Political Correctness Essays - Etiquette, Pejoratives,

Political Correctness Matchmaker.com: Sign up now for a free trial. Date Smarter! Political Correctness: The University of Southern California: The Teddy Bear Massacre Like so many other traditions, the burning of the bruin was put on the chopping block recently. The long running University of Southern California spirit activity consisted of throwing a large stuffed bear in a bon fire the night before the football game against their rival, the University of California at Los Angeles. The Black Student Union and other student organizations recently questioned the event. Their concern was that the event too closely resembled past lynching of African Americans in the American south. This raises the question of whether it is appropriate to censor ideas that are not created to offend certain groups. Political correctness, the underlying ideal, is the "particular set of attitudes about the world that its proponents maintain should be actively promoted." [Clark 369] Proponents of political correctness, or PC, had good intentions in devising the idea, but it has serious flaws. Although political correctness was founded with good intent, it does more harm than good. The most noticeable example of harm is how PC proponents try to please everyone at the same time. The burning of the bruin was just one of many activities held during the week before the big UCLA game. The idea being that everyone could find something that they could identify with and rally around their school. If the burning was intentionally created to represent or oppress the offended students, the event would have been banned long ago. However, as Matt Hutaff stated in his editorial in the Daily Trojan: "It's about school pride. It's love for the things that brought the university to where it is today. It is traditions that define a school; it's student body and its heritage. Strip the school of its traditions and all you have is a school that isn't worth rallying behind." [5] In appeasing one group, it seems the university neglected another group. It seems that the lesson that one cannot please everyone all the time still needs to be learned. Another lesson that needs to be learned is to meet offensive language head on instead of hiding from it. This cannot happen, however, if the college is sheltering us from it. It is the duty of the university to teach us how to live in the real world. How are they going to protect us from what we do not want to hear out there? The answer is they cannot, and the sheltered individuals are left unprepared to confront real world situations that will offend them. As Irene Clark points out, an article by the National Association of Scholars "asserts that it is the role of higher education to enable students to grapple with contrary or unpleasant ideas and that to shield them from such ideas will be detrimental in the long run." [373] Unfortunately, there are bad things in the world. There is no way to change that. Ignoring them will not make them go away. Eventually the sheltered must face them. If a school hides these things from its students, they will be unprepared to confront them. Even if PC proponents succeeded in their goal of eliminating offensive actions and language, they can never kill the ideas behind them. In private these ideas can grow and fester unchecked. In public, the offenders can be identified. When forced to hide these ideas, the offenders will still express them in secret. When these people are allowed to express their thoughts and opinions in public, the rest of the world is able to watch what they are doing. If they are not aware that they are being offensive, they can be told, also. As Irene Clark states: "...whether or not we agree with speech codes, such codes, explicitly or implicitly, are not entirely new, nor do they prevent racist or sexist thought in private." [372] As Clark stated earlier, PC is not a new idea. Various social movements have tried to implement this restraint before. It has not worked in the past and it is not gaining much ground today. As John Ellis states in Clark's book: "...we can ask that people who want to take us through the fantasy yet one more time first confront the lessons of history that show how disastrous 'politically correct' ideas have proved to be." [378] PC was brought up in the past and failed. Its performance today is just as bad. It seems that history repeats itself. History teaches us other lessons, too. One lesson is that our country is not perfect, and it makes mistakes. For example, Native Americans

