Writings of Murakami and Calvino Assignment Example

Essays on Writings of Murakami and Calvino Assignment The paper "Writings of Murakami and Calvino" is a wonderful example of an assignment on literature. This assignment involves summation of Murakami interview content that is part two of his writings from page 304 to 345. The content is compared with the writings of Calvino in his â€Å"the lost regiment† and â€Å"beheading the heads†.   The second part of Murakami's writings dwells on â€Å"The Place That Was Promised† after the interviews concerning the horrible gas attack committed by Aum Shinrikyo members, Murakami talked of a better place (Murakami 304-345). Murakami introduces the second part by assessing why people would believe in Aum while others do not. This leads to a question of why should not some people be able to consider deeply about matters that are not directly pertinent to society. â€Å"The problem lies in the fact that Aum Shinrikyo was one of the few havens for such people..." (304). personally, I believe that the whole concept of thinking concerning life critically is much understated. It appears the entire Aum system is intended so that individuals can trick themselves into accepting they do not want anything. As an interviewee described, it was a method to turn the unenthusiastic aspects of individuals’ life into positive ones, and a manner to acquire respect (Murakami 304-345) .According to Calvino, in â€Å"Beheading the Heads† leaders has the knowledge of their journey once they have been elected. This is confirmed by the response he gets when he asked if respondents were sad leaders were being killed after terms. â€Å"What can you do? If someone agrees to be a leader he knows how he’ll end up.† (144). this is relevant with choices people made in Aum case and also real-world incidences. However, when the people decided to amputate the leaders not to kill them change was realized. â€Å"This system of pruning leaders bore excellent results.†(153) this is a revelation that promised land can be shaped by circumstances. The lost regiment is a case of preparedness at a whole time to meet the objectives. The soldiers on seeing â€Å"the city before them, so quiet and good-natured, minding its own business† (54), they felt imprudent. The place that was promised is not easy to attain unless one is focused and geared to the ta sk.

Brief Look At The Renaissance Essay Example For Students

Brief Look At The Renaissance Essay The Renaissance, which began in Italy in 1300s, was one of the largest periods of growth and development in Western Europe. The increase in trade caused a abundance in wealth that resulted in the focusing of the arts. Such things as literature, paintings, sculptures and many more works are known to have blossomed from the period known as the Renaissance. Many other important occurrences , such as the Reformation and split of the Roman Catholic Church caused by the opposing views of Martin Luther and more of a focus on humankind called humanism, also the eight crusades to retake Jerusalem from theMuslims, played key rolls in the period of the Renaissance. The Crusades which took place before the period of the Renaissance are a major factor in the coming about or birth of theRenaissance. The eight Crusades were the efforts to take back Jerusalem from the Muslims. These Crusades introduced to Western Europe the new tastes of art, fine quisines and new types of cloth, including silk.. With this the need for trade with the Far East increased drastically. This increase in trade caused an abundance of wealth in Western Europe which intern brought new products and goods to Western Europe. In the year 1305 the Roman Catholic Church was relocated from Rome to France. With this the power of the papal states was divided among the regions leading families. Starting near the year 1300 the demand for reform began to grow at a rapid pace. By the 1600s close to half of the practicing Catholics in western Europe had left the Church to join one of the new reformer religious groups. This reform brought about new ways of thought and new attitudes towards religion and the human race. The young German scholar realized that the way to salvation was justification by faith. Martin Luthers beliefs were deemed to be heretic in nature and he was hidden away by a German prince. The word Renaissance means a rebirth. This is exactly what happened after the Crusades and split of the Roman Catholic church. A rebirth of ideas was their outcome. The most drastic change took place in art. New perspectives were created by such people as Giotto, Tommaso Masaccio, and Filippo Brunelleschi. With these new perspectives came a new age of art within the Renaissance. Many new painters learned about using shades of light and dark to create the illusion of depth, along with new techniques to make paintings more realistic. The Renaissance was truly the rebirth of lost ideas along with the birth of new ideas. The Split of the Church and the eight Crusades to recapture Jerusalem are two of the many reasons for the birth of the Renaissance, yet both are important to the birth of the Renaissance. Without the Crusades, which brought back lost works from the Roman Empire and opened trade with the far east, and the split of the Roman Catholic Church, which brought about the reforma tion of the church, there wouldnt have been enough of a basis for the Renaissance to occur.

