Curriculum-based Pedagogy

Every educator across levels has their own understanding and views about curriculum and pedagogy and these may be based from personal and theoretical knowledge and from their own experiences both as a student and educator. An educator in the conduct of his or her profession in actual practice would be guided by his or her perspective on what curriculum is and should be. Curriculum studies and development had become abstract and highly theoretical and curriculum inquiry is a difficult and perplexing area of study which many educators are not comfortable with.However, the beauty of curriculum inquiry is that it enables educators to come to terms with their own beliefs and interpretation of curriculum. The exercise can be quite painful and revealing to educators as it makes them realize their biases and preconceived notion on what education should be and how lacking or adequate their approaches and philosophies are. It is in this context that I begin the process of self-reflection on my own beliefs and perspective on curriculum-based pedagogy and the theories and personalities that have influenced me as an educator.I do not intend to justify my beliefs or educational philosophies but rather I attempt to expound on what I think are effective practices and curriculum theories that I have embraced in my profession as an educator. I know that theories are not infallible and some may generate more questions and criticisms than answers but I do believe that it is still a good practice to anchor one’s beliefs in a certain theory or perspective as it provides a guide and substance to what I do as educator.In this paper, I try to make sense of my own realities and how it has affected my work and my personal life. There are two kinds of educators, those who follow curriculums strictly and those who adopt curriculums to their own realities and learning environment (Eisner, 1998). I would like to think that I belong to the latter. I had always thought of curriculum as a guide, as a framework and as an evaluative tool in how I conduct my teaching. I do not adhere to a specific curriculum nor do I force curriculum to a learning environment if it is not suited.I have nothing against those who use curriculum religiously because I have seen it to be effective in some schools however, in a diverse learning environment, one has to adopt and adjust the curriculum to meet the needs of all learners. I still see this approach as curriculum-based because I follow the instructional models that the curriculum provides; the changes I make are still based on the given curricula and basically teach the same thing and arrive at the same learning goals but in a slightly more appropriate way for my set of learners.I may not always interpret and apply the lessons and approaches provided for by the curriculum accurately, but I always see to it that every lesson is a learning experience for my students. There are different reasons for adhering to a curriculum approach, one can be an implementer, a developer or a maker and the choice would be dictated by one’s personal experience and perspective.I view education as a complete process that mirrors life and teaches students the skills and knowledge that they need to live this life. On the other hand, I also acknowledge the great impact of learner characteristics to the effectiveness of education, thus, curriculum-based pedagogy should not be viewed as a narrow and constricting approach to instruction but as a democratic and deliberate artistry that will lead to a more practical and appropriate learning process (Feden & Vogel, 2003).I know of some educators who had adhered to the curriculum they had been trained to use and apply for the longest time, they were experts in that certain curriculum and have produced learning and knowledge for their students to absorb and assimilate, but they had refused to learn anything else. I don’t blame them, comfort and familiarity is a much safer terr ain than change and innovation. At a certain point in my profession, I had also gravitated towards curriculum fidelity wherein I did everything by the book and relied on what curriculum experts deemed as true and correct and most effective.However, when one immerses oneself in the filed and puts the curriculum to practice, it is a different story. There were instances when I was left hanging and felt inadequate about my teaching even when I did everything that was asked by the curriculum, I thought I was not being a good teacher, I took me some time to realize that the curriculum I was using was not meeting the needs of my students.The curriculum was not at fault, nor was my teaching the problem, the problem was that I restricted my creativity and artistry in interpreting the guides given by the curriculum; I was not confident in my own abilities but relied on what was prescribed and suggested. The obsession with following curriculum guides, lessons and content led me to become a cu rriculum transmitter. I was focusing on what was in the book, in the unit lessons and had very few attempts at augmenting the lessons through additional research or innovative strategies.The lessons I was teaching was only based on the prescribed textbook and I followed it unit by unit even though I noticed that some units were not relevant or applicable and that some units were not in the right order of presentation. I thought I was being a good teacher by following closely what was demanded of me based on the curriculum. My principal and supervisor approved of my teaching and the system that I followed, it was in those times when curriculum was the be all and end all of pedagogy.Why would it not be, when it was assumed that the prescribed curriculum was the best and that the teaching strategies and unit lessons covered all the things that students are expected to learn? Moreover, the curriculum was designed by curriculum experts who were knowledgeable about student learning and ef fective instruction. As I gained experience as a teacher, I begun to notice things, that sometimes the content covered in the curriculum was not developmentally appropriate because students were not absorbing it, that sometimes the lessons were too long for something that was easy and sometimes it was too short for a difficult concept.It was at this point that I became more aware of my students needs and how the prescribed curriculum was not really bringing out the desired learning from the students. I started slowly, at first I felt guilty about skipping some units but then I found out that the amount of learning students gained was not affected by the skipped units.I also tried little by little to introduce new information from other books or materials and made use of different strategies in presenting the lessons and student became more interested, in the past I was labeled as a boring teacher, but when I made the changes, I became a little popular and students started greeting m e in the hallways. But I did get in trouble for those changes, my principal was alarmed at why my previously quiet classes were becoming noisy, and why were my lesson plans not in accordance with the content in the book.I was told to revert to my old teaching strategies and to continue using the prescribed textbook only. And as I was an obedient teacher then, I did as I was told, however the seed was planted. I was wondering whether other schools followed the curriculum closely and whether there was some other way of teaching the same content. This is when I decided to find answers to my questions and I pursued higher education to augment my knowledge and understanding of educational practices and curriculum. I guess I have gone back to school full of idealism and the hope of finding the answers to my questions.When I went back to school I was eager to prove my supervisors wrong and that I was correct. It was only when I had started reading the course materials and the papers given to us in class did I realize that curriculum-based pedagogy is more than an approach, more than a theoretical concept. At first I had difficulty reconciling the fact that there are a number of curriculums that different schools adhered to and that effectiveness is often measured in terms of student outcomes and achievement of learning goals. At best the course was an eye opener, but sadly after two courses I decided to go back to teaching full time.I thought that I could better apply my curriculum perspective in real classrooms and students than simply learning it in class. I decided to become a curriculum developer in the sense that I would try to adjust and modify the curriculum I was working with. I guess I was too adamant for my own good, because I found myself half-baked, wondering whether the strategies I was using was correct or not and not knowing how to derive feedback from my colleagues or my students on the quality of my teaching. I found myself using one strategy after a nother that often left my students confused instead of gaining understanding.I begun to read about curriculum theorists and I was enlightened by their conceptions of what curriculum should be and how it is applied in actual teaching. However, some were too theoretical for me, it was too abstract and complex that naturally I gravitated towards the theories that were more practical, more realistic and more applicable to my present reality as a teacher. But I knew that whatever practical understanding I have of those curriculum theories, I was sorely lacking in the theoretical aspect and could not distinguish one from the other.Thus, I knew I had to go back to school, this time with a more open mind and a desire to learn. In the next part of the paper, I will outline the different perspectives of the curriculum theorists and educational figures that have impacted my own professional life as an educator and how they contributed to my own conception of deliberate artistry. John Dewey and the Social Curriculum John Dewey is one of the pioneers of curriculum development and in his pedagogic creed he outlined the nature of education and what its subject content should be (Dewey,1897).I read Dewey’s creed as part of our course readings and I readily found his perspective to appeal to my own sense of educational focus. Dewey argued that children develop through social interaction and the social environment that the child is situated in. Thus, to him education should reflect the social life of the child, he pointed out that schooling should be a life itself and not as a preparation for future life (Dewey,1897). I think what Dewey was arguing was for educators to make their lessons and instructions mirror reality and actual life relationships and processes instead of some abstractions.It is very easy for us to teach mathematical concepts and relationships in algebra and trigonometry without placing those relationships in actual experiences or realities. In this cas e, the teacher should be able to make the connections between algebraic relationships to objects and concepts that are real to the student. Who would have ever thought that mathematical concepts could be used to predict the number of baseball homeruns? Math becomes more real to the student when it is explained in terms of baseball, a sport that most students play or know about and are very real to them.Dewey also said that there are two aspects of education, psychological and social, wherein the intellect and development of the child’s psychological processes serves as the starting point for which education and learning should be based (Dewey,1897). Dewey recognized that the child in the course of his or her development has the capacity to make sense of his or her social interactions and will learn from it. The sociological aspect of education is to place into context the psychological attributes of the child and to ascribe meaning to his or her capacities in relation to his or her social reality.It is important for both the psychological and sociological aspect of education to be aligned as it would benefit the child and lead to optimum learning. For example, providing psychological stimulation without social meaning will result to superficial learning while focusing on the sociological without considering the psychological would result to developmentally inappropriate content and instruction. In this respect, Dewey advocated that education for it to be effective; it should be cognizant of both the intellect and development of the child and the social environment of the child.It makes perfect sense to me that Dewey strived to communicate such practice because we now know that learning and instruction must be synchronized and aligned for effective learning to occur, but he was ahead of his time. At present, the curriculum standards of most states dictate that at a certain grade level and age, a child must be able to master and learn a set of skills and information that are appropriate for their age. However, what is problematic about these so called standards is that it does not take into account the variation of human development; some children develop faster while others appear to lag behind.On the other hand, children who do not perform at par with the given standards are labeled slow learners or have learning disability which strip them from their self-confidence and diminishes their self-worth. In an age where we know more about cognitive development than ever before, we fail at incorporating that knowledge to the social institution that is responsible for educating our children and our future. Dewey was correct when he said that education should be focus on the total development of the child or student in relation to his or her social activities.But this is easier said than done, when accountability issues and achievement scores dominate the educational system, it is very difficult to honor Dewey’s recommendations. De wey postulated a curriculum that would allow for the social development of the child, for schools to become social institutions and for educational content to become the social life of the child (Dewey,1897). In this way, the child becomes more in touch with his or her nature and the social context in which he or she engages in a daily basis and which constitutes his or her life. This would imply that lessons taught should be through the experiences of the child.For example, a kindergarten teacher who wishes to introduce her students to counting and numbers would be more effective if she uses blocks, balls or candies that children are familiar with and have come across it through their social interaction. On the other hand, it would not make sense to teach a historical event to students without connecting it to their present realities. For example, if I teach children about some ancient civilization and not connect it to the present realities in our society and culture, then I would have failed to impart to them information that had mattered and that would have shaped their own learning.In terms of curriculum content, Dewey had said that every lesson, concept and skill should be taught in the view of the social activities of the child. He had identified a number of subject matters that should be taught to children and this includes the arts, literature, language, culture and science as it encompasses the essence of human life. However, he cautioned on the mere teaching of science as an objective subject as it limits the experience of students in terms of how social lie is shaped by scientific developments.Dewey also stressed the importance of literature and language studies as the expression and cultivation of life experiences (Dewey,1897). It is important to study literature as it provides children with an unrestrictive medium of self expression as well as an understanding of the social realities of the past and the present. Language should not be taught only as a series of sounds, phonetics words or even grammar but as a form of communicating and the medium wherein knowledge is transmitted, ideas are shared and emotions are expressed.The problem with being too curriculum oriented is that we tend to rely on what is prescribed and live out our own creativity. Language instruction should first focus on the expression of experiences, the learning of grammar rules, tenses and subject-verb-agreement would then follow because the student has found that language is an effective agent of expressing ideas and experiences. In the classroom, this would mean that importance should be placed on developing students’ language skills such as speaking and then motivating them to become more effective communicators through the learning of correct grammar and pronunciation.

