Harlem’s darkness and hardships

Baldwin’s â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† is a story of the two brothers living in Harlem. Harlem is the place where the two brothers experienced the darkness of the society. This darkness points out racism and drug abuse as one of the major problems experiencing by many African-American in Harlem. Even though racism was felt by the two brothers and drug abuse hunted Sonny, one of the two brothers, they still managed to adopt and survive through the help of each other. At the beginning of the story, the older brother is on his way to work as a schoolteacher.As he travels down the road, he also reads the newspaper and found out that his brother was caught dealing with heroine. Even before, Sonny was suspected by his older brother of using illegal drugs but the older brother does nothing. Before the drug related incident happens, the older brother who is also the narrator of the story always talks about Sonny as being a good brother. He says â€Å"When Sonny was young, his f ace was bright and open†. Sonny’s brother worries about the involvement of Sonny in illegal drugs.Sonny is being dependent on drugs and uses it as a way to escape his problems. This problem makes his brother think of the things he did wrong to make Sonny involved in drug addiction. As a result of that, the brother misinterprets all the acts Sonny is doing. He does not listen to Sonny even if it has to be about the explanation and reasons of why Sonny engaged to drug related activities. Sonny finds himself neglected by his brother. This makes him think that no one could help him but his own self. Realizing this, he diverts his attention to music.This involvement to music makes him finds the relief he is searching for. With the music playing, Sonny is able to escape the problems he is encountering. The improvement of Sonny is hardly noticed by his brother. At first, his involvement to music disappoints his brother not until his brother realizes the changes music has done to Sonny. His brother accepts the truth and realizes that music has done a good job to Sonny’s development. It all happened in the part of the story where his brother is listening to Sonny as he plays the piano.As Sonny plays the piano, his brother feels that Sonny need his guidance and love. The unconditional love by the brother to Sonny was depicted in the story. Listening to the Jazz music played by Sonny, the attitude of the brother towards life, himself and Sonny changes. The estrangement of the two brothers hurt them both. Sonny’s dedication to music and his determination to stay away from any form of illegal drugs move the older brother to change. The love and passion of both brothers are shown in the story.Their fight against the darkness in Harlem made them realize that to win is to accept the weakness of each one of them and to be able to survive is to help each other. As a final point, to be able to survive in a society where you are not the main character, you must learn to adapt and to help others that are also adapting. The challenges of Black American brothers in the time of racism and its fight against illegal drugs can be solve if trust, acceptance and love is within the family ties.

An Interview with Steve

Life for me has amounted mainly to life here in Texas. IVe traveled a little; IVe been to both the west and east coasts of this country. IVe seen large cities and small towns, oceans, deserts and mountains. IVe traveled through several states and have met people from all kinds of backgrounds. Growing up we had classes in school. We learned of a whole new world out there, with different cultures and traditions.We had learned how our country began; how it was discovered, how it was populated, and of the wars our ancestors went through to ain independence and equality for all who live here. Through our parents and grandparents we learned that, with the exception of Native Americans, our ancestors emigrated here from countries far away, most of which are separated from us by vast oceans. Other than what we have read, the pictures we see in those books, the portrayals on television and film, most of us will never know the places our ancestors walked, or converse with people who presently live in those countries.With the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web, those countries are now coming literally to our fingertips. One of the most fascinating aspects of getting access to the Internet is how it brings the people of the world into our own homes. We can find out firsthand how those people live, what they believe, their customs, and their opinions of us. That is the focus of this essay. One of my good friends, for the past two and half years, is a man named Steve. We met online in a chat community and become fast friends. He is 48 years old and lives in Essex, England, which is a county northeast of London.Steve is a truck driver by trade and a musician by heart. He's sent me some of his songs, two of which he rote, and in my opinion, he's a very good musician, though he often says he's not. He's an avid Rolling Stones fan, and most of the songs he performs at pubs reflect this. This makes for amusing chats between us at times as he tries to convert anoth er wayward soft-rock-loving soul into a Stone's fan. I'm not really sure how Steve felt about me asking to do my essay on him. He undoubtedly thinks I'm being very nosey, ‘nosey peep' was the actual term he used, but he did consent to being interviewed.The only question he asked was if he had to be serious in his answers. When I asked him â€Å"Where do you live? † of course he nswered â€Å"modem land†. I told him that didn't help with my essay, and he replied, mfou know the answer, ask the stuff you don't. † And so our interview began†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ It seems that America has a great fascination with Great Britain. We see British actors every. vnere. We even nave some British snows on television. Many ot the stories covered in the news these days are telling of news of England, especially concerning the royal family. Why is this?IVe mentioned this fact to Steve a few times in chats. This opens up quite a little debate. He says it's only natural for us to lo ok to them, as England is the ‘parent' of us. I tell him that can't be. My ancestors came from France and Germany. He gets a chuckle, and then starts to lecture on how America as a whole was started by them, and we made the grave mistake of wasting good English tea, to which I happily reply that it's 0k, because I don't drink tea. I asked Steve if he sees himself as English or British. English, foremost, he says. I then asked him what he enjoys about his country.He said he enjoys the countryside, with its quiet rolling hillsides, spring flowers and gentle smooth rivers. He enjoys the music, and the English ale, with its bitter but smooth taste, and he adds it must be erved at room temperature. Somehow I think he was being extra poetic because I had asked him to elaborate on his original answer of â€Å"countryside, music, English ale†. He's generally a man of few words, at least typed words, but when gently prodded, he can say quite a lot, sometimes sarcastically, but o ften humorously. We discussed some of the history in England.He says that the English tend to take their historical sites for granted, though they do a good Job of protecting the old buildings and sights. When I asked if he goes out and enjoys the historical places, he said, â€Å"No, but IVe worked in a few places of historical interest†. He says â€Å"If you live in Manhattan, you don't go up to the Statue of Liberty. We take it all for granted really. We shouldn't but do. † I can easily see the truth in what he says, as much of our history here is being allowed to be forgotten. When speaking of lifestyles, Steve says that he likes to experience different cultures. â€Å"Big Ben is on my doorstep.I would rather travel the world and see differing ways of living. I can see Big Ben anytime. The world is changing. I'd like to see some of it before McDonalds gets there first. Even Bangkok has a McDonalds. † Steve is speaking f his recent trip to Bangkok, Thailand. I asked him if differing lifestyles was the big draw for so many British to immigrate to the states. He says that the draw for the English is that living in the states is similar to England's way of life, only much more comfortable. The main difference, he says, between England and the United States is that America is very inward looking.We seem to have 99% American news and Just 1% on the rest of the world. Though that may have changed since 9/1 1 . He says that Americans wish to know less of the world in general. Then he apologized for sounding insulting. He ent on to say that England ruled most of the world at one point, so theyVe always had interest in the world. He says that their news is about 50/50. I said that I wondered why England wants to rule so many countries. He said â€Å"We don't anymore. We've tried to give some countries back, but they won't have it. We tried to give Gibraltar back to Spain, but the people said they wanted to stay British † I asked why that was.He said, â€Å"They like us. We're quaint. † This moved us on toa subject Steve has much to say about. I asked him what life was like under the rule of a monarchy. He took no time to say, â€Å"Personally, it's dreadful. I hate being the Queen's subject. † Having only seen the monarchy on American television, I was curious as to why he would say that. He replied, â€Å"l resent their ways, their opinions. They are snobs of the worst kind; privileged and pampered while some of their people starve on the streets. Theyre hypocrites. † He goes on to say that the royals are expensive trophies for the tourists to view.Steve states, â€Å"They'll never change. The aristocracy survives to keep the working man in his place. Give him a beer, a bit of telly and football, and he'll be good and quiet. † I mentioned that they portray the royals here as heading oward a possible collapse, and he says, â€Å"It's not that simple, I'm afraid. They are too powerful, to o rich. They have low friends in high places. It would take a revolution to get rid of them, and the English people Just want a quiet life. † To lighten the conversation up, I turned the subject to English traditions. He states that there aren't many left.He says, â€Å"We have Guy Fawkes Day. It's fireworks to celebrate the capture of Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up parliament. † He laughs, â€Å"When I worked there, down in the basement on a wall is scrawled ‘Guy Fawkes was here', and an email address. Guy Fawkes was like three hundred years ago. We also have Pancake Day, when we all eat pancakes. Some have pancake races, where women run while tossing pancakes in a pan. We also have egg and spoon races where you run with an egg balanced on a small spoon. All very sensible pastimes. † Our conversation rolled around to what the English think of America.Steve's impression seems to come through easily with his words. â€Å"It depends on whether theyVe been to America or not. IVe never met anyone who's been there that doesn't love America or Americans. Americans over here in England, though, can come across as a little loud and brash. The English that go over to the States tend to go to Florida for the climate and Disneyworld. It's where all the travel package companies sell holidays to. It's closer than California. Most English peeps like beaches. They fly 5000 miles to lie on a beach for two weeks. It doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather see the countryside or the cities. Then he quotes ‘Sunshine bores the daylights outta me,' a Mick Jagger line. Did I mention he was a Stone's fan? Steve has always been quick to say how much he loves America. He's traveled across the ocean about four times already, and driven from one coast to the other, a trek he ays he wants to do again, as soon as he can afford a month off from work. I asked if he thought it would be more difficult, since 9/1 1, to get a visa to come here. He said he has a l ife visa. If youVe been in the States a couple of times on short visas and haven't overstayed or misbehaved, they give you a life visa.Or at least they used to. He proudly admits to having one. With his views of the government in England, I couldn't help but ask if he'd ever considered moving here. He said he had, after his first visit here. And after his second. A d his third â€Å"The first couple ot times I was married My sister-in-law nad MS and my wife wouldn't leave England. I also had a cracking band, which in American terms means a really good band. On a later trip, the housing market crashed. If I had sold my house, I would have owed $120,000. † Going back to the discussion of England, I asked if they got much sunshine during the year.Steve, in his charming way said, mieah, we had a good summer. Think it happened on a Thursday. † I inquired about this because we've all seen the old classic movies depicting London always under a blanket of fog. When I mentioned this, he laughed. â€Å"No, that's a myth. We do get fog occasionally but mostly in the countryside, ot London. But when we get it, we get it, thick as soup. † He goes on to say that it rains a lot in England, which makes the country very green, which he likes. England is known for its poor maintenance on roads. I asked Steve about this.He says, â€Å"Potholes are everywhere in local roads. The weather breaks roads up and they won't pay for upkeep. England is famous for digging holes in the roads. They lay cables, pipes, etc. , fill them in, come back a week later, dig them up again. It's a British pastime. † I asked if people travel much. He says most people holiday abroad. It's cheaper to go to Spain than to stay in England. When asked if England was a majority of wealthy or poor, he says that most are not poor, but they have their money tied up in their houses. â€Å"On paper, there are a lot of rich people.I myself have $200,000 on paper, but it's tied up in my ho use. The cheapest apartment in my area costs $130,000. If you rent, it's usually from the local government. Then, as an example, after a few years you can buy it at a 66% discount. Then you pay maybe $30,000 for a house that's worth $100,000, so most people buy. The government does this for their own benefit. It's short term; they get cash and don't have to pay the maintenance costs. The downside is that there are no homes available for people to rent. I unfortunately bought on the open market, so no discount. It's interesting to know that, like here in America, they have a variety of accents. Steve speaks Cockney, which is known around the London area. If youVe seen the Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen film â€Å"Winning London†, my sister's favorite movie, you'll get a hint of it. To us it's fast spoken and hard to understand, and believe me, isn't much easier to understand in text, which he throws in from time to time Just to confuse me. He also mentions the Queen's English, whi ch is much more proper sounding, and hat we generally hear spoken on television.There are other accents as well, depending on the region you come from. I hated to end the interview. England has so much to learn about. I would have liked to delve much more deeply into the history and culture of his country, the things we don't hear and read about here in the States. But it's getting late for Steve. England is 7 hours ahead of Texas. It's very easy to forget the time difference and Just keep talking, on my end at least. I am very happy to have met Steve, even if we never get the opportunity to meet tace-to-tace.

