Hotspot Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Hotspot - Essay Example isolation then the medical charges or costs will also have to be improved as a way of attracting more patients to healthcare (Melnyk and Fineout-Overholt, 2011). Secondly, isolating or keeping off from these hot spots can also make them improve their quality and access to their healthcare. The hot spots also take advantage of the many victims visiting their premises for healthcare as a good chance to provide poor services. At some point, they are also forced by the large number of victims to give poor quality services because they give offer their services faster in order to be able to attend to all the victims. They feel as if they experience monopoly in delivering their services hence due to low competition they do not provide adequate healthcare to the patients. For instance, Frank Hendricks whom the doctors identified as the worst of their patients by then was receiving poor medication despite his serious heart failure, chronic asthma, diabetes, hypothyroidism and gout illnesses. Then Brenner started taking care of him until he was discarded form the hospital. He gave him encouragement because he had already lost hope in life due to the poor medication he was getting in the hospital. After a while, Frank goes back to his normal life. This serves as enough evidence that the hot spots never gave patients enough concern and quality medication. Through isolating the hot spots then could give the doctors of the hot spots an alarmed way to improve their services because for instance if, all the patients avoid going and queuing in the emergency room, the doctors will find ways to trap back their patients, and they will obviously improve the quality of the medication in the hospitals (Takenaka and Osirim, 2010). Most patients in the region seek treatment through the emergency department because it is where they can get urgent medical treatment. Following the large number of people visiting the hospital, then it is rather difficult to receive treatment via the

Bioinformatics for geneticists Essay Example for Free

Bioinformatics for geneticists Essay Bioinformatics is a recently evolved field in biology. The definition is still evolving but in essence, bioinformatics is the â€Å"computational branch of molecular biology† (Claverie 2007, p. 9). This is because the field integrates computer technology and information processing systems to combine biological data and analyse biological problems. The primary aim of this new field is the ascertainment of biological insights and establishment of a global view to support a unified understanding of concepts in biology. This found application in genetics by addressing the need for a database containing large volumes of biological information, especially on gene sequences. Eventually, bioinformatics allowed geneticists to access available data on genetics and combine new data for analysis to support continuity of knowledge building on genetics. (National Center for Biotechnology Information 2004) Bioinformatics Challenges for the Geneticist Bioinformatics create a number of challenges for geneticists. The aim of bioinformatics is three-fold. First is storage of large bulks of information in accessible databases. Second is the development and application of computer systems to support analysis. Third is the development of computer systems allowing interpretation of analysed data in a biologically meaningful manner. (Luscombe, Greenbaum Gerstein 2001) The second and third aims pose challenges for geneticists who need to be adept not only in accessing but also in developing and using information system tools in analysing and interpreting data in the context of genetic research. Having existing information in a database is useless without the competence to access specific data and integrate this with new data as well as analyse and interpret these in the context of the particular genetic research. Bioinformatics Needs of Geneticists Bioinformatics supports the needs of geneticists. One justification for computational systems in genetic research is to develop a global view of experimental design to integrate research efforts and results in different countries. This is necessary to link and bring together all existing knowledge on various areas of genetic research, especially nucleic and amino acid sequences. Another justification for bioinformatics in genetics research is database mining to facilitate the generation and testing of hypothesis on the functions and structures of gene and proteins by using available data as framework (Barnes Gray 2003) Managing and Manipulating Genetic Data Generally, there are two ways of managing and manipulating data. One is the use of software. A number of software emerged supporting the development genetic linkage maps and other purposes. Although software varies in function, the common aim is to aid in understanding genetic linkage information and automating the research process to support effective map building. (Weaver et al. 1992) The other is network systems comprised of a database and accessibility through network connections. Networks allow geneticists to access available information such as on genetic markers so they can combine this with new data for analysis and interpretation. This supports the continuity of global genetics research. (Cheung et al. 1996) Value of Bioinformatics The essence of bioinformatics to genetic research is innovativeness and huge potential in developing novel approaches to genetics research. Bioinformatics has the potential to analyse and interpret data not only for purposes of completing the research purpose but also for the practical purpose of usefulness in diagnosis or therapy. (Jones Phillip 2000) The potential of bioinformatics in translating genetic data into practical solutions for actual biological problems accounts for the expected increase in the value of the bioinformatics market to billions of dollars in the next five years (World Bioinformatics Market 2008). Bioinformatics for Genetic Study Designs and Analysis Bioinformatics allowed the development of better study designs and analysis for genetic research that address previous methodological problems. Genetics and bioinformatics both adhere to collaborative investigations. Genetic research necessitates phenotypes and researcher expertise in mapping or sequencing studies while bioinformatics depends on high quality databases as well as access and integration tools and expertise. (Schmidt 2003) Collaborative designs constitute a common challenge in genetics and bioinformatics. With bioinformatics, problem identification in research focuses on testing hypothesis such as gene identification in cancer research or linking new and previous data such as on mutations. Data gathering is through data mining by searching various databases using the Internet and networks. Data is then subject to integration and organisation according to the biological problem studied such as combining data on protein structure with its properties and functions contained in various databases. Data analysis considers breadth and depth. Breadth refers to analytical processes comparing genes using algorithms while depth pertains to the determination protein encoding of a particular gene. Tools such as modelling and simulation support data interpretation and presentation. (Luscombe et al. 2001) In the case of gene expression research, this required the efficient analysis of microarrays and population. Bioinformatics provided two-colour microarrays as a more effective analytical design by covering twice the number of distant pair design profiles and population. (Fu Jansen 2006) In cancer epidemiology research, bioinformatics supported the integration of genetic susceptibility factors to create innovative study designs (Malats Castano-Vinyals 2007). Non-Coding RNA Bioinformatics Bioinformatics plays an important role in non-coding RNA research. Hiro et al. (2006) explained that non-coding RNA genes have weak statistical signals and the potential of bioinformatics addresses this limitation by providing systems of searching and predicting non-coding RNA. Huang et al. (2008) discussed that bioinformatics can support non-coding RNA search through CYK-type and covariance programs but there is need to improve further programs to accommodate arbitrary RNA structures. Bioinformatics and Cancer Genetics Bioinformatics supports genetic research on cancer. Kato and Kato (2006) reported that that bioinformatics supports cancer research through omics data functions to support knowledge on genetic biomarkers linked to cancer including ‘predisposition, diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic markers’ using data and text mining programs. Barnes and Gray (2007) explained the contributions of bioinformatics to cancer genetics as cancer genomes, cancer genetics design, cancer gene mutations, and other breakthroughs. Bioinformatics and Gene Identification Biotechnology significantly contributes to the identification of disease genes by allowing the management of large bulks of data including DNA sequences and microarray data in identifying genetic functions that cause diseases. Chen and Chen (2008) explained the role of bioinformatics in linking genes and disease outcomes through gene identification algorithms incorporates into analytical software. Algorithms direct calculation and data processing by providing a sequence of instructions in handling data. Tu et al. (2006) discussed the use of the network-based stochastic algorithm in inferring disease causing genes and identifying regulatory pathways. Bioinformatics in Single Gene Orders and Mutations Bioinformatics is also useful in studying single gene orders and mutations to ascertain genetic causes of monogenic diseases. Barnes and Gray (2007) explained that the data storage and processing solutions of bioinformatics led to outcomes such as the genome-wide map of monogenic diseases, understanding of the nature of mutations in single gene orders, and implications of epigenetics on Mendelian traits. Cooper, Stenson and Chuzhanova (2006) explained that bioinformatics support studies of single gene orders and mutations via the Human Gene Mutation Database (HGMD) that contains a wide range of information on nuclear genes, particularly germ-line mutations that are associated with inherited diseases. In 2005, the database contained 53,000 lesions together with data on DNA sequences, splice junction, and polymorphisms. The database provides core data with which new data is combined to build knowledge on monogenic diseases. Bioinformatics and Genetic Data Mining Bioinformatics supports data mining and analysis in genetics research. Wang et al. (2005) explained that bioinformatics support genetic data mining and analysis through various databases on areas of genetic studies such as the gene mutation databases as well as software or programs operating through context-based algorithms. This enables analytical processes, to integrate genetic data, via clustering methods for microarrays, comparison of DNA structures, identification of sequence characteristics, discovering disease markers, indexing of pathways and sequences, among others analytical outcomes. Geneticists can select which algorithmic tool in bioinformatics to use in managing and analysing particular data involved in the study or integrating data from various databases. Since bioinformatics continues to evolve, new analytical tools would evolve to address current problems in data mining and analysis for genetic research. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (2004) identified two breakthrough contributions of bioinformatics in genetic data mining and analysis. One is protein modelling. DNA sequences can encode proteins with particular functions but protein structures cannot be visually seen using x-ray crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy making it difficult to study protein encoding. Bioinformatics allows protein modelling to visualize proteins in three-dimensions and by using templates enables the prediction of structures of similar proteins. The other is genomic mapping for the management of sequence information, which is painstaking when manually made. Bioinformatics provide maps to guide geneticists in pointing the precise location of gene sequences. Bioinformatics in Improving Genetic Research Schmidt (2003) explained that bioinformatics improve genetic research by providing evolving and improving means of managing data explosion. Research advancements resulted to large data on nucleotide sequences comprising DNA and amino acid sequences comprising proteins stored in databases around the world. However, manually pulling out data for use in succeeding studies and analysing vast data takes time. Manual study of outputs has become tedious. Bioinformatics improve genetic research by allowing geneticists to search databases for the gene composition, proteins and mutations as well as model the chemical and structural compositions of living cells to support various health implications such as cancer and drug studies. A researcher cannot be familiar with every known genetic interaction, so that bioinformatics becomes necessary in managing and interpreting systems-level information. Conclusion Bioinformatics has transformed the field of biology, particularly genetics, by providing approaches, processes and tools to ease the difficulties of managing and analysing large bulks of data that have accumulated over decades of genetic research. Bioinformatics has made genetics an information and practice science from primarily a laboratory-based science. Furthermore, the continuously evolving field of biometrics holds the potential to facilitate further advancements in genetics through the development of new software, algorithms, and processes useful in filling research gaps in genetics. However, geneticists play an important role in directing and enhancing the role of bioinformatics in genetics. This requires geneticists to understand bioinformatics to develop data processing and analytical tools addressing the different needs in various areas of genetic research. References Barnes, M. R,. Gray, I. C. eds. , 2007. Bioinformatics for geneticists. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Chen, Y. P. Chen, F. , 2008. Using bioinformatics techniques for gene identification in drug discovery and development. Current Drug Metabolism, 9(6), pp. 567-573. Cheung, K. H. , Nadkarni, P. , Silverstein, S. , Kidd, J. R. , Pakstis A. J. , Miller P. Kidd K. K. , 1996. PhenoDB: an integrated client/server database for linkage and population genetics. Computers and Biomedical Research, 29(4), pp. 327-337. Claverie, J. , 2007. Bioinformatics for dummies. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Cooper, D. N. , Stenson, P. D. Chuzhanova, N. A. , 2006. The Human Gene Mutation Database (HGMD) and its exploitation in the study of mutational mechanisms. Current Protocols in Bioinformatics. Unit 1. 13. Available at: http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pubmed/18428754? dopt=Abstract [Accessed 14 October 2008] Fu, J. Jansen, R. C. , 2006. Optimal design and analysis of genetic studies on gene expression. Genetics, 173(3), pp. 1993-1999. Hiro, K. , Akio, K. Masaru, T. , 2006. Bioinformatics analyses of non-coding RNA. Protein, Nucleic Acid and Enzyme, 51(16), pp. 2420-2424. Huang, Z. , Wu, Y. , Robertson, J. , Feng, L. , Malmberg, R. Cai, L. , 2008. Fast and accurate search for non-coding RNA pseudoknot structures in genomes. Bioinformatics, 24(20), pp. 2281-2287. Jones, P. B. Phillip, B. C. , 2000. The commercialization of bioinformatics. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, 3(2). Available at: http://www. scielo. cl/scielo. php? pid=S0717-34582000000200002script=sci_arttext [Accessed 14 October 2008] Katoh, M. Katoh, M. , 2006. Bioinformatics for cancer management in the post-genome era. Technology in Cancer Research Treatment, 5(2), pp. 169-175. Luscombe, N. M. , Greenbaum, D. Gerstein, M. , 2001, What is bioinformatics? A proposed definition and overview of the field. Methods of Information in Medicine, 40, pp. 346–58. Malats, N. Castano-Vinyals, G. , 2007. Cancer epidemiology: study designs and data analysis. Clinical and Translational Oncology, 9(5), pp. 290-297 National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2004 Bioinformatics, Available at: http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/About/primer/bioinformatics. html [Accessed 14 October 2008] Schmidt, C. W. , 2003. Data explosion: bringing order to chaos with bioinformatics. Environmental Health Perspectives, 111(6), pp. 340-345. Tu , Z. , Wang , L. , Arbeitman, M. , Chen, T. Sun, F. , 2006. An integrative approach for causal gene identification and gene regulatory pathway inference. Bioinformatics, 22(14), pp. 489-496 Wang, J. T. L. , Zaki, M. J. , Toivonen, H. T. T. Shasha, D. E. eds. , 2005. Data mining on bioinformatics. London: Springer-Verlog. Weaver, R. , Helms, C. , Mishra, S. K. Donis-Keller, H. , 1992. Software for analysis and manipulation of genetic linkage data. American Journal of Human Genetics, 50(6), pp. 1267–1274. World Bioinformatics Market. 2008. ReportLinker. com. Available at: http://www. reportlinker. com/p092468/World-BioinformaticsMarket. html [Accessed 14 October 2008]

