The key factors that contribute to leadership and evaluate critically Essay

The key factors that contribute to leadership and evaluate critically the extent to which leadership is linked to organizational - Essay Example Leader is an individual that assists and motivates his or her followers or employees to work for a common goal. Not only this, a leader might inspire the employees or followers to improve their level of performance so as to enhance the level of productivity or reputation of the organization. Therefore, it might be stated that a leader is the most influential person within the organization, who includes high judgment power to evaluate the changing needs and demands of the customers and the situations as a whole. So, a leader is extremely essential for an organization (Stacey, 2012, pp. 54-62). Critical evaluation of the article (Ogbonna & Harris, 2000) A leader is an individual, who works with highly confident outlook and optimistic viewpoint in order to cope up with the challenges of this competitive age. Other than this, a leader might comprise of the power to motivate and stimulate the inner morale and interest of the followers or employees so as to enhance the performance of the o rganization (Tushman & Anderson, 2004, pp. 35-39). As a result, it might prove effective for the organization to improve its image and equity in the market among other rival players. ... This might prove effective for the organization to reduce varied types of conflicts and misunderstandings thereby enhancing consistency and uniqueness. The leader might also be extremely tactful with high thinking ability and determination so that, he might become able to take perfect decisions at accurate time. Therefore due to presence of such types of qualities, a leader might help an organization to enhance the net income and profitability among other rival players (McInerney, 2011, pp. 56-69). In this age of tough competition, an organization needs to have a leader with high controlling and tackling power so as to enhance the competitiveness of the organization in future era. Such types of qualities are viewed within the bureaucratic leaders that help in stimulating the confidence of the employees or followers in order to achieve the goals or targets of the organization (Ogbonna & Harris, 2000, pp.767-770). Only then, the brand equity and popularity of the organization might get enhanced thereby amplifying the profitability and productivity in the market among other rival players. Apart from this, a leader with extreme determination and thinking ability is also equally essential in order to tackle the situational changes (Sadler, 2003, pp. 178-190). Such types of qualities are present within the autocratic or authoritarian style or situational leadership style. As a result of which, the organization might undergo vivid planning and scheduling activities so as to mitigate the threats or challenges in an effective way. This might prove effective for the organization to retain its prosperity and values in the market in-spite of extreme situational distress. As a result, the rate of reliability and trust of the customers over this

Erick Erickson on Education Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Erick Erickson on Education - Research Paper Example The formation of early childhood education was in the mid 1800s when there was the development of the private kindergarten in homes. A comprehensive study into the cognitive development of the child started in the early 1900s when various scholars such as Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget defined the stages of development (Coles, 2000). This research paper examines the contributions of Erick Erickson towards the development of early childhood education. Erickson’s contributions are in the three first stages in psychosocial development. The philosophy of Erickson to early childhood development is that the world seems to grow larger as the children grow and that the failure has affected their lives greatly (Roazen, 1993). According to Erickson, development is because of their biological self-combined with their self-psychology as well as the influence of culture (Friedman, 1998). The first stage focuses on trust and mistrust of the child. The child establishes this character between the times of birth to one year of age. At this time, the infant struggles to develop trust in the world. The children learn how to trust when parents and teachers nurture and make them become reliable and responsible (Friedman, 1998). The second stage is between 18 months to three years. The children learn how to master skills for themselves. They do not only learn how to talk, feed and, walk but they also undergo toilet training. The desire of the child to discover new things in life increases (Schickendanz, 2001). The children build self-esteem and autonomy as well as gaining more control over their bodies and acquire new skills and they are able to differentiate wrong from right. However, this is a very vulnerable stage. For example, if the child fails to understand the independent and dependent needs then the child will experience feelings of doubt and shame (Coles, 2000). At stage three, that is between three to six years old,

