Marine Barracks Attack

On May 30, 2003, CNN law center made a report, that the attack on the U. S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 American servicemen was an example of a state-sponsored terrorist attack. The report goes on to say that U. S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ordered that the plaintiffs in this case – the servicemen wounded in the bombing and families of those killed, â€Å"†¦have a right to obtain judicial relief†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (see CNN. com, 2003). This piece of news is referring to an event that happened two decades ago and yet carried so much significance that even after twenty years a U. S.District Court deems it worthy of its precious time and resources. The event in question transformed the way the world view terrorism. More importantly the said event transformed the way the United States perceive the capabilities and commitment of a new breed of enemy that does not believe in or rely on conventional warfare. This paper will take a closer look into the bom bing. And to understand its context a part of the study will be devoted to into looking at other acts of terrorism that used the same modus operandi. Beirut, Lebanon In the year 1982, Lebanon was at war with Israel.It is an understatement to say that the country was war-torn. The situation was bad enough that it required the presence of Western soldiers to achieve peace and if this is not possible then at least creating a sense of order in the midst of chaos. In August of 1982 American soldiers came to Lebanon as part of the multi-national peacekeeping force, which included French, Italian, and British personnel. Yet according to Kushner, the peacekeepers had one other thing in mind and it was to negotiate a cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel (2003, p. 386). It was one of the costliest mistakes the U. S. government and its armed forces ever made.They were not welcome in Lebanon and their desire to end the war was seen as a ploy to help their ally the Israelis. So on the 23rd of O ctober 1983, on a beautiful morning, at about 6:20 AM, a yellow five-ton truck was carrying hundreds of kilos of explosives. The unsuspecting Lebanese guards who worked at a nearby checkpoint, â€Å"†¦did not notice that the bed of the Mercedes-Benz truck was pushed lower than it should have been. The truck was carrying a heavy load† (Olson, 2003, p. 4). For days the enemy has been pounding the airport with artillery fire but on this and the day before that all was peace and quiet.This prompted many marines to take a well deserved rest. While the truck was easing its way past the checkpoint most of the marines were asleep in the Battalion Landing Team (BLT) headquarters at the Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) compound (Olson, 2003, p. 6). The Mercedes truck was waved through and â€Å"†¦it proceeded southward at a steady pace along the airport road. To the driver’s right beyond the airport runway, lay the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. To his left ran iron fence t hat separated the road from the marine’s compound† (Olson, 2003, p. 6).Then without warning the suicide bomber driving the vehicle accelerated and made a mad dash to its intended target. The vehicle went crashing into the front door of the BLT buildings were hundreds of marines were sleeping. And then, â€Å"Twelve thousand pounds of dynamite detonated among the sleeping marines. The four-story building collapsed to eye level, and many who were not lucky enough to die instantly were buried under tons of rubble† (2003, p. 7). As a result of the attack Shai remarked, â€Å"Two hundred and forty-one people were killed and eighty were injured, most of which were U. S.Marines †¦ This terror attack took the heaviest toll on the United States prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001† and quoting the then commander of the U. S. Marines Corp General Kelly who twenty years ago said, â€Å"It was the largest terrorist act in the United States history †¦ the day became the Corps’ bloodiest since February 1945, when Marines fought to secure Iwo Jima† (Shai, 2005, p. 91). It is indeed difficult to grasp the significance of this event post-911. But before the September 11, 2001 attacks there was no precedence to the use of guerilla and suicidal tactics to achieve this kind of destruction.A member of the U. S. Marine Corp is considered to be creme de la creme of the U. S. Armed Forces and taking a few out without firing a single shot is considered very unfortunate. But in the car bombing there were not only a handful of marines that were eliminated, there were hundreds of them and it dealt a severe blow to the collective psyche of the American people and perhaps the peacekeeping team sent to Lebanon. It was later found out that the true perpetrators were coming from the Hizballah (Party of God) which according to a fact finding committee of the U. S. government is a:Radical Shia group formed in Lebanon; dedicated to creatio n of Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon and removal of all non-Islamic influences from area. Strongly anti-West and anti-Israel. Closely allied with, and often directed by, Iran, but may have conducted rogue operations that were not approved by Tehran (see United States Department of State, 1993, p. 46). Car Bombs The modus operandi used here is of course a car bomb which can be a sedan, van or in this case a truck. It is a favorite method of inflicting severe damage. Shaul Shai asserts that the use of a car bomb has several advantages:†¢ A relatively large amount of explosives can be hidden inside a car and transported to the target. †¢ A car can prevent early detection because it blends in the background; cars, vans and trucks are a normal occurrence especially in a very busy area. †¢ The vehicle offers the attackers mobility and flexibility in choosing the target and reaching it. †¢ The vehicle enhances the lethal effect of the attack. †¢ The vehic le enables the arrival at the target under an innocent guise (2003, p. 15). When it comes to a terrorist attack there is nothing more frightening than the prospect of a car bomb being used against a target.Shai (2003) was correct in saying that a vehicle provides a disguise and place to hide the explosives while at the same time allowing the device to be moved from one place to the next. Detection is almost impossible unless the bomb maker or its accomplice would specifically point out the location of the vehicle. Imagine for a moment a car bomb parked outside a shop, outside a school, outside an office and no one would think twice that there is something wrong with that. Another advantage of a car bomb is the fact that it can be delivered to the target by surprise and moving the device very quickly from point A to point B.In the case of the Beirut bombing the truck was able to cover the relatively long distance from the airport gate – an area designated for the general publi c – to the restricted zone where the temporary barracks was situated. There is no other weapon for a suicide bomber that would have fit his requirements for this specific job. A truck was used not only to provide concealment of the explosive device but it also provides for ample space to store significant amounts of explosives. Also, a truck is one of the most common things that one can see in an airport.And finally a truck has an engine powerful enough to ram through reinforced gates and checkpoints and able to crash through doors. At the same time the bomber can get added protection from the more sturdier frame of a truck than a sedan. Moreover, a car bomb has one final advantage, â€Å"The preparation of a car bomb does not require any special infrastructure; any repair shop or garage can be used for these preparations† (2003, p. 15). With a car bomb a terrorist has a very flexible yet very powerful weapon and if they continue to use it and be successful with it the n they would be able to achieve their main goal which is to instill fear.Serious Intent The bombing of the U. S. Marines barracks was not an isolated case where a group suddenly decided to bomb an enemy outpost. It was a premeditated, calculated, and highly coordinated attack. In fact six months before the military barracks’ bombing a similar signature attack was successfully carried out in the U. S. Embassy in Beirut. On April 18, 1983 a Chevrolet pickup truck loaded with about 2,000 pounds of explosives sped through the gate of the Embassy in West Beirut and then rammed itself into the building (Kushner, 2003, p. 386). According to Kushner, the explosion killed 63 people, â€Å"†¦in a blast so powerful it shook the U.S. S. Guadalcanal, anchored five miles away† (2003, p. 386). After the U. S. Marine barracks bombing there was another attack using the same method of bombing the target. In less than a year from the said bombing – on September 20, 1984 †“ another car bomb was successfully detonated in the U. S. Embassy Ideology of Terrorism In all three attacks one can be see a pattern developing. The method used can be broken down into two major aspects. The first one is the use of car bombs and the second part is the use of suicide bombers. Together these two formed a new kind of enemy which is currently being labeled as terrorists.Terrorism is not a very easy thing to comprehend and at the same time a difficult concept that one can put a handle on. As they say, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter is profoundly true in many respects. But there are still a few valid arguments that would separate the fanatics from a true soldier that is merely defending their homeland from a zealot who will even take pride in taking out non-combatants. In the case of the terrorists like members of the Hizbollah they attack those that are not even remotely interested in taking away their lands or their freedom.It is at this point when trying to decipher their actions is a mind boggling experience. This is perhaps the reason why the American soldiers stationed in Beirut at that time did not anticipate such savagery and suicidal intent because to their minds they were not their as oppressors but brokers of peace. And is it not that peace and goodwill are part of a universal language understood by all peoples of the world? Apparently the answer is no and it will take more than the scope of this paper to fully understand the enemy’s point of view.It is sufficient for the sake of this study to argue that the Americans made a very costly mistake. They approached the situation from a purely political standpoint. Lebanon was at war with Israel. So, they came in, putting lives and reputation on the line, being so sure that this would have been understood by the enemy as something worthy of respect, even admiration. But what they did not realize is the fact that there are heavy undercurrents opera ting just below the surface and it can be said that the American government was naive enough – at that point in time – not to understand all these.At that time the idea of fanaticism and radicalism was not fully understood. It has to be put in perspective that the nation of Israeli was still in its infancy. And this is a major issue that is driving the fanatics crazy; they do not want the existence of Israel in the Middle East. Now, here come the Americans with an offer to mediate between the two warring groups. Yet it was clear to all non-Israelis living in the Arab world that the Americans are partial to Israel. The American soldiers had no inkling that in these parts, no one saw them as peacekeepers but on the contrary they are enemy troops defiling a sacred land.It will be found out later that the attack was driven by ideology rather than a kind of nationalistic or ethnic motive driving the perpetrators. This is because the attack was state-sponsored not by Lebanon but by Iran (see CNN. com). According to Shai, the Marine barracks bombings was claimed to be the handiwork of the Islamic Jihad organization which was nothing more than a cover name for Pro-Iranian radical Shiite entities (2005, p. 91). Describing the attackers as a product of a movement or an ideology is not an accurate description.If one uses the argument of ideology then one should use Communism or Marxism as an example which is the struggle for an idea. Communists and Marxists would go to war for this idea and this is similar to what has transpired in the said attacks but there is something more to the suicide bombers than meets the eye. This is because they are not simply fighting for an idea but they are advancing a different kind of spirituality mixed with their own brand of politics. In fact it is difficult to see where politics end and where religion begins in the bombings that occurred in the 1980s and all those that followed subsequently.It is therefore more helpful to see the bombing from the perspective of some theorists like Tore Bjorgo who suggests that the perpetrators of the car bombings were terrorists and that they use methods or strategies of combat that, â€Å"†¦involves premeditated use of violence against (at least primarily) non-combatants in order to achieve a psychological effect of fear on others than the immediate targets† (2005, p. 2). These acts of terrorism are guided by a spiritual and political framework which makes it so difficult to anticipate and so hard to neutralize. Human nature is predictable, it is the preservation of ones own life.People will kill others for self-defense and they would even kill their friends for self-preservation but they will not offer their lives for others. In many instance a person will perhaps die trying to save someone but it is rare to see someone die to make a statement or to force others to do something. It is no wonder why the U. S. personnel were ill-equipped to neutralize a n ew type of enemy soldier that emerged in the battle grounds of the Middle East. The Aftermath From the definition above of terrorism one can say that the attack on the U. S. Marine barracks was unique because in a normal terrorist attack the targets are non-combatants.But in this case the terrorists were able to strike hard and fast against the intended target which are the soldiers. According to Shaul Shai, â€Å"One of the guidelines pertaining to the issue of suicide attacks require that the attack achieve exceptional results which can be applied as leverage for political or military changes, and inflict significant losses upon the enemy. In addition, the suicide terrorist must carry out his deed out of a sense of complete understanding and recognition regarding the value of his deed and his personal martyrdom† (2005, p. 91)Considering the above statement it can be argued that the terrorists responsible for the attack were indeed successful and that they achieved what they set out to do. With regards to the goal of creating leverage for political or military changes, Kushner – referring to the Embassy and Marine barracks attacks – alluded to how the terrorist group indirectly influenced the outcome of the political and military scenario. And Kushner wrote, â€Å"The double horror of these disasters led to a drop in public support of the U. S. military presence in Lebanon and hastened the withdrawal of U.S. and Western European troops from the country† (2003, p. 386). The attacks also achieved one of its primary goals which is to wage an effective psychological warfare over their enemies situated thousands of miles away. In a report to the former President Reagan, Vice-President George Bush made the following remarks, â€Å"Terrorism deeply troubles the American people. A Roper poll †¦ showed that 78 percent of all Americans consider terrorism to be one of the most serious problems facing the U. S. Government today †¦Ã¢ €  (Bush, 1987, p. 22).Conclusion The attack on the temporary U. S. Marines barracks on October 23, 1983 at Beirut, Lebanon was one of the deadliest ever. What makes it sadder is the fact that those who died were one of the best and brightest that the U. S. military forces could offer. They died not from combat but from the hands of a fanatical terrorist group that did not consider the fact that they came for peace. The Americans were given strict instructions on maintaining extreme tolerance. They were there to initiate a cease fire between Lebanon and Israel.For their noble efforts they were rewarded with a deadly car bomb that took 241 lives – most of them died in their beds without given a chance to defend themselves. The motivation is a crazy mix of politics, ideology, and religion. Conventional warfare is out of the question and the enemy is content in eliminating even non-combatants. In the case of the barracks bombing they felt double pleasure in knowing that they were not only able to take out American lives but also that they dealt a major blow to their primary targets which were the elite U. S. Marines.