Significance of Fog in Long Days Journey into Night Eugene by ONeill

Long Days Journey: The Significance of Fog (8) A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, by Eugene O’Neill, is a deeply autobiographical play. His life was rampant with confusion and addictions in his family. Each character in this play has a profound resemblance, and draws parallels and connections with a member of his own family. The long journey that the title of the play refers to is a journey into his past. Fog is a recurring metaphor in the play; it is a physical presence even before it becomes a crucial symbol of the family’s impenetrable confusion. It is referred to in the text as well as stage directions in this play. It sets the mood for the play in all its somber hues. He uses the fog outside the house as an atmospheric element that has an ominous presence throughout this play. His parents and the surroundings that he grew up in were tainted by broken dreams, lies, disease, past issues, alcoholism and drug addiction. There was this web of darkness and fogginess that encased his life and past that is portrayed in this play as well as others by O’Neill. The symbolic implications of fog in the play are descriptive of the struggle in the minds of this deeply conflicted family. The significance of fog in O’Neill’s writing can be examined in two forms. The first is what type of emblematic quality does the fog provide in this play, and the second is what are other plays in which O’Neill has used fog in a similar way. This play takes place through an entire day where the climate mirrors the mood of the family. â€Å" The play begins at 8:30 in the morning with a trace of fog in the air, and concludes sometime after midnight, with the house foghorn.† (Brustein 1020). The intensity of the fog continuously increases throughout the day, directly correlating to the murkiness in the household. The family’s mood significantly intensifies with the intensity of the fog. There are copious connections between the life of the fog and that of the Tyrone family. All throughout the play there is a conflict between past vs. present, truth vs. lies, and addiction vs. sobriety. This family lives amidst a haze of denial and as the fog gets thicker, they continue to get further lost. The fog has a polarity that directly relates to Mary, â€Å"†¦ the mood changing from sunny cheer over Mary’s apparent recovery to gloomy despair over her new descent into hell † (Brustein 1020). The fog is fi... ...n clarities. The fog is created out of pain in order to dilute clarity. The individuals in this play needed to escape themselves but didn’t succeed. O’Neill expresses the same fear of truth and uses the imagery of fog in The Iceman Cometh. The Iceman Cometh is written in the same time period as Long Day’s Journey Into Night, and is a parallel in the struggle of the past vs. present. The use of the fog imagery is not as direct in this play, but there are subtle mentions of fog in the play, such as â€Å" the gray subdued light of early morning in a narrow street† (O’Neill 660). This grayness is almost identical to the morning that the Tyrone family experiences after being awakened by the foghorns. Both stories spell the gloom and dreariness of these characters and their lives. The imagery of fog wasn’t as prominent in the rest of his plays. O’Neill had a great amount of turmoil in his life and the Long Day’s Journey Into Night story reflected perfectly the fogginess and daze he lived through. His dark life experiences have given him a rich, emotionally charged place, from which to write. The fog serves as a tool to paint the dreary picture and symbolize this darkness through his plays.

The Legend of Narcissus :: Greek Mythology

In Greek mythology, â€Å"Narcissism" has its roots from the legend of Narcissus, a young man whom most deemed extremely handsome. A nymph named Echo developed an obsessive infatuation with Narcissus but he was unwilling to reciprocate such feelings to her or others. She finally gave up and isolated herself. Narcissus was then cursed to become socially isolated and reviled due to his complete self absorption by loving his own shadow from the pool (Wall & Loewenthal, 1998). Havelock Ellis (1898) first developed the concept of narcissism as a psychological construct referring to excessive masturbation by the people become their own sexual objects. Then this concept was adopted by Sigmund Freud (1914/1957) and other prominent psychoanalysts. Interestingly, the term â€Å"Narcissistic Personality Disorder† was first introduced by Heinz Kohut (1968), the founder of self psychology, and â€Å"Narcissistic Personality† by Otto Kernberg (1970) who is the major contributor of modern object relations theory. The DSM did not adopt the diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder until in the third revised edition published in 1980 (Siomopoulos, 1988). Thus, throughout the last century, the general term â€Å"narcissism† has been usually seen in the literature rather than Narcissistic Personality Disorder. From a recent study by Pincus et al. (2009), narcissism has been conceptualized as â€Å"one’s capacity to maintain a relatively positive self-image through a variety of self-, affect- and field-regulatory processes. It underlies individuals’ needs for validation and affirmation as well as the motivation to overtly and covertly seek out self-enhancement experiences from the social environment† (p.365). Normal and pathological narcissism. Researchers usually use the terms normal and pathological features of narcissism to describe adaptive and maladptive personality structure respectively, representing different psychological needs for self enhancement, validation, and regulatory mechanisms (e.g., Kernberg 1998, Kohut 1977, Morf 2006, Pincus 2005, Ronningstam 2009, Stone 1998). Some believe that normal and pathological narcissism are situated on a single continuum or dimension from healthy to disordered functioning (e.g., Cooper, 2005; Miller, Hoffman, Campbell & Pilkonis, 2008; Paulhus, 1998; Ronningstam, 2005b & Watson, 2005), while others contended that adaptive and pathological narcissism may be two distinct personality dimensions (e.g., Ansell 2006, Dickinson & Pincus, 2003; Pincus et al., 2009; Rathvon & Holmstrom, 1996; Wink, 1991). It could be found that the studies of social and personality psychology have more interest in the normal narcissism (e.g. Miller & Campbell, 20 08 ), whereas those researchers in clinical psychology focused more on the studies of pathological narcissism (e.

Economic History and Current India Essay

There have been recent studies of the entire history of the economy of india where it is possible to ananlyse where india stood its place in past and where it is currently held. Paul Birog made a thorough analysis of Asian countries GDP economic development of 1750-1918 where surprisingly the findings in 1700AD drawn economic statistics of world . China had 32. 8% GDP where as as india had 25% . UK at that time had 1. 8% GDP along with 1% GDP in USA. By the time of 1900 there was a total reversal of paradigm shift where US and UK had GDP growth of 41% whereas China and India suffered 1. 7% GDP overall. The western research shows that india was a economic giant . London economist Angus Madisson in 1990, one of the greatest british economist of all time was appointed by the OECD nations to verify Paul Birogs research along with different levels of assistances from different countries. Eventually in 2010 he published a 2000 year economy of India where it showed from 1AD India topped thed world with 34% GDP. Still in 1000AD it had 28% GDP. In the years 1500 and 1600 china overtakes india. Again in 1700 india overtakes china and finally the entire crash of the Indian economy began later in 1750’s where the british colonial overlords landed in the country and started looting the country and exploiting its resources. The OECD website refers in the â€Å"world economic history and millennium perspective† lists out all these information which have been quoted before. It is one of the most trusted and relied upon website to refer to the statistics of the world economies. Although the word society is absent completely in western society where Margaret Thatcher said in 1971, that there is nothing called as society. And today all the western accepts today is the alternate version of so called civil society. Now civil society is totally different from the traditional society where it can be suggested that it is a form of ‘anti society’. Civil society which is the current western trend is based on social contractual theory, which all the institution are based including out democratic government where each citizen is recognized as co-citizen in country rather than mutual brotherhood based society. For eg. In USA, in Philedelphia, a Son can file a case against his own father for divorce of relationship and can achieve his claim since there is no cultural society, it is a civil society where 2 people are viewed as co-citizens rather with any blood and brotherly relationship. The complete western understanding, their institutions, sociology, individualism, constitutional theory of west does not recognize normal basic human relationship. But whereas our Indian society has always been working entirely on human relations since the ages of time where india showed a huge economic superpower with traditional society. Today since Indian government which is puppying around the western ideology fail to realize that they are taking the economy of the nation into a huge catastrophy. In 1993, when Manmohan Singh was the finance minister invited jagadish bhagavati a neo economist from USA, who formed the entire Duncan WTO treaty for the situation crisis in india with its economic situation. He suggested that the problem with Indian people is that they are saving more than need which comes around 23%GDP,out of which 19 % GDP were only saved by Indians. His advise included to bring down the savings of the people by different means of taxations and other techniques to 9-10%. Out of which this 9 -10% should only be focused on food, shelter like basic needs and increase productions by employing more people and made a whole theory model on that. His theory on Indian situation stated that unless you destroy the family saving of the Indian people and bring it down to half of it, there was no chance of development. He also made a research on the Indian families that Indian woman played a vital role in taking hold of the savings of her family expenditures. So his ideas proposed to change the mentality of the reserved family woman to consumer based woman where she can be advertised to spend more of our money and change the family structure symmetrically in Indian society. In western society there is no propensity to save money assets, thus as a result many families are destroyed. Today 51% Americans are single parent family, out of which 41% children are born to unwed mothers, 20% born for school going children. 51% of the American people are dependent on government support on life insurance, health support etc. where as Indian people have always been dependent on society. Moreover the western economy is build on contractual interest based constitutional society which has led to time bomb ticking economy is USA and other European countries. Today the present scenario has changed the entire habitual thinking process of the people in India. They have a huge affiliated love towards the western society and its features less realizing the suicidal catastrophic and destructive features of its empire. The govt. in India always claim to be globalizing with the world but in reality, india is Americanizing by focusing only on American economic model. There are other traditional society based economies like Japan and germany wherr they instead of manipulating the crowd, they motivate their savings in their family and encourage only the financial institutions to put up money in trades of stock market. There is a huge commonality between the german or Japanese structure of economic history of rich cultural based society which our country could have adopted for the people but current democractic model is partially by the people but it has terribly failed to be for the people by inviting the civil society in our country. Indian economies,constitutions, institutions,sociology, philosophy, education etc all are based on the government economic blueprint of those same people who looted the country, colonized it and then destroyed the Indian GDP. CONCLUSION There are fraternity based economic models in this world with which we share commonality and our ideas should be to have a wider understanding of the world with whom we relate culturally and socially and only then our economic model can be aligned to them to achieve prosperity and serenity in our country.

Tips on Writing a Good Research Essay

Tips on Writing a Good Research Essay Tips on Writing a Good Research Essay A good research essay improves the grades of the students in the campuses. This is because since the exams are normally difficult the teachers normally ask the students to write the research essays. Those that write the best essays earn a lot of marks and even if they fail in the exams the researches that they did boost their performance. For those that do not know how to write the research essays, they have to look for the tips on writing a good research essay either from the teachers or their fellow friends. Some of the tips that those people are given are: They should understand the title of the essay. The same applies to the instructions that they have been given. They should read those instructions carefully so that they can get what they are required to write about. Before they write anything, they should have the right concept of the paper so that whatever they write will be correct. As they go through the questions they should mark the key words in the questions. These key words normally carry the main point in the question therefore once they understand the key points then they also understand the questions better. They should also break the questions into smaller sentences so that it can be easy for them to read and understand the questions. Once they are in shorter sentences it is easier to understand the question. After understanding the questions now the students should get all the materials that they need in order to do the research. They should only concentrate on the information that is related to the question. This is because they might waste a lot of time reading other materials that do not with the research and they end up not finishing the work on time and this could lead to punishments. Then once they have the materials with the information that they need, they should take notes on all the important points that they come across to avoid forgetting those points. They should then put those points together, explain those points according to the question, then look for evidence that supports those points. This way they will be able to evaluate whether they have the right information or not. After gathering all these points they should now draft the essay. They should first give an introduction to show the lecturer the question that he is answering as well as give the lecturer a clue of what he has written about. Then in the body of the essay, he should show all the points that he had gathered by outlining them in order, explaining them as well as showing the evidences that support them. They should also ensure that the points follow each other systematically. Then they should go through the work to correct any mistakes. As a matter of fact you can enjoy professional research essay writing help also, from academic experts at writing service.