Comparative democratisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Comparative democratisation - Essay Example The death of Franco elevated Dan Juan Carlos de Bourbon to the monarchy. Until Franco's death, Juan Carlos had discreetly stood in the background and served to follow the dictator's plan. However once in power as king of Spain Juan Carlos facilitated the development of the current political system, as his father, Don Juan de Bourbon had advocated since 1946. Juan Carlos began his reign without leaving the confines of Franco's legal system. As such he swore fidelity to the principles of the movement national, the sole legal party of the Franco era. He took possession of the crown before the Francoist Cortes Generales and respected Ley Organica del Estado (the organic law of the state) for the appointment of his first head of government. He showed the beginning of transition through his speech before the Cortes. The first government of Juan Carlos was presided over by Carlos Arias Navarro. The king made this appointment in accordance with the guidelines of the 1966 Ley organica Del Estado (organic law of the state). However in July 1976, as Prime Minister Arias Navarro continued to delay reform and object to democratisation, King Juan Carlos demanded his resignation. Fernandez Miranda, as president of the council of the kingdom, obtained Adolfo Suarez's placements on the new list of three candidates for head of the government. The king chose Suarez because he felt he would be able to meet the challenge of the would be political process that lay ahead. Adolfo Suarez quickly presented a clear program based on how two points; (a) The development of a law for political reform that once approved by the Cortes and Spanish public in a referendum would open the constituent process for creating a liberal democracy in Spain. (b) A call for democratic elections in June 1977, in order to elect a Cortes that would be charged with drawing up a new democratic constitution. Despite all difficulties from the army and opposition Suarez's project went underway without delay between July 1976 and June 1977. The draft of the law for political reform (Ley para la Reforma politiza) written by Torcuato Fernandez Miranda was approved by the Suarez Government in September 1976. This law was debated throughout the month of November by Cortes under the presidency of Fernandez-Miranda. It was approved with 425 votes in favour, 598 against and 13 abstentions. The Suarez government wanted to gain further legitimacy for the changes through a popular referendum with 77.72 % participation rate. 94% of the voters voted in favour of the changes to add to his credibility Suarez, freed 400 prisoners in July 1976. He also granted blanket amnesty in May same year. In December 1976, he disbanded the Tribunal de Order Publica (TOP), a sort of Francoist secret police. He legalized the right to strike, with the right to unionize being granted a month after Suarez initiated political contact with the opposition by meeting Felipe Gonzalez, secretary general of the PSOE in 1976. However the big problem was for po litical normalization was the legalization of the communist party of Spain (Partido communista de Espania). PCE's secretary general, Santiago Carrillo's offer of a "social pact" pushed Suarez to take the riskiest step of transition by legalizing PCE in April 1977. To resolve the difficulty of a group of hard -liner Francoist led by Jose Antonio Giron, Suarez centered on General Diez Alegria. He decided to give the members this group the

Postmodernism, Hyperreality and the Hegemony of Spectacle in New Hollywood Essay Example for Free

Postmodernism, Hyperreality and the Hegemony of Spectacle in New Hollywood Essay After the screening of The Matrix on its first release, a dear cousin of mine, film connoisseur and avid fan of classical movies, spontaneously made the following comment: â€Å"This is an entirely new cinema to me! † If anything, The Matrix is a clear marker of cultural change. A film with state-of-the-art production values like this is bound to elicit in us the belated realization of how slow our response has been to the cultural products of an entirely transformed film industry, that of New Hollywood. My cousin’s casual and unwitting remark reflects the embarrassment felt by both professional critic and layman alike in coping with contemporary movies, especially when we still tend to approach New Hollywood products with the standards of the Old Hollywood cinema. Because of our adherence to tradition, we still tend to look for those classical values of â€Å"development†, â€Å"coherence† and â€Å"unity† in narratives only to find with disappointment that narrative plots become thinner, that characters are reduced to one-dimensional stereotypes and that action is carried through by loosely-linked sequences, built around spectacular stunts, dazzling stars and special effects. Narrative complexity is sacrificed on the altar of spectacle† (Buckland 166) as today’s blockbusters turn out to be nothing but calculated exercises in profit-making, all high-concept, high-gloss and pure show. Similar cries of warning about the loss of narrative integrity to cinematic