The Way of Life free essay sample

Dedicated to Karl C. It was the first week of rifle hunting season in November.I was thirteen and it was the first year I could shoot a deer.I had completed my firearms safety class and I was ready to shoot my first buck.The problem was that I had to wake up at five in the morning.For thirteen year old Kaleb, this was almost unbearable and he wanted to fall asleep again as soon as he could.But, his father would not let him.So, I knew I had to suck it up and make the best out of it. When getting dressed, we put on as many layers as we could.After I was done putting them on, I felt as if I were the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.I disliked the feeling of not being able to run or have any flexibility.Once we were dressed, geared up and ready, we went outside and were greeted by the frosty morning breeze. We will write a custom essay sample on The Way of Life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I could taste the moisture on my tongue as I opened the door.It was pitch black and the only thing I could see was a dim light coming from our old, broken lamp post.So we ended up taking out our flashlights and walking to the shed to grab our rifles.My rifle was a Tikka .270 and my dad’s was a Remington 7mm.Both were accurate and powerful so they punched good sized holes when we shot at our practice targets back home.Before leaving to our stand, my dad gave me another brief on our plan, â€Å"We are going to go to the North Stand.† my dad said, â€Å"Wait on the ground until I’m to the top, then you can climb up.† â€Å"Ok, Dad† I replied. â€Å"Don’t forget about B.R.A.S.S.† â€Å"I remember. Breath, Relax, Aim, Slack, and Stop.† â€Å"And walk with your heels, not your toes.† Annoyed, I replied, â€Å"Dad, for the millionth time, I know.† â€Å"Okay, just making sure you won’t forget anything.† We walked until we reached the stand.Just as planned, Dad walked up first and I followed.To be honest, I was a little scared climbing up it.It was my second time climbing up a ladder that high and I was small compared to the size of the tree stand.But I wasn’t going to wimp out so I gathered my courage and continued up the ladder. Once there, I received a stare from my dad.For a moment, I thought had done something wrong.Then, he calmly put his pointer finger to his lips indicating that we could no longer talk until either our prey was killed or the hunt was over.As we still do today, my dad and I would communicate by hand signals or mouthing out words.We whispered if it was a last resort. The hours went by as we waited for a deer to come in front of us.The sun rose over time and most of the fog disappeared except for a thin, grey layer of haze.My rifle was even colder than before.I signaled Dad for some hand warmers and he gave me some. Around four hours passed and I was losing my patience.It would’ve been ten more minutes before I asked my dad if we could leave the stand.But then we heard a crunch.It was time. Dad peeked out the window to see a six-pointed buck along the right side treeline.I could taste the venison already.I grabbed my rifle from the corner it was leaning against and slowly rested it onto the lower left corner of the window.My B.R.A.S.S. technique was rushing through my head, but I still remained calm and focused.My breathing was controlled, my aim was dead on, my arms were steady, and I was ready to squeeze.I had to make sure I didn’t jerk the trigger otherwise I would anticipate the shot and miss my target like I would sometimes at home.I had to surprise myself with the trigger squeeze.I turned my safety off and was ready to fire. I started to squeeze.My aim was right on target.Then, a sudden kick hit my shoulder as if someone punched me.I smelled the gunpowder.I heard the cracking shot coming out of the barrel.The round had made a slice right through the buck’s stomach.Its guts dropped down the next step it took.I pulled the bolt back and re chambered another round in.The deer was down but not dead.I had to put it out of its misery.I took a second shot. The round made perfect thump as the round traveled right through my prey’s cranium.A perfect head shot. My dad cleared his throat, â€Å"Awesome shot, Kaleb!† Like hungry dogs, we climbed down to examine the scene.As we arrived, I was brutally shocked by the amount of blood and gore that came from the deer.For a second, I doubted myself that I had done a right thing.I had just killed such a beautiful animal.What did this deer do to deserve this?I was confused and unsure of what I did and if it agrees with my morals as a Catholic? I should’ve had a â€Å"one shot, one kill†.But then I came to terms I tried my best and was fast to put the deer out of its misery.It was the way of life.And like any other deer hunt, we repeated the same rituals.We took some pictures, skinned it, hung it up to drain, and waited while sitting back and drinking a nice, cold pop. This time was a little different from the others.I wasn’t helping a friend, family member, or my father skin his deer.This time, it was my turn.As I sat down on our bench with my dad, celebrating and making memories, I realized something.I was finally a hunter.I had gone hunting many times, but this hunt was my hunt.I could finally say I had the power, patience, and skill to kill an animal. It had only taken me six hours to earn the title, Hunter.I was eager to return for the next year and the one after that.I realized this was my escape from the world.To lose myself in a hunt and return joyful, whether I had caught any game or not.It makes me look forward to the day when I can watch as my first son or daughter shoot their first deer.Sharing memories and laughs as I was with my father.Sitting around the fire in the dark of night telling stories until we get tired and decide to hit the hay.Cherishing the last glimpse of the star lit forest until you go back inside.And waking up and doing it all over again.One could say it’s the way of life.