Organizational change, diagnosis and redesign

Organizational change, diagnosis and redesign Report abstract summary This report seeks to address the issue at hand of aligning Blue sky Media PLC for change and strategic renewal. It also aims at rebuilding the company and improving the position the company has previously held. There is also the aspect of restoration of employees trust in their leaders.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Organizational change, diagnosis and redesign specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The leaders have to adopt the innovative programmes of work publicized by behavioral scientists for other levels in organizations. When they work with other leaders, they have to rely increasingly on matrix organizations, temporary tasks groups, and project teams. The work most typically reflects what is described as an exploitative-authoritative organization. In contrast, other departments in companies are practising with the more open and practical participative group approaches described by Likert. Though it is not clear that these innovative designs may lead to increased productivity, growing evidence suggests such results for knowledge based workers in complex information environments. Introduction Blue-sky media PLC is an organization which is changing fast. This organizational change is stimulated by a major external force, for example, substantial cuts in funding, decreased market opportunity and dramatic increases in services. It has therefore undertaken technical, structural or strategic shifts in the organization to evolve to a different level in its life cycle, for example, changing from a highly reactive organization to a more stable proactive environment. Since this organization has been going through major changes in the aspects of employee’s relations to their leaders, the new CEO has to institute radical changes. There must be a paradigm shift in the manner of operations and also the method of handling issues, especially those related to new strategies f or change. Background Blue sky media PLC is faced with several factors which necessitate change. These are societal, environmental and internal factors. External factors for change are globalization, differences in workers, technological change, and managing work ethics. These are challenges that cause change in organizations. Internal forces for change originating inside the organization are recognizable in the form of signals indicating that something needs to be changed. For instance, reduction in effectiveness is a pressure to change. A company that incurs its last three months of the year loss in a span of a fiscal year is for sure forced to do something about it (Lopucki Whitford, 1990; Weiss, 1990).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Strategic renewal is helpful in guiding the company to downsize, outsource, reengineer, and in corporate venturing, restructuri ng and rejuvenation. The major aim of strategic renewal is to see the company reposition itself in the market. This helps avoid threats like corporate takeover by other bigger companies. Human resource management will be vital to either institute measures to retain staff or retrench them through massive lay-offs. The company could also invent other measures aimed at staff appraisal depending on performance and put requisite steps accordingly. Leadership is essential in a successful corporate world. Visionary leaders help drive their companies to scaling professional and corporate heights. Leaders can either be democratic or autocratic. The company CEO who is democratic encourages workers contribution to the management and running of the company whereas the autocratic leader is strict and runs a one man show. Project objectives The first objective of the reorganization is to achieve a framework for financially stable business operations through a capital increase in the company. This will help widen the scope of operation. In addition, the reorganization brings the subsidiaries together directly under the umbrella of holding company making it possible to more efficiently manage the entire business, increase profitability, and strengthen the relationship between the company and its subsidiaries, while at the same time boosting the group’s sales. The second objective is maximization of the total value of the companys assets. There are two elements to this objective. First, it is desirable that as little value as possible will be dissipated during the reorganization process; to this end, it is desirable to minimize the time that the process will take and the direct and indirect costs incurred during this process. It is a good thing that, when the reorganization process ends, the companys assets will be allocated to their highest-valued use. This implies, among other things, that the assets will continue to function as a going concern if and only if the succ ess value exceeds the liquidation value and that, if the assets continue to function as a going concern, they will be employed under the maximum possible capital structure and the optimal governance structure. The third objective is highest division of total value: From an efficiency perspective, what matters is not only that the total bankruptcy value will be as large as possible but also how this value will be divided among the participants.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Organizational change, diagnosis and redesign specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The reason for this is that this afterwards division has important later consequences. In particular, to induce participants to provide finance to the company ex ante, it is expected that, in the event of ex post insolvency, the value will be divided according to the distribution or ranking of priorities that were agreed upon as a contract. Benefits and key outcomes A well-defined business process benefits a company in three dimensions. These are productivity, process, and people. Since the performance of a particular enterprise is a combination of the results of its processes. Well defined business processes contribute to a well-managed company. Productivity, process, and people are interdependent and synergistic. When people acquaint themselves well about the process and become experts in the process, productivity will increase, further increasing the morale of the workers (Gertner Scharfstein, 1991). Employees can be motivated through increased morale, which is very important as it increases their productivity. A percentage of between 10 and 70 is estimated to be the inefficiency effect. Improvement of productivity can be tremendously drawn from such inefficiency. Identification of the process activity to ensure error free work can be done since there is a clear definition of the business process. The people perform daily tasks which are pe rsistently changing. The prospects are finely-identified and invariable. However, in the event that errors take place their cause can potentially be identified by the organization. The moment the root cause of the errors is pointed out, they can be fixed by making adjustments on the process, which also puts off their recurrence. It is also very critical that the workers are motivated as it can help steer the process forward. The customers should be fully satisfied through a well-identified process. As a result, the customers become loyal to the business and feel satisfied, which brings about motivation (Lopucki Whitford, 1990). Assumptions/constraints While dealing with individuals you will find that most individuals want to develop their potential. In addition, they have interests for personal growth and development in case they are provided with supportive and challenging atmosphere. They like to make a higher level of contribution in achieving institutional goals than is normal ly acceptable.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The manager asks, listens, supports, challenges, encourages risk-taking, allows failure, removes hindrances, gives freedom and responsibility, sets high standards and rewards success. This will in turn help to boost the morale of employees and aid in furthering successful organizational change. While dealing with groups, the manager needs to understand that one of the most reference groups for individuals is the working group; this includes peers and the boss. Majority wish to be accepted, and socialize with one or more small reference groups. They make bigger contributions to the groups’ efficiency and growth. The manager should let teams flourish; leaders should invest in groups/teams; adopt a team-leadership style rather than a one-on-one style. They ought to actively engage group members to help the leader in decision-making and problem-solving, by training them up suitably. Therefore this will help group members to deal with both positive and negative feelings hence solv e problems through mutual interactions. In designing and running an organization, traditional bureaucratic organization structures must give way to newer organizational designs. The needs and aspirations of employees ought to be addressed. Placing people first can lead to organizations that are more human, development oriented and encouraging. They are also high performing in terms of output, profitability and output quality. The result is that people are an organization’s most essential resource; they are the source of productivity and profits and should be treated with care. The current bargaining-based process appears to fall substantially short of the goal of maximizing total reorganization value. This happens both because value is often dissipated during the process and because the ultimate outcome of the process might not be value-maximizing. The redesign process under the existing rules takes substantial time (White, 1984; Weiss, 1990). In one re-organization of a majo r corporation, the administrative expenses of the company and of the creditors committee came to $3.5 million per month (Cutler Summers, 1988). Essentially, the company under reorganization might incur substantial indirect costs from functioning inefficiently during the reorganization process. Because the incentives of management during the process are generally not well aligned with the maximization of reorganization value, the management decisions during the process are likely to be distorted. In addition, because of the insolvency cloud hovering over the company, potential business partners may be reluctant to deal with the company or may demand especially favorable terms. Potential inefficiencies in the structure emerging out of the process: There are reasons to suspect that inefficiency costs might continue to be incurred even after the reorganization process ends, because the structure emerging out of the process might not be optimal. White (1994) suggests that the existing p rocess is biased in favor of continuation that is, the company is likely to continue as a going concern even if the most efficient route would be liquidation. Lastly, constraints under which the project must operate are based on the amount of resources available for implementation of aspects of the recommended strategies. However this can be addressed by ensuring that there are enough funds and requisite resources long before the organizational change, diagnosis and redesign is embarked on. Quality control Risk identified Response to risk By whom Time factor being a constraint Apportion enough time for each task to be completed The project coordinator Shortageof finances Seek alternative sources of finance The finance officer External interference Legal redress The legal consultant Other This proposal will be effective only if the expected conditions prevail and the outcomes are only achievable as per the procedure set (Lawrence Lorsch, 1967). Milestones Task Milest ones By whom Employee appraisal A motivated workforce Human resource manager Increased emoluments Better performance The accounts manager Revised strategies Improved output Strategy manager External auditing Higher accountability Company auditor Business expansion Corporate takeovers The CEO Rebranding New markets Marketing manager References Cutler, D. M., Summers, L.H. (1988). The costs of conflict resolution and financial distress: evidence from the Texaco-Pennzoil litigation. Rand Journal of  Economics, 19, 157-172. Gertner, R., Scharfstein, D. (1991). A theory of workouts and the effects of reorganization law. Journal of Finance, 46, 1189-1222. Lawrence, P.R., Lorsch, P. (1967). Organizational and Environment. Boston: Harvard Business School, Division of Research. Lopucki, L., Whitford, W. (1990). Bargaining over equitys share in the bankruptcy reorganization of large publicly held companies. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 139, 125-196. Weiss, L. A. (1990). Bankruptcy resolution: direct costs and violation of priority of claims. Journal of Financial Economics, 27, 285-314. White, M. J. (1994). Corporate bankruptcy as a filtering device: Chapter 11 reorganizations and out-of-court debt restructurings. Journal of Law, Economics, Organization, 10, 268-295.