A case for Same Sex Marriges essays

A case for Same Sex Marriges essays I feel it is necessary to express my illation with the Supreme Courts decision legalizing gay marriage. This now lets Canada lead the way in another filed of tolerance and liberalism which has made our country so strong and proud. For many years in Canada we have experienced a pure bliss of multi ethnic racial and religious euphoria. This however was overshadowed by the disgusting discrepancy of rights between gays and straights in society. They were treated as third class citizen as if they were they were somehow different. However though gays are now represented in society we must address the issue of true sexual preferential bliss. The accepting of gays has now opened the possibilities previously unthinkable. Many groups have had to exist in the shadows. They are continually persecuted and their spokesmen are more martyrs then anything else. John Robin Sharp, the national representative of NAMBL says that Man Boy love is real and it is time their special and sexual relationship is recognized. Their boys who are very responsible have formed their own opinions and are not being forced or brainwashed. Darrel, age 16 says," I Love Him, and I Know That He Loves Me" and Brian age twelve confesses," It Shouldn't Be a Crime to Make Love" Ed age fourteen says, "He Makes Me Glad I'm Gay". These young men should be respected for their courage and beliefs. This oppressed group however is not alone. PETA is association with Man Beast has been lobbying the government for years to have their free choice recognized. One of their spokes women, Shary Rouch said, " Rover and I have a bond I was never able to obtain with any man women or child. It only seems right that they would be allowed to continue their life together. Mammals in love should not be discriminated against. One of the most discriminated groups is the know as " all in the family". They have the object of scorn, jail sentences and a medical scape goat for deformed ...

Micro Assignment Essay

Micro Assignment Essay Micro Assignment Essay Question 1 A) POINT ONE P1=$2.26 Q1=620.82 The price elasticity of demand using the midpoint method can be calculated with the following equation: = (Q2-Q1)/ ((Q2+Q1)/2) (P2-P1)/ ((P2+P1)/2) Using the values given, the equation is as follows: = (580270-620820)/ ((580270+620820)/2) ($3.39-$2.26)/ (($3.39+$2.26)/2) = 0.06752200084923 40 This shows that the price elasticity of demand for Metlink train tickets is: = 0.16880500212308 B) From the figures provided, we can see that as the price of the train ticket rises, the quantity demanded falls. This follows the law of demand meaning that train tickets are a normal good, as opposed to a giffen good that goes against the law of demand. Due to the elastic figure being less than 1 we can draw the conclusion that train tickets are inelastic. This means there is a relatively small change in the quantity demand despite a change n price. This also suggests that Metlink train tickets are a necessity opposed to a luxury. Question 2 Although previous national studies showed video rentals as being inelastic new evidence from a video store contradicts these results. The manager at the store increased their price expecting a rise in their profit, but in fact the increased price had the opposite effect. This is because although the video rental demand had previously been shown to be inelastic time had past. In the time that had past the ability of the renters to substitute renting video had changed. With new technology it is now easy to download movies thus creating less demand for renting them. Due to new revolutions the demand curve would now become elastic so the demand curve has flattened out. This means because the price has been raised by 20% the demand for video rentals will reduce proving it harder to rent out videos. Revenue will decrease due to lower sales and although being at a higher price it does not match previous years income. This is represented in the following graph: Question 3 A) i) In the short term, if scientists discovered that eating soybeans prevents cancer and heart disease this would shift the demand curve to the right. As a result the quantity demand rises due to consumers hearing that soybeans are good for your health. This increases the equilibrium price and quantity, because there is no shift in the supply curve so the equilibrium point moves to the right with the demand curve. This is represented in the following graph: In the long run if scientists discovered that soybeans prevents cancer and heart disease this would shift the demand curve to the right. As a result the suppliers would be more willing to increase supplies because of the money they will receive for the more goods they produce. This shifts the supply curve to the right. The increase in supply decreases the equilibrium price but increases the demand. This is represented in the following graph: ii) With the increase in the supply in soybeans the space for the feed corn to grow is reduced. Thus there would a shift in the supply curve to the left. This would mean a shift in the equilibrium price would rise. Thus feed corn would be selling for a higher price but the demand would be less. This is represented in the following graph: B) i) The effect that nylon being invented would have on the domestic cotton industry is that the demand for cotton will decrease, shifting the demand curve to the left. Due to nylon being a substation for cotton. Thus the equilibrium price and supply will decrease. Meaning the sale of cotton will reduce which will in turn force suppliers to decrease the price of cotton. This is represented in the following graph: ii) The effect the cotton gin being invented would have on the domestic cotton industry is that the supply curve would shift to the right due

M3 Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

M3 Discussion - Essay Example Common stocks are the most popular investment instrument in the stock market. One of the advantages of common stocks is its liquidity. A second advantage of common stocks is that the payment of dividends is optional (Harris, 2012). A disadvantage of the sale of common stocks is the lost of power due to the fact that common stockholders have voting rights. The high cost of launching an IPO is another con of common stocks. The use of preferred stocks is another long term financing option for the company. Preferred stocks offer the advantage of not diluting the power of the owners due to its lack of voting rights. One of the disadvantages of the use of preferred stocks is that preferred stocks have mandatory dividend payments. A third long term financing option for Genesis is bank loans. A business loan in the United States can be obtained to be financed in ten or more years. The interest rate of a business loan varies depending on the credit score of the business. A con of business loans is that they are a liability that must be paid every month. An increase in liabilities decreases the cash flow of a company. Lenders have cero power or influence over the operating decisions of a company, thus the use of loans does not dilute the power structure of an enterprise. A good thing about bank loans is that they provide companies with large sums of money in exchange for a small monthly payment. A fourth option that Genesis can utilize to obtain financing is the use of corporate bonds. A bond is a debt instruments that pays a coupon interest payment, while the principal is paid once the bond reaches maturity age. Bonds can be very useful debt instruments for companies with cash flow problems because the bond deb tor does not have the obligation of paying the principal payment until the end of the bond contract. The relative risk affects the cost of capital of a company due to the

Sexism in Popular Culture Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Sexism in Popular Culture - Dissertation Example Important here to note is there is a significant portion of the movies in Hollywood and instances in the popular culture, where one can easily find female characters, whether lead or supporting, with similar traits, whether it be film, television, theatre, drama, advertising, comic books, literature, video games, cartoons and others (Stephanie & Brabon, 2009, p. 225). The rise of feminism and the debate about the identity of women has forced many filmmakers directors and producers in the media to move away from the traditional emotionally unstable and weak concept of women and portray women in a more realistic and empowering way. This created a demand of â€Å"strong female characters† and over the past couple of decades, many strong female characters have emerged to fill this gap. However, many feminist critics and even other experts have challenged and criticised the idea and depiction of strong female characters. This paper is an attempt to explore and analyse the depiction of women in film and video games, while simultaneously exploring the concept of â€Å"strong female characters†, its ideological grounding and the criticism. ... Towards the end, the Hero would come and save them to live a life happily ever after. However, towards the mid 20th century, the rise of feminism created discontent amongst female viewers and stakeholders of Hollywood that this portrayal of women as â€Å"needy† and â€Å"weak† creatures in sexist. In order to address the same, writers came up with female characters that would be trapped by the villain only after putting up a strong fight (Hollows & Moseley, 2006, p. 58). These women, to a certain degree, had skills normally possessed by men. They could drive sport cars, use guns, had physical strength, was comfortable with her body and could outdrink any man. Even when she could put a fight, these â€Å"strong female characters†, in the end of the movie, would get themselves into trouble and that also in the sexiest way possible. Surprisingly enough, even when she could put a fight to resist the pressures of villain, she would never get a black eye or get physic ally injured probably because they same would decrease her appeal. The point here is that all the â€Å"strength† added to the female character was just an attempt to make her a better and more attractive prize for the hero at the end. (Meyers, 2008, p. 172 (Gillis, et al., 2007, p. 413). The problem with the commonly used phrase â€Å"strong female characters† or â€Å"strong females or women† is that it is ironic, paradoxical and contradictory within itself. Female characters are viewed as strong only when they are able to exhibit dominance, assertiveness, tendency for violence, boldness, rudeness and impudence that is characterised with male characters (Haase, 2004, p. 340). The point here is that in order to become â€Å"strong female characters†, women have to give up the

How do you account for the success of Korea’s chaebol What Essay

How do you account for the success of Korea’s chaebol What problems did the chaebol face in the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s - Essay Example formance of chaebols and it is regarded that Korean economy became able to recover from the financial crisis of late 1990s due to the efficient performance and adequate restructuring of chaebols (Buzo, 2002, p187). At present, chaebols are successfully operating in South Korea significantly contributing towards the economic development (Choe and Chinmay, 2007, p232). The essay aims to discuss the performance of Korean Chaebols after the financial crisis that hit Korea along with many other Asian countries in late 1990s. The essay examines the recovery path adopted by the Korean Chaebols to identify the factors that have contributed towards re-stability of these conglomerates after the financial crisis. It is revealed that financial crisis draw devastating impact upon the performance and growth of Chaebols however, they recovered from the crisis within few years with the help of government support and adequate business strategies and planning. Chaebols are the South Korean business conglomerates that have attained strong position at international level and own several multinational enterprises. There are several dozen Chaebols working in Korea that are mainly operated by Korean family controlled corporate groups (Fields, 1995, p35). These Chaebols enjoy government support as well as finance that allow them evolving as well known international brands. Some of the well known Chaebols operating in South Korea include Samsung, LG and Hyundai etc. Traditionally Chaebols have played a very important role in economic as well as political progression of Korea. Chaebols have significantly contributed towards the development of new industries, markets and expansion of trade relation at international level (Kim, 1991, p272). It has been widely accepted that Chaebols have well supported Korean economy in attaining the position of East Asian Tiger (Rowley et al, 2001, p21). Chaebols use to play dominating role in the economy of Korea because these entities remain the focus of

Personal Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Personal Development - Essay Example It is the role of teachers to make students view life from different perspectives in order to strengthen their process of learning. Students get awareness of different behaviors and educational concepts in schools and express the obtained knowledge in different professional and social settings. Learning also enhances social interactions between people in an appropriate manner. People learn a variety of behaviors and expressions from other people around them and use those behaviors when they interact with other people. A person needs to have effective social interaction skills to succeed in society. When a person has requisite knowledge of the way to communicate successfully with other people, he/she does not face any difficulty in improving his/her social interaction skills. Moreover, a person can never communicate properly with other people without having a sufficient knowledge of effective communication skills. Learning is that process, which develops and refines social interaction skills of a person by making him/her acquire required knowledge of effective communication basics. Learning also helps people progress in their professional lives. â€Å"A new employee who wants to be successful on her/his job is likely to look for someone who is successful and in high regard and then attempt to imitate that person’s behavior† (Fox 2006, p. 38). In professional settings, an employee needs to interact with other employees, such as, colleagues and managers, to acquire required information and knowledge. Acquiring knowledge becomes a part of that employee’s learning process, which ultimately helps him/her progress in his/her professional life. Effective workplace communication skills are... This paper approves that barriers to communication also arise, when some employees have poor listening and communication skills, and due to this reason, they cannot communicate with other employees effectively. In such situations, people do not get the message properly which results in making communication process unsuccessful. Some people do not listen properly to others. â€Å"Failure to actively listen can result in mistakes and misunderstanding†. Physical barrier arises when employees of a company have to use telephones and emails because of not having physical access to each other. Some of the main types of physical barriers include difference of locations, closed office doors, and noise. This essay makes a conclusion that feedback plays a vital role in making the process of communication successful. It makes the presenter aware of the credibility of his/her ideas. The process of communication runs in one direction without proper feedback. The reason is that if a presenter does not get a proper and instant feedback from the audience, he/she will not know the way others perceive his/her ideas. We have to encourage the employees to give proper feedback to each other during communication. Effective workplace communication is the key to success of a company in today’s world of competition. Employees of a company need to communicate effectively with each other because ineffective communication and expression of bad attitudes and poor behaviors can block a company’s way towards success.

