The Dictatoral Regime

Dictatorial regimes (also known as dictatorships) are one of the most well-known forms of government. In a dictatorial regime, an individual assumes sole power over the state and will go to great lengths just to remain in power. Dictatorial regimes are synonymous with corruption and violence, as dictators often put and kept themselves in power by plundering the wealth of their respective nations and brutally suppressing legitimate political dissent. The despotic nature of dictatorial regimes was very much felt in the 20th century, as the political history of this era was characterized with the emergence of dictatorships throughout the world.Definition and Stucture According to Merrian-Webster (2008), a dictatorship is defined as â€Å"a form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in a dictator or a small clique† or â€Å"a government organization or group in which absolute power is so concentrated† (Merriam-Webster Online, 2008). In a dictatorship, a sing le leader or a small group of leaders control all aspects of social and economic life. Constitutional formalities such as parliamentary sessions, judicial courts and popular elections are suspended.Dictators are often reliant on the military and the police to preserve their hold on power (Sedivy, n. d. ). Role of the Government and the Citizen The role of the government in a dictatorship is to exert immense control over the affairs of the nation as a whole by using threat and force to interfere in the lives of its citizens. The citizens, in turn, are expected to swear allegiance to the government, particularly to the leader itself. In a dictatorial regime, it is believed that the individual existed solely for the good of the state.Those who opposed this philosophy are immediately considered as â€Å"enemies of the state† (Hsieh, 1994). The Anatomy of a Dictatorship Aside from threat and force, dictatorships also capitalize on nationalistic propaganda. Dictators often use patr iotic mottos, slogans, symbols and songs in order to justify their iron-fisted rule. Under the guises of â€Å"protecting national security† and â€Å"defeating the enemies of the state,† dictators will then proceed to commit various human rights violations, such as torture, summary executions and warrantless arrests.In order to make the people side with them, they will resort to scapegoating, or the identification of a perceived common â€Å"enemy. † The most common scapegoats in a dictatorship include ethnic or religious minorities, liberals, communists, socialists and terrorists (Britt, 2004). Since a dictatorship is reliant on the military for its survival, dictators allocate very large amounts of government funds to the defense forces (at the expense of the domestic agenda).State censorship is likewise very rampant – mass media is subjected to government control, progressive militant organizations and labor unions are severely suppressed, free expres sion is openly attacked and artists and intellectuals who are against the government are arrested or even killed. To further protect their interests, dictators make cronies out of their countries' industrial and business aristocracy, appointing them to important government positions despite their lack of qualifications.Dictators are also the masterminds behind bloody and fraudulent elections – they engage in vote buying, manupulate election results and even have their opponents assassinated just to emerge as the winner (Britt, 2004). The Advantages and the Disadvantages of a Dictatorial Regime A dictatorship is often known to possess the advantages of efficiency and rationality. The dictator is also the decision-maker; hence, there is consistency and congruency between decisions and preference orderings. But a dictatorship, as discussed earlier, is more likely to result in the violation of individual rights and civil liberties.In addition, the political and economic policies of a dictatorial regime will only benefit the cronies of the dictator (Rea, 2003). Conclusion It has often been said that if power corrupts, then absolute power corrupts absolutely. A dictatorship takes this argument to a higher level by showing how a government can turn against its own people just to keep one person in power. A dictatorship may appear strong and invincible, but it is actually afraid of its own people. That is why it sows fear and hate among the people – so that they will be too busy fighting and killing each other to notice the illegitimacy of its rule over them.

International Students Experience at Bluefield State College Essay

As a former international student of Bluefield State College, I want to thank the administration for great support and faculty stuff for outstanding academic experience during past two years. I know that you have biggest interest in well-being of foreign students. Your first priority always was to provide the best experience and support in any situation to every student on campus. The main purpose of this proposal is to make international students feel more comfortable and confident while at Bluefield State College. There are few difficulties that international students go through by arriving to college. First is a language barrier, which affects foreign students’ academic and social success. Second is cultural adaptation, which slower students’ transition into the new culture and understanding of local traditions. Third is the distance from a family which makes it hard for a student to go through some difficulties, when family can’t give any suggestion in a different situation due to cultural differences. Development of international student support center would help students to adapt to a new education system and culture faster. Organization of mix cultural events on campus would help make friends among the local population and help in cultural transition. Mentoring would give support to situations when family couldn’t help and improve academic results. I believe that if the administration will take all this concerns under consideration and implement some of the suggestions; it will drive up the retention of international students as well as new recruitment and overall satisfaction of foreign students. Sincerely, This proposal will identify different symptoms that dictate experience of international students at the university. Research will describe arguments like language barrier, cultural differences, distance from the family and social interaction in great details. Another helpful aspect of this paper is to suggest solutions to all the arguments. Developing international student’s center will improve foreign students’ satisfaction with a college experience. This proposal will explain how mentoring, counseling and cultural exchange events will improve students experience and academic success. Introduction Every school wants to be recognized not only locally but also worldwide. Schools try to attract student from all over the world by giving scholarships to foreign students, or contracting with international schools on exchange programs. It is a challenge to bring international students to college in the United States, but the most important task is to make foreign students feel like they didn’t leave home, or they aren’t that far from it. Every institution would like to see each international student successfully get a degree and leave school with the best experience. I want to address problems and needs of international students, when they choose to come to colleges in the United States. The best example would be Bluefield State College, which I attended as an international student. Bluefield State College is a small school in Bluefield, West Virginia. Population of the college is mostly local residents. There is no campus housing, or transportation provided by the school, which makes it inconvenient for students. Unsafe surrounding is another downsize, there were a few incidents including shooting and fighting. College is known for their good engineering and nursing programs, in addition to a few others. The biggest downsize is that Bluefield State College doesn’t have International Center. When it comes to international students, there is a lot that needs to be taken under consideration like the language barrier, cultural differences, social life, and distance from the family. Development of an international support center will improve international students’ assimilation, facilitate intercultural engagement and promote academic success. Arguments a. Language barrier The level of English proficiency is very low, when international students first arrive to school in the United States. It becomes the biggest obstacle n communication. It also affects students’ confidence. Some students scared to say something incorrect, or being misunderstood. The main purpose of international students of studying in the United States is to exchange cultural experience, make new friends and receive worldwide accepted degree. One of the articles shows due to limited English many stu dents shut down, they choose to stay in the room and communicate with peers who are from the same geographic background (McLachlan & Justice, 2009). Foreign students decide to socialize among each other because they have a lot of things in common. Majority of international students is from Saudi Arabia at Bluefield State College. It makes it easier for them to communicate among each other, the cultural difference not that visible, which makes them feel like they have never left home. There is a major downsize in the situation like that, English proficiency of these students doesn’t improve, and they don’t get complete experience in cultural exchange. Sovic (2009) article makes it clear from international students’ interviews that home students don’t want to interact with foreigners because of their language proficiency. They feel like it takes too long for international students to express their ideas, and they ask few times to repeat, because of the language, slang, and humor (Sovic, 2009). Language proficiency has a huge effect on academic success. First international students have to adjust to the education system, difference in the grading scale, and professors’ way of teaching classes. Another problem arises, when students have to follow a professor and take notes in a different language. Some professors require participation in class. A lot of international students don’t feel comfortable to speak up during a class session, because of the accent. They feel that they will be misunderstood. If students don’t participate in discussions, it counts against their grade. The main obstacle is to writing, it is already hard to write a research paper that would meet higher education standards, but it is twice harder to write it in a different language. Research article proves that local students had better academic results during first and second years in university than international students. However, article shows that the problem is not just language barrier, but also difference in culture. Students speaking a different language family, differently adjusting to understanding and learning English (Mann, Canny, Lindley & Rajan, 2010). That means that international students have to spend twice more time in order to get the same results as home students. This gives even less time for socializing. b. Cultural difference Cultural difference is another obstacle that foreign students have to adjust. The article explains crucial point of every foreign student’s unique background (Wedding, McCartney & Currey, 2009). Depending on the country of origin, some students take longer than other to adapt to the American culture. For example, Asian students find it very difficult to get used to American food, so they don’t go to the school cafeteria, where there is just local food. Asian students are trying to find stores or places where they could get and cook homemade food. Another aspect of the cultural differences is religion. For example, Arabian students have different holidays, which dictate what time they can have classes, receive food, or pray. They have to readjust, because universities’ schedule in the United States doesn’t include any of it. Another critical cultural group is students from India and surrounding India countries. According to their religion, students can’t eat beef, because a cow is saint animal. Most of products in the United States are made from beef; some of the Indian students not realizing that in the first couple weeks eat beef produced products. Many American holidays are different from other countries. Sports play a great part in American culture. Sports are very common topic among American students. There is many more like fashion and music differences. Silvia Sovic (2009) suggests in her article that acculturation is very important in foreign students’ social lives. c. Distance from family Many of the students are just graduated from high school, used to their family being around. Moving away from home to college makes it very complicated. Students have to learn how to organize their day, control time, cooking, doing laundry. One of the studies explains common problems that foreign and home students go through during the first couple semesters at school. Both groups have to adjust to new academic system, independence, distance from family. Also, it shows other challenges that only international students’ experience. They have to deal with all the legal requirements, acculturation, and language barrier (Wedding, McCartney amp; Currey, 2009). Many of international students are facing some problems, where their parents can’t help them. Families are not familiar with the system, economic situation. Another research suggests that family and high school friends are the main support during the first couple weeks at college (Sherry, Thomas & Wing Hong, 2010). That proves that international students don’t have that support during first weeks at college. d. Social interaction Another very important challenge is social interaction. Many international students find it is very hard to start talking to home students. There is a different reason that leads to isolation of international students from American peers. Article explains that language barrier, cultural difference as well as the difference in age makes it hard to communicate with home students (Wei, Ku, Russell, Liao & Mallinckrodt, 2008). Similar age problem mentioned in Sovic (2009) article: many international students are older and have one or two undergraduate degrees, so it is hard to find common interests with local students and keep the dialogue going. Recommendations Every school should have an international center, where foreign students could seek for a help, support, or suggestion. There is an international center where there is a big international students’ population at schools. These international centers provide students with advice in different situations answer all legal questions, help to interact with other international students. I believe that every school who has international students, has to have international center in order to satisfy basic needs of the foreign students. a. Mentoring I believe that student-mentors would help international students in academic level also in social life. If an international student would have an American mentor, it will help them to improve their English proficiency. Foreign students will feel more confident to interact with an American mentor, then with regular student at first. Mentor wouldn’t mind to repeat phrases multiple times, or explain some situations, that international students wouldn’t understand. Mentors could introduce international students to their friends. One of the researches shows that students’ responds were very positive towards endorsing mentoring system in universities. They said that professors/mentors shared information on working as a teacher in American education system. Majority said that it helped them to make new friends through the meetings, which helped them to improve their English skills and easier adapt to the new environment. Students said that professors paid attention to difficulties that they had, which showed to students that faculty cares about them. All that made foreign students feels more confident and comfortable (Ku, Lahman, Yeh & Cheng, 2008; Sato & Hodge, 2009). b. Counseling services Endorsing counseling services could help not only assist international students, but also help universities better understand international students and what they are going through while at school. Counseling services will analyze each international student’s unique background and needs. Depending on a student’s cultural background counselors could come up with different programs in order to ease students’ transition into a new environment. I found research article that gives great examples of situations that international students experience in any institution. Concentrating on place of origin, culture, gender, age, counseling would be a great solution at meeting international students’ needs, helping them overcome any obstacles, and facilitating intercultural engagement (Tidwell & Hanassab, 2007). If consular group at every institution would hold that type of research, it will prepare university for new coming international students. Counselors’ task is not only to understand foreign students’ difficulties, but also understand their own culture and understand the difference between them. By completion of that task, it would be much easier to help foreign students introduce American culture and help them with transaction. Olivas and Li (2006) research suggests organizing events where local students could communicate with international students. Mixing or cultural exchange would help both group of students in developing new connections and developing new relationships. Paper suggests each university to do research on counseling programs (Olivas & Li, 2006). c. Pre-entry English courses Pre-entry English courses will better prepare international students for starting college. It will improve their English proficiency. These classes could give them better idea of the education system with no pressure of grading. It will allow them to come to the university in advance and get familiarize with surrounding. Helen Benzie (2010) suggests that pre-entry English courses will help students not only improve English level; it will give them opportunity to start adjusting to a new culture and socialize with local students before school semester starts. d. Intercultural events I believe that if a school or international center would organize more events, where international students would interact with home students, it will help to create friendship among different groups. Intercultural classes, where home students could learn about foreign cultures and international students would learn about local culture. One of the articles provides information on the culture mixing events. Mixing activities, where students with different background interact with each other, helps all cultural groups better understand each other (Mackay, Harding, Jurlina, Scobie & Khan,2011). Conclusion All information above indicates that all international students no matter what country they choose to get Higher Education from experience the same challenges. Every school has to consider these challenges and help foreign students overcome these difficulties, or try to make it less noticeable. Mentoring, counseling, host family programs are the most popular and effective ways to help students when they are going through acculturation. Organizing social events where international and local students could mix and interact outside of an academic environment. If every school would apply knowledge about foreign students’ unique needs, it would help not only students but also schools to develop future international connections.