The Presence of Stereotyping in Western News Media Essay

The Presence of Stereotyping in Western News Media - Essay Example The Chambers English Dictionary defines making a stereotype of a person as characterising or categorising too readily or simplistically. In the field of Psychology, stereotypical thinking is identified as a vehicle for prejudice, and is defined more precisely as being comprised of the processes of condensation and displacement. Condensation is the outcome of fusing a number of images or ideas to make a single composite. It is this that tends to be typically either simplistic or something entirely unrelated. By displacement is meant, â€Å"feelings of hostility or anger are directed against objects that are not the real origin of those feelings†. Stereotypes thus highlight contrasts between the stereotyping and stereotyped groups, and serve to perceive what is being stereotyped as the ‘other’. Stereotyping in the media occurs most frequently when news is to be covered pertaining to a foreign culture, race or religion, or a society about which little is known.

National Policy Issue - Immigration Reform Research Paper

National Policy Issue - Immigration Reform - Research Paper Example †¢ The economic recession in the early 1990s led to the public developing a sentiment was against immigration-friendly policies.†¢ The economic recession in the early 90s led to the public developing a sentiment was against immigration-friendly policies.†¢ The Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act came into effect.IV. Many law makers realized that much had to be done in order to have a comprehensive immigration system.†¢ Their efforts culminated in a comprehensive Reform Act passed 2 years later.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Barack Obama pledged to pursue immigration reform but was unsuccessful in his first term.  V. In 2013, prospects for reform appear to be much higher with a draft legislation that has a number of contentious.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ The bill calls for higher border security in the form of greater border patrol agents.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ To meet the needs of the agricultural community, a seasonal workers program must be passed.†¢ The path to citizenship involves th e payment of back taxes, legalization fees among others.VI. Recently, a migration crisis has been looming at the border as a number of undocumented children have been arriving in the country.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ The president has called it a humanitarian crisis that requires immediate action from Congress.  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ These children have arrived in tens of thousands and sparked outrage among natives in border towns.†¢ Many are from states like Honduras and other Central American nations and are giving more impetus for legislation in the Senate

Policy Paper - US Environmental Protection Agency about Energy use and Research

Policy - US Environmental Protection Agency about Energy use and opportunities for energy savings - Research Paper Example We should also aim at making all our resources and energy at the same rate. Whenever energy efficiency chances are available to us, we should take the opportunity without thinking twice. Those with energy efficiency innovations should be encouraged and provided with the necessary support both financial and moral, the information that they later avail should always be made available at and if found important applied to the country’s economy. I encourage the harnessing of energy in the country and driving their availability and disclosure. Energy is the key to running a successful business, home and the country’s economy as a whole. The government has often been seen to neglect the role of energy in the growth of the country’s economy. Energy reduction can play a great role in managing our country’s energy system. The measures that contribute to the reduction in the demand for energy can be applied in a more cost effective way than we can imagine. It meets our energy needs as well. Therefore, we should be proud of the innovations that are essential to achieving these courses. The country should be in a position to use the amount of energy that we need at a given time only. The amount of carbon emission can go down as well and thus aiding the achievement f our carbon budget. Homes in our country have been built and developed over several years with their energy efficiency varying from good to worst thus bringing many of these homes to the levels of being less worthwhile for investment. In the same line, it presents an enormous business opportunity and even goes as far as exporting to other external markets overseas. This strategy will be helpful in the country. These also set our ambition as a country clear and being able to identify the various barriers that we can face in our quest. We, therefore, stimulate our energy efficiency market as well as those we use within our country2. Energy