Education and Society Essay

Education in the United States has become a crucial part of every American’s life. Completing high school opens doors for individual achievement and is directly linked to economic success. But equally important to the completion of high school is a rich and positive experience in the learning process. Educators are skilled in creating great learning experiences and to enhancing the curriculum, while parents are even more influential. Parents are the positive influence for many children who would otherwise be drastically falling behind, failing, or even dropping out of school. The child’s family background, combined with passed down values and experiences will determine the student’s high school education. The role of technology in early childhood education is an effective tool for students, so the lack of technology in a child’s upbringing can affect their educational career. For example, students who do not begin using various types of technology from kindergarten can fall behind. Studies found that students who are less likely to access technology at home can be at an academic disadvantage. This shows how vital technology is in a child’s education, however there is a challenge in making it available to everyone. Particularly low-income or minority college students could have trouble in succeeding in a technology-saturated environment. Some parents don’t parents don’t understand the importance of Internet access, since in their generation, the Internet was a luxury, not a necessity. However, the bigger issue seems to be the gap between Whites who have access to the Internet and minorities. Studies found that â€Å"56% of Latino adults and 60% of African American can use the Internet,compared to 71% of White adults. The same organization finds that while 42% of white families and 41% of Latino 2 families 666subscribe to broadband access,only 31% of African American households have such access. † Even if lower income schools computer labs students need to build their skills at home as well. Early childhood reading for children can bring a positive outcome to a child’s life. What a child learns in their early years are things that will continue to helps them along in their future in school and in the real world. When a child is introduced to early childhood education, they can get many benefits from it. Benefits include learning to interact in new situations, use critical thinking and basic speech skills before kindergarten. According to Maryanne Wolf, â€Å"In most underprivileged communities, no children’s books were found in homes; in the low come to middle income community there were, on average three books; and in the affluent community there were around 200. † Parents need to create an atmosphere where reading takes place in order to show the importance of reading, but low-income families are falling behind. Parents from affluent communities are able to gain access to understanding the importance of reading while parents from lower income don’t have the resources. Its unclear why low income families don’t have as many books in the home, but the issue might be attributed to a poor school library, lack of understanding for the importance of books, or the obvious issue with low financial resources to buy books. Parents from different language background and parents who aren’t literate in English, will likely raise children who have to play catch-up once they enter kindergarten. Reading can’t just happen over night– it needs to be developed over time. If books are limited, discussions and thoughts aren’t spoken out loud, and this can result in problems. Catherine snow of Harvard and her colleagues found that in addition to literacy materials,one of the major contributors to later reading was simply the amount of time for â€Å"talk around dinner† The 3 importance of simply being talked to, read to, and listened to is what much of early development is about†. In a low-income, busy and hard-working parents may not have time to have these simple talks, or even the financial resources to purchase books for there children. These are two important ingredients for a strong educational upbringing that many low-income family parents can not afford. Even though socioeconomic status and the access to technology are key a family’s behavioral and cultural backgrounds have an equal influence on a student. A child is instinctively drawn toward the background of their parents and social settings to learn what is deemed from right to wrong. According to David Brooks â€Å"Educated parents not only pass down resources to their children, they pass down expectations, habits, knowledge and cognitive abilities. Pretty soon you end up with a hereditary meritocratic class that reinforces itself generation after generation†. What David Brooks is saying is that even though the United States has universal access to higher education such as community college but some students may not be â€Å"physiologically prepared and culturally prepared for college†. Children are reaching their parents expectations and are just continuing a cycle. If parents aren’t showing their support in a educational and motivational sense, kids won’t feel the need to fulfill higher education. The time to instill values of education is not when a child becomes a senior in high school; rather the time to start discussing educational values to a child, is the onset of school, preschool. Education provides an individual their path to a successful future, but only through hard work, dedication and determination is this achievable. Education requires a parent to mold a child into an individual that is capable of contributing effectively to society. The drive to learn must be aroused in children and started at an early age.

Email Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Email - Assignment Example However, for me as for a Project Assistant this schedule is uncomfortable and time-consuming. This timetable does not take into account the peculiarities of our department work since the changes were implemented recently. As you know, my primary duty is contacting the customers of my project and arranging documents flow. 3 weeks ago our regulatory department dealing with contracts had to deliver a part of their tasks to our department. Thus, Project Assistants now have an obligation of assuring the contracts are signed with our customers and approved by regulatory institution on the same date. It turned out that to avoid queues PAs have to come to Regulatory Institution at 8 AM and wait for 2-3 hours so they come at work no earlier than at 11 AM. Moreover after customers sign the documents we have to review them and return to Regulatory Institution at 5 PM. It disrupts our daily work completely as we do not have break time and our work time exceeds 8 hours for 2 hours. I suggest that we made some shifts in schedule for all Project Assistants. First of all, their work has to begin at 8, and those hours spent in Regulatory Department have to be taken into account. As it is impossible to pass these documents through third hands it must become a part of our daily schedule. Moreover, there is an urgent need in hiring an employee who will deal with delivering contracts to the customers in the second half of the day. PAs have to be able to work remotely and to have their break any time of the day. These implementations will allow PAs managing their work more efficiently and avoid many arising problems at work. Two weeks ago I bought a yellow sofa with rolled arms and stuffed cushions in your store on 8, Broad Alley St. The model was named â€Å"Pleasure† and cost $2.400. When I tried using this furniture it turned out that it has major defects in fabric tailoring. I went to the store in order to express my complaints and to arrange

Short Writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Short Writing - Essay Example From her home to the store, Janie became self-governing and could do things without being controlled by her husband. Overall, she became happy. She felt joyous and released, although she continued to put on a mourning face for the public. Secondly, Joe’s death gave Janie the opportunity to reexamine her life and start to chase her dreams. After the funeral, she started to reexamine her feelings and her general perception towards life. She realized that the values Nanny had instilled in her of seeking wealth and security were wrong. Janie begun to understand that there are better things one should pursue in life in order to achieve maximum happiness. Finally, Joe’s death brought new hope in Jane’s life. While still together, the actions of Joe towards her were belittling and embarrassing. For instance, not only did Joe abuse her in public but also hit her. She hurt from the inside. However, after Joe’s death, Jane realized that there was still hop to achiev e happiness and live a fulfilling

A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell Research Paper

A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell - Research Paper Example Both the story and the play gained much popularity, and many women writers and playwrights included them in their anthologies (Goodman 191). Since Glaspell had been acting as a court reporter in Iowa, she designed a story in which she showed some rural women pondering over the details of the murder of a man, whose wife had killed him. Women take clues from petty things in the murderer’s kitchen, and reach to the disclosure of who killed the man. Glaspell has claimed, after the story received warm appreciation, that it was based on a real court case when she was working as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily. She reported the murder of a sixty-year-old farmer, named John Hossack, in Indianola, Iowa, in 1900. He was found with a crushed skull on the night when he was sleeping with his wife. Somebody had crushed his skull with an axe. His wife, Margaret, was doubted, but was released due to unconvincing evidence. She said that she did not know who the murderer was. A lot of women of the town attended the trial. A sheriff’s wife showed sympathy with Mrs. Hossack, when she had first testified against her. This was the woman who depicted the character of Mrs. Peters in the story. Glaspell created a jury of those female peers in â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers†, because in real, females were not allowed as jurors in the court trial. This paper intends to discuss the main theme and focus of the play, along with the means and techniques the author used to communicate the idea. To start with, it is better to give a summary of the play, so that the reader gets a better idea about what the storywriter is trying to convey. The whole story is about the characters (the county attorney George Henderson, the neighbor Lewis Hale, the large Mrs. Martha Hale, The sheriff Henry Peters, and the thin Mrs. Peters) searching for clues to solve a murder case in a dull and messy kitchen of John Wright's farmhouse. The story begins with Mrs. Hale working in her kitchen, mak ing bread, when her husband, Mr. Hale, comes upon her and asks her to leave with him. She is furious for leaving the task she was doing, but leaves to join the county attorney George Henderson, and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Peters, at the place where the Wrights lived. Wrights were a couple all of them were familiar with. Mr. John Wright has been murdered. His wife, Mrs. Minnie Wright is being under arrest as a suspect. The women refer to her as Minnie Foster. The men- Peters, Henderson and Hale- search through the crime scene for evidence and clues, and mock at the women’s talk about the clues. They make fun of women’s discussion about the quilt, the broken door of the bird cage, and the dead canary. The men consider their interest in these objects as unimportant as Hale says, â€Å"Well, women are used to worrying over trifles†. When men move upstairs to look for evidence, the women search the chaotic kitchen and find clues which point to the guilt of Mrs. Wright. Me n had called these things as â€Å"trifles† and had said, â€Å"Nothing here but kitchen things†. The women form a bond with Mrs. Wright, when they see her shaggy clothing and the run down kitchen. As an objection to men’s mocking, the women decide to keep the evidence to themselves. Ironically, their discussion about unimportant things finally leads to uncovering the truth and solving the murder case.

