Letters Home

Kristin Strickland History 370 Book Essay March 21, 2013 Letters from Vietnam I found that trying to find a book to read about the Vietnam War was rather difficult because there are so many of them out there. I chose Letters from Vietnam edited by Bill Adler because it was a point of view from many soldiers in the war and they were what they were truly feeling at the time. It is not one point of view when you read this many letters and a little background on each of the authors, but there are many points of views, feelings and emotions to help us better understand what they were going through emotionally and physically while overseas.When I first opened the book to the introduction section I was not sure what I was going to find because a lot of times they filter what is out there for us to read or stick to one scheme. This book has went any should us how many of the people felt and under different schemes. I know that Dr. Lofthus always says, â€Å"a picture is worth a thousand wor ds†, while in class but reading someone else’s words is worth much more and when done correctly you can feel what they were feeling when they wrote them.One of the first letters that I read that really stuck out and made me understand that they had to define things to their families and explain what some terms and other things were that maybe they were hearing from the news stations, was a letter written by First Lieutenant James Michener. He wrote the letter in the book while he was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam from 1966-1967. The letter was dated November 17, 1966 from Tuy Hoa, Vietnam and he starts by explaining the reason that he hasn’t written in a while is because he was away from his base for over a week.He goes on to say, â€Å"We were there to furnish air support to units of the IV (Fourth) Infantry Division (â€Å"Ivy Division†) and the 101st Airborne Division (â€Å"Screaming Eagles†). These units were making a general sweep of an area about one hundred miles square. They were looking for Victor Charlie (â€Å"VC†) – that’s what we call him. † While First Lieutenant Michener was writing letters to his family he explained many things about what he was seeing to having his helicopter hit with a bullet. You could tell from his letters that he was fighting for what he believes in. In the chapter titled â€Å"Reflection†, Sgt.David Glading writes a letter home to his girlfriend. He goes on to write, â€Å"It’s a beautiful night, moons out, stars, and no clouds, ya don’t even need a flashlight. I had just finished reading the paper and found a poem, so I’m sending it along. You know, you hear and read about all the things that go on over here, but don’t really understand or believe them until you see it. I’ve seen old men beat women, girls, little boy, and young men, I’ve seen the dead and wounded, and I’ve seen little children cry when their fathers are taken away. † I could not imagine writing a letter like that back home to a loved one.It would be hard to tell them the things that I have seen or how I was feeling. I would want to lie so that they thought I was ok and that everything was fine, but many of these letters if not all can be read and not give families the reassurance that they need. I want to end by saying that I received many letters and emails from my husband while he was in Iraq. He never once let on if anything was wrong. He always asked about our kids or how I was doing. He would tell me when he wanted a new picture or socks, but he never let on as to what he saw until after he was home.He would always reassure me that things were fine when the news would say something else, or when one of our aircraft from the base crashed he would call and tell me he was fine. I am not sure how I would handle a letter like these if they were sent to me. I did not live through that era, but I am sure that it helped them get the things off their chests and out of their minds so that they could continue what they were doing and not have all that accumulated inside. It is good to get it out and now we have all of these wonderful letters to give us an idea and understanding of what they all faced during the Vietnam Era.

Rampant Violent Crime Essay

Since my opponent didn’t give any arguments, I’ll first my arguments: 1.Violence was always there. It’s not a new invention. Since the beginning of time, there has been violence. The first murder is mentioned in the bible. Much before there was even electricity. 2.If the violence you see on television causes you to act violently, each and every one of us (since most of us watch TV) would have been violent 3.Those who act violently are people which are naturally violent. The proof of that is that animals act violently too. animals do not watch TV. They act violently since they are naturally violent creatures. see more:solutions to crime People don’t like to look to themselves when we think about our faults so we turn to a inanimate Scapegoat. While Television has violent programs, it is our decision whether or not to act on what we see or what we allow our children to watch. To blame tv is irresponsible, not taking responsibility to yourself. Virtually everyone in our society watches television, yet we don’t have rampant violent crime rates. Violence existed long before the television and violent crime rates have actually dropped over time. That alone should invalidate any claim of a direct causal relationship. Unless you want to suggest that violence would be virtually non-existent if we had no entertainment, in which case you’re being intentionally obtuse. What television show people have been watching for the last thousands of years? People have been killing people and committing crimes since the beginning of time. I ask an opponent to find one source linking TV to violence directly. Societies with TY’s and societies without TV’s have crime. Television was the scapegoat formed by the old thesis before the antithesis could roll it over. There is no distinction between right and wrong anymore. I see kids crying in the grocery store all the time, and their parents give them candy. For crying! They associate bad behavior with getting what they want. People who are used to getting what they want will become more aggressive. Teaching right from wrong early on will help with the situation, but it first lies with the parenting. After that, the school system needs to pick up on it. Television is entertainment. And it’s not the same with video games where people can argue that video games might make dumb kids think it’s ok to kill people. Most TV shows that have violence show what a bad thing it is, like the guilt and pain that can come from crime. Television has less connection to violence than paintball does to writer’s block. It is the things the people watch on television that influences them. If they watch an action movie and it doesnt have much friction (the bad guy being caught) the viewers might think â€Å"I could do this!† and get an idea of violent actions. In conclusion,it all depends on the show or movie somebody watches and that type of person. Television cannot cause any actions. Yes, we are influenced by our media. But I’ve watched plenty of action-packed gory movies about fights and violence and never had the urge. Part of it is parents, part of it is schooling and local environment. Violence has existed long before the media and although the scope of it has changed, the causes could never be attributed to media. I can’t agree with my opponent that Television is the leading cause of violence in today’s society. Since my opponent didn’t give any arguments, I’ll first my arguments: 1. Violence was always there. It’s not a new invention. Since the beginning of time, there has been violence. The first murder is mentioned in the bible. Much before there was even electricity. 2. If the violence you see on television causes you to act violently, each and every one of us (since most of us watch TV) would have been violent 3. Those who act violently are people which are naturally violent. The proof of that is that animals act violently too. animals do not watch TV. They act violently since they are naturally violent creatures.

Ethical Issues in Counseling Essay

ETHICS When I sit and think about what the concept of ethics means to me, it seems as if there are many ideas that come to mind. Although they all revert back to one simple meaning and that is to believe in what you say and say what you believe. Treat everyone equally, do not judge one person from the next and do your job as you have been taught. I think that we should use ethics in our everyday lives not just in the work force area. As per our literature the term ethics means, universal principles that societies have determined to be right, just and fair and are generally regarded as the standards that govern the conduct of a person. (Unit 02: Ethical Issues in Counseling) 1. Next, discuss the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC’s) Code of Ethics. Smith and Hodges define ethics as a â€Å"human reflecting self-consciously on the act of being a moral being. This implies a process of self-reflection and awareness of how to behave as a moral being. Some d efinitions are dictated by law, individual belief systems, religion or a mixture of all three. NAADAC recognizes that its members and certified counselors live and work in many diverse communities. NAADAC has established a set of ethical best-practices that apply to universal ethical deliberation. Further, NAADAC recognizes and encourages the notion that personal and professional ethics cannot be dealt with as separate domains. NAADAC members, addiction professionals and/or licensed/certified treatment providers (subsequently referred to as addiction professionals) recognize that the ability to do well is based on an underlying concern for the well-being of others. This concern emerges from recognition that we are all stakeholders in each other’s lives – the well-being of each is intimately bound to the well-being of all; that when the happiness of some is purchased by the unhappiness of others, the stage is set for the misery of all. Addiction professionals must act in such a way that they would have no embarrassment if their behavior became a matter of public k nowledge and would have no difficulty defending their actions before any competent  authority. The NAADAC Code of Ethics was written to govern the conduct of its members and it is the accepted standard of conduct for addiction professionals certified by the National Certification Commission. The code of ethics reflects ideals of NAADAC and its members. When an ethics complaint is filed with NAADAC, it is evaluated by consulting the NAADAC Code of Ethics. The NAADAC Code of Ethics is designed as a statement of the values of the profession and as a guide for making clinical decisions. This code is also utilized by state certification boards and educational institutions to evaluate the behavior of addiction professionals and to guide the certification process. What kind of issues does NAADAC’s Code of Ethics address? 2. Lastly, select one component of NAADAC’s Code of Ethics. Briefly summarize the component and discuss how it will affect your interaction with clients. For example, you may choose the component of the â€Å"Counseling Relationship† or â€Å"Professional Responsibility† within NAADAC’s Code of Ethics. All papers should be written using 12 point Times New Roman font with one inch margins. Be sure to properly cite all sources used within your writing assignment using APA format. For a review of APA style and how to cite sources, please see â€Å"Proper APA Format Citation† in the Study Skills classroom or visit the Research Guides page on the Online Library Resources site.

Sign language performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sign language performance - Essay Example While conversing, I came to know that one of these ladies was a speech pathologist and therefore I let her know that I am studying this field also. Both of them were also very excited about the show like me. Upon getting inside, we eventually got seated while the deaf- blind actors were making dough on the stage and sometimes assistants provided directions to them in finding their spots but most of the time they used their sense of touch to detect the edges of the table. As the show began all lights were shut down and a background male voice started speaking in Hebrew. A translation screen was provided along with ASL interpreter. The actor started introducing himself and his fellows. He spoke for few dumb actors. Since they were lined up behind the cooking table, the mode utilized for transferring information was by tapping on the next person’s shoulder and used sign language by holding each others hand so they each of them know what they are signing. The piece of information was then transferred to the speak-able actor with finger spelling by tapping different part of the finger, and then the message was conveyed by the speak-able actor to the audience. One of the actor said he wants to run without help. Another actor said he wants to sing. The started by making bread and putting it in an onstage huge oven. Then while waiting for the bread to be ready, the actors and actresses presented different stories about their daily life, about how the y became deaf and mute, about how they feel about the world and how they perceive the world feels about them. I wish I could read their sign language right away during the show because I didn’t want to move my eyes to the translation screen instead of focusing on all the performance as it was inducing frustration. I was worried that I have missed the important part of their â€Å"speech†. By the end of the show, everyone sung a beautiful song using sign language and then actors invited audience to

Jones Soda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Jones Soda - Essay Example 7-Eleven stores, etc. The company is focusing on dealing with customers and always responds to demand's changes. Jones Soda created a "trend for passion" not only among drinkers, but also among shareholders, employees and directors. The current strategy is to expand the company's share nationally within the next years. Jones Soda is developing markets and distributing alternative and new beverages like diet soda, energy drinks, soda and spring water. That is why the business strategy is to significantly increase the sale sales by means of expending the product distribution in existing and new markets. The strategy also involves stimulating customers and increasing their uptake about the unique products. The strategic goal aims as expanding nationally and internationally wide like, for example, Coca-Cola Company. The company wants to become one of the best soda companies. Therefore the company has to promote its products nationwide and then worldwide. The strategic map is focusing on younger generation considering that alternative beverages depend mostly on image. The important factor will be creating new brands and products. in other words company aims at introducing flavors each year. (Underwood 2005) Business and financial position. The business and financial position of the company is rather stable and prosperous.

