Thursday, December 27, 2012

Diabetes Essay

Prior to speaking about the actual pilot program regarding the Type II Diabetes, one needs to make the state official (governor) understand what diabetes is about and what danger it presents to other people in the community. Only after the governor and sponsors understand what diabetes type II is about they would be able to contribute their resources and ideas to supporting our pilot program to prevent type II diabetes. We have to realize that if we want to educate parents and children about type II diabetes we need to be able to express ourselves succinctly yet properly for our grant-providers to understand our important mission.

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Diabetes (also known as diabetes mellitus) is a serious medical disorder, which is seen in altering hyperglycemia, or in simple words, the blood sugar in patients. There are four types of diabetes, yet they all present serious danger to the human organism regardless of their degree. As the type increases diabetes becomes more serious and presents more harm to the human organism. Increased sugar levels in the human organism typically contributes to dehydration and ketoacidosis in the short run. In the long-run diabetes doubles the potential risks of cardiovascular disease and dialysis let alone renal failures. Diabetes also contributes to blindness because of retinal damage and nerve damage. At some point of time, diabetes can contribute to gangrene, which typically results in amputation of feet, toes or legs.

Diabetes type II is more serious than diabetes type I, yet the patient still has certain amounts of insulin produced in the body. Still one has to be aware that decreased sensitivity of body tissues to insulin which requires insulin injections or oral medication. The greatest problem with Diabetes Type II is that unless cured it would likely turn to type III or IV diabetes which would pose even greater danger to people and the community.

The pilot program we plan to create in our community would target parents and children and would serve as a wonderful tool to inform the community about diabetes and the ways to prevent or fight it.
Our program will inform the community that in order to be free of diabetes one has to constantly check and maintain blood sugar within acceptable ‘normal’ limits. As noted earlier diabetes is all about blood sugar, so by manipulating intakes of sugar and other constituent parts of what contribute to diabetes one is able to easily stay healthy and avoid complications and serious damages to health caused by diabetes.

Besides explaining what diabetes is about, our pilot program will speak about other things that make diabetes possible. The community members would be informed of the following:
  • Need to quit smoking.
  • Need to control cholesterol levels (Becker, 45)
  • Need to exercise and thus maintain optimal body weight.
  • Need to check and control blood pressure.
  • Need for healthy food and regular exercise
The community members should be informed through out pilot program that currently in the world there are more than 160 million people suffering from diabetes, with type II diabetes being the most popular in developed nations. In the USA alone in 2002 there were about 19 million people suffering from different types of diabetes (Shafer 211). Such statement should serve the following two purposes:

Make the community members understand that type II diabetes is very common and present in every community, thus requiring attention and immediate action.

Make the community members-users of our pilot program understand that they are not alone with their diabetes and that there are people who can help and support them.

The other stage that our pilot project is to cover is to explain to the target audience that Type 2 diabetes can initially be treated with proper diet and weight loss. Together these two approaches will restore and improve insulin sensitivity in patients and return them to somewhat normal life. The audience needs to understand that one requires a modest loss of weight with result usually taking place after losing about 15-20 pounds.  The community would then be informed that the next step to get rid of diabetes is to take certain oral antidiabetic medicine like suplhonylureas, metformmin, or thiazolidinediones. Typically together with healthy life style and reduced body weight, these drugs help most patients to return to the normal healthy state. Should they fail, the patients should be informed of other treatments ways like insulin therapy.

Our pilot project will inform the community that diabetes is a chronic disease and has no permanent cure. In other words, the patients who have diabetes need to understand that they will have to lead a healthy life style throughout their lives if they want to avoid complications created by diabetes. Healthy living is possible when having type II diabetes yet once again the participants of our pilot project will be advised not to consider it a triumph over a disorder but rather a temporary victory that needs to be maintained (Drum, 190).

The pilot project thus will attempt not only to educate the community members of type II diabetes but will also attempt to teach them proper lifestyle modifications that would be seen in the following:
  • Constant control of one’s body weight.
  • Exercise and diet.
  • Use of oral medication.
Combat problems associated with hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. Failure to learn about these problems as well as the use of proper oral medication can usually worsen the patient’s condition
The pilot project will inform the community that those with type II diabetes who fail to properly alter their life style to combat diabetes will ultimately have to turn to insulin therapy.

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Friday, December 7, 2012

Internal War Essay

Essay on Internal War

All young people traditionally live with their parents till the time they can afford to pay for their own apartment. It is not just the matter of financial independence, but also the one of the maturity, taking the responsibility, independence and freedom, including liberty of choice.

About a year ago I started to feel uncomfortable living with parents. Even though after graduation I was not earning enough to afford to rent a room or an apartment, I still wanted to live my own life and do what I want.

It was really difficult to do what I wanted with my parents. They were against my midnight comebacks and dating. My father though that I was trying to achieve something in life, that I had no aim and my life was totally and completely constituted of parties. Actually they were right, but I enjoyed that kind of life. I was working when I ought to, went to the gym to take care of my heath and spent much time with my friends. Of course, I understood that it was not right to party so much, but I was not very much happy with my occupation, and, as I understand now, was just trying to relieve my life in some way. And of course, I wanted to find the occupation that would bring me happiness and satisfaction, but it was impossible in the circumstances I lived in.

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My parents had a great influence on me. If they were not satisfies with my actions, I felt very guilty, even I could consider my behavior right. My father is a lawyer and my mother is a housewife. Whatever I said or whatever I did, I usually heard that I am worth nothing and that I would never achieve anything in my life with such a lifestyle. I was not that stupid to understand that endless parties do not lead to health and wealth, if you are not the owner of the night club, but it was very painful to hear such things from people, from whom I wanted just love and support. My parents used to buy me very expensive clothes, shoes and everything; I had a car, even though not a Mercedes, but still a car. They though that the only thing I am interested in is their money and I was addicted to luxury stuff. Yes, at first I was, but I very lucky to understand that earning money should not be the goal in my life, I have always wanted to find my way, the way where I could be happy. And I was not.

The first thing that I have done- I quit my job. It was really hard, as my boss’s reaction overwhelmed all my worst expectations. He just said that I can leave and that he was not satisfied with my work anyway. It was surprising, taking into consideration several successful projects I accomplished recently. If he was not satisfied, why he had never told me about that? One of the reasons for my quit was my bosses obsession with power- he wanted everything to be done when he wanted and how he wanted even when it was Friday 9 PM. I first I loved my job, but after some time I started to notice that I was becoming a slave, and not an expert. I was not paid for working overtime and started to feel that all my efforts were not appreciated. So, I quit.

Then I started to look for a freelance position, as wanted to be more flexible in my schedule and to pay more attention to studying other languages and improving my working skills. I started to attend school of photography, as I have always dreamt about having a more creative occupation, where I could apply my vision and imagination.

My parents were not satisfied again, they considered that I was just wasting my money for such “stupid” school and spending the whole time at home, showing the bad example to my younger sisters. But I was actually working, and working hard. My father though that if I was at home, I should do the cleaning of the house as well. When I had time, I did, but sometimes I was working for about 16 hours per day, but it was not an excuse. My father wanted that I had a “real” job, it could be not well-paid, but he wanted me spend the whole day in the office, and not at home. I actually had no objections, but I was not sure that it would bring me happiness. I am just not that kind of person. I wanted to manage my time and my finances the way I wanted, and not the way I was told.