Book Report on Don't Fire Them, Fire Them Up by Frank Pacetta Essay

Book Report on Don't Fire Them, Fire Them Up by Frank Pacetta - Essay Example Although he mentions that an individual is an essential element in any organization, the role of the team or group is emphasized more in the book. This perspective eliminates possible jealousy and unhealthy competition within the organization, thus creating an atmosphere of teamwork and cooperation. Pacetta outlines principles that are doable in both non-military and military settings since the underlying principles of motivation and teamwork are essential in any successful organizational environment. LEADERSHIP IN MANAGEMENT 3 Leadership Principles in Management There are several principles on effective leadership that Frank Pacetta discusses in his book. According to â€Å"The One Minute Manager† author Kenneth Blanchard, leadership skills focused on people are significant for leaders who know that the work force is the primary resource of any organization (Nohria & Groysberg, 2008). In Pacetta’s (1994) book, he touches on the extraordinary potential of a well-directe d and highly motivated human spirit. Although some say that the book is more of a marketing and sales guide because Pacetta (1994) first applies his ideas on marketing and sales, the overall concept discussed in the book is applicable to any organizational setting, corporate or non-corporate. In the book, creating loyalty and developing trust is one of Pacetta’s (1994) important leadership principles. Loyalty and trust creates an atmosphere of teamwork and dependability. Additionally, he mentioned that establishing accountability and encouraging the process of giving constructive feedback is a vital part in an organization. The value of accountability pushes the concept of professional ethics, while feedback encourages working on possible areas of improvement that support continuous development. Generating passion and enthusiasm is also deemed essential. One must remember that a happy employee is a productive employee (Mrudula, 2006). Pacetta (1994) also mentions that a leade r’s ability to enliven, manage, and rebuild an organization is a necessary attitude that encourage employee trust to the organization’s management team. It reflects the internal strength of the organization, thereby promoting a sense of security among employees or members of the organization. To top it off, a leader’s capacity in pushing the organization to the top and maintaining its status at that level develops a sense of pride among every member of the organization. A leader is considered as the LEADERSHIP IN MANAGEMENT 4 one having command responsibility in every aspect of the organization, therefore making the position both challenging and crucial. Pacetta (1994) asserts that although there are normally 3 main reasons for organizational failures --- namely poor leadership, lack of enthusiasm, or skills deficiency --- poor leadership is almost always the main factor why organizations fail. The practicality of the leadership principles presented by Pacetta ( 1994) makes them applicable not only in corporate situations, but also in military settings. In order to realize success and continuous growth within any organizational set-up, there must be strong leadership skills and tactics, and flexibility in methods and processes building and

Identifying Key Community Success Factors Essay

Identifying Key Community Success Factors - Essay Example To clarify, the ideal community can be loosely defined by a few factors that almost every person, living or dead and despite cultural differences, as a functional place where people reside, occupy themselves, socialize and have all of their basic needs met. Although further factors will undeniably be added to this list both by individuals and groups, the fact is that the ideal community will consist of a group of people who all contribute in some way to the well-being and contentment of others within the group while enjoying simultaneous support. Every basic need of a human being must be met within the Utopian society without putting any one citizen or subset of people at a disadvantage. There are three crucial factors that will directly affect the creation and preservation of the basic ideal community: an accepted set of ideals and morals on which to base major decisions and any type of government, the opportunity for growth and stability. The first important factor in the success of any community setting is moral homogeneity; this is the most crucial aspect of a Utopian society however it is also the most difficult to establish and maintain simply because of human nature. Without a set guideline - for example something like a Constitution or religious doctrine that dictates acceptable and expected behavior as well as a moral framework from which to base future unforeseen decisions - it is impossible for any group of people to agree on any aspect of their lives that involves conscious thought. The establishment of such a set of lifestyle guidelines is by no means a new idea; it has been done by virtually every religious group, every political group and even by fami ly units to ensure that members are acting in a way befitting of the group's creators. The issue with indoctrinated morality is the fact that people will very rarely agree on such delicate ideals and any fully consented document could therefore only include generalized guidelines instead of specific ways of dealing with the various issues of any given community. As with individuals, communities also require the ability to grow and to change as time wears on; this is the nature of people and groups alike; the problem with growth of course is the pressure it puts on any community doctrine or tradition. As a community ages, its citizens realize better which methods or morals are actually useful and which have been more of a hindrance than a help to the community morale and success. As a citizen within any community, one will want to visualize him or herself as an integral part of society in some way or form; this might mean to advance into government levels (if indeed a formal government exists in said community) or by providing basic maintenance for public buildings. In whatever small or large way, people need to feel that their life will have an impact on the community that has nurtured them; without this reciprocity any occupation can feel dull, meaningless and lead to many issues from mental health considerations to disparity to crime. For an ideal community to flourish, each member must realize their own potential to contribute and feel validated by receiving all they need from the community in return. The third important factor in building and maintaining a

Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Finance - Essay Example Although, it is practically not possible to control some forces that operate outside a business, such as availability of the capital and the world economic conditions, management need to inspire and guide internal operations in helping ensure a secure competitive position within the marketplace. Moreover, both innovation and adaptability are essential in helping gain market share, and stay profitable in the event of fluctuating economic climates (Hill & Westbrook, 1997). Research show that for a business to remain being competitive in the market, it has to always impress innovative services and products, a market plan and a fair pricing (Hill & Westbrook, 1997). In meeting the high standards, there is need for an operation efficient to be implemented as it helps in keeping the price competitive. For a well-run business, a shared goal is often incorporated with a view to inspire a spirit of co-operation among its departments (Humphrey, 2005). In challenging times, dynamic leadership i s crucial for maintaining a profitable business. Excellent performance is credited to increased productivity to the main company. Increased or impressive productivity is the central core of many companies (Menon, et al. 1999). Therefore, the increase in the profitability capacities of a company is placed amongst the central targets of any company (Menon, et al. 1999). In the case of Berksire Threaded Fasteners Company, its profitability is challenged by several factors, amongst them internal policies and external market factors, amongst others. In this paper, an analysis of the impact that can be aroused upon deployment of various actions will be investigated. Body For a situation where the company could have dropped the 300 series as of January 1, 2000, there is an effect that action would have on the profit for the first six months of 2000. In this case, it is noted that consumers often expect value (Armstrong. 1996). These consumers demand an effective customer service given that they are accessible to data alongside product information. Given the internet services, it is possible to make comparison of features and prices. This helps consumer forces companies to change into transparent market machines. The profitability potential accorded to 300 series surpasses the potential exhibited by the other three products. This reflects on the aspects such as the cost of production, as well as the after production expense. Focusing on the initial, 300 series is the most economical in production. This reflects on both the input and the labor cost. The comparison from this dimension indicates that 300 series is the least expensive of the three. While evaluating on a summative angle, the cost of production associated to the three products amounts to $ 3433. A further analysis of this figure indicates that 300 series only accounts for approximately 26 percent, while the other two presumes the rest. 100 series has the highest share with about 40 percent. The only differe nce in terms of production of the products is the rent cost for 300 series. Over this regard, several aspects of the production line can be isolated. Amongst them is the productivity of the line, as well as the possible future dynamics. This is based on a possibility of equity in the production numbers (Armstrong,

American Society and Politics Nowadays Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

American Society and Politics Nowadays - Essay Example Those supporting stricter policies assert that illegal immigrants perpetuate poverty because they undermine benefits and wages stipulated for unskilled labor. When the laws are lenient, liberals and business owners in construction, food processing and hotel industries conspire to ignore the process of enforcing immigration law. In politics, an influx of immigrants is a crucial boost to the forces that facilitated their entry into the country. As an example, in the 2012 elections, there were over 12 million Latinos that cast votes (Kerwin, Chishti & Bergeron 69). According to statistics, that figure represents 10 percent of the body of voters in the US and is capable of changing the political landscape. Census forecasts indicate that the Latino electorate alonSe is estimated to reach 29 million voters in 2016, which sets in motion the scramble for both the Democratic and Republican parties to court them and other smaller immigrant groups (Kerwin, Chishti & Bergeron 74). However, when the immigration is not controlled, some unintended consequences may include higher crime rates, drug trafficking and the threat of terrorism. Therefore, this still leaves the debate for either stricter or lenient immigration policies.

Aristotle and Plato’s Concept of the Soul Essay Example for Free

Aristotle and Plato’s Concept of the Soul Essay Most individuals are interested in knowing and understanding the various phenomena that exist among their midst. It could be as simple as looking for information as to why the sun rises and sets or it could involve very trivial matters that deal with things that is not seen by the naked eye. This is why the field of philosophy exists in order to investigate the ideas of truth, existence, knowledge, and other subjects by means of logic and reason (Kemerling). In relation to this, many famous philosophers have their respective theories that tend to explain various matters. This could be exemplified by Aristotle and Plato’s ideas behind the existence of a soul. Aristotle wrote three books of De Anima wherein he elaborated a varying array of philosophical and scientific topics. In Book II, Chapter 1 of De Anima, Aristotle made a sketch or outline of the nature of the soul. He explained the concept of the soul by using a scientific perspective that uses elements of biology. In relation to this, he also employed the idea of metaphysics that tackled everything such as substance, form, matter, potentiality, and actuality. Aristotle perceived that the soul is united with the living body. As such, the existence of the soul is also dependent upon the host. He deems that the soul is made simply for the purpose of development, which can only happen if it is connected with a body or some kind of container in the physical world. In this sense, the soul is assumed to exist as the form of the body. The importance of the soul is greatly dependent upon the body or a type of entity that gives life to it. Since the soul designates life, Aristotle believed that it is also present in every living thing, including plants and animals. He also elaborated that different entities have various versions of the soul. The soul of a human being is unique from others because it has the ability to hold rational beliefs and use reason. It is regarded as the higher level of soul while the lowest ones are those that are found in plants and animals. Moreover, Aristotle’s association of the soul to specific forms made the soul as the mover because it is the culmination of the various life forces (Davidson). On the other hand, Plato believes that the soul is made up of three basic energies, including reason, emotion, and appetite that are responsible in animating human beings. The energy of reason is regarded as having the greatest value, while emotion and most especially appetite are considered as the lower passions. Reason is responsible in governing the soul that controls the emotion and the appetite of an individual. In relation to this, Plato deems that the soul is important in living a moral life. He explained that morality is the cause of happiness, which motivates an immoral person to behave righteously if he or she wants to be happy. Plato asserted that a happy person is a just person. Moreover, the psychic harmony of the soul is expressed in four cardinal virtues that are related to the three basic energies. In terms of reason, the just person has wisdom or prudence. In relation to emotion, the just person has the virtue of courage. Lastly, when it comes to the energy of appetite, a just person has the value of temperance (â€Å"Plato theory of the Soul†). Aristotle and Plato’s respective theories of the soul have similarities in the sense that they both believe that the soul is responsible for the ability of human beings to think logically and rationally. Nevertheless, there are many differences in their concept of the soul. Since Aristotle employed the scientific topics in his theory, he perceived the soul as dependent upon the body. In relation to this, he also deemed that other living things have souls. On the contrary, Plato merely focused on the existence of human beings’ soul. He explained his idea of the soul in the light of morality rather than biology. Furthermore, Plato argued that the soul is influenced by external force in order to move, while Aristotle asserted that the soul is the mover itself because it is an assortment of life forces. The varying theories of Aristotle and Plato with regards to the soul only show that philosophers have different perspective and understanding in the pursuit of understanding various matters of an individual’s existence.