Generational Poverty

Generational poverty is an unfortunate issue which affects individuals, families, and cultures all over the world. Generational poverty is considered a very complex problem due to the length of time and ways it affects certain families as an entirety. The severity of this issue makes it extremely difficult to find any resolutions in improving this epidemic. If a family is experiencing generational poverty, they have had to live in poverty for a minimum of two generations.According to Cleveland, â€Å"It is important to recognize this time factor to be able to separate it from â€Å"situational poverty,† characteristically understood as a lack of resources due to particular sets of events, i. e. a death, chronic illness, divorce, etc. ,† (n. d. ). Almost every family and individual decision is made for the present. Individuals are not taught to think ahead and plan for their future. This is a trending factor in the difficulty in overcoming generational poverty.Members wh om belong to generational poverty have a sense of entitlement from society. Individuals have a constant defense mechanism to society as a whole. The most significant aspect to families suffering from generational poverty is that the â€Å"momma† is the central figure and focus to the family. The mom is what feels safe to the family. She is the ultimate caregiver to individuals in her family and to her house. Even after her children have grown into adults, both the mother and children have a difficult time with the child becoming independent.Love is the center of â€Å"momma’s† home. The male figure in generational poverty is responsible for the manual labor and will fight for their family. Although they display a rough outer layer, they still show a great love for the members in their family. Even though there is a constant, huge amount of love, most communication within the family maintains in a nonverbal form. Overcoming generational poverty can be a challengi ng task. There are several key factors when considering on improving the poverty status.Some of these factors include: Education is key in getting out and staying out of generational poverty, being in poverty is rarely about a lack of intelligence or ability, individuals stay in poverty because they do not see â€Å"choice†, or if they do, they do not know how to access proper resources or people to get them to the point of actually â€Å"choosing† to organize themselves, complete assignments, behave respectfully, plan for the future, and communicate in conventional register (Cleveland, n.d. ).Once a child is born into generational poverty, schools are one of the few places where they are exposed to certain choices and rules of how a higher class lives. This also allows the child access to resources and people who want to assist in the child rising from poverty. There are specific characteristics displayed in those suffering from generational poverty, which contribute to the difficulty in overcoming it. One of these characteristics is the â€Å"working memory†.â€Å"Neuroscientists discovered that the working memories of children raised in poverty are much smaller compared to those in middle-class,† (Pinoy, 2009). An individual’s brain capacity is a crucial part of their development. If a child is raised in a stressful household, the stress causes a limited supply of new nerve cells in the brain and memory. This can make it very difficult for the child to solve problems, read and properly communicate. The most effective way to begin overcoming generational poverty is for society to have a clear understanding of the complexity of this issue.Women face many unique challenges in the different stages of poverty life. Although, many issues that trap women and girls in generational poverty can be alleviated by a good education. Job prospects multiply with every level of school completed; better jobs bring more income and, consequen tly, more options for housing, transportation, child-care and healthcare. But, it is challenging for a woman to secure a good education due to the several setbacks. A woman in poverty does to have the ability or access to pay for necessary education for either her or her child(ren).A woman in poverty is consumed with the hours she spends working to care for the home and kids and feels this is the number one priority. It is also normal for the women to not have access to reliable transportation. According to Knight, â€Å"For a girl who seems to be making her way up the ladder out of generational poverty, pregnancy can be an enormous setback,† (2012). Mental health is even more likely to be neglected. The research shows that starting early by teaching girls life skills, such as financial  planning and goal setting, can reduce stress and increase self-esteem.Girls who live with hope and support are more likely to feel that they have inherent value and don’t have to dep end on others – including boys – for validation. In order to improve the challenges that women in poverty face, it is imperative for society to offer programs and convenience to teach these women on how to improve their life quality. Mentors should be available to provide services on sharing examples and how positive goals can be accomplished by taking the necessary steps.I have learned a great deal of information after viewing the informational videos and reading all the material on generational poverty. It has definitely changed my perspective on how I approach this special population. As most of the general population, stereotyping is a part of my daily life. I never truly understood the depth of the generational poverty issues that are present. I have learned that not only is there a lack of school environment education, but individuals suffering from generational poverty need educated on how to â€Å"properly† live life each day in order to obtain goals.I h ave also learned these families can love more than your average family. They have a very strong bond between the members within their family. While love is important and necessary, they also have a misperception of life goals. The implications of this destructive cycle are the reasons generational poverty continues to be an issue. It not only affects individuals, it affects the family structure for many generations. Society as a whole needs to determine more effective ways to break it.

Annual Report- Starbucks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Annual Report- Starbucks - Essay Example The financial performance of the company during the first quarter of the current year speaks for itself. The consolidated net revenues increased to $2.7 billion, representing an increase of 4% over the previous period. Store sales increased by 4% both due to increased traffic and higher average ticket. Consolidated operating margin improved by 850 basis points to 13%. Earnings per share have registered an impressive rise of nearly 250% and stood at $0.32 in 2010 as compared to $0.09 for the comparative period in 2009. The improved performance is the result of the enthusiastic response to our products and services by our customers. Our continuing efforts at innovation, and success in providing our customers with enhanced experiences, along with cost reduction measures, have contributed to the better performance. As we continue to direct our efforts in these areas, we are confident of being able to maintain the momentum of growth that we have achieved. To consolidate the gains made by us in the previous year, and to sustain and improve on our growth, we are adopting a strategy of structural changes that is expected to improve performance through a new and powerful regional support model. In addition to making changes to our approach in established markets, we are also expanding in emerging markets, particularly China, which we foresee as our largest market outside the United States. In keeping with our mission of being more than passionate purveyors of coffee, we continue to concentrate on providing a rewarding overall experience to our customers. In this effort, we continue to be guided by our values such as respect for the individual, promoting diversity, and adherence to the highest ethical standards in all our operations. As we march ahead with the confidence generated by the success of our innovative approaches in the year just gone by, and the enthusiastic response of our

Outline and assess Foucault's critique of modernity Essay - 1

Outline and assess Foucault's critique of modernity - Essay Example Finally, the third section will be devoted to Foucaultian critique of institutional basis of modernity and the disciplinary character of its rationality. It will be argued that, while Foucault denounced various aspects of modernity, he did not attempt to idealise pre-modern thought/institutions, and remained unsure about social project alternative to modernity, thus contributing to similar indecisiveness among the following post-modernist thinkers. 1. Foucault’s Archaeology of Knowledge: A Critique of Rationalist Objectivity The modern account of knowledge was premised upon the representationalist epistemology founded by Descartes. Rejecting previous assumptions on the nature and purposes of human knowledge, Descartes posited that knowledge is derived from accurate determination of correspondence of certain representations with the actual objects of external world, a correspondence that can in principle be verified by constructing certain methodological arguments (Gutting, 199 9, p. 116). Later modern thinkers basically followed this Cartesian epistemology, assuming that representations under consideration are derived from some innate properties of human mind and reality. Foucault based his epistemological critique of modern philosophy on the thorough deconstruction of Cartesian notions of knowledge. He affirms the historically specific character of knowledge, as opposed to ahistorical Cartesian account of epistemological procedures, assuming that development of structures of human knowledge is governed by alterations in episteme, i.e. ‘total set of relations that unite... the discursive practices that give rise to epistemological figures, sciences, and possibly formalised systems’ (Foucault, 2002a, p. 211). Foucault believes that the development of distinctively modern episteme was caused by shift from the Renaissance view of knowledge as system of resemblances that was predicated upon the clarification of interrelation between various objec ts of surrounding world and men’s place in it, to analytical and interpretational forms of cognition (Carrette, 2000, pp. 15-16). The latter were based not on ‘the sudden and illuminating discovery that all thought is thought’ but on ‘constantly renewed interrogation’ of ‘the forms of non-thinking’ that leads to the reduction of empirical world to some universal and transcendental dialectics (Foucault, 2002b, p. 353). Foucault surmises that universalistic assumptions of modernity’s epistemology are invalidated by the discursive and ultimately relative nature of knowledge as such, for, in his view, the structures of knowledge depend on the character of discourse as practice that brings about the very object that are spoken of (Mahon, 1992, p. 11). Here, one may find that Foucault maintains that the discursive nature of language and knowledge practices does not allow for some objective, universal discourse, and therefore that modern ity’s pretences for formulating a transparent methodology of knowledge are unfounded. 2. Foucault on Subject: The Rejection of A Priori Subjectivity The modernity’s view on subject is generally predicated upon the idea of its universality and humanist character, which means that ‘