spectacle have been voiced at different periods, usually at times of crisis or change in the history of the American cinema. One could cite, for example, Bazin’s disdain at the â€Å"displacement of classicism† by the baroque style, marking the end of the pure phase of classical cinema. His coined term, â€Å"superwestern, †designates the â€Å"emergence of a new kind of western† (Kramer 290), that, according to Bazin, â€Å"would be ashamed to be just itself, and looks for some additional interest to justify its existence—an aesthetic, sociological, moral, psychological, political, or erotic interest† (150-1). Similarly, in 1957 Manny Farber, taking his cue from Bazin’s superwestern, laments the â€Å"disappearance of this [classical] roduction system and the closing of action-oriented neighborhood theaters in the 1950s†. He claims that directors like Howard Hawks â€Å"who had flourished in ‘a factory of unpretentious picture-making’ were pushed towards artistic self-consciousness, thematic seriousness, and big-budget spectacle â€Å"(Kramer 293, emphasis added). A decade later, Pauline Kael too expresses her fears at the disintegration of filmic narrative which she attributes to the abrasion of traditional film production in general. She laments not only the emphasis on â€Å"technique† â€Å"purely visual content,† and â€Å"open-ended, elaborate interpretations† of the experimental and innovative art film of the New American Cinema, but as Kramer puts it, she was equally critical of the experiences facilitated by Hollywood’s mainstream releases. The lack of concern for coherent storytelling on the part of producers and directors in charge of the volatile and overblown process of filmmaking was matched by the audience’s enthusiastic response to spectacular attractions and shock effects, irrespective of their degree of narrative motivation. 296) Voices of dissatisfaction were heard at another major turn in the history of Hollywood, that is in the late 1970s, when the â€Å"unprecedented box-office success of Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977), signaled Hollywood’s aesthetic, cultural and industrial re-orientation towards movies with more emphasis on special effects and cin ematic spectacle† (Kramer 301). Unlike the classical movies produced on the assembly line under the studio regime (films that respected narrative integrity and refined story ideas into the classical three-act of exposition, complication and resolution), the products of New Hollywood, says critic Richard Schickel, seem â€Å"to have lost or abandoned the art of narrative. [Filmmakers] are generally not refining stories at all, they are spicing up ‘concepts’ (as they like to call them), refining gimmicks, making sure there are no complexities to fur our tongue when it comes time to spread the word of mouth†(3). Contemporary cinema has come to depend so much on shrewd marketing and advertising strategies that its pictures, as Mark Crispin Miller points out, â€Å"like TV ads, aspire to a total ‘look’ and seem more designed than directed† (49). The difficulty that critics nowadays face with films like The Matrix and the new situation in Hollywood, is not only unlike the layman’s inability to assess â€Å"any recent Hollywood film as a discreet textual artifact that is either ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than the artifact produced under the studio regime,† Cook and Bernink note (99). It has also to do with regarding â€Å"the textual form of recent Hollywood as expressive of changed production circumstances that lead to a different kind of textual artifact†(ibid. ). In other words, as we move on in our globalized, high-tech age, it is becoming increasingly difficult to regard any single movie as a self-contained, autonomous text. On the contrary, as Eileen Meehan contends, it has become imperative to look upon any New Hollywood mainstream release â€Å"always and simultaneously as text and commodity, intertext and product line† (31). In order to revise our critical standards and respond effectively to the new status of the contemporary Hollywood movie, we need to grasp the dramatic changes that the American film industry has undergone in the post-classical period, which started right after World War II and culminated to a point of radical transformation in the post-1975 period, which has eventually come to best warrant the term New Hollywood. These changes have been lucidly described in a number of historiographic studies (Ray 1985, Balio 1985, 1990, Schatz 1983, 1993, Gomery 1986, Bernardoni 1991, Corrigan 1991, Hillier 1992, Wasko 1994, Kramer 1998, Neale and Smith 1998, Cook and Bernink 1999) which collectively shed ample light on the completely new situation defining New Hollywood. What has drastically changed is both the ways movies are made and the ways in which Hollywood has been doing business. After the government’s dismantling of the â€Å"vertically-integrated† studio system, the industry turned to producing and selling motion pictures on a film-by-film basis, resulting in the shift of power from studio heads to deal-makers (agents), in the rise of independent producers/directors, and in a more competitive and fragmented movie marketplace (Schatz 9). To the rise of TV