who look after children in their own homes. They offer a flexible service, caring for children aged from birth to sixteen years. They are only allowed to look after upto six children between the ages birth to eight (including their own). They can have more children if they work in partnership with other childminders or assistants. The service offered is unique to each family’s needs and many childminders provide evening, weekend and school holiday cover. All childminders will have completed a training course including paediatric first aid. Nanny/Home childcarers are carers, which look after children in the family home. They can fit in with unusual hours and working patterns. They can register with Ofsted on the Voluntary register, to allow families to take advantage of tax credits. This however is not compulsory. Day Nurseries can care for children aged from birth to five years and usually offer day care from 8am to 6pm, for most of the year. All day nurseries will be registered with Ofsted and inspected regularly. You can view inspection reports by visiting www. ofsted. gov. uk They can be run by private individuals, community groups, Montessori organisations, commercial businesses or by employers. Private Nursery Schools (aka Private Independent Schools) are owned privately and can offer sessional or full day care to children aged two to five. Some schools can offer a particular educational approach, for example Montessori. They may operate only during term-time or could open all year. They could be registered with Ofsted or the ISI (Independent School Directorate) (LEA) Maintained Nursery Schools offer full and part-time early years education places, typically between school hours. They are attached to primary schools. A child can attend for a full or half day. Nursery schools may also offer childcare after school (see out of school clubs). Pre-schools and playgroups offer care to children in their local community, either as a morning or afternoon session or as extended sessions including lunch. They are often run by voluntary groups but can also be run by private individuals. They care for children aged from two to five years and are usually open during term time. They differ from day nurseries in that they offer sessional based care and admit children from the age of two years old. They can be registered with Ofsted or unregistered. Independent Schools are owned privately and cater for children aged from three to sixteen. The schools are registered with Ofsted or the ISI but make their own arrangements concerning staff numbers qualifications and curriculum. If the school participates in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, it will be inspected by Ofsted. Out of School Clubs (aka Play Centres) provide safe and stimulating play opportunities for school age children at times when schools are not open. They can operate before school in the mornings, from the end of the school day and at the end of the working day, throughout the school holidays, or a combination of all three. They typically cater for children aged four to fifteen but some non-RBKC run clubs might look after younger children.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict Across the Muslim world it is a common refrain that Palestine is the mother of all problems. (Atran Ginges: 2009: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/opinion/25atran .html) That these claims could be made about such a small piece of land, particularly one which has so little oil is extraordinary, serving only to highlight the importance of finding a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. To date, the numerous attempts at solving the conflict have all ended in failure. The prospects for a peaceful solution in the foreseeable future look bleak, with a wide range of factors contributing towards this, most notably the role of extremists, the failure of the peace process, actions of the Israeli Government, splits among the Palestinians and the actions of outside parties who benefit from the continuation of the conflict, as well as more fundamental underlying disagreements, particularly the refugee problem and the sovereignty of East Jerusalem. The Palestinian Israeli conflict is primarily a dispute over the control of land. It has been described by Amos Oz, an Israeli journalist and author, as a tragedy, a clash between one very powerful, very convincing, very painful claim over this land and another no less powerful, no less convincing claim. (Oz: 2002: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_ east/jan-june02/oz_1-23.html) In 1947 the UN passed a partition plan, attempting to find a solution to both of these claims, however this was rejected by the Arabs of Palestine and civil war broke out between them and the Jews of Palestine. (McDowall: 24: 1995) After Israel declared its independence on 14th May 1948, many of the surrounding Arab countries sent forces to attack the new state of Israel. In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel gained the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. (Smith: 2004: 279) Having returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1979-1982, in 1993 Israel and Palestine signed the Oslo