Hinduism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Hinduism - Essay Example are many aspects of their religious beliefs and practices that provide the necessary common ground to bring under a single political classification, if not a theistic one. While the predominant deity may differ from one faction to the other, all deities are taken from the more than 300 million divine entities that form the cosmos. While no one scripture is considered to represent the religion in all its complexities, a few historical scriptures are widely circulated, read and referred across the various denominations. These are the Vedas (some of which date back to 2000 years B.C. and beyond) and Upanishads (a later-day invention of the Brahman classes). Some form of religious practices, beliefs and rituals that derived from Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads and Vedas are being used by the Hindus even today. This is the strongest argument in favor of a unifying Hindu theology (Van Horn, 2006). Hinduism places emphasis on worship of nature. Indus Valley was the cradle of the religion. Hence, the way of life afforded by its geography holds religious significance as well. The Indus River was vital to the survival of its surrounding inhabitants; so worship of river god is a basic tenet. This also explains the reverence accorded to river Ganges, the dependents of which refer to it as Ganga Mata (Mother Ganga). The plains on either side of these rivers provide the necessary fertile grounds for growing subsistence crops. And at the time of composition of the Vedas, domesticated cattle was the only means to plough the land. Cows also provide other necessary nutrients in the form of its milk. What started as reverence had evolved into devotion and worship. This social aspect of life in the two millennia before Christ explains why Cows are regarded as sacred animals even today. So, at the time of its formation, Hinduism was little more than a practical means of livelihood. But the religion’s links to every day life became weak ever after making it an abstract

Build a Computer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Build a Computer - Essay Example Both systems have their individual advantages, but the popularity and diversity in the PC is much more. Hardware as well as software can be chosen in order to suit one’s individual needs. With the advent of internet and the usage of computers spreading all over the world, the PC has emerged as the undisputed leader as the most commonly used computer system. A personal computer based on the ‘Microsoft Windows’ operating system is therefore an ideal selection for our school which can have all the essential components and software within a budget of $ 2000. The first and foremost component essential for building a PC is the motherboard and the central processing unit (CPU) (tomshardware.com). A power supply and the computer casing are the other startup essentials in which all components are installed. However, it is better to buy the above components in a preassembled unit which is offered by prestigious brands in all sorts of shapes and specifications. Hewlett Packard, Dell, Gateway, Acer are some of the popular brand names offering such preassembled units with a variety of specifications. The popular motherboards in the market are capable of handling complex computer hardware and software issues and are engineered to handle either the ‘Intel’ or the ‘AMD’ CPU’s. A CPU is the heart of the computer and its speed and processing power influence the overall performance of the computer system. The sound, video and network support come inbuilt in the modern motherboards. The motherboards have slots and compo nents which can take on other hardware needed to enhance the overall performance depending upon the requirement, such as enhanced video capability or coupling ability with other electronic devices dependent of computers for their functioning. Hard disks are the storage media which contain all the data and software needed to run the computer and are

Treaty of Varsailles - P3ip Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Treaty of Varsailles - P3ip - Essay Example Accordingly, more than two million young German men lost their lives during the Great War and our cities remain deserted and destroyed following this unfortunate war. We, the German people, take issue with many of the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles and respectfully submit our challenges to a document which we believe does not but punish the suffering German people and lay the groundwork for future conflict on this great continent we share. We turn to the American delegation and plead for a just and amicable resolution to the Great War. We do not seek to provoke further animosity with our neighbors and believe that a peaceful settlement can be reached, provided that the understanding that we have all suffered in this dreadful conflict, is brought to the fore (Boemeke et al., 2009). First and foremost Germany takes issue with the â€Å"War Guilt† clause which stipulates that we alone are guilty of this War. We cannot forget the more than two million young German men lost their lives during the Great War and it would be dishonorable to tarnish their legacy by declaring exclusive guilt for the travesty which befell all of our people. With respect to land and the seemingly unilateral desire to take German land away from our people including Alsace-Lorraine, Eupen and Malmedy, Northern Schleswig, Hultschin West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia, we must object. The annexation of this land by foreign powers will do more to sow disharmony between the Western Powers and Germany and we seriously hope that the division of Germany by the victors in this terrible conflict will be reconsidered. Furthermore, we believe that a â€Å"League of Nations† which excludes the great nation of Germany will be unrepresentative of the civilized people of this earth and fo r it to work in the manner in which it is presently being designed it

Build a Computer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Build a Computer - Essay Example Both systems have their individual advantages, but the popularity and diversity in the PC is much more. Hardware as well as software can be chosen in order to suit one’s individual needs. With the advent of internet and the usage of computers spreading all over the world, the PC has emerged as the undisputed leader as the most commonly used computer system. A personal computer based on the ‘Microsoft Windows’ operating system is therefore an ideal selection for our school which can have all the essential components and software within a budget of $ 2000. The first and foremost component essential for building a PC is the motherboard and the central processing unit (CPU) (tomshardware.com). A power supply and the computer casing are the other startup essentials in which all components are installed. However, it is better to buy the above components in a preassembled unit which is offered by prestigious brands in all sorts of shapes and specifications. Hewlett Packard, Dell, Gateway, Acer are some of the popular brand names offering such preassembled units with a variety of specifications. The popular motherboards in the market are capable of handling complex computer hardware and software issues and are engineered to handle either the ‘Intel’ or the ‘AMD’ CPU’s. A CPU is the heart of the computer and its speed and processing power influence the overall performance of the computer system. The sound, video and network support come inbuilt in the modern motherboards. The motherboards have slots and compo nents which can take on other hardware needed to enhance the overall performance depending upon the requirement, such as enhanced video capability or coupling ability with other electronic devices dependent of computers for their functioning. Hard disks are the storage media which contain all the data and software needed to run the computer and are

Hunger in Angola Essay Example for Free

Hunger in Angola Essay Hunger in Angola Angola has one of fastest growing economies in the world yet still suffers from hunger. The population of Angola was estimated to be 12,263,596 in 2007. The countries total infant mortality rate (IMR) was 184. 44 deaths per 1,000 live births with IMR for males being 196. 55 deaths per 1,000 live births and for females 171. 72 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2007 (www. geographyiq. com). The life expectancy is low partly because of starvation, unsafe food and water, and a high incidence of deaths from AIDS. The life expectancy of Angolan males was 36. 73 years and for females 38. 57 years in 2007. The total fertility rate was 6. 27 children born per woman, which ranks high compared to developed countries like the US which had a total fertility rate of 2. 09 children born per woman in 2007 (geographyiq. com). Angola is a developing country that depends on getting half of its food supply from imports and foreign aid (geographyiq. com). Agriculture still remains the primary method for feeding the countries people. Major barriers that face the country are few roadways for import and export, a corrupt government, drought, and unusable land due to landmines that were set during the 27 year long Angolan Civil War that ended in 2002. One of the major exports in Angola is oil and petroleum which contribute to its growing economy, but the countries people see very little of the revenue due to government corruption. Much of the oil from Angola is exported to industrialized nations like the United States. In this way the countries policies follow the dependency theory in which its natural resources are exported to countries that are well off. The country also supplies other natural resources for export which include diamonds, coffee, sisal, fish and fish products, timber, and cotton. The modernization theory would provide a good guideline for reducing hunger in Angola. In this way the country could begin to use its natural resources such as oil for export to provide revenues to feed its people. Also commercial farming and agricultural techniques could be taught so that more of the prime agricultural land could be used for mass agriculture. With the use of modern farming techniques the country could become self-sufficient and not depend on foreign aid. However, in Angola a plan to remove landmines would need to be implemented to allow safe farming. The country would also need to implement plans to build roadways in order to see continued growth in their export and import economies.