The White Cube Is Designed To Neutralize Philosophy Essay

The White Cube Is Designed To Neutralize Philosophy Essay Heres the question: In your own words, how would you describe the connections between the idea of white(ness) and the themes in Buckinghams work? *If you want to include references to our reading and conversation on Kirk Varnedoes lecture last week-where we covered topics ranging from how history is recorded, how knowledge is formed, and how we come to believe in or trust the art we live with-please do. One paragraph. Buckingham forces the viewer to investigate further into his work; he wants us to actually become involved by making us think and see beyond want being presented to us rather than to simply look at an image. As with other work we have discussed in class, Buckingham uses color (colorfulness and white/black) to compare and contrast the past with the present in the film production of Mary Wollstonecraft. It is his way of cluing us on that there are two different worlds, just as he did to present the ghost of Mary Wollstonecraft. He also uses the glow of whiteness to lightened Wollstonecraft to convince us whether or not she is in the past or present. He is able to use white(ness) to guide us through his time-based production. As I read through Chapter 3 regarding minimalism, I was having a constant pull and push of Minimalism versus modernism. How is that one genre of artist can take a square and assign a meaning to it, then later another genre takes the same square and assigns a different meaning to it, then claim to owe nothing to its predecessors? To me, this calls on the same conversations we have had several times in previous classes. Is it really a new art because you are able to have support of art critics and come up with your own vocabulary to bring a different meaning to a work of art? Donald Judd claims to reject rationality as part of the European philosophical tradition. This is how he explains the difference between his work and traditional abstraction. But Frank Stella says to balance piece? Is that not rational? The correlations between the two types of art beg the question; isnt minimalism very much rooted in abstract modernism? It seems to me that Minimalist were just a self-proclaimed development of modernism. Judd and other Minimalists artist claim they wanted to get rid of the hands-on ethic of abstract; they wanted to get rid of the idea that the character of the art resides in the touch of the artist compared to abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock who stomped on a canvas and rubbed cigarettes in to it who affirmed that the painting was an object in the world, not a window onto anything else. This is when I began to better understand the difference in the two genres. The Minimalist opposed the cult of the gallery and attempted to remove the appearance of composition from their work. To that end, they tried to expunge all signs of the artists guiding hand or thought processes all aesthetic decisions from the fabrication of the object. For Donald Judd, this was part of Minimalisms attack on the tradition of relational composition in European art rather than the parts of an artwork being carefully, hierarchically ordered and balanced, he said they should be just one thing after another. Comparing Marcel Duchamps ready-mades provided important inspiration for the Minimalists. His example suggested an approach to sculpture that emphasized fabrication and industrial materials over the craft techniques of most modern sculpture. Much of Minimalist aesthetics was shaped by a reaction against Abstract Expressionism. Minimalists wanted to remove suggestions of self-expressionism from the artwork, as well as any illusions. The Minimalists also sought to erase distinctions between paintings and sculptures, and to make instead, as Donald Judd said: specific objects. The Minimalist opposed the cult of the gallery and Summary of Inside the White Cube The gallery space is the first interaction between the spectator and the artist. Clean white walls were ideal for presenting a painting. Because of its simplicity, a white wall is seen as neutral and supposedly indispensable for placing each painting. However, what a white wall does to a Baroque or easel painting, is it actually transforms it into a modernistic one, just as framing a Baroque or modernist painting and placing it in Le Salon converts it into a tableau. The white cube is designed to neutralize Another value of the white cube was a social one. Readymade as invented by Duchamp totally depend on the special social status of a gallery space. Reliance on the social power of a gallery space can lead to anything goes. Yet if a gallery space is considered a sacred place intended only for art, than anything that is placed there cannot be anything but art. When you put something into a gallery, it transforms the thing into a picture of itself. The intention of To fully understand the nature of how the viewer interacts with a piece of art it is essential to understand the dynamics of how the work is presented to the viewer. He talks about the eye and how the white cube gallery determines how the eye behaves. The eye urges the body around to provide it with information; the body becomes a data gatherer. The eye was capable of experiencing art in a disinterested and detached way. The spectator, on the other hand is unable to distinguish the difference between real space and art space in the white cube gallery because they have become blurred into one another and the walls of the gallery itself. Such a spectator is prone, he believes, to sensation and impression and as such experiences not only art but their own sense of self as something fractured. The eye appears as the disembodiment faculty that relates exclusively to formal visual means, while the spectator constitutes the attenuated and bleached-out life of the self from which the eye goes forth and which, in the meantime, does nothing else. The bodies of the visitors become unnecessary. You can only gaze at the framed spaces in the gallery space. Consequently, it is only the eye that interacts directly with the artwork. One has to teach the eye how to palpate those spaces. Frames also facilitate this separation into two realities the distant relation of a fixed viewer to a framed view. The framed easel on the wall assists the spectator to align herself in space; it indicates the place where one should stand, look at, or refrain from touching. One is not allowed to touch the sacred objects, the artworks. Touch is directed and mediated only through the eye. ODohertys main concern is the relationship between the white cube is where the object sits, the surrounding space and the effect or the influence that the combination of these elements impose onto the viewer. By bringing attention to the arrangement in which works are exhibited and the influence on the spectator, context becomes content. Another factor that ODoherty suggests bought about a new way of looking art is  Courbets one-man Salon des Refusees outside the Exposition of 1855. ODoherty states that this was the first time an artist had to  construct the context of his work. It is to say the artist had to set about displaying his work in such a way that the placing and hang of the pictures influenced the meaning of what the artist was attempting to say with his art. This was highly significant as it highlighted the importance of how a work is displayed affects the way in which its viewed. For example displaying the Mona Lisa on the floor would give the painting a different meaning than placing it, in its own special room. ODoherty defines the artistic gesture as a singular artistic action, an individualist, daring act. The successful gesture created a narrative became a story by changing history. He believes that these gestures always had two audiences, one present and another one not present, which, as he writes, is usually us. We, as this second audience, are looking back at the eventof a performance as a historical fact, an occurrence. ODoherty furthermore says that the original audience is usually not appreciative, often nervous, not at all pleased. It is only in retrospect that we learn to appreciate the gesture. All these gestures are transformations of the given situation in one way or another. What makes them potent, I believe, is that they are stop signs; or rather they are the stops themselves in the train of events, interruptions in the business as usual. The gallery gestures start with Duchamps, continue on with Yves Klein, Armand, Daniel Spoerri, Andy Warhol and Kaprow and many others. Many of these gestures can be described as parody, mocking the art business, but many of them really challenged the spectator, the gallery space and what is meant by art and showing art. There are several categories of gestures; those that question the gallery space altogether are of course in the minority. ODoherty points out that at least the American avant-garde never really questioned the gallery space as an idea, except for one brief moment when artists did their performances and events in the landscape and only brought photos back to the gallery. Summary of Pictures of Nothing- Chapter 4 Late 1960s is when the urge to escape catergories by artist becomes all the more difficult itself because but minimalism itself had become a category. This installation of minimalist traditions happened very fast. Anti institution makes want to go away from any type of object. Artist wanted to get away from any types of collectible object. Which makes sculpture dominant. It turned out to be the only non of the above catergory. Painting was only paintying, sculpture could include video installation, earth works, performance, etc.. it was constantly transforming itself and was flexible in the way painting could not be. The idea of a generation of artist who absorb the formal term of minimalism but challenge the basic princibles. Tweaking image reconigtion became important. Shiparo installed from the 70;s compared to morris is obvious