Impact of Applied Agro-Cooperative Credit and Banking on Farmers and Farming

People depend for good introduction in Agro-Farming not only on good seeds, good fertilizers, good irrigation and good Agro-technology; but they need also short-term, medium and long term loans to meet their other demands at farm level in farming. This genuine situational scene has a power to present an impact of applied cooperative credit and banking on farmers in farming from the point of origin of the Indian Cooperative Credit (a facile credit) movement from the period of working of NIDISH in Madras Province in 1882 to 1904 till date. This is a good Genesis of this issue with a scientific periodicity which may be perused in following section. An Iota in the facile cooperative credit scene of madras province Nidish a socio-economic social group were working in very active form like the primary cooperative credit societies at farm level in rural Madras province in 1882-1884. Madras Provinces 1882-1884 :- Fedaric Nicholson’s visit from India to Germany to study the working of The Raiffieson Model Rural Cooperative Credit societies and came back with a finding â€Å"Find Raiffieson† because he found 100% similarities in need of Agro – financing for Rural India, with cultural similarities at great scale in rural India and Rural Germany. In India also there was great exploitation done by private moneylenders by charging 75% rate of interest and in Germany also such high interest was taken by Jews/Nazis from Rural Germany Farmers. The profit motive and usurious practices were similar in India and Germany. In 1882 to 1884 Fedaric Nicholson came back from Germany in Madras Province and recommended to the government to start primary Agro-Cooperative credit and Banking instead of Nidish to protect rural people from great exploitation and usurious practices of private money lender. His report and recommendations were accepted by the Madras provincial government under the control of British government. This was also studied and accepted by the government of Bombay province Maharashtra due to great vitality in his recommendations in public interest. In 1896, the British government appointed Edward committee (sir Edward as chairman) to study the Indian Rural conditions, needs and scope of working of the primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit societies under the control of British government for the people to work with cooperation of the people for the people with democratic management at grass root level. The Edward Committee 1896-1904 surveyed the Indian Rural agro-banking system and passed first cooperative Societies Act 1904 which was accepted and made applicable for greater India (from Kabul to Burma) with democratic centralised cooperative credit banking; viz; from Kabul to Burma, if any primary Agricultural cooperative society was organised, then it was bound to get registration from Delhi only. This was a real scene from 1904-1908. The distance factor was main problem for for mation and registration of Agro-primary Cooperative Credit Societies. In this era cooperative credit was considered as a facile credit and cooperative banking was accepted a means to achieve the desired goal in a desired time. In 1908, Lawd recommended to add cooperative Audit, with cooperative credit and banking by increasing two sections in the cooperative Act of 1904. Thus total sections from 48 to 50 were made in the first cooperative society’s act of 1904 in 1908-1912. This added great strength to Agro-cooperative credit and banking system for Rural India. In 1912, the cooperative society Act was again examined by Sir Malcolm I. C. S and others. They suggested to add three sections more for facilitating cooperative credit, Consumption, and Marketing to the people of Rural India to protect them from exploitation of private traders and took them away from cruel clutches of exploiters by using cooperative organisation of the people for the people. It was accepted by the government in public interest. In 1914-1915, the cooperation was made state sponsored subject to give chance to the state (provincial governments) to frame their own cooperative society Acts on the basis of this model Act of 1904 with due consideration of the interpersonal situations of the concern state in preparation of their own cooperative societies act. It gave good chance to states from Kabul to Burma to register primary Agro-cooperative credit societies for credit and banking activities according to their interpersonal conditions to work and upgrade socio-economic life of rural people by effective working of primary Agro-cooperative credit and banking business. There was a rapid growth of members of primary Agro-cooperative credit and banking business and growth also found in qualities of services from 1912-1915 in cooperative credit movement in India. The first world war of 1915 gave great shock for the growth of Rural Agro-Cooperative banking due to more involvement of rural people in Indian Army. Therefore there was stunted growth of working of Agro-cooperative credit and banking from 1915 to 1925. There was Second World War in 1930-1935. The Burma separated from India in 1920 and Shyam, Rangun and Kabul were also separated in 1937-38 and became independent countries. These newly made countries accepted and used Indian model cooperative society Act of 1912-15 to make their own cooperative acts. In 1939-40 in India, the Vijayraghavacharya committee recommended to start linking of cooperative credit with Agro-production and marketing in Madras provinces in Salem district. It was applied in Salem district only for testing. India became independent country in 1947 from the clutches of britishood separate it. The public finance sub-committee (headed by Dr. D. R. Godgil) in 1946 submitted its report and recommended to allow crop loan systems to Rural people (farmers) to bring new change in farm financing by deciding Maximum Cooperative Credit Limit (M. C. L. ) per farmer, per acre per crop per season to upgrade economic strength of rural borrowers on the one hand by weathering the deep rooted exploitation of private moneylenders which gave a good chance for effective working of rural Agro-cooperative credit and banking on the other. It was again reviewed by Thakurdas Mehta committee in 1948. This committee recommended starting its application from April 1950 in First Five Year Plan. At this time Ready Recknor was not made crop-wise for farmers but Rs. 500 M. C. L. (Maximum Credit Limit) per acre per crop was approved to apply from 1951 to 1954 in the first five year plan for good financing to farmers through primary Agro-Cooperative credit societies. It was brought in real practices. In 1950-54, A. G. Gorwala I. C. S was appointed to do All India Rural Credit Survey to judge the extent of credit distribution by the cooperative credit societies in presence of several moneylenders. He did survey in 75 districts of India, in 400 villages and 127475 farmers families who found 3. 5% farm financing and banking was done since 1904 to 1954 by cooperative credit societies and 96. 5% was done by non-cooperative agencies. The extent of linking of cooperative credit with farm production and cooperative marketing was found 1 % only. There was major failure of cooperative credit and banking role in rural India in socio-economic upgradation process for farming community. The AIRCS committee 1954 gave remark, â€Å"Cooperative have failed but must succeed. † The AIRCS committee recommended starting CCR (controlled credit recovery) scheme under integrated Approach, viz: linking of cooperative credit with farm production and cooperative marketing to upgrade socio-economic life of farmers on the one hand and quality of services of cooperative credit and banking on the other. This recommendation was applied in second five year plan from 1955 to 1960. It was found that linking of cooperative credit and marketing increased from 1% to 11% and extent of cooperative credit distribution was increased from 3. 5% to 30% and maximum credit limit (MCL) increased from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1200 per crop per acre per year. This gradual growth gave great encouragement to cooperative credit and banking system in farm financing at a great length. This had motivated for a reliable and very valid effective approach through cooperative credit and banking for rural reorientation as well as upgradation of socio-economic change of rural people in rural India. This indicated a good desired shifting of cooperative credit business and gave a motivation to cooperative sector to face challenge for a desired change at farm level in the system of farming with Agro-technology. If we examine socio-economic changes from 1950 to 2012 or from first five year plan to 11th five year plan through applied cooperative credit and banking, the desired changes are found based on multiple variables with varieties of risks (challenges for changes). This scene is inviting attention of planners, surveyors, researchers and the governments to identify factors or obstacles affecting in achieving the desired results. Nobody has made any attempt on this issue at a great length till date to identify the factors affecting the quality of socio-economic change operation of cooperative credit and rural banking practices. There is urgent need and demand of the rural people, primary Agro-cooperative credit societies and applied cooperative banking to identify the problem raising factors and discover reliable and valid solutions to achieve the desired goal in the desired time. Therefore, an attempt is needed to make on this issue. The present study aims to work on this issue at a great length. Objectives of the study Broadly speaking, this study has main following objectives:- 1. To identify/ analyse the reliable and valid factors affecting the working of applied cooperative credit and banking at grassroots level and also to identify socio-economic changes at farm level and; 2. To explore practical possible solutions as remedial measures to solve the problems at grass root levels, to do socio-economic upgradation of farmers and their farming with help of modern Agro-technology and rational farm financing. Research Design The present study is going to do Exploratory-cum-Descriptive research work. It is a systematic and purposeful empirical enquiry; it includes surveys and fact-findings enquiries of different kinds. The main characteristics of this method are that the researcher has no control over the variables. It only reports what has happened or what is happening. In which the researcher does not have direct control over independent variables either what has happened or what is happening. But in this solution by the research an attempt has to make to search reliable and valid factors to discover a good solution for solving the problems. Location of the Universe/ Population B. R. College Agra of the Agra University as centre for the study and district Mewat Haryana has been selected by the purposive sampling method as definite universe of the study. Sampling design:- Sample selected by multistage stratified disproportionate random sampling. Total number of farmers members involved in CCR scheme in Agro-cooperative credit and banking are 380. Their size group and covered credit operation is given as under:- Size groupSize group of farmersTotal Farmers membersTotal Land covered by members in acresSample fractionTotal farmers A0-2. acres14028020%700 B2. 5-5. 0 acres12036020%600 C5. 0-7. 5 acres10060020%500 D7. 5-above acres2012020%100 Total members380126020%1900 Data Collection: – Research instruments:- Schedule-cum-questionnaire has been used for data collection. The Complete participant observation method and interview technique has been used for data collection. We have done pretesting at small scale to judge the effectiveness of the research ins truments. It has been found very correct and useful for the work.

