Examine the Impact of Multinational Corporations Setting up in Developing Countries Essay

There has been a very controversial debate over years now about the impact of multinational corporations setting up in developing countries, which have many supporters as well as opponents. Surely there is not only one way to look at this more and more common phenomenon that affects the host countries in many both positive and negative ways that are discussed in this paper. The term multinational corporations (MNCs) is used â€Å"to identify firms that have extensive involvement in international business and engage in foreign direct investment (FDI). MNCs own and control value-adding activities in more than one country that are usually coordinated from central headquarters† (Griffin and Pustay, 2005). The investment of MNCs in the developing countries has greatly increased since the mid-1980s, because of globalization as they looked for new resources and larger markets (Greer and Singh, 2000). Presently, there are over 35,000 multinational corporations with more than 15,000 foreign subsidiaries, which is around one-third of the whole world production. Their value is estimated to be more than $1.5 trillion, one-third of which in the developing countries (GhanaWeb, 2012). The developing countries with most multinational investment are those with highest growth potential like Asian countries: China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Latin American ones: Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. The African countries get less than 4% while the poorest 50 countries worldwide receive less than 2%. Over a half of business activities of MNCs deal with manufacturing and services and one-third with oil and gas (GhanaWeb, 2012). According to the report by the Institute for Policy Studies out of 100 lar gest world economies, based on corporate sales and country GDPs, 49 of those economies are countries while the other 51 are multinational corporations. Also, it is stated that the sales of the Top 200 corporations are equal to the 27.5 percent of world economic activity (Institute for Policy Studies, 2012). These numbers show how powerful MNCs are and how  important they are to the world economy, but what is their impact on the developing countries? On the one hand, multinational corporations setting up in developing countries have a very positive effect on their host countries. First of all they provide direct employment to local people and transfer of skills through education and experience. They also affect the indirect employment through paying rent for land or buildings and cooperating with local suppliers, who now have more demand and must deliver higher quality products. As residents have more chances for income they can purchase more and improve their standards of living, while there is generally greater selection and availability of goods and services. The standard of living of local people in some developing countries like Bermuda, the Bahamas, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan has improved largely after the investment of multinational corporations there (Action Institute, 2012). In addition, attracting foreign investment in the developing countries results in economic growth and higher national income. Such countries are usually better off with higher development rates, higher exports, lower imports and additional tax revenues coming from the multinational corporations. For instance, when Toyota started working in Georgetown, Kentucky it paid $1.5mln in property taxes, which was around one-fourth of the town’s municipal budget. By attracting foreign direct investment developing countries will also make substantial tax revenues that can be later on spent on health care, education and other domestic needs (Griffin and Pustay, 2005). In order to attract foreign direct investment local governments many times compete with each other to offer better conditions to multinational investors and lower the income taxes for their corporations. Yet they still get great amounts of money from the corporations that they would not get otherwise. Moreover, when moving into developing countries multinational corporations transfer technology and skill with them. There are also great improvements made to the local infrastructure to allow the effective operation of the corporations (Action Institute, 2012). That is a very important aspect for the developing countri es as it improves their development and brings them at least a bit closer to the developed countries. Developing countries get an update on technology that people get used to and learn to work on, while the whole local society benefits from improved infrastructure like better roads, telecommunications etc. On the  other hand, multinational corporations can have a very negative effect on the developing countries. They are a very strong direct competition to local firms that are forced to shut down and due to their political and economic power they have advantages given by the local governments over small, national or start-up businesses. An example of such additional advantages to multinational corporations over local firms include lower taxation, less strict laws and less bureaucracy in setting up and later on operating the business activities. This results in unfair competition, while shutting up local firms leads to unemployment and in some cases monopoly (Global Issues, 2012). Furthermore, due to their great size and wealth multinational corporations usually gain great economic and political power that can be misused. They usually have big influence on the local governments and are quite often associated with corporate corruption, bribery, lobbying or sponsoring politics campaigns during elections. As the corporations grow bigger they have a greater concentration of wealth, power and influence in the local area. The local authorities often face the threat of multinational corporations withdrawing the local market in case of stricter laws, higher taxation or other problems. In cases when multinational corporations really withdrew such markets, the whole process had a devastating effect on local economy strongly dependant on the foreign investment rates of unemployment went up and rates of economic growth went down at once (Adeyeye, 2012). Additionally, since multinational corporations can afford the best lawyers and accountants they are recognized for their large scale tax avoidance especially through mispricing transfers and false invoicing. In 2008 it was estimated that the developing world loses $160bn a year in tax revenue from only those two forms of tax avoidance (Global Issues, 2012). Not to mention the fact that local governments usually give corporations the privilege of lower taxation in order to attract the foreign investment. Unfortunately, the developing countries usually do not have the expertise, knowledge, wealth and power to address such issues. The multinational corporations are also known for their way of doing business: profit over people and their human rights. The reason why they decide to invest in host countries is to cut costs and maximise profits. If the cost of doing business was the same in home and host countries no company would decide to take such a great risk to expand overseas without any additional benefits. A great opportunity for  corporations is cutting costs in one of the most expensive factors of production: labour. Everyone has heard of cases of labour abuse, extremely low wages, child labour, poor working conditions and no health care in plants owned by multinational corporations in developing countries. In cases when local governments want to intervene and impose stricter laws on work safety, wages or even pollution controls they often have to deal with threats of market withdrawal and loss of foreign investment (Global Issues, 2012). Nevertheless, the wages paid to local workers seem low by western standards, but in local standards are acceptable and are much better than not having a job at all. Many multinational corporations like Nike have taken important steps to improve the working conditions of their employees in developing countries. Few years ago Nike was criticized for the poor working conditions and hard women and child labour in its plants in China, but the company w as not aware of these problems as it was subcontracting with Asian manufacturers. Nowadays the company works more closely with subcontractors on issues concerning employee rights and working conditions in its overseas plants (The World Bank Group, 2012). Last but not least, many opponents to the phenomenon of multinational corporations setting up in developing countries claim that the only reason they decide to invest in host countries is to gain access to their precious natural resources. These corporations exploit the non-renewable natural resources of developing countries like oil or gas for much less than their actual value. In exchange they negatively affect the local environment by polluting air, land and water through mining, auto, oil and chemical corporations. Then residents are left with no drinking water and diseases caused by heavily polluted environment like in China or India. However, small local firms also pollute the environment (on a smaller scale) and the issue needs stricter government regulations (The World Bank Group, 2012). Since these corpor ations do everything to keep their costs down and maximise their profits, they use non-environmentally friendly methods of production and non-renewable resources and get rid of production waste in a dangerous way. It is the government’s responsibility to make sure these corporations protect the environment through imposing regulations, controlling and making sure they are put in practice. To sum up, multinational corporations have both positive and negative impact on developing countries they are setting up in. They give employment to local people and improve their standards of living, bring economic growth, higher national income and tax revenues, not to mention the transfer of technology and skills. However, they are serious competition to local businesses, often violate human rights, practice tax avoidance, misuse their economic and political power, exploit the local natural resources and harm the environment. The developing countries have the most need for foreign direct investment from the multinational corporations in order to catch up with the developed countries in their economic development, but they are the most at risk of exploitation and have the least power to resist it. Multinational corporations can bring many benefits to local societies as a result of their business activities, but this is surely not their initial aim. The purpose of these giant firms is to make the biggest possible profits at the smallest cost. They do not invest in host countries for humanitarian reasons a nd they will not bother to put additional effort or spend additional money to improve certain issues on their own without having a gain in doing so. This is the role local governments and societies should take and strongly insist on. Especially the local authorities should keep power and control strongly, not let the corporations be excessively large and powerful or affect the local communities in a negative way. Multinational corporations can be engines of positive change in the developing countries, but the local authorities should always keep in mind the overall good of their people and land, not only in the short but also in the long run and set favourable agreements and strict regulations that will benefit and protect the residents and the environment. That is because if following all the demands of corporations, local communities have much more to lose than the investment; precious natural resources, residents’ health and welfare and clean environment once gone cannot b e returned. Bibliography Adeyeye, A. (2012). Corporate Social Responsibility of Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries: Perspectives on Anti-Corruption. Cambridge University Press. London, UK. Griffin, R. and Pustay, M. (2005). International Business. A Managerial Perspective. Prentice Hall, New York, USA. Greer, J. and Kavaljit, S. (2000). A Brief History of Transnational Corporations. Corpwatch. Global Policy Forum. Jones, G.& George, J. (2008). Contemporary Management. McGraw-Hill/Irwin. New York, USA. Online Articles Action Institute. Multinational Corporations in the Third World: Predators or Allies in Economic Development? http://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-2-number-5/multinational-corporations-third-world-predators-o. Accessed 2/05/2012. GhanaWeb. Multinational Corporations and the Developing World. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=171863. Accessed 3/05/2012. Global Issues. The Rise of Corporations. http://www.globalissues.org/article/234/the-rise-of-corporations. Accessed 4/05/2012. Institute for Policy Studies. Top 200: The Rise of Corporate Global Power. http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/top_200_the_rise_of_corporate_global_power. Accessed 2/05/2012. The World Bank Group. Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries and Corporate Social Responsibility. http://info.worldbank.org/etools/bSPAN/presentationView.asp?EID=417&PID=827. Accessed 3/05/2012.