TMA 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

TMA 1 - Essay Example One of the internal factors that affect the overall culture of the organization is leadership. The vice chancellor, being the chief executive officer and the deputy manager, plays a very important role in influencing culture in the college. For instance, the changes that come about by the beginning of the year were much influenced by the leaders of the college. Some of the lecturers and students were not involved in this and, as a result, required to leave. Communication is the other factor that influences culture in the Skyline College. The communication between the workers and the management has a major role in keeping the culture of the college. For example, the recent changes effected in the university were rejected by part of the workforce and the students’ body. Most of their ideas and grievances were ignored and, as a result, some of the lecturers ended up quitting while a small number of students opted to transfer to other schools. The third internal factor that affect s culture in any organization is the structure of the organization. The division of labour in any organization is important in determining culture in any organization (Hodder, 2001). To understand some of the external factors that influence culture in an organization, Pest analysis is necessary. Politics is a major external influence of culture in any organisation. ... This will automatically lead to change in culture. Economy is also a major determinant of any culture. For example, an affluent economy can be able to support technological advancements and other important gears that a poor economy cannot be able to afford. It is also evident that economy will affect the environment of the institution, especially the infrastructure of the institute which is very vital to the organisation culture. Role of leaders at Skyline College The above factors have a major impact on the culture of the organization as a result; there needs to be a person or people to monitor and control this influence. Leaders at Skyline College play a major role in mediating the impact of different factors in the school. First, the vice chancellor of the college is responsible for ensuring that every member of staff performs his/her duty as expected. This ensures that every employee knows the role they play in the various departments and what is expected of them. The vice chance llor also has the responsibility of allocating leadership roles to different workers, lecturers and students, as a result, influencing the way professional duties are carried out in the organisation. The leaders are also responsible for ensuring that there is effective communication in the school (Schein, 2007). For example, the deputy chancellor makes sure that suggestion boxes are emptied every week and read by the administration heads. With this, the vice chancellor is able to know all the issues affecting the college and how they can be worked on. Organization structure is also influenced by the leadership of the university. For example, in the recent changes in the

Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 20

Research - Essay Example One of his discoveries, that high vacuums can be created by using cooled charcoal, was quite useful in the field of atomic physics. The purpose behind the creation of the Dewar flask was to serve as an aid while working with liquid gases. The Dewar flask is a container to stores substances like liquid air in the hot or cold form. There is vacuum in between the two flasks it contains, which serves to prevent a change in temperature by reducing the transfer of heat. The glass walls are not strong heat conductors and the transfer of heat by radiation is further reduced by lining the walls with a reflective metal like silver. The flask is seated on a spring with a container made of metal or plastic to absorb shock. The air between the container and the flask serves to insulate the setup. Sir James Dewar had not manufactured the vacuum flask for commercial use. Two German glass blowers in 1904 formed Thermos GmbH (Bellis 2015). The concept of vacuum flask has been used in the making of insulated bottles. The well-known name Thermos was not registered until 1906 when William B. Walker learned of the innovation of Paalen, Burger, and Aschenbrenner and gained the rights of exclusive manufacturing and marketing of thermoses in the US (Bryk 2015). The thermos insulated bottle became popular all across the US in no time. The picture of the glass-lined aluminum vacuum sealed bottle is shown as follows: The bottle shown in the picture was made in 1915 by the â€Å"American Thermos Bottle Co. of Norwich, Connecticut† (Bryk 2015). In 1959, the company was named King Seeley Thermos (KST). The bottles were particularly used by outdoor laborers like construction crews who needed to keep the drinks hot or cold for extended periods of time. The raw materials mainly used to make thermos include stainless steel or plastic and glass. Stainless steel or plastic is used to make the outer cup whereas glass is used to make the inner cup. Nowadays, thermoses

Dementia - an Issue in Mental Health Nursing Coursework - 1

Dementia - an Issue in Mental Health Nursing - Coursework Example It is imperative for mental health nurses to develop professional awareness of the dementia problem and its risks in older people, in order to understand the ways of addressing this problem, as well as the personal and medical needs of older people. This paper aims at investigating the issue of dementia in older people from the standpoint of a mental health nurse. The paper will discuss and critically evaluate the significance of the problem for older people. Prevalence of dementia in older people and its effects on the critical life functions will be discussed. The paper will analyze the challenges, which mental health nurses face while trying to deliver high-quality nursing care. Other aspects of mental health care will be discussed, including nursing paradigms and therapeutic approaches, the role and the boundaries of a mental health nurse in dementia care, and the role of effective planning and nurse-patient interactions in caring for older patients suffering from dementia. Legal and ethical factors of dementia care will be evaluated. This paper will expose the key problems related to mental health nursing and its role in dementia care. Practical recommendations for mental health nurses will be provided. Dementia is one of the most serious and complicated mental health problems with older people. More often than not, dementia exemplifies a serious challenge to mental health nursing. Dementia is challenging, because (a) the number of older people, including those with dementia, constantly grows, and (b) dementia requires that nurses develop complex approaches to care, in order to reduce its negative influence on other life functions. The World Health Organization believes that the growing proportion of older people to the total population is a global phenomenon, and increasing age turns chronic health conditions into the issue of the main health importance (Anonymous 2009a). Among the most common health problems in older people, mental health disorders and cognitive impairments feature prominently (Anonymous 2009). Dementia and depression as the two most widely spread forms of chronic mental conditions later in life (Anonymous 2009a). Needless to say, the higher the proportion of olde r people to the general population, the more acute the problem of dementia grows. In its 2009 report, WHO estimated that almost 36 million older people worldwide would be diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in 2010 (Sorrell 2010). This number is likely to double every 20 years (Sorrell 2010). These statistical results have far-reaching implications for health care systems’ operation and functioning. These implications are equally relevant to mental health nurses. Nurses need skills and knowledge to anticipate the development of cognitive changes in older people and guarantee high-quality care, which reduces social stigmatization of patients with dementia and improves their life and wellbeing.

Masaccio, The Holy Trinity, 1425, fresco Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Masaccio, The Holy Trinity, 1425, fresco - Essay Example In this regard, Masaccio succinctly employed the illusionistic property of the linear perspective. Incidentally, the painting portrays a chapel with a resonant interior that give the impression of opening up to the viewer. In the interior, there are Ionic columns, barrel-vault top, and Corinthian pilasters. At the center is the crucified representation of Jesus Christ as he is viewed above by the Holy Spirit and God, an on either side is the Virgin Mary and the evangelist John. All the depictions in the painting, except for that of God, have individually covered a three dimensional space. Furthermore, Masaccio painted life-size and realistic impression of Domenic Lenzi and his wife in the front part of the pillars that act as an entrance to the chapel. The entire chapel and its residents portray a trompe l’oeil effect that provided the perfect evidence on the application of realistic depth within a flat painting. The meaning derived from the Holy Trinity is that everlasting li fe can only be achieved through the power of prayer as represented by the praying donors, and through intercession of holy paintings as depicted by Saint John and the Virgin Mary, and a staunch belief in Jesus Christ. In conclusion, The Holy Trinity is the perfect example of early Renaissance art that synthesizes religion, Biblical art and science. It equally portrays faith as a mystery and the perfection inherent in God through dignity in human nature and classical

Drugs and Crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Drugs and Crime - Essay Example With its highly addictive nature, the introduction of opium into America in the 1800s was the country’s first introduction to the dangers of recreational drug use. Originally seen as more of a disreputable practice involving the integration of races as mentioned in Martin Booth’s Opium: A History, â€Å"The dens were a sign of decadence and contact with the Chinamen, as with other colored races, was seen as socially polluting† (104), the use of opium quickly spiraled out of control. Tracing through the laws governing opium importation, one can see the government slowly becoming aware of the potential social ills brought in with the practice. According to Holden, opium importation was at first merely charged import duties in San Francisco, which were gradually increased as the government became more aware of the volumes of the drug being imported. However, raising the duties merely served to increase the smuggling trade. By 1898, legal restrictions on the use and distribution of the drug were proving to have little effect other than to drive the trade underground as was reported in that year in the Scientific American. â€Å"The great demand for the extract has induced smuggling, and illicit stills were started everywhere. Opium was and is still smuggled in at the Canada and Mexican lines. It is landed at the islands off shore and brought in by Chinese fishermen, smuggled in on steamers, dropped into the bay and the law evaded in numerous ways familiar to the ‘heathen Chinee’† (Holder 147). Despite the growing power of the opium trade in the late 1800s, â€Å"Illegal Drugs† states â€Å"[international] controls, domestic law enforcement, and a societal shunning of these much-feared substances combined to largely eliminate† the use of drugs by the outbreak of World War II. Evidence of the social opinion of the use of opium and

PCL Construction Paper 1 Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

PCL Construction 1 - Term Paper Example Based on the large number of employees who have been hired by the PLC construction companies, they have significantly contributed to the growth of the US economy. This has been attained from the high tax on their annual and monthly incomes. Most importantly, the construction companies embark on designing and construction of factories, learning institutions, government houses, hospitals, research centers and roads among others. Thus, the construction industry plays a vital role in the growth of the US economy. This paper seeks to discuss a profile of Parsons Corporation; a US based international construction company. Having been founded in 1944 by Ralph Parsons, Parsons Corporation is a construction company with a strong financial background that is based on the various large projects that the company has undertaken in US and in other countries. The company whose headquarters are located in Pasadena, California is highly involved in designing and construction of large projects such as industrial facilities. Parsons organizational structure consists of the chief executive officer, corporate and operations support, international and North America markets units and regional business units (Ralph, 1978). The board of directors is made up eleven members namely Charles Harrington, Curtis Bower, Kenneth Dahlberg, Steven Leer, Lawrence Jackson, William Kinsey, James McGovern, Tamara Lundgren, Chritian Mitchell, Mark Holdsworth and Admiraj Zlatoper. In his effort to create strong relationship with its customers and the society, the Ralph Foundation was established by Ralph Parsons to provide charitable s ervices to the members of the society who are poor or in need of other forms of help. Additionally, the company fulfills its corporate duties by employing six key aspects or values. These values include diversity, innovation, safety, sustainability, integrity and quality