Training And Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Training And Development - Essay Example It can convert speech into text in real time for deaf or hard hearing students to read what is taught in the classroom. Training and development of CART needs skilled typists who also possess good auditory and verbal skills and need to be familiar with different operations of computers. Trainer must also be familiar with the course material. In training, the text is displayed in real time for deaf or hard hearing students to read on monitor or display. When the class is finished, the text is saved in a word file, which can be copied, edited, printed and disseminated to the students. Two different techniques are used in the training and development of CART to wrap as much information as possible. First is to use computerized abbreviation system to lessen keystrokes and second is the text condensing strategy to allow the transcriber to add fewer number of words devoid of losing verbal information (Ross & Marion 119). As long as the text is readable to the deaf or hard of hearing learners, it can be demonstrated in a number of different ways. If the training is provided to a solitary student, a subsequent laptop or computer can be used for a display. However, if there is not a single student but infect a group of deaf or hard of hearing students that are to be trained, a big TV or protrusion screen is a good idea to use.

The Marketing Challenge Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Marketing Challenge - Assignment Example Carrying out marketing planning and operations strategies assist the marketing managers of GM to be innovative, challenge, authenticate their decisions and benchmark their organization so as to create operational marketing activities and compete effectively with other competitors in the market. Strategic marketing operations equip the marketing managers with operational intelligence that assist in making tactical and strategic decisions. The report comprises of marketing audit, marketing planning and marketing mix that should be adopted by any marketing executive. Contents Executive summary 2 Marketing Audit 5 Marketing plan 7 P.E.S.TE.L ANALYSIS 11 Marketing mix- The 4Ps 11 Business lifecycle 13 B.C.G Matrix 13 Conclusion 13 Reference list 15 Introduction The increase in gas and oil prices, continuous decline of mortgage/housing/credit sectors and the reduced consumer confidence for the last few years have greatly reduced the volume of sales of the automobile industry. This has left the strategic planners of several leading companies in dilemma on how to increase the sales and win the customer confidence. In today’s complex marketing environment, true strategic marketing managers should be equipped with expertise to capture critical messages that are sent by very essential yet mostly non-controllable external factors in the market and continuously using information as a way of changing the essential controllable internal factors of the business to effectively and strategically position the company towards achieving its objective (Solis, 2012). Furthermore, identifying external threats and opportunities by firms could put managers in a position of controlling these factors. Careful analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats will enable managers to position their organization for future success. In order to meet the change in market, shift in liestyles, shift in customer loyalty of GM, I recommend the following strategies to be implement ed by the newly appointed manager in the GM company. Identify what competitive position GM MOTORSÂ   Before doing anything as a newly appointed marketing manager, he should identify what kind of competitive advantages that the company has. For instance how competitive is the company as compared to other competitors in the same market? Is it a market leader or price setter? The manager has to come up with competitive strategies to outdo other companies like Toyota which have designed gas electric vehicle. Marketing Audit This is the process of analyzing and evaluating marketing activities, approach, aims and results of a firm. The process help GM marketing manager to determine new neglected or unknown markets focus their right messages to intended customers and to refine their plans and strategies to assist in increasing market share. In order to carryout effective market audit, the following processes should be adopted by the manager. 1. Assemble of the overall overview of GM compa ny The newly appointed manager has to understand the overall overview of the company may include the location of the company, sales history, date of establishment, key personnel, number of employees, and company’s chronology of events like divestitures, mergers and acquisitions. He should also know the history of the company since its inception 2. Describe the marketing goals and objectives

Freedom based of the book the white tiger Essay

Freedom based of the book the white tiger - Essay Example Let the people of the country not allow any organization to which they belong, to become loose and inefficient and let them remain loyally disposed to the cause of ideal of work. But the rich class will not allow this to happen and they wish to keep the poor section of the society to remain poor for their vested interests. The rich and the powerful want the average citizen to remain docile and enmeshed in poverty and subjugation, and keep busy to solve domestic and economic problems. The poor work hard; the rich work intelligently and know the art of switching over every situation to their advantage and deny the opportunity to the oppressed to free themselves from the shackles. Reverting to the issue Balaram Halwai, who styles himself as an entrepreneur, declares, â€Å"Please understand, Your Excellency, that India is two countries in one: an India of Light, and an India of Darkness.† (12)He is pleading for the poor of India, as compared to the super rich to whom aggrandizement of wealth is the way of life. Balaram has serious complaints against the working of democracy in India. Majority of the Indians are not free in the real sense. Constitutional provisions and passing legislations in the name of the poor will not bring freedom and economic prosperity. The author cites the representative example of his village and argues, â€Å"These people were building homes for the rich, but they lived in tents covered with blue tarpaulin sheets, and partitioned into lanes by lines of sewage. It was even worse than Laxmangarh.†(222) Elections, the very process of democracy, are rigged. Balram asserts, â€Å"I am India’s most faithful voter, and I have still not seen the inside of a voting booth.†(86) He compares the process of election with darkness because, the process is not fair and many malpractices happen during the election, often with the connivance of those who are in charge of conducting the

Democracy and New Media Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Democracy and New Media - Article Example The new media has exponentially augmented the access to information and has dramatically expanded the scope of free speech. The global flow of information has enabled people around the world to test and contrast the archaic models of civic life with the emerging trends and influences. The pivotal question in this context is that is the new media ubiquitous and if it is so, does it have the potential to contribute to the cause of democracy at a global scale? I s new media contributing to democratic values in Castro’s Cuba or in war ravaged Afghanistan? A general perusal of the history establishes beyond doubt that one or other form of media did play an essential role in the dissemination of political values and ideologies in the 20th century. Lenin’s smuggling of Iskra into Russia, nine decades ago is an apt example of the subversion of a regime through the usage of media (Leighley, 2003).