Childhood as key role in our life Essay

Childhood plays a key role in our life, actually our character and personality builds up in childhood. Besides, we as adults have a lot of concern and we should face many stressful situations like finding jobs, getting married and so on, On the other hand, children are free of all them. I do agree with the statement which childhood is the happiest time in person’s life, I explain more about as follows. First, adults, they have a lot of responsibility. For instance I as mother and wife not only do I have to take care of my children and house but also I have to work as a teacher. Therefore, I am so busy but ,when I was a child my most concern was game. I just play with my friends all the time. I do not have any responsibility. I believe that childhood is the happiest time because you are care free, so children enjoy their life without any stress. They are not worry about the future. Second, as an adult I am happy in some especial events. see more:speech on role of teacher in student life For example when I get promotion in my carrier or when I get high salary I feel happy, but children do not have big expectations they satisfy with toys and friends. I can remember when I was a child everything were new for me I ask about anything which I saw. child finds out what a beautiful, amazing world. I was just curious I wanted to discover new things, I can remember what a amazing time was when I saw sheep for the first time. Everything which seems usual and rotin but that time everything were new and wonderful. Taking everything into consideration, childhood is happiest time because children are care free and they do not have any responsibility besides everything are new and strange to children . their most concern is play and find out and understand new things.

The Stigma Of Hiv Aids Health And Social Care Essay

This reappraisal aims to show the contested nature of biomedical and laic constructs of wellness and mending underpinning Human Immunodeficiency Virus/ Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ( HIV/AIDS ) and its stigma. Due to the wideness of the topic the reappraisal will merely be restricted to HIV/AIDS and stigma in relation to the interactions between Peoples Populating with HIV/AIDS ( PLWHA ) and the wellness structures that supply them with bar and intervention services. Literature and stuffs from different published beginnings would be reviewed and analysed, followed by a critical comparative analysis of the key contested constructs of wellness as applied to HIV/AIDS and stigma, eventually reasoning with an interface of the two theoretical accounts. HIV/AIDS is one of the challenges to human life and self-respect. It affects all degrees of society and has a monolithic impact on planetary economic and societal development, ( Rowden, 2009 ) . Surveies have been conducted on its impact on human life and how it could be controlled. This reappraisal was conducted by researching literature from a assortment of beginnings for published articles on HIV/AIDS and its stigma. Literature from research covering a period of 8 old ages from 2002-2010 was extracted from Assia, PubMed, Sage, British Medical Journal, Cochrane and Absco-host, and reviewed for the survey, aims, methodological analysis and cardinal findings. Relevant books, diaries, paperss and studies from administrations such as UNAIDS, and the World Bank were besides reviewed. Both qualitative and quantitative information was used to show the information. Despite confronting a batch of unfavorable judgment on its top-down attack, the biomedical theoretical account remains the dominant construct in wellness and unwellness. Its credibleness lies on its scientific methods and expert cognition used to name or understand unwellness and intervention. This theoretical account views the organic structure as a machine composed of different parts working together for it to work. If one portion is non working decently, the purpose is to happen what is incorrect with it through diagnosing and repair it by ordering medical specialty, ( Taylor & A ; Hawley 2010:12 ) . Focus is hence restricted to the physical unwellness of an person ‘s organic structure and the scientific apprehension of disease, doing the attack to a great extent based on pharmacological medicine. While pharmacological medicine is good in the intervention and bar of HIV/AIDS, it is criticised for advancing the privilege of the biomedical theoretical account, farther heighten ing undermining of alternate attacks to wellness and healing. The biomedical attack may be inappropriate to some communities and create feelings of weakness and exposure hence impacting the success of the intercession. ( Global Health Watch, 2008, Farmer, 1999 ) . Lay constructs of wellness and unwellness are diverse and complex than those of the medical theoretical account. They focus on people ‘s experiences of wellness and unwellness in relation to their overall life experiences and are embedded within local societal and cultural constructions. Unlike in the biomedical attack, autochthonal attacks seek to mend the whole individual by associating the unwellness with the individual ‘s societal and economic background, ( Taylor, 2003 ) . However critics of this theoretical account argue that ballad constructs are hard to grounds and research hence they remain marginalised and barely recognised as legitimate cognition, ( Taylor & A ; Hawley, 2010:13 ) . On the contrary, Taylor, ( 2003 ) argues that ballad position is important cognition for public wellness as it identifies roots of unwellnesss for possible long term bar and intervention for the larger population as comparison to separately focussed intercessions. Influence of power systems such as the laterality of the medical theoretical account hinder advancement on bars and intervention of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and stigma as they govern relationships between wellness constructions and laic people. Goffman, ( 1990 ) , and Parker and Aggleton, ( 2003 ) , ‘s theories of stigma in assisting us to understand how stigma is constructed and its influence in peoples ‘ lives view stigma and favoritism as functional systems which maintain boundaries between those in power and those without. Through such power, societal inequalities are developed taking to creative activity of societal norms. These formulate stigma by regulating interactions between people and reenforce power constructions that serve to keep control of the powerless, ( Farmer, 2005 ) . Both theories have been widely used in HIV related stigma to foreground how bias, negative attitudes, maltreatment and ill-treatment directed towards PLWHA have hindered the advancement of bar and intervention. Research high spots that stigma and favoritism in wellness attention scenes deducing from societal power instabilities contribute a great trade in maintaining people off from accessing HIV/AIDS intervention and attention. Patients felt greatly affected by wellness workers experiencing uncomfortable with them and handling them in an inferior mode. In Tanzania, some discriminatory and stigmatised patterns such as dish the dirting about patients ‘ HIV ‘s position, disregard, verbal maltreatment, proving and unwraping HIV ‘s position without consent were noted, ( D.C Synergy, 2005 ) . Similarly in India, wellness workers were unwraping patients ‘ HIV position to their households without patients ‘ consent, ( Mahedra et, Al, 2007 ) . Harassment, avoiding and isolation of HIV-positive patients and proving without reding are common characteristics of stigmatization in most surveies. Some wellness workers wore protective vesture even if there was no physical con tact during interactions. Fear of being identified as infected with HIV besides influenced people to protract proving for HIV and merely accessed services when their unwellness was at an advanced phase, ( Bond and Aggleton, 2002 ; Kinsler et Al, 2007 ; Varga et Al 2006 ; Kalichman and Simbayi, 2003 ) . In Zambia, HIV-positive wellness workers were concealing their Hiv position from their co-workers in fright of being stigmatised, ( Dieleman et al, 2007 ) . While most of the literature on HIV/AIDS and entree to wellness services is negative, there is grounds of the value of supportive and de-stigmatising HIV services in some parts of the Earth. Brazil has been hailed as a theoretical account by PLWHA. They reported supportive inclusive structural systems that create healthy environments that promote active engagement of different groups in society and the authorities, ( Caltado, 2008 ) . In South Africa where most people believe in traditional healing, Aids Activism has made a positive significance in HIV/AIDS bar and intervention by interpreting and interceding the biomedical attack within local ideological models which are easy understood and acted on by the locals, ( Colvin, Robins, 2010 ) . Literature reveals that collaboration between ballad positions and biomedical attack is indispensable for successful control of HIV/AIDS and stigma. There is no remedy for AIDS but Anti-retrovirals ( ARVs ) can protract life by take downing degrees of HIV in the organic structure hence detaining the procedure between HIV and AIDS, ( Robin, 2009 ) . Although ARVs are now readily available in most states, Numberss of freshly infected people are lifting. Harmonizing to the World Bank, 60 million people are populating with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Access to intervention has increased dramatically but for every 100 people on intervention, 250 become freshly infected, ( World Bank, 2010 ) . As such, force per unit area is now lifting on the effectivity of merely trusting on the biomedical attack for intervention and attention of HIV/AIDS. While ballad positions are considered effectual, this can non be confirmed as true with HIV/AIDS attention. In South Africa, despite people to a great extent trusting on traditional healing attacks, HIV prevalence continued to lift. Significance towards effectual control of the epidemic has been noted with the addition in handiness of ARV ‘s, ( Colvin, 2009 ) . In the UNAIDS Report On The Global AIDS Epidemic 2010, in 7 states, five of them in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, HIV incidences increased by more than 25 % between 2001 and 2009. Sub Saharan Africa, although still staying the most extremely affected by the epidemic, figures either stabilised or showed marks of diminution owing to positive behavior due to increased services that are embedded in local civilization. The study affirms that stigma and favoritism, deficiency of entree to services and bad Torahs can do the epidemic worse, ( UNAIDS, 2010 ) . Due to the challenges presented by HIV/AIDS to planetary public wellness, Baum. ( 2008:241 ) calls for corporate engagement of all sectors in the battle against this deathly disease. She asserts that community degree mobilization where there is partnership between ballad people and constructions is the effectual manner of battling HIV/AIDS and stigma. This is farther supported by Farmer, ( 1999:90 ) , who does non excuse the laterality of the biomedical position in wellness and healing. He believes that ballad people have a important function in the procedure of wellness betterments and accents on the importance understanding ballad people ‘s experiences as indispensable cognition for successful intercessions. He holds that wellness attention services should be accessible to PLWHA without fright of being stigmatised. Educating wellness attention professionals about the impact of stigma on patients and policies that encourage inclusion of PLWHA in determinations that affect thei r lives are some of the cardinal factors of efficaciously undertaking the epidemic. Parker and Aggleton, ( 2003 ) besides claim corporate engagement between ballad people and wellness constructions as cardinal to successful anti-stigma services. Relationships between wellness constructions and PLWHA could besides be improved by prosecuting ballad people through protagonism. The Greater Involvement of PLWHA, ( GIPA ) rule emphasises the demand for engagement of PLWHA at all degrees in battling HIV/AIDS because they understand their state of affairs better. Therefore their voices could be heard good if their demands were presented by people in the same state of affairs, ( UNAIDS, 2007 ) . In the Zambia survey, professionals populating with HIV/AIDS are in a better place to recommend for people accessing services. Baum, ( 2008:550 ) affirms that advocacy affecting public wellness practicians is an effectual manner of act uponing structural barriers in public wellness. Literature has highlighted the contested nature of constructs of wellness and mending underpinning entree to services supplying intervention and bar of HIV/AIDS and its stigma. The biomedical attack conceptualises wellness and unwellness through scientific discipline and expertness with focal point on the person. Lay concepts position wellness and healing as embedded within local societal and cultural constructions and hence seek to turn to public wellness for a wider population. Literature suggests that neither attack in isolation is effectual in bar and attention for HIV/AIDS. Arguments have centred on the importance of coaction of the theoretical accounts. Therefore there is demand for intercession programmes to develop holistic attacks that are underpinned by the two theoretical accounts but it is besides of import to understanding each of the constructs in its ain right.

Gay Marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gay Marriage - Essay Example On the other side of the argument many conservatives and people of strong religious beliefs argue that marriage is a sacred institution reserved for a man and a woman, and designed primarily for the purpose of bringing up children. These are the two opposites of the debate, but there are many people who fall somewhere between the two, arguing for example that some form of civil partnership should be legal, with almost the same rights as marriage, but the term marriage should be reserved for a male and female couple. When looking at this question it is important to consider the context in which American citizens are holding this debate. We live in a pluralistic society, and indeed it is a much loved part of our constitution that people should be free to live and behave according to their own conscience, regardless of religion, race, gender or any other factor that sets one person against another. Christians, Jewish people, Muslims Hindus, atheists and people who believe in many more religions are free to live out their own beliefs and we defend this right to the point of war. In religion we do not agree about many things, but we respect our differences, and we each follow our inherited traditions, without trying to prove the other people are in the wrong.