Immorality In Television Essays - Rating, Behavior, Media Studies

Immorality in Television Matchmaker.com: Sign up now for a free trial. Date Smarter! Immorality in Television Vulgarity in Television In the early years of television people where much more sensitive to what was said and took offense to any form of obscene language. Even in the movies it was unacceptable. However, for many the standard for the use of vulgar language has expanded. In many shows on television vulgar words are used way to often. In many cases unnecessarily. These words do not bother me in the least. However, there are many parents with young children who are offended by this. This would not such a big deal if only the shows that carried these vulgarities would be shown later at night, as they where for many years. Also, most of the programs are not correctly rated to warn of there content. Besides using the basics of the swear words some programs take it to a different level. Instead of using the words themselves they use a form of slang in order to get around the censors. Although these words are not the same as the ones commonly used, they do share the same meaning. By having these programs use these words they are encouraging the children to use a new language that there parents do not understand. And because the parents do not understand the words the children then think it is all right to use profanity. Profanity in television is not so much a problem as it is an annoyance. It makes television more interesting to watch and can occasionally make a situation more humorous, but I do not enjoy it when a five-year-old calls their parents a-- holes to there face. Rating System Recently introduced to all the television shows is the new rating system. This system was implemented to warn about the kind of shows on television. The system tells whether the show is to mature for young children. However, does the system still have flaws? Although it does give an idea as to what the show contains, it does not tell as to the extent to which it is. An example would be the television show "Strangers with Candy." This program is extremely crude with little humor. Normally I enjoy crude humor, but this show is gross. It contains vulgarity, drug use, and sexually references. And to top it off the show is at 10:00. Shows like this should not be viewed any time. My point of bringing this up is to show how lose the system is. I believe that it should be remolded to a different, more precise version of what it is. The current rating system is as follows: TV-Y--This program is appropriate for all children. TV-Y7-- Directed to children age seven and above. May include mild physical or comedic violence, or may frighten children under age seven. Categories for programs directed at entire audience: TV-G-- Suitable for all ages. Contains little or no violence, no strong language and little or no sexual dialogue or situations. TV-PG.-- Parental Guidance Suggested. May contain infrequent coarse language, limited violence and some suggestive sexual dialogue and situations. TV-14-- Parents Strongly Cautioned. May contain sophisticated themes, sexual content, strong language and more intense violence. TV-M-- Mature Audiences Only. Unsuitable for children. May contain mature themes, profane language, graphic violence and explicit sexual content. Sexually Themes and Drug Use The limitations of sex in television as far been expanded since when the television first became popular. In the past twenty years shows have been made which prove my point. Lately on television their has been much leniency towards this subject. Shows such as "N.Y.P.D. Blues" and "Beverly Hills 90210" constantly try to see how far the can take a situation before they agitate the censors. Once again it does not bother me to see these things, but when thinking about it I really would not approve of my younger sister to see these things. Another blight on television would be the use of drugs. Unlike vulgarity and sex I really do have a problem with drug use. There is really no use for it on television and I would prefer to never see it. Although I am totally against it really do think that their is a difference between seeing someone spark a joint and watching them stick their arms with a dirty needle. It is my opinion that if young children see this they will become curious and want to experiment. And if this happens they will someday be eating a steady diet of government cheese and be living in a van down by the river. Subliminal Messages in Television Although this subject is often overlooked it

Crucial, Vital, Essential

Crucial, Vital, Essential Crucial, Vital, Essential Crucial, Vital, Essential By Sharon Some words just cant be qualified, such as unique. Something either is or isnt unique – thats all there is to it. Here are a few more words of that type. Crucial Crucial derives from the Latin crux, meaning cross. The word originally meant cross shaped, but took on the meaning of deciding between opposing arguments in the 19th century. From there it was a short stretch to its current meaning of decisive. Vital Vital derives from the Latin words vitalis and vita meaning life. Its meaning has changed through the centuries. In the 14th century it meant pertaining to life; in the 15th it meant essential to life or sustaining life; in the 16th it meant endowed with life. By the 17th it had come to mean life giving or essential to the existence of something, which is its meaning now. Essential Essential is presumed to be derived from the Latin esse – to be – via essence, which denotes that qualities that make a thing what it is. Its common to hear people talking about issues that are highly crucial, most essential and very vital, however these uses are wrong. Something is either crucial or essential or it isnt – and nothing can be more vital than another thing which is vital. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 English Grammar Rules You Should KnowUsed To vs. Use ToUses of the Past Participle