My parents started to tell me that if I want to leave with then, I need to play their rules or move. I made a shy attempt to move to the apartment to share with other two roommates, but my mother tearfully asked me stay and that they would change their attitudes. During the first month they did, but then again they started to ask about my future plans and when I will move. I still could not afford an apartment in my city, as the prices were really astonishing and therefore I just continued to exist from beating till beating.

I was looking for the way out, but was very afraid to live alone and take the responsibility, and was very afraid to disappoint my parents.

The real war began when I said to them that I am moving to another city. First, they have not taken my words seriously, and I was still not sure about this kind of decision. The thing that I knew, that in the other smaller city I could afford to live independently, but without a comfort I was used to so much. But the advantage was my freelance job, that I could do even form Mars, if there was Internet connection. When the time of moving was coming closer it was harder and harder to make the final decision. I didn’t sleep at night, I was nervous all the time, and my parents still didn’t believe that I will do that. My father lectured me about my irrational decision and that I can do whatever I want, but he is not approving that. My mother told me that I should stay at least in the city and that they will help me with money at first. I almost surrendered. I was devastated with all that endless talks, but then I just bought the ticket and packed. I was crying at the railway station, but I was sure that my decision was the best I did for all my life.

When I arrived to another city I have found an apartment with the great view. For the first month I was very devastated with the internal struggle, as I still talked with my parents on the phone and it was really heard, as they always asked when I will come back. But they were no longer able to control me and I am sure that I needed that distance to start to think what I want and what I need in my life.

It was about 6 months ago. Now I am happy. I do the job that I like, and I have plenty of it, as I can even save. I live in the wonderful small city and thinking about starting my own business. Even though I do not have much money, I can start from something really small, but it will be mine. My parents are still asking me to come back home, but I do not pay much attention to this. I know that they do love me very much and I love them as well. I hope that someday they will be proud of me, and if not, I do not care. I have understood that the most important thing in life is internal peace and happiness, and no matter what others think about that. I will live my life the way I want!

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Men and Depression Essay

Essay on Depression and Men

In the last couple of decades depression became a widely discussed topic within public and medics. Such raise in the level of people suffering from depression and depression related illnesses can be explained by many factors. First of all, it is so because the modern world puts one in front of many problems and hardships that were unknown to the previous generations. Today people are continuously under pressure to earn money, the amount that exceeds the sufficient one, working long hours, moreover, the way people build their relationships has also changed, thus it tends to be harder and harder to find a loving and honest partners that leads to dissatisfaction and depression. The second reason for this raise is that “being depressed” and “treating the depression” turned into some kind of fashion.

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One may say that depression is a lot of weak women. However, as I will show in my paper, depression is an illness that affects both men and women. Moreover, it can even be said that men and women are equally affected by this ailment. Though, as men tend to be more self cautious and find it very hard and even mortifying to share their feelings, the medics have much bigger record of women’s depressions. A very interesting thing is that when it comes to depressions men are even more sensitive than women. This is due to the fact that men, since early ages, are entitled to a particular position in the society and family, and failing to fulfill what is required from them at these positions can be intolerable for them (Cochran, Rabinowitz, 2000, 5-6).

The symptoms of depression within men are the same as the regular depression symptoms, though with some peculiar traces. These symptoms include feeling sad or unhappy, having high levels of anxiety and low energy, having troubles to concentrate, feeling worthless and losing interest in the every day activities and people. The special men-depression symptoms are loss of weight, sex drive, appetite, descend in personal hygiene and thoughts of suicide (Polak, 1998, p. 66).

Men tend to cope with depression rather different from women. Men may be more willing to admit exhaustion, irritability, loss of interest in work or hobbies, and sleep disturbances rather than feelings of grief, insignificance, and excessive guilt. This way of thinking tends to be rather unhelpful. However, this is the nature of men and it seems inappropriate and humiliating for them to admit that they need professional help and require somebody’s support and assistance to straighten out the life. Those men who manage to overcome this fear may be treated successfully with antidepressant medication, psychotherapy, or a combination of both (Men and Depression, 2005).

In my opinion, there have to be done many changes in order to assist men that are depressed. It should be popularized that there is nothing embarrassing and humiliating for men in having a depression and treating it.  Expectantly, such a change will lower the level of suicide within men and save marriages that may be ruined because of male depression.

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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection Essay

Essay on 'Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection'

The quotation occurs in the first Act of the story, when King Dusyanta met Sakuntala. King Dusyanta was traveling in the forest accompanied with his army. They were pursuing the male deer that was wounded by King’s arrow. Then King Dusyanta saw Sankuntala that was nursing that deer, which occurred to be her pet and he felt in love with her. The piece that I am going to analyze later refers to the opportunity that gifted to Dusyanta to get acquainted with Sakuntala. After they felt in love, they got married in the ashram. Then King Dusyanta had to leave for some time and he gave Sakuntala the ring as the sign of his deep affection and their love and promised to return as soon as he can.

So, Sakuntala did not notice a young man as nice as Dusyanta. She was very shy to look at him and to talk to him. It was the unusual new feeling for her. Dusyanta, on the other hand, had never seen s girl of such charm, grace and innocence. He was looking at her in the garden doing things such as watering plants and picking flowers. Each her move seemed very attractive to him. He was dreaming about the opportunity to talk to her.

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That chance to get acquainted with her came in a very outstanding way while he was walking in the garden unknown to the three girls that were talking to each other. Sakuntala was gathering jasmines from a bush when a bee decided to literally attack her lovely face. She made attempts to make him fly away, but was not successful. Her friends giggled and teased her and Sakuntala blushed and feigned anger. Dusyanta decided to use this excellent opportunity.

Later Dusyanta had already enough confidence to talk to Sakuntala about different things. Sakuntala found him interesting and his admiration of her was truly pleasant and flattering. Soon after that they had fallen in love.

The quotation is very important to the whole story, as it is the beginning of it. It describes the arousal of the feeling of affection between King and Sakuntala.

In the passage Sakuntala is frightened by the bee. It is very symbolic to my opinion, as bees are generally viewed as good creatures, as they are protectors, they bring honey. I think that it was the allegory that signified love that came to Sakuntala and Dusyanta. And that love was hovering around the beloved trying to make them understand what is happening between them in reality. Sakuntala is very frightened as bee is trying to attack her. Probably she is afraid to show her true feelings, while Dusyanta is confident and tries to calm her down and assure that there is nothing to fear. It can even seem that King envies the bee, as it can “hover softly near to whisper secrets of her ear” and “drink her lips treasure”. King was not willing to open his true identity, though he rescues Sakuntala from dangerous bee and he had to reveal who he is in reality.

Sakuntala’s personality is revealed in the paragraph as modest and shy, which is very desirable for the young lady quality. It doesn’t mean that she was less interested in love and relationships then her friends were, she just hided that better. Sankutala was trying to show off and be better that she was in reality; it seems that she knew that Dusyanta would have found the opportunity to talk to her, if his feelings to her were true. And the same with the King, he was looking for the sign. And the bee was that sign. This bee symbolizes the opportunity that is always given to those whose hearts are open to true feelings. It was also the sign that their feelings were true. That was the metaphor to depict that nature supports people’s intentions (Sharma et al 306).