Unfair terms in contracts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Unfair terms in contracts - Essay Example For example, if the supplier has the rights to alter the terms of the contract, it is considered to be unfair terms. Often, the obligation on the part of the supplier is very less or negligible as stated by the contract reflecting unfair terms again. Also, if terms of a contract put excess trouble to the consumers, then such contracts are said to contain unfair terms. Such terms tend to affect the faith of the customers2. In cases of mobile phones, credit cards, or tickets for airline or concerts, customers often rely on the suppliers too much to understand the unfair terms involved in the contracts that they enter into with the suppliers. For example, credit card companies often change their rules and policies if they are in need for the return of the money from the customer. Fine print in relation to a contract refers to the minute details of the contract rules that are presented in small print and might not be visible always. It might even possess the right of the suppliers to alter the terms of the contract. In case such a print is completely hidden, then it might not be considered as part of the contract at all and hence the supplier cannot take advantage of that3. Thus it can be understood in this context that if such fine prints are not hidden, then it becomes the responsibility of the customers to read the details without which several terms of the contract might remain unknown to the customers. From the study, thus, it can be concluded that the unfair terms are those terms in the contracts where the supplier has more advantages than the consumers. Moreover fine prints if hidden might not be considered as part of the agreement, but in other cases, they prove to be the customers’ duty to read them to avoid lack of knowledge of the unknown terms in cases of mobile phones, credit cards, airline tickets or concert

International trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International trade - Essay Example The theory of comparative advantage insinuates that reducing trade limits (trade liberalization) and opening up global markets would lead to benefits from trade for all parties concerned. However, the theory is one thing, getting nations to agree to break down complex trade obstacles they have put up over the years is another thing altogether. Taking this complexity into account, how is it possible to know that countries that claim to have relaxed their trade restrictions actually have? Even if it is possible to confirm that this has happened, is there any evidence to ascertain that trade liberalization actually brings benefits to the developing world, where problems arising from the difficulty of penetrating the markets of the developed world are very grave? This paper aims to answer this question and more. Key words Trade liberalization, protectionism, trade barriers, tariffs, quotas, comparative advantage Most studies (extensive and comprehensive studies going back as far as the 7 0s and 80s, and more recent (though less reliable) ones conducted using cross-country regression analysis) strongly indicate that countries that have more liberal trade laws grow faster and have more open economies compared to those that have more protectionist policies (Buffie 2001, pg. 15). Since 1980, the PCIs of third world countries that have a combined population of over 3 billion people have doubled; this is according to figures released by the OECD and the World Bank. In addition to this, they have managed to slash, by more than 30%, their mean import tariffs, as well as almost tripling their ratios of trade-to-GDP. This means that only third world countries that are less developed, have combined populations of less than 2 billion, whose trade-to-GDP ratios and PCIs are stagnant, and who have insignificant decline in mean import tariffs, are left. Unlike the rest, the new globalizers have also witnessed dramatic improvements in welfare indicators and significant reductions i n poverty. A lot has been made of the World’s Bank’s decision to revise its approximations of future effects of trade liberalization. They are not unimportant. However, trade liberalization only is not a panacea (Okamoto 2004, pg. 46). In order to fully realize productivity benefits, external liberalization should be integrated into comprehensive market-based reforms and be supported by institutional reforms that buttress markets – just like David Hume and Adam Smith indicated more than 2 centuries ago. The main point however remains that richer developing countries are those that have carried out massive liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI) and external trade as a part of a broader move towards market economies (Vietnam and China are the perfect examples). So much for the very fallacious view that high protection in Vietnam and China has not stifled fast growth and has in fact triggered it. Should only developed countries liberalize trade during th e Doha round? Northern trade limits suppress exports from labor-intensive developing countries, and are therefore very iniquitous. However, what groups like Oxfam do not say is that the protectionist policies of developing countries hurt them even more (Rogowsky & Linkins 2001, pg. 37). Such liberalization would benefit unskilled rural labor

A Worn Path Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A Worn Path - Essay Example The wrinkles on the face are compared to the branching limbs of the tree. Deductive argument- This argument form are truth preserving arguments. The racism explained by the author in the story is that of truth. In American society, the black people are oppressed and suppressed by white men. The character phoenix in the story is threatened by white men. From the story, one can get the real picture of American society. Racism is the bitter reality of American culture. Another argument which can be raised for analysis is that the story reflects the obstacles people face in life. Especially it is the story of a woman who is strong willed. The message in the story is strong and socially informative. The story also is a reflection of the life of an old black woman who can face life with courage and determination. Inductive argument – This argument is one which generalization happens and conclusion is given the story reveals that Phoenix being an African American faced many obstacles in her life. This was mainly due to the oppression the community shows upon black people so we can assume that all black women face difficulties like Phoenix. Defensible argument- It is an argument based on ethics and moral philosophy. In the story, the perseverance and sacrifice of Phoenix shows the responsibility and affection of a grandmother towards her grandson. This shows that she is an honest and true woman with lovable character. The stand of white men portrayed in the story shows that ethical and moral responsibility of American people is not

Time series analysis of stock price Research Proposal

Time series analysis of stock price - Research Proposal Example 6). Stock refers to a fraction of ownership of a company by a person. It is a subdivision of a company’s capital that is sold to interested investors for capital generation. Based on the terms of the sale, stock, also known as shares are transferable at timely market prices (Borrowski, p. 3). Capital market is a network in which shares are sold. It consists of companies that issue the stock, the stocks to be traded and the investors who buy or sell the stock at a particular time (Borrowski, p. 3). This research proposal has been motivated by the increasing essence of capital markets in economies and has further been facilitated by the perception that statistics can be used to understand factors in stock prices such as trend and seasonality. The paper with this respect seeks to conduct a time series analysis of stock prices in the New York Stock Exchange market. It will explore some of the factors that affect stock prices and in light with analysis of stock prices of listed companies in a sector, move to investigate possible factors that affects trend and seasonality factors of stock prices in the financial sector’s New York Stock Exchange market. The stock exchange markets, as a forum for buying and selling of shares of companies operates like the normal markets in terms of financial implications of transactions. This means that among other factors, buyers and sellers engage in transactions with the aims of either buying the shares for as low costs as possible or selling them at as high prices as possible. Forces of demand and supply, subject the perceived financial position of particular companies that owns the shares, therefore influences the prices of shares over time. Stock prices are therefore expected to be on high demand when investors predicts higher stability and returns from investing in the issuing company. Similarly, factors that would affect the ability of investors to spend in the capital market will also generally dictate the trend

Questioning Techniques Essay Example for Free

Questioning Techniques Essay A number of researches conducted recently within the local setting on teaching skills of teachers show that there is a decline of the quality of classroom teaching of many teachers. The prime reason for this decline, as concluded by many researchers, lies in the problems of the training they receive at pre-service training institutions. For example; Lim, Cock, Lock et.al. (2009) state that though there is a practical element of pre-service teacher training, it does not provide enough knowledge and skills for the teachers to handle the challenges they encounter in the classroom brought by globalization and the development of modern technology. Because it is the National Colleges of Education that produce the pre-training to majority of teachers their syllabi were analyzed to understand that heavy theoretical knowledge given through the syllabi deprives the prospective teachers of opportunity of having enough practical teaching experience during their on campus training. On the other hand, no specific attention is paid on developing important teaching skills even though some practical teaching opportunities are given to them. Karaseva (2013) also highlights the importance of giving teachers assistance in getting their problems solved in relation to particular teaching skills of which they show weaknesses in. Among those important teaching skills, questioning techniques are one of the skills to which less attention is paid during pre- service teacher education. Cotton (1989) says that virtually no attention is paid on developing questioning techniques of teachers during their pre-service training period. Further, Aggarwal (2013) highlights the importance of questioning techniques because psychologically and philosophically asked questions help teachers achieving lesson objectives to expected level. Therefore, this research broadly aims at developing the questioning techniques of prospective teachers using a widely recognized technique and evaluating the efficacy of the used technique in developing teaching skills  of prospective teachers. Objectives of the Study; To review the theoretical background of questioning techniques in teaching. To investigate the development of questioning techniques of prospective teachers through the current programme of instruction. To find out innovative techniques that can be used in improving questioning techniques. Methodology/Design; Theoretical background of questioning techniques was reviewed through literature and a check list was used to determine the current states of questioning techniques employed by prospective teachers in their lessons. It was further expected to use the checklist to determine how far the existing methodology of instruction is capable of developing questioning techniques. The check list focused broadly on general aspects of questioning such as tone and accuracy of questions and specific skills such as eliciting, probing and Socratic questions. Lessons were videotaped for further analysis and at the same time descriptive field notes were kept by the researcher for recording and analyzing the questioning techniques employed by prospective teachers. Peer group members too observed the lessons and used an observation schedule to record and comment on the questioning techniques used by their colleagues. An available convenience sample of 30 prospective teachers of English was selected for the research and two lessons of each member were observed using the check list. From the 30 teachers observed, 12 were selected to conduct lessons in the classroom for the peer group. Half the peer group acted as students while the rest was observing the lesson using the observation schedule. Therefore, the data gathering instruments of the research include a checklist, field notes, an observation schedule, videotaping and lesson plans prepared by prospective teachers. Results/Findings; When the theories related to questioning techniques were analyzed it was understood that Bloom’s Taxonomy provides proper guidance for teachers in selecting, grading and using questions to develop the cognitive domain of students(Bloom et.al. cited in Huitt, 2011). Doff, (1988); Alexis,( 2009); and Hyman, (1982) add the importance of wait time to classification of  questions according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. They prove that longer wait time encourages critical thinking. When literature is further analyzed it was understood that probing questions are very important for the subject taught by prospective teachers, i.e. English language as probing questions demand authentic language production (Stepien, 2012). With the light of the theories related to questioning techniques, results of check lists were analyzed with comparisons to the field notes of observed lessons. The results of check list show that prospective teachers use tone appropriately in asking questions which is further verified by the field notes. Though high marks were noticed for the accuracy of questions in the checklist field notes and observation schedules record inaccurate questions especially in complex structures such as, â€Å"Can you tell me what is this colour?† There were five sections of the check list out of which probing questions recorded the least marks for a greater majority of the prospective teachers. This was further noticed in field notes and observation schedules because only a few such questions had been recorded. Teachers seemed to be happy with the received questions or directly corrected the inappropriate answers without attempting to probe into the answer. When research conducted to develop teaching skills were studied it was found out that â€Å"Micro Teaching† has provided effective results in international setting in developing skills such as class control and classroom management Conclusions; Prospective teachers should be encouraged to preplan their questions whenever possible to increase the accuracy of them because inaccurate questions lead to misconceptualization. New strategies must be employed to give more training to prospective teachers to develop aspects such as wait time, using probing questions because the existing method has not been able to develop those aspects of questioning. â€Å"Micro Teaching† is suggested to be used in developing questioning techniques since it has been successful in many other situations in developing several other teaching skills such as class control and classroom management. Reference; 1. Aggarwal, J. C. 2013. Essentials of Educational Technology. Innovations in Teaching – Learning. Dlhi, Vikas Publishing house Pvt. Ltd. 2. Alexis, 2009. A Questioning Strategy, Power of Wait Time/Think Time. Retrieved from http://schoolvisitexperts.com/?p=563 on 10.02.2014. 3. Asking Questions to Improve Listening. The Teaching Center. Washington University.(2009)Retrieved fromhttp://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/strategies/Pages/asking-questions.aspx on 12.02.2014 4. Beare, K. (N.D.) Speaking Skills Asking Questions. About.com English as 2nd Language. (Retrieved on 13.02.2014) 5. Cotton, K. 1989. Classroom Questioning. School Improvement Research Series. NorthwestRegionalEducationalLaboratory.http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/3/cu5. html. 6. Doff,A. 1988. Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers. Trainer’s Hand Book. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 7. Fries-Geither, J. 2008; Why Ask Questions? The Ohio State University. Ohio 8. Hyman, 1982. Teaching Methods. Questioning in the Classroom. How to Ask Questions. Retrieved from,http://www.tea ching.iub.edu/finder/wrapper.php%3Finc_id%3Ds2_1_lect_04_quest.shtml on 14.02.2014 9. Innovations and Initiatives in Teacher Education in Asia and the Pacific Region. (1990).(Vol-II).Bangkok, UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific 10. Marzano, R. Pickering, D. and Pollock, J. 2001. Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 11. Professional Development among Academic Staff at Selected Malaysian Public Universities: Preliminary Findings of the Impact of the Basic Teaching Methodology Courses, International Journal of Business and Social Science 2(3) 2011.p.125 12. Research Scholar. An Experimental Study to Find Out the Effectiveness of Some Micro Teaching Skills in Teaching Geography at the Secondary Level. West Bengal, Rabindra Bharati University. 13. Rowe, M.B. (n.d.) Wait Time: Slowing Down May Be A Way of Speeding Up. Journal of Teacher E ducation. 1986; 37; 43 Retrieved from, http://jte.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/1/43 on 13.02.2014 14. Shomoossi, N(2004),.The effect of teachers questioning behavior on EFL classroom interaction: A classroom research study, The Reading Matrix, 4 pp. 96–104 15. Yang, C.C.R. (2010)Teacher questions in second language classrooms: An investigation of three case studies, Asian EFL Journal, 12 (1) (2010), pp. 181–201 Declaration Form for Corresponding Author Title of the abstract: Asking Questions the Right way; an analysis of the questioning techniques employed by prospective teachers. (Current state of an ongoing action research to develop the questioning techniques of prospective teachers) Name of authors: R.M.D. Rohan Address of institution where the work was carried out: Pasdunrata National College of Education Kalutara Name of the supervisor: Prof. Manjula Vithanapathirana I declare that the above abstract reports the results of original research work and that the work reported in the abstract has not been published or presented elsewhere. Name Signature of the Corresponding Author: R.M.D. Rohan Address: Pasdunrata National College of Education Kalutara Date: Supervisor’s signature:

The argument from religious experience for the existence of God Essay Example for Free

The argument from religious experience for the existence of God Essay Examine the argument from religious experience for the existence of God. To what extent does it support the probability of God? Richard Swinburne summarises religious experience for many by saying, experience of God or some other supernatural thing. Others would state that it is simply an experience of something beyond themselves. On the other hand, William Jamess focus is on the individual, taking the route of a psychologist to determine the validity of an experience. However it is defined, the topic of religious experience has been under scrutiny for centuries, with records of experiences dating back to before Christ; for example the burning bush in the Bible. However the evidence in place from those times appears to be on the same level as it is today. So are religious experiences real, and do they support the idea of God? The two main types of religious experience are special revelation and general revelation. Special being when people think/feel that God has made Himself known to them directly, perhaps through visions, dreams, prayer, miraculous healing, conversion or charismatic phenomena. General revelation is where people think/feel that God is revealing Himself indirectly to them. This is normally through the beauty of nature, although it could also be through things like religious writings and moreover in other people. This is basically seeing God through Gods creations, such as you can see the wonder of an artist through his fine artwork. Reports of religious experiences have tended to exhibit similar characteristics. For example many who have undergone near death experiences claim to have seen their lives flashing before their eyes before seeing a bright white light. In fact these scenes are so common; they have become the stereotype for film depictions of near death experiences. Many would argue that if so many people have experienced comparable sightings, then is there some truth to be found in this? Psychologists may argue that since one or two have announced this, others may have simply conjured a similar image from their brain as they believe that that is what the experience should appear as. There are four classifications of religious experience, which were formulated by William James in 1902. The first of these is Ineffability; which is a state of experience that is difficult to describe as it is unlike any other. The second being Noetic Quality; which is said to be where the experience reveals insights that are beyond the scope of normal human reason. The third classification is Transciency. This is said to not last very long, and are vaguely remembered. The final classification is Passivity, which is described as the person having a profound sense of being taken over. Also, whilst undergoing the experience they are said to lose control to a more powerful being, namely God. This experience can also be described as being beyond human control. When he formulated these classifications, James was trying to create a classic description of religious experience, and identified the four key features that they tended to have. However, there are faults with each classification. The fault with ineffability is that if an experience is ineffable, then it is hard to examine because you wouldnt know what you were examining. The problem with the second classification is if it is Noetic then any truth gained from the experience cannot be subjected to reason, as you cant verify it (apart from by other people who have had one). Thirdly, if an experience is transcient then it cannot be tested. With the forth classification, James has jumped to an assumption, because even if passivity may indicate the presence of another being it does not have to be God. As just explained religious experiences tend to be out of the ordinary as people describe being in the presence of an awesome power. Religious experiences more often have positive feedback, encouraging people to better themselves as theyve had an awakening past the realms of our material world. Being a very individual and personal experience which seems to be somewhat unique for everyone, it is difficult for the individual to explain the experience. This leads to difficulties in checking the validity of the experience. With these ideas in mind we can now discuss the argument that religious experiences can be used as evidence for the existence of God. This topic has been debated for centuries, gathering attention from many philosophers whose views I will be using to support both sides of this argument. Supporters of this argument include Brian Davies and Richard Swinburne. Davies approaches this argument very open mindedly, with the view that the claim might be correct, so it is at least possible. Swinburnes approach is very much more one sided, should accept unless one has some reason to question. Like the majority of ethical theories, there are more objectors than supporters. Some of these being C.R. Davies and, from a different perspective, Feuerbach, Freud and Marx. C.R. Davies says that people who claim to have had a religious experience may be unreliable, and on the basis that they may be either lying or were hallucinating due to drugs or alcohol. Freud believes that supposed religious experiences are just wishful thinking brought about by personal beliefs, normally as a way to deal with fears or desires. Feuerbach and Marx also take a psychological approach. My personal opinion, tends to side with Feuerbach when he says, It fails to make a distinction between feeling that I am right and actually being right. There is most probably a psychological explanation for what the person has experienced, and as there is no conclusive evidence that the experience did in fact happen, one should not make blind leaps into falsities. The argument from religious experience has been criticised on many grounds, such as that the proof it is based on (religious experiences) is not actually valid evidence. One of the top issues is that there so many different religious around the world, each of which claims to have religious experiences of their particular deity. The fact that the being revealed is almost always the God of the believed faith seems to be stigmata. However, a response to this is that yes, even if the God that is revealing itself to them is claimed to be a different one through the different religions, it doesnt make the experience less real to the person. Examples of this are Buddhas enlightenment, Saul on the road to Damascus and Guru Nanalis experience of God. Another criticism that people have is that religious experiences are too vague; they are experiences from which inferences are made and assumptions that it was God. In turn, this raises questions about the source of the experience. The response to this is simply then what kind of experiences can we trust? This links us back to transciency, experiences do not last long and are imperfectly remembered, which is a problem when it comes to validating experiences; leading us to believe that we cannot trust any experiences, as we have no way of testing them empirically. Furthermore, psychologists have raised questions by examining the mental explanations to experiencing revelations, etc. The human mind is so powerful that it is possible that one could simply conjure a vision or revelation, and with the knowledge about the human mind increasing all the time, this view is becoming more popular with scientists. Freud shares this view as he feels that religious experiences are illusions associated with repressed sexual memories and interest in religion is a psychological obsession. Whereas Feuerbach feels that people invent religion as a crutch as they are dissatisfied with their actual lives. He also influenced Marx, who had the view that religion is used by the capitalist class to control people and maintain the status quo. He also believes that religious experiences are a persons conscious or unconscious choice that reflects the persons needs or desires. After studying both the strengths and weaknesses of this argument, I have come to the conclusion that religious experiences fail to convince me. As previously stated, they are unable to produce empirical evidence, some are vague, even in classification, and they are unreliable to be tested as they oppose all the rules of nature. The fact that there are more weaknesses than strengths means we cannot reliably validate religious experiences, and therefore they cannot be given as solid valid evidence for the existence of God. Bibliography: * Dialogue Articles * Class Notes * http://www.religion-online.org * http://www.reference.com * http://www.radicalacademy.com

Should An MNC Reduce Its Ethical Standards?