More Machine Now Than Man

Laura Frost, in her essay â€Å"Huxley's Feelies: The Cinema of Sensation in Brave New World,† states that â€Å"Brave New World has typically been read as â€Å"the classic denunciation of mass culture in the interwar years†Ã¢â‚¬  (Frost 448). This is true to an extent, as Frost points out. The novel explores the effects of mass culture and the implementation of eugenics and mass education to serve an industrialized society of consumption. Aspects of culture, such as the arts, have been reduced to pleasure seeking, and the population as a whole is kept within the machine of culture by means of pharmaceuticals.Much of this vision is drawn from Huxley’s experiences during the interwar period and for that reason, an exploration of his reactions to mass culture and his philosophy of culture prove useful in understanding the novel. This essay will be exploring Brave New World according to Huxley’s reactions to the culture of the 1920s and the early 1930s, es pecially to aspects of mass culture, consumerism and scientific and technological approaches to human growth and reproduction.Huxley wrote a number of essays in the late 1920s and early 1930s that deal with these issues and several of these serve as the primary focus of this essay. â€Å"Prophecies of the future,† writes Huxley in a 1927 essay, â€Å"if they are to be intelligent, not merely fantastic, must be based on a study of the present. The future is the present projected† (â€Å"The Outlook for American Culture† 187). This sentiment must be taken to heart if one is then to read a prophetic book by the author of the quote.Aldous Huxley was living and writing during the so-called â€Å"Jazz Age,† an age of increasing commercialism, consumerism and mechanization. The age saw a massive boost in the production of consumer goods and technologies, idealized in the streamlined assembly lines of Henry Ford, which provided goods for consumption, but demanded a larger worker class to fuel the boom. The further development of mass culture, thanks to the growth of music and film industries, was spurned by this growth in the working classes. Aldous Huxley’s novel is, at least to a degree, a product of this present.Consumerism and materialism are central to Brave New World; any work that features Henry Ford as a god figure would surely have to be. Huxley writes in 1931: The God of Industry supplies his worshipers with objects and can only exist on condition that his gifts are gratefully accepted. In the eyes of an Industriolater, the first duty of man is to collect as many objects as he can (â€Å"On the Charms of History† 131). Huxley acknowledges that capitalists and industrialists need people to want the stuff produced.He argues that Ford, to whom Huxley refers rather sarcastically as â€Å"the saint of the new dispensation,† and other industrialists have no choice but to hate history, literature, the arts and others because all these â€Å"mental activities†¦ distract mankind from an acquisitive interest in objects† (131-132). The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning in the opening section of the novel speaks of how mental activities in the lower classes, in this case a Romantic notion of nature, are discouraged in the hyper-consumerist society in Brave New World: A love of Nature keeps no factories busy.It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at any rate among the lower classes; to abolish the love of nature but not the tendency to consume transport†¦ We condition the masses to hate the country†¦ but simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports. At the same time we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport (23). The goal in the society of the novel is to adhere to what Huxley argues is the first duty of man to industrialists, owning and using the g oods produced by industry.Every aspect of the World State is crafted to maintain production and/or to encourage consumption. Those aspects of culture that occupy surplus time, the time spent not producing, have two functions: the consumption of material or the sedation or comforting of the producer so that he or she will continue to produce. The latter function is expressed by the Twentieth-Century theorist, Theodore Adorno. Shane Gunster, in his book Capitalizing on Culture: Critical Theory  for Cultural Studies, summarizes Adorno’s theory involving this idea of â€Å"free-time† Bored by the endless repetition of the assembly line or sales counter, people want novelty in their leisure time†¦ While leisure masquerades as ‘free-time,’ it is an open secret that its true purpose is to replenish one’s working energies†¦Work and leisure are bound together in an unholy alliance: the culture industry openly celebrates its independence from prod uction, selling its products as ‘freedom’ from the drudgery of the everyday, all the while secretly delivering its consumers ever-deeper into the clutches of a world from which they so anxiously desire to escape (Gunster 42-43). This theory of the â€Å"culture industry,† feeding the consumer with entertainment during free-time so that the work will not suffer, is the driving force behind the Fordian culture that Huxley writes about in the 1920s and 30s and satirizes in Brave New World .Adorno, whose major works were not written until the Second World War, is analyzing a reality of mechanized society and mass culture that Huxley wrote of years before. As a writer during the â€Å"Jazz Age,† Huxley would bear witness to the rise of commercial music as the record industry created a popular music that Huxley viewed in a negative light.In a 1925 essay on music, Huxley describes a piece of popular music: There is a certain jovial, bouncing, hoppety little tune with which any one who has spent even a few weeks in Germany†¦ must be familiar. Its name is â€Å"Ach, du lieber Augustin. † It is a merry little affair in three-four time; in rhythm and melody so simple, that the village idiot could sing it after a first hearing; in sentiment so innocent that the heart of the most susceptible maiden would not quicken by a beat a minute at the sound of it. Rum-tiddle, Um tum tum, Um tum tum†¦ By the very frankness of its cheerful imbecility the thing disarms all criticism. (Collected Essays 173) Huxley finds this example of popular music simplistic and moronic, not even worth a real critique.He continues on the subject by comparing the tune to an eighteenth-century waltz of the same name and to all music prior to the mid-Nineteenth century: The difference between â€Å"Ach, du lieber Augustin† and any waltz composed at any date from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards, is the difference between one piece of music al most completely empty of emotional content and another, densely saturated with amorous sentiment, languor and voluptuousness. (173) Huxley then expands his critique to criticize all contemporary popular music as lacking the meaningful emotional content that was, he feels, characteristic of all pre-mid-nineteenth-century popular music.In his essay â€Å"The Music Industry,† published in 1933, the year after Brave New World’s publication, Huxley writes about the short life-span of popular music and declares his era as â€Å"an age of rapid technical progress, and the desire for incessant novelty is a natural product of environmental change† and adds that the tendency for novelty increases consumption and is therefore, â€Å"encouraged by manufacturers† (â€Å"The Music Industry† 101). The music show that Lenina and Henry attend towards the beginning of the novel echoes Huxley’s fears from â€Å"The Music Industry† regarding the need for novelty in popular culture. The advertisements for the show â€Å"invitingly† declare it, in all-capital letters, â€Å"LONDON’S FINEST SCENT AND COLOR ORGAN. ALL THE LATEST SYNTHETIC MUSIC† (BNW 76).There is an emphasis placed on the â€Å"latest,† favoring that novelty which fuels consumption. Again there is an echo in Adorno.Gunster looks at an essay Adorno published titled â€Å"On Popular Music†: On the one hand, he argues, the ‘fundamental’ property of popular music is that it is unremittingly standardized: ‘every detail is substitutable; it serves its function only as a cog in a machine’†¦ On the other hand, marketability demands that repetition be hidden beneath the illusion of individuality, difference, and novelty (Gunster 24). Adorno’s â€Å"culture industry† is again reflected in the popular music. His descriptions of popular music are very similar to way Huxley describes popular music as si mplistic and standardized. Likewise, both acknowledge that the culture industry markets its goods to consumers based on supposed novelty.Within Brave New World, Huxley’s critique of popular music comes through in his descriptions of the music of the World State. The music, like the example song Huxley described from Germany in 1925, is cheerful, with simple, formulaic, verses and chorus reeling with meaningless phrases and clichà ©. An excellent example of this is the Solidarity Hymn of â€Å"Orgy-porgy† Orgy porgy, Ford and fun, Kiss the girls and make them One. Boys at one with girls at peace; Orgy-porgy gives release. (BNW 84) This song not only contains little real meaning, a critique that Huxley aims at all popular music, but also contains, as most music in the novel does, strong sexuality.In that same essay on popular music, Huxley is critical of what he calls a â€Å"certain vibrant sexuality† of popular music describing it as â€Å"vulgar,† †Å"savage† and â€Å"barbaric† (Collected Essays 174-175) and maintains that the sexuality and barbarism are pervasive: Whether, having grown inured to such violent and purely physiological stimuli as the clashing and drumming, the rhythmic throbbing and wailing glissandos of modern jazz music can supply, the world will ever revert to something less crudely direct, is a matter about which one cannot prophesy. (175)This description of the clashing drums and glissandos certainly is echoed in the scene wherein Lenina and Henry watch â€Å"Calvin Stopes and His Sixteen Sexaphonists† with the sexaphones (clearly a play on one of staples of jazz music, the saxophone) â€Å"wail[ing] like melodious cats† with moaning tenors and altos â€Å"as though the little death were upon them. † (BNW 76). The implication is that of sex and orgasm in music form: Aldous Huxley’s vision of jazz music taken to the extreme of â€Å"purely physiological. † This critique of mass music is also repeated in a supposed alternative to mass culture, the â€Å"Savage Reservation.†Huxley, at the time of writing the novel, had never been to New Mexico, in spite of the fact that his friend D. H. Lawrence owned a ranch there beginning in 1924. Peter Firchow, in his essay â€Å"Wells and Lawrence in Brave New World† writes that the fact troubled Huxley, but quotes the author as having done â€Å"’an enormous [amount] of reading up on New Mexico’† since he had not yet been there (Firchow 272). Huxley relied on Lawrence’s writings about the Pueblo Indians as well as Smithsonian reports of the place (Firchow 272-273). In spite of of his relative inexperience with historical New Mexican native cultures, Huxley creates a culture for the Pueblo and, in doing so, creates one that is at times incredibly similar to World State.Lenina draws comparison between the drums of the Pueblo religious dancing to the music of the Solidarity Service hymns in the World States â€Å"religion† of Fordism. Lenina liked the drums. Shutting her eyes she abandoned herself to their soft repeated thunder, allowed it to invade her consciousness more and more completely, till at last there was nothing left in the world but that one deep pulse of sound. It reminded her reassuringly of the synthetic noises made at Solidarity Services and Ford’s Day celebrations. â€Å"Orgy-porgy,† she whispered to herself. The drums beat out just the same rhythms (BNW 113). Here we have a sexual response to music as Lenina abandons herself and allows the music to take her, in spite of it coming from a foreign place and culture.The drums here are strikingly reminiscent of the way that Huxley describes the Jazz and popular music of the 1920s. He talks about how popular culture has â€Å"grown inured to such violent and purely physiological stimuli as the clashing and drumming† and this he attributes to the influ ence of â€Å"barbarous people† (Collected Essays 175). By supplying the Indians and the mass culture of the world state with similar music, music that Huxley himself finds void of real emotion, he is equating the two cultures intellectually. The Reservation within Huxley’s novel becomes a mirror to the World State culture, an echo of Huxley’s fear of growing barbarism in popular culture. There are some points of contrast between the two.For instance, materials in the reservation are made by the individuals and are valued enough to be repaired rather than replaced as is the expectation in the World State when, say, an article of clothing becomes worn out. There is a passage on labor wherein John is working clay and through this action he becomes â€Å"filled with an intense, absorbing happiness† (BNW 134). However, these differences are superficial. There is still a value placed on productivity just as in the World State.John is made happier and feels mor e a part of his culture when he is allowed to work the clay. Just as the World State has the Community sings to promote â€Å"Community, Identity and Stability†, religion of the pueblo serves a function for productivity. John explains the whippings that Lenina and Bernard witness as being â€Å"For the sake of the pueblo – to make rain come and corn grow.†Adherence to religion provides Stability and Community for the Indians. To further the comparison between the Savage culture and the World State, Huxley gives the Indians their own drug, mescal, to help cope with life just as soma does the job for the World State citizens. Similarly, John’s position within, or rather without, the Pueblo society is similar to Bernard’s position within the World State culture. Both are outcasts for their appearances and therefore both seem more alone than the others; â€Å"If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely. They’re beastly to oneâ₠¬  (137). This mentality mirrors the values of Community and Identity contained within the World State’s motto.Identify as an individual and you are hurting the community; â€Å"when the individual feels, the community reels† is what Lenina recites, which is most likely some hypnopaedic verse (94). These characteristics, exemplified most clearly by the music of the two cultures, show that the reservation society is not a true alternative to the degradation of culture prevalent in the World State; it is just many of the same processes in a different form and to a different extent. A second form of mass culture within the World State is the â€Å"feelies. † Laura asserts that â€Å"[t]he ‘feelies’, a cinema of titillating, pansensual stimulation, are clearly a response to the ‘talkies,’† and that Huxley is extending the inclusion of sound in film to the rest of the senses (Frost 447).Huxley’s reaction to the â€Å"talkies, † specifically to the first â€Å"talkie† The Jazz Singer, expressed in an essay titled â€Å"Silence is Golden† is, as Frost points out, one of â€Å"scorn and fury† (Frost 443). He is absolutely disgusted by the film as he writes: Oh, those mammy-songs, those love-longings, those loud hilarities! How was it possible that human emotions intrinsically decent could be so ignobly parodied? I felt like a man who, having asked for wine, is offered a brimming bowl of hog wash. And not even fresh hog wash. Rancid hog wash, decaying hog wash. (â€Å"Silence is Golden† 21) He sees in film the same degeneration of human emotion and integrity that he sees in popular music.That the first â€Å"talkie† he saw was about a singer of popular music only solidified his dislike and in the end he feels â€Å"ashamed for [himself] for listening to such things, for even being a member of the species to which these things are addressed† (â€Å"Silence is G olden 23). The feelies in Brave New World are described in similar fashion as Huxley’s description of The Jazz Singer. The film that John and Lenina see, â€Å"Three Weeks in a Helicopter,† is described as having an â€Å"extremely simple† plot, with the real focus placed on the effects of the movie, as with the â€Å"famous bearskin†¦ every hair of which could be separately and distinctly felt† (168).The images and effects come off as â€Å"more solid-looking than they would have seemed in actual flesh and blood, far more real than reality† just as Huxley, whose vision had worsened following an eye infection during his teenage years, described the images in the â€Å"talkie† A beneficent providence has dimmed my powers of sight, so that, at a distance of more than four or five yards, I am blissfully unaware of the average human countenance. At the cinema, however, there is no escape†¦ Nothing short of total blindness can preserve one from the spectacle. The jazzers were forced on me; I regarded them with fascinated horror. (â€Å"Silence is Golden† 21) â€Å"More solid-looking† than real life is exactly the reaction Huxley had to seeing the film, since the real world was not that solid to him because of his impaired vision.Frost accepts that Huxley is at least â€Å"half feigning† his reactions to the films (Frost 443) but she points to a moment in Huxley’s â€Å"Silence is Golden† when he condemns film as â€Å"the latest and most frightful creation-saving device for the production of standardized amusement† (â€Å"Silence† 20). The standardization of amusement is what frightens Huxley, be it in music or film or in literature. In his fictionalized culture, these devices for amusement standardization are taken to the extremes. They are â€Å"more than human,† more real than reality at the same time that they are void of substance. The subject of substan ce within art is brought to the foreground in the conversation between John and Mustafa Mond in the later parts of Brave New World. The Controller argues, â€Å"You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art,† and he concludes â€Å"We’ve sacrificed the high arts.We have the feelies and the scent organ instead† (BNW 220). There is a hierarchy wherein pleasure replaces the need for aesthetics. John responds by