Reasons for the Increasing Divorce Rates in America Essay

Reasons for the Increasing Divorce Rates in America - Essay Example This paper briefly analyses various reasons for the increased divorce rates in America.    Money is believed to be one of the major reasons for causing divorce. Couples may have different views, opinions, and perceptions about the spending of money. Suppose Mr. X has lavish spending habits. He may not worry much about saving money for the future needs of the family. He may spend whatever he earns and may not bother much about saving something for future expenses like the education of his children. On the other hand, Mrs. X could be more interested in saving money for the future by reducing the unnecessary expenditure since she was more aware of future needs. It is quite possible that conflicts develop in such families and these contrasting views about money spending may finally lead them towards a divorce. Alcohol addiction or drug addiction is another major reason for divorce. As stated in the earlier example, suppose Mr. X is addicted to alcohol or drugs. It is difficult for Mrs. X to adjust with such habits of her husband, even if she is more liberal and modern in her thoughts. Addiction can lead Mr. X towards a crazy life and sometimes he may abuse his wife or children. It is difficult for a modern woman to sacrifice her entire life for an addicted husband. Mrs. X may wait for some time, in anticipation that her husband may rectify his mistake sooner than later; however, if Mr. X has no plans to get rid of his bad habits, Mrs. X may file the divorce petition. The third possible reasons for divorce could be sexual problems. Either the husband or the wife may have more interests in sexual activities. Sex is a divine activity which should be performed on mutual consent. Sometimes the husband or the wife may have over interests in sexual activities and he/she may force his/her partner for sexual activities without considering the interests of the partner. In some cases, either of them may force the partner to engage in unnatural sexual activities which may develop displeasure and thoughts about divorce. Extramarital affairs could be another possible reason for divorce. The strength of family life lies in mutual love and trust.  

The Realities of Acid Rain Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Realities of Acid Rain - Research Paper Example The more acidic the compound the more likely that deposits will result in damage to property and conditions dangerous for organic life forms. Natural rainfall has a pH of 7, but the further pH levels drop below that number the more potentially harmful it will be for the environment (Eubanks, p.240). The pH level present is directly associated with the presence of sulfate oxides (SOx), nitrate oxides (NOx), and the manner in which they dictate the release of hydrogen ions. Though neither oxide type contains hydrogen, they can act as an acid anhydride, wherein an acid is generated by chemical reaction subsequent to dissolution in water. The measure of the difference between the cumulative increases these oxides create in hydrogen ion concentration and hydroxide ionic content determines the pH level and thus the degree of acidity (Casiday & Frey, n.p.). Incidents of acid rain have been proven to have a direct relationship with the burning of fossil fuels, more specifically the burning o f coal as an energy source. A complicated substance, coal can have a dynamic configuration of elements and is largely used as fuel for the production of electricity in power plants. It is signified by an approximate chemical value of C135H96O9NS, though the actual concentration of each element varies according to the organic content present during the formation process (Eubanks, p.167). The variance in any given coal type determines the energy output of a coal type produced during combustion. While these attributes are affected by a myriad of conditions and components, there are certain characteristics which remain common to all coal types. For one thing, coal is a superior fuel type of wood due the incredibly high carbon concentration paired with low levels of oxygen and water. However, when used as fuel source, the rapid oxidation which occurs during combustion releases several pollutants into the atmosphere including nitrogen and sulfur oxides (Greenpeace.org, n.p.). The atmosphe re is composed of numerous compounds and elements in gaseous and particulate forms and when nitrogen and sulfur oxides are released as fossil fuel emissions they become integrated into the mixture and the natural processes and cycles therein. IN the water cycle water vapor present in the atmosphere interacts with other gases, particles, and form precipitations which is then deposited on the surface of the Earth and into the oceans. When excess sulfur oxides are introduced into the atmosphere, the sulfur oxides SO2 and SO3, which are measured in grams reacts with water vapor, measured in liters: SO2 + H2O ? H2SO3 SO3 + H2O ? H2SO4 This reaction ultimately results in the formation of sulfurous and sulfuric acids, respectively(Cassiday & Frey, n.p.). Nitrogen oxides require the presence of oxygen to create a chemical reaction as well as water vapor, the second most plentiful gaseous component of the atmosphere, the vapor and oxides having the same scale of measurement as during the pre vious formulas: 4 NO2 + 2 H2O + O2 ? 4 HNO3 This chemical reaction produces nitric acid. Though nitric, sulfurous, and sulfuric acids to do contain hydrogen, when introduced to water molecules (and oxygen as regards nitrogen oxides) they behave as acid anhydrates, stimulating the release of hydrogen and hydroxide ions which dictate the levels of acidity in any given liquid substance. Once these reactions have taken place, the new acidic compounds are distributed through acidic precipitation as rain, hail, or snow, and may also combine and be deposited on surfaces in particulate form. According to the level of acidity present in such deposits there is a decidedly negative effect on objects and organic life

Philosophical Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Philosophical Questions - Essay Example This paper will provide four arguments that God exists. To begin with, one should point out one simple, yet rather important fact: the belief in divine powers has been known since the dawn of humanity; so, this continuous existence of the tradition might be considered to be an indirect indication of existence of God. Common sense suggests that there is no smoke without fire. If there had not been any divine power, millions of people around the world could not simply have imagined it out of nowhere. Keeping in mind that there was no communication between the groups of the early people, the very existence of religious cults might be regarded as a valid evidence that God exists. Is it possible that people have been mistaken for thousand or years about one of the most defining aspects of their identity? It is rather hard to believe in that. Therefore, the existence of religious beliefs that dates back to the primitive society may be a suitable argument for existence of God. The second indirect indication that God exist focuses on our very lives. Should not the latter be considered to be a true miracle? The process of ovum fertilization by spermatozoid has not only been studied in great details, but also filmed. It may seem that science has taken cover from the greatest mystery – the beginning of live. However, no scholar is able to point out that moment when a small number of cells become a living organism. In other words, science did its best to analyze the world around us, but it could not get a hold of one of the fundamental powers – life. It would not be a mistake to suggest that without any divine intervention the above mentioned set of molecules would have never become a living creature. So, all the organisms in the world are the living arguments for the existence of God. Another point that should be taken into

Ethical Theories identified in (bazerman) and the Essay - 1

Ethical Theories identified in (bazerman) and the - Essay Example Firstly, utilitarianism is established on the principle that ethical choices should be established with their consequences. People always consider the probabilities of their decisions when deciding what to do. Furthermore, Utilitarianism is trying to do the utmost good for the highest number of individuals. Thus, Utilitarian approach is frequently used by leaders to ethical decision-making. In contrast to utilitarianism, Kant categorical imperative argues that no matter the consequences, people should always do what is morally right. Moreover, the word categorical means devoid of exception. However, Kent’s approach to ethical reasoning is the best-recognized deontological ethics. The deontological ethics argues decisions ought to be made according to our duties to trail universal truths that are engraved on our sense of right and wrong. Lastly, violation of these morals is indicated by guilt. Thirdly, justice as fairness guarantees equal opportunities and rights behind the shr oud of ignorance. Lastly, Communitarianism states that individuals should shoulder their responsibilities and pursue the common good (Johnson, 2014). In the study of any discipline, as well as leadership theories are important. The theories explain the relations among significant variables and concepts, organize information in a field and help practitioners and scholars to make predictions about the strategies that will be effective. Moreover, approaches to leadership theoretically, fall into one of the two classifications: normative or descriptive. Therefore, the descriptive theory describes the way leaders behave. Further, researchers earlier on discovered two fundamental dimensions to the styles of leadership. They included relationship and task. They discovered that while other leaders are focused more on building better relationships with members, others are focused more on tasks. However, the normative leadership theory advises leaders how

