Should Feds Continue with Expansionary Monetary Policy or...

Over the past few years, the Fed had been trying to heal the economy from the recession by lowering the interest rate near zero in order to raise the inflation, increasing the price of housing and household wealth. This will encourage more people to buy products or services, causing an increase in consumers spending. Based on the data given by the U.S. Department of Commerce today, the economy is now healing from the recession with the expansionary monetary policy. However, some people argue that it takes too long for the recovery to happen and suggests that it is time for the Fed to come out with an exit strategy. However, I think the Fed should stick with its policy because it manages to improve the economy. Therefore, I think the Fed†¦show more content†¦Based on his statement, the cyclical unemployment will lead to structural unemployment in a long period of time. When this becomes structural unemployment, unemployed may lose the skills over time, causing them to be less committed to the labor force and the economy. In order to solve this situation, the Fed has to consider the unemployment rate. If the unemployment rate rises, then Fed will need to think of an exit from expansionary policy. But if the unemployment rates decreases, then the Fed can stick to its policy. As for the other concerns, some were worried the inflation rate caused by the expansionary policy. They are afraid that it might unleash higher inflation and that inflationary expectations are bound to jump at any time. By solving this situation, the Fed had to closely monitor the inflation rate. If it is below the expectation, then Fed can stick with the policy. If not, Fed will have to consider about the exit strategy. Changes in interest rate will impact on the economy. It can affect the consumption spending, the inflation rate, the unemployment and employment rate, and the GDP. Consumption spending is affected by interest rate is because when the interest rate is low, people will be willing to borrow money from bank and spend it on goods or services, allowing the spending to go up. When the spending goes up, the inflation and GDP will increase. Then,Show MoreRelatedThe Economic Crisis Of Western Central Banks Essay2433 Words   |  10 Pagesin 2008, western central banks have since applied a series of unconventional monetary policies besides normal ones. One of the characteristics of the unconventional policies is the intended near-to-zero interest rates, so those policies are also named Zero Interest Rate Policies (ZIRP). ZIRP are designed to help the financial market escape from the â€Å"liquidity trap†, a situation in which normal expansionary monetary policies fail to decrease intere st rates below zero and thus become ineffective. WithoutRead MoreThe Risk Associated With Currency Exposure1610 Words   |  7 Pagesfluctuations in exchange rates and how that risk relates to our organization; Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. (CCE). Serving customers for the last 128 years, our products are now available in more than 200 countries around the world. As our global presence continues to grow, so too does our exposure to fluctuations in currencies other than our base currency, the US dollar. Worldwide, we own assets and owe liabilities, earn revenues and pay expenses in 71 foreign currencies . As such, it is now more importantRead MoreEurope Economic Crisis55278 Words   |  222 Pagesotherwise indicated, the texts are published under the responsibility of the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission, BU24, B-1049 Brussels, to which enquiries other than those related to sales and subscriptions should be addressed. LEGAL NOTICE Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on its behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained in this publication, or for any errors which, despite careful preparation

The Tragic Story of Judas Iscariot Essay - 975 Words

The Tragic Story of Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot. A man who usually strikes fear into the hearts of Christians and Jews alike. But who is this praised man of Kerioth, really? He betrayed our LORD for 30 silver shekels. Yet, there HAS to be SOME good in him, or else, why on earth would Jesus pick him? Ill inform you on Judas possible motives, thoughts that may have been running through his head before and after the fact, his culpability, and the status of his soul. Most people believe Judas only motive for betraying Jesus to the Sanhedrin was greed. Others say he might be trying to simply get Jesus to confound His enemies, not get condemned. I believe the latter is more correct. First off, 30 silver shekels is not much, about†¦show more content†¦Now hes probably thinking How could this happen?! Why me?!? I dont want to go to Hell!!!! I refuse to believe what He said about me!!!! And at that very moment, Satan possesses him (John 13:27). Which brings us to our next point. When you are possessed by the Devil, you have no control over your body or actions. Yet you still have full knowledge of whats happening; its like being trapped in an inescapable glass box. So is Judas accountable? My theory is yes, because he did not try to stop Satans influences. But this also applies to the other Eleven; they didnt try to exorcise Judas, cast Satan out of him, or simply prevent him from carrying out his wicked plan. They could clearly see what happened to Judas; how else would John 13:27 be in there? The other Disciples, ipso facto of them not doing anything, were aiding and abetting Satan. Shame on them. Now, after the Sanhedrin condemned Jesus, Judas was filled with remorse and repented. However, he then hanged himself. This now raises the question: where is Judas soul? My theory is that since Judas was wracked with guilt and declared, Ive sinned!!!! Ive betrayed innocent blood!!!!! (Luke 27:4), this means he has the Holy Spirit in him, because, if he didnt, he would have felt no remorse, and the Holy Spirits job is to convict us of sin, and anyone with the Holy Spirits indwelling is saved. But then theres that curse Jesus pronounced upon JudasShow MoreRelatedJesus: The Tragic Hero Essay830 Words   |  4 PagesWith Christianity being the number one universalizing religion, many are familiar with at the story of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Though they may not actually belong to the religion, many also celebrate the holidays of Christmas and Easter, both of which are extremely important days in the Christian religion. These two have