Compare/Contrast Essay

Swimming Indoors vs. Swimming at the Beach Swimming is a fun and leisurely activity that can be enjoyed indoors or outdoors. Swimming pools are generally located indoors inside of homes, hotels, recreation centers or places where people would normally go to take a load off and relax. Beaches are strewn about outdoors along many coast lines throughout the world providing a haven for swimmers and other beach goers. To enjoy a swim indoors at the pool, or outdoors at the beach, can be a tough choice since both can provide a variety of experiences.This essay aims to contrast those experiences by talking about some of the temperatures in the environment at the swimming pool and at the beach; the activities that can be done there, the cleanliness that can generally be found in the areas and some of the safety measures that are typically in place at both locations. I’ll first discuss indoor swimming pools. Normally, indoor pools have a temperature gauge that can be set so that the te mperature of the pool’s water will always remain the same. While the temperature of the water in the pool can remain constant, so can the temperature of the room that the swimming pool is located in.This means that swimmers can have their ideal temperatures set for when they walk into the swimming area and their ideal temperatures set for when they step foot into the swimming pool. It’s hard to find better swimming conditions than that. Activities like water polo, water volleyball and water aerobics can be enjoyed in indoor swimming pools because the water temperatures there are usually set to a warmer temperature that can be enjoyed year round. With indoor pools there are usually chlorine tablets floating somewhere out of sight to help with the cleanliness of the water.There is a modicum of relief knowing that most indoor pools have a chlorine and septic system to help maintain the cleanliness of the water. Cleanliness is next to the safeness of indoor swimming pools. Indoor pools are safe from the weather which leaves the pool water free from leaves, dirt and other debris. This makes swimming indoors ideal compared to what may be experienced outdoors at the beach. While outdoors at the beach, temperatures can range from a sweltering heat, to a blustering cold, depending on the type of day it is outside. This means that temperatures in the waters will roughly match the temperatures of the weather outside.This is not always ideal for swimming. The beach is enjoyed mostly on hot summer days where the most outdoor activities can be done. Some of those activities can be surfing, jet skiing, body boarding, fishing, jogging, tanning, windsurfing and a bevy of other activities not just committed to being inside of the water. However, with a lot of activity comes a lot of waste. Beaches will commonly have trash and debris littered about since they are more frequented by beach goers and the waters at the beach can wash up waste along the shorelines where beachgoers spend their time at.Most beaches have plenty of trash depositories and staff in place to help maintain the cleanliness of the beach, but it can become more difficult to control compared to an indoor swimming pool because its size. Swimmers may be reluctant to venture into beach waters since the safety of the waters can put swimmers at risk. Sharks, jellyfish and other dangerous sea life are always a threat when swimming at the beach. While it isn’t always effective, beaches do try to contain this threat with various nets to prevent them from wading into the swimming areas.This can make swimming at the beach a bit unsafe, but most people still find plenty of pleasure in the waters regardless of the threat since there are so many activities that can be done while there. Whether it’s to enjoy the consistent temperatures of the indoor pools, or the multitude of activities that can be done while at the beach, there is certainly a degree of entertainment, relaxat ion and, at times – risk, that can be found while swimming at either location. I prefer the sanctuary of an indoor, heated and clean swimming pool over the outdoor, sometimes shark infested, volatile waters of the beach. Compare/Contrast Essay The Battle of Somme Abstract From 1914 through 1918 the world was at war. Described as â€Å"The Great One†, World War 1 affected everyone; man, and woman, combatant and non-combatant. This was a war defined by the advent of new technology. World War 1 saw the implementation of the Machine-gun in 1914, the armored tank in 1916, and, with the advent of the airplane in 1903, the first fixed wing airplane modified for combat occurred in 1911. The perspective of combat had also changed. What had once been a stand in rank and fire at the enemy across vast fields had become a war fought in the trenches.The lone presence of an isolated field doctor had become that of an entire medical corps stationed behind the lines in vast field hospitals waiting to tend to the wounded. The very nature and scale of war had changed drastically. As a result, where you were, whose side you were on, and the role you fulfilled, the same battle had very different ramifications and opposing perspectives. This essay will discuss the contrasting views between Private Ernst Junger, a German shock troop in Storm of Steel to that of Vera Brittain, a British nurse in Testament of Youth, through one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of World War 1. World War I†, â€Å"The Great War†, as suggested by these references, was a confrontation on a global scale unlike any other war in history. For the first time technology had changed the face of armed conflict, the landscape of battle had transformed its mission from two forces firing upon each other across broad fields with muskets and cannons to a vast subterranean trench system that traversed hundreds of miles. Between the opposing forces lay barren waste lands covered by machine gun fire and directional barbed wire.These fields were aptly known as â€Å"no-man’s land†. The trench systems and adjacent wastelands covered the distance of what had once been empty fields between opposing forces to spanning the borders between multiple countries forcing unimaginable gridlock, standoffs lasting not days, but months, as in the Battle of Somme, and even years in rare occasions. It was not only the landscape of battle that had changed but also the personnel.In 1901 the Army Nurses Corps was established and in 1908 the Navy Nurse’s Corps was created. Women were an official part of the war effort and by the end of World War 1 their numbers had grown from an initial 8,000 members to an astounding 70,000, a sight and valuable perspective unseen in any previous war. After reading the books Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger and Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, I contemplated on how best to highlight the subtle comparisons and stark contrasts that appear in both texts.I originally thought that nothing jumped off these pages; that there was no clear delineation; after all, he was a trained soldier, and she was nurse; where he was on the front lines unleashing chaos, she was in the hospital car ing for wounded; while he was an aggressor she was on the defensive; and as he chased glory, she chased love. Then it occurred to me that as I read, one word had been featured prominently in both texts: â€Å"Somme†. Somme, a battle in which both participants had a role; a battle that, no matter the outcome, both authors had a perspective and both perspectives were clearly different.This would be my focus. First and foremost for the unaware, a little background about Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive; the battle took place between July 1, and November 18, 1916 at the river Somme in France. During the battle the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army mounted a joint offensive against the German Army that had occupied most of northern France since 1914. The Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of the war. By the time fighting paused in the fall of 1916, the forces involved had suffered more than 1 million casualties, making it the bloodiest militar y operation ever recorded.With those numbers it should come as no surprise that both authors would have a unique and pointed perspective on that front. From the German shock troop’s vantage point, although the British were aggressing, the attempt would be in vain. â€Å". . . while the British made various, fortunately unsuccessful, attempts on our lives, either by means of high angled machine-gun fire or sweeping the road with shrapnel. We were especially irritated by one machine-gunner who sprayed his bullets at such an angle that they came down vertically, with acceleration produced by gravity.There was no point trying to duck behind walls. † (Junger, 2004) In this passage the author practically mocks the British effort of a mounted attack on the clearly superior German forces finding a single machine-gunner merely irritating. Meanwhile beyond the wire, past the vast no-man’s land, and safely behind the friendly lines of the British army, the account of Briti sh Nurse Vera Brittain is starkly different. In contrast as she tends to those being brought to the nearest hospital, her vivid account of waiting for the inbound shipment of wounded paints a graphic picture of how grim the situation appeared. Throughout those â€Å"busy and strenuous days† the wards sweltered beneath their roofs of corrugated iron; the prevailing odour of wounds and stinking streets lingered perpetually in our nostrils, . . . Day after day I had to fight the queer, frightening sensation-to which, throughout my years of nursing, I never became accustomed-of seeing the covered stretchers come in, one after another, without knowing, until I ran with pounding heart to look, what fearful sight or sound or stench, what problem of agony or imminent death, each brown blanket concealed. (Brittain, 1933) Although Nurse Vera Brittain was safe and nowhere near the front line her account of the Somme offensive is drawn from a direct line of sight of the carnage that was being produced on the field of battle is in bold contrast to that of the German shock troop located directly on the frontline.While Brittain was well away from the firing, Private Junger was in the line of fire, yet he was tucked safely away in his protected trench line unable to physically see the battle, she was witness to the horror of bodies produced by the battle. She was a non-combatant in support of the war effort duty bound to care for the wounded, he was a trained soldier on the front line trained to administer death. Their accounts of the very same battle differ greatly in perspective.History would later show that both perspectives although correct are not an indication of inevitability. Both perspectives were correct in that on the first day of the offensive July 1, 1916 the Germans easily handled the British attack. Their newly implemented machine-guns and directional barbed wire amassed a record setting 58,000 casualties on the first day, this is why private Junger was so easily tucked away in his protected entrenchment while nurse Brittain saw nothing but death.The British would ultimately prove victorious at the battle of Somme, on November 18, 1916 when the offensive was called off the British had pushed roughly six miles past the German lines winning the battle of Somme, however the war would continue for nearly two more years. Finally on November 11, 1918 the Armistice of Compiegne was signed marking a victory for the allies and complete defeat for Germany, yet â€Å"The war to end all wars† as it was called by H.G Wells in August of 1914 in total would cost more money and damage more property than any previous war and would amass 27 million casualties before it was over. References Brittain, V. (1933). Testament of Youth. (pp. 279-280). New York: Penguin Classics. Duffy, M. (2009). Battles- the Battle of Somme. Battles- The Western Front, Retrieved from http://www. firstworldwar. com/battles/somme. htm Junger, E. (2004). Storm of Stee l. (p. 78). Strand, London: Penguin Books.

