The movie essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The movie - Essay Example It is important to note and mention that the all the political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats are never willing to cross the aisle or compromise their tough political stance at the expense of national issues and good. A practical instance of this situation as captioned in the movies shows a Republican member of the houses heckling down President Obama. At the very minimum, he ought to have shown respect and reverence to the head of state, but the fact that he heckles shows the level of intolerance, tough stance and hate along political party lines. The movie also explains the enmity or difficult to agree or compromise to the fact that the elected politicians gather in rallies to vent out hatred towards to their opponents of other different parties. Thus, the movie represents the level of intolerance by the public due to political party loyalty. It is thus safe to assert and mention that it is the political parties which got use â€Å"here.† Specifically, it is the Republican Party and the Democratic Party which got the political landscape and environment to be that heated and divisive. It is the political parties that are also able and capable of getting the country out of the acrimonious state of affairs. Borrowing an example from the past, where political parties would have their members live in Washington to a state where they were friends and developed working relationship. In the seventies and eighties, all the congress members regardless of their political parties lived in Washington for a long period of time to the extent where they tore down their political acrimony and tough stance (Iyengar and Hahn, 19). As a remedy, the movie alludes that the political parties ought to tone down their loyalty of political parties and compromise on issues of relevance and national importance. The media and internet by extension has also helped to fuel the political divide

Statement of problem, opportunity, objectives Essay Example for Free

Statement of problem, opportunity, objectives Essay Alan Baird, the founding figure of Stitch it, a primarily mall based service provider which officers alteration services to the private and public sector, was now the company’s CEO. In 1990, Baird sold Stitch it to a business group after sales and income had begun to slow. After selling his company and having stayed on as CEO, he oversaw the growth of the company and overall expansion form the initial 3 stores under Baird’s direct leadership, to today’s 84 stores throughout Canada and the United States. Now having the opportunity to buy back his business venture, his daughter, Jennifer Baird has expressed her interest I becoming an executive in the Stitch It Group. Analysis of situation Although Jennifer Baird has graduated from The University of Western Ontario with a bachelor’s degree in the administrative and commercial studies program in 2000, she lacks real-time experience to go into the Stitch It Group and lead as an executive. She would have a difficult time attempting to adjust to the fast paced environment in addition to having the support from her peers or the respect from her employees without having earned her â€Å"stripes.† To address the concern, Alain Baird proposed a plan of attack to expose his daughter to the much needed experience by completing a 10-year plan. The plan called for her to assume the role of a local store moving up to managing operations to various stores and then rotating thru positions in business operations, accounting department, marketing and human resources before heading into an executive position Identification and evaluation of alternatives Alternative #1: Jennifer Baird can continue with her education and her goal to be a top executive by taking courses and earning a degree in business management. Advantage: She would take this education into a tentative 10-year program her father will develop and expose her to real-life situations with the day-to-day operations of the group. Disadvantage: This option might deter her father from purchasing the group in the manner that it would be up to an additional four years of schooling before she can accompany and assist him the business operations. Alternative #2: Alan Baird takes his daughter, Jennifer Baird, under his wing and shows her â€Å"the ropes† after completing her education at The University of Western Ontario and assigns her to and extended internship program after he accepts the offer to buy back his previous business group. Advantage: Alan Baird fulfills his dream to operate a family business; in addition he assures himself his daughter obtains the necessary exposure to the successes and failure of running the business. Disadvantage: Within time, Alan Baird might not have the physical stamina to run the family business and keep up with his daughter’s training. Decision, course of action, implementation Alternative #2 is the best course of action available to Alan Baird. By taking his daughter under his leadership, he can share first-hand experience and knowledge to overcome and continue in the groups’ success and he can have the family business he always sought after.

