Morton Rhue Essay Example for Free

Morton Rhue Essay The Wave was written by Morton Rhue and published in 1982. This book was based on a true story of an incident in a high school history class in Palo Alto in California in 1969 lead by the teacher Ron Jones who says it was the most frightening event he had ever seen in a classroom. In the book the teacher is played by Ben Ross and his high school history class. It all starts when students ask questions about Nazi Germany and he can’t seem to answer them so he comes up with a plan that will change his classroom FOREVER with his sayings â€Å"Strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action. His class room will be filled with nothing but POWER and DICIPLINE and that’s only just the beginning. He started off by teaching his class how to sit up straight properly in their seats and how to answer questions properly which meant standing up beside their seat before talking now can you imagine if we tried that now a days! He was filling his class room with power and all the students could feel it and as days went by and the students became very obedient of the new rules he decided to keep it going, as he thought it was working. Weeks went on and he had come up with the new rules salute whenever you saw another Wave member or chant whenever he ordered it and also a wave symbol was created to separate the Wave members from the non-members. This was clearly becoming out of control, the students were getting brain washed and they weren’t thinking about anything they were doing and what they were getting themselves into, they were making big mistakes. By the end of the book it had got so crazy that the Wave members started threatening the students who were not members and that’s when. Ben Ross knew it had to be stopped at once so they held a meeting for all the members where he faced the students with what was going on and telling them they shouldn’t have let it get this far by letting it take over them, they needed to wake up to themselves and realize what was going on because who knows how far it would have gone. He practically told them just to stop and think about their future and what they were doing had got the better of them and had to be stopped. By the end of this students were shocked and in tears realizing what they were doing was wrong! And it was a lesson they were taught that they would never forget. Now you’re thinking why this is a classic. It is because this book was so well known and written by a famous author and it’s easy for us to relate to the characters as we are high school students too and it’s written in a way it is best understood what is going on. This book is suitable for teenagers and up but I would mostly recommend high school students because they can relate to it a lot easier than others. The text I chose was Angela’s Ashes â€Å"a memoir of a childhood† written by Frank Mc Court and published in 1996. This book was the winner of the 1997 Putlitzer Prize which made me want to read it more because that tells me it’s a good  book to read. It was about an Irish family growing up with the tough, hard working life. The family started off living in America with their 2 little boys under the age of 6. It all started getting worse for them when Angela had baby girl which suffered from cot death only a couple of days old and this left the family sad and cold. The father was an alcoholic and left his family for days leaving the boys to look after themselves because the mother wouldn’t get out of bed. This was only the beginning of their hard life. Soon later the family moved to Ireland where they had family. The life over there was so different, they were living off the doll because the father was yet to get a job they barely had enough food to survive but they had to struggle through each day as it came. Soon later the mother gave birth to twin boys so the life became even harder as they had to feed to more mouths now. Years later one of the twins became unwell and they didn’t have the medicine to make him get better and he passed away and then soon after the other twin died in his sleep. This shows you how hard it was to survive with this life style that’s why we need to realize how lucky we are. As their life went on the father moved overseas to work for a year yet he never sent them any money to help out he just spent it all at the pub once he got it and this became a habit because once the mother gave birth to a new baby boy he went and spent all the money for the baby at the pub once again leaving the poor family to struggle even more. They couldn’t afford to pay rent anymore so they had to move in with a family friend and they didn’t like this. The eldest boy got so sick of this one night he decided to leave and live with his Uncle for a while and get a job. You can probably see where this book is leading, the father left them to  struggle on with their life and faced many more problems day in day out. But overall I thought this book was a great book even though it was very sad to know what they went through and it also has a movie out to that I’m sure would be good. I think this book in years to come will become a classic because of how great of a book it was and how well it written about a family’s struggle to live the hard life. Also because it is very well known and has a famous author and the way it is written. This book I would recommend be read for adults mostly and older teenagers because you need to be able to understand it properly.