Smart socket Essays

Smart socket Essays Smart socket Essay Smart socket Essay Although ad-hoc solutions exist for some of these problems, it is usually up to the applications user to discover the cause of the connectivity problems and find a solution. In this paper we describe Smokestacks, a communication library that lifts this burden by automatically discovering the connectivity problems and solving them with as little support from the user as possible. Categories and Subject Descriptors: C. 2. 4 [Distributed Systems]: Distributed applications General Terms: Algorithms, Design, Reliability Keywords: Connectivity Problems, Grids, Networking, Parallel Applications 1 . Parallel applications are increasingly run in Grid environments. Unfortunately, on many Grid sites the ability of machines to create or accept network connections is severely limited by network address translation (NAT) [14, 26] or firewalls [15]. There are even sites that completely disallow any direct communication between the compute nodes and the rest of the world (e. G. , the French Grinding system [3]). In addition, multi homing (machines with multiple network addresses) can further complicate connection setup. For parallel applications that require direct communication between their components, these limitations have hampered the transition from traditional multi receptors or cluster systems to Grids. When a combination of Grid sites is used, serious connectivity problems are often encountered. Smokestacks is part of the Ibis project, and can be found at CSS. Vi. Ml/ibis Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or the full citation on the first page. Many problems, however, can only be solved by adapting the application or the communication library it uses. To make matters worse, as soon as the set of Grid systems being used changes, large part of this process needs to be repeated. As a result, running a parallel application on multiple Grid sites can be a strenuous task [34]. In this paper we will describe a solution to this problem: the Smokestacks communication library. The primary focus of Smokestacks is on ease of use. It automatically discovers a wide range of connectivity problems and attempts to solve them with little or no support from the user. Smokestacks combines many known solutions, such as port forwarding, TCP splicing and SSH tunneling, and introduces several new ones that resolve problems with multi homing and machine identification. In 30 connection setup experiments, using 6 different sites worldwide, Smokestacks was always able to establish a connection, while conventional sockets only worked in 6 experiments. Using heuristics and caching, Smokestacks is able to significantly improve the connection setup performance. Smokestacks offers a single integrated solution that hides the complexity of connection setup in Grids behind a simple interface that closely resembles sockets. We will show that it is relatively straightforward to port an existing application to Smokestacks, provided that certain programming guidelines are followed. Smokestacks is not specifically intended for use in parallel applications or Grids. It can also be applied to other distributed applications, such as visualization, cooperative environments, or even consumer applications such as instant messaging, file sharing, or online gaming. However, many of these applications only require a very limited degree of connectivity. Often, clients simply connect to a server in a well-known location, making it relatively easy to apply an ad-hoc solution when a connectivity problem occurs. Parallel applications, however, can be much more challenging. They often require a large number of connections between the participating machines, and each machine must such applications in a Grid environment with limited connectivity is difficult. Therefore, this paper will focus on this domain. N Section 2 we describe the connectivity related problems encountered while running applications on multiple Grid sites. Section 3 describes how these problems are solved in Smokestacks and briefly looks at the programming interface. Section 4 evaluates the performance of Smokestacks, Section 5 describes related work, and Section 6 concludes. 2. CONNECTIVITY PROBLEMS In this section we will give a description of the network related problems that can occur when running a single parallel or distributed application on multiple Grid sites. . 1 Firewalls As described in [1 5], A firewall is an agent which screens network traffic in some way, blocking traffic it believes to be inappropriate, dangerous, or both. . Many sites use firewalls to protect their network from unauthorized access. Firewalls usually allow outbound connections, but block incoming connections, often with the exception of a few welkin ports (e. G. , port 22 for SSH). It is obvious that this inactivity restriction can cause severe problems when running a parallel application on multiple sites. When only a single participating site uses firewall, the connectivity problems can sometimes be solved by ensuring that the connections setups are in the right direction, I. E. , that all required connections between open and firewall machines are initiated at the firewall site. This solution may require changes to the applications or communication libraries, however. Also, if both sites use a firewall, this approach can no longer be used. In this case, a firewall will always be encountered regardless of he connection setup direction. One way to solve the problems is to request an open port range in the firewall. Connectivity can then be restored by adapting the application to only use ports in this range. Besides requiring reconfiguration of the firewall, open ports are also seen as a threat to site security. When both machines are behind a firewall it may still be possible to establish a direct connection using a mechanism called TCP splicing [6, 10, 13, 20]. Simply put, this mechanism works by simultaneously performing a connection setup from both sides. Since this approach requires explicit cooperation teens the machines, some alternative communication channel must be available. . 2 Network Address Translation As described in [21], Network Address Translation is a method by which IP addresses are mapped from one address realm to another, providing transparent routing to end hosts. . NAT was introduced in [12] as a temporary solution to the problem of IPPP address depletion. Although the intended solution for this problem, IPPP, has been available for some time, NAT is still widely used to day. Frequently used [21, 29]. This type of NAT allows outbound connections from sites using riveter addresses, but does not allow incoming connections. Both the IP address (and related fields) and the transport identifier (e. G. , TCP and JODI port numbers) of packets are translated, thereby preventing port number collisions when a set of hosts share a single external address. As mentioned above, NAT only allows outbound network connections. Incoming connections are rejected, since the connection request does not contain enough information to find the destination machine (I. E. , only the external IP address is provided, but that may be shared by many machines). This restriction leads to connectivity problems hat are very similar to those caused by firewalls. Therefore, the solution described in Section 2. 1 (connecting in the right direction) also applies too NAT setup, and fails in a similar way when multiple NAT sites try to interconnect. Although the TCP splicing mechanism can also be used to connect two NAT sites, a more complex algorithm is required to compensate for the port translation performed by NAT [6, 20]. Some NAT implementations have support for port forwarding, where all incoming connections on a certain port can be automatically forwarded to a certain host inside the NAT site. Using mechanisms such as Upon [5], DIF [28], or MEDICO [30], applications can contact the NAT implementation and change the port forwarding rules on demand. Port forwarding lifts many of the restrictions on incoming connections. Unfortunately, Upon is mostly found in consumer devices, MEDICO is still under development, and DIF only supports NAT (and firewall) implementations based on Interfile [1]. As a result, these mechanisms are not (yet) generally usable in Grid applications. Currently, Smokestacks only supports Upon. In addition to causing connection setup problems, NAT also complicates machine identification. Machines in a NAT tit generally use IP addresses in the private range [26]. These addresses are only usable within a local network and are not globally unique. Unfortunately, parallel applications often use a machines IP address to create a unique identifier for that machine. When multiple NAT sites participate in a single parallel run, however, this approach can not be used, since the machine addresses are no longer guaranteed to be unique. 2. 3 Non-routed networks On some sites no direct communication between the compute nodes and the outside world is possible due to a strict separation between the internal and external networks. No aching is accessible, and the connectivity of this machine may be limited by a firewall or NAT. Two of the sites used in Section 4 use such a setup. It is clear that this is a major limitation when the site is used in a parallel application. The only possibility for the compute nodes to communicate with other sites is to use front-end machine as a bridge to the outside world, using, for example, an SSH tunnel or a SOCKS [24] proxy. These are non-trivial to set up, however. 2. 4 Multi Homing When multi-homed machines (I. E. , machines with multiple network addresses) participate in a parallel application, another interesting problem occurs. When creating a connection to such a machine, a choice must be made on which of the possible target addresses to use. The outcome of this choice may depend on the location of the machine that initiates the connection. For example, the front-end machine of a site has two addresses, a public one, reachable over the internet, and a private one used to communicate with the sites compute nodes. As a result, a different address must be used to reach teachings depending on whether the connection originates inside or outside of the site. In [34] we called this the Reverse Routing Problem. Normally, when a multi-homed machine is trying to connect to a single IP address, a routing table on the machine decides which network is used for the outgoing connection. In the example described above the reverse problem is encountered. Instead of having to decide how to exit a multi-homed machine, we must decide on how to enter it. This problem is non-trivial, since the source machine generally does not have enough information available to select the correct target address. As a result, several connection attempts to different addresses of the target may be necessary before a connection can be established. In Section 3. 2 we will describe heuristics that can be used to speed up this process. Multi homing can have a major effect on the implementation of parallel programming libraries. The example above shows that it is not sufficient to use a single address to represent a multi-homed machine. Instead, all addresses must be made available to the other participants of the parallel application. In addition, some of the addresses may be in a private range and refer to a different machine when used in a different site. Therefore, it is also essential to check if a connection was established to the correct machine. 3. SMOKESTACKS In this section we will give an overview of the design, implementation and programming interface of the Smokestacks library, and describe how it solves the problems described in the previous section. 3. 1 Overview Currently, Smokestacks offers four different connection setup mechanisms, Direct, Reverse, Splicing, and Routed. An overview of how these mechanisms solve the connectivity problems described in Section 2. As the table shows, each problem is solved by at least one mechanism. Table 1 : Overview of connectivity problems and their solutions. Connection Setup Mechanism Problems Direct Reverse Splicing Routed Identification X Multi Homing X Single FEW/NAT pox xx Dual MINOT (X) XX No Routing X The machine identification and multi-homing problems are solved by the direct connection setup. As will be explained below, this approach also has limited firewall traversal capabilities (using SSH tunneling), so in certain situations it may succeed in establishing a connection in a single or even a dual firewall setting. In the table these entries are shown between brackets. A reverse connection setup is only capable of creating a connection when a single firewall or NAT limits the connectivity. Splicing is capable of middling both single and dual firewall/NAT configurations. However, this approach is significantly more complex than a reverse connection setup (especially with dual NAT) and may not always succeed. Therefore, reverse connection setup is preferred for single firewall/NAT configurations. A routed connection setup can be used in any situation where the connectivity is limited. Unlike the previous two approaches it does not result in a direct connection. Instead all network traffic is routed via external processes called hubs (explained in Section 3. 