CHILDREN OF MEN LONG TAKES

CHILDREN OF MEN LONG TAKES Children of Men is a 2006  British  dystopian science fiction film co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarà ³n. The film was based on future; 2027, and how no child had been born in any part of the world for eighteen years. The world had descended in disorder, with most of the governments in the world being collapsed (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). That left United Kingdom as one of the only remaining organized society. As a result millions of refugees entered United Kingdom to seek asylum but Britain had become a militarized police state. Due to which the army forcefully detained all illegal immigrants and suspected supporters. A long take is known as plan- sà ©quence or sequence shot in French. It is basically a shot that is not interrupted with any cuts. It lasts longer than the conventional time of a shot or editing pace and is a strong creative tool in the world of movie making. The camera keeps on moving, rotates, goes over the shoulders, change its position but without stopping the camera or shooting for even a second. It is usually used to create a dramatic and narrative effect or emphasize on a particular scene to capture attention. It is not possible to shoot a feature- length movie in one take because a 35mm camera reel typically runs for only eleven minutes whereas an extended 16mm reels of the tape can run up to thirty minutes. Although with digital video, it is possible to shoot for over two hours on a single tape (Bordwell, Thompson, Film Art- an Introduction); for example in the movie Russian Ark by Alexander Sokurov. He was able to manage a ninety- six minutes film in a long take. It is obvious that a long take requires much more hard work compared to short takes or cuts because while shooting a long take, there are no rooms for mistakes. If anything goes wrong, the entire scene would have to be shot all over again from the beginning and so on. So the scenes have to be perfectly choreographed and performed by the characters. Luckily, the director of the movie; Alfonso Cuarà ³n is highly known for carrying out long takes and manipulating the footage into smooth long takes. Before Children of men, he had performed successful long takes in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Y tu mamà ¡ tambià ©n. Even though the movie Children of Men consists of heavy editing and short shots but some highlighting scenes are done in extraordinary long takes. This allowed the director to carry out certain aspects of narrative or non- narrative form with the different stylistic options. Mixing long and short shots also creates parallels and contrasts among scenes (Bordwell, Thompson, Film Art- an Introduction). Making the viewers visualize the state of the world and condition they were living in due to lack of peace and infertility amongst women. The film Children of Men features numerous long takes but with four striking major ones. In the first one which was at the very beginning of the movie, a bomb blast happened right after Theo came out of a cafà ©. In that long take the director was able to achieve in showing the viewer pretty much what the movie was going to be about. For instance beginning from the bomb blast and then slowly drifting the attention towards the streets. The cars were old and damaged; regardless of being the future technology had reversed, instead of moving forward it had either stopped or was being extinct. In that long take the director was able to capture many events that made perfect sense to the viewer. For example the cars passing by, suddenly a bomb blast happens, everything near the blast gets destroyed, screams of the wounded and the people nearby could be heard. In the second long take scene it was shown that five people which included the refugees who were a part of an underground resistance group advocating  equal rights  for all immigrants in Great Britain called Fishes were in a car, heading towards their hideaways along with their leader Julian and her separated husband Theo; an activist turned apathetic bureaucrat. That car scene recaptures ones concentration and makes it almost impossible to figure out the cameras position. It is astonishing how skillfully the camera angles and positions have been choreographed without the scene seeming formless. Some shots are being taken from where Julian is sitting and then from the back, from the side, from the top, front etc. It looked as though the actors were making the video themselves. It is almost unbelievable with the camera moving to all sorts of radical perspectives; the actors are giving out marvelous performances along with the chaos. For example the ping pong ball scene seemed too good to be real, that how can two people actually do that so accurately without a cut? After which, out of the corner of an eye, a flaming car appeared, as soon as the driver hits reverse refugees and other madmen come out of the woods with sticks and start attacking the car. In all the confusion a motorbike appears with a gun and shoots Julian. Without a cut maintaining continuity, suddenly Julian was covered with blood all over, which gave the viewer a jaw dropping outcome. The car that they were driving was completely modified in reality; the seats were able to tilt and lower the actors out of the way of the camera. The windshield was designed to tilt to support the camera movement in and out through the windscreen (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Whereas in Alfred Hitchcocks movie Rope, to shoot the long takes, furniture was continuously being moved and modified and then put back to where it was by the spot boys so that the cameras and camera men could move easily. Though similar to Children of Men, instead of the car windshield, the walls in Rope were able to glide and were mobile also to accommodate the camera movements. After experiencing the first two long takes, the viewer holds their breath as soon as the next long take comes, expecting something terrible or thrilling to happen. The director didnt let the viewers down and performed a truly heart wrecking scene. It was the scene in which Kee gives birth to a child. One can swear that the girl gave birth in real life, exposing a bit of her flesh in between her legs, a real crying new born baby with its cord still attached, covered in blood escapes the