The paragraph is very interesting for analysis, and I would like also to discuss that King says to Sankutala and her friends when saving her from the bee “who dares to molest these innocent young ascetics”. In Hinduism asceticism was said to be the perfect final life stage. As the person went to forest to live, was practicing mediations, was silent in his or her own thoughts and was seeking for liberation from the rebirth cycle. Ascetics accumulated spiritual power and were said sometimes to pose a threat to some gods (Zaehner 40-45).

Then, he mentions Puru king that rules the world and “punish evildoers”. There is a very interesting story about how Puru became the king. First of all Yayati was the Bharata king in the times long before Mahabharat. He was cursed by his father-in-law and he became old, deprived of sexual passion for the reason that he cheated on his wife. And Yayati was willing to regain everything he lost. He had five sons and once he gathered them all and proposed to swap their youth for his kingdom and wisdom. He wanted back all joys of life that youth affords and was even ready to give his kingdom for that. Four sons refused. First son said that he would be mocked mercilessly for taking his father’s age. Second son said he didn’t want old age to destroy his wisdom and strength. 

Third son refused as he was afraid he would not be able to move freely. The forth son said that he would not stand the shame to be taken care by other people. And the youngest son, Puru, agreed to take his father’s age, as the sign of his filial love. Yayati suddenly became young and went to enjoy joys of life with young beautiful women and Puru became old and started ruling the kingdom. But after some time Yayati realized that the fire of sexual desire could never be quenched and he took back his old age from Puru, and Puru continued to rule Hastinapura (Kulke and Rothermund 50-54).

This is an allegory that shows the essence of true feelings and that in reality the person who acts in accordance with his feelings always gets the reward. It reflects the values of the period when the story was written, as well as the culture.

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Friday, November 2, 2012

A Woman of No Importance Essay

"A Woman of No Importance" Essay

Introduction
An outspoken criticizer of the Victorian society, Oscar Wilde 1893 A Woman of No Importance may be very well defined as another milestone in the author’s line of social comedies. Aiming directly at some of his contemporaries’ manners and values (most notably family values), A Woman of No Importance does not only mocks and criticizes society, but also makes quite a few points on the nature of people, which explain why those values are wrong. In order to do so, Wilde discusses family roles and the role of family in society, as well as how revelations and outside pressures have little influence of the natural course relationships within families.

This paper examines the play’s nature as a comedy of manners from three main aspects. First it contrasts Wilde’s model of parenthood to what seems to be his contemporaries’ conventional view. Secondly, it shows how Rachel Arbuthnot demonstrates the enormous price of being loyal to the values of Victorian society. Finally, it discusses Wilde’s use of humor to help conveying his messages.

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Parents and Children
Growing up to a respected father who nevertheless had illegitimate children possibly brought Wilde to consider how the parenthood of infidel parents affect the relationships with their children. Moreover, it is possible to notice from Wilde’s work that throughout time, negative aspects of such relationships may develop and become more intense. That is, time is not necessarily a cure for anger and dismay among children.

In his 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, for example, Wilde notes that “Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them1.” Three years later, however, the author sharpens his view on the subject matter, as Lord Illingworth (who may share some biographical similarities with Wilde’s father) teaches a lesson on what the upbringing of ‘a good man’ in Victorian sense causes. Literally, Lord Illingworth claims that puritan upbringing does not only turn children into their parents’ judges, but also to merciless ones: “Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.”

Since Lord Illingworth support and even strengthen an argument previously made by Wilde (as the audience and critics of A Woman of No Importance may have already knew at the time), it might be the case that the author uses Lord Illingworth to state his views on family and parenthood. And judging from the text, these views are quite straightforwardly gloomy as for the results of Victorian education and family relations. Furthermore, the latter are presented by Wilde as a product of the Victorian era’s system of strict social expectations and ‘superior’ moral codes. Therefore, it is important to understand that the author shifts the burden of responsibility to the characters’ behavior from the latter to the codes to which they are expected to confirm. 

Rachel Arbuthnot: The Price of Social Conformity
In A Woman of No Importance, Oscar Wilde does not concludes his comedy by showing the irrationality of many Victorian values, but also shows how adhering to them may actually be disastrous for individuals. This notion is best conveyed through the character of Rachel Arbuthnot, whose determination to remain a good woman but receives a backlash from society. The sin she committed as a young woman hunts her both internally (most notably in the sense of her self perception) and externally (the prospective social costs of getting exposed). Since she seems dedicated to the social values and even tried to educate her son to follow them, Mrs Arbuthnot will remain an outsider of the society she adheres to.

It should be noted, however, that Rachel is not naïve as for the true nature of Victorian society. Throughout the play Rachel’s character is balanced by very clear and critical views of society, including such injustices as inequality between the sexes and the shallowness of Victorian aristocracy. Eventually she departs from England in the hope for getting accepted in a more open culture. But despite all these, Mrs Arbuthnot’s submissive and confirmative attitude have led her son Gerald to judge her unfavorably, just as most other characters (with the exception of Hester) see her as simply ‘fallen woman.’            

The Bitter Comedy
Throughout most of his literary career, Oscar Wilde was known for expressing harsh critics of many aspects of Victorian society. A Woman of No Importance is an example to the author’s unique ability to stressing the ridiculous sides of society along with the evils of its norms. Besides clear examples such as the silly-to-mean behavior of Mrs Allonby and Lady Caroline, Lord Illingworth’s witty and razor-sharp lines allow Wilde to ‘sweeten the pill’ of his critique. As a result of this choice, A Woman of No Importance requires quite a degree of cognitive dissonance to balance between Lord Illingworth’s manners and the content of his lines3.   

Conclusion
Although it prescribes some remedies to the illnesses of Victorian society, A Woman of No Importance is first and foremost a comedy of manners with clear targets and outspoken agenda. Wilde attacks both the values of Victorian society and the people who lead them, namely his contemporary aristocracy. The plot focuses on these values’ influence on the individual and the family, but also offers a view from the side and leaves some room for optimism in regard to the future of late 19th century Britons. As we know today, only a radical shift out of the hypocrisy of the Victorian moral code allowed to create a just and more rational society.   

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Friday, October 12, 2012

Behavioral and Personality Typing Essay

Essay on Behavioral and Personality Typing

Behavioral and Personality Typing has raised its importance with increasing concern over motivation in management (Ebster 2006). After understanding the definitions of behavior and personality, different tests are being made in order to categorize personality into types. The most popular are projective tests and self-report personality tests. Both are based on different factors, the most common of which are the so-called “Big Five personality factors” and the outcomes of the tests result come to different personality types (Bernardin 2007, 146).

There is a direct link between behavior and personality: in fact, behavior is an exhibit of personality as it is the reactions of an individual in relation to the factors of the self and the environment (Ellis-Christensen 2010). Personality can be defined intraindividual organization of a person based on experience, behavior and traits (Asendorpf 2002). Hence, personality is an individual’s consistent pattern of behavior.

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The better understanding of personality leads to a better understanding of behavior and, in the end, performance. Performance is based not only on skills and knowledge, but also on motivation. There are countless cases in class and in work, where a fully-qualified individual shows poor performance. The reason for that, very often, is the lack of motivation, which is based on personality (Irwin 1961). In order to understand personality better, it has to be classified into types.