3), which may degrade both latency and throughput of the connection. Therefore, the previous mechanisms are preferred. When connecting to or from a machine on a non-routed network, however, a routed connection is the only choice. The Smokestacks implementation is divided into two layers, a low-level Direct Connection Layer, responsible for all actions that can be initiated on a single machine, and a high-level Virtual Connection Layer that uses side-channel communication to implement actions that require cooperation of multiple machines. The direct connection layer is implemented using the standard socket library. The virtual connection layer is implemented using the direct connection layer. Both layers will be explained in more detail below. Currently, Smokestacks is implemented using Java [2]. 3. 2 Direct Connection Layer do not require explicit cooperation between machines, such as determining the local addresses or creating a direct connection. It also supports a limited form of SSH tunneling. 3. 2. 1 Machine Identification During initialization, the direct connection layer starts by scanning all available network interfaces to determine which IP addresses are available to the machine. It then generates a unique machine identifier that contains these addresses, and that can be used to contact the machine. This identifier will automatically be unique if it contains at least one public address. If all addresses are private, however, additional work must be done. A machine that only has private addresses is either in a NAT site or uses a non-routed network. In the first case, a unique identifier can still be generated for the machine by acquiring the external address of the NAT. Provided that this address is public, the combination of external and machine addresses should also be unique, since other machines in the same NAT site should have a different set of private addresses, and all other NAT sites should have different external address. The Smokestacks library will use Upon to discover the external address of the NAT site. If this discovery fails, or if the returned address is not public, a Universally Unique Identifier (JUDI) [23], will be generated and included in the machine identifier, thereby making it unique. 3. 2. 2 Connection Setup Once initialized, the direct connection layer can be used to set up connections to other machines. The identifier of the target machine may contain multiple network addresses, some of which may not be reachable from the current location. The private dresses in the identifier may even refer to a completely different machine, so it is important that the identity of the machine is checked during connection setup. As a result, several connection attempts may be necessary before the correct connection can be established. When multiple target addresses are available, a choice must be made in which order the connection attempts will be performed. Although simply using the addresses in an arbitrary order should always result in a connection (pro-vided that a direct connection is possible), this may not be the most efficient approach. Many Grid sites offer historiographer networks such as Merriment [7] or Infinite [4] in addition to a regular Ethernet network. Using such a network for inter-site communication may significantly improve the applications performance. In general, these fast networks are not routed and use addresses in the private range, while the regular Ethernet networks (often) use public addresses. Therefore, by sorting the target addresses and trying all private ones first, the fast local networks will automatically be selected in sites with such a setup. The drawback of if the connection originates on a different site. This may cause a significant overhead. Therefore, Smokestacks uses a heuristic that sorts the target addresses in relation to the addresses that are available locally. For example, if only a public address is available on the local machine, it is unlikely that it will be able to create a direct connection to a private address of a target. As a result, the connection order public before private is used. This order is also used if both machines have public and private addresses, but the private addresses refer to a different network (e. G. , 10. 0. 0. 10 vs 192. 168. 1. 20). The order private before public is only used if both machines have private addresses in the same range. Section 4 will illustrate the performance benefits of this heuristic. Unfortunately, it is impossible to make a distinction between addresses of the same class. For example, if a target has multiple private addresses, we can not automatically determine which address is best. Therefore, if a certain network is preferred, the user must specify this explicitly. Without this explicit configuration, Smokestacks will still create a direct connection (if possible), and the parallel application will run, but its performance may be suboptimal. When a connection has been established, an identity check s performed to ensure that the correct machine has been reached. This would be a simple comparison if the complete identifier of the target is available, but unfortunately this is not always the case. User provided addresses are often used to bootstrap a parallel application. These addresses are often limited to a single hosannas or IP address, which may only be part of the addresses available to the target machine. Therefore, the identity check used by Smokestacks also allows the use of partial identifiers. Whenever a connection is created, the target machine provides its complete identity o the machine initiating the connection. This machine then checks if both the public and private addresses in the partial identity are a subset of the ones in the complete identity. If so, the partial identity is accepted as a subset of the complete identity, and the connection is established. Note that although the connection is created to a machine that matches the address specified by the user, it is not necessarily the correct machine from the viewpoint of the parallel application. Unfortunately, in such cases it is up to the user to provide an address that contains enough information to reach the correct machine. . 2. 3 Open Port Ranges and Port Forwarding When a firewall has an open port range available, Smokestacks can ensure that all sockets used for incoming connections are bound to a port in this range. There is no way of discovering this range automatically, however, so it must be specified explicitly by the user. In addition, Smokestacks can use the Upon protocol to configure a NAT to do port forwarding, I. E. Automatically forward all incoming connections on a certain external port to a specified internal address. However, as explained before, this protocol is mainly used in consumer devices. In addition to regular network connections, the direct connection layer also has limited support for SSH tunneling. This feature is useful for connecting to machines behind a firewall that allows SSH connections to pass through. It does, however, require a suitabl e SSH setup (I. E. , public key authentication must be enabled). Creating an SSH tunnel is similar to a regular connection setup. The target addresses are sorted and tried consecutively. Instead of using the port specified in the connection setup, however, the default SSH port (I. E. , 22) is used. When a connection is established and the authentication is successful, the receiving SSH daemon is instructed to forward all traffic to the original destination port on the same machine. If this succeeds, the regular identity check will be performed to ensure that the right machine has been reached. Although this approach is useful, it can only be used to set up a tunnel to a different process on the target machine. Using this approach to forward traffic to different machines requires extra information. For example, setting up an SSH tunnel to a compute node of a site through the sites fronted, can only be done if it is clear that the fronted must be contacted in order to reach the target machine. Although this approach is used in some projects [8], the necessary information cannot be obtained automatically and must be provided by the user. Therefore, Smokestacks uses a different approach which will be described in detail in Section 3. 3. 3. 2. Limitations The direct connection layer offers several types of connection setup which have in common that they can be initiated by a single machine. No explicit cooperation between machines is necessary to establish the connection. There are many cases, however, where connectivity is too limited and the direct connection layer cannot be used. In general, direct connections to sites that use NAT or a firewall are not possible. Although SSH tunneling and o pen port ranges alleviate the firewall problems, they require a suitable SSH setup or extra information from the user. Port forwarding reduces the problems with NAT, but is rarely supported in Grid systems. Therefore, these features are of limited use. In the next section we will give a detailed description of the virtual connection layer, which solves these problems. 3. 3 Virtual Connection Layer Like the direct connection layer, the virtual connection layer implements several types of connection setup. It offers a simple, socket-like API and has a modular design, making it easy to extend. Besides a direct module that uses the direct connection layer described above, it contains several modules that offer more advanced types of connection setup. These modules have in common that they cooperation (and thus communication) between the source and target machines in order to establish a connection. As a result, side-channel communication is required to implement these modules. 3. 3. 1 Side-Channel Communication In Smokestacks, side-channel communication is implemented by creating a network f interconnected processes called hubs. These hubs are typically started on the fronted machines of each participating site, so their number is usually small. When a hub is started, the location of one or more other hubs must be provided. Each hub will attempt to setup a connection to the others using the direct connection layer. Although many of these connections may fail to be established, this is not a problem as long as a spanning tree is created that connects all hubs. The hubs use a gossiping protocol to exchange information about themselves and the hubs they know, with the hubs that they are connected to. This way information about each hub quickly spreads to all hubs in the network. Whenever a hub receives information about a hub it has not seen before, it will attempt to set up a connection to this hub. This way, new connections will be discovered automatically. All gossiped information contains a state number indicating the state of the originating machine when the information was sent. Since information from a hub may reach another hub through multiple paths, the state number allows the receiver to decide which information is most recent. By recording the length of the path traversed thus far in he gossiped information, hubs can determine the distance to the sites that they can not reach directly. Whenever a hub receives a piece of information about another hub containing a shorter distance than it has seen so far, it will remember both the distance and the hub from which the information was obtained. This way, we automatically create a distributed routing table with the shortest paths between each pair of hubs. This table is later used to forward application information (as will be described below). When an application is started, the virtual layer on each machine creates a single connection to the hub local to its tit. The location of this hub can either be explicitly species- fled or discovered automatically using JODI multicast. 3. 3. 2 Virtual Addresses The connection to the hub can now be used as a side channel to forward requests to otherwise unreachable machines. To ensure that the target machines can be found, addresses are used, consisting of the machine identifier (see Section 3. 2), a port number, and the identifier of the hub the machine is connected to. All requests for the target machine can then be sent to the local hub, which forwards it in the direction of the target