been used for marketing seasonal goods to the United States in particular. Christmas is the time of extravagant spending for the gifts of children and loved ones, while EasterRead MoreThe Woman Who Speaks to the Man Who Employrs Her Son1524 Words   |  7 PagesThe Woman Speaks to the Man Who Has Employed Her Son Summary: The persona in this poem is telling the story of a mother who loved her son. The mother became aware of the childs presence when she experienced morning sickness. She placed all her hopes in the child and raised him as a single parent because his father was indifferent to the childs existence. The mother had set no barriers on what the child could become, but he grows up to work for some criminal who drags him into a war and gives himRead MoreEssay Passion of the Christ560 Words   |  3 Pagesreview that said if it was good or bad or if it was well acted or if it was worth the watch. Everyone just seemed to be interested in saying that it is too violent, the movie should not have been made and Mel Gibson shouldnt be making money from a story about Jesus. (It made $212m in its second weekend in the US) In my opinion its better to see a film without hearing too much about it beforehand. With The Passion I was expecting to be bored for the first hour while seeing Christ preaching toRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1141 Words   |  5 Pagesthat all ends on a foul note. However, in Shakespeare’s tragic play, Othello, Othello ends his life on an unforeseen ‘positive’ note, with an understanding of his flaws, and a realization that Desdemona and himself were both upstanding individuals. His egocentric personality remains consistent, yet this self-dominant personality slides away ever so slightly to show his feelings for her and regret. This claim of Othello’s ‘positive’ yet tragic understanding of his own self is seen throughout the playRead MoreInferno Research Paper1715 Words   |  7 Pagesemotional and frequently faints when he becomes overly frightened or moved. In Canto III, Dante is warned by Charon to keep away from the dead so uls. This warning, along with a sudden earthquake, causes Dante to faint. In Canto V, Dante hears of the tragic love story of Paulo and Francesca and how they ended up in the Second Circle of Hell, designed for the Lustful, those who committed sins of the flesh. Dante is overcome with pity and faints again. In the Seventh Circle of Hell, Dante is approached by aRead MoreDantes Inferno and The Afterlife Essay1819 Words   |  8 PagesFor centuries humans have been drawing parallels to help explain or understand different concepts. These parallels, or allegories, tell a simple story and their purpose is to use another point of view to help guide individuals into the correct line of thought. â€Å"The only stable element in a literary work is its words, which if one knows the language in which it is written, have a meaning. The significance of that meaning is what may be called allegory.†(Bloomfield) As Bloomfield stated, it is onlyRead MoreEssay on American Musicals2785 Words   |  12 Pagesled nowhere. The shows were deprived of tune and were unmelodic and formless. With rare exceptions, audiences rarely left the theatre singing the show tunes. Rock and roll couldn’t be assimilated in a dramatic structure. The songs just didn’t tell a story. It was not until 1960 that Broadway faced up to the rising trend. Finally, musical theatre accepted rock music into its production. Never will audiences see new musicals in the style of Oklahoma!, Brigadoon and South Pacific. These musicals wereRead MoreChristian Prejudice and Racial Discrimination of Marginalized in the Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare3691 Words   |  15 Pagesinfluential models for the character of Shylock were no doubt drawn from literature, not real life. The Jewish villain was a stock character in medieval literature. Medieval passion plays, reenactments of the story of the crucifixion of Jesus, invariably portrayed the disloyal disciple Judas Iscariot as a stereoty pical Jew. Of course, historically, Jesus and all of his disciples were Jewish, but this was ignored. Subsequent authors, when they portrayed Jewish characters at all, they always cast them as

Social institutions Essay Example For Students

Social institutions Essay Social institutions can be found all though out the world. Social institution is a system of statuses, roles, values, and norms that is organized to satisfy one or more of the basic societal needs. It may differ from place to place. One good example of a social institution would be found in the film, The Dead Poets Society. It tells about and shows how each of the students at Welton Academy have different ways at handling their set of social institutions. Each student learns with the help of their new teacher, Mr. Keating, that they should be free thinkers and seize the day and not to waste life because it is very precious. Some important institutions that will be viewed are family and education institutions. Family is a very important institution that comes to mind when discussing different types of social institutions. Family is a group of people who are related by marriage, blood, or adoption and who live together and share economic resources. American families are organized by di fferent types of form groups. A nuclear family consists of one or both parents and their children. The nuclear family is the family form that is most recognizable to Americans. Then there is the extended family. The extended family consists of three or more generations of a family sharing the same residence. Nuclear families and extended families often are part of a much larger kinship system. Kinship refers to a network of people who are related by marriage, birth, or adoption. American marriage patterns are usually a monogamy, which means that a marriage of one man to one woman is present. Another American pattern is neolocality which means that a newly married couple is free to set up access of individuals and groups to power and social rewards. From these perspectives we can see the role that each of them takes at Welton Academy. Welton Academy I think would mostly be looked at under the conflict perspective because of how expensive it is to enroll in the school. It limits the b est education to the rich. The school i?s when Charlie wanted to permit girls a Welton and printed an article in the school newspaper. With that event he crossed the line between right and wrong and had to be punished to teach him of his wrongdoing. got hit I also think that with these