One of the most famous classifications of personality is based on the “Big Five” personality factors: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism. Based on that there could be the following examples of personality types, for example, openness – artistic in contrast to cautious (Gosling 2003).
   
The types of personality are identified through tests; there are two types of tests – projective tests and self-report personality inventories. The first refer to tests, where the purpose and the procedure of the test are hidden from the test-taker. An example for such a test is the Miner Sentence Completion Scale, where the test-takers are asked to complete 40 sentences like “Playing golf…”. It is commonly used to measure how applicants deal with authority, perform day-to-day tasks or manage others (Brief 1977). Self-report personality inventories measure personality and or motivation with the respondent being aware of the procedure, purpose and criteria of the test and are much more popular. They are used in many organizations to identify the types of personality of individuals and predict their job effectiveness. One such example is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, where respondents are asked to fill out a test, which via trained professionals is used to identify the personality structure and psychopathology. The results do not show how “well” or how “bad” the respondents have done on the test, but rather the proper analysis shows relative elevation of factors compared to the various groups that have been studied  Butcher 2010).

Whether through projective tests or self-report personality inventories, the understanding and identifying of personality types leads to a better understanding and prediction of motivation and performance, which can be a great aid to any organization.

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Work Environment Essay

Work Environment Essay

1. Introduction 
The span of responsibilities, assignments and fields of specialization within the Naval command is naturally the widest and most diverse in the corps. Even rather narrow tasks often depend on the proper and synchronized performance of different people, teams and technologies. This requires breathtaking efforts of coordination, documentation and feedback, which may be significantly compromised when the workforce lacks sufficient infrastructure and/or clear work processes. The victims in such cases are not only the tasks themselves but also the workforce, whose inferior performance directly affect personal and team morale. 

A recent study carried out by navy officials (Dellinger, 2008) shows great concern regarding possible influences of poor documentation of processes on a variety of performance indicators, including workforce morale, ineffectiveness and organizational inefficiency. Moreover, the author poor documentation and metrics also cause more problems and call for crisis management, thereby putting more mental pressure on the workforce. The human price for such pressures can vary from fatigue to depression and intention to leave, with dramatic effects on short- and long-term performance.       

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2. Poor Process Documentation as a Cause for Low Morale and Performance 
Morale stems from an array of personal and organizational factors. It is therefore obvious that depletion of morale (and solution to the problem) cannot be traced down to a single phenomenon or change. That being said, Dellinger’s (2008) findings may indicate a key cause for low workforce morale, especially when considering the fact that organizations such as Naval command function in a manner that stand somewhere between armed forces traditions (which have perfected the art of esprit de corps) and a civil workforce. Hence, a sound analysis of the problem must consider both aspects of the organization and its workforce.

Morale and related positive aspect of job performance such as stability, productivity and achievement “depend on the fit between one’s personality and one’s work environment” (2003, p. 132). Whereas the former criterion might indeed be managed to a great extent by more adequate staffing, it seems that the latter, i.e. the means by which work environment affects morale and performance, should receive greater attention from commanders as improvements in the workings of the units have a greater effect than trying to adjust people to a poorly managed process.

An atmosphere of uncertainty and rapid changes (e.g. an immediate need to reprioritize tasks) are a natural and unavoidable component of any military environment. It seems, however, that the Naval command does not do enough to create a clearer and smoother work environment. Lepore (2010), for example, finds that the Naval command has inferior process management protocols (compared to the Army and the Air Force), which are often vague and lead to poor allocation of tasks and responsibilities. 

His findings include, among others: 

  • Strategic plans do not elaborate on who is responsible for some actions and how these are to be carried out;
  • Guidance documents are not synchronized and even contradict each other in some cases; and
  • Lack of clarity regarding standards of reporting and evaluation.  
Simply put, it is not unlikely that a considerable number of tasks are performed without being subject to a coherent set of instructions. This implies that the people who perform such tasks (as well as people whose work depend on the performance of these tasks by others) work in a confusing atmosphere and do not have the means to evaluate their performance. It might be that such tasks are performed in a reasonable manner even without proper documentation of work processes, but the lack of the latter opens a wide window for personal interpretation and fragility when one or more components of work environment (such as supervisors and priorities) change. A further decline in morale is very likely to occur due to the fact that processes that are very difficult to manage also tend to fail more often, thereby causing a decline in people’s perception of the purpose and quality of their own work (Boyd, 2004). 

It is important to emphasize at this point that the flaws discussed here may have a tremendous effect to the proper functioning of the organization has a whole. Notwithstanding the importance of these effects, this report focuses on the specific dimension of morale and therefore does not cover the whole array of possible implications associated with poor process documentation in the Naval command. Thus, the recommendations provided below remain in the narrow context of improving workforce morale to enhance organizational performance. 

3. Suggestions for Improvement 
There is a great sense in the claim that although the U.S. Naval command can greatly benefit from more comprehensive structuring of tasks and processes, it must also make sure that such actions will not lead to rigidity. A certain degree of ambiguity in the command’s processes is indeed necessary, but possible negative effects on workforce morale can and should be prevented. The relevant literature suggests more than a few ways to deal with this situation. These ways can be broadly classified into two main categories:

First and foremost, the Naval command should reengineer quite a few of its decision-making and process management documentation. This must be done rigorously and decisively, but in a manner that will not create a sense of mistrust and unwillingness to cooperation of behalf of the workforce. In order to do so, the change agents (that are responsible for analyzing the current situation, prescribing solutions and implementing them) should exhibit openness, explain the merits of changes and demonstrate tangible benefits to individual (as opposed to merely organizational) performance, time management and flow of work (Spears, 2007).  

Second and almost as important as the latter, efforts should be made to teach and develop coping strategies for the workforce. As discussed above, the Naval command cannot and should not eliminate quite of few loci of flexible process management and documentation. On the other hand, narratives such as ‘this is simply a part of the job’ are not effective to prevent decline in morale. Garrido and Muñoz (2006) argue that coping strategies should be customized to specific individual and task characteristics and offer strategies such as:

  • Focalization: e.g. by directly confronting the problem, with a guided intent to rationalize its causes and inevitability;
  • Cognitive efforts: capitalizing on one’s ability to adopt in order to develop individual and/or organizational strategies to handle the problem without emotional costs; and
  • Behavioral efforts: using social tools such as humor, organizational folklore and identification with the organization’s causes to bypass possible negative effects of the problem on morale.   

The U.S. Naval command and its workforce suffer from an array of inherit problems, which might affect morale and performance. A comprehensive approach that combines process reengineering and psychological interventions is likely to be the key to solve possible decline in performance. As it managed to sustain esprit de corps in much more challenging eras than today, the Navy can and should carry out the needed effort to bring about such a change.  

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Essay About Pregnancy

Essay About Pregnancy

I was dreaming of being a mother since I was 3 years old. When I was a little girl, child birth was something saint to me and when I grew up that feeling just became more real.

When I understood that I’m pregnant it was miracle that I was not able to realize at once. Me and my husband were willing to have a child and were anticipating this event. I was not making a test for pregnancy or seeing a doctor, I just realized that someone is already inside of me and I am responsible from now not only for myself, but also for life of this new little creature.
Then I visited my doctor, he took all necessary analyses and said that I am really pregnant, but his confirmation was just a mere formality.