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Article Critique Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

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Week9 dq Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Review Of The Holodomor Event In Ukraine History Essay

Review Of The Holodomor Event In Ukraine History Essay The Holodomor was a catastrophic event that saw the deaths by starvation of millions of Ukrainian peasants in the early 1930s. Generally regarded as having been at least partially caused by Soviet agricultural policy, the major school of thought for years has been that crop harvests at the time were not abnormally low, and the famine was a direct result of policies implemented with the intent of causing mass starvation among the people. However, revisionist theory contends that 1932 saw a massive crop failure in many parts of Ukraine and the Soviet Union, the extent of which made widespread famine an inevitable event, instead of being purposefully engineered by the Soviet leadership. Clearly, there exists sufficient ambiguity with regards to the reasons for the deaths of the millions of peasants involved to warrant an investigation. As such, an important question to address would be To what extent was the Ukrainian famine of 1932 a deliberate act of genocide against the Ukrainian people? This essay shall argue in favor of a synthesis of the two arguments, accepting that there was indeed a catastrophic crop failure in Ukraine at the time, but also that the subsequent actions of the Stalin points to an unequivocal attempt to decimate the peasantry. This essay will attempt to do this by explaining the motivations that Stalin may have had to institute genocide against the Ukrainian people, and show how his policies and actions reflected the intent to use the crop failure to his own ends. This essay will also examine the origins, purposes, values, as well as limitations of various sources dealing with the Holodomor, in an attempt to assess their suitability for use as evidence. Introduction Despite continual denials on the part of the Soviet Union and its modern derivative, the Russian Federation, it is now generally accepted that in the years 1932 to 1933, several million peasants died as a result of Soviet agricultural policies, including collectivization and forced seizure of crops,  [1]  as well as extremely harsh laws. The famine was exacerbated by the forced deportation of millions of peasants that took place during the same time period.  [2]  This period of famine became known as the Holodomor, Ukrainian for death by starvation. The exact figures with regards to fatalities due to the famine are hard to pin down, due in no small part to the Soviet Unions suppression of census figures. 1991 saw the release of the 1937 census, which shed some light on the possible range of fatalities of the time. The figures seem to suggest that the number of victims of the famine in 1933 were in the region of 7.2-8.1 million;  [3]  this figure however, does not take int o account famine victims of 1932 and 1934. The generally held view in many historical texts is that the famine was avoidable, and it was instead the actions of the Soviet leadership that led to the widespread devastation.  [4]   The exact reasons for the famine are a subject of scholarly debate. The first major argument is that of the famine as having been deliberately engineered with the intention of committing genocide against the Ukrainian people from the very onset. This view was raised by esteemed Holodomor historian Robert Conquest in his 1987 work, Harvest of Sorrow; the primary evidence for such an argument includes the fact that official Soviet statistics suggest that the grain harvest of 1932 was not abnormally low, and would have readily fed the population if not for government intervention.  [5]  Proponents also point to the harsh laws enacted that suggested a deliberate attempt to cause widespread hunger, including the five ears law, which called for the execution or ten-year imprisonment at best, of any hungry person who stole more than a few ears of corn.  [6]   However, that view has been countered by historians who see the famine as a completely unforeseen side effect of the collectivization process, caused primarily by the drought of 1931 and poor harvest of 1932. The primary proponent of this view is Dr Mark B. Tauger, who suggests that the classification of the famine as a deliberate act of genocide is down to misinterpretations and factual inaccuracies with regards to the officially released soviet data. Tauger also cites inconsistencies in the official grain harvest statistics of the 1930s and evidence that points towards the unreliability of these statistics.  [7]   In light of the evidence raised by both camps, there remains the important question To what extent was the Ukrainian famine of 1932 a deliberate act of genocide against the Ukrainian people? It is clear that there exists room for a synthesis of the two arguments, combining the various pieces of evidence that corroborate with each other in order to piece together a picture of the true nature of events. It is thus argued that the famine was an unexpected as well as undesirable outcome of the industrialization and collectivization process.  [8]  However, while there was no conscious decision on the part of Stalin to have the Ukrainian populace intentionally starved, and the intention when enacting the collectivization policy was by no means to enact a policy of starvation, Stalin was still indeed guilty of failing to take appropriate action to stop the famine from occurring,  [9]  and sufficient evidence exists to suggest that Stalins later policy reflected his intention to use the already widespread starvation as a tool to further his own agendas.  [10]  Thus, unintentional as the famine might have been, the fact [does] not at all absolve Stalin from responsibility for the famine. His policies towards the peasants were ruthless and brutal.  [11]  This view has been proposed by historians R.W. Davies and Stephen Wheatcroft in The Years of Hunger, and supported in part by Michael Ellman,  [12]   The Accidental Famine Recent scholarship tends to disagree with the notion that Soviet policies were engineered specifically to deal a mortal blow to the Ukrainian peasantry. Ellman, as well as Davies and Wheatcroft, point to the fact that the famine was caused mainly by Stalins decision to rapidly industrialize the nation by means of tribute from the peasantry,  [13]  as well as two successive bad harvests of 1931 and 1932. They also point to the fact that foolish policy, for example, neglect of agricultural techniques such as crop rotation, as well as the decision to continue grain export and refuse the import of grain exacerbated the problem. However, it is difficult to conclude that these were intentionally designed to kill.  [14]   To begin with, it is important to remember that policy makes in the Soviet Union of the time had little knowledge of agricultural practice, and often over-optimistic about the effects of their own policies.  [15]  Furthermore, the refusal to import grain had deeply ideological roots. In a time of great anti-communist sentiment around the world, Stalin was keen to ensure that he and his nation continued to project strength and power. Stalin himself in 1934 said, The import of grain now, when abroad they are shouting about the shortage of grain in the USSR, might produce a political minus.  [16]   As such, it can be seen that both the grain procurement policies as well as refusal of foreign import are not necessarily evidence of an active plot to destroy the Ukrainian peasantry. There exists strong evidence to suggest that the starvation was not a planned event, and were instead due to the implementation of policies without proper consideration of their impact. It must be noted though, that Stalin viewed the starving as idlers and class enemies,  [17]  and in his speech delivered at the midst of the famine in 1933, Stalin quoted Lenin by saying He who does not work, neither shall he eat.  [18]  These reflect the fact that although he had not necessarily planned the famine, he did not view the dying as worthy of aid, and this lends support to the argument that the famine, although unintentional, still placed fault in the hands of Stalin due to his refusal to take action in preventing it. The Poor Harvests The view of the famine as an intentional act of genocide rests firmly on the belief that the agricultural yield of the time was not particularly bad. This view was regarded as true for many decades, but historian Dr. Mark B. Tauger, in his journal article published in the Spring 1991 issue of the Slavic Review, suggests that this argument overlooks inconsistencies between official grain harvest statistics for 1930 and the evidence of famine, as well as evidence that these sources are unreliable.  [19]   The strict control of peasant movement through the internal passport system was cited by Conquest and others as evidence of the Soviet policy-makers keeping the Ukrainian peasants attached to the land, in much the same way traditional serfdom did.  [20]  Introduced in 1932, the passport system excluded peasants, which meant that the rural agricultural population who were hit worst by the famine was unable to leave the countryside without official permission.  [21]   However, Tauger asserts that thousands of peasants fled not only from Ukraine, but also from Kuban, the Urals and the Volga basin, among others areas, and that the passport mechanism was put in place to control labor movement and prevent famine stricken areas from being further threatened by depletion of labour.  [22]   In response to Conquests assertion that the grain harvests of the early 1930s were not significantly low, Tauger cites new Soviet archival data which shows that the 1932 harvests were much smaller than assumed, and worsened the food shortages that were already widespread by 1931.  [23]  Tauger also references R.W. Davies review of Harvest of Sorrow, which questions Conquests uncritical use of evidence and bias.  [24]   This viewpoint was written with the intention of debunking the genocide myth as put forth by Conquest in Harvest of Sorrow. It does this by pointing out the questionable nature of Conquests statistical data as well as questioning the assumption that policies at the time were directed only at Ukraine in an effort to murder its people. The case for re-evaluation of the genocide theory was convincing enough that Conquest himself later wrote that he no longer held the view that Stalin deliberately engineered the famine of 1933.  [25]   However, Taugers work may not necessarily be expanded upon enough to be considered an argument on its own. Tauger himself states that the Soviet regime was responsible for the deprivation and suffering of the Soviet populace in the early 1930s. He also goes on to suggest that the data presented here should contribute to a reevaluation not only of the famine, but also of the Soviet economy,  [26]  and not necessarily as a view unto its own. The purpose of Taugers work was to serve as a counter to Conquests work. Thus, there are several points that Taugers work does not cover, which is a limitation to the source. Firstly, the comments of Stalin and various other officials are completely ignored, as is the evidence that Stalin sought to wage class war on the Kulaks. Also, the occurrence of mass deportations, as well as the planned deportation of millions of other peasants is not mentioned. Policies such as the five ears law are also ignored. These issues are important when establishing the causality of the famine, as they are vital indicators of intent on the part of the Soviet leadership to cause harm to the peasantry, whether Ukrainian or otherwise. Having been written some years after Conquests works, the source is valuable as it takes into account new information that often serves to counter Conquests arguments. Thus, it is necessary to gather evidence from both ends of the spectrum in order to establish an argument that takes into account all the various viewpoints. Stalins Motivations to Kill When addressing the motivations that Stalin may have had for inducing an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people, it is important to consider the social and political changes that were happening at the time. Early Bolshevik leaders broke down the shadow of the Tsar and Russian Imperialism by assisting the former subjects of the Russian Empire in rebuilding their own national identity and cultures.  [27]  This was by no means due to generosity of spirit or goodwill, and was instead necessitated by the political climate of the time, due to widespread dissatisfaction among the non-Russian peasants in wide areas of the Soviet Union.  [28]   This rebuilding of national identity had grown in strength especially in the Ukraine, due in no small part to the fact that the 30 million Ukrainians living there were the largest single non-Russian national group in the Soviet Union, several times larger than any other.  [29]  The policy of Ukrainisation, as it was called, thus went further in Ukraine than it had done in any other state of the Soviet Union. This outpouring of nationalism would not go unnoticed. Stalin, in a message to Kaganovich in 11th August 1932 said: If we dont make an effort now to improve the situation in Ukraine we may lose Ukraine, suggesting that he saw a danger that the growing nationalism would lead to a rise in counter-revolutionaries.  [30]   This rise in nationalism provides compelling evidence to suggest that Stalin did indeed have motivation to enact a policy of genocide against the Ukrainian populace. The policies of indigenization that had dominated the peasantry for the last few years largely went hand-in-hand with Lenins New Economic Policy, and together were designed to keep the peasantrys nationalist aspirations placated in order to satisfy Russias economic needs.  [31]  With Stalins emergence as the victor in the succession struggle however, came a radical reversal of policies. Stalin had in 1928 done away with the New Economic Policy, and thus it would not have been a great step for him to do away with the indigenization policies. One of the key objectives of this, as put forth by Mace, was economic and social transformation designed to destroy native society and substitute a social system susceptible of control by Moscow.  [32]  Further evidence comes from the fact that the time of the famine coincided with non-Russian national self-assertion being labeled as bourgeois nationalism, and suppressed.  [33]   As such, the motivation for Stalin to want to enact a policy of enforced starvation against the Ukrainian populace is clear to see. The threat that Nationalism presented was not lost on Stalin, and his need to gain control over all aspects of the peasantry certainly suggests that an act of genocide intended to enforce obedience and crush the intelligentsia would not be beyond Stalin. As Ellman puts it: There would be nothing surprising or out of character about Stalins use of starvation. Stalin explicitly stated that he was engaged in a war [with the peasantry]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and in a war one aims to kill or otherwise overcome ones enemies.  [34]   At the same time, Leninism, and by extension Stalinism, viewed the peasantry with distaste, seeing them as petty property owners.  [35]  Ukraine had for a long time been viewed as the breadbasket of Europe, a name earned due to its rich soil and largely peasant population.  [36]  These two factors combine to form a plausible explanation for why Stalin would instigate starvation in Ukraine. Policies Enacted Next this essay shall consider Stalins actions. Arguments for the case of genocide typically cite two key points. First, the decision to continue exporting and seizing grain even in the midst of widespread starvation, and second, preventing the movement of peasantry out of affected areas. Another major point to consider is the deportation of peasants, even during the period of famine. Many historians make the case that actual productivity during the period was not overly low. One figure cited was an overall production fall of 9%,  [37]  which although substantial, was not enough to directly cause the deaths of millions of people. So then, what was the cause? Many point to the aggressive procurement policies that were put into place at the time. In 1932, just when it was beginning to become clear that Ukraine was facing mass starvation, Stalin began to implement policies that greatly affected the Ukrainian people. Despite falling production, Stalins top assistants announced that Ukraines quotas for bread grain would remain unchanged from the previous year.  [38]  Naturally, the harvest was unable to meet the production quotas, but Ukrainian appeals for an end to the grain seizures were to no avail, and throughout the fall of 1932, bread was seized from farmers, and farms that met their quotas were given supplementary quotas to make up for shortfalls elsewhere.  [39]  Stalin even ordered the seizure of even the seed that had been put aside for spring planting.  [40]  President Mikhail Kalinin went so far as to claim that only degraded disintegrating classes can produce such cynical elements in reference to the Ukrainian Politburos pleas for contributions to the starving.  [41]   Another major piece of evidence pointing to the possible intent of the politburo to commit an act of genocide is that of the mass deportation plans. In 1933, plans were drafted for the deportation of 2 million Kulaks.  [42]  There is little doubt that such massive deportations would have severely impacted Ukraines ability to continue producing the substantial amounts of grain that were required of it. However, to suggest that the planned deportation of the Ukrainian peasantry was intended to induce widespread starvation would be a fallacy. Indeed, by 1933, the roots of famine had already taken hold.  [43]  Instead, it is likely that the deportations were instead a response to what Stalin saw as class enemies and idlers  [44]  who were attempting to sabotage the Soviet rule by inducing grain shortages.  [45]   The Complete Picture By looking at the evidence shown, and also taking into account the strengths as well as limitations of the various historical arguments concerning the nature of the Holodomor, we can argue that although the initial aim of the collectivization policy was not to starve the peasantry,  [46]  Stalin did make use of the famine in order to achieve his other objectives.  [47]   There exists significant scholarship that attests to the unforeseen and undesired  [48]  nature of the famines of 1931 and 1932. Graziosi argues that Stalin, at a certain moment decided to use hunger to break the peasants opposition to collectivisation, and that even when he did not initiate something willfully, was always very quick to take advantage, of spontaneous events, drawing parallels to the Kirov assassination.  [49]   So then, if the introduction of collectivized farming was not to blame for the deaths, what was? There are several key factors involved: Firstly, the two successive bad harvests of 1931 and 1932; secondly, the politburos general ignorance of agricultural practices, leading to the disastrous implementation of agricultural policy. Thirdly, Stalins desire to punish the peasants for what he perceived as their counter-revolutionary struggle, and finally, Stalins arguable intention to make use of the famine as a cost-effective means of decimating and exerting ultimate control over the peasantry. Thus it can be seen that this argument takes into account two stages, the first addressing the roots of the famine, and the second dealing with the reaction of the Soviet leadership to the situation. In contrast to the view that the harvests of 1931 and 1932 were more than sufficient to feed to population, it is arguable that the harvests were so poor that famine eventually became an inevitable outcome. In 1932, the Soviet leadership admitted that there had been crop failure in parts of the Volga Basin and Asiatic Russia,  [50]  and the harvest was sufficiently bad that there were insufficient stocks to cover urban and rural food supplies, seed and export.  [51]  The need for grain led to withdrawals from the state stockpiles Nepfond and Mobfond, which started out with 2 million tons in January 1932, and was left with only 0.641 million tons by July.  [52]   In order to fully understand the impact of the crop failures, the administrative policy of the time must be studied. First and foremost, one must remember that the Soviet leadership, to a substantial extent, knew very little of agricultural policy making.  [53]  This led to the implementation of practices that undoubtedly exacerbated the problem of the already poor harvests. One vital example is that of the methods by which the Soviet leadership arrived at their numerical data. The regimes calculation of grain harvests was based not on actual production values;  [54]  instead, a statistical method known as biological yield was used to calculate a pre-harvest estimate of yield, which was then taken as the actual production value.  [55]   The failure to use properly gathered statistics led to many gross miscalculations that placed enormous strain on the production process. For instance, the grain utilization plan for 1932/1933 at a time when Ukraine was already on the verge of mass starvation,  [56]  saw a planned reduction in grain export by 3 million tons. However, grain collection fell by 4 million tons, leaving a net fall in grain stocks of 1 million tons.  [57]   It can thus be seen that the extent to which the harvests of 1931-33 were in decline was arguably lost on the Soviet leadership. Efforts were made to adjust grain procurement quotas to match the fall in production, with the Politburo seen to have at least attempted to reduce quotas in response to the falling harvests.  [58]  However, the Politburo at the same time planned to in fact increase the total state stockpile of grain from 1.36 million tons in July 1932 to 2.867 million tons in July 1933,  [59]  a response to the alarming fall in the Nepfond and Mobfond stockpiles in July 1932. These counter-intuitive and contradictory policies seem to point towards the fact that the Politburo as an agricultural policy-making body was unable to properly grasp both the extent of the growing famine (caused by unfavourable weather), as well as the impact of their actions, which they implemented over-zealously and with over-optimism about the effects (which further strained the amount of harvest left for the rural populace). However, the end of 1932 began to see a shift in policy that can be deemed substantial enough to suggest that Stalin had begun to use the opportunity that the famine presented as a means to advance his own ulterior motives. There exists significant evidence to suggest that Stalin had begun to see the famine as a means by which he would exact revenge on the peasantry, as well as force their subservience through fear. Stalin, in a correspondence with Sholokhov, said: The esteemed grain growers of your region (and not only your region) carried out a sit- down strike (sabotage!) and would not have minded leaving the workers and the Red Army without bread. The fact that the sabotage was quiet and apparently harmless (bloodless) does not alter the fact that the esteemed grain growers were basically waging a quiet war against Soviet power. A war by starvation (voina na izmor), dear com. Sholokhov  [60]   Along the same lines, Stalin condemned members of the peasantry as class enemies and idlers, and felt that they were the engineers of the famine. As a primary source, it is extremely valuable as it shows how Stalin believed that the famines were the direct result of an active plot to undermine the Soviet way, which explains why he felt the need to finish off the Kulaks, who had been beaten but were still very much involved in the perceived class struggle.  [61]  However, as the correspondence was written with the purpose of pushing the blame of the starvation away from the Politburos agricultural policy and towards the peasants, it is limited as the situation described by Stalin may have been subject to exaggerations and thus, not fully representative of historical events. Still, this perceived need to take revenge on the peasants for their counter-revolutionary struggle went hand in hand with Stalins other motives, namely, the liquidation of the kulak as a class, and to render the peasantry ultimately subservient to the will of Stalin. At the beginning of 1933, plans were drawn up for the mass deportation of Ukrainian peasantry. At first 3 million, then reduced to 2 million people, with the destinations being Kazakhstan and West Siberia. However, the estimated cost of such a massive project was put at 1.4 billion roubles, a substantial sum that the Politburo was unwilling to fork out.  [62]  It was around this time that Stalin began to see the mass starvat