The effect of insecurity on economic growth in Mexico Research Paper

The effect of insecurity on economic growth in Mexico - Research Paper Example This reduces the GDP of the country since employees are less productive when they are under stress and trauma when they are in their working stations. Violence and insecurity in Mexico is a cause of a number of mental illnesses among the citizens of Mexico. This reduces the productivity of the Mexican population and since mentally ill people who would offer personnel are under strain. The cost of insecurity in Mexico turns detrimental with the effect it has on the levels of sales. Business hours are short in societies where there is high insecurity. The Mexican business sector thrives under strenuous conditions with intense insecurity in the country. This reduces the level of sales and profits and, consequently, the GDP. According to the World Bank Group, 2011, heightened insecurity in Mexico, there is a most likely high expenditure in internal security. The high expenditure on the internal security reduces the level of investments that the country has on infrastructure and developme nt projects. Investment in human capital equally reduces with increased expenditure on security in Mexico. The cost of health care in Mexico increases with intense insecurity situations. The cost of policing is most likely to increase with high instances of insecurity in Mexico. All these costs have detrimental effects on the economy of Mexico. ... According to Rodgers, Beall and Kanbur, 2012, the violence-insecurity nexus poses detrimental effects to the local economy of most Latin American societies, Mexico included. Crime in cities of Latin American countries is among the greatest challenges to growth of businesses. The investment confidence of most investors in Latin American societies is low because of the high level of insecurity. Domestic investors in Mexico are reluctant to take risks involved in putting up businesses. Foreign firms are cautious to put up investment in insecure societies because of the high potential impacts of insecurity. Losses to business from the high incidences of burglary in Mexico are among the most detrimental challenges to investors. The cost of paying internal security officials to protect the Mexican society from violence continues affect the economy. The cost of compensation by insurance firms is high because of spreading incidences of robbery and burglary to businesses in Mexico. The net ef fect of insecurity to the Mexican economy is the loss of the potential revenues that accrue from domestic and foreign investments in the country. Sohnen, 2012, addresses the detrimental consequences that the high rate of crime, violence and insecurity has in Mexico and most of Central American society’s economic prosperity. The consequence of insecurity on the health of Mexicans is high and has related effect on the cost of health care expenditure. According to Sohnen, cooperation among different institutions in Mexico is under great challenge from the escalating insecurity conditions. Insecurity in the country compromises the efficiency of different government institutions to coordinate and promote economic growth in the country. The economy, therefore, experiences retardation

Business Unleashed from A More Perfect Union Essay

Business Unleashed from A More Perfect Union - Essay Example From the issues of evolution, we find out how various forms of past occurrences managed to evolve into currently more sophisticated forms. The brain of mankind, managed to undergoes a transition that saw to it being more powerful and enabled mankind to develop the ingenious inventions which have transformed the world. By looking at the challenges made in the past, decisions could be made basing on these challenges. Solutions resulting from these decisions end up making the whole world a better place (Lasker 41). History created in the USA (United States of America) when president Barrack Obama became the first ever black president. Critics argued that his speeches were the catch point and what made him as famous. Through his eloquence, he was able to move masses, he was able to convince and influence the masses into thinking in line with his beliefs. Ronald Reagan came to be in February 1911. He went to college at Eureka College. He got his first job as the radio sports announcer and further proceeded to Hollywood that was in 1937. As an actor he made seen in fifty films and given the post in the movie as the president of the United Sates of America twice. During the 1950’s he further became a spokesman and worked for General Electric Co. He changed his political ambitions gradually from a democrat who was liberal to the republican who was conservative (Boller 87). He was later elected as the California governor in the year 1966 and successfully went for two terms. The current president Jimmy Cater in 1980 was succeeded by Ronald Reagan as Reagan was sworn in as the president of the United States of America in 1981. Immediately after being sworn as the president of the United States, he was assassinated and in the event endured some wounds. The reign of President Ronald Reagan adopted the aspect of the supply side economists. This was an attempt to try and encourage and initiate a rapid economical growth in the

Favorite place (Dillard's) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Favorite place (Dillard's) - Essay Example While Dillard’s is considered to be an upscale department store, it offers an assortment of treasures for most budgets, including its low-priced clearance centers, making Dillard’s an economically-friendly company. As a department store, Dillard’s offers an array of merchandise useful for all aspects of one’s life and their home. Despite the enormous variety of high-end products found throughout Dillard’s many stores, this company’s claim to fame is its vast selection of clothing and shoes. Being upscale and at the forefront of procuring the best fashions, Dillard’s does not have a difficult time in staying up-to-date with the latest designs for men, women, and children. In the clothing department, available brands range from Antonio Melani, Armani Exchange, Calvin Klein, DKNY, and Ralph Lauren, in all desired styles: dresses, coats, pants, tops, pajamas and gorgeous gowns and handsome tuxedoes for any special occasion, including weddi ngs. The children’s department is just as abundant in its selection, with stunning formal wear for holidays and the character clothing that children adore for day-to-day wear. Dillard’s clothing department is only matched by its shoe department with thousands of different styles in countless brands, including their newest addition of the popular Ugg brand. There are shoes for every occasion and each season, from tennis shoes and sandals to strappy pumps and leather dress shoes. While the clothing and shoe selections define Dillard’s department stores, the perfume, make-up and accessories section, appropriately located at the center of each building, are the centerpiece. This area is easily recognizable from the sweet and strong fragrances of the dozens of bottles of perfume and cologne. Though there are many options for men in this area, it can be considered the paradise of women. Here they can find perfume and body spray in scents ranging from sweet and innocen t to strong and daring, all provided by some of the top brands, including Prada, Chanel, and Dior. The vast collection of make-up brands gives women what they need at their fingertips to enhance their own natural beauty or to design a completely new and stunning look. To add to the wonders of the make-up and perfume section are the helpful representatives willing to aid guests until they find the scent or look they are searching for. Often circling the perfume and make-up counters are racks upon racks of handbags, purses, scarves, belts, and beautiful jewelry. Men and women alike can find all that they need to complete the perfect outfit or to surprise a loved one with a dazzling gift. Once someone has finished spoiling themselves with the clothes and jewelry and glamorous extras found among the many shelves of Dillard’s, they can turn their attention on dressing up their homes. In the outer regions of the circle of Dillard’s, a guest can find all that they need for th eir bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, including little knickknacks and decorations to accentuate any room. For the bedroom, Dillard’s offers a wide selection of bedding sets and individual sheets and pillowcases, as well as pillows, canopies, and bed skirts. Unlike the selections found at many common department stores, the bedding found at Dillard’s exemplifies elegance, turning even a child’

Systems and Operation Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Systems and Operation Management - Essay Example The reason why Apple is one of the most acclaimed companies that stands out from the rest of the technology companies is the fact that it has continued to grow through the continuous redefinition of standards and techniques of innovation right from the products designed, to the way that they are marketed and also their improvement. The partnership of Wozniak and Jobs proved to be the perfect recipe for building one of the largest technology companies in the world. The former was the real technical genius who endeavored to create the first computer whereas the latter made advertisements and was involved in the marketing of the first computer. In the summer of 1976, the first computer named apple I was created. By either luck or intensive marketing, it was sold to the Byte Shop which was the premier retail customer chain in the world. The remarkable feat is that the two were able to successfully build and sell all of the first 50 computers that they made in that first summer in operati on. The official incorporation of the company occurred on January 3rd in 1977. This gave the two partners the motivation they required and in that year, they started working on the Apple II but this time with the help of some of their friends who were technically-savvy. The company image was born out of Job’s passion for computers which led to him consulting with the then retired Intel Corporation’s marketing manager, Michael Markkula who even bought a third of the company for $250,000. As the business grew, the three partners thought it prudent to appoint Michael Scott as their CEO and the first president. However, before the launch of the Apple two, it was decided that the company update its image. This led to the involvement of Robert Janoff. The design that he designed is still in use even up to today. The art director states that the only direction that he got from Steve Jobs was that he should not attempt to make the design sweet (Razl 2009). The Apple II and its antecedent the Apple I were very great successes for the company. This prompted them to start working on the Apple III. This project was the first failure for the company and it sparked a protracted battle between Scott and Jobs. This escalated when Scott unanimously, without consulting the board of directors, to sack 40 employees. This action led to his demotion to vice chairman with Jobs assuming the mantle of chairman. Markkula assumed the position of CEO and this led to Scott’s resignation in 1981. Although the tension within the company continued to escalate, the Apple Lisa was to be developed using a new Graphic User Interface (GUI) (Bellis 2009). Jobs were the brainchild behind this development after a visit to the Xerox Company and it is no wonder that the computer was named after his oldest daughter. Xerox seemed oblivious to the potential that this technology had and although they were using it in their products, they did not consider it as being viable to be used in personal computers. Jobs as the lead designer of the Lisa continued to test consumer reaction while continuously improving the interface. Markkula, being impatient with this maneuver relieved Jobs of his role as the lead designer which in turn led him to being demoted and subsequently, John Sculley was hired as the new CEO. The

Employee Retention Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Employee Retention - Essay Example ty of a company to entice their work force to maintain allegiance and exhibit superior performance delivery in order to satisfy the organization’s clientele. A compromise on the latter may be equated to increased staff turnover and decreased employee retention which can, thus, rescind the organization’s services and customer care (Mohr et al., 2008). Several studies and researches have aimed to analyze the marketing impacts, causes and financial aspects that govern employee retention in order to make an accurate prediction and overall formula to help organizations maximize their human resources capital, minimize the negative feedback from the consumers of their goods or services and continually improve the quality of service that a company offers. However, despite these efforts, there may be no universal policy that can accurately predict employee turnover. In most cases, it is affected by the individual characteristics, nature and environment unique to a particular field of work and the labor environment it is subject to. Nonetheless, these researches have served as a basis for designing developing programs that can aid any human resources group to come up with a suitable plan to fit their diverse objectives and eventually execute a pioneering human resources program that benefits workers without endangering incomes (Etchings, 2005). This paper aims to consolidate the recent results of these studies and, eventually, come up with a general theme that can assess employee retention in work places. One of the major concerns of a company that elicits these kinds of researches on job retention and turnover is the balance in the expenditures incurred while maintaining new and old personnel. The reason being that low employee retention results in increased costs to the company due to the increasing costs of separation pay, job announcements, staff rehiring and employee training and upgrading. Estimated values show that these costs may be in the range $3000 to

Correlation Between the Amount of Hours Studied per Week and the Speech or Presentation

Correlation Between the Amount of Hours Studied per Week and the Points Obtained Within One Semester - Speech or Presentation Example Their research delved on the correlations among hours spent studying, learning style, and academic performance as measured by grades. The study made use of 34 mechanical engineering students who were requested to log into a study diary within a weeks time. The tool utilized for students learning style was that authored by Biggs – the Study Process Questionnaire. The results suggest that a shallow approach to learning is strongly correlated with longer study hours and high class attendance. It is thus possible to still have low grades despite high class attendance. The efficiency of the students learning style thus matters still. The study has been undertaken to determine the correlation between number of hours of study and academic test score. Moreover, it intends to ascertain if there are significant differences in both hours of study and academic test scores on the basis of gender. As such, the following are the hypotheses tested in the current research: The research takes on a quantitative approach, mainly gathering numerical data on two variables: hours of study and academic test scores. Two other variables have been gathered, namely, gender and grade. Gender has two levels, male and female. There are also two levels for grade, Grade 12 and Grade 13. There are a total of 40 respondents for the study, which have been selected randomly. There are 20 males and 20 students from each of Grades 12 and 13. Random sampling has been used to ensure that the sample that is yielded is representative of the whole population of interest. Thus, valid conclusions may be garnered. The randomly selected students were asked to explicitly give consent for their participation in the study. They were asked through phone interviews about the variables of interest, namely, number of hours of study and academic performance scores. All the data have been manually encoded through Excel, and then transferred to SPSS

Screening Medical Disorders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Screening Medical Disorders - Essay Example Correspondingly, the data collected also provided idea that a considerable number of people need support during post-treatment phase owing to certain difficulties that are likely to arise. These types of criticalities have certain impacts on the patients that include both physical as well as psychological complications. Therefore, therapists aligned with providing effective care play a significant role to undertake these decisions during such emergency associated with surgeries or other critical diseases. Additionally, the physical therapists must possess adequate knowledge for providing proper medical treatment. Adequate knowledge about providing primary care enables the therapists to take proper care of the patients and assists them in recovering from their ailments. However, if the physical therapists lack technical knowledge regarding the surgical process or treating patients suffering from critical diseases then it is most likely that the patients are provided with a vague or im proper treatment. This might also add up to further deterioration of health and can lead to loss of life (Boissonnault, 2010; Fair, 2010). Additionally, the patients who have participated in the survey have considerable knowledge regarding surgery and other diseases that they are suffering. This further reflects that the primary care therapists taking care of the same are playing an effective role towards educating the patients about the diseases and providing knowledge about the probable treatments.