Bus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Bus - Essay Example Plainly, this is the adjustment period of a team. d. Performing – the stage where each team member has already adjusted with each other and can already work together. Each team member can now disagree constructively because they are now fully adjusted with each other (Zenger, n.d.). Typical example is a new student where he or she has to adjust to the members of the class. In the class, the new student is anxious on how he or she would fit in and gain new friends (forming). Eventually, differences of personality between him or her and other member of the class emerges which usually leads to clashes or conflicts (storming). Then each member of the class found a way to avoid such conflicts and adjust with each other (norming). Finally, each class member has fully adjusted with each other and are able to carry group projects smoothly (performing). Zenger, John G. et. al. (n.d.).FOUR PHASES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT: Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing. Leading Teams. Business One Irwin, 1818 Ridge Rd., Homewood, IL 60430. Available at http://www4.uwsp.edu/centers/sieo/documents/pdf/leadershipLibrary/FOURPHASESOFTEAMDEVELOPMENT.pdf. retrieved on January 23,

Recognize the relationship of the general journal to the general Essay

Recognize the relationship of the general journal to the general ledger - Essay Example General journal usually records the transactions that are not recorded in other journals thus they are non routine transactions such as depreciation, bad debts, sale or purchase of non-current assets. In short, it would be right to say that the transactions for which there are no specific journal, they ended up with general journal. The main purpose of general journal is adjustment (Gilbertson and Lehman, 2012). General ledger is the summarized version of all the entries. It serves as the main record for financial accounts. Ledger breaks accounts by their nature and type such as inventory purchases, office supplies, and equipment purchases. Thus each account reflects particular information regarding a specific group of transaction. It includes the involvement of cash as purchases and payments. The general ledger should include the date, description and balance or total amount for each account. It acts as the backbone of any accounting system which holds financial and non-financial data for an organization (Porter and Norton, 2011). Thus the difference between the two is that general journal is the place where the transaction is first recorded where as general ledger is the group where all similar transactions are recorded together. But there is a significant relationship between the two, as for the preparation of general ledger, the information derived from general journal serves as an input. As each general ledger account does have a debit and credit account in it which is the result of general journal entries. When accountants are preparing general ledger entries, they need to refer to general journal first (Gilbertson and Lehman, 2012). Both of these accounting tools have some specific purposes. Businesses depend on ledger when it comes to monthly reporting. It shows the total expenses for the month. However, few details are lacking from the transactions. For example off setting. On the other hand, General journal shows the amount of total sales for

The nature of the Kingdom which described in the Gospel of Thomas Term Paper

The nature of the Kingdom which described in the Gospel of Thomas - Term Paper Example The quotations on the Kingdom of Heaven, in particular, have been a focal point of discussion and argument as to what exactly the author of the text intended, especially in reference to its nature and how exactly one attains it. This paper analyses this Gospel’s allusions to the Kingdom of Heaven and what it entails with regard to the historical, cultural, social and political atmosphere of the time in which the Gospel was written. Discussion The strongest approach for interpretation of the Gospel of Thomas seems to be the Gnostic approach, with several factors lending credence to this theory. The scriptures seem to indicate that the main characteristic of the Kingdom of Heaven is that it is within us, and all that is required of us is inward reflection and self-knowledge. The emphasis on knowledge is a major selling point for this argument, with the word Gnosis itself being Greek for knowledge. Gnostics held the belief that the realization of knowledge was the path to salvati on and deliverance. In what can be viewed as Gnostic tradition, the scriptures are viewed as holding a secret meaning, and only those who attain a deeper understanding have the truth revealed to them and are finally worthy of entering the kingdom (Valantasis, p 79). This attitude of secrecy and mystery is visible from the very first line in which the author states; â€Å"These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded†. Gnosticism encouraged mysticism and regarded deep thinking and meditation on texts as important to the path of eventual revelation, a sign that one was worthy of the rewards from the higher powers (Wylen, p 239). One interpretation of these texts could argue strongly for the case that the reigning Gnostic attitude at the time influenced the writer to use the veiled references, parables and allegories so as to motivate the reader into attempting to perceive more than just the written text. Examples of this approach can be seen in the verses quoted below: â€Å"Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.†(v.3). This verse encourages reflection and introspection, a look at what is inside us and directly outside us so as to discover the kingdom. It discourages the reader from taking others’ opinions, especially leaders, as to what to do to enter the kingdom. This opinion could derive from the fact that there were many preachers at the time who all claimed to hold the one true key to salvation, each suggesting different paths to attain said salvation. It could also appeal to the rational, philosophizing movement at the time that argued for reason and rationale to prevail over emotions and blind following. â€Å"Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don' t deserve life." Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven." (v.114). This verse is especially enlightening as to the times in which the Gospel was authored and the socio-cultural context thereof. The commonly held view then was

Political socialization autobigraphy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Political socialization autobigraphy - Essay Example Roosevelt’s New Deal program aimed to stop the depression and start building the state’s economy. 2. What is the party of my parents? As our family belongs to the Republican Party, the party itself is generally conservative, but the "Religious Right" is much more of a populist. The name of the party was adopted during a state convention held in Jackson, MI on July 6, 1854. â€Å"The Republican Party name was christened in an editorial written by New York newspaper magnate Horace Greeley. Greeley printed in June 1854: "We should not care much whether those thus united (against slavery) were designated 'Whig,' 'Free Democrat' or something else; though we think some simple name like 'Republican' would more fitly designate those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery† (USHistory.Org, 2010). 3. Were your parents ever politically active? My parents were not politically active be cause they are overseas with the navy during the Gulf War. Since it was the country that my parents were fighting for, they did not have second thoughts when they joined the navy during the gulf war. Patriotism always comes first before anything else. As the song goes, America is the â€Å"land of the free and the home of the brave.† When one is asked to fight for his country, though his life would be at risk and he will be away from his family, there is no greater honor than to fight for the land where one is born and raised. It is not a personal honor yet it is a pride of the family and legacy which will be left to the future generations. It would not just be in this lifetime that people would be thankful for him for the courage that he has shown. His name would be part of the history of the country for which he fought for. 4. Did you ever discuss politics or public policy with your parents? No, I do not really discuss political or public policy with my parents. One reason why children are not discussing politics with their parents is to avoid any misunderstandings. Another reason is that others are simply not interested due to the fact that there are too many conflicts which can bring about stress to the public specifically in relation to the political affiliations of people. There are still quite a handful of clans who thinks differently towards people who belong to the other political group. 5. Who are the 3 people that are good influence on values beliefs and opinions? The members of my family especially my parents are considered to be the most influential people in my life. They set good examples in terms of how I should make decisions in the different aspects of my life. 6. What other events can you remember that influenced your values and beliefs? There have been too many events that happened in this lifetime. Though there would be one way or another that it influenced me, it still isn’t enough to change my dispositions and beliefs or op inions towards certain issues. I have been brought up to be a responsible adult by my parents. Therefore, I would make decisions based on what I know and what is given during a specific time. 7. From what sources do you currently get your information about politics? The government has been transparent with news that concerns the people. There are still those traditional ways that the information is disseminated just like the newspaper, radio and TV. Though for them to reach out to the youth there are some

Link Between Language Acquisition and Learning Disabilities Essay

Link Between Language Acquisition and Learning Disabilities - Essay Example Behavioral as well as public elements as well need mastery, together with expertise such as connecting, acting in response, and sustaining mutual relations with others. The nature and value of these communication abilities show a discrepancy and modify in due course for successful communicators. From the age of 1 year till 3 years, there is a broad deviation in the level of standard speech and language improvement. Even though the series of signs is expected, the precise timing of their attainment may differ from person to person. Receptive language expertise usually grows earlier than a kid’s capability to create logical expressions, words, and sentences. For a number of kids, the improvement of language skills continues in a standard order although at a sluggish rate than standard. This situation is known as a delay in language acquisition. On the contrary, other kids seem to pursue a different order of language acquisition, which is known as a â€Å"disorder of development † (Shipley & McAfee, 2008). Disorders of language acquisition may have an effect on communicative capabilities only or both communicative as well as receptive capabilities. For kids who have â€Å"normally developed nonverbal cognitive abilities† (Shipley & McAfee, 2008), language issues that are harsh and asserted during the nonexistence of apparent neurologic offense or hearing injury are known as specific language impairments. The occurrence of specific language impairments varies, but a rate of more or less 9 percent of school going kids is mentioned usually. Specific language impairment is more common in males as compared to females, with ratios between 3.7:1 and 5.7:1. The more conventional approximation probably applies to the common population. The point at which a pediatrician become worried regarding a kid’s language development and feels the necessity to as for additional assessment is not an insignificant issue when considering the occurrence of the t rouble as well as the â€Å"developmental sequelae† (Grassi & Barker, 2009) of language disorders. More or less, one third to half of kids having acute language acquisition problems at the age of 2 years carry on to have delays at the age of 3 years. In addition, 65 percent to 95 percent of preschoolers who have language setback and regular nonverbal aptitude keep on showing language troubles up to the age of 20 years after the preliminary analysis. Even though â€Å"average or above-average nonverbal cognitive ability is a good prognostic indicator among children who have specific language impairments† (Lipson & Wixson, 2010), this results on its own does not guarantee ultimate improvement of standard language acquisition. Besides, constant language problems, kids who have specific language impairments are affected in educational, communal, and psychosomatic areas. The sort of language setback seems to be linked with result. Kids who have talking and phonology problem s usually have an enhanced diagnosis as compared to those who have wider impairments of both creation as well as understanding of language. Even though view on the way of dealing with language and speech problems in young kids differs significantly, there are common guiding principles. Kids between the age bracket of one and a half and two years, whose language understanding as well as expression is delayed should be sent for and