US Wine †California Region Essay Example for Free

US Wine – California Region Essay Having studied the wine industry in general in the USA, in order to arrive at a concise answer the problem of purchase of imported bottles by the wineries in the Californian region, it is important to have an overview of the wine industry in California. Some of the important features of the California wine industry are: California wine accounts for almost 90 percent of the wine production in the United States. California ranks fourth in the total world production of wine next to France, Italy and Spain. The topography, climatic conditions and the soil of the Californian region greatly facilitates the growing of grapes and production of quality wine. These are the major factors for the concentration of the wineries in and around the state. The sales of the California wine is showing an increasing trend every year and account for nearly two thirds of all wine sales in the country. The most important point to note from the point of view of the buying of the imported bottles is that California’s wineries are predominantly family owned and multi-generational which makes the changes in the buying decisions almost impossible. The profile of the California wine industry as illustrated by the MKF Research LLC is appended below to give the readers an in-sight into the magnitude of the California wine industry. The figures are based on the statistics for the year 2005. The following table illustrates the contribution of California to the total Wine shipments in the US: The development of glass bottles with uniformly-sized necks and the accompanying cork stopper are the two important prerequisites of the international wine trade. Simi Newsletter observes â€Å"During the 18th century, bottle shapes evolved more nearly into those we recognize today as being distinctively wine bottles. Made from black glass they became taller and more cylindrical, and most assumed the form of todays Burgundy bottle†. During the course of the 19th century, the development of particular shapes of wine bottles evolved, to indicate the regions from which the wine came. Examples of such identification are Bordeaux and Champagne. Simi Newsletter adds further that â€Å"Today, most of the great viticultural regions of the world have their own distinctive bottle shape†. The function of a wine bottle is to represent its contents by the mere shape of the bottle. Thus the traditional wine bottles from France have taken to be the models that define the variety of the wine inside the bottles, irrespective of the regions of the world the wine is coming from. The most common shapes of bottles are: The Bordeaux Bottle: The shape of the bottle is such that the shoulder of the bottle helps filtering the sediment particles which used to present in the old Bordeaux wine. Even though the sediment problem is not there now the shape of the bottle continues. All red Bordeaux wines have green glasses and the white ones are filled in clear glasses, of course with some exceptions. The California wine industry also follows the same tradition. However due to the rugged nature of the winery owners, this tradition is not being followed very strictly. The Burgundy Bottle: The Burgundy bottle looks elegant with its shoulder sloping. Wine varieties Pinot Noir in green colored bottles and Chardonnay in green or clear colored ones are filled in this kind. In California â€Å"Chenin Blanc and Rhone varietals are also usually bottled in this shape† Simi Newsletter. The Champagne Bottle: These bottles are usually large thick walled and tall necked and are equipped to store the sparkling wine under high gas pressure. A recess or indentation is usually found in these bottles to relive the excessive gas pressure. In the case of bottles for still wines originally the punt was the result of the ancient method of molding the glass. But tradition continues and the punt remains in almost all fine wine bottles. The Dessert Wine Bottle: Simi Newsletter further states that â€Å"Many dessert wines made in California are bottled in long-necked bottles that resemble the bottles of Alsace and the Mosel and Rhine wines of Germany† The color of the bottle plays a very important role in making the differences between the wine varieties clear. It may be observed that all the Rhine wines are placed in Brown colored bottles. The Mosels are found in green bottles, But California follows green, brown or clear. It is contradictory that some wines have clear bottles, as the coloring of the wine bottle has the purpose of protecting the ultraviolet light preventing the aging of the wine. But the bottling of wines is purely a matter of traditional values. However some regions have developed their own shapes and colors of the bottles which have become the regional standards and specialty.

Case Analysis Hershy Food Company Marketing Essay

Case Analysis Hershy Food Company Marketing Essay The evolution of global chocolate industry presents many interesting details. Chocolate industry on a global scale is a huge. Chocolate, given its tempting qualities is a huge marketable product for many reasons. Hence, the industry itself is huge we can speculate. As we are aware, chocolate is made out of cocoa seeds. In the initial periods, chocolate was expensive to be manufactured. It was only after the industrial revolution in Europe that a remarkable shift in chocolate industry can be seen. Chocolate also comes in a variety of taste. (Allen, 2010 , p. 21)According to the international cocoa organization, chocolate industry on a global scale is a multi-billion industry. During the year 2006 chocolate industry and manufacturer made tremendous gains from sale. Some of the forerunner or top manufacturing companies in accordance to their sales during 2006 were Hershey Foods Corporation, Mars Inc, and Cadbury Schweppes PLC who topped the list. (ICCO) During 2002 and 2001, the chocolate industry can be concurrently be classified in terms of their sales itself. According to the report available with IOCC, it is mentioned that during the year 2000/2001, the world cocoa industry witnessed a remarkable jump in terms of their share, be it production, consumption and sales. Most importantly, for year 2000/2001 production of world cocoa or chocolate was estimated to be 2,825,000 tonnes. (ICCO, Annual Report for 2000/2001 , 2001 , p. 13) However, for the year 2008/2009, which is the last available report published by ICCO, cocoa production was estimated to be 3.5 million tonnes. (ICCO, Annual Report 2008/2009, 2009, p. 3) From these data we can assume that world chocolate industry is a huge business globally. Hence, it would be interesting to analyze the case also related to Hershey Food Company, a chocolate manufacturing giant, which is discussed as follows. Hershey Food Company: Performance Audit Report 2002 and 2011 Starting the year 2002, Hershey Food Company faced many challenges. Some challenges that were brought to the notice of the audit board were competition from competitors, namely Nestle and Mars that has increased manifold. The global market shares of Hershey Food Company also fell sharply during the said year. Another challenge facing the company CEO then was the factor covering value enhancing to its customers worldwide. As the case is, competition from Nestle and Mars are such that it gave a sense of fear for the company management and its board of director. Hence, the company report that came henceforth was to make a strategic shift to enhance its products, which necessarily raise a question of investment. In that regard, what the company CEO then in the year 2002 recommended was to include realignment plan of US$275 as a shift towards reduction of the workforce in the company that will go towards voluntary compensation. Such a plan was really for a company that is known to have been a people champions for long enough. Yet it was probable, and the case can be looked to the declining market share and unpredictability, given the fierce competition from Nestle and Mars. As reported by ICCO, Hershey Foods Company for the year 2005 was dismal to say so, given that it an annual sale was estimated to be US$ 4881 million dollars, four places below its competitors namely, Nestle, Mars, Cadbury and Ferrero. (ICCO, The Chocolate Industry ) So considering these developments the voluntary realignment plan was a necessity felt the company CEO, Richar d H, Lenny. Audit that was carried out for the year 2001 to 2011 brought into face the many unknown facts and figures about Hershey Food Company. The investigation carried out by Attorney general brought to the notice the most unfamiliar case. What is interesting to note is that audit carried out in the company shows that majority of shares in the company was owned by single large shareholder. This is very unlike and came as a surprising factor for auditors as well given the complexity in shareholder and their ownership, besides the links of the company to many charitable initiatives, which posed many questions for auditors. Somewhat Hershey Food Company represents a community shareholder. This is what the audit report showed about Hershey Food Company. Then Strategic Development from 2001 to 2011 The strategic development starting March, 2001 till September, 2002 saw many proposals being raised in a span of one year as a factor to push the sales and revenue generation initiatives of the company. Given the board of director meeting it was figured that Lenny, who was the CEO of the company then and his management styles, was not received by the company stakeholder properly. It is said that Lenny management was somewhat out of the boundary, which brought to fore disagreement amongst employee and co-managers in the company. In March 2002, the company strategic team decided to explore upon the sales factor of the company, however, the company CEO was reluctant and was trying to seek alternative to such a decision being made. As a matter of fact, competition also the market was not only posing many pressure on the company management, but also brought into contention the test of time that raised a conflict amongst stakeholder and director of the company. Such happening was a pre-cursor to the overall episode encompassing Hershey Food Company. The conflict of idea and recommendation regarding sales objectives between the board of the company and the trust was really interesting to note. Part of the strategic development from 2001 to 2011 also saw many forms of protest, within and outside the company management realms. Such case is sad indeed for a company of repute. The development that came about also somewhat show an increase of 10% sales for Hershey Food Company in 2002, that also in a span of 3 months under the leadership of Lenny, the company CEO. The success in that regard was accorded to the cost cutting measure initiated by Lenny in context of the realignment plan. However, somewhat the case of conflict as can be seen is that the vision of Lenny and that of the company founder was not match-able in any regard. Such development in parts within Hershey Food Company and its strategic development starting the year 2001 to 2011 brought into contention the very conflict that is reported between the trust and board of directors, which is central to the issue facing the company at the most critical time, and reason enough for the conflict to erupt. Board Meeting Outcome Given the audit that was developing in the company, sales of the company was brought to an injunction or ban by a panel of judges. However, following the year 2002 during September, the injunction was cleared and granted. This development saw the introduction of Candy Swoops Slices in 2003, which was listed by Productscan as the most innovative product of the year itself. Following the board meeting, the outcome also saw the acquisition of Joseph Schmidt by Hershey Food Company in 2005. (Malhotra, 2009, p. 395) Company Status Today The company status today as we have maintained earlier is one amongst the major manufacturers of global chocolate. Many innovative products were introduced by Hershey Food Company in a span of five years. Moreover, to gain its market share lost to its competitors, Hershey Food Company decided to become a fearless product innovator. These somewhat paid dividends, which brought Hershey Candy Slices Swoops which was received highly in the market. (Malhotra, 2009, p. 395) Hence, today Hershey Food Company is a major competitor in the chocolate industry. The battle for the company was won in actuality, and today Hershey and Mars are fighting for the number spot in the global industry, which to some analysts is a $73 billion industry annually. (Malhotra, 2009) Hence, these figures itself present many interesting facts about Hershey and where it stands today after the internal turmoil since 2001. Recommendation What we learned from the case study and its analysis is that governing issue was one formidable background that can be read and make out. Given the presence of huge number of shareholders in the company and unbending management further ignite the pressure that the company is facing. Hence, it is recommended that corporate govern ace of the company should:- Be held by a body of authority that is designated to take decisions and dismantle complex issues in organized way. Bring into contention effective leadership. Finally, production and Operational Management overall should be streamlined for enhanced process of the company. SWOT Analysis of Hershey Food Company Hershey main strength as can be analyzed lies with its innovative approach to introduce products that are to the taste of consumers. In the history of the company, advertising also have been the main strength that Hershey [posses to outdo its competitors. Being a chocolate manufacturing giant, Hershey the board also was one factor which posed many dangers for the company. For instance organizational weakness was one feature overall of Hershey. Yet the opportunities for the company lays within the competitive leader that the company has strive for many years. Given that Mars is on the number spot the factor of it also presents Hershey with an opportunity like never before to reclaim its place as the number one manufacturer in the industry. Yet the threat was always there, and recurring as can be seen to the stiff financial audits and leadership of Lenny, which to the boards is not a feasible one as far as Hershey Food Company strategy goes.