Reactions to Hooks’ Feminism is for Everybody Essay -- Essays Papers

Reactions to Hooks’ Feminism is for Everybody I am not a feminist simply because I was raised in a feminist household. I am not a feminist because I am an independent, educated woman. I am not a feminist because I am a bitter female, nor because I am a â€Å"woman scorned.† I am not a feminist because I hate men, nor because I am a lesbian nor because I like to listen to the Indigo Girls. To the contrary I love men and I am not a lesbian. While I agree with hooks that â€Å"feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression† (viii), I believe that her definition of â€Å"feminism† states the goals of the movement rather than actually defining the term itself. In my mind, feminism is a synonym for equality. I am a feminist because I believe in the equality between men and women, plane and simple. No hidden agenda, no gimmicks, no tricky explanations. Sounds like an easy enough concept to comprehend. So why then is feminism such a misunderstood and feared notion? Why has this â€Å"ismà ¢â‚¬  in particular become the new f-word of pop culture? Equality is a word commonly associated with American culture; it is a long-standing theme of our history. This does not make a great deal of sense to me. After all, America was established on the premise that all MEN are created EQUAL. The term â€Å"men† is very specific as is the rest of the wording of the Constitution. It is doubtful that the founding fathers of our country meant this to include men and women or else they would have stated exactly that. It is only in the latter half of the past century that this equality was extended to include the fair treatment of all peoples, regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity. America was first settled in large part by religious outcasts seeking a saf... ...y personal movement. hooks encourages her readers to demand alternatives to patriarchal, racist, and homophobic culture, and to imagine a different future. Her book literally speaks to everybody, asking readers, whether they are feminist or not, to take look at feminism in a new light, to see that it touches all lives. No longer will people (men or women) have the excuse that feminism is â€Å"too complex† to understand, nor will they be able to get by on third-hand knowledge (as hooks refers to on vii) of the topic. As hooks intended, I finally have a book to hand to all of my friends (both male and female) who gave me strained looks because I lived on Mt. Vernon last year or because I am more than willing to admit that I am proud to be a feminist. hooks shows that feminism—far from being an outdated concept or one limited to an intellectual elite—is indeed for everybody.

Israel and Judah

Israel and Judas God trusted two men to deliver His message to the tribe of Judas and the children of Israel they were the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. (Mailer, 2006) Both of them got caught up In there on sinful acts and disobeyed God. God was angry and punished the two for their wrong doings. It was though the consequences from God that the two prophets begin to see how important and beneficial It was to them and to the lives of Christians that Gods message get delivered. The message God gave Prophet Isaiah a message to stress the importance of how they needed to repent of their wicked ways and come back to God.Because of the love Isaiah had for his people he was compelled to warn them and save them from punishment from God directly. Isaiah core message was to inform his people that only God can save them, He is our King the only God we are to worship. The message God gave Jeremiah the Prophet was to warn thousand be cautious of fake prophets. Judas started to believe what the fak e prophets were saying over Jeremiah. They soon saw that everything Jeremiah was trying to tell them happened. (Willis, 2011). The message Jeremiah delivered said the Lord has been giving me his messages, and I have passed them long to you all faithfully but time and time again none of you are listening to me (Holy Bible, 2001). God Instructed Jeremiah to warn Judas to stop living wicked lives and participating in evil doings but they didn't take heed to his warnings. God tried to warn Israel many times about their sins by sending those prophets. Each time they did not listen and were blatantly disobedient. Judas and Israel did things like killing babies and offering them up as sacrifices; they worshiped false idols, and participated in sexual immorality.They would not stop there sinful acts nor did they see any wrong in what they were doing and repent. This made God so angry that He allowed another nation with deadly weapons and soldiers that were more powerful than they to war aga inst them. The nation God sent took everything including food, livestock even their sons and daughters. This nation destroyed their entire towns. God was out raged by Israel and Judo's sins. He was angry they had the desire to worship other Idols, Israel and Judas brought the wrath of God on them.Since Israel and Judas refused to obey God, He said would summon all the armies under King Nebuchadnezzar to put them all to end completely. God was sending His wrath upon Israel and Judas to punish them for their sins. He was sentencing them to seventy years as captives. Isaiah had a strong desire to help stop the sins of his people. He felt that the people of Israel had become a sinful nation as a whole. He believes that Israel left God and dishonored Him by their constant and deliberate disobedience to Him. Isaiah said that because of the sins of Israel it caused them to go in a direction opposite from God.Prophet Jeremiah warned Judas they should repent for their sins or God would send a curse upon them, they would be destroyed and turned Into slaves. God gave word to the prophets telling them that â€Å"Because Masses king of Judas has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorists who were before him, and has also made Judas sin with his Idols), therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem Jerusalem the measuring line of Samara and the plummet of the house of ABA; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.So I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, because they eve done evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day' (Holy Bible, 2001). All God wanted from Israel and Judas was from them to ask for fogginess from their sins and come back to Him. (Willis, 2011). Jer emiah 30:1 declares ‘l will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers and they shall possess it. (Holy Bible, 2001). Jeremiah was told by God that He was sending a nation to attack Jerusalem. God also wanted the name nation to attack Israel, but when then had seen what happened to Jerusalem hey repented so God intervened and they all came back to God and received Him as their Lord and Savior. All of these happening were apart of Gods plan all along. The same messages given to Isaiah and Jeremiah back then are still relevant to Christians all around the world today.Isaiah gave the message to his people that they needed to repent from their sins, leave there evil ways behind them, and surrender their lives back to God. That same message is the â€Å"now word† for this day in time. When we take a look at today's society as a whole we can see the evil amongst us. There is so such violence, we are dealing with homosexuality at a growing rate, we have thieves are robbers, and fornication. These issues we need to turn away from and stop doing because it displeases God.If society can get it together and surrender to God the His Kingdom on earth world be powerful. But we won't do it for the same reasons Israel and Judas didn't; because they wanted to please their flesh. If we Just have a heart to serve God and live a life that is acceptable to Him things would be better. We would not be perfect but we would be constantly striving for perfection because God would then be the main focus. We must repent if we want to grow spiritually.Repentance is not so much for God but for us to acknowledge our wrongs so that we can know not to do it again. Not only has that repentance from our sins brought us back to God.