Pressure Groups Necessarily Harm Democracy

Pressure Groups Necessarily Harm Democracy Pressure groups are voluntary organisations formed to advance or defend a common cause or interest. They do not strive to take office or to govern; they simply seek to express their ideas in an organised manner. There are several ways in which they try to raise awareness: from passing information to passing letters of protest, from having informal consultations to staging popular demonstrations.  [2]  Pressure groups are very diverse in terms of their agenda, what type of agenda do they actually have? Who do they seek to influence? Do they have a broad agenda? Also, their size membership is another factor which sets them apart, this portrays how successful they actually are, the bigger the pressure group the more influence they will have. Finance is another aspect which shows the mixture of pressure groups. How do they get their money? This helps determine whether a pressure group is politicised or not. Moreover, there are different types of pressure groups which completely set them apart from one another. First of all, you have sectional pressure groups; they represent a particular section of the society. They have leverage with trade unions or political parties. They go more along the corporate lever as they are considerably politicised. Cause or promotional pressure groups are ones that seek to promote the beliefs, ideas and values in which their supporters believe, but these are not ideas which are of benefit to their membership, other than in a most general sense.  [3]  They tend to put forward ideological causes to support, theyre less entrenched. You also have oppositional pressure groups that tend to oppose government policy, such as the student protests or any other protest groups. Oppositional pressure groups are likely to be more permanent. Informative pressure groups are ones that provide and gather information to make people informed about particular issued. Lastly, you have the commentator pressure groups; respected and authoritative commentators on particular areas of policy.  [4]  Theyre formed by people who have knowledge, tend to affect the government a lot as theyre institutions and academies. Similarly, youve got social movements. Pressure groups can become or be a part of a social movement; however a social movement is much broader. For example, the Greek strikes; at first it was just a protest, but once it was broadly accepted, so broadly that it then became a movement. Another distinctive example is the labour movement in the 70s. Social movements do not seek office in theory, however their goal is to influence policy, influence economic agendas or to strongly campaign or lobby for an issue. Furthermore, pressure groups can be an advantage to democracy as it introduces a form of toleration which enables us to achieve reciprocity. It exposes us to ideas that we do not necessarily agree with. Pressure groups bring forth ideas and changes which is not the norm, this enhances the idea of pluralism; it allows them to express their ideas and allow diversity, it secures independence from the community. Also, pressure groups allow power to be dispersed. For example, in the UK you have got two very powerful parties; pressure groups help to disperse their powers. Lastly, pressure groups boost participation within the democratic system. They increase participation in the democratic process on a variety of different levels. However, pressure groups can also be a bad thing for democracy. Politicization is the main argument against groups fostering democracy. Is it really okay to put forward democratic policies through an undemocratic way? It seems as if theyre sort of cartels of inte rest, a bunch of privileged groups that just benefit. Also, it burns the bridges because pressure groups seem to undermine the mandate of elections. People do not vote for a group but for a party. Elections should be clear cut. Additionally, too much division creates instability. Society has a collective goal, so if you have got individual members creating different groups, this then undermines the collective goal. Too many decision makers make it difficult to come to an overall agreement. Going back to the rational choice theory, people will act in a way to maximise their profit. They seek to promote their own self-interest. So, even though your best option is to share, you are not going to because you might lose it all. The resource mobilization model theory suggests that the entrepreneurial-organizational variant of this approach even allows for the possibility that grievances and discontent may be defined created and manipulated by political entrepreneurs and organizations.  [5]   As Mancur Olsen explains, Collective action is individually irrational. Individuals promote self-interest, not the groups interest. It is all about self-interest for the organisations, as explained by the game theory and prisoners dilemma. This suggests that collective action problems mean that pressure groups can harm democracy. As they only have their own interest, if they benefit from it, that is all what matters even if it puts others at a disadvantage. For example, $4 million lobbying campaign a football team put together seeking taxpayer spending for a football stadium to a mere $20,000 that opponents of the spending were able to raise.  [6]  ,The few who will benefit from the transfer have an easy time organizing to lobby for it, while a group as diverse and dispersed as taxpayers face what Mancur Olson called a collective action problem.  [7]  This creates instability and unfairness within the democratic process because it leads to a group being more powerful than the other because of the unequal distribution of money and resources. So the minority, a certain part of the population can have an unequal influence against the majority which creates unfairness and undermines democracy this is considered to be a collective action problems because powerful insider groups can use their insider status and power to go and pursue their own personal cause. For example, There is a danger that ministers may be prepared to accept too uncritically the advice of powerful interest groups. They may accede to the requests of those groups that can afford to present their case most effectively, even if there are substantial objections to what they propose.  [8]   On the other hand, collective action problems dont necessarily mean that pressure groups can harm democracy. As there are a variety of cases where pressure groups have actually enhanced democracy and have not resulted into any collective action problems. For example, it allows individuals to associate with one another and proclaim their views, essential rights in any democracy.  [9]  Pressure groups provide a safety valve enabling any person with a grievance to feel that he or she is able to vent their disenchantment.  [10]  This allows minorities who feel ignored to speak out and be heard. Such as, Fathers for Justice which is a pressure group that seeks for fathers rights. Another reason why pressure groups enhance democracy and do not harm it is because they limit government, groups check government power and, in the process, defend rights and freedom.  [11]  These functions are just a few of many that show pressure groups do actually enhance democracy rather than harm it. However, it is not only collective action problems that mean pressure groups harm democracy. Pressure groups have other issues which directly affect democracy. For instance, it creates political inequality. Pressure groups tend to empower the already powerful. They therefore increase rather than reduce, political inequality. This has a negative effect on democracy itself as it contradicts the whole concept of democracy and it allows those who have access to resources to impact decisions. Even though there are many factors which lead to the fact that collective action problems do mean that pressure groups harm democracy. It is not always the case, as there are also various other reasons which lead to pressure groups affecting democracy in a bad way, such as the ones I mentioned before. Nonetheless, there are also a variety of cases that suggests pressure groups enhance democracy on countless levels. It really depends on the pressure group itself and its aims, what audience its trying to reach and what it is actually trying to achieve. If theyre politicised and have a huge influence on decision making or if they just seek to promote ideological beliefs and are less entrenched. Therefore, collective action problems are just a part of a wider range of factors which result from self-interested pressure groups that are in it for their own benefits, which results into the destruction of democracy. Nevertheless, this is not necessarily always the case as pressure groups do t end to bring about positivity to democracy. In conclusion, it all depends on a pressure groups agenda, and what their intentions are.