Cloud Computing Essay Example for Free

Cloud Computing Essay * Integrated development environment as a service (IDEaaS) In the business model using software as a service, users are provided access to application software and databases. The cloud providers manage the infrastructure and platforms on which the applications run. SaaS is sometimes referred to as â€Å"on-demand software† and is usually priced on a pay-per-use basis. SaaS providers generally price applications using a subscription fee. Proponents claim that the SaaS allows a business the potential to reduce IT operational costs by outsourcing hardware and software maintenance and support to the cloud provider. This enables the business to reallocate IT operations costs away from hardware/software spending and personnel expenses, towards meeting other IT goals. In addition, with applications hosted centrally, updates can be released without the need for users to install new software. One drawback of SaaS is that the users data are stored on the cloud provider’s server. As a result, there could be unauthorized access to the data. End users access cloud-based applications through a web browser or a light-weight desktop or mobile app while the business software and users data are stored on servers at a remote location. Proponents claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.[2][3] Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale similar to a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network.[4] | This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (January 2013)| The origin of the term cloud computing is obscure, but it appears to derive from the practice of using drawings of stylized clouds to denote networks in diagrams of computing and communications systems. The word cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the standardized use of a cloud-like shape to denote a network on telephony schematics and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents. The cloud symbol was used to represent the Internet as early as 1994.[5][6] The underlying concept of cloud computing dates back to the 1950s, when large-scale mainframe became available in academia and corporations, accessible via thin clients / terminalcomputers. Because it was costly to buy a mainframe, it became im portant to find ways to get the greatest return on the investment in them, allowing multiple users to share both the physical access to the computer from multiple terminals as well as to share the CPU time, eliminating periods of inactivity, which became known in the industry as time-sharing.[7] In the 1990s, telecommunications companies, who previously offered primarily dedicated point-to-point data circuits, began offering virtual private network (VPN) services with comparable quality of service but at a much lower cost. By switching traffic to balance utilization as they saw fit, they were able to utilize their overall network bandwidth more effectively. The cloud symbol was used to denote the demarcation point between that which was the responsibility of the provider and that which was the responsibility of the users. Cloud computing extends this boundary to cover servers as well as the network infrastructure.[8] As computers became more prevalent, scientists and technologists explored ways to make large-scale computing power available to more users through time sharing, experimenting with algorithms to provide the optimal use of the infrastructure, platform and applications with prioritized access to the CPU and efficiency for the end users.[9] John McCarthy opined in t he 1960s that computation may someday be organized as a public utility. Almost all the modern-day characteristics of cloud computing (elastic provision, provided as a utility, online, illusion of infinite supply), the comparison to the electricity industry and the use of public, private, government, and community forms, were thoroughly explored in Douglas Parkhills 1966 book, The Challenge of the Computer Utility. Other scholars have shown that cloud computings roots go all the way back to the 1950s when scientist Herb Grosch (the author of Groschs law) postulated that the entire world would operate on dumb terminals powered by about 15 large data centers.[10] Due to the expense of these powerful computers, many corporations and other entities could avail themselves of computing capability through time sharing and several organizations, such as GEs GEISCO, IBM subsidiary The Service Bureau Corporation (SBC, founded in 1957), Tymshare (founded in 1966), National CSS (founded in 1967 and bought by Dun Bradstreet in 1979), Dial Data (bought by Tymshare in 1968), and Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) marketed time sharing as a commercial venture. The development of the Internet from being document centric via semantic data towards more and more services was described as Dynamic Web.[11] This contribution focused in particular in the need for better meta-data able to describe not only implementation details but also conceptual details of model-based applications. The ubiquitous availability of high-capacity networks, low-cost computers and storage devices as well as the widespread adoption of hardware virtualization, service-oriented architecture,autonomic, and utility computing have led to a tremendous growth in cloud computing.[12][13][14] After the dot-com bubble, Amazon played a key role in the development of cloud computing by modernizing their data centers, which, like most computer networks, were using as little as 10% of their capacity at any one time, just to leave room for occasional spikes. Having found that the new cloud architecture resulted in significant internal efficiency improvements whereby small, fast-moving two-pizza teams (teams small enough to be fed with two pizzas) could add new features faster and more easily, Amazon initiated a new product development effort to provide cloud computing to external customers, and launched Amazon Web Service (AWS) on a utility computing basis in 2006.[15][16] In early 2008, Eucalyptus became the first open-source, AWS API-compatible platform for deploying private clouds. In early 2008, OpenNebula, enhanced in the RESERVOIR European Commission-funded project, became the first open-source software for deploying private and hybrid clouds, and for the federation of clouds.[17] In the same year, efforts were focused on providing quality of service guarantees (as required by real-time interactive applications) to cloud-based infrastructures, in the framework of the IRMOS European Commission-funded project, resulting to a real-time cloud environment.[18] By mid-2008, Gartner saw an opportunity for cloud computing to shape the relationship among consumers of IT services, those who use IT services and those who sell them[19] and observed that organizations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models so that the projected shift to computing will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas and significant reductions in other areas.[20] On March 1, 2011, IBM announced the Smarter Computing framework to support Smarter Planet.[21] Among the various components of the Smarter Computing foundation, cloud computing is a critical piece. [edit] Similar systems and concepts Cloud computing shares characteristics with: * Autonomic computing — Computer systems capable of self-management.[22] * Client–server model — Client–server computing refers broadly to any distributed application that distinguishes between service providers (servers) and service requesters (clients).[23] * Grid computing — A form of distributed and parallel computing, whereby a super and virtual computer is composed of a cluster of networked, loosely coupled computers acting in concert to perform very large tasks. * Mainframe computer — Powerful computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, police and secret intelligence services, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.[24] * Utility computing — The packaging of computing resources, such as computation and storage, as a metered service similar to a traditional public utility, such as electricity.[25][26] * Peer-to-peer — Distributed architecture without the need for central coordination, with participants being at the same time both suppliers and consumers of resources (in contrast to the traditional client–server model). * Cloud gaming Also known as on-demand gaming, this is a way of delivering games to computers. The gaming data will be stored in the providers server, so that gaming will be independent of client computers used to play the game. [edit] Characteristics Cloud computing exhibits the following key characteristics: * Agility improves with users ability to re-provision technological infrastructure resources. * Application programming interface (API) accessibility to software that enables machines to interact with cloud software in the same way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. Cloud computing systems typically use REST-based APIs. * Cost is claimed to be reduced and in a public cloud delivery model capital expenditure is converted to operational expenditure.[27] This is purported to lower barriers to entry, as infrastructure is typically provided by a third-party and does not need to be purchased for one-time or infrequent intensive computing tasks. Pricing on a utility computing basis is fine-grained with usage-based options and fewer IT skills are required for implementation (in-house).[28] The e-FISCAL projects state of the art repository[29] contains several articles looking into cost aspects in more detail, most of them concluding that costs savings de pend on the type of activities supported and the type of infrastructure available in-house. * Device and location independence[30] enable users to access systems using a web browser regardless of their location or what device they are using (e.g., PC, mobile phone). As infrastructure is off-site (typically provided by a third-party) and accessed via the Internet, users can connect from anywhere.[28] * Virtualization technology allows servers and storage devices to be shared and utilization be increased. Applications can be easily migrated from one physical server to another. * Multitenancy enables sharing of resources and costs across a large pool of users thus allowing for: * Centralization of infrastructure in locations with lower costs (such as real estate, electricity, etc.) * Peak-load capacity increases (users need not engineer for highest possible load-levels) * Utilisation and efficiency improvements for systems that are often only 10–20% utilised.[15] * Reliability is improved if multiple redundant sites are used, which makes well-designed cloud computing su itable for business continuity and disaster recovery.[31] * Scalability and elasticity via dynamic (on-demand) provisioning of resources on a fine-grained, self-service basis near real-time,[32] without users having to engineer for peak loads.[33][34] * Performance is monitored, and consistent and loosely coupled architectures are constructed using web services as the system interface.[28] * Security could improve due to centralization of data, increased security-focused resources, etc., but concerns can persist about loss of control over certain sensitive data, and the lack of security for stored kernels.[35] Security is often as good as or better than other traditional systems, in part because providers are able to devote resources to solving security issues that many customers cannot afford.[36] However, the complexity of security is greatly increased when data is distributed over a wider area or greater number of devices and in multi-tenant systems that are being shared by unrelated users. In addition, user access to security audit logs may be difficult or impossible. Private cloud installations are in part motivated by users desire to retain control over the infrastructure and avoid losing control of information security. * Maintenance of cloud computing applications is easier, because they do not need to be installed on each users computer and can be accessed from different places. The National Institute of Standards and Technologys definition of cloud computing identifies five essential characteristics: On-demand self-service. A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider. Broad network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations). Resource pooling. The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with demand. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be appropriated in any quantity at any time. Measured service. Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service. —National Institute of Standards and Technology[4] On-demand self-service See also: Self-service provisioning for cloud computing services and Service catalogs for cloud computing services On-demand self-service allows users to obtain, configure and deploy cloud services themselves using cloud service catalogues, without requiring the assistance of IT.[37][38] This feature is listed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as a characteristic of cloud computing.[4] The self-service requirement of cloud computing prompts infrastructure vendors to create cloud computing templates, which are obtained from cloud service catalogues. Manufacturers of such templates or blueprints include Hewlett-Packard (HP), which names its templates as HP Cloud Maps[39] RightScale[40] and Red Hat, which names its templates CloudForms.[41] The templates contain predefined configurations used by consumers to set up cloud services. The templates or blueprints provide the technical information necessary to build ready-to-use clouds.[40] Each template includes specific configuration details for different cloud infrastructures, with information about servers for specific tasks such as hosting applications, databases, websites and so on.[40] The templates also include predefined Web service, the operating system, the database, security configurations and load balancing.[41] Cloud consumers use cloud templates to move applications between clouds through a self-service portal. The predefined blueprints define all that an application requires to run in different environments. For example, a template could define how the same application could be deployed in cloud platforms based on Amazon Web Service, VMware or Red Hat.[42] The user organization benefits from cloud templates because the technical aspects of cloud configurations reside in the templates, letting users to deploy cloud services with a push of a button.[43][44] Cloud templates can also be used by developers to create a catalog of cloud services.[45] [edit] Ser vice models Cloud computing providers offer their services according to three fundamental models:[4][46] infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS) where IaaS is the most basic and each higher model abstracts from the details of the lower models. In 2012 network as a service (NaaS) and communication as a service (CaaS) were officially included by ITU (International Telecommunication Union) as part of the basic cloud computing models, recognized service categories of a telecommunication-centric cloud ecosystem.[47] Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) See also: Category:Cloud infrastructure In the most basic cloud-service model, providers of IaaS offer computers physical or (more often) virtual machines and other resources. (A hypervisor, such as Xen or KVM, runs the virtual machines as guests.) Pools of hypervisors within the cloud operational support-system can support large numbers of virtual machines and the ability to scale services up and down according to customers varying requirements. IaaS clouds often offer additional resources such as images in a virtual-machine image-library, raw (block) and file-based storage, firewalls, load balancers, IP addresses, virtual local area networks (VLANs), and software bundles.[48] IaaS-cloud providers supply these resources on-demand from their large pools installed indata centers. For wide-area connectivity, customers can use either the Internet or carrier clouds (dedicated virtual private networks). To deploy their applications, cloud users install operating-system images and their application software on the cloud infrastructure. In this model, the cloud user patches and maintains the operating systems and the application software. Cloud providers typically bill IaaS services on a utility computing basis: cost reflects the amount of resources allocated and consumed. Examples of IaaS providers include Amazon CloudFormation, Amazon EC2, Windows Azure Virtual Machines, DynDNS, Google Compute Engine, HP Cloud, iland, Joyent,Rackspace Cloud, ReadySpace Cloud Services, and Terremark. [edit] Platform as a service (PaaS)