During first about three months I had not experienced any drastic changes in my body, but later I started to feel stronger that inside me is a living organism. I hadn’t experienced any changes in my tastes or appetite and was not trying to eat for both of us, as some popular magazines advice. I was just doing and eating what I felt would be good for me and for my future baby.

Interesting thing that the fact I will give birth to a child didn’t frightened me at all, although other future mums with whom I was communicating were a bit scared before their future event.

During pregnancy I was working for about 6 months till I realized tat I need to pay more attention to myself. I was reading a lot of literature and birth stories, started to attend yoga for pregnant. I would like to stop on describing my yoga experiences in more details. I was just amazing I have never experienced before. At once it was hard to adapt to physical loadings and specific spiritual direction, but then I started to get pleasure from trainings. My couch told me a lot of things connected not only with my future experiences and how to be prepared to them, how to breathe and what to expect, but also about my emotional state, about my inner feelings and about my expectation on the spiritual level. I thought a lot about not only physical process how I became pregnant, but also about pregnancy like of a divine gift. My couch talked a lot about the importance of the road I am already in too. Of course, I was just listening to him and trying to make my own opinion upon the things he told me, but in many things our views were almost the same. He taught me how to breathe properly - inhale with my stomach and then push an air out with my stomach as well (usually women breathe with their breast), as he said that such breathing technique is very useful for slight massage of my baby girl and all innate organs. We also breathed together according to other techniques, such as short inhalations for about 54 times and holding up breathe till the moment it was possible without extra efforts, and I began to feel myself much better. My perception of myself, my body and my present state became more deliberate. I began to feel myself better and understand that I can control my feelings and my physical state. I could control my pains when beginning immediately to breathe properly.

I noticed that during pregnancy I became more sensitive. Sometimes I could cry just for any trifle. One day I was walking in the park near our house and breathing fresh air, and it was shining, and it was summer, and I was just caressing my baby and realizing that I am absolutely a happy person, and suddenly I began to cry and those tears were tears of happiness. I realized that I am doing what I have always wanted to, I am with man I have always loved and will love forever and that soon there will be three of us. I was anticipating seeing and holding my baby girl, and had no anxiety towards pain, which is usually connected with process of giving birth and contractions, although I have never experience all that before, but I was sure that everything will be just the best way. I was sure that my midwifes will do everything for me and my baby and actually it happened how I expected.

Delivery went perfect. When contractions became I was at home cooking for George who was going to return from his job. He actually forbade me to overstrain, but it was easy for me and very pleasant to cook for him, knowing that he will come back tired and will be very much grateful for my taking care of him. I immediately called my midwife and asked what I should do. She asked me to relax and just to call her when I will be in more active labor. Then I called my husband and he said that he will come back home as soon as possible. I had an impression that he became anxious even more than I did. I decided to eat something and to watch TV just to relax and contraction didn’t stopped.

Then I realized that I was not emotionally ready to all this, I was preparing to this day all nine months and at that moment I panicked for a while. I called my mother and two sisters, and they knew that they couldn’t do anything for me, but they tried to calm me down and provide emotional support. Then George came and we took some necessary things and went to the hospital. Huh! When I think about that day, I just experience it again and became sweaty a bit. It was very important to me that contraction didn’t slow down so that I was able to give a natural birth to my baby girl. In the hospital midwifes checked me and saw that it was already needed 10 cm and I was ready. It is impossible to describe what I felt when I saw my sweet little baby and could clasp her to my breast. She was so beautiful that I began to cry. She cried and I was crying. It was the happiest moment in my life. I counted all her fingers and couldn’t take my eyes of her face.

What can I say? Each woman has to feel and experience that by herself. To my opinion only then she will realize her real predestination. And as to me, we are thinking about the second child.
 
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Monday, September 10, 2012

Plagiarism Exercise Essay

Plagiarism Exercise Essay

Excerpt 1 
The student version seems to be good enough though, it is possible to find certain misrepresentation of the original message since the phrase ‘stormy alliances, seems to change the original idea of Steven Greffenius who spoke about turbulent relations but he rather implies the uneasy relations with Israel as the major opponent of Egypt but not the allies of the latter. This is why the student version may be presented as follows: Egypt was an unpredictable leader of the Arab world. At times it was friendly to its neighbors and at others it seemed to encourage enemy relations. Such a changeable policy of Egypt led to the highly unstable relations of the country with Israel to the extent that it moved the countries to the war in 1967.
Excerpt 2 
The student version basically fully repeats the original message. This is why it is possible to estimate that this is another case of plagiarism which may be defined as paraphrase with incomplete documentation since despite the repetition of the author’s ideas the student did not use quotation marks nor proper documentation. The correct student version should be as follows: Diane Amble (1996) explains that for Old Order Amish and Mennonite sects not only were worship services a ritual expression of the spirit of Gelassenheit but “they were also a time for practicing unity, a time, when the individual was integrated into and found expression in the collective activities of waiting, silence, listening, and unison singing” (43).

Excerpt 3 
 Basically, the student version is correct, though it seems to be possible t be a bit more precise while documenting the original source. To put it more precisely, it seems to be possible to provide more information about the original book. The student excerpt may be presented as follows: In his book, The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace, Alan Briskin (1996) contends that the factory’s social gatherings have unified people in every kind of relationship from friendships to marriages (222).

Excerpt 4 
The student version may be also named plagiarism because basically, it repeats the ideas and words of the original message. At the same time, the student obviously fails to acknowledge all quoted materials. This is why the correct student version should be as follows: In the United States people viewed religion as “an individual’s personal, private relationship to the divine”. It is also true, however, that religion has “public as well as personal or private facets” (Monsma 50).

Excerpt 5 
This student version is correct as it provides ample information about the author and the original version, while, at the same time, the student version represents unique and original message that has only the main idea in common with the original message. This is why it is possible to estimate that this version is correct and does not need to be changed somehow.
 
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Paraphrasing Exercise Essay

Paraphrasing Exercise Essay

1. Erich Von Daniken (1989) asserts that Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the earliest pioneers of the idea of human ability to fly, has developed models of flying vehicles that are in fact the archetypes of the modern airplanes, however he was forced to keep them secret being afraid of the Inquisition(p. 193).
2. Today in the rapidly developing world it happened that the habitat of the wildlife is narrowing, being forced out by modern constructions (Florida Wildlife, p.37, 1996).

3. Being unobvious as it is, the Internet network was originated to be the network of scientific and governmental institutions, as stated by Chris O’Malley, an Internet consultant for Popular Science magazine, who goes further by suggesting that indeed those starting thoughts lead to the further development of the ideas of technological sites, such as for example World Wide Web(54-56).

 4. James Gibson, a book author and a musician, asserts that a lot of musicians find the pleasure in playing for the pure sake of it rather than for the pay, choosing to withdraw from the outer world and lead secluded lives (39). 5. It is rather difficult to approximate the amount of fabric needed to sew a quilt, to avoid making the wrong estimations one can make up a quilt using the various types of fabrics from many sources as suggested by Susan Denton and Barbara Macey (1988), the founders of the National Quiltmaking Guild. (p.4)
 
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Monday, September 3, 2012

Islam Research Paper

Islam Research Paper

1. Introduction 
[Islam] demands loyalty to God, not to thrones. . . . The ultimate spiritual basis of all life, as conceived by Islam is eternal and reveals itself in variety and change. A society based on such a conception of Reality must reconcile, in its life, the categories of permanence and change.