Expectations about own work role Essay Example for Free

Expectations about own work role Essay It is important to understand the expectations, including codes of practise, regulations, minimum standards or national occupational standards. Some expectations are: see more:explain expectations about own work role as expressed in relevant standards ââ€"  reflect on their work ââ€"  record their qualifications ââ€"  understand what effective practise looks like ââ€"  formulate their self ­development plan ââ€"  allow managers to understand staff experience/qualifications and training needs to support the development of the setting. It is also expected as a practitioner to keep every child safe and secure in the environment as they learn and develop. It is very important to complete risk assessments daily for the safety of the children. Making sure the nursery is clean will help prevent the spread of illnesses and infections in the provision. Childcare providers must also have procedures for administering medication and supporting children with medical needs or who appear unwell during the day.

The Circulatory System In Animals Physical Education Essay

The Circulatory System In Animals Physical Education Essay The role of the circulatory system in animals is the transportation of nutrients and oxygen to every cell that is in an animal organism, and to also remove waste products. The heart, blood vessels and blood are three vital components the body needs to survive. There are also other major roles the circulatory system has which are later discussed. Mammals have a double circulatory system meaning two circuits that blood journeys through; pulmonary and systemic. Pulmonary: Pulmonary circulation is the transportation of blood from the heart, to the lungs, and back to the heart again. The  pulmonary  circuit transports blood to the lungs for it to be  oxygenated  and then transported back to the heart. In the lungs, carbon dioxide is taken away from the blood, and oxygen taken up by the haemoglobin in the red blood cells. Systemic: The  systemic  circuit transports blood around the body to deliver the oxygen and returns  de-oxygenated  blood to the heart. Systemic circulation provides nutrition to all of the tissue located in the organism, with the exclusion of the heart and lungs as they have their own systems.   See below for a diagram of the circulatory system. http://biology-forums.com/gallery/14755_10_09_12_7_22_08_85152044.jpeg This diagram is showing the circulatory system; the pulmonary circuit where it is picking up oxygen from the lungs, and the systemic circuit which is transporting oxygen to the body. Author unknown (Date unknown) Heart: The heart is a muscular pump, when the heart is beating it is pumping blood to the lungs and around your body. The amount of blood pumped can be calculated. Heart rate x stroke volume = cardiac output. Below is a diagram of the heart. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpw5UjXhahNwrlgak11QV1VrJxFtGqjrj2pJxEPFX3fY4asf3tuHhiGEUo1j2tOWWMNmhJJr3MhN-AoS0ZRjtTHbfepzSONzuVX7IHWp4imTlvm5uAhBVJZnDOgyDNjyrybC75Z2RLRvJe/s1600/HumanHeartDiagram.jpg Author unknown (Date unknown) This diagram of the heart is shown from in the front. So the  right  side is shown on the  left. The  left  side is on the  right  side of the diagram. The heart has four chambers. The two  atria  gather the blood. The two ventricles  pump blood out of the heart. Valves  stop the blood from flowing backwards. The  septum  splits the two sides of the heart. The right side of the heart pumps  de-oxygenated  blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen. The left side of the heart pumps the oxygenated  blood from the lungs around the rest of the body. Blood Vessels: There are three different types of blood vessel: Arteries Arteries transport oxygenated blood from the heart, except from the pulmonary artery which goes to the lungs where the blood would be deoxygenated. Arteries have thick muscular walls and have small lumen and they contain blood which is under high pressure. Veins Veins transport blood to the heart which is always de-oxygenated except the pulmonary vein which goes from the lungs to the heart where the blood would be oxygenated. Veins have thin walls and larger lumen and they contain blood which is under low pressure. Veins also have valves to stop blood from flowing backwards. Capillaries Capillaries are located in the lungs and muscles, when capillaries are looked at under a microscope they are one cell thick, blood is of very low pressure. The capillaries are where oxygen passes through the capillary wall into the tissues and where carbon dioxide passes from tissues in to the blood. Blood: Animal organisms cant survive without blood. Without blood, organs wouldnt get oxygen and nutrients that they need to live; animals wouldnt be able to keep warm or cool down, fight infections, or get rid of waste products. Without enough blood, animals would weaken and die. The circulatory system works carefully with other systems in animal organisms. It delivers oxygen and nutrients to organisms by working with the respiratory system. The circulatory system assists carrying waste and carbon dioxide out of the organism. The circulatory system also has its part in fighting disease in carrying specialised cells which are made in the organs of the immune system. The circulatory system is responsible for the transportation of hormones. Hormones control vast amount of things such as growth, the reproductive cycle and glucose metabolism. Hormones are produced in one part of the body, such as the brain or the liver, and then must be moved to another part of the body by the circulatory system for them to transport their message. The circulatory systems other main role is to regulate body temperature, if body temperature rises then blood vessels close to the skin increase in size so that more heat is directed in to the air and vice versa if body temperature drops the blood vessels decrease in size so the heat will retain in the body. Factors which can influence transportation and circulation in animals High blood pressure (Essential hypertension) where there is no specific cause. High blood pressure of a known cause (secondary hypertension). Low fluid volume which will also include low blood pressure. Low cardiac output. (Î’-Adrenoreceptor antagonists). Obstruct membrane changes and cardiac output, will cause widening of the blood vessels. Aneurysms, where there is weakening in the artery walls, mainly the aorta. Arteriosclerosis is where the artery walls are hardening and thickening: loss of elasticity which is part of aging. Atherosclerosis which is the process in the progression of plaques in the lumen which is located in blood vessels.   All of these may also be influenced by physiological factors for e.g. diet, exercise, disease, drugs or alcohol, obesity and excess weight. Control mechanisms in animals Self-regulating mechanisms, where biological systems try to uphold stable internal conditions e.g., blood pressure and body temperature, when there are changes in the external environment. Internal environment of any living organism was upheld constant within certain restrictions. Homeostasis is usually achieved through two types of regulating systems: on-off control and feedback control.  Hormones  often play a main role in keeping homeostatic constancy.  Homeostasis is carried out around the whole body; reaches every cell up to organs and systems. Enzymes could not work properly, which means nothing could operate correctly if there is not a constant internal environment this would mean the living organism would die. Every single cell is bathed in a watery solution, which is made by some blood plasma which is allowed to escape out of blood. This will carry away any waste back into the blood. The balance in tissue fluid is vital for the cells and the organism.  There are six things that must be controlled in an organism for good health: Carbon dioxide Additional carbon dioxide must be taken away or else the body becomes too acidic. Carbon dioxide is mainly lost in the air we breathe out, but a minor amount is lost in the urine. Urea Urea is poisonous and must be removed from the organism; this chemical is made when amino acids are digested in the liver. This is a waste chemical and is mainly removed through urine and sweat. Ions Cells can end up swollen, shrivelled or sometimes burst, if the right balance is not kept in ions. Sodium, potassium, hydrogen and phosphate are important ions. These are controlled through how much water is drunk by the organism; some are lost like sodium ions, through faeces and sweat. Sugar There has to be enough glucose for respiration and satisfactory stores of glycogen. When blood glucose levels fall too low the organism will die. Water 70% of body mass is water. Not keeping the right amount of water the organism would die. Temperature Enzymes that control all the chemical reactions in an organism work best at the temperature of approx. 37 degrees centigrade, if the organism was to get too hot or too cold the enzymes would die concluding in the organism to die.

The Human Impact Of Climate Change

The Human Impact Of Climate Change Climate change concerns to a statistically momentous deviation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, remaining for an extensive period (normally decades or longer) (What is climate change, 2001). Climate change is term that adverts to any major and long-term change in average weather in a specified region or whole Earth. Fundamentally important variability of average weather over longer time period can be depicted as climate change. Climate change is due to natural internal procedures or external pressures, or to relentless anthropogenic alterations in the composition of the atmosphere or in land utilization. Earlier in the beginnings of earths history climate changes were normally induced by different vibrant processes on earth but recently it is caused by human activities. This is the reason that in our everyday talks the term climate change refers to climate change caused by global warming. The most disposed signs of climate change are glaciers that are presently melting at rapid level which entails climate change has already began. This time, climate change is only due to the recent human activities and had resulted in global warming process. Today, Global warming has become synonym for climate change due to its role in climate change. Undue emission of injurious greenhouse gases into atmosphere is causing a raise in average temperature that in turn is affecting the climate on Earth (What is climate change, 2001). The use of fossil fuels as a dominant aspect is continuing to emit CO2 and other greenhouse gases into atmosphere that is causing even more grave effects to climate change. With the rise in temperature globally effects like severe changes in weather patterns, climbing sea levels and increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather is been experienced. The world most susceptible areas are around Earths poles and Africa and these areas had already started experiencing momentous increase in average temperature. The depressing fact is that one cant stop climate change and can only make attempt to adjust to it and not making it worse with its own activities. Our own activities induced global warming and at this time all of us are confronted with the climate change as our most prominent environmental challenge. Although, all of us are already aware of climate change but still lacking in our activities to stop further increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. For dealing with this present environmental challenge, there is a need to work vigorously for a global agreement to control climate change and to take possible domestic actions to attain satisfying diminutions in our own contribution. Discussion Significance Scope of the Issue The management of the severe environmental challenge is essential as otherwise it could direct us towards drastic results. Already climate change is responsible for 300,000 deaths a year in accordance to former UN secretary general Kofi Annans think tank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. The study generated by the Global Humanitarian Forum also claims that approximate 300 million people in a year are affected by the outcomes of climate change (The Human Impact of Climate Change, 2009). Climate change is not only an all-encompassing menace but it is also an arbitrary threat-multiplier. With the affects of climate change a number of vulnerable communities of this planet can get destroyed (2009 Forum-Human Impact of Climate Change, 2009). The devastating effects of our development and measures for national, regional and global security are not measurable presently, but slowly or gradually its affects will start appearing along with destruction. The different studies done in this field projects that the increasing severity of events, like flooding and storms due to climate change will be accountable for approximately 500,000 deaths a year by 2030. Currently climate change is stimulating losses of over $125bn a year that is greater than the last year total of world aid. Anticipations exhibit that by 2030, losses could be around $600bn a year. With this weather related disasters problems like hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods can increase (The Human Impact of Climate Change, 2009). If within coming 25 years, emissions are not brought under control the 310 million more people will start suffering with unfavourable health consequences connected to temperature gains, 20 million more people will fall under poverty and 5 million more people will be expatriate by climate change (The Human Impact of Climate Change, 2009). These statistics regarding the effect of climate change demonstrates that in present this is most significant environmental challenge that the world is facing. This need to be managed as soon as possible for everyone as otherwise it could lead to pressurize food production, decrease sanitation, and block economic development and degradation of ecosystems. Specific causes of Climate Change Climate change is the result of both the natural and human factors, but from some past decades it is mainly due to the subsequent human factors: The most prominent reason of climate change is releasing of greenhouse gases and aerosols into the atmosphere. From last two hundred and fifty years, the concentrations of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide have increased due to the burning of fossil fuels for energy production. The more the countries are moving towards industrialization and development, the more they are affecting their environment, which is resulting in the climate change (Climate Change, n.d.). Another prominent reason of climate change is deforestation, which is related with agriculture and urban development and harvesting timber for fuel, construction and paper. When the ecosystems are altered and vegetation is either burned or took out, the carbon stored in them is relinquished to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (What causes global climate change, 2005). Sulphate Aerosols and Black Carbon are other two crucial instances of anthropogenic forcings. Current industrial activities have recently increased the concentration of sulphate aerosols and black carbon in the atmosphere that is making imperative effect on our climate in the form of drastic weather events. Critical Analysis Evaluation of Environmental and Ecological Consequences Earlier, the Earths atmosphere was changed very little. The temperature and the equilibrium of heat-trapping greenhouse gases were appropriate for humans, animals and plants to stay alive but presently everyone is confronting problems in maintaining the balance due to increasing industrialization and development activities. For our own comfort of life and economic development, all of us are making increasing use of fossil fuels from heating our homes to creating energy (Shah, 2009). This is adding more and more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere that in turn is raising the warming potentiality of the natural greenhouse effect. This enhanced greenhouse effect is causing environmental and ecological concerns as it has the potency to warm the planet at a range that has never been went through in human history. This warming of the climate is resulting in more extreme weather patterns, chances for several ecosystems to adapt naturally are decreasing, sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting, ocean acidification is increasing and agricultural outputs are failing resulting in hunger. All these consequences are related with the use of fossil fuels that is the significant reason for CO2 emissions. The use of fossil fuels in turn is closely linked to economic growth, lifestyle and our culture. In present every human being is contributing to the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere (Climate Change, n.d.). Though, the persons lifestyle and culture determines the amount emitted by him. The more flourishing a countrys economy is the superior is its fossil fuel consumption, ensuing in higher greenhouse gas emissions. Success of Solutions Proposed Applied Climate change is affecting the whole world. Number of developed and developing countries are working together to discover the solution of environmental challenge of climate change. From the time, this issues has emerged a number of efforts had been done some of which had attained success and some had failed. In June 1992, 154 countries signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) that corresponded to alleviate the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at levels that would not cause destruction. In Kyoto, in December 1997, Japan, Canada and 160 other industrialized nations committed to cut down their greenhouse gas emissions, as component of an international agreement on climate change identified as the Kyoto Protocol. This eventually came into force throughout 2005 (Climate Change, n.d.). Till the time these efforts had not attained immense success but with these efforts modest emission reductions had been encountered from industrialised countries. Countries are trying to reduce their emissions as now they had become aware with its severe results. Conclusion With the detailed discussion it can be said that in present climate change is with us. A decade ago, it was only an assumption but currently the future is unveiling before our eyes. Canada is experiencing it in the form of vanishing Arctic ice and permafrost. Latin America and Southern Asia is seeing it in lethal storms and floods whereas Europeans are experiencing it in melting glaciers, forest fires and disastrous heat waves (Pearce, 2006). All these experiences of different countries disclose that the consideration regarding this environmental challenge is imperative as otherwise more and more countries of the world will start experiencing its effects. The present drastic change in the climate needs to be controlled for assuring an appropriate level of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere as otherwise it could bring unpredictable changes in our environment and ecological system. For controlling this environmental challenge staying educated about climate change and supporting attempts to deliberate its progress are the things that everyone can do and should do. Our efforts regarding the climate change could make our economy more internationally competitive by creating expansion and jobs while raising less waste, pollution and greenhouse gases.