The Rhetoric of “Yes We Can” Essay Example for Free

The Rhetoric of â€Å"Yes We Can† Essay Darà ­o Villanueva outlines the history and significance of the rhetorical tradition and highlights the striking persistence of the power of the word in American politics. Even in our high-tech age, a three-word tagline -Yes We Can- carries devastating clout. The Greek sophists -the original masters of rhetoric, notorious for their appetite for influence rather than truth- would be both impressed by the abiding power of their art, and dismayed that, in the Gutenberg Galaxy, it has become a blunt instrument. Centuries before our time, the Greeks considered the question of how to speak so as to sway the hearers mind with the power of words. The first to examine the ways in which we relate to one another through language, the Greeks wrote detailed treatises laying bare the sinews of human communication, and their experience of language and the laws they inferred from it gave rise to Rhetoric, the art or science of the public speaker. The father of rhetoric was said to be Corax, who lived in the closing third of the fifth century BC in the Greek city state of Syracuse in Sicily; his disciple Thysias was credited with bringing his rhetorical discoveries to mainland Greece. Once there, rhetoric was appropriated by the so-called sophists. The history of the term is riven with self-contradiction. Etymologically, sophist means bearer of truth, but its modern meaning is the exact opposite: a sophistry-the stock-in-trade of politicians-is a plausible but spurious argument in support of a falsehood. True rhetoric, however ─Aristotle urges in the introduction to his Rhetoric─ is by no means sophistic. Discussing the uses of the discipline, Aristotle begins with the proclamation that rhetoric educates the common citizen and shapes his spirit, and is a useful way of advancing truth and justice, which in the natural course of things would prevail over their opposites if it were not because their advocates are sometimes inept.[1] Going back to the root of the matter, however, G.B. Kerferd, a scholar concerned with the earliest Greek sophists,[2] divided the school into three distinct types:  sages, such as Solon, whose wisdom was embodied as law; statesmen, who applied their pre-eminent talents to practical affairs, such as Pericles and Themistocles; and teachers of wisdom, skilled in passing on their learning and teaching eloquence, such as Protagoras, Gorgias or Socrates. If we view this classification in Montesquieus terms, the first group would stand for the legislative and judicial powers of the state, while the second group makes a good fit with the executive power. The third group, however, comprising masters of wisdom and oratory, embodies the time-honored marriage of interests and skills between scholars and rulers, sustained by the old but evergreen art of rhetoric. American rhetoric Leaving aside any objective or partisan judgment one might pass on his politics, which is irrelevant to our concern here, Barack Hussein Obama, a university academic, senator, and President of the United States, provides a fascinating example. He makes a perfect fit with a society as sharply characteristic as the American New World, the promised land where the political principles that were later to inspire the French Revolution of 1789 gave rise to an eclectic community, a melting pot of different ethnic origins-not all of them European-and open to all the innovations brought forth by the spectacular advance of science and technology from the Enlightenment to our own day. This was the New Democratic Nation that, ushering in modern poetry, Walt Whitman sang in his book, Leaves of Grass. One of the singular features of that New World is the somewhat astonishing survival, at some fundamental level, of the power of the word. The contrast may seem improbable, but in America the flourishing of technology and all its rich resources ─the central theme of a book that is in no way complacent, but in fact hypercritical, by Marshall McLuhan and his disciple Neil Postman[3]─ enables oratorical endeavor to thrive. Greek rhetoric, largely brought into being by the Sophists, who ─we must not forget─ were more interested in winning over the masses than the furtherance of truth, now has its promised land in the United States. A recent case in point is the impact of President Obamas Yes we can speeches. Again, it was Marshall McLuhan who reminded us that electric systems of communication ─radio and television particularly─ facilitated a revival of oral expression in human communication and cultural transmission after a period of relative tyranny of the eye over the ear: the written word, with the printing press as its handmaiden, had reigned supreme over the five centuries of what McLuhan dubbed the Gutenberg Galaxy.[4] Technopoly ─Postmans unflattering name for the United States of America─ is a locus particularly amenable to the use and development of new technologies, but, even in the twenty-first century, bears the hallmarks of a vast human community in which, as in the ancestral tribes discussed by McLuhan, the spoken word still harbors real power. An undeniable influence is exerted here by the religious bedrock that continues to underlie American society. Though fragmented and diverse, the Protestant churches visibly predominate, and in their communities the biblical and evangelical word breathes life into individual and collective spiritual experience, which draws further nourishment from the often impassioned eloquence of Protestant ministers. Barack Obama himself, a devout Christian, partakes of this culture of liturgical oratory; and, far from keeping this within the private sphere, he has no qualms about putting it on public show as one facet among many of his political personality. His beginnings as a Chicago activist in the late 1980s saw him as a leader of the Developing Communities Project, run by the Church Association on the South Side. Whats more-and this was the subject of a serious controversy, adroitly handled by Obama when his presidential campaign was in full swing-he was an active member of Chicagos Trinity Church, a congregation shepherded by the controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright. The importance of rhetoric has been a feature of American democracy since the Founding Fathers. Its earliest master was Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States and first Republican President, who  proclaimed the Emancipation of black slaves in 1863. Obama brought this to the fore in his Victory Speech when he called upon his political adversaries, members of Lincolns own party. The man who in January 2009 became the 44th president started his campaign two years earlier in the state capital at Springfield, Illinois, where in 1858 Lincoln had delivered his landmark House Divided speech. Some political commentators have not hesitated to draw a parallel between the two by dint of their common gift for oratory. Lincolns most celebrated rhetorical legacy is a prodigious speech delivered on November 10, 1863, at Gettysburg. Running to only 246 words, what might have been no more than the close of a posthumous tribute to the heroes of a battle fought four months earlier on the fields of Pennsylvania became the historic proclamation that, after the Civil War, the American nation would be consecrated for ever as the realm of freedom: government of the people, by the people and for the people. The election campaign We can readily appreciate in Barack Obamas election campaign speeches-available at http://obamaspeeches.com-that these principles, and the more effective ways in which they have been put into words, survive today; more importantly, both the principles and the words retain their power to move and engage the citizenry. This is the power of words which Obama invoked at the end of his speech announcing that he was running for President at the same place where, 149 years before, Lincoln had spoken on a House Divided. It is accurate to point out that a decisive factor in his campaign was the recruitment of all the Internets rich resources: blogs, chat rooms, social networking and, above all, the availability on YouTube of some of the candidates key speeches, which I shall later be parsing from the rhetorical standpoint. Nevertheless, in the beginning, as in the biblical Genesis, was the Word, the foundation of the oral communication that marks us out as rational beings and as social animals. So one might say that Obama simply used the new technological possibilities offered by what some now call the Internet Galaxy,[5] just as one of his predecessors in the Oval Office had  done with what McLuhan called the Marconi Constellation. I am of course referring to Franklin D. Roosevelts fireside chats, a series of 30 radio talks broadcast from 1933 to 1944. Political scientists have claimed the chats played a vital role in getting the American public to understand two major presidential initiatives: first, the New Deal, which Roosevelt undertook to combat the Depression of the 1930s; secondly, Roosevelts decision to take America into the great war then afflicting Europe. Roosevelts radio talks have gone down in the history of communications as a great oratorical achievement. They would begin with an affable Good evening, friends, and went on for 15 to 45 minutes. 80% of Roosevelts words were among the thousand commonest in the English language. Though he shares the gift of oratory with Lincoln and Roosevelt, in Obama we have a modern-day speaker addressing twenty-first-century citizens and using hitherto unthinkable technologies to enhance what, in the last instance, is little more than the outcome of applying the principles of rhetoric and its main genres of discourse: deliberative-i.e., political-discourse, and demonstrative, epideictic discourse. The epideictic mode includes the encomium, by which one describes a person, a pattern of behavior or a state of affairs with the aim of dispensing praise or censure; one of its characteristic figures ─of which, as we shall see, Obama is a consummate master─ is evidentia, a particularly vivid form of description. Obama was no stranger ─rather the opposite─ to the forensic rhetorical genre, having first majored in political science at Columbia and later progressed to a doctorate at the no less prestigious Harvard Law School. In fact, his media debut was a consequence of his being elected editor of the Harvard Law Review, the prelude to a distinguished career as a jurist which was later to elevate him to the chair of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Communication strategies In the American system of higher education, even at the foundational level of training imparted at college up to the attainment of a bachelors degree,  much is made of communication strategies: students are urged to study and practice them, on the view that they are of crucial import for their proper development as citizens. The significance accorded to applied rhetoric is taken to an extreme in graduate study in the social sciences and, in particular, at law school. When I first experienced life in the United States, thirty years ago now, I was struck by how versatile and broad-ranging modern American rhetoric can be. In all facets of society rhetoric is close at hand, especially in the media; television has not yet lost its entrenched primacy, although it is doomed increasingly to share its viewership with the Internet. Tellingly, you can find sites on the web specifically concerned with this phenomenon, such as American Rhetoric (http://www.americanrhetoric.com), providing a selection of 100 major speeches, or Great Speeches Collection, at http://history places.com. Rhetoric is of course present in the political discourse of members of the executive and of congressmen and senators; rhetoric is heard in the courtroom, and Hollywood has built an entire movie genre on it; rhetoric even runs through the informal, jocular acknowledgements given at showbiz awards ceremonies, and provides the sinew of Jay Lenos and David Lettermans late-show spiels; to particularly striking effect, rhetoric animates church sermons, designed and produced as television spectaculars that have now cornered weekend morning prime time. It was in this culture of the revival of the word that todays President of the United States was born and bred, and this is where he still operates today. His university training refined a number of talents that are no doubt innate. These were qualities that also graced Ronald Reagan, for instance, whose acting career proved a good fallback in the face of communicative and political challenges (the same cannot be said of George W. Bush), such as his famous debate with Walter Mondale broadcast from Kansas City towards the end of the 1984 campaign. But commentators and biographers have unanimously hailed Obama for the further distinction of oratorical fire and literary talent. In 1995, after months of writerly seclusion in Bali, Obama published  an excellent autobiographical account that met with high critical acclaim: Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.