The Merchant Of Venice By William Shakespeare

The Merchant Of Venice By William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare is a comic, revengeful and tragic play which is set in Venice and the nearby country estates of Belmont. Shakespeare wrote the play during times when England like much of the Europe had restricted the rights of the Jews and even escalated to extremes of banishing them from England in 1290 by King Edward I and were not officially allowed to return until1655 when Oliver Cromwell allowed them. This exile of Jews was still in effect when Shakespeare wrote this play and many scholars believe that some Jews still lived in England at the time of the Christian guise. At the time renaissance Christians disliked the Jews because they believed that their behaviour of charging interest on money they lend (usury) was against the societal morals. During the time of renaissance Christians had become heavily indebted to the Jews who had loaned money to them with interests rates hence their increased hatred for the Jewish counterparts who started terming them as inhuman by demanding usury on the monies they lend. This was a selfish and unfair reaction from the Christian community in Venice because they started treating Jews harshly by imposing hefty taxes on them failure from which their land was confiscated and defaulters imprisoned. Such heavy taxing was intended to boost the financial status of the government especially during adverse economic times (Mahon, 345). Merchant of Venice is a revenge tragedy play which its plot revolves around the quest of its main character shylock a Jew who is bitter on the way his neighbors supposedly Christians treat him and he is on a mission to avenge for such in human treatment. He plans and implements his revenge by engaging in money lending which offers him chance to avenge when a Christian defaults him after he lend the money. In Venice Bassanio borrows money from his merchant friend Antonio to help him woo a wealth noble woman Portia. Antonio does not have ready cash to lend to his friend but he gives him a permission or guarantee to borrow the money he needs on his credit. Antonio is expecting his ships to arrive at the harbor with a lot of merchandise that will enable him to settle the loan. Bassanio is given loan of 3000 ducats by the Jewish moneylender Shylock that is not in good terms with Antonio. Their dispute is a racial and religious one and shylock seizes the opportunity to offer a bizarre alternative to Antonio if he defaults and for sure Antonio chances of defaulting hits peak as the news that his ships had been wrecked. Shylock then takes the case to court demanding that he be given permission to cut one pound of flesh from the defaulters chest as agreed upon earlier. The case is solved amicably by the judge and the play ends in a good way when the main characters Bassanio and Portia marry ea ch other and the ships of the Antonio are found and arrives at the harbor. Shylock is a Jewish money lender who lives in Venice and he has been bittered for many years by the way Venetian Christians have been mistreating him especially by the merchant Antonio. The mistreatments by the Christians have shaped the religions and racial identity of shylock. The character of Shylock in the play merchant of Venice is portrayed as devilish and murderer whose dear intentions is to take away the life of the Christian Antonio believed by his fellow Christian to be the most kind mind to have ever lived in Venice. Shylock wants revenge on the Christian Antonio because he wants to avenge his revenge on the Christians who even call him a villain because nothing seems to stop him at getting the pound of flesh from Antonios chest even after Bassanio offers to pay him twice the agreed upon debt of six thousand ducats. He adamantly refuses to accept the money and demand for the pound of flesh which he claims he bought it hence he must have it because its legally his. Jews like shylock hate Christians at the time so dearly because Christians themselves had no liking for Jews because they believed they killed crucified Jesus Christ hence were on the side of the devil. Christian also hated Jews because they believed they were not human by charging usury on money they lend to Christians but the truth is that Christians had become heavily indebted to Jews who had lend money to them hence their intentional unfair reaction by being anti-Semitic. So the murderous character of Shylock is as result of the hatred and bitterness his arbors against Christians who constantly show hatred towards him and other Jews. He claims for what he believes is his rightfully and seizes the opportunity of Antonios defaulting to make himself to be recognized a as a just man by the Christians who always sees him as an unjust man. This newly earned character of shylock can mainly be attributed to Christians who forced him to hate them and even have a conspiration to kill Anton io, hence offering yet evidence why Christians are portrayed to have contributed to the construction of Shylocks character in the play. Shylock is forced to charges some interest on the money he lends and this becomes his obsession as he wants to acquire lot money to ensure his own security from the ungrateful Christians. With is addiction to getting more money he becomes a greedy person who is not his true self he only need the money as a reaction to the treatment he receives from the Christian community. Shylock sees that getting financial security is the only way to proof to the Christians like Antonio that he is also somebody worth respect and human dignity and not the way they always see him. He thinks that being wealth will make the Christian treat him well but that ends up not the truth as everything he has worked for ends up in the possession of his enemies when the court fines him for conspiring to kill Antonio and that costs half of his property and he later becomes broke and desolate forcing him to become a Christian hence making him loose his identity. Shylocks fate of losing his identity as a Jew is attr ibuted to his past greedy behavior of charging usury on the money he lends to Christians to get as much wealth as he could just to get at his Christian enemies hence it can be successfully argued that Christians can be held responsible for the final man that Shylock becomes as its their hatred and ill treatment that forced him to charge usury which converted him to a greedy person. Through out the play merchant of Venice Christians in Shylocks neighborhood show a consistent hatred and dislike for the Jewish shylock and even fail to call him by his given name but prefers calling him detestable alienating names like the Jew, cruel devil, harsh Jew, currish Jew, infidel, impenetrable cur, the villain and even the devil in the likenesses of the his Jewish identity. Such name calling alienated shylock from the Venetian Christians and make him diabolically foul which gradually constructs shylocks identity and makes him a bitter man who focuses in taking revenge against the Christian community who he beliefs are treating him in humanly. Shylock notices the habit of Christians to assess the worth of them and others according to faulty standards like using money value or grade ones status and value in the community. Christians belief is that the more money one has the greater value and status one belongs to and Shylock in his conspiration to unleash his monomaniacal lus t for revenge against his Christian enemies forced him into money lending ventures which he earns a living from the usury. Shylock sees this means as the only way for him as a Jew to compete with his fellow Venetian Christians. Shylock exhibits a monstrous behaviour especially against his Christian defaulters like Antonio as he sees it as the only achievable and fulfilling way of unleashing his revenge. This change in shylocks behaviour is as a result of the constant cold treatment he receive from his Christian neighbors and this has made him a different person which is not characteristic of the Jew he was at first hence an evident that Christians in Merchant of Venice greatly contributes to the construction of Shylocks racial and religious identity. Shylock in the play admits that he hates Antonio and even declines his invitation to dinner on the grounds that he is a Christian. Shylock hates Antonio even more because he himself is a usurer who lends money with high interest rates that has enabled him to acquire immense wealth. He accuses Antonio of lending money to people in distress without demanding for any interest charge and this escalates his hatred for Antonio because he sees him as a person who threatens his job since he causes his business to lose money as a result of reduced business. Shylock is therefore made to act harshly towards Christians because he accuses them of stealing his business and his run away daughter. This illustrates that the behaviour of Christians like Antonio being kind makes Shylock to change his character and become more harsh and unkind towards his perceived enemies Christians hence the construction of his character in the play. In the play Shylock has been portrayed an isolated, greedy, unreasonable and self-thinking individual who doesnt think of the needs of other people. He even loves money more than his daughter and doesnt want to eat, drink or even pray with anyone and he avoids making friendship making him cranky and steadfast and even rigid in his beliefs. He does a stereo-typical profession as a money-grabbing money lender; a job which makes him hard to let go off his greedy tendencies as he doesnt see any reason why he should do so event at the point where it warrants mercy and pity. He describes the idea of getting a pound of flesh from Antonios chest as a merry sport and finds it very pleasing when flesh is cut out of someones body and this is evident when he insist only for the pound of flesh even after being offered double the priced he is owed. Such unreasonable and weird secluded behaviour portrayed by Shylock is attributed to the racist treatment he receives from the Christians who have neve r seen anything in him other than his Jewishness. Shylock wonders why he is being treated that way by Christians yet he has eyes, has hands, and has organs, dimensions, feelings, senses and even passions just like them. The unreasonable and rigid character of shylock is as a result of the racial discrimination that he has received from the Christians hence the argument that Christians are the ones responsible for construction of his character. Christians are seen as the main modes through which the character of Shylock is shaped through out the play as Shylock constantly claims that he has done no wrong by treating Christians badly because he is simply following what his Christian neighbors has taught him which it eventually becomes an integral part of his character later in the play. His conspiracy to kill Antonio is borne of the insults and injuries which Antonio had inflicted upon him in their previous encounters. This means that by planning to kill Antonio he is does not consider himself as a murderer but rather as a mechanism of applying what his past relationship with Antonio has taught him. For instance Shylock when responding to Salarinos query on what good thing that having the pound of flesh will benefit him, he answers that it will offer him a chance to execute the villainy that Christians has taught him. This means that almost every action that Shylock does is attributed to some past experience that Christians have done to him hence the evidence of the role that Christians play in construction of Shylocks character in Shakespeares play the Merchant of Venice (Bradbrook, 126). During the court session, Shylocks proofs that he is a smart character who can defend himself in every adversary despite the great opposition from his Christian enemies who want to stop him from succeeding in demanding for the pound of flesh from his defaulter Antonio. Shylock guided by his keenness for revenge uses any wit within his disposal to ensure that he is granted the permission to finalize his revenge of killing Antonio. He has nobody on his side but he shows no sign of giving up until he satisfies his yearning for revenge; he argues to the judge that Christians refuses to set free their assess, dogs and mules simply because they bought them thus they own them and they are their slaves then why should he be denied the pound of flesh which he bought in accordance to the law and that why he beliefs that he is acting as per the law hence granting him the right to have the pound of flesh from Antonio as per the agreement they signed. This portrays that Shylock is stopping at not hing to ensuring that he succeeds in vending his hatred for Christians until he kills Antonio. Such courage enamates from his dearly anticipated revenge which he attributes to the cruelty he has gone through in the hands of the Christians hence its the way Christians treated him earlier that becomes the driving forms that makes Shylock a master of his own destiny. This shows that Christians therefore contributed o the construction of his Character in the play merchant of Venice. Christian merchant Antonio resulted to his own destruction when things fail to work according to his will. Shylock suffers a spiritual ruin when the clever Portia helps Antonio in solving the case in the court. Portia disguised as Bellario and Nerissa as a law clerk articulately influence the outcome of the court especially when Shylock adamantly refuses to show mercy for Antonio. Portia then allows him to get the pound of flesh as stipulated by the signed agreement and that was to be done without spilling of even a dot of blood. Shylock gives up and thus losing the case resulting to being fined for conspiring to murder Antonio and this forces him to lose have of his property and in addition is forced to convert to Christianity (Barton, 252).After Portia striping Shylock off his property he becomes broke and loses his Jewish religion and this is as result of the combined forces from the Christian community both outside and in the court. This twist of events therefore changed Shylocks religious identity for the rest of his life. During the time of Shakespeare Jews were treated harshly by the Venice Christians and nobody really cared whether they lived or died. As a way of showing their uncaring behaviour Christians became anti-Semitic and the government of the day taxed them heavily and striped off their money during times that the governments money became low or just for government financial boost. If Jews failed to pay the money taxed on them individually or collectively, then their property especially land was confiscated and defaulters imprisoned. Therefore the Jews population was treated harshly and with a lot of disrespect by Christians who lived in Venice during the renaissance period. This prompted Shakespeare to develop the character of Shylock in Merchant of Venice as to portray the bitterness that Jews felt as a reaction to the harsh treatment they were accorded to by the Christian community. During the time of renaissance Jews had to be portrayed and villain ands people never expected anyone of them to show any drop of compassion for his enemy because the Christians were the ones expected to show compassion towards others especially the Jews who were stereotypically viewed as the murderers of Jesus Christ thus forcing Shylock who is a Jew to behave like the devil. This construction of Shylocks character give Christians like Portia the chance to show their mercy when he corners him using the law which was his only weapon and strips him his property only to give half of it back after he loses his religion to become Christian. The behavior of Shylock charging usury gives Antonio the Christian another chance to show him mercy by refusing to collect part of his goods as a compensation for his conspiration to eliminate him. The outcome of the court forces Shylock to kneel and beg for mercy from the Christians judges which served the interests of the renaissance Christian popul ation in Venice (Shakespeare et al, 145). In conclusion, the discussions and argument made in the essay goes beyond any reasonable doubt that the character of the Shylock who is one of the main characters in the play Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare is heavily constructed by the presence, interactions ad behaviors of the Christian community who happened to be the neighbors of the character. Shylock undergoes a lot of transformations in his character throughout the play and almost everything he does claims that he was thought by his Christians neighbors and in fact he shows no remorse or mercy or even take responsibility for the outcome of his actions since her doesnt even see anything wrong with his weird character. Shylock becomes greedy, alienated, villain, infidel, unreasonable, rigid and even a murderer which all are linked to his dear intentions in trying to avenge for himself and the rest of the Jews for what he terms as inhuman, intolerable and ill treatment by the Christians in Venice and the neighborhood. He belief s that by taking a revenge by killing Antonio he will have succeeded in making the Christians pay for the past unacceptable behaviors against Jews.