Allameh Mohammad Iqbal Lahori In order to understand whether Islam is compatible with modern Arab world, we should understand primarily current situation is the Arab world and know all its aspects. Aspects of modern Arab world include political, cultural, religious, social and economic issues. We should as well be aware of main principles of Islam and only after putting all the ingredients together it will be possible to make any conclusions about the compatibility of the religion and the modern Arab world. It was historically developed, that each government in world countries needed levers of influence on its people. Religion and its interpretation have also served as a very effective tool.

What does the definition of “modern Arab world” includes? To my opinion it is primarily the state of the society and the political situation in Arab countries. And in this prospect modern means democratic, and therefore it is necessary to investigate in compatibility of Islam and democracy.

Democracy is a Western notion. But it is always important to remember that experience of one country cannot always be applied to the others with different historical background, people and religion.

So, in the paper I would try to explore compatibility of Islam with all aspects of modern Arab world and evaluate its important in all spheres of Arab people lives.

2. Islam and Social Rights 
The resurgence of Islam and the desire for democratization in the Muslim world exist in a dynamic global context. Throughout the world, many peoples express similar desires, making religious resurgence and democratization two of the most important themes in contemporary world affairs. The assertion of special communal identities and the demand for increased popular political participation occur in a complex world environment in which technology reinforces global relationships at the same time that local and national and local cultural identities remain remarkably strong.

Historians argue a lot about the fact that even though the notion of human rights had been very much developed in western counties, it should not be declared that enforcing of human rights should be announced everywhere. Attempts to lessen the importance of Islam perspectives on the topic of human rights, democracy and social justice aiming to generalize experiences of the West and of the East can cause instability of the political and social life in Arab countries and become a threat to the peace in them. I must say that attempts of Arab county leaders to experiment with democratic orders arouses just respect, but it can appear to be very dangerous not to count countries’ history and experience and just follow proposed standards.

In is essential to remember while evaluating that Islam a general way of life, and as a religion it is undividable from the all spheres of everyday life. It is a worldview that cannot be easily changed or reformed during short period of time.

Islamic law contains a lot of codes which govern social relations, foreign affairs and organization. It presumes that what I said to be personal is as well societal, and what is corporate is equally individual.

3. Islam and Democracy
For many in the West, for example, the concept of "Islamic democracy" is anathema. However, this view makes it impossible to understand the appeal and strength of many movements within the Islamic world. Because democracy is in many profound ways an essentially contested concept, it is important to understand the perception of democracy within the movements of the current Islamic resurgence. This understanding is important even for those who view the Islamic resurgence as a threat, because it is important to understand the competing definitions of democracy.

There have been argued already for many years whether Islam and democracy and coexist, whether Islam can be easily followed in political affairs, support governance that is based upon democracy, support sovereignty and pluralism. It is obvious that there are usually two points of view upon this subject. The first I would like to discuss is tat Islam is not compatible with democratic orders that nowadays are inseparably entered and took important place in modern Arab world. Democracy is one of those concepts which are incapable of accurate definition. There is no consensus on any of the definitions given. Even consulting dictionaries is of no real help, because again what we usually find there are arbitrary or stipulative definitions provided by people committed to certain schools of political theory. Therefore, the meaning of democracy must be sought in something other than a formula.

Democracy, as a political direction, requires competition, pluralism, openness and tolerance to diversity. On the other hand, Islam, as the religious way of life, presumes intellectual and personal conformity and absolute acceptance of authorities. Elie Kedourie, for example, claims that basic principles of democracy are “profoundly alien to the Muslim political tradition”. It is also important to mention that Islam can be called anti-democratic tradition because it presumes sovereignty in God, who is said to be the only source of political power and only from that kind of divine authority all present regulations to govern the community, should come from. Therefore, some observes insist that Islam is more compatible with the totalitarian state.

As I have already mentioned, there are two points of view. The second one insists of the fact that the ideas of Islam can be interpreted differently and the opinion depends solely upon the interpretation. Some analysts point out that Islamic traditions have many tendencies and facets, which can be put in one line with democratic issues. They insist that openness and progressive innovation as the direction of development do not contradict to religious traditions and therefore Islam is absolutely compatible to what is said to be democracy in the modern Arab world. And the only important thing is this arguing debated remains the question of the authority and government and how those aspects of the religion and traditions are interpreted by those people.

Debates upon compatibility of Islam and democracy are very much connected with theology, historical precedent and doctrine. It is important to understand whether Islamic conceptions have the influence upon political preference and values of common people. But I have not found any evidences or structured research papers done upon this topic. But think that in general Islam conceptions should not have drastic influence upon political preferences.

4. Islam and family traditions 
…family laws, which regulate rights and responsibilities in marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance, do not provide for equality between the sexes because they have been developed within the Islamic framework in all Arab countries. Because the legislation has been developed independently, there is a wide range in interpretation.

It is obvious that family and family orders and traditions cannot be divided from the perception and analyzing of the modern world and each country’s state in particular. But even here interpretation of the Islamic traditions plays a prominent role. Different religious authorities demonstrate different views upon the issues of family planning and contraception, they give different advices regarding those items and what is permissible and what is not in Islam. And in accordance with all previously mentioned I have just several questions- what is the motivation for different religious authorities? Are their opinions are independent from the influence of the political authorities? Can their advices be the manipulation in order to achieve some global personal or country goals? I do not have answers for those questions, but I am sure that religion should not be used as the tool to govern; it should just the mean to be closer to God and divine powers for the personal benefit and prosperity of each separate citizen.

5. Conclusion 
In the conclusion I would like to summarize that Islam is absolutely compatible with modern Arab world. And that compatibility totally depends upon world views and directions in which political and religious leaders in the country are looking. To my opinion, Arab world is unique world, with interesting history, particular experiences and original people with personal beliefs. It is impossible to compare it to any existent world, European or Asia. Arab people had gone through many trials and they have taken their own necessary lessons from them and they are able to shape their present and future depending on their beliefs and involving principles of the religious tradition they are accustomed to, which is their way of life and the primary frame through which they percept the world and live.

My personal opinion implies that democracy is a very successful order, but everything is relative and what is successful in one place can bring chaos in the other. Islam smoothly enters all sphere of modern Arab world and therefore it is just the individual choice whether to consider it compatible or not.

Actually you can visit the following site to find a lot of interesting research papers on various religion topics.
 

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Research Paper on America

Rainer Rilling. “American Empire” as Will and Idea. The new major strategy of the Bush Administration

Rainer Rilling’s idea of the America’s future is based on the the National Security Strategy of the United States of America published on 17 September 2002. According to this document, Rilling claims, there is a new division of the world and a new perspective for the United States to maintain political and military leadership. He sites the report on “Rebuilding America’s Defense” stating “the 21st century world is – for the moment, at least – decidedly unipolar, with America as the world’s “sole superpower” to emphasize the idea of the U.S. clearly-defined strategy for the world’s dominance. Among the major proponents of this grand strategy there are such notable political personalities include Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and many other well-known politicians, famous for their neo-conservative standpoint.