Examining of SCM models and practices and implement on Iran Automotive Thesis

Examining of SCM models and practices and implement on Iran Automotive Industry - Thesis Example Types of mixed research There are two types of mixed research: the mixed model research and the mixed method research. The former is a mixed research in which quantitative and qualitative approaches are mixed within or across the stages of the research process (South Alabama University, 2011). In the within-stage mixed model research, the researcher mixed the quantitative and qualitative approaches within one or more of the stages of research. For example, the researcher both utilized the closed-ended and open-ended questionnaire in the collection of data. The close-ended is used to obtain quantitative data while the open-ended is used to obtain qualitative data. Likewise, in across-stage mixed model research, the researcher mixed the quantitative and qualitative across at least two of the stages of research. For example, the researcher utilized open-ended interviews in order to both obtain qualitative data and quantitative data. ... For example, the researcher could perform quantitative experiment and qualitative study through conducting interview study to the respondents in order to find out if the experiment agreed with the results. Mixed method research is also categorized into two major dimensions: time order (i.e., concurrent versus sequential) and paradigm emphasis (i.e., equal status versus dominant status) (Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2007). Stages of Mixed Research Process The mixed research process has 8 stages, although they are numbered, the researcher/s could still use the stages in different orders or move in multiple directions especially steps 4 through 7. The purpose of this is to address the particular needs and concerns that arise during the research study (SAU, 2011). The first step is to determine whether a mixed design is appropriate to the research study. Therefore it is important to consider the following questions: Can it best answer your research question(s)? and Will if offer the best design for the amount and kind of data you hope to obtain? Mixed research was applicable in this study because it both required quantitative and qualitative analysis. The quantitative research provided the detailed description of the implication of SCM to reduce Forrester effect in the automotive industry. It basically gives the generalization of the gathered data with tentative synthesized interpretations (SAU, 2011 & Traynor, 2011). The second step is to determine the rationale for using mixed design. It is important to consider because it ensures the validity and reliability of the research study. There are 5 most important rationales for mixed design: the triangulation,

Chapter10 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chapter10 - Essay Example In an example, when Dan comes into agreement with Mary that he will purchase her car for 1,000, the payment given by Dan is consideration. A key aspect in to understanding rules of consideration. The main rule used in lack of consideration is that for a promise to be enforced by the law of court there must be consideration. The types of consideration are considered in the law of intellectual property include a benefit to the promisor, a detriment to the promise, a promise to do something and a promise to refrain from carrying out an activity (Kubasek and Nancy, 2015). Promissory estoppel can be defined as a legal enforcement of an otherwise unenforceable contract as a result of detrimental reliance on the contract. Promissory estoppel is considered in different aspects including when one party makes a promise knowing that the other party will rely on it, the only way to avoid injustice is to enforce the promise and when the other party does rely on the promise (Kubasek and Nancy, 2015). In an example, when one receives a job offer and the person the job is offered cancels all the other activities involved in using finances and then told there is no job, the person under Promissory estoppel is able to sue the employer. According to the court, there is consideration of adequacy of consideration. The rule used in this aspect is that there is no weighing of whether there was making of a good bargain. In an example, when one is in the verge of bankrupt and the person’s creditors are posing threats of legal action, the person knows that when there is default of mortgage, there is ability of selling the assets so that the creditors are able to be paid (Kubasek and Nancy, 2015). The person may decide to sell all the assets and claim he is bankrupt knowing that the creditors will have nothing to collect. The court in this aspect will look at the adequacy of

American Literacy in the Age of Information Essay Example for Free

American Literacy in the Age of Information Essay The age of information is demonstrated by the development of technology. The American culture has adopted and adapted to a new practice of transmitting and accepting information. Although the age of information presents an outlet for creative expression and exploration, American literacy is in a transitional period because technology is constantly changing and the unlimited amount of capabilities and influence that technology has upon education and communication are significant and since technology is still in the process of development it raises concerns about privacy acts and ethical issues. While this new era enables the opportunity to send and receive information so quickly and efficiently, the new digital age of information requires being educated and knowledgeable about information technology in order to achieve success. Information technology is a term that may be described in many ways but ultimately, information technology (IT) is considered a general term applied to all computer- based technologies of human communications (Information Technology, 2006). Literacy of this time may be simply defined as â€Å"basic competence in reading and writing† (Literacy, 2006). The World Wide Web offers opportunities of unlimited information that could be accessed from anywhere at any time as long as there is internet connection. The freedom to explore and express has two outcomes- to progress society or decline society. Technology has major influences in all trades of the world, but it starts with education. â€Å"Technological education can provide students with a wealth of information and knowledge, which they can then use in the future to pursue related career or simply as a subject of interest and intrigue† (Importance of Technology in Schools, 2009). Creativity and encouragement for young minds to explore all the possibilities produces more productive adults. The introduction of the internet is obviously a worldwide phenomenon. Although this phenomenon provides unlimited access to any genre of information, it may not be true. Educating students on how to productively search for information and how to evaluate credible material makes all of the difference. Furthermore, American literacy is in the process of transition that is constantly improving education and communication. Each individual has different learning capabilities separating themselves from others. The traditional ways of reading and writing with books and pens and paper are updated. It is now made much more convenient, just at a touch! The ability of modern technology provides education for students and adults with special needs that a regular education cannot meet. â€Å"Despite the lack of data showing that technology has a tremendous effect in the classroom; teachers have found that using technology may help address students’ specific learning needs. Charles MacArthur, a special education professor at the University of Delaware, explains that students who have learning disabilities, including dyslexia, typically need help with transcription processes to produce text, spell, and punctuate correctly. However, any students having trouble with writing fluency can benefit from teachers integrating technology into the classroom. And sometimes tried-and-true technology works the best† (Allen, 2008). Addressing students special needs are vital because it encourages and guides them to reach their full potential. The world of technology created an opportunity for special needs students to learn and communicate just as well as independent students. Have you ever wondered what the world would be like without communication? The basic method of communication such as telegraphy advanced to â€Å"snail mail† and it is now at the stage of texting and emailing. Technology is used as a tool in various approaches and may be beneficial or harmful. Finally, the freedom of the new age of information is limitless which raises concerns about privacy laws and ethical issues. With the good, comes the bad. It seems as though there is no way around it. As beneficial as technology is, issues of ethics and privacy concerns Americans who are violated of their personal information. The conveniences of being able to shop, pay bills, create and maintain online accounts online leaves vulnerability to identity thefts and fraud. A USA report suggest that although many Americans acknowledge the potential benefits of being able to interact with government online, similar proportions of the population express concerns about the privacy and security of their personal information submitted through government websites (The New E-Governement equation, 2003). Regulating the internet is going to be a battle. The freedom to explore quality in the truth is a personal right. Criminals and violators will constantly prey on their victims. The resolution lies within the future, but the solution starts with each individual protecting their own identity and prevents fraud and theft. The age of information provides an outlet to send and receive information quickly and efficiently. It is important for students to correctly learn how to utilize the web to enhance their creative expression and information technology comprehension. Education and knowledge is the most powerful took to use when conducting anything. Technology is only progressing and dominating the world. American literacy could not be described as more or less in today’s society but rather enhanced and evolved into normalcy. References: * Education Update:Leveraging Technology to Improve Literacy:Leveraging Technology to Improve Literacy. (2008). Membership, policy, and professional development for educators ASCD. Retrieved 2012, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education- * Excellence in Government Home | Online Registration by Cvent. (2003). Retrieved 2012, from http://www.excelgov.org/usermedia/images/uploads/PDFs/egovpoll2003.pdf * Importance of technology in schools | Centre for Education in Science Technology. (2009).Centre for Education in Science Technology. Retrieved 2012, from http://www.cest.org.uk/importance-of-technology-in-schools/ * literacy. (2006). In Collins Dictionary of Sociology. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/collinssoc/literacy