strict rules, hard entrance rate and high tuition fee limits who can attend the school and usually cuts out all of the bad students that would be disturbance to the operation of the school. The enforcing of norms through either internalization or sanctions is called social control. Agents of social control include authority figures, the police, the courts, religion, the family, and public opinion. The principle means of social control in all societies, though, is self-control, learned through the internalization of norms. When a societygot hit I also think that with these strict rules, hard entrance rate and high tuition fee limits who can attend the school and usually cuts out all of the bad students that would be disturbance to the operation of the school. The enforcing of norms through either internalization or sanctions is called social control. Agents of social control include authority figures, the police, the courts, religion, the family, and public opinion. The principle means of social control in all societies, though, is self-control, learned through the internalization of norms. When a societys methods for ensuring conformity break down, social stability is lost. If people are killing one another, stealing, and fighting in the streets, then social order is jeopardy. Social control is important. No society can survive for long without an effective system of social control. Individuals must follow certain rules of behavior if society is to function smoothly. In the film Mr. Keating tells about the dangers of conformity. He says to be free thinkers and go for your goals in life. He said dont always follow what others do and try o be your own leader. He said that conformity is good to a certain point and be careful not to cross th e line between right and wrong. Some gos also very strict limiting what the students can do.I think that Welton Academy maintains the stability and smooth operation of society by being strict and hard on the students. One incident is Charlie Daytons punishment for trying to permit girls at?od examples in the film of how conformity can be positive or negative is when Charlie Dalton didnt want to walk outside with his class because he wanted to exercise his right of conformity. This was a positive event of conformity. One negative example is when Charlie wanted to permit girls a Welton and printed an article in the school newspaper. With that event he crossed the line between right and wrong and had to be punished to teach him of his wrongdoing. Adolescence is a unique stage in a persons life. The adolescence is caught between two worlds no longer a child and not yet an adult in the eyes of society. Adolescence can be defined as the period between the normal onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood. Some of the characteristics of adolescence are undefined status, search for self, increased pressure, and problems of suicide. Undefined status means that being an adolescent people are confused on how to treat you. Some treat adolescents like adults while others treat them like children. Adult society seems to have conflicting attitudes toward adolescents. Another characteristic is increased pressure. Adolescents are faced with pressure from many sources such as school, friends, and parents. Parents for instance, generally make rules stating what time their adolescent children must be home, who they can see, and where they can go. Yet parents want their children to be sociable. Yet thus people are under pressure to strike the balance between parental wishes and peer pressure. Adolescents also have pressures put on them in school. They are pressured to attend class, complete assignments, pass tests, and participate in school clubs and activities. One other characteristic that is important is search for self. Adolescence are mature enough to think about themselves and what they want out of life. They can sort through their values and decide what things really are important to them. They can establish personal norms that will guide their behavior. They can set priorities for their lives. One aspect of finding yourself is preparing for future roles. Thus anticipatory socialization is important part of adolescent development. Anticipatory socialization refers to f-control, learned through the internalization of norms. f-control, learned through the internalization of norms. got hit I also think that with these strict rules, hard entrance rate and high tuition fee limits who can attend the school and usu ally cuts out all of the bad students that would be disturbance to the operation of the school. E E Cummings-life And Work EssayThe enforcing of norms through either internalization or sanctions is called social control. Agents of social control include authority figures, the police, the courts, religion, the family, and public opinion. The principle means of social control in all societies, though, is self-control, learned through the internalization of norms. When a societygot hit I also think that with these strict rules, hard entrance rate and high tuition fee limits who can attend the school and usually cuts out all of the bad students that would be disturbance to the operation of the school. The enforcing of norms through either internalization or sanctions is called social control. Agents of social control include authority figures, the police, the courts, religion, the family, and public opinion. The principle means of social control in all societies, though, is self-control, learned through the internalization of norms. When a societys methods for ensuring conformity break down, social stability is lost. If people are killing one another, stealing, and fighting in the streets, then social order is jeopardy. Social control is important. No society can survive for long without an effective system of social control. Individuals must follow certain rules of behavior if society is to function smoothly. In the film Mr. Keating tells about the dangers of conformity. He says to be free thinkers and go for your goals in life. He said dont always follow what others do and try o be your own leader. He said that conformity is good to a certain point and be careful not to cross th e line between right and wrong. Some good examples in the film of how conformity can be positive or negative is when Charlie Dalton didnt want to walk outside with his class because he wanted to exercise his right of conformity. This was a positive event of conformity. One negative example is when Charlie wanted to permit girls a Welton and printed an article in the school