mostly by scale. The gallery space isnt about blank kinestectic anymore it becomes a place for imagination and stimulation of metaphorization Imageless abstraction became much more representational. Basic propertyies extracted from pollaock drip paintings. Judd argued the paintings had a greater sense of simplicity or wholeness Directness of which becomes a part of the are, simplicity wholeness order process materials become the watch workds for the new generation of artists Present and future was linked to the deep past. Heiser stated we were living at the end of time. Complex 1 had been made in the dessert and the angle was designed to deflect necluear bomb. He wanted to collapse the idea of time Minimalist idea of reducing internal relationship the work became redirected of the relationship of the person to the object. The sense of space became extrapolated beyond the gallery. Heiser was key in moving out into much broader canvses. Like making huge circles in the deserts. Double negative made a huge mark a vast space. All about bedded layers of structure, represents stratified time. Vs. the overview which shows it as a unified with a unified simplicity man made absolute against the geolocial forces of the canyon. Had different experience through close up and far away views. Clarity of the overview vs the caois of the close up view Staged collision between order and disorder. The idea of order. Cannot simply be. Evident declaration of process. The new left compared to old left. Blue collar ethic. Materials (1:03) Smithson piles dirt on shed until it collaps. Concerns with weight. Not just meaning attaches itself but simple certainties become charges with ambiguities. Abstraction cant stay pure and out of catergories but it can revitalis new ideas of ourselves and our time.. Summary Chapter 5 Although abstraction tries to be pictures of nothing, it constantly could be a picture of something. Rauschenbergs Factum 1 and Factum II were important to the uniqueness of the moment in abstract expressionist painting. Lichtenstein continued more aggressively in works such as Big Painting No. 6. Abstract expressionism becomes reduced by Lichtenstein. His satires and comments run throughout his career, with two different meanings. One, he is engaged by the notion that you cannot get away from the history of style. Second is that all representation is at base abstract. He is engaged in both sides and does not want to let go of either representation or abstraction. Olderburg wants to bring modernism out of its closet and into the public. He believed it was ill served to by idealism. Both Olderburg and Lichenstein hold the irony that bad faith is a necessary ingredient for a good society. Pop art jokes are less serious and more serious than they seem: admiration of abstraction and at the same time deeply suspicious of it. Andy Warhol has found the nerve of the good/bad faith problem. He uses and understands to some extent the language of abstraction. His most direct insult to abstract painting is represented by his Oxidation Painting of 1978 which he pisses on Pollock. With canvases on the floor he urinates on them in an exaggerated replay of Pollocks drip paintings. Where Lichtenstein tends to be interested in economy and reduction, Warhol is an artist of spit, splash, blot, excess. He is very interested in the graininess of photography. Halley isnt interested in the ambiguity of abstraction. He believes that all abstraction is coded representation of power. Taafe is also is against abstraction but in a different way. He puts to work the idea of revisiting high decoration with intent to make it low decoration. Richter has gambits between abstractions and representation. He literally waters down Stella; Both Warhol and Richter, it is blur and smear that obscures rather than makes things clear. Comparing to Johns, the whole idea that destroying order is the same thing as producing it. Twombly expands the repetitive gesture to the scale that Pollock had with his blackboard work. Everything that Twombly achieves, he achieves by the negation, by distancing of himself from Pollock, by the exact inversions of what Pollock is. Johns too take a swipe at Pollock. He made his living debunking abstraction. Just as Twomblys repetition speaks of expressionism, so is Johns gesturalism. He has to establish a system in order to cancel or bury it. The order itself is hardly as important as the demonstration of its vulnerability or fragility. He obsessively worked the surface with personal marks. These aforementioned artists are speaking about art through art by their knowing relationship to that tradition. It is a relationship of negation. It is a relationship to tradition that involves the acceptance of traditions constraints at the same time that is subverts and reacts against them. With these artists you have an abstraction saturated with skepticism, saturated with knowing, an abstraction that proves that abstraction can be knowing and still have meaning. Chapter 6 De Kooning abstraction gives rise to a new kind of life in his works by compacting them. His work misrepresented the dichotomy between abstraction and representation. Within his work such as the Women and early figurations, he shows the border between abstraction and representation wasnt something untouchable but rather something transgressive. Agnes Martin is the opposite of de Kooning. His works are at the other end of abstraction. His work is about delicacy of touch and tint. Martins art is all about the experience on the part of both the artist and the observer. In contrast, Robert Ryman is all painting; he is an abstractionist who is interested in imagery and in the nature of painting. His art is about constant restlessness and is never about perfection. Unlike Clement Greenberg, who believed there was an essence of painting. Ryman is sure that there is no essence at the bottom that painting constantly needs to be changed. Brice Mardens work is a good demonstration of pulling together the contemporary abstractions of Johns and Pollock. He tried to live with the legacies of Pollock as a great abstract artist and Johns as representative painter by mixing and blending what they both stand for. Gombrich believed that representation is a matter of solving dilemmas and is neatly summarized in his drawing. Gombrichs interest seems to be primarily in rendering. He believed strongly in the nature of visual representation and realism. Pollock finds one translation in Klein through the acts of performance yet a completely different translation in Richard Serra. Instead of painting on a canvas, he throws hot lead into a corner. What was refined in Kleins interpretation becomes industrial with Serra. Many artists unpack many meanings from Pollock, however, the intention of what brings an artist to the canvas does not control meaning nearly as much as does the material existence of the picture itself. The experimental dimensions of abstract art- its scale, materials, method of fabrication, social context, and tradition are crucially important to our understanding of it. Abstract art is a symbolic game and it is akin to all human games: you have to get into it, risk and all and this take certain act of faithà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ a faith in possibility, a faith in not knowing. Practically Nothing:   Light, Space, and the Pragmatics of Phenomenology In the exhibitions catalog Schuld writes, does not deal with light space as media as much as it deals with the participating subjects personal adjustmentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ In this essay, Schuld grounds the work of Irwin, Turrell, Orr and Nordman in the phenomenological philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This essay explores the Light and Space movements giving its roots in Minimalism. Merleau-Ponty sought to establish a primacy of perception with particular interest to Light and Space art. Irwin and Turrell experimented with psychologist Ed Wortz as a part of Maurice Tuchmans Art and Technology Program. In these experiments, scientists and engineers were paired with artists in tests that involved sensory deprivation, particularly within an anechoic chamber, a soundproof structure used for astronautic and psychological research.   Irwin, Turrell, Wheeler, Nordman and Orr all spent time in the chamber, occasionally enhancing it further by light proofing the space. The experience of dep rivation training attributed an increased sensory awareness.   Light and Space art does not deal with light and space as media as much as it deals with the participating subjects personal perceptual adjustment by extending ones own experience in the extremes of sensory deprivation experiments. Irwin, Turrell, Wheeler, Nordman, and Orr bring phenomenology into practice by creating situations that act as experiential snares, capturing attention through disorientation. Work and Word Adrian Kohn raises practical questions about writing about California Light and Space art, much of which frequently deals with language. He questions the inadequacy of verbal language to approach abstraction. According to Kohn, language falls short of communicating the obscure with much clarity. He calls attention to the vagueness of artists statements that make the emotional qualities of the artwork take precedence. This same problem plagues Light and Space art as well as other works that will also pose a challenge to photography. Words inevitably catch up to art and take hold. Belles thinking of his canvas support as a geometric illusionary volume and his notion that panes of glass can feel soft prompt you to stop and assess the validity of those formulations. While words may obscure arts strangeness at first, their failings, when noticed, restore it. http://www.theartstory.org/movement-minimalism.htm http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/modern_art/abstract%20art5.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_O%27Doherty http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/sep/20/art1