Essay --

The Sorrow of War is a novel written by Vietnamese writer, Bao Ninh. First published in 1990, it came from being his graduation project to one of the most prestigious piece of literature in history. This work of fiction focuses solely on a seventeen-year-old male named Kien and his life from pre-war to post-war. What many people are oblivious to is the fact that Ninh had his own share of time in war when he served in the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade. Having said that, it is utterly safe to imply that Ninh’s time in war has a strong reflection in Kien’s characteristic traits and experiences that he endured in the novel. The Vietnam war was the struggle between the nationalist forces attempt to unify Vietnam under a communist government and the United States effort to prevent Communism from spreading even further. This explicit war lasted from 1959 through April 30, 1975. It was a very long, costly war that disturbed the peace of many nations during the 20th century. In total, more than 500,000 soldiers were involved in the conflict and the price that the fighting nations had to pay economically, politically, and morally were annihilating figures to look at. The United States, alone lost over 60,000 soldiers in Vietnam. Most of them were killed while some vanished in the thick jungles located there. In total, between 3.2 and 5 million people were disables, disfigured, or wounded for life. In comparison to the author, Kien served in the 27th Battalion and only â€Å"ten men survived from the Battalion after fierce, horrible, barbarous fighting† (Ninh 5). Ninh was also one of the ten men that su rvived out of the five hundred that had went to war. That kind of fate and fortune shared by both men is conferred in the Saintil2 n... ...o terms with his new identity, a survivor just like Kien. He hoped that the novel, The Sorrow of War will open the eyes of many who are oblivious to the effects of war and will at the same time help anyone that are in the same boat as him. By the end of the novel, Kien regained his self-confidence and focuses more on making his life better in the future instead of reminiscing on the past. The Sorrow of War ended in such an abrupt manner that shocked most, if not all, of the readers. Ninh commented on that fact by claiming that the only reason why the he chose the ending to be like that was to reflect on the suddenness of the Vietnam war. He also admits to having a strong personal connection to the novel, and in many ways Kien and Kien’s troop represents him and his troop. Aside from everything else, Kien will always be a part of Ninh that nobody but him understands.