newspaper. With that event he crossed the line between right and wrong and had to be punished to teach him of his wrongdoing. Adolescence is a unique stage in a persons life. The adolescence is caught between two worlds no longer a child and not yet an adult in the eyes of society. Adolescence can be defined as the period between the normal onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood. Some of the characteristics of adolescence are undefined status, search for self, increased pressure, and problems of suicide. Undefined status means that being an adolescent people are confused on how to treat you. Some treat adolescents like adults while others treat them like children. Adult society seems to have conflicting attitudes toward adolescents. Another characteristic is increased pressure. Adolescents are faced with pressure from many sources such as school, friends, and parents. Parents for instance, generally make rules stating what time their adolescent children must be home, who they can see, and where they can go. Yet parents want their children to be sociable. Yet thus people are under pressure to strike the balance between parental wishes and peer pressure. Adolescents also have pressures put on them in school. They are pressured to attend class, complete assignments, pass tests, and participate in school clubs and activities. One other characteristic that is important is search for self. Adolescence are mature enough to think about themselves and what they want out of life. They can sort through their values and decide what things really are important to them. They can establish personal norms that will guide their behavior. They can set priorities for their lives. One aspect of finding yourself is preparing for future roles. Thus anticipatory socialization is important part of adolescent development. Anticipatory socialization refers to learning the rights, obligations, and expectations of a role in preparation for assuming that role at a future date. The last characteristic is the problems of suicide. When most people think of the causes and consequences of suicide, they think in terms of individuals. They see suicide as a personal act that results from psychological factors, such as depression or frustration. Sociologists acknowledge the suicide is more interested in the social factors that affect suicide rates. According to the sociologist view of suicide, variations in suicide rates can be understood by studying the structure of society. One good example from the film that ties all of these different characteristics together would be the Neil Perry incident. Neil wanted to perform and become an actor but his father thought that it was just a waste of time. He told his son that he worked hard and made many sacrifices so that Neil could go to Welton. This placed a ton of pressure on Neil. I also think Neil was afraid of his dad because his dad controlled most of his life. After all this build up of pressure and frustration from his father he couldnt control it and wound up taking his own life.

Slavery in the chocolate industry free essay sample

Chocolate is a product of the cacao bean which grows primarily in the tropical climates of West Africa and Latin America. The cacao bean is more commonly referred to as cocoa, so that is the term we will use throughout. Two West African countries, Ghana and the Ivory Coast, supply 75% of the world’s cocoa market. [1] The cocoa they grow and harvest is sold to a variety of chocolate companies, including some of the largest in the world. In recent years, a handful of organizations and journalists have exposed the widespread use of child labor, and in some cases slavery, on West African cocoa farms. [2,3] Since that time, the industry has become increasingly secretive, making it difficult for reporters to not only access farms where human rights violations still occur, but to then disseminate this information to the public. For example, in 2004 a journalist was kidnapped and remains missing today. [4] More recently, three journalists from a daily newspaper were detained by government authorities in the Ivory Coast after publishing an article about government corruption related to the cocoa industry. We will write a custom essay sample on Slavery in the chocolate industry or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page [5] The farms of West Africa supply cocoa to international giants such as Hershey’s, Mars and Nestle – revealing the industry’s direct connection to child labor, human trafficking and slavery. chocolate_content1The Worst Forms of Child Labor In West Africa, cocoa is a commodity crop grown primarily for export. As the chocolate industry has grown over the years, so has the demand for cheap cocoa. Today, cocoa farmers barely make a living selling the beans and often resort to the use of child labor in order to keep their prices competitive. The children of West Africa are surrounded by intense poverty and most begin working at a young age to help support their family. Some children end up on the cocoa farms because they need work and they are told the pay is good. Other children are â€Å"sold† by their own relatives to traffickers or to the farm owners, and it has also been documented that traffickers often abduct the young boys from small villages in neighboring African countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali. [3] Once they have been taken to the cocoa farms, the children may not see their families for years, if ever. When a child is delivered to the farm by a family member, that relative collects a sum of money either up front or at the end of an agreed duration of labor. Unfortunately, the relatives do not realize that the children will be exposed to a dangerous work environment and deprived of an education. Most of the children are between the ages of 12-16, but children as young as 7 have been filmed working on the farms. [3] Some only stay for a few months, while others end up working on the cocoa farms through adulthood. A child’s workday begins at sunrise and ends in the evening. The children climb the cocoa trees and cut the bean pods using a machete. These large, heavy, dangerous knives are the standard tools for children on the cocoa farms. Once the bean pods have been cut from the trees, the children pack the pods into large sacks and carry or drag them through the forest. â€Å"Some of the bags were taller than me. It took two people to put the bag on my head. And when you didn’t hurry, you were beaten. †[2] Aly Diabate, former cocoa slave. Holding a single large pod in one hand, the