HIV and AIDS: How Has It Developed? :: HIV AIDS Diseases Health Essays

How Has It Developed? Only within the last two decades have HIV and AIDS become largely visible in the United States and across the globe. It may appear that there is virtually a void in legislation dealing with HIV and AIDS because of the relatively recent increase in public awareness. Perhaps, though, this lack of legislation should not be surprising considering the fact that almost no other specific illnesses are the target of direct legislation. The rights of patients are often the topic of new laws; however, exact diseases or disorders are not usually expounded upon in these broader forms of legislation. The situation involving the possible transmission of HIV to Kimberly Bergalis from her dentist provoked many calls for specific legislation requiring medical professionals to be tested for HIV. Additionally, some suggest that if a health care provider tests HIV positive that he or she should be required to disclose this information to all involved patients. Since there is no preexisting legislation on mandated HIV testing for health care professionals, one must apply broader, more ambiguous interpretations of the Constitution in order to mount cases both for and against the implementation of required HIV testing [Notre Dame J. of Law]. The Amendments of the Constitution that are most applicable to the debate over required HIV testing are the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which contain elements of the right to equal protection, and the fourth amendment, which contains elements of the right to privacy. The Fifth Amendment involves the role of the federal government, as opposed to th e Fourteenth Amendment which addresses the role of state governments [Notre Dame J. of Law]. An excerpt from the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution is given below: "†¦No state shall†¦deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." (The Constitution of the United States of America can be viewed in its entirety at http://www.publicadministration.net/resources/the-united-states-constitution/ ) The Fourteenth Amendment states rather clearly that citizens have the right to equal protection, but the Fifth Amendment does not express this right in such an explicit manner. However, Supreme Court rulings have cited the Fifth Amendment as a source of the right to equal protection through due process in various cases [Notre Dame J. of Law]. An American citizen's fundamental right to privacy is supplied by the Fourth Amendment. This amendment, as stated below, is traditionally known as the Search and Seizure Amendment. "The right of HIV and AIDS: How Has It Developed? :: HIV AIDS Diseases Health Essays How Has It Developed? Only within the last two decades have HIV and AIDS become largely visible in the United States and across the globe. It may appear that there is virtually a void in legislation dealing with HIV and AIDS because of the relatively recent increase in public awareness. Perhaps, though, this lack of legislation should not be surprising considering the fact that almost no other specific illnesses are the target of direct legislation. The rights of patients are often the topic of new laws; however, exact diseases or disorders are not usually expounded upon in these broader forms of legislation. The situation involving the possible transmission of HIV to Kimberly Bergalis from her dentist provoked many calls for specific legislation requiring medical professionals to be tested for HIV. Additionally, some suggest that if a health care provider tests HIV positive that he or she should be required to disclose this information to all involved patients. Since there is no preexisting legislation on mandated HIV testing for health care professionals, one must apply broader, more ambiguous interpretations of the Constitution in order to mount cases both for and against the implementation of required HIV testing [Notre Dame J. of Law]. The Amendments of the Constitution that are most applicable to the debate over required HIV testing are the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which contain elements of the right to equal protection, and the fourth amendment, which contains elements of the right to privacy. The Fifth Amendment involves the role of the federal government, as opposed to th e Fourteenth Amendment which addresses the role of state governments [Notre Dame J. of Law]. An excerpt from the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution is given below: "†¦No state shall†¦deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." (The Constitution of the United States of America can be viewed in its entirety at http://www.publicadministration.net/resources/the-united-states-constitution/ ) The Fourteenth Amendment states rather clearly that citizens have the right to equal protection, but the Fifth Amendment does not express this right in such an explicit manner. However, Supreme Court rulings have cited the Fifth Amendment as a source of the right to equal protection through due process in various cases [Notre Dame J. of Law]. An American citizen's fundamental right to privacy is supplied by the Fourth Amendment. This amendment, as stated below, is traditionally known as the Search and Seizure Amendment. "The right of

Medicalisation of Childbirth

The concept of medicalisation Originally, the concept of medicalisation was strongly associated with medical dominance, involving the extension of medicine's jurisdiction over erstwhile ‘normal’ life events and experiences. More recently, however, this view of a docile lay populace, in thrall to expansionist medicine, has been challenged. Thus, as we enter a post-modern era, with increased concerns over risk and a decline in the trust of expert authority, many sociologists argue that the modern day ‘consumer’ of healthcare plays an active role in bringing about or resisting medicalisation.Such participation, however, can be problematic as healthcare consumers become increasingly aware of the risks and uncertainty surrounding many medical choices. The emergence of the modern day consumer not only raises questions about the notion of medicalisation as a uni-dimensional concept, but also requires consideration of the specific social contexts in which medicalisa tion occurs. In this paper, we describe how the concept of medicalisation is presented in the literature, outlining different accounts of agency that shape the process.We suggest that some earlier accounts of medicalisation over-emphasized the medical profession's imperialistic tendencies and often underplayed the benefits of medicine. With consideration of the social context in which medicalisation, or its converse, arises, we argue that medicalisation is a much more complex, ambiguous, and contested process than the ‘medicalisation thesis’ of the 1970s implied.In particular, as we enter a post-modern era, conceptualizing medicalisation as a uni-dimensional, uniform process or as the result of medical dominance alone is clearly insufficient. Indeed, if, as Conrad and Schneider (1992) suggested, medicalisation was linked to the rise of rationalism and science (ie to modernity), and if we are experiencing the passing of modernity, we might expect to see a decrease in med icalisation