stating that the â€Å"feelies† and the other elements of mass culture in the World State do not mean anything. Mond then replies that these things â€Å"mean a lot of agreeable sensations to the audience† (221). The feelies are horrifying to John because the end result is not knowledge of the human condition, but rather pleasure seeking. And in the world of hyper-pleasure, it is difficult to find anything on which to base meaningful art. That is the problem Helmholtz Watson struggles with: â€Å"writing w hen there’s nothing to say† (221).In an essay from 1923, Huxley writes â€Å"The poetry of pure sensation, of sounds and bright colors, is common enough nowadays; but amusing as we may find it for the moment, it cannot hold the interest for long† (Collected Essays 93). One can easily draw comparison to the â€Å"feelies† and the music of the World State here as something that amuses but that fails to, as John or even Mustafa Mond might say, mean anything beyond itself. The inclusion of Helmholtz Watson brings up another issue of mass culture, namely the place, if there is one, for the intellectual or the artist within mass culture.Towards the end of the novel, Bernard and Helmholtz are to be sent to an island. Mustafa Mond speaks of Bernard’s fate He’s being sent to an island. That’s to say, he’s being sent to a place where he’ll meet the most interesting set of men and women to be found anywhere in the world.All the peop le who, for one reason or another, have got too self-consciously individual to fit into community-life. All the people who aren’t satisfied with orthodoxy, who’ve got independent ideas of their own. Every one, in a word, who’s any one (BNW 227). This is a clear separation between the intellectual free-thinkers and the mass population. As Mond points out, there is no room in the World State for individuality and the search for truth and meaning since â€Å"truth’s a menace. † He concludes by adding that Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can’t (228).In the movement towards mass culture, artists and intellectuals, like the aspiring poet Helmholtz Watson, and individualists have no place. In a 1929 essay Huxley raises this question of the possibility for the individual in a mechanized state Is it possible for a human being to be both a man and a citizen of a mechanized state? Is it possible to combine the material advantages which accrue to those living in a mechanized world with the psychological advantages enjoyed by those who live in pre-mechanical surroundings? Such are the questions which future politicians will have to ask and effectively answer in terms of laws and regulations. What sort of answers will they give? Who knows? Not I at any rate.I am even a little doubtful whether the questions are answerable (â€Å"Machinery, Psychology, and Politics† 221). Huxley sees the war between individual and the industrialized state but provides no solutions to this issue and even has doubts whether the issue will ever be resolved. In his novel he has the rulers simply separate those that become too individualistic from the mass-minded because they are dangerous to the sedated, pleasure-driven masses. Furthermore, Huxley fears that through mass educ ation, those intellectuals might be eliminated. In a 1927 essay titled â€Å"Education† Huxley writes on the defects of Mass education Under the present system of mass education by classes too much stress is laid on the teaching and too little on active learning.The child is not encouraged to discover things on his own account. He learns to rely on outside help, not on his own powers, thus losing intellectual independence and all the capacity to judge for himself. The over-taught child is the father of newspaper-reading, advertisement-believing, propaganda-swallowing, demagogue-led man†¦ (â€Å"Education† 205-206) This analysis of mass education makes the learner dependent upon the system, which Huxley sees as fueling advertising and propaganda. Huxley wrote in 1929 on the effects of mass education on society We have had universal education for about fifty years; the supply of [Isaac] Newtons, however, has not perceptibly increased.Everybody, it is true, can now r ead – with the result that newspapers of an unbelievable stupidity and baseness have circulations of millions. Everybody can read – so it pays rich men to print lies wholesale. Everybody can read so men make fortunes by inventing specious reasons why people should buy things they don’t really want (â€Å"The New Salvation† 212-213). Huxley’s view on mass education is that it does not better society. No more geniuses are to be found in a wholly educated society as in a partially educated one. The effect in his mind is that capitalists have more means through which they can influence people into desiring and buying the goods they produce.His obvious prejudices and elitism aside, the note about separate newspapers that target certain intellectual class levels of society is reflected in the various periodicals aimed at the classes of the World State like The Delta Mirror or The Gamma Gazette. The process is taken one step further in Brave New World by having the education system emphasize the value of consumption of goods, rather than that consumption value being pushed by the writers of the newspapers as Huxley wrote about in 1929. Consumerism is more standardized. Education is not the only means of control of the masses employed to maintain production, the population itself is in the management of the state.The populous is bred systematically in a process much like that of a Fordian assembly line: using bottles and genetic manipulation instead of the natural process of human reproduction. With the bottling, the creation of the sterile â€Å"free-martins† and the rigid implementation of contraceptives like the â€Å"Malthusian belts,† the population of the world is entirely in control of the industrialized state. This culture also employs scientific methods such as â€Å"Bokanovsky’s Process† and Pavlovian conditioning to carefully craft a society of rigid castes. The function of education is to teach the members of those castes their respective roles and the roles of others and the necessity of these roles in the greater context.This process of industrialized reproduction makes raising and educating citizens much easier for the World State since they can begin that conditioning during the embryonic stage of production. Additionally, the levels of society, the castes alpha through gamma, can be predetermined and separated strictly. Education is begun at the fetal level, thanks to hypnopaedia, saving time. Since reproduction is standardized and contained wholly within a factory, the leaders of the mechanized society do not have to wait until a semblance of character starts to show in people to condition them towards a certain way of life; the genetics do that for them. This process reflects Huxley’s views of the potential of science from his 1930 predictive essay â€Å"Babies – State Property.†He writes Psychologists having shown the enormous importance in ev ery human existence of the first years of childhood, the state will obviously try to get hold of its victims as soon as possible. The process of standardization will begin at the very moment of birth – that is to say, if it does not begin before birth! (231). He goes on to predict that this process of standardization at or before birth will be destructive to the family. But, unlike in his novel, he predicts that the family â€Å"will emerge again when the danger is past† (231). This careful selection of genetic material is the idea of eugenics, a term that is hard to separate from the fascists of the 1930s and 1940s, especially the National Socialists in Germany. Prior to that period though, Huxley often expounded on the ideas of eugenics.In a 1927 essay called â€Å"A Note on Eugenics† Huxley expresses a common fear of the time period that scientific and technological processes were preserving â€Å"physically and mentally defective individuals† and that the quality of human reproduction was diminishing (â€Å"A Note on Eugenics† 281) In her essay â€Å"Designing a Brave New World: Eugenics, Politics and Fiction,† Joanne Woiak addresses this subject by writing â€Å"[Huxley’s] ongoing support for so-called race betterment was typical of left-leaning British intellectuals in the inter-war period† (Woiak 106).Huxley’s own feelings on the subject seem mixed. Also in 1927, Huxley wrote an essay dealing with the subject of equality and democracy We no longer believe in equality and perfectibility. We know that nurture cannot alter nature and that no amount of education or good government will make men completely virtuous and reasonable, or abolish their animal instincts. In the Future that we envisage, eugenics will be practiced in order to improve the human breed and the instincts will not be ruthlessly repressed but, as far as possible, sublimated so as to express themselves in socially harmless ways (â€Å"The Future of the Past† 93).He continues to predict that education will not be the same for everyone and that this education system will teach â€Å"the members of the lower castes only that which is profitable for the members of the upper castes that they should know† (93). Huxley is arguing that the nineteenth-century ideals of democracy and universal equality are not a reality and predicts a future of selective reproduction and a defined caste system based on genetic stock. Brave New World certainly reflects this prediction; eugenics policies have been implemented but there are certainly instinctual processes, like violent passions, that have to be expressed in â€Å"socially harmless ways† – the Violent Passion Surrogates.But that sort of hope-filled view of the possible benefits of eugenics is not wholly what is at work in Huxley’s Brave New World. In that 1927 prediction, the intellectuals control the selective processes for determini ng the caste system. However, in 1932, the year of Brave New World’s publication, Huxley returns to the issue of eugenics by writing that â€Å"The humanist would see in eugenics an instrument for giving to an ever-widening circle of men and women those heritable qualities of mind and body which are, by his highest standards, the most desirable† (â€Å"Science and Civilization† 153). This is in line with his earlier views on the possible benefits of eugenics.But Huxley acknowledges that it might not be the humanist that is in charge of the process. But what of the economist-ruler? Would he necessarily be anxious to improve the race? By no means necessarily. He might actually wish to deteriorate it. His ideal, we must remember, is not the perfect all-around human being, but the perfect mass-producer and mass-consumer. Now perfect human beings probably make very bad mass-producers. It is quite in the cards that industrialists will find, as machinery is made more f oolproof, that the great majority of jobs can be better performed by stupid people than by intelligent ones (154). This is the society of Brave New World.As Mustafa Mond puts it, â€Å"The optimum population†¦ is modelled [sic] on the iceberg – eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above† (BNW 223). The population, as mentioned earlier, is conditioned to consume and to produce, and the eugenics policy helps create the society can perform the necessary tasks. Taken that way, the novel seems to be a satire and condemnation not of eugenics, but of eugenics run by the industrialist to create masses of dumber humans to buy and consume stuff. This then returns the mind to Huxley’s 1927 prediction of eugenics and those instincts that have to be expressed in â€Å"socially harmless ways† (â€Å"The Future of the Past† 93).Realizing the necessity for emotion, they employ â€Å"Violent Passion Surrogates† to â€Å"flood the whole system w ith adrenin† in order to satisfy what Mustapha Mond calls â€Å"one of the conditions of perfect health† (Brave New World 239). In short they are simulating the dangers of life in a safe and systematic way. Freedom of sex covers the sexual instincts and has the benefit also of providing pleasure during free-time. One of the greatest forces of keeping the workers producing is through the drug soma. â€Å"The perfect drug†¦ Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant†¦ All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of the defects† (BNW 53-54). Soma is the release and the reward for the obedient mechanized worker of the world state.Combined with the â€Å"feelies† and all the other aspects of mass culture in the World State, soma helps keep the society in order by keeping the workers pleased. â€Å"Industrial civilization,† as Mustafa Mond puts it, â€Å"is only possible when there’s no self-denial. Self indulgence up to the very limits of imposed hygiene and economics. Otherwise the wheels stop turning. † (BNW 237). As with eugenics, Huxley’s writings on drug use varied, especially following the Second World War with his explorations into psychedelic drugs in The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. But even around the time of Brave New World’s publication he often was writing on drug use.In 1931 he addressed the issue of drug as an escape in a brief essay titled â€Å"Treatise on Drugs† Everywhere and at all times, men and women have sought, and duly found, the means of taking a holiday from the reality of their dull and often acutely unpleasant existence. A holiday out of space, out of time, in the eternity of sleep or ecstasy (â€Å"A Treatise on Drugs† 304). For Huxley, drug use seems inevitable. This holiday is certainly mirrored in Brave New World. â€Å"The cause of drunkenness and drug-taking is to be found in the general dissatisfaction with reality,† h e writes in a 1932 essay titled â€Å"Poppy Juice,† an essay talking about the effects of drug policing. But Huxley continues by including the sort of people that might not be dissatisfied with life and the possibility of drug use among them.Alcohol and drugs offer means of escape from the prison of the world and the personality. Better and securer conditions of life, better health, better upbringing, resulting in more harmoniously balanced character, would do much to make reality seem generally tolerable and even delightful. But it may be doubted whether, even in Utopia, reality would be universally satisfying all the time. Even in Utopia people would pine for an occasional escape, if only from the radiant monotony of happiness (â€Å"Poppy juice† 317). This idea of people using drugs to escape monotonous Utopia seems one of the probable reasons for soma’s pervasiveness in the World State.The hypnopaedic chorus â€Å"A gramme is better than a damn† refle cts those moments when reality might not wholly satisfy; rather than cursing the situation, just take soma to escape on holiday. But escapism is not the only use of soma. Or rather, the effect of escapism soma has is not just beneficial for the individual. John Hickman, in his essay â€Å"When Science Fiction Writers Used Fictional Drugs: Rise and Fall of the Twentieth-Century Drug Dystopia,† writes that â€Å"[The] use of the recreational drug soma is one of several aspects of dehumanization made possible by the scientific expertise wielded by amoral elites† (Hickman 144). Whether or not the industrialists of Brave New World are â€Å"amoral† is beyond the scope of this essay.Nonetheless, Hickman’s point about the dehumanizing effects of soma remains true. The drug is used by the World State to keep the masses in check. One of the hypnopaedic lessons Lenina recites is â€Å"Was and will make me ill†¦ I take a gramme and only am† (BNW 104). Th e sentiment here is that thinking of past occurrences or having ambitions or fear does not help, and that soma can help keep you in the present. There is no need for rebellion or trying to better one’s position if soma can take the individual out of the negative moments. The lack of downside and the steady stream of governmental supply of soma ensure that the citizens are kept in a pleasure-filled world so that they might continue to produce and consume more.Hickman concludes, based on those later novels by Huxley and on the comparison with the mescal used in Pueblo society, that Huxley is not against drug use â€Å"as a more direct route to spiritual development, but was instead opposed to recreational drug taking that would render a population docile† (Hickman 145). In the 1931 â€Å"Treatise on Drugs†, Huxley was dreaming of a super soma-like drug when writing about the history of drugs and how all of the drugs present in the world are â€Å"treacherous and harmful†: The way to prevent people from drinking too much alcohol, or to becoming addicts to morphia or cocaine, is to give them an efficient but wholesome substitute for these delicious and (in the present imperfect world) necessary poisons†¦ The man who invents such a substance will be counted among the greatest benefactors of suffering humanity (â€Å"Treatise on Drugs† 304-305).Huxley’s perfect drug was achieved in the fictional soma. But as was the case with eugenics policies, this too fell into the hands of the industrialists who used it to benefit the mechanized society by keeping the mass culture satiated with pleasure and escapist trappings. The drug, as Hickman points out, is used to keep the masses producing and consuming, just as all other aspects of the culture had those goals in mind. Brave New World is a vision of a future that is based on Huxley’s reactions and interpretations of the 1920s. His strong favoring of an intellectual cultu re over a mass-produced comfort driven culture is abundantly made clear in the novel.In a different 1931 essay titled â€Å"To The Puritan,† Huxley pushes the idea that Fordism as a philosophy could prove destructive to humanity if pursued fully. There is no place in the factory, or in that larger factory which is the modern industrialized world, for animals on the one hand, or for artists, mystics, or even, finally, individuals on the other. Of all the ascetic religions Fordism is that which demands the cruellest [sic] mutilations of the human psyche – demands the cruellest [sic] mutilations and offers the smallest spiritual returns. Rigorously practiced for a few generations, this dreadful religion of the machine will end by destroying the human race (â€Å"To the Puritan† 238-239).