children strike the pod with the machete and pry it open with the tip of the blade, exposing the cocoa beans. Each strike of the machete has the potential to severely cut a child’s fingers or hand. Virtually every child has scars on the hands, arms, legs or shoulders from accidents with the machete. In addition to the hazards of using a machete, children are also commonly exposed to agricultural chemicals on the West African cocoa farms. [3] Tropical regions such as the Ivory Coast consistently have to deal with prolific insect populations and choose to spray the pods with large amounts of industrial agricultural chemicals. Without protective equipment, children as young as 12 spray the pods with hazardous chemicals. [6] The farm owners often provide the children with the most inexpensive food available, such as corn paste and bananas. [2] In some cases, the children sleep on wooden planks in small windowless buildings with no access to clean water or sanitary bathrooms. [2] Again, they may live in these conditions for months or even years. Most of the children are unable to attend school while they are working, which is a violation of the International Labor Organization (ILO) child labor standards. [2,3,7] Depriving these children of an education has many short-term and long-term effects on their lives. The children of the cocoa farms have little hope of ever breaking the cycle of poverty. Slavery In recent years, cases have been documented in which children and adults on cocoa farms were retained against their will and forced to work. [2] While the term â€Å"slavery† has a variety of historical contexts, slavery in the cocoa industry involves the same core human rights violations as other forms of slavery throughout the world. chocolate_content3Cases often involve acts of physical violence, such as being whipped for working slowly or trying to escape. [2] There have also been cases documented where children and adults were locked in at night to prevent them from escaping. [2] Former cocoa slave Aly Diabate told reporters: â€Å"The beatings were a part of my life. I had seen others who tried to escape. When they tried they were severely beaten. †[2] Drissa, a recently freed cocoa slave who had never even tasted chocolate, experienced similar circumstances and when asked what he would tell the people who eat chocolate made from slave labor, he replied that the people enjoyed something that he suffered to make, adding: â€Å"When people eat chocolate they are eating my flesh. †[8] Is Slave-free Chocolate Possible? To date, relatively little progress has been made in reducing and eliminating child labor and slavery in the cocoa industry of West Africa. The governments of Ghana and the Ivory Coast lack the resources needed to properly investigate and prosecute employers who violate international labor laws. At the very least, they have agreed to work to eliminate what the ILO calls â€Å"the worst forms of child labor. † These are defined as practices â€Å"likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children† and include the use of â€Å"hazardous tools† and any work that â€Å"interferes with schooling. †[7] Currently, the vast majority of children on West African cocoa farms endure â€Å"the worst forms of child labor† every day. Despite their role in contributing to child labor, slavery, and human trafficking, the chocolate industry has not taken significant steps to remedy the problem. A series of alliances and oversight boards may create good public relations, but cloud the fact that the industry has the power to end the use of child labor and slave labor by paying cocoa farmers a living wage for their product. The chocolate industry is also being called upon to develop and financially support programs to rescue and rehabilitate children who have been sold to cocoa farms. To date, the industry has not committed to developing such a program. [9] chocolate_content2Are the Labels on Chocolate Meaningful? Aside from large-scale production in West Africa, a significant amount of cocoa is also grown in Latin America. This is where the majority of organic cocoa originates. [10] At this time, child labor and/or slave labor have not been documented on these cocoa farms. While it remains possible that some Latin American farms may employ these practices, it is unlikely and certainly not widespread as is the case in West Africa. The truth is that consumers today have no sure way of knowing if the chocolate they are buying involved the use of child labor or slave labor. There are many different labels on chocolate bars today, such as Fair Trade Certified, however, no single label can guarantee that the chocolate was made without the use of exploitive labor. In 2010, the founders of the Fair Trade Certification process had to suspend several of their West African suppliers due to evidence that they were using child labor. [3] Multiple government and NGO programs have been developed, attempting to address the root causes of â€Å"the worst forms of child labor† and slavery in West Africa. However, the success of these efforts will depend greatly on the genuine support or lack thereof from the chocolate industry over the coming years. Recommendations It is important to offer ways in which people can make decisions to do their best to not contribute to injustices and cruelties involved in the food industry. This issue is a very difficult one to fully access as the most serious abuses are taking place across the world. However, that does not mean our responsibility is diminished since chocolate is indeed a luxury (though some might feel differently) and not a necessity like fruits and vegetables. Taking all of this into consideration and looking at the research that is available, at this time F. E. P. recommends that people do not buy any chocolate sourced from areas in West African where child slavery is the most pervasive. Questions : 1. What are the systemic, corporate and individual ethical issues raised by this case? 2. In your view, is the kind of child slavery discussed in this case absolutely wrong nomatter what, or is it only relatively wrong, i. e. , if one happens to live in a society (likeours) that disapproves of slavery? 3. Who shares in the moral responsibility for the slavery occurring in the chocolateindustry: African farmers? African governments? American chocolate companies likeHershey, Mars, Nestle and Kraft foods? Distributors like Archer Daniels Midland Co. ,Barry Callebaut, and Cargill Inc? Consumers like you and I who know about thesituation but continue to purchase tainted chocolate?