Accutane for Acne: An Analysis

Accutane for Acne: An Analysis Before the iron curtain fell any Information about acne was rare. But with growing advances in dermatology and medicine now understanding the cause of acne and its accurate treatment is available worldwide. Acne is one of the most common skin conditions in the world. Although it’s common but accurate information about acne can be scare. This makes it difficult to get clearer skin. Therefore the information in this document can help you understand acne and how to treat/ prevent it successfully. [1]Overview of acne: Acne, or acne vulgaris, is askinproblem that starts when oil and dead skin cells clog up your pores. Some people call it blackheads, blemishes, whiteheads, pimples, or zits. When you have just a few red spots, or pimples, you have a mild form of acne. Severe acne can mean hundreds of pimples that can cover the face, neck, chest, and back. Or it can be bigger, solid, red lumps that are painful (cysts). Acne is very common amongteens. It usually gets better after the teen years. Some women who never had acne growing up will have it as an adult, often right before their menstrual periods. How you feel about your acne may not be related to how bad it is. Some people who have severe acne are not bothered by it. Others are embarrassed or upset even though they have only a few pimples. Acne starts whenoil and dead skin cells clog the skins pores. If germs get into the pores, the result can be swelling, redness, and pus. Causes of Acne Acne can be caused or exacerbated by a number of different things, including: Changes in hormone levels (such as during puberty or menstruation) Cosmetics or hair or skin products Having a family history of acne Some medications Something rubbing on the skin (like a hat or helmet) Vigorous scrubbing of the skin Stress For most people, acne starts during the teen years. This is because hormone changes make the skin oilier afterpubertystarts. Using oil-based skin products or cosmetics can make acne worse. Use skin products that dont clog your pores. They will say noncomedogenic on the label. Acne can run in families. If one of your parents had severe acne, you are more likely to have it. Symptoms of acne : Acne commonly appears on the face and shoulders. It may also occur on the trunk, arms, legs, and buttocks. Other symptoms include: Crusting of skin bumps Cysts Papules (small red bumps) Pustules Redness around the skin eruptions Scarring of the skin Whiteheads Blackheads The good news is that there are many good treatments that can help you get acne under control. What is Accutane[2] [3]Accutane’s chemical composition resembles that of retinoic acid, a compound derived from Vitamin A. The primary application for Accutane is for nodular acne in patients that do not respond to topical applications (such as benzoyl peroxide) and standard antibiotic treatments.it is administered orally in pill form. It reduces the amount of oil released by oil glands in your skin, and helps your skin renew itself more quickly. People with severe cases of nodular acne can display red, tender and swollen bumps under the skin. These bumps can have a diameter of a quarter-inch or larger. Left untreated, these bumps can lead to permanent facial scarring and disfigurement. Accutane treats these bumps by slowing the rate of chemical production that leads to skin breakouts. It was originally recommended for people with severe acne that did not respond to other treatments,but has gained in popularity in the past 25 years and is prescribed more and more frequently for less severe acne How Accutane works Exactly how Accutane works on a cellular level is unknown but we do know that it affects all four ways that acne develops. 1. It dramatically reduces the size of the skinsoil glands(35%-58%) and even more dramatically reduces the amount of oil these glands produce (around 80%). 2. Acnebacteria(P. acnes) live in skin oil. Since oil is dramatically reduced, so is the amount of acne bacteria in the skin. 3. It slows down how fast the skin producesskin cellsinside the pore, which helps pores from becoming clogged in the first place. 4. It hasanti-inflammatoryproperties. Researchers have published several studies attempting to gauge whether people with mild to moderate acne can achieve long term remission of acne with lower dosages of Accutane. Initial data is showing that people with mild to moderate acne may be able to achieve long term remission with significantly lower dosages, and thus suffer fewer side effects, including lower incidence of scarring. Relapse rates with lower dosages do not seem to increase, leading some researchers to posit that it is not cumulative dose that brings about permanent clearing as much as it is the length of time that the oil glands are suppressed. Intermittent dosing (taking Accutane only 1 week of every month) appears to work less well, producing significantly poorer outcomes for more than half of the patients studied. Why is Accutane better Only solution for severe acne Effective than antibiotics Quick results as compared to other remedies Easier to consume and continue , just an oral pill Long term results Lesser scares left after complete course Dosage:[4] Accutane should not be consumed unless prescribed by your physician, and its dosage should be as prescribed by the physician. Please refer the table below to get a glimpse of the approximate dosage of Accutane. [5]Precautions: Before starting Accutane treatment, make sure you tell your doctor about any other medications you are taking (including prescription, over-the-counter, vitamins, herbal remedies, etc.). Do not take vitamin A supplements. Vitamin A in high doses has many of the same side effects as accutane. Taking both together may increase your chance of getting side effects. Do not receive any kind of immunization or vaccination without your doctors approval while taking accutane. Inform your health care professional if you are pregnant or may be pregnant prior to starting this treatment. Pregnancy category X (accutane may cause fetal harm when given to a pregnant woman. This drug must not be given to a pregnant woman or a woman who intends to become pregnant. If a woman becomes pregnant while taking accutane, the medication must be stopped immediately and the woman given appropriate counseling). Because of the extremely high risk that a deformed infant can result if pregnancy occurs while taking accutane in any amount even for short periods of time, for both men and women: Do not conceive a child (get pregnant) while taking accutane. Two methods of effective contraception are recommended for women of childbearing potential, unless absolute abstinence is the chosen method. Discuss with your doctor when you may safely become pregnant or conceive a child after therapy. Do not breast feed while taking this medication Side effects of Accutane: [6] Doctors prescribe Accutane when other acne treatments fail. Because serious cases of acne can be such a physical and social burden, patients may be willing to tolerate some of the common side effects that come with Accutane use, including dry skin, headaches and cold-like symptoms. A less-common side effect of the drug is pseudotumor cerebri – benign intercranial hypertension. This is a condition in which the brain acts as though there is a tumor when there is not. It can lead to blindness. Early signs of pseudotumor cerebri include headache, nausea, vomiting and visual disturbances. About half of Accutane users are women of childbearing age, making birth defects associated with Accutane use a significant concern. Unfortunately,Accutaneis linked to a series of serious side effects, including bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease, liver damage, depression, and miscarriage and birth defects if taken during pregnancy. Apart from these excessive dose of Accutane can lead to hypertension, suicidal tendencies, depression , liver damage, gastrointestinal problems , hearing impairment etc, there for as a matter of fact it is higly recommended to consume Accutane under medical supervision only. [1] American Academy of Dermatology (2007). Guidelines of care for acne vulgaris management. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 56(4): 651–663. Also available online: http://www.aad.org/education-and-quality-care/clinical-guidelines/current-and-upcoming-guidelines. [2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1349820/ [3] http://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB00982 [4] http://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB00982 [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotretinoin [6] http://www.drugwatch.com/accutane/side-effects.php The Fall Of Rome | Essay The Fall Of Rome | Essay The debate about the fall of Rome and the way it happened is a centuries-old one and its vitality has been undiminished over the years. The traditional theory has the Roman Empire being violently overturned by barbarian Germanic tribes who started invading en masse during the last years of the fourth century. That wasn’t the first time that the Empire had to deal with pressure on its borders, but this time it eventually collapsed because it had already declined as a civilization due to internal problems. The first scholar to support this line of thought was Gibbon in the late eighteenth century. His great, multi-volume, work goes by the title ‘The Decline and fall of the Roman Empire’, which speaks for itself as for its writer’s thoughts (?). He argued that the most important cause which brought about the end of the Roman Empire was the expansion and gradual predominance of Christianity. First, the new religion and the structures that came with it (such as the church and the monasteries) interfered with the distribution of wealth inside the Empire, by accumulating it in institutions that were inaccessible by the state. Second, its pacifist ideology reduced the army’s will to fight and its theology corrupted the classical ideals through the spread of superstition. Another scholar arguing along the same lines was Rostovtzeff. He states the Late Empire was in retrogradation?, a sad and decadent remnant of its former self, partly because of the increase in absolutism during the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine and the emperors who succeeded them. Together with Gibbon, his arguments form the core of the ‘traditional’ theory, which puts stress especially on the issue of ‘decline’ as the main reason which made the disintegration of the empire, as a political entity, eventually inevitable. Due to the work of these two scholars, the ‘Fall of Rome’ has ended up being seen as something like the platonic idea of decline. Along with the traditional theory, we should consider the work of a more recent scholar. Following the same methodological path as Rostovtzeff, Jones credited the barbarians with the destabilization and collapse of the Roman Empire. Their invasions, he argues, should be seen as a destructive agent which placed strain on the Roman administration. At the same time, in a well-known passage, he speaks of a large part of the population that was consuming without producing anything, such as senators, soldiers and the clergy. These ‘idle mouths’, as he calls them, partly a result of barbarian pressure again, at least as far as the army was concerned, was the main reason for the economic waning of the Late Empire. Jones’ contribution was twofold. To begin with, he proposed a new chronological period, extending further than 476, the date traditionally considered as signaling the moment of death of the Roman Empire. His ending date was 602, the year of the emperor Maurice’s death as he strongly believed that the Roman Empire continued its existence, albeit geographically diminished, in the East, at least until the advent of the Slavic tribes in the Balkans at the end of the sixth century. This way, he managed to provide a connection between late- and post-Roman societies, hinting that there might have been a causal relation between the two. Secondly, he breathed new life in a period that was all but put aside by his contemporaries as of not much particular interest and after him scholars gradually started to perceive the Late Roman Empire in its own right. This was countered by ‘traditionalists’ in 2005 with the publication of a book under the title ‘The fall of Rome and the end of civilization’. In this book, the author Bryan Ward-Perkins is arguing fervently that the fall of Rome was a violent experience for the people involved, which involved much bloodshed and catastrophe. It was centered more on radical change than gradual transformation and was characterized by decline and resulted in a decline in civilized values which actually that a number of Roman cultural achievements were lost. Although this view has its merits and should not be discredited without consideration, it needs to be examined carefully because it conceals the danger of oversimplification. First, it can be argued that the author has gone too far with his emphasis on violence and catastrophe. Violence, no matter how hard on a society, is not by principle an agent of radical change which rules out any chance of transformation. Human history is full of violence and it would be surprising if the fourth and fifth centuries did not involve any at all. Despite Ward-Perkins vivid depictions, much of what was considered Roman did not disappear with the Empire. Roman qualities, such as a literate culture, can be shown to have survived as late as the seventh century, proving that the devastating barbaric invasions did not actually have such a devastating effect after all. Stemming from that, we should examine if there was a specific moment in time when Rome actually ‘fell’. If we cannot point out such an instance, then we should regard it as a more gradual process. Italy, for example, shows that society was able to maintain its order in the face of much devastation. And if, as Ward-Perkins himself admits, ‘there was no single moment, not even a single century of collapse’, then we should discard catastrophist theories as inadequate and try more. We should also keep in mind that the author comes from an archaeological milieu and, as a result, most of his proof comes from the study of material evidence. Archaeologists of the period tend to be advocates of the notion of decline more often than historians, mainly because such a decline is much more evident in the material remains of the Late Roman era. In addition to that we have to be careful with the origin the evidence. In the case of Ward-Perkins, he doesn’t hesitate to support his theory on data from Britain, but Brittania (i.e. the part of Britain which was conquered by the Romans) had never been the archetypal Roman province. So Britain is far from being the typical example of what happened after the Romans had left the island, particularly given the fact that we can find other provinces of the Roman Empire, which shared a completely different fate, such as Egypt and Syria. When talking strictly about the west, one has to be extremely cautious when trying to combin e both the archaeological data with historical sources that might give the impression of continuity. One way approaches, such as the one only just discussed, will not do. Late Antiquity With good reason one might ask what the need of such a dramatic reassertion of the traditional view on the fall of the Roman Empire. The word traditional itself implies the existence of an opposite, neoteric theory. In 1971, Peter Brown published a book which defied all the assumptions of the traditionalist school. His book ‘The world of Late Antiquity: from Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad’ argues about continuity, transformation, cultural and religious renewal. The enthusiasm that the book was met with in academic circles, especially in the United States, resulted in the banishment of terms as catastrophe, change, crisis and decline. Brown was influenced by the views of an earlier scholar, Henri-Irà ©nà ©e Marrou, who argued that late antique art had not deteriorated and that it should be looked at in its own terms. Brown was influenced by the work of Henri Pirenne. In his works the Belgian scholar supported that there was continuity to be found in terms of long-distance trade in the Mediterranean which was not affected by the barbarian invasions but collapsed with the great Arabic conquests of the seventh century. Brown placed a new stress on the period resulted in a recent rethinking of Pirenne’s views through the prism of the newly proposed notion of continuity. Finally, Brown could also be considered an influence because, as we saw earlier, he was the first to propose a causal connection between the Late Roman Empire and the post-Roman era. Thus, given the entailed predominance of continuity which was easily detected in themes such as art and religious belief, a new historical period has been founded with its own characteristics, that of Late Antiquity, in which â€Å"some of the basics of classical civilization still survived†. Its boundaries stress from the third to the eighth century, but they are still unfixed, with every writer proposing different dates, according to the issues they deal with. Brown relied heavily on the methods of historical psychology and psychoanalysis. This methodological innovation is a general trend among scholars of Late Antiquity, particularly those in the United States. They have more or less