The History of Spains Gran Dolina

The History of Spain's Gran Dolina Gran Dolina is a cave site in the Sierra de Atapuerca region of central Spain, approximately 15 kilometers from the town of Burgos. It is one of six important paleolithic sites located in the Atapuerca cave system; Gran Dolina represents the longest occupied, with occupations dated from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic periods of human history. Gran Dolina has 18-19 meters of archaeological deposits, including 19 levels of which eleven include human occupations. Most of the human deposits, which date between 300,000 and 780,000 years ago, are rich in animal bone and stone tools. The Aurora Stratum at Gran Dolina The oldest layer at Gran Dolina is called the Aurora stratum (or TD6). Recovered from TD6 were stone core-choppers, chipping debris, animal bone and hominin remains. TD6 was dated using electron spin resonance to approximately 780,000 years ago or a little earlier. Gran Dolina is one of the oldest human sites in Europe as only Dmanisi in Georgia is older. The Aurora stratum contained the remains of six individuals, of a hominid ancestor called Homo antecessor, or perhaps H. erectus: there is some debate of the specific hominid at Gran Dolina, in part because of some Neanderthal-like characteristics of the hominid skeletons (see Bermà ºdez Bermudez de Castro 2012 for a discussion). Elements of all six exhibited cut marks and other evidence of butchering, including dismembering, defleshing, and skinning of the hominids and thus Gran Dolina is the oldest evidence of human cannibalism found to date. Bone Tools From Gran Dolina Stratum TD-10 at Gran Dolina is described in the archaeological literature as transitional between Acheulean and Mousterian, within Marine Isotope Stage 9, or approximately 330,000 to 350,000 years ago. Within this level were recovered more than 20,000 stone artifacts, mostly of chert, quartzite, quartz, and sandstone, and denticulates and side-scrapers are the primary tools. Bone have been identified within TD-10, a handful of which are believed to represent tools, including a bone hammer. The hammer, similar to ones found in several other Middle Paleolithic sites, appears to have been used for soft-hammer percussion, that is, as a tool for making stone tools. See the description of the evidence in Rosell et al. listed below. Archaeology at Gran Dolina The complex of caves in Atapuerca was discovered when a railway trench was excavated through them in the mid-19th century; professional archaeological excavations were conducted in the 1960s and the Atapuerca Project began in 1978 and continues to this day. Source: Aguirre E, and Carbonell E. 2001. Early human expansions into Eurasia: The Atapuerca evidence. Quaternary International 75(1):11-18. Bermudez de Castro JM, Carbonell E, Caceres I, Diez JC, Fernandez-Jalvo Y, Mosquera M, Olle A, Rodriguez J, Rodriguez XP, Rosas A et al. 1999. The TD6 (Aurora stratum) hominid site, Final remarks and new questions. Journal of Human Evolution 37:695-700. Bermudez de Castro JM, Martinon-Torres M, Carbonell E, Sarmiento S, Rosas, Van der Made J, and Lozano M. 2004. The Atapuerca sites and their contribution to the knowledge of human evolution in Europe. Evolutionary Anthropology 13(1):25-41. Bermà ºdez de Castro JM, Carretero JM, Garcà ­a-Gonzlez R, Rodrà ­guez-Garcà ­a L, Martinà ³n-Torres M, Rosell J, Blasco R, Martà ­n-Francà ©s L, Modesto M, and Carbonell E. 2012. Early pleistocene human humeri from the Gran Dolina-TD6 site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 147(4):604-617. Cuenca-Bescà ³s G, Melero-Rubio M, Rofes J, Martà ­nez I, Arsuaga JL, Blain HA, Là ³pez-Garcà ­a JM, Carbonell E, and Bermudez de Castro JM. 2011. The Early-Middle Pleistocene environmental and climatic change and the human expansion in Western Europe: A case study with small vertebrates (Gran Dolina, Atapuerca, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 60(4):481-491. Fernndez-Jalvo Y, Dà ­ez JC, Cceres I, and Rosell J. 1999. Human cannibalism in the Early Pleistocene of Europe (Gran Dolina, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 37(3-4):591-622. Là ³pez Antoà ±anzas R, and Cuenca Bescà ³s G. 2002. The Gran Dolina site (Lower to Middle Pleistocene, Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain): new palaeoenvironmental data based on the distribution of small mammals. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 186(3-4):311-334. Rosell J, Blasco R, Campeny G, Dà ­ez JC, Alcalde RA, Menà ©ndez L, Arsuaga JL, Bermà ºdez de Castro JM, and Carbonell E. 2011. Bone as a technological raw material at the Gran Dolina site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 61(1):125-131. Rightmire, GP. 2008 Homo in the Middle Pleistocene: Hypodigms, variation, and species recognition. Evolutionary Anthropology 17(1):8-21.