mothers womb into the hands of Theo. It was truly a beautiful scene, beautifully conducted and accomplished. However the last major long take scene felt as though a nightmare had been ripped out of your own head and put on the screen. And what made it more unbearable and tear-jerking was the way it had been shot in a long take of about six minutes. The way camera followed Theo and Kee in the scene in which a major war was happening. Continuous bomb blasts and open fires in between the UKs army and the refugees were going on, people kept on falling and dying, without any cut in the shot the blood sprang from the wounded bodies. In just one scene so much was going on without narration. The director was able to capture more than one outstanding performance. We could see Luke taking away Kee on a wheel chair and at the same moment the other members of fishes were about to kill Theo and his helpers. Due to the long takes used, it was impossible for the viewer to lose interest in the film as something extraordinary, unexpected or shocking always happened. Throughout the long takes the fluidity of the camera movement from one camera angle to the next enabled the viewer to get a closer look, perhaps an inside look, into the world the characters were living in and really felt the threats and dangers that they were in at that moment. WORKS CITED 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     (Bordwell, Thompson, Film Art- An Introduction, 209) 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     (Bordwell, Thompson, Film Art- An Introduction, 209)

Humanism :: essays research papers

According to Encyclopedia.com humanism is, â€Å" a philosophical and literary movement in which man and his capabilities are the central concern.† While this simple definition certainly does convey the essence of the movement, it does no justice to the whirlwind of artistic and intellectual inspiration stirred up by it. There are many forms of humanistic philosophy in today’s society, but the origin of this school of thought traces its roots back to the days of the scholars of ancient Greece and Rome. It was the revival of and renewed interest in Greco-Roman culture around (during the western transition from medieval to early modern culture) that marked the beginning of the Early Renaissance. The humanists believed that the Greek and Latin classics contained all the lessons one needed to lead a moral and effective life. It was the profound respect for nature and scientific knowledge and of course the reevaluation of classical thought, literature, and art that gave the Renaissance its distinctively secular stamp. Many accomplished artists and intellectuals studied during the roughly 200 year period of the Renaissance, and while some are more recognized than others, it is their combined wisdom that created many of foundations on which modern society is based. Though there were many great intellectuals, and artists during the three Renaissance periods, there are a few who clearly stick out as representing the true attitude of the times. These â€Å"Renaissance Men† as they are now called didn’t limit themselves to one medium of study or expression. Rather they embraced many forms of science and artistry, and through their combined studies observed, recorded, and created many scientific theories about nature, man and nature, and man and himself that still hold truth and are the basis of many fields of study today. Of all the artist-scientists of the Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci best deserves the title. Born in Florence during the High Renaissance (1452-1519) he was most certainly not a man of â€Å"book learning† da Vinci spent his life observing the world around him, either imitating nature through art, or explaining nature through science. His hundreds of ingenious mechanical inventions and extensive knowledge in the fields of art, biology and the natural sciences immortalize his role as the father of the scientific revolution. Da Vinci’s work Embryo in the Womb (ca.1510) seems to be a perfect example of the impression classic humanism had on the works of the Renaissance.

Free Hamlet Essays: An Eye for an Eye :: Shakespeare Hamlet Essays

An Eye for an Eye in Hamlet  Ã‚   Claudius is justly punished for the murder of king Hamlet. The punishment fits the crime because his brother's son killed him. King Hamlet killed by the brother killed by the king's son. He was murdered. It was pay back, "what goes around comes around" "an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth" What these two quotes are mainly saying is that you get what you give. Claudius took his brothers life therefore his life was taken away. Not only did Claudius kill his brother to marry his wife and take over his throne, but he caused the deaths of the queen, king Hamlet, Polonius and Ophelia. Hamlet was told by the ghost of king hamlet to get back at Claudius for his death, or his soul will travel on earth forever. Even before hamlet knew about Claudius killing his father he had problems. It made hamlet mad that his mother would marry so fast and with his uncle. What Claudius did was an outrageous, back stabbing, and unbelievable thing. It was clearly an act of jealousy for his brother's throne and the wife. Claudius did pay back for his actions. Claudius lost his wife, his messenger, and died and even after his death kept loosing because he lost his castle to Fortinbras. Not only was Claudius punished by Hamlet but "God" also punished him. The reason that God punished Claudius, is because everyone he cared for and who helped him died. Polonius and Queen Gertrude. Polonius was killed by hamlet, when hamlet thought that he had killed the king. Claudius killed queen Gertrude with the poison whine that he had prepared for hamlet. He killed the one he loved instead of the one he wanted to kill. Claudius was even punished after death. His throne and whole castle was taken over by Fortinbras. Not only where his wife and friend dead, but he later died himself by his brother's son. Claudius killed and his turn to die came, but it took some time and other people to die too. Claudius was punished for the queen's death because although he did not intentionally mean to kill her, he watched her drink the poison that he had prepared for hamlet. He knew that she was going to die, but he didn't say anything because he was all for himself.