and the emergence of other competing media technologies (VCRs, Cable and Satellite TV) Hollywood responded with a re-orientation towards blockbuster movies, â€Å"these high-cost, high-tech, high-stakes, multi-purpose entertainment machines that breed music videos and soundtrack albums, TV series and videocassettes, video games and theme park rides, novelizations and comic books† (Schatz 9). Despite the â€Å"increasingly fragmented but ever more expanding entertainment industry – with its demographics and target audiences, its diversified multimedia conglomerates, its global(ized) markets and new delivery systems†, the calculated blockbuster, as New Hollywood’s feature film, remains the driving force of the industry (ibid. ). This is testified by the monumental success of the blockbuster at the box-office. Schatz cites Variety’s commissioned study of the industry’s all-time commercial hits, in which only 2 movies of the classical period appear to have reached the top, whereas â€Å"90 of the top 100 hits have been produced since 1970, and all of the top 20 since Jaws in 1975†(9). The big-budget, all-star, spectacular hits of the late fifties and early sixties (such as The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, Cleopatra, or Dr. Zhivago) have some sizable profits to show for (all in the vicinity of $25-to $50 million). By the standards of their age, they were considered colossal box-office successes; however, by today’s standards they seem quite puny contestants to the post-75 era of super-blockbusters which generate record-setting grosses, well beyond the $100 million barrier (always in constant dollars). And such a figure applies only to theatrical rentals, which accounts just for a percentage of the total revenue of a movie which also finds outlets in ancillary markets. he industry’s spectacular growth and expansion (its horizontal integration) is to a great extent owing to the take-over of the majors (Paramount, Fox, Columbia, MCA/Universal) by huge media empires (Warner/Time Communications, Murdoch’s News Corporations, Sony, Matsushita, respectively) forming multimedia conglomerates with diverse interests in the domestic and the global market, with holdings in movies, TV production, cable, records, book and magazine publications, video games, theme parks, consumer electron ics (both software and hardware). These huge corporations provide financial muscle for the multi-million production budgets of the blockbusters (since the production costs have themselves sky-rocketed), but also market muscle for promotion. Marketing and advertising strategies have been the key to the unprecedented success of the New Hollywood movie since Jaws: through pre-selling, usually cashing in on the popularity of a novel published prior to production, a movie becomes a media â€Å"event† by heavy advertising on prime-time TV and the press, as well as by the massive simultaneous release in thousands of mall-based multiplex theaters. Calculated blockbuster productions are carefully designed to ensure the greatest potential profit not only through extended theatrical rental (sequels, re-issues, remakes, director’s cut), but also though capitalization in ancillary markets: soon the movie will come out on videocassette, audio-cassette, novel, computer game, and the increasingly popular since the mid-nineties, DVD, let alone an extended market career through by-products ranging from the CD movie soundtrack to T-shirts and toys, which contribute to the impressive surge in profits. It becomes obvious thus why contemporary movies cannot be conceived of as individual entities and cannot be separately examined from their economic intertext that renders them part (or rather the driving belt) of a larger entertainment machine and advertising campaign. Expensive blockbusters, which in the early days of the post-classical period were the exception and now, as Schatz states, have become the rule, â€Å"are the central output of modern Hollywood. But what, aside from costs, are their dominant characteristics? How are they able to attract, engage and entertain millions of people? asks Warren Buckland (166). The blockbuster syndrome has also changed the movies’ mode of address. Designed around a main idea, what is called â€Å"high concept†, a blockbuster becomes increasingly plot-driven, increasingly visceral, kinetic, fast-paced, increasingly reliant on special effects, increasingly â€Å"fantastic† (and thus apolitical), and increasingly targeted at younger audiences. And significantly enough, the lack of complex characters or plot [as for example] in Star Wars opens the film to other possibilities, notably its amalgamation of genre conventions and its elaborate play of cinematic references. But while these movies enjoy a great popularity among younger audiences, as their huge box-office success indicates, the loss of narrative integrity to spectacle, and the sense of escapism and triviality usually associated with high-gloss, star glamour and dumb show, has driven most academics or old-cinema cinephiles to summarily shun or dismiss blockbusters as merely calculated exercises in shameless profiteering. Warren Buckland thinks that these arguments about the loss of narrative potential in the