Understanding Communicative Competence

Understanding Communicative Competence The term communicative competence refers to both the tacit knowledge of a language and the ability to use it effectively. Its also called  communication competence, and its the key to social acceptance. The concept of communicative competence (a term coined by linguist Dell Hymes in 1972) grew out of resistance to the concept of linguistic competence introduced by Noam Chomsky. Most scholars now consider linguistic competence to be a part of communicative competence. Examples and Observations Why have so many scholars, from so many fields, studied communicative competence within so many relational, institutional, and cultural contexts? Our hunch is that scholars, as well as the contemporary Western societies in which most live and work, widely accept the following tacit beliefs: (a) within any situation, not all things that can be said and done are equally competent; (b) success in personal and professional relationships depends, in no small part, on communicative competence; and (c) most people display incompetence in at least a few situations, and a smaller number are judged incompetent across many situations.(Wilson and Sabee) By far the most important development in TESOL has been the emphasis on a communicative approach in language teaching (Coste, 1976; Roulet, 1972; Widdowson, 1978). The one thing that everyone is certain about is the necessity to use language for communicative purposes in the classroom. Consequently, the concern for teaching linguistic competence has widened to include communicative competence, the socially appropriate use of language, and the methods reflect this shift from form to function.(Paulston) Hymes on Competence We have then to account for the fact that a normal child acquires knowledge of sentences not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or she acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner. In short, a child becomes able to accomplish a repertoire of  speech acts, to take part in speech events, and to evaluate their accomplishment by others. This competence, moreover, is integral with attitudes, values, and motivations concerning language, its features and uses, and integral with competence for, and attitudes toward, the interrelation of language with the other code of communicative conduct.(Hymes) Canale and Swains Model of Communicative Competence In Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing (Applied Linguistics, 1980), Michael Canale and Merrill Swain identified these four components of communicative competence: (i) Grammatical competence includes knowledge of phonology, orthography, vocabulary, word formation and sentence formation.(ii) Sociolinguistic competence includes knowledge of sociocultural rules of use. It is concerned with the learners ability to handle for example settings, topics and communicative functions in different sociolinguistic contexts. In addition, it deals with the use of appropriate grammatical forms for different communicative functions in different sociolinguistic contexts.(iii) Discourse competence is related to the learners mastery of understanding and producing texts in the modes of listening, speaking, reading and writing. It deals with cohesion and coherence in different types of texts.(iv) Strategic competence refers to compensatory strategies in case of grammatical or sociolinguistic or discourse difficulties, such as the use of reference sources, grammatical and lexical paraphrase, requests for repetition, clarification, slower speech, or problems in addres sing strangers when unsure of their social status or in finding the right cohesion devices. It is also concerned with such performance factors as coping with the nuisance of background noise or using gap fillers.(Peterwagner) Resources and Further Reading Canale, Michael, and Merrill Swain. â€Å"Theoretical Bases Of Communicative Approaches To Second Language Teaching And Testing.† Applied Linguistics, I, no. 1, 1 Mar. 1980, pp. 1-47, doi:10.1093/applin/i.1.1.Chomsky, Noam. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT, 1965.Hymes, Dell H. â€Å"Models of the Interaction of Language and Social Life.† Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication, edited by John J. Gumperz and Dell Hymes, Wiley-Blackwell, 1991, pp. 35-71.Hymes, Dell H. â€Å"On Communicative Competence.† Sociolinguistics: Selected Readings, edited by John Bernard Pride and Janet Holmes, Penguin, 1985, pp. 269-293.Paulston, Christina Bratt. Linguistics and Communicative Competence: Topics in ESL. Multilingual Matters, 1992.Peterwagner, Reinhold. What Is the Matter with Communicative Competence?: An Analysis to Encourage Teachers of English to Assess the Very Basis of Their Teaching. LIT Verlang, 2005.Rickheit, Gert, and Hans Strohner, edi tors. Handbook of Communication Competence: Handbooks of Applied Linguistics. De Gruyter, 2010. Wilson, Steven R., and Christina M. Sabee. â€Å"Explicating Communicative Competence as a Theoretical Term.† Handbook of Communication and Social Interaction Skills, edited by John O. Greene and Brant Raney Burleson, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003, pp. 3-50.

Managing Property Businesses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Managing Property Businesses - Essay Example based businesses are easy to operate and have no fuss, than one must think again, yes there are exceptions but one is likely to find same fuss in the service based business as in manufacturing business. A service based business that is going to be discussed is â€Å"property business†, it sounds simple to hear it, but very difficult if all things are kept in mind while planning for a property business, the first impression that might appears after listening â€Å"property business† is perhaps small business, with simple operations though it can be very tough to operate it, the property business should be started keeping in mind following few factors. Property businesses provide pure services to the clients, the dealer performs the role of a middleman or a broker, there is a seller and a buyer, the seller or buyer contacts the dealer and the dealer responds to the seller or buyer on a particular property if available, though it has also been seen that people usually buy properties at their own and than sell it to buyers having buying power, so to get the buyer’s and seller’s attention the Location of the office is important as it should be in clear view to the clients or otherwise you should have done heavy investment in advertising to keep them aware. If the business is relocated than there must be so many reasons for that, one mentioned earlier might be location, the other one may be high overheads and perhaps a threat of bankruptcy, or may be the firm was unable to collect the receivables from clients and thus the firm was in loss, so the firm should reduce its operating costs, may be by eliminating employees, hiring people on commission basis rather than going for fixed salaries and so, it would definitely help the firm to operate itself with in the budget. When the business consists of a lot of dealing than the communication side must be very strong, one can say that in such businesses it is all about to convince or persuade the clients, and let them

Choose one a particular subject from the book Essay

Choose one a particular subject from the book - Essay Example The book was written by Linda Diebel who is known for working in order to uncover the human right abuses that are covered by a glossy lie which sabotage the democracy and the freedom. Investigation in the book is linked with a great historical event which was assassination of a great and internationally well known human rights lawyer Digna Ochoa during the year 2001. Book starts with an extensive survey of the political landscape of Mexico which unfolds the upsetting development of death squads which are based in a Canadian tourist destination. The inquiry which was linked with Ochoa’s murder is a very important controversy in the history of human rights and people protecting human rights. Her murder which on the surface was declared a suicide was an obsession for Diebel who knew Digna Ochoa. They were together for about seven years while they were working in Star’s Mexico City bureau. The said book narrates about all the horror and mysterious stories which came out of Central America’s history in. There is a suspicion drawn by Diebel towards government authorities linked with asking too many questions which are an integral part of history. Diebel talks about all the important historical events linked with Ochoa’s death where she herself was present and she recorded the events first hand. Digna Ochoa was demanded dead, on 19th October 2001, she was found shot twice, once in the thigh and once in the head at the office on Mexico City’s Zacatecas street which was located in the rundown Colonia Roma neighborhood. People who were close to Ochoa were not that surprised when they got to know about her sudden death as they were well aware of her practice of law which was extremely risky. She was a scorching and minuscule ex nun who was a pain for the political establishments for several years along with the Mexican army. She had a strong say on the court and was an integral character in the arena of international human rights. She wa s associated with many human rights campaigns on behalf of the accused Zapatistas who were ill treated and tortured by the Mexican army and other cruel clients. Ochoa was an Indian descent and she has a special feel for the Mexico’s indigenous poor and she was an important and crucial character in the cases that were challenging and against the nation’s new post NAFTA economy along with all the impact it was having on the poorest classes negatively (Diebel, n. p.) One week before her murder, Ochoa was in the rugged hill country of Guerrero which was beneath the brooding peaks of the Sierra Madre where she met peasant activists working for the organization of peasant ecologist of the Sierra Petatlan. It talks about the fact how all these people were locked in life and death struggle with the politicians and also the American logging companies. The book clearly reveals how the peasants wanted to stop the forest clearing which was covering the Sierra forest which was extr emely profitable and important for the powerful and the rich class as the trees disappeared throughout the mountain road but it was extremely important peasant ecologists as it was like a life sustaining base for them. Many group members were already arrested on various charges along with many hiding in the caves of Sierra and also the canyons (HarperCollins, n.