Accords, which agreed Israeli withdrawal from parts of the West Bank and the Gaza strip, as well as for Palestinian self-government within those areas. (Smith: 2004: 438) Despite strong hopes for a final status agreement at the Camp David Summit in July 2000, this was not reached. After the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out later that year and the subsequent deterioration in Palestinian-Israeli relations, agreement presently looks a long way off. The two-state solution is the consensus solution to the conflict, with polling indicating that it has the support of the majority of both Palestinians and Israelis. (Pallister: 2009: http:// www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/22/israel-palestine-poll) Neither sees this as their ideal solution; however a majority of both recognise it is the only realistic way for peace to occur. Extremists on both sides present a constant obstacle towards solving the conflict. Rather than accepting that compromises are necessary, they are dismissive of the other sides right to exist. In Israel, there are organisations, including members of Benjamin Netanyahus current cabinet, that still believe that the Jewish State should include most, if not all, of Greater Israel, which among other areas, contains the West Bank. (Zakaria: 2010: http://www.cnn. com/2010/OPINION/03/18/zakaria.israel.mistake) Among Palestinians, extremists reject Israels right to exist and work to stop the possibility of peaceful coexistence. They have launched suicide attacks against Israeli civilians in their attempts to disrupt peace negotiations. Part of the reason peace has been difficult to achieve post-2000 has been the change in opinion among Israeli citizens that peace is a realistic possibility. When the Oslo Accords were signed, Israelis saw that by allowing Palestinians to self-govern, they were taking large risks and making a significant compromise. They tend to perceive the Camp David offer to the Palestinians as fair and just, and blame the lack of peace on Yasser Arafat for refusing to take it. (Morris: 2009: 135) With the Al-Aqsa Intifada beginning in late 2000 and causing the deaths of over a thousand Israeli civilians, (Catignani: 2008: 103) Israelis increasingly began to see the Palestinians as unwilling to make the compromises necessary for a two-state solution, destroying the belief of much of Israeli society in the possibility of peace. (Catignani: 2008: 103) This was only confirmed by the comprehensive victory of Hamas over the more moderate but corruption ridden Fatah in the Palestinian legislative electi on of 2006. Although also a social organisation, Hamas had perpetrated numerous suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, and rejects any attempt at a political settlement with Israel. (Mishal Sela: 2006: 52) In this context, many Israelis have concluded that they do not have a partner in achieving peace. Given that allowing the Palestinians to self-rule under the Oslo Accords had created areas from which it was significantly easier to plot attacks on Israel, (Catignani: 2008 131) they are incredibly wary of giving the Palestinians control of more land, questioning whether organisations such as Hamas will ever cease to attack Israel. Post-2000, the actions of the Israeli government have also made an end to the conflict significantly more difficult to achieve. Thousands of Palestinians have died at the hands of the Israel Defence Forces, with more suffering serious injuries. In 2005 Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, however the area has been under blockade since 2007, preventing the access of vital food and medical supplies. In May 2008, even before the more recent Gaza War of 2008-09, the International Committee of the Red Cross estimated that over 70% of Gazans were living in poverty. (ICRC: 2009: http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html /palestine-report-260609) In the West Bank the almost decade-long downturn has been largely a result of Israeli closure policieswhich disrupted labor flows, manufacturing, and commerce, both external and internal. (CIA World Factbook: 2010: https://www.cia.gov/libr ary/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/we.html) Since 2002 the Israeli Government has been constructing the West Bank Barrier. Built to protect Israeli citizens from attacks, it has succeeded in vastly reducing the number of Israeli civilian casualties. (Gelvin: 2007: 249) Controversially, however, rather than being built following Israels 1949 Armistice lines, it deviates into areas captured by Israel in 1967. The International Court of Justice proclaimed that construction of the barrier is contrary to international law (ICJ: 2004: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?pr=71p1=3p2=1 case=131p3=6) and it has also been criticised as an Israeli attempt to create an illegal unilateral solution, which severely restricts the lives of those living inside the barrier. (Shindler: 2008: 326)I loved to play football with my friends. I told the doctors that I wanted to be able to walk again they promised that I would. Ghassan, 14 years old, Gaza City. His older brother was killed and he himself was wounded during the military