The African Berbers

The African Berbers The Berbers, or Berber, has a number of meanings, including a language, a culture, a location, and a group of people: most prominently it is the collective term used for dozens of tribes of pastoralists, indigenous people who herd sheep and goats and live in northwest Africa today.  Despite this simple description, Berber ancient history is truly complex. Who Are the Berbers? In general, modern scholars believe that the Berber people are descendants of the original colonizers of North Africa. The Berber way of life was established at least 10,000 years ago as Neolithic Caspians. Continuities in material culture suggest that the people living along the coasts of the Maghreb 10,000 years ago simply added domestic sheep and goats in when they became available, so the odds are theyve been living in northwest Africa for much longer. Modern Berber social structure is tribal, with male leaders over groups practicing sedentary agriculture. They are also fiercely successful traders  and were the first to open the commercial routes between Western Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, at locations such as Essouk-Tadmakka in Mali. The ancient history of the Berbers is by no means as tidy. Ancient History of Berbers The earliest historical references to people known as Berbers are from Greek and Roman sources. The unnamed first century AD sailor/adventurer who wrote the Periplus of the Erythrian Sea describes a region called Barbaria, located south of the city of Berekike on the Red Sea coast of east Africa. The first century AD Roman geographer Ptolemy (90-168 AD) also knew of the Barbarians, located on the Barbarian bay, which led to the city of Rhapta, their main city. Arabic sources for the Berber include the sixth-century poet Imru al-Qays who mentions horse-riding Barbars in one of his poems, and Adi bin Zayd (d. 587) who mentions the Berber in the same line with the eastern African state of Axum (al-Yasum). The 9th-century Arabic historian Ibn Abd al-Hakam (d. 871) mentions a Barbar market in al-Fustat. Berbers in Northwest Africa Today, of course, Berbers are associated with people indigenous to northwest Africa, not east Africa. One possible situation is that the northwestern Berbers were not the eastern Barbars at all, but instead were the people the Romans called Moors (Mauri or Maurus). Some historians call any group living in northwest Africa Berbers, to refer to the people who were conquered by Arabs, Byzantines, Vandals, Romans, and Phoenicians, in reverse chronological order. Rouighi (2011) has an interesting idea that the Arabs created the term Berber, borrowing it from the east African Barbars during the Arab Conquest, their expansion of the Islamic empire into North Africa and the Iberian peninsula. The imperialist Umayyad caliphate, says Rouighi, used the term Berber to group the people living nomadic pastoralist lifestyle in northwestern Africa, about the time they conscripted them into their colonizing army. The Arab Conquests Shortly after the establishment of the Islamic settlements at Mecca and Medina in the 7th century AD, the Muslims began expanding their empire. Damascus was captured from the Byzantine Empire in 635 and by, 651, Muslims controlled all of Persia. Alexandria in Egypt was captured in 641. The Arab conquest of North Africa began between 642-645  when general Amr ibn el-Aasi based in Egypt led his armies westward. The army quickly took Barqa, Tripoli, and Sabratha, establishing a military outpost for further successes in the Maghreb of coastal northwestern Africa. The first northwestern African capital was at al-Qayrawan. By the 8th century, the Arabs had kicked the Byzantines completely out of Ifriqiya (Tunisia) and more or less controlled the region. The Umayyad Arabs reached the shores of the Atlantic in the first decade of the 8th century and then captured Tangier. The Umayyads made Maghrib a single province including all of northwestern Africa. In 711, the Umayyad governor of Tangier, Musa Ibn Nusayr, crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Iberia with an army made up mostly of ethnic Berber people. Arabic raids pushed far into the northern regions and created the Arabic Al-Andalus (Andalusian Spain). The Great Berber Revolt By the 730s, the northwestern African army in Iberia challenged Umayyad rules, leading to the Great Berber Revolt of 740 AD against the governors of Cordoba. A Syrian general named Balj ib Bishr al-Qushayri ruled Andalusia in 742, and after the Umayyads fell to the Abbasid caliphate, the massive orientalization of the region began in 822 with the ascent of Abd ar-Rahman II to the role of Emir of Cordoba. Enclaves of Berber tribes from Northwest Africa in Iberia today include the Sanhaja tribe in the rural parts of the Algarve (southern Portugal), and the Masmuda tribe in the Tagus and Sado river estuaries with their capital at Santarem. If Rouighi is correct, then the history of the Arab Conquest includes the creation of a Berber ethnos from the allied but not previously related groups of northwestern Africa. Nonetheless, that cultural ethnicity is a reality today. Ksar: Berber Collective Residences House types used by modern Berbers include everything from movable tents to cliff and cave dwellings, but a truly distinctive