Should An MNC Reduce Its Ethical Standards? Ethical Standards are different for every country. Any business that goes international has to comply with the rules and regulation of that country in context to the norms of the business laws. This is where the need of ethics comes into picture where an MNC has to decide whether to follow its own ethics while continuing its business activities or to unethically compete with other business within the country. In order to arrive to a decision what a company should do we should first know the meanings of few terminologies as discussed below. What is the definition of MNC? MNC is a company which has expanded internationally with a reason to grow. MNC is built to achieve maximum wealth for the share holders. There are three key theories which justify existence of an MNC. Comparative advantage: Each country should use its comparative advantage to specialize in its production. It should also rely on other countries to meet other needs. Imperfect markets MNC should make use of the resources in imperfect market to specialize in their products. Imperfect markets make the factors of production immobile and it is the main cause of encouragement for the countries to specialize. The Product cycle Every MNC has a home country and the product cycle suggests that it should expand to foreign countries. MNC will not have any problem it its management is tempted to achieve the goal of maximizing the wealth of share holders, not of their own. MNC and International Competence International trade is the most common method by which firms conduct international business. Other methods are licensing, franchising, joint ventures, acquisitions of foreign firms, and formation of foreign subsidiaries. Each method has its margin of profit and needs little or more capital investment. For example, licensing and franchising require little capital investment but distribute some of the profit to other parties. While, acquisitions of foreign firms and formation of foreign subsidiaries require substantial capital investments but offer the potential for large returns. Ethical Standards and International Competence An MNC should reduce its Ethical Standards to compete internationally. The main reason being every foreign country has a different ethical standards and an MNC which does not reduce its own Ethical Standard in that county, those activities and standards will be viewed in an unethical way. This is a biggest disadvantage to an MNC and it will not be able to compete in that country. As discussed earlier, the MNCs expand internationally to grow, to maintain and earn profit, maximize wealth of the share holders. If it maintains a standard code of ethics according to the foreign country, it will be able to achieve these goals. If it is stuck to its own standard code of Ethics of the Home Country, then they will fail and diminish. If an MNC reduces it Ethical standards, then this will help it in unfavorable economic conditions of a particular country. It will also help it to stay afloat when the cash flow is affected and returns are decreased. The valuation model of the MNC shows that the MNC valuation is favorably affected when its foreign cash flows increase, the currencies dominating those cash inflows increase, or the MNCs equivalent rate of return decreases. Certain political conditions, pressure from upper management affect the valuation of an MNC. Below are other factors which play part for an MNC to grow internationally. Problems due to malfunction in management Exchange Rate movements Risks of investments in foreign companies Political Risks of a country Centralized or De-centralized approach in decision making Global Competition Joint Venture restrictions and limitations Impact of Global warming, terrorism and natural calamities Uncertainties in the market Let go deep down on each of the factors and find out how to reduce ethical standards in international competence. Agency Problems The main goal of any MNC is to strengthen the wealth of Share holders. If managers start fulfilling their own interests instead of those share holders then the MNC will be in trouble. The Ethical Standard should be able to balance the growth of management and public. Exchange Rate Movements A U.S. based firm operating in Asia and/or Europe has to balance its capital according to its sales and production in foreign country. The inflow and outflow of the cash and capital is affected by Exchange Rate decrease and increase. It is also a deciding factor for investment in the foreign countries. MNC should pay attention and be up to date with FOREX. Agency costs are larger for MNC than a domestic firm. Imperfect Markets If perfect market exists, then wages, prices, and interest rates will be similar for the countries. There will not be any major competitive areas of products. But, the markets are imperfect and that tend to increase subsidiaries in the foreign countries. International Opportunities Another factor of growth for an MNC is to buy foreign firms with similar interest, area and product. Licensing will also help grow the MNC. With a smaller investment or buying a stake in established company venture, gives opportunity to grow in foreign market. Internet Now a days wide use of Internet is one of the major factors for any MNC to be recognized globally. Marketing, advertising, blogs and networking are the key usages of internet. Internet will result in more international business and MNC is touching the World Wide Web. Risks There are various risks involved in investment, buying, licensing of foreign firms. Political risks also affect equally. Exchange rate movements, currency depreciation, stock market also affect the growth of the MNC. Every business has many types of risks, but overcoming them by finding alternatives in other areas is the way to go. Joint Venture Joint venture is a bigger factor of growth for an MNC. A major production company in one country can have a joint venture with a biggest supplier of the same or alike product in another country. Both of them can utilize the supply channels and monetary requirements and can grow together. A largest wine making company in U.S. can have a joint venture with a largest brewery in China. The U.S. company can leverage the brewerys established channels and distribute wine in a big number throughout the country. It can utilize brewery of Chinese company, make wine and sell it locally. In addition, the U.S. company provides information to the brewery about the wine market of U.S. Thus, joint venture enables growth of MNC in international business and competence. Global Competition An MNC having a standardized product in the market has to compete more internationally, because the product valuation, pricing, distribution and specifications are same all over the globe. That MNC should add more to its product categories or line of products to win the competition. It can also provide attractive benefits to firms and pricing or discounts to customers. Valuation of an MNC All the factors we discussed above can affect either positively or negatively to the value of an MNC. A U.S. based MNCs value can be declined due to political risk in the foreign country even though its cash flow is intact. Similarly, An Indian firms value will be increased due to demand and supply in the foreign country and exchange rate movements. In this case, its valuation depends on four factors: Expected cash flows in Rupees: This is the outward cash flows from the company to meet the needs of the foreign markets demand. It needs to flow the cash within itself to employ more people, buy more machinery for production and more logistics Expected cash flows in Dollars that are ultimately converted into Rupees This is inward cash flows as orders, profits and investments from the foreign country This also includes selling of any part of the company to foreign buyers The rate at which it can convert into Rupees This is FOREX, currency remittances which will be fluctuating according to global market Its weighted average cost of capital This includes acquisitions, mergers, sold-bought assets and stock values Wise things can be done to increase the value of the MNC, to sustain in the international competition. One of them would be to sell of a part of the foreign venture which is riskier. Other would be to buy licensing of the foreign firm which has same or lesser risk. MNC should be reducing its ethical standards on supply chain management as well. It can distribute its small amount of product or logistics thru a cheaper medium in foreign country rather than being responsible on itself. Markets with standardized currencies, like Euros, are a good choice in regards to this. A U.S. MNC can import a smaller amount of supply from a German company with lower rates in Euros and discontinue relations with U.S. supplier. Expansion in International Business An MNC which manufactures auto parts at competitive rates and provides little lesser wages to its employees can guarantee job security to them. But, it should also think of expansion to cheap manufacturing foreign countries. Let us discuss some factors on why to expand: The MNC should select the foreign country wisely, taking local competition in that country, production of the same auto parts in that country and general wages structure of that country. It is completely smart to expand in the country if there is not much competition in manufacturing parts and employing cheap labor. This is competitive advantage. The MNC can leverage the imperfect market theory here. It cannot export the labor from its home country, but can establish a subsidiary in the foreign country and meet it needs. With a strong establishment in the home country for the parts it manufactures, the MNC can easily expand and sustain in the foreign country. This is product cycle theory. The MNC must choose the low currency country to expand as it can build a strong base in the foreign country. E.g. Dollar-Peso, Euro-Dollar, Dollar-Rs. It will be the best time to expand when the currency of the foreign country is weakened. This way it can exchange more amounts in foreign currency and invest more. This can also create an Exchange Rate movement risk. The political risk is also involved in expansion as to how stable are the political conditions of the foreign country to grow with. The MNC can hire a consultant to decide whether it should expand or not and the consultant will look into above major factors when trying to give them the answer. Time and Uncertainties It has been observed that the US currency has weakened in the past few years with comparison to Australia, Mexico, etc. An MNC expanding its business in foreign countries can be affected by the foreign investors decisions because of these uncertainties. For example, Googleâ„ ¢ is expanding its services to China, African countries, Australia, etc. It has cash outflows associated with the creation, marketing, resources and administration of each of its services. It also generated cash inflows from selling space on its websites, advertising and media related applications. Each application has its own flow in different currency. Thus, the valuation of Googleâ„ ¢ is based on its conversion of each countrys currency to the Dollars. And if the investors see that the Dollar is weakening day by day, they can change their mind to other application providers on the web. Valuation of the MNC is affected by these factors. Conclusion An MNC has to reduce its ethical standards based on the above factors in various ways. This includes its employer-employee relationships, venture relationships, political and economical relationships and various local conditions of the home as well as the foreign country. When a U.S. based MNC competes in some countries, it may encounter some business norms there that are not allowed in the United States. When competing with a Government contract, firms might provide payoffs to the government officials who will make the decision. Yet, in the United States, a firm will sometimes take a client on an expensive golf outing or provide skybox tickets to events. This is no different than a payoff. If the payoffs are bigger in some of the foreign countries, then MNC can compete by matching the payoff provided by its competitors. Thus, reducing ethical standards on major factors, the MNC can sustain in international competition.

Othello’s Sinister Side Essay -- Othello essays

Othello’s Sinister Side  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Shakespeare’s Othello, with its prolonged exposure to the evil mind of Iago, is difficult for some in the audience. Let’s consider the play’s evil aspect.    In the Introduction to The Folger Library General Reader’s Shakespeare, Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar explain the single, evil focus of the drama – the arch-villainy of the ancient:    Othello has been described as Shakespeare’s most perfect play. Critics of dramatic structure have praised it for its attention to the main theme without irrelevant distractions. Many Elizabethan plays had rambling subplots and much extraneous detail to amuse the groundlings. Othello avoids all irrelevancies and the action moves swiftly from the first scene to the denouement. We never get lost in a multiplicity of incidents or a multitude of characters. Our attention remains centered on the arch villainy of Iago and his plot to plant in Othello’s mind a corroding belief in his wife’s faithlessness. (viii)    Even the imagery in the drama has its evil aspect. Kenneth Muir, in the Introduction to William Shakespeare: Othello,   explains the instances of diabolic imagery in the play as they relate to the infecting of the Moor by the ancient:    The same transference from Iago to Othello may be observed in what S. L. Bethell called diabolic imagery. He estimated that of the 64 images relating to hell and damnation – many of them are allusions rather than strict images – Iago has 18 and Othello 26. But 14 of Iago’s are used in the first two Acts, and 25 of Othello's in the last three. The theme of hell originates with Iago and is transferred to Othello only when Iago has succeeded in infecting the Moor with his jealousy. (22) .. ...rsity. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.    Wayne, Valerie. â€Å"Historical Differences: Misogyny and Othello.† The Matter of Difference: Materialist Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Ed Valerie Wayne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991.    Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1957.    Wright, Louis B. and Virginia A. LaMar. â€Å"The Engaging Qualities of Othello.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Introduction to The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare. N. p.: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1957.    -- -- --. Introduction. The Folger Library General Reader’s Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. New York: Washington Square Press, 1957.