[6] On reading this memoir, one perceives that the author is touched with literary passion and possessed of wide and varied learning, ranging from Shakespeare, Melville and Emerson to Nietzsche and Saint Augustine, from Toni Morrison and Doris Lessing to the great novelist of the Deep South, the Nobel laureate William Faulkner, who merits mention in Obamas vibrant speech delivered at Philadelphia in March 2008, A More Perfect Union. Barack Obamas rhetorical flair is also in evidence in his ability to empathize with his audience by his skillful actio, the austere but forceful gestures with which he delivers his speeches. He displays fine judgment in his choice of speechwriters, and is able to convey to them the guiding ideas-the rhetorical inventio, or core content of the message-to which his writers must then give the right words-elocutio-arranged into the most effective structure, or dispositio, for the intended purpose of the address. Logographers, ghostwriters, negros The history of Greek rhetoric devotes a short paragraph to memorialize the modest but indispensable figure of the logographer: in the fifth century BC exemplars such as Antiphon or Lysias worked as mercenary speechwriters. Their modern counterparts find no shortage of work as members of the teeming campaign outfits put on the road by the typical American presidential candidate, whose frenzied activity and ethical quandaries were taken to the screen by Mike Nichols in the 1998 movie Primary Colors, starring John Travolta and Emma Thompson. Obamas leading logographer is Jon Favreau, a 27-year-old prodigy who devoted two months to write the twenty-minute speech that his boss gave at the Lincoln Memorial at the start of his campaign. In addition to writing the Victory Speech for November 4, 2008, Favreau also penned the words that would have been spoken if Obama had lost. The President and his logographer understand each other so well that Obama calls Favreau a mind-reader, crediting him with almost telepathic empathy. This is the key to being a  good ghostwriter, the English term for what we in Spanish call a negro, a writer on anothers behalf. The outturn of this fruitful partnership is a corpus of oratorical pieces that already deserves a place of honor in the canon of American rhetoric. These fine, poetic speeches are also sharply effective in stirring their hearers to action. Another matter-and this is the vital challenge standing in the way of rhetoric, an art shaped, we ought not to forget, by the Sophists-is whether these beautiful pieces have any performative force, as a linguist might say. Put another way, the tough reality is that a wide gap yawns open between saying and doing; as the Spanish adage goes, obras son amores y no buenas razones, good works, not fine words, are the stuff of love. How to Do Things with Words is the title of a series of papers given at Harvard (and published posthumously in 1962) by John Langshaw Austin, a linguistic philosopher concerned not so much with the descriptive capacity of language as with its ability to affect reality, to shape the facts. Hillary Clinton, in the heat of the primaries, mischievously said, My opponent gives speeches. I offer solutions. Obama risks being stigmatized as a purveyor of hot air in the wake of his winning the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2009. Rather than an accolade warranted by the laureates actions, the prize seems merely to recognize the esthetics of Obamas mentions of peace in his speeches, already acclaimed by some journalists as some of the most brilliant ever spoken by a President of the United States. The American canon of oratory also includes a number of pieces delivered by statesmen who never rose to the highest office. The oratory of Barack Obama is indebted, in my view, to one in particular. I have a dream I am of course referring to the dazzling address that Martin Luther King delivered in Washington on August 28, 1963, at the crowning moment of a march on the federal capital by black civil rights campaigners claiming entitlement to work and freedom. Luther Kings speech went down in the  annals of rhetoric under the title of its core phrase, which, by dexterous use of anaphora, operates as the central motif: I have a dream. Martin Luther King, like Barack Obama 44 years later, first turns his hearers attention to the figure of a great American, President Lincoln, whose Emancipation Proclamation came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves. But that promise of work and freedom-the orator then continues with vibrant diction-has been dishonored by the American nation, and the black community is now to raise its voice in protest, like a man given a bad check. Following this apt simile, so close to the heart of a money-driven society like America, the speaker offers a short but powerful list of demands with which the movement has come to Washington. He uses this moment to identify with his audience, as if he were no more than another participant in the march, and, addressing his brothers and sisters in the second person, he urges them, Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And, as a proactive expression of his exhortation against discouragement, Martin Luther King then spoke the prophetic phrase that became the title of the entire speech, and that structures the final stretch of the oration by the figure of anaphora, the intermittent repetition of a single idea expressed in the same words: I have a dream. The speakers dream is rooted from the outset in the so-called American dream, the attainment of which is presented as still in the future. It is the dream of seeing realized Thomas Jeffersons proposition in the Declaration of Independence of 1776, that all men are created equal, as applied to the racial discrimination that at this time, 1964, still reigned. The dream is then particularized into a number of direct phrases that build up to a climax of hope propitiated by the repetition of the same form of words by a roused audience. And the first fundamental anaphora, I have a dream, several times repeated, now gives way to a second anaphora that will serve to end the speech. If America is destined to be a great nation, it will see that dream come true and liberty will prevail for all its children. To conclude his speech, the orator applies the figure of anaphora to the refrain of a popular song, written in 1832, titled America: Let freedom ring. This phrase is repeated no fewer than ten times. Martin Luther King then links up this phrase with another, drawn from a well-known black spiritual: Free at last. Almost half a century after I have a dream, the emblematic phrase of the leading figure of the Afro-American community-who tragically died in 1968, long before a black citizen reached the presidency of the United States-Barack Obama, in the speeches that were to raise him to the Oval Office, shared a number of features with Martin Luther King (who incidentally also won the Nobel Peace Prize). In the key speech on the New Hampshire primary night, the man who was to become Americas first black president had heartfelt words of reminiscence for the black preacher who took us to the mountaintop and pointed us the way to the Promised Land. Both orators share a recognition of the legacy of Jefferson, Lincoln and the Founding Fathers; both use the language of the Christian community, gathered round the warmth of the Bible; both are masters of oratory, and successful rhetorical performers in front of their respective audiences. Obama even shares Kings recourse to the figure of anaphora, this time with a phrase which was likewise to achieve outstanding resonance: Yes we can. Yes we can One of the forms taken by the emergence of new communicative technologies now in the service of political discourse is exemplified by the fascinating way in which Obamas slogan was made into a song produced by Will.I.Am (William James Adams), a member of the hip-hop band Black Eyed Peas, who then broadcast his work via YouTube and dipdive.com in February 2008 under the username WeCan08. Obama and his speechwriters were not wholly original in coining the phrase. The direct precedent of the yes we can tagline was Hispanic. In 1972, the Chicano human rights leader Cesar Chavez, who with Dolores Huerta and Philip Vera Cruz founded United Farm Workers, used the slogan Sà ­, se puede, which translates into English as Yes, it can be done. The difference between these two phrasings in English, Chavez and Obamas, has vital rhetorical significance. Yes we can contains a veritable compendium of expressive virtues, from the standpoint of the core idea, or inventio, and in terms of its dispositio and elocutio. More, it is easy to remember, and the speakers actio or performance can readily arouse a collective response, as seen on YouTube: the entire audience put their voices together as a univocal chorus echoing the soloist. The crux, however, is that Chavez slogan was impersonal, whereas Obama transformed it into a form of words unambiguously encompassing the joint will of leader and people, united by that inclusive we. The illocutionary and perlocutionary impact of the slogan can be elucidated by looking back at the tagline used for Dwight Eisenhowers presidential campaign of 1952. A marketing expert, Peter G. Peterson, who later rose to be Richard Nixons Trade Secretary, crafted a phrase which, unlike Obama, Eisenhower for obvious reasons never included in his own speeches, but his followers chanted non-stop; it was touted relentlessly by the whole propagandistic armory of Republican billboards, rosettes, medals, flags, banners, signage and badges. Peterson, the mind behind all this, lighted on General Eisenhowers nickname: Ike. Playing chiefly with the rhetorical figure of alliteration, Peterson tied Ike to the first-person pronoun, I, thus eliciting the speakers full engagement with what he or she was saying. Finally, the third alliterative term, linking the subject-the I instantiating each potential voter-to the object-the candidates nickname, Ike, was a verb with a similar vowel sound: the present indicative of to like. I like Ike became a round declaration by whoever spoke the slogan of his preference in the presidential race. I like Ike: therefore, my vote for the Presidency of the United States goes to Dwight Eisenhower, and no other. Obamas slogan is doubtless more resonant than Eisenhowers, and even more compact. Its three monosyllables make it memorable and give it prosodic, rhythmic and perlocutionary force. In those speeches in which Obama actually spoke the phrase yes we can, his audience would echo the same words, the  meanings of which range over a mass of politically charged domains. The first monosyllable of the tagline has the robustness of the affirmative. The speaker starts with an affirmation, with all that that implies as a positive bid to mobilize. And that yes forthwith engages with an inclusive we, the first-person plural pronoun that embraces both speaker and hearer, unlike Cesar Chavez precedent, yes, it can be done, which, as we have seen, has an impersonal tenor. Finally, the verb can carries power, strength, determination. An audience thus roused by a leader partakes in the meaning of these three monosyllables, which they can readily chant. The import of this is to say, aloud and in unison: We affirm that together we shall achieve our aims, because our combined strength enables us to do so. Rhetorical figures The apostrophe is one of the figures classified in the art of rhetoric as pathetic, in the technical sense that these were devices appropriate to venting the passions. An apostrophe consists in expressly calling upon the audience, in a bid to create the climate for achieving the orators perlocutionary ends. With his yes we can, Obama peremptorily urged his followers to take on and successfully resolve the decisive challenges facing the health of the Republic. Yes we can burst onto the scene of Barack Obamas presidential campaign in the course of his speech at Nashua on January 8, 2008, the night after the New Hampshire Democratic primary, which Obama lost to Hillary Clinton, his main rival. From the standpoint of rhetorical analysis, however, we should look at the full sweep of the future Presidents twelve key speeches, from his candidacy announcement at Springfield on February 10, 2007, to the Victory Speech in Grant Park, Chicago, on November 4, 2008. The first speech to feature Yes we can, the New Hampshire address, was the third of a series that repays consideration as an integrated whole, in so far as, to different degrees and modulated in different ways, it contains the doctrinal message that Obama, as a presidential candidate, sought to convey to the American people. To this end, his speechwriters put in play a vast and powerful arsenal of rhetorical resources. The first text I have chosen ─Obamas announcement that he was to run for President─ is indisputably significant for its inventio, its content, its choice of venue (the Lincoln Memorial, erected on the site where the eponymous former president gave his famous House Divided speech) and its ingenious rhetorical design. Obama draws inspiration from the founders of the Republic to promise what all politicians promise at the start of their campaigns: change. He lists the grave challenges faced by the nation, and deplores the dearth of leadership and the pettiness of politics. In response to these blights and challenges, he ties together a chain of proposals, each starting with the anaphora, Lets be the generation that Lets be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age that ends poverty in America that finally tackles our health care crisis that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil. There are no fewer than six uses of this same form of apostrophe, in which the leader stands shoulder to shoulder with his fellow citizens in the will to be the generation of change. One of these anaphoric devices engages another that already points to the main catchphrase with which we are concerned. We can control costs we can harness homegrown, alternative fuels we can work together to track terrorists down, the speaker continues. One can make out the outlines of the rhetorical blueprint of the whole campaign, which was soon to find its ideal slogan in the Yes we can phrase. At Springfield, when Obama was still one of eight Democratic candidates competing for nomination, he affirmed that there is power in words there is power in conviction. The anaphoric repetition of we can is the antidote to skepticism, of which the speaker is not unaware: I know there are those who dont believe we can do all these things. He, however, does believe it, and his faith is reinforced by the certainty that he is not alone. Hence he makes an urgent call to action: That is why this campaign cant