operation. He is waiting to be fitted with artificial limbs for both legs. The continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem also contributes towards making the conflict increasingly difficult to solve. Deemed as illegal by numerous UN Security Council Resolutions, (Qurie: 2008: 166) each new settlement is another settlement which may have to be dismantled in any realistic peace deal, and to continue building them shows a clear lack of commitment to peace. The actions of the IDF and the Israeli Government have helped created a generation of Palestinians that hate Israel and Jews. To those living inside the West Bank wall or in poverty-stricken Gaza, the message of extremists resonates. Israeli action is thus helping cause the circumstances from which extremists and potential suicide bombers emerge, creating a cycle of violence which is difficult to reverse. (Kamrava: 2005: 238) Splits among the Palestinians have also made it more difficult to end the conflict. Starting in December 2006, and continuing on-and-off to the present day, there has been a Civil War between Hamas and Fatah. Currently, Hamas control Gaza, whilst Fatah control the West Bank. This lack of unification within the Palestinians makes an end to the Palestine Israeli conflict impossible. For peace, a Palestinian leader would have to accept a deal which would to some extent not entirely fulfil the aspirations of the Palestinian people, and this leader would have to successfully convince them that taking it was their best option. Before his death in 2004, Yasser Arafat might possibly have been able to do this. Currently, there is no-one. Even before the Hamas-Fatah conflict, Israel had complained that there was no one to talk to among the Palestinians. (Gelvin: 2007: 246) Until the Hamas-Fatah conflict is to some extent resolved, there is no one that the Israelis can talk to about a deal. On the assumption that Palestinians and Israelis could be bought together for serious and meaningful negotiations, there are numerous disputes which would be very difficult to solve. Two of these, the refugee problem and the dispute over East Jerusalem, seem particularly difficult to resolve. In 1948, approximately 700,000 Palestinians became refugees after either fleeing or being forced to leave, with many more becoming refugees after the Six Day War. (Morris: 2004: 604) Many of them live in the West Bank and Gaza, but they have spread amongst the Arab World. Despite this, they have never been truly assimilated into the populations of these other countries; with Jordan being the only Arab state to have allowed large numbers of them to gain full citizenship. (Miller Samuels: 2009: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/ middle-east/no-way-home-the-tragedy-of-the-palestinian-diaspora-1806790.html) Palestinian refugees claim that the UN guarantees their right to return under UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Israel has rejected this interpretation of the resolution and has never complied with it. They also argue that an acceptance of the Palestinians right to return would bring about the end of Israel as a Jewish State. Whilst few of the 1948 refugees are still alive, their descendants have spent their whole lives fighting for what they see as rightfully theirs, and will not give this up without significant recompense. Disagreement on the issue of the refugees is one of the central reasons for the failure of the Camp David Summit. (Smith: 2004: 498) Of all of the territorial disagreements, Jerusalem is the most difficult to solve. Even assuming that agreement could be reached on all other territorial disputes, it is difficult to envision agreement over Jerusalem. From 1948-67 West Jerusalem was under Israeli control, with East Jerusalem under Arab (Jordanian) control. East Jerusalem contains the Temple Mount, the site of the ancient Jewish Temple. The site of the two ancient temples, tradition states that it will be the site of the third and final temple. It is considered the holiest site within Judaism, so holy, that many Jews will not set foot on it. To Muslims, the Temple Mount is the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque and of the Prophet Muhammads ascent to heaven. It is widely regarded as the third holiest site in Islam. (Shindler: 2008: 282) Current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged that A united Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Jerusalem was and will always be ours. It shall never be divided. (Reuters: 2009: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLL96214120090521) This highlights quite how far away the current Israeli leadership is from meaningful and realistic peace discussions. However it is still almost impossible to comprehend that any Israeli leader would negotiate away The Temple Mount and the Western Wall. It is equally impossible to imagine any Palestinian leader relinquishing their claims over the Temple Mount. Palestinians feel that by accepting Israelis right to exist and a state broadly along the 1967 borders, they are making huge concessions. Giving up The Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque is something that is just one step too far. Even if a