Aspect of acting

Aspect of acting The Technical Aspect of Acting Acting was developed in ancient Greek Theatre. The Greeks were the ones who introduced theatre and bought out an individuals talent known as acting. However in those days the technology had not advanced and there werent any films, the only source of entertainment the people had was through theatre. Theatre acting and acting in films differ vastly from each other. According to actress Kim Stanley â€Å" No matter what you do in film, it is, after all, bits and pieces for the director, and thats marvelous for the director but it doesnt allow the actor to learn to mold a part. In films, its the director who is the artist. An actor has much more chance to create on stage.† (Giannetti, 2008) Film acting is a basic tool of the director to make his film successful. Indeed it requires talent and learning for the individual in the field of acting. He needs to understand the role and connect himself emotionally to the character and then enact it for the audience in a way that it may see m real. A film actor gets several chances for displaying the emotions in front of the camera and a director may take several takes till the time the right emotions are bought out to his satisfaction. Unfortunately this is not the case for stage actors; they do not get several chances to bring out the reality in their acting, they only go on stage once and thats it, it is then in their hands to grab the audiences attention and do their best. Film has different categories of actors; extras, nonprofessional performers, trained professionals and the stars. Extras are the actors who are merely used to fill the camera frame, they are the unnecessary people needed to surround the main actors or just to be a part of the set. For instance if a film shows a market scene; to make it real the director puts in several people in the frame just to show the crowd in a market place. Nonprofessional actors are those that are not really good in acting; they dont master the art but; their physical appearance and presence on screen suits the characters personality on the basis of outlook. Trained professionals is that particular category in which majority of the actors are. They are those actors who have the ability to fit into any character and play any role according to the directors will. The last kind of an actor is the star. The stars are the actors who are successful in the film industry and their talent is admired and appreciated by the audience and the critiques. They often grab the audiences attention through their acting as well as their physical appearance. In the history of cinema the first kind of motion pictures that came out were silent films that did not have many dialogues. In those times acting was much more challenging then it is today. The emotional display of character was done through the facial expressions and the movement of the actor. The actor had to work hard to make the audience cry or laugh merely through his actions and expressions. Slowly and gradually as the technology advanced, there was advancement in cinema as well. There was more dialogue added to the film and now it was a challenge to the actor to develop a style of acting which would help him convey his message through dialogue delivery alongside, with the expressions and body language. Now the actor did not only have to make sure that his facial expressions were good but; he had â€Å"to know what words to stress and how to stress them, how to phrase properly for different types of lines, when to pause and for how long, and how quickly or slowly a line or sp eech ought to be delivered.† (Giannetti, 2008) The talent bought out in an actor is basically the art every director has. The actor works the way his director wants him to. If the director is successful in explaining what he wants and the way he wants it, and the actor is a master in his profession, the film ends up being a hit. The director also brings out the acting in a scene through the kinds of camera shots he takes. If he wants his audience to closely relate to the actor he would take a medium or a close up shot of the actor. The audience feels the intensity in the emotion the actor displays. For instance if the director is capturing an emotional scene and wants his audience to feel the sorrow the character is going through, he would want to take a close up shot; where he might zoom in from a medium shot moving his camera towards the actors eyes and showing the drop of tear that falls from his eye. The way the camera zooms towards the actor that is the time when the dire ctor grabs the audiences attention and they feel the intensity of emotion that the director is trying to bring out and many a times the actor is so good and the directors shot is so perfect that the whole scene seems real and makes the audience cry as well. There are several different techniques that make a film successful and all of them are very closely related to each other. Acting is closely related to the technique of mise en sense and editing. Mise en scene is everything shown within the screen frame; such as, the entire background, the set, the objects and the actors in a particular scene. It is the technique where the director places everything in the screen frame of his shot. Mise en sense would be incomplete without acting and acting would be incomplete without the technique of mise en sense. The technique of acting can be brought out with a perfect frame the director would set up. If the frame is empty or in other words there isnt any frame then the actor alone would not be able to do well on his own. Acting and editing are also very closely connected. A director takes several shots of an actor and then in the end its the editing that puts it altogether. The connection of shots appropriately is all in the hands of the editor. If edited correctly the acting seems perfect, an editor may edit a single shot in several different ways and chooses one p articular shot that brings out the best acting that the actor has shown. Director Akira Kurosawas Rashomon was one of the foreign films which proved brilliance in the acting technique. The first impression that the viewer forms in this film is confusion because there are different stories going on at the same time or rather one story with the same characters being told by different people with different angles. The major star cast of the film includes; Toshiro Mifune (the bandit), Masayuki Mori (the husband) and Machiko Kyo (the wife).C:UsersAfifaDesktopR1.bmp The film revolves around a crime committed by Mifune; he raped the wife and murdered the husband. The main plot of the film is how this story is interpreted and told to the jury from different point of views and how each character gives a different outlook to the entire situation. The actors have done quite an amazing job with their acting, according to a review â€Å"Direction is excellent. Shot completely outdoors, the camerawork is flawless. Toshiro Mifune gives a sterling performance as the ver min-ridden bandit. Machiko Kyo supplies a role of dramatic intensity as the wife. Masayuki Mori lends an impassive, glowering presence to the part of the husband.† (Rashomon Review) The actors of the film are certainly talented actors. As said earlier that the film has one basic story which is told from different point of views through different characters. Whenever a character tells the story, it includes the main actors of the film; the bandit, the husband and the wife. However the role each one plays in the different stories told by the witnesses and the victims changes the personality of the character completely. Each individual tells a story in the way he or she wishes. We see the story through the way the director wants us to. It certainly is a very challenging task to bring out the actors talent, where the character changes time and again. There is one story in the film where the director wants his audience to feel sympathetic towards the wife. Kurosawa very smartly has been successful in changing the audience view. There is a scene in one of the stories where the wife is being attacked by the bandit and she denies to him and tries to save her life. In that scene we see Machiko Kyo extremely hurt and asking for help and pleads the bandit to release her husband and let go off them. In that scene the director successfully portrays that the wife is weak and in pain and makes the audience feel very sympathetic towards her. The same story when told by another eye witness proves the wife to be very smart and cunning. In that scene the wife is flirting around with the bandit and asking him to mar ry her and kill her husband. In that scene the viewers dont really like the wifes character and get a bad impression about her character. She proves to be a woman who is selfish; doesnt care whether her husband lives or dies as long as she survives and is in safe hands. C:UsersAfifaDesktopR2.bmp Two different stories being told in the same film by two different people but the story has the same characters with different characteristics. Each time the story has been told the characteristics of the actor changes, in one scene he is shown weak and in the other scene very sharp and cunning. Kurosawa has been successful in bringing out the acting skills of his actors in this film, in the scenes where he wants us to feel sympathetic, he has taken long shots, in which we see the wife being mistreated by the bandit and the husband tied up in the other corner. The frame covers all three characters in the story. However in places where he portrays the wife to be very cunning, he takes medium to medium close up shots and captures the sharpness in the facial expressions of the wife, and shows her flirting with the bandit and motivating him to kill her husband. In that scene the focus is on the bandit and the wife and lesser on the husband. Its the camera shots that the director takes an d the way he shoots the scene which brings out the acting skills of the actors in a perfect manner. There are several scenes in the film that are magnificent in their structure and in the setting as well, which as a result brings out the simplest scene acted in the most simplest manner to look extraordinary. The director wants the bandit to look as wild as possible, even when he is seducing the wife is one of the scenes and expressing his liking for her, there is a constant vicious look on his face. He is perfect in presenting the role of a wild bandit roaming around in the woods; just the sight of the bandit would scare its viewersC:UsersAfifaDesktopR3.bmp. Mifunes performance as the bandit was greatly admired by the film critiques; he was successful in bringing out the intense vulgarity in his acting that ideally represented evil. Mifunes acting style has been applauded by critiques from Japan itself and even the American Cinema (Smith). The American critiques drew a conclusion that his acting was so wild and closely related to an animal from the wild. Kurosawa was looking for the animal in that character and he even told Mifune to connect himself to the lion and show the ferociousness of a lion. No doubts the actor was a perfect choice and representation of the bandit. For the acting to have a stronger impact on the audience and make them feel the character the director takes his medium close ups quite often so that the anger and frustration is bought out through the actors eyes and facial expression. Kurosawas Rashomon is a foreign film liked by many critiques all over the world; for its acting techniques and camera techniques were over powering. Many reviews and critique state that the film was one of its kind and the actors had done a marvelous job since it was very challenging to show different characteristics at one time in the same film. References: Giannetti, L. (2008). Understanding Movies. New Jersey : Pearson Prentice Hall. Japanese Film Greats . (n.d.). Retrieved decemebr 11, 2009, from http://asian-films.suite101.com/article.cfm/japanese_film_greats_akira_kurosawas_rashomon kleph.com Rashomon . (n.d.). Retrieved december 11, 2009, from http://www.kleph.com/blog.php?b=1e=1175pg=Rashomon Rashomon Review. (n.d.). Retrieved december 11, 2009, from http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794327.html?categoryid=31cs=1 Smith, G. M. (n.d.). Greg Smith, Greg M Smith: Critical Reception of Rashomon in the West. Retrieved decemeber 11, 2009, from http://www2.gsu.edu/~jougms/Rashomon.htm#Schemata

Death and the Supernatural in Shakespeares Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Macbeth: Death and the Supernatural Throughout William Shakespeare's Macbeth, many characters evolve and many disappear into the background. The main character, Macbeth, travels through utter chaos when he proclaims himself monarch. When he first meets the witches of the supernatural, they tell him of the future. One of the themes amplified throughout the play is the circle of life, from the beginning to the end. The visions provided by the three witches begin Macbeth's quest for dominance. The three main effects of this theme are: the death of Macbeth's friends and family. Second, the deaths of his mortal enemies. The last point is the death of himself. The supernatural amplifies the theme of death. From the first brief encounter of the witches, to the last nightmarish visions that Macbeth has, many close friends and relatives have died because of his visions with the supernatural. The death of his wife in Act V, Scene IV is the death that sends him over the abyss and into mental instability. Lady Macbeth is like a joined appendage to Macbeth. They work as one, communicate as one, and when that appendage is lost, so is MACBETH's grip with reality. Lady Macbeth was the only person he could truly confide in. The supernatural also had another key factor to her death. In the first act of the play, she calls on the powers of the supernatural to make her strong. The following quote, "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty! make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse†¦ Come to my woman's breasts, and take my milk for gall†¦", is possibly the most important passage that leads to Lady Macbeth's death. She calls on the evil spirits to "unsex" her, and to replace her "milk" with "gall". It seems that she wants to be the most cruelest being in the world. The theme of the life cycle is amplified in this situation because of her request to the spirits. This event is the beginning of the end for Lady Macbeth's life. She is the one who insists Macbeth should kill the king and reign as the king of Scotland. It is her ideas and plans that lead herself and Macbeth into the pits of hell. She is not solely to blame for this catastrophe though. Death and the Supernatural in Shakespeare's Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework Macbeth: Death and the Supernatural Throughout William Shakespeare's Macbeth, many characters evolve and many disappear into the background. The main character, Macbeth, travels through utter chaos when he proclaims himself monarch. When he first meets the witches of the supernatural, they tell him of the future. One of the themes amplified throughout the play is the circle of life, from the beginning to the end. The visions provided by the three witches begin Macbeth's quest for dominance. The three main effects of this theme are: the death of Macbeth's friends and family. Second, the deaths of his mortal enemies. The last point is the death of himself. The supernatural amplifies the theme of death. From the first brief encounter of the witches, to the last nightmarish visions that Macbeth has, many close friends and relatives have died because of his visions with the supernatural. The death of his wife in Act V, Scene IV is the death that sends him over the abyss and into mental instability. Lady Macbeth is like a joined appendage to Macbeth. They work as one, communicate as one, and when that appendage is lost, so is MACBETH's grip with reality. Lady Macbeth was the only person he could truly confide in. The supernatural also had another key factor to her death. In the first act of the play, she calls on the powers of the supernatural to make her strong. The following quote, "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty! make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse†¦ Come to my woman's breasts, and take my milk for gall†¦", is possibly the most important passage that leads to Lady Macbeth's death. She calls on the evil spirits to "unsex" her, and to replace her "milk" with "gall". It seems that she wants to be the most cruelest being in the world. The theme of the life cycle is amplified in this situation because of her request to the spirits. This event is the beginning of the end for Lady Macbeth's life. She is the one who insists Macbeth should kill the king and reign as the king of Scotland. It is her ideas and plans that lead herself and Macbeth into the pits of hell. She is not solely to blame for this catastrophe though.

Ethical Standards :: Ethics

Ethical standards are extremely valuable because when no guidelines set in charge there would be all categories of people who can poison the criminal justice system. "If no standards are set the ponds within the system that are upheld to carry out justice", would be able to run ramped and just do whatever, now when we put in charge a checks and balance system every person is held accountable for their own action. If we enforce the ethics, and set standards for all levels then all people would be screened and checked so that some of the loopholes could be found. Now are we going to stop all unethical issues no! Nevertheless, the system would allow use to at least slow it and let it be known that it will not be tolerated. Ethical standard in our criminal justice are extremely beneficial because our beliefs and values regarding right and wrong, are shaped by code of ethical standards establish by criminal justice agency. Code of ethics also established an organizational objective and rationale for duties and actions regarding both organization mission and the outside world. Ethical standard also set the Value in which organizational purpose is defined like to rudiments of appropriateness, worth or importance. (Pollock, 2010) Ethical standard also specify Values in which alternative or judgment of the agency must consider in which high priority are right on them. Ethical standard are based on entirely Justifications for the law that serves as a tool of behavior change, or social engineering. When Laws are used to control behavior, it must have totem of ethical standard in which sanctions are provided morally. In addition, by teaching people what behaviors are acceptable and what ones are not ethical sta ndard must be used. As Law becomes society value so does ethical standard because every person is a value to society, and society has a right to protect this value, and even against his or her will. (Pollock, 2010) Concerning terrorism, the issues of ethical standard are extremely valuable because persons do not commit the act of terror in isolation. Terrorism requires context, victim, and ethical standard suggest that we need to understand the conditions and environments that encourage people to become terrorist. (Micheal C. Braswell, 2005) By setting ethical standard, we not only become aware and responsive to moral and ethical issues. We also begin developing critical thinking and analytical expertise. By developing these skills, we recognize our goal as an organization and we expand our capability and grow personally responsibly.

Discussion Questions Essay

DQ #1: Select a small business that you may want to start. What is strategic management and planning? Why would a strategic plan be important to the success of this business? How are the four functions of management relative to creating and implementing a strategic plan? I want to start an e-commerce sales business. The strategic management and planning guidelines for this kind of business include the following: Planning – As an owner, I will analyze the direction the organization will go and create core objectives for the business. The objectives will help the company stay on track and assist in any unexpected developments that may arise down the road and short-term and long-term goals are designed. Organizing – We will analyze our resources and determine the volume of products to purchase and the individual cost to generate profits. We will also review how many employees will be needed. Directing – Our managers will be tasked with the responsibility of encouraging positive behavior from employees to create production that leads to higher profitable margins. Managers will implement a reward system for consistent high producers. Controlling – The entire team will survey the operation and gauge areas that may require improvements or adjustments to maximize sales volumes. The team will also use the same goals and objectives that were previously established to review any issues or concerns and confirm that any negative feedback that may have been received is addressed. A strategic plan would be very necessary and important for this business to solidify a position in the e-commerce industry where customers can shop for quality products and the company will earn profits, while instilling great customer service. The four functions of management are relative to creating and implementing a strategic plan so all areas are balanced and functioning in conjunction with the expectations of the business. DQ #2: What is the difference between mission and vision statements? What factors must be considered to produce an appropriate mission and vision statement for an organization? Vision and mission statements various phrases that a company uses to describe or state their values, direction, integrity position, beliefs and style. The difference between the vision and mission statement is that the mission statement defines the purpose, goals and objectives of a business. The mission statement also explains the impact the business will have on the community. The vision statement speaks more to the values of the organization, explains the purpose of the achievements, and outlines how things should be done as the goals and objectives are being followed. In order to produce an appropriate mission and vision statement the business should focus on elements that build trust among potential consumers that will help them to understand the primary facets from which the business plans to operate. Some key variables are the quality of products and services that will be delivered, the contribution to the community, and the ethical position that will be the foundation of good business behaviors