Religious Experience And Its Kinds Religion Essay

Religious Experience And Its Kinds Religion Essay First of all what is a religion. According to Immanuel Kant Religion is the recognition of all duties as divine commands, not as sanctions, i.e. arbitrary and contingent ordinances of a foreign will, but as essential laws of any free will as such . Another popular definition is by Karl Marx Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point dhonneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. I can go on and on, there are countless definitions of religion. My personal definition of religion is that it is a state of mind in which an individual feels a need to be subject to a superior being, and therefore makes these beliefs as a way of his or her everyday life. They are several types of religion Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hindu, Buddhism, etc. But the major types of religion are Christianity and Islam. Every religion is believed to have p eople who have had a spiritual or religious experience. All these religions have some popular figures that have had an encounter with a supernatural being and have told the story of this encounter which has turned their lifes around for the better. They believe that this experience is scared, For example they are other popular examples of these experiences, in islam the Great Prophet Muhammad was said to be in a cave on Jabal al-Nour, when he received his first revelation from Allah (Quran 96). Arjuna was in a chariot on a battlefield, when Krishna revealed his divinity to him. Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, was bathing in a river when he was taken into the presence of God, and shown that there was one divine reality behind the cosmos (Guru Granth Sahib p.1). This examples show that religious experiences are very scared in religion, and play a very important role in a religious individuals everyday life. There are different ways to look at religious experiences; we can look at its universality, Diversity and its importance to religion. Universality: Its is a universal phenomenon, which is anyone at any point in time could experience, for example in the bible when Moses was out tending to his father-in-laws sheep, when he suddenly saw a burning bush from which God spoke to him (Exodus 3:1-4), he had his experience while tending to animals, which shows it could happen at any point in time in our everyday lives. From research and studies its been proved that spiritual or religious experiences has always been in our society. Diversity: There are different types of religious experiences; just the same way there are different types of people and different types of religion, but at the same time they are also some similarities which makes religious experiences very unique and rare in our society. Importance: To religion, religious experience is has so many importance, it is sometimes a life changing experience for example in the bible when Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest the Christians, Jesus appeared to him in form of a bright light which blinded him for 3 days (Acts (9:1-11). After the experience he changed his name to Paul and joined the Christian community. Apart from being a life changer , religious experiences also alters a persons mentality, the way he or she views life, fellow human beings and the environment. During my research I saw that there could be two versions of religious experiences namely the weak version and the strong version; in 1896 William James in his The Will to Believe describes the versions as the strong version contends that religious experiences are evidence for the existence of God or other supernatural beings for everyone, whereas the weak version holds that they are only evidence for such things for the experiencer. According to my class note there are different kinds of religious experience which are namely regenerative, charismatic, and mystical. Regenerative religious: is one in which the experiencer undergoes a life transformation a conversion. Elsewhere this kind of experience is expressed as experiencing religion, experiencing salvation, or being delivered from evil. Through such experiences, individuals often find their lives to be changed, filled with meaning and newness, and full of love, joy, and hope. Along with conversion and salvation, another facet of the regenerative experience is moral transformation. In this case, prior to the experience, the individual may feel a sense of sin, guilt, or the inability to do what he or she knows to be morally appropriate. Upon having the regenerative religious experience, she senses that sin and guilt have been removed and a new vision of goodness is seen and sought after; a new or renewed emphasis on moral duties ensues in ones life. Such example of such an experience could be found in the bible when Moses was out tending to his father-in-laws sheep, when he suddenly saw a bur ning bush from which God spoke to him (Exodus 3:1-4). This experience of the burning bush (conversation we God) changed his life and made him the man we all know him as. Charismatic experience: This is a type of experience in which special abilities, gifts, or blessings are manifested. Prophecy, divinely inspired revelation or interpretation. Although prophecy is perhaps most commonly associated with Judaism and Christianity, it is found throughout the religions of the world, both ancient and modern. In its narrower sense, the term prophet (Greek: prophutus, interpreter, expounder [of divine will]) refers to an inspired person who believes that he has been sent by his god with a message to tell. In a broader sense, the word can refer to anybody who utters the will of a deity, often ascertained through visions, dreams, or the casting of lots; the will of the deity also may be spoken in a liturgical setting. The nature of prophecy is twofold: either inspired (by visions or revelatory auditions) or acquired (by learning certain techniques). In many cases both aspects are present. The goal of learning certain prophetic techniques is to reach an ecstatic state in which revelations can be received. That state might be reached through the use of music, dancing, drums, violent bodily movement, and self-laceration. The ecstatic prophet is regarded as being filled with the divine spirit, and in this state the deity speaks through him. Ecstatic oracles, therefore, are generally delivered by the prophet in the first-person singular pronoun and are spoken in a short, rhythmic style. Mystical experience: which, as described by James, includes four distinct characteristics: 1) Ineffability: the experience cannot be adequately described, if at all. 2) Noetic quality: the experiencer believes that she has learned something important from the experience. 