Essay --

The Inevitable War World war I was a war of tragic loss between the dead, the wounded, and the missing. The war was between the allied forces, (France, Britain, United States, Russia) and the central powers, (Ottoman empire, Austria-Hungary, and Germany). Many people when learning about World War I in class or in books don’t see or understand the conglomeration of events that attributed to the start of this war. There was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Increase in imperialism, nationalism, the arms race, and many more factors from years before 1914 that led to the break out of WWI. In many cases the world was growing and countries were becoming greedy and power hungry, There were no â€Å"main reasons for the war. Rather a number of jumbled events that led to the inevitability of World War I. In years leading to the start of World War I in 1914 there were many factors that contributed to the outbreak of â€Å"the great war† as the people of that time called it. There neither was nor still is a first, second, third reason war broke out, it was a long time coming of events that were happening in the world. The Alliances in WWI had been mapped out long before this war, due to previous wars. In his Article â€Å" The Origins of the First World War† William Mulligan clearly maps out the alliances of the central powers and the Alliance powers. The â€Å"block† of alliances as Mulligan puts it started to be put together in 1879. These countries would sign treaties with one another to strengthen their security of an area. A couple years prior to the WWI outbreak a few countries some allies some not worked together to calm down tensions in the Balkans. Though it was not as successful as it was thought out to be, though it did help keep th... ... and to have more resources than the â€Å"enemy†. In the 19th century the advancement of weaponry, technology and economic standing, proved to be too tense and when you add all the events leading up to 1914 together you get one big bubble that just has gotten too big for itself and is ready to burst at the seams with one more event or reason for countries to show whose bigger and better. The idea of peace is something everyone in the world likes to think is real, though in reality humanity is too arrogant and greedy to be able to settle their differences whether it be color of skin, whose got a bigger navy/gun. World War I was proof of this fact that war is inevitable. Even through diplomatic strategies and peace treaties there will always be someone whether it be a country in whole or one individual that will be there to tip the balance when the â€Å"bubble† get too big.

Problems In Nigeria Essay

INTRODUCTION That â€Å"Africa was a cultural wasteland, until the Europeans sowed the seeds of civilization on her cultural barren shores† amounts to no culture in this geographical entity inhabited by people until the Europeans brought them the way of life. It is tempting to want to be subjective rather than being objective in discussing this topic, but bearing in mind that the Europeans are as rational as the Africans, one cannot but try to detach self from every sentiment in order to appraise and come out with substantial arguments with regards to the subject matter. Africa is of the continents of the world where Homo sapiens inhabit. It has been a stage upon which the drama of human development and cultural differentiation has been acted since the beginning of history. Yet, no continent has suffered: mistreatment; misunderstanding; misrepresentation; misinterpretation and have been misreported either in people’s conversation or on the mass media. The African continent has been described as synonymous to famine, drought, barbarism, peoples without culture until the Europeans in their magnanimity brought civilization to them. These amongst others are the opinions of many Eurocentric thinkers and ideologists. Yet, the fact remains, that the African like the European have eyes, hands, organs, affections and passions; laughs when tickled; angry when provoked; searches for food and security; reasons and judges. Like the Europeans can be murderous, hypocritical, rude, polite, selfish and loving so is an African capable. In whatever ways, the African as well as the Europeans are subject to the same laws of nature. It stirs equivocation in attempting to place superiority of one over the other. Thus, this work shall however, try to clarify the conceptual terms in the topic of debate as well as provide answers to the pertinent questions there in: What is Culture? What is Civilization? Had Africa any culture or civilization before her interaction with the Europeans? What are the seeds of civilization sown by the Europeans? To what extent do these seeds pay the African? From facts  gathered, the work shall evaluate and draw a conclusion. THE CONCEPTS OF CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION In his work, African Culture and Civilization, S. A. Ajayi presents culture as the established pattern of behaviour among a people that embraces every aspect of a man’s life and experiences. He refers to culture as a perceived way of life or the totality of all human efforts and achievements in bid to struggle to survive the prevalent opposing forces of nature. Culture comprises all about man’s ideas, behaviours and products. It finds expression in a people’s language, philosophies, institutions, arts, architecture amongst others. In fact, while everything created by God is nature, everything made by man is culture. However, many people from varying backgrounds have viewed culture differently. In the Western world, culture is limited to ideas, values, and attitudes. While Africans view it as the preserved traditions or ways of life of the forbearers and ancestors. This therefore is responsible for the reason why people tend to equate some aspects of culture of a people such as traditional dances and music, arts objects, traditional institutions, rites of passage such as marriage, birth, initiation, burial and the likes to mean the totality of culture. Technically speaking, Edward Burnett Tylor employs culture and civilization as complement of each other. According to him, â€Å"Culture and civilization, taken in its wide ethnographic sense, is the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society†. Having observed the various definitions of culture, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2002, defined culture as a â€Å"set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of a society or a social group, encompassing, in addition to art and literature, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs†. And culture vary from one people to another, as such it is relative across peoples and places. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to use the culture of one people as a standard to judging another. A people’s culture develops, and this development makes up the people’s civilization and history. Civilization is an on-going process as man continues in his bid to conquer and control his immediate environment for aesthetic, cultural, religious,  social, economic, and political advancement. In a nutshell, civilization refers to the social advancement that occurs in a given society be it in terms of technological advancement, progressive changes in folkways, education, leisure, family life, customs, beliefs, and more. CULTURAL VIEW OF AFRICA BEFORE EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION J. E. Casely-Hayford, (1922), an African (Gold Coast) Nationalist said of Africa that â€Å"Before even the British came into relations with our people, we were a developed (cultured) people, having our own institutions, having our own ideas of government†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Casely means to say that Africans did not need to encounter the Europeans before developing their culture. To say a people that lived for several millennia as recorded in books of history had not the way of life amounts to suspicion. Africa is occupied by many distinct human populations of a great complexity of cultures. They and their history, culture and civilization are inseparable. This is â€Å"because their history is the record of what they did, thought and said; and their culture and civilization are the totality of ideas, concepts and values that characterized their societies†. The indigenous peoples of Africa are culturally diverse as evident in the variations in the elements of culture across Africa. However, there are some common elements in the core African values. Like all societies experience, Africa is no different that the level of civilization across the continent differs. Twenty five (25) centuries ago â€Å"Egypt was capable of producing wealth in abundance because of mastery of many scientific natural laws and intervention of technology to irrigate, grow, food, and extract minerals from the subsoil† while other parts of Africa employed bows, wooden clubs in their exploration. The reason why civilization was uneven amongst peoples when left on their own can partly be dependent upon the environment in which they evolved, and the ‘superstructure’ of the human society. This implies that as humans battled the material environment, they created forms of social relations, forms of government, patterns of behaviour and systems of belief which together constituted the superstructure which was never exactly the same in any two societies. However, there existed interaction between the elements of the superstructure. For instance, the political and religious patterns affected each other and were often entwined. Whenever we try to discuss pre-European  African past, many concern themselves to knowing about the existence of African ‘civilizations’. This flows from an attempt to make comparisons with European ‘civilization’. This however is not the context in which to evaluate the so-called civilization of Europe. The activities of the European capitalists from the period of slavery through colonialism, fascism and genocidal wars in Asia and Africa instigate suspicion to attach to the use of the word ‘civilization’. Western racism which became more pronounced in the 19th and early 20th centuries came to promote the prior unfamiliar predisposition in which the peoples of the Western world saw â€Å"civilization† as their exclusive feat and equated to it entirely mean the Western culture. To them any way of life other than theirs amounted to uncivilized or at best semi-civilized life. EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION IN AFRICA: AN ABSTRACT OF ITS â€Å"CULTURAL SEEDS† The 19th century witnessed most colonization of Africa by various European powers. It was apparently to bring enlightenment to the ‘dark continent’. Over a century has passed by; it seems to Africans that colonialism amounts to material exploitation, cultural expropriation and anthropological insolvency. It is obvious today that Africans have â€Å"benefited† indeed from the cultural seeds of European civilization; for they speak their languages, wear their clothes, bear their kind of names, drive in automobiles made by them, and drink their champagnes. These â€Å"benefits† otherwise known as cultural seeds of European civilization have brought upon the African, gross ego distortion; he is stripped of his self confidence. In fact, he has been dehumanized. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o says: â€Å"the cumulative effect of the experience of slavery and colonialism is tantamount to a cultural bomb. The effect of this cultural bomb is to annihilate a peopleâ€℠¢s belief in their names, in their language, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves†. Furthermore, to corroborate the position of Ngugi Wa, an American Journalist writes of the African experience: The colonialists left behind some schools and roads, some post offices and bureaucrats. But the cruelest legacy on the African continent was a lingering inferiority complex, a confused sense of identity. After all, when people are told for a century that they’re not as clever or capable as their masters they eventually start to believe it. In the words  of an African renowned author and poet, Chinua Achebe in his magnum opus: Things Fall Apart (1959), Achebe says â€Å"the white man has indeed put a knife on the things that held Africans together and they have fallen apart’. In his contribution in the work edited by Byron William (1982), Eileen Egan’s â€Å"Refugees: The Uprooting of People as a Cause of Hunger†, Egan says: â€Å"much of the post-colonial history of the continent of Africa could be recorded in the calligraphy of agony traced by refugees as they crossed and re-crossed new-made frontiers. The nations which sprang up at the wake of the â€Å"scramble for Africa† were heir to colonial errors in drawing borders. The borders carved out in faraway Berlin, cut across tribal, religious and linguistic groupings and also joined groups harbouring immemorial enmities. This is a major cause of civil wars and hostilities which have occurred in such countries as Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Zaire, Uganda, Chad, Sudan and Somalia. The greater numbers of refugees in Africa come from some of these countries. EVALUATION Having expounded the concepts of culture and civilization and its evidence in human societies, it then becomes palpable that prejudice and perhaps ignorance of what culture entails, predicated the derogatory assertion against Africa. It may also not be far from fact that for a people to hold that Africa had no civilization until their contact with the Europeans could be as a result of their lack of knowledge of the African continent with her cultural wealth. The assertion made by early European explorers, that Africa was a jungle until her contact with Europeans can be said to be unsubstantiated. Even before the birth of Christ, the Noks in Nigeria were already casting iron and producing terra-cotta. Trans-Sahara trade was already on when William the Conqueror ruled England. It is worthy of note, that several historians of Africa have it that when the first Europeans reached Benin in the fifteenth century: many years before Columbus set off for the Americas, they found a highly organ ized kingdom with a disciplined army, an elaborate ceremonial court, and artisans whose work in ivory, bronze, wood and brass is prized throughout the world today for its craftsmanship and beauty, one that is comparable to what was then found in Europe . How then can a people without culture be organized and creative?  The answer is looming in the air as evident in the quote by Walter Rodney (2005). He presents the description by the Dutch visitors to Benin, thus: The town seems to be very great. When you enter into it, you go into a great broad street, not paved, which seems to be seven or eight times broader than the Warmoes Street in Amsterdam†¦ The king’s palace is a collection of buildings which occupy as much space as the town of Harlem, and which is enclosed with walls. There are numerous apartments for the Prince’s ministers and fine galleries, most of which are as big as those on the Exchange at Amsterdam. They are supported by wooden pillars encased with copper, where their victories are depicted, and which are carefully kept clean. The town is composed of thirty main streets, very straight and 120 feet wide apart from infinity of small intersecting streets. The houses are close to one another, arranged in good order. These people are in no way inferior to the Dutch as regards cleanliness; they wash and scrub their house so well that they are polished and shining like a looking glass In the spirit of objectivity, unless the Eurocentric minds have a different meaning yet to be conceptualized of culture and civilization though, or are able to establish the foundation that these terms are exclusive reserves of the Europeans, their assertion of Africa remains a defamation. CONCLUSION This work has tried to conceptualize civilization and culture; it did not find these concepts as exclusive reserves of a particular people or race. It therefore leaves one in a puzzle why supposed elites such as David Hume, A. P. Newton, Harry Johnson, Margaret Perham, Trevor Roper and others would view Africa as no good until her contact with Europe. Harry Johnson opines that before the arrival of Europeans, tribal Africans were barbarous people who had never advanced beyond the first step of civilization. If these â€Å"elites† have knowledge of history, the experience of the Dutch visitors to Benin in the 15th century would have put right their thinking. In my opinion, if there is anything the Europeans’ arrival brought, it definitely could not have been cultivating a virgin African land with the seeds of European civilization. It perhaps could be the sowing of darnel in the vibrant plantation of Africa cultural heritage. Scholars are not intellectual fraudsters. For anyone to qualify to be a scholar, he must separate himself from all emotional sentiments, free himself of all prejudice, racial injustice and deal squarely and be unbiased in dealing with a subject matter. On this basis, one may begin to wonder whether world acclaimed elites as David Hume, Trevor Ropers, A. P. Newton and others can be referred to as scholars. And for many academic loyalists who do not read between lines ideas presented in books or propagated through other means, here is a clarion call to retrace the right path employing the apparatus of objectivity so as not to be caught in the celebration of falsehood. BIBLIOGRAPHY ï‚ §Ajayi, S. Ademola. ed. (2005). African Culture and Civilization, Ibadan: Atlantis Books. ï‚ §Byron, William ed. (1982). The Causes of World Hunger, New York: Paulist Press. ï‚ §Ehusani, George O. (1991). An Afro-Christian Vision â€Å"OZOVEHE†: Toward A More Humanized World, New York: University Press of America. ï‚ §Lamb, David (1986). The Africans: Encounters from the Sudan to the Cape, London: The Bodley Head Press. ï‚ §Ngugi Wa, T. O. (1986). Decolonizing the Mind, London: James Curray Press. ï‚ §Rodney, Walter (2005). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Abuja: Panaf Publishing, Inc.