An Overview of the Sport, Volleyball, Its History, Rules and Regulations, and Famous Volleyball Players

An Overview of the Sport, Volleyball, Its History, Rules and Regulations, and Famous Volleyball Players Volleyball is a fast-paced game in which two teams are separated by a net and compete to volley the ball over the net in an attempt to make the opposing team drop the ball on their side. Volleyball was originally called mintonette and was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan. The game was designed to be a combination of tennis, basketball, baseball and handball. The first volleyball net was actually a tennis net and was only 6’6† high. Morgan originally explained that the object of the game was to keep the ball in movement over a net. There were originally no restrictions on the number of contacts for teams or individual players, no limit to the number of players per side, and no rotation. Since then, volleyball remained mainly unchanged, until 1912, when the first major rules were implemented. The rules were that the number of players on each side was six and that the team was required to rotate positions before serving. By 1920, the game had many more rules implemented, such as the net was raised to eight feet, and the ball could not come to rest in the hands. Volleyball was originally created to be a calm pastime, but has evolved into a sport that is played all over the world by all kinds of people everywhere like in the Olympics, in the park, at the beach, in gym classes and more. Volleyball has many many different rules and regulations. The rules and regulations of volleyball have evolved a lot throughout the years. The rules of volleyball are not difficult to understand, and depending on the level of competition, they can differ. The main objective of the game is to not let the ball hit the floor on your side of the net, at the same time, you must try to get the ball to hit the floor on your opponent’s side of the net. There is a maximum of three contacts per team before they hit it over the net. The three preferred hits are a bump, followed by a set, and then an attack, which will send the ball over the net. Players are also allowed to block the ball as it comes over the net. Blocking does not count as one of the three contacts. Each side must have six players to fill the six different positions that rotated between during the game. The players must rotate clockwise through each position. Players rotate with each new server. The six positions that are rotated through are the left, middle and right front, and the left, middle and right back. The server is in the back right. The scoring method that is used in volleyball is known as â€Å"the rally point system†. The point is gained at the end of the rally when the ball is dropped and the side where the ball has not been dropped gains the point. There are many well known volleyball players. Most famous volleyball players have played in the olympics. One well-known player in the U.S. is Misty May-Treanor, a professional beach volleyball player. She has three olympic gold medals, and has been playing beach volleyball since she was a child. She started her professional career in 1999. Another well-known U.S. player is Karch Kiraly, who is also a professional beach volleyball player and plays indoor volleyball. He won three olympic gold medals, two in indoor and one in beach. Another player in the U.S is Kerri Walsh Jennings. She won three olympic gold medals with Misty May-Treanor in beach volleyball. Walsh Jennings also played indoor volleyball.