only be about me. It must  be about us, it must be about what we can do together. We cannot know whether at that early stage on the long road that was to take Barack Obama to the White House the yes we can phrase was already in his and his speechwriters minds, but what was present was the belief that together, leader and people, they could. Sparks began to fly at the beginning of the following year. The second text with which we are concerned is Obamas speech on Iowa Caucus night, January 3, 2008. Before the party assembly at Des Moines, the candidate started his short but powerful speech with an announcement of imminent change, a change he was ready to lead. His belief is again expressed in a string of four anaphoric paragraphs: Ill be a President who finally makes health care affordable Ill be a President who ends the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas Ill be a President who [frees] this nation from the tyranny of oil Ill be a President who ends this war in Iraq. The speech concludes with a finely judged rhetorical and emotive gradation. Again using anaphora, the speaker prophesies the moment of change he is confident of achieving with his followers and the American people at large. This was the moment, he says, when America remembered what it means to hope. At this point, Obama and his logographer resort to the rhetorical figure of thought technically termed recriminatio: For many months, weve been teased, even derided for talking about hope, the candidate complains. But, turning the accusation against the original accusers, he reminds us that hope is the bedrock of this nation, an allusion readily grasped by the audience in that it looks to one of the founding myths of the United States. Obama himself embodies the truth of that foundational myth: Hope is what led me here today, with a father from Kenya; a mother from Kansas; and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. The leader uses his own self as a specific model of what he proclaims, enlisting another rhetorical figure already used in that same speech and featuring in several later orations. Hypotyposis or evidentia consists in a detailed description of a specific example that illustrates the speakers argument. Before using  himself as such an example, Obama had evoked several instances of hope for change, which he had read in the eyes of the young woman in Cedar Rapids, whose night shift was not enough to pay health care for her sick sister, or had heard in the voice of the New Hampshire woman whose nephew was fighting in Iraq. This same hope had inspired a handful of colonials to rise up against an empire, and driven the American civil rights movement, led by James Bevel and Martin Lut her King, to march from Selma to Montgomery, in the racist Alabama of the Ku Klux Klan and Governor Wallace. Given these precedents, everything was in place for the candidates third landmark speech, the New Hampshire address at Nashua on January 8, 2008, to bring to light the slogan that was to usher Barack Obama into the White House and become a motto of universal resonance. With admirable rhetorical skill, this speech lays out a range of political arguments-anticipated by earlier speeches-and naturally culminates with the emblematic phrase yes we can, three words which the speaker predicts will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea. Those political propositions herald a change wrought by a new majority that desires to end unaffordable health care, end tax breaks for companies that ship [American] jobs overseas, end schools blighted by corridors of shame, and put a stop to pattern of energy use that harms the planet and humanity. By the figure of speech termed anadiplosis, Obamas oration at Nashua rounds out each of these propositions with a repeated urge that we can, always attributed to the new majority: we can do this with our new majority. His words flow like a cascade until a final apostrophe to the audience arouses the response of a chorus speaking with one voice. Returning to the figure mentioned earlier, recriminatio, the leader places blame on an opposing chorus, the chorus of cynics who insist we cannot do this. Those who deny the possibility of hope in a nation in which hope is never vain: But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. A number of domestic evidentias are then  mentioned: the struggle of the Spartanburg textile worker, the plight of the Las Vegas dishwasher, the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon and the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA. On this rugged foundation that befits the nature of the American people, Barack Obama raises his slogan like a standard, and with the choral approval of his audience he recites the phrase no fewer than nine times, before closing the speech with the final words: yes we can. Once the phrase was firmly coined, Obama did not actually utter it even once in his next speech, a long and closely argued address. This was A More Perfect Union, which Obama gave on March 18, 2008, in Philadelphia, the city which for Americans is something like Cadiz is for us [Spains first democratic constitution was proclaimed in 1812 at Cadiz], for Philadelphia was where the Constitution was enacted on September 17, 1787, twenty-five years before Spains La Pepa. The first sentence of its preamble gives Obamas speech its title, and expresses one of the core ideas of his whole campaign ─the union of all Americans─ but, in particular, it opens with an emphatic We, echoing Yes we can: We, the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect union do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America. Obama again gives the lie to the naysayers who dismiss his candidature as a mere exercise in affirmative action, but he devotes the lions share of the address to a harsh recriminatio directed against his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose radical invective against the United States, as his reaction to the survival of racial discrimination, had compromised Obamas electoral outlook. The candidate makes use of this sensitive juncture to assert that, for him, too, amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas, [Plato is my friend, but truth is the greater friend]. He publicly professes his religious faith and at the same time evinces an outright rejection of extremism, always confident that America can change, and that only if we do as the Scriptures would have us do ─be brothers to our brothers─  Americans will bring truth to those words of the Constitution as to a more perfect union. To illustrate his argument, nothing could be better than a fresh evidentia: the homely heroism of Ashley Baia, a 23-year-old woman volunteer working for the Obama campaign in Florence, South Carolina. Obama acknowledges having already told this anecdote at an event commemorating Martin Luther King at the Baptist church of Ebenezer, Kings own parish in Atlanta. This display of religious faith-which would be unthinkable in a European politician, for instance-comes to the fore in the next piece I propose to examine: Obamas talk given on Fathers Day, June 15, 2008, at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. As though he himself were in holy orders, Obama begins his speech with a quotation from the Sermon on the Mount, as told by St Matthew. He follows this, again, with a mention of Martin Luther King, and then holds himself out as a statesman and father, advocating the education of his children as a responsibility not only of government officials but also of their own parents. He ends the address by characterizing his words as a prayer or call which he hopes will come true for his country in the years ahead. A specific, chiefly economic theme runs through the immediately subsequent speech, delivered by Obama at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan, on June 16. The title tells the story: Renewing American Competitiveness. This was not an occasion for the emotive force of a political harangue, but the candidate nonetheless refers to the Founding Fathers, who, having won independence, created a common market by fusing the economies of the first 13 states. He follows this up with a with a fierce attack on the neoliberal, militaristic and ultraconservative politics of George W. Bush and the Republican Party. In stark opposition to their approach, he proposes as pillars of an economy that is to become more competitive in the globalized world a reinvigorated school system, innovative energy strategies, a more efficient health system and new investment in fundamental research and infrastructure. His closing words, however, point back to the central theme of his campaign: Because when American s come together, there is no destiny too difficult or too distant for us to reach. Ich bin ein Berliner The second-to-last speech that Barack Obama gave in the year in which he won the presidency was also tightly focused on a specific subject, but for that very reason ─and, in particular, because of its venue─ it brings to mind another piece of oratory that has its place among the most memorable ever spoken by a President of the United States in the twentieth century. Obama only revealed his foreign policy blueprint on the occasion of his visit to Berlin, on July 24, 2008. Under the title A World That Stands as One, he sets out his understanding of cultural diversity, national interests, nations and the attitudes of all the worlds peoples. Facing a different audience-not his usual hearers, American electors-he presents himself as a citizen of the United States and fellow citizen of the world. He refers to the responsibility that attaches to global citizenship, and acknowledges that the United States closest ally is still Europe, placing on record his hope that Europe will remain united. In our continent, he says, it is likewise meaningful to invoke that yearning for a more perfect union, in the words of the preamble to the American Constitution, which Obama mentions here in Berlin. In a Berlin riven by the Wall, fraught with the intolerable tension of the Cold War and the partition of Germany, John Fitzgerald Kennedy had roused his German hearers when, on June 11, 1963, he opened his speech, delivered from the steps of the Rathaus Schoneberg, with a seeming paradox, spoken in German: Ich bin ein Berliner (nowhere in the speech was Kennedy to utter the English phrase I am a Berliner). The effect of these words was electrifying: the people of Berlin, besieged and alone in a redoubt of Western democracy behind the Iron Curtain ─an expression popularized by another great modern orator, Winston Churchill─ enthusiastically identified with the president of a power which only 18 years before had driven the Nazi regime to defeat. The audience gladly accepted Kennedys closing argument, in the manner of an epiphonema: All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. Therefore, as a free man, I proudly say these words: Ich  bin ein Berliner. This belated review of a small selection from the oratorical corpus of Barack Hussein Obama, brilliantly crowned by his Victory Speech of November 4, 2008, in Chicagos Grant Park, reveals, among other rhetorical features like those discussed earlier, a consistent theme, developed over the course of the entire process in response to the emerging circumstances of the campaign and the venues of Obamas rallies, in conjunction with an overarching strategy, which scholars of Baroque literature have often characterized as the coming together of two movements: first, the dissemination of arguments; secondly, a complementary gathering of arguments. This is precisely the characteristic tenor of this final oration, the Victory Speech. The President Elect opens with an affirmation of the continuing force of the dream of our Founders and other great men, such as Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, a preacher from Atlanta. Those doubting the dream have finally been put right by American votes. To flesh out this concept of electoral vindication, Obamas logographer again resorts to the figure of anaphora, four times repeating the same clause: Its the answer The answer is change, still the true genius of America. The winning candidate, via the figure of apostrophe, then directly addresses his hearers- whether listening to him in Grant Park itself or by the medium of electromagnetic waves-as the you that has made all this possible. This apostrophe does not disclose a recriminatio, like that which even on this joyous occasion Obama has cast in the direction of the cynics, but a veritable encomium or panegyric of those who have raised him to office, with their donations, their supportive looks and applause, and their votes, which are decisive for Obama to take on challenges as vast as two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. To personify the unanimous people as an individual, he proposes a new evidentia, Ann Nixon Cooper, who that afternoon had stood in line to vote, 106 years of life behind her. The cold shower of reality nonetheless encourages Obama to rebuild the strong  bonds of alliance between President and people invoked by yes we can, the slogan which now, looking forward, takes on the shape of a rhetorical variatio: I promise you, we as a people will get there. YouTube provides a record of how Obamas promise was met by the audiences chorus of yes we can. This was precisely the closing phrase of the entire campaign, at the very moment at which the candidate was invested with the charisma of victory. His speech was again a masterpiece of that effective communicative technology that is none other than ancient rhetoric, as revived in the Internet Galaxy. Today, Obamas speechwriters continue to exploit all the resources of the art of rhetoric, including the play on words that contrasts the interests of Wall Street-the inner sanctuary of capitalism-with those of Main Street, which stands for American towns and small cities, the emblem of the common citizenry.