Summary of readings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Summary of readings - Essay Example At this time the government also started taking other initiatives regarding the social rights of the people. The government started allocating a certain amount of budget for social security, which was yet another significant contribution to the social rights of the people. Currently Japan is facing a serious problem of population decline. The population growth rate of Japan has been declining for three years in a row. As announced by the Japanese government the population decline in 2012 was 212,000, which has not been recorded before in Japanese history. The number of children born in Japan has fallen drastically. According to projections made by the Japanese government, if the current decline in population continues then the Japanese population in 2030 will decline from 127.5 million to 116.6 million. The number of aged people in Japanese population surpassed over 30 million in 2012, which was yet another record. The number of increased elderly population means that the government has to increase the health expenditure in order to help the aged with their health issues. The government also has to pay certain amount of money to the aged which will further burden the national exchequer. The trend of taking interest in human rights began in 20th century, when a drastic increase in the social welfare activities of the state was seen. Major amount of the Japanese annual budget was allocated to health insurance for its people. It was at this time that labor union started emerging whose mere concerns was to rise the demands of the workers and speak for any kind of violation in labor rights. The Japanese employers also started introducing medical insurances that were given to the prominent employees of the company. All these events were contributions to the rights of the employees and to humanity as whole. The Japanese government while designing the human rights policies follows the Universal Declaration of Human rights. The policies implemented by the Japanese gover nment and employers are somewhat a successful contribution to the human rights, however there are certain drawbacks associated with it. The Japanese government has failed to make people understand the true meaning of human rights. However it is the major focus of the government to protect the social rights of their citizens and for this purpose the policies of the government are being updated, based on the changing demand of the population. The current alarming issue for the Japanese government is the decline in birth rate. There are several reasons behind this decline in birth rate. One of the reasons is low pay rates in Japan because of which the married couple usually works more. They are also aware about their increasing needs and that they have to work more if they want to afford more than the basic necessities. Therefore Japanese couples do not desire for more children. This is one of the main reasons of low birth rate in Japan. The other reason is that because of high literac y rate in Japan the Japanese women easily find well paid job which makes them less dependent on men for their needs. This further oppresses their need for a husband. The increasing number of old age population also highlights the issue of decreased labor force in Japan. The number of people in the Japanese labor force is predicted to decrease in the coming years. This can be a drawback for the Japanese

Childrens products Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Childrens products - Essay Example It is for this reason that 8% teenagers of the United States have some portion of their money invested in futures and stocks (Lindstorm, 2004). Almost 20% have their personal checking accounts and 70% love using a credit card if the parents allow it (Lindstorm, 2004). It is hard to argue that global kids segment does not exist when this generation spends over $150 billion a year. And that is not it, they also control another $150 billion through influencing what their parents are buying for them. Martin Lindstorm writes in Brainchild that the money which the new generation is spending is unprecedented, which is why every marketing director needs to allot money for this niche (Sudworth, Cray and Russel, 2007). The 21st century is full of information overload. The new generation is being fed a steady diet of information 24 seven. This information is changing the way they perceive the world and shaping their behavior. The global kids segment is the product of technological advancements. They use mouse, computer screens, smart phones, tablets and other gadgets to see the world. Toddlers now understand icons before they can even start to read. Smart phone manufacturers and app developers specifically target their marketing strategies to toddlers. They can play with the smart phone, listen to the funny sounds but they do not know that the icons and marketing tactics are targeting their subconscious and effecting their decision-making behaviors. The new generation thinks in terms of megabytes and screen resolutions the same way the previous generation used to think in terms of memorizing football scores and doing wheelies on bicycles (Lindstorm, 2004). If the marketing directors need to target global kids’ segment they need to think the way this generation thinks. They need to understand that the new generation is very different from the older generation because they have no hindrances in fully embracing the digital media. Electronic media has