form of building found in sub-Saharan Africa and attributed to Berbers is the ksar (plural ksour). Ksour are elegant, fortified villages made completely with mud brick. Ksour have high walls, orthogonal streets, a single gate and a profusion of towers. The communities are built next to oases, but to preserve as much tillable farmland as possible they soar upward. The surrounding walls are 6-15 meters (20-50 feet) high and buttressed along the length and at the corners by even taller towers of a distinctive tapering form. The narrow streets are canyon-like; the mosque, bathhouse, and a small public plaza are situated close to the single gate which often faces east. Inside the ksar there is very little ground-level space, but the structures still permit high densities in the high rise stories. They provide a defensible perimeter, and a cooler micro-climate produced by low surface to volume ratios. The individual roof terraces provide space, light, and a panoramic view of the neighborhood via a patchwork of raised platforms 9 m (30 ft) or more above the surrounding terrain. Sources Curtis WJR. 1983. Type and Variation: Berber Collective Dwellings of the Northwestern Sahara. Muqarnas 1:181-209.Detry C, Bicho N, Fernandes H, and Fernandes C. 2011. The Emirate of Cà ³rdoba (756–929 AD) and the introduction of the Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) in Iberia: the remains from Muge, Portugal. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(12):3518-3523.Frigi S, Cherni L, Fadhlaoui-Zid K, and Benammar-Elgaaied A. 2010. Ancient Local Evolution of African mtDNA Haplogroups in Tunisian Berber Populations. Human Biology 82(4):367-384.Goodchild RG. 1967. Byzantines, Berbers and Arabs in 7th-century Libya. Antiquity 41(162):115-124.Hilton-Simpson MW. 1927. Algerian Hill-forts of today. Antiquity 1(4):389-401.Keita SOY. 2010. Biocultural Emergence of the Amazigh (Berbers) in Africa: Comment on Frigi et al (2010). Human Biology 82(4):385-393.Nixon S, Murray M, and Fuller D. 2011. Plant use at an early Islamic merchant town in the West African Sahel: the archaeobotany of E ssouk-Tadmakka (Mali). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20(3):223-239. Rouighi R. 2011. The Berbers of the Arabs. Studia Islamica 106(1):49-76.

Twelve Non-Negotiable Elements of Force in Writing

Twelve Non-Negotiable Elements of Force in Writing Twelve Non-Negotiable Elements of Force in Writing Twelve Non-Negotiable Elements of Force in Writing By Guest Author This is a guest post by Arthur Plotnik. ALL WE WRITERS CRAVE is to charge into the resistant, overloaded brain of a reader and shoot forked lightning through every last dendrite. Why else, if not to achieve high-voltage impact, do we push our own synapses into the red zone night after night, year after year? We are talking force herethe force that gets writing devoured, felt, remembered and published. Lacking it, the worlds most crafted content fizzles at the first neuron . Force in writing neednt always be nuclear-strength, any more than nonverbal cues have to be violent or clangorous to seize attention. Think of a despairing glance that pierces the heart, or a sound-squelching image like Scott Spencers botanical silence. But to overcome a readers natural resistance to static, sameness, and irrelevance, written words must somehow deliver the Godfather imperative: This is a message you cannot refuse. The ways of such force are legion, ranging from over-the-top exaggeration to sly understatement. Classical rhetoricians described these techniques by the hundreds. Writing programs pound away at a standard few, such as amped-up verbs and pared-down verbiage. I would include these among the knee-breakers Ive found most persuasive in overcoming reader resistance. Here I offer you an even dozen. You cannot refuse them: I know where you writers live. 1. Specificity. Why say she ordered an appetizer when you can pucker the senses with pickled herring or giant shrimp in Tylers ketchup sauce? We experience life in particulars, and theynot generalities jolt our memories and feelings. Name the telling things and actions as specifically as you can, but dont dilute their force by specifying everything. 2. Supercharged verbs. Every writer knows this techniqueshe savaged her steak rather than she ate the steak hungrily. Find or create forceful verbs; rewrite to be and to have sentences with action verbs. But writers beware: Overuse of forceful but trendy verbs (she rocked a bikini) and the huffing of too many power verbs per passage become transparently bush. 3. High performance modifiers. Like most words, adverbs and adjectives have personalities: some are kickass powerful, others are totally lame hangers-on. Unfortunately, the lamest ones have given the whole class a bad name. But robust terms like venal, venomous, strident, radiant, rousing, meteoric can be the driving force of a passage. Contrary to myth, even No-Adjective Ernest Hemingway used evocative modifiersif sparinglyto trigger response. ( . . . the sleigh-smoothed, urine-yellowed road; . . . three of the big birds squatted obscenely.) Pull your listless modifiers and plug in high-performance ones where force counts. 