The Importance of Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie Essay -- Glass Mena

The Importance of Symbolism in The Glass Menagerie  Ã‚      Tom Wingfield is the narrator and a major character in Tennessee William’s timeless play, The Glass Menagerie. Through the eyes of Tom, the viewer gets a glance into the life of his family in the pre-war depression era; his mother, a Southern belle desperately clinging to the past; his sister, a woman too fragile to function in society; and himself, a struggling, young poet working at a warehouse to pay the bills. Williams has managed to create a momentous play using a combination of different elements, including symbolism. Three noteworthy examples of symbolism are the fire escape, a sense of hope and an escape both to the outside world and from it; the glass menagerie itself, a symbol for Laura’s fragility and uniqueness; and rainbows, symbols of unrealized hopes and aspirations. Through the use of these symbols, a greater understanding of the humanistic theme that unfulfilled hopes and desires are an unwanted, but important aspect of the real world is achieved, and The Glass Menagerie is crafted into a meaningful classic drama.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Symbols are a major part of this play that Tom, who is a poet, admits he has a weakness for. One of the first to be presented in the story is the fire escape that ... ...Masterplots, ed. Frank M. Magill. Revised Second Ed. Vol. 5. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1996. Bigsby, C. W. E. â€Å"Entering the Glass Menagerie.† The Cambridge Companion to Tennessee Williams, ed. Matthew C. Roudane. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Scheye, Thomas E. â€Å"The Glass Menagerie: ‘It’s not tragedy, Freckles.’.† Tennessee Williams: A Tribute, ed. Jac Tharpe. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1977. Williams, Tennessee. Conversations with Tennessee Williams, ed. Albert Devlin. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1986. Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions Publishing, 1945.

Media Violence - Helping Youth Understand Death Essay -- Argumentative

Media Violence: Helping Youth Understand Death    We've all heard it before. Blame it on TV, or the movies. If a child bludgeons another child to death with a wrench or shoots a classmate, it is the violent TV programs that they watch which are to blame, not the parents or the supervisors who are supposed to be there to make sure their kids do the right thing. How far is it true that the media is responsible for trivialising death and violence, thus causing the children of America to go out on shooting rampages, or kids in Britain to murder innocent toddlers? First let us look at the way the media portrays death. Death has always been a taboo subject. People do not usually sit around talking about death, especially to children. It may be for that reason that children do not really understand the concept of dying. We constantly see instances in cartoons where a character is killed, but in the next scene, that same character is alive and well again. The fact is that they do not actually die. Characters like Warner Bros. Wild E Coyote never die. They always get up after apparently perishing in a violent way. The South Park character, Kenny, dies a violent death in every single episode (with the exception of the Christmas Special), and that is supposed to be funny. Death is trivialised by the media, and in addition, parents avoid talking about death to their kids, for fear of scaring them, but unknowingly reinforcing the assumption that death is not something to be taken seriously. Death can be described as follows: "It (death) sells newspape rs and insurance policies, invigorates the plots of our television programs, and - judging from our dependency on fossil fuels (84.5% of all U.S. energy consumption in 1995) - - even pow... ...so complex, so contradictory that it is virtually impossible to rule out all other variables to simply measure this one factor." (Death in the mass media). In other words, due to our different ideologies and perspectives, people react to things differently. Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain whether violent acts committed by youth are a direct result of the violence and death they see on TV and in the movies. Who knows, the media may even be helping people develop a healthier attitude towards death. Works Cited Death - An inquiry into man's mortal weakness. "Death in the mass media" http://library.thinkquest.org/16665/mass.htm Kearl, Michael. Kearl's Guide to Sociological Thanatology. "Sociology of Death and Dying" http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/death.html Romei, Stephen. "US recoils: Boy, 6, guns down classmate" The Australian 2 March 2000:10

A Comparison of Hubris in Catcher in the Rye, Scarlet Letter, and Great Gatsby :: compare and contrast essay examples

Hubris in the Protagonists of Catcher in the Rye, Scarlet Letter, and Great Gatsby       Aristotle praised Sophocles' King Oedipus as the definitive Greek tragedy; however, he could not have surmised the influence of Oedipus' tragic pride on modern day literature and philosophy. Hubris, the only true crime, has had a threefold influence: it is a reason for downfall as well as a characteristic of criminal motivation; it is manifested in the diverse protagonists of Salinger, Fitzgerald, and Hawthorne; and it is forgiven only by repentance for wrongdoing and the complete surrender of pride.    The erroneous idea that pride is only a predominant characteristic of crime, rather than a crime itself, would put tragic hero Oedipus on the same level as serial killer Charles Manson: while both are guilty of committing heinous acts, Oedipus relinquishes his pride and, ironically suffering under his own proclamation of exile, does penance for his crimes, whereas Manson shows no remorse for his vile and disturbing bloodletting. Oedipus' ultimate repentance is proof that he realizes his hubris and understands his mistakes, as irreparable as they may be.    All human filthiness in one crime compounded! Unspeakable acts-I speak no more of them. Hide me at once, for God's love, hide me away... Touch me, and have no fear. On no man else But on me alone is the scourge of my punishment. (64)    Had Oedipus sought to blame another for his crimes, or denied his own responsibility for his actions, he would have been no nobler than a common criminal; Oedipus is redeemed by his strength of character.    The hamartia of hubris lives on 2500 years after Aristotle lauded King Oedipus as the quintessential Greek tragedy; pride has evolved into an integral characteristic of the majority of literary characters from J.D. Salinger's angry, disillusioned Holden Caulfield to F. Scott Fitzgerald's idealistic Jay Gatsby to Nathaniel Hawthorne's tortured Reverend Dimmesdale.    Holden's pride in his sarcastic perception of the world around him perpetuates his cynicism and frustration with life, making him unrealistic and incapable of finding happiness. He believes himself omniscient, and that other "people never notice anything" (Salinger 9). Oedipus' belief in his own infallibility makes him equally unrealistic; soon after Oedipus' sins are revealed, the chorus of Elders conveys a Holden-esque message of discontent:    All generations of mortal man add up to nothing! Show me the man whose happiness was anything more than illusion