Health in education Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health in education - Assignment Example In order to ensure children’s good health, the role of teachers, parents, the community, and the environment cannot be underplayed. Their contribution in any way offers vital information regarding their mental, physical, emotional, and social well-being. Health education for all the stakeholders; students, parents, teachers, and health professional is essential. This helps equip everyone with necessary information concerning procedures, steps to be taken, and ideal safety measures that need to be observed so that good health for children is ensured. Whatever observations have been made concerning the health of a child by the teacher, parent, or community is vital and essential in identifying changes in the health status of a child. More often than not, teachers and parents refer these types of illnesses and many others to the appropriate health professionals such as counselors. Counseling is a vital component of the coordinated early childhood health since it helps address health issues such as trauma, stress disorders, etc. Counseling can also help families appreciate and understand the need for professional health care especially in circumstances that they do not seem to see the need. As noted earlier, the community, parents, and teachers are only observers and cannot in any way attempt to diagnose the health problems of a child. This is where health services come in handy since it is the responsibility for health practitioners to diagnose and recommend proper actions.

History The representations of Death in Medieval European Art Essay

History The representations of Death in Medieval European Art - Essay Example (Cartwright, 1972) It is popularly known as the Plague, Black Death or Black Plague although the medical term for it is Bubonic Plague. Throughout history, plague has riddled many civilizations, causing remarkable changes in the social construction, economic disposition and religious beliefs, resulting in the change of their representation in art and architecture. There have been recording of massive health epidemics striking Asia, Africa, and Europe where it is believed that at one point there were not enough alive to bury the victims of the Black Death. (www.cdc.gov, 3/12/2007) In such civilizations, the progress of medical studies was not near enough to study the outbreaks and analyze them in a scientific manor; in reaction, the people usually assumed they were divine punishment brought down from god or the gods for whatever reason the leading religious figure of the region and time would provide. This caused even further panic and chaos. In many cases, innocent groups of people would be blamed for the disaster and massive witch hunt like behavior would take place where the group would be hunted down and tortured or even killed in the belief that it would end the ordeal. Plagues have been repetitive in history and sometimes with no specific pattern. The Bubonic Plague of 1347 made appearances repeatedly afterwards throughout Europe and the Middle East, though not on as much of a large scale, the last of which ended in 1844. (Watts, 1997) Even in modern society the fear of people resides; at the hint of an outbreak, such as the bird flue of 2004, global economies have been affected and many industries have suffered. The Black Death holds the greatest number of victims in such a short time span than any other plague in history and this resulted in economic, social and political affects that have lasted for centuries and played a major role in the art and painting to follow. 14th Century: The Century of Changing European civilization and Fine Arts Medieval Europe was under an extreme burden at the turn of the century. The demographics of medieval Europe grew to an unprecedented scale. The population had grown to the brink of starvation. Only under the best conditions would the fields' yield enough to feed the population. The Black Death struck in 1347 and decimated the European population. The Black Death was a necessity to prevent overpopulation and economic decline. The economy of the fourteenth century was in a state of decline. The population boom along with the shortage of food was leading Europe down a road to starvation. The climate in Western Europe also was beginning to change at the turn of the fourteenth century. This caused a very wet climate and greatly adversely

Listening Without Resistance and Systems Thinking Research Paper

Listening Without Resistance and Systems Thinking - Research Paper Example In addition, I have been judging the accent of the other party in the conversation. I have been thinking that people who have great accent are less literate. This has been making me get less keen when listening to them. Conversations I have had in the past weeks were just discussions. Discussion is listening without a desire to be changed by the conversation (Mozdzierz, 2009). A dialogue, on the other hand, is a special way of conversation in which one is willing to be influenced by the conversation (Robinson & Rose, 2007). The conversations I have had in the past weeks could not fit to be called dialogue. This is because of my behavior of choosing not to be keen when the other party in a conversation had an accent, pronunciation problem or spoke less audibly. In most cases, my actions were either partially or completely withdrawing myself from the conversation. Therefore, I have done more of discussion than dialogue. Conversations could be easily converted to dialogue using several advantage points. One of the points is completing the features of a conversation. According to Nikulin (2010), this could be done by personal voice, unfinalizability, and allosensus. Another point is asking for clarifications during the conversation. This could increase someone’s attentiveness on the conversation. As a result, the conversation would have a great influence on the person and thus converted into a dialogue. The other point is reframing the message communicated during a conversation. This could avoid negative reactions and judgments made during conversations. As a result, the conversation would have a great influence on the parties involved and thus it would have been converted to a dialogue. System thinking is one of the five disciplines defined by Senge to guide activities of a learning organization. According to Wyk (2003), system thinking could be conceptualized as a tool for making complex patterns in a learning organization much

Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 32

Questions - Essay Example record of assembly-line workers and evaluate their performance with the help of deciphering the ratio of mistakes committed by each of them over a specific period of time and appropriate rewards and punishments are allocated based on the data gathered by the system as well (Gupta & Banerjee, 2013). Additionally, performance discrepancies are covered by offering training modules while; employees with exceptional level of leadership qualities are developed into future managers. The leadership capabilities are often noticed by observing behaviors of employees and HRIS is of little help in this regard. The strategic planning of Human Resource of an organization is done by applying HRIS because the company’s secret of development lies within its quality of workforce and therefore, talent need assessment is an imperative advantage of HRIS. The employees who are emotionally sober with tolerant behaviors and open minds are considered ideal for expatriation. The Employee Self Service is a robust web based application which allows the employees to manage their account details, contact information and they can also apply for leave through the same mechanism. The employees must be informed to use ESS via giving them repetitive notifications and finally, in my experience, all employee related issues must be entertained through a web portal only so that people do not have any other option but the usage of ESS as a tool of reporting their issues to higher

Stem Cell Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Stem Cell Research - Essay Example History of Stem Cell Research Because of their unique properties, much attention has been dedicated to the study of stem cells. In 1998, scientists had found a way to obtain and grow stem cells from the products of in vitro fertilization. Because stem cells are important especially among developing embryos, harvesting stem cells from them unavoidably cause their unviability. Not surprisingly, ethical issues aroused from this development, as discussed below, prompting researchers to identify and to harvest adult stem cells, as well as develop induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs) by reprogramming specialized adult cells. However, embryonic stem cells have been described as the most pluripotent (National Institutes of Health, 2009). Benefits of Stem Cell Research Stem cell research (SCR) has been supported because it paves the way for more discoveries. Knowing the distinct characteristics of stem cells, specifically its prolonged mitosis, its undifferentiated state and production of s pecialized progenies, leads to experiments on the possible reasons for increased proliferation of embryonic stem cells relative to adult stem cells and the regulating factors behind stem cell proliferation and self-renewal. These factors, in the future, may be used in the regeneration of destroyed tissues, such as that in myocardial infarction, one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. In addition, these pluripotent cells can provide a better observation of human development from embryo to infancy. This then may lead to researches on the abnormal cellular development, as seen in birth defects, genetic abnormalities and cancer. Large amount of cells grown in vivo from stem cells may also be used in easier and safer testing of drug safety and effectiveness. (Johnson and Williams, 2006). Claimed Disadvantages of Stem Cell Research Which Lives to Save Despite the many scientific advancements contributed by stem cell research, many still argue against it. One argument reasons that the fertilized eggs used in SCR are already alive, and thus it is not right to take someone else’s life, it does not matter for what purpose. Partly causing such conflict stems from the fact that until now, there is no specific age of gestation at which life starts has been pinpointed to start at. However, it is in my opinion that whether or not the embryos used in SCR are alive or not, there is no price that can be put on the countless number of lives that can be saved through the products of SCR. The Health Risk of Stem Cell Therapy Another argument against SCR claims that the chemical and biological factors used to manipulate the cells in vivo can cause adverse effects once the resulting specialized cells from them are transplanted to humans for therapy. For example, viruses from the mouse embryonic skin cells that are used to provide nutrients to the replicating human embryonic stem cells (HESC) may cause inflammation or infection on the recipie nt. The transcription factors Oct4 and Nanog added to prevent differentiation of stem cells can possibly cause cancer among the stem cell recipients. As well, cell culture of HESC may also cause genetic mutations and chromosomal abnormalities, with the former easily missed because of they are undetectable in karyotyping (National Institutes of Health). Absurd as it may sound, but I believe that they have a valid point. There is indeed a big possibility of in vivo-