A Lesson Before Dying Essay

â€Å"A Lesson Before Dying† takes place in a small Louisiana Cajun community in the late 1940’s. In the novel, Jefferson, a young black man, is an unwitting party to a liquor store shoot out in which three men are killed; being the only survivor, he is convicted of a murder and sentenced to death. To portray this novel Gaines displays respectable literary devices like setting, tone, and characterization; therefore helping I as the reader feel the emotions of Jefferson from his point of view. In the initial setting of the novel, Jefferson sits in a courtroom located in rural Louisiana, which is filled with anger, tension, isolation, and quietness from the people in the room. This setting of the book supports Jefferson’s personality in chapter nine when Jefferson’s character is introduced. Jefferson’s cell could be considered the second setting or Jefferson’s setting in the book. Jefferson’s relationship to the courtroom (initial setting) supports Jefferson’s personality in the prison. He is isolated just like in the courtroom. â€Å"There was an empty cell between Jefferson and the rest of the prisoners† (Gaines 71). Jefferson’s cell was not only isolated like a courtroom in rural Louisiana, but quiet. â€Å"Jefferson’s been quiet . . . He didn’t answer† (Gaines 71). Due to Jefferson’s isolation and quietness, he has built anger inside. An anger which had been building up since the courtroom conviction. â€Å"Nothing don’t matter,† he said looking up at the ceiling. The first setting of the novel is similar to Jefferson’s cell setting. The three settings: The courtrooms, location and time era of the town, and prison all have similarities to Jefferson’s character traits. The court trial scene embodies everything that is contained within the novel. All events that occur throughout the entire novel are a repercussion of Jefferson’s court case. These circumstances set up the tone that is simply perceived throughout the novel. Gaines tone in the novel shifts as the novel progresses. Gaines made the novel begin with a pessimism view; everything seemed awful and negative especially the court trial. Gaines shows us this disgust tone by telling us the details of the jury members. The twelve â€Å"white† jury members of the case shows us that Jefferson felt dominated by the whites. As the novel goes on Gaines tone shifts and Jefferson seems more aware and confident, the anger and disgust diminishes the longer Jefferson sits in jail. The twelve white jury members were also Gaines way of showing the dominance, and power of the whites during this ime, only thinking that blacks are only good for working, and is incapable of thinking for themselves†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Do you see a modicum of intelligence? A trait inherited from his ancestors in the deepest jungle of blackest Africa†¦ What you see here is a thing that acts on command. â€Å"(Gaines7). Understanding this time era is important for the tone, and Gaines gives good examples representing the era to the tone. Gaines’s style is unique because the figurative language that he uses improves the reader’s mental picture. For example, when Gaines was describing Miss Emma at the beginning of the novel he says â€Å"she became as immobile as a great stone or as one of our oak cypress stumps†(Gaines 36). This allowed me as the reader to picture Miss Emma and the condition that she is in with a mental image throughout the entire novel. He also used figurative language while he describes in chapter fourteen the Louisiana Countryside. Gaines told in great detail the cemetery appearance as Grant walked through and then explain the smells and feelings he has while Grant explores the Sugar Cane Planation with Vivian. The literary devices were greatly put to use by Gaines to explain, and portray his novel to any reader. He has made a novel enjoyable for an audience that may not like reading due to his sarcasm (tone), and figurative language to set up numerous scenes. The settings are a main building block for this novel because the court room and the jail cell is when the story line is put together. Each trial, and everyday described by Gaines about Jefferson in jail puts the novel together into one amazing novel that I will be sure to recommend. A Lesson Before Dying Essay The economic downturn of the past several years has been devastating to local economies and, by extension, their local law enforcement agencies. According to a report by the National Institute of Justice, the United States is currently experiencing the 10th economic decline since World War II (Wiseman 2011). The impact of this downturn will result in a change of how law enforcement services are delivered. As has been discussed by the COPS Office Director, Bernard Melekian, in a series of recent articles published in the Community Policing Dispatch, expectations will not be lowered just because an agency now has fewer officers, or because the budget is limited. Simply doing less while waiting for local budgets to recover to pre-2008 levels is not a viable option. Law enforcement leaders are faced with budget contractions that are in need to identified in different ways to deliver police services and, perhaps more importantly, articulate what the new public safety models will look like to their communities (Melekian 2011a). The effects of the economic downturn on law enforcement agencies may be felt for the next 5–10 years, or worse, permanently. These changes could be permanently driven not just by the economy, but by local government officials who determined that allocating 30–50 percent of their general fund budgets for public safety costs is no longer a fiscal possibility (Melekian 2011b). While it appears that the economy is beginning to recover on the national level, most economists agree that local jurisdictions are still in decline and will continue to be so, at least in the short term. Due to the decline of tax revenues because of Foreclosures County and municipal budgets tend lagging behind the general economy, which is one of the main source of funding for local agencies. Agencies are also faced with the budget realities, the current model for service delivery—which has been with us for the last 50 years—is already starting to change, and will be forced to continue to change dramatically and rapidly in the next 3–5 years. Police departments have been one of the affected by the current economic climate. Restricting revenues nationwide have forced local governments to make cuts in spending across the board, which has affected everything to include public safety operating budgets. However, while these budget cuts are threatening law enforcement jobs the responsibility to serve and protect remain. There has been no methodical way of measuring the effect the economic downturn has had on police agencies across our nation. A good example is how Nigeria has been experiencing difficulties in Budget implementation. The objective of the article was to present alternative forms of budgeting and after exposition on them, to recommend one that could mitigate budget implementation problem for Nigeria. Two types of budgeting addressed are incremental and