The debate of hunting Essay Example for Free

The debate of hunting Essay Even though hunting should not be a sport, hunting helps maintain a healthy herd and promotes land, wildlife conservation. Because without hunting herds will over populate and become sick from starvation or spread disease. Hunters are a major supporter and play a big part in wildlife management. People for many years have debated about, hunting as a sport, or if it is only a means of people shooting at living targets. There can be many that say hunting is a part of American culture, how it benefits animal wildlife and also land conservation. Others say it is just a form of cruelty to animals and there are no benefits in hunting. â€Å"Encouragement of a proper hunting spirit, a proper love of sport, instead of being incompatible with the love of nature and wild things, offering the best guaranty for the preservation of wild things† (Theodore Roosevelt U. S. President). How hunting is cruel and that hunting has no place in the 21st century and is becoming evident by hunters waste and destruction of wildlife. In the past people used hunting as a means of supplying hunters and their families with food. Today animal activist say that hunting is not necessary and has no place in today’s society. â€Å"Hunting is not a sport, in a sport; both sides should know they’re in the game (Paul Rodriguez). In the last hundred years the United States has been going through a transformation out of the necessity to providing food and safety through recreational activity. There was a time when a majority of people lived in rural areas. Since then, the majority live in urban areas and this meant a change in people’s lifestyle. The change in people’s lifestyle brought the need to form organizations to protect animal rights. With this change many new animal rights organizations were formed such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and others to join in protecting wildlife from hunters. Animal activist argue that hunting: â€Å"In all cases, sport hunting inflicts undeniable cruelty- pain, trauma, wounding, and death- on living, sentient creatures. Most civilized and caring people will believe that causing suffering and death is by definition inhumane, regardless of method† (Miller, 2009). Some hunting is for the purpose of who can obtain the biggest trophy. In the 1950s’ an organization named the Humane Society of the United States organized to help in the protection of cruelty to wildlife animals. Therefore, in the 70s’ a group of students from Oxford decided to argue: â€Å"whether the moral status of nonhuman animals was necessarily inferior to that of human beings and whether animals should be entitled to their own basic rights and protection by law† (Laney, 2008 ). Then in the 80s’ many film productions, news articles, books were portraying that all hunters came from low class and uneducated people. Hunters today began to see themselves being portrayed as nothing more than a bunch of rednecks running through the woods with guns and wearing plaid, killing helpless animals. The NRA [National Rifle Association] caps and says in a 2004 New York Times article by a woman who stated â€Å"let’s go out and kill some defenseless animals† (Laney, 2008). Animal activist say that trophy hunting by Americans are responsible for killing tens of thousands of wild animals in other countries. In fact in 1997 the Smithsonian Institution’s received a donation of $20 million from a big game hunter named Kenneth Behring to solicit a permit, to allow the remains of two endangered sheep be allowed to be brought back to the United States under the (ESA) Endangered Species Act to aid in the research, and helping their survival. After they received bad publicity the Institute decided to avoid obtaining the permit. All though many are surprised to find that the facts on how hunting and outdoors sportsmen promote land and wildlife conservation. Hunting for many families has been a way to grow with the outdoors and bond with nature. In the Western societies like the United States and Britain, there is the argument of morals, this makes hunting a focal point for protracted and political debate. An organization named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) also believe that hunters are insensitive and arrogant for participating in hunting described as â€Å"recreational† or â€Å"sporting†. â€Å" Yet many hunters themselves impose entirely different meanings on the hunt, and some, such as the naturalist Paul Shepard, even assign it spiritual significance, construing it as an activity that expresses a deep and profound reverence toward nature andliving things† (MacHalek, 2002). For many hunters of all ages, believe that hunting is a way of relaxation and an educating experience for all to enjoy. Many hunters think that â€Å"Education is lacking when an assumption is made stating hunting is only recreational and leaves damage without good† (Reed, 2008). Hunting is a human activity that in its â€Å"significance by a deceptively simple feature: the evasiveness or resistance exhibited routinely by prey. Because of the behavioral challenges that it presents, hunting has had far-reaching consequences for key aspects of human social, psychological, and cultural life† (MacHalek, 2010). Hunters have for years voiced their opinions to the public on the benefits of hunting. Hunters believe if hunting is banned, herds will over populate and there will be more animals dying of starvation, disease and more people could become involved in an accident with wildlife because of over population. Over population can lead to destruction of crops, the spread of disease, and more people acquiring injures or death in automobile accidents. Here is a picture of what happens when deer wonder out into traffic in search of food or water because there ecosystem can no longer sustain the overcrowding. For every deer that leaves an ecosystem there are two more to take its place. When food is plentiful deer will stay in one square mile. Deer prefer to stay near to where they were born and raised, in the area they know best. When deer refuse to leave their ecosystem or move to another range that has plenty of food, this leads to starvation of animals. Hunting has its educational benefit to the hunter by learning and watching and keeping track of wildlife breeding and migration patterns. â€Å"Therefore, the hunter will not only benefit by his knowledge within his hunt but also an understanding of what animals to harvest when hunting. Sick or deformed animals often give the hunter a sense of sympathy when hunting† (Reed, 2008). By understanding that these animals will probably not take long to die, they could spread the disease to other animals. Hunters help to keep track of where these animals travel and how many are sick. Hunters report these animals to the wildlife society to preserve the rest of the other herds. By addressing this problem at early stages hunters can help produce a healthier environment and aid in breeding a healthier and stronger wildlife. This will make wildlife less prone to starvation and disease. Hunting does not only benefit the hunter but it also benefits wildlife management, hunting is a good tool in wildlife management. President, Roosevelt was responsible for forming programs focused on helping to bring wildlife game back to a healthy level. Hunters benefit the economy in the way that, â€Å"Everyone benefits from the excise taxes that hunters voluntary pay on guns, ammunition and outdoors equipment. Since 1937, hunters have contributed over 4 billion dollars through the Pittman-Robertson Act for the benefit of all wildlife species† (NRA-ILA, 2004). This money is being used to buy up millions of land owned by the public in an effort to sustain wildlife in these areas. Through many other organizations that support wildlife management they have added another $ 300 million for wildlife conservation. â€Å"Hunting contributes over $30 billion to the economy each year, supporting over 1,000,000 jobs† (National Shooting Sports Foundation). Throughout the 50 states hunters and fishermen supply an annual income for the conservation agencies in that state. â€Å"Through license fees and excise taxes on arms and gear, sportsmen contribute $200 million per year for wildlife conservation,† (U. S. Fish Wildlife Service). Through the efforts of hunters and wildlife management the numbers of wildlife has risen, below is a chart that represents the numbers of wildlife species and how game species have recovered in the twentieth century. â€Å" Through legislative programs designed to channel funds back into the conservation process, hunters have restored population of deer, elk, antelope, turkeys and ducks to record numbers† (NRA-ILA, 2004). For years hunters have teamed up with organizations such as: Hunters Sharing the Harvest and Hunters for the Hungry to supply for people in need. One of the oldest hunting organizations, which are the most important to revenue sources named, Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration of 1937 or the Pittman-Robertson Act. This organization is responsible for distributing more than $3. 8 billon to fish and wildlife agencies because it became a law. The members of organizations such as Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, National Rifle Association, and hunters, are helping to finance a variety of game management programs. By hunters and organizations like the Wildlife Federation and others they have been the leaders in the way of promoting wildlife and land conservation. These organizations are working with communities to build a better understanding of how they can improve their local economy and how to establish a trust fund. â€Å"To establish an annual income the trust will purchase wildlife to be released in the conservancy, and the conservancy will later pay the trust for any increase in population over the original number of animals† (Burnett , 200). Hunting today has become a means of relaxation and experiencing one with nature. However, a survey conducted in 2006 by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the numbers of hunters are declining because fewer children and teens are learning how to hunt. Despite the demise of hunters because the era of about 12,000 years ago, hunting still has a great deal of significance in many human cultures. â€Å" In A View To a Death in the Morning (1993), Matt Cartmill traces the symbolism and imagery of the hunt from the hunting-gathering era, through the agrarian era, and into modern, industrial times. Cartmill Page 452 (MacHalek, 2010). In 2001 a group formed named , NWCP goal was to team up with National Wildlife Conservation, the goal of this organization is to set the course in the future of wildlife conservation. In setting the course these organizations works together with the President of the United States and congress to face the issues about wildlife conservation and hunting. â€Å"Thirty five hunting and conservation groups have joined NWCP. NRA is a member of the steering committee† (NRA-ILA, 2004). Hunting will be a subject that will be up for debate for years to come by many organizations. Animal activist believe that there is no place for hunting in the 20th, century. Hunters believe that without hunting wildlife will over populate and destroy valuable crops and have a devastating effect on their ecosystem. Over population will also lead to wildlife moving into urban neighborhoods and there will be more animal related accidents causing injuries and deaths to humans. Hunters are the leaders in wildlife and land conservation. Hunting is a vital tool for the preservation of all wildlife species and land conservation. Therefore â€Å"Knowing the history of hunting in the United States is important for understanding the diverse points of view surrounding this controversial subject† (Laney, 2008) . These views will probably will never see eye to eye,† If humans are, in fact, possessed of an evolved psychology that derives from a hunting-gathering past, it can not been determined if this evolved psychology and the contours of modernity are somehow reconcilable or rather, are fundamentally incommensurable† (MacHalek, 2010). References Burnett, H. S. (2001, November 12). Ideas Changing the World. Retrieved from http://www.ncpa. org/pub/ba377 Laney, D. (2008). Introduction to Hunting: Opposing Viewpoints. Retrieved from http://find. galegroup. com. ezproxy. apollolibrary. com/gps/infomark. do? contentSet=GSRCtype=retrievetabId=T001prodId=IPSdocId=EJ3010504101source=galesrcprod=OVRCuserGroupName=uphoenixversion=1. 0 Miller, D. A. (2009). Sport Hunting Should Be Banned. Retrieved from http://find galegroup. com ezproxy. apollolibrary. com/gps/infomark. do? contentSet=GSRCtype=retrievetabID=T001prodId=IPSdocId=EJ3010062287source=galesrcprod=OVRCuserGroupName=uphoenixversion=1. 0 NRA-ILA. (n. d. ). Hunting Facts. Retrieved from http://www. nraila. org/issues/factsheet/read. aspx? id=124 Reade, C. (2008, October 13). Sport Hunting Should Not Be Banned. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles. com/? Sport- Hunting-Should-Not-Be-Bannedid=1578067 MacHalek, Richard S. Hunting. Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. Ed. Robert Kastenbaum. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. 451-453. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 10 Sept. 2010. Retrieved from http://go. galegroup. com/ps/i. do? id=GALE%7CCX3407200148v=2. 1u=apolloit=rp=GVRLsw=w Gale Document Number: GALE|CX3407200148.