identified themselves with the kind of history that falls outside the scope of socio-economic history. For example, the history of Christianity has proven very fertile for studying Late Antiquity, especially the effects it has had on different aspects of human life, such as death, sexuality and the family. Thus, this school of thought has made astonishing contributions in such fields as gender and culture history, the history of mentalities and of popular belief. Such methods, however, often tend to function with no respect to periodization and as such they lead to fragmentation. Indeed, the work of these scholars shows more emphasis towards individuals and their perspectives than to the society they live in. As a consequence, post-modernist theories concerning source analysis have relied heavily on the works of scholars after Brown, while, in the meantime, the old philological approach has been largely abandoned. Ancient texts are dealt with not so much for their narrative value, but as agents the mentality of their authors. Of course, works exclusively focused on different authors have a lot to offer to the ongoing discussion of the period, but dogged commitment to them might create a handicap for our understanding of the period as a whole. Furthermore, partly as a response to the traditional view of catastrophe, scholars of Late Antiquity have been particularly keen on seeing continuity and transformation. But this attitude can be harmful in two ways. First, the notion of continuity seems to have an overshadowing effect on the particularity of issues in a certain period. If everything is proven to carry on from the past not changed in the least, then historical periods will automatically lose their individual tone, by which it is defined. Simultaneously, by relying to heavily historical sources (as they provide ampler evidence for continuity) we may be overturned by the findings of archaeological research (in the way Ward-Perkins was). Second, emphasis on continuity and transformation is the expulsion of their opposites from contemporary history books. Terms such as â€Å"crisis† and â€Å"decline† seem to have been anathematized in modern research and this has started to raise objections, even by scholars who are not polemicists of continuity itself. Powerful words like these falling into disuse can only be detrimental for historiography. These terms are usually avoided because of their moral implications, and it is somehow assumed that if there is decline someone needs to be charged with it. But we always have to bear in mind that history is a science and historians should concentrate purely on the facts of their research. Nevertheless, Late Antiquity’s impact shouldn’t be confined within strict scientific limits. Continuity along with transformation, apart from being objects of historiographical debate, is also too powerful of terms to be overlooked by contemporary politicians. From 1993 to 1998 a large research project, funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF), brought together scholars from across Europe. Its title was â€Å"Transformation of the Roman World† and its aim was to provide a widely accepted interpretation of the fall of Rome, along the lines of a smooth passage to what was to become today’s Europe. Two thousand years after Augustus history is being repeated: the European Union is commissioning its â€Å"poets† to create its own foundation myth. Late Antiquity is a new period that has had to carve its way bravely into powerful, deep-rooted views of modern historiography, much like the barbarians who had to carve their kingdoms fighting against the mighty Roman Empire. But unlike the former, somewhere along the way it had to make sacrifices which rendered it less effective as a means of interpretation and more limited in its scope. Also, it came to associate itself with â€Å"allies† with political agendas, who might have promoted it, but in the long term damaged somewhat its credibility in terms of objectivity. After all that, it is not surprising that Avril Cameron, a great advocate of the Brown school, herself admits â€Å"‘Late Antiquity’ is in danger of having become an exotic territory†, just before suggesting that it should be tested also in the fields of economic and administrative history. Pekepersonal thekerkerethoughts-synthesis/LA+med west Thus far, we’ve witnessed in brief a powerful debate: Ward-Perkin’s book came as a vivid reaction to a whole school of thought formed around Brown’s work, which itself was another dramatic response to an older tradition. But extremism is inherent in violent reactions, because only through opposition one side can define itself and stand out in relation to its adversaries. Naturally, the existence of opposition itself should not lead us to believe that one side is absolutely right, while the other is absolutely wrong (and in most cases they are not). Rather, it should direct us towards an evaluation of the new conclusions that emerged from the conflict and setting the problem on a new base. However, it should be noted that both books have something in common: they are heavily focused on different geographical areas, where their conclusions seem to be more frequently affirmed. This way, Brown was able to find plenty of continuity in the eastern part of the Empire, while Ward-Perkins discovered a great deal of catastrophe in its former western provinces. As Jones had underlined long before those two, historians often tend to forget that only a part of the Roman Empire actually fell to the barbarians. So, nothing would be amiss if things were so well defined, but they are not. And although it seems that Late Antiquity is better suited for early Byzantine history, there are also those medieval scholars who deem it rewarding to try their hand at the concepts that this new approach brought with it. Late Antiquity and early medieval history One of these was jean claude van dam (‘the muscles from brussels’) mouahahhahahaha Late Antiquity and the barbarians The exclusion of notions of violence and catastrophe from the debates concerning the fourth and fifth centuries, which Late Antiquity scholars promoted, created a historiographical vacuum and a way had to be found for depicting the relations between the Roman Empire and the new arrivals. If violence could not be used to describe them, then the sources had to be searched for a different sort of evidence. The subsequent reexamination of the sources gave birth to the notion of accommodation. The first scholar to do that was Walter Goffart. In a well-known book, published in 1980, he described in detail the way that the barbarians were settled on Roman lands. According to Goffart a fairly straightforward arrangement between the late Roman administration and the barbarian tribes can be derived from the sources. The critical feature of this arrangement was that the Empire relinquished its rights on the taxation of the region in which a group of barbarians were settled and instead those taxes would be collected by the barbarians. However, according to this theory, there was no expropriation of land, no partition of it to smaller units to be apportioned and no need for extra money from the tax payers. The only one who had something to lose in the process would be the central administration and this definitely helps explain the fact that there is no sign of any noteworthy resistance from the local population in the regions where the barbarians were settled in this way. The aforementioned theory was further elaborated by Durliat. After analyzing the sources rigorously, he managed to take Goffart’s theory one step further. He argued that land tax in the Late Roman Empire amounted to no more than 20% of the harvest and it was collected and administered by the curiales. They split it in three and kept one third for their city’s expenses. The other two thirds were then sent to Rome to be used for the needs of the army and the central administration. With the advent of the barbarians, this system was very conveniently transformed to accommodate them: the curiales no longer sent anything to Rome but instead conferred the appropriate amount to the barbarian group that happened settle in their city’s administrative region. Furthermore, he argued that this modus operandi continued unaffected after the fall of the western Roman Empire, in the different successor-states, until the collapse of the Carolingian Empire. This theoretical synthesis was attractive to scholars, not only due to its clarifying simplicity and astonishing applicability, but also because it served to explain the lack of any negative sentiment in the sources. The importance of it becomes clearer, if we take under consideration that actually there were complaints on the part of the sources, wherever the barbarians had not settled peacefully but by force. As we saw earlier, the curiales were unconcerned if two thirds of the land tax changed recipients, as long as they were still obtaining their part undiminished. One can easily imagine the effect that this argument had on the debate on continuity, especially since it was centered on Western Europe. Of course, this theory didn’t fail to raise some eyebrows. Liebeschà ¼tz criticized Durliat’s arguments on a twofold basis. First, he doubts that late Roman cities actually collected for themselves any part of the imperial taxes and second, he argues quite convincingly that such an agreement would eventually provide little actual security to the settling barbarians, as security is usually better ensured through direct property of the land, than through any fiscal rights. Whats more, it seems perfectly reasonable to assume that it was exactly this security that the barbarians were looking for and of course, their position of power during the last centuries of the Roman Empire made sure that they were not likely to settle for anything less. Moreover, Durliat’s theory was commented on further in an article in 1998. There, Wickham analysis Durliat’s arguments and dismisses them one by one. Initially, he disagrees that the strict fiscal meaning which the latter ascribes to terms such as possessors and fundus is actually the one intended by the legislators of the fourth and the fifth century and in so doing he undermines the theory from the beginning. But he goes on to challenge other aspects such as the idea that Church constituted a part of the state administration in the post-Roman kingdoms (and thus church property consisted only of fiscal lands) and the view that servus is the term used to suggest a free landowner. By providing hard evidence following the chronological order (Late Empire, Romano-Germanic Kingdoms, Carolingian Empire), Wickham manages to discredit convincingly the arguments about fiscal continuity throughout this period. But, it should be noted that in the end of his article, where he dis cusses briefly the issue of continuity, he states that while he is not averse to it himself, it should not be considered tantamount to complete absence of change. However, the predominance of continuity does not sit well with terms like ‘barbarian invasions’ and ‘Germanic immigration’. So, historians had to find ways to circumvent this problem; they started by looking at the ethnic identities of the Germanic peoples, because it could be argued for example that there was no clear-cut sense of common identity between barbarian groups, such as the Goths, or some common characteristics that defined ‘Germanic’ then it would be possible to downplay the importance of the aforementioned terms. This way, Late Antiquity affected another heated debate (and in the meantime was affected by it); that of European national identities. The contribution of Walter Goffart has been essential at this point. Apart from fiscal continuity, in his Barbarians and Romans, he was also arguing about against the existence of definite ethnic identities among the barbarians. Another centuries-old historiographic tradition before him interpreted the movements of the Germanic tribes according to contemporary political ideas. For example, before the Second World War, Kossina had argued that there was a separate, identifiable culture to be associated with every Germanic tribe we come across in the sources and in 1961 Wenskus had maintained that there was a core of tradition carried by the elite of each barbarian group, according to which the whole mass of the tribe was defined. But, according to Goffart ‘migrations have served as the factual underpinnings of early Germanic unity’. Thus, if he could prove that no such unity actually existed, the migration and invasion theories would lose all sense. Indeed, he argues for a ‘short history’ of these peoples oblivion was a result of translocation. The common past of these peoples at any point stressed as back as the time before their last migration. He refuses to use sources of the sixth century such as Jordanes because, in his opinion, they only reflect the ideas of their own times and cannot be trusted for their evidence of the distant past. Finally, after taking under consideration also the deductions of archaeological research, he thinks that, if one wanted to look at the discontinuity provoked by the advent of the barbarians, he should definitely put the emphasis on Rome and its security. It was the appeal that the Empire had on the barbarians and not their own expansionist agendas that brought about the fall, in an ‘imaginative experiment that got a little out of hand’. It is therefore clear that Late Antiquity has given historiography of ethnic identities new areas of research to explore. This process gets even more complicated with the interference of modern international politics and historians of the Early Middle Ages recently find themselves and their research at the center of contemporary political debates. One can discern a pseudo-history in the making, which serves political and nationalistic purposes in the sense that it tries to define distinct nations that were created centuries ago once and for all. Another assumption is that by right these nations should form separate political entities, according to their defined ethnicity and territory. To sum up, the search for continuity of the Late Antique scholars might not have been successful in the field of fiscal policies and accommodation but it ascertained the fact that we cannot presume long histories and ethnic identities of the Germanic peoples. This certainly confirmed transformation instead of catastrophe and crisis for some aspects of the fourth and fifth centuries but it surely proved that there was much discontinuity and heterogeneity concerning the notion of identity. And since the Early Middle Ages are of such a great importance in the international political stage, scholars of the period should benefit from the results of research in this field in order to prevent their academic field from becoming a plaything in the hands of international politics. (†¦Projecting their own experiences on another period of time (as historians often do) Bibliography A = Heather, P., The fall of the Roman Empire: a new history of Rome and the barbarians (London and Oxford, 2005) B = Ward-Perkins, B., The fall of Rome and the end of civilization (Oxford, 2005) C = Cameron, A., The Mediterranean world in Late Antiquity 395-600 (London, 1993) D = Marcone, A., â€Å"A long Late Antiquity? Consideration on a controversial periodization† Journal of Late Antiquity, 1 (2008), 4-19. E = Jones, A.H.M., The Later Roman Empire, 284-602 a social, economic and administrative survey (Oxford, 1964). F = G = Wickham, C., The inheritance of Rome: A history of Europe from 400 to 1000 (London, 2009). H = Innes, M., An introduction to Early Medieval Western Europe, 300-900 (London, 2007). I = Brown, P., The world of Late Antiquity: from Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad (London, 1971). J = Liebeschà ¼tz, W., â€Å"Cities, taxes and the accommodation of barbarians. The theories of Durliat and Goffart† in Noble, T. F. X. (ed.), From roman provinces to medieval kingdoms (New York, 2006), 309-323. K = Wickham, C., â€Å"The fall of Rome will not take place† in Rosenwein, B. H., Little, L. K. (eds.), Debating the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1998), 45-58. L = Goffart, W. A., Barbarians and Romans A.D. 418-584: the techniques of accommodation (Princeton, 1980) M = Goffart, W. A., â€Å"The barbarians in Late Antiquity and how they were accommodated in the West† in Noble, T. F. X. (ed.), From roman provinces to medieval kingdoms (New York, 2006), 235-261. N = Wood, I., â€Å"Barbarians, historians and the construction of national identities† Journal of Late Antiquity, 1 (2008), 61-81. O = Heather, P., â€Å"Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval West† in Bentley, M. (ed.), Companion to historiography (London, 1995), 69-87. P = Noble, T. F. X., â€Å"Romans, barbarians and the transformation of the Roman Empire† in Noble, T. F. X. (ed.), From roman provinces to medieval kingdoms (New York, 2006), 1-27. B, 40. A, 14. C, 3. D, 7. E, 1027. Also in other instances, such as 1039 and 1067. E, 1045-47. E, 1026. H, 6. C, 4. B, 13-14. B, 182-3. G, 8. H, 126. B, 123. B, 3. For example, in Chapter V, he is arguing for a drop in living standards mainly by looking at the quality and distribution of ceramics, B, 87-121. B, 87, G, 9. Especially in Chapters V and VI, B, 87-137. G, 9. Brown, P., The world of Late Antiquity: from Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad (London, 1971). B, 3-4.