zero-base. Under incremental budgeting, a certain percentage is added or subtracted from previous period’s figures to arrive at new period’s budget. Under zero bases, every program is reevaluated for its merits, as if previous budgets never existed. The starting points are the results hoped to achieve, and every debate about budget implementation is done prior to passage. Zero base budgeting is analogous to marketing concept in terms of information requirement and zeroing in on customized needs. To the extent that zero base budgeting plans, executes and controls, it serves as a management tool. Nigeria’s budgeting has been incremental, overly politicized and not carried out by experts, but merely based on benchmark price and quota of daily oil production. Factors militating against proper budgeting in Nigeria are distortions in fiscal transparency. Budget implementation in Nigeria is a critical problem. Many have blamed our poor socio-economic and infrastructural development on low degree of budget implementation, which is a result of incremental budgeting process. The paper therefore recommends zero based budgeting to Nigeria at all levels (GJSS, 2012). Sometimes inefficiencies result due to poor integration of the finance and strategy. â€Å"Budgeting and performance are typically overseen by the finance department, whereas planning s coordinated by strategy department. Often, the two processes aren’t well integrated, resulting in strategies that are often dictated by the budget process instead of vice versa† (Gary 2003). The reason for this could be that everyone involved may be attempting to accomplish the same goals, but also trying to make sure that the outcome will be beneficial to them, such as a substantial bonus or a reward. A budget cycle refers to the whole process from the commencement of developing a budget to the execution of the final charge on the budget. Since the majority of the budgets are prepared for a one year period, budget cycles cover the costs and expenditures for a period of one year. However, there are budget cycles that run for more than one year period. Government budgets have a budget cycle of at least 18 months from the conception of the various departments’ budgets to the time the appropriation bills are signed into law (Hyde, 2001). The initial steps of the budget cycle take place in the various departments and agencies. The program officers in the various departments compile all information that is necessary in the preparation of the budget. The budget cycle culminates with the president’s budget application to the Congress. This often takes place in February (USDOJ, 2011). A budget refers to a list of premeditated revenues and expenses. It represents a tool for savings and expenditure. A budget can also be defined as an organizational plan that is stated in monetary terms. It is used as a road map for conducting the activities, objectives, assumptions, and strategies of an organization. A budget cycle is comprised of various stages. Budget planning for the new fiscal year marks the first step of the budget cycle, while closing and carry forward activities mark the end of a budget cycle (Hyde, 2001). The steps outlined below are steps of a sample government’s budget cycle: Budget submissions: this entails the submission of the budget plans to the respective Budget Offers in various government departments. The budgets are reviewed and approved. Budget approval: this entails the executive committee approving the budget. The Initial Budget Authorizations are then submitted to the respective supervisors who address the respective cost items. Global Changes: the salaries are adjusted so that they reflect salary increases that are permitted by the Salary Subcommittee and the Human Resources Department. Closing: this entails the closure of the budgets at the end of the fiscal year. Carry forwards: it entails carrying forward all the unspent money to the following fiscal year. This marks the last step in the budget cycle. In most instances, law enforcement management prepares master budget for the coming year. The master budget includes the projected expenses and maintenance which is incorporated in the master budget and other smaller budgets such as training, overtime, marketing, administrative, and departmental budgets. By establishing an operating and financial budget for a future period, management can identify problems in advance. This can be maintained by forecasting for future predictions. A forecast is a reflection of the future. When forecasting is taken into account, two key aspects to consider are cash budgets and expenditure forecast. In most instances, budgets are and should be prepared for a future period such as an oncoming accounting or financial year. They are detailed by quarters or months. Typically, annual budgets are not altered once the year begins. However, budgets should not be rigid so as to prevent timely actions if need arises. Instead, budgets should only act as a guide rather than a restriction. However, there are rare circumstances when an annual budget should be revised such as due to a radical change in the business environment. Budgets are also important for obtaining funding since they portray an organization’s capacity to the lending institutions and financiers. Additionally, budgets are important management tools, they aid in setting milestones that need accountability to achieve, and aid an organization in identifying risks and establishing benchmarks. Thus, budgets facilitate the process of making adjustments to avoid risks, and to measure the benchmarks. Understanding the significance of budgeting marks the first step towards successful financial planning. It plays a significant role in the strategic planning process by an organization. It outlines the future financial goals and needs of an organization such as technological needs, overhead needs, financial requirements, and capital improvements. I have a very strong opinion that budgeting should not be scrapped, rather be modified to meet the current business environment. Organizations would have to restructure compensation programs so that managers no longer have an incentive to favors short-term goals over the longer-term. Budgeting will have to be flexible to be able to be adjusted from time to time to reflect changes in organizational goals and the economic environment. Again, accounting department should be responsible for compiling only budget information; they should not determine the budgeting process. Management, through the planning process should determine the budget, and all departments should be included in the process. Budgeting should be both top down and bottom up; i. e. upper level management and middle level management will both work to finalize a budget. We can streamline the budgeting process by developing a financial model. Financial models can facilitate â€Å"what if† analysis so we can assess decisions before they are made. This can dramatically improve the budgeting process. One of the biggest challenges within financial planning and budgeting is how do we make it value-added. Budgeting requires clear channels of communication, support from upper-level