Use of Private Military Companies (PMCs) in Africa Essay -- Providing

PMCs emerge in a history course as an inevitable result of the changing in world structure and technology development. This critical review examines Anna Leander’s article on the paradox of implementing private military companies (PMCs) in Africa. The central issue is how security can be influenced by the using of PMCs. Building on Leander’s argument, this review argues that PMC is a double-edged sword that can be used to provide security as well as to stir insecurity. The blurred public and private lines and ambiguous regulations of PMCs cannot be neglect thus the use of PMC forces need stronger regulation and a better system of cooperation with other national or international actors. The review will first analyze the reasons for using PMCs as a way to support security in Africa mainly based on Leander’s views and partly on Singer’s points. Then the review will analyze factors contributing to the negative side of PMCs, especially in Darfur’s case a nd in Iraq’s case. Leander recognizes the paradoxical situation faces by employing private military companies’ forces to solve the security problems in Africa. As a matter of fact, the line between public and private security orders in weak African states has already been blurred (Leander, 2005, p.606). Private forces are inevitable actors in those African states, thus on the one hand, it is argued that encouraging PMCs in Africa is able to restore the order. In the special case of weak African states, the poor conditions and frequent conflicts call for such a â€Å"force multiplier† as the PMCs. Leader concludes four reasons that PMCs should be considered to organize the chaos in Africa. First, PMCs are external forces to break the cycles of violence in Africa (Leander, 2005, p.607). T... ...ch PMCs played important role in many major combat, while PMCs fill the gap between U.S army and locals and maintain the reconstruction projects after war, democracy issues also need to be considered. The hiring of PMCs is mostly directly through government and military forces, which means citizens can be easily excluded from the decision process when their money are spent on buying military services, possibly, to invade another country. Therefore, to conclude, the emergence of PMCs as crucial roles in Africa is an inevitable course. The wars do not find PMCs, but PMCs find wars and sell themselves. They will be frequent actors in the combat which can maintain and improve the local security. While on the contrary, to build a mature and secure system for PMCs, a lot more unstable factors need to be taken into consideration by international and national actors.

Poetry Assessment :: English Literature

Poetry Assessment 'Nothings Changed' is a powerful piece of poetic literature which portrays in a provocative way, the poverty and apartheid in Post-Nelson Mandela South Africa and how 'Nothings Changed' since he has been elected as president. It starts in a harsh abrupt way 'small round hard stones' quickly brings forth a strong image of a dirty pathway littered with stones, the next few lines 'cans trodden on, crunch' and 'tall, purple-flowering, amiable weeds' add to this picture and describes in greater detail the untidy, poorly maintained wasteland. The 'purple-flowering weeds' border the rocky causeway and give stark contrast to the ugliness of the area as it has been described insofar. The character in the poem goes into a 'Whites Only' area, where he feels very unwelcome. At first, he seems contented to walk through a familiar area and revisit the place where he had lived. However, this mood changes abruptly when he comes across a 'Whites Only' inn which makes him feel very angry and even violent. The rhythm of this poem is very slow and thoughtful and the stanzas act like paragraphs. This works well because it creates a sense of him crushing his growing anger and hostility as he remembers his childhood. There are however some striking short lines for effect, these represent a growing struggle inside him to keep his fury under control. Examples of this are 'Anger of my eyes' 'brash with glass' 'it's in the bone' 'hands burn' The poet uses these short lines because they are dramatic, simple but powerful and memorable. There are many examples of poetic devices in 'Nothings Changed', especially in the third stanza: my first choice is line 18, where the poet describes the name as 'flaring like a flag'. This simile is effective because 'flaring' suggests a fire and it is a provocative image. The restaurant 'squats in the grass and weeds'. I think the poet compares the restaurant to something lurking and sinister because this place represents everything that they are fighting against. In conclusion, I think that the poem does not really work well, it fails to truly break the surface of thought and although it tries to put across the poet's thoughts and feelings on racism it fails quite miserably because of the simple fact that the writing is bound by literary laws of poetry. 'In the greyness and drizzle of one despondent dawn, unstirred by harbingers of sun break.' Vultures (by Chinua Achebe) opens in a grandiose and portentous fashion that immediately fills the reader's mind with a sense of a macabre and unhappy morning, the grey skies do not encourage a sense of happiness or contentment nor does it give any indication that this