School Censorship is Detrimental to Education Essay examples -- Argume

School Censorship is Detrimental to Education       Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Maya Angelou. What do these writers have in common? Sure, they are all great American authors, but there is something else. They are all "banned." Censored. Forbidden. Who has not read a book by at least one of these authors? All are great pieces of literature and should be crucial parts of the high school curriculum. School censorship of books is detrimental to the educational development of high school students.    In order to understand the problems with school censorship, one must know why it is done. One reason is bad language. A prime example of this type of censorship occurred in a California school when words like à «damn' and à «hell' were blacked out of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Students were stunned by the irony of the situation. A book about censorship was being censored (Wright). Sexual activity is another common reason for censorship, along with assaults on family values and violence. Why is this happening when 90% of students surveyed do not believe that books should be censored because they contain offensive language or sexual situations (Survey)? Negative racial treatment of characters, setting, or theme also fuels censorship (Simmons).    Something else that must be mentioned in order to understand the evils of school censorship are facts censors ignore; the first being literary quality. When they chose to censor a book they do not take into account the educational value of the book. How can one say a book does not belong in schools if they do not know what lessons it teaches? The second key element ignored is the manner in which teachers lead students to interact with texts. They g... ...eory censorship thus prevents students from thinking. There are ways of teaching our children morals, but censorship is not one of them. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Every burned book enlightens the world."    Works Cited    Killing a Classic; Censorship: Offensive language can be instructional in a play about racism and segregation. The Sun; Baltimore, Md.; Nov.6, 1999. Simmons, John S. School Censorship: No Respite in Sight. Forum. Winter 1996/1997, pp. 12-16 Survey. "Survey on Censorship of Books in School" November 18,1999. Twain, Mark. The Adventurers of Huckleberry Finn. Penguin Books. New York, New York, 1959. Virginia Beach Public Library Librarian. Interview. November 19, 1999 Wright, Jake. Literary Censorship in America's Schools. On-line. Available: http://members.xoom.com/jakewright/censorship/   