America’s Dilemma and Vietnam

Vietnam War though ended by the Paris Peace Accord in the year 1973, yet it had left incredible marks in the heart of the political domain of America. The statement of Henry Kissinger, â€Å"Vietnam is still with us† 1 speaks the volume of effect the policies of respective Presidents on the Vietnam War has created in the minds of thinkers, critics and people alike. Since last many years, thinkers had been analyzing the reasons behind failure.Many are pointing towards the fact that America might have won strategically but had lost politically as well as militarily. There are also notions of the causes of the failure owing to military strategy at several levels. On the other hand, it is also said that failure was due to the political restrictions being posed by civilian leaders at home on the military leadership. Despite failures, this war proved as a lesson to be learnt while dealing in the foreign policy matters. H. R.McMaster, an Army Major, in his book, â€Å"Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam†, described 36th President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson who followed the strategy known as â€Å"graduated pressure† 2 preventing discussions on the Vietnam War until the situation went out of control. The President’s conduct was not only undemocratic but also removed any chances of corrective measures. His decision was based on his predicament for his position as a President.Secondly his decision to consider bombings as an alternative solution to the war was based on his miscalculations regarding the impact bombings could create. Many people in the administration argued against bombings on the point that bombings would not make the way for —————————————————– 1. Karnow, Stanley, Vietnam: A History, (New York: Viking Press, 1983), 436 . 2. Young, Rick, Lessons of Vietnam: A Conversation With Major H. R. McMaster, PBS. org. , ( 27 March 2008)a peace process and assurance for Hanoi to induce North Vietnam to recede back in their support for insurgency. Pentagon too predicted grave reaction from the side of enemy on the ground but McNamara did not heed to their advice. For McNamara, the war was nothing more than another business management problem and he tried to solve it by air bombings. Without analyzing the current political, social and cultural situation among the forces, McNamara tried to solve the problem based on the assumptions that bombings on the fixed installations and economic buildings would make North Vietnamese succumb to their demands.The bombings on the fixed installations did not create any effect on the forces that were always on the move. Johnson, in the spring of 1965, without giving any concrete strategic motives, ordered the Joint Chief of Staff to â€Å"kill more Viet Cong,† 3 a tacti cal mission. It was never clear how these bombs over the noncombatant population could bring this War to an end. Johnson Lyndon did not follow the strategy conducive for the situation. H. R. McMaster, said that, â€Å"The process of determining the means to employ must begin with a clearly stated policy goal or objective.Senior military advisers and commanders should then develop a military strategy that contributes to or achieves that goal or objective. Then, military commanders determine the level of force necessary to carry out that strategy† 4 but during this war, Lyndon Johnson and his advisers moved according to their own whims resulting in failure. Harry Summers clearly blamed the failure of military leadership to understand the real nature of the Vietnam War. Moreover, the way the issue of such a sensitive nature was decided raised the questions on the real motive of the War itself on the domestic front.He further stated ————— Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€ 3. & 4. Young, Rick, Lessons of Vietnam: A Conversation With Major H. R. McMaster, PBS. org. , ( 27 March 2008) that United States owe the failure to its incapacity to get congressional declaration of war. If it had been accomplished, the government would have gained public support and many legal sanctions to deal with their enemies. 5The reason that made Vietnam War emotionally devastating for the people in general is same as that of the attacks on World Trade Center on September 11. More over, the betrayal of America in the end gave it the reputation of not being loyal to its allies. Congress was not able to fulfill the Paris Peace Accord. And now this ongoing Iraq War has further resuscitated memories of the Vietnam War. Though Vietnam and Iraq have altogether been different conflicts and different situations but there are some similarities between the two.Two questions that come to the mind while dealing with the Iraq situation are: Fir stly, was it possible to have unilateral withdrawal when Richard Nixon took over the office and secondly, did the time require to fully accomplish Nixon’s purpose weakened the capabilities of the American people to maintain the results in what ever capacity they were? 6 When Nixon was holding the office of President-ship, there were more than 500, 000 United States troops in Vietnam, and their number was continuously increasing.Though Johnson administration had decided for the United States withdrawal after six months when North Vietnamese would withdraw, but the nature of the withdrawal was not agreed upon. There was still a doubt between the mutual withdrawal or unilateral withdrawal and no chance of diplomatic agreement could be clearly seen. Hanoi was insisting on obtaining a cease-fire but on the other ————————————————- 5. Summers, Harry, On Strategy, (Californ ia: Persidio Press, 1982), 17-19. 6.Kissinger, Henry, The lessons of Vietnam: Iraq desperately needs a political solution in the short term to make the war more manageable for the next president, Los Angeles Times,< http://www. latimes. com/news/opinion/la-oe-kissinger31may31,0,7527631. story> (27 March 2008) Hand, United States had to meet two conditions. Firstly, it had to overthrow the South Vietnamese Government, break up its police and army and form government based on Communism. Secondly, United States had to give an unconditional date and time to withdraw their troops.At this, Nixon was faced with two issues, â€Å"Shall we leave Vietnam in a way that — by our own actions — consciously turns the country over to the communists? Or shall we leave in a way that gives the South Vietnamese a reasonable choice to survive as a free people? † 7 When negotiations did not come to any conclusion, Nixon administration unilaterally between 1969 and 1972 withdrew 515,0 00 American troops, put an end to American ground combat in 1971 and reduced causalities to considerable degrees.The major advance took place in 1972 when the United States was able to isolate Hanoi regime by mining at North Vietnam’s harbors and Hanoi got defeated by South Vietnamese helped by the United States Air force. At this, Le Duc Tho, the principle negotiator of Hanoi accepted all the conditions placed by Nixon in 1972. The conditions at the Paris Peace agreement were, â€Å"An unconditional cease-fire and release of prisoners; continuation of the existing South Vietnamese government; continued U. S.economic and military help for it; no further infiltration of North Vietnamese forces; withdrawal of the remaining U. S. forces; and withdrawal of North Vietnamese forces from Laos and Cambodia†. 8 This agreement made Nixon administration to believe that it was able to achieve an opportunity to give South Vietnam a chance to decide the outcome and their fate. It wa s believed that now Saigon government would be able to handle any violations of the agreement, United States would give all assistance on any attacks and further South Vietnam would be able to form a conducive government.Kissinger rightly said that, â€Å"The imperatives of domestic debate ————————————————— 7 & 8, Kissinger, Henry, The lessons of Vietnam: Iraq desperately needs a political solution in the short term to make the war more manageable for the next president, Los Angeles Times, < http://www. latimes. com/news/opinion/la-oe-kissinger31may31,0,7527631. story> (27 March 2008) took precedence over geopolitical necessities. † 9 But these two basic points need specific consideration.Firstly, any strategic point cannot be fruitfully utilized unless a thorough study is undertaken on a ground root level and secondly, the decision should be a very calculate d move without causing any misconceptions on the common public. In Iraq, any kind of withdrawal would only lead to more disastrous results and even political situation is also not conducive. But the most appropriate approach is to create a situation for settlement taking into differing and varying views of opposition parties and forging a conducive environment looking at the social conditions at the time.That is the biggest lesson learnt from the mistakes during Vietnam War. Munich indirectly was responsible for the military attacks at Bosnia in 1995 and in Kosovo in 1999. Munich was an agreement signed in 1938 by the powerful nations of Europe. The Munich agreement was the basis on which America’s policy for tackling Sadam Hussain after September 11 was based on, and the situation was very conducive to adopt the Munich policy. Robert D Kaplan, who is a national correspondent for The Atlantic, made a comparative analysis of Munich and Vietnam.He said that, â€Å"Munich is ab out universalism, about taking care of the world and the lives of others, the Vietnam analogy—so prevalent following our overreach in Iraq—is domestic in spirit. † 10 He further said that Vietnam had its own limits but Munich’s was there to overcome these limits. But both the analogies cannot survive and can lead to dangerous consequences. The peaceful and concrete solution to any foreign policy dilemma can come to shape and fruitfully materialize only when both the analogies are treated and put to use equally. 9.Kissinger, Henry, The lessons of Vietnam: Iraq desperately needs a political solution in the short term to make the war more manageable for the next president, Los Angeles Times, < http://www. latimes. com/news/opinion/la-oe-kissinger31may31,0,7527631. story> (27 March 2008) 10. Kaplan, Robert D. , Foreign Policy: Munich Versus Vietnam, The Atlantic, < http://www. theatlantic. com/doc/200705u/vietnam-munich/2> (27 March 2008) Bibliography Kaplan, Robert D. , Foreign Policy: Munich Versus Vietnam, The Atlantic, < http://www. theatlantic. com/doc/200705u/vietnam-munich/2> (27 March 2008)Karnow, Stanley, Vietnam: A History, New York: Viking Press, 1983. Kissinger, Henry, The lessons of Vietnam: Iraq desperately needs a political solution in the short term to make the war more manageable for the next president. Los Angeles Times. < http://www. latimes. com/news/opinion/la-oe-kissinger31may31,0,7527631. story> (27 March 2008) McMaster, H. R. , Lessons of Vietnam: A Conversation With Major H. R. McMaster by Rick Young, PBS. org. , < http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/military/etc/lessons. html> (27 March 2008) Summers, Harry, On Strategy, California: Persidio Press, 1982.