3) Transiency: the experience is temporary and the experiencer soon returns to a normal state of mind. 4) Passivity: the experience occurs without conscious decision or control and it cannot be brought to happen at will. Some people claim to have experienced God in such an intense way, that they have literally been in the presence of God. Some people also believe they have become one with God at certain times. People who claim to have such experiences are often called Mystics. It is common for Mystics to use a variety of spiritual techniques, such as meditation, to come into the presence of God in this special way. Mystical experiences take different forms, but a common theme among many of them is identity or union with God in Western religion, or with Absolute Reality Brahman or nirvana or the dao in Eastern religion. A description of a mystical experience within the Advaita VedÄ nta school of Hinduism is given by Shankara. In my research I found more kinds of religious experience, first. Numinous: The German thinker Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) argues that there is one common factor to all religious experience, independent of the cultural background. In his book The Idea of the Holy (1923) he identifies this factor as the numinous. According to him the numinous has two aspects namely mysterium tremendum he explains this as having the tendency to put fear into the host, and the second is mysterium fascinas this has the opposite, which is the tendency to fascinate and attract. The numinous experience is said to describe the feeling that God is very different and superior to us. Rudolf Otto sees the numinous as the only kind religious experience. He states: There is no religion in which it [the numinous] does not live as the real innermost core and without it no religion would be worthy of the name (Otto: 1972) Miracles: This is usually said to happen when God acts in a special way in the world, which go against the laws of nature. In the bible Jesus the son of God exhibited lots of miracle; the bible says miracles could happen through any medium. And the bible also says that God works in mysterious ways. So therefore miracles as far as religion is consigned are very significant especially in Christianity. Ecstasy: this is the kind of experience where by the experiencers spirit lives the body, to go and communicate with the higher beings. This kind of religious experience is very similar to that which a shaman experiences. Enthusiasm: This the kind of experience whereby a scared power or being enters into the body or mind of a person and uses the body to manifest supernatural features such as miracles, etc and also uses the person to communicate its message to the world. The person who is used is called a medium. This kind of religious experience reminds me of the term we used in class Avatara the similarity is that the being enters in to a human body. Now lets look at how the science worldviews and translates religious experiences, according to in class video shown by my instructor science has explains religious experience as an epilepsy of the temporal lobe which causes the host to enter a trance and could make him or her believe that they just had an encounter with a supernatural being. It also showed that electronic devices could also cause an individual with a sensitive brain to hallucinate making them see and believe in things that are not actually there. According to the neurotheologist Andrew B. Newberg, neurological processes which are driven by the repetitive, rhythmic stimulation which is typical of human ritual, and which contributes to the delivery of transcendental feelings of connection to a universal unity. However, that physical stimulation alone is not sufficient to generate transcendental unitive experiences. For this to occur they say there must be a blending of the rhythmic stimulation with ideas. Once this occ urs à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ritual turns a meaningful idea into a visceral experience. Moreover they say that humans are compelled to act out myths by the biological operations of the brain due to what they call the inbuilt tendency of the brain to turn thoughts into actions. The scientists have been able to also show that religion and its beliefs are natural, that man always feels the need to believe in something, a higher and superior being. So therefore science explains religious experiences in another way and gives us all another point of view. In conclusion Religion experience from my point of view and experience is that they are real, they are actually cases where a being has manifested itself to a human being and also there cases where people have lied about these experiences, which has also put doubt the minds of some people that religious experiences do not exist, but because of my beliefs as a practicing Christian i believe that God could communicate with human beings thru different mediums. Work Citied. http://www.thatreligiousstudieswebsite.com/Religious_Studies/Phil_of_Rel/God/religious_experience_intro.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_experience http://atheism.about.com/od/argumentsforgod/a/religexperience.htm The Holy Bible (Authorized King James Version) Comparative religion slides