Work, People and Productivity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Work, People and Productivity - Essay Example sses engage in questioning and interactive transformational process, it makes jobs more satisfactory by ensuring substantial reduction in the cost of recruitment. Furthermore, it enhances retaining of experienced workforce while motivating them to increase the productive levels of the business. As part of highly reliable company, I would be resilient and mindful towards motivating the employees on their duties while assessing the capabilities for assured performance. The problem of high reliability and assertiveness has become an important issue towards the business development. As such, high reliability aims at ensuring that employees work under conducive environment that is free and fair to allow them have expansive thoughts on innovative elements vital to the organizational success. Based on the security concern of the overall organization, high reliability should prioritize on a culture of a better attitude. Such concentration aims to decentralizes and embrace decisions of reducing less productive members of the business. Based on ethics and humanity and as a reliability manager, I would use the authority bestowed in me to learn and change employees through incidents and accident free environments as illustrated by (Miller, 2009). Applying reliability ideas in an organization, I should remain competitive in an increasingly dynamic environment, as a leader will have to help employees learn to cope with the tension of conflicting aims in contrary having conflicting goals that cause confusion within an organization (Persil, 2014). Putting myself into the place of a reliable leader, I should identify both adaptive and technical problems like this form than foundation in tackling any problem that befalls leadership responsibility. Due to constant changes experienced within the business parameters, safety of employees has become a serious challenge to most leaders. Therefore, I should employ the best strategies that comply with the current conditions that would

Louvre and Paris Essay Example for Free

Louvre and Paris Essay It is more often than not that we look at Paris for its beauty vacation destination attraction than for what it truly is, a place enriched with amazing history. A place that is to often looked at for its beauty, not its meaning. The establishment of Paris is astounding with it being 2000 years old. Initially known at Lutetia, it was conquered by Julius Caesar in 52 B. C. The French kings who governed France from 448 until 1848 made many beautiful monuments in Paris which include the palace of Versailles and the Louvre Museum. The Catholic Church being a big part of Paris built many great churches which include Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle. Paris first became the capital of France in 508 under King Clovis. It is very significant to its country because it is the largest country in Europe. It is also the core of ile de France region. Paris is the political, cultural, and intellectual capital of France. Its elevations are 90 feet above sea level and its surface is 41 square miles. It is located in central northern France. The city does not corner any major body of water and is relatively flat. Some ancient landmarks in Paris are: the Eifel Tower and the palace of Versailles. The Eifel tower is 1050 feet an was completed in 1889. The palace of Versailles home of King Louis XIV was once the most famous monarch and former seat of the French government, People groups populating the city of Paris are 17% Muslim, 21% black, 14% North American, 20% western African, 2% middle eastern, 7. 5% Asian and 4% Vietnamese . Famous people who have lived in Paris are Claude Monet and Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. Religious practices in Paris are predominately Catholic. The transformation of Paris over time into the modern era is the transformation to a more techonological atmosphere and adapting to the modern day fashion and socio-economical culture. Paris as a whole has modernized itself in the technological sense as most of the world has, but has unstained its beautiful architecture and unique quality that makes it one of the most sought out beautiful places in the entire world.

Importance Of Staphylococcus Aureus To Humans Biology Essay

Importance Of Staphylococcus Aureus To Humans Biology Essay The bacterial genus to be isolated and identification in this project is Staphylococcus. This genus has been chosen for the reason of its abundance on the skin of mammals and the pathogenic nature of one of its member, Staphylococcus aureus. Apart from skin infections, Staphylococcus aureus could mutate to Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). In both cases, these give rise to medical implications. In addition, the distinctive features of Staphylococcus aureus from other species in the genus allow it to be easily isolated and identified via culturing and biochemical tests. Staphylococcus was first discovered in 1880 by Alexander Ogston (Paniker 2005, p.192). Currently, more than 30 different species of the genus has been identified (Deurenberg Stobberingh 2008). The name Staphylococcus was derived from Greek, with the prefix Staphylo referring to bunches of grapes and the suffix coccus referring to granule (Ryan Ray 2004). As the meanings suggest, bacteria from Staphylococcus are circular-shaped and their arrangement resembles bunches of grapes when observed under a microscope. Typically, a Staphylococcus has a diameter of approximately 1ÃŽÂ ¼m (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.562). The aim of the project is to isolate Staphylococcus aureus from the genus from a bundle of cat hairs and verify its identity via microscopic examination. No human specimen is used due to the potential pathogenic property of Staphylococcus. It is intended that a pure culture of pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus is obtained. For the purposes of this project, the importance of Staphylococcus aureus to humans, its classification in terms of morphology, physiology and structure, methods of isolation and identification by biochemical tests would be the objectives to be addressed. Importance of Staphylococcus aureus to humans The importance of Staphylococcus aureus to humans would be outlined by a review of the cell structure, cell physiology and environmental niches, followed by the medical implications of Staphylococcus. Cell structure Staphylococcus is a cocci bacterium. As a member of the Bacteria domain, it is expected that Staphylococcus has bacterial cell structure. In other words, it lacks nucleus and membrane-bound organelles. The structural elements in a cell of Staphylococcus should include a cell membrane, cell wall, ribosome and nucleoid (Campbell et al. 2009, p.98). On the other hand, it is worthwhile to note that Staphylococcus does not have flagella and spores (Paniker 2005, p.193). In addition to the above structures, Staphylococcus aureus possesses surface proteins that help attachment to proteins such as the fibronectin and fibrinogen-binding proteins involved in blood clotting (Baron 1996). This cellular property may explain the pathogenic nature of Staphylococcus aureus, as invasion might occur via wounds and abrasions. Cell physiology The cell physiology of Staphylococcus covers temperature, pH, osmolarity and oxygen requirements, as well as cell division. Staphylococcus typically grows from a temperature of 20oC to 40oC, with optimum temperature being 37oC (Todar 2000). Concerning the optimum pH for metabolism, it ranges from 7.4 to 7.6 (Paniker 2005, p.193). For osmolarity, Staphylococcus requires a water activity of at least 0.85 for substantial growth (Todar 2000). As for oxygen requirement, Staphylococcus is facultative anaerobic (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.562). This implies Staphylococcus can grow regardless of the presence of oxygen, but the presence of oxygen would be more favorable. Environmental niches The environmental niches of Staphylococcus can be addressed by its interactions with other organisms as to where it is found, how it synthesizes nutrients for growth and mutation. Staphylococcus is commonly found on the skin and mucous membranes of animals with stable body temperatures, including humans (OGara and Humphreys 2001, p.583). The salty environment along skin surface due to the production of sweat may account for the abundance of Staphylococcus, since its enzymatic activity is at alkaline pH (Blood et al. 2007). The prominent bacteria from the genus include Staphylococcus aureus, which colonizes in nasal cavity, larynx and on the skin surface (Andersson, Lindholm Fossum 2011). This may outline a parasitic relationship, in which Staphylococcus is the parasite and the animal supporting its growth is the host (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.725). In the presence of oxygen, Staphylococcus utilizes glucose to carry out cellular respiration, and electrons are passed on to the terminal acceptor, oxygen (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.562). When oxygen is lacking or absent, Staphylococcus may undergo fermentation and lactic acid is the usual product (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.562). In the process, glucose is converted into substrate pyruvate, followed by its binding to the cofactor Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD+) to produce lactic acid (Campbell et al. 2009, p.178) The interactions of Staphylococcus with the environment may also be underlined by mutation, which often occurs with Staphylococcus aureus. An example would be Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to the antibiotic, Methicillin (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.562). The mutation is caused by an alteration of the methicillin-resistance gene (mec A) coding for a penicillin-binding protein (Davis 2011). This results in failure of antibiotics to cure infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, which will be addressed in the medical implication section. Medical implications of Staphylococcus Staphylococcus can present a great diversity of environmental, medical or biotechnological implications. Being a mesophile, Staphylococcus can carry out metabolism under normal room temperature. Together with the abundance of warm-blooded animals which act as hosts to provide a salty medium, it can be said that Staphylococcus has an environmental implication of ubiquity. Statistics show that Staphylococcus aureus is present in 30% of healthy people (National Centre for Preparedness, Detection and Control of Infectious Diseases 2003). Though Staphylococcus may colonize on the skin surface of the host without causing any harms, its ubiquity can still give rise to various medical issues. The MRSA mentioned previously would be one of the problems associated with Staphylococcus. Apart from methicillin, MRSA could show resistance against many other antibiotics such as penicillin and amoxicillin (Agodi et al. 1999, p.638). The ineffectiveness of existing antibiotics to cure MRSA infections has resulted in fatality, and it is usually characterized by the incidence of septic shock and pneumonia (Klevens et al. 2007). A rapid increase of MRSA infections has been observed over the decades. The rate of hospitalized MRSA infections was only 2% in 1974 but this figure increases dramatically to approximately 40% in 1997 (Lowy 1998). This causes deaths of 19000 in t he United States of America annually (Klevens et al. 2007). As Staphylococcus colonies on skin surfaces and mucous membrane, skin infections and diseases associated with mucous membranes could be another medical implication. It is known that Staphylococcus aureus may cause Scalded Skin and Toxic Shock syndromes. Moreover, it may cause pneumonia, urinary tract infections, food poisoning (Gill et al. 2004, p. 2426). Classification of Staphylococcus The classification of Staphylococcus can be reviewed in terms of its morphology and some of the physiological properties stated above. Morphology The morphology of Staphylococcus can be described as cocci gram positive bacteria arranged in a cluster. This can be explained by its property of cell wall and its behavior in cell division. The cell wall of Staphylococcus shows a gram positive reaction, which indicates its composition is essentially a thick layer of peptidoglycan (Todar 2011). This property of cell structure helps the identification of Staphylococcus. Moving on to cell division, it can be predicted that Staphylococcus reproduce by binary fission. The reason for its cluster formation may be explained by its capability of undergoing binary fission in multiple planes with daughter cells remains proximal to each other (Paniker 2005, p.192). Though the daughter cells remain in close proximity, the positions of attachment could vary and this leads to cluster being formed irregularly (Todar 2011). Physiological properties In terms of thermal requirement, Staphylococcus is a mesophile. Regarding pH requirements, it is a neutrophile. Being a facultative anaerobe, Staphylococcus is catalase positive. The absence of flagella indicates that Staphylococcus is a non-motile bacterium. In addition, Staphylococcus aureus is coagulase positive but not for other species in the genus. As light is not readily available on skin surface and mucous membranes, it is proposed that Staphylococcus obtain energy via organic chemical compounds. Hence it is regarded as a chemotroph (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.137). The facultative anaerobic property of Staphylococcus may lead to a deduction that it utilizes organic carbon as the source of electron when oxygen is present. Though some Staphylococcus may use reduced forms of inorganic nitrates to generate electrons, its preference towards an aerobic atmosphere should define it as an organotroph (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.137, 562). When comes to carbon source, Staphylococcus is a heterotrophy (Kumar, Hatha Christi 2007). That is to say, it attains its carbon source by converting organic substances for synthesis via oxidation (Voet, D, Voet, JG Pratt CW 2008, p.449). To sum up, Staphylococcus should be one of the members of the microbial group Chemoorganotrophic heterotrophs. Methods of Isolation of Staphylococcus The methods of isolation of Staphylococcus would include growing in medium followed by streak plating. Growth media To ensure optimum growth of colonies, Staphylococcus should be enriched in nutrient broth with sodium chloride (NaCl) before plating on a nutrient agar. A nutrient broth normally consists of beef extract and peptone as fuels for growth (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.148). The addition of salt allows a selective medium for Staphylococcus as it predominantly grows in salty environment. Alternatively, a growth medium can be done via a Mannitol salt agar (MSA), which consists of 7.5% of NaCl and a pH indicator. MSA essentially acts as both a selective and differential medium. NaCl selects for saline-favored Staphylococcus and the pH indicator differentiates between Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Differentiation can be illustrated by the fact that Staphylococcus aureus utilizes mannitol in the agar for metabolism, and the generation of acidic product is indicated by a yellow color. However, this phenomenon does not apply to non-pathogenic Staphylococcus (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.147). Streak Plating Following enrichment, Staphylococcus in the medium can be transferred to an agar plate with nutrient broth and salt, by employment of aseptic techniques. At the same time, a transfer to an agar plate with only nutrient broth should be performed as a control set-up. This is to ensure the effectiveness of the selective media because other bacteria could grow on the agar plate if the medium was not set up properly. Afterwards, the plates would be incubated for a week. Incubation should be done at 37oC as it is the optimum temperature for Staphylococcus to grow. Plating and incubation should be repeated a few times to make sure that the colonies grown are pure. Identification by biochemical tests The identity of Staphylococcus cannot be confirmed by carrying out the gram reaction alone due to the fact that a great variety of bacteria from other genus may also show gram positive reaction. Therefore, some biochemical tests have to be performed to verify that the bacteria isolated is in the genus of Staphylococcus and it is of the species Staphylococcus aureus. These tests include catalase, motility and cogulase. First of all, as Staphylococcus aureus is facultative anaerobic, it is expected that it contains enzymes to break down harmful products such as free radicals generated along its aerobic pathway (). In this case, the enzyme of interest is catalase, in which its presence allows the breakdown of toxic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into oxygen and water (). Therefore colourless gas bubbles can be observed when H2O2 is added to a colony of Staphylococcus aureus. Moreover, as Staphylococcus aureus is non-motile, motility test can be performed. In a motility medium supplied with carbon source, a pink color can only be observed along the stab line (). This essentially means that the growht Staphylococcus aureus is localized and its colonies are not motile. Furthermore, the identification test between Staphylococcus aureus and other bacteria from the genus would be based on its reaction with coagulase. Staphylococcus aureus readily coagulates plasma but not for others species in the genus (Willey, Sherwood Woolverton 2011, p.750). To ensure accuracy of the test, it is preferable to test on colonies extracted from culture plates that are known to contain coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase negative Staphylococcus epididymis respectively. The former acts as a positive control, while the latter acts as a negative control. Conclusion In conclusion, Staphylococcus is a ubiquitous bacterial genus that can pose various medical implications and it can be grown, isolated and identified based on its, environmental niches, morphology, physiological and structural characteristics. The aims of isolation and identification of Staphylococcus aureus can be achieved by a review of the four objectives as summarized below. Firstly, it is often found on epidermis of animal skins including humans and its ability to metabolize optimally at 37oC and at pH of 7.4-7.6 makes it a potential pathogen to humans. In particular, the species Staphylococcus aureus can cause a great diversity of diseases and the mutated Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus could be fatal owing to its resistance to most antibiotics. Secondly, it can be classified by in terms of morphology and some of the physiological characteristics. Its morphology is gram positive cocci bacteria growing in clusters. It is a mesophile, nuetrophile and facultative anaerobe. It is catalase positive and only Staphylococcus aureus is coagulase positive. The energy, electron and carbon sources of Staphylococcus aureus can be described as chemoorganotrophic heterotrophic. Thirdly, regarding growth medium, the sample of cat hair should be enriched in a medium of sodium chloride before incubating on an agar plate of nutrient broth and salt at 37oC. The colonies should be streaked plated a few times to remove contaminants. This increases the efficiency of isolation of Staphylococcus aureus. Lastly, Staphylococcus aureus can be identified by the catalase, motility and coagulase tests. It is expected that bubbling is observed as a positive result with the catalase test. As for the motility test, a negative test is expected. In other words, no growth is observed across the stab line. Clumping of plasma is seen as a positive result and this differentiates Staphylococcus aureus from other species in the genus.