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According to Reiner Rilling, the essence of the strategy is “the maintenance and extension of the disparity between America and the rest of the world and the worldwide enforcement of the model of American dominance”. The strategy is enforced via the means of US Global sovereignty, preventive wars and military superiority, to support this statement Rilling recites George W. Bush (Quoted from Michael Lind: Is America the New Empire? In: The Globalist 19 June 2002) “America has, and intends to keep, military strengths beyond challenge.”). Rilling actually believes the “American Empire” concept is, thus, “in power”. To illustrate this idea, the author quotes Stephen Peter Rose, the Director of the neo-conservative Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, and one of the founding member of the Project for a New American Century: “our goal is not combating a rival, but maintaining our imperial position, and maintaining imperial order”. The American Empire is about to come?

Is the U.S. an Empire? By Paul Schroeder 
Professor Paul Schroeder starts the article stating that the idea of “American Empire” already enjoys popularity as a fact both in the United States and abroad there is a widely-diffused opinion that “America already enjoys a world-imperial position and is launched on an imperial course”. But the rest of the article deals with the refutation of this “fact”. The author dethrones the “US Empire” by analyzing the term “empire” and opposing it to the concepts of “unchallenged hegemony” or "unipolar moment". According to Schroeder, the authentication of these terms is “a misleading, unhistorical understanding of empire”. The author is taking a close look at a historical meaning and essence of the word “empire”, and logically proves the United States can hardly be called that at the moment (it is rather a “hegemon” - the first among equals). An imperial power, according to Schroeder, rules over subordinates, and is in the core – “the negation of political freedom, liberation, and self-determination” – the ideas quite opposite to the proclaimed American ideas and values. But Professor Schroeder believes there is great potential for the US to become an empire – taking into consideration the imperialist ambitions and goals of the America’s new strategy. The author, though, warns that choosing the path of empire – instead of pursuing hegemonic stability -will undoubtedly lead to the ruin of the country and the system. There is trustworthy historical evidence of the empires from the past.

Illusions of Empire: Defining the New American Order By G. John Ikenberry. Foreign Affairs. March/April 2004

Similar to the article by Paul Schroeder, John Ikenberry starts the debate over whether the US is an empire by defining the term and turning to the countries past. Mentioning the relatively recent National Security Strategy and describing the policy, the author comes to the conclusion that “If empire is defined loosely, as a hierarchical system of political relationships in which the most powerful state exercises decisive influence, then the United States today indeed qualifies.” But Ikenberry’s idea is that even if the United States is an empire, it is “like no other before it”. The principal differences underlie in three respects: the provision of public goods in exchange for the cooperation of other states; the excursion of power through rules and institutions; and provision of "voice opportunities" to the weaker states (informal approach).

John Ikenberry campares and contrasts the several ideas of the US empire - including Niall Ferguson’s liberal empire(described in the “Collossus”) and Chalmers Johnson’s military empire from “The Sorrows of Empire” - the and their application to the current U.S. position in the world. And finally concludes that of all imperialistic theories, the US is more like Ferguson’s idea. Still, Ikenberry claims, the notion of the empire is “misleading” – it does not fully describe the path and essence of America’s global political order, which was reached by rather liberal and democratic power.

The Rediscovery of Imperialism By John Bellamy Foster. Monthly Review. November 2002

The name of the article states a totally new approach to the idea of the American imperialism. If all the previous scholars questioned the idea of the US Empire itself, John Bellamy Foster claims the United States are now facing the return to the concept of imperialism, as it has been always one of the America’s political opportunities. Foster describes the US historical background – addressing the time of the Spanish-American War - as one of the impulses for the formation of the Imperialism concept.

Foster analyses the core literature on Imperialism, written at the breaking of the XX century – including the works of John A. Hobson, Vladimir Lenin, and a book by Harry Magdoff, written significantly later, in 1969. Foster mentions the rediscovery of the term imperialism took place in the 90th of the XX century, before this - Prabhat Patnaik wrote on November, 1990 an article for Monthly Review entitled “Whatever Happened to Imperialism?”, raising “the question of the almost complete disappearance of the term from left analysis in the United States and Europe”.

In the XXI century America’s political leaders have rediscovered the term to describe the US world domination and influence.

John Bellamy Foster analyses the situation in the countries that are believed to have “raced ahead economically” in the last decades. Foster proves there believes are not as persuasive as they seem, thus undermining the belief US imperialism with its liberalization is making the world a better place to live.

Even though Foster’s view on the concept of the US Empire is different than that of the other scholars he predicts basically the same future for the country “the U.S. imperialism resembles the exploitative empires of the past, and will likely suffer the same fate as past empires – revolt from within and “barbarians” at the gate”. The Third Stage of American Empire By William Rivers Pitt. truthout March 1, 2005

William Rivers Pitt’s concept of the American Empire is based on the idea that Empire has survived three stages of formation since the creation of the United States. The first stage included the Mexican-American war and the Civil War – when America formed its economic, military and industrial potential. The second stage lasted much longer and covered the two World Wars and the Cold War. The end of World War II enabled the United States to stretch throughout Europe to the borders of the Soviet Union. The author also claims that the “strongholds of the second stage could be likewise found in Africa, the Japanese mainland and many Pacific islands and, with the creation of the state of Israel, the strategically-vital Middle East”. The Cold War has stimulated the arms race that made the United States the only truly dominant military country of the world with the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990th.

The rise of the third wave took place on realizing America’s superpower and was rocketed by the events of September 11th.

Again, by describing dollar declines, scarce oil supplies, new more powerful players of the world’s political arena, all tend to destabilize the America’s domination. The author predicts that the “third American empire is threatening to collapse under its own ponderous weight”. The Empires fall, always, he claims. For those, who think the American Empire is still about to come, and for those, who believe it is already here, the conclusions are basically the same – and are hardly optimistic.

Essay #2 
The development of the modern world economic system started with the transition of the medieval world from the stage of feudal crisis to the rise of capitalism. The world system analysis, introduced and developed, among others, by Immanuel Wallerstein, suggested the world regions may be categorized as cores, semi-peripheries, peripheries and external.

According to Wallerstein, the core territories can be characterized by powerful central governments, vast bureaucracies, and substantial mercenary armies. The local bourgeoisie obtained control over international commerce and extracted capital surplus from this type of trade.

Most core territories were political and economic centers of the region (e.g. England, France, Spain, etc), but the domination did not guarantee the perpetual prosperity. Many countries (often considered to be the “Empires”) experienced the extensive growth and development, exercised power over the subdominant territories, but then, due to various reasons, declined in development, and became semi-peripheries (e.g. Spain and Portugal).

The peripheral zones were the territories that, unlike the core countries, lacked strong central governments or were controlled by other states. Coercive labor practices were normal for the peripheries (e.g. Africa, Latin America, Poland, etc.). Most peripheral countries exported raw materials to the core and worked for the benefit of the latter. The unequal trade relations enabled the core countries to expropriate the capital surplus generated by the periphery.

The nature of relationships between the core and peripheries is, thus, the core’s political, economic and often military dominance over the peripheral zones, with the exploitation, extraction of resources, and surplus transfer from the latter to the former. One of the most common characteristics of the core is the extensive bureaucracy and army, and these are the major means of maintaining dominance over periphery.

The West-European colonization of Africa, Britain’s influence on the commonwealth territories, and overseas expansionism of the United States to foreign territories at the end of the nineteenth century are all the examples of the core-peripheries relations.