management, participation from various personnel, and predictive characteristics. Budgeting should not strive for accuracy, but should strive to support the decision making process. If we focus too much on accuracy, we will end-up with a budgeting process that incurs time and costs in excess of the benefits derived. The challenge is to make financial planning a value-added activity that helps the organization achieve its strategic goals and objectives. In order for department to compensate for dwindling budget, many law enforcement officer have had to learn how to focus on what can they can sacrifice from their normal lifestyle in order to offset the reduction in available spending. Some of these sacrifices have included families foregoing summer vacations, or shopping in discount stores instead of department stores they are accustomed too. However, today law enforcement agencies are faced with the difficult task of maintaining the same service that their communities expect despite the extreme reduction in available resources. And, in order for them to deliver the same high level of protection and emergency responsiveness that the communities depend on, law enforcement agencies must find new and inventive techniques to address those needs in cost-effective and maintainable way. Agencies must have a good understanding of how budgeting marks the first step towards successful financial planning. Budgeting has a significant role in the strategic planning process by any organization. It provides the framework for future financial goals and the needs of an organization such as technical equipment like laptops, radios, and side arms. It also shows the overhead needs, and departmental financial requirements. It can also outline the costs involved in order to get the resources that are required to meet their financial goals. Developing a budget is an important tool for determining the department’s performance, in motivating the upper-management, other members of staff, and measuring the results towards accomplishing the organization’s financial goal. References Gary, L (2003) Breaking the Budget Impasse. Pg 3, Retrieved September 30, 2013, Idio, U. S. (2012). THE BUDGET AS A MANAGEMENT TOOL: ZERO BASE BUDGETING, PANACEA TO BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION IN NIGERIA. Global Journal of Social Sciences, 11(1), 1-7. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/1036581432? accountid=32521 http://www. cops. usdoj. gov/files/RIC/Publications/e101113406_Economic%20Impact. pdf Melekian, B. , (2011a). Director’s Message. Community Policing Dispatch vol. 4, no. 3. http://cops. usdoj. gov/html/dispatch/03-2011/DirectorMessage. asp. Melekian, B. , (2011b). Director’s Column: July 2011. Community Policing Dispatch vol. 4, no. 7. http://cops. usdoj. gov/html/dispatch/07-2011/DirectorMessage. asp. Wiseman, J. , (2011). Strategic Cutback Management: Law Enforcement Leadership for Lean Times. Research for Practice, Washington, D. C. : U. S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, NCJ 232077.

Gourevitch book review Essay

Renowned American author and journalist Philip Gourevitch, presents his 1998 ardent and authoritative non-fiction publication titled We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families, stories from Rwanda. New York: Paw Prints. The book chronicles the events in the Rwandan genocide and provides a riveting description of the author’s travel to Rwanda after the genocide and the horrors he encountered. He interviews a number of those who survived the ordeals and gathers the information which he uses to reconstruct their horrifying stories and thus provides a reflection of the genocide. Gourevitch has earned a number of prestigious awards as an appreciation of his highly credible and analytical book. The 1998 National Book Critics Award leads the number of numerous awards that he has managed to scoop. The 1994 Rwandan genocide brought this tiny country in East Africa into the limelight. Gourevitch made follow ups to the 1994 genocide and he gained interest in unearthing the information since he was not getting satisfied by following the happenings from afar. This prompted him to make a number of trips in a period of two years to both Rwanda and its neighbors. It was during his visits to report about the aftermath of the genocide that he published his book. Most of the information that America and most of the western countries have on the genocide is mainly accredited to Gourevitch’s work. The author starts the book by describing Decimation which he describes as â€Å"the killing of every tenth person in a population†. Gourevitch goes further to describe how in the summer of 1994 a series of â€Å"massacres decimated the Republic of Rwanda† (Gourevitch, 1998 p. 1). The author argues that even though the massacre was carried out with machetes, the rate at which it was carried out was staggering. To highlight the seriousness of these killings the author compares them with the Holocaust in which he points out that the massacre was nearly three times deadlier than the Holocaust. He narrates how the government had adopted a new policy in which the Hutu majority was to kill all the Tutsi’s minority with the reasoning being that this would make the world a better place. What followed were cold blooded murders of the Tutsi minority with use of machetes (Gourevitch, 1998). Gourevitch adopts a rather judgmental and snarky tone that is geared towards those who made decisions that in one way or another led to the genocide. He also tackles the root problems that sparked the mass killings in this small country. The author in his logical thinking about the root cause of the genocide argues that the colonial history of Rwanda was a major contributor to the genocide. Gourevitch argues that the tribal rivalry between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority can be traced back to the Belgium regime which colonized Rwanda. The author points out that â€Å"Belgium itself was a nation divided along ethnic lines, in which the Francophone Walloon minority,† ruled the country (Gourevitch, 1998 p. 58). The regime while in Rwanda fostered the minority Tutsi elites and portrayed the Hutu’s as a downtrodden ethnic race just useful as the workforce. This would obviously leave a bad taste to the majority Hutu group towards the minority Tutsi group. The extent for this hate was clearly highlighted at the rate with which the killings took place which the author says were the â€Å"most efficient mass killing since Hiroshima and Nagasaki† (Gourevitch, 1998, p. 1). Gourevitch presents this book in such a way that it is highly critical of the lack of intervention from Western governments and the United Nations forces, who he claims just stood by and watched as the killings took place. The Belgians and the French are blamed for their complicity and also the author portrays these countries as some that aided in reinforcing their own senses of impunity. One of the most disturbing truths in the book that the author reveals is that those who had died knew they were going to die. The author tells of how â€Å"it was announced on radio, it was in the newspapers, people spoke of it openly† (p. 18). This