Macbeths Atmosphere :: Macbeth essays

Macbeth's Atmosphere      Ã‚   There are many questions concerning the atmosphere in William Shakespeare's Macbeth that this essay will answer: Is it realistic or unrealistic? Are there two atmospheres - one of purity and one of black magic? And many other questions.    Roger Warren comments in Shakespeare Survey 30 , regarding Trervor Nunn's direction of Macbeth at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1974-75, on opposing imagery used to support the opposing atmospheres of purity and black magic:    Much of the approach and detail was carried over, particularly the clash between religious purity and black magic. Purity was embodied by Duncan, very infirm (in 1974 he was blind), dressed in white and accompanied by church organ music, set against the black magic of the witches, who even chanted 'Double, double to the Dies Irae. (283)    L.C. Knights in the essay "Macbeth" mentions equivocation, unreality and unnaturalness in the play - contributors to an atmosphere that may not be very realistic:    The equivocal nature of temptation, the commerce with phantoms consequent upon false choice, the resulting sense of unreality ("nothing is, but what is not"), which has yet such power to "smother" vital function, the unnaturalness of evil ("against the use of nature"), and the relation between disintegration in the individual ("my single state of man") and disorder in the larger social organism - all these are major themes of the play which are mirrored in the speech under consideration. (94)    Charles Lamb in On the Tragedies of Shakespeare comments on the atmosphere surrounding the play:    The state of sublime emotion into which we are elevated by those images of night and horror which Macbeth is made to utter, that solemn prelude with which he entertains the time till the bell shall strike which is to call him to murder Duncan, - when we no longer read it in a book, when we have given up that vantage-ground of abstraction which reading possesses over seing, and come to see a man in his bodily shape before our eyes actually preparing to commit a muder, if the acting be true and impressive as I have witnessed it in Mr. K's performance of that part, the painful anxiety about the act, the natural longing to prevent it while it yet seems unperpetrated, the too close pressing semblance of reality,give a pain and an uneasiness [. . .]. (134)

symbolaw Use of Symbols and Symbolism in The Awakening Essay -- Chopi

Use of Symbolism in Chopin's The Awakening The Awakening is a novel full of symbolism; within each narrative segment there is often a central and powerful symbol that serves to add meaning to the text and to underline some subtle point Chopin is making. Understanding the meaning of these symbols is vital to a full appreciation of the story. This essay lists some of the major symbols with explanations of their importance. Art becomes a symbol of both freedom and failure. It is through the process of trying to become an artist that Edna reaches the highest point of her awakening. Edna sees art as a way of self-expression an... ...urely caged when she first appears. . . she is confined in what is not only literally a "woman's sphere" but, symbolically speaking, the Woman's House. . . every object and figure [here] has not only a literal domestic function and a dreamlike symbolic radiance but a distinctively female symbolic significance" (47).

Human Resource Management Essay -- Business Management Studies Essays

Human Resource Management Businesses use different motivational techniques to keep employees happy, it is important to keep employees happy so that they work effectively and efficiently. The HR department will spend lots on different ideas to try and keep their employees working hard often including rewards for hard work or constant attendance or even by in some cases punishing workers for not working to their potential. I will look into different cultures, motivational theories and techniques, job satisfaction, the importance of management styles, is money the only motivator and employee demotivation. Examples of motivational techniques In 1943 Abraham Maslow suggested that all people have a hierarchy of needs. He said that a person is motivated by his or her own needs, so he developed this pyramid. He believed that once someone had achieved one level of needs then they would want to move onto a higher level of need. Douglas McGregor’s X and Y theory In the 1960’s Douglas McGregor developed the ideas of theory X and theory Y. Theory X is the view that people really don’t want to do work and if they can avoid doing the work in anyway they will try to. This means that they are being persuaded to work by being given money or rewards and must be closely supervised and controlled so that they will do their work. Theory Y is the belief that humans can be stimulated by being given responsibility and strive to prove themselves. This management style is the view that the work itself can be rewarding and given the right conditions then they will strive to achieve goals and targets. Frederick Herzberg’s two factor theory This American psychologisat research in the 1950’s led him to develop the two-factor theory of job satisfaction. Many criticised him for drawing conclusions about workers as a whole from a sample drawn from just accountants and engineers, although his theory has proved very robust. His view was that the factors related to job satisfaction can be divided into two; those that only have the potential to provide a positive job satisfaction and those that can only cause dissatisfaction. Hygiene Factors Hygiene factors are based on the need to for a business to avoid unpleasantness at work. If these factors are considered inadequate by employees, then they can cause dissatisfaction with work... ...vate them to do their work, work for certain companies and explains unhappiness levels at jobs which do not challenge their workers such as Mcdonalds etc. Motivation on a project depends on * The project culture * Often established by the project manger * The project's reward system * If there is one! * The work content * Especially if it is challenging * The working environment * Especially if it is conducive to creativity * The supervision * Especially if it is a source of learning * And not overbearing * And the opportunity to network Motivating Factors Project turn-ons * Recognition * Increased responsibility and status * Advancement * Opportunity for intellectual growth * Opportunity for personal achievement * Flexible working * Variety and the job itself * Good communication * The leader's enthusiasm De-motivating Factors Project turn-offs ----------------- * Constraints of company policy and administration * An over-bearing bureaucracy * Below-average compensation * Poor quality supervision * Poor communications * A poor working environment * Either sociologically or physically * A negative attitude of the project leader