A Definition of Organizational Culture Essay

Organizational culture refers to a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. Seven primary characteristics seem to capture the essence of an organization’s culture 1.Innovation and risk taking The degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks. 2.Attention to detail The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis and attention to detail. 3.Outcome orientation The degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve them. 4.People orientation The degree to which management decisions take into consideration the effect of outcomes on people within the organization. 5.Team orientation The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals. 6.Aggressiveness The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing. 7.Stability The degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth. Creating and Sustaining Culture An organization’s current customs, traditions, and general way of doing things are largely due to what it has done before and how successful it was in doing it. This leads us to the ultimate source of an organization’s culture: its founders. Free of previous customs or ideologies, founders have a vision of what the organization should be, and the firm’s small size makes it easy to impose that vision on all members. Culture creation occurs in three ways. First, founders hire and keep only employees who think and feel the same way they do. Second, they indoctrinate and socialize these employees to their way of thinking and feeling. And finally, the founders’ own behavior encourages employees to identify with them and internalize their beliefs, values, and assumptions. When the organization succeeds, the founders’ personality becomes embedded in the culture. Keeping a Culture Alive Once a culture is in place, practices within the organization maintain it by giving employees a set of similar experiences. The selection process, performance evaluation criteria, training and development activities, and promotion procedures ensure those hired fit in with the culture, reward those who support it, and penalize those who challenge it. Three forces play a particularly important part in sustaining a culture: selection practices, the actions of top management, and socialization methods. 1.Selection The explicit goal of the selection process is to identify and hire individuals with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully. The final decision, because it’s significantly influenced by the decision maker’s judgment of how well the candidates will fit into the organization, identifies people whose values are essentially consistent with at least a good portion of the organizations. 2.Top Management The actions of top management also have a major impact on the organization’s culture. Through words and behavior, senior executives establish norms that filter through the organization about, for instance, whether risk taking is desirable, how much freedom managers give employees, what is appropriate dress, and what actions earn pay raises, promotions, and other rewards. 3.Socialization No matter how good a job the organization does in recruiting and selection, new employee’s need help adapting to the prevailing culture. That help is socialization. For example, all Marines must go through boot camp, where they prove their commitment and learn the â€Å"Marine way.† New recruits go to an internal Web portal to learn about the company and engage in some activities that help them understand the culture of the organization. After they start work, they continue to learn about the organization through an ongoing social networking application that links new workers with more established members of the firm and helps ensure that culture is transmitted over time. Why is culture important? Culture can affect business outcomes in a number of ways, both positive and negative. For example, cultures that are not aligned with corporate strategy can lead to decreased loyalty, a lack of motivation, and high employee turnover. Healthy cultures, however, impart pride and a sense of purpose to employees, leading to increased productivity and a greater understanding of corporate goals, as with the employee at the car manufacturing plant. Strategy, operational performance, and culture are all strongly related. High-performing companies often view culture as an enabler of strategy and performance, and want to create a culture that will support and enable employees in achieving those goals. Define and Establish Cultural Diversity A typical organization has an extensive range of people who have cultural and personal differences. A small business interested in fostering cultural diversity among its employees endeavors to create mutual respect for the different cultures, along with enabling personnel to reach their full potential. Acknowledging diverse cultures enables the organization to positively influence the organizational behavior that, in turn, enhances the performance and image of the organization. The business should portray the cultural diversity aspect of the organization in the mission statement. The Positive Influence of Cultural Diversity in Organizational Behavior Cultural diversity involves the differences in the composition of members of an organization in terms of nationality, race, color, gender, creed, religion or age, in other words, an array of culture found among people from diverse backgrounds. Organizational behavior refers to the nature of interactions among people and groups within an organization. The positive influence of cultural diversity facilitates members of the organization to build relationships and acknowledge each other regardless of their differences of origin and background. Transforming Organizational Behavior The patterns of behavior in the organization are influenced by the nature of interactions and degree of diversity within the organization. The business,  therefore, should seek to create an organizational culture that not only enhances the diversity of its workforce composition but also boosts individual performance. The positive influences of cultural diversity not only enable the organization to increase the scope of its reach the business also receives favorable exposure from every sector of the population due to its multicultural approach. Sustaining Positive Influence Programs Programs for positive influence should always be adjusted to suit the dynamic nature of interactions among people. Establish regular forums and educational programs in which participants are trained to be sensitive to and appreciate cultural diversity, as well as in maintaining desirable organizational behavior. Regularly post motivational quotes and messages of cultural diversity on public bulletin boards. Concentrate on creating programs that internalize cultural diversity into the organization’s behavior.