contemporary feature film are overstated and attempts to reverse the â€Å"unhelpful and hostile evaluative stance† (167) of the critics towards the blockbuster. Focusing on a typical action-adventure blockbuster, Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Arc heproposes adopting an analytical and descriptive approach to these films, an approach dubbed by Bordwell and Thompson â€Å"historical oetics. † Part of the argument he makes is that â€Å"historical poetics† can account for the popularity of movies with such a broad appeal (and allows us to take them seriously as aesthetic, cultural objects) â€Å"especially because movies are examined in terms of their individuality, including their response to their historical moment, in which style and composition respond to the historical questions posed in the culture in which the film is made† (168-169). In other words, the issue is not so much about the so-called death of narrative—because narrative is still alive and well—but the emergence of a new kind of narrative, whose meaning is conveyed not through traditional narration but by emphasis on spectacle and the visual impact of the pictures which provide additional narrative pleasure and have changed the patterns of viewer response. Thus Buckland’s concluding remark that â€Å"it is perhaps time to stop condemning the New Hollywood blockbuster and to start, instead, to understand it,† carries more merit than we have been ready to admit. My intention in this essay is to extend the argument about the narrative/ spectacle issue in the direction suggested by Buckland, but within a wider, cultural perspective. The supremacy of the visual and the spectacular over traditional narration in the textual form of contemporary movies is not only expressive of the changed production values and the text’s signifying practices; it is also reflective of the changed cultural patterns and lifestyle habits in postmodernity. Classical cinema favored traditional storytelling because it provided a univocal interpretation of life and reflected a uniformity in entertainment habits: cinema was the predominant form of entertainment, as â€Å"the movies attracted 83 cents of every U. S. dollar spent on recreation† (Ray 26). Its nineties counterpart, with its emphasis on the sensational and the spectacular, on episodic action and generic diversification, is a postmodern cinema entertaining the possibility of multiple signification and the hyperreality of the visual, subject to an increasing commodified experience. As Anne Friedberg puts it, â€Å"today the culture industry takes on different forms: Domestic electronics (fax, modems, cable television) follow the interactive model of dialogic telephone communications. The personal computer turns the home user into a desktop publisher, the microwave turns every cook into an instant gourmet, the Walkman transforms each listener into a radio programmer. Both production and reception have been individualized; the culture industry no longer speaks in a univocal, monolithic voice. 189) This proliferation of entertainment venues offered to the individual points to a general malaise often regarded as the central feature of postmodernism, what Featherstone terms â€Å"the fragmentation and overproduction of culture—the key-feature of consumer culture† (76). As Jameson says, â€Å"in postmodern culture, ‘culture’ itself has become a product in its own right; the market has become a substitute for itself and fully as much a commodity as any of the items it includes within itself† (1991 x). In the â€Å"cultural logics of late capitalism,† Jameson’s code-phrase for postmodernity, what is commodified is not simply the image, which has acquired central role in contemporary culture but lived experience itself. As Guy Debord diagnoses in The Society of the Spectacle, â€Å"everything that was lived directly has moved away into a representation (1983 np). Baudrillard, as Friedberg notes, also talks about â€Å"the same phenomenon—representation of the thing replacing the thing—and extends it into a mise-en- abime of the ‘hyperreal,’ where signs refer only to signs. Hyperreality is not just an inverted relation of sign and signifier, but one of receding reference, a deterrence operation in the signifying chain†(178). A part in this process of the commodification of the sign and the derealization of the real has been played by media technologies, especially electronics, as Vivian Sobchack points out: The postmodern and electronic â€Å"instant† constitutes a form of absolute presence (one abstracted from the continuity that gives meaning to the system past/present/future) and changes the nature of the space it occupies. Without the temporal emphases of historical consciousness and personal history, space becomes abstract, ungrounded, flat—a site for play and display rather than an invested situation in which action â€Å"counts† rather than computes. Such a superficial space can no longer hold the spectator/ user’s interest, but has to stimulate it constantly in the same way a video game does. Its flatness—a function of its lack of temporal thickness and bodily investment—has to attract spectator interest at the surface. In an important sense, electronic space disembodies.