How Big Data is Used in Retail Industry: Etsy

How Big Data is Used in Retail Industry: Etsy Big Data can be defined as the inability of traditional data architectures to efficiently handle the new datasets. Characteristics of Big Data that force new architectures are: 1. Volume: Size of dataset 2. Variety: Data from multiple sources 3. Velocity: Rate of flow 4. Variability: Change in other characteristics We all are aware of the 4 vs and they are considered as the core characteristics of Big Data. NIST perfectly explains these characteristics and further puts emphasis on needing a higher system architecture for higher performance. The system scaling is done using techniques called vertical and horizontal scaling. While researching definition of big data I realized most of the websites talk about the Vs of big data but none talk about how this is a full field but NIST explains us in detail about scaling and what it does. One thing to note is that this article was written in September of 2015 and since then a lot of things have changed and like any technology, big data is evolving and its definition and characteristics are evolving too. The four vs has evolved and are now there are seven vs which include [5] 5. Veracity: Refers to the completeness and accuracy of the data 6. Value: How much value does the data has 7. Visualization: The most important part where the processed data is presented so that readers can understand it. Big data has become a common name and it is being used in e-commerce for numerous ways. Big data is being used in e-commerce to give personalized buying experience to the customers. Using a customers browsing and buying habits to provide them with personalized recommendations can result in increased sales. We all aware of Amazon who provides their customers with Customers who bought this item also bought section which resulted in 30 percent increase in sales. Big data along with click-stream data can be used to monitor prices of products in real time and adjust the prices accordingly. Amazon uses different tools to monitor and adjust pricing of their own products accordingly. By this, they are making sure the customer gets the best price and no other competitor beats them with a lower price. Big data can also be used to send personalized offers which can be in form of emails or even pop-ups while they are trying to abandoned the cart. Etsy is an online e-commerce website which is a platform for selling handmade and vintage items. Most of the items they sell are handmade and made by individuals like you and me. Etsy was created back in 2005 in Brooklyn apartment by Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik in their Brooklyn apartment [Citation]. Within two years Etsy had nearly 450,000 registered users and generated $26 million in annual sales. After that Etsy went through many changes in their structure and two of the creators left the company and then the hired Chad Dickerson, senior director of product at Yahoo to lead the company. Dickerson was hired as the chief technology officer and he took the company in an upward direction and was given the position of CEO later on. In 2013 Dickerson proposed tweaking its Terms of Service and allowed selling of manufactured goods which were not taken positively by other sellers but in the end, it helped the company and boosted their sales and revenue. According to Venture Beat in 2013 Etsy sales grew from $895 million to $1.34 billion. And in 2014 the numbers went up 43 percent to a total of $1.93 billion. In 2015 Etsy had more than 1.5 million active sellers and debuted it IPO. Chart is taken from Marketingcharts.com In 2014 Etsy was number eight on top ten shopping websites and this shows us how big and how much market they share and had about 22 million buyers [citation]. According to Chris Bohn a Senior Data Engineer at Etsy and according to him they want to use big data to understand more about their customers which include both sellers and buyers. They would like to provide a rich and smooth experience and their end goal is buyers find their products easier and sellers be able to reach the right buyers. According to Bohn, they want to use Big Data, To know how people are different in their shopping habits across the geography of the world. Lets first start with what type of data architecture Etsy used to use and what changes they made for been able to change with the time and to accommodate big data analysis. Initially, Etsy used to use monolithic Postgres database which consisted of listings, users, sellers, buyers, conversations and forums. As the company grew and their user database grew so they had to shard horizontally. The front end was driven by PHP. Ross Snyder, a senior software engineer said: The sites uptime was not that great and regular maintenance windows and site deploys often dissolved into outages. This all lead to Etsy creating a middleware which would help with scaling the website performance and at the same time the middleware would decrease the number of SQL calls. Etsy named this middleware Sprouter which they planned on making open-source and using it for a long time but after using it for while they decided to abandon it as it required DBAs to write stored procedures for nearly every piece of si te functionality and created a bureaucracy developers had to go through to get functionality made. It was never open-sourced and was rest to death. Then they moved from Postgres to sharded MySQL databases. According to Synder the reason they used MySQL at that time was Flickr is using it on an enormous scale. It scales horizontally, basically, to near infinity, and theres no single point of failure-its all master to master replication. During this process, Etsy decided to do some analytics and copied the data from SQL back to a Postgres server which they called a BI server but what they did not realize is that they went back to the original thing they wanted to go away from and it was all back to zero. They also realized that Postgres is not the best option for performing analytic queries and it was really hard to get a huge amount of data into the database. Here Etsy unknowingly faced the Volume characteristic of the big data. They again started their hunt for finding an appropriate replacement and came across HP Enterprise Vertica. One of the first reason they selected HPE Vertica is because it derives from Postgres and it has a Berkeley license which can enable Etsy to take it private and make changes to the code accordingly and do not have to republish it to the community. Using hp Vertica boosted the efficiency of their queries by running them 50x-1000x faster. With Vertica, there is unlimited scalability and this is a great feature for Etsy as they were a growing company. Vertica also stores 10x to 30x more data per server and also has compression. Etsy at start faced a problem with outages mentioned before and Vertica can guarantee maximum uptime and eliminate failures. It is also an open architecture with support for Hadoop, R and other range of BI tools. Etsy used a data replication tool to copy the data over to Vertica used Verticas open architecture feature to build their internal tools for doing analytics on the data. The big data problem here was to prepare their database to be able to do some analytic work and use the data they have been collecting. With Vertica, Etsy was able to quickly and efficiently analyze 30 terabytes of data. Bohn says that the greatest benefits are accessibility and speed and that use of the tool has spread to all departments. The fact that queries that previously took many days to run, now run in minutes, provides a dramatic example of the level of incr eased productivity gained company-wide. Apart from all the amazon functionality, Vertica was able to save Etsy $80,000 a month by switching from amazon cloud. By using Vertica Etsy did not have to hire any new people as Vertica uses a lot of similarity with Postgres and their developers already had experience with it. Velocity It is the measure of how fast the data coming in and for Etsy, it been top ten websites for shopping it was generating a massive number of clicks which needed to be stored. Etsy wanted to use this data to figure out where their customers are clicking and at what point they are leaving the website. Etsy took it to next step and used this clickstream data and joined it with their data to find details about the customer and what their buying history was in the past. This is how Etsy can get some value out of the clickstream data as it is the just path of click what a consumer goes through. The second type of data that Etsy has is the transactional data which includes order values, the category of sales, purchase frequency, the amount paid and shipping preferences. Variety Etsy had clickstream data, data about sellers, buyers, forums, messages and lot of different types and before they used to use Postgres which is not ideal for handling the variety of data. But with Vertica, they now can store any variety of data. Volume When we talk about volume we are talking about an insanely large amount of data and in our case, Etsy already had 30 TB of data which needed to be transferred and stored. By entering the world of big data, the employees were able to do much more than before with very little time. The first result of this whole change was all employees started using it as getting results was much better and way faster than a traditional database. It was not that they were getting different results but the time from entering the query and getting the output was shortened. By adding Vertica Etsy was then able to get information in real time right away. This feature was used by them when they introduced postage on their website where sellers can use postage service provided by Etsy to ship their products. The engineers wanted to keep an eye on this feature and know how it is performing in real time which was made possible using Vertica. All the departments were able to use this functionality and the people from finance department said, Wow, I can run these financial reports that used to take days in literally seconds.. Within very short time Etsy had 200 Vertica accounts and had a total of 750 employees which shows us how much popular this new change was. One of the surprises which Etsy faced according to Chris Bohn is that when they installed Vertica they thought only their analysts would use but it was so easy and so popular that they had to buy more licenses for their users. Vertica was being used for many other ways such as for their internal dashboards, running financial reports and for testing too. The result of this project resulted in total revenue of $119 million for the first half of 2015, up 44% on the same period in 2014. The number of active buyers grew to 21.7 million and the number of active users grew to 1.5 million. Etsy is the go-to place for unique products and gifts. None of this would have been possible without their keen embracing of Big Data and analytics. This project was successful as not only it led to increase in revenue but it also led to change in companys culture. Generally, the change in culture leads to change in technology but at Etsy, the technology changed the way people did their job. According to Bohn This is technology that has driven the culture. Its really changed the way people do their job at Etsy. It really has been impactful. After this project, Etsy realized that they were spending too much on AWS and they can save that money by buying their own servers. Bohn said Wait a minute. This is crazy. We could actually buy our own servers. This is commodity hardware that this can run on, and we can run this in our own data center. We will get the data in faster because there are bigger pipes. Thats what Etsy did by creating Estydoop which has 200 plus nodes and they ended up saving a lot of money and it would not have been possible if they did not do the big data project. Another thing which Etsy realized is that the market was changing and now smartphones were becoming common and been used for e-commerce. Etsy was able to use big data to figure out what each customer on their smartphone doing on their website and used that data to find crossover points and to change things accordingly. By this way, Etsy was moving along with the developing technology and not been left behind. Citation [1] 5 Benefits of Big Data for E-Commerce Companies and Shoppers. SmartData Collective. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://www.smartdatacollective.com/seanmallonbizdaquk/410001/5-benefits-big-data-e-commerce-companies-and-shoppers. [2] A brief history of Etsy, from 2005 Brooklyn launch to 2015 IPO. VentureBeat. March 05, 2015. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://venturebeat.com/2015/03/05/a-brief-history-of-etsy-from-2005-brooklyn-launch-to-2015-ipo/. [3] Akter, Shahriar, and Samuel Fosso Wamba. Big data analytics in E-commerce: a systematic review and agenda for future research. SpringerLink. March 16, 2016. Accessed March 25, 2017. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12525-016-0219-0. [4] April 8, 2014 by MarketingCharts staff. Top 10 Shopping and Classifieds Websites #8211; March 2014. MarketingCharts. April 08, 2014. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://www.marketingcharts.com/updates/top-10-shopping-and-classifieds-websites-march-2014-41856/. [5] Big Datas Role in Etsys Product Development. InfoQ. Accessed March 25, 2017. https://www.infoq.com/interviews/big-data-etsy-product-development. [6] How Etsy Uses Big Data for eCommerce to Put Buyers and Sellers in the Best Light. BriefingsDirect Transcripts. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://www.briefingsdirecttranscriptsblogs.com/2016/04/how-etsy-uses-big-data-for-ecommerce-to.html. [7] Sean Gallagher Oct 3, 2011 1:59 pm UTC. When clever goes wrong: how Etsy overcame poor architectural choices. Ars Technica. October 03, 2011. [8] Accessed March 25, 2017. https://arstechnica.com/business/2011/10/when-clever-goes-wrong-how-etsy-overcame-poor-architectural-choices/. [9] The biggest surprise Etsy encountered when applying HP Vertica to search | #HPBigData2014. SiliconANGLE. August 13, 2014. Accessed March 25, 2017. [10] http://siliconangle.com/blog/2014/08/13/the-biggest-surprise-etsy-encountered-when-applying-hp-vertica-to-search-hpbigdata2014/. [11]The biggest surprise Etsy encountered when applying HP Vertica to search | #HPBigData2014. SiliconANGLE. August 13, 2014. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://siliconangle.com/blog/2014/08/13/the-biggest-surprise-etsy-encountered-when-applying-hp-vertica-to-search-hpbigdata2014/. [12] Vertica Advanced Analytics Offerings. Vertica Big Data SQL Analytics Platform Free Software Trials | Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/software-solutions/advanced-sql-big-data-analytics/try-now.html. [13] What does Etsys architecture look like today? High Scalability -. High Scalability. Accessed March 25, 2017. http://highscalability.com/blog/2016/3/23/what-does-etsys-architecture-look-like-today.html.