Tribal Women in Chipko Movement Essay Example for Free

Tribal Women in Chipko Movement Essay The women who participated in the Chipko meetings, processions and other programmes have become aware of their potentialities and are now demanding a share in the decision-making process at the community level. Apart from Reni, the events at Dongri Paintoli village indicated a new development in the movement. On 9th February, 1980 the women of Dongri Paintoli turned out in large numbers, held a Chipko demonstration and prevented any tree-felling. Nine days later, the Government ordered the forest-felling in that area stopped, and within a month a ban on any further cutting was effected. Subsequently, women leaders in the village were defamed and asked not to attend further meetings. The women in Reni took action only because there were no men in the village around to do so. Their â€Å"action† was to ask the tree-fellers to wait until their men returned so that some discussions could take place between the two sides (of men) as equals. Women took charge of the scene only in the absence of men, but once they did take charge, they succeeded. In Dongri Paintoli, by contrast, rather than merely taking a decision in the absence of men, the women stood up against decisions made by their own men. Although they faced opposition from men, they held to their conviction. This certainly marked a major step forward in terms of women’s role in the Chipko movement. In Gopeshwar, women have now formed a cooperative of their own, the Mahila Mangal, to ensure protection of the forest around the town. Its work is carried out regularly by watchwomen, who receive regular wages. Under this supervision, the extraction of forest produce for daily necessities is accomplished in a regular manner, so as not to harm the trees. Women or men violating these rules are fined, and these fines are deposited in a common fund. Those who do not obey the rules face the punishment of having their tools confiscated. It can only be said that the cases of Reni and Dongri Paintoli and the organization of women into the Mahila Mangal at Gopeshwar are indicative of the latent potentialities in the organization and mobilization of resources by women whose consciousness has been raised. Women’s participation in Chipko movement, however limited in numbers or in its impact on the general way of life, has implications for possible changes in gender relationships in the Garhwali tribal society. Since tribal women are the gatherers of fuel, fodder and water, it is they who feel the first impact of soil erosion. Women had repeatedly challenged administrators and politicians with their slogans: â€Å"Planning without fodder, fuel and water is one-eyed planning. † Their struggle against injustice brought them into direct confrontation with the men. Gaura Devi, the famous leader, had to tolerate continuous harassment. First the contractor tried to bribe her into letting his men enter the forest. When she refused this offer, the forest department personnel threatened to call the police and arrest her. The contractor in league with some villagers composed folk songs describing the arrest of Gaura Devi and her torture in jail. Chipko women activists are being accused of getting the villagers blacklisted. The men said that since the villages were blacklisted due to the behavior of women, the young men, most of whom were in the army, would not be given employment anywhere, and the villages would not be supplied with essential commodities like salt and kerosene. Also the villages would be deprived of a motor road, electricity, hospital. The women activists are being made the villains of the piece and rumor is being used as a weapon to isolate them. Everyday the men returned home and flinged accusations at the women. This constant harassment within the family caused the women immense mental agony. According to Gayatri Devi, the success of the Chipko movement demonstrates the intellectual superiority of the women over the men in the village. In 1980s, the Chipko movement subsided, with only a small section associated with Bahuguna continuing to protest against the construction of the Tehri dam. However, part of Chipko critique thinks that government policy in the Uttar Pradesh hills was insensitive to the region’s ecological and social specificity and was driven by the concern to maximize revenues which were appropriated by a bureaucracy based in the plains, formed the core of a movement for regional autonomy. 