Racial Profiling within America’s Criminal Justice System Essay Example for Free

Racial Profiling within America’s Criminal Justice System Essay The criminal justice system of America is deeply scarred with racial bias. Crimes are being committed and, in turn, are resulting with innocent people doing hard-time. Thankfully, newfound methods of appealing court rulings are finding justice for these minorities; however, the results are as shocking as the crimes being committed. When it was found that the majority of successful appeals were of minorities, the true defects of the system was apparent. The minority community is being critically judged for things they’re not doing. Throughout the last decade lawmakers have be aiding the racial profiling scene. Arizona legislature passed a law allowing for an officer to demand papers of any person that proved their legal citizenship. The law, intending to lower the illegal immigrants in Arizona, became a symbol for racial profiling within our government. President Obama strongly opposed the passing of the law saying that it threatened â€Å"to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe† (Archibold). It is a very rare occasion where the President speaks out about state legislature, proving the enormity of the law and its regards to human rights in America. The law, dubbed the â€Å"Show Me Your Papers† law, has Arizona residents furious. Faulting someone of being illegal, purely based on their appearance is a very subjective issue. Someone with a last name of Garcia or Rodriquez is much more likely to be suspected of being in the country illegally rather than someone with the last name of Smith. Because Smith has a very typically â€Å"American† last name, he, most likely, wouldn’t be asked to prove citizenship. This is a perfect example of the kind of profiling that Arizonians are concerned about. Not only have lawmakers been creating laws supporting racial profiling, but laws such as the â€Å"Stand your Ground† law in Florida are allowing for racial profiling to occur under a pseudonym. The â€Å"Stand your Ground† law allows for someone to use deadly force, if needed, in order to protect themselves from harm’s way. The recent slayings of teenagers Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, two African American teenagers, have so far been defended under the law, bringing uproar to the stateespecially among the black community. Even worse, it’s considered legal. Families and friends of these children defend them as being upstanding citizens killed due to their race. Although Martin and Davis have not been the only people murdered under the law, they are the ones bring publicity to it. Due to the media attention, the policy’s effect on different racial groups is finally being questioned. John Roman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center, conducted a study intending to measure the racial bias within the policy. Roman focused his study on killings that were considered justified within the eyes of the court: the murder of people that just committed a felony. â€Å"Roman found that the killings of black people by whites were more likely to be considered justified than the killings of white people by blacks†¦. In non-Stand Your Ground states, whites are 250 percent more likely to be found justified in killing a black person than a white person who kills another white person; in Stand Your Ground states, that number jumps to 354 percent.† (Childress). Roman’s findings show that even laws that weren’t aimed to become a racial issue are. The issue, however, is that it’s not being stopped despite the blatantly obvious ramifications. Some might argue that people of color are being convicted for more crimes than other races because they’re the ones committing more crimes. A valid point, however, with the recent advancement of these races throughout society, it would be thought that these numbers would be heading in opposite directions. In reality, minorities are being served harsher consequences than their white counterparts despite their equal standing in society. Michigan State University (MSU) conducted a study revealing that there was often racial bias when selecting a jury—especially those involving minority parties. The study conducted by MSU examined jury selection as well as the decisions made by said juries. â€Å"The MSU study of capital charging and sentencing found that those who kill whites are more likely to get the death penalty than those who kill blacks. The MSU study found that a defendant is 2.6 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white.