Person-Centered Therapy Essay

Person-Centered Therapy is a form of psychoanalytical counseling developed in the 1940s by Carl Rogers. The foundation of this form of therapy stemmed from Rogers’ belief that all people have an inherent desire to be good. Every person has a self-concept or an ideal self which represents what type of person they want to be or think they are. However, a person’s self-concept may not be reflected in their real life experiences and this incongruence creates psychological stress. Rogers’ main goal is to allow the client to explore where their incongruences are rooted and have the clients decide for themselves how to change their behaviors to fit their self-concept. Though the client may reflect on past experiences, Person-Centered Therapy focuses on the client’s current feelings and their current perceived self-worth. The ideal end result of this type of therapy is that the client experiences self-actualization through positive self-acceptance and personal gro wth. In Person-Centered Therapy the relationship between the client and counselor is crucial to eliciting any progress in the client. The counselor must provide an environment in which the client can disclose their deepest feelings comfortably and safely. This establishes trust in the relationship and allows the client to further explore their thoughts. The main components to Rogers’ theory is that the therapist must have unconditional positive regard for the client and must be able to empathize with them genuinely. To do this, the therapist should focus on the client’s positive attributes. Constant positive reinforcement given sincerely makes the client feel secure and supported and they will feel more comfortable speaking about their issues. This increases the likelihood that the client will attempt to make a change in their life. A second key element in Person-Centered Therapy is that it is non-directive therapy. The counselor does not try to direct the client in any part icular direction, but lets the client lead the discussion in their own direction. The counselor must allow the client to do so and encourage them to continue to explore that direction. This way, when the client does decide to make a change in his/her life, it is done on their own terms. That is the most important feature of this type of counseling. In terms of the Helping Skills Model, Person-Centered Therapy focuses primarily on the Exploration Stage. Rogers’ theory is based on the same principles that define the Exploration Stage. The Exploration Stage is a time where the therapist and client develop a rapport and where the therapist really learns about the client’s behavior and personality. The establishment of a trusting relationship between the therapist and client is the goal of the Exploration Stage and is critical for the Person-Centered Therapy theory to be effective. This type of therapy relies heavily on the use of restatements and open-ended questions to encourage the client to open up about their thoughts and emotions. The Exploration Stage and this type of therapy focus on mainly on the clients as they do most of the speaking. Person-Centered Therapy has its strengths and weaknesses/limitations. One important feature of this type of therapy is that the client does not become dependent on the therapist. If the therapy is done correctly, the client will become to realize that he/she is capable of changing his/her life on their own. This type of therapy empowers the client to take control of their issues and solve them independently and in favor of their own desires. Another strength of this type of therapy is that once the client realizes his/her full potential and has gained a high level of self-understanding, the need for therapy is no longer there. They can now go out into the world feeling confident about overcoming any future obstacles. A limitation for this theory of therapy is that it may seem too simple. The theory at its core basically says if someone is in a safe, unprejudiced environment and speak their thoughts to an empathizing person, they will solve their own issues. This means anybody can do this and no real professional is needed. Another limitation is that there is no direction given for clients who cannot come up with their own solutions. This can be very frustrating for both the therapist and client because there is no progress being made. If a client is not capable of realizing his/her own potential and recognize the changes that need to be in their life, there is nothing the counselor can really do without jeopardizing the high level of client autonomy this type of therapy allows. References Hill, C. E. (2009). Helping Skills: Facilitating exploration, insight, and action. (3rd ed.) Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Rogers, C. R. (1992). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 827-832. (Original article published 1957).