4 This movement for a separate state raged throughout the 1980s and 1990s and was marked by a series of public protest rallies and demonstrations, some of which were violently suppressed by the state (most notably the brutal assault on women protestors at Muzaffarnagar in 1994). The state of Uttaranchal was finally carved out of the hill districts of Uttar Pradesh in 2000. The Chipko movement inspired Vandana Shiva for the development of a new theory called as ‘Ecofeminism’ which specifically explains the link between the ‘women and ecology’ which were in great demand in the market. To be clearer, Vandana Shiva’s Ecofeminist Movement brought imperialism inscribed in the colonial practices, into the centre of the Environmentalist debate. Vandana Shiva’s narratives of Chipko centre on women. She draws the village women of Garhwal into her narratives by binding them to Himalayan forests and nature, not because they are their birthright but through the ‘feminine principle’ which exists in both Women and Nature. She has presented the village women of Garhwal as exploited by colonialism and threatened by modernization and economic development. Chipko is, for Shiva, a women’s ecology movement, a resurgence of women’s power. Chipko women were in against of exploiting forest for timber because they valued forests for providing their simple subsistence; they did not care for economic gain. Forests, for them, provide soil, water and pure air. In 1977, she states, the two paradigms of forestry, one life-destroying (commerce-oriented and masculine) and the other life-enhancing (subsistence-oriented and embodying the feminine principle), clashed, following which Chipko became â€Å"explicitly an ecological and feminist movement†. Shiva asserts that Chipko women are against development, modernization, and economic rationality. According to her, they expect nothing from so called ‘development’ or from the money economy. They only wanted to preserve their autonomous control over their subsistence base, their common property resources: the land, water, forests, and hills. Chipko movement is thus very much a feminist movement. It not only has brought forth in a dramatic manner greatly increased understanding of the divergent interests of local communities and state bureaucracies in the management of local resources; it is now finding that the interests of men and women within the same community can differ greatly. As long as the Chipko movement remains sensitive to this learning process, it is bound to grow in strength. Ramchandra Guha is widely regarded as one of India’s leading environmental historians. In his well known book5 he argues that while Chipko may have involved women, adopted Gandhian non-violent strategies, and raised popular awareness towards environmental problems in the Himalayas, it is neither an environmental, nor Gandhian, nor feminist movement. He holds that, in Uttarakhand the participation of women in popular movements dates from the anti alcohol agitations led by Sarvodaya workers in the 1960s. However, despite the important role played by women, it would be simplistic to characterize Chipko as a feminist movement. In several instances, especially the early mobilizations at Mandal and at Phata, it was men who took the initiative in protecting forests. Women came to the fore in Reni, when in the contrived absence of men folk they unexpectedly came forward to thwart forest felling. In other agitations, such as Badyargarh men, women, children have all participated equally. Dongri-Paintoli is the only instance of an overt conflict between men and women over the management and control of forest resources. As such, even at level of participation Chipko can hardly be said to constitute a women’s movement. Undoubtedly, the hill women have traditionally borne an extraordinarily high share of family labour –and their participation in Chipko may be read as an outcome of the increasing difficulty with which these tasks have been accomplished in the deteriorating environment. Interestingly, Chandi Prasad Bhatt does believe that women are capable of playing a more dynamic role than the men who, in the face of growing commercialization, are apt to lose sight of the long-term interests of the village economy. On the other hand, it has been suggested that which they are the beasts of burden as viewed through the prism of an outside observer, hill women are in fact aware that they are the repository of local tradition. In the orbit of the household women often take decisions which are rarely challenged by the men. In the act of embracing the trees, therefore, they are acting not merely as women but as bearers of continuity with the past in a community threatened with fragmentation. Chipko movement as a constructive resistance to ecological struggle is played out in Nina Sibal’s Yatra: The Journey. The protagonist, Krishna Kaur, embarks on a pilgrimage for environmental justice that takes her through the area where the Chipko movement is active; there she received the secret of angwaltha from the Chipko women, their spirit of love reaching her as she walked through the Deva Bhumi of Uttarakhand and her padyatra. The novel begins with Krishna’s return to India from an activist-business trip to London: her short visit had been useful in terms of the contact she had made in the Forestry Commission and an international environmental foundation has committed funds for an important river project in the Garhwal hills. But environmental concerns are rarely mentioned by the author. The novel foregrounds gender issues in the Chipko movement. It says –â€Å"After all, at its heart, the Chipko Movement is very feminist. It consists essentially of a string of spontaneous confrontations triggered and managed by women of the region, in which none of the so-called leaders were present. In some cases they were struggling against their own men who saw their immediate economic interests tied up with the decisions of the district administration†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..