True Love in Great Expectations essays

True Love in Great Expectations essays The quality of true love is highly debated among different people. Some people believe true love relies on rules or that it simply does not exist. However, true love is nn unconditional love between two people, when two people love each other for who they are. In Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations there are many different situations where true love become relevant. First of all, there is a gentle giant by the name of Joe is Great Expectations. He is Pips brother-in-law. Joe is a very peaceful man, but by looking at him, you would be scared. He is a very large man and the blacksmith of the town. At the beginning, of the book, he is married to Mrs. Joe Gargery (Pips sister). Joe loves Mrs. Joe very much, and in the book, he states that she is a Fine figure of a woman, (Dickens, pp.). In a scene in the novel, he discusses with Pip how he is happy with his life, but on the opposite Mrs. Joe is not exactly on the same term. She is very unhappy with her life, and she believes that she deserves better than Joe, or a blacksmith. Dickens portrays Mrs. Joe as a bitter woman, but the audience can see the love she has for Joe, even if she is not satisfied with her marriage to Joe. At a later time in the book, Mrs. Joe sadly passes away, and you can feel the sadness Joe has towards her death. A few years later he marries Biddy. Biddy has always been around the family to help in the house while Mrs. Joe was sick. The friendship between Joe and Biddy eventually became a loving relationship, and Joe purposed to her. Obviously, Joe may have loved Mrs. Joe very dearly, but he shortly recovered from his lost and married Biddy. Mr. Pocket, Pips roommate, is a friendly man whom Pip meets while he moves to London. Mr. Pocket is very proper and teaches Pip about posture, manners, and eating habits. Mr. Pocket proposes to a lady named Clara. Pocket describes Clara as a gentle, kin...

The Cali Cartel essays

The Cali Cartel essays For the last half-century Latin America has have been deeply involved with the foreign trade and production of drugs, primarily cocaine. The dominant economic player in this market is the highland country of Colombia, which has produced some of the most powerful and fearsome drug cartels to date. Through struggles between rival cartels, one cartel has evolved into the predominant force and emerged in the 90s as the most powerful drug cartel in the world. The Cali Cartels aspects of distribution, organization, involvement in government corruption, and overall control of the market has made it infamous throughout the world. Though in recent years its ability to maintain control is waning with increasing US intervention and opposition from other governments. In the 1980s the Colombian drug trade was at an all time high. At the forefront of the market was the Medellin Cartel lead by Pablo Escobar. Under the leadership of Escobar the cartel turned into the fiercest and most brutal force the Colombians faced. In efforts to control this epidemic the Colombian government cooperated with the smaller Cali Cartel in its battle against the Medellin Cartel. Cali provided intelligence to the government forces seeking to eliminate Escobar. As a result of helping the Colombian government defeat the Medillin Cartel and gun down Escobar, Cali replaced them as South Americas principal supplier of cocaine. Cali begins the cocaine trade by purchasing cocoa leaves from Bolivian, Peruvian and Colombian farmers. After it is processed into powdered cocaine in secret jungle labs the cocaine is moved from the surrounding Amazon jungle to the points of initial distribution in Colombia. The center of the Cali drug trade is in the third largest city of Colombia, Cali. The strength of Calis distribution depends on two aspects of its trade, the initial exportation of the cocaine to the international markets and the int...

Multinational finance and accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Multinational finance and accounting - Essay Example 5. (the forecast of proceeds is revised downward here because the equity investment of the subsidiary is less; the buyer would be assuming more debt if part of the initial investment in the subsidiary is supported by local bank loans). 6. Required parent's rate of return 18 percent. To Find Present Payment, Given Future Required Amount Given: Interest 18 18 18 18 18 18 Number of years 1 2 3 4 5 6 Present Value Interest Factor 0.847457627 0.71818443 0.608630873 0.515788875 0.437109216 0.370431539 Initial Investment 40,000,000.00 Initial Investment in Marks at $.50 per mark 80,000,000.00 Net Cash Flow 8,000,000.0010,000,000.0014,000,000.0016,000,000.0016,000,000.0016,000,000.00 Net Cash to Parent 4,000,000.005,000,000.007,000,000.008,000,000.008,000,000.008,000,000.00 Net Cash to Parent after tax 3,600,000.004,500,000.006,300,000.007,200,000.007,200,000.007,200,000.00 Salvage After 6 years 30000000 Exchange Rate1

Topic needed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Topic needed - Essay Example In the recent TV dramas â€Å"Dollhouse† ad â€Å"Lost† time runs in a non-typical way: it either does not exist due to memory erasing or does not matter due to the crash of civilization. In these challenging circumstances gender identity is shaped in a different way: lacking temporal and social determination gender (feminine) identity becomes problematic and even unpredictable. Creating his â€Å"Dollhouse† Whedon aimed to raise an important philosophical question of the relationships between body representation and identity, and gender identity in particular. He author was always interested in overcoming stereotypical perception of women in his works, and this TV drama did not become an exception. The programs main assumption is that the individuals character can be literally extracted from the person`s body and saved as the information on hard drive. While the remaining hollow organism (which is perceived as a â€Å"doll† as it is devoid of any personality) can be â€Å"imprinted† with a new identity. This mechanism makes the main hero of the series - Echo – a person with no permanent inner self. That is why it leaves her in the space without time, as one of the major characteristic of time perception is development, growth, and change. The concept of such transformation creates a serious question whether a person devoid of id entity, emotions and thoughts can be considered a woman, a human. The main character, the human being which was transformed into Echo, is the one who is real (whose name is different- Caroline) gets stuck in her body unable to make her soul and inner self evolve because her body is used as capsule for other identities. It is interesting the creators of the series realized that the absence of the character`s gradual development was the reason of popularity loss and that this why the series was cancelled. That is why it is possible to suggest that on some deeper level the lack of coherent identity was perceived by