Centuries ago, core territories used to exempt the peripheral resources and use the labor to enrich the treasury, the main influence on the dependent territories was through military control, trade and profit maximization, religion and technological (industrial) advantages. The modern era has basically kept these instruments of influence, adding other aspects like social and cultural expansion, informational flow, technological superiority, financial bondage, global political alliances and organizations, etc. In addition, multinational corporations that operate on the modern global market provide means of surplus extraction (e.g. via the repatriation of profits) and obstacles to the internal development (e.g. via the provision of large quantities of capital and thus sweeping aside the domestic investors.

The communication and transportation technologies enable core countries (that are generally a leap ahead in these spheres, as compared to the peripheral zones) to reinforce the impact and the dependence.

The extensive development of these industries provides rapid exchange of data, resources and overall influence of the technologically advanced countries. The new transportation technologies quickened and improved the production processes and provided new opportunities for the core countries. Prompt and technologically superior transportation and communication technologies give a chance to extend influence over the “new” territories (peripheral zones of other core countries (or ex-“cores”)) and enable the new level of domination – worldwide.

There is no doubt the United States are the core country – the switch of influence from the British empire to the US in the 20th century (after the two World Wars and the Cold War), that made the United States superior in almost all spheres, especially in military, political and economical aspects.

The question whether the United States have an “empire” is very complex and quite controversial. Modern scholars do not have any common view upon the issue – the variety of ideas has been caused by the different understanding of the concept of “empire” and distinctions in interpretation of the history of the United States, especially its political and military expansion from the end of the 19th and throughout the 20th century.

Those, who interpret the American modern “imperial strategy” in terms of military and political domination, address the comparatively recent document – National Security Strategy of the United States of America published (of 17 September 2002).

This strategy is believed to be created in response to the 9/11 events. The essence of the strategy is the worldwide US military and political dominance, or, put in other words, through the extension of the disparity between America and the rest of the world. To support the idea of the US imperialism in power, one could quote Stephen Peter Rose, the Director of the neo-conservative Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, and one of the founding members of the Project for a New American Century: “our goal is not combating a rival, but maintaining our imperial position, and maintaining imperial order”.

Some other scholars doubt the United States can lay claim to be the modern “empire”, it is rather an “unchallenged hegemony”. The empire, at least historically, negated the concepts of the political freedom, liberation, and self-determination, which is quite opposite to the concept of “American values” (the defense of human rights and democracy), as the US and the rest of the world see it. The US expansion has always been based (according to its advocates) on belief in free trade and open markets. I certainly agree that if the empire is understood as the most powerful state exercising decisive influence upon the rest of the world, the United Stated states, with their extensive military and political impact, can be labeled as that. But still, it is quite difficult to parallel the United States as they are and the idea of the American Empire. It is, in fact, quite different from the historical empires. United States as a core country shows a rather informal approach: it provides public goods in exchange for the cooperation of other states, exercises power through rules and institutions and provides "voice opportunities" to the weaker states.

Politicians and those interested in profiting from the US hegemony around the world, might, certainly, proclaim the ambitions of imperial power of the United States, but I doubt that this is what the nation really sees as the essence of their living. Being (or rather becoming) an Empire is a very controversial issue, especially taking into consideration the sad experience of all the empires in the course of the centuries of the world’s history. The fact is, all the empires, either vast or small, have faced the same crisis (under its own weight), which, in the end, destroyed the country and the system itself.

It is obvious that the hegemonic stability is far more promising and beneficial (in both economic and social aspects) than the imperial usurpation, which shall undoubtedly face serious confrontation. And, knowing, that the humanity might not survive the third world war, does the United States really need to become an Empire?
 
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Monday, August 27, 2012

Mexican Revolution Research Paper

Research Paper on Mexican Revolution

From the very beginning Mexican revolution caused the anxiety of rulings circles the USA, which had to clarify the neutrality itself, the confession of new governments, weapon sale and property defense of the USA citizens from possible harm. Disappointed in the mode of Diaz, the USA tried to adhere to a policy of non-interference during the revolt of Madero and acknowledged him as a president. However the USA ambassador in Mexico Henry Wilson constantly intrigued against a new government, supported rebels and carried moral responsibility for that he was not able to prevent Madero’s murder, killing a competitor.

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Wilson supposed that nonrecognition of the dictator would be instrumental in his overthrow and conducting of necessary reforms. The direct result of this policy of “strange observers” was by the armed US intervention with the purpose of weapon delivery prevention for the mode of Huerta.

When the German ship with weapon dropped an anchor in Veracruz, Wilson ordered to the naval forces of the United States of America to occupy a city. These actions, causing indignation of Mexicans, threatened to result in war. Only diplomatic mediation of Argentina, Brazil and Chile helped to prevent a large-scale conflict.

After falling of Huerta dictatorship Wilson tried to reconcile quarreling factions of revolutionaries. These attempts had a failure, and after the defeat of the North division the USA acknowledged the government of Carranza. In March 1916 detachment of Villa passed the USA border and accomplished a raid on a border-line small town Columbus in the state of New Mexico. In reply Wilson sent a punitive force under the command of General John J. Pershing. However North Americans met bitter resistance of Mexicans and, suffering the row of defeats, in January 1917 began evacuation of troops from the territory of Mexico.

Acceptance of constitution 1917 intensified the relations between countries, as a row of its laws hurt the interests of North-American companies in Mexico. The new Mexican constitution became the main result of revolution. Carranza, remaining a winner, attached importance to law reforms, which were promised in his revolutionary decrees. The text of the document repeated mainly the positions of constitution 1857, but added three fundamentally important articles. The third article foresaw introduction of universal free education; article number 27 declared all the acres, waters and bowels of the earth on the territory of Mexico to become national property, and also declared the necessity of section of large latifundia and set principles and procedure of conducting of agrarian reform; article 123 was a vast labor code.

In these years the internal political situation in Mexico was noted by the instability which was aggravated by contradictions with the United States. Any change of government was accompanied with revolts in 1923-1924, 1927 and 1929. The implementation of the anticlerical program declared in a constitution caused sharp intensifying of relations of the state with a church. The refuse of clergy to execute positions of constitution forced the closure of church schools, and that is why church answered with the temporal stopping of practice of religious cult in temples from August, 1 1926. During the years beginning from 1926 and up to 1929 a so-called revolt “cristeros” blazed in Mexico. The supporters of church, mainly from peasants, killed the emissaries of government and burned society schools. A revolt was repressed by the governmental troops.

More and more diplomatic conflicts with the USA constantly arose related to the American oil companies in Mexico. The agreement of Bucarelli produced in 1923 by a joint diplomatic commission solved the row of most sharp problems and resulted in acknowledgement of government of Obregon from the side of the USA.

In 1925 as most of the earlier accepted agreements were not followed the government of Calles began to prepare a law about conducting in life the article number 27 from the constitution 1917, touching property and landed domains of the American companies. It intensified the political relations of Mexico and USA again. Things were heading towards the break in diplomatic relations, but the armed intervention which Mexicans considered to be necessary was inevitable. The situation was softened in 1927, when a skilful diplomat Dwight Morrow became the ambassador of the United States in Mexico. Following the course of policy of neighborliness, proclaimed by Roosevelt, he was able to find a compromise in the decision of the sharpest problems.
 
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