Kingdom Of Heaven | Summary | Analysis

Kingdom Of Heaven | Summary | Analysis Kingdom of Heaven by Ridley Scott is a modern film about the Crusades, set in 1184 centered on Balian of Ibelin. The film is presented as a conscious piece of historical fiction and the majority of the film follows closely with historical records. (Wikipedia) William Monahan, the films writer, has included several fictional characters and dramatized the relationships between characters to increase the films artistic and commercial appeal. Ridley Scott makes an effort to promote Christian/Muslim peace in the Holy Land and downplays traditional Religious viewpoints. The films cinematography is visually stunning and the battle scenes are intense. (Radcliffe) Overall, the film is enjoyable to watch, although it is quite long. The Directors Cut Edition has a running time of 189 Minutes. Kingdom of Heaven is a fictional historical action film with the main theme of promoting peaceful coexistence between religions. The film begins in a remote French village as Balian, a blacksmith, is devastated over his wifes suicide. Balian meets a group of Crusaders led by Baron Godfrey of Ibelin, who reveals himself to be Balians father. This part of the storyline deviates from historical records because Baron Godfrey is a fictional character and Balian is from Ibelin. (Wikipedia Balian de Ibelin) After killing the town priest, Balian joins Baron Godfrey on his Crusade to Jerusalem with hope of redemption and forgiveness for his sins. During Balians quest to Jerusalem he is Knighted and after his father Godfreys death, is recognized as Baron of Ibelin in Jerusalem. Scott depicts Jerusalem as a city where Christians and Saracens live in peace under King Baldwin IV. King Baldwin IV the Leper ruled Jerusalem from 1174-1185. Jerusalems political arena is complex, as the Knights Templar, led by Guy de Lusignan and Raynald of Chà ¢tillon, Tiberius, the Marshal of Jerusalem, and Princess Sybilla all are seeking to increase their own power. The Knights Templar led by the films Arch-Villian, Guy de Lusignan are the primary Villians and portrayed by Scott as mercenaries, seeking profit and attacking Muslims because God wills it. (Kingdom of Heaven 2005) Princess Sybilla and Balian begin a relationship when she visits Ibelin. This part of the story is fictional and my feeling is that Scott intended to make the film more appealing to women by adding a romantic affair between the main characters. The Knights Templar attack a Muslim trade caravan that is under protection of Saladin, the leader of the Muslim army. Saladin is a Muslim historical figure that led the Muslim Army in opposition to the Crusaders and ruled over Egypt, Syria, and Damascus. (Maalouf 1984) This attack sets into motion a course of events that ends with Saladin gaining control of Jerusalem in the films final scenes. Saladin attacks Kerak, Raynalds castle as retribution for his crimes. During the battle, Balian and his men are captured while trying to defend the villagers. Because Balian had displayed mercy by releasing one of Saladins servants earlier in the film, Saladin releases Balian and a temporary truce is negotiated between the Muslims and Christians. This is an example of the films main theme and prominent sub-theme of doing good deeds for others. Shortly after the battle, King Baldwin passes away, leaving Sybillas son, Baldwin V King of Jerusalem. Historical records indicate that Saladin did attac k Kerak in 1183 and 1184, but was repelled by the Crusaders. (Wikipedia Siege of Kerak) In addition, King Baldwin IV did not pass away immediately after the Siege of Kerak, he passed away in 1185. Scott indicates a bias toward the Muslims in this part of the film; he depicts the Knights Templar and Raynald as warmongers and the films villains. Raynald and Guy are against peace between the Christians and Muslims. King Baldwin Vs reign over Jerusalem is temporary because Princess Sybilla euthanizes her son out of compassion, as she finds that he is also a Leper. This part of the film is fictional, King Baldwin V was not a Leper, but he did pass away in 1186, just one year after becoming King. (Wikipedia King Baldwin V) Sybilla crowns Guy de Lusignan as King and he immediately instructs Raynald to wage war against Saladin. Raynald and Guy lead the Knights Templar to battle against Balians advice. Saladin massacres the Raynalds Army at the Battle of Hattin and personally beheads Raynald. This was Saladins plan all along; he knew Guy and the Knights Templar would attack first. After Balian survives an assassination attempt ordered by Guy, he joins Tiberius in Jerusalem which is now virtually defenseless against Saladins Army. By showing the aftermath of the Battle of Hattin, that God has punished an evil man and his followers belligerent actions with death, Scott reinforces the films primary them e of encouraging peaceful coexistence between religions and sub-theme, that doing good deeds for others is being religious. Tiberius and his men abandon Balian and the people of Jerusalem, leaving no Knights to defend the city. This part of the film shows how Balians values have changed during the film. Before Balian left on his Crusade, he had lost faith in religion and himself, and now he is a confident and selfless leader, who stays in Jerusalem only to defend the cities people. (Kingdom of Heaven 2005) Scott shows a bias toward the Christian point of view in the films final scenes and audience should feel a strong sympathy to the Christians as they are defending innocent people. In preparation for the battle with Saladin, Balian Knights many of the villagers to improve morale. Balian is outnumbered by Saladins men and his only hope is to protect the city long enough to force Saladin to make a deal to protect the people of Jerusalem. Balian and his men successfully withstand a barrage of bombs from Saladins Trebuchets and attacks from his Army for three days. During the battle, Balian is a successful Commander, although he is injured while fighting with a Muslim. On the third day, Saladin is able to breach Jerusalems walls overpower Balians men. Balian is able to negotiate the peaceful surrender of Jerusalem with Saladin only because he threatens to destroy the city and all religious artifacts, both Muslim and Christian if the battle continues. This scene is based in fact as records indicate that Balian de Ibelin did negotiate the surrender of Jerusalem to Saladin, but that Saladin was offered a ransom for all Christians to leave Jerusalem unharmed. (Wikipedia Balian de Ibelin) The film ends with Balian and Sybilla in the remote French Village where the story began. King Richard of England and his men ride along searching for the defender of Jerusalem and Balian replies, I am a blacksmith. (Kingdom of Heaven 2005 ) Ridley Scott conveys his primary theme with his final message that Nearly a thousand years later, peace in the Kingdom of Heaven remains elusive. Throughout the film we see evidence that Scott is promoting peaceful coexistence between religions. King Baldwin IV states, A man must choose to do good deeds instead of evil and Your Soul is in control of your own. Balian consistently supports this theme by resisting violence, by refusing to fight over his horse, releasing Guy de Langston after the final duel and many other times during the film. Ridley Scott has disguised Kingdom of Heaven as a visually pleasing historical action film; Scott wants his audience to realize the futility of war and the value of peaceful coexistence between all religions. http://blogcritics.org/video/article/movie-review-kingdom-of-heaven1/ Maalouf, Amin. 1984. Crusades Through Arab Eyes. Online E-Reserve Edition. London: Al Saqi Books. Kingdom of Heaven: Directors Cut Edition. 2005. Directed by Ridley Scott. 189 Min. Century City, CA: 20th Century Fox. Blu-Ray.