Palestinian leader were to make an agreement, it is virtually impossible to imagine that they would persuade the rest of the Palestinian people to accept it peacefully. Lastly, there are outside actors that benefit from the continuation of the conflict. Palestine would also be removed as an issue over which the Islamic world could unify, whereas hatred towards the USA and Israel would begin to disappear. If a peace effort led by the USA was achieved, this would be a major diplomatic victory for them. Regardless of statements suggesting they would support a two state solution, (Spillius: 2009: http://www.telegraph.co .uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/5225705/Irans-President-would-support-two-state-solution-for-Israel.html) this would be undesirable to the Iranian leadership. Syria, which has its own territorial dispute with Israel, would not allow any peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel to occur unless its dispute with Israel was settled. The Iranians and Syrians will thus continue to assist and fund groups that help keep the conflict going. To conclude, there is a wide variety of reasons, some ancient, some more recent, that have made the Palestinian Israeli conflict so difficult to solve today. After so much promise during the 1990s that a deal could be reached, the chances of an end to the conflict have taken several steps backwards over the last decade. Despite this, The two-state solution remains the only viable solution. Its pitfalls are numerous and significant. However, as the Israeli President Shimon Peres argued last year, a one-state solution has enough intrinsic flaws to render it no solution at all. signifying the end of the existence of a Jewish state (Peres: 2009: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/09/AR2009020902098.html) Whilst there was much hope that movement towards the opening of meaningful negotiations would be re-started with the election of President Obama, this hope has largely evaporated, resulting in the continuation of the conflict for the foreseeable future. Bibliography Atran, S. Ginges, J. (2009) How Words Could End a War (24/01/2008) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/opinion/25atran.html: date accessed 19/03/2010 Catignani, S. (2008) Israeli Counter-Insurgency and the Intifadas: Dilemmas of a conventional army: New York: Routledge CIA World Factbook West Bank (04/03/2010) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the world-factbook/geos/we.html: date accessed 19/03/2010 Gelvin, J. (2007) The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ICJ (2004) Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (9/07/2004) http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?pr=71p1=3p2=1case= 131p3=6: date accessed 19/03/2010 ICRC (2009) Gaza: 1.5 million people trapped in despair (29/06/2009) http://www.icrc.org/ web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/palestine-report-260609: date accessed 19/03/2009 Kamrava, M. (2005) The Modern Middle East: A Political History Since The First World War: London: University of California Press McDowall, D. (1995) The Palestinians: The Road to Nationhood: London: Minority Rights Publications Miller, J. Samuels, D. (2009) No way home: The tragedy of the Palestinian diaspora (22/10/2009) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/no-way-home-the-tragedy-of-the-palestinian-diaspora-1806790.html: date accessed 19/03/2010 Mishal, S. Sela A. (2006) The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence and Coexistence: New York: Columbia University Press Morris, B. (2004) The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Morris, B. (2009) One State, Two States: New Haven: Yale University Press Oz, A. (2002) Coping With Conflict: A NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Transcript (23/01/2002) http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june02/oz_1-23.html: date accessed 19/03/2010 Pallister, D. (2009) Most Palestinians and Israelis willing to accept two-state solution, poll finds (22/04/2009) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/22/israel-palestine-poll: date accessed 19/03/2010 Peres, S. (2009) One Region, Two States (10/02/2009) http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/09/AR2009020902098.html: date accessed 19/03/2010 Qurie, A. (2008) Beyond Oslo, The Struggle For Palestine: London: Tauris Co Ltd Reuters (2009) Israeli PM says Jerusalem will never be divided (21/05/2009) http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLL96214120090521: date accessed 19/03/2010 Shindler, C. (2008) A History of Modern Israel: New York: Cambridge University Press Smith, C. (2004) Palestine and The Arab-Israeli Conflict Fifth Edition: A History With Documents: Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke Spillius, A. (2009) Irans President would support two-state solution for Israel (26/04/2009): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/5225705/Irans-President-would-support-two-state-solution-for-Israel.html: date accessed 19/03/2010 Zakaria, F. (2010) Israel is making a big mistake (18/03/2010) http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/18/zakaria.israel.mistake: date accessed 19/03/2010