Women’s Studies

Major Essay Women across the world face challenges and experiences such as gender class inequality, oppression, struggle with identity, sexual awakening, women's objectification, personal resistance, reliving women's history, female empowerment and etc. These are some of the themes that will be addressed In this essay. These themes will be supported by feminist short stories from books such as â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper and other stories† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian and â€Å"The Bloody Chamber and other stories† by Angela Carter.Through the use of aesthetic texts, women's challenges and experiences will be interpreted using the themes in these stories. In the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses on women living In the 19th century where men have a high standing In the social hierarchy that oppressed women, Gender plays a big role In social hierarchy. Even a rich woman cannot exercise the same rights and privileges as men would . Women were not given the same equality as men. Gillian focuses on the themes such as personal resistance and women's history.As the narrator in this story battles with err own psychological mind and the outside world, she slowly falls into deep madness as her obsession grows with the yellow wallpaper. To relief herself from going Insane, she keeps a Journal that exercises her creative mind as her husband prohibits It. This act of writing In her Journal Is also similar to the movie, The Hours where the character Virginia Wolf wrote everyday to keep herself sane in her confinement. The wallpaper represented her sanity and freedom.As a show of resistance from her husband she tore the wallpaper, which made her feel free and powerful. â€Å"l wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did? (Gillian 34) shows her longing of freedom and resistance. Women during this time period did not have much value as they were expected to be only wives and mothers and cannot carry on other r esponsibilities. â€Å"It Is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work† (Gillian 24) as her husband instructed her to stay in confinement and away from writing.She has spent her days confined in a room where there is only a window to look at which eventually made her insane. As a woman living In the 19th century, the narrator had no control over her own life and had let her husband dominate her. Women did not have the same opportunities as men did. The author's use of these themes gave the story a powerful message of women longing for freedom and equality in their society. In the story, â€Å"If I Were A Man† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses on a woman who fought social boundaries and â€Å"take risk to improve themselves and their material condition† (Hoofers 36).As in this story, women were not ready for business but Gillian challenged that. Gillian focuses on the themes such as gender Identity and empowerment, During this tim e period, women's roles were to stay confined In their preference in gender role was examined in this story, â€Å"Gerald had already about that bill, over which she- as Mollie- was still crying at home† (Gillian 39) shows how different the roles of men and women were. Women were the only subdue to be emotional who stayed at home while the men were the ones who held themselves together with pride and dignity.Mollie Matheson finds herself to be happy when she becomes her husband Gerald â€Å"walking down the path so erect and square- shouldered† (Gillian 35) as manly as she can ever be. The thought of being a man gave Mollie a sense of pride and dignity compared to when she was a woman. In Mollies sense to have equality amongst men, she â€Å"felt such freedom and comfort† (Gillian 36) in becoming Gerald as she has all these privileges a woman would not have. Empowerment became a big symbol once Mollie started to earn money and privileges only men would have had. She never had dreamed of how it felt to have pockets† (Perkins 36) shows how she realizes that she is powerful having money and being able to support herself without the need of having a man to rely on. The themes used in this story became an awakening for women to reach higher and climb the social hierarchy to have equal opportunities as men do. In the story, â€Å"The Cottage† by Charlotte Perkins Gillian, focuses closely on how traditional male and female roles are slowly evolving. In this story, despite of the old believe in women serving as wives and housekeepers was challenged.Gillian focuses on themes such as gender identity and status. Malta is expected to be nothing but a wife and housekeeper as â€Å"what they care for most, after all, is domesticity†¦ What they want to marry is a homemaker† (Gillian 55) according to her friend. This shows how inequality and lack of freedom plays along in traditional roles f women. Also, Mammal's lack of independe nce and longing for Ford's approval shows how she follows the traditional role of a woman. â€Å"l could cook. I could cook excellently†¦ But if it was a question of pleasing Ford Mathews- † (Gillian 56) as her goal was to please Ford and nothing but Ford.Women were expected to act polite and demure, as they do not want their status to be devalued. â€Å"†¦ She thought it would look better if we had an older person with us†¦ † (Gillian 57) shows how women are confined to act a certain way and are not able to show who they truly are. Women are also seen as trophies or objects a man can have whenever he wishes, â€Å"And woman? He will hold her, he will have her when he pleases† (Gillian 100). Women were treated nothing equally as men but in this story, this concept was challenged.The themes in this story reminds us that women do have traditional roles but can always do something more than being a wife or housekeeper. In the story, â€Å"The Bloody Chambers† by Angela Carter focuses on sexual awakening and women's objectification through fairytale storytelling. This challenges the typical fairytale story in which is structured as pleasant and happy into gory and violent. The heroine was blossoming into adulthood as she experiences her sexual awakening upon to losing her virginity. â€Å"†¦ Away from Paris, away from girlhood, away from the white, enclosed quietude of my mother's apartment†¦ (Carter 7) shows her freedom from childhood and practice her sexual curiosity. She also compares the act of â€Å"†¦ A tender, delicious ecstasy of excitement†¦ † (Carter 7) leading up to intercourse as meet her husband. She longs and waits the moment when her husband deflowers women â€Å"have been major targets of sexual stereotypical and detrimental orphaned† (Adams and Fuller 7) and seen as sexual objects. Marquis viewed the heroine as a sexual object that he can torture and violate. The heroine felt violated as Marquis in a way forced her to undress and deflower her like â€Å"disrobing of the bride, a ritual from the brothel† (Carter 15).The heroine is comparing the lost of her virginity as a ritual from a brothel depicts how disrespected and disgusted she felt while doing this act. Marquis was a power hungry who showed no respect to her brides. The heroine did not feel that losing her virginity was a special act but rather a aromatizing experiences as â€Å"watched a dozen husbands approach me in a dozen mirrors†¦ â€Å"(Carter 15). Although the story ended with a happy tone, the story still degrades women as the heroin was relieved that she was able to cover her red mark as the blind piano tuner â€Å"cannot see it†¦ T spares me shame† (Carter 41). The themes portrayed in this story shows that fairytale stories objectify women and given women a lesser value then they should have. In the story, â€Å"Puss in Boots† by Angela Carter exami nes the role of violence in sex and woman' objectification. The young woman was predicted as a poor girl who was arced to marry a rich man. In this case, gender and class play a role in social status in this story. As Signor Pantone symbolizes violence and sex for the young woman, as she wishes for sexual gratification she must submit to violence. L gave her the customary tribute of a few firms thrusts of my striped loins† (Carter 70). As Signor Pantone was murdered and passed away, the young woman and Puss' master proceeded with the act of intercourse despite having a dead corpse next to them. â€Å". They're at it, hammer and tongs, down on the carpet since the bed is occupy† (Carter 04) shows the young woman's absurd attraction of violence towards sex. It seems like the young woman is aroused by the acts of violence around her. Women were called unpleasant names and were treated as property by their masters or husbands.One of Signor Pantheon's servants was being call ed a â€Å"hag† and described as someone who is very ugly and useless. Also, Signor Pantaloon sees the young woman as property and a sense of please giver. She is also a prisoner of her own where she can only â€Å"sit in a window for one hour and one hour only' (Carter 101) shows how she doesn't have freedom and is being held captive by her own husband. The themes of violence in sex and women's objectification helped shaped the story poor outlook on women's value. In the story, â€Å"The Tiger's Bride† by Angela Carter focuses on women's objectification and sexual awakening.The heroine is a beauty whose father had a gambling addiction in which he had lost to the Beast. The heroine then was used as a wager for her father' gambling addiction. â€Å"My father lost me to The Beast at cards. † (Carter 60) shows how devalued the heroine is. There is also patriarchy played in this story. As the father and the beast holds the heroine in captivity and she has o voice i n her own life. â€Å"My father said he loved me yet he staked his daughter on a hand of cards. † (Carter 62) shows how helpless and out of control the heroine's life is.She is being used as an object and nothing more but a value of money and not life itself. The heroine's sexual awakening is measured when she transforms into a beast. This also signifies sex and birth as a way of her transformation. Losing her virginity lick the skin off me! † (Carter 69) she describes herself being reborn into a tigress. This act of rebirth signifies a man's reclaim in sex, as a man controls a woman during intercourse. This also ties in with violence in sex as she sheds blood during intercourse and sheds her own skin to become awaken.The themes delivered a powerful message of the pain and relief in finding one's awakening. Through the use of feminist themes and ideas, writers Charlotte Perkins Gillian and Angela Carter sent powerful messages in their short stories. Charlotte Perkins Gi llian mostly used the feminist themes such as personal resistance and gender identity to explain the underlying meanings in her stories. Characters in Sailing's writings were rebellious and did not conform to social norms. As they, freely expressed themselves in their own way with a positive ending.Contrary in Angel Carter's writings, focused on themes such as women's objectification and sexual awakening. The male characters usually portrayed having some essence of evil controlling the female character. The stories in Carter's books are very dark and sexual. Some descriptions in her writing almost have a sense of pornographic image. Both writers gave us a grasp on how themes powerfully send messages throughout the stories. Adams, Terrier M. , and Douglas B. Fuller. â€Å"The Words Have Changed But the Ideology Remains the Same: Misogynistic Lyrics in Rap Music. Women’s Studies Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination From Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990), pp. 221–238 Black feminist thought demonstrates Black women's emerging power as agents of knowledge. By portraying African-American women as self-defined, self-reliant individuals confronting race, gender, and class oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that oppression, Afrocentric feminist thought speaks to the importance that knowledge plays in empowering oppressed people.One distinguishing feature of Black feminist thought is its insistence that both the changed consciousness of individuals and the social transformation of political and economic institutions constitute essential ingredients for social change. New knowledge is important for both dimensions of change. Knowledge is a vitally important part of the social relations of domination and resistance. By objectifying African-American women and recasting our experiences to serve the interests of elite white men, much of the Eurocentric masculinist worldview fosters Black women's subordination.But placing Black women's experiences at the center of analysis offers fresh insights on the prevailing concepts, paradigms, and epistemologies of this worldview and on its feminist and Afrocentric critiques. Viewing the world through a both/and conceptual lens of the simultaneity of race, class, and gender oppression and of the need for a humanist vision of community creates new possibilities for an empowering Afrocentric feminist knowledge. Many Black feminist intellectuals have long thought about the world in this way because this is the way we experience the world.Afrocentric feminist thought offers two significant contributions toward furthering our understanding of the important connections among knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. First, Black feminist thought foste rs a fundamental paradigmatic shift in how we think about oppression. By embracing a paradigm of race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression, Black feminist thought reconceptualizes the social relations of domination and resistance.Second, Black feminist thought addresses ongoing epistemological debates in feminist theory and in the sociology of knowledge concerning ways of assessing â€Å"truth. † Offering subordinate groups new knowledge about their own experiences can be empowering. But revealing new ways of knowing that allow subordinate groups to define their own reality has far greater implications. Reconceptualizing Race, Class, and Gender as Interlocking Systems of Oppression â€Å"What I really feel is radical is trying to make coalitions with people who are different from you,† maintains Barbara Smith. I feel it is radical to be dealing with race and sex and class and sexual identity all at one time. I think that is really radical because it has never been done before. † Black feminist thought fosters a fundamental paradigmatic shift that rejects additive approaches to oppression. Instead of starting with gender and then adding in other variables such as age, sexual orientation, race, social class, and religion, Black feminist thought sees these distinctive systems of oppression as being part of one overarching structure of domination.Viewing relations of domination for Black women for any given sociohistorical context as being structured via a system of interlocking race, class, and gender oppression expands the focus of analysis from merely describing the similarities and differences distinguishing these systems of oppression and focuses greater attention on how they interconnect. Assuming that each system needs the others in order to function creates a distinct theoretical stance that stimulates the rethinking of basic social science concepts.Afrocentric feminist notions of family reflect this reconceptualizat ion process. Black women's experiences as blood mothers, other mothers, and community other mothers reveal that the mythical norm of a heterosexual, married couple, nuclear family with a nonworking spouse and a husband earning a â€Å"family wage† is far from being natural, universal and preferred but instead is deeply embedded in specific race and class formations.Placing African-American women in the center of analysis not only reveals much-needed information about Black women's experiences but also questions Eurocentric masculinist perspectives on family Black women's experiences and the Afrocentric feminist thought rearticulating them also challenge prevailing definitions of community. Black women's actions in the struggle or group survival suggest a vision of community that stands in opposition to that extant in the dominant culture.The definition of community implicit in the market model sees community as arbitrary and fragile, structured fundamentally by competition an d domination. In contrast, Afrocentric models of community stress connections, caring, and personal accountability. As cultural workers African-American women have rejected the generalized ideology of domination advanced by the dominant group in order to conserve Afrocentric conceptualizations of community.Denied access to the podium, Black women have been unable to spend time theorizing about alternative conceptualizations of community. Instead, through daily actions African-American women have created alternative communities that empower. This vision of community sustained by African-American women in conjunction with African-American men addresses the larger issue