Capital punishment and why does the Church (Christianity) oppose it so much Essay

Man is a sacred and precious creature created by God.   When God has created the Universe, light, the birds, animals, the trees, water and the earth, he had given a lot of importance to man.   Evidence from the Bible suggests that God had left creating man as his final task, and after he had created man, God was so amazed, satisfied with himself and fulfilled with his own creation, that he decided to rest (on the Seventh day).   Through his creation of man, he had provided a reflection of himself (The Old Testament: Genesis 1).   In deed God has given a lot of importance to man, and no one has the right to take away or destroy the life this very special and beautiful creation of God.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Countries throughout the World are beginning to understand the importance of capital punishment and are slowly outlawing such laws.   However, certain developed countries such as the US are still encouraging Capital punishment.   The US had stopped capital punishment for some period of time (from 1972 to 1977).   However, the practice resumed again following Gregg V. Georgia case (Horigan, 2004).   Most of the states in the US permit Capital punishment only in very specific instances.   However, the very existence of such an option in the judiciary system, does suggest the States Support to this inhuman act.   The rate of execution in the US has dropped since the 1930’s, but this has no fully ended. The largest number of executions is performed by the State of Texas, and the highest percentage of the population executed by the State is Virginia (Robinson, 2006).   The response of the US public to capital punishment is somewhat mixed.   However, the reaction of the Canadian people to capital punishment was also similar, but the Country has abolished capital punishment.   Depending on the seriousness of their crime, the crimes are imprisoned even for indefinite periods (Robinson, 2006).   Canada has also shown that imposition of capital punishment does not necessarily result in a drop in the crime rates.   The Japanese on the other which permit capital punishment have a crime rate much below that of the US. Hence, it can be demonstrated that capital punishment may not play an important role in crime (Robinson, 2006).   In the US, many people who have been executed by the law, were found not even to be given a proper lawyer during their trials. Several states in the US that have capital punishment in their legal systems seem to have a higher criminal rate than those which do not have capital punishment (Robinson, 2006).   People may feel that by incorporating capital punishment in their legal systems, the State is cheapening the value of human life.   Hence, the crime rates in such states are on the rise.   Several other factors such as poor socio-economic status, low educational levels, poor living conditions, etc, may be related with an increase in the crime rates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Church has seriously opposed the use of capital punishment in case of serious crime.   Pope John Paul II has opposed the imposition of death penalty by the State (Dulles, 2001).   Christians give a lot of importance to life and have opposed any action that could result in the ‘violation to the right to life’ such as murder, abortion, suicide, euthanasia, etc.   Christians usually feel that as God has controlled life, no one including the Governments and the Courts can take away a human life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the Old Testament, death was specifically suggested to those who had sinned or committed offences (such as murder and adultery).   The Sacred Covenant during Noah had mentioned that anyone who offenders and disobeys God be stoned or hanged to death.   Several episodes in the Old Testament such as those of with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers 16), have given instances in which capital punishment was performed to penalize sinners.   People who helped to execute the will of God by ending the life of the offenders were considered as Agents of God.   Many Countries of the World still follow the Old Testament of capital punishment in penalizing serious crimes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, things have changed since the New Testament times.   Although Jesus Christ had not spoken much about the use of capital punishment by the state, indirect instances are present in the New Testament which may suggest that Jesus was against the practice of capital punishment.   One of these instances included the Stoning of a woman who had sinned.   Jesus did not allow his disciples to pronounce curses of destruction of death on people who did not have feelings of love towards others. In John 19:11, Jesus told Pilate that he had the authority to sentence anybody who had sinned against God, and that Pilate had the right to fulfill God’s intentions.   In Matthew 26:52, Jesus told Peter to put back his sword when he was arrested.   Jesus even put back the soldier’s piece of ear, after Peter had cut it with his sword.   In Luke 23: 41, Jesus tells the thief crucified on his side, that they were receiving punishment for the sins that they had committed on earth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Christianity believed in the concept of ‘love thy neighbor as thy self’, and Jesus in his preaching expressed that this feeling should be extended to every aspect of life.   We could potentially extent its application for use to prevent capital punishment.   In the New Testament after Christ, there may be several instances in which capital punishment was encouraged.   However, these instances may not directly support capital punishment.   In Acts 5: 1-11, capital sentences were imposed because they disobeyed Simon Peter.   The Letter to the Hebrews also encouraged the Mosaic Laws on capital punishment. St. Paul told the Romans that death sentence was a mean of expressing God’s intentions against sinners.   However, there have also been instances in the New Testament in which the Church and Christians have opposed death sentence.   During the early Christianity period, the Church did not approve Christians to function as executioners of death sentences (Dulles, 2001).   St. Augustine felt that the Fifth Commandant should be utilized even to prevent execution of death sentences and killing of criminals.   He wrote an entire book about Capital punishment named The City of God.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The idea of capital punishment changed a bit during the Middle Age.   Christianity had some influence on the people, and the Courts were told to impose capital punishment only for people who committed serious crime.   This was mainly as a self-defense mechanism to prevent the criminals from committing further crime and to ensure that the society was safe.   Some of the theologists felt that capital punishment was more of a hatred act against the criminal than one to enable him to reform in the future (Dulles, 2001).   Even though the Church opposed death sentence, it constituted a body to pronounce and capital punishment. The Church even conferred the State the power to issue death sentences in the later part of the 16th century.   It derived this power from the Commandant â€Å"thou shall not murder†, and it was performed in several instances.   Slowly the Church began to approve capital punishment only in the case the criminal committed a serious crime.   Slowly the attitude of the Church towards capital punishment began to change as they felt that life was a precious gift given by God and it was morally wrong to take one’s life for sins committed.   The Italian thinker Gino Concetti, wrote a Book L’Osservatore Romano in 1977, demonstrating the importance and sacredness of God-given life.   He said that humans could not destroy the life of another human, and even the criminals who had performed serious crimes should not be punished with death sentence.    He said that there should not be any circumstance in which capital punishment was justified as no person had the right to take the life of another and destroy one of God’s precious creations.   We should be able to respect the view that God is expressing himself in man.   This work had really changed the attitudes of Christians and the Church towards capital punishment. Many people felt that the Church itself did not respect or identify this view of life before.   There was a uproar against capital punishment in the 20th century in Europe.   Several European countries who believed in Christianity began to incorporate the latest teachings and beliefs of the Church in their Legal systems.   The Governments began to underhand the importance of life (Dulles, 2001). Since, the criminal is also a human being; he is a precious creation of God and has a reflection of God in himself.   His actions have an element of God expressed in it.   Hence, it would be morally wrong to even punish the most serious criminals with capital punishment.   In the Old Testament, the view that a criminal action should be punished with a similar action by the law-enforcement agency existed.   However, a person may be expressing the Will of God through his actions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Christianity has developed over a long period, and now it does not permit both, direct destruction (taking the life of a specific person) and indirect destruction (actions performed without the intention of killing another person).   In some instances, taking the life of another person by mistake may be pardoned by the Church.   The Church is also against any individuals taking the life of another on the advice of the State (Pesenke, 1981). God does not allow one human to take the life of another because God is the creator of the human beings and can create or destroy a life.   Any person who takes the life of another with a mental intention is sinning against God.   A Human life is the most precious work of God, and destroying it would be against the Will of God.   No political or legal body in the World has the right to interfere with God’s creation.   It is not justified for any Court or King to take the life of any individual including a criminal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many countries feel that capital punishment should be permitted at least to end the life of criminals who committed serious crimes.   They may also be considering that it would be a cheaper option to end the life of such criminals than to punish them with life-imprisonment.   However, the legal and the political systems should not cheapen human life, and should consider them as important to God.   Having capital punishment options in the legal system is not going to reduce crimes.   It is essential that the Government provides a socio-economic environment that may permit development and reduce frustration of the people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Jews believed firmly in capital punishment and permitted it following murders, adultery, worship of idols, war crimes, and kidnapping.   They feel that capital punishment would ensure that the society is safer from the actions of the criminals in the future.   They also feel that anybody who destroys God-given creations should be punished with death sentence.   A counsel usually issues death sentences in Jewish courts.   The court will examine the criminal during the trial and 2 neutral witnesses should provide evidence for the case.   As the process of issuing capital punishment under Jewish laws is very stringent, such sentences may usually occur less frequently. In several situations (such as wars, emergencies, dealing with non-Jewish criminals, etc), the stringent process is relaxed and death sentences are issued more easily.   In such situations Noah-Laws are usually applicable.   Usually just one neutral witness is required (FAQ, 2006).   During the later part of the 20th century, Jewish thinkers began to oppose the use of capital punishment by the legal system.   The ideas of Christian theologists are now being followed by the Jewish thinkers with regard to death sentence.   Only in extremely serious crimes are capital punishment allowed by Jewish courts (FAQ, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Capital punishment is not only an ineffective way of dealing with crime (as it does not reduce the crime rate), but is also an immature way (as hatred and revenge are spread).   It also cheapens the importance of God-given life.   The Government should look at alternative to punish or reform the criminals. References: Dulles, A. C. (2001). â€Å"Catholicism & Capital Punishment.† First Things 112, 30-35. http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=2175%20 FAQ (2006). Question 12.21: What is the Jewish position on Capital Punishment? Retrieved on April 8, 2007, from FAQ.org   Web site: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance from Web site: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/06-Jewish-Thought/section-22.html Horigan, D. P. (1996). Buddhism & Capital Punishment. Retrieved on April 8, 2007, from The Engaged Zen Foundation from Web site: http://www.engaged-zen.org/articles/Damien_P_Horigan-Buddhism_Capital_Punishment.html Pesenke, H. C. (1981). Christian Ethics: Volume II – Special Moral Theology in the Light of Vatican II, Bangalore: TPI. Robinson, B. A. (2006). Facts about capital punishment: Part 1: data & trends. Retrieved on April 8, 2007, from Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance from Web site: http://www.religioustolerance.org/execut3.htm The Bible Gateway (2007). Genesis 1 (New International Version). Retrieved on April 8, 2007, from The Bible Gateway from Web site: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis+1