A report on Value Added Tax Essay -- Economics

A report on Value Added Tax Introduction Value Added Tax originated in France in 1954 and is under implementation in more than hundred countries. Value Added Tax is perceived by many as means to promote neutrality and uniformity of tax burden and to provide incentives for increased productivity and industrialization. The spread of VAT to the developed and the developing countries alike certainly, makes for an interesting study. Financial Times (London) too stressed the growing importance of VAT when it observed in its centennial review â€Å"The economic and technological changes of the second half of the century have made VAT the quintessential modern tax†. It will not be an exaggeration if one were to say that the emergence of the VAT as an important and elastic source of revenue over the last four decades is unparalleled in the history of taxation. Despite the widespread proclamation of VAT, there have been difficulties in implementing VAT in its true spirit like in the case of Argentina, Brazil, Canada and India. VAT has been introduced in more than 120 countries – developed, developing and those economies, which are in transition. There have also been attempts to introduce Value Added Tax in USA, which however has preferred to retain the Retail Sales Tax system. Yet, those difficulties notwithstanding, it can be said that Value Added Tax system definitely has its advantages and is certainly recommended for most economies, particularly the developing ones. Definition â€Å"Value Added Tax is a tax on the value added at each stage of production and distribution process and can be aptly defined as one of the forms of consumption taxation since the value added by a firm represents the difference between its receipts and cost of purchased inputs.† Need for VAT Value Added Tax is one of the most radical reforms that have been proposed for the Indian economy after years of political and economic debate. The reasons for advocating Value Added Tax is that it will replace a complicated tax structure that will also do away with the fraudulent practices. Following are some of the most important benefits if VAT is introduced. †¢ VAT will encourage and result in a better-administered system that will close avenues of tax evasion. The taxpayers will also be compelled to keep proper records of their sales and purchases. VAT .. ...center for the revenue loss for states from the change over. The center has ensured that this will not be so and has assured compensation in case of deficits. If VAT system is adopted there would be no exemptions or incentives. This can adversely affect some business houses. To crown all this there was also political opposition fearing disfavor of the trading community and the resulting political fallout. VAT – the way forward In order to make the VAT a thorough success following could be few suggestions. * The deadline for all legislations and computerizations should be same across the states. * VAT should be implemented by all the states at the same time. * Laws regarding VAT should be uniform across all the states and there should be no disparity among the states. * There should be a monitoring mechanism at the central to overlook the new system. * A lot of changes have to be made in ancillary legislation (income tax, company law etc.) to ensure VAT compatibility. Bibliography 1. www.ciionline.org 2. The Indian Express dt. June 24, 2004 3. The Economic Times dt. 10-03-04, 15-06-04, 18-06-04 & 27-07-04 4. Magazines & journals

Edward Jenner, and Jane Jacobs Essay

This study gives an account of two authors’ works, Edward Jenner and Jane Jacobs who unusually employed scientific methods while researching and writing their novels. The study backs up on this proclamation by providing example and evidence from their text in reference to the books, â€Å"The Death and Life of Great American Cities† by Jane Jacobs and â€Å"Vaccination against small pox† by Edward Jenner. Although, both writers belong to completely different genre where one is a surgeon and the other an urban planner, both used logical explanation providing a method. In other words both are empiricists. Empiricism is a hypothesis of wisdom which states that knowledge crops up from experience. Edward Jenner’s work: Edward Jenner established a method which indicated that vaccination was an effective way of obstructing smallpox. For countless centuries, smallpox overwhelmed mankind. In current period we do not have to be concerned about it and all the credit goes to the incredible effort of Edward Jenner and afterward progress from his accomplishments. The famous scientist, in his three revolutionary expositions contains his proof in support of vaccination and illustrates individual cases. The once-feared curse of smallpox has been eliminated by blockade inoculation. Edward Jenner, in his works on Smallpox, very thoroughly documents all of his cases. In the background of medical science in the 18th century, this study was a major advancement as it takes up countless fittings of contemporary investigational science we take for-granted today: neutrality, hypothesis, and most significantly, reproducibility. Jenner creates a persuasive case that is beached upon information and direct surveillance in spite of the lack of severe controls and precise arithmetical examination. Edward became aware of the tradition that milkmaids who had cowpox could not acquire smallpox, a sickness which affects cattle. Jenner used a scientific method which included developing a hypothesis, formulating an experiment, performing the experiment, and taking comprehensive notes used to verify or invalidate the hypothesis. He describes many of his cases including that of Joseph Merret, Sarah Portlock and Mary Barge who all had smallpox as a result of different circumstances. Edward Jenner than made an observation as he writes â€Å"As I have observed, they who have had the smallpox, and are employed in milking cows which are infected with the cow-pox, either escape the disorder, or have sores on the hands without feeling any general indisposition† (Edward Jenner, pg 15). He then conducted experiments in order to prove this hypothesis. Jenner injected the cowpox virus into a hale and hearty boy named James Phipps who was eights years old. Afterward, he intentionally infused the smallpox virus into the boy. The boy did not surrender to smallpox, even after repetitive injections. Jenner conducted this experiment on a total of thirteen patients using cowpox as a vaccine and thus reached to the result, â€Å"After the many fruitless attempts to give the smallpox to those who had had the cow-pox, it did not appear†. (Edward Jenner, pg 29) Jane Jacobs work: The other example used here of work by research and methodology is of Jane Jacobs. The evidence of her work tactics as methodical is taken from her novel â€Å"The Death and Life of Great American Cities†. Jane Jacobs pioneering work is over three decades old which not only disrupted the conservative ideas on the construction of cities and assisted in reshaping city development, but she did this as an unskillful and as a woman, both historically frowned on in the world of academic psychiatry. With graceful and expressive writing style, Jane’s work guides us to consider every ingredient of parks, sidewalks, district, administration and economy, as a collaborative element encircling both, structure and going further to the implementation dynamics of our environment. Jane Jacobs acquired no proper education in architecture or urban development. She relied on personal interpretation of her environment in her town Greenwich in New York City to provide material for her accusations against the imposing gurus of the architectural occupation. Jacobs starts off by making an observation of brief history of where recent city development came from. â€Å"The Death and Life of Great American Cities† mainly contains observations made by common sense alongside statistical evidence, finances, sociology and values at the base of the author’s opinion. In her point of view, the muddle we identify as cities nowadays emerged from Utopian futurist from Europe and America in the beginning of 19th century. Jacobs claimed that modern system for of planning cities discards the city because it shows no regard to people residing in a society exemplified by layered complications and showing havoc. Now planners use reasoning based on presumptions to find ideology by which to plan cities. Of these strategies, the most ferocious was urban restitution; the most common was separation of uses (i. e. housing and business). She believes that these policies damages societies and inventive economies by forming remote, deviant urban areas. For Jacobs, the solution to this problem, leading to victorious city rests on one word: diversity. In the writers’ perception, this deficiency in diversification results in financial decline, slums, felony, and terrors that are all too known to listeners of the evening news. Cities that function in finest way, utilizes an extensive range of varied interests that draw people and not repel them. Unfortunately, administrator and social planners always believe that planning from the top is better always better than taking and initiative from the bottom. Jacobs concludes that all of these plans persist to apply pressure on the modern city, and that all of them are a failure. Jane Jacobs takes us on an instructive journey throughout the tribulations of modern urban foundation which is synthetically engineered to meet political and financial program. After reading this, we have a greater and clearer understanding of the inherent character of our cities as foundations should be. References Jenner, Edward. 1996. Vaccination against Smallpox. Published by Prometheus Books Hopkins, Donald. 2002. The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History. Published by the University of Chicago Press Jacobs, Jane. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Published by Vintage books Lynch, Kevin. 1960. The Image of the City. Published by The MIT Press Bazin, Herve. 2000. The Eradication of Smallpox: Edward Jenner and the First and Only Eradication of a Human Infectious Disease. Published by Academic Press