Piracy in Somalia and Its International Implications

PIRACY IN SOMALIA AND ITS INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS In the past a couple of(prenominal) years, plagiarizer attacks s flip on send off the coast of Somaliananananananana do received a great portion of macrocosm attention. concord to the London- unspirituald Inter field of study Mari while Bureau, in that location has been an unusual increase in Somali pirate activity in the original 9 calendar months of 2009. Until phratry this year 147 incidents were re carriageed off the Somali coast and in the disjunction of Aden (separating Somalia and Yemen), comp atomic physique 18d with 63 for the same period perish year.A total of 533 crowd segments choose been requiren hostage in 2009, show up of which active 200 hostages atomic number 18 whitewash being held by Somali pirates. I lead elect the topic of plagiarisation for my es express as I deem that in the context of the play homo providence crisis it is a current line of work which efficaciousnes s affect completely(prenominal) the opusicipants of the orbicular economy and it inevitably an urgent solution. In the first region of my es swan I am going to pre distouch round data to demonstrate the importance of the trouble, thence I will focus on the background of the issue and present the distinguishable particularors which behave lead to the appearance of plagiarism. aft(prenominal) a detailed description of the pirates and their management of operation I will bm on to presenting of the interests of the global residential bea and the policies, strategies and instruments they have functiond to deal with the issue. At the end of my paper I will excrete more than or slight conclusions and stimulate a a few(prenominal) suggestions for the future. plagiarisation has been a bother in Somali waters for at least ten years. However, the number of attempted and no-hit attacks has risen over the last troika years.As the highjacks have increased in number, they have as well as be keep up to a greater extent than sophisticated. The pirates atomic number 18 flat able to glamour larger targets as well. On September 25 2008, Somali pirates captured the MV Faina, a Ukrainian move transporting weapons to Kenya. This was followed whizz month later by the hijacking of the MV Sirius Star, the largest transport ever captured by pirates. The Saudi-Arabian-owned supertanker was carrying more or less 2 billion barrels of b be-assed oil, worth somewhat $100 one thousand one thousand million. The channelize was fin onlyy sacqued on January 9 for a $3 million redeem.The series of hijackings has continue in 2009 too. It seems that this year the pirates have shifted from the disconnection of Aden, where dozens of send verbotens were attacked in 2008 scarce when which is now heavily patrolled, to the ocean between the Afri put up mainland and the Seychelles islands. In October 2009 Somali pirates captured a Chinese bulk carrier , carrying 25 Chinese faction members. In November they have seized a US tanker carrying $20 million of petroleum oil, which is considered the second-largest ship ever hijacked by pirates.The tankers 30-member crew was confusablely kidnapped. In the same month, 9 pirates hijacked the Greek-owned tanker Maran Centaurus carrying 275,000 metric tons of Saudi Arabian crude oil and have taken it to a pirate port a big the coast, where they typically hold the boats for ransom. The 300,000-tonne ship was hijacked near 1,300 km from the coast of Somalia and there were 28 crew members on tabular array which atomic number 18 all held hostages. tally to the IBM, in October and November alone, 38 ships have been attacked and 10 hijacked.thither argon some(prenominal) factors which have do Somalia the perfect surroundings for plagiarism, which I am going to present below. First of all, if we ask on a lower floor jump out why buccaneering kit and caboodle in Somalia, we have to know some social function rough the geography and history of the countrified. Officially called the nation of Somalia, Somalia is a inelegant situated in the Horn of Africa, b golf clubed bycapital of capital of Djiboutito the northwest,Kenyato the southwest, the disjunction of AdenwithYemento the north, theIndian oceanto the east, and Ethiopiato the west. repayable to its strategic location, in the past the commonwealth was an important centre of commerce. Even today, roughly 16,000 ships sneak out through the disconnectedness of Aden various(prenominal)ly year, carrying oil from the Middle East and goods from Asia to europium and North America, so we discount say that one of the most important deal routes of the humanness stinker be fix in this area. In asset, the long, isolated, sandy b distri yetivelyes of the surface area are also advantageous for pirates to operate. an antithetic(prenominal) factor which helps piracy to flourish is the regimeal anarchy whic h unflustered rules in Somalia.For virtually 20 years, the country has endured political nut house and bloodshed. TheSomali Civil, which began in 1991 as a revolution against the subjective regime of Siad Barre, has ca utilize instability throughout the country. The northern parts of the country declared their independence, although it was neither recognized by the primeval brass, nor by the United Nations. posterior fighting among rival warlords resulted in the killing, dislocation, and famishment of thousands of Somalis. Since 1991, 350,000-1,000,000 Somalis have died because of the fight.Hatred and lack of intrust among the landlords and their clans has pr even soted the organisation of a functioning central political relation. From2006-2009 Ethiopiawas also involved in the conflict. In January 2009, Ethiopian soldiers withdrew from Somalia, leaving behind anAfri put up Unioncontingent of peacekeepers to help the unconvincing bond government and its troops go for t heir authority. Following Ethiopias withdrawal from Somalia, the southern half(a) of the country fell into the hands of chemical free radical Islamist rebels, who dormant control a sprightlinesssize part of the country. The political plaza is still chaotic in Somalia.The present government, led by Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is the sixteenth administration to govern the country since the wear of the Barre regime. Order still hasnt been restored, Somalia is governed by anarchy. Because of the lack of an sub judice central government and national economy, Somalia is still one of the buildations poorest countries, where the estimated GDP is around $600 per year. According to the World expatriatek, in 2008 73% of the countrys population lived on a daily income below $2. The countrys 10 million people are starving, and they would hardly survive without the food attention provided by the developed countries.In a country where survival is at stake, it is no surprise that piracy has become a fast and easy means to make notes and it could develop into a terrorisation business. To sum up, we put forward say that Somalias chaotic political situation, the lack of an pithive central government, the poor state of the economy and poverty have all created an environment which was perfect for piracy to appear. But who are these heroes and how do they operate? In most peoples minds, the image of piracy is associated with characters like Jack Sparrow or Captain Cook.Pirates are often seen as rebellious juvenile men who are victims of the society, scarce have the courage to stand up for themselves and create a several(predicate) vogue of working on the oceans. Actually, there is some truth in this frame of perception. According to Eric Hobsbawm, a British historian, friendly bandits are outlaws, drawing on participation funding, using criminal methods to challenge the present hierarchy of power and wealth. Most of the Somali pirates are 20-35 years old a nd come from the region of Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Somalia.It is estimated that there are at least five pirate gangs and more thousands build up men. A BBC report divided up them into three main categories local Somali tipermen (the brains of the trading operations because of their skills and knowledge of the sea) ex-militiamen (use as the ponderosity) and technical experts who are able to use electrical equipment, such as GPS devices at a professional level. It is a fact that since the countrys collapse in 1991, there has been a great cadence of il juristic sportfishing practised by a lot of countries along the Somali coast.During the regime of Siad Barre (1986-1992) Somalia received avail from several countries to develop its fishing industry. local anaesthetic fishermen had frozen(p) prices for their catch and the fish was exported because of low bespeak for seafood in Somalia. However, after the fall of the Barre regime, repayable to the So mali Civil War the income from fishing decreased. Traditional coastal fishing became difficult, because multinational trawlers started fishing illegally along the Somali coast and depleted the fish jobs. Local fishermen became desperate. They started to band together and were determined to push their elections.They started attacking hostile trawlers, the crew of which curtly fought back with heavy weapons. As a result, fishermen turned to other types of commercial ships and curtly discovered that piracy was an easy way to make property. At the moment, piracy is Somalias most lucrative business ship owners are willing to pay large amounts of money for the release of their hijacked vessels. In addition to this, starting with the early 1990s, Somalias long, far coastline has been used as a bull site for risk of infectionous toxic drive away from a lot of europiuman and Asian companies.The European Green party presented out front the press and the European Parliament co pies of contracts sign by two European companies an Italian-Swiss and an Italian firm and representatives of warlords, to accept 10 million tones of toxic waste in supplant for $80 million. For European companies this is a very cheap way of getting disembarrass of their waste while waste establishment costs in Europe are about $1,000 a tonne, this way it exactly costs them $2,50 a tonne. The effects of this put away are already visible in Somalia.According to a report by the UN Environment Programme, there is an extremely mettlesome number of cases of respiratory infections, mouth ulcers and exhaust and unusual skin infections among the inhabitants of the area diseases connect to radiation sickness. It is produce that this situation represents a very serious environmental assay not only to Somalia, merely to the on the whole eastern Africa region. Many of the pirates call themselves the Somali coast guard, claiming that their aim is to defend their communities from overfishing and to protect the coastline from toxic dumping of thermonuclear waste by foreign ships.In an interview one of the pirate leading explained We dont consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish and dump in our seas. The trouble of overfishing is still a very serious bother is Somalia. It is estimated that Europeans and Asians poach around $300 million worth fish from Somali waters. On the other hand, Somali pirates collect about $100 million yearly from ransoms. This, correspond to Peter Lehr, a Somalia piracy expert, smoke be seen as a resource swap. Of course, a great number of pirates are only taking part in these operations for the money, and their families which they merchantman work this way.As one of them, nicknamed Milk lollipop says Sometimes doing a bad thing is the only way to improve the situation for yourself and the people you love. Some of the pirates apprizet even swim, their only business is to shoot straigh t. A lot of young Somalis take part only in a couple of operations, hoping to make abounding money to move to the West or maybe to persuade an ethnic Somali woman with a EU straits to marry them and move to the UK. As for the techniques used by the pirates, we can notice that they are getting more sophisticated and more effective.They are using the latest advanced equipment, like GPS, MANPADS (Man Portable Air demurral Systems), RPGs and satellite phones and they are well-armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s. They commonly operate using small skiffs with tidy outboard engines, but now they regularly use draw ships to increase their be adrift. These mother ships take them into the shipping lanes, several coulomb miles offshore. Then they launch small speedboats to standoff themselves up onto the deck of a ship. They can often seize a ship without firing a shot. afterward capturing it, they mainsheet the hijacked ship to the Somali pirate hub town, Eyl and take the hostages ashore where they are well-looked after until ransom is p helper. It is reported that the pirates never harm their prisoners they abide like perfect gentlemen with them. They even plight caterers on the Somali coast to groom pasta, grilled fish and roasted meat, which horse opera hostages might like. Once ransom is p fear, they release ships good humour. According to the Kenyan foreign minister, in 2008 pirates have received about $150 million in ransom, which is used to fund future operations.In a recent startling Reuters report we can read that the pirates have started to make the money to work for them, setting up a stock ex remove that has drawn financiers from the Somali Diaspora and other nations. The bandits bourse is a small expression in the once-small fishing village of Haradheere, about 250 miles northeast of Mogadishu, which has developed into a luxuriousness town by now. As a former pirate named Mohammed puts it, The shares are go around to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or utilizable materials weve made piracy a community activity. Unfortunately, it has become clear that the activity of pirates is link to warlords on shore. After seeing the gainfulness of the business, these leaders started to facilitate pirate activities, share-out the profit with the pirates. These Godfathers and clan leaders are closely related to Somalias president in Mogadishu, Abdullahi Yusuf, who also originates from Puntland. Estimates are that at least six ministers in the Puntland government are involved with the pirates. The only group which is publicly