† (ACLU). Following the study, North Carolina passed a law entitled the â€Å"Racial Justice Act†. This piece of legislature made it possible for inmates to appeal their sentences due to supposed racial profiling. Since the passing of the law last year, there have been 4 successful appeals. The law doesn’t guarantee that the whole sentence will be reversed; however, it puts in place a system that allows for flaws in the length/severity of the sentence to be readdressed. The passing of the law as well as the MSU study prove that although there are more minorities being charged for crimes, the charges are of ill-willed intentions. In addition to undeserved charges, DNA testing has exonerated hundreds of people for crimes in which they were convicted over the past few years. When DNA testing became readily available to the criminal justice system, crucial flaws began to surface. It was realized that people were serving hard-time for felony crimes they didn’t commit. University of Virginia Law professor, Brandon Garrett, studied the first 200 people exonerated through said DNA testing. He compared the demographics of the exonerees concluding that â€Å"[Of] the innocent group, all male save one†¦71 percent were minorities. The vast majority of exonerated rape convicts (73 percent) were black or Hispanic, while studies show only about 37 percent of rape convicts are minorities.† (Wood). These hundreds of people are provide valid evidence supporting that, although people of color are being convicted of more crimes, they are also being cleared of said crimes. Racial ethnicity plays a large factor when it comes to being convicted of a crime. Oftentimes, a person of color is automatically assumed to be more likely of committing a crime than a Caucasian person. People of minority races are being targeted as criminals purely based on their looks rather than their guilt. Laws have been passed both for and against said issue, providing for a government that is facilitating racism. Racial profiling isn’t an act that would be thought of as happening in the 21st century, following the Civil Rights movement of the mid 1900’s. Despite the advancements in society, America’s criminal justice system hasn’t quite advanced so far. Works Cited Archibold, Randal. â€Å"Arizona Enacts Stringent Law on Immigration† NYtimes.com April 23, 2012. Web. New York Times January 30, 2013. Childress, Sarah. â€Å"Is There Racial Bias in ‘Stand your Ground’ Law?† PBS.org, July 31, 2012. Web. UNC-TV January 30, 2013 ACLU. â€Å"North Carolina Racial Justice Act† ACLU.org, December 17, 2012. Web. American Civil Liberties Union January 30, 2013 Wood, Mary. â€Å"Study of First 200 DNA Exonerations Shows Flawed Criminal System† law.virginia.edu, July 23, 2007. Web. University of Virginia February 2, 2013

Festivals In Indonesia

Festivals In Indonesia Events Odalan Festival Located in Bali, Indonesia The thousands temples that is located in Bali, Indonesia has its own distinct way of celebrating its own Odalan Festival which mark the anniversary of each temple’s building completion which is celebrated every 210th day. It has more than 20,000 temples and each festival would last for 3 days. There are several Odalan Festivals that would take place all throughout the island. Each temple having its own rituals and traditions but normally, the first day of Odalan Festival would start with the local women all dressed in their traditional Balinese clothing as they join the long procession to the temple where they can then lay their cherish gifts and offerings to the gods. The next two days are usually spent in intense prayer meetings, trance – like dancing and music, puppet theatre and feasting. Rice Harvest Festival Located in Indonesia The country celebrates the annual Rice Harvest Festival at the end of the harvest season. This event is a joyous time and a great occasion to be in Bali Island. This event is contributed to the ‘Rice God’ Dewi Sri. The local farmers would offer their great gratitude and praise for their abundant harvest of the year. Visitors to such festivals can try several of their dishes which are cooked as in offering in honor of the ‘Rice God’. Pasar Baru Festival Located in Jakarta, Indonesia Even though there are those huge and gigantic shopping centers today, Pasar Baru shopping center was one of the pioneering centers of its kind in the island of Jakarta. It was constructed in the 1960s. It celebrates its status as the region’s first shopping center annually with big events like shop decoration competitions, shopping discounts, food and drinks events and prize giveaways. Sriwijaya Festival Located in Sumatra, Indonesia This yearly event aims to uphold and support the ancient culture of the country by bringing its great history to the daily life of the locals through a program of grand performances, activities and exhibitions. Every single year, it never fail to attract both locals and tourists alike, the