of reconceptualizing power. The type of Black women's power discussed here does resemble feminist theories of power which emphasize energy and community.However, in contrast to this body of literature whose celebration of women's power is often accompanied by a lack of attention to the importance of power as domination, Black women's experiences as mothers, community other mothers, educators, church leaders, labor union center-women, and community leaders seem to suggest that power as energy can be fostered by creative acts of resistance. The spheres of influence created and sustained by African-American women are not meant solely to provide a respite from oppressive situations or a retreat from their effects.Rather, these Black female spheres of influence constitute potential sanctuaries where individual Black women and men are nurtured in order to confront oppressive social institutions. Power from this perspective is a creative power used for the good of the community, whether that community is conceptualized as one's family, church community, or the next generation of the community's children. By making the community stronger, African-American women become empowered, and that same community can serve as a source of support when Black women encounter race, gender, and class oppression. . . Appr oaches that assume that race, gender, and class are interconnected have immediate practical applications. For example, African-American women continue to be inadequately protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The primary purpose of the statute is to eradicate all aspects of discrimination. But judicial treatment of Black women's employment discrimination claims has encouraged Black women to identify race or sex as the so-called primary discrimination. To resolve the inequities that confront Black women,† counsels Scarborough, the courts must first correctly conceptualize them as ‘Black women,' a distinct class protected by Title VII. † Such a shift, from protected categories to protected classes of people whose Title VII claims might be based on more than two discriminations, would work to alter the entire basis of current antidiscrimination efforts. Reconceptualizing phenomena such as the rapid growth of female-headed households in African-America n communities would also benefit from a race-, class-, and gender-inclusive analysis.Case studies of Black women heading households must be attentive to racially segmented local labor markets and community patterns, to changes in local political economies specific to a given city or region, and to established racial and gender ideology for a given location. This approach would go far to deconstruct Eurocentric, masculinist analyses that implicitly rely on controlling images of the matriarch or the welfare mother as guiding conceptual premises. . . Black feminist thought that rearticulates experiences such as these fosters an enhanced theoretical understanding of how race, gender, and class oppression are part of a single, historically created system. The Matrix of Domination Additive models of oppression are firmly rooted in the either/or dichotomous thinking of Eurocentric, masculinist thought. One must be either Black or white in such thought systems–persons of ambiguous ra cial and ethnic identity constantly battle with questions such as â€Å"what are your, anyway? This emphasis on quantification and categorization occurs in conjunction with the belief that either/or categories must be ranked. The search for certainty of this sort requires that one side of a dichotomy be privileged while its other is denigrated. Privilege becomes defined in relation to its other. Replacing additive models of oppression with interlocking ones creates possibilities for new paradigms.The significance of seeing race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression is that such an approach fosters a paradigmatic shift of thinking inclusively about other oppressions, such as age, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity. Race, class, and gender represent the three systems of oppression that most heavily affect African-American women. But these systems and the economic, political, and ideological conditions that support them may not be the most fundamental oppre ssions, and they certainly affect many more groups than Black women.Other people of color, Jews, the poor white women, and gays and lesbians have all had similar ideological justifications offered for their subordination. All categories of humans labeled Others have been equated to one another, to animals, and to nature. Placing African-American women and other excluded groups in the center of analysis opens up possibilities for a both/and conceptual stance, one in which all groups possess varying amounts of penalty and privilege in one historically created system. In this system, for example, white women are penalized by their gender but privileged by their race.Depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed. Adhering to a both/and conceptual stance does not mean that race, class, and gender oppression are interchangeable. For example, whereas race, class, and gender oppression operate on the so cial structural level of institutions, gender oppression seems better able to annex the basic power of the erotic and intrude in personal relationships via family dynamics and within individual consciousness.This may be because racial oppression has fostered historically concrete communities among African-Americans and other racial/ethnic groups. These communities have stimulated cultures of resistance. While these communities segregate Blacks from whites, they simultaneously provide counter-institutional buffers that subordinate groups such as African-Americans use to resist the ideas and institutions of dominant groups. Social class may be similarly structured.Traditionally conceptualized as a relationship of individual employees to their employers, social class might be better viewed as a relationship of communities to capitalist political economies. Moreover, significant overlap exists between racial and social class oppression when viewing them through the collective lens of fa mily and community. Existing community structures provide a primary line of resistance against racial and class oppression. But because gender cross-cuts these structures, it finds fewer comparable institutional bases to foster resistance.Embracing a both/and conceptual stance moves us from additive, separate systems approaches to oppression and toward what I now see as the more fundamental issue of the social relations of domination. Race, class, and gender constitute axes of oppression that characterize Black women's experiences within a more generalized matrix of domination. Other groups may encounter different dimensions of the matrix, such as sexual orientation, religion, and age, but the overarching relationship is one of domination and the types of activism it generates.Bell Hooks labels this matrix a â€Å"politic of domination† and describes how it operates along interlocking axes of race, class, and gender oppression. This politic of domination refers to the ideolog ical ground that they share, which is a belief in domination, and a belief in the notions of superior and inferior, which are components of all of those systems. For me it's like a house, they share the foundation, but the foundation is the ideological beliefs around which notions of domination are constructed.Johnella Butler claims that new methodologies growing from this new paradigm would be â€Å"non-hierarchical† and would â€Å"refuse primacy to either race, class, gender, or ethnicity, demanding instead a recognition of their matrix-like interaction. † Race, class, and gender may not be the most fundamental or important systems of oppression, but they have most profoundly affected African-American women. One significant dimension of Black feminist thought is its potential to reveal insights about the social relations of domination organized along other axes such as religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age.Investigating Black women's particular experience s thus promises to reveal much about the more universal process of domination. Multiple Levels of Domination In addition to being structured along axes such as race, gender, and social class, the matrix of domination is structured on several levels. People experience and resist oppression on three levels: the level of personal biography; the group or community level of the cultural context created by race, class, and gender; and the systemic level of social institutions.Black feminist thought emphasizes all three levels as sites of domination and as potential sites of resistance. Each individual has a unique personal biography made up of concrete experiences, values, motivations, and emotions. No two individuals occupy the same social space; thus no two biographies are identical. Human ties can be freeing and empowering, as is the case with Black women's heterosexual love relationships or in the power of motherhood in African-American families and communities. Human ties can also be confining and oppressive.Situations of domestic violence and abuse or cases in which controlling images foster Black women's internalized oppression represent domination on the personal level. The same situation can look quite different depending on the consciousness one brings to interpret it. This level of individual consciousness is a fundamental area where new knowledge can generate change. Traditional accounts assume that power as domination operates from the top down by forcing and controlling unwilling victims to bend to the will of more powerful superiors.But these accounts fail to account for questions concerning why, for example, women stay with abusive men even with ample opportunity to leave or why slaves did not kill their owners more often. The willingness of the victim to collude in her or his own victimization becomes lost. They also fail to account for sustained resistance by victims, even when chances for victory appear remote. By emphasizing the power of self-def inition and the necessity of a free mind, Black feminist thought speaks to the importance African-American women thinkers place on consciousness as a sphere of freedom.Black women intellectuals realize that domination operates not only by structuring power from the top down but by simultaneously annexing the power as energy of those on the bottom for its own ends. In their efforts to rearticulate the standpoint of African-American women as a group, Black feminist thinkers offer individual African-American women the conceptual tools to resist oppression. The cultural context formed by those experiences and ideas that are shared with other members of a group or community which give meaning to individual biographies constitutes a second level at which domination is experienced and resisted.Each individual biography is rooted in several overlapping cultural contexts–for example, groups defined by race, social class, age, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. The cultural comp onent contributes, among other things, the concepts used in thinking and acting, group validation of an individual's interpretation of concepts, the â€Å"thought models† used in the acquisition of knowledge, and standards used to evaluate individual thought and behavior. The most cohesive cultural contexts are those with identifiable histories, geographic locations, and social institutions.For Black women African-American communities have provided the location for an Afrocentric group perspective to endure. Subjugated knowledges, such as a Black women's culture of resistance, develop in cultural contexts controlled by oppressed groups. Dominant groups aim to replace subjugated knowledge with their own specialized thought because they realize that gaining control over this dimension of subordinate groups' lives simplifies control. While efforts to nfluence this dimension of an oppressed group's experiences can be partially successful, this level is more difficult to control t han dominant groups would have us believe. For example, adhering to externally derived standards of beauty leads many African-American women to dislike their skin color or hair texture. Similarly, internalizing Eurocentric gender ideology leads some Black men to abuse Black women. These are cases of the successful infusion of the dominant group's specialized thought into the everyday cultural context of African-Americans.But the long-standing existence of a Black women's culture of resistance as expressed through Black women's relationships with one another, the Black women's blues tradition, and the voices of contemporary African-American women writers all attest to the difficulty of eliminating the cultural context as a fundamental site of resistance. Domination is also experienced and resisted on the third level of social institutions controlled by the dominant group: namely, schools, churches, the media, and other formal organizations.These institutions expose individuals to the specialized thought representing the dominant group's standpoint and interests. While such institutions offer the promise of both literacy and other skills that can be used for individual empowerment and social transformation, they simultaneously require docility and passivity. Such institutions would have us believe that the theorizing of elites constitutes the whole of theory.The existence of African-American women thinkers such as Maria Stewart, Sojourner Truth, Zora Neale Hurston, and Fannie Lou Hamer who, though excluded from and/or marginalized within such institutions, continued to produce theory effectively opposes this hegemonic view. Moreover, the more recent resurgence of Black feminist thought within these institutions, the case of the outpouring of contemporary Black feminist thought in history and literature, directly challenges the Eurocentric masculinist thought pervading these institutions.Resisting the Matrix of Domination Domination operates by seducing, pressuri ng, or forcing African-American women and members of subordinated groups to replace individual and cultural ways of knowing with the dominant group's specialized thought. As a result, suggests Audre Lorde, â€Å"the true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us. † Or as Toni Cade Bambara succinctly states, â€Å"revolution begins with the self, in the self. Lorde and Bambara's suppositions raise an important issue for Black feminist intellectuals and for all scholars and activists working for social change. Although most individuals have little difficulty identifying their own victimization within some major system of oppression–whether it be by race, social class, religion, physical ability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age or gender–they typically fail to see how their thoughts and actions uphold someone else's subordination. Thus white feminists routinely point with confidence to their oppression as women but resist seeing how much their white skin privileges them.African-Americans who possess eloquent analyses of racism often persist in viewing poor white women as symbols of white power. The radical left fares little better. â€Å"If only people of color and women could see their true class interests,† they argue, â€Å"class solidarity would eliminate racism and sexism. † In essence, each group identifies the oppression with which it feels most comfortable as being fundamental and classifies all others as being of lesser importance. Oppression is filled with such contradictions because these approaches fail to recognize that a matrix of domination contains few pure victims or oppressors.Each individual derives varying amounts of penalty and privilege from the multiple systems of oppression which frame everyone's lives. A broader focus stresses the interlocking nature of oppressions that are s tructured on multiple levels, from the individual to the social structural, and which are part of a larger matrix of domination. Adhering to this inclusive model provides the conceptual space needed for each individual to see that she or he is both a member of multiple dominant groups and a member of multiple subordinate groups.Shifting the analysis to investigating how the matrix of domination is structured along certain axes–race, gender, and class being the axes of investigation for AfricanAmerican women–reveals that different systems of oppression may rely in varying degrees on systemic versus interpersonal mechanisms of domination. Empowerment involves rejecting the dimensions of knowledge, whether personal, cultural, or institutional, that perpetuate objectification and dehumanization.African-American women and other individuals in subordinate groups become empowered when we understand and use those dimensions of our individual, group, and disciplinary ways of kn owing that foster our humanity as fully human subjects. This is the case when Black women value our self-definitions, participate in a Black