Citizenship: How Big a Problem Is the Use of Child Labour Today Essay

Child labour is often seen only to occur in third world countries but this is not the case. Child labour occurs all over the world and the brutality and cruelty of this work varies. Although child labour is seen as a bad thing, for the children and families living in their poor conditions, child labour is seen as necessary for the family to live as it is an essential income. UNICEF estimates that around 150 million children aged 5-14 in developing countries, about 16 per cent of all children in this age group, are involved in child labour. Therefore child labour is still a big problem in our world today especially as some children are forced to work in dangerous, unhygienic, life threatening conditions. Not only does is it harmful to their physical body it also effects their education as some children drop out of education to work. Even though many organisations and charities attempt to stop child labour or at least make the conditions suitable for children, child labour is still seen as a big problem in the 20th century. The more children are forced to work, the fewer opportunities there are for adults to earn a living. By driving down adult wages and depriving children of education, child labour ensures that poverty will be passed down from generation to generation. If children are used as the only income for a family an employer can take advantage of this vulnerability and use it to make work as cheap as possible because the child will work for anything as long as he is providing some sort of income. Child labour is a problem because children work long hours, often exposed to hazardous chemicals and made to use dangerous tools and machinery that are inappropriate to their mental and physical development. In agriculture they use acid, dangerous pesticides without skin protection, so this chemical are able to touch the skin causing damage and severe health problems. An example of when employers use child labour because it is cheap is with Vinod’s story. Vinod is an Indian 10 year old boy who lived in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. Manufactures employed him because he was cheap and had small hands and nimble fingers which were perfect for the job of weaving carpets, which was where he worked for 2 years without receiving a single rupee for a year’s work. Vinod worked long hours and was exploited to working conditions which were unacceptable. By working these long hours he was made ill and being squashed and sat in uncomfortable positions he could have suffered from malformed bone structure. He did not attend school, so the chances of him gaining a better job in later life were highly unlikely. If Vinod made mistakes he was punished starkly. He had to use dangerous tools such as a sharp knife to turn the carpet knots but when cuts or wounds were made he was not medically treated from them. Instead the employer filled the wound with matchstick powder and burnt it. This cauterised the wound and stopped infections. Vinod’s right were violated and almost mocked by the employer. Children should be allowed to work in conditions which damage the mental and physical state, children should be allowed to live their childhood to the maximum not worrying about whether they will get beat or whether their families will suffer from their mistakes.