Sriwijaya Festival is a joyful and lively week – long event that also includes mesmerizing storytelling activities, groovy dances and live musical performances. Also there are new events that would include those speed boat races at the impressive river of Musi. This festival was a tradition from the ancient Sumatran Kingdom that has an important rule in the cultural and trade industry during the 13th century. This yearly affair brings forth the importance of history to life. Jakarta Fair Located in Jakarta, Indonesia Jakarta Fair is part of the region’s anniversary big celebrations. It showcases the exhibits from all across the country – a wide display of different variety of products and goods that ranged from specialty foods items to those exotic traditional handmade arts and crafts. Also, visitors and guests would enjoy the live entertainment of cultural performances, dance and music. Code Village Purification Location in Yogyakarta, Indonesia As the locals offer their great gratitude to their god because of the gift of their precious Code River that runs all the way through the Yogyakarta, this yearly Code Village Purification is the most important ceremony for the locals and villages of Code Uatara area. This has been an ancient ritual as the villagers would carry out the traditional dances, ceremonies and parades in thanking the gods for the life – giving Code River. Senggigi Festival Located in Lombok, Indonesia Tourists and visitors can truly take pleasure in a week long events during the Senggigi Festival as it aims to uphold Lombok’s tourism. It is held yearly at the striking Senggigi beach area. Its events would range from the art exhibitions, cultural demonstrations to those conventional crafts. It also has several activities particularly those activities for children which make this big event a great day out for families. Firework Display and Youth Night Located in Jakarta, Indonesia This big event is held annually on the eve of Jakarta’s anniversary celebrations. This event is a series of events that range from lively music and grand theatre performances to those storytelling and conventional ceremonies. Same as those good celebrations, this big grand event comes to a noisy end with a magnificent fireworks display at midnight.

The Geopolitics of Colonial Space: Kant and Mapmaking :: Term Papers Research

The Geopolitics of Colonial Space Kant holds an ambiguous position in contemporary literary theory—especially postcolonial theory. On the one hand the Enlightenment project has been seen as universalizing force (with a decidedly Western form of the universal). Said, for example, writes that â€Å"Cultural experience or indeed every cultural form is radically, quintessentially hybrid, and if it has been the practice in the West since Immanuel Kant to isolate cultural and aesthetic realms from the worldly domain, it is now time to rejoin them† (â€Å"Connecting Empire to Secular Interpretation,† CA 58). On the other hand, John Rawls and others find in Kant’s 1795 essay â€Å"On Perpetual Peace† grounds for thinking Kant provides an antidote to colonization and an effective vision for order between nations. Is it that Kant has been understood correctly by one side, misunderstood by another? Or is it that Kant’s project contains both sides to the question of nation and imperialis m. I’d like to explore these two sides of the Kantian project a little further. Let’s start with Kant as a proponent of empire. The idea of space is interestingly discussed by Kant. He was, after all, first a professor of geography, a mapper of real space before he moved into the space of the human mind, philosophy. For Kant, the concept of space is an a priori. As he writes in The Critique of Pure Reason, â€Å"The representation of space cannot †¦ be empirically obtained from the relations of outer appearance. On the contrary, this outer experience is itself possible at all only through that representation. Space is a necessary a priori representation, which underlies all outer intuitions.† In other words, to be able to perceive objects in a spatial relation to one another, you first have to have the spatial concept, the intuition of space. This conception of space has certain implications for thinking about imperialism and the concept of the nation in the early modern period. Since Kant places space as an a priori, spatial sciences, such as geography, cartography, and so on, will also be based upon a priori principles. To leap to political science, is the concept of a nation, a geographic space at Kant’s time and still in our own, also the outgrowth of an a priori? If so, the possibility of a nation is not determined only by the relations of outer appearances but is the outgrowth of a representation of a nation.