George Gittoes White Earth Essay

George Gittoes’ art piece, White Earth is a dramatic oil on canvas depicting the political corruption a 15 year old boy had been pressured into. Gittoes, the renowned Australian artist has always created his pieces by inspiration of his life experiences. He has an immense passion for art and humanity so being an eye witness to suffrage of humanity all over the world is conveyed in his work. White Earth is another successful and captivating work. Gittoes was witness to an Afrikaaner – Weerstands Beweging (AWB) Rally in South Africa of April 1994, where he saw a 15 year old boy submerged in the propaganda of Nazi in youths. The young boy gets on the stage silent with resentment as photographers begin to infinitely snap at him. Gittoes’ sympathy for the boy is emphasized as he retells them â€Å"raping and torturing† him. Too young to understand the political corruption he is stuck between being used by the ABW and being tortured by the international press. Trapped, as the victim of this controversial saga, his only escape is to close his eyes, however it is impossible to close his to ears to the Hate Speech delivered by Terre Blanche. Gittoes sympathized for his entrapment and compelling distressed state, so he depicts and dramatically distorts this experience through the art piece, White Earth. Being one to love expressionism, his passion for it gives meaning to convey and express emotions and feelings. He exaggerates the boy giving specific detail and emphasis to his ears. The distortion of his ears expresses the impossibility of closing his now larger ears. The figure to the right is racist Terre Blanche driving the propaganda into him, taking advantage of his naà ¯ve and young position. Distinct lines and vibrant colours on the boys face determine his resentment and struggle in his entrapment of what is around him. Once again George Gittoes amazes us with his brilliant techniques and skills. The strokes and their positioning all are part of his meaning in this sad  piece. Distortion not only occurs in his ears but all over his body, he appears larger as if we had grown up, Gittoes portraying his growth is too fast and unnatural due to the boy’s youth and already ‘political career’. White Earth along with many of George Gittoes’ work depicts inhumanity, suffrage and the struggle of people everywhere. It is on of his best works portraying the struggle of a boy stuck between two corruptions and expressing his longing to escape the entrapment. Art lovers all over the world have passion for this renowned piece and those hating suffrage and inhumanity will also be touched by this intricate story ever so sad yet breathtaking piece, by the profound and magnificent George Gittoes.

Basket Exercise Essay

Georgina Ryan, HR Director SUBJECT: Speaking engagement next week Ms. Williams, Mr. Armstrong has been transferred to a new location, earlier than expected. My apologies, however, if you would allow me to fill in for Mr. Armstrong, I would be honored to address the Business Club It is common for a large number of calls to come in all at once. When this happens, the customer relations–contact employee is supposed to take the customer’s phone number and get back to him or her within an hour. We’ve found in the past that this is a reasonable target since, after a big rush of calls, things usually settle down for a while. But when we check up on the contact employees, we find that they get back to the customer within an hour only about one-third of the time. Sometimes they don’t get back to the customer until the next day! I sent a memo to all contact employees about a month ago reminding them of the importance of prompt responses on their parts, but it did very little good. We need a training program from your department to improve this critical performance area. Can we get together early next week? MEMO TO: Ralph Herzberg, Manager of Customer Relations From: Georgina Ryan, HR Director. New Training Program Ralph, we will definitely have to address this situation. Let me get with my training program administrator and work out a training session/schedule for your department. I will get back with you on a date and time for next week.