against piracy is the militant Al-Shabaab, a Salafist group founded this decade as a militia attached to the Islamic Court.They say that such crimes are forbidden under the Islamic law. However, gibe some reports, militant Islamist groups also get their share of the profit. The pirates thing with these organisations is making the situation even more alarming, because all the financial help given over by the West to the Somali regimen to put an end to piracy might just help it to flourish. All in all, it is clear that piracy is not a problem that the fragile Somali government can solve alone and worldwide help is needed. How does all this affect the world(prenominal) community?Besides enforcing world(prenominal) law, there are several other reasons to damp pirate activities. The first is Somalia itself. The country needs about 200 tonnes of food aid a year which is mostly delivered by sea. Without the naval escorts and the regular delivery of aid, Somalias food stocks are seriously threatened, so ensuring the safe delivery of food aid should be a number one priority for the international community. Stopping piracy may also reduce the money available for weapons, so indirectly it can lead to the end of the internal war. plagiarism has a very distressing effect on international trade as well. In addit ion to the growing ransom, companies whose cargos do not reach their destinations, lose money. As a result, there is a egression of insurance for all ships which need to pass through the Gulf of Aden. The constant danger of pirate attacks has already made some shipping companies to choose a longer, but safer route, around the Cape of Good Hope, as it happened in the case of AP Moller-Maersk, one of Europes largest shipping companies after the hijacking of Sirius Star.The extra weeks of travel and fuel can lead to the cost of transporting goods, which is a in truth serious concern now, at the time of a global economic crisis. some other reason is related to the environment. Pirate attacks can cause major oil spills in a very sensitive eco carcass. As pirates become bolder and use more powerful weapons, tankers could be set on conjure up or sunk, which can result in an environmental catastrophe, destroying marine and bird life for many years to come. Last, but not least, there is a risk that the pirates themselves can become agents of terrorism.There are assumptions agree to which pirates are connected to the Al-Shabaab movement, which is believed to have associate to Al-Qaeda. According to some reports, Al-Qaeda militants from Iraq have chosen Somalia as a unexampled base from which to launch attacks. Terrorism at sea can take many forms, for congresswoman direct attacks on ships, hostage dramas, but also hijacked ships used as capableness weapons. Terrorist clearworks can use the financial coin from piracy to fund their operations worldwide. It is obvious, that even if there is little chance for the vanquish scenario, it is best to prevent it while we can.The international community has recognized that enhanced international efforts are necessary in order to reduce the number of attacks. The growing cases of piracy have focused the worlds attention on Somalia and have shown that the crisis going on in a fragmented state is spilling out of its borde rs. The phalanx response to piracy has shown that countries which havent been able to cooperate with each other can unite their wedges for a common cause. A maritime multitude was also held in Mombassa, where they discussed the problem of piracy and tried to give regional and world governments recommendations to deal with the danger.In January 2009, an important regional agreement was adopted in Djibouti by States in the region, at a meeting organised by IMO. The autograph of Conduct concerning the Repression of plagiarisation and Armed looting against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden recognized the extent of the problem of piracy and armed robbery against ships in the region and the states signing it declared their mark to co-operate, in a way logical with international law, in the repression of piracy and armed robbery against ships.Most countries have preferable prevention various navies have sent war-ships into the area to escort commercial vessel s. At the beginning, this way of defense was more individual than collective, but the persistence of the attacks has led to the instruction of a collective security system. NATO got the task of escorting convoys transporting the humanitarian aid of the World regimen Programme towards Somalia. Once they were in the Gulf of Aden, they also protected other merchants ships, by their presence.Later NATO handed the job to surgical procedure Atlanta, the first common maritime military commission by the European Union. Military counter-piracy operations are performed by vessels from the Combined task Force 150, a multinational coalitionnavaltask force in charge of monitoring and inspecting a range of security issues, such as medicate smuggling and weapons trafficking, as well as piracy. Several countries, including India, Russia, China, Norway, Australia, France, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, South Korea, Malaysia and even lacquer chose to join the coalition and send warships to the Gulf of Aden.In January 2009 the US navy schematic a new multi-national naval force to confront piracy off the Somali coast. The new unit was called Combined projection Force 151and it was a spinoff of the existing project Force 150 in the region. This region of the coalition forces was aimed at focusing all on pirate groups (leaving Combined travail Force 150 to focus on other destabilizing activities, such as medicate smuggling and weapons trafficking). It was hoped that by designating a new unit to combating piracy in Somalia, anti-piracy efforts would be more successful.Unfortunately, this effort is having only a limited impact. Although some pirates are frightened off by the sight of military ships and helicopters, coalition warships are often in the reproach discover at the wrong time. In addition, pirates are flexible and change their tactics easily data from the oceanic Bureau shows that at present they are conducting their operations further out in the Indian Ocean. Besides, this is a very expensive solution which is difficult to support in the long term.After the hijacking of an Egyptian ship and a huge Saudi supertanker, the Arab League organized a cap for countries over sounding the Red Sea, with the participation of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Jordan, Djibouti and Yemen. At the summit the histrion states discussed several solutions for the problem of piracy, suggesting different routes and looking for a safer passageway for ships. They might also assist the current NATO anti-piracy efforts together with other nations.However, we shouldnt forget that the Arab League has long tried to draw Somalia more closely to the Arab world. It has made a financial support for the transitional Federal Government, conditional on its entering negotiations with Al-Shabaab, intending to spread Islamist influence in the area. In June 2008 the United Nations Security Council passed a declaration authorizing nations that hav e the agreement of the Transitional Federal Government to enter Somali territorial waters to hunt pirates.In 2008 the Security Council adopted two resolutions, 1846 and 1851 allowing for the first time international land and sea occupations of Somali territories in the pursuit of pirates. These resolutions extended the power of the states and lead to greater coordination of their efforts. After the Council resolution 1851, the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia was accomplished on 14 January 2009 to facilitate and arrange actions among states and organizations to deal with piracy. At the moment 46 States and seven international organizations take part in the Contact Group.Through its four-spot working groups, the Contact Group addresses limited issues related to military and operational coordination, legal issues, shipping industry awareness and public and diplomatic information. UNODC (the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) participates in the Contact Grou p and its works Group on Military and running(a) Coordination, Information Sharing and Capability-Building. UNODC acts as secretariate to Working Group on juridical Issues, to which it has provided various forms of support.UNODC has prepared an analysis of the legal and practical challenges involved in prosecuting hazard pirates and is gathering nformation on relevant national legal systems, including those of coastal States. In animosity of the fact that laws to combat piracy at sea exist, a lot of states do not seem to use them in practice. Only France has chosen to combat piracy directly. The first case was the seizing of a yacht in April 2008, which started with negotiations for the release of 30 hostages and followed by the capture of six pirates in Somali territory.The second case took place in September 2008 to free a couple taken hostages. This action also led to the arrest of six pirates, who are awaiting attempt before a French court. Britain and some other countries have found a superficial and convenient way of treating the pirates they have negotiated a treaty with Kenya, according to which all those suspected of piracy are handed over to that country. A few months later other countries followed Britains example, negotiating similar agreements. These agreements are a useful step, but they do not solve the problem.The Kenyan prison system is in atrocious condition, corruption is high, there are bulletproof delays in the call of trials and legal aid is very limited. It is a paradox so that states which are entitled to prosecute the arrested pirates deputise this right to a country which is uneffective to assure a fair trial to these criminals. In spite of the united efforts of different nations, it has become clear that the piracy problem cannot be solved at sea, because it is root on the shore, in the ongoing conflict and political instability of the country.As Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations evince at an intern ational donors conference Piracy is a symptom of anarchy and hazard on the ground. () More security on the ground will make less piracy on the seas Any enduring solution to the problem has to involve ensuring stability, outgrowth and an effective criminal justice system in Somalia. If the states had invested the time and resources they now pass by to stop piracy in reconstructing the Somali society and economy, they probably wouldnt have to cope with these problems.However, there are ceaselessly new opportunities that shouldnt be wasted. Martin murphy in his article Somali Piracy not just a ocean Problem claims that the highest costs of piracy to Somalia and the international community are not economic, but political. As I mentioned earlier, it seems that almost all layers of political life in Somalia are involved in piracy, including the Islamist groups. Islamism is getting inexpugnableer and stronger in Somalia and it can soon get hold of the entire country. The Al-Shabaab movement has a clear intention to use Somalia as a base for spreading Islamist influence in the region.If this tendency continues, a worst practicable outcome would be an Islamist government, which is strong liberal to control piracy, but also strong enough to make Somalia safe for groundless Islamist groups. So, what can be done to stop, or at least to decrease piracy in the Horn of Africa? Somalia is a clan-based society. Therefore, a possible solution would be to deal with the sub-state entities in order to create a unitary state in the future. In these negotiations the coalition should clearly commit itself to repress piracy in return for associate political and economic support.This way it would be possible to cut off all the political players in Somalia from their external sources of weapons and frankincense pirates would be trapped between more effective land-base policy by the Somalis and maritime policy by coalition member navies and soon they would have no place to hi de. Recent efforts have shown that there is a will to act together. We can only hope that the states will find a way to deal effectively with the problem before it is too late. Links, references Roger Middleton Piracy in Somalia. Africa Programme, October 2008 http//www. chathamhouse. org. uk/files/12203_1008piracysomalia. df Marina ChiarugiandDaniele Archibugi Piracy challenges global governance. out-of-doors Democracy,9 April 2009 http//www. opendemocracy. net/article/piracy-challenges-global-governance George Grant Somali pirates cant be beaten at sea. The Guardian, 18 November 2009 http//www. guardian. co. uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/18/somali-pirates-ransom-puntland Galrahn Somalia Piracy A Backgrounder April 8, 2009 http//www. informationdissemination. net/2009/04/somalia-piracy-backgrounder. html Rubrick Biegon Somali Piracy and the external Response. FPIF (Foreign Policy in Focus) January 29, 2009 http//www. pif. org/fpiftxt/5827 Georg-Sebastian Holzer Somalia piracy and pol itics. Open Democracy, 24 November 2008 http//www. opendemocracy. net/article/somalia-piracy-and-politics Johann Hari You are Being Lied to About Pirates. The Huffington Post, celestial latitude 2009 http//www. huffingtonpost. com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147. html Can Somali pirates be defeated? BBC News, 20 November 2009 http//news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/8371139. stm Sam Gustin Bandit Bourse? Somali pirates hijack oil tanker, organize stock market Daily Finance, December 1 2009 http//www. dailyfinance. om/2009/12/01/bandit-bourse-somali-pirates-hijack-oil-tanker-organize-stock/ Martin Murphy Somali Piracy not just a naval problem . Centre for Strategic and Bugetary Assessments, April 16, 2009 http//www. csbaonline. org/4Publications/PubLibrary/B. 20090417. Somali_Piracy/B. 20090417. Somali_Piracy. pdf Piracy in Somalia Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Piracy_in_Somalia Aiden Hartley What I wise to(p) from theSomali pirates. The Spectat or, 6 December 2008 http//www. spectator. co. uk/essays/all/3061246/what-i-learned-from-the-somali-pirates. thtml