use of the media to propagate the killings is also to be blamed since it acted as a focal point in the genocide. Theda Skocpol a renowned sociologist and political scientist, tries to offer some light as to why violence may tend to occur in a political system. She mainly takes her ideas from the Marxist class conflict in which she mainly argues from the rural agrarian and state conflicts. The author of STATES AND SOCIAL REVOLUTIONS: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China aims to offer some explanations by employing both the â€Å"Marxist scholarship and recent social science theories about revolution† (Skocpol, 2007 p. 35). In her book she argues that France, Russia and China are all successful revolutions and even though they are quite a number of differences there seems to be a pattern that is distinctive of the three revolutions. Skocpol argues that a change in a social system will quite often lead to grievances and thus the emergence of group interests with the effective potential of collective mobilization. This as she points out will lead to the emergence of mass based movements that may have the purpose of overthrowing an entire social order. She argues that this revolutionary movement will fight and in case it wins it will establish its own authority (Skocpol, 2007 p. 14-15). This can be paralleled to what happened in Rwanda where the Hutu had grievances against the minority Tutsi and thus embarked on actions that were geared towards changing an entire social order with the belief that by exterminating the Tutsi people they could make the world better place† (Gourevitch, 1998 p. 6). The author in this book tries hard to prove that it was a genocide and he even asserts his position on the severity of this matter by reminiscing of how he read that â€Å"the United States had decided for the first time in its history to use the word genocide to describe what happened† (Gourevitch, 1998 p. 7). Gourevitch in this book only provides antecedents rather that clear cut answers and therefore the satisfaction of the book is not quenched. Gourevitch’s book is mainly geared towards criticizing the response of the international community in responding and averting the genocide and his anger cannot be hidden and this leads to him only presenting one side of the story instead of being neutral. The book is extremely critical of the west and the United Nation which the author uses sarcasm to depict how the Rwandans never thought the UN soldiers knew how to shoot in order to quell the killings but after a while they were showed their prowess in shooting dogs which were eating corpses in the streets. However, the atrocities that took place in Rwanda are still capable of happening anywhere else and considering the fact that they means used were not highly sophisticated just shows how if such a genocide would ever take place again in the world then the results would be highly catastrophic. The author does a good job in depicting the genocide and his highly analytical technique of even going back to how the two tribes in contention, interacted leaves us with room to understand clearly how the genocide came to be. References: Gourevitch, P (1998). We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: stories from Rwanda. New York: Paw Prints Skocpol, T (2007). States and social revolutions: a comparative analysis of France, Russia and China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007

Women Organizers in the Civil Rights Movement

Women organizers in the Civil Rights movement (1950's-1960's) Women have always been regarded as key parental figure in raising and developing children in the society. During the period of 1950 to 1970, many parts of the world were marred with civil rights movement. The movements were characterized with protests and civil resistance complaining about discrimination economic and political self sufficiency. Women took up the initiative to participate in these movements. This situation later led to serious confrontation between government authorities and activists.Thousands of people took part in the civil right movement of that period especially in the United States. The key leaders of the campaign, include; Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks, James Meredith and Medgar Evers, played crucial roles for of the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in America[1]. This paper covers factors that motivated women, the contributions they had, roles they played as well as the problems they encountered during the civil rights movement of 1950’s and 1960’s.Most of the women who were involved in these movements were born during the slavery period, hence the pain and suffering they experienced at that time stimulated them to speak out against oppression. One of the most vocal women who started to speak against oppression was Wells Barnett. She began her struggle in 1909, by travelling abroad to seek international attention on this issue[2]. She also formed National association for the advanced of Colored people. Her efforts were later joined by the struggle for gender sensitization by Mary Church Terrell. She was very vocal and spoke about segregation of the blacks in public eating joints.She led most of the citizens to boycotts and picketing to attract attention to racial injustice[3]. She established the black club movement that led to the formation of National Association of Colored Women similar to that of Barnett. She was also very instrumental in bringing up socially progressive institutions such as mother clubs and nursery schools. The three year struggles with authorities bow her fruits when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public eating places was unconstitutional[4]. Another very instrumental lady in these movements was Mary McLeod.She often worked together with both Terrell and Barnett. Mary became the president of National Association of Colored Women[5]. Being at the supreme of the organization, she became a good friend of Sara Roosevelt the mother of Franklin Roosevelt mayor of New York. She used the good rapport she had with this politically influential family to continue her struggle for social justice of the black[6]. She was later appointed to be the head of National Youth Council by President Roosevelt. Eleanor Roosevelt took the same path after being inspired by Terrell and Mary McLeod.After her husband was elected as the 32nd president Eleanor became instrumental in fighting inj ustice by calling for international and national attention to the effects of oppression and racial discrimination. She took a bold step and resigned from the Daughter of American Revolution since they had differed in ideologies. Ella baker was another activist who dedicated her time to speak out against oppression. She was regarded as the leader behind the scenes. She struggled to study due to the fact that her family was not well of. She graduated and became a teacher.She relocated to New York and quit her profession to engage in social change. She got involved with NAACP in the grassroots level in recruiting more people to the organization. She also was instrumental in the formation of other small organizations such as Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. These movements later were used by Martin Luther King Jr. to organize his boycott and nonviolent movement. The wave of women participation in the civil movement was unstoppable. Rosa Park, who was famously regarded as the mother of the civil rights movement, was also contributed in this struggle.She is believed to have started the main struggle of these civil rights movement. She experienced difficulty in completing her education due to the strict regulations for the black children. The black children were meant to study for only five moths in a year and the rest of the year they spent time in the cotton fields as laborers. Rosa graduated from high school after she got married to Raymond parks[7]. This sparked her efforts to fight racial injustice. She joined National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Montgomery chapter as the only woman. She was very instrumental member of this organization and was elected secretary.Her active involvement in National Association of Advanced Colored People led to her arrest on 1955[8]. Rosa’s life as an African American continued to face challenges. The mistreatment she received from the whites while she was in a bus made her to launch a huge boycott of using Montgomery buses by the Afro-Americans. She decided to organize this boycott after she got arrested for refusing to give out her seat to a white passenger in the bus. The boycott lasted for 381 days prompting her to be absorbed by the Montgomery Improvement Association which was formed by Martin Luther King Jr[9].This act of boycott was followed by a series of escalating protest, movements and insurgencies by African Americans. During the time for boycott Rosa coordinated for the blacks to get rides from car pool ups and other whites who offered to help. The used the slogan ‘don’t use the bus today. Don’t use it for freedom. ’ The boycotters together with Mrs. Rosa Park took the case to court disputing the segregation in buses[10]. They later worn the case after the court ruled on their favor. After the successful boycott Rosa and her families were not secure in Montgomery. They relocated to Detro it where she worked for congressman John Conyers.She continued to raise her voice and incited the youth to take up the struggle for African American Social and American progress. After the women political council had initiated the boycott in Montgomery, Martin Luther king came to the limelight taking all the credit as the leader for the nonviolent resistance. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X traversed different sections of the country giving powerful speeches and mobilizing nonviolent movements. Sparks of none violent movements were seen in other parts of the country[11]. These nonviolent movements escalated to violent racial rebellion in major cities in the U. S. s the movement went militant it provoked the whites against pro-black policies and the police. The success of events of this decade was at the peak when the Supreme Court decides the case of brown v board of education ruling in favor of brown. The court declared that segregation of schools unconstitutional. In the 1960 ’s many women rights group were established to continue the fight against racial injustice and oppression. This was the decade that saw progressive women rights movement in the United States and world Wide. Most of these groups comprised of female students who advocated for equal employment opportunity for both men and women.They also lobbied for enforcement of equal rights laws. Later that decade national organization for women was formed to replace women commission and it continued with the fight against sexual discrimination. The commission was disbanded due to lack of funds. The women equity action league founded in 1968, sought to investigate inequalities in faculty pay and promotions of both men and women in education workforce. These remarkable women played an important role in inspiring other activists and grassroots leaders who in turn mobilized more and more people to join the struggle.These women also helped millions of women to gain their fundamental rights as wom en. They were mostly motivated by the mass followers they had. Motivation also came from the cases they had in courts which ended up favoring the blacks and declaring most of the segregation unconstitutional. They drew their inspiration from civil rights movement they had organized. The organizations they were involved with had a lot of confidence in them hence they elected these women to high posts which favored their situation and gave them an upper hand in organizing the struggle[12].To overcome the problems they encountered they formed organizations such as national Organization for women. National Organization of Women key mandate was to enlighten the women to fully participate in mainstreaming of American society. These organizations brought them together in unity and increased their awareness on critical issues that affect them. This enabled them to have a strong voice over the oppression and neglect they were facing and forced the federal government to enforce the law. The i deologies fomented by certain black power movement were destructive and fostered cultural conflict.This posed a challenge to the efforts of the women who organized movements before. The other major challenge that affected these courageous women is the fact that most of the influential leaders, who had followed suit to lead mass movement, ended up being arrested or assassinated[13]. A good example is the cases of Malcolm x and Martin Luther King. The women’s morale was undermined by these acts. The supremacy of the white also undermined their efforts in the sense that they seemed to bend the law on their favor and oppressed the blacks in all sectors.The civil war escalated by the Ku Klux Klan and the lynch mob in the south were meant to threaten the activists from pursuing further with their quest[14]. The vocal contribution of Martin Luther King Jr. was faced with bomb attacks to his church and residence. The mass movements in America were a vital process to transform America to its current state. The vibrant voices of these women led to signing of the civil rights act to law. The law protects all minorities and women from discrimination in voting employment and use of public areas. They were also rendered freedom of choice.This was viewed as victory for both blacks and women. The revival of the African American militancy was an exceptional progress to the realization of democratic ideals[15]. The shared commitment to take the risk and highlight injustice and press the course for change resulted to the change in attitude of many American citizens. They tore down the oppressive racial and segregation system that had dominated the country for a long time thus bringing a remarkable transformation of American life. Bibliography Bermanzohn, Sally Avery. â€Å"Violence, Nonviolence, and the Civil Rights Movement. New Political Science 22, no. 1 (March 2000): 31-48. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 15, 2011). Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Bearing witness: selections from African-American autobiography in the twentieth century. New York: Pantheon Books, (1991). Greenblatt, Alan. â€Å"Race in America. † CQ Researcher 13, no. 25 (July 11, 2003): 593-624. http://library. cqpress. com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2003071100. Hine, Darlene Clark. Hine sight: black women and the re-construction of of American history. Bloomington: Indiana University, (1994). Jost, Kenneth. â€Å"School Desegregation. † CQ Researcher 14, no. 5 (April 23, 2004): 345-72. http://library. cqpress. com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2004042300. Naylor Gloria. Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad, (1993). ———————– [1] Greenblatt, Alan. â€Å"Race in America. † CQ Researcher 13, no. 25 (July 11, 2003): 593-624. http://library. cqpress. com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2003071100. [2] Darlene, Hine Clark. Hine sight: black women and the re-construction of of American history. Bloomingt on: Indiana University, (1994). [3] Naylor Gloria. Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad, (1993). [4] Henry Louis, Gates Jr.Bearing witness: selections from African-American autobiography in the twentieth century. New York: Pantheon Books, (1991). [5] Darlene, Hine Clark. Hine sight: black women and the re-construction of of American history. Bloomington: Indiana University, (1994). [6] Sally Bermanzohn, Avery. â€Å"Violence, Nonviolence, and the Civil Rights Movement. † New Political Science 22, no. 1 (March 2000): 31-48. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 15, 2011). [7] Greenblatt, Alan. â€Å"Race in America. † CQ Researcher 13, no. 25 (July 11, 2003): 593-624. http://library. cqpress. com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2003071100. 8] Bermanzohn, Sally Avery. â€Å"Violence, Nonviolence, and the Civil Rights Movement. † New Political Science 22, no. 1 (March 2000): 31-48. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 15, 2011 ). [9] Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Bearing witness: selections from African-American autobiography in the twentieth century. New York: Pantheon Books, (1991). [10] Hine, Darlene Clark. Hine sight: black women and the re-construction of of American history. Bloomington: Indiana University, (1994). [11] Jost, Kenneth. â€Å"School Desegregation. † CQ Researcher 14, no. 15 (April 23, 2004): 345-72. ttp://library. cqpress. com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2004042300. [12] Jost, Kenneth. â€Å"School Desegregation. † CQ Researcher 14, no. 15 (April 23, 2004): 345-72. http://library. cqpress. com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2004042300. [13] Hine, Darlene Clark. Hine sight: black women and the re-construction of of American history. Bloomington: Indiana University, (1994). [14] Greenblatt, Alan. â€Å"Race in America. † CQ Researcher 13, no. 25 (July 11, 2003): 593-624. http://library. cqpress. com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2003071100. [15] Gloria Naylor. Critical Perspectives Past and Present . New York: Amistad, (1993).

A Cray SuperComputer Comes to the University of To Essays

A Cray SuperComputer Comes to the University of Toronto By Andrew Reeves-Hall The Cray X-MP/22 manufactured by Cray Research Incorporated (CRI) of Minneapolis, Minnesota was delivered and installed at the U of Toronto this September. The Cray is a well respected computer - mainly for its extremely fast rate of mathematical floating-pointcalculation. As the university states in its July/August computer magazine "ComputerNews", the Cray's "level of performance should enable researchers with large computational requirements at the university of Toronto and other Ontario universities to compete effectively against the best in the world in their respective fields." The Cray X-MP/22 has two Central Processing Units (CPUs) - the first '2' in the '22'. The Cray operates at a clock rate of 105 MHz (the regular, run-of-the-mill IBMPC has a clock rate of 4.77 MHz). By quick calculations, you would be led to believe the Cray is only about 20 times faster that the PC. Obviously, this is not the case. The Cray handles data considerably differently than the PC. The Cray's circuits permit an array of data (known as a 'vector') to be processes as a SINGLE entity. So, where the IBMPC may require several clock cycles to multiply two numbers, the Cray performs everything in one clock cycle. This power is measured in Millions of Floating Point Operations Per Second (MFLOPS) - which is to say the rate at which floating-point operations can be performed. The Cray MFLOPS vary as it does many activities, but a rate of up to 210 MFLOPS (per CPU) can be achieved. The second '2' in the X-MP/22 title refers to the two million 64-bit words (16Mb) of shared central memory. This can be expanded to four million words in the future if the need arises. But it doesn't stop there! The Cray can pipe information back and forth between the CPU memory and the Input/Output Subsystem (IOS). The IOS then takes it upon itself the store the information in any of the four storage devices: i) one of the four 1200 Mb disk drives (at a rate of 5.9Mb every second), ii) one of two standard 200ips 6250bpi tape drives, iii) a Solid State Storage Device (SSD) (which is much like a 128Mb RAM Disk!), or iv) through to a front-end computer (the U of T uses both the IBM4381 and a DEC VAX). These computers would be programmed (usually in FORTRAN) and the information passed onto the Cray. The results would then be transfered back to the front end computers. The 4 year old Cray was bought used from the California NASA research centre where it was used in aerodynamic calculations. This means less cost to buy it and the assurance that it has been 'burned in'. In case you wanted one for yourself, the U of T was able to purchase the Cray for the low-low price of $12 million. Over the next five years, the University predicts the total cost will probably be $25 million when maintenance, staff and other costs are taken into consideration. To help out, the Ontario Government put in $10 million. By doing this, all other Ontario University researchers are assured of access at a reduced cost. By the way, to buy time on the system, it'll cost you $2000 per hour. But Ontario researchers only have to pay 7% of that - $140 per hour. Their first commercial customer is OMNIBUS Graphics of Toronto who plan to use the Cray in the graphic videos. If you saw the movie 'The Last Starfighter', you will have already experienced the graphic capabilites of the Cray (remember the some of the space scenes!). The Cray did all of the calculations required for those scenes and let another graphics computer to do the menial task of drawing the lines and filling with the calculated colour. There is so much to talk about when the word 'Cray' pops to mind! If you are seriously interested in this amazing computer and/or you are interested in purchasing time on the system, please contact the people below: The Centre for Large Scale Computation at the U of T Llyod Parker, Director 978-8255 Facilities Manager Dr. Edmund West 978-4085 Supercomputer User's Group (for University Researchers, etc)