Jefferson and Hamilton Essay -- essays research papers

The post-revolutionary war period of the Unites States saw the establishment of the first party system and an enlarging gap in viewpoints between the wealthy and the common man. The contradictory views of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were primarily responsible for the rise of political parties from 1783-1800. Alexander Hamilton exerted the most influence in the new Federalist Party. He believed that only an enlightened ruling class could produce a stable and effective federal government. The government therefore needed the support of wealthy men. Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans defended more the rights of the common man and an agrarian society with little power from the federal government. His basic principle was "in general I believe the decisions of the people in a body will be more honest and more disinterested than those of wealthy men." The Republican Party attracted more of the common people while the Federalist Party drew support from the aristocracy. Although neither side was willing to admit to it, these institutions were known as the "first party system." Both parties stance on who should have more power in the government contributed to the largely divers views of the common man and the wealthy man. When the French Revolution grew to its most radical peak the Federalists reacted with horror as citizens overthrew the aristocracy. In launching the New Ship of State Hamilton said, "The cause of France is compared with that of America during its late Revolution. I own I do not like the comparison...well informed men must equally unite in the doubt whether this [free and good government] be likely to take place." Thomas Jefferson's response was "I still hope the Revolution will issue happily...The livery of the whole earth was depending on the issue of the contest, and was ever such a prize won with so little innocent blood?" Many Republicans even imitated French Jacobins in dress and in speaking. The difference between the Federalist and Republican social philosophies is most easily seen among their different reactions to the French Revolution. Federalists called for a national debt to be funded and hoped to create a large national bank credited by wealthy men. He defended it in a plan presented to Congress by claiming "where the authority of the government is general it can create corp... ...Sedition Acts exercise a power nowhere delegated to the Federal government...this commonwealth does declare that the said Alien and Sedition Acts are violations of the said Constitution." The resolutions nullified the laws and contributed to the rise of Republicanism and the fall of Federalism. The differing opinions on how the government in the post-Revolutionary war period should be run ultimately created the first rise in political parties. The Federalist belief in a government run by wealthy men and opposing Republican support for and agrarian society split the nations people in support of a government most beneficial to them. Differing reactions to the French Revolution showed the distinct difference in Federalist and Republican belief of who the government should be run under. The National Bank and the excise tax on liquor revealed differing views on how strictly the Constitution should be interpreted and the Alien and Sedition Acts reveal an attempt of one party to dissolve another. The contrasting views of Hamilton's Federalism and Jefferson's Republicanism were the ultimate contributors to splitting the nation on views and establishing the first political parties.

Against Animal Testing :: essays research papers

For decades humans have taken defenseless and innocent wild animals to foully abuse and test their experiments upon. They test powerful drugs and lotions upon the animals and record and write down the at times fatal side effects only to repeat the experiment again and again- regardless of the creatures' pain or suffering. In one experiment by the Proctor and Gamble company, scientists got hold of a batch of newly born baby mice and cut their toes off to test their theories upon. They were later help up in court for this matter- though disgustingly were let off. You may think that the pure terror on the faces of these animals alone would be enough to change peoples mind of whether it is right or wrong to test upon animals less fortunate they we. Is not the innocent look of fear upon the victims face enough to sicken and revolt you? But no, always it is 'for the good of us and the development of the modern world' have you ever heard- ' for the good of the animal kingdom'? I thought not. But that is all we are and ever will be. Animals. Whatever you may think our ancestors were primates, which climbed the trees and still do today. Agreed our IQ and brain is much more developed as is our features but without, we are same as those we lock up in wire cages to be stared and prodded at in Zoo's- the same as those creatures which we test our medicines and cosmetics upon- the same as the wretched creature above- bewildered and hurt wondering why its life is being tortured so and for what. Helpless creatures in our hands and instead or calming and loving them- we crush and break them. It is not as if we have need of the results gained by animal testing. Are there not enough types of shampoo already and body lotions to satisfy the world's needful demands? Or are the shampoos not good enough for our precious whims- are they not conditioned enough for our delicate hair? Is the washing up liquid not making the crystal glasses shiny enough? Now we have moved on to this subject, did I tell you how they check if their washing up liquid is poisonous or not? No- well you can bet your new classic clean Head and Shoulders on the fact that it wasn't humans they tested it on. Oh no. To check to see whether their new washing up liquid is safe enough and good enough for human use, the caring doting and loving scientists place fish into quantities of the mixture and record what happens to

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Success. It is something that everyone wants, but no one knows exactly what it is. Some believe it to be how many friends they have, how nice their car is or even being able to stay awake through graduation. I believe it is something different. I believe that success is determined by what a person does with the gifts and opportunities with which they were blessed. Our times at Powell High School have given us both those gifts and the opportunity. We have been fortunate enough to have several wonderful influences shape us into the people we are today. First of all, we should show our undying gratitude to our parents. They tolerated everything that we were able to put them through and they are here about to cry because we are leaving! Even though they seem abandoned, you don't have to worry too much, they will manage. I personally know that my mom has probably spent several nights sleepless wondering what she is going to do with my twin sister Danielle's and my rooms and what color she is going to paint them after we leave. As far as my dad is concerned, I'm sure that he will be ...

Product Failure (Malaysia) Essay

Product Failure Failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Product failure ranges from failure to sell the product to fracture of the product, in the worst cases leading to personal injury, the province of forensic engineering. The criteria for failure are heavily dependent on context of use, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. A situation considered to be a failure by one might be considered a success by another, particularly in cases of direct competition or a zero-sum game. Similarly, the degree of success or failure in a situation may be differently viewed by distinct observers or participants, such that a situation that one considers to be a failure, another might consider to be a success, a qualified success or a neutral situation. It may also be difficult or impossible to ascertain whether a situation meets criteria for failure or success due to ambiguous or ill-defined definition of those criteria. Finding useful and effective criteria, or heuristics, to judge the success or failure of a situation may itself be a significant task. Failure can be differentially perceived from the viewpoints of the evaluators. A person who is only interested in the final outcome of an activity would consider it to be an Outcome Failure if the core issue has not been resolved or a core need is not met. A failure can also be a process failure whereby although the activity is completed successfully, a person may still feel dissatisfied if the underlying process is perceived to be below expected standard or benchmark. Failure to carry out a task Failure to perceive Failure to anticipate Fail product in local market In Malaysia, there is a lot of product failure and it just too numerous to say it one by one, most of them, it did not even catch the public attention, basically, the public don’t even know the existence of the particular product. There is so much factors that can leads to product failure. Failure causes are defects in design, process, quality, or part application, which are the underlying cause of the failure or which initiate a process which eads to failure. Rather than the simple description of symptoms that many product users or process participants might use, the term failure cause refers to a rather complete description, including the pre-conditions under which failure occurs, how the thing was being used, proximate and ultimate/final causes (if known), and any subsidiary or resulting failures that result. The term is part of the engineering lexicon, especially of engineers working to test and debug p roducts or processes. Carefully observing and describing failure conditions, identifying whether failures are reproducible or transient, and hypothesizing what combination of conditions and sequence of events led to failure is part of the process of fixing design flaws or improving future iterations. The term may be applied to mechanical systems failure. One of the product/brand that fail in Malaysia is: M . Mobile or simply known as M. Mobile is an R&D and mobile communication design company based in Malaysia. M. Mobile is Malaysia’s first cell phone manufacturer and is also the world’s first Muslim-owned mobile phone R&D and marketing company in a partnership between Malaysia and China. This company is currently in operation under its parent company, Kosmo Technology Industrial Berhad Type: Berhad Founded: 2005 Headquarters: Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia Key people: Norhamzah Nordin,Chairman Industry: Telecommunications Products: Mobile phones Website: M. Mobile M. mobile’s products: Factors that leads to this brand failure The reason why this brand failed in malaysia market because: M. mobile cannot give a better satisfaction to the consumer compare to their competitor that are well established in mobile technology sector such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson , Samsung etc. Promotion (marketing) M. mobile cannot compete with their competitors in term of : Price Features Quality After sales service Promotion M. mobile should have promote their product and brand more aggressively since they enter a market where most of them already loyal to a particular brand, M. obile did not market their product as well as their brand effectively, therefore they able to capture only few attention from the public, most Malaysian don’t even know the existence of the brand. Price Price offered by M. mobile considered less expensive, but somehow, consumer nowadays always think, â€Å"even though it’s not very expensive, but it’s still money, does it worth the money? † instead of taking a risk of buying t he product which they don’t really know the background of the company, consumer prefer to spend their money on trusted brand for the same price or a bit more. Left picture is NOKIA 2690 and on the right picture is M. obile M10, both phone has a pretty similar specification and the price is almost the same(RM300+), most consumer will go for NOKIA because they want to avoid risk from buying unestablishrd brand. Features Most M. mobile product is a low end product and it does not offer variety of features compare to their competitors. As we know, consumer nowadays demand for the latest technology, therefore as a mobile phone manufacturer, knowing the consumer needs and want is the main priority in coming up with a new product, most of the product produced by this company does not reach consumer expectation who demand for better technology. Quality The quality of the product produced by this company proven not to be as good as the other brand’s products, the materials they use to make the product is low in quality, from the mainboard(interior) to the exterior of the phone. After sales service After sales service is the service provided by the company to the customer of their product, M. mobile does not offer a good after sales service compared to another company like nokia and sony ericsson. It shows that the company do not really think about building a long and strong relationship with the consumer. How the product could be successful In order for this brand to be successful, there are so many things that the company have to take into account, its not easy becoming a great company in consumer eyes, there are several things that the company have to take into consideration especially the strength of the competitors, in order to be successful, a company need to have an advantage that can overcome the competitor’s strength. This is the reason why R&D very important in coming up with new product. The 1st thing M. obile have to focus on is their promotion, promotion plays an important part in creating a good image in consumer mind, since there’s a lot of well established company in mobile phone sector, M. mobile have to make a huge action in promoting their brand and product. Doing aggressive marketing by keep on promoting the product and brand is the best way to create a good image in consumer mind, of course it will cost a lot, but the return is way better. Psychologic ally, It’s a human nature, the more we hear n see it, the more we favor it, thus it will create the sense of security towards the product or brand. Price, features and quality are related to each other, this is one of the most important things a company need to think about, they need to know what type of product they want to come out with in term of the product’s quality level and the variety of it features, therefore they can set the price for the product, The company have to make sure the price is reasonable with the quality and the features of the product or else consumer will favor the competitors, M. obile comes out with one new product called M10 and the price for the product is around rm300+,Nokia as well comes out with a new product which is nokia 2690 and the price is almost the same with M. mobile m10, both model provide almost the same features, but in term of quality, we know nokia is better, consumer will think, why choose m. mobile instead of nokia? M. mobile have to make sure their offer can overcome their competitors offer, therefore consumer will find the advantage of choosing M. mobile’s products. May be it will take some time for M. obile to keep pace with the other established company in term of product quality and technology, but by putting a correct price, the company can attract more market and the company will grow. A company have to know how important word of mouth and how dramatic change it can do with the influence of word of mouth, satisfied customer will tell the others how good the product is, dissatisfied customer will spread the bad things about the product, do not give a high expectation to the consumer because the possibility of getting dissatisfied customer is high. After sales service is one of the thing people nowadays always talk about, M. mobile have to make sure they can deliver a good after sales service so that their customer will spread a good deal with the others. It is important for M. mobile building a strong and long relationship with the customer because it can create brand loyalty, once customer loyal to the product, they will keep on purchasing the product and influence other people into buying the same product. Good after sales service shows that the company really care about their customer and customer loves it when the company cares about their rights.