The Effectiveness of Sanctions Essay -- Diplomacy

Throughout the past century the world has seen two world wars, several dozen border conflicts, and civil uprisings with the eventual ousting of a leader. These conflicts are usually outside of media attention so all of the lives lost, corrupt leadership, and downright dishonesty is never revealed to the international public. Physical violence has always been the direct means to solving most of these conflicts but with a cost. Both side usually lost hundreds and sometimes thousands of lives and in the end there was never a plan in place to ensure these problems never occurred again. Following the completion of the Cold War sanctions have been reestablished to ensure a government or country can be held accountable without having to use lethal measures. If there was a way to cut off import and exporting of resources to the corrupt government it would force them to comply with international laws without having to use military actions. In the past sanctions have been placed on count ries that have defied basic human needs, committed atrocious crimes against neighboring countries, or posed a threat so great to others (use of weapons of mass destruction) that the United Nations stepped in to protect those who could not protect themselves. Sanctions are put into place in the hopes of causing hardship for any country’s government and to ensure complete compliance has been established before these sanctions are lifted. Although these measures are not supposed to create a hardship to the main populous, over time they usually occur. History has shown us that over a short time period sometimes these restrictions work, but do they actually create an atmosphere in these countries to ensure these situations or crimes never happen again? ... ...? The Moral and Political Issue. By David Cartwright, October 1995: http://www.sanctionsandsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/humanitarian_sanctions_.pdf (accessed 18 March 2012). 2. Q&A: Syria sanctions, 27 November 2011, BBC Mobile News Middle East: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15753975 (accessed 18 March 2012). 3. Kimberly Ann Elliott, Institute for International Economics, "Evidence on the Costs and Benefits of Economic Sanctions," Statement before the Subcommittee on Trade of the House Ways and Means Committee, October 23, 1997. The text of her statement can be found at http://www.iie.com/sanctns.htm. 4. 14 UN Press Release SG/SM/7360, echoing Lloyd Axworthy, ‘Forward’ in David Cortright and George A. Lopez, The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s (A Project of the International Peace Academy; Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000)

Gypsies Essay -- essays research papers

Gypsies: The last nomads, the free-spirited, passionate bohemians with their mysterious rituals and powers. This romanticism is nearly as unfair as the fear and hate distracting us from recognizing the hardships and persecution these â€Å"carefree† people have undergone for centuries. In Europe, the Roma (as they wish to be call) have been cast out, burned at the stake, sterilized, ghettoized, forced to give up their traditional way of life, caught in other people’s wars, and more than half a million were slaughtered in the Holocaust. Roma misfortune can be attributed to the vicious cycle of poverty that paralyzes so many minorities situated in an unforgiving society. This cycle of poverty began and still exists today due to the discrimination that the Roma face because of, among other things, their skin color and unorthodox ways of making a living. Through out history the largest complaint about the Roma, however, has been their wandering lifestyle. What is interesting though, is that the Rom are no longer nomads. The few that do move from place to place are migrant and are forced across boarders by the very authorities that complain about their way of life. While some sources speculate that gypsies originally migrated from Egypt, it is usually agreed upon by most scholars that the gypsies came from India to Eastern Europe about a thousand years ago. The true reason for this move remains a mystery but many theories exist that they my have moved as a result of changes in the government, the economic situation or perhaps they have always been wonderers. Whatever the reason for their move, we will probably never know the truth. One gypsy lady learned during her childhood that â€Å"We were being punished for stealing the fourth nail that was needed in Christ’s crucifixion. That’s why his feet are crossed and nailed together. We were forced into wondering for taking this nail.† Whether gypsies were responsible for Christ’s missing nail one thing is certain: the gypsy’s dark Indian skin has made them the subject of ridicule for centuries; for it has been a European tradition to detest the non-ayrean. The Persian poet Firdausi is said to have written, â€Å"No washing ever whitens the black gypsy.† Even within religion the gypsies are not free from contempt. In his writings a German monk described gypsies as having â€Å"the most ugly faces, black like those of Tartars.† A... ... in the making,† most of the Roma feel that to exist in a ghetto is preferable to expulsion. As with non-European citizens in Italy, Roma have been given the label of extraexcommunitari, meaning they come from outside of the European Union, although most Roma have lived within the Union all their lives. The reason for this title is because the government still considers them nomadic. â€Å"Not even my grandfather was part of the traveling culture,† say Luigi Lusi a Rom. â€Å"It is obvious that we no longer harness up the horse and move from place to place daily,† he continued. Forcing gypsies to integrate has always failed because it is impossible to force a group of people who have spent their entire lives on the fringes of society to adapt to new educational and social environments, especially when they are very poor. Aside from their dark skin, the gypsy life that many Europeans find distasteful stems almost completely from the poverty that they have forced the gypsies into. The government will never receive their desired results from education programs and housing projects unless the deeply rooted discrimination against the Roma stops—something that will be very difficult to undo.

Everyone’s Opinion

Opinion refers to someone’s point of view which cannot be proved to be true. Opinion also refers to judgments that are made by professionals regarding their belief. In law the word is used to refer to the various reasons that persuade judges to reach certain conclusions and make judgmental decisions. It is usually difficult to verify whether an opinion is true or false because there is no certainty about it and for this reason, opinions are not factual. (dictionary. reference. com). Everyone has his own opinion regarding various issues that affect everyday life, such as politics, the economy, social life, the world and unknown phenomena such as the existence of supernatural beings and life after death. Some of the opinions are based on cultural values, how an individual is socialized and how these factors affect the personal life of someone. Due to the diverse nature of opinions, some deserve respect from others while others do not deserve any attention mainly because they are baseless and hold no water. Some of the opinions that deserve to be respected include public opinion, opinion polls, and normative opinions. Idle opinions and personal baseless opinions do not necessarily merit respect but can sometimes be respected when they refer to important issues. Public opinion can be defined as the consensus of adult citizens pertaining to an issue or an agenda that touches their day to day lives. Opinion polls are usually conducted to get public opinion on important matters of the state that affect the economy, market trends and policies that determine governance. Such opinion polls deserve a lot of attention because they determine the kind of decisions that development stakeholders make in order to make progress economically and socially. Feedback from public opinion polls is a way of measuring the success or failure of the relevant institution. A good illustration is the opinion poll which was conducted in America on why nuclear energy should be supported. This poll was conducted on 2nd – 4th May 2003. The results showed that the majority of the citizens supported the usage of nuclear energy by two thirds. More than 70% agreed that nuclear energy licenses be renewed and more plants should be erected to increase energy supply. These numbers were even higher when the same poll was conducted in 2001 after some areas like California experienced power shortages. Such feedback offers the nuclear industry the necessary support from the general public to carry out its projects. Such kind of projects plays an important role in promoting development and boosting the economy. The opinion of the 30% who were against this development also cannot be ignored because their views could be of much benefit to the nuclear industry if considered as constructive criticism to improve the industry’s performance. Scontia: Why Americans Support Nuclear Energy: Development and Characteristics of Public Opinion in the U. S) Opinions that are not constructive in nature should not be given much attention because they are not beneficial. They are comprised of views that people don’t really believe in. Idle talk that happens during work or in the evening after work in blogs, and chatrooms quickly vanishes away. It is just that people want to engage in idle discussions. Idle opinion was first observed by Robert Webb when he went to the United Kingdom to feature some advertisement of Apple Mac He faced considerable criticism from people who should have been doing better things. These opinions were also not sought from them and they did not really believe in them (http://www. idleopinion. com/). The illustration above is a good example of opinions that should not be respected since they do not add any significant value to the matter at hand. Ignoring it is what is required and concentrating on work or matters of importance and general public interest should be the way forward.