4. Fresh intensifiers. Drop such overused, now-forceless intensifiers as great, incredible, awesome, and amazing from your writing unless you can recharge them, as in skull-spinningly great or fall-to-your-knees awesome. Look for or create Grade-A Intensifying Adverbs, the kind that give fresh emphasis to commonplace adjectives: concussively stupid, sublimely stupid, weapons-grade stupid. 5. Sound words. Whomp. Whap. Nuzzle. Guzzle. Words imitating sounds suggest the forces that make the sounds. Even quiet forcesmurmur of innumerable beesgrip the imagination when evoked by onomatopoeia, as the technique is called. Sounds make for resonance, whether as the THOOM! of graphic novels, the KABOOOOM of a climactic literary passage (Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer), or the boom, boom of clogs amplifying a girls fears (The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold). 6. Surprise images. Apt and unexpected images, as in metaphors, excite cerebral enzymes. He had the complexion of baba ghanoush.. His tongue darted into my mouth like a tadpole escaping from a jar. (Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics). Anticipated imagery such as she blushed tomato-red excite nothing. 7. Nowness. Vogue terms and pop references carry the force of novelty, fashion, and immediacyfor about one week to a year, after which they become swiped-out. But used in their moment, especially in journalism, they can be party-starters of Bieberesque boldness. 8. Street beat. Capture the rhythm and soul of the street, and you gon be head of the situation, knowm sayin? Who isnt moved by echoes of street life in all its raw effusiveness and funky phrasing? Cant kill nothin and wont nothin die. Any street will doany ethnic. Theres a girl who keeps bumping into you. You say to her, Pero mi amor, ya. And she says, Ya yourself. (Junot Dà ­az, The Cheaters guide to Love. ) The trick is to develop an ear for authenticity and an eye for fitwithin the overall tone and momentum of your narrative. 9. Big nature. Writers have always drawn on the energy of natural forcesthe violence of typhoons, the insistence of tides. Big nature makes for mighty figures of speech: Shes a Mount Saint Helens waiting to erupt. Theres an ozone hole in his thinking. But be creative; a maelstrom of clichà ©s lies in wait. 10. Tough talk / Irreverence. You talkin to me? Kiss off. Make a hole. Go take your shoes for a walk while you still got legs. To break through apathy, theres nothing like defiant expression armored with attitude, menace, slang and sometimes profanity. It can bear the force of insult, of dire consequence, of all that thrills as it threatens. The usual rules of execution apply: well timed and credible. 11. Understatement. Less can be overwhelmingly more when the immensity, the ironythe jokeis snapped together in the readers mind. When Mom says, Dont worry, its nothing, alarms go off. The not scantily endowed beauty sets hearts juddering. Lets take a little ride is not what you want to hear from Tony Soprano. 12. Torque through intensity. The ultimate force is an aggregate effectthe various elements winding the spring, torquing the intensity. It comes about via soul-jarring themes, characters in peril and on the edge, smoldering conflict, inflamed dialogue, manic introspection. It demands strategies and, yes, craft. My non-negotiable advice: go for it, element by element. Whatever the outcome, youll be a force to be reckoned with. Arthur Plotnik is an acclaimed editor and author whose eight books include the newly revised and expanded The Elements of Expression: Putting Thoughts Into Words (2012) and the recent Better Than Great: A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives (2011). He lives in Chicago. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! 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Negotiation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Negotiation - Essay Example The negotiating team from the side of the management took a tough stance that the management cannot afford to extend this facility anymore. The union leaders were also not willing to forfeit this facility. If mutually acceptable solution was not found, the union leaders warned about the possibility of direct action, non-co-operation, work-to-rule, sit-in strikes, going on mass causal leave, and finally an indefinite strike. This situation was comparable to the one envisaged by William L. Ury in his book â€Å"Getting Past No† and he writes, â€Å"Your goal may be to reach mutually satisfactory agreement, but you may find the other side not at all interested.† (9) All reasoning failed, all efforts for dispute resolutions came to a naught, and the management team used all the techniques related to fundamentals of negotiations. Even after three hours of marathon discussions, nothing tangible was achieved by both the sides. The management team appealed for the reasoned co-operation by the employees, as no institution can run with losses on an ongoing basis. Who will suffer if the organization declares lockout? The chances of getting alternative employment are dim in the foreseeable future. At this juncture the meeting was adjourned for the day as both sides wished to consult their respective teams. The union leaders made one point clear. Under no circumstances they will agree for abolishing the existing facility totally. Both the sides must have pondered over the issues seriously.