My Motivational Touchstone Essay

I once spoke to a very well educated man whom I had never met before, have only spoken to him on the phone and found that he gave me some compelling thoughts that would change my life forever, He gave me courage and conviction that hopefully will make me whole again as a person. I am coming to the conclusion that I am writing a letter to myself and will be my personal motivational journal and success within myself. I could write for hours, days and weeks and tell a never ending story; however I must begin somewhere and end somewhere. My life of failure and true disappointments has been what I would call an educational disaster. I believe in the foundations of education, the roots of learning which stems from the roots of your soul and the passion in which you strive for. I pray for success and courage that I will make it. I want to do my best and like Florence Chadwick when she swam in the mighty ocean, she never saw the bottom, she only saw the shore line and sometimes that was even difficult, but with motivation, determination and most of all strength, she braved the darkest hours as well as the shining moments. Her arms and legs may have given out, but it certainly was her heart that did not quit. I will be brave in my mind, for I do not want my mental diseases to take over my heart and make me a quitter again. I have PTSD, and I have come up with an anagram for the 4 letters, Positive Thinking Shall Develop. This will be one of my motivation words that I will put by my mirror to make me smile and strive for that tassel of hope. I feel these two quotes represent my personality, the standards in which I live by and most of all, that I feel is motivation for me because it inspired me for two reasons, number one is education. I will find solace in knowing I have found my calling in health psychology with a concentration in PTSD and emotional, mental as well a physical abuse. (This happened to me). We cannot live better than in seeking to become better. † ? Socrates The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. Aristotle The above quotes will forever be my shore line and the sand will never be rocky, only perfect with beautiful sea shells.

Hardware maintenance for checking the regular running equipments Essay

†¢ periodic replacement of hardware resources to keep it according to changing atmosphere (e. g. developmental plan revisions) †¢ system software also requires timely maintenance (fixing bugs, developing newer versions, revisions, etc) †¢ reports must be seriously checked for their correlation with system requirements (creating error logs, testing strategies, performance measures, etc) †¢ Maintenance and updation of system documentation for future reference and updations. Remedial maintenance – It is performed to bring the system to running condition after correcting the hardware or software fault (Mawer, 2000). The remedial service is likely to include: †¢ Create a Help Desk concept which will log and action any reports from the customer in the event of a fault. †¢ On-site or remote login concept of issue resolution. †¢ Engaging a third party service to resolve and manage the resolution. †¢ Updating documentation every time an event has taken place. In this case both the technical and non-technical staff must be made aware of the support strategies so that their response time is optimized for better handling the issues of the customer timely and professionally. 1. Sequence of activities: It includes the activities which must take place in sequence: Activity (Tasks) Duration (Days) Preceded By A Working out the feasibility of the system 1 _ B Collection of information from different groups and creating data flow diagrams 3 A C Internal review of information collected and its validity with the management 2 B D Identifying the relationships between the entities 3 C E Define the degree of interaction between entities 2 D F Creating E-R Model and establishing cardinality ratios with distributed feature taken into account (as the Center has 5 sub locations in the city) 2 D,E. G Identifying Functional dependencies and others and then Normalization of relations 1 F H Converting the normalized relations to tables in database 2 G I Creating primary key and foreign key relationships and implementing business rules using integrity constraints 1 H J Creating interfaces and report generation techniques 3 I K Connecting the database tables with the interfaces and distributing the application to become geographical independent 3 J L Testing the system 2 K M Implementing the system across locations 2 L N Create maintenance plans and documentations 1 L,M. O Final review report after installation 1 L,M,N Advantage to the Bead Bar: The merits of the technology would envelope the very nature of the technology which the enterprise needs to focus. The following are the various advantageous factors: †¢ The Bead Bar would get a global recognition and would be accepted by all. It would create trust and confidence in the eyes of the people. †¢ Having an internet website would make possible that it markets itself to the global pool of the internet and gets accessible quite possibly. Customers can access it online and order for purchase of products and services. †¢ The store would be able to reach a greater domain of customers so that it can be a good source for expanding their business. †¢ The store would require less budget for marketing as the website, in the form of information system would get the direct and indirect marketing done by itself. †¢ It can also reduce the human errors of wrong deliveries and other related factors. Computerized system would make it error-free and would enhance greater satisfaction of service (Hoffer, 2002). †¢ It can also generate revenue by marketing other related companies and their products in their website space. †¢ It can render services to other companies via its website so that other businesses can purchase its products in bulk for their enterprise requirements facilitating B2C model of ecommerce. †¢ Payment systems can be made quite secure so that customers can pay online and are not troubled by the in-hand payments. †¢ The Bar would have enough mechanism to track their product list and its availability so that timely action can be taken to update. †¢ The customers get a greater facility to compare products and judge the best one before taking them. Physically doing so would have taken them a lot of effort and time. Conclusion Bead Bar has taken a right step in the light of technology and it must exploit the very supreme nature of the latest technology. It has taken a great step which would place it above all its competitors and would enhance the very nature of competition. It must also take care of the innovative techniques for getting the customers using the website and the frequent updations that would make efficient handling of the information. The use of information system would make the Jewelry superstore organize and restructure itself so that it is able to depict organizational thought in every activity and would handle every resource productively and optimally. References/Bibliography Barry Mawer (2000). Systems Maintenance. Hoffer A. Jeffrey (2002). Modern systems analysis and design, third edition. Pearson Education Korth (2002). Database Management systems. Navathe Elmasri (2002). Fundamentals of Database systems, fourth edition. Pearson Education.

Risk of infectious diseases at a rise due to incessant rain

A few days after ceaseless rain lashed the regions in Thane and stranded some localities, the risk of infectious diseases stares large at the residents. With a massive dumping ground right in front of the railways station at Vithalwadi and a sewer flowing in the rear, it seems like an open invitation to the various diseases, which increases manifold during monsoon. Khadegolwadi, which saw knee- deep waters on Friday could not unclog, though the water receded by a few centimetres.As it is a fully grown residential area, people spent their entire day cleaning their homes. Chocked drains, sewers and dumping grounds caused problems in the area. â€Å"Each time it rains, garbage along with diseases come to our house,† said Aarti Bhagwat, a resident. Her neighbour Preeti Pandey added,† We all know what sewers and dumping grounds in the vicinity means, malaria, dengue and other water borne diseases.†It may be noted that the Thane Municipal Corporation suspended an officer and recommended departmental enquiry against the other finding them a prima facia guilty of the problem. Complaining over that, another resident Sarita Kolhapure said,† suspending officials is of no use to us, it does not solve our problem. These past few days were pathetic for us, what will happen if such rain continues for next couple of months. † Similar problems persisted in different localities around the dumping site.â€Å"Garbage that flew with the rain got scattered all around as the potholed road was filled with dirty water,† said Karishma Tiwari, a housewife. City-based doctors warned against the risk of diseases in the rainy season. â€Å"People with a weak immune system fall prey to microbes that roam freely in the air during monsoon,† said Dr Kishor Gandecha. He added that garbage heaps rot more than usual in rains, which catalyses growth of disease causing virus and bacteria.â€Å"The best way to avoid disease is to wash hands with soap and drink boiled water,† he said. Suggesting other ways to keep diseases at bay, the doctors said, â€Å"People should avoid intake of stale or cut food, don't let water stagnate inside or near the homes and stay away from public places if one is suffering with viral fever of disease. They also enumerated signs of disease which include body ache, vomiting, pain in abdomen and loose motions are the first signs of the monsoon maladies. But, there are a number of measures that people can resort to†.