Herbal Medicine Essay -- essays research papers

Herbal medicine is the extraction of herbs or plants which have a medicinal value in treating illnesses and diseases (Brody 1). A herb is known as a plant that does not have a woody stem and usually dies back at the end of each growing season. It is also known as a "natural" drug because they are derived from nature. This is unlike pharmaceutical drugs, which are synthesized from chemicals. Herbal medicine dates back a very long time. More than 4,000 years ago, the Chinese emperor Qien Nong put a book together, or a herbal, of different medicinal plants (O’ Sullivan 2). It contained descriptions of more than 300 plants. Some of these plants are still used today. The Sumerians, at the same time recorded prescriptions on clay tablets. Also, the Egyptians recorded their information regarding medicine on rolls of papyrus. A very famous papyrus is the Ebers Papyrus, which includes specific information on how to use different plants (Brody 1). The Greeks and Romans learned about herbal medicine from these early civilizations. They also recorded them in books. We know of these works because they are translated into Arabic. Monks in Europe studied and grew plants for medicinal use. They translated the Arabic and that helped them with the plants. The first drugstores were in Baghdad (which is present day Iraq) in the 9th century (Smith 1). In the 13th century, major trade of herbs and spices occurred in London. Since there were no standards, bad quality herbs and wrong substitutes were often sold. Carolus Linneaus introduced the binomial system of plant nomenclature in 1753 (O’Sullivan 1). This helped identify plants scientifically, which helped to avoid mistakes between different plants. Many drugs commonly used today are of herbal origin. About one-quarter of the prescription drugs distributed by pharmacies in the United States contain at least one ingredient derived from plant material. Today, everyone from health care consumers to providers are learning about natural options to help with being healthy. â€Å"Herbalists, or individuals who use herbal remedies to alleviate pain, are on the rise in the United States† (Tremmel 1). In 1995, a survey was taken with about 600 physicians across the count... ...umerous kinds of herbal medicines available today. The best way of getting you money’s worth is by asking for the most popular one. This isn’t the only step, but also ask for any clinical trials, consult your doctor, and/or the company of the product. This way you can get the most effective product and be safe at the same time. I think that this new era of using natural herbal medicine is great and I support it greatly. Trying something new for a change is good. Even though some kinds of herbal medicine can produce harmful effects, many of the others are good. The only problem I see is that the Food and Drug Administration didn’t make it a requirement for the makers to submit studies on the drugs. Therefore, maybe sellers can make specific claims about preventing a disease even though it isn’t true. So if the FDA starts testing the medicines and helps separate the good from the bad then everything will be great. Thus, herbal medicine is medicine made from different parts of plants. They have become very popular in modern times. Some of these herbal medicines can be helpful while others can be harmful.

The Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality Essay -- Gender, argum

According to Johnny Weir, â€Å"Masculinity is what you believe it to be... [it is] all by perception, [I believe] masculinity and femininity is something that is very old-fashioned... [there is a] whole new generation of people who aren’t defined by their race or their sex or who they like to sleep with.† This statement exemplifies the definition of gender as a concept; gender is the expectations of a sex according to the culture of society. Sexuality, within this definition of gender, reflects society’s expectations, which are created in relation to the opposite sex. The variances between cultures means that gender expectations change within different cultures. These expectations put pressure on each member of society to conform and abide by the folkways of their own culture. The creation of gender expectations by society creates a restricting definition of gender roles and sexuality that vary from culture to culture. Society created the role of gender and created an emphasis on the differences between the two genders. Alma Gottlieb states: â€Å"biological inevitability of the sex organs comes to stand for a perceived inevitability of social roles, expectations, and meanings† (Gottlieb, 167). Sex is the scientific acknowledgment that men and women are biologically different; gender stems from society’s formation of roles assigned to each sex and the emphasis of the differences between the two sexes. The creation of meanings centers on the expectations of the roles each sex should fill; society creates cultural norms that perpetuate these creations. Gender blurs the lines between the differences created by nature and those created by society (Gottlieb, 168); gender is the cultural expectations of sexes, with meaning assigned to the diff... ...le or female actually identifies with their prescribed role depends on the socialization process and the way they identify with society’s expectations of them. The social construction of gender and sexuality all rely on the measure that people believe there is a difference between the two sexes, once this emphasis is taken away, is when gender roles will no longer play an integral role in the structure of society. Works Cited Gottlieb, Alma. "Interpreting Gender and Sexuality: Approaches from Cultural Anthropology." Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines. Ed. Jeremy MacClancy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly. Media Education Foundation, 2010. Lancaster, Roger N. Life is Hard, Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992. The Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality Essay -- Gender, argum According to Johnny Weir, â€Å"Masculinity is what you believe it to be... [it is] all by perception, [I believe] masculinity and femininity is something that is very old-fashioned... [there is a] whole new generation of people who aren’t defined by their race or their sex or who they like to sleep with.† This statement exemplifies the definition of gender as a concept; gender is the expectations of a sex according to the culture of society. Sexuality, within this definition of gender, reflects society’s expectations, which are created in relation to the opposite sex. The variances between cultures means that gender expectations change within different cultures. These expectations put pressure on each member of society to conform and abide by the folkways of their own culture. The creation of gender expectations by society creates a restricting definition of gender roles and sexuality that vary from culture to culture. Society created the role of gender and created an emphasis on the differences between the two genders. Alma Gottlieb states: â€Å"biological inevitability of the sex organs comes to stand for a perceived inevitability of social roles, expectations, and meanings† (Gottlieb, 167). Sex is the scientific acknowledgment that men and women are biologically different; gender stems from society’s formation of roles assigned to each sex and the emphasis of the differences between the two sexes. The creation of meanings centers on the expectations of the roles each sex should fill; society creates cultural norms that perpetuate these creations. Gender blurs the lines between the differences created by nature and those created by society (Gottlieb, 168); gender is the cultural expectations of sexes, with meaning assigned to the diff... ...le or female actually identifies with their prescribed role depends on the socialization process and the way they identify with society’s expectations of them. The social construction of gender and sexuality all rely on the measure that people believe there is a difference between the two sexes, once this emphasis is taken away, is when gender roles will no longer play an integral role in the structure of society. Works Cited Gottlieb, Alma. "Interpreting Gender and Sexuality: Approaches from Cultural Anthropology." Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines. Ed. Jeremy MacClancy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly. Media Education Foundation, 2010. Lancaster, Roger N. Life is Hard, Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992.

Movie Dr. Strangelove Essay

Yes, it is my opinion that the ideology of the cold war was reflected by the tension shown in the movie â€Å"Dr. Strangelove† by Stanley Kubrick. The tension between peace and war, like the U. S. and the Soviets during the cold war, is reflected by the actors the movie portrayed. The movie â€Å"Dr. Strangelove† gave a satirical look at how war can be manipulated and the players who manipulate it. The secretiveness of the Cold war was reflected poignantly in the movie, causing confusion which helped key players to execute their evil plans. The Cold War was the first public war held behind closed doors. Diplomacy was used, per say, instead of action. Although both sides of the conflict were readily able to show force no really force was used to end the war. Few Americans really knew just how close the film was to real life. The film including the characters and script were very similar to the policies and military leaders of the Cold War. The secrecy was vital to the tension during the Cold war and to the movie. During that time in America there were no Freedom of Information Act that would give light to citizens and this caused much speculation and visions of devastating war. But now with information readily available it is almost shocking just how much the movie mirrored real life. Dr. Strangelove in the movie reminded me of Henry Kissinger. The ending of the movie gave me a glimpse of what I believe would happen if there were such a mistake and just how political officials would feel if this would happen. The statement by General Turgidson, â€Å"Mr. President I’m not saying we would get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than 10-20 million killed, tops! † is how most political leaders would actually think and do think. During war there are acceptable levels of casualties and to most civilians it would be shocking at how high the levels are. Since the adopted policy of President Theodore Roosevelt’s that instead of opposing intervention by European nations in the Western Hemisphere that the U. S. would intervene when necessary to guarantee political and economic stability around the world. This concept has been a cornerstone of American foreign policy from the 1900’s on up to today. To fight the rise and influence of the Soviet Union after WWII the U. S. adopted containment to prevent the rising of communist power. The soviets responded by establishing Communist governments in Eastern Europe. This was the beginning of the Cold War. This war was not fought by bullets but by propaganda and secrets. Allies for this war was gained by giving economic and military assistance. During this war there were times that were hot and times there were thaws. So it is very easy for me to see the reflection of tensions that mirrored real life when comparing the Cold War and the movie â€Å"Dr. Strangelove†. Reference: Kubrick, S. (Director & Producer). (2004). Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb [Motion Picture]. United States: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment [DVD]