Psychological Motives for Becoming a Terrorist Essay

Introduction Suicide bombing, a major terror strategy of terrorists is, if not the most, one of the most gruesome acts anybody can commit. It is outright crazy and stupid. One must be beside the normal to be entertaining such a thought in mind. Ironically, fanatics who have committed and attempted suicide bombings in the past, were deemed normal until the day when the execution of their ultimate plans were made public whether foiled or completed. People who are afflicted with mental disorder may, as other people, travel for the same reasons – vacation, visiting friends or relatives, business, recreation, and sometimes for religious or spiritual focus (Miller & Zarcone, 1968). Others indeed may travel for reasons other than the normal – for reasons triggered by malformed mental state such as the men who carried out the 911 attack of the Twin Towers in New York. Along the 911 attack, suicide bombing through aircraft came to prominence resulting in the stirring of the awareness among the international public of the fact that the regular traveler might not be that â€Å"regular† anyway. It is probable that some of them are driven by excessive anger or motivated by utopic hope as taught in the communities wherein they have pledged their life allegiance (Silke, 2003). Just a few months ago, upon the return of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to her home country, 124 were killed and 320 plus got injured as a result of another suicide bombing. The bomber threw grenades among crowds of people and afterwards blasted himself to death (CNN update, Oct.18, 2007). It’s difficult to think of sensible reasons why a sane person (if that person was ever considered sane by his colleagues) has committed such an act in the first place. To spend and expend one’s self for a noble cause is commendable only if they benefit people outside one’s own community. It’s never an ideal to advance a religion’s cause at the expense of the lives of other people. A suicide bomber is demented in that even in the logic of religion, all religions presupposed a benevolent god who is both powerful and loving. There must be distortions somewhere within the suicide bomber’s mind to have associated the act of delivering a bomb and acts of piety. Rationale of the argument ~Understanding mental health The majority of theories and models of human behavior fall into one of two basic categories: internal perspective and external perspective. The internal perspective considers the factors inside the person to understand behavior. People who subscribe to this view understand behavior as psychodynamically oriented. Behavior is explained in terms of the thoughts, feelings, past experiences and needs of the individual. The internal processes of thinking, feeling, perceiving and judging lead people to act in specific ways. This internal perspective implies that people are best understood from the inside and that people’s behavior is best interpreted after understanding their thoughts and feelings (Jourad, 1963). The other category of theories takes an external perspective. This focuses on factors outside the person to understand behavior. External events, consequences of behavior, environmental forces to which a person is subject, are emphasized by this external perspective. A person’s history, value system, feelings and thoughts are not very important in interpreting actions and behavior. Kurt Lewin for instance considered both perspectives in saying that behavior is a function of both the person and the environment (Tiffin,& McCormick, 1958). Man is a social being and as such his personality is viewed from the society and culture where he belongs. A society represents a geographical aggregate and has boundaries, similar government or a group of persons in meaningful interaction and engaged in social relationship. Personality is the individualizing traits of man which constitute his singularity and differentiate him from any other human being. The three determinants of personality: 1] biological heritage which has direct influence on the development of personality. This includes musculature, the nervous system, and the glands; 2] E.Q. factor describes qualities like understanding one’s feelings, empathy for the feelings of others, and the â€Å"regulation of emotion in a way that enhances living (Gibbs, 1995);† 3] environmental factors. Taking everything normal, environment plays an important role in personality development. Environmental factors are cultural environment, social environment, home and family, culture, status and role and social agent. Many of men’s pronounced stirred-up state of mind such as fear, anger, disgust, and contempt, have posed the question, why? What has caused such a reaction? What has brought a change to his/her behavior? What is the frustration that has brought about such behavior? In the world of a suicide bomber, he/she contemplates on various input or stimuli from the world he/she evolves in. There are frustrations of every form and even without these, his/her psyche or mental state functions on the basis of anything he/she receives (actively or passively) from the milieu. Life’s problems are numerous and as long as one is alive and kicking he will always be faced with problems, be they big or small. Such problems stir-up one’s emotions or feelings which maybe pleasant or unpleasant. Physiological problems, environmental problems, personal deficiencies and psychological concerns bring on a variety of responses; some predictable, others are not. Disorganization of family life, disintegration of personality brought about by depression, great personal suffering, any of these may take any person beyond the limits of his tolerance. Man is born in a social environment surrounded by cultural norms and values. He is faced with cultural taboos and acceptable social behavior. Numerous environmental factors come to the fore which may or may not be easily overcome. One of the most difficult problems in this area is one’s cultural dos and don’ts. Environmental frustrations cannot be avoided, for there are always certain factors in a person’s growth and achievement. Psychological or internal problems are the most difficult to resolve as they are within the inner feelings of a person. One may not be able to detect his/her concerns/anxieties through his /her overt behavior. It may only be inferred from what his/her inner thoughts and feelings are but will not know what caused such a feeling. Psychological concerns of various forms represent a more serious threat to the personality of the individual than do environmental pressures. If severe enough, they may create considerable emotional tension with accompanying behavior disorders. Reacting to pressures and other concerns such as frustration varies from person to person because of their personality differences. These reactions maybe defensive, neurotic or psychotic. Most people are sympathetic to people who develop physical ailments, but regard an individual with mental disorder as â€Å"crazy.† At this juncture, does a suicide bomber then be considered a person with a mental disorder or deemed as â€Å"crazy?† definitions of mental health vary considerably. Freud when asked what he thought a normal, healthy person should do well replied â€Å"love and work.† Karl Menninger’s (1956) definition is quite similar to Freud’s. He states: â€Å"Let us define mental health as the adjustment of human beings to the world and each other with a maximum of effectiveness and happiness. Not just efficiency, or just contentment, or the grace of obeying the rules of the game cheerfully. It is all together. It is the ability to maintain an even temper and happy disposition. This, I think,   is a healthy mind.† When we therefore, try to define mental health, we have in mind the adjustment process which an individual brings into force when he is faced with a problem situation. Adjustment is defined as an individual’s manner of reacting or responding adequately to a perceived problem. From the standpoint of mental health, adjustment refers to a happy and socially acceptable response to life’s situations. Mental health therefore, is the ability of the individual to function effectively and happily as a person in one’s expected role in a group and in the society in general. It is a condition of the whole personality and is not merely a condition of the â€Å"mind† as is often supposed. It is an out-growth of one’s total life and is promoted or hindered by day-to-day experience, not only by major crises as some assume (McCllelland et al, 1973). Mental health is the capacity to live harmoniously in a changing environment; to face and solve one’s problems in a realistic manner; to accept the inevitable, and to understand and accept one’s own shortcomings as well as the shortcomings of others. In this sense, people who develop and encourage Jihad or any â€Å"terroristic† ideas and brainwash others to do the same, are seen people who do have unrealistic way of looking at life and their experiences. They are commonly classified as people having delusions of grandeur among others. This term refers to people who experience a bloated sense of importance or missions and oftentimes associated with corresponding persecution complexes (Jourad, 1963). They therefore harbor also a sense of anxiety that some people are out there to cut off their goals and obstruct their missions. Their resolve to deliver their target aims is even stronger the reason for their methodical and systematic way of doing things. Since they cannot accept that they must co-exist with people whose beliefs radically differ from theirs, they accept the notion that annihilation is a solution and dying a martyr’s death to ensure this goal is the ultimate sacrifice. This kind of mindset comes only from a frame of thinking that has been exposed only to a few options; in fact, only very narrow options. That option is the radical Islamic alternative and nothing else. When living in this world, co-existence is not just something that is talked about inside the halls of the academe: co-existence signifies a mindset that is healthy as well and free from disorders. Mental health is a matter of degree. There is no hard and fast line that separates health from illness. It is not a simple matter to divide the population into two distinct groups-those who should be institutionalized and those who should not be. Many of us at one time or another exhibit traits and pattern of behavior which if, accentuated and continuous, would necessitate psychiatric care (Jourad, 1963). Though radical a thought this may seem, and naturally sounds unrealistic, the ideal place is to set monitoring and evaluation of mental hygiene at some point in time. How to do this is going to be a big issue, expectedly. However, terrorism and the likes of suicide bombing can probably be controlled in some ironic way: by referring to them as idiosyncratic, delusional or even possessing mental disorders. Another way of classifying them is through the Diagnostic Statistical Manual IV (DSM) classification system; these people are versions of psychopaths or psychotics; because the symptoms are there and they cannot function normally among any general population. ~Towards developing a Strategy or Intervention Since the argument of this paper stands on looking at the acts of a suicide bomber as acts emanating from someone with mental illness, it follows that approaches to its reduction or elimination be provided or examined as well. There are three ways of looking at developing and establishing a strategy or intervention: the preventive, therapeutic, and the curative Kolb et al, 1974). There are subtleties that engulf these three but it is good to explore these dimensions. The preventive approach is based on the principles that the best way to ensure a well-adjusted individual is to surround him with environmental influences that will enable him to develop his full potentialities, to obtain emotional stability, and achieve personal and social adequacy. The therapeutic aspect is concerned with the attempt to correct minor behavioral adjustments through the various counseling and techniques of psychotherapy, or adjust to the social/or physical environment of the person in order to help him obtain the amount of emotional security and self-confidence necessary. The curative approach is sometimes called â€Å"preventive psychiatry† and is concerned with the detection and correction of serious but curative but behavioral maladjustments. Although this is the work of a trained clinician or psychiatrist, it is helpful for the layman to have at least a fundamental knowledge of the major types of behavioral maladjustments in order that he/she may have a basis in determining behavioral maladjustments that need the attention of competent specialists. It is therefore necessary, on a serious note, that public awareness on the nature of mental illness on a scope such as that of the course taken by the suicide bombers, coupled with detection of signs and symptoms by neighboring homes and those in the community, help diminish the threat. There are of course other paths or strategies to follow, but why not take all that is available to ensure our security (Kolb et al, 1974). References: 1. CNN, Breaking News, October 18, 2007. www.cnn.com 2. Gibbs, Nancy. 1995. â€Å"EQ Factor† Time International, October. 3. Gordon, Harvey, Mike Kingham, Tony Goodwin. Air travel by passengers with mental disorder. Psychiatric Bulletin (2004) 28:295-297. The Royal College of Psychiatrists. 4. Jourad, Sydney, 1963. Personal Adjustment. 2nd Ed. New York: MacMillan Company. 5. Kolb, David & Ralph K. Schwitzgebel. 1974. Changing Human Behavior: Principles of Planned Intervention. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 6. McCllelland, David C. & R.S. Steele. 1973. Human Motivation: A Book of Readings. Morristown, New Jersey, General Learning Press. 7. Menninger, Karl in Taylor, David, 2003. The concept of mental health in children. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Steinkopff. Volume 12, Number 3. Pp.107-113. 8. Miller, W. B. & Zarcone, V. (1968) Psychiatric behaviour disorders at an international airport. Archives of Environmental Health, 17, 360 -365. 9. Silke, A. (2003). The psychology of suicide terrorism. In Terrorists, Victims and Society (ed. A. Silke), pp. 93 -108. Chichester: Wiley. 10. Tiffin, Joseph and Ernest McCormick J. 1958. Industrial psychology. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.

History & Tradition of Jazz Essay

Why is jazz hard to define? Describe some of the reasons why it is sometimes difficult to determine if a musical recording or a performance qualifies as jazz? There is no single definition however there are 5 basic guidelines that loosely define jazz when followed to one degree or another. Jazz is a form of individual artistic musical expression. Jazz is performed in so many different styles, is part of many other types of music, and play by various instruments. Musicians develop their own style and sound. Describe the relationship between the rules rhythm section instruments must adhere to and the freedoms they have to play what they want in fulfilling their role? The rhythm section usually consists of a bass, drums and piano or guitar. Their role is to support the soloist even if they are playing while the soloist is performing. While they have the freedom to play by improvising, they must do so in a manner supportive to the soloist. Describe how the roles of these three instruments change during the course of a song in a jazz performance: piano, trumpet, bass? The piano plays chords that accompany the melody of the song. The piano feeds the soloist with rhythmic or melodic ideas. The trumpet is versatile in that the various mutes give it different sounds. The trumpet leads the melody. The bass provides a steady beat playing the note that outlines the chord on every beat. Describe what happens during an improvised solo both in terms of the soloist and the other members of the group? The soloist is composing on the spot His solo is unrehearsed and he needs to be able to formulate the melodies in his head before he plays them. He also needs to listen to the input from the other instruments and follow their lead while improvising and interacting with the other musicians. The non-soloists can either stop playing or continue to play in a role supportive to the soloist following their lead and providing musical leads which the soloist can take off on a tangent with.

The Hour of the Star

â€Å"A sense of loss† and â€Å"The right to protest† A Lacanian reading of the film The Hour of the Star1 When Clarice Lispector wrote this ‘story with a beginning, a middle and a grand finale followed by silence and falling rain. ’ (HE, pp. 13) she hoped that it could ‘become my [her] own coagulation one day’ (HE, pp. 12). In fact, ‘her hour’ was near for she would soon die of cancer. The book emerged as an experimental novel gradually dialoguing with and producing illusions of itself, like images in mirrors, paradoxically portraying the invisible.Both her book and Susana Amaral's cinematic adaptation seem extremely conscious of Lacan’s concept of subjectivity and adherent to his psychoanalytic theory that reinterprets Freud in structuralist terms, adapting the linguistic model to the data of psychoanalysis. What lies beneath the choice to attempt a Lacanian reading of The Hour of the Star is not the film's patent opennes s to Lacan's ideas on desire, lack and the language of the unconscious.Despite the theoretical suggestiveness of much of the analysis that is to follow, the aim of this essay is to analyse The Hour of the Star using the methodology developed by Lacan whilst criticising its very mechanisms, stressing the importance of issues such as ethnicity, marginality, and poverty, social, cultural and political alienation, left behind by his account of the development of the human subject. A fairly mainstream cinematic version replaces the avant-garde, subversive structure of the book.In the film things fall into place more handily in the name of coherence, and social issues (the chronic plight of a certain type of North-Eastern Brazilians who undertakes a journey to the great cities of the South in search of a better life) replace the major metaphysical meditations found in the book. In The Hour of the Star everything is subjected to a multiplicity of reductions, exaggerated to the minimum, a c aricature in reverse that works in favour of a growing invisibility of things.Physical invisibility, abortion and repressed sexuality are highlighted in the film, depicting the drama of Macabea, a humble orphan girl from the backwoods of Alagoas, North Eastern Brazil, who was brought up by a forbidding aunt before making her way to the slums of Rio de Janeiro. In this city, she shares the same bed sitter with three girls and works as a typist. Centred on her (in)existence, the film explores Macabea’s marginality by placing her among the marginalities of the characters that populate the world of Rio de Janeiro.There is a strong focus on the relationships between the characters: Seu Raimundo and Seu Pereira (her bosses), Gloria (her colleague from work), Olimpico de Jesus Moreira Chaves (her ‘boyfriend’), and Madame Carlota (the fortune 1 Throughout the essay, A Hora da Estrela, (HE) will refer to Clarice Lispector’s novel (Portuguese version), while the tit le: The Hour of the Star (HS) will refer to the film, a Brazilian cinematic adaptation of Clarice Lispector’s book (The Hour of the Star, Dir.Susana Amaral, Raiz Producoes Cinematograficas, 1985). The dialogues in this work were translated and transcribed from the film, while the book excerpts were taken from the English translation of the novel: The Hour of the Star, trans. Giovanni Pontiero (Manchester: Carcanet, 1992). 1 teller). Macabea has poverty, inexperience, ingenuity, ill-health and anonymity written all over her. All she can afford to eat and drink are hotdogs and Coca-cola.Her only (unachievable) dream is to become a film star. Without any goals in life, her sole interest is listening to Radio Relogio (Radio Clock) that broadcasts the seconds, minutes and hours of the day along with random information about life. Olimpico, who she meets in the park one day, starts going out with her but ends up in Gloria’a arms, after the latter’s visit to the fortun e teller. When Macabea decides to visit the fortune teller herself, her life seems about to change completely.The promise of abundance is followed by utter disappointment when Macabea, wearing her new Cinderella-blue dress, is run over by a car and dies alone, fantasising that she is running into the arms of the promised rich lover Hans, her long curly hair in the wind. Any Lacanian approach to this Cinderella-in-reverse story would proceed with reference to the unconscious, interpreting the text as a metaphor of the unconscious and the subject as a linguistic construct. Lacan is unequivocally clear when he states that: (†¦) the unconscious is structured in the most radical way like a language, hat a material operates in it according to certain laws, which are the same laws as those discovered in the study of actual languages (†¦)2 To the French psychoanalyst, the unconscious is constituted by a signifying chain, whereby the negative relations between the signifiers3 are n ever anchored in meaning: one signifier leads to another but never to the things it supposedly represents. Macabea launches the play of signifiers in the film: the assemblages of signifiers clustered around her convey the elusiveness of the signified and the centrality of the unconscious.Her problem with the meaning of words stands for Lacan’s model which gives primacy to the signifier and not the signified. The audience feels somehow â€Å"oppressed† by the many unanswered questions and the violence of the oblique illusions of truth inside definitions. What follows is a dialogue between Macabea and Olimpico during one of their walks together: Macabea On Radio Clock they were talking about alligators†¦ and something about ‘camouflage’†¦ What does ‘camouflage’ mean? Olimpico That’s not a nice word for a virgin to be using.The brothels are full of women who asked far too many questions. Macabea Olimpico Where is the brothel? Ità ¢â‚¬â„¢s an evil place where only men go. 2 Jacques Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, pp. 234 2 ‘Just because people ask you for something doesn’t mean that’s what they really want you to give them’4, Lacan would argue, commenting on this dialogue. What Macabea desires from Olimpico is not exactly a word’s signification but something else implied in that same dialogue. She desires the meaning, yet lacks the meaning and that same lack structures her desire.Macabea asks others for definitions, but others are as ignorant as she is. The film’s plays on ambiguity, misunderstandings and misjudgments add to Lacan’s play of signifiers: Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Olimpico Macabea Well†¦ Well what? I just said well. But well what? Let’s change the subject. You don’t understand. Understand what? Oh my God, Macabea. Let’ s talk about something else. What do you want to talk about? Why don’t you talk about you?Me? What’s the problem? People talk about themselves. Yes, but I am not like other people. I don’t think I am many people. If you are not people, then what are you? It’s just that I’m not used to it. What? Not used to what? I can’t explain. Am I really myself? Look, I’m off. You’ve no wits. How do I get wits? Insofar as the Lacanian analyst doesn’t take himself/herself as the representative of knowledge but sees the analysand’s unconscious as the ultimate authority, all these questions about the meaning of words are also metaphors of the unconscious.Macabea is under the illusion that meaning can be fixed and the illusion of stability destabilizes her. According to Lacan’s view of interpretation, meaning is imaginary and irrelevant: It is the chain of the signifier that the meaning insists without any of its elements ma king up the signification. 5 In one of the last scenes, Macabea is driven to the fortune teller by her colleague friend, Gloria, in an effort to fix her life. Madame Carlota divines everything about Macabea’s past, acknowledges 3 Lacan followed the ideas laid out by the linguist Saussure, who viewed the ign as the combination of a signifier (sound image) and a signified (concept). Lacan focuses on relations between signifiers alone. 4 J. Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, Seminar XIII 3 the signs of the future but fails to interpret them. Macabea’s fate is consummated despite the fortune teller’s misinterpretations because, Lacanians might argue, understanding is irrelevant to the process. But, in this case, understanding becomes very relevant indeed for the Lacanian critics who argue that death represents the destiny of those who get hold of the Phallus.By misunderstanding the signs, Madame Carlota tells Macabea her supposedly brilliant future. As if ‘listening to a fanfare of trumpets coming from heaven’ (HE, pp. 76), Macabea learns that she is going to be very rich, meet a wealthy handsome foreigner named Hans, with whom she will marry, and become a renown famous star. Macabea believes every single word she is told, hence truly acknowledging that all her fantasies will come true that very day. Macabea’s desire to have the Phallus is now a reality. Once desire is extinguished, there are no more reasons to keep on living.This scene shows how Lacan’s view on interpretation as an easy reductionist task leading to imaginary understanding can rebound on him. The scene previously referred to is rooted in another depicting the beginning of the relationship between Macabea and Olimpico, which shows the essentialist views latent in Dr. Lacan’s theory of sexuation. Lacan’s concept of ‘object (a)’ is considered to be his most significant contribution to psychoanalysis. 6 ‘Object (a)’ is th at which is desired but always out of reach, a lost object signifying an imaginary moment in time.According to his theory, people delve into relationships because they are driven by the desire to overcome Lack (consequence of castration). Because Lack is experienced in different ways by men and women, both sexes have different ways of overcoming their Lack: they either place themselves in relation to the Phallus (feminine structures) or the ‘object (a)’ (masculine structures). Lacan argues that in the sexual relationship7 the sexes are defined separately because they are organized differently with respect to language/to the symbolic:8 masculine structure limits men to Phallic ‘jouissance’ while feminine structure limits omen to ‘object (a)’ ‘jouissance’ and also allows them to experience another kind of ‘jouissance’, which Lacan calls the Other ‘jouissance’9. By jouissance Lacan implies what ‘is forb idden to him who J. Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, Instance de la letter dans l’inconscient ou la raison depuis Freud’ In the preface to Ecrits, Lacan mentions ‘object (a)’: ‘We call upon this object as being at once the cause of desire in which the subject is eclipsed and as something supporting the subject between truth and knowledge. 7 It must be kept in mind that Lacan’s work on sexual difference crosses over the borderlines of biological distinction. He defines femininity and masculinity on the basis of psychoanalytic terms. 8 Lacan explains the alternative versions of castration: 6 5 (†¦) suggerer un derangement non pas contingent, mais essentie de la sexualite humaine (†¦) sur l’irreductibilite a toute analyse finie (endliche), des sequelles qui resultant du complexe de castration dans l’inconscient masculine, du penisneid dans l’inconscient de la femme. In ‘La signification du phallus’, Ecrits, pp. 85 9 When Lacan discusses the notion of another kind of â€Å"jouissance† (Other ‘jouissance’), he explains that women (human beings structured by the feminine) are the only ones that have access to it, while men are limited to Phallic ‘jouissance’. According to Bruce Fink, this concept roughly implies that the phallic function has its limits and that the signifier isn’t everything. ’ B. Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 107) 4 speaks (†¦)’10, that is, that completion of being which is forever inaccessible to the split subject.To paraphrase Fink, insofar as a woman forms a relationship with a man, she is likely to be reduced to an object – ‘object (a)’, reduced to no more than a collection of male fantasy objects, an image that contains and yet disguises ‘object (a)’. He will isolate one of her features and desire that single feature (her hair, her legs, her voice, etc. ), instead of the woman as a whole. In a different way, the woman may require a man to embody the Phallus for her, but her partner will never truly be the man as much as the Phallus.Therefore, ‘il n’y a pas de rapport sexuel’ (Lacan’s famous remark) because the dissymmetry of partners is utter and complete. By lack of symmetry Lacan means what she/he sees herself/himself in relation to [either the Phallus or ‘object (a)’]. Going back to the film, the masculine and feminine realms seem to be clearly limited in terms of a traditional heterosexual system (the odd-one-out being the character of the fortune teller in whom we perceive traces of homosexuality). When Olimpico first meets Macabea in the park, she is holding a red flower in her hands.Olimpico draws nearer, asks her name and invites her for a walk. At a certain point he mentions her red flower, gently asks for her permission to pull out its leaves, and finally returns it to Macabea. Under Lacan’s eyes, insofar as she holds the flower, Macabea sees herself in terms of the Phallus, the flower being its metaphor, what she desires to hold in her hands. Olimpico is, in her eyes, the biologically defined man incarnating the Phallus (her true partner being the Phallus and not the man).As Lacan’s theory sets out to show, Olimpico belongs to those characterized by masculine structure. He will search within this woman’s features, a particular one and reduce her to ‘object (a)’ in his fantasy, trying to overcome the primordial Lack. However, it seems terribly hard to invest a precious object that arouses his desire in this particular woman: ugly, dirty and looking rather ill, there is nothing in her left to be reduced to a male fantasy object. Hence the customized flower: Olimpico invests what arouses his desire11 in the flower and not the girl.If we pursue Lacan’s theory a step further in terms of masculine/signifier and feminine/’signifiance’12, we will conclude that his work on sexuation rests on the belief that subjectification takes place at different levels in different sexuated beings: while the signifier refuses the task of signification, the ‘signifiant’ plays the material, non-signifying face of the signifier, the part that has effects without signifying: ‘jouissance’ effects. 13 This is displayed as the J. Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, pp. 319 A similar flower will appear again in the film: Macabea has put it in a glass n her desk at work. Gloria, her colleague from the office, is getting ready for a first date with a man she never met before. She decides to wear the red flower in her bodice so that he can recognise her. Her appropriation of the flower symbolises her future appropriation of Olimpico’s fantasy (she will steal Macabea’s boyfriend, following the fortune teller’s advice) and her reduction to a male fantasy object. At t he same time, the man she is about to go out with is reduced to his sexy voice. 12 Lacan’s concept of ‘letre de la signifiance’, found in Seminar XX, is explained by B.Fink in these terms: ‘I have proposed to translate it as  «signifierness », that is, the fact of being a signifier (†¦) the signifying nature of signifiers. When Lacan uses this term, it is to emphasise the nonsensical nature of the signifier, the very existence of signifiers apart from and separated from any possible meaning or signification they might have. ’ B. Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 118-9 13 B. Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 119 11 10 5 heoretical reason implying that the signifier of desire can be identified with only one sex at a time, meaning that Woman can never be defined as long as Man is defined. As Fink puts it, (†¦) the masculine path might then be qualified as that of desire (becomin g one’s own cause of desire) while the feminine path would be that of love. 14 Watching this scene in isolation, one has the impression that love is for Macabea as desire is for Olimpico. This is not entirely the case, for in this scene and in the film in general, a woman (Macabea) is defined as long as a man (Olimpico) is defined.In a relationship where the partners are not identical (different feminine/masculine structures) both of them are ruled by desire. On the one hand, Olimpico desires all the attributes that Macabea sadly lacks, so he turns to Gloria, Macabea’s ideal imago (a version of what the latter wants to be, a version of herself that she can love). On the other hand, Macabea is not ruled by love. What she experiences with Olimpico is nothing compared to what she feels when Madame Carlota tells her about Hans: she feels inebriated, experiencing for the first time what other people referred to as passion.She falls passionately in love with Hans because the fortune teller had told her that he would care for her. Both Macabea and Olimpico are ruled by the desire to be loved and not by love. And if in this heterosexual relationship (which for Lacan is the norm) the dissymmetry is not entirely complete, what can we say of the homosexuality referred to by the fortune teller, who finds Macabea much too delicate to cope with the brutality of men and tells her, from experience, that love between two women is more affectionate?In fact, Lacan never theorized homosexuality very seriously, although his failure to account for it may be explained by the fact that the Symbolic is structured in favour of heterosexuality. In his theory of the Symbolic, the baby undergoes the mirror stage between 6 and 18 months old. By this time, the baby sees its own image in the mirror and enters the symbolic stage (realm of the imaginary: imaginary identification with the image in the mirror). As Lacan sets out to explain,This event can take place (†¦) from t he age of six months, and its repetition has often made me reflect upon the startling spectacle of the infant in front of the mirror. Unable as yet to walk (†¦) he nevertheless overcomes the obstructions of his support and (†¦) brings back an instantaneous aspect of the image. For me, this activity retains the meaning I have given it up to the age of eighteen months. 15 Mirrors play an important role in Macabea’s life. Looking at her own reflection, she tries to find out who she is.After having used Gloria’s trick (making up an excuse to skip work), Macabea decides 14 15 Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 115 Jacques Lacan, Ecrits, A Selection, Chapter I: ‘The mirror stage as formative of the function of the eye as revealed in psychoanalytic experience. ’, pp. 1, 2 6 to spend her day off in her room, listening to Radio Clock, dancing and looking at herself in the mirror. The camera shows her reflection and what we see is a split image in the mirror: she stands between what she is, what she wants to be and what others want her to be. 6 When she tells the mirror: â€Å"I’m a typist, a virgin and I like Coca-cola† she complements her identity split with her mirage identity: Macabea is staging her identity by identifying with other people’s perceptions of herself. She is not eighteen months old but an eighteen-year-old in the middle of Lacan’s mirror stage, looking for models (which are the models in shop windows: the parental Other is absent), learning new words (at work as a typist, at home listening to the radio), looking at herself in mirrors. It is as if the Symbolic were staging ‘reality’ too late in the character’s life.During a walk at the Zoo, Olimpico accuses Macabea of being a liar: Macabea It is true. May God strike me dead if I’m not telling the truth. May my mother and my father drop dead right now. Olimpico Macabea You said your parents were dead. I forgot†¦ As Lacan would put it, we are watching how the Symbolic can bar the real, overwriting and transforming it completely, the reason for this being that the Symbolic is but a pale disguised reflection of the Real; the reason for this not being a basic assumption about the condition of being a child without living parents, that is, about the alienation caused by orphanage.This does not mean that Lacan did not reflect on the concept of alienation (check Fink, footnote 28, chapter 7, seminar XVI). In his opinion, that is what places the subject within the Symbolic. In alienation, the speaking being is forced to give up something as she/he comes into language. Lacan sees it as an attempt to make sense by trying to act coherently with the image one has about oneself. These attempts alienate the person because meaning is always ambiguous, polyvalent, betraying something one wanted to remain hidden or something one wanted to express. Lacan does not cond emn or avoid alienation in his analysis.At a certain point, in Seminar XVI, he establishes a comparison between ‘surplus value’ (Marxist concept: the ‘jouissance’ of property or money that is the fruit of the employees’ labour, the excess product) and ‘surplus  «jouissance »Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (what we seek in every relationship/activity but never achieve). While capitalism creates a loss aiming at ‘surplus value’ (the loss of the worker), our advent as speaking beings also creates a loss (the loss of ‘jouissance’ through castration). In Lacan’s economy of ‘jouissance’, both losses are at the centre of the development of civilisation, culture and market forces.At a certain moment in the film, we 16 In this respect, Lacan explains that ‘the only homogeneus function of consciousness is the imaginary capture of the ego by its mirror reflection and the function of misrecognition which remains attached to it. ’ In Ecrits, A Selection (1966) 7 watch Macabea handing over a certain ‘jouissance’ to the Other: she is told by her boss she has to work late. The consequence is that Gloria will meet Olimpico in the park, instead of Macabea. Following Lacan’s theoretical discourse, the scene depicts Macabea being forced to give up ‘something’ as she comes into language (as she finishes typing the documents).That ‘something’ is her love object. The scene can be read as a reference to the primordial loss – castration – by meditating on the importance of the sacrifice of ‘jouissance’ as it creates a lack17 and consequently gears life (the Symbolic/the plot) onwards: Gloria steals her colleague’s boyfriend and eventually gets a husband, following the fortune teller’s instructions; Macabea loses her boyfriend and ends up at the hands of the fortune teller who guides her towards her death.This analysis foc uses on the ‘surplus  «jouissance »Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ and not on the Marxist concept of ‘surplus value’, therefore neglecting important class struggle/capitalist issues. Adopting a Lacanian frame in the analysis of alienation in The Hour of the Star involves losing what a Marxist concept of alienation might otherwise bring into light: the alienating effect society operates on Macabea as an exploited underpaid employee who finds herself working (sometimes after hours) for the employer’s enjoyment.The film, on the contrary, is quite clear in its portrait of an alienated subject working for less than the minimum wage in a decadent, poor-lit warehouse. A dialogue between Seu Raimundo and Seu Pereira suggests the capitalists’ attitude towards the proletarian Macabea: Raimundo Pereira Raimundo (†¦) Pereira: Raimundo Besides, she is really ugly. Like a shrivelled pomegranate. Where did you get her? Ok, she’s a bit clumsy. But a brilliant typist would want more money. It’s the new typist, Macabea. Maca what? -beia. Maca-bea. No one else was willing to do the job for less than the minimum wage.Adding to the notion of the film as a metaphor of the unconscious are: mirrors and their fragmented reflections, Radio Clock and its fragmented, dispersed bits of information and the gaze of the camera as the audience accedes to Macabea’s world through furtive gazings behind windows, doors, in the street. This gaze could be interpreted as belonging to Macabea’s wicked aunt who has died but still haunts her conscience. Macabea’s paradoxical fantasy, her dream to become a film star, is also hooked up to the circuit of the unconscious as the end term of her desire.Lacan explains that the unconscious, ruled as a language, is overpopulated with other people’s desires that flow into us via discourse. 18 So, our very fantasies can be foreign to us, they can be alienating. Macabea’s fantasy to become a film star could â€Å"Without lack, the subject can never come into being, and the whole efflorescence of the dialectic of desire is squashed. † In Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance, pp. 103 17 8 be read as a way of answering other people’s desire: that she takes care of herself, eats better, dresses better, and works better.Interpreting Macabea’s dream as a response to her own desire (she wants to be loved; film stars are loved; therefore, she wants to be a film star) implies walking away from Lacanian theory. The subject is here very much implicated in the process. Others don’t seem to have had a hand in it. Olimpico laughs and humiliates her when she tells him about her dream and doesn’t encourage her to pursue it: Olimpico What makes you think that you’ve got the face or the body to become a film star? (†¦) Take a good look at yourself in the mirror.Lacan’s approach to the unconscious considerably r educes the sources from which one can carve out knowledge in relation to this film. Macabea’s ethnicity calls forth the analyst’s knowledge of Brazil’s North-Eastern structural roots of poverty (drought plagued agriculture, slums, human rights abuse in terms of health and education, the plight of street children, women’s issues in terms of class, race and land tenure). An informed reading of The Hour of the Star raises the question of marginality within the frameworks of location, gender, race, individual/social conscience, language and testimony.In the context of this film, the concept of marginality has to be addressed in the plural. There are different definitions of margin at stake, as well as different layers of marginal behaviours, each of them empowering the social/individual transgressions suggested by Macabea’s lack of attitude towards existence. The characters in this story are aware of their condition as outsiders. They are seen through their relation to Macabea: her apathy and emptiness are exquisitely painful in that they remind others of the collective pain felt in a dehumanised world.In the pyramid of the excluded, Macabea is victimised as a female and as a North easterner in search of her inner self. Her voluntary attempt, although grotesque and inarticulate, to question and witness her blunt existence stands as the last stance of her marginality. It is the hour of the tragic question: ‘Who am I? ’, echoing the major preoccupation of every mortal. Unlike the other characters, she fails in every sphere of her life but not in asking this question.She is aware of her inner otherness, although unable to verbalise or make sense of it. She witnesses it, tries to speak it, but never tells it, because what needs to be told is pure silence narrated from within. The title of the present study resonates with the limits of a psychoanalytic reading of The Hour of the Star. â€Å"A sense of Loss† and â⠂¬Å"The right to protest† are two of the fourteen titles19 advanced by 18 Lacan suggests that ‘it is in the reduplication of the subject of speech that the unconscious finds the means to articulate itself. ’, J.Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection, ‘A la memoire d’Ernest Jones: sur la theorie du symbolisme’ 19 List of titles found at the beginning of HE: The Blame is Mine or The Hour of the Star or Let Her Fend for Herself or The Right to Protest or . As for the Future or Singing the Blues or She Doesn’t Know How to Protest or A Sense of Loss 9 Clarice Lispector in her book A Hora da Estrela. They were chosen by me for two reasons. The first implies that analysing the film by giving the book behind it the cold shoulder would weaken the analysis. Another is the belief that choosing only one title would dramatically reduce the scope of this work of art.Macabea cannot escape looking at mirrors and gazing at a sense of loss that dazzles her in her opa que leading-nowhere-abstractions. But she is herself a mirror reflecting the social inequities of the Brazilian society in she lived. Taking a step further, we could add yet another title: â€Å"I can do nothing†, number eleven in Lispector’s title list. This one would eclipse the Other’s discourse, unconscious and unintentional, and give way to the informed discourse of a conscious audience viewing writing as a representative mirror of reality.Having said all this, one can only afford ‘A discreet exit by the back door’20 once a final, irrevocable question is posed. Is it still possible, having pointed out the missing dimensions of analysis and the resistances to a Lacanian approach of The Hour of the Star, to make sense of Lacan’s theoretical framework? On the one hand, answering with a ‘no’ would seem fatally solipsistic in what the existing quantities of written work on psychoanalysis are concerned, as Lacan’s work lies at the epicentre of contemporary discourses about otherness, subjectivity, sexual difference, to name just a few topics.Answering with a ‘yes’, on the other hand, would plainly simplify subject matters that are, as this work intends to show, very complex. Perhaps the question, in the fashion of all interesting questions, offers no answer insofar as a balanced account of the possibilities, limitations, meanings and implications of Lacan’s theory is not thoroughly considered. or Whistling in the Dark Wind or I Can Do Nothing or A Record of Preceding Events or A Tearful Tale or A Discreet Exit by the Back Door. 20 Final title in Clarice Lispector’s list of titles. 10 Primary Bibliography Lacan, J. Ecrits (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1966) _______, Ecrits: A Selection, trans. Alan Sheridan (London: Routledge, 1977) _______, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book II. The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, trans. Sylvana Tomaselli (N ew York/London: Norton & Co. , 1991) _______, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan Book VII, trans. Denis Porter (London/New York: Norton & Co. , 1992) Lispector, C. , A Hora da Estrela, (Rio de Janeiro: Jose Olympio, 1977) __________, The Hour of the Star, trans. Giovanni Pontiero (Manchester: Carcanet, 1992) Freud, S. New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, ed. /trans. J. Strachey (London: Penguin Books, 1991 The Hour of the Star, Dir. Susana Amaral, Raiz Producoes Cinematograficas, 1985 Secondary bibliography Barry, P. , Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002) Benvenuto B. & Kennedy, R. , The Works of Jacques Lacan: An Introduction (London: Free Association Books, 1986) Cixous, H. , ‘The Hour of The Star: How Does One Desire Wealth or Poverty? ’, Reading With Clarice Lispector, ed. and trans.Verena Andermatt Conley (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990), 1 43-163 Daidone, L. C. & Clifford, J. , â€Å"Clarisse Lispector: Anticipating the Postmodern†, Multicultural Literatures through Feminist/Poststructuralist Lenses, ed. Barbara Frey Waxman (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1993), 190-201 Fink, B. , The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouisssance (Princeton N. J. : Princeton University Press, 1995) Fitz, E. , ‘Point of View in Clarice Lispector’s A Hora Da Estrela’, Luso-Brazilian Review, 19. 2 (1982), 195-208 Lapsley, R. Westlake, M. , Film Theory: An Introduction (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988) _________, ‘From Cassablanca to Pretty Woman: The politics of Romance’, Screen, 33. 1 (1992), 27-49 Lemaire, A. , Jacques Lacan, trans. D. Macey (London, Henley & Boston: Routledge, 1977) Klobucka, A. , ‘Helene Cixous and the Hour of Clarice Lispector, SubStance, 73 (1994), 41-62 Mitchell, J. & Rose, J. (eds), Feminine Sexuality: Jacques Lacan and the Ecole freu dienne (Houndsmill: Macmillan, 1992) Mitchell, J. , Psychoanalysis and Feminism (London: Penguin, 1990) Mulvey, L. ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, The Sexual Subject: A Screen Reader in Sexuality (London & New York: Routledge, 1998), 22-34 Nelmes, J. (ed. ), An Introduction to Film Studies, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 1990) Patai, D. , ‘Aspiring to the Absolute’, Women’s Review of Books, 4 (1987), 30-31 Smith, J. & Kerrigan, W. (eds. ), Interpreting Lacan (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1983) Storey, J. , Cultural Teory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, 3rd edn (Dorchester: Dorset Press, 2001) Whatling, C. , Screen Dreams: Fantasising Lesbians in Film (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 1997) 11