Barack Obama - Nobel Prize for Peace Lecture and Speech

Barack Obama Nobel Prize for Peace Acceptance Speech and Lecture delivered 10 December 2009, Oslo City Hall, Oslo, Norway Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world: I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. Its an award that speaks to our highest aspirations that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice. And yet, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history whove received this prize Schweitzer and King, Marshall and Mandela my accomplishments are slight. And then there are the men and women around the world whove been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice; those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering; the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened cynics. I cannot argue with those who find these men and women some known, some obscure to all but those they help to be far more deserving of this honor than I. But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek, one in which we are joined by 42 other countries including Norway in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks. Still, we are at war. And I am responsible1 for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill; and some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other. Now these questions are not new. War, in one form or another, appeared with the first man. At the dawn of history, its morality was not questioned; it was simply a fact, like drought or disease the manner in which tribes and then civilizations sought power and settled their differences. And over time, as codes of law sought to control violence within groups, so did philosophers and clerics and statesmen seek to regulate the destructive power of war. The concept of a just war emerged, suggesting that war is justified only when certain conditions were met: if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense; if the force used is proportional; and if, whenever possible, civilians are spared from violence. Of course, we know that for most of history, this concept of just war was rarely observed. The capacity of human beings to think up new ways to kill one another proved inexhaustible, as did our capacity to exempt from mercy those who look different or pray to a different God. Wars between armies gave way to wars between nations total wars in which the distinction between combatant and civilian became blurred. In the span of 30 years, such carnage would twice engulf this continent. And while its hard to conceive of a cause more just than the defeat of the Third Reich and the Axis powers, World War II was a conflict in which the total number of civilians who died exceeded the number of soldiers who perished. In the wake of such destruction, and with the advent of the nuclear age, it became clear to victor and vanquished alike that the world needed institutions to prevent another world war. And so a quarter century after the United States Senate rejected the League of Nations an idea for which Woodrow Wilson received this prize America led the world in constructing an architecture to keep the peace: a Marshall Plan, and a United Nations; mechanisms to govern the waging of war, treaties to protect human rights, prevent genocide, restrict the most dangerous weapons. In many ways, these efforts succeeded. Yes, terrible wars have been fought, and atrocities committed. But there has been no Third World War. The Cold War ended with jubilant crowds dismantling a wall. Commerce has stitched much of the world together. Billions have been lifted from poverty. The ideals of liberty and self-determination, equality, and the rule of law have haltingly advanced. We are the heirs of the fortitude and foresight of generations past, and it is a legacy for which my own country is rightfully proud. And yet, a decade into a new century, this old architecture is buckling under the weight of new threats. The world may no longer shudder at the prospect of war between two nuclear superpowers, but proliferation may increase the risk of catastrophe. Terrorism has long been a tactic, but modern technology allows a few small men with outsized rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale. Moreover, wars between nations have increasingly given way to wars within nations. The resurgence of ethnic or sectarian conflicts; the growth of secessionist movements, insurgencies, and failed states all these things have increasingly trapped civilians in unending chaos. In todays wars, many more civilians are killed than soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are sown, economies are wrecked, civil societies torn asunder, refugees amassed, children scarred. I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war. What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require the same vision, hard work, and persistence of those men and women who acted so boldly decades ago. And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace. We must begin by acknowledging a hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations, acting individually or in concert, will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified. I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King Jr. said in this same ceremony years ago: Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem. It merely creates new and more complicated ones. As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. Kings life work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know theres nothing weak, nothing passive, nothing naà ¯ve in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King. But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitlers armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaedas leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism. It is a recognition of history, the imperfections of man, and the limits of reason. I raise this point, I begin with this point because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today no matter what the cause. And at times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the worlds sole military superpower. Yet, the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions not just treaties and declarations that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity. So yes, the instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. And yet this truth must coexist with another: that no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy. The soldiers courage and sacrifice is full of glory expressing devotion to country, to cause, to comrades in arms. But war itself is never glorious; and we must never trumpet it as such. So part of our challenge is reconciling these two seemingly irreconcilable truths: that war is sometimes necessary; and war at some level is an expression of human folly. Concretely, we must direct our effort to the task that President Kennedy called for long ago. Let us focus, he said, on a more practical, more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions. A gradual evolution of human institutions. What might this evolution look like? What might these practical steps be? To begin with, I believe that all nations, strong and weak alike, must adhere to standards that govern the use of force. I, like any head of state, reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend my nation. Nevertheless, I am convinced that adhering to standards, international standards, strengthens those who do and isolates and weakens those who dont. The world rallied around America after the 9/11 attacks and continues to support our efforts in Afghanistan, because of the horror of those senseless attacks and the recognized principle of self-defense. Likewise, the world recognized the need to confront Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait a consensus that sent a clear message to all about the cost of aggression. Furthermore, America in fact, no nation can insist that others follow the rules of the road if we refuse to follow them ourselves. For when we dont, our actions appear arbitrary and undercut the legitimacy of future interventions, no matter how justified. And this becomes particularly important when the purpose of military action extends beyond self-defense or the defense of one nation against an aggressor. More and more, we all confront difficult questions about how to prevent the slaughter of civilians by their own government, or to stop a civil war whose violence and suffering can engulf an entire region. I believe that force can be justified on humanitarian grounds, as it was in the Balkans, or in other places that have been scarred by war. Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later. Thats why all responsible nations must embrace the role that militaries with a clear mandate can play to keep the peace. Americas commitment to global security will never waver. But in a world in which threats are more diffuse and missions more complex America cannot act alone. America alone cannot secure the peace. This is true in Afghanistan. This is true in failed states like Somalia, where terrorism and piracy is joined by famine and human suffering. And sadly, it will continue to be true in unstable regions for years to come. The leaders and soldiers of NATO countries, and other friends and allies, demonstrate this truth through the capacity and courage theyve shown in Afghanistan. But in many countries, there is a disconnect between the efforts of those who serve and the ambivalence of the broader public. I understand why war is not popular, but I also know this: The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it. Peace requires responsibility. Peace entails sacrifice. Thats why NATO continues to be indispensable. Thats why we must strengthen U.N. and regional peacekeeping, and not leave the task to a few countries. Thats why we honor those who return home from peacekeeping and training abroad to Oslo and Rome, to Ottawa and Sydney, to Dhaka and Kigali. We honor them not as makers of war, but as of wagers but as wagers of peace. Let me make one final point about the use of force. Even as we make difficult decisions about going to war, we must also think clearly about how we fight it. The Nobel Committee recognized this truth in awarding its first prize for peace to Henry Dunant the founder of the Red Cross, and a driving force behind the Geneva Conventions. Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct. And even as we confront a vicious adversary that abides by no rules, I believe the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. That is what makes us different from those whom we fight. That is a source of our strength. That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And that is why I have reaffirmed Americas commitment to abide by the Geneva Conventions. We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. And we honor we honor those ideals by upholding them not when its easy, but when it is hard. Ive spoken at some length to the question that must weigh on our minds and our hearts as we choose to wage war. But let me now turn to our effort to avoid such tragic choices, and speak of three ways that we can build a just and lasting peace. First, in dealing with those nations that break rules and laws, I believe that we must develop alternatives to violence that are tough enough to actually change behavior. For if we want a lasting peace, then the words of the international community must mean something. Those regimes that break the rules must be held accountable. Sanctions must exact a real price. Intransigence must be met with increased pressure and such pressure exists only when the world stands together as one. One urgent example is the effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and to seek a world without them. In the middle of the last century, nations agreed to be bound by a treaty whose bargain is clear: All will have access to peaceful nuclear power; those without nuclear weapons will forsake them; and those with nuclear weapons will work towards disarmament. I am committed to upholding this treaty. It is a centerpiece of my foreign policy. And Im working with President Medvedev to reduce America and Russias nuclear stockpiles. But it is also incumbent upon all of us to insist that nations like Iran and North Korea do not game the system. Those who claim to respect international law cannot avert their eyes when those laws are flouted. Those who care for their own security cannot ignore the danger of an arms race in the Middle East or East Asia. Those who seek peace cannot stand idly by as nations arm themselves for nuclear war. The same principle applies to those who violate international laws by brutalizing their own people. When there is genocide in Darfur, systematic rape in Congo, repression in Burma there must be consequences. Yes, there will be engagement. Yes, there will be diplomacy. But there must be consequences when those things fail. And the closer we stand together, the less likely we will be faced with the choice between armed intervention and complicity in oppression. This brings me to a second point: the nature of the peace that we seek. For peace is not merely the absence of visible conflict. Only a just peace based on the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting. It was this insight that drove drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after the Second World War. In the wake of devastation, they recognized that if human rights are not protected, peace is a hollow promise. And yet, too often these words are ignored. For some countries, the failure to uphold human rights is excused by the false suggestion that these are somehow Western principles, foreign to local cultures or stages of a nations development. And within America, theres long been a tension between those who describe themselves as realists or idealists a tension that suggests a stark choice between the narrow pursuit of interests or an endless campaign to impose our values around the world. I reject these choices. I believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please; choose their own leaders or assemble without fear. Pent-up grievances fester, and the suppression of tribal and religious identity can lead to violence. We also know that the opposite is true. Only when Europe became free did it finally find peace. America has never fought a war against a democracy, and our closest friends are governments that protect the rights of their citizens. No matter how callously defined, neither Americas interests nor the worlds are served by the denial of human aspirations. So even as we respect the unique culture and traditions of different countries, America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal. We will bear witness to the quiet dignity of reformers like Aung Sang Suu Kyi, to the bravery of Zimbabweans who cast their ballots in the face of beatings, to the hundreds of thousands who have marched silently through the streets of Iran. It is telling that the leaders of these governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation. And it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to make clear that these movements these movements of hope and history they have us on their side. Let me also say this: The promotion of human rights cannot be about exhortation alone. At times, it must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. I know that engagement with repressive regimes lacks the satisfying purity of indignation. But I also know that sanctions without outreach condemnation without discussion can carry forward only a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door. In light of the Cultural Revolutions horrors, Nixons meeting with Mao appeared inexcusable and yet it surely helped set China on a path where millions of its citizens have been lifted from poverty and connected to open societies. Pope John Pauls engagement with Poland created space not just for the Catholic Church, but for labor leaders like Lech Walesa. Ronald Reagans efforts on arms control and embrace of perestroika not only improved relations with the Soviet Union, but empowered dissidents throughout Eastern Europe. Theres no simple formula here. But we must try as best we can to balance isolation and engagement, pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time. Third, a just peace includes not only civil and political rights it must encompass economic security and opportunity. For true true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want. It is undoubtedly true that development rarely takes root without security; it is also true that security does not exist where human beings do not have access to enough food, or clean water, or the medicine and shelter they need to survive. It does not exist where children cant aspire to a decent education or a job that supports a family. The absence of hope can rot a society from within. And thats why helping farmers feed their own people, or nations educate their children and care for the sick, is not mere charity. Its also why the world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, more famine, more mass displacement all of which will fuel more conflict for decades. For this reason, it is not merely scientists and environmental activists who call for swift and forceful action. Its military leaders in my own country and others who understand our common security hangs in the balance. Agreements among nations. Strong institutions. Support for human rights. Investments in development. All these are vital ingredients in bringing about the evolution that President Kennedy spoke about. And yet, I do not believe that we will have the will, the determination, the staying power, to complete this work without something more; and thats the continued expansion of our moral imagination an insistence that theres something irreducible that we all share. As the world grows smaller, you might think it would be easier for human beings to recognize how similar we are to understand that were all basically seeking the same things, that we all hope for the chance to live out our lives with some measure of happiness and fulfillment for ourselves and our families. And yet, somehow, given the dizzying pace of globalization, the cultural leveling of modernity, it perhaps comes as no surprise that people fear the loss of what they cherish in their particular identities their their race, their tribe, and perhaps most powerfully their religion. In some places, this fear has led to conflict. At times, it even feels like were moving backwards. We see it in the Middle East, as the conflict between Arabs and Jews seems to harden. We see it in nations that are torn asunder by tribal lines. And most dangerously, we see it in the way that religion is used to justify the murder of innocents by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam, and who attacked my country from Afghanistan. These extremists are not the first to kill in the name of God. The cruelties of the Crusades are amply recorded. But they remind us that no Holy War can ever be a just war. For if you truly believe that you are carrying out divine will, then there is no need for restraint no need to spare the pregnant mother, or the medic, or the Red Cross worker, or even a person of one owns [sic] faith. Such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace, but I believe its incompatible with the very purpose of faith: For the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Adhering to this law of love has always been the core struggle of human nature. For we are fallible. We make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil. Even those of us with the best of intentions will at time[s] fail to right the wrongs before us. But we do not have to think that human nature is perfect for us to still believe that the human condition can be perfected. We do not have to live in an idealized world to still reach for those ideals that will make it a better place. The non-violence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached their fundamental faith in human progress that must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey. For if we lose that faith if we dismiss it as silly or naà ¯ve; if we divorce it from the decisions that we make on issues of war and peace then we lose whats best about humanity. We lose our sense of possibility. We lose our moral compass. Like generations have before us, we must reject that future. As Dr. King said at this occasion so many years ago, I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the isness of mans present condition makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal oughtness that forever confronts him. Let us reach for the world that ought to be that spark of the divine that still st[i]rs within each of our souls. Somewhere today, in the here and now, in the world as it is, a soldier sees hes outgunned, but stands firm to keep the peace. Somewhere today, in this world, a young protestor awaits the brutality of her government, but has the courage to march on. Somewhere today, a mother facing punishing poverty still takes the time to teach her child, scrapes together what few coins she has to send that child to school because she believes that a cruel world still has a place for that childs dreams. Let us live by their example. We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of depravation, and still strive for dignity. Clear-eyed, we can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that for that is the story of human progress; thats the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you very much. Source: WhiteHouse.gov