Succubus Dreams CHAPTER 16

As I walked into my building after dropping Seth off, I was surprised to see the guy who staffed the front desk still working. He usually went home at dinnertime. A sheaf of papers in his hands indicated some sort of mandatory overtime. He brightened when he saw me. â€Å"Miss Kincaid! I have something for you.† I blanked for a moment, then remembered the daily Post-it reminders on my door. There'd been a total of three now. â€Å"Oh, yeah,† I said. â€Å"Sorry I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet. I keep forgetting.† He was already rustling around for something behind him on the other side of the window. I strolled over, just as he heaved a huge box up onto the counter. The printing on the side was upside down, but I could still make it out: Christmas Tree – Austrian Fir. â€Å"Oh, man,† I grumbled. â€Å"This is somebody's idea of a – â€Å" But the guy was busy hauling another box up to the counter, a smaller one with pictures on the side depicting the ‘pre-decorated fiber optic tree' inside. It was followed by another box, a bit smaller than the Austrian Fir, and a smaller one still that was about two-by-two feet. These last two boxes were wrapped in glittery green paper, with a wrapping job so perfect that only one being on earth could have managed it: Peter. The desk guy surveyed the boxes. â€Å"You must really like Christmas.† â€Å"I thought each of those notes was a reminder for the same package.† â€Å"Nope. New one each day. Want some help?† We hauled the trees up to my apartment and deposited them on the living room floor. I thanked him, and as soon as he left, Aubrey emerged and began stalking the boxes. â€Å"That's a lot of tannenbaum,† a voice behind me suddenly said. I jumped and turned around. Yasmine. â€Å"Don't do that. Carter does exactly the same thing.† â€Å"Sorry,† she said, looking sheepish. â€Å"Wasn't intentional. I just got here.† She walked over to the boxes, tilting her head to read them. She wore jeans and an LSU sweatshirt, her black hair pulled into the trademark ponytail that made her look seventeen. â€Å"What's up with all these?† I took off my coat and flounced onto the couch with a sigh. â€Å"My friend Peter started this whole buzz that I needed a Christmas tree after Carter burned mine down. So I guess everyone made good on it.† â€Å"Wait,† she said. â€Å"Did you say Carter burned down your Christmas tree?† â€Å"Yeah, it's a long story.† â€Å"He must feel bad.† She pointed to the little fiber optic tree, the one that was already decorated. Words were scrawled on the side of the box in spidery, nearly illegible writing: G – Figured you could handle this one. Ready and decorated! – C P.S. – And flame retardant. â€Å"Hmm,† I mused. â€Å"‘C' could be Cody too.† â€Å"Nah. I recognize the poor attempt at penmanship. It's Carter.† â€Å"Okay, so the angel repents. But who are the rest from?† We soon found out. The wrapping job on the two matching boxes had already given Peter away. The larger box contained a very beautiful, very expensive tree with ‘winter moss green' needles that were lightly dusted with silver glitter. The smaller box contained a matched set of lights and ornaments all done in purple and fuchsia. Peter apparently hadn't trusted me to decorate his gift myself. The Austrian Fir turned out to be from the bookstore staff. A card from Maddie read: Surprise! We all pitched in for it. Now you can't be a Scrooge. It was signed by other store workers, as well as Seth. I looked back and forth between the boxes. â€Å"It's a Christmas miracle. I had no tree. Now I have a forest.† â€Å"C'mon,† said Yasmine. â€Å"I'll help you set them up.† I looked at her in surprise. â€Å"Aren't you here to meet up with Vince or something?† She shook her head. â€Å"I'm here to talk to you.† Uh-oh. I didn't really want to set up the Christmas trees, but a being vastly more powerful than me did, so I set to it. Carter's tree was the easiest since all I had to do was plug it in. I placed it in a window sill, one with an outlet right underneath. The tree's fiber optic needles lit up to pale pink, then purple, then teal, then white. â€Å"Good God,† I said. â€Å"It's the Christmas tree equivalent of a lava lamp.† â€Å"I like it,† declared Yasmine. â€Å"It's got moxie.† She looked really excited. She could have been a kid on Christmas morning. You'd think after seeing so many Christmases (and trees) in her existence, they'd get kind of old. She pointed at Peter's tree. â€Å"Let's do the prissy one now.† We were stringing purple lights on the ‘winter moss green' tree when she finally started The Talk. â€Å"So. Vincent told me what happened.† She paused as she looped the lights over a branch. â€Å"I'm glad your guy is okay.† â€Å"Me too. He was lucky†¦if Vincent hadn't been there†¦Ã¢â‚¬  More silence. I didn't entirely know where Yasmine was going with this. My guess was that she was concerned I'd tell someone about Vincent. I felt absolutely certain, however, that she wasn't going to threaten to break my kneecaps or anything to keep me silent. In fact, I realized then that what she wanted was reassurance. It was a crazy and startling idea. She was an angel, after all. A being of hope and peace, a being that others prayed to for comfort. Yet, here she was, seeking it from me – a creature of Hell. â€Å"I meant it,† I told her. â€Å"What I said to him. I'm not going to tell anyone.† â€Å"I believe you,† she said, confusion all over her face. Angels knew when others were telling the truth. â€Å"But I don't understand it. Why? Why wouldn't you? You could get into big trouble if your superiors – if Jerome – found out you knew and weren't telling.† Vincent had said the same thing. It was true. â€Å"Your people tend to get pissed off over stuff like that.† â€Å"What, and yours don't? Would they be forgiving if they found out?† She looked away from me, diverting her attention to hanging a pink glass dove. â€Å"Look,† I said. â€Å"I work for Hell, but I don't, like, delight in others' suffering. Especially since I like both of you. I don't want to see you get into trouble. I don't even think what you're doing is wrong. Dangerous, maybe, but not wrong.† â€Å"Which part? The loving part or the nephilim part?† I shrugged. â€Å"It's all risky.† She smiled at me. â€Å"You talk about nephilim pretty calmly. Most people – in our circles – go running for the hills.† â€Å"I met one once. Dated him.† I hung a bejeweled purple orb on the tree. â€Å"He was scary as hell, yeah. Had this whole homicidal revenge thing going on, which kind of negated his sexiness a little. But at the end of the day†¦I don't know. He wasn't much of a monster. He couldn't help being born what he was.† I was glad to be free of Roman, glad he was somewhere far away from me. He'd posed too much of a threat to both me and those I loved. Still, there had been something in him I found appealing. It was why we'd connected before things literally blew up. I understood his weariness with the games Heaven and Hell played. He'd offered to take me away and free me from it all, and there were days I would still wake up and long for that. â€Å"No,† Yasmine agreed. â€Å"They can't help what they are. And it's not their fault. But their existence is a reminder of our faults†¦of our weaknesses.† She held her hands open in front of her, studying them as though they held answers. â€Å"None of us higher immortals want to be shown that we're weak. That's our hubris, I guess. Especially the angels. No one's perfect, but we like to play that we are.† She sighed and let her hands drop. â€Å"I should walk away from this. I should have a long time ago.† I jerked my head up. â€Å"But you love him.† â€Å"Sometimes loving someone means you have to do what's ultimately good. What you need instead of what you want.† â€Å"I suppose. But ending it seems so extreme. There must be a way to†¦I don't know, have it all.† The door opened, and Vincent walked in. He didn't look surprised to see either of us, but then, he would have sensed our auras. His eyes met Yasmine's, and it was like lightning crackling through the room. Both of them lit up, shining in a way that I doubted my succubus glamour could even begin to compete with. He expressed surprise over my Yuletide Forest but jumped in to help us, appearing just as excited as Yasmine over the activity. The two of them never touched, but I noticed the same thing that I had at breakfast: an intimacy in the way they interacted with each other. They didn't need to touch. Their relationship was obvious, and I wondered how it was possible none of the other angels had ever noticed this. Maybe it was like what Yasmine had mentioned about angels and hubris. Maybe angels always assumed they were perfect and were too blind to see flaws in each other, whereas someone like me – who exploited weakness – knew what to look for. We finished Peter's tree, and then I found my ornaments from last year – the ones that hadn't been destroyed in the fire – and used them on the bookstore's tree. When my woodland paradise was finally complete, Yasmine and Vincent made their farewells and left. I still had no idea what their divine mission in Seattle was, but I assumed it had universal consequences. I felt a little weird that it had been put on hold to decorate my home. As I cleaned up the boxes, I kept thinking about what Yasmine had said about needing versus wanting. In some ways, that was what Seth and I did. We wanted to have sex. We needed to avoid it. I also found myself recalling Andrew again, that annoyingly good priest who'd caused me so many headaches. I hadn't thought much about his story since last week, but as my body mindlessly completed chores, the images began replaying in my mind. Despite my best efforts, he'd remained a bastion of purity and willpower. While frustrating, it nonetheless continued to make the game fun. And although I didn't appreciate it as much back then as I did now, I sort of took pleasure in just hanging around him. He was good company, and he came to mean more to me than just a sexual conquest. It was obvious he cared about me too. It would figure that things went bad between us on a beautiful, sunny day. I remembered it distinctly. I had wandered over to the church he ministered out of and sat with him in the vegetable garden. I stayed clear of the dirt, conscious of the yellow silk dress my bishop had just had made for me. Andrew, less concerned, worked on his knees, unhesitatingly digging in – literally – and cultivating the church's small crop. â€Å"Don't you have other people who could do this for you?† Squinting up at me in the bright light, he smiled. â€Å"Nothing compares to the satisfaction of doing something yourself.† â€Å"If you say so.† He returned to his work, and I continued to sit quietly, watching him and the lazy vista of that golden afternoon. Not far away, the sounds of daily hustle and bustle carried over. I liked this town – it was a nice break from the large, busy cities I'd spent most of my succubus time in. Eventually, though, I knew I'd grow restless and move onto some place with a little more excitement. I turned back to Andrew. â€Å"Thomas Brewer just got back from Cadwell. He says they're all getting sick there.† Andrew nodded. â€Å"People are getting sick everywhere. There have been outbreaks in a lot of the western towns.† â€Å"Are you worried?† He shrugged. â€Å"What comes will come. None of us can change God's will.† I grimaced. I'd heard about this illness, what later generations would call the Black Death. The rapid onset. The blackened skin. The swollen lumps. Even if it couldn't technically hurt me, I didn't want to see it spread here. â€Å"I don't think God can be as merciful as you say in mass if He's inflicting something like that on his people.† â€Å"It's a test, Cecily. God is always testing us. It makes us stronger.† â€Å"Or dead.† He didn't respond. â€Å"What will you do if it comes?† I pushed. â€Å"Geoffrey says he'll leave. Will you go with him?† His dark eyebrows rose in surprise, like I'd asked if the sun would take tomorrow off. â€Å"Of course not. I mean, as bishop, I'm sure Geoffrey must†¦do what is necessary to continue fulfilling his duties, but me? I serve the people. I will continue to serve the people. If they're sick, I'll tend them.† My sarcasm gave way to shock, and I leapt to my feet, striding toward him. â€Å"You can't do that! Haven't you heard about this? People don't come back from it. The only thing to do is get out and let it run its course.† It was true. Call it cruel, but as I'd told Liam on our post-auction date, that was the way the world had dealt with epidemics for a lot of human history. Certainly, some people cared and ministered unto others, but when disease grew really terrible, with no clear answer in sight, ignorance and fear reigned supreme. Most people of that era saw the simplest solution as putting as much distance as possible between them and the illness. Andrew stood up as well, wearing an expression so annoyingly wise and serene as he faced me. â€Å"If that's what you must do, then you must do it. My place is here.† I didn't even have seduction on my mind when I reached out and grabbed his hands. He flinched with surprise but didn't let go. â€Å"It's stupid,† I told him earnestly. â€Å"You can't stop it. You'll die, and I – I can't watch that.† â€Å"Then go. Go with Geoffrey. Or go†¦out to the convent. It's isolated. You'd be safe there.† I scowled. â€Å"Not that again.† â€Å"I just want what's best for you, that's all.† One of his hands reached up and cupped my chin. â€Å"I don't want to see you suffer either.† It occurred to me then how close we stood. The heat building between our bodies rivaled that of the sunshine pounding down on us from above. Andrew, realizing this too, started and tried to pull away. I held on to his hand, anger flaring up in my chest. â€Å"So that's how you'll let it end then? You spend your whole life living in poverty and chastity, only to die in a pile of stinking corpses with oozing sores and rotting skin?† â€Å"If that's what God – â€Å" â€Å"Stop it,† I said, leaning forward. â€Å"Just stop it. Don't you get it? God doesn't care. He's not even paying attention.† â€Å"Cecily – â€Å" I didn't let him finish. Instead, I pressed my mouth against his mouth, molding my body to his. I don't know if he'd ever kissed anyone else before, but if not, he was a quick study. He didn't break from me. In fact I would have sworn there was an eagerness to his lips as they explored mine, willingly letting my tongue stroke and dance with his. And oh, God help me, he was so very good and noble that I tasted a sunburst of energy just from that kiss alone. It poured into me like honey, glorious and sweet. And surprisingly, it was me who finally broke the kiss, though I still stayed pressed against his body, my arms encircling him. â€Å"Don't you see how stupid it is?† I whispered, our lips so close we shared each other's breath. â€Å"Are you going to die without having lived? Without having tasted everything that's out there? Are you really just going to rush into death like that?† His eyes weighed me, his own hands resting on my waist. â€Å"I don't need fleshly pleasures to complete my life.† â€Å"You're lying,† I told him. â€Å"You want to.† â€Å"Wanting and needing are two different things.† He stepped away from me, and I suddenly felt incomplete without his body against mine. I had a fleeting flash of some connection bigger than both of us, and then it was gone. â€Å"A long life means nothing if it's empty and has no purpose. Better to live a short one filled with the things that are important to you.† â€Å"You're a fool,† I snapped. â€Å"I'm not going to stay and watch you die.† â€Å"Then go.† And I did.