women's activist tradition, invoke an Afrocentric feminist epistemology as central to our worldview, and view the skills gained in schools as part of a focused education for Black community development. C.Wright Mills identifies this holistic epistemology as the â€Å"sociological imagination† and identifies its task and its promise as a way of knowing that enables individuals to grasp the relations between history and biography within society. Using one's standpoint to engage the sociological imagination can empower the individual. â€Å"My fullest concentration of energy is available to me,† Audre Lorde maintains, â€Å"only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restriction of externally i mposed definition. Black Women as Agents of Knowledge Living life as an African-American woman is a necessary prerequisite for producing Black feminist thought because within Black women's communities thought is validated and produced with reference to a particular set of historical, material, and epistemological conditions. African-American women who adhere to the idea that claims about Black women must be substantiated by Black women's sense of our own experiences and who anchor our knowledge claims in an Afrocentric feminist epistemology have produced a rich tradition of Black feminist thought.Traditionally such women were blues singers, poets, autobiographers, storytellers, and orators validated by everyday Black women as experts on a Black women's standpoint. Only a few unusual African-American feminist scholars have been able to defy Eurocentric masculinist epistemologies and explicitly embrace an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. Consider Alice Walker's description of Zora N eal Hurston: In my mind, Zora Neale Hurston, Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith form a sort of unholy trinity.Zora belongs in the tradition of black women singers, rather than among â€Å"the literati. † . . . Like Billie and Jessie she followed her own road, believed in her own gods pursued her own dreams, and refused to separate herself from â€Å"common† people. Zora Neal Hurston is an exception for prior to 1950, few African-American women earned advanced degrees and most of those who did complied with Eurocentric masculinist epistemologies.Although these women worked on behalf of Black women, they did so within the confines of pervasive race and gender oppression. Black women scholars were in a position to see the exclusion of African-American women from scholarly discourse, and the thematic content of their work often reflected their interest in examining a Black women's standpoint. However, their tenuous status in academic institutions led them to adhere to Euroce ntric masculinist epistemologies so that their work would be accepted as scholarly.As a result, while they produced Black feminist thought, those African-American women most likely to gain academic credentials were often least likely to produce Black feminist thought that used an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. An ongoing tension exists for Black women as agents of knowledge, a tension rooted in the sometimes conflicting demands of Afrocentricity and feminism. Those Black women who are feminists are critical of how Black culture and many of its traditions oppress women.For example, the strong pronatal beliefs in African-American communities that foster early motherhood among adolescent girls, the lack of self-actualization that can accompany the double-day of paid employment and work in the home, and the emotional and physical abuse that many Black women experience from their fathers, lovers, and husbands all reflect practices opposed by African-American women who are feminists. But these same women may have a parallel desire as members of an oppressed racial group to affirm the value of that same culture and traditions.Thus strong Black mothers appear in Black women's literature, Black women's economic contributions to families is lauded, and a curious silence exists concerning domestic abuse. As more African-American women earn advanced degrees, the range of Black feminist scholarship is expanding. Increasing numbers of African-American women scholars are explicitly choosing to ground their work in Black women's experiences, and, by doing so, they implicitly adhere to an Afrocentric feminist epistemology.Rather than being restrained by their both/and status of marginality, these women make creative use of their outsider-within status and produce innovative Afrocentric feminist thought. The difficulties these women face lie less in demonstrating that they have mastered white male epistemologies than in resisting the hegemonic nature of these patterns of th ought in order to see, value, and use existing alternative Afrocentric feminist ways of knowing. In establishing the legitimacy of their knowledge claims, Black women scholars who want to develop Afrocentric feminist thought may encounter the often conflicting standards of three key groups.First, Black feminist thought must be validated by ordinary Atrican-American women who, in the words of Hannah Nelson, grow to womanhood â€Å"in a world where the saner you are, the madder you are made to appear. † To be credible in the eyes of this group, scholars must be personal advocates for their material, be accountable for the consequences of their work, have lived or experienced their material in some fashion, and be willing to engage in dialogues about their findings with ordinary, everyday people. Second, Black feminist thought also must be accepted by the community of Black women scholars.These scholars place varying amounts of importance on rearticulating a Black women's standp oint using an Afrocentric feminist epistemology. Third, Afrocentric feminist thought within academia must be prepared to confront Eurocentric masculinist political and epistemological requirements. The dilemma facing Black women scholars engaged in creating Black feminist thought is that a knowledge claim that meets the criteria of adequacy for one group and thus is judged to be an acceptable knowledge claim may not be translatable into the terms of a different group.Using the example of Black English, June Jordan illustrates the difficulty of moving among epistemologies: You cannot â€Å"translate† instances of Standard English preoccupied with abstraction or with nothing/nobody evidently alive into Black English. That would warp the language into uses antithetical to the guiding perspective of its community of users. Rather you must first change those Standard English sentences, themselves, into ideas consistent with the person-centered assumptions of Black English.Although both worldviews share a common vocabulary, the ideas themselves defy direct translation. For Black women who are agents of knowledge, the marginality that accompanies outsider-within status can be the source of both frustration and creativity. In an attempt to minimize the differences between the cultural context of African-American communities and the expectations of social institutions, some women dichotomize their behavior and become two different people. Over time, the strain of doing this can be enormous.Others reject their cultural context and work against their own best interests by enforcing the dominant group's specialized thought. Still others manage to inhabit both contexts but do so critically, using their outsider-within perspectives as a source of insights and ideas. But while outsiders within can make substantial personal cost. â€Å"Eventually it comes to you,† observes Lorraine Hansberry, â€Å"the thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is ine vitably that which must also make you lonely. Once Black feminist scholars face the notion that, on certain dimensions of a Black women's standpoint, it may be fruitless to try and translate ideas from an Afrocentric feminist epistemology into a Eurocentric masculinist framework, then other choices emerge. Rather than trying to uncover universal knowledge claims that can withstand the translation from one epistemology to another (initially, at least), Black women intellectuals might find efforts to rearticulate a Black women's standpoint especially fruitful.Rearticulating a Black women's standpoint refashions the concrete and reveals the more universal human dimensions of Black women's everyday lives. â€Å"I date all my work,† notes Nikki Giovanni, â€Å"because I think poetry, or any writing, is but a reflection of the moment. The universal comes from the particular. † Bell Hooks maintains, â€Å"my goal as a feminist thinker and theorist is to take that abstraction and articulate it in a language that renders it accessible–not less complex or rigorous–but simply more accessible. † The complexity exists; interpreting it remains the unfulfilled challenge for Black women intellectuals.Situated Knowledge, Subjugated Knowledge, and Partial Perspectives â€Å"My life seems to be an increasing revelation of the intimate trace of universal struggle,† claims June Jordan: You begin with your family and the kids on the block, and next you open your eyes to what you call your people and that leads you into land reform into Black English into Angola leads you back to your own bed where you lie by yourself; wondering if you deserve to be peaceful, or trusted or desired or left to the freedom of your own unfaltering heart. And the scale shrinks to the use of a skull: your own interior cage.Lorraine Hansberry expresses a similar idea: â€Å"I believe that one of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that in order to create t he universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific. Universality, I think, emerges from the truthful identity of what is. † Jordan and Hansberry's insights that universal struggle and truth may wear a particularistic, intimate face suggest a new epistemological stance concerning how we negotiate competing knowledge claims and identify â€Å"truth. † The context in which African-American women's ideas are nurtured or suppressed matters.Understanding the content and epistemology of Black women's ideas as specialized knowledge requires attending to the context from which those ideas emerge. While produced by individuals, Black feminist thought as situated knowledge is embedded in the communities in which African-American women find ourselves. A Black women's standpoint and those of other oppressed groups is not only embedded in a context but exists in a situation characterized by domination. Because Black women's ideas have been suppressed, this suppression ha s stimulated African-American women to create knowledge that empowers people to resist domination.Thus Afrocentric feminist thought represents a subjugated knowledge. A Black women's standpoint may provide a preferred stance from which to view the matrix of domination because, in principle, Black feminist thought as specialized thought is less likely than the specialized knowledge produced by dominant groups to deny the connection between ideas and the vested interests of their creators. However, Black feminist thought as subjugated knowledge is not exempt from critical analysis, because subjugation is not grounds for an epistemology.Despite African-American women's potential power to reveal new insights about the matrix of domination, a Black women's standpoint is only one angle of vision. Thus Black feminist thought represents a partial perspective. The overarching matrix of domination houses multiple groups, each with varying experiences with penalty and privilege that produce co rresponding partial perspectives, situated knowledges, and, for clearly identifiable subordinate groups, subjugated knowledges. No one group has a clear angle of vision.No one group possesses the theory or methodology that allows it to discover the absolute â€Å"truth† or, worse yet, proclaim its theories and methodologies as the universal norm evaluating other groups' experiences. Given that groups are unequal in power in making themselves heard, dominant groups have a vested interest in suppressing the knowledge produced by subordinate groups. Given the existence of multiple and competing knowledge claims to â€Å"truth† produced by groups with partial perspectives, what epistemological approach offers the most promise? Dialogue and EmpathyWestern social and political thought contains two alternative approaches to ascertaining â€Å"truth. † The first, reflected in positivist science, has long claimed that absolute truths exist and that the task of scholarshi p is to develop objective, unbiased tools of science to measure these truths. . . . Relativism, the second approach, has been forwarded as the antithesis of and inevitable outcome of rejecting a positivist science. From a relativist perspective all groups produce specialized thought and each group's thought is equally valid. No group can claim to have a better interpretation of the â€Å"truth† than another.In a sense, relativism represents the opposite of scientific ideologies of objectivity. As epistemological stances, both positivist science and relativism minimize the importance of specific location in influencing a group's knowledge claims, the power inequities among groups that produce subjugated knowledges, and the strengths and limitations of partial perspective. The existence of Black feminist thought suggests another alternative to the ostensibly objective norms of science and to relativism's claims that groups with competing knowledge claims are equal. . . This app roach to Afrocentric feminist thought allows African-American women to bring a Black women's standpoint to larger epistemological dialogues concerning the nature of the matrix of domination. Eventually such dialogues may get us to a point at which, claims Elsa Barkley Brown, â€Å"all people can learn to center in another experience, validate it, and judge it by its own standards without need of comparison or need to adopt that framework as their own. In such dialogues, â€Å"one has no need to ‘decenter' anyone in order to center someone else; one has only to constantly, appropriately, ‘pivot the center. ‘ † Those ideas that are validated as true by African-American women, African-American men, Latina lesbians, Asian-American women, Puerto Rican men, and other groups with distinctive standpoints, with each group using the epistemological approaches growing from its unique standpoint, thus become the most â€Å"objective† truths. Each group speaks fr om its own standpoint and shares its own partial, situated knowledge.But because each group perceives its own truth as partial, its knowledge is unfinished. Each group becomes better able to consider other groups' standpoints without relinquishing the uniqueness of its own standpoint or suppressing other groups' partial perspectives. â€Å"What is always needed in the appreciation of art, or life,† maintains Alice Walker, â€Å"is the larger perspective. Connections made, or at least attempted, where none existed before, the straining to encompass in one's glance at the varied world the common thread, the unifying theme through immense diversity. Partiality and not universality is the condition of being heard; individuals and groups forwarding knowledge claims without owning their position are deemed less credible than those who do. Dialogue is critical to the success of this epistemological approach, the type of dialogue long extant in the Afrocentric call-and-response trad ition whereby power dynamics are fluid, everyone has a voice, but everyone must listen and respond to other voices in order to be allowed to remain in the community.Sharing a common cause fosters dialogue and encourages groups to transcend their differences. . . . African-American women have been victimized by race, gender, and class oppression. But portraying Black women solely as passive, unfortunate recipients of racial and sexual abuse stifles notions that Black women can actively work to change our circumstances and bring about changes in our lives.Similarly, presenting African-American women solely as heroic figures who easily engage in resisting oppression on all fronts minimizes the very real costs of oppression and can foster the perception that Black women need no help because we can â€Å"take it. † Black feminist thought's emphasis on the ongoing interplay between Black women's oppression and Black women's activism presents the matrix of domination as responsive t o human agency.Such thought views the world as a dynamic place where the goal is not merely to survive or to fit in or to cope; rather, it becomes a place where we feel ownership and accountability. The existence of Afrocentric feminist thought suggests that there is always choice, and power to act, no matter how bleak the situation may appear to be. Viewing the world as one in the making raises the issue of individual responsibility for bringing about change